Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The Night Stalker
EVIDENCE Detectives on the Ramirez case examine car and, inset, footprint
CIt’s the only time in my life I have slept with a gun. He was pure evil FRANK SALERNO HOMICIDE DETECTIVE ON STALKER CASE
olleen Nelson struggles to stay composed as she recalls being in court, just a few feet from Richard Ramirez, the man who had beaten her grandmother Joyce to death with his fists and a metal wheel brace.
She says: “You knew you were in the presence of evil. You could feel it. It was too much. I had to walk out of the courtroom. Seeing his face for the first time was one of the hardest things for me.
“I remember crying uncontrollably because I just thought, ‘That is the last face my grandmother ever saw’.”
Satanist Ramirez was dubbed The Night Stalker and his reign of terror in LA and San Francisco from 1984 to 1985 is now the subject of a Netflix series.
Ramirez brutally attacked men, women and children who were aged six to 83. He was eventually convicted of 13 murders and 11 sex assaults, but it is feared there could have been more crimes.
His victims came from different communities, rich and poor, and he killed with a variety of weapons. Journalist Joey Tur says: “The monster was among us, hunting us, and anyone could be a victim.”
Ramirez’s first murder victim was nine-year-old Mei Leung, who he raped and stabbed in a hotel basement in 1984.
Then in March 1985, Ramirez shot dead Dayle Okazaki, 34, in her home. He also shot her roommate Maria Hernandez, but she survived when a bullet from his .22 shotgun ricocheted off keys in her hands.
Within an hour of that attack, Ramirez pulled 30-year-old Tsai-lian Yu from her car and shot her with the same gun.
Ten days later, he killed Vincent Zazzara, 64, and his wife Maxine, 44, in a horrific attack in their home. He raped Maxine, cut out her eyes and took them from the scene in a jewellery box.
A young LA detective, Gil Carrillo, and the legendary homicide investigator Frank Salerno were charged with hunting down the nocturnal attacker.
By the end of March they realised a serial killer was on the loose, w hich was c onf irmed by matching shoe prints found at
SURVIVOR Anastasia Hronas was abducted and abused when she was just six different crime scenes. Carrillo says: “We had a serial killer responsible for kidnapping children, girls, boys, raping adult women, killing adult women, killing mal es. We’ve n e ver enc ount ered anybody like that in criminal history.” Salerno says: ssays: “It It is the only time tim in my entire life when w I slept with a gun. He was pure pu evil.” Sisters Mabel Bell, 83, and an Florence Lang, 81, were w to be become
Anyone was a target. Young, old, male, female, rich or poor were preyed on by...
victims of that evil when they were bludgeoned with a hammer and raped. Ramirez left after using lipstick to draw pentagrams on their thighs.
The four-part Netflix series features harrowing interviews with survivors, including Anastasia Hronas, who was just six when she was abducted from her home in February 1985.
Ramirez took her to his home and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. She says: “Something in the way that he would look at me, it was almost like, ‘I’m sorry that I’m doing this to you. But I’m not sorry, cause I’m not gonna stop’.” Eventually he dropped her at a gas station and told her to call 911. Anastasia still does not know why he let her go and did not kill her.
Police finally got a breakthrough when Ramirez went to San Francisco, where he attacked Peter and Barbara Pan in their home on August 18, 1985.
Peter, 69, was shot dead and Barbara, 62, was raped and shot and her jewellery taken. Frank Falzon, of San Francisco Police, said: “The crime scen e was grot esqu e. We had someone cold and calculated trying to be as evil as he could.” An informant then gave a bracelet to Falzon which he thought was connected to the Night Stal ker. It led Fal zon to Armando Rodriguez, who reluctantly gave him the name of the man who sold it to him, Richard Ramirez. A photo was issued and within hours Ramirez was caught in LA by a member of the public who hit him with a bar to stop him escaping.
Sheriff ’s deputy Andy Ramirez was the officer on patrol nearby who got to arrest Ramirez. He recalls: “I could see people yelling, waving and screaming and one person sitting on the pavement. They were saying, ‘Let’s get him’. I was like, I’ve got to control this.”
Ramirez spent more than two decades on death row before dying of cancer aged 53 in June 2013. In an interview while in prison Ramirez said: “Satan is a stabilising force in my life. It gives me a reason to be.”
Director of the Netf lix series Tiller Russell said his aim was to “minimize” Ramirez’s appearance.
He said: “We ultimately saw this as a story told from the cops’ and from the victims’ points of view.
“It was crucial to me to bring to life the victims’ stories and to make the audience feel that it could have been their grandmother, or it could have been them, but for the grace of God.”
Night Stalker : The Hunt For A Serial Killer is available on Netf lix from Wednesday, January 13.