The thigh of Malvia Keller, a victim of Richard Ramirez ‘The Night Stalker’. She had been bound and beaten around the head with a hammer and her ribs had been crushed by a table. Ramirez then drew a pentagram on her thigh with lipstick.
Interview with Richard Ramirez
Interviewer: When did you actively start to bring the devil into your life, worship-wise?
Richard: It was about 1980, and I was hustling on the streets. I landed in jail for a month or two for petty theft. I met up with this guy who was a Satan worshiper. For those two months I was with him, then I get out of jail, but my mind didn’t. I remembered everything he said, which basically was, “Why worship the good guy, when the things you do aren’t so good?” Somehow it just made sense to me, to worship something that would protect you in what you were doing.
Interviewer: How did your worship take form?
Richard: It developed slowly. I started reading the books, and then I started meeting people who were into the same thing. Satanists need to have more faith than Christians, because Christ was seen and felt. Lucifer has never felt the need to be seen, but in everyone’s soul he can be felt. A lot of these little cults practice Satanism nowadays, but not in a violent form. They’re only looking for ways to play out wickedness.
Interviewer: Ever tried your hand at a Black Mass?
Richard: Only one, but kept my distance. I was not part of that group. It was at a cemetery and it was at night. I really couldn’t tell what we were doing. A friend and me were watching from a distance. I never trusted people anyway. Especially them.
Handcuffs used by Richard Ramirez to handcuff a victim to the bed while he raped and sodomized her.
The night of was 5 August 1985 was hot and humid in the residential suburbs of Los Angeles. Thousands of families were tucked up for the night, oblivious to any unseen dangers lurking outside their homes. Christopher Petersen, a truck driver, and his wife Virginia, a postal worker, were asleep in their one-storey home five miles from the Simi Valley freeway, when Virginia’s rest was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of an intruder. Sitting up in bed, she called out, “Who are you? What do you want?” Virginia froze in horror as she heard the intruder laugh, and saw the gun he was pointing at her. There was a shot, and she felt her face explode. The bullet had entered her cheek, just missing her left eye, and passed through the back of her head. As Christopher Petersen leaped to his wife’s defence a second shot rang out. This time the bullet from the intruder’s gun passed through his temple, lodging at the base of his brain.
In the next room, the Petersens’ young daugter called out, “Mommy, what’s going on?” Amazingly, the Petersens had survived. Virginia felt no pain, and thought that they had been hit with a stun gun. Blood poured from Christopher Petersen’s head, but he was not finished yet. A big, strong man, he flew into a rage when he heard the intruder laughing. He dived out of the bed and chased him from the bedroom. Suddenly it was his assailant’s turn to feel scared. Panicked, he ran from the house, firing twice as he fled. The kille, named Richard Ramirez whom all California had come to fear had been put to flight by a man with a bullet in his head.
“In my heart, I can’t believe he would have arrived at that. But if the authorities there have proof., what can we do? I believe the marijuana he’s been smoking put him out of control. There was a break between us. He didn’t want to do what we told him to. It was like this: I’m your father, and I tell you to not use drugs. And you want to keep using them.”
-Julian Ramirez, The Father of Richard Ramirez.
The Timeline and Victims of Richard Ramirez
Richard Ramirez, surrounded by police officers as he walks out of a police station 31 August, 1985.
“The look in his eyes was absolutely demonic. Never before had I seen eyes like his on a human being.”
-Carol Kyle, a surviving victim of Richard Ramirez.
While Richard Ramirez was trying to escape the police, he ran into a Hispanic neighborhood, this was where he was chased down by local civillians. He was beat around the head with a metal pole which left a gash on his head.
“Monday, September 9 1988, Richard was again taken from his cell, where he had suffered from migraines all weekend, back to the courtroom, which was again packed with press. This time he acted like a different person (before this he had been behaving shyly, almost meek); he was no longer shy and trying to hide his face. He stared defiantly and angry at the press and snarled at the prosecuter, moving from foot to foot as a boxer might, his nostrils flaring. His hands, chained to a waist belt, opened and closed, his knuckles bulging.”
-Philip Carlo.