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Artwork for The Night Stalker: Richard Ramirez
True CrimeSociety & Culture

The Night Stalker: Richard Ramirez

YesOui

The satanist drifter who terrorized Los Angeles and San Francisco through the summer of 1985. Fourteen murders and eleven sexual assaults. The AC/DC hat. The Avia sneaker print. The pentagram. The community that finally chased him down in East LA in August. The four-year trial. The 1989 death sentence. Fifty years old dying of cancer on death row in 2013. Netflix's Night Stalker documentary. The killer who made Los Angeles lock its windows in the summer heat. — a daily series with new episodes every day.

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  • 12 episodes
  • Avg 12 min
  • English

Episodes 12

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  • September 7 · 12 min

    Cancer, Hepatitis C, and the Death That Beat the Execution

    Richard Ramirez arrived at San Quentin in 1989 not as a healthy man handed a death sentence, but as someone already carrying the biological consequences of years of substance abuse, intravenous drug use, and a drifter's life without consistent medical...

    • Transcript
  • September 5 · 12 min

    Richard Ramirez: The Forensic Cracks Beneath a Monster's Conviction

    In the summer of 1985, Richard Ramirez moved through Los Angeles and San Francisco with a method so simple it became its own terror: unlocked windows, open doors, and intent. Fourteen people were killed. Eleven were sexually assaulted. Two major...

    • Transcript
  • September 4 · 11 min

    The Pentagram in the Courtroom: How the Trial Became a Symbol

    Richard Ramirez walked into his own capital trial with a pentagram drawn on his palm and a smile that made clear he understood exactly what he was doing. That gesture didn't just unsettle the courtroom — it shaped how the next four years would unfold,...

    • Transcript
  • September 3 · 11 min

    Pentagrams, Panic, and a Neighborhood That Finished the Hunt

    In the summer of 1985, Richard Ramirez moved through Los Angeles and San Francisco like a ghost — entering through unlocked windows, leaving pentagrams, and dismantling the small daily act of sleeping with the heat on your face. Fourteen people were...

    • Transcript
  • September 2 · 12 min

    Death Sentence Built on Silence: The Shoe Print That Went Unchallenged

    The summer of 1985 paralyzed Los Angeles. A drifter named Richard Ramirez was moving through unlocked windows at night, leaving behind fourteen murders and eleven sexual assaults across Los Angeles and San Francisco. The city locked its windows...

    • Transcript
  • September 1 · 11 min

    Caught by the Neighborhood: The Evidence That Still Raises Questions

    In the summer of 1985, Richard Ramirez walked through unlocked windows and cracked doors, killing fourteen people and sexually assaulting eleven others across Los Angeles and San Francisco. He drew pentagrams on his palm, left them at crime scenes,...

    • Transcript
  • August 31 · 12 min

    The Evidence Gap: What the Jury Was Never Told About the Avia Shoe

    Richard Ramirez terrorized Los Angeles and San Francisco through the summer of 1985 — fourteen murders, eleven sexual assaults, a city sealed shut against the heat. But the case that sent him to death row wasn't built on pentagrams and satanic...

    • Transcript
  • August 30 · 12 min

    Summer of Fear: How Los Angeles Stopped Opening Its Windows

    In the summer of 1985, Richard Ramirez moved through Los Angeles and San Francisco like a ghost, entering through open windows and unlocked doors, leaving fourteen people dead and a city too terrified to let in the night air. This episode charts that...

    • Transcript
  • August 29 · 12 min

    Death Row Evidence: The Shoe Print That Should Have Been Challenged

    In the trial of Richard Ramirez, one piece of forensic evidence carried enormous weight with the jury — and it was built on a foundation the defense never tested. Gerald Burke, a criminalist with no specialised training in footwear impression analysis...

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  • August 28 · 11 min

    The Avia Print: When Expert Testimony Wasn't What It Claimed to Be

    The case against Richard Ramirez looked airtight. Fourteen murders, eleven sexual assaults, a defendant who drew pentagrams on his palm in open court. But beneath the spectacle of the Night Stalker trial lay a forensic foundation with a crack running...

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  • August 28 · 11 min

    Terror, Pentagrams, and a Shoe That Was Never Found

    In the summer of 1985, Los Angeles locked its windows in the heat. A drifter named Richard Ramirez was moving through neighbourhoods at night, entering through unlocked doors and open windows, leaving fourteen people dead and eleven sexually assaulted...

    • Transcript
Showing 1–12 of 12 episodes