Age, Biography, and Wiki
Richard Ramirez was born on February 29, 1960, making him 53 years old at the time of his death on June 7, 2013. His early life was marred by a troubled home environment, with his father being physically abusive and his older cousin influencing his macabre interests. Ramirez's crimes spanned from April 1984 to August 1985, primarily in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas, resulting in the murder of at least fourteen people.
| Occupation | Serial Killers |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 29 February 1960 |
| Age | 65 Years |
| Birth Place | El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Pisces |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 7 June, 2013 |
| Died Place | Greenbrae, California, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There is limited information available about Richard Ramirez's height and weight. However, his physical appearance was often described as unassuming, which allowed him to move undetected during his crimes.
On June 28, 1984, 79-year-old Jennie Vincow was found murdered in her apartment in Glassell Park, Los Angeles. She had been stabbed repeatedly in the head, neck and chest while asleep in her bed, and her throat slashed so deeply that she was nearly decapitated. Ramirez's fingerprint was found on a mesh screen he removed to gain access through an open window. This, his second known murder, established his pattern of breaking into homes, committing particularly vicious murders, and frequently burglarizing his victims either before or after killing them, which was mainly to support his drug addiction and pay his rent.
Two weeks later, on May 29, Ramirez drove a stolen car to Monrovia and stopped at the house of Mabel "Ma" Bell, age 83, and her disabled sister, 81-year-old Florence "Nettie" Lang. Finding a hammer in the kitchen, he bludgeoned and bound Lang in her bedroom, then bound and bludgeoned Bell before using an electrical cord to shock the woman. After raping Lang, he used Bell's lipstick to draw the Satanic pentagram symbol on her thigh as well as on the walls of both bedrooms. The women were found two days later, alive but comatose and critically injured. Bell died in the hospital from her injuries on July 15. Lang died in August.
On August 6, 1985, Ramirez drove to Northridge and broke into the home of 30-year-old Chris Peterson and Virginia Peterson, age 27. He crept into the bedroom, startled Virginia and shot her in the face with a .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun. He then shot Chris in the neck and attempted to flee; Chris fought back while avoiding being hit by two more shots during the struggle before Ramirez managed to escape. The couple survived their injuries.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Ramirez's personal life is not well-documented in terms of romantic relationships. However, he married Doreen Lioy in 1996 while in prison, and they remained married until his death in 2013.
Ramirez's crimes were heavily influenced by a troubled childhood. Frequently abused by his father, he developed brain damage and started abusing drugs at the age of 10. He began developing macabre interests in his early and mid-teens from his older cousin, a Vietnam War veteran with schizophrenia and PTSD, who extensively bragged about the war crimes he had committed, and who killed his wife in front of Ramirez when Ramirez was 15. Ramirez learned military skills from him that he would later employ during his killing spree. He also cultivated a strong interest in Satanism and the occult. By the time he had left his home in Texas and moved to California at the age of 22, Ramirez began to frequently use cocaine. He would often commit burglaries to support his drug addiction, many of which were later frequently accompanied by murders, attempted murders, rapes, attempted rapes, and battery.
His father, a railway laborer, was a violent alcoholic who was prone to fits of anger that often resulted in physical abuse towards the household. Ramirez was brought up a Catholic and began smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol at the age of 10.
At age 12, Ramirez was taken under the wing of his older cousin, Miguel "Mike" Valles, a soldier in the U.S. Army who himself had already become a serial killer and rapist during his service in the Vietnam War. Mike often boasted of committing gruesome war crimes in Vietnam, and shared Polaroid photos with Ramirez showing Vietnamese women whom he had raped, murdered, and dismembered or decapitated. It is alleged that many of these photos depicted women being tied to trees or wooden posts both before and after they were sexually assaulted and killed by Valles. Ramirez would later state while incarcerated that he was fascinated, rather than repulsed, by the images and stories Mike shared with him. Mike taught his young cousin some of his military skills, including stealth and kill tactics. Around this time, Ramirez began to seek escape from his father's violent temper by sleeping in a local cemetery. His father would often tie him to a crucifix in a cemetery overnight as punishment. Mike and his wife Josefina "Jesse" Valles (née Bretado; November 3, 1948 – May 4, 1975) had a son named Miguel Valles Jr. (September 21, 1967 – April 22, 1973) who died at the age of 5 in an accidental gas explosion. It is unknown if Ramirez as a child ever interacted with his younger cousin before his death.
Shortly after Ramirez had turned 14 in 1974, he began using LSD frequently. He and Mike resumed bonding over their shared use of drugs and alcohol. It was during this period that Ramirez began to cultivate an interest in Satanism and the occult. When he reached adolescence, Ramirez began to meld his burgeoning sexual fantasies with graphic violence, including forced bondage, murder, mutilation, and rape. While still in school, he took a job at a local Holiday Inn and used his master key to rob sleeping patrons. On at least one occasion, Ramirez molested two children in an elevator at the hotel, but he was never reported or prosecuted for this act. His employment ended abruptly after Ramirez attempted to rape a woman in her hotel room and was caught in the act by the victim's husband. Although the husband beat Ramirez at the scene, criminal charges were dropped when the couple, who lived out of state, declined to return to Texas to testify against him.
At the age of 15, Ramirez was present on May 4, 1975, when Mike fatally shot his second wife, 26-year-old Valles, in the face with a handgun during a domestic argument. Like the graphic photos and stories of his cousin's war crimes in Vietnam, Ramirez would later similarly remark that witnessing the murder was not traumatic for him in any traditional sense, but rather a subject of fascination. After the shooting, Ramirez became sullen and withdrawn from his family and peers. Mike was later found not guilty of Jesse's murder by reason of insanity, with the shooting attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder from his military service. After his elder cousin's murder of his second wife, Ramirez dropped out of Jefferson High School in the ninth grade, shortly before the school year ended in 1975.
Shortly after the shooting, Ramirez moved in with his older sister, Ruth, and her husband, Roberto, an obsessive peeping tom who took Ramirez along on his nocturnal exploits. After Mike was released from the mental hospital in 1977, he sometimes accompanied Ramirez and Roberto on these voyeuristic walks, spying on women in the nearby areas through their windows. In 1982, at age 22, he moved to and settled permanently in California. It was around this time that Ramirez began to use cocaine, which quickly became his substance of choice, and began to commit theft and burglaries to procure money for sustaining his addiction. He lived nomadically between San Francisco and Los Angeles County during this time prior to his incarceration.
One week later, at approximately 2 a.m. on March 27, 1985, Ramirez entered a home that he had burglarized a year earlier just outside of Whittier and killed 64-year-old Vincent Charles Zazzara in his sleep with a gunshot to his head. Zazzara's wife, 44-year-old Maxine Levenia Zazzara, was awakened by the gunshot. Ramirez beat her and bound her hands while demanding to know where her valuables were. While he ransacked the room, Maxine escaped her bonds and retrieved a shotgun from under the bed, which she was unaware was not loaded. She pulled the trigger just after he turned around and saw her. The infuriated Ramirez shot her three times with his handgun, killing her, then fetched a large carving knife from the kitchen. He mutilated her body by cutting an inverted cross into her chest, then removed her eyes and placed them in a jewelry box. He attempted to have sex with her body but found himself so shaken by her attempting to shoot him that he was unable to achieve an erection. He took the jewelry box containing her eyes and kept it at his apartment as a souvenir until his arrest. Ramirez left footprints from a pair of Avia sneakers in the flower beds, which the police photographed and cast. Bullets found at the scene were matched to those found at previous attacks, and the police determined that a serial killer was at large.
On May 14, 1985, Ramirez returned to Monterey Park and entered the home of 66-year-old Bill Doi and his disabled wife, 56-year-old Lillian Doi. Surprising Doi in his bedroom, Ramirez shot him in the face with a .22 semi-automatic pistol as Doi went for his own handgun. After beating the mortally wounded man into unconsciousness, Ramirez entered Lillian's bedroom, bound her with thumbcuffs, then raped her after he had ransacked the home for valuables. Bill died of his injuries while in the hospital.
Two weeks later, on July 20, Ramirez purchased a machete before driving a stolen Toyota to Glendale. He chose the home of 66-year-old Lela Kneiding and her husband, 68-year-old Maxon Kneiding. He burst into the sleeping couple's bedroom and hacked them with the machete, then killed them with shots to the head from a .22 caliber handgun. He further mutilated their bodies with the machete before robbing the house of valuables. After quickly fencing the stolen items, Ramirez drove to Sun Valley, Los Angeles, and broke into the home of the Khovananth family. He shot the sleeping 32-year-old Chainarong Khovananth in the head with a .22 caliber handgun, killing him instantly, then repeatedly raped and beat 32-year-old Somkid Khovananth. He bound the couple's 8-year-old son before dragging Somkid around the house to reveal the location of any valuable items, which he stole. During his assault, he demanded that she "swear to Satan" that she was not hiding any money from him.
Two nights later, Ramirez drove a stolen car to Diamond Bar and chose the home of Sakina Abowath, age 27, and her husband 31-year-old Elyas Abowath. Sometime after 2:30 a.m. he entered the house and went into the master bedroom. He instantly killed the sleeping Elyas with a shot to the head from a .25 caliber handgun. He then handcuffed and beat Sakina while forcing her to reveal the locations of the family's jewelry, and then brutally raped her. He repeatedly demanded that she "swear on Satan" that she would not scream during his assaults. When the couple's 3-year-old son entered the bedroom, Ramirez tied the child up and then continued to rape Sakina. After he left the house, Sakina untied her son and sent him to the neighbors for help.
On August 24, 1985, Ramirez traveled 76 mi south of Los Angeles, in a stolen orange Toyota, to Mission Viejo. That night, he arrived at the home of 45-year-old James Romero Jr., who had just returned from a family vacation to Rosarito Beach in Mexico. Romero's son, 13-year-old James Romero III, happened to be awake. While his family was asleep, James went outside of his house to retrieve a pillow inside a truck, which was locked. When he was outside, he heard a rustling noise. Assuming it was an animal, James went to investigate but did not notice anything out of the ordinary. James then went into his garage to begin working on his minibike before hearing Ramirez' footsteps outside the house. Thinking there was a prowler, James, after observing Ramirez through his bedroom window, went to wake his parents, and Ramirez fled the scene. James raced outside and noted the color, make, and style of the car, as well as a partial license plate number. Romero contacted the police with this information, believing James had chased away a thief.
After noticing a group of elderly Hispanic women fearfully identifying him as "el matador," Ramirez saw his face on the front page of the newspaper La Opinión with a headline calling him "Invasor Nocturno" (English: "Night Invader") and fled the store in a panic. After running across the Santa Ana Freeway, he attempted to carjack an unlocked Ford Mustang but was pulled out by angry residents Faustino Pinon and Jose Burgoin. Ramirez ran across the street and attempted to take car keys from Angelina De La Torre. Her husband, Manuel De La Torre, witnessed the attempt and struck Ramirez over the head with a fence post in the pursuit. A group of over ten residents (including Jose Burgoin's sons) formed and chased Ramirez down Hubbard Street in Boyle Heights. They soon restrained Ramirez and relentlessly beat him. At around 8 a.m., police were called over a disturbance in the area with few other details. Police quickly arrived on Hubbard Street and took a severely beaten Ramirez into custody.
On August 14, the trial was interrupted because one of the jurors, Phyllis Singletary, did not arrive at the courtroom. Later that day, she was found shot to death in her apartment. The jury was terrified, wondering if Ramirez had somehow directed this event from inside his prison cell, and whether or not he could reach other jurors. However, it was ultimately determined that Ramirez was not responsible for Singletary's death, as she was shot and killed by her boyfriend, who later committed suicide with the same weapon in a hotel. The alternate juror who replaced Singletary was too frightened to return to her home.
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| Husband | Doreen Lioy (m. October 3, 1996) |
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Net Worth and Salary
Richard Ramirez's net worth is not publicly disclosed, as his earnings were not legitimate. His criminal activities, including burglaries and other crimes, were not lucrative enough to leave a notable financial legacy outside of prison. Any potential earnings from media appearances or book deals would have been minimal and likely confiscated by the authorities.
Career, Business, and Investments
Ramirez's "career" was marked by a series of heinous crimes, including murder, rape, and burglary. He did not engage in any legitimate business or investments. His crimes were largely driven by drug addiction and a seeming desire for notoriety.
Social Network
Ramirez did not have a social network in the modern sense. His interactions were limited to those within the prison system and his family, particularly his wife.
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 due to his not being home, 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 a convenience store in East Los Angeles.
* Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker (1989) is a TV film by Bruce Seth Green, based on the true story of Richard Ramirez and the two Los Angeles police detectives who tried to track him down.
* American Horror Story: Ramirez is featured in the fifth and ninth seasons of the FX horror anthology series, initially being portrayed by Anthony Ruivivar and then later by Zach Villa.
Education
Ramirez dropped out of high school and did not pursue further education. His life was marked by a lack of stable employment and a focus on criminal activities.
In conclusion, Richard Ramirez's life was defined by violence and criminality, with no notable financial success or legacy beyond his notoriety as a serial killer.
The murder spree terrorized the residents of Greater Los Angeles and later the San Francisco Bay Area over the course of fourteen months. However, his first known murder occurred as early as April 1984; this crime was not connected to Ramirez, nor was it known to be his doing, until 2009. Ramirez used a wide variety of weapons, including handguns, various types of knives, a machete, a tire iron and a claw hammer. He punched, pistol whipped, and strangled many of his victims, both with his hands and in one instance a ligature; stomped at least one victim to death in her sleep; and tortured another by shocking her with a live electrical cord. Ramirez also frequently enjoyed degrading and humiliating his victims, especially those who survived his attacks or whom he explicitly decided not to kill.
