The Nightstalker: Methods and Mistakes of a Satanic Serial Killer

Student Illustrator: Jacquelyn Santos

Student Author: Andrea Zapata

No one knows the name Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez, few know of Richard Ramirez, but many experience chills down their back at the sound of the “Night Stalker.”  Richard Ramirez is the infamous American serial killer, the Night Stalker.  A native of El Paso, Texas, Ramirez’s life was a difficult one from the very beginning.  Throughout his childhood he was the victim of physical abuse at the hands of his father, and he also witnessed his father regularly beat his mother.  Ramirez showed promise as a football player, and he could have had a normal life had he not watched his cousin murder his fiancé.  At that moment, Richard Ramirez realized he was living in a vicious world, and if he did not attack first, he would be attacked.  Ramirez went on to live a life of crime.  He terrorized the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, California in the mid-1980s, killing at least thirteen innocent people and committing thirty other felonies before being captured by police.  This research paper will explore Ramirez’s modus operandi and the criminal forensics that led to his conviction and incarceration.

This is part of the Annual Poster Session, a collaboration between the Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice Department and the Media Arts and Technologies Department, featuring work by social science and illustration students.