The little boy captured in this haunting photograph grew up to become one of the most infamous and evil men the world has ever known.
Born on February 29, 1960, in El Paso, Texas, he was the youngest of five children in a family of Mexican immigrants. His father worked as a railway laborer, while the family adhered to Catholic traditions. On the surface, it seemed like a typical working-class upbringing in the American Southwest, but the reality behind closed doors was far darker and far more disturbing.
From a young age, he endured physical abuse at the hands of his father, a violent alcoholic prone to sudden, uncontrollable fits of rage. By the time he turned six, he had suffered multiple head injuries, leaving him with permanent damage and eventually developing temporal lobe epilepsy. Punishments were extreme and cruel; on some nights, his father would tie him to a crucifix in a cemetery, leaving the terrified child alone among tombstones, shivering in fear and darkness.
By the age of ten, he had already begun experimenting with marijuana and alcohol as an escape from the relentless violence at home. His adolescence was scarred by trauma that few could comprehend. On May 4, 1975, at just 15 years old, he witnessed a horrifying event that would leave an indelible mark on his psyche: his older cousin Miguel shot and killed Miguel’s wife Jesse in the face during a domestic dispute, right in front of him. Most children would have been traumatized; he became withdrawn, silent, and oddly detached. Miguel was later found not guilty by reason of insanity, and the boy dropped out of Jefferson High School in the ninth grade.
Following this, he moved in with his sister and her husband, Roberto, an obsessive voyeur who involved him in late-night spying on women through their windows. When Miguel was released from the mental hospital in 1977, he occasionally joined these disturbing nocturnal escapades, reinforcing a life steeped in abnormal and predatory behavior.
By 1982, at age 22, he had relocated permanently to California. During this period, he began using cocaine heavily, which quickly became his drug of choice. To sustain his habit, he resorted to theft and burglary, living a nomadic, unstable existence between San Francisco and Los Angeles, without stable employment or a fixed home. His criminal behavior escalated, laying the groundwork for what would become a reign of terror.
Reign of Terror
On April 10, 1984, he committed his first known murder: nine-year-old Mei Leung in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. He lured her to a basement, then brutally beat, strangled, sexually assaulted, and stabbed her before hanging her partially nude body from a pipe. This crime remained unsolved for 25 years until DNA evidence linked him to the scene in 2009.
Just two months later, on June 28, 1984, he murdered 79-year-old Jennie Vincow in her Glassell Park apartment, stabbing her repeatedly while she slept and nearly decapitating her. After a nine-month hiatus, he began a killing spree from March to August 1985, striking fear across California. His attacks were unpredictable and random—he would break into homes at night through unlocked doors or windows, targeting anyone inside, ranging from young women to elderly couples. He used guns, hammers, tire irons, knives, and in many cases, sexually assaulted his victims.
Satanic Signature
A chilling aspect of his crimes was the incorporation of Satanic imagery. He drew pentagrams in lipstick on walls and victims’ bodies, forced survivors to ‘swear on Satan’ they weren’t hiding valuables, and repeatedly declared his devotion: “I love Satan,” demanding that his victims profess the same. In one particularly horrifying attack, he murdered 64-year-old Vincent Zazzara and his 44-year-old wife, Maxine. After killing Maxine, he mutilated her body by carving an inverted cross into her chest and gouging out her eyes, which he then kept in a jewelry box as a grotesque souvenir.
Other victims suffered equally horrific fates. He bludgeoned 83-year-old Mabel Bell and her 81-year-old sister Florence Lang with a hammer, electrocuted one of them, drew pentagrams on their bodies, and left both women dead from their injuries. He stomped 60-year-old Joyce Lucille Nelson to death, leaving the imprint of his sneaker across her face.
The Hunt
The press quickly dubbed him the ‘Night Stalker,’ the ‘Walk-In Killer,’ and the ‘Valley Intruder.’ One of the largest police manhunts in California history ensued, led by Detectives Frank Salerno and Gil Carrillo, who painstakingly connected crimes across multiple jurisdictions. The break came when 13-year-old James Romero III spotted him near his home and memorized the details of the vehicle he was driving—information that would prove crucial. The abandoned stolen Toyota was found days later, with a single fingerprint on the rearview mirror, leading authorities to a 25-year-old drifter with a long criminal record.
On August 29, 1985, police released his mugshot to the public, announcing: “We know who you are now, and soon everyone else will. There will be no place you can hide.” The next day, he traveled to Tucson, Arizona, unaware that his face was plastered across California newspapers and TV screens. When he returned to Los Angeles, he was recognized by residents at a convenience store and chased down the street until police arrived.
Identity Revealed
His name was Richard Ramirez. During his trial, Ramirez displayed bizarre and cult-like behavior, raising a hand with a pentagram drawn on it and shouting: “Hail Satan!” He attracted followers who attended proceedings in support of his twisted ideology.
On September 20, 1989, the jury convicted him of 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. He was sentenced to death on November 7, 1989. When informed of the verdict, he chillingly remarked, “Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland.” The judge described his actions as exhibiting “cruelty, callousness, and viciousness beyond any human understanding.”
Ramirez spent nearly 24 years on death row at San Quentin State Prison, where he married a 41-year-old supporter, Doreen Lioy, in 1996. Even while incarcerated, he bragged to officers about having killed more than 20 people. On June 7, 2013, at age 53, Ramirez died from complications related to B-cell lymphoma, likely alone in a secured hospital room; his body was unclaimed and later cremated.
Looking back at the photograph of the young boy, it is almost impossible to reconcile that innocent, vulnerable face with the monstrous man he ultimately became—a chilling reminder of how trauma, neglect, and dark impulses can converge to create unimaginable evil.