All language subtitles for 1richardramireztapes

[waves crashing in distance]

[interviewer on tape]

[Ramirez on tape] Yeah.

[jarring instrumentals play]

[dramatic musical sting]

[siren wailing in distance]

[jarring musical sting]

We have a compulsive psychotic
out there.

He's killed before,
and he's likely to kill again.

He strikes in the night.
People are wondering when
and where he will strike next.

He wreaked havoc
on the city of Los Angeles
in the summer of 1985.

[reporter] In some cases,
he's left a signature,
a pentagram,

the sign of Satan.

My grandmother had been killed
in her own home.

That was the moment
that my childhood ended.

[reporter 1] Thirteen murders.
Many counts of robbery
and rape and more.

[reporter 2] The Texas drifter
seemed to attract

a collection
of courtroom groupies.

[man] As soon
as he got captured,

he went from being
this lonely, isolated young man

to suddenly in the spotlight.

He became a kind
of perverse star.

[crowd shouting]

[man] His brutal good looks
made him into a sex symbol.

I wanted to see
what he looked like.
I think he's cute.

Reminds me of Mick Jagger.

[woman] I started
getting obsessed.

I wrote about 31 letters.

He wrote me 31 letters back.

[woman] Doreen
ended up being chosen.

She wasn't quite like
the other "girls."

I can't help the way
the world looks at him.

They don't know him
the way I do.

He's everything I ever wanted.

[man] I tried to tell them,
"He would have cut your throat.

He would have taken
your eyes out.

Do not romanticize
Richard Ramirez."

[Ramirez on tape]

[shrill, piercing beat]

[ominous music playing]

[grim music playing]

[moody guitar melody playing]

[siren wailing in distance]

[music fades]

[man] I remember that night.
St. Patrick's Day.

10:40 in the evening.
I got a phone call.

Said to respond to a location
on Village Lane

in the City of Rosemead.

[ominous music playing]

[woman] A woman,
Maria Hernandez,
is driving home.

The garage door goes up.

She parks, and she's
getting out of her car.

Richard manages to slip
underneath the garage door

before it closes.

[Carrillo] It takes eight
seconds for that door to close.

[jarring musical sting]

Once the door closes,
he makes a deliberate sound,

she turns around,
and it's point shoulder.

She puts her hands
in front of her face.
He pulls the trigger.

[woman] She is injured,
but the bullet deflects

from her car keys
for the most part.

She falls down, and she pretends
like she's dead.

Richard thinks he's killed her.

He makes his way up
to their apartment.

Maria Hernandez
shared a condominium

with another woman,
Dayle Okazaki.

Upon hearing the gunshot,
Dayle Okazaki took cover.

[tense music playing]

[Johnston] She is terrified.

And so she ducks down
behind the island
in the kitchen.

Richard Ramirez
could walk around right then
and just shoot her,

and yet, he doesn't. He waits.

[Martin] She stayed
for a period of time,

thinking that Ramirez had left,

and then she lifted her head
up above the countertop,

and waiting for that
was Richard Ramirez

who shot and killed her.

[uneasy music playing]

[Carrillo] Maria Hernandez
was in the hospital.
We went there the next day.

At that time, a staff artist
would come and sit next to you,

and say, "Tell me what
he looked like."

High cheekbones, narrow jaw.

His hair was disheveled.

Stained gapped teeth.

As the case went on,

there were several
artist renditions.

This is kind of the beginning,

the shooting of Okazaki
and Hernandez.

This is kinda
where it all starts.

[music fades]

My formal name is
Rosalinda Rodriguez Juarez.

Everybody calls me Rosie.

I am Richard Ramirez's
eldest niece.

My Uncle Richard
was born in 1960 in El Paso.

There's exactly 11 years apart
between my Uncle Richard

and myself.

What he did was heinous.

It was wrong,

but he was my family,
and I have to still love.

But it doesn't mean to condone.

[gentle dramatic music playing]

[Juarez] My very first memory
of my Uncle Richard,

we're watching the parade
at Disneyland.

And he lifted me up
to his shoulders

because I couldn't see.

And I remember
wrapping my hands around

his-his face and his chin,
and his fluffy hair...

My chin was touching
on his fluffy hair.
I remember that.

[Johnston] There were a lot
of qualities in little Richie

that we see get warped

the older he gets.

[dramatic music playing]

I'm looking for
how did this person start
from an innocent baby

and wind up in the position
that they were in?

The more
that we can understand that,

the better off we're gonna be
as a society.

When people describe
little Richie,

they really describe him
as a relatively shy little boy

who's happy. He loves music.

He's not causing any problems
in early school.

He had three older brothers,

and then he had Rosa,
his sister.

He always said
he was closer to Rosa

than anybody else in his family.

[train bell clanging]

[whistle blows]

[man] His father is a former
police officer from Mexico

who, in the United States,
works for the railroad.

Ramirez's mother,
by the time she's pregnant
the fifth time with Richard,

she's working in a boot factory,

where it's thought
that she's exposed to glue

and other toxins that may have
had an effect on him in utero.

We have this toxic exposure,

and then there's
traumatic brain injuries,

and there are a slew of those.

At five years of age,
he was knocked unconscious
on a playground.

He had a gash in his head
which required several stitches.

He had a concussion
on a football field.

[Brucato] He was hurled
from a horse when he was older.

He jumped from a train
and became unconscious.

[train bell clanging]

He is diagnosed
in preadolescence

with temporal lobe epilepsy.

[eerie music playing]

[Carlo on tape] Mm-hmm.

[Rosa on tape]

[Carlo on tape]

[Rosa on tape]

[Brucato] What you have here
is a variety of factors

that are grossly affecting
the brain

and ultimately shutting down
that capacity to stop an impulse

and to make choices
that are moral.

[Johnston]
In conjunction with that,

you have
a very difficult upbringing.

A father with
an explosive temper.

Richard witnessing his father,
for example,

beating his oldest son severely

to the point where
the other siblings are hiding.

[grim music playing]

[Carlo on tape] Hmm.

[Brucato] By the time Richard
was a little bit older,

he likes to sleep
in the cemetery

rather than be in the house.

The dead are a lot more
predictable than the living.

The dead are predictably
not going to fly off the handle
and hurt you.

[Johnston] We all know people
who've had horrendous childhoods

who grew up not only
to not be perpetrators

but to be advocates for victims,

and I think it's very, very
important to highlight that.

The potential pitfall is

making childhood trauma,
abuse, neglect

become an excuse
for somebody's later actions.

[somber music playing]

[man] The loss of my dad was,

well, it ruined
our entire family, honestly.

I was about 25.

We had a very close family

and within...
within a couple months,

it was basically just dissolved.

My dad and my stepmother Maxine
were living in the house
at that time.

They'd been married
about five years.

Maxine grew up in a poor area
in Arkansas

and became
a certified public accountant.

She also became an attorney,

so she was a very accomplished
woman, you know.

My dad was like a walking party.

You came over to the house,
he had a big meal ready usually.

He'd say, "Get over here.
You look like you're starving,"

and give you like a giant
piece of lasagna like that big.

My dad was
a World War II veteran.

Served in the Army
with General Patton.

So he was pretty tough.

We were very close, so...

that's why this was
very difficult for me.

[unsettling music playing]

[Johnston] In late March
of 1985,

Richard Ramirez
breaks into the home

of Vincent and Maxine Zazzara.

Vincent was falling asleep
on the couch watching TV.

Richard manages
to pry open this window.

He goes in,
and he shoots Vincent.

This wakes up Maxine.

Maxine is a force
to be reckoned with.

This is a strong woman,
physically as well as mentally.

Her husband keeps a shotgun
underneath the bed.

While Richard is ransacking
and looking for jewelry

and other things of value
to take,

she pulls out the shotgun,
and she pulls the trigger.

And it just clicks.

[ominous clicking]

[Johnston] He is enraged.

His victim has gotten
the jump on him.

He shoots her three times,
almost decapitates her,

and as a souvenir,
he decides to take out her eyes.

And so he removes her eyes
and puts them

in one of her boxes
that he takes with him.

The ultimate sign
of humiliation, disrespect.

"How dare you challenge me

and how dare you interfere
with my fantasy...

of what I need to do?"

[indistinct police radio
chatter]

[Zazzara] The police
wouldn't let me in because...

I guess they couldn't, but...

it was a pretty bad scene.

It really was like a big
ripple effect on the whole...

the whole family, and we were
all victimized by it.

It was very traumatic,
so I don't wanna think about it
anymore.

[somber music playing]

[Brucato] In the development
of Ramirez into a serial killer,

one of the most critical
and consequential figures

is his cousin Mike that enters
about preadolescence.

-[helicopter blades thumping]
-[rumbling]

[Brucato] Mike had served
in Vietnam.

-[explosion]
-[Brucato] And during
his time there,

he had photographed
and kept trophies

from violent acts
that he began committing

against Vietnamese women.

Mike starts spending time
with Richard

and teaching him things
like the stealth maneuvers

that one uses to take a life,

showing him violent images,
telling him dark stories.

[dramatic music playing]

[Carlo on tape]

[Ramirez on tape]

[Carlo on tape]

[Ramirez on tape]

[Carlo]

[Nacho Ramirez]

-[Carlo]
-[Nacho Ramirez]

[Ramirez laughs]

[dramatic music playing]

[music fades]

-[wind blowing]
-[leaves rustling]

[tense music playing]

[Brucato] When Richard
was 15 years old,

he is in the company
of his Cousin Mike,

and Mike's wife comes home,

and a kind of verbal dispute
erupts.

[grim music playing]

[music fades]

Richard's criminal career
is kind of ramping up.

His drug use is increasing.

He is getting involved
in burglaries and robberies.

[Carlo] Yeah.

[Ramirez on tape]

[Ramirez on tape]

[Carlo on tape]

[both laugh]

By 1976, he's been involved
with the criminal justice system
at least seven times,

and nobody knows
what to do with him.

At 18, he finally decides
to relocate to L.A.

[gentle music playing]

[music fades]

[Juarez] My Uncle Richard
lived with us in Los Angeles

on and off for a greater part
of six years.

When he moved to Los Angeles,
I was seven.

We were like siblings,
arguing over the TV,

arguing over space.

He used to like to read.

He was an avid reader.
He read a lot.

I remember him looking
at the newspaper and saying,

"One day I'm gonna be here."
Famous, I guess.

Famous. I never asked him
how or what or anything.

I don't know what
his thinking was at the time.

But, yeah, City of Dreams.

[gentle dramatic music playing]

[man] I think when he came
to Los Angeles,

it was with the intention
of being a career criminal.

He was a thief,
a professional pickpocket,

a burglar, a drug dealer.

The drugs
were crucially important.

[music intensifies rapidly]

[Ramirez laughs]

[Carlo] Right.

[Ramirez on tape]

[Carlo on tape] Mm-hmm.

[Ramirez on tape]

[music fades]

[grim, ominous music playing]

[Brucato] In May of 1985,
Ramirez breaks into the home

of a pair of octogenarians,
a pair of sisters.

Ma Bell, who is the caretaker
for her sister Florence Lang,

who is an invalid.

What we see
about this particular murder,

beyond the advanced ages
of the victims,

we have, for the first time,
the use of Satanic imagery.

In red lipstick,
there is a pentagram

drawn on Ma Bell

and one drawn on the wall
in Florence's room.

There was even sexual assault.

[Martin] To exact
those kinds of crimes

on 80-plus-year-old women
was just...

unbelievable.

That one really showed how,
um...

indescribably horrible

that Richard Ramirez was, um,

as a murderer, as a human being.

[dramatic music playing]

[Carlo on tape] Yeah.

[Carlo on tape]

[music fades]

[birds chirping]

[grim music playing]

[reporter 1] California could
be in for another day
of record temperatures.

The mercury has broken
100 degrees every day this week.

[reporter 2]
Another hot sizzler.

Now here's what's happening
in your neighborhood.

In this period of time
around July,

Richard Ramirez begins
acting like a spree killer,

and he's moving very rapidly

with no cooling off period
at all.

[reporter] The killings
began in March

when four people were murdered.

Two more died in May.

In June, a woman died
with her throat slashed.

Five more died
in the Arcadia/Sun Valley area.

[man] Rumors were rampant,

and people were
very much on edge.

[reporter] It would be tough
to find an open door,

window, gate, or garage
here tonight.

My name is Colleen Nelson.

My grandmother, Joyce Nelson,

was murdered on July 7th, 1985

by Richard Ramirez.

[fireworks exploding]

[ominous music playing]

[Nelson] The last time
I had seen my grandmother

was on July 4th,

and she'd come over
with a big box of fireworks.

My dad was giving her a warning

to be careful,
to keep her windows closed,

and she told my dad
that she wouldn't want to be
a prisoner in her own home.

July 7th was a Sunday.

When we got home from church,
my dad had come out
of the house, and he was crying.

And he said that his mom,
my grandma, had died.

It was a couple hours
before he told me how she died.

[indistinct police radio
chatter]

[Martin] Joyce Nelson
was beaten horribly.
Her face was stomped on.

It was a brutal beating murder

and a departure from shootings

which had been
one of the attributes
of the other murders

that were being investigated.

[somber music playing]

[Nelson] My Grandma Joyce
was just amazing.

She was 60 years old,

and she had seven grandchildren.

She raised two sons,
and she was a single mom.

Whatever we wanted to do,
she was right there with us.

Her house was just a place
filled with so much joy,

so much happiness.

I can remember
thinking at that time

that everything
was gonna be different.

Monterey Park Police.

[man] For a while
there was a school of thought

that it was different people
committing these crimes.

But I know that Gil Carrillo,
early on, uh, saw

that there was
a pattern developing.

That maybe there was
a serial killer

randomly attacking people.

I kept everything
about those cases in my head

because I thought
they were related.

Vincent and Maxine Zazzara
were murdered

with a small caliber gun

a few days after
Dayle Okazaki was killed.

We knew they were
the same caliber

but couldn't say
they were the same bullets.

Then the most interesting clue
was the presence

of a very unique shoe print

that turned out to be Avia,

which was a company that had
just come on the market.

At the Zazzara house,

that was the first place
we saw the Avia footprint

on top of a five-gallon
plastic paint can

that was right outside
the bathroom window

which is where he made entrance.

Then later on, Joyce Nelson,
she'd been stomped to death,

and there was an Avia footprint
right on the side of her head.

So we now had,
at least minimally, two

with Avia footprints at 'em.

I had a staff artist rendition,

the physical description
given by Maria Hernandez

after Dayle Okazaki

and Maria Hernandez
had been shot.

I called my lieutenant.
"Hey, I found a link

for the murders
that are going on."

In the beginning, not many
people thought that was right.

Serial killers are known
for killing in the same style,

same fashion.
Their victims are similar.

In our case,
we had different methods,

different styles,
different type of victims.

That's what made this case
so difficult.

His only consistency
was his inconsistency.

[Martin] Gil Carrillo
is certainly driving the belief

that it's one person
that's responsible

for this whole series of murders
in very different areas

of the County of Los Angeles.

[reporter] Two sheriff's
detectives...

[Carrillo] Finally, my partner,
Frank Salerno calls the captain,

said,
"We've got a serial killer.
It's definitive."

And the news media
started connecting the dots,

and that's when the news media
started going wild.

[reporter] Investigators
have distributed this composite

all over Southern California.

Police say the publicity
about that killer

-has their phones ringing.
-[phone rings]

Sheriff's department.
Martinez. Can I help you?

[reporter]
Investigators say the attacker
is on a crime spree,

attacking single women,
elderly couples, children,

anyone, anyplace where windows
are left unlocked,
the homes poorly lit.

He's accelerated his killing.
It's going faster.

Back-to-back murders.
Back-to-back attacks.

Rape and murder.

[Brucato] It's very clear
that he's really on a mission

to feed some appetite
for violence and ego

that just keeps
growing and growing.

I keep my doors locked
and my guns loaded.

Everybody's buying guns,
locking their windows,
and it's hot.

Even though it was hot,
I'd rather be safe than sorry.
I mean, it's frightening.

[reporter 1] The same man
is suspected in 6 to 8 murders

and 25 to 30 attacks.
Now dubbed the Night Stalker.

[reporter 2] The man
Californians are calling
the Night Stalker.

[reporter 3]
People are wondering when
and where he will strike next.

[Ramirez on tape]

-[Carlo]
-[Ramirez]

[Carlo on tape]

[Ramirez on tape]

[uneasy music playing]

[Schreck] Richard said, "I was
high out of my fucking mind,

during the whole time
of the murder sprees."

He was taking any street drug
he could get from anywhere

from anyone with no
discrimination whatsoever.

To the point where he wasn't
sleeping for days and days.

Drugs certainly played
a huge role in what he became.

[music fades]

[Carlo on tape]

[Ramirez on tape]

[Carlo on tape] Yeah. Yeah.

[both chuckling]

[ominous music playing]

[music fades]

[somber, unsettling music
playing]

[woman] My grandparents
lived in Glendale.

It was beautiful.

A very safe, just all-American
neighborhood to grow up in.

My grandfather
was quite beloved,

just a very gentle,
churchgoing man.

And my grandmother
knew how to do everything.

She would work
in his gas stations.

He owned service stations.

I told my grandma,
"You've got to lock your doors.

There's a weirdo running around
San Gabriel Valley,

and he's murdering people."

She says,
"I'm not locking my doors.

I've never locked my doors
in my life,

and I'm not about to do it now."

And so... she didn't.

[somber music playing]

This was probably
a week before they were...

killed.

[Martin] On July 20th, 1985,

Lela and Max Kneiding
were found dead in their home,

uh, by their very own daughter.

Another very brutal attack.

They were struck with machetes.

My grandparents
were the glue for our family,

and the family
very quickly started
to fall apart a little bit.

Nobody really knew what to do.

It was so omnipresent
in our lives.

[Martin] The Kneiding residence
was just a couple miles

from the house
that I grew up in.

It seemed like
we'd arrived at a point

where anybody
was a potential victim.

What it meant for me was,
you know,

when I'm at home, I'm gonna
protect myself as well.

Started sleeping
with my duty weapon
under my pillow,

added a shotgun that I stuffed
between the mattress

and the box spring in my bed.

When it reaches the level
of law enforcement

taking additional measures
to protect themselves,

there's something just...
indescribably bad going on.

And that was the case
in the summer of '85.

[tense, unsettling music
playing]

[eerie music playing
with unsettling
choral vocalizations]

[music fades]

[dramatic music playing]

[Ramirez on tape] Right.

[Carlo on tape]

[Carlo] Right.

[Ramirez]

[waves lapping loudly]

[ominous music playing]

[Martin] Richard Ramirez
paid attention

to the news coverage
in print and on television.

He feared detection
in Los Angeles,

so he fled to San Francisco

where he continued
his murderous ways.

California's newest
serial killer has reportedly
struck in San Francisco.

[reporter] A 66-year-old man
and his wife
are both shot in the head

following the break-in
of their home.

[Carrillo] We got in touch
with San Francisco Homicide.

We went out there,
and there was a pentagram

on the wall there as well.

The killer was killing
in same style, same fashion.

There was no doubt
it was related.

[reporter]
Chief, can you tell us...

We're sure the homicide
that occurred in San Francisco
last Saturday

is connected
to the homicides in Los Angeles.

[tense music playing]

[Martin] After the press
conference in San Francisco,

things were getting
too hot for him,

so Richard Ramirez left
and came back to Los Angeles.

In short order,
he figures out it's still
not a good place to be,

so he steals a car
and heads down to Orange County.

[reporter] Last week, the killer
struck in San Francisco

and yesterday morning
in Mission Viejo.

[reporter 2] A predawn break-in,
a male victim shot,

the female occupant
sexually attacked.

But unlike so many
of his other crimes,

he doesn't go undetected.

As it turns out,
on the night of the attack,

a 13-year-old boy
sees this unusual
orange Toyota station wagon

kind of circling
in the neighborhood.

He manages to get a partial
license plate off that car.

He tells authorities,
and this is a game changer.

[reporter] Word is out about
the car he may be driving.

[Carrillo] We recovered the car
and were able

to lift a fingerprint
where Richard
adjusted the mirror.

At that time,
only convicted felons

were in the automated systems,

and Richard Ramirez had never
been convicted of a felony.

He'd been convicted
of misdemeanors.

After we had put out a reward,

we had a first name
from an informant,

a person that used to
burglarize with Richard.

And he's the one
that gave us the name Richard.

But we did not have a last name.

Finally, from a friend
of Richard's,

the San Francisco
Police Department

obtained a first name
and a last name.

Richard Ramirez.

[grim music playing]

[Carrillo] The Department
of Justice in Sacramento

came up with eight
Richard Ramirezes,

and they were able to match
one of them to the print.

[Martin] They identify
a person named Richard Ramirez

who had been arrested
for auto theft in Los Angeles

in December of 1984.

They don't just have a name.

They have a booking photograph.

And this pulls
all the pieces together.

[dramatic music playing]

An alert is going out
to all law enforcement agencies
in the State of California

to be on the lookout
for this individual,

man by the name
of Richard Ramirez.

-[reporter 1] Can you
just hold it up again?
-[reporter 2] Hold it there.

[ominous music playing]

-[Carlo] The bulletin.
-[Rosa] Uh-huh.

[somber music playing]

[Juarez] We were laying
in bed, me and my cousin,

and then all of a sudden,
my aunt came in,

and she was crying,
and I'm like,
"What's wrong? What's wrong?"

And she said,
"It's him. It's him.

It's him."

I said, "Who? Him? Who?"

And then she was like,

"I-i-it's your Tio Richie.
It's him."

[Carlo] Yeah.

[Juarez] No one expected that

in the family.

We knew that he was struggling
with drug addiction,

but we didn't expect it
to have gone that far.

[music fades]

Yeah, I remember seeing
Richard Ramirez's mug shot,

and it was, uh, pretty--
pretty traumatic.

[somber music playing]

[Sandoval] I just saw somebody
who was devoid of emotion.

I just felt that the person
was evil,

just complete evil.

[somber music continues]

[Carlo on tape] All right?

[Carlo on tape]

We now have the identity...

[Lioy on tape]

[dramatic musical sting]

[grim music playing]

[Lioy on tape]

[Carlo on tape] Mm-hmm.

[Murphy] Ramirez
is still at large, yes.

-Where do you think he is now?
-We don't know where he's at.

We're assuming that he's still
in the Los Angeles area.

We have information
that he might be
coming this way,

but that information
has not been substantiated
at this time.

[man] How do you know it's him?

[Yochelson] Next morning,
after his picture
was all over the place,

Richard exited
a Greyhound bus station
in Los Angeles,

apparently not knowing
that he had been identified.

Then he saw his face
on one of the newspapers

on one of the newsstands.

And by now,
people were recognizing him.

[dramatic music playing]

[Yochelson] He started running.

And he's running to get away.

He ran through
some neighborhoods
in East Los Angeles,

tried to steal a couple of cars.

[Carrillo] He tries to carjack
a lady. She screams.

"Gimme the keys,"
and she said no.

Her husband runs outside,
hits Richard in the head.

[Zazzara] There was
a bunch of civilians there
who tried to tackle him

and they beat him over the head
with some sticks or something.

[Carrillo] He's exhausted
and just sits down,
"Okay, you got me."

[crowd cheering]

[Ramirez]

[Juarez] He was heading
to our house

where my mom and my dad
would have been.

That's where
he was traveling to.

They caught him
a mile away from our house.

Exactly one mile.

[tense, ominous music playing]

[reporter] Residents of an
East Los Angeles neighborhood

captured a 25-year-old man
by the name of Richard Ramirez,

the so-called Night Stalker
who had terrorized the state
in a gruesome killing spree.

[reporter 2] Police now say
they have solid evidence

to link Ramirez to at least
16 murders in California.

[Nelson] There just was such
an overwhelming sense of relief,

and not just for my family
who had been so impacted by it.

Everyone was so elated

that this serial killer
had been captured.

But that was
just the beginning of...

dealing with everything
going forward.

[overlapping shouting]

[cheering and whooping]

[Brucato] When he goes to court
and when he was later jailed,

the public is fascinated
by Ramirez.

He has admirers.

He's sort of like
a vampiric figure
who is hypnotizing them.

People are writing to him
and sending him photographs.

[Johnston] Then you have people
who, I think,

are wanting to save him
in some respects.

People who just
absolutely refuse

to believe that he's guilty.

And then you have the Satanists
who are showing up.

[somber music playing]

[Schreck] In 1984,

I was a practicing
devil worshiper.

I saw Satanism as my religion.

I turned against it in the '90s,

but in 1988, I noticed
that more and more Angelenos

were talking about their fear
of this Satanic serial killer.

So I wrote to Richard Ramirez
in jail

and asked him if he would be
willing to do an interview.

I visited Richard
shortly thereafter

and saw many women
lurking around,

some very attractive young
women dressed in black usually

and trying to attract
Richard's attention,

and he was very aware of that.

[woman] I was a journalist,
and I started digging around

and of Richard's legions
of female "fans,"

Doreen Lioy
certainly rose to the top.

Eva O was a big player.

She reminded me of one
of those creatures of the night.

She was beautiful
in a creepy, kind of pale,

you know, all-the-blood-
drawn-out-of-her way.

I knew Eva O
because we both come

from the same death rock,
gothic rock music world.

-[rock music playing]
-[Schreck] We both discovered

that we were in communication
with Richard

and that they were really
empathetic soul mates

to a certain degree.

I don't know what
she feels about it now,

but I'm hoping
that she will speak to you.

Hello. [giggles]

[Eva O] Obviously,
every criminal has friends

that they don't murder
or torture or kill.

[dark, dramatic music playing]

He was my friend.
He cared about me.

I lean towards more
the macabre type of music,

gothic or whatever,
and death rock.

In those days, in the '80s,

I started getting that label,
the Queen of Darkness,

and it kind of makes me blush.
[laughing]

It makes me feel royale.
[laughing]

Richard was in the public eye.

That's the only reason
why I found him.

I saw him
in a "People" magazine.

When I read this article
about him,

I felt a little familiarity
with him

because of his certain kind of
darkness that he had.

I had a really messed up head,
you know, in those days.

I got real obsessed
with certain men

that I was just really like...

I couldn't stop thinking
about it.

I wrote about 31 letters,

and I thought, "Okay,
he'll notice me now.

I'll send all these at once,
bombard him,

and then he'll have to respond,"
you know.

And he did.
He wrote me 31 letters back.
[laughs]

[playing guitar]

[Eva O] And so I wrote a song
about him,

thinking that one day
he'll hear the song.

It's called "The Night Stalker,"

and I wrote it

literally the year
he got arrested,

and it's just about
my interest in him.

* Night Stalker *

* He's the Night Stalker *

I played it on the phone.

Oh, he liked it. He liked it.

We did have a connection.
We were into
the same kind of things.

Like, we both liked true crime,

we were both kind of loners
and stuff,

and both had kind of
a crazy childhood.

[laughing] You know? Wild.

I don't condone what he did,

and me even getting
involved in this was--

was a young mind
that was exploring the world.

[chord reverberates, ends]

I ended up being
the first visitor
outside of his relatives

that got to visit him.

I think after a while
he realized that people like him

or they wanna know who he is.

I'm sure he liked
that attention,
being written about and stuff.

He had a lot of women
writing him.

Doreen. I don't think
I met Doreen.

I know who she is.
Doreen was obsessed.

I was obviously obsessed too,
but not that deeply obsessed.

She had something
to offer him that he needed.

[man] Number two,
step to the red square
in the center of the line.

[Carlo] Mm-hmm.

[Lioy]

[Carlo] Yeah.

[dramatic music playing]

[music fades]

[eerie music playing
with unsettling
choral vocalizations]

[Carlo]

[Lioy on tape]

[Carlo on tape]

[Lioy on tape]

[Carlo on tape]

[Lioy on tape]

[Carlo on tape] Yeah. Yeah.

[Lioy on tape]

[Carlo] Mm-hmm.

[Lioy]

[music fades]

[woman] When I first met
Doreen Lioy,

we were both editors
at the Laufer
Publishing Company.

Doreen was the editor
of "Tiger Beat Star,"

which it was
the sister publication

to "Tiger Beat."

We didn't have social media
back then.

We had magazines.

And the editors,
we were the gatekeepers.

We were the go-between

between the public and a lot
of these celebrities.

[reporter] The fan magazines,
"Fave" and "Star" and "Sixteen"
and "Tiger Beat,"

they tell the kids
what their hero wears to bed

and how to get a pillowcase
with his picture on it.

[Horner] These celebrities were
safe boyfriends for everybody,

for the fans that were
buying the magazines

but the editors too,

because
this was really our life.

[upbeat electronic music
playing]

[Horner] Doreen Lioy's office
was not far from mine at all.

I remember her being
very maternal,

like a mom figure
to all of these celebrities.

And she rode hard.
If she liked somebody,
she really, really liked him.

For instance,
Doreen was the go-to person
for John Stamos.

If John Stamos was going
to be in the magazine,

she was the one
to facilitate it,

and Doreen definitely had
a very huge part in his success.

When Doreen Lioy first got
interested in Richie Ramirez,

I think that she saw him

the same way she would've seen
John Stamos

and all these other celebrities

that she was helping
and nurturing.

Richie Ramirez was somebody
that was in the public eye.

He was handsome.
He had that look.

And she thought that
she was able to help him out.

[Carlo] Mm-hmm.

[Carlo] Mm-hmm.

[Lioy]

[Lioy on tape]

[Carlo on tape]

[Lioy on tape]

Doreen Lioy's letter
to the "LA Daily News."

"Heroes indeed.

If the man they chased
and beat brutally

had been
an ordinary human intruder,

and not the Night Stalker
suspect,

the so-called heroes
might just as easily

have been hauled away
for assault and battery."

[dramatic music playing]

Wow.

Well...

this is what a teen editor does.

She was just protecting him

the way she would have protected

the John Stamoses of the world.

This is what we did.

It just shouldn't have happened
with him.

[music fades]

[Carlo] Yeah.

[Lioy on tape]

When I found out that
Doreen was in contact
with Richard Ramirez,

I wasn't happy about that
at all.

It was so awful, I didn't even
wanna discuss it with people.

And I didn't think
it would have a good ending.

[grim music playing]

[Lioy laughs]

[music fades]

[dark, ominous music playing]

-[interviewer] Tomorrow morning,
you will become Doreen Ramirez?
-[Lioy] Yes.

-[interviewer]
Mrs. Richard Ramirez.
-[Lioy] Yes.

[interviewer] Is this a name
that you will carry with pride?

Absolutely. I'm very proud
to take his name
and be his wife.

Proud to have him
for my husband.

[eerie music playing
with unsettling
choral vocalizations]

[music fades]