The Night Stalker: Richard Ramirez

Ramirez was born on February 29, 1960, the youngest child of 5 or 7 children, depending on what account you read. His father was a police officer and then a laborer, and allegedly abusive. Young Ramirez’s psychological state was comprimised when he suffered two severe head injuries, and frequent epileptic episodes. When an older cousin, Mike, a discharged Green Beret and Vietnam Veteran, came home from the war he spent a lot of time with adolescent Ramirez. They smoked copious amounts of marijuana together and talked of satanic worship. Mike would also entertain Ramirez with poloriods he took in Vietnam. They depicted everything from Mike raping a Vietnmaese villiager, and proudly holding he decapitated head of a woman.

A defining moment in his life was when the troubled Mike shot and killed his wife in front of Ramirez, spraying him with her blood. After witnessing this his behavior changed dramatically, he dropped out of school, abused drugs, and developed bizarre sleeping habits. In 1977, he was placed in juvenile detention for theft and after his release he moved to San Fransisco and eventually on the Los Angeles where he graduated from marijuana and petty theft to cocaine and full – on burglary. In Los Angeles he delved deeper into satanic worship and rituals, which would play a major role in his future crimes. He would kill two in 1984 before being arrested for car theft, and upon his release he was a homeless, dirty, and uneducated and would almost immediately start on a six month killing spree living dozens of victims in his wake.

List of The Night Stalker’s Victims:

            April 10 1984:

9 year old Mei Leung was found dead in a hotel basement where Ramirez was living at the time.

June 28 1984:

79 year - old Jennie Vincow was found stabbed and nearly decapitated in her apartment.

February 21 1985:

Christina, 58 and Mary Caldwell, 71 were stabbed dozens of time each in their home.

March 17 1985:

            Ramirez attacked 22 year – old Angela Barrios outside of her home. He shot her before entering her home, but she thankfully survived. Dayle Okazaki, 34 was inside and Ramirez immediately shot and killed him.

            Within an hour he struck again in the same area of Montgomery Park. He attacked 30 year – old Tsai Lian Yu and pulled her out of her car and shot her repeatedly, then fled the scene. She died a time later when police came onto the scene.

            The event of 2 attacks and murders in the same area sparked media attention that would not subside with the coming weeks. The media dubbed Ramirez ‘The Walk- in Killer’ and ‘The Valley Intruder’.  Bullets found at both scenes were tested and found to be shot from the same gun.

March 27 1985:

            Ramirez shot Vincent Zazzara, 64 and his 44 year –old wife Maxine. Maxine’s body was mutilated with several post –mortem stab wounds and a T – carving in her left breast. He also gouged out her eyes.

            Ramirez left footprints in the flowerbed outside the couple’s window, which police believed was his point of entry. The prints were photographed and casted and added to the ever - growing list of evidence being built against him. When the bullets found to be used in the murder were found to be the same as in the previous attacks the police and media knew for sure they had a serial killer on their hands.

            At this point a multi – county police investigation was underway, and presumably because of the massive media and law enforcement presence, Ramirez took no more lives for 2 months. When the report of the attacks on  of 66 year – old Henry Wu and his wife Jean were made, Ramirez was officially dubbed the ‘Night Stalker’. Wu was shot in the head, whereas Jean was beaten, bound, and raped. It is unknown why Ramirez kept these victims alive, but because of it they were able to give and accurate description of Ramirez; a tall Hispanic male with long black hair.

           

May 30 1985:

            The newly named Night Stalker attacked Marival Keller , 83, and her disabled sister Blanche Wolfe, 80, beating them with a hammer. Using lipstick Ramirez drew pentagrams on Keller’s lifeless leg and also on the wall of her bedroom. Wolfe survived the attack and was again able to give a description of her sister’s killer to police.

May 31 1985:

            Ruth Wilson, 41, was bound, raped, and sodomized by Ramirez while her 12 year – old son was locked in a closet. Before he left the scene he grabbed the boy from his hiding place and tied him to his dead mother’s body.

June 2 1985:

            Edward Willgans, 29 was shot and killed before his girlfriend was raped repeatedly. She survived her attack.

Early June – July 1985:

            3 more women are killed, 2 had their throats cut and one was beaten to death. All were victims of home invasions, which led them to be tied to Ramirez.

July 5 1985:

            16 year –old Whitney Bennett survived being beaten with a tire iron. IN the same day another woman, Linda Fortuna, 63, was also attacked. Both victims survived.

July 20 1985:

            Ramirez again struck 2 different homes in one day, first, Chet Assawahem, 32, and his wife Sakima who was beaten and forced to perform oral sex on Ramirez before he stole items from their home and left. Later a Glendale couple, both 66 years –old were shot and mutilated.

August 6 1985:

            Ramirez shot Christopher and Virginia Paterson in the head, killing them both instantly.

August 8 1985:

            Ramirez attacked a couple in Diamond Bar, first shooting the husband and then raping and sodomizing his wife, not before forcing her to preform oral sex on him.

           

August 17 1985:

            The attack on a 66 year –old man and his wife would prove damming for Ramirez, as the wife survived and was able to identify him as the Night Stalker.

August 24 1985:

            Feeling the pressure of the growing police activity, Ramirez attempted to elude them by traveling 50 miles south of Los Angeles to Mission Viejo and broke into the apartment of 24 year – old Bill Carr’s apartment that he shared with he fiancé. He shot Bill and raped the girl, then asked her to profess her love for Satan. He also, forced her to preform oral sex on him before tying her up and leaving her for dead. She was able to free herself enough to go the window and see the car he was fleeing in and immediately contacted police and described Ramirez and the getaway car.  A teenager some days later recognized the vehicle off of a news report and was able to jot down the license plate number. Police found the vehicle abandoned and were able to obtain a single fingerprint from the mirror and the fingerprint was linked to Richard Ramirez.

            That same day his mug shots and description as a drifter from Texas were broadcasted all over the county and were front page news in California and neighboring states. Ramirez had since traveled back to Los Angeles and was recognized and attacked by a mob of citizens in East LA. When police were called to the scene force was necessary to break up the mob before they killed Ramirez.

July 22 1988 & September 20 1989:

Ramirez was found guilty of 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 14 burglaries, and 11 sexual assaults. He was sentenced to death.

During his time on death row he corresponded to a number of ‘fans’, but one in particular made a huge impact on him and they started a long courtship, and were married in the California San Quentin State Prison in 1996. Doreen was quoted in saying that she would commit suicide on the day that that Ramirez was executed. She and the state of California never got their chance however because Richard Ramirez died in a California hospital on June 7 2013, from natural causes. He was 53 years old, and served 23 years on death row for his heinous crimes. 

The 1998 Murder of James Byrd Jr.

With it being the anniversary of the egregious murder of James Byrd Jr. in 1998 and the eve of the civil trial of George Zimmerman, I thought it prudent to do a post about a few of the most racially fueled murder cases in our recent history.

The Murder of James Byrd Jr.:

 James Byrd Jr. was born in Beaumont, Texas on May 2^nd 1949 making him 49 at the time of his death. On June 7^th 1998, Byrd was walking along a street in Jasper, Texas and three men in a pickup truck offered him a ride, Byrd accepted and climbed into the men’s vehicle. The three men were 24 year old Shawn Berry, who was driving and knew Byrd from in town, 23 year old John King, and 31 year old Lawrence Brewer.

Instead of taking Byrd home as asked, Berry drove to a county road outside of town, dragged from inside the truck and overpowered him as he tried to flee. They proceeded to beat him, urinate on him, and chain his ankles to the back of the truck and dragged him for several miles. The men claimed they had slit Byrd’s throat, thus killing him before they dragged him, but Byrd’s autopsy reveled that he had been attempting to keep his head up of the road during the dragging.

Byrd died when his right arm and head were severed from his body, but his intact brain and skull indicated that he was alive during all of the attack. The men then unchained their victims body and left him in front of a black church, not to absolve themselves and to make the victim be at peace, but to make the crime as shocking as possible in that he would be found by his peers.

Along the road where his body had been dragged police found a wrench with ‘Berry’ etched into it and they also found a lighter with King’s prison nickname ‘Possum’ written on it, which would prove important for the investigation and prosecution.

The next day on June 8^th, Police found the scattered remains of Byrd in 81 places along the road in and around Jasper. Because of the nature of the crime, and being that two of the suspects were known white surpremisit, the FBI was called within the day to help investigate the obvious hate crime.

King had several racist tattoos, including a black man being hanged and Nazi symbols. Also, he was a member of the Confederate Knights of America, a white prison gang that indoctrinated him while he was in danger while in in prison for unrelated crimes. Brewer was a also a member of an white surpremisit group and joined for the same reason, to ward off unwanted attention in prison. Both men alleged that they were raped by black inmates, perhaps sparking and already bred hate for African Americans.

All three men would subsequently be charged with the crime, Brewer and King would be sentenced to death, while Berry the driver, who the courts could not definitively prove was a white surpremisit and racist, was sentenced to life.

The Aftermath:

-       Brewer was executed by lethal injection on September 21^st 2011, King remains on death row, and Berry is still serving his life sentence.

-       Many movies and songs have been inspired by Byrd’s death and the motives behind it.

-       In 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. hate Crimes Prevention Act was adopted and expanded the 1969 United States Federal Hate Crime Law. 

The 10 Reasons that Robert Blake did it

The Hollywood murder of Bonny Lee Bakely was huge news in California and beyond in the spring of 2001. Bonny was found shot to death in her husbands car outside a restaurant. The proximity to Los Angeles and the time since a big Hollywood story made the headlines around the county. But the most interesting fact is that Robert Blake was arrested, but in true Hollywood fashion he was acquitted for her murder. Below are the ten reasons (though circumstantial) that Blake did it.

10.  The Reservation and Lack of Valet:

Robert Blake and his wife of six months Bonny Lee Bakley went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Studio City, California on the night of May 4^th 2001. Blake had been frequenting Vitello’s for 20 years, coming there 2 or 3 times a week. The restaurant was popular but rarely required a reservation even on the Friday night of May 4^th. But, this night Blake had made a reservation, something he had never done before. He also had always used the restaurant valet service to park his 1991 Dodge Stealth, but this evening he declined the service and decided to park underneath a burnt out light bulb on the street by a construction dumpster.

9. “Things like this just don’t happen here”

The murder of Bonny Lee Bakely rocked Woodbridge Street in the small town of Studio City, California in 2001. Two local residents saw the couple dining at Vitello’s and leave at around 930 pm. Mr. Percival one of the diners, stated that he had seen a man dressed all in black, who may have looked like Blake walking around inside the restaurant without Bonny. When the couple exited, Mr. and Mrs. Percival walked to their home near the restaurant and saw the same man in black walking briskly toward a car parked behind a dumpster. The couple was later questioned by police and gave their accounts of the evening.

8. Running to the neighbors home – It was just too far away:

Blake ran to filmmaker Sean Stanek’s front door vomiting and shaking uncontrollably. When Mr. Stanek opened the door he recognized Robert Blake, though he was dressed all in black. He had run to a home behind Vitello’s to the street across from the car instead of running back into the busy restaurant, where he knew people would be. Blake had asked Stanek to call 911, and then ran with him back to the car, where his murdered wife sat slumped over in the passenger seat. When police arrived Blake was sitting on the curb continually vomiting. The police had found that she had be shot twice, one in the shoulder and once behind the right ear.

7. OJ:

Blake declined to take a polygraph test that night stating that because of the results in the OJ Simpson murder trial, since OJ too had dreamed of killing his wife and he was afraid these dreams would alter the results. OJ was later quoted in telling Blake what not to do during an interview with police, and to do what the Ramsey’s did. A lie detector test can only hurt you.”

6. “We bused the table within 2 minutes of them leaving”

After the couple when to the car after their meal, Robert said he needed to retrieve his handgun that he left in the booth at the restaurant. The only problem with this story is that the couples booth had been bused within 2 minutes of them leaving and no handgun was recovered. When he came into the restaurant again he was visibly shaken and asked for a glass of water, in fact he drank 2 glasses of water before he told the owner that his wife had been hurt, then that his wife ha fallen down, and then finally that she had been shot. Before the owner could complete the 911 call, he stated that Blake told him that “It’s okay, it’s been done.” Referring to the call that Stanek had made when Blake arrived at his house. No one from the restaurant could recall Blake having returned to ask for his gun while the shooting was taking place, only that he had returned for the water and to report that his wife had been shot.

5. Vomiting in the men’s room:

During the couple’s meal, Blake excused himself as his wife enjoyed her 3^rd glass of wine to go to the men’s room where a Vitello’s patron saw Blake vomiting, pulling his hair out, and muttering to himself. This was minutes before Bonny was shot. Also, it is important to note that Blake had not had any alcohol or had mentioned that his food was not prepared correctly, nothing to account for his vomiting. Throughout the rest of the meal Blake seemed visibly ill and shaky. This again, was before Bonny had even been shot.

4. Christian Brando:

Christian Brando the son of star Marlon Brando, was a boyfriend of Bonny Bakely at the time of her murder. During the 2000 birth of Bonny’s daughter cause some strain on the Blake’s marriage when the child paternity was in question. Bonny was under the impression that he child was his (Brando’s), originally naming the child Christian Shannon Brando. After DNA tests it was reveled that the child was in fact Blake’s, and has been since christened Rose Blake, but the implication that it very well could have been another man’s was more than Blake could handle.

3. Gunpowder Reside:

Blake was given a gunpowder resided test at police headquarters the night of Bonny’s death, two different test were administered, this is the usual practice.

Most reports of Blake’s test conflicted one another, but the LAPD were admiment in the test results had not come in yet. Some published reports possible from information leaked from the LAPD, indicated that the test were inconclusive. Basically this means that the test had no forensic value and can prove nor disprove Blake’s innocence.

2. Bonny’s Sordid Past:

Bonny dreamed of stardom even at an early age, She was later diagnosed with a personality disorder of sorts and referred by psychologist as a celebriphilliac. It is an attracting to celebrity, that becomes and obsession. Bonny had made it her life work to attain celebrity, but after she realized that she lacked the talent herself, she decided that marrying into celebrity would be a better fit for her. She perused many actor and musicians, often purposefully becoming pregnant to keep the men close. She was incredibly smart and resourceful in obtaining her prize, even going so far as stealing identities, cashing bad checks, and the like.

Her most troubling activity was taking out personal ads in male magazines looking for money and companionship. This did not end with her marriage to Blake, police found ample evidence of contacts via the ads, and her already strained relationship was push to breaking point as Bonny was involved in multiple extra-marital affairs.

1. Blake’s Past:

Blake grew up in a somewhat confusing and divided home. On one hand his parents were interested in him becoming successful in the movies and arts. But, on the other hand, his father was described by Blake as a ‘sadistic, a madman, and an alcoholic”. He often locked Blake in closets for days and serving him food on the floor like a dog. He also beat him often, while his mother looked on and did nothing to stop it. It is no secret that violence breeds violence, and even before Bonny’s death, Blake had been violent with his first wife, Sandra Kerr.

Sandra lived in fear of her husband, and still does decades after their divorce. He used fear to persuade her into giving him full custody of their 2 kids while they were negotiating a bitter divorce. He also froze their most of their assets, leaving Sandra with nothing. When she came to see her children Blake reportedly stuck a gun in her face and told her that he would blow her head of if she ever came by again. This would not be the last time that Blake would point a loaded gun into his wife’s face. 

The 2006 Richmond Spree Murders - A Brief Look

Described by MSNBC contributor and former FBI profiler, Clint Van Zandt as ‘In Cold Blood II”, The Richmond Spree Killings rocked the east coast in late 2005 and early 2006. Ricky Gray and Ray Dandridge, nephew and uncle, though only 8 months apart in age, went on a 7 day killing binge and left an entire state frightened in their wake. 

November 5^th 2005:

The badly beaten body of Treva Terrell Gray was found in a shallow grave in Washington, Pennsylvania. Treva had married Ricky Gray just six months prior and the newlyweds lived in a home owned by Treva’s parents. Ray Dandridge also lived with the couple after his release from prison in the month before after serving 10 years for armed robbery.

According to Treva’s parents, the couple fought constantly, both verbally and physically. Gray had claw marks on his arm, presumably from Treva on the day her body was found ad he was questioned by police. It is common practice for investigators to questioned those closest to the victim in the event of a murder. Washington police did question both Gray and Dandridge in Treva’s death but did not considered them suspects. Treva’s mother and stepfather believed that the police were lax on investigating Treva’s death, going so far as to suggest that she had died due to a drug –overdose. In fact, Treva’s death had not been considered a murder, just suspicious, until after a confession by Gray in early 2006.

A week after Treva’s body was found Treva’s parents evicted the wayward men from their property forcing them to move back to Arlington, Virginia on Christmas Day 2005. The men had been traveling to Virginia beforehand however…

December 18^th 2005:

            Sheryl Warner, a 37 – year old legal secretary and mother of three, was found shot and hung by electrical cord in the basement of her burning home in Reva, Virginia. Earlier that same day she had been speaking to her father on the phone and while speaking to him there was a knock at the door and two-distressed motorist who asked to use the phone. When his daughter failed to call him back, the father immediately called police. Her body was found later that day.

December 31^st 2005:

            26 year – old Ryan Carey was assaulted but survived by two men that were in in front of his parent’s house in Arlington, Virginia. He sustained extensive beatings and stab wounds to the chest, neck, and arms, causing him to permanently loose use of his right arm. Carey spent two weeks in a coma but thankfully recovered. 

January 1^st 2006:

            Kathryn and Bryan Harvey and their two young daughters were found beaten, stabbed, and bound with electrical cord and tape in the basement of their burning home in Virginia’s capital city, Richmond. Kathryn, the owner of a local sociality toy - shop, and Bryan an indie member of the college band, House of Freaks. Both Bryan and Kathryn died of extensive blunt force trauma, their 9 year – old daughter Stella of blunt force trauma and smoke inhalation, and their 4 year old daughter Ruby died of multiple stab wounds one piercing her small lung.

            The Harvey’s death received a large amount of media attention because of the somewhat local notoriety the couple had in the Richmond area, as well as the killers’ brutality toward the couple’s small daughters.

January 3^rd 2006:

            A couple in Chesterfield County Virginia were robbed by two men and a woman who had gained entry into the couple’s home by using the need of directions as a ruse. The robbers would make away with an 800 dollar check and some electronics. The husband persuaded the home invaders to spare their lives because of the wife’s disability and the need for the husband to help her.

January 6^th 2006:

            Another Chesterfield County resident called police, expressing concern about a friend’s daughter Ashley Baskerville, the caller also was apprehensive about Gray and Dandridge who had been living with Ashley and her parents. The caller stated that Ashley had been dating one. Or possibly both of the men, and that they suspected them in the Harvey murder that had taken place just a few days prior.

            The police had already linked items from the Chesterfield home invasion to the Harvey home and immediately after the call had assembled a team to storm Ashley’s home.

January 7^th 2006:

            Gray and Dandridge are arrested in Philadelphia and about an hour after their arrest Dandridge confessed to killing Ashley Baskerville and her parents. Gray was a bit harder to convince and after12 hours he asked to speak to detectives, when he confessed to using a hammer and a kitchen knife to kill the Harvey’s. He went on to say that:

“I don’t believe that sorry is strong enough. None of this was necessary.”

He also admitted to beating his wife Treva to death, as well as the murders of the Tucker – Baskervilles and the attack on Ryan Carey.

January 8^th 2006:

            Investigators formally identified Ashley Baskerville as an accomplish in the robberies in Chesterfield County and in her own home. She was also implemented as a look –out in the Harvey home, she was found wearing Bryan Harvey’s wedding band on the day of her death.

            During the robbery in her home Ashley allowed herself to be bound and posed as a victim in front of her parents. But by then Gray and Dandridge had grown tired of her and decided amongst themselves that she too was to be killed.

February 9 2006:

            Ricky Gray is charged with five counts of capital murder and a slew of other charges, he pleaded not guilty on the grounds that he suffered extensive physical and sexual abuse during childhood and his PCP use while he carried out his crimes.  Dandridge was charged in Pennsylvania with three counts of murder for the Tucker – Baskerville’s. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parole.

October 23^rd 2006:

            Gray is sentenced to death, his execution was set for June 16^th 2011, he execution was stayed however due to appeals and the like and he has yet to be executed by the state of Virginia.

On a personal note, Gray attended Massanutten Military Academy for his 10^th grade year, a school that I also attended for a brief time. It is eerie to think I walked the same halls after him…