Cold Open: Richard Ramirez killed at least 14 people and raped and tortured at least two dozen more, mostly during the spring and summer of 1985. He robbed to support his coke habit and to pay for a place to stay since this piece of shit was allergic to an honest days work. And he tortured, raped, and killed to sexually satisfy himself and to appease his god - the Devil. Ramirez was WAY into Satan. He’d actually pray to the Devil for protection before sneaking into some innocent family’s home to brutalize, rape, and kill.

And today, if you have the stomach for it, you can learn all about the dirty deeds of this dark piece of shit. Extra big parental advisory on this one. We go dark, real dark, today on Timesuck.

PAUSE TIMESUCK INTRO

I. Welcome!

Hello Timesuckers! I’m Dan Cummins, and this IS Timesuck. Hail Nimrod! Praise Bojangles, and glory be to Michael Motherfuckin’ McDonald!

And Lucifina - she’s in full force this week. Wow. After Monday’s heaviness, one of my favorite Sucks by the way, we’re going pure macabre escapism this week. I know the serial killer episodes are many Timesucker’s favorites, and, well, if you like it dark, it does not get darker than Richard the Night Stalker Ramirez. Evil incarnate.

Thanks again for all the recent iTunes ratings and reviews - they keep poring in and they keep pumping me up and spreading the Suck. There are a lot of podcasts out there and I’m so thankful you choose to listen to and promote this one. Every rating you give, every post you share, every time you post about the Suck somewhere - it helps so much. Nothing keeps this going like your word of mouth and I thank you!

Bringing this year’s Flat Earth tour to a lot of new cities and tickets are selling well - everywhere but Alabama. C’mon Alabama! Step it up!

I’ll be in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 8, Atlanta on the 9th, Birmingham, Alabama on the 10th, Huntsville, Alabama - gotta get those NASA employees to come hear some flat earth jokes.

Nashville on the 12th, Houston on the 13th, Dallas on the 14th, and San Antonio, on the 15th. The next weekend I’ll be in Salt Lake City - and then San Fran after that.

In May, I’m coming to Sacramento, and Phoenix and I’m doing another live Timesuck podcast in Spokane on May 6th. Live podcast! Only one I’ll be doing until Orlando late in the summer. So get there!

More tour dates at www.dancummins.tv .

And, I keep forgetting, I’ll be doing a cruise early next year, March 7-11, with those glorious bastards Tom and Dan. Yep! We’ll sail out of Port Canaveral on March 7th and head STRAIGHT FOR THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE!!!! Nope. Not sure where exactly we’re going, other than out to sea! And we’ll return on the 11th. And it’s gonna be a blast. They’ll be a bunch of hangouts, some live podcasting, drinks and merriment, and you can put a hold on a cabin for just $25 if you’re interested. The Tom and Dan cruises always sell out, and this one will be no different. I’m looking forward to it. Hope I remember to get a L Ron Hubbard Sea Org Captain’s hat for the journey. Hope some of you can make it. Go to http://www.tomanddancruise.com/ for more info.

Quick word of condolence to loyal Sucker Aaron Mayo who just lost his pet & family member Stella the other day. Sorry for you loss!

Lot of fantastic Updates on Monday’s gun suck at the end, Bonus Suck 19, Richard Ramirez, right now.

PAUSE INTERLUDE

II. Alright, so, the Night Stalker. Why suck him? Well, as far as serial killers go, he scares me the most. Some serial killers still seemed to possess a little humanity in them. Fucked up monsters - all of them, but most, to me, still seem a little human. Take Dahmer - I almost felt sorry for him. He just seemed almost mentally handicapped. He seemed aware that there was something really wrong with him. He was trying to create a sex zombie. He was sadistic to be sure, but also delusional. He seemed childish in a way, similar to Ed Gein. Or, BTK, huge monster but able to convince a family and kids he raised into thinking he was a good guy. When it came to his family, he actually was a good guy. He actually did care about them. It was the occasional stranger he really didn’t care about and he was capable of doing horrible things to them.

There appeared to be no good left in Richard Ramirez by the time he was apprehended. He seemed to be pure, unadulterated evil. Like Ted Bundy, but somehow even worse. Bundy at least tried to hide the fact he was evil. Richard didn’t. So, as we do here on the Suck when it comes to biographical based episodes, let’s start at the beginning with week’s topic, with a Timesuck Timeline.

PAUSE TIMESUCK TIMELINE INTRO

III. Timesuck Timeline A. February 29th, 1960: On February 29th, 1960, Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez was born in El Paso, Texas, the fifth child of Mexican immigrants Mercedes and Julian Ramirez. There was Ruth, Ruben, Richard, Robert and Joseph.

His father was a Mexican national and former Juarez policeman who later became a laborer on the Santa Fe railroad. He was a hard- working man prone to fits of anger that often resulted in the physical abuse of his family.

His mother Mercedes was a respected archaeologist from Mexico City who’d walked away from a promising career in Mayan temple excavation and interpretation before marrying Julian.

That’s not true.

Mercedes had a first grade education and worked at a boot factory, where she was exposed to chemical fumes when she was pregnant with him. She worked at the Tony Lama boot factory mixing pigments and chemicals used on the boots. She was mixing chemicals such as benzene, xylene and toluene and unfortunately in that era, the toxicity of these chemicals was unknown. All his siblings had birth defects, ranging from respiratory difficulty to bone deformities. Specifically, when pregnant with Richard, the fumes she was inhaling made her weak and nauseous and threatened the pregnancy. Doctors suspected her body was trying to reject the child she was carrying. If only she HAD rejected it, so many other lives would have been saved.

So, basically, Richard was born with TONS of advantages. Poor? Check. Poor AND new to this country? Member of a then unpopular minority group? Check. Physical abuse? Check. Mom with first grade education constantly breathing toxic fumes while pregnant? Check, check, check! Both parents worked long hours pretty much every day and sometimes into the night. Absent parents? Check!

B. 1962: In 1962, Richard suffers the first of two significant head wounds as a child at the age of two when a dresser falls on him and lacerates his forehead. Now - I also had a dresser fall on me at two and cut my head open enough to leave a scar I still have and I’m totally normal as all of you know. As I write this, I’m looking at a painting of my own face here in the Suck Dungeon with fire in my eyes and also a small glass skull half covered by my face replica. That’s normal, right? I never had to get stitches for my little head wound. Richard’s forehead laceration required 30 stitches to close and the blow knocked him unconscious. So, his was quite a bit worse than mine.

C. 1965: In 1965, at the age of five, he was knocked unconscious from a swing and started experiencing epileptic seizures. His family takes him to the doctor and he then sees a series of specialists and spends the following year at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota continually studied and treated by the best pediatricians and epilepsy specialists in the nation.

Yeah right. No mention as to what treatment, if any, he received. Probably none.

Richard’s father, Julian was an abusive parent was was his father was before him. If Mercedes or any of the children did anything that Julian considered wrong they were physically beaten. Normally with a belt. He was a strict disciplinarian and a firm believer in corporal punishment. And mom found solace from the home violence in the Catholic church and she and the kids were heavily involved in the church.

Gotta say, this doesn’t seem that atypical in the context of the era. Before the 80s, I feel like a lot of physical punishment was just the norm. Parents just beat the shit out of their kids. My dad and his brothers got beat all the time. My grandma chased them with a hot wheel track, swinging wildly and hitting them wherever she could land a good blow. My grandpa paddled their asses with a belt. Their teachers paddled them in class. Everybody got smacked back then, including, sadly, a lot of wives. So, while I think this is fucked up, it also wasn’t odd for living in an impoverished neighborhood in 1960s an 1970s America. And I’m guessing spankings came a little looser and faster in Texas than certain other states.

What is interesting to note about his childhood is that throughout the 1950s the military was conducting nuclear bomb tests in nearby New Mexico, not far from Roswell - America’s butthole - and as it happened, the fallout from the bombs was carried by the wind to settle in El Paso, and affect the landscape, cattle and people. It infected milk, meat and water. All of the Ramirez children were born with problems ranging from respiratory difficulty to Collier’s disease (an illness in which the bones grow into a curved shape, causing deformity or handicap.) Reuben, Richards older brother was actually permanently disabled by this disease. So, good chance Richard’s brain didn’t come out of the womb at 100% full power. Maybe some wires got crossed where sadism and empathy are concerned.

D. Late 60s: By the late 60s, young Richard attended grade school and he did well. Classmates would remember him fondly, so apparently the head wounds and all those chemicals his pregnant mom had inhaled hadn’t turned him into an obvious future murderer and psychopath.

Jo Pinon, a classmate of his, claimed as a kid that Richard was super friendly and charismatic. She claims he had tons of friends and even some little girlfriends. He was close to his siblings, especially his brother Joseph, who was born with physical deformities and mental deficiencies. Richard was protective of Joseph at school even though he was 5 years younger and he did protect him from bullies. However, he wasn’t able to protect him from one of his teachers. When Joe was placed into a slow learners class, he fell prey to that class’s child molesting teacher. This teacher would visit the Ramirez house when the parents were away. This happened around when Richard was around 8 or 9 years old and he witnessed his then 14 year old brother Joesph getting abused. It was suspected though never confirmed that Richard may have been sexually abused as well.

Other than his problems with epileptic seizures, Richard was considered to be a healthy although hyper and aggressive kid. His mother claimed him to be a lovely child. A kid always dancing laughing and giggling.

Richard was raised Catholic as I would guess most Mexican- Americans in the early 1970s were. While his father’s physical abuse of the family continued throughout most of his childhood he found refuge in the company of his mother and sister. His mom and sister Ruth doted on him. Ruth watched over him as best she could regarding her dad who fly into rages so severe he even occasionally beat himself, once bashing himself in the head with a hammer and splitting his head open. Ironically, though his sister and mom were loving and giving, Richard grew to have a deep hatred of women.

E. 1970: By 1970, at the age of ten, Rich started smoking that weed, which may seem crazy, but, this was the 70s. Actually, having a 12 year old and a ten year old, it DOES seem crazy. I’d be more shocked than upset if I walked in on Kyler or Monroe hitting some bong. If that happened, I feel like I’d be more worried about my own mental health than anything. I’d be convinced that I’d had a stroke or psychotic break and was hallucinating the whole thing. No way my sweet babies are hitting the naughty grass!!

F. 1972: By 1972, 12 year old Richard was smoking weed, and, like all future upstanding citizens, sniffing that glue, bruh! Yeah, bruh! You’re not cool unless you’re high on glue. How you gonna ever grow up to get into and graduate from law school unless you SNIFF. THAT. GLUE. BRUH! Around this time, Richard’s cousin Miguel aka Mike got back from Vietnam. Mike was a decorated Green Beret. And also a misogynist fucking psychopath.

According to Richard, when he was twelve, Mike showed him photographs of himself raping a Vietnamese woman while he was in the service. Going through a sequence of detailed photographs, Richard came to the last picture. The picture was of the same rape victims severed head, held by Mike and positioned so that the victim’s mouth was placed around his penis.

Holy shit! What. The. Fuck!?!

Now, all we have to believe this actually happened is the word of a convicted rapist, pedophile, and murderer - BUT, can you imagine if thais is true? Can you imagine how that would’ve rocked your 12 year old world? How unbelievably fucked that would’ve been? Holy shit. And Mike and Richard spent a lot of time together for about a year, smoking weed, maybe sniffing a little glue, Mike openly fantasizing about his Vietnam rape and murder and more future rapes. Just, you know, bros being bros.

Ugh. My God. The childhoods some people have. Appreciate my little hometown of Riggins, Idaho more and more as I get older.

Richard later admits that he was especially sexually aroused by the photographs of the rape/murder victim that Michael showed him. He knew it was wrong to feel that way, and he couldn't talk to anyone about it without getting Mike in trouble.

Wow. How important is it to monitor your kids as they go through puberty to make sure they’re not making horrific associations regarding sex. How often does this come up with sexually deviant serial killers? They make a horrible sexual association in their adolescence they never shake. They get exposed to rape, molestation, some other deviant sexual behavior and then this early association ends up manifesting itself later on in life.

I remember my mom being really particular about who I hung around when I was a kid, and now I really get it. Once you see certain things as a kid, you are changed forever. Seeing pictures of your cousin raping and then killing and beheading and practicing necrophilia on someone doesn’t turn you into a rapist and serial killer BUT, I feel like it does guarantee you’re gonna have to work a little harder than the average bear not to end up totally fucked up.

And THEN, the next year, in 1973, Richard watches that same cousin murder his fiance, Jessie, after an argument at home.

Mike shot Jessie in the face right in front of Richard during an argument at his house and then told him to leave before the police showed up and not to say a word about it. Well, when the police did show up they took Mike to jail and he was charged with murder and ended up being found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a mental health facility, where sadly, he’d only be held for four years.

THIS is around the time when Richard began to become a monster. Of course it was! Dude had a monster for a mentor when he was 12 years old. That is exactly how you become a fucking monster yourself.

If only he’d been able to get ahold of issue #256 of Pootie and Juju, “Pootie Hits the Pipe”!!

In this memorable, all-time classic issue, Juju suddenly notices that Pootie isn’t acting like his or her normal self. Pootie’s suddenly staying up past midnight instead of getting in bed by 9PM AT THE LATEST as he or she had done for decades.

Pootie wasn’t up with the roosters anymore!

Now, Pootie is sleeping in until Noon. Noon! No more three square meals and a single cookie and milk before bedtime, neither.

Now, Pootie is snacking on sugary breakfast cereals like Super Sugar Crisps, Honey Combs, Sugar Smacks and Lucky Charms - at all hours of the day. Pootie doesn’t do much of anything but lay on the couch, eat Pringles, Doritos, and Twinkies and laugh WAY too hard at the Brady Bunch. Sure, it’s kind of funny, but it’s no MASH or Bob Newhart show! And it sure as shit ain’t Sanford and Sons. And that’s when Juju finds out that Pootie has been SMOKING WEED!! Gasp! Shock! Horror! Juju soon discovers that Pootie has quit working at the Post Office and now works at a record shop - A KNOWN HIPPIE HOTBED!!!

Even worse, Juju finds tickets Pootie has bought to see known weed smokers - the Doobie Brothers! “Well the Illinois Central, And the Southern Central Freight, Got to keep on pushin' mama, You know they're running late, Without love, where would you be now Without lo-o-o-ve" - you just got pre-Michael McDonalded!!! He’d join the band a few years later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP_NE4XZGAc

Concerned for Pootie’s safety, Juju confronts Pootie when Juju catches Pootie in the middle of a bog old full-lung toke - “Put down the Pipe, Pootie! Please! Put down the pipe!” Pootie, through a plume of smoke, yells back, “You sure squawk a lot for someun who ain’t never said nothin’ no-how!”

And then, “Put it in your lunchbox, Shirley!” And then Juju starts to cry and Pootie tells Juju he/she will cut back. Only evening puffs from now on, no more wake and bake. Juju screams, “Too little, too diddle, Pootie!”, and slaps Pootie in his or her face! And this breaks the spell the weed had over Pootie!

Pootie throws away the devil weed pipe, quits working at the filthy record shop, gets rehired at the Post Office, and by the next night Pootie and Juju are watching The New Dick Van Dyke Show and in bed by 8:15 like reasonable citizens. And all is right in the Pootie and Juju world.

ANDDDDDD… I’m back!

Sorry, if you’re a new listener, well, you may not be listening anymore. That was just a little Pootie and Juju. You’ll get used to it. Or, at least learn to tolerate it.

Anywho - back to Ramirez.

By the time cousin Mike goes away, Richard starts to really change. He begins to roam the neighborhood at night, looking in women’s windows. He’s a peeping Tom now. Or, I guess more accurately, a peeping dick. If only this was as far as he’d take it. He starts sneaking out of the house at night and heading to a nearby cemetery, falling asleep there on occasion and praying to the Devil after giving up on Christianity.

G. 1974: In 1974, Rich enrolls in Jefferson high school, and 14 year old Richard’s classmates notice a change in him. Former classmate Jo Pinon claims he no longer looked like a “normal” kid. He looked dirty, he looked like life had changed him.

Another classmate of his, Leticia Sammaripa, recalls a moment she saw him in a dark hallway at school. They were walking in opposite directions and they didn't say anything to each other. She remembers he looked up at her and they made eye contact and for some reason she was scared.

It wasn't long until he dropped out of high school before the end of Freshman year. He snagged a job at a local Holiday Inn. And strangely, to this day, Holiday Inn does NOT mention this in any of their commercials, brochures, or on their website. “Welcome to Holiday Inn, former employer of serial rapist and murderer Richard “the Night Stalker” Ramirez, who used to have unlimited access to guests rooms! Sleep tight motherfuckers!!”

It is a bit disturbing isn't it? Richard had the hotel master key to get into rooms. And, he apparently started sneaking into female guest’s rooms and watching them. He’s like a real life boogeyman. A real life shadow Chikatilo.

Chikatilo: “No! No you do not do this! This is Night Stalker episode. He nearly as creepy as Chikatilo. I no should steal show. What is big deal? So, I jerk soft same cock so MANY episode ago. You have nothing new to talk about? You think you trick Timesuck listener by calling Chikatilo, Shadow Chikatilo? Chikatilo, Shadow Chikatilo - it slight different name for same creep. Beside - murder and much jerking behind Chikatilo now. I focus on Wrasslin’ Academy. I focus on business. Please, get back now to episode. I have flyer to make and sweatpants to make mess of.”

Sorry. Last episode was so serious and sensitive, I have to get two Suck’s worth of weirdness out of my system in this one.

But teen Ramirez was like a real life boogey man. One night, hiding in a guest’s room, he watched a woman undress and take a shower. And then he decided that he was done just watching. As she got out of the shower, Ramirez grabbed her and clamped his hand over her mouth and started to rape her. Somewhat luckily, her husband entered the room shortly after the assault began and beat Richard almost to death. If only he HAD beaten Ramirez to death.

The cops were called and Richard was booked and taken to court. But, unfortunately, the couple wanted nothing more to do with the whole situation. The victim understandably never wanted to see Richard’s face again and they refused to return to El Paso and the charges were unfortunately dropped. And so young Richard got away with rape. This no doubt fueled his ego and made him feel invincible - that he was above punishment.

This too comes up too much with a variety of serial killers. Early close calls that go unpunished. Bundy narrowly avoided capture early on. So did BTK. So did Gacy. Got that early sodomy charge but not much punishment. Close calls breed craftiness so they’re harder to catch later on.

H. 1977: In 1977, crazy cousin Mike is released from the mental hospital he stayed in for a few years after murdering his wife. That seems like a bad decision. He and Rich spend some more quality time together, openly fantasizing about violent rape. There’s no turning back for Richard now. His dark identity and future are pretty much sealed at this point. He hangs around El Paso for a few more months, getting by breaking into homes, stealing cars, picking up a healthy late 70s coke habit.

I. 1978: In 1978, at age eighteen Richard moves to Los Angeles, where he lives on the streets and becomes an alcoholic and a cocaine addict, which is great news for everyone. If there’s one thing a teen peeping Tom, rapist, and Devil worshipper needs, it’s an addiction to cocaine.

He hangs out with other drifters and lowlifes around the bus station downtown, and lives for at time in a really run down shanty house a quarter mile from the police station. He was still best buds with Satan and even traveled to San Francisco to visit a coven of devil worshipers. At one point he had the opportunity to join an organized Satanic cult but decided against it. They just weren’t into Satan like he was. He wasn’t feeling their Satanic interpretation. They were like, kind of evil, and he wanted to be FULL evil.

He drifts around LA for a few years, doing lots of drugs, probably committing a fair amount of violent crimes he was never charged with or admitted too, and he earned a reputation as a pretty good car thief and burglar. He was arrested twice in the Los Angeles area for auto theft, in 1981 and again in 1984.

J. 1983: In 1983, Ramirez’s mother and sister are worried about him - they barely hear from him, and then his sister Ruth heads to LA to find him and bring him home. He tells Ruth that he’s now under the protection of Lucifer and that he’ll never return home. Um… okay. Can you imagine a family member telling you that?

“Dad, mom. Good news/bad news about Rich. The good news is, i found him and he’s okay. He’s actually being protected. The bad news is that he’s being protected by the Devil himself who he’s sworn lifelong allegiance to and he’ll never come home ever again.”

Around this time, before his second auto theft arrest, Richard was able to buy a master set of keys to Toyota and Honda cars so he could get around back when that was a thing.

How crazy is that? That you could get a master key that would allow you to steal any of a particular make and model that you could find. I didn’t know that was possible. Check out some found I found on a 2006 article on police resource website:

“Shaved keys have been around for decades. They are the most inexpensive and effective way to steal wide variety of vehicles. In northern California, the nation's top auto theft hot spot for the last three years running, shaved keys account for nearly half of all the auto thefts.

Shaved keys are known by other names as well, such as "master keys" or "jigglers." They work by fitting into the vehicle's ignition and fooling the ignition system into believing it's the original key. Some of the keys will also work on a vehicle's doors. The same key can be used on hundreds of cars before wearing out. Shaved keys can be made easily with the aid of any metal grinder or handheld file. In fact, many criminals will simply grind the key down on the edge of a sidewalk or rock. This method is just as effective- providing they can get the key thin enough to "jiggle" into the car's ignition.

Toyota, Honda and Saturn vehicles between the model years of 1980 and 1996 are the most common ones taken using shaved keys. These models used very similar ignition systems, making them easily defeated with the use of a shaved key.”

Wow. Might wanna rethink that good deal you just got on that ’95 Corolla, huh? Plus side, easy to get in and drive home if you lose your key. Downside, easy to get in and drive off for people who don’t have a key.

And so Ramirez would grab all kinds of cars with these master keys and then drive around Los Angeles looking for houses to rob. Five months after he had spoken with his sister, he was arrested for car theft. He was photographed, fingerprinted and spent six months in jail. Now he was in the system, but far from being done with crime.

K. 1984: After getting out of jail in 1984, Ramirez got right back into stealing shit. With each robbery his skills improved and within two years he was robbing up to two homes per night, then selling whatever he gathered to a contact he’d made and then generally getting more coke and hookers. Strangely, while he frequented prostitutes, he was never known to harm them. Odd considering how frequently they are the PRIMARY target of serial killers.

Now that he’d became a master at burglarizing homes, he decided to up the ante and he began raping women and robbing them when he was through. This would quickly lead to his first kill. And we’ll discuss all of his horrific murders as this Timeline merges into some Super Scary Stuff.

PAUSE SUPER SCARY STUFF INTRO

IV. Super Scary Stuff - the Ramirez Murders

A. Alright Timesuckers, this section of this episode is rated full Chikatilo. It’s that dark and horrific. Lucifina LOVES it. You’ve been warned.

B. April 10, 1984: On April 10, 1984, nine year old Mei “Linda” Leung was beaten, stabbed, and raped in the tenderloin district of San Francisco. The case would go unsolved for twenty-five years.

At the time of the murder, Ramirez lived about six blocks from the girl’s apartment. Leung and her eight-year-old brother had gone to the basement at 765 O’Farrell St. to look for a dollar bill her brother had lost. Somehow, they got separated. When Leung’s brother returned about thirty minutes later, he found her lifeless body hanging from a pipe. There were never any strong suspects in the case.

When investigators found her, her feet were just a few inches off the ground and one of the arriving officers said that, 'Had she been a little taller, she could have transferred her weight to her feet on the ground and screamed and somebody could have come and helped her’. Leung's death was described as a ritual-style slaying and Ramirez was a known Satanist.

'If you can picture Christ on the cross, that's the way she looked. Her head was drooped and her chin down,' recalled another investigator. Ramirez was tied to the case in 2009 through DNA but was never charged. By then, he was already waiting for execution on death row.

C. June 28, 1984: A little over two months later, seventy-nine-year-old Jennie Vincow was found dead in her apartment. She’d been stabbed repeatedly, and her throat was slashed so severely she was almost decapitated.

Jennie’s son, Jack, would later testify at Ramirez’s trial.

Jack said he and his mother lived at the same apartment building and the last time he saw her alive was the afternoon of June 27, 1984. He said he found his mother's body nearly 24 hours later, when he entered her unlocked apartment."I looked around (the living room) and I saw everything thrown around on the floor," he testified.

He said he found his "mother's dead body on the bed. . . ."

"I called her name several times and got no response. . . ," Vincow said. "When I saw she was dead, I shouted out to the manager, 'My mother's been murdered!'

In the dead of the night, Ramirez had removed the screen to her apartment window, brutally killing her in her bed while she slept. It was a blood orgy of brutality that shocked the world. Ramirez had lost control, repeatedly stabbing her and slashing her throat so deeply that she was nearly decapitated when police found the body. He then sexually desecrated her corpse.

At the morgue, the police discovered a key piece of evidence in the form of a fingerprint. However there was little they could do with it back then. They could only help link a suspect to a crime after he was already identified. The Department of Justice had 16 million fingerprints in master files, all in hard copy. California was developing a computerized fingerprint system that would eventually be instrumental in catching and convicting Ramirez, but it wasn't up and running yet.

After murdering Jennie Vincow, the killer slipped deeper and deeper into intravenous cocaine addiction; the drug became his life, his main preoccupation. To get it he needed money, which he routinely secured by committing burglaries—frequently two to three a day. Always wearing gloves, always wearing black, he’d silently slink in and out of people’s homes, never leaving a clue, taking coin and stamp collections, televisions, VCRs, answering machines— anything he could carry, fence, and quickly turn into currency. Sleeping, eating, and washing didn’t much matter to him, and he walked with a tawny, leathery smell about him, an odor witnesses would later describe to police and tell about in court. He had no friends and was very untrusting of people—the consummate loner. Often he’d stay in his room from sundown to sunrise, shooting up cocaine, watching MTV, listening to heavy metal music, and fantasizing about extreme sexual violence: watching people suffer, squirm, and die. For a true killer, a good murder is like a good meal: you want to make it last and get the most out of it. Fused together by cocaine, his days melted into weeks, then months, and there was no new violence, but there were scores of break-ins and robberies. He felt certain that demons and Satan were protecting him and watching over him—and that he’d never get caught.

I told you this dude was dark. He’s evil personified. He actually thought demons and the Devil were his friends.

D. Feb. 21, 1985: Over six months later, sisters Christina and Mary Caldwell, ages 58 and 71, were found dead in their home. They each had been stabbed dozens of times. A few more victims for the Night Stalker.

What’s extra creepy is the sneaky way he stalked his victims - all total strangers.

E. March 17, 1985: On March 17, 1985, he followed Maria Hernandez home, creeping into her garage with her as she pulled in to park. Maria Hernandez was a petite, attractive brunette with large round eyes and clear olive skin. Richard had spotted her on the freeway as she was driving her gold Camaro home from dinner at her boyfriend’s in Monterey Park. As she left the freeway and made her way into the suburb of Rosemead—a lovely residential community of 46,000—he exited just behind her. He followed her three blocks before she slowed and took a right into a new condominium community on Village Lane. He trailed her into the complex and watched her take a left and a right and pull into the last garage at the back of the condo she shared with her roommate, Dayle Okazaki, whose green Toyota wagon was already parked in the garage. Earlier that evening Dayle, fourteen days away from her thirty-fifth birthday, had been visiting her mom and dad, watching television and talking. She was very pleased at her recent promotion to traffic supervisor with Los Angeles County. Dayle was one of three children from a close, supportive, loving family. She had attended Pasadena City College. An avid skier, she was also taking classes in cake decorating, flower arranging, computer programming, and self-defense. Dayle was a highly motivated woman who loved life and made the most of it. She had saved hard to buy the condominium she now shared with Maria.

When Maria stepped out of her car, she was holding her keys.

The entrance to the house was a door on the other side of the garage. She walked toward it, moving around the two cars. On the wall near the door was the button that opened and closed the garage. Maria pushed it and the door began to close. At that moment, Ramirez bent down to enter the garage and walked straight toward Maria, while her back was still to him. He raised the . 22 and aimed it directly at her head. Maria had to open two locks to get into the house. She opened one, heard a noise behind her, perhaps the AC DC hat that has just fallen off of Ramirez’s head and she turned towards the noise. He was a good twenty feet away, walking toward her, pointing the gun with two hands right between her eyes. She could actually see down the barrel— “No, God, please don’t! No!” she screamed, automatically raising her hand. He kept coming and when the gun was two feet from her face, the garage door finished closing and the light automatically went out, putting them in sudden darkness. At that instant he fired, but Maria had raised her right hand in defense and the bullet was miraculously deflected by the keys. She went down, played dead, and Ramirez stepped over her as he entered the house where he spotted her roommate, Dayle.

Maria got up as soon as the door from the garage to the house shut and ran out into the alley.

Once Ramirez was inside, her rooomate Dayle, wearing a baggy Dodgers T-shirt and faded jeans and had straight shoulder-length black hair, a young, beautiful woman with a heart-shaped face, and full, rounded lips, spotted Ramirez and hit the floor and hid behind a counter, hoping he hadn’t seen her.

He had.

And he stayed still by the door, waiting for her to move.

When Dayle peeked to look over the counter, he fired, shooting her squarely in the forehead, knocking her to the ground - a bullet hole the size of a dime immediately swelling, turning purple, spurting a finger of blood.

He then ran out into the alley himself where he found Maria who begged him not to shoot her again. Maybe thinking he needed to jet before the cops showed up, Ramirez bolted leaving behind another dead body and his first eye witness.

Sexually revved up from the fresh killing but frustrated by not getting the chance at a sexual release, Ramirez immediately started looking for a new victim. He found one an hour later.

Ramirez spotted petite Veronica Yu as she exited the freeway at Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian community with a population of 65,000 seven miles East of Los Angeles and its own police department. Yu, a thirty-year-old law student, was tired. She’d been visiting a close childhood friend, June Wang, and they had talked for hours. She’d gone to June’s house in Arcadia at 10 A.M. that morning. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and neither of the women had to work. When Veronica noticed that a man in a Toyota was trailing her, she started looking for a police car. After another block, she pulled over to the curb and stopped her car to get a better look at him. Ramirez passed by and then, Veronica made the biggest mistake of her life.

She started following him. She wanted to know who was following her.

Timesuckers - NEVER do this! Just get their license plate number and file a police report if you’re worried. Tell your friends and family about it. Make sure you lock your doors and windows and have a solid security system if you can afford it. Not to tie this to last week, but, might want to have a self- defense weapon at home. If you’re anti-gun, I hope you’re pro- mace. Or know Krav Maga. Or something.

So, Ramirez has driven ahead and Veronica could leave now but doesn’t. She follows him. And after only a block, he caught a red light on North Alhambra Avenue, a pleasant little two-way street that leads directly to the I-10 Freeway. He shut the lights, gets out of the car, and approaches Vernoica who’s parked behind him, the .22 pistol he just killed Dayle with tucked into his waistband under a shiny black leather jacket.

Veronica opens her window, and asks the Night Stalker, “Why you follow me?” I swear it was written that way in the book I found this info in. Ramirez claims, as a witness across the street would say later, “I’m not following. I thought I knew you,”. “No, you didn’t. You follow me. Why? What you want?” She stared at him with disbelief, her almond-shaped eyes dark and angry above a delicate, lovely jawline. “I wasn’t. I thought I knew you,” he repeated. “Liar,” she said, her gaze defiantly meeting his. “I calling the police.”

Suddenly, Ramriez reached out and grabbed Veronica by the shoulders and tried to pull her right out of the car window. She began to scream. He couldn’t get her out of the window; the driver’s door was locked and he couldn’t open it. He noticed the passenger door wasn’t locked, vaulted over the car, and reached out to open the door. Quickly Veronica moved her right hand to try to lock the door, but not in time. He got into the car with her. “What you want?” she pleaded of the man in black. He said nothing, just pulled out the .22 and shot her in the side, under her right arm, seventeen inches from the top of her head. She opened the door to flee and he shot her again, in the lower back this time. She managed to get out of the car, lost a shoe, wobbled a few feet, and fell in the street where she would bleed out. She’d later be pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Laughing, Ramirez hurried to the Toyota, got in it, and drove onto the freeway and into the night.

When the media found out the police had connected the two murders in the days that followed, Ramirez was initially dubbed the “Walk-in Killer” and the “Valley Intruder”.

These initial murders, while there was definitely a sexual aspect to them in the sense that the violence turned him on, were collateral damage. It’s thought that with the first little girl he killed, that he was in the basement with the intent to rob, not to kill. And an opportunity presented itself. Same with the murders of the Caldwell sisters. Robbery was probably the primary motivator. The subsequent murder of Dayle Okazaki was motivated by the desire to kill, but, he was still primarily there to rob. He was a junkie and wanted his drug money. The murder of Veronica Yu was more impulsive than anything.

But then, since the murders of Dayle Okazaki and Veronica Yu, he’d been thinking long and hard about who he was and what he was about, and he decided to commit himself totally to sadistic domination. To murder.

For him, the act of killing had become the ultimate high; for him, that’s what life was now all about. He believed in his heart the more heinous and vicious his assaults, the more Satan would be pleased and thus afford him some kind of fiery blessings. This is why Ramirez freaks me out more than most serial killers. With most, they still possessed at least some humanity.

Bundy brutalized, raped, and murdered women but also saved lives as a suicide hotline operator. He also once saved a child from drowning. John Wayne Gacy tortured boys, raped them and buried them in his basement but also volunteered with the Jaycees and raised money for various charities. Dennis Rader aka BTK tortured and killed women and children but also volunteered as a Cub scout leader and was active in his church. Even Chikatilo was a doting grandfather.

(Chikatilo) “Sometimes I not bad guy. Sometimes I buy ice cream instead of wrassle and choke”

Most serial killers lead dual lives. One, public, seemingly good life, doing all the right things to put society at ease. And then one private, evil as Hell life.

Ramirez didn’t have the fake, good side component. He was just bad. His day job was robbing homes and stealing cars for drug money and his night job was rape, torture and brutal murder.

He actually planned to steal enough money to buy his own house somewhere quiet and set up a torture room in the basement where he could quench his thirst for sadistic sex and killing in complete privacy. He also had visions of filming his conquests and maybe even selling the films on some sort of snuff film black market. Ol’ cousin Miguel had fucked him up proper.

Less then two weeks later, the Night Stalker is back on the prowl. And before we talk about what he got up to, let’s check in with today’s sponsor.

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F. March 27, 1985: On March 27, 1985, Ramirez approached a home that he had burglarized a year earlier in Whittier, a city in LA county 20 miles East of LA., around 2 AM

He crept up to the lighted window and saw Vincent Zazzara sleeping on a plaid couch. A television was on. There was a round black glass table in front of the couch. On it was a plant with bright red flowers. Mr. Zazzara had apparently dozed off while watching television. Vincent Zazzara was a fun-loving gregarious man. He was a retired CPA, who now owned two pizza restaurants.

Taking note of where Vincent lay, he continued on to the backyard, careful to avoid walking into anything. Midway there he looked into a second window and saw his forty-four-year-old wife Maxine sound asleep in bed. He immediately got sexually excited.

He placed an empty compound can under another window, got on it, reached up, and removed the screen. He then pried the window open and pulled himself up and into a small room where the washing machine and dryer were kept. He reached down, untied and took off his shoes. In his stocking feet, he started toward an unsuspecting, soundly sleeping Vincent Zazzara, pulling the .22 revolver from his waistband. As he reached the front of the house, he raised the gun, and holding it in combat position, rushed into the den where Zazzara had fallen asleep. He aimed carefully and shot him in the left side of his head, just above the ear. Shocked and bleeding, Zazzara tried to stand and grab the intruder with the gun, but the bullet had bounced around his skull, pulverized his brain, and he slumped to the ground, still breathing, but quickly dying.

At the sound of the gunshot, Maxine Zazzara woke with a start, wide-eyed, just as the killer rushed into the room, pointing the gun at her. She screamed. He slapped her, said, “Shut up, bitch! And don’t look at me! Where’s the money? Where’s the jewelry?”

Maxine demanded he leave. He beat her, telling her not to look at him, forced her on her stomach and tied her hands together with a necktie he grabbed from a nearby closet. He gagged her, disabled the phones, then began frantically to ransack the bedroom— opening closets and drawers, looking for valuables–diamonds, gold, cash.

Maxine Zazzara knew there was a shotgun under the bed that her husband had bought the previous year after a burglary, saying if the burglar came back, he’d blow him to pieces. She tried with every ounce of strength she had to untie the knots binding her hands. While Richard looked around the house for whatever he could sell for drug money, she was able to get her hands free and find that shotgun.

She drew out the shotgun, stood, and aimed it at the sweating man in black, who was throwing their possessions all over the place. His back was to her. He heard something, turned, and saw her pointing the big-bored shotgun at him. He moved left and went for the gun in his pants. She pulled the trigger; there was only a metallic click. The gun was empty.

Shit. The sad irony here. This was a shotgun they’d bought the year before after their home was broken into - BY RAMIREZ. But they didn’t feel comfortable leaving it loaded. These poor people. Robbed by Ramirez one year, robbed again and then terrorized and killed the next.

“Bitch! Motherfucker!” Ramirez said, raising the .22 and shooting her three times, the bullets knocking her down. He beat her, kicked her, slapped her, furious she would defy him—try to kill him. He hurried to the kitchen, found a sharp, ten-inch-long carving knife, and returned to her, picked her up, put her on the bed, raised her purple night shirt, and tried to literally cut her heart out. He killed her but he couldn’t cut through her rib cage and he left a gaping inverted cross sliced into her chest, over and below the left breast.

Frustrated he decided to take her eyes instead. He felt this would be his way of taking a piece of her soul. Quickly, yet carefully, he cut away her eyelids, removed both her eyes, and put them in a little jewelry box he had found, laughing as he did so.

Then he stabbed her in the stomach, throat, and pubic area. After all of that, he tried to have sex with her, but he was still too shaken up by her pointing the shotgun at him and pulling the trigger.

Fuck! This guy is a preposterous monster. Almost getting shot is what’s turned him off. Not the insane amount of blood and gore he’s created. This poor human being, alive moments before, now a bloody carcass missing eyes, huge hole in the chest, stab wounds all over the place - I can only imagine how much blood is everywhere. And he tries having sex with the mutilated body??? Why can’t there be a special death row for crimes this heinous? You can appeal a week after your verdict, you get a new, maybe weeklong at most trial, and then if you’re still found guilty the judge kills you in the middle of court and gives your body to the victims’ families to do whatever they wish to it. He’s such an unbelievable piece of shit. Such a total, irredeemable monster.

Instead of pursuing necrophilia, Ramirez gathers what he could of value—a VCR, a video camera, jewelry, watches, and rings, and hastily put them in a pillowcase. He grabs Maxine’s .45 and another shotgun, and takes back off into the night.

He heads downtown to the Cecil hotel where he’s been staying - remember that place? The hotel Elisa Lam stayed at and died in- the one we covered in Timesuck 29. The hotel that was the basis for American Horror Story season five: hotel. He washes himself up, meets the fence he always sells his stolen goods too, gets some cash, and then goes and finds a prostitute who he pays to let him play with her feet for awhile. Seriously. And then he drops her off. And then he drops off the car he’s been driving a few miles away and takes a bus back to the Cecil where he plays with Maxine Zazzara’s eyes and thinks about how much he must please Satan.

Vincent and Maxine's bodies were discovered by their son, Peter. Ugh.

And, other than that vague description from Maria Hernandez, the woman saved by a key chain, the Police had no leads and weren’t anywhere close to catching this son of a bitch. They’re just starting to realize the crimes are related and that they have a serial killer on their hands.

G. May 14, 1985: For the next seven weeks, Richard stole cars, snorted a ton of coke, but didn’t kill. That we know of. And then, on the night of May 14th, 1985, 25 year old sadist Ramirez creeped into the backyard of 66 year old recently retired Santa Fe Trail Trucking Company sales manager Bill Doi. Bill had just bought a brand new Ford van the day before, planning to tour the country with his 56 year old wife Lillian in it.

Richard has just gotten rid of the .22 revolver, sold it to a fence for twenty bucks. He knew it was hot, and tonight he had a new weapon: a silver-plated. 22 automatic.

He slit the screen and quietly climbed into a rear bathroom, saying inside his head as he did so: “Satan, this, what I, your humble servant, am about to do, I do for you.”

Jesus. If you wrote this guy into a movie he would seem cartoonishly evil. He’d seem over the top. Too one dimensional.

He got down low and waited, making certain he hadn’t been heard. Seconds later, he was up and moving through the house; there was a hall light on and it was easy to see. In the first bedroom he found an elderly Asian woman, Lillian Doi, sleeping soundly. He saw a wheelchair near her bed, which told him she was an invalid. As he moved to the bedroom of Bill Doi, he raised the gun and chambered it. The cold metallic click woke Bill instantly—he knew what it was, and he grabbed for the loaded 9-millimeter he kept in the nightstand. Bill was very security conscious; he had several handguns placed strategically around the house.

Bill grabbed his 9, the killer ran into the bedroom, saw Bill going for the gun but Bill was a moment too slow and Richard, holding the . 22 in combat position, shot Bill just above the upper lip, right through the tongue. Fuck. Bill half fell from the bed, choking on the bullet lodged in the back of his throat. He tried to shoot Bill again, but the .22 jammed. Cursing, he returned to the hall, cleared the gun—leaving the shell on the floor—and went back to finish Bill. The bullet he had taken, tumbling after it had entered, had caused severe damage to his tongue, voicebox, and brain: he couldn’t pick up the Walther and pull the trigger. He tried to beg for his life but could not articulate his words. Blood gushed from his mouth.

Lillian had awakened at the report of the .22. She heard Bill moaning, pleading incoherently with someone, but she couldn’t move; she could only lie there wide-eyed, waves of fear washing over her, listening to the murder of the man she’d loved all her adult life.

Bill’s pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears, for the killer returned to him. He used his gloved fists and beat Bill unconscious, kicking him viciously when he went down. He took Bill’s Walther and hurried to Lillian’s bedroom, walked to her bed, slapped her, and warned her not to scream.

“Shut up, or I’ll kill you, bitch,” he said. Even if she’d wanted to scream, she couldn’t; since the stroke, verbal articulation had been difficult. He secured her hands with thumb cuffs, then proceeded to ransack the house, taking whatever jewelry and valuables he could find, throwing things all over. The jewelry he stole included Bill Doi’s Omega Constellation watch, his Masonic ring, a jade ring, Lillian Doi’s father’s pocketwatch, and both their wedding bands.

Bill came to, moaning in pain as streams of blood ran from his nose and mouth. Immediately the killer ran back to him and knocked him unconscious again Excited by the shooting and the beating, the killer returned to Lillian’s room and raped her, all the while demanding she not look at him. He was sexually charged up by the violence, the blood, his total domination—her absolute shock at what he was doing to her. Finished, he actually kissed her, put what he was taking into two pillowcases, disabled one of the two phones in the house, and left without removing the thumb cuffs from Lillian’s hands.

Bill somehow regained consciousness again. He called 911 a second time and repeatedly gurgled “Help me.” Crying, Lillian struggled to get up and forced the cuff off her right hand, leaving her thumb badly bleeding.

Now, for the first time, in jumbled sentences, Lillian told the officers about a tall man in black with a gun and bad teeth. Officer Reynolds managed to get the cuffs off her other thumb. They put her in a squad car and drove her to the Monterey Park Hospital as the dawn of a new day began to stir the great metropolis of Los Angeles. Bill Doi reached the hospital at 5:13 A.M. and was immediately taken to the emergency unit. Dr. Anthony Reid, who specialized in cardiology, was waiting for him and Dr. Reid tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate Bill, who died in the ambulance, with electrical shock. He pronounced Bill Doi officially dead at 5:29 A.M.

The whole bad teeth description would keep coming up with Ramirez because, in addition to coke and rape and theft and murder, another one of his vices was candy. Dude loved candy. Ate it all the time. So much his mouth was full of cavities. He was like a giant, evil kid left to his own horrible devices. He just did everything you’re not supposed to do - constant crime and he was even deviant when it came to nutrition. What am I supposed to eat? Real food that will make me feel good? No thanks. Satan says I can have all the candy I want. Satan says I can have Twix for breakfast, Kit Kats for lunch and a box of Hostess Cupcakes for dinner with some Sixlets for desert.

H. May 29, 1985: Two weeks later, on the night of May 29, 1985, this sick, candy-eating fuck of a human drove a stolen Mercedes- Benz to Monrovia, 25 miles North of downtown LA, and stopped at the house of Mabel "Ma" Bell, 83, and her sister Florence "Nettie" Lang, 81 and he does something arguably even more horrific and disturbing than what he’s already done.

Mabel Bell, or “Ma Bell,” as she was known, was a strong, independent senior citizen who still drove around Monrovia and enjoyed bridge games three times a week. She liked the seclusion of her house; crime was something she didn’t much worry about. Most nights Ma Bell left her front door unlocked. She had moved to California from Oklahoma thirty-five years earlier, and folks there always left their doors unlocked. Every year Ma Bell contributed to the fund to keep the Statue of Liberty in good shape. She loved God, her country, her children, and her twelve grandchildren. She was a nice lady.

She’d taken in her invalid sister, Nettie, two years earlier, rather than let her be institutionalized. The two sisters slept in different bedrooms. Ma Bell’s was white, with ruffled Victorian curtains covering its two windows. Her bed had four dark wooden posts. At 11:40 P.M. on May 29, both sisters were sleeping soundly with the doors of the house unlocked.

And then, just before midnight on May 29th, the Devil drove by. Ramirez loved that Ma’s house was a 1/2 a mile from any other home. He parked along the street below her home, got out, careful not to slam his door, and quietly walked to Ma Bell’s front door. As usual, he wore gloves and didn’t worry about fingerprints when he grabbed the doorknob, turned, and pushed. The door opened and he slowly walked into the modest home, hunched low, all coiled aggression and utter creepiness. He let his eyes get used to the dark, took out a flashlight, and found his way to the bedrooms. He could readily see that the occupants of the house were not too well off, that there was little of monetary value, and he started getting pissed.

He quickly found Nettie Lang and realizing she was an elderly invalid, moved on to search the rest of the house. He then made it to Ma Bell’s room, saw her asleep in bed, realized she also wasn’t a threat, and searched the rest of the house and realized he’d come to the wrong place: there were no young women, and there was nothing much to steal. And he became angrier. And then he decided to take out his rage on the two elderly, innocent occupants of the home.

Ramirez went to the kitchen for a knife he could use on the two old women, but he couldn’t find one sharp enough for his preferences. He did find a red, wood-handled hammer. Yup. This is gonna be real bad. With it he returned to Nettie Lang’s bedroom, walked up to her frail, sleeping form, and without hesitation, smashed her in the head, sinking the hammer into her brain repeatedly. Then he used a piece of the electrical cord from a clock near the bed to bind her hands behind her back tightly. Not sure the being bound is really necessary here after the hammer smash.

Nettie’s alarm clock dropped to the floor and stopped at 12:06 A.M. He then proceeded to Ma Bell’s room, not realizing he had stepped on the clock and left a bloody shoe print.

Calling on Satan to watch what he was about to do, he raised the hammer and struck Ma Bell in the head. She woke up screaming, in a panic, thinking she was in the middle of a terrible nightmare.

Again - he’s cartoonishly evil. Calling on Satan to watch him bash a sleeping old woman in the fucking head with a hammer.

“Shut up or I’ll kill you! Where’s the money? Where’s the jewelry?” he demanded. “I have no money! Get out of my house! Who are you?” Ma Bell managed to say, before he struck her again, sending her brain matter about the room.

Then he put on the lights, found duct tape, and used it to bind her ankles. He ripped the rest of the cord from Ma Bell’s bedside clock, a four-by-five-inch white-faced General Electric, frayed the broken ends, plugged it back in, and used the exposed wire to shock a still alive, semiconscious Mabel Bell. He then took whatever of value he could find—some costume jewelry, watches, and a cassette player Ma Bell had gotten from her grandson, David Nipp, for her eighty- third birthday on April 6.

Sexually charged by the violence, the torture, he returned to the somehow still alive Nettie Lang, ripped her nightgown off, and raped her. Satan, he knew, would be pleased with this work, for it was cruel, brutal, and truly bestial. It was time, he reasoned, to let the whole world know he walked with Satan, and he used Ma Bell’s red lipstick to draw a pentagram five-pointed star in a circle) on the back of her left thigh and on the white wall over her head. He then drew a pentagram on Nettie Lang’s bedroom wall. He ate a banana he found in the kitchen, drank a can of Mountain Dew and a Coke, urinated, and left, carrying a bloodstained pillowcase with the sisters’ meager belongings in it over his shoulder like some Santa Claus from hell.

26 hours later, while attacking his next victim, Ma Bell and Nettie Lang still remained bound, bleeding, but still alive - just as he had left them.

Seventy-eight year old Carlos Valenzuela did gardening and handyman work in the Monrovia area. He’d known Mabel Bell for 24 years. He’d taken care of her yard and her pool.

He passed by the house on the morning of May 30th, rung the bell, and knocked, without getting an answer. He came back the next day, same thing. Finally, when he came back on June 1st for a third time and got no answer, he entered the house and found Ma and Nettie, still alive and still tied up 58 hours after being attacked. Both would have visible brain matter from their head wounds, both would be comatose, neither would ever recover from their injuries.

I. May 30th, 1985: The night following the Bell & Lang attacks, the night of May 30th, Richard was quickly back at it. He drove to Burbank, just a few miles north of downtown los Angeles, but a whole other world. I worked in Burbank for two years. It’s sleepy. Quaint. California meets midwest. It’s the home of NBC and tons of studios. But it doesn’t feel like Hollywood.

He’d stopped at a Goodwill store earlier that day and bought boxes of books and filled the back seat with them so if the police shot at him during a chase, the books would stop the bullets. Some shit he’d seen in a movie. Craziness.

At 3:57AM, he parked on North Avon and walked over to a beige stucco house, an average Burbank house with a big bay window. He snuck into the backyard, approached the quiet house, snuck to the back door and found it locked. All the windows were locked. But, the doggie door wasn’t. He quietly reached up from the doggie door and unlocked the back door himself and let himself into the home of 42 year old Carol Kyle. Finger tight on the trigger of his .22, he found her bedroom. He found Carol asleep and with the gun pointed at her he flipped on the lights and screamed her awake - “Wake up, bitch! And don’t scream or I’ll kill you. Don’t make a fucking sound!” He put the gun to her head and asked who else was in the house. Just her 11 year old son.

He walked Carol down the hall to her son’s bedroom then made Carol lie face down on the floor with the promise that he’d kill her if she got up as he stormed into her son’s room and started to scream him awake as well. Then Carol bolted up and threw herself between Ramirez and her son. He handcuffed them both together and put them in a hall closet as he ransacked the house, looking for anything valuable.

When he couldn’t find anything he came back and threatened both their lives. Carol convinced him to follow her into the bedroom away from her son, that she had a jewelry box. Once in the room she gave him a diamond ring her dead husband had given her - he’d died six years before in a plane crash and then he raped her. Orally, vaginally, anally.

And then, he thanked her. Said she wasn’t bad for her age. And then he let her put clothes back on, asked her for directions to the freeway, handcuffed her and her son to the bed, and left.

J. June 27th, 1985: But just because he let Carol live doesn’t mean he was done killing. Less than a month later on June 27th, he struck again, this time in Arcadia, 18 miles East of Burbank, a little more than 20 miles Northeast of downtown LA. He broke into the apartment of 28 year old school teacher Patty Elaine Higgins who he brutally beat, sodomized, and nearly decapitated.

K. July 2, 1985: Less than a week later, on July 2nd, he was back in Arcadia, this time sneaking into the home of 75 year old widow Mary Louise Cannon, a widow who lived alone. A woman who’d beat cancer - twice - and was about to take a trip with other seniors to Australia. She’d been in a minor accident the day before and was supposed to be healing up for her trip.

And then, while she slept, Richard Ramirez took a heavy vase-lamp from her bedroom and bashed her in the head with it. She woke up screaming and he beat her unconscious. He then got a 10 inch knife from the kitchen and slashed her throat, thinking about how proud Satan must be of him. And then he grabbed anything he thought he could fence and he took off back downtown to the Cecil.

The LAPD now knew that they for sure had a serial killer on their hands and their best detectives were on the case. But this case felt almost impossible because he had no victim type. His MO was mayhem. He was a hispanic guy in a city full of hispanic guys. The media was still calling him the Valley Intruder.

L. July 5th, 1985: Despite law enforcement dedicating more manpower seemingly each day to finding him, he didn’t leave the area and he didn’t stop killing. Three days after Mary Louise Cannon’s murder, on July 5th, he broke into a home in Sierra Madre, another town in the valley, just North of Pasadena, 26 miles from downtown LA, and he bludgeoned 16-year-old Whitney Bennett with a tire iron as she slept in her bedroom. After searching in vain for a knife in the kitchen, Ramirez attempted to strangle the girl with a telephone cord. He was startled to see sparks emanate from the cord, and when his victim began to breathe, he fled the house believing that Jesus Christ had intervened and saved her.

He’s a fucking coke-head mad man. My God.

Bennett survived the savage beating, which required 478 stitches to close the lacerations to her scalp. She also had massive facial reconstructive surgery. Whitney would later help put Ramirez in prison with her powerful eyewitness testimony in court against him. And she’d marry Mike Salerno, son of one of the LA detectives who worked the case.

M. July 7, 1985: Just two days later, on July 7th, Ramirez burglarized the home of Joyce Lucille Nelson, 61, in Monterey Park. Finding her asleep on her living room couch, he beat her to death using his fists and kicking her head. A shoe print from an Avia sneaker was left imprinted on her face. He stomped her fucking face into oblivion.

He doesn’t even seem like a human being. He’s just some vicious, sick animal impersonating a human.

Hours later, at 3 AM, the morning of July 8th, he broke into the home of 63 year old psychiatric nurse Sophie Dickman, letting himself in by unlocking the back door by reaching up through the doggie door once again. He stole her jewelry, beat her, attempt to sodomize her, gave up, made her swear on Satan that she would never tell anyone he was there, and then he just left.

N. July 20, 1985: Less than two weeks later, on July 20th, he decided to work a machete into the mix. Fucking ridiculous psychopath.

Ramirez purchased a machete before driving a stolen Toyota to Glendale, just six miles north of Los Angeles. Just nine miles from downtown LA. He chose the home of Lela Kneiding, 66, and her husband Maxon, 68. Before entering the home, he actually knelt down and prayed to Satan. “By All That is Evil, I, your humble servant, invoke Satan to be here and accept this offering.”

He burst into the sleeping couple's bedroom and flipped on the lights, screamed, “Rise and Shine Motherfuckers!” and then buried his machete into Max’s neck. The blade stuck but didn’t kill Max and he then took out his 22 pistol and shot him in the head killing him instantly. And then he shot Lela three times in the face, killing her.

He then took everything he thought he could sell to his fence and headed back downtown. This is something else that freaks me out about Ramirez - how he turned savage murder into a business. This wasn’t just about pleasing Satan - it was how he paid his bills. He killed for sexual satisfaction, for some sort of Satanic fulfillment, and, to make some scratch to stay at the Cecil, get hookers, and do some blow.

Hours after killing the Kneidings in Glendale and selling their shit, he headed to Sun Valley, After quickly fencing the stolen items from the Kneidling residence, he drove to Sun Valley, a sleepy suburb 18 miles North of downtown, a few mile North of Burbank.

At approximately 4:15 AM, he broke into the home of the Khovananth family. They’d immigrated over from Thailand a decade earlier. He murdered Chainarong Khovananth, by shooting the sleeping man in the head with a .25 caliber handgun, killing him instantly. He never even knew anyone had broken in. One second he was asleep, the next second he was dead. He then repeatedly raped Somkid Khovananth, beating and sodomizing her and doing it in the bed where her dead husband’s body lied. He bound the couple's terrified 8-year-old son before dragging Somkid around the house to reveal the location of any valuable items, which he stole. During his assault he demanded that she "swear to Satan" that she was not hiding any money from him. Then he raped her again and left.

After Richard left, she took her son and fled to a neighbor’s house who called the police. Somkid described Richard as being “brown- skinned, with bad teeh, thirty to thirty-five, 150 pounds, and six foot one or so.

Ol’ Candy Tooth Demon Boy had struck again.

O. August 6th, 1985: A little over two weeks later Ramirez came across the luckiest would-be, should-be victims of a serial killer I’ve ever heard of: Chris and Virginia Peterson. This shit is unbelievable.

The couple had been sleeping in the master bedroom of their single-story home when the gunman pushed a pistol into Virginia Petersen's face. She sat up in bed screaming, was struck by one shot and fell back. She moved to shield her husband, but the gunman shot him in the neck.

Dazed and not believing they had been shot, Virginia Petersen asked her husband, "Did he hit us with a stun gun?"

"No," her husband answered, "it's a starter gun. This is a sick joke."

At that moment, as their assailant still stood over their bed, they felt a wave of blood oozing from their heads.

Petersen, after just getting shot, clearly in shock, some seriously fight or flight going on, charges Ramirez, dodging two more shots. Richard then fled through the same door he entered and snuck off into the night.

The couple rushed to their 4-year-old daughter, who had been sleeping in another room and was left unharmed. After telephoning police, they piled into their camper and drove themselves to a hospital.

What they remember most about the attack was the way the assailant lingered. "He could have finished us off then," said Petersen, 38. "But he just watched us. They say he likes to watch them suffer."

The Petersens spent only one night in the hospital. Chris had been shot in the neck and Virginia has been shot in the head. Although it was a small-caliber gun, authorities said it was "amazing" they had survived the point-blank attack. And that’s how they found out they were super heroes and the animated movie the Incredibles is based on them.

That movie is not based on them but they are incredible. So unlucky to be attacked, so lucky to survive shots to the neck and face at point blank range and somehow barely be harmed.

Their case was investigated by the Night Stalker task force - that’s right, there is a Night Stalker task force now- and Virginia Petersen said the picture released by police Friday of 25-year-old suspect Richard Ramirez looked like the man who had attacked them.

P. August 8th, 1985: Just two days later, Ramirez repeated a lot of the details of the Khovananth Sun Valley attack.

On August 8, 1985, Ramirez drove a stolen car to Diamond Bar, 27 miles East of downtown LA, and chose the home of Sakina Abowath, 27, and her husband Elyas Abowath, 31.

What’s really insane to me is that, with the exception of that first random murder of the nine year old, all of this has happened in 1985. The frequency makes it extra disturbing. He just keeps killing faster and faster. Also, I’m not sure if this has anything to do with these killings, but, No Looking Back was released July 30th, of that year, the second solo album from Michael Motherfuckin’ McDonald! Triple M! The hit single No Looking Back had been released earlier that summer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubt5WQEEIOY

I can't hold on, I can't return Time to let go, start to live and learn

I can't hold on, I can't return Rivers will run, bridges will burn I'm not sure just how But there's no lookin' back now

How much did that song have to do with the Night Stalker murders? We’ll never know. We do know it has 100% to do with you getting just getting McDonalded right now!

Okay, enough light hearted silliness. Back to gloom, horror, and despair.

Sometime after 2:30 am he entered the house via the unlocked rear sliding glass door and went into the master bedroom. He instantly killed the sleeping Elyas with a shot to the head, this time from a .25 caliber handgun. He handcuffed and beat Sakina while forcing her to reveal the locations of the family's jewelry with a lot more swearing to Satan. He’s getting really into the whole “Swear to Satan!” thing now. After Sakina had revealed the location of a bunch of jewelry he then brutally raped and sodomized her. He repeatedly demanded that she "swear on Satan" that she would not scream during his assaults. When the couple's 3-year-old son entered the bedroom, Ramirez tied the child up and then continued to rape Sakina. In front of the kid. After Ramirez left the home, Sakina untied her son and sent him to the neighbors for help.

He’s so evil, you wonder if he let some of the people live in situations like this because he wanted them to suffer more later. Suffer the memories of what he’d done to them and their family.

The local news in the LA area is now all about the Night Stalker. The Night Stalker task force is combing the street for Ramirez. He’s left numerous eye witnesses alive. There’s a reward out for him for over $30,000 and he has a lot of dirt bag stolen goods and drug contacts who would happily sell him out. So Richard heads North to San Francisco. Within days of arrival he’d broken into some homes, stolen jewelry, and beaten the shit out of a 70 year old Chinese woman in Chinatown in the lobby of her apartment building just for the fuck of it. Q. August 18th, 1985: Ten days after the Diamond Bar Abowath family attack, on August 18, 1985, Ramirez entered the home of Peter and Barbara Pan in the Lakeside District of San Francisco. Peter, aged 66, had worked as an accountant for the San Francisco General Hospital for the past 16 years. His wife was a bank teller. And Richard killed Peter in his sleep with a gunshot to his temple from a .25 caliber handgun. Barbara, aged 62, was then beaten and sexually violated before being shot in the head and left for dead. At the crime scene, Ramirez used lipstick to scrawl a pentagram and the phrase, "Jack the Knife", on the bedroom wall. And then he went to the Tenderloin district, picked up a prostitute, and paid her ten bucks to fuck her feet. Seriously. Probably ate a bunch of candy after that and then passed out.

When it was discovered that the ballistic and shoe print evidence from the Night Stalker crime scenes matched the Pan crime scene, then-mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein divulged the information in a televised press conference. This leak infuriated the detectives in the case, as they knew the killer would be following media coverage giving him opportunity to destroy crucial forensic evidence. Ramirez, who had indeed been watching the press, dropped his size 11 1/2 Avia sneakers over the side of the Golden Gate Bridge that night. He remained in the area for a few more days before heading back to the Los Angeles area.

R. August 24, 1985: A week later, on August 24th, Ramirez broke into the house of Bill Carns, 30, and his fiancée, Inez Erickson, 29, through a back door. Ramirez entered the bedroom of the sleeping couple and awakened Carns when he cocked his .25 caliber handgun. He shot Carns three times in the head before turning his attention to Erickson. Ramirez told the terrified woman that he was "The Night Stalker" and forced her to swear she loved Satan as he beat her with his fists and bound her with neckties from the closet. After stealing what he could find, he dragged her to another room to rape and sodomize her. He then demanded cash and more jewelry, making Erickson "swear on Satan" there was no more. Before leaving the home Ramirez told Erickson, "Tell them the Night Stalker was here.” Erickson untied herself and went to a neighbor's house to get help for her severely injured fiancé. Surgeons were able to remove two of the bullets from his head, and incredibly he survived his injuries.

Erickson was able to give a detailed description of the assailant to investigators, and police were able to obtain a cast of Ramirez's footprint from the Romero house. The stolen car was found on August 28 in Wilshire Center, Los Angeles, and police were able to obtain a single fingerprint from the rear view mirror despite Ramirez's careful efforts to wipe the car clean of his prints. The print was positively identified as belonging to Richard Muñoz Ramirez, who was described as a 25-year-old drifter from Texas, with a long rap sheet that included many arrests for traffic and illegal drug violations. Law enforcement officials decided to release to the media a mug shot of Ramirez from a December 12, 1984 arrest for car theft, and "The Night Stalker" finally had a face. At the police press conference it was announced: "We know who you are now, and soon everyone else will. There will be no place you can hide.”

S. August 30, 1985: Six days later, on August 30, 1985, Ramirez took a bus to Tucson, Arizona, to visit his brother, unaware that he had become the lead story in virtually every major newspaper and television news program across the state of California. After failing to meet his brother, he returned to Los Angeles early on the morning of August 31. He walked past officers, who were staking out the bus terminal in hopes of catching the killer should he attempt to flee on an outbound bus, to a convenience store in East Los Angeles. After noticing a group of elderly Mexican women fearfully identifying him as "El Matador" (or "The Killer"), Ramirez saw his face on the covers on the newspaper rack and fled the store in a panic. After running across the Santa Ana Freeway, he attempted to carjack a woman but was chased away by bystanders, who then pursued him. An angry mob is now chasing this guy, just like angry mobs used to chase who they thought were monsters hundreds of years ago.

After hopping over several fences and attempting two more carjackings, the mob caught up with him. Someone in the mob had a metal bar and bashed him in the head. The mob continued to beat him until police showed up.

A unit from the LAPD arrived on the scene, including officer Jim Kaiser, who said he had been chasing reports of the Night Stalker in this neighborhood.

Officer Andy Ramirez remembered that by the time the cops showed up and arrested Ramirez, more and more people realized it was the Night Stalker they had run down, not just a car jacker “The tone of the crowd changed,” he said. “You could see the anger. They were getting closer and closer to where Richard Ramirez had been handcuffed and placed in the car. I thought, if I lose control of this crowd, they’re going to take him from this car.”

Officer Kaiser then heard someone in the crowd shout: “Get him. Shoot him.” Kaiser took Richard Ramirez out of Andy Ramirez’s car, which the mob had surrounded and transported him to the Hollenbeck police station in his vehicle.

When Kaiser stopped at the Hollenbeck station. He opened the patrol car door, and Ramirez threw up in the parking lot. “It was green, like ‘The Exorcist,’” Kaiser said, referencing the 1973 movie where the devil spews pea soupish vomit. “This guy is really evil.”

Puke was probably just a mixture of mountain dew and jolly ranchers. Which candy is the grossest, most evil? That was probably his favorite.

Kaiser tightened Ramirez’s handcuffs over and over again. “I didn’t know what he was capable of,” Kaiser said. “I looked straight in the eye of absolute evil. He had cold, black eyes. He was the ultimate manifestation of absolute evil.” Ramirez asked Kaiser for a favor. “Put a bullet in my head,” Ramirez pleaded. “Let’s end it.”

Gil Carrillo, the lead sheriff’s homicide detective who had been on the Nightstalker's trail for months, walked into the LAPD building just before 10 a.m. He was joined by his partner, Frank Salerno. It was a party-like atmosphere. The two detectives stopped the party immediately Ramirez, who had been reading about himself in the newspapers, knew the names of both detectives without being introduced. Carrillo sat across from Ramirez in a second-floor interview room. “Uncuff him,” Carrillo said. Carrillo called him “Rich.” Rich was calm and called himself the Night Stalker.

He asked Carrillo a question: “Why do you think I did what I did?” Carrillo thought for a second. “Rich, if I had the answer, I would be a doctor making a lot of money.” “He was the most vicious and vile person I had ever come in contact with,” Carrillo said. During the interview, Carrillo noticed Ramirez was tracing circles and lines on the table with his finger. “He was drawing pentagrams,” Carrillo said.

Shortly after, Ramirez would be charged with 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries.

And that takes us out of this Super Scary Stuff.

PAUSE SUPER SCARY STUFF OUTRO

V. Timeline resumed.

A. Alright. We’re out of the murder, rape, and overall crime spree of Richard Ramirez, but, not out of the timeline. His story still has some extremely interesting moments. He put on quite the show at his trial.

B. July 22nd, 1988: Jury selection for the case didn’t being until three years later. It started on July 22, 1988. At his first court appearance, Ramirez raised a hand with a pentagram drawn on it and yelled "Hail Satan!” Fucking ridiculous. Although, if I’m ever put on trial for anything, I hope I remember to yell “Hail Nimrod!”, ‘cause I love a good inside joke.

C. August 3rd, 1988: On August 3, 1988, the Los Angeles Times reported that some jail employees overheard Ramirez planning to shoot the prosecutor with a gun, which Ramirez intended to have smuggled into the courtroom. Consequently, a metal detector was installed outside the courtroom, and intensive searches were conducted on people entering.

D. August 14, 1988: On August 14, the trial was interrupted because one of the jurors, Phyllis Singletary, didn’t arrive at the courtroom. Later that day, she was found shot to death in her apartment. The jury was terrified; they could not help wondering if Ramirez had somehow directed this event from inside his prison cell, and if he could reach other jury members. Ramirez wasn’t responsible for Singletary's death; she had been shot and killed by her boyfriend, who later committed suicide with the same weapon in a hotel. However, the alternate juror who replaced Singletary was too frightened to return to her home.

Yeah, I bet! Can you imagine getting stuck on that trial? I would say whatever it took to get myself out of that shit.

E. September 20, 1989: On September 20, 1989, Ramirez was convicted of all charges: 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. During the penalty phase of the trial, on November 7, 1989, he was sentenced to die in California's gas chamber. He stated to reporters after the death sentences, "Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland."

During his trial, he’d amassed a sizable group of followers, some were fellow Devil worshippers who idolized him, some were groupies who wanted to have his babies. Women were fighting, like literally fighting outside of court over this piece of shit. I think I’ve said this in a previous podcast, but how bad does that suck for the person who’s lived their life the right way and can’t get a date. And this guy is one of the biggest piece of shit of all time. This rotten- toothed candy-eating psychopath has women fighting over him. Attractive women actually.

One of these women was Doreen Lioy who wrote him nearly 75 letters during his incarceration starting shortly after his arrest in 1985. How insulting to the victims. What a deranged piece of shit she was too. In 1988, he proposed to her, and on October 3, 1996, they were married in California's San Quentin State Prison. For years before Ramirez's death, Lioy stated that she’d commit suicide when Ramirez was executed.

F. June 7th, 2013: Well, Ramirez was never executed. He eventually died on death row, shortly before California abolished it, on June 7th, 2013, of complications secondary to B-cell lymphoma, at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California. He’d also been suffering from complications brought on by "chronic substance abuse and chronic hepatitis C viral infection”. I hope it was painful as Hell. And that takes us out of this Timeline.

PAUSE TIMESUCK TIMELINE

VI. Segue into Idiots of the Internet. A. Wow. So, what a monster, huh? Evil until the very end. He never expressed any remorse for what he did. Believed in the Devil right up until the end.

Actor Todd Bridges, who was on the show Different Strokes as a kid and went through some rough patches resulting in his incarceration, was brielfy in the same prison as Ramirez, and remembers Ramirez

taunting him. "He used to come by my cell and shake my door really hard. He always tried to freak me out. ‘I’m going to come in and get you,’ he said.” Bridges says the shit he did and the stuff he said in court wasn’t for show in any way. He was that guy. Evil to the core and until the very end. And, still, like I said earlier, he had groupies. I get the bad boy fascination a lot of women go through on some level, I think a lot of bad girls are hot - hail Lucifina - but, Ramirez is WAY too bad. Getting tatted up, smoking and drinking too much, living a reckless life and having a don’t give a fuck attitude is one thing, being pure sadistic, homicidal evil is another.

Well, let’s explore this dark fascination on today’s Idiots of the Internet.

PAUSE IDIOTS OF THE INTERNET INTRO

VII. Idiots of the Internet. A. The best video I could find dealing with murderer groupies that didn’t have the comments disabled was “10 Serial Killers With Obsessive Groupies” published by Planet Dolan in 2016. Ramirez is one of the 10.

And before we get to the dumb comments, there’s a lot of funny ones.

User The Anime Avatar is Ironic posts, “All these serial killers and their groupies and I still can't get a text back.”

User Nade Duck posts, “i guess there's a complete goddamn moron out there for everyone.” To which User Ulysses replies, “22 years and i'm still looking for my moron…” Haha! I love that.

User Metal Neck has the best one, posting: “So remember,Little Timmy,If you want Sally from down the street to like you…..murder her friends.” Jesus.

And then the dumb starts.

B. User Alice Bennetsen posts, “I'll admit Richard Ramirez is good looking”, and User I Broke Apart to Play This Game, goes full misguided teen goth dumb shit and posts, “he's good looking and satanism is awesome.” He’s not, it’s not, and you should be sterilized. With that attitude, get ready to have a terrible fucking life. Get ready to have some kids with a loser who will leave you and abandon his responsibilities to work on his shitty music. Wonder how awesome you’ll think worshipping the Devil and bad boys are then?

And then Alice, the original poster, ends up telling another one of the creeps in this comment section to find her on Facebook and hit her up.

The comment section of a serial killer video - maybe not the best place to find a hookup if you’re interested in, you know, not being raped and murdered. C. And then User KimmyFreak200 shows how fucking dumb she is, commenting, “he was scary though and had hep-c... also had rotting teeth when he was captured thats why they were messed up he was a homeless drug addict.. I liked his fuck the world attitude and his swagger and charisma but his crimes were terrifying to me. Big turn off but hey thats just me.”

Big turn off but that’s just me! I love how she, you know, would consider dating someone like that but the homeless thing, and the hep C, and the fucked up teeth were turn offs. His crimes were terrifying but she LIKED HIS CHARISMA AND ATTITUDE!

And I love the, “But hey, that’s just me.” Don’t want to offend anyone! If you want to fuck a serial killer, who am I to judge?? you should judge shit like that you fucking moron. I hate this notion, that no one should judge anyone. Yeah, you should. If you think Ramirez was a cool, good guy - FUCK YOU. You are fucking dumb. I hope you can’t have kids. I hope you’re dick doesn’t work, or that you’re uterus is a barren as the space between your ears. I hope you are never able to get a job even working around kids. I hope you don’t live anywhere near kids. I don’t want you influencing the future of society in any meaningful way, whatsoever, you pathetic, wretched, complete fucking idiot of the internet.

PAUSE IDIOTS OF THE INTERNET OUTRO

VIII.Conclusions. A. So. Ramirez. Glad he’s dead. Disturbing that some people are still into him.

What a preposterous monster he was. And, while we will never know exactly what makes these people tick, what turns them into murderers - lots of kids have abusive parents, or are molested, or have some kind of mental disorder that leaves them devoid of empathy- and the overwhelming majority don’t grow up to become killers.

But, I do feel like ol’ cousin Mike, ol’ cousin Miguel, as a lot to do with the formation of the Night Stalker. You are maybe at your most impressionable around 12 and 13, and that’s the dude he spent time with transitioning from a boy to a young man. This is the dude he was around when he first dabbled with drugs, and when he was first establishing his sexual identity. And this dude told him that rape was cool. That murder and torture were cool. Showed him the pictures. And then a year or so later, showed him actual murder. And then was arrested and back on the street four years later, which showed him that you can rape and torture and murder and get away with it.

Showing somebody all of that doesn’t mean they WILL become a sadistic nightmare, but, I feel like it greatly increases the odds.

Now let’s take another look back at all of this with some Top Five Takeaways.

PAUSE TOP FIVE TAKEAWAYS

IX. Top Five Takeaways

1. Number one: On September 20, 1989, Richard “the Night Stalker” Ramirez was convicted on 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. And he was sentenced to death row.

2. Number two: Richard committed nearly all of his violent crimes in one year: 1985. Michael McDonald released his second solo album, No Lookin’ Back that same year. Coincidence? For sure. But fun for me to have an excuse to throw Triple M in another episode.

3. Number three: Coke head Richard Ramirez believed his crimes were pleasing to the Devil and in addition to torturing, raping, beating, robbing, and killing his victims - he also made them “Swear to Satan” repeatedly during crimes. And even prayed for Satanic guidance during some crimes. It’s like Rick James said, “Cocaine is a Helluva drug.” 4. Number four: An angry mob caught Ramirez before the police did and, if the police hadn’t shown up when they did, might have beaten him to death. Too bad they didn’t. Would’ve given this story a better ending and given the families of his victims something to feel good about.

5. Number five: New info! During his trial, Ramirez tried to kill the prosecuting attorney. In the middle of his trial, law enforcement tasked with keeping the courtroom safe found out about a plot Ramirez had planned to get a gun into the courtroom so he could shoot the prosecutor on the case.

After the plot was discovered, the security teams at the courthouse had metal detectors installed so that everyone who entered the courtroom had to pass through them.

He also tried to escape prison - twice - so he could get back out there and start killing again. The first of Ramirez’s escape plans was prevented in the Fall of 1993 when Ramirez was being brought back to prison and had to pass through a metal detector. The machine beeped as Ramirez walked through, and law enforcement found a key inserted in his rectum that would open his handcuffs. The second escape plan never got out of the planning stages since guards at the prison found out about a potential plot after reading a letter from an obsessed Night Stalker fan who wanted to help him. Probably a groupie. Hope she spent some serious time in prison for that too.

PAUSE TOP FIVE TAKEAWAYS

X. Closing announcements A. Richard Ramirez has been sucked and I need some mouthwash. Yuck.

Fucking gross.

Okay- more of those Danger Brain black Cult of the Curious 251% elderly mole skin shirts are back in the store and should be available for purchase by tomorrow! Other designs we’ve run low on are in the process of reorder. AND, new stickers should be in the store - including some new vinyl car decals - within a week.

Many of you have been downloading those free ringtones that are now in the Timesuck store as downloads for both Android and iPhone users. Love it! The show intro and outro and most of the segment intros are up, as is a fan made “Buy Some of my Crack!” remixed ringtone. Put the Suck on your phone! It’s free!

B. Thanks to Harmony Vellekamp, Jesse Dobner, Lynze Cummins, Josh Krell, and the entire Timesuck team for their help. And HUGE thanks to OG Bojangles research team members Rebecca and Sarah Lillie for giving me a turbo boost on the Ramirez research.

And condolences to Timesucker Aaron

C. This Monday, we kick off April with the Space Lizard selected Stanford Prison Experiment. Very excited for that topic. The current vote leader for the next topic is the Green River killer, so, we may have more murder coming your way for mid April.

The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) took place in 1971, supervised by esteemed social psychologist Phillip Zombardo. Young men were divided into the roles of Prisoner and Guard and put in a prison-like environment in the basement of the Psychology Department at Stanford University. The study was meant to last two weeks. But the brutality of the Guards and the suffering of the Prisoners was so intense that it had to be terminated after only six days.

Find out what incredible information we learned about human nature from this experiment, why it was conducted, and why it can never be conducted again on Monday.

D. And now, let’s find out what you Suckers have been up to with this week’s Timesucker Updates.

PAUSE TIMESUCKER UPDATES INTRO

XI. Timesucker Updates. A. Alright. Wow. I have never gotten so many emails about one episode like a did this past week regarding the American guns suck. And, overwhelmingly respectful and intelligent. Never been more proud to a member of Timesuck than I am right now. Here are just a few. I’ll share more on Monday.

First up with an update from Monday’s gun suck is Ailey Irvine, who writes in with an awesome subject line of “My degree is in this, so listen up!”

Hiya,

Sorry for my slightly aggressive subject but I know you will be getting a lot of emails about guns and I wanted to stand out. I have a degree in criminal justice and so I was super excited to hear about your gun episode.

You did a good job! Really good job. I learned some new things and it made me think.

Now that being said, there are a couple of things I want to bring about just a few points:

You kept saying you couldn’t find the stats you wanted and even wondered if the data you did have or lack of it was political. It’s not. Look into something called the Dickie amendment. This is why there isn’t a lot of up to date research on guns. The CDC funds a large majority of research in the USA and by law, they basically can’t research guns due to the Dickie amendment. It’s really a shitty deal because then we cant have a good, scientifically backed discussion about guns.

Something to think about with the rape rates. You mentioned Australia specifically. Rape rates are extremely difficult to interpret. Rape rates can and often do go up when people feel more comfortable reporting those rates. So as sexual liberation and sexual norms have relaxed in many countries, including Australia, more people feel comfortable reporting to the police. This leads to an uptick in rape rates. Also in recent years, the definition of rape has changed. For example, the FBI just updated their definition in 2012 to include male rape. Until then, many men that were raped weren’t counted in the overall number, instead it was considered assault. (Obviously this excludes child rape of any gender)

Another thing, Switzerland and Finland etc have free mental health care. There are problems with their systems, but no matter your income, you can get care. That makes a huge difference. On top of that, kids get evaluations at a young age in school. So kids that have problems at a young age can be identified and get the help they need. And when the men join the mandatory military, they also undergo a psychological evaluation. This will be something considered when buying a gun.

Thanks for this show and I hope my points help to clear up some things. Hail Lucifinia!

Ailey

Well thanks Ailey! You really further illustrate how complicated this issue is and how, when you dig into stats, it gets real complicated real quick because there are so many factors to consider when you’re trying to figure out what, within a culture, is contributing to overall violence levels and what is contributing to the prevention of overall violence. It’s hard to figure out where the important statistically significant correlations are.

B. Next up, Timesucker John Leffler, who wrote in saying:

Hey Master Sucker! After seeing your comments before I listened to the Gun Control Suck I was a bit ambivalent about listening. After some more thought I realized the Master Sucker would not fall for the charms of Lucifina and would present the topic in a fair and evenhanded manner. I listened and I was really impressed with the information and how it was presented. I am a gun owner & enthusiast, but I firmly believe that things do need to change. Learning more about the Swiss and their approach i.e. education, licensing, etc. I would like to see more of that here in the US. I have been shooting since I was about 10 years old, but my father taught me explicitly that safety was the most important thing.

I could not even handle a real gun until I proved that I was safe & competent with a BB/Pellet gun. I had to be conscious of where I was pointing the weapon, show trigger discipline, and be able to show I knew the functions of the weapon. I think the problem here in the US is that guns are easy to get & there is no need to show any kind of competency. It's also a huge problem when people on the far right say things like "guns don't kill" which is an absolutely ridiculous statement. While I absolutely agree that banning certain types of weapons is a farce. I also agree that closing the gun show loophole, creating a national registry, and putting more money/emphasis into background checks will lead to a decrease in mass shooting especially. I also think better education and honest discussion about guns will help to curb the shootings. One last point about bump stocks is that there are other ways in which one can achieve that effect so banning that piece of equipment doesn't necessarily mean that people will not be able to modify their weapon in another manner. Sorry for the long , rambling, email. Keep on Sucking!

No apologies necessary John. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Couldn’t agree more on better education being necessary and taking a few points from the Swiss. Being a very different culture, I don’t think replicating Swiss policy is totally realistic, but I think we could learn a thing or two.

Next up, Austin Rinker.

Hello Master suck. I was very happy with the gun control debate. I was so happy you took a more nuetral stance on the topic. I noticed that when you were talking about the types of rifles getting banned, you said that assault rifles should be maybe be banned from civilian purchase or something along those lines. I just want to tell you that an assault rifle are the weapons specifically given to infantry and have a very specific characteristic: selective fire. Selective fire allows the shooter to on average switch between saftey and fully automatic on the rifle. Sometimes depending on the gun you will see burst and/ or semi-automatic. As you mentioned in the episode weapons with the fully automatic firing mode is pretty much impossible unless you spend tens of thousands of dollars and even then it is one of the heaviest regulated things in this country. So, with this being said normal firearms sold to civilians aren't assault rifles, just rifles. It's sort of like what is the difference between Air Force One and a normal Boeing 747: one is a military plane, the other is a civilian transport plane. Anyway, i wanted you to know this for the future. Also fun fact there were rapid fire weapons before the second amendment was signed.

One of the guns was the Belton flintlock (multi-shot musket with one load). Another was the Puckle gun. Any way i just wanted to tell you these things that not a lot of people know. Anyway can't way to hear your next episode. Your sucker, Austin.

Thanks Austin - good info on what an assault weapon actually is. And, I’m torn on weapons like the AR 15, because they don’t really have more firepower at the end of the day than other less military looking rifles and handguns, and then we just end up going down this path of trying to ban more and more types of guns which I’m not in favor of because I don’t think it addresses the primary issue - why are people shooting up places in the first place? C. Next up - Sims Scott!

Salutations and well met, O Holy Daddy of the Suck and Prophet Supreme of Nimrod the Holy, I really enjoyed your last episode on the gun debate and I think you did an incredible job of relaying statistics in an unbiased manner. However here was one small point that kept sticking out to me as the episode went on. You kept referring to the “far left” view that was saying to get rid of all guns. While I’m sure you meant the far left of mainstream politics in America, I think it’s worth mentioning that the *actual* far left (communist/socialist/anarchist) almost uniformly believe that gun ownership is essential to the well being of the general public. While you posted out that an popular uprising would likely be crushed, so many countries, the US included, rose up anyway and defied the odds and overthrew their unjust government. With the continued militarization of police forces many leftists, myself included, believe it is essential that the working class is able to arm themselves in case he need arises. In his address to the Central Committee to the Communist League in1850, Karl Marx said “...the workers must be armed and organized. The whole proletariat must be armed at once with muskets, rifles, cannon and ammunition… Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.”

Anyway, I know you’re a commie bastard hating Libertarian patriot, but I thought this was something that should be brought to your attention. Thanks so much for doing what you do, you’re one of, if not my favorite comedians, and Timesuck is by far my favorite podcast. I hope to be able to join the Space Lizard ranks soon, and while I can’t make it to Charlotte, I hope you come back to North Carolina soon so I can see you in person, you beautiful son of a bitch. Stay curious and keep suckin, Sims.

Thanks Sims! I don’t hate all commies. I just don’t think it’s a better form of government than regulated capitalism. And you bring up a good point about an armed citizenrey.

Easily the most shit I got this past week was over saying I don’t think the American public could stand up to the American military. I still don’t , BUT, I have to concede that an armed citizenry would have at least a chance compared to an unarmed citizenry and that is a valid point.

Thanks for correcting me on that. Okay, one more for today!

D. Message:Email From: Fran Mastropaolo ([email protected])

Hey Dan. LOVED your last podcast on the gun debate. I thought it was a stat filled, fact filled episode that resonated with me. Even though I am of the "female ilk" (ish) I believe that to have any substantive progress on this debate, we have to do it in a reasoned manner with thoughtfulness born from our emotions.

Seems like the emotional part has taken over as far as the media is concerned but when has it ever been a good decision to act immediately after a cataclysmic life altering event (think about your last MAJOR breakup...can't really relate tho (been married for 30 years))? It can take weeks, months, even years to recover and to THINK about what is the next right thing to do. Piling on the reason why this is happening at this time, I agree that the media make these perverse lowlifes into "celebrities" and you used to have to actually HAVE some talent to become "famous", I'd like to throw this into the convo...Mike Rowe, who is the only man alive (sorry...) that I would leave my husband for (and he knows that-since JFK Jr. is dead...) has a Facebook post writing about the epidemic of fatherless children/adults that are lost in our society. The stats are STAGGERING and gut-wrenchingly sad. It seems to me that we have, unfortunately, been born into a perfect storm timeline...Media "infamousness"+fatherless households+ineffective gov't agencies+lack of moral direction+glorification of guns in social media+...hell...two glasses of wine and two more beers...it's taken me wayyyyy too long to write this already so...Hail Nimrod and FUCK THE CRABFEAST!!! oh wait...KEEP ON SUCKIN'!!!!

Thanks for sharing that Fran! Yes - fatherless households or households with shitty parental influences - yet another factor in all of this. So many lost kids out there.

Look at Richard Ramirez form this one - he seemed like a lost kid himself. Clearly didn’t have the proper parental guidance when he needed it. So, part of the “gun problem” lies in the mirror. Are we raising our kids the right way. With good morals. With love and security. With proper respect for both life and the instruments capable of taking life. I’m a hateful fuck of a comic but I’m not a hateful fuck of a father and I take great pride in that. Parenting - it really is the most important job you’ll ever have. And if you don’t have kids - you can always volunteer. Lot of Big Brother/Big Sister type programs for troubled kids who need a guiding hand in their lives.

Lot to keep thinking about Timesuckers - thanks for being awesome.

PAUSE TIMEUCKER UPDATES OUTRO

XII. Goodbye

A. So that’s all for today Cult of the Curious. You guys are the fucking best. Now have a great weekend. Don’t kill anyone to please Satan, and keep on suckin’!

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