Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker - Research Paper Example

 Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Abstract. Richard Ramirez, dubbed the ‘Night Stalker,’ embarked on an orgy of murder and sexual assault from June 1984 – August 1985, resulting in fourteen murders. His life shows a record of deviant behavior including drug addiction, Satanism, burglary and delinquency, which progressed to the most heinous crimes. He was arrested in 1985, and sentenced to death in 1989. He remains on Death Row in San Quentin prison. The evil he embodies lends itself to explanation according to several theories of crime causation, but continues to defy belief. Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Even by the standards of heinous crimes, Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, stands out as the personification of aberrant evil. His orgy of looting, burglary, murder, rape, sodomy and Satanism makes him one of the most monstrous serial killers in the annals of crime history. From June 1984 – August 1985, Ramirez went on a spree of terror, culminating in fourteen murders, and thirteen other felonies, including sexual assaults and burglary charges (Mark. The Biography Channel). At present, Ramirez remains on Death Row in San Quentin State Prison. A study of Ramirez’s life and crimes raises several questions as to the cause of his behavior. Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez was born in El Paso, Texas, on 28 February 1960, to Julián Ramírez, a railway worker, and Mercedes Muñoz, and is the youngest of five children His parents are Mexican immigrants. Richard Ramirez was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy and experienced grand mal seizures at school from the age of six. There are reports of his father being a strict disciplinarian who resorted to physical punishment. The malignant influence of his childhood was undisputedly his older cousin Michael, an ex-Green Beret, and Vietnam War veteran, who showed Ramirez graphic Polaroid photographs of his rape and mutilation of Vietnamese women during the war. Mike became a hero figure to Ramirez, who often stayed out of school and hung around with his cousin, who introduced him to drugs and the use of weapons. At close quarters, Ramirez witnessed Mike’s shooting of his wife in a fit of rage. Mike’s war record ensured that he got off with a comparatively light sentence of seven years (Montaldo. About.com Guide). Ramirez became a habitual marijuana user and began to resort to petty crime to finance his drug addiction. He dropped out of Thomas Jefferson High School in El Paso after less than a year of attendance. His growing alienation from his family led him to the life of a junkie, whose chronic craving for candy, and poor hygiene, made him suffer from severe halitosis. He was placed in juvenile detention in 1977 for petty crimes. This was followed by a probationary sentence in 1982 for the possession of drugs. He moved to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles. He served a one year jail sentence on charges of car theft, and was released in April 1984. (Mark. The Biography Channel). Ramirez had matured into an increasingly hardened criminal, drug addict and thief, and developed an obsessive interest in the cult of Satanism, using drawings of the five-point pentagram as a symbol of his calling. He favored heavy metal and hard rock music and was particularly fond of the AC/DC song ‘The Night Prowler.’ He deliberately emphasized his dark persona by wearing black outfits, cultivated a gaunt appearance and enjoyed intimidating people. His criminal activities now progressed to breaking and entering houses at night, after cruising the city in stolen cars. (Osborn. Suite 101.com). Ramirez’s first known murder was that of 75 year-old, Jennie Vincow, a resident of Glassel Park, on 28 June, 1984. Ramirez entered the house through a window, and brutally stabbed the sleeping Vincow, slitting her throat and then sexually assaulted her corpse. After a hiatus of eight months, the floodgates of Ramirez’s precarious control appeared to burst open on March 17, 1985, and he set out on an orgy of murder and sexual assault which claimed fifteen lives over the next five months. He moved to San Francisco in August. His modus operandi usually featured the shooting of any males present on the scene, the sexual assault of women, and sodomy, slashing, stabbing, bludgeoning, and mutilation. The victims were left at the scene of crime, usually their homes. Additional bizarre acts, such as the gouging of a woman’s eyes, sodomy of a little boy, post-mortem mutilations, forcible acts of oral sex, and drawings of pentagrams became signature patterns. The media dubbed the serial killer ‘The Night Stalker.’ This moniker apparently gratified Ramirez. The police and the FBI launched a massive manhunt for the ‘Night Stalker.’ A description of the killer - Hispanic, rotten teeth and bad breath, long hair - began to emerge from the victims who somehow survived his vicious assaults and others whose lives he inexplicably spared. On Aug. 24, 1985, Inez Erickson, one of the latter, noted Ramirez’s get-away car. A teenager happened to note down the license plate number of the same orange Toyota as it cruised suspiciously in the neighbourhood, and informed the police. The car was later found abandoned and a forensic examination yielded a set of fingerprints which, on computer analysis, matched that of Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez. The identity of the ‘Night Stalker’ was finally established and his mug shot widely circulated in the media. On August 30, 1985, Ramirez arrived at the Greyhound station at Los Angeles and visited a liquor shop in the vicinity. The woman at the counter recognized him as the ‘Night Stalker’ and raised the alarm. Ramirez fled, pursued by a mob. He attempted to drive away by stealing a car, but the owner, who had been working on the transmission underneath the vehicle, foiled his attempt. The ‘Night Stalker’ was overpowered by a lynch-mob and was saved by the arrival of the police, to whom he confessed his identity. (Montaldo. About.com Guide). Ramirez subsequently retracted his confession and resorted to umpteen delaying tactics, such as changing his counsel, and countless appeals. His trial remains one of the longest in US legal history. The delay in bringing him to trial was compounded by the murder of one of the jurors and the geographical spread of the murder locations. The trial finally commenced on 22 July 1988, with Ramirez charged with 14 murders and 31 other felonies. On 20 September 1989, in a unanimous jury verdict, Ramirez was found guilty on 13 counts of murder, 5 of attempted murder, 11 of sexual assault and 14 burglary charges. A notable feature of the trial was the complete absence of any sign of remorse from Ramirez, and the presence of a large number of black-clad groupies He was sentenced to death on 7 November 1989. On the pronouncement of his sentence, Ramirez said, "No big deal. Death always comes with the territory. I'll see you in Disneyland." (Mark. The Biography Channel). Doreen Lioy, a freelance magazine editor, was his greatest admirer during his trial, and married Ramirez on October 1996 in San Quentin State Prison. Richard Ramirez’s’ horrendous spree of sexual assault and murder can be explained by several perspectives of crime causation. Ramirez’s association with Mike, and the sadistic war veterans’ malign influence, connects with the Differential Association Theory developed by Sutherland and Cressey, according to which interaction with anti-social peers serves as a cause of crime. Ramirez’s criminal tendencies were obviously learned from, and reinforced by, Mike. Witnessing the murder of Mike’s wife was obviously a formative event on Ramirez’s road to crime. Ramirez’s history of juvenile delinquency points to his development of his own set of values and rules, arising from his learned criminal associations as a juvenile delinquent and as a prisoner. His alienation from his family, and his dropping out of school, ensured that he lived in a subculture in which crimewas an accepted way of life. This is in line with Shaw and Mckays’ Subcultural Theory. Ramirez’s criminal record suggests that his prison term, juvenile incarceration and probationary sentence resulted in the development and stabilization of his criminal identity through Labeling, as expounded by Lemert et.al. (Cullen and Agnew. Web pages). He was gratified by his ‘Night Stalker,’ stigmatization. According to the theory of Individual Traits, proposed by Glueck et al.. Ramirez’s brutal killings, his sexual aberrations, and his obvious lack of remorse, lead one to consider his crimes to be due to his unique biological deficiencies and deviant psychological tendencies. His history of epilepsy could be a contributing factor. Likewise, his psychological traits make him predisposed to crime. This psychological disorder could have been exacerbated by his drug addiction. Ramirez’s orgy of rape cannot be explained without considering the aspect of gender and Feminism (Adler, Daly et. Al.) The Night Stalker’s modus operandi of tying women, raping them, compelling them to indulge in oral sex, and mutilating their corpses, all suggest that his crimes were obviously gender related. Ramirez’s crimes may be considered in the light of mastery over women and masculine domination. (Cullen and Agnew. Web pages). Richard Ramirez’s life and crimes epitomize human nature at its bestial worst. His total absence of remorse, obvious pleasure in his own brutality and enjoyment of the publicity of his trial, point to a man who is beyond the pale of human society. His crimes can be debated and subjected to analysis of causation. However, his statement in court, after receiving the death penalty, “You do not understand me. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience.” (The Serial Killer Database), seems to sum up our incapability to grasp the true horror of an evil personality who is one of the most notorious serial killers of all time. Richard Ramirez, the ‘Night Stalker,’ remains on Death Row as the world waits for the final dispensation of justice. References. Mark F. The Biography Channel. Notorious Crime Profiles. Richard Ramirez. Retrieved 12 December 2009 from http://www.biography.com/notorious/crimefiles.do?action=view&catName=Serial%20Killers&profileId=262933 Osborn, Jim. (April 3, 2009). Richard Ramirez. The Night Stalker. Retrieved 12 December 2009 http://criminals-outlaws.suite101.com/article.cfm/richard_ramirez Montaldo, Charles. Richard Ramirez - The Night Stalker About.com Guide. Retrieved 12 December 2009 from http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/nightstaker.htm Richard Ramirez. The Serial Killer Database. Retrieved 15 December 2009 http://www.serialkillerdatabase.net/richardramirez.html Cullen & Agnew (2002). Criminological Theory: Past to Present (Essential Readings). Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury. Criminological Theory Summaries. . Retrieved 15 December 2009 http://www.uwec.edu/patchinj/crmj301/theorysummaries.pdf Read More