RICHARD Ramirez was a prolific serial killer who tormented California in the 1980s.
He was eventually caught in 1985, and sentenced to death. Here's what we know about him.
Who was the Night Stalker killer Richard Ramirez?
Richard Ramirez was born on February 29, 1960 and was an American serial killer, serial rapist, and burglar known as the Night Stalker.
His highly publicised home invasion crime spree terrorized the residents of LA and later San Francisco from June 1984 until August 1985, killing 13 poeple.
He used a wide variety of weapons, including handguns, knives, a machete, a tire iron, and a hammer – his victims ranged from aged 6 to 82.
The judge who upheld Ramirez's nineteen death sentences remarked that his deeds exhibited "cruelty, callousness, and viciousness beyond any human understanding."
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Where did the Night Stalker Richard Ramirez live?
How was Richard Ramirez caught?
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 California.
After failing to meet his brother, he returned to Los Angeles early on the morning of August 31.
He walked past police officers, who were staking out the bus terminal in hopes of catching the killer should he attempt to flee on an outbound bus, and into 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 front pages on the newspaper rack and fled the store in a panic.
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He then ran across the Santa Ana Freeway, and attempted to carjack a woman but was chased away by bystanders, who pursued him.
After hopping over several fences and attempting two more carjackings, he was eventually subdued by a group of residents, one of whom had struck him over the head with a metal bar in the pursuit.
The group held Ramirez down and relentlessly beat him until the police arrived and took him into custody.
How did Richard Ramirez die?
Ramirez, who claimed to be a Satanist, never expressed any remorse for his crimes.
He died of complications secondary to B-cell lymphoma at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California, on June 7, 2013.
He had also been affected by "chronic substance abuse and chronic hepatitis C viral infection".
At 53 years old, he had been on death row for more than 23 years.
Is Richard Ramirez the same Night Stalker as portrayed in ITV's Manhunt?
The terrible crimes of Ramirez were looked at in a Netflix documentary called Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer in January 2020.
However, the ITV show references a different Night Stalker.
The show tells the real-life story of the pursuit of Delroy Grant, a notorious burglar and rapist in South London.
His crimes took place over 17 years before he was eventually captured thanks to DCI Colin Sutton, who was brought into the investigation at a late stage.
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Grant carried out a string of burglary and sexual assaults between October 1992 and May 2008 across south east London.
Elderly women who lived alone were his targets, often attacking them in their beds at night.
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