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
Amanda Uribe
Good article, I wish there was more! It is always interesting to analyze a murderer’s life as a child to adulthood. I wonder if his fall as a 2 year old and from his sister caused him to have such dark thoughts about women and violence. I also wonder if he would have done these gruesome things had he not been exposed to the photographs his cousin showed him. It is truly sad what he did to those innocent women.
Joanna Martinez
The story Richard Ramirez is very interesting. I always thought that people who can inflict such vile actions onto other people were born with rage, but after reading this article I realize that outside environments have an impact on peoples mental health. Although it does not give him an excuse to kill, it is comprehensible how he got to such a dark place.
Skylar De Leon
This was a really interesting article, it really shows how one’s environment can affect their actions in the future. The injuries to his head that he experienced were very damaging to the point that his complete behavior changed, which is very interesting. It makes me think about how certain parts of the brain control certain things because his accidents really turned him into a malicious person that has done horrible things. However it’s also something to think about it wasn’t just the damage to his brain that turned him the way it did, but also those around him. His uncle showed and enabled the malice in his mind, which is pretty scary.
Sofia Martinez
By reading this article, most readers would be blame his injuries as a child; his concussions, seizures and the fact that his mother was heavily medicated during her pregnancy. Although, mental issues is a problem to this situation, he even knew what he was contemplating in doing, was wrong, he was influenced by his cousin, and he knew that he would pay for the consequences of his actions someday.
Rosa Robledo Martinez
After reading the article I understood how Richard Ramairez became the way he is. Although he did suffer lots of head injuries I just believe that nothing he experienced as a child can change the time he spends in jail. The fact that a Vietnam veteran killed his wife for no reason is just disgusting. I do believe that because of what Miguel showed Richard as a child made him become a murder. It’s just sad to see that people who are supposed to teach you right from wrong are pressuring/ showing you the acts a violence. Richard is dangerous not because of his injuries as a child but because of his role model teaching him gun violence.
Julia Edwin-Jeyakumar
I like reading about psychological influences on the future. This is an amazing article and its unfortunate that he grew up like that. Not only was he altered physically as he grew up, but he was also altered chemically which then, in turn, altered him mentally. Peer pressure also played a role cause of Miguel. Since Richard saw him as a hero, he took him as a role model and thought that it was okay- especially when Miguel got away with murder while fulfilling his desires to kill his wife. Not only did it effect him, but it also effected the people he killed and rape. That shows how much power one has in society.
Audrey Uribe
I really appreciated the perspective of this article. It was angled to show you Richards life and the events that lead to him becoming mentally ill. All the brain injuries throughout his childhood into adult life was very interesting. I feel like it showed me how someone could be so chemically imbalanced in their head to think and do the disgraceful crimes he committed. His cousin Miguel was a horrible mentor and older figure. Leading him to kill an innocent elderly lady. Its a shame to see a life lost due to the imbalance of another persons brain.
Ashley Martinez
This article describes in great detail as to what experiences and events that caused Richard Ramirez to become a psychopath. It all started since the womb when Richard’s mother was working in a factory inhaling all these toxic fumes. Richard then had experienced two very severe concussions which eventually lead to epileptic epilepsy, which really affected his thoughts. Richard hung around with his older cousin who had just returned from the war and lead a terrible example by killing his wife. It was just one experience after another that shaped Richard into a dangerous man. He behaved this way because it was what he was shown while growing up. Richard killed an innocent elderly lady. The foundation you have at home usually shapes you into the person you become in the future. It is so sad to see these awful situations affect innocent people.
Courtney Reeves
This article was extremely interesting since not only did it delve into Ramirez’s past, but it also explored the hardships he faced which started from inside of the womb. Instead of solely describing the heinous crimes Ramirez had committed, Claudia Sanchez, the author of this article, took it a step further to give another perspective on the issue rather than just going the easy route and detailing what he had done to the victims. At first, we, as the readers, feel completely disgusted towards him, however, as the article progressed detailing what he had to endure growing up, we do understand it from his perspective. Am I excusing what he did? Absolutely not. Those crimes were inexcusable, but it does make a little more sense as to why he did what he did.
Lilia Seijas
This article goes pretty in-depth into the nurture factors of what turned Richard Ramirez into a serial killer. Although many other factors could contribute to the actions and believes this man displayed, the emotional and psychological development of who he was, became deeply impaired with the various head injuries and traumas he suffered due to his family members. The article explains in great detail many of the factors that could have been the caused of the night stalker’s killing spree and rage, even without going into the whole chemical imbalance that many serial killers experience since their early childhood.