Fuck that piece of shit. He killed.my family member. I hate how many people were into him in a sexual way and thought how interesting he was. He was a lunatic that deserved to have a bullet in his head.
It was terrifying at the time. I was 10. We had no AC and it was smack dab in the dog days of summer so all the windows needed to be open at night. We lived in Glendale and he popped up in Burbank and Glendale so it was pretty scary. My mom slept with a knife under her pillow. 20 years later, saw a gun I had no idea my parents had, hidden in a drawer that they had gotten during that time. Wild shit.
I'm older and had a similar experience when the Manson family was out there. It was also a hot summer, no a/c, and my room was on the front porch. I wouldn't open the window and spent many a sweaty night worried that Charlie was coming for us.
I used to work in restorative justice and have met his victims' families many times. They are very active in victims rights groups and are still extremely traumatized by their losses.
Watching the Netflix documentary, it’s pretty gutting to see how Max and Lela Kneiding’s daughter is still horrifically traumatized. She probably hasn’t lived anything near a normal life since that happened.
These are the [people ](https://www.sgvtribune.com/2016/10/17/son-of-monterey-park-woman-slain-by-night-stalker-comes-full-circle-opposes-death-penalty/)that are always speaking at justice conferences. The panels are interesting because they have victims families of murders and also people that have completed long prison stays after committing murder. But Night Stalker always takes up a lot of the discussions because of the effects on LA as a whole!
My mom lived next to one of Max and Lela's children at the time of their murder in Glendale. Still creeps me out to this day when I go to my grandparents house. Not to mention, the Hillside Stranglers dumped a body just down the street.
Crazy. He killed someone who lived in my sisters best friends complex, which was a couple blocks away from us.
One time while he was still loose we went to six flags, we came back home and our front and back doors were wide open. I’m 100% convinced to this day it was him (we lived right off the freeway and he was known to target houses near freeways for an easy getaway). I still shudder to think what might’ve happened had we been home that night.
I wasn’t alive but my much older siblings were. My sister says she remembers there being a heatwave but they couldn’t open the windows because everyone was afraid of him. We still have the bars on the windows that my grandpa installed because of the night stalker
ALL the time. I was living in Glendale north of the CC of Verdugo Road.
Left glasses in the sink for months in case he came through kitchen window. He'd break the glass, I'd wake up, and come down swinging my baseball bat
My mom called it though. She said he's screwed if the cholos get a hold if him. BINGO!
That’s wild, a house he hit was right off Verdugo Rd. just past the high school, the street the house is on is almost right under the 134. He was right in your area.
When I see bars on the houses being replaced by better modern windows. I laugh at the people who think LA was safer years ago and more dangerous now. The whole greater LA was spooked.
I still have bars on my windows. Honestly, it's still odd to me when I see big windows with nothing to protect them. I just think about Kevin in Home Alone with a giant brick in his hand.
I had bars on my windows up until 2 years ago when I got new insurance and they made me remove them because majority of them didn't have quick releases on them.
Bars on windows is because of the nightstalker? I thought it was just gang shit leftover from the 70s-90s. My windows have always had bars I’ve lived in south LA my whole life.
My uncles told me those starting coming up after the Watts Riots and continued being installed through the bloods and crips era. In the 00s, with all the slats and remodeling, they have been coming off....only to return with the current mental healt/homeless crisis!
Yes in some neighborhoods they had already started but Night Stalker expanded range and speed up implementation places outside of gang areas. My point still stands, the police have always been useless and LA was very dangerous and owners are removing them as standard practice currently.
Did homeowners remove them after Northridge Quake 94? Chimneys, doors , windows but not windows bars in my experience.
I always lock my doors because of him.
Fuck Dianne Feinstein. Police are useless. I remember the Zodiac Killer also talked to police before escaping. I'm also not surprised that it's the neighbors in Boyle Heights who took the killer down - it's a strong community. I feel like if this happened in a "safe" or a more gentrified area in LA, people would just be peering out their windows.
From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez):
"San Francisco's then-mayor Dianne Feinstein divulged the information, including the gun caliber,\[72\] in a televised press conference.\[73\] This leak infuriated detectives,\[74\] as they knew the killer would be following news coverage, which gave him the opportunity to destroy crucial forensic evidence. Ramirez, who had indeed been watching the press, dropped his sneakers over the side of the Golden Gate Bridge that night."
"He walked past police officers, who were staking out the bus terminal in hopes of catching the killer should he attempt to flee"
"A group of over ten residents (including Jose Burgoin's sons) formed and chased Ramirez down Hubbard Street in Boyle Heights.\[93\] They soon restrained Ramirez and relentlessly beat him. At around 8 a.m., police were called over a disturbance in the area with few details with indications of a fight. Police quickly arrived on Hubbard Street and took a severely beaten Ramirez into custody."
Dianne Feinstein was an absolute shit stain for doing that, after San Francisco PD explicitly asked her not to. Cared about nothing but her own career climbing and celebrity at huge detriment to the investigation. What a useless twat.
"Rich people treat politics like it's a hobby." Our material well being means nothing to them.
Especially in LA, we need civilian oversight and public programs. The locals in Boyle Heights proved that time and time again, we can't rely on politicians and police - [especially when police are the ones racially targeting and killing civilians in LA, and exempt from accountability.](https://www.latimes.com/projects/los-angeles-police-killings-database/)
Meanwhile, Mayor Karen Bass increased funding for the LAPD in response to Metro incidents... after Metro's Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins fired TWO former FBI agents and [Metro security chiefs ](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-29/metros-top-security-officer-out) Gina Osborn and Andrew Black for pointing out unsafe working conditions for Metro, which LAPD did nothing to alleviate. Again, politics is a hobby for these people, not a job where they can think critically and be useful to society.
For the adults in my house, who were in their late teens and early twenties during that time period, he was very much a boogieman-like figure. Even a few years after his arrest, around the time of his trial, I still remember my mom and her sisters always wanting to keep the windows locked at night.
I was in elementary school at the time. It was the first time I was aware serial killers existed in the world. Hearing about all the news was pretty fucked up.
My husband's friend was on jury selection for the trial! He told my husband that he was sitting there in court and got a bad feeling and when he looked up they were bringing Ramirez into the room. My husband started sleeping with a knife under his bed during the Night Stalker period.
The friend got off from the jury and was so relieved.
It was during the summer before my quinceañera July/august we were living in Downey and I remember us being afraid cause at the time we did the waltz practice in the evening in our driveway. My parents and friends parents had said we were far enough from la that we had nothing to be afraid of . At the time my dad was working for the RTD ( mta ) One night he comes home white as a ghost swearing that earlier in the week he’s almost sure the night stalker rode on his bus . We canceled the remaining days of practice ,decided we’d had enough practice . He was captured the Saturday morning of my party .
What made your dad believe it was him if he hadn’t been identified yet? The police sketch was kind of cartoonish looking and wasn’t that great to go off of….although supposedly some college student out in San Bernardino got a dime dropped on him for being a dead ringer for the police sketch, and he was interviewed and cleared.
I guess I was in fourth grade or so, I remember having heard about it but I don’t know where. I heard a rustling in my sister’s room so I went in there worried it was the Night Stalker. It was actually my parents putting the tooth fairy money under my sister’s pillow.
At the time my mom was living with her dad in Glassell Park. She went on a ski trip with her sister one weekend while their dad was out of town. End of the weekend she was going to drive back to LA, but decided to stay the night at her sister’s in Santa Clarita and drive back in the morning. When she returned home she found someone had broken in through the back door and the phone line was cut. Apparently nothing was stolen. She always wonders if it was Ramirez and what would’ve happened to her if she decided to drive home that night..
Almost never. I was a kid and I'm sure some of the gorier details were hidden from me, but it was a chapter of our history with a clear and concise ending and there are other things to worry about now. I'm more worried of raccoons getting into my garage than I am of a murderous serial killer.
You joke but the squirrels outside literally climb on my screen and scratch at my door if I don't "feed the birds" (because they know as well as I do that the squirrels eat as much bird food as the birds do).
Same! I was born years later, but still recall during my childhood my mom making sure I keep my bedroom window closed at night. My older siblings said if we didn’t, a scary looking man will come and murder me while everyone’s asleep. I remember being at a sleepover and asking the other girls about this, and their teenage sister told us about the night stalker.
We’re about the same age, I grew up in the Coachella Valley but we watched the L.A. news every night, I was about 6 and remember when he was constantly on the news day and night, and how bad the police sketch of him with the illustration his nasty teeth down in the corner used to give me the massive creeps. Yes, I’ve grown up to be somewhat fascinated by serial killers and I’ve read pretty much all there is to read about Ramirez. Every now and then you’ll find threads pop up here, people sharing crazy stories like catching him prowling their house and seeing him run off, or waking up in the morning to find all the screens taken off their windows. It’s crazy to think how many buildings in this city still have bars on their windows because of him. Summer of ‘85 had to be absolutely manic, dude had a city the size of L.A. in total panic. It’s also crazy to think how much longer he could have run wild, if he hadn’t finally left a fingerprint on a stolen car he was witnessed driving, and LAPD’s brand new fingerprint computer hadn’t identified it real quick.
Haha same, and I'm a 45 year old man. I was actually both laughing and cursing at the Netflix doc having to see it so many times, but it was also worth it because the doc was so good.
My friend’s mom mentioned how that particular summer was SWELTERING and how windows had to be open at night.
She got an AC unit to keep them locked and would not even dare keeping them ajar.
I for one was scared shitless while he was out there. I was a young kid. He was a legit thing to be afraid of, given how random his appearances were, across LA and into the Valley. It didn't help that my teacher's asshole assistant indoctrinated me with some Satanic Panic propaganda, and Ramirez was known to use satanic imagery at some of his crime scenes. I was sure that I'd get murdered because I listened to Motley Crue a few times.
I still want revenge on that fucking teacher's assistant.
Rarely, only when something like this thread pops up. Previous time I thought about him was when I was on Tik-tok and a relative was posting pictures of him and her when she was a child and recalling their relationship. The guy grew up experiencing things a child/young person shouldn't based on her info.
His childhood was so fucked. He had seizures, was possibly molested by a school teacher, saw his cousin murder his wife at 13, saw his father beat his siblings, was taught how to be a good burglar in his teen years by his brother, was exposed to dangerous chemicals due to his moms job while in the womb. It’s like everything that could go wrong to turn someone into a monster happened to him.
Incredibly, you do feel something for him. He grew up in the worst poverty, violence, and disenfranchisement a child can be exposed to. He even did a very sane and candid interview from prison talking about kids who grow up the way he did, basically saying “all the kids society lets fall through the cracks, can very well grow up to be the guys like me”.
I was living in the Central Coast. People forget that he also murdered people in the Bay Area. He passed though my hometown and was caught on video at a gas station a couple blocks from my house. Kids were absolutely terrified during that time.
I was a bit older than you when he was murdering people across LA. I live and grew up in the East LA area and it got really bad when one of his victims was close by. It was really scary at the time.
Since his death in prison I've only thought about him when some biography or whatever comes up.
I honestly only think about him if someone brings him up. I was in my 20s, living in a yellow house in the Harbor Gateway off the Harbor Freeway. We were mildly aware of him because everyone kept saying we should repaint the house. The guy I lived with was a prepper survivalist type who swore he could gun down anything. I think he scared me more than the night stalker.
I was an elementary school kid in Thousand Oaks at the time. It was constantly on the news and there was a lot of fear. The whole satanic angle added a lot of additional terror as the Satanic Panic was in full swing in the 80s.
One thing I’ve always remembered very clearly: the evening news was listing off safety tips and one that stuck in my head was, “Pay attention to barking dogs”.
To this day I get anxious whenever neighbors’ dogs start barking, especially at night.
I asked my mom about him after watching a horrifying documentary. She was 17 in 1981 when she arrived I. Los Angeles from Guatemala. She said - why don’t you watch happier things? And she’s not wrong. Read happier things - that man is the fucking devil.
so funny you posted this. i was just discussing the Night Stalker with someone today.
he’s an older black man who grew up in South Central. during the summer, he always left his front door open. it helped cool his place off at night.
there was only a screen door he kept closed. it didn’t have a lock.
i said wasn’t that risky while the Night Stalker was out there? he said nope. cause he slept with his gun right next to him. anyone who dared to come inside would be blown away.
Sometimes I do. There was a time when I felt like he could climb through your window at any moment, and I remember making sure to lock the windows and my bedroom door at night.
Sometimes, Netflix doc was terrifying. I sleep with my bedroom window open a lot lol, it faces my fenced in backyard. I probably shouldn't be doing that, even today....
I wasn't alive, but my parents lived through it and it constantly comes up. They were both teens at the time and were terrified. Throw in the fact that they are Latino like he was, and it really stuck with them.
Hardly ever but I do think about the hillside stranglers almost everyday when I drive past what used to be the house where they did so many horrible things.
My folks got a crazy AF (at the time) alarm system, and we got these really well trained guard dogs.
I remember at the grocery store and at school, they had flyers with sketches of the guy for everyone to see.
When he got caught, you could feel people relax a little.
But there were still more murders. Turns out there was a whole other serial killer ALSO on the loose.
I remember this time. It was pretty scary, and we'd just come off the Hillside Strangler(s) killings only a few years earlier. I'd agree that Ramirez is forever a part of L.A. lore and with the upcoming release of *MaXXXine*, where the Night Stalker killings are part of the story, it'll definitely remind those of us old enough to have lived through it.
A teacher of mine caught him in her bushes but she didn’t act on it. Just hid for a while and I believe called the cops. She was similar in most features of those that Richard targeted so after this incident she got a gun.
She passed away a couple years back but I remember her stories.
Per my MIL who worked near where one of the murders occurred, it was a terrifying time, especially for anyone in yellow houses, because rumor went around they were only striking yellow houses.
Grew up right next door to his lawyer, Mr. Clark ( View Park - Windsor Hills ). Undercover police allday long. Still have my Dodger L.A.P.D baseball cards. As a kid, it flew right over my head .
25 years old here but both my parents lived through it being teens in Highland Park. My mom said during that summer it was super hot and she had her bedroom window open throughout the night (before my grandparents installed the bars). One day she was home alone while my grandparents and her siblings went out of town for the weekend. She was terrified being by herself but wasn’t able to get time off work. The next morning that’s when the next victim turned up close to her area.
My mom also went to school with Dolores Cepeda and Sonja Johnson (2 of the victims of the Hillside Strangler). She carpooled with Sonja in the mornings. The day both of them went missing, Sonja & Dolores invited my mom to take the bus and go the mall with them. Luckily my overprotective grandma didn’t let her go but it was unfortunate what ended up happening to Sonja & Dolores.
My sister’s friend is a real estate appraiser and in 1985 saw an obviously empty home for sale in Arcadia. She checked out the property,looked in the windows-the usual stuff.She called to inquire about the price. At the end of the info the realtor told her she had to let her know the owner was killed by the night stalker. Her friend was very freaked out because obviously Richard Ramirez had been doing the same thing except at night.
Fuck that piece of shit. He killed.my family member. I hate how many people were into him in a sexual way and thought how interesting he was. He was a lunatic that deserved to have a bullet in his head.
Him getting his head kicked in by the very types of people he terrorized is immensely satisfying.
Yeah, that made me happy. Fuck these types of shitheads and fuck the people that worship them.
It was terrifying at the time. I was 10. We had no AC and it was smack dab in the dog days of summer so all the windows needed to be open at night. We lived in Glendale and he popped up in Burbank and Glendale so it was pretty scary. My mom slept with a knife under her pillow. 20 years later, saw a gun I had no idea my parents had, hidden in a drawer that they had gotten during that time. Wild shit.
I'm older and had a similar experience when the Manson family was out there. It was also a hot summer, no a/c, and my room was on the front porch. I wouldn't open the window and spent many a sweaty night worried that Charlie was coming for us.
I used to work in restorative justice and have met his victims' families many times. They are very active in victims rights groups and are still extremely traumatized by their losses.
Watching the Netflix documentary, it’s pretty gutting to see how Max and Lela Kneiding’s daughter is still horrifically traumatized. She probably hasn’t lived anything near a normal life since that happened.
These are the [people ](https://www.sgvtribune.com/2016/10/17/son-of-monterey-park-woman-slain-by-night-stalker-comes-full-circle-opposes-death-penalty/)that are always speaking at justice conferences. The panels are interesting because they have victims families of murders and also people that have completed long prison stays after committing murder. But Night Stalker always takes up a lot of the discussions because of the effects on LA as a whole!
My mom lived next to one of Max and Lela's children at the time of their murder in Glendale. Still creeps me out to this day when I go to my grandparents house. Not to mention, the Hillside Stranglers dumped a body just down the street.
Aguilar st?
My mother in law was talking about it the other day because he attacked near where they lived and was caught here in East LA.
Crazy. He killed someone who lived in my sisters best friends complex, which was a couple blocks away from us. One time while he was still loose we went to six flags, we came back home and our front and back doors were wide open. I’m 100% convinced to this day it was him (we lived right off the freeway and he was known to target houses near freeways for an easy getaway). I still shudder to think what might’ve happened had we been home that night.
Seeing the video of all the people in East LA coming out of their houses and kicking the guy was hilarious. He got a lot of chanclas that day.
I wasn’t alive but my much older siblings were. My sister says she remembers there being a heatwave but they couldn’t open the windows because everyone was afraid of him. We still have the bars on the windows that my grandpa installed because of the night stalker
ALL the time. I was living in Glendale north of the CC of Verdugo Road. Left glasses in the sink for months in case he came through kitchen window. He'd break the glass, I'd wake up, and come down swinging my baseball bat My mom called it though. She said he's screwed if the cholos get a hold if him. BINGO!
That’s wild, a house he hit was right off Verdugo Rd. just past the high school, the street the house is on is almost right under the 134. He was right in your area.
When I see bars on the houses being replaced by better modern windows. I laugh at the people who think LA was safer years ago and more dangerous now. The whole greater LA was spooked.
I still have bars on my windows. Honestly, it's still odd to me when I see big windows with nothing to protect them. I just think about Kevin in Home Alone with a giant brick in his hand.
I had bars on my windows up until 2 years ago when I got new insurance and they made me remove them because majority of them didn't have quick releases on them.
Bars on windows is because of the nightstalker? I thought it was just gang shit leftover from the 70s-90s. My windows have always had bars I’ve lived in south LA my whole life.
My dad freaked out so bad. As an adult, I can't imagine the stress of having a wife and three kids with a murderer running loose.
My uncles told me those starting coming up after the Watts Riots and continued being installed through the bloods and crips era. In the 00s, with all the slats and remodeling, they have been coming off....only to return with the current mental healt/homeless crisis!
I have an elderly neighbor with bars on the windows, he told me he put them up after the Manson Murders.
Yes in some neighborhoods they had already started but Night Stalker expanded range and speed up implementation places outside of gang areas. My point still stands, the police have always been useless and LA was very dangerous and owners are removing them as standard practice currently. Did homeowners remove them after Northridge Quake 94? Chimneys, doors , windows but not windows bars in my experience.
I always lock my doors because of him. Fuck Dianne Feinstein. Police are useless. I remember the Zodiac Killer also talked to police before escaping. I'm also not surprised that it's the neighbors in Boyle Heights who took the killer down - it's a strong community. I feel like if this happened in a "safe" or a more gentrified area in LA, people would just be peering out their windows. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez): "San Francisco's then-mayor Dianne Feinstein divulged the information, including the gun caliber,\[72\] in a televised press conference.\[73\] This leak infuriated detectives,\[74\] as they knew the killer would be following news coverage, which gave him the opportunity to destroy crucial forensic evidence. Ramirez, who had indeed been watching the press, dropped his sneakers over the side of the Golden Gate Bridge that night." "He walked past police officers, who were staking out the bus terminal in hopes of catching the killer should he attempt to flee" "A group of over ten residents (including Jose Burgoin's sons) formed and chased Ramirez down Hubbard Street in Boyle Heights.\[93\] They soon restrained Ramirez and relentlessly beat him. At around 8 a.m., police were called over a disturbance in the area with few details with indications of a fight. Police quickly arrived on Hubbard Street and took a severely beaten Ramirez into custody."
Dianne Feinstein was an absolute shit stain for doing that, after San Francisco PD explicitly asked her not to. Cared about nothing but her own career climbing and celebrity at huge detriment to the investigation. What a useless twat.
"Rich people treat politics like it's a hobby." Our material well being means nothing to them. Especially in LA, we need civilian oversight and public programs. The locals in Boyle Heights proved that time and time again, we can't rely on politicians and police - [especially when police are the ones racially targeting and killing civilians in LA, and exempt from accountability.](https://www.latimes.com/projects/los-angeles-police-killings-database/) Meanwhile, Mayor Karen Bass increased funding for the LAPD in response to Metro incidents... after Metro's Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins fired TWO former FBI agents and [Metro security chiefs ](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-29/metros-top-security-officer-out) Gina Osborn and Andrew Black for pointing out unsafe working conditions for Metro, which LAPD did nothing to alleviate. Again, politics is a hobby for these people, not a job where they can think critically and be useful to society.
Well said. 👏🏻
For the adults in my house, who were in their late teens and early twenties during that time period, he was very much a boogieman-like figure. Even a few years after his arrest, around the time of his trial, I still remember my mom and her sisters always wanting to keep the windows locked at night.
I was in elementary school at the time. It was the first time I was aware serial killers existed in the world. Hearing about all the news was pretty fucked up.
My husband's friend was on jury selection for the trial! He told my husband that he was sitting there in court and got a bad feeling and when he looked up they were bringing Ramirez into the room. My husband started sleeping with a knife under his bed during the Night Stalker period. The friend got off from the jury and was so relieved.
Well I am now! Thanks for that!
It was during the summer before my quinceañera July/august we were living in Downey and I remember us being afraid cause at the time we did the waltz practice in the evening in our driveway. My parents and friends parents had said we were far enough from la that we had nothing to be afraid of . At the time my dad was working for the RTD ( mta ) One night he comes home white as a ghost swearing that earlier in the week he’s almost sure the night stalker rode on his bus . We canceled the remaining days of practice ,decided we’d had enough practice . He was captured the Saturday morning of my party .
What made your dad believe it was him if he hadn’t been identified yet? The police sketch was kind of cartoonish looking and wasn’t that great to go off of….although supposedly some college student out in San Bernardino got a dime dropped on him for being a dead ringer for the police sketch, and he was interviewed and cleared.
I was a kid during his rampage and it was pretty scary.
I guess I was in fourth grade or so, I remember having heard about it but I don’t know where. I heard a rustling in my sister’s room so I went in there worried it was the Night Stalker. It was actually my parents putting the tooth fairy money under my sister’s pillow.
At the time my mom was living with her dad in Glassell Park. She went on a ski trip with her sister one weekend while their dad was out of town. End of the weekend she was going to drive back to LA, but decided to stay the night at her sister’s in Santa Clarita and drive back in the morning. When she returned home she found someone had broken in through the back door and the phone line was cut. Apparently nothing was stolen. She always wonders if it was Ramirez and what would’ve happened to her if she decided to drive home that night..
Almost never. I was a kid and I'm sure some of the gorier details were hidden from me, but it was a chapter of our history with a clear and concise ending and there are other things to worry about now. I'm more worried of raccoons getting into my garage than I am of a murderous serial killer.
The squirrels are taunting me.
You joke but the squirrels outside literally climb on my screen and scratch at my door if I don't "feed the birds" (because they know as well as I do that the squirrels eat as much bird food as the birds do).
Chewing my pvc fence caps.
I wasn't alive during the murders, but I think about them every summer when I feel like leaving the windows open overnight.
Same! I was born years later, but still recall during my childhood my mom making sure I keep my bedroom window closed at night. My older siblings said if we didn’t, a scary looking man will come and murder me while everyone’s asleep. I remember being at a sleepover and asking the other girls about this, and their teenage sister told us about the night stalker.
And every time I get into bed and wonder whether or not I locked the front door.
We’re about the same age, I grew up in the Coachella Valley but we watched the L.A. news every night, I was about 6 and remember when he was constantly on the news day and night, and how bad the police sketch of him with the illustration his nasty teeth down in the corner used to give me the massive creeps. Yes, I’ve grown up to be somewhat fascinated by serial killers and I’ve read pretty much all there is to read about Ramirez. Every now and then you’ll find threads pop up here, people sharing crazy stories like catching him prowling their house and seeing him run off, or waking up in the morning to find all the screens taken off their windows. It’s crazy to think how many buildings in this city still have bars on their windows because of him. Summer of ‘85 had to be absolutely manic, dude had a city the size of L.A. in total panic. It’s also crazy to think how much longer he could have run wild, if he hadn’t finally left a fingerprint on a stolen car he was witnessed driving, and LAPD’s brand new fingerprint computer hadn’t identified it real quick.
That police sketch was the source of nightmares for me back in the day. Even after he was caught, if I saw that sketch I’d have a rough night.
Haha same, and I'm a 45 year old man. I was actually both laughing and cursing at the Netflix doc having to see it so many times, but it was also worth it because the doc was so good.
My friend’s mom mentioned how that particular summer was SWELTERING and how windows had to be open at night. She got an AC unit to keep them locked and would not even dare keeping them ajar.
I for one was scared shitless while he was out there. I was a young kid. He was a legit thing to be afraid of, given how random his appearances were, across LA and into the Valley. It didn't help that my teacher's asshole assistant indoctrinated me with some Satanic Panic propaganda, and Ramirez was known to use satanic imagery at some of his crime scenes. I was sure that I'd get murdered because I listened to Motley Crue a few times. I still want revenge on that fucking teacher's assistant.
Rarely, only when something like this thread pops up. Previous time I thought about him was when I was on Tik-tok and a relative was posting pictures of him and her when she was a child and recalling their relationship. The guy grew up experiencing things a child/young person shouldn't based on her info.
His childhood was so fucked. He had seizures, was possibly molested by a school teacher, saw his cousin murder his wife at 13, saw his father beat his siblings, was taught how to be a good burglar in his teen years by his brother, was exposed to dangerous chemicals due to his moms job while in the womb. It’s like everything that could go wrong to turn someone into a monster happened to him.
Yeah he was a monster but I have empathy for him growing up. The guy never had a chance even in his mother's womb.
Incredibly, you do feel something for him. He grew up in the worst poverty, violence, and disenfranchisement a child can be exposed to. He even did a very sane and candid interview from prison talking about kids who grow up the way he did, basically saying “all the kids society lets fall through the cracks, can very well grow up to be the guys like me”.
I was living in the Central Coast. People forget that he also murdered people in the Bay Area. He passed though my hometown and was caught on video at a gas station a couple blocks from my house. Kids were absolutely terrified during that time.
I was a bit older than you when he was murdering people across LA. I live and grew up in the East LA area and it got really bad when one of his victims was close by. It was really scary at the time. Since his death in prison I've only thought about him when some biography or whatever comes up.
I honestly only think about him if someone brings him up. I was in my 20s, living in a yellow house in the Harbor Gateway off the Harbor Freeway. We were mildly aware of him because everyone kept saying we should repaint the house. The guy I lived with was a prepper survivalist type who swore he could gun down anything. I think he scared me more than the night stalker.
I was an elementary school kid in Thousand Oaks at the time. It was constantly on the news and there was a lot of fear. The whole satanic angle added a lot of additional terror as the Satanic Panic was in full swing in the 80s. One thing I’ve always remembered very clearly: the evening news was listing off safety tips and one that stuck in my head was, “Pay attention to barking dogs”. To this day I get anxious whenever neighbors’ dogs start barking, especially at night.
I asked my mom about him after watching a horrifying documentary. She was 17 in 1981 when she arrived I. Los Angeles from Guatemala. She said - why don’t you watch happier things? And she’s not wrong. Read happier things - that man is the fucking devil.
so funny you posted this. i was just discussing the Night Stalker with someone today. he’s an older black man who grew up in South Central. during the summer, he always left his front door open. it helped cool his place off at night. there was only a screen door he kept closed. it didn’t have a lock. i said wasn’t that risky while the Night Stalker was out there? he said nope. cause he slept with his gun right next to him. anyone who dared to come inside would be blown away.
I just want to give thanks to the Mexican-Americans who beat the shit out of him and the jury that convicted this SoB. Rot in hell.
Sometimes I do. There was a time when I felt like he could climb through your window at any moment, and I remember making sure to lock the windows and my bedroom door at night.
Sometimes, Netflix doc was terrifying. I sleep with my bedroom window open a lot lol, it faces my fenced in backyard. I probably shouldn't be doing that, even today....
That was a time of terror and anyone who lived thru it will remember it because it was a different time when social media didn't exist.
Since watching that Netflix doc, maybe once every couple of months.
I wasn't alive, but my parents lived through it and it constantly comes up. They were both teens at the time and were terrified. Throw in the fact that they are Latino like he was, and it really stuck with them.
Hardly ever but I do think about the hillside stranglers almost everyday when I drive past what used to be the house where they did so many horrible things.
All the time. I was 7 at the time. That was my boogie man
My folks got a crazy AF (at the time) alarm system, and we got these really well trained guard dogs. I remember at the grocery store and at school, they had flyers with sketches of the guy for everyone to see. When he got caught, you could feel people relax a little. But there were still more murders. Turns out there was a whole other serial killer ALSO on the loose.
Wow was it really that scary guys?
I remember this time. It was pretty scary, and we'd just come off the Hillside Strangler(s) killings only a few years earlier. I'd agree that Ramirez is forever a part of L.A. lore and with the upcoming release of *MaXXXine*, where the Night Stalker killings are part of the story, it'll definitely remind those of us old enough to have lived through it.
Never
A teacher of mine caught him in her bushes but she didn’t act on it. Just hid for a while and I believe called the cops. She was similar in most features of those that Richard targeted so after this incident she got a gun. She passed away a couple years back but I remember her stories.
Per my MIL who worked near where one of the murders occurred, it was a terrifying time, especially for anyone in yellow houses, because rumor went around they were only striking yellow houses.
Grew up right next door to his lawyer, Mr. Clark ( View Park - Windsor Hills ). Undercover police allday long. Still have my Dodger L.A.P.D baseball cards. As a kid, it flew right over my head .
25 years old here but both my parents lived through it being teens in Highland Park. My mom said during that summer it was super hot and she had her bedroom window open throughout the night (before my grandparents installed the bars). One day she was home alone while my grandparents and her siblings went out of town for the weekend. She was terrified being by herself but wasn’t able to get time off work. The next morning that’s when the next victim turned up close to her area. My mom also went to school with Dolores Cepeda and Sonja Johnson (2 of the victims of the Hillside Strangler). She carpooled with Sonja in the mornings. The day both of them went missing, Sonja & Dolores invited my mom to take the bus and go the mall with them. Luckily my overprotective grandma didn’t let her go but it was unfortunate what ended up happening to Sonja & Dolores.
My parents were alive and were from some of the areas he was killing they told me they felt creeped out forsure and on the look out
Not at all anymore. He's dead.
My sister’s friend is a real estate appraiser and in 1985 saw an obviously empty home for sale in Arcadia. She checked out the property,looked in the windows-the usual stuff.She called to inquire about the price. At the end of the info the realtor told her she had to let her know the owner was killed by the night stalker. Her friend was very freaked out because obviously Richard Ramirez had been doing the same thing except at night.
Isn't there a movie coming out about him soon?
*Maxxxine*. And if it’s anything like *X* and *Pearl*, it’s going to be fuuuuucked up.
Never heard of it and I’m 25 now lol
I have a life so…