The Night Stalker

Iam beyond good and evilevil. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells in us all,” said 28-year-old Richard Ramirez moments after he was convicted of 13 murders, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries.

Known as the Night Stalker – he terrorised southern California, always at night, for several months in 1985.

Ramirez grew up in Texas and moved to California in his teens, where he drifted, dabbled in drugs and thieved. Soon he began stabbing, choking and raping his victims, sometimes leaving Satanic symbols at his crime scenes.

He was finally arrested as he got off a bus in Los Angeles, after visiting his brother interstate. Police had identified a car often seen at the scene of his crimes and records linked it to Ramirez.

After he was jailed in 1989, Ramirez received a steady stream of fan mail and in 1996 the death row inmate married Doreen Lioy in San Quentin prison. “He’s kind, he’s funny, he’s charming. He’s my best friend,” his wife told reporters after their wedding.

The 53-year-old escaped the execution chamber, instead dying of lymphoma in 2013.