How They Were Caught: Richard Ramirez

this is the tale of two very different 13-year old boys who took two very different paths in life one a stone-cold killer and the other the hero that helped take him down this is the story about how a Southern California teenager up way past his bedtime became a key witness against the Night Stalker [Music] Richard Ramirez was born ricardo Leyva Munoz Ramirez on February 29th 1960 in El Paso Texas when he was 13 Ramirez witnessed his cousin shoot and kill his wife that same year Ramirez started breaking into homes after dropping out of high school Ramirez moved his crime spree from Texas to Los Angeles and on June 27th 1984 Ramirez his crimes went from minor to monstrous when he stabbed Jenny vinco a 79 year old widow to death in her Eagle Rock apartment after eight months of silence he began killing again and wouldn't stop until he was caught it would be a year that would be dominated by news coverage of the murderous rampage that gripped Southern California he was known as the valley intruder or the walk and killer but it was the name that the Los Angeles Herald gave him that stuck the Night Stalker [Music] and over the course of this year the Nightstalker would go on to murder 13 innocent people on Saturday August 24th 1985 the Romero family was returning to their Mission Viejo home from a family trip their thirteen-year-old son James was wide awake at midnight while the rest of the family was sleeping the Romero family home was situated next to his steep hill and wasn't fenced in so oftentimes animals would pass by in the early hours of the 25th James left the house to retrieve his pillow that he'd forgotten in the family camper he walked past the driveway and heard the sounds of crunching footsteps coming from the gravel path to the back yard Romero later recalled I kind of looked up on the hill and I was like oh it's probably a dog or a cat or a possum so James Romero went to investigate but after finding nothing he went to work on his mini bike in the garage but then the sound of footsteps came back in this time James knew that it was no animal the sound was coming from right outside the garage James later told a reporter I could hear the footsteps literally stop right where I'm sitting James quickly hid behind the car thinking of ways to escape he made a run to the door that led to the kitchen and dashed to his bedroom once inside he looked out the window Romero stated I saw him walking in front of my bedroom right outside I saw him pretty close in a moment of insane bravery James decided to get a better look at the stranger he headed back to the garage and passed his father who demanded to know why he was still awake James filled him in on the events of the night and bolted out to the yard from the yard he made out the figure dressed in black a Members Only style jacket baseball cap and blue jeans the mysterious figure got into an orange toyota hatchback with a chrome roof rack James ran into the street and read what he could of the license plate for 8:00 to T James expected the car to drive off in the direction it was parked away from where he was standing but instead the man made a u-turn drove right by James turning his head and looking him squarely in the face James ran back inside and gave his dad the details they alerted the police and an officer from the Orange County Sheriff's Department arrived to get a statement at that time no one was aware that the man James Romero had just come face-to-face with was none other than a serial killer who had come to be known as the Night Stalker but at 3:30 a.m. the police called back asking for more information from James he once again gave them the description of the mysterious figure then at 6:00 a.m. police turned up at the Romero home wanting even more information from James after tragic reports of another Night Stalker attack just a mile and a half away from James Romero's house crime-scene investigators began dissecting the remember home James proceeded to walk authorities through the entire encounter step by step the police needed James to look at a couple of cars in hopes of identifying the car he saw earlier but neither matched James's description when James got home his parents came to the chilling conclusion that the man James had encountered that night must have been the infamous Night Stalker and now their 13 year old son was a survivor and key witness who could help the police finally close in on the bloodthirsty serial killer on the morning of August 27th 1985 the police found a car in the parking lot of the rampart neighborhood of La that seemed to match James's description it was an orange Toyota hatchback with a chrome roof rack and a license plate that included four eight two teeth the car was towed to the Orange County Sheriff's Department in Santa Ana where James positively identified it as the car he saw in the early morning hours of August 25th 1985 the driver of the car had cleaned it of any traces of identity but a new process from Japan allowed investigators to find an intact fingerprint on the back of the rearview mirror that didn't match the original owner of the car they used this fingerprint to identify the driver of the orange toyota hatchback the fingerprint belonged to Richard Ramirez they released Ramirez his photograph and name to the public on August 30th 1985 one day later on August 31st 1985 in East Los Angeles Ramirez attempted to steal fustino pinions daughter's car while he was working on it but the car rolled back and bumped the chimney of the house seeing the man now identified as Richard Ramirez fustino ran to the house and alerted the police ramirez then ran to another car this time belonged to Angela de la torta she fought back trying to keep the keys from him but he punched her in the stomach and grabbed the keys Angela's neighbor Jose Burgoyne ran over to help Ramirez yelled don't get closer or I'll shoot you but board Goan didn't see a gun so he opened the door and called Ramirez out of Angela's car Manuel de la Torre appeared with a steel broad and hit Ramirez in the head sending him running Jose called for his two sons Julio and Ernesto as backup and instructed them to not let Ramirez escape they ran after Ramirez and pinned him to the ground neighbors flocked outside shouting Alamut on Ella Martin meaning killer in Spanish a neighborhood of brave civilians banded together to catch the nightstalker rain opinion the wife of Faustina pinyon who called the cops said of that day I was proud yes of course the whole neighborhood was proud the next week the police went and got James Romero one more time they needed Romero to pick Ramirez out of a police lineup it was scary but I felt obviously protected he was in custody and he couldn't even see me James would later testify against Ramirez at a preliminary hearing he would try to stare me down and then he would wink at me he was trying to get in my head on September 20th 1989 Richard Ramirez was found guilty on all charges and later sentenced to death Ramirez told reporters big deal death always went with the territory see you in Disneyland James Romero is now a father and lives in Phoenix his run-in with a Night Stalker still awesome I still have nightmares it hasn't been easy I don't wish what I've gone through on anyone but what I did it possibly saved my family's lives I'm a little more at peace with it now but for a long time I wished I was never part of it the night stalkers gruesome reign of terror is the story of a sick man where's also the story of a brave 13 year old boy that faced a monster in a neighborhood that banded together to take that monster down [Music] [Music]

Channel: BuzzFeed Unsolved Network

Views: 1,851,338

Rating: 4.9397535 out of 5

Keywords: BuzzFeed, How They Were Caught: Richard Ramirez, PL-HowTheyWereCaught, buzzfeed unsolved, buzzfeedunsolved, california night stalker, cold case, creepy, crime, crime solving, haunted, how they were caught, investigative, murder case, murder trial, mystery, richard ramirez, the night stalker, theories, true crime, unsolved mysteries

Id: 5W9SozO4hTc

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020