It was the night of June 28, 1984. Jennie Vincow, a 79-year-old mother, had seen her son the day before and was getting ready to go to bed as she did each night. However, little did she know, she would not be waking up the next morning. That was the very night Richard Ramirez would begin his horrendous killing spree as “the Night Stalker” in the Los Angeles area. Richard, in a cocaine-driven state, entered and attempted to burglarize the home of Vincow, but when he was unable to find any valuables worth stealing, he brutally slashed her throat, nearly decapitating her. He then raped Vincow’s dead body before escaping into the night unnoticed.1 A murder as brutal as this one was only the beginning of Richard’s plunge into a vile cycle filled with murder, rape, and terror, including the murdering of thirteen people and sexually assaulting eleven women.2 However, what could possibly have caused Richard Ramirez to turn into such a monster?
Richie, as his family called him, was born in the sun city El Paso, Texas to two immigrant Mexican parents, Julian and Mercedes Ramirez.3 During Mercedes Ramirez’ pregnancy, she worked at a boot factory where she would often have to work and breathe in dangerous chemicals all day long. This caused her to have many difficulties while she was pregnant with him; she frequently had to get hormone injections because her body was rejecting the child. Nevertheless, Mercedes was able to give birth to a healthy baby boy. Born the youngest of five siblings, Richard often looked up to his older three brothers and formed a tight connection with his sister at a young age. As a baby, Richard “was a good baby, [he] didn’t cry much, [and he] ate & slept well.” Ruth, his older sister, was particularly fond of her younger brother and would often dress him up and play with him. She considered him her “little doll” that “would be different than her older brothers” who teased and roughhoused with her; her brothers were known to be aggressive and had short tempers like their father.4
Tragedy struck the Ramirez household when two-year-old Richard was nearly killed by a dresser falling on his head. Young Richard was always fond of music and listening to the radio, so one afternoon while being watched by his babysitter, he begged her to turn on the radio for him. After she continually refused to do this for him, Richard thought he would do the job himself. The small two-year-old waddled into his parent’s bedroom to reach the small radio on top of their long wooden dresser. However, Richard was much too small to reach the radio sitting on top; instead, he opted to climb the dress through the open drawers to reach his goal. As his small hands and feet climbed the tall dresser, closer and closer to the radio, the dresser decided it could not hold the weight of the boy. Richard came tumbling down with the dresser over him, bashing his forehead open and knocking him unconscious for fifteen minutes, all the while bleeding profusely. Quickly, his babysitter dialed his parents and transported him to the nearest hospital where he received 30 stitches and was diagnosed with a concussion. However, this would not be the last major head injury Richard was to suffer.5
When Richard was five years old, he went to the local park with his older sister, Ruth, and his older brother, Robert. Excited to see his sister who was already swinging, Richard ran to Ruth. Unable to stop herself in time from swinging, she “slammed into his head with terrific force, knocking him out and giving him a deep gash.”6 Richard was once again knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital. A year later, now age six, Richard began to have epileptic seizures and was diagnosed with “Temporal Lobe Epilepsy,” and he would continue to have seizures until his early teens. People diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy often showcase “altered sexuality, hyper-religious feelings, are hypergraphic, and are excessively aggressive.”7
The most notable influence over Richard in his developing years was his older cousin Miguel, a former Green Beret who served in Vietnam. At age twelve Richard began to spend time with him when he returned home from his service. To Richard, Miguel was a real-life hero who fought in the name of freedom and returned with several medals pinned to his chest. Miguel would often show Richard the polaroids he took in Vietnam of Vietnamese women forced into performing fellatio at gunpoint on Miguel. He would then show Richard a photo of him holding those same women’s decapitated heads.8 Richard later recounted that he was oddly sexually aroused by these images, even though he knew they were wrong. Richard quickly came under Miguel’s wing. On afternoons, Miguel would train Ramirez in military tactics he learned while in Vietnam; how to be stealthy and how to kill another human being effectively were all lessons Miguel taught Richard.9
May 4, 1973 was a night Richard would never forget. It started as every other evening did, with Richard over at Miguel’s house smoking pot and playing miniature pool, when he reached into the fridge for a cold drink. While grabbing the drink Richard noticed a .38 caliber inside the fridge. Stunned by his discovery, Richard asked Miguel what the gun was doing inside of the fridge; Miguel quickly dismissed him and told him he might be using it. Later that night, Miguel’s wife came home after grocery shopping, complaining that Miguel didn’t have a job; this was a fight they often had. Calmly, Miguel walked over to the fridge, pulled out the gun and shot his wife at point blank range. Richard stood stunned before Miguel ordered him to leave the scene and not tell anyone what he had witnessed. Richard walked back to his own home, saying nothing to any of his family members or law enforcement. Miguel was captured for the crime but not charged because he pled insanity, citing that he had not gotten proper psychological treatment after the Vietnam War. But that was the first time Richard came into contact with death personally, specifically the death of someone he knew well. Richard years later recounted that “it was the strangest thing… I knew her… she was dead, murdered, gone.”10
When studying Richard’s childhood years, it is clear he had all the ingredients to become a serial killer. From the devastating head injuries that left him mentally impaired to the overwhelming negative influence of his cousin Miguel, one can clearly see that Richard’s childhood greatly affected the way he grew up, later to become the horrendous Night Stalker. From Richard Ramirez case, one can learn what it takes to create a murderer and how an adolescence’s development can influence the human mind.
- Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (New York: Kensington, 2016), 6. ↵
- “Satanic Serial Killer and Rapist Richard Ramirez ‘Turned Green’ before Death,” International Business Times (website), June 9, 2013. Accessed April 1, 2019. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/satanist-serial-killer-richard-ramirez-turned-green-476465. ↵
- Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 2001, s.v. “Ramirez, Richard (1960-),” by J. Gordon Melton. ↵
- Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (New York: Kensington, 2016), 139-141. ↵
- Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (New York: Kensington, 2016), 142-143. ↵
- Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (New York: Kensington, 2016), 146. ↵
- Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (New York: Kensington, 2016), 146-147. ↵
- Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 2001, s.v. “Ramirez, Richard (1960-),” by J. Gordon Melton. ↵
- Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (New York: Kensington, 2016), 152-153. ↵
- Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 2001, s.v. “Ramirez, Richard (1960-),” by J. Gordon Melton. ↵
62 comments
Madeline Chandler
This article gave me chills. I did not know the story of Richard Ramirez. The fact that he morbidly murdered and raped women is horrifying. What is even more unsettling, is that his family almost created him as a monster. Between his cousin and his sister, his outcome is not entirely his fault unfortunately. As sad as those circumstances are, I’m relieved his was in prison and now deceased.
vanessa
Lol. That’s not Ramirez in that first pic. Why do people keep sharing that? It’s a girl And doesn’t even look Mexican or anything like him.
DMed
Just an FYI: The first picture, “Richard Ramirez as a young boy” is NOT Richard Ramirez! It is a girl that a friend of mine knows well. I believe there are law suits pending on other sites.
Htorg
Too bad the image you used of the child isn’t him but an unrelated girl child who has the same birthday.
Justine Ruiz
I have always heard about Richard Ramirez and even learned about his case. However, I never knew how he came about killing. This article was very intriguing and kept me interested until the very end. The fact that his older sister is partially to blame for Richard becoming a serial killer is sad. Imagine, his sister probably feels horrible knowing that what she did had this kind of effect on him. I found it very weird how Richard’s cousin basically trained and taught him how to kill people. What kind of family member was he?
Lolly
How did his sister contribute to this at all?
Davis Nickle
It really is insane how just a few very traumatic events either physically or mentally can permanently shift the course of a human being from a normal life to utter insanity and psychopathy. I almost pity Richard because he was altered by things outside of his control, however I am still glad he’s locked up because despite the tragedy of his descent into madness, he is still an irredeemable monster.
Master Bates
Davis, he was put to death in 1989. Wasn’t locked up very long
A
Haha he died of Cancer in 2013!!!
Markus
Well, he died on June 7, 2013 of complications from B-cell lymphoma while awaiting execution on California’s death row. So he actually stayed on death row for more than 23 years. Not that he did not deserve it…
Julianna Olivarez
This article shows how serial killers can me made into who they are now because are not born a monster some are made and in this case Richard Ramirez was made one. It shows the psychological side of the mind that can be influenced from his cousin Miguel to just having major brain trauma from his major head injuries that can contribute to his serial killer tendencies. Even before he was born his mother was breathing in dangerous chemicals which probably left more brain trauma than expected which probably lead to his epilepsy. It shows how much the psychological side of the brain plays a part in becoming who he is now.
Kendall Guajardo
This story painted a great backdrop for the development of his mind to the state where he would gruesomely murder and rape women. Child development is one of the most important indicators of how well they will do later in life. Genetics does play a role in this as well but mostly we learn certain behaviors at a young age that we mimic once we grow older. Evidently the lack of positive influences or grounding influences caused him to normalize very sadistic behaviors. That combined with the injuries he suffered as a child, it is no wonder he came to live a life of crime. The magnitude, however, is far worse than anyone could have imagined.
Kennedy Arcos
Such an interesting article. I have never heard of Richard Ramirez or the crimes he has committed. This article did a great job of presenting information about his history and how he became this “monster.” I like how this was more focused on why he did these things rather than what he did. It was a very disturbing and unique story all in one.
Linda Johnson
I have read a great deal about Richie and his crimes. Always wondered about the photo of him aged about 8, wearing what seems to be a girl’s top with floral embroidery, and quite long wavy hair. In fact thought it might be his sister Ruth but have always seen it tagged as him. Considering he was born in 1960 it’s s a rather effeminate picture as flower power didn’t catch on that early. The targets of his sexual assaults were female, from very young to a lot older than him. He was indiscriminate in that respect, but he did attempt to sodomize one boy, and I question his reason for that departure from his usual practice. As he matured during the protracted legal process he metamorphosed from a scruffy delinquent into the extremely handsome man who attracted a number of women. Even in the last two published photos his looks are attractive, especially the one in which he is looking through almost closed eyes. It would be good to know if he had any spiritual awakening in his final years (he had been a Catholic altar boy) or whether he remained convinced that he was Satan’s instrument.