Richard Ramirez (Night Stalker) | Mental Health and Personality | Pure Psychopathy?

welcome to my scientifically informed insider look at mental health topics if you find this video to be interesting or helpful please like it and subscribe to my channel hello this is dr. grande today's question asks why can analyze the mental health and personality characteristics of Richard Ramirez otherwise known as the nightstalker Ramirez was a serial killer who was active in California from June 1984 until August 1985 Ramirez was convicted of 13 murders it's believed he was responsible for many more than that in addition to the Night Stalker he was also referred to as the walk-in killer and the valley intruder all the people I'll be talking about in this video of course are real people so just a reminder that I won't be diagnosing anybody only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this so first I'll take a look at the timeline in this case then take a look at the background of Ramirez and then talk about the mental health and personality factors that may have played a role in this case now as I go through all these crimes we see that Ramirez would often break into homes and murder the occupants before committing murder he would often assault the victims sexually so when I used the word assault here that's the type of assault to which I am referring also as I go through these crimes getting the ages of the victims correct was actually fairly difficult because I was looking at many sources and allow the sources had different ages for the same victims I guess when that information is reported getting that age right isn't really a priority right they're victims and not the perpetrator usually we know the age of the perpetrator with some accuracy in this case of course Richard Ramirez was 24 when he started killing but again for the victims it wasn't always clear I wanted to list their ages though I didn't want to skip that part because they really showed the wide range that Ramirez targeted all the crimes listed here in the timeline where crimes that Ramirez was convicted of except for the first one and I'm including this in the list because this happened before the first official night stalker killing so it kind of indicates that he may have been active prior to when we would think just looking at his criminal record so now they get started on time we see the first murder is April 10 1984 again he was never convicted of this we see a nine year old female is murdered in the basement of a hotel where Ramirez was living it wasn't until 2009 that his DNA was matched to a sample obtained from the crime scene so he was never charged because that just wasn't enough to make this case then we see the beginning of the official list these are the crimes he was convicted of this is June 28 1984 the body of a 79 year old female was found in her apartment she had been stabbed repeatedly as she slept Ramirez left a fingerprint on the mesh screen that he removed to get into the house moving to March 17 1985 and all the crimes from this point forward take place in 1985 we see that Ramirez commits crimes in two different locations on that day the first we see that Ramirez approached a 22 year old female outside of her house and shot her with a 22 caliber revolver she survived he then went to the house and shot and killed her 34 year old female roommate the second crime scene involved here the second location not long after this on the same day Ramirez pulled a 30 year-old female victim out of her car and shot her twice she did not survive moving to March 27 Ramirez enters into a house with a 64 year old male and a 44 year old female occupant he shot the male while he was sleeping and then bound and assaulted the female after this he started stealing valuables from the house the female victim managed to free herself and retrieve a shotgun however it was not loaded Ramirez shot her three times with this 22 caliber revolver then retrieved a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her May 14th Ramirez makes entry into a house that has a 66 year old male occupant and a 63 year old female occupant he shot the male as the male was reaching for his own weapon he assaulted the wife and then took valuables from the house the male would later die the female victim would survive May 29 May 10 to a house occupied by two sisters an 83 year old and an 8 year old he attacked them with a hammer and any shocked one of them with electricity from an electrical cord he also assaulted them it was two days before they were found the 83 year old would later die may 30th Ramirez entered the home of a 41 year old female and her 12 year old son he handcuffed them and assaulted the female he left after stealing their belongings July 2 ramirez enters the house of a 75 year old female as she was sleeping he attacked her with a lamp and then he retrieved a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her she did not survive July 5 Ramirez made entry into the home of a 16 year old female while she was sleeping he attacked her with a tire iron after unsuccessfully trying to locate a knife in the kitchen he attempted to strangle her with a telephone cord as he was doing this he saw sparks coming from the court he believed that Jesus had intervened to save the victim so he fled the scene the victim survived July 7 on this day we see two separate crime scenes the first one Ramirez makes entry into a house with a 61 year old female occupant he beat her to death using his fists and by kicking her he left a sneaker print on her face the second crime scene he then entered a house of a 63 year old female attempted to assault her he ended up taking her jewelry and fling she survived July 20 here again we see two crime scenes the first Ramirez makes entry into a house carrying a machete that he acquired beforehand this house had two occupants a 68 year old male and a 66 year old female he attacked both of them with the machete and eventually shot them with the 22 caliber revolver the second crime scene he enters into a house with a 32 year old male a 29 year old female and their 8 year old son there was also a 2 year old daughter in the house but she wasn't harmed in the commission of this crime he kills the male with a 25 caliber pistol and then assaulted the female and the son he stole $30,000 with the valuables from the house and then fled the scene this moves us to August 6 he makes entry into a house and we see there is a 38 year old male a 27 year old female he shot both of them with a 25 caliber pistol the male after being shot managed to fight Ramirez off both these victims survived August 8 we see he makes entry into a house containing a 35 year old male and a 28 year old female it was also their three-year-old son there he shot and killed the male and assaulted the female August 24 Ramirez attempted to make entry into a house but was scared away one of the residents gave police a description of his car the police also found a footprint on that scene shortly after this Ramirez climbed through an open window into a house with a 29 year old male and a 27 year old female he shot the male and repeatedly assaulted the female he stole their belongings he tied the female and he left she struggled to get to the window so she could see Ramirez driving off she was able to give a description not only of Ramirez but of his orange Toyota station wagon both victims survived during several of the crimes that I've listed here we see that Ramirez made references to Satan he also left satanic symbols at several crime scenes he believed he was an agent of the devil it was this point when Ramirez was identified as a suspect by the police based on a fingerprint found in one of the vehicles he had stolen August 30 Ramirez traveled by bus to Arizona to meet his brother he returned to Los Angeles on August 31 Ramirez became aware that he had been identified he ran across a highway and tried to carjack three separate vehicles eventually a mob chased him down and physically assaulted him until police arrived it's likely that the police saved his life in this instance his trial started on July 22 1988 on August 14 one of the jurors was murdered initially people thought that this murder might have been arranged by Ramirez as it turns out the jurors boyfriend had murdered her and later he ended his own life so the jurors were pretty shaken up by this an alternate juror joined the jury and they finished the trial on September 20 1989 Ramirez was convicted of 43 different crimes include 13 counts of murder now at this point we see that Ramirez has attracted a number of groupies he has a bunch of fans he would eventually marry a woman while in prison awaiting the death penalty Ramirez would never be executed he would die at age 53 On June 7 2013 from b-cell lymphoma so there we have the timeline of the crimes and the result of the trial now let's take a look at the background of Ramirez there are a lot of components in his background that really seemed to connect to what he did criminally later on Ramirez was born on February 29 1960 some of the sources say February 28th I think that February 29th would be ironic though this is the rarest birthday somebody could have leap day and it's again my ron exertion stands for somebody who do not fit into any known category of serial killer at that time Ramirez was the youngest of five children it was thought that his mother was exposed to toxic chemicals when she was pregnant 1962 so when he was 2 years old we see that Ramirez was climbing up a dresser and it fell over and he was knocked unconscious for 15 minutes and required 30 stitches 1965 he was hit on the head with a swing and again knocked unconscious 1966 he started having seizures he was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy during the same year he saw his father physically assault his oldest brother in 1969 we see that he's described as a loner he's characterized as being shy now this connects with this theory that some have had that he might have had schizoid personality disorder and I'll talk about that in a few moments 1970 so 10 years old he started using marijuana the same year he started to sleep in the cemetery to escape his father's uncontrolled anger 1972 he started spending time with his older cousin Mike and Mike was a Vietnam War veteran and he started showing Ramirez photographs of women who Mike had assaulted during the war evidently these photographs were appealing to Ramirez the same year he threw a rock through a neighbor's window and his mother dismissed the incident so there were no consequences for that this moves us to May 4 1973 we see that Ramirez and his older cousin Mike are together and Mike kills his wife Jesse he shot her in the face with a 38 caliber revolver so again this happened in front of Ramirez so he can see how this behavior connects to some of the behaviors that Ramirez demonstrated in the future now Mike was tried for the murder but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity he was released from the texas state mental hospital in 1977 also 1973 we see that Ramirez had some learning experiences his brother Ruben taught him how to open windows from the outside pick locks and disable alarm systems he also moved in with his sister and her husband from 1973 to 1977 we see a number of unusual behaviors Ramirez starts regularly committing burglaries his experience with substance use graduates to loose images so not just marijuana he adds loose engines and later he adds cocaine and heroin he starts going on dates with prostitutes he gets a job at a local hotel at age 15 now when he had this job he entered a room and started assaulting a female guest that woman's husband entered the room and severely beat Ramirez the couple of course was from a different location that's why they were staying in a hotel and they left and they would not come back to testify against Ramirez so we see massive missed opportunity to stop his behavior now he had some other crimes he had committed and was convicted of so he was sent to a juvenile detention camp after being released from this camp he skipped school and his grades dropped he dropped out of high school at age 17 this brings us to 1977 as I mentioned his older cousin Mike was released from the hospital this year Mike and Ramirez resumed spending time together by the time he was age 18 we see that Ramirez was worshipping Satan from 1978 to 1984 Ramirez was arrested several times for auto theft stealing other items burglary and possession in 1979 he gives up on personal hygiene altogether in 1983 he tells a relative that Satan was protecting him and of course after this we see he starts committing the murders so now moving to his mental health and personality now the most obvious alignment when looking at Ramirez would be antisocial personality disorder with this disorder we see seven symptom criteria here we see repeated unlawful behaviors consistent deceitfulness impulsivity aggression a reckless disregard for safety irresponsibility and a lack of remorse so only three symptoms are required for somebody to have a diagnosis of this disorder we see here that all seven symptoms appear to align with the behavior of Ramirez now antisocial personality disorder has a strong relationship with factor to psychopathy this is also called secondary psychopathy or sociopathy the behavior of Ramirez appears to align with almost every characteristic of factor to psychopathy this would include excitement-seeking a parasitic lifestyle a lack of long-term goals impulsivity and irresponsibility poor behavioral controls early behavioral problems juvenile delinquency and criminal versatility so he was exceptionally versatile as a criminal he would steal cars Souths substances he committed murder assault burglary theft so he had a lot of different criminal capabilities now the last characteristic of factor to psychopathy is a revocation of conditional release I couldn't find the evidence that this happened but it makes sense that this could have happened like clearly if he was released like on probation or parole it makes sense that he would have violated that so that's why I said almost every characteristic from factor to psychopathy because I can't verify the revocation of conditional release now with Ramirez there is also a significant overlap with factor 1 psychopathy primary psychopathy we see a lack of remorse or guilt shallow effect being callous so having a lack of empathy a failure to accept responsibility pathological lying and grandiosity the only two that don't seem to fit here would be superficial charm and being manipulative both of those really have some subtlety aspect to them and we see that Ramirez was not subtle either way the alignment with both types of psychopathy appears to be pronounced this is why sometimes Ramirez is thought of as a pure psychopath because he has almost all of the characteristics from both types of psychopathy so this brings me to narcissistic personality disorder many have suspected that Ramirez was narcissistic well because he has so many characteristics of psychopathy we would expect him to be narcissistic but if we look at the official personality disorder we see OK alignment but not perfect alignment so looking at the symptoms that a line we see grandiosity believing oneself to be special or unique requiring excessive admiration this was more after he was already in prison a sense of entitlement and lacking empathy the criteria that he doesn't really seem to align with would be the fantasies of success in power he may have had those but it's not clear being manipulative as I talked about before it's psychopathy we see that Envy is a characteristic this one isn't clear and being arrogant isn't clear a case could be made for an alignment with NPD again the symptoms were more prevalent after his arrest but in much better case could be made for antisocial personality or an psychopathy I've also seen this argument that Ramirez had schizoid personality features or the disorder I talked about this before let's take a look at that schizoid person idea sorter is a cluster a person a sorter it's an aortic Center cluster and we see that there are seven symptom criteria so let's see how the behavior of Ramirez may or may not align with these symptoms the first symptom neither desires nor enjoys close relationships including being part of a family I think a case could be made for this one the next symptom almost always chooses solitary activities during the time when he was committing murders he would steal cars he would buy substances and use them he was mostly engaging in solitary activity but it's not clear if he was that way before that next symptom has little if any interest in having sexual experiences with other people this wing does not meet next one takes pleasure and few if any activity well it's not clear I mean it probably did get some pleasure out of some activity so I don't think he meets this one either next we have Lacs close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives this one he may meet this one I think a better case to be made for than some of the others then we see appears indifferent to praise or criticism of others I don't think he meets this one and the last one is shows emotional coldness detachment or flattened effect I think this one's certainly a possibility so he does appear to have some schizoid features and he may even qualify as having enough for the disorder but I really don't see Ramirez as schizoid I think a better argument could be made that he's really just quite shy right he was a loner but being a loner doesn't mean schizoid necessarily now some people believe that Ramirez was psychotic like he was having a mystical delusion he believed Satan was protecting him and he had a lot of other unusual beliefs in that same area it's possible that he could have had something like delusional disorder it's hard to know for sure he used substances so heavily and for so long that this could have caused cognitive processing difficulties that could have been mistaken for psychosis so that takes care of mental health factors what about personality so using the five factor model I remember the five factors to the actor emotion openness to experience conscientiousness extraversion agreeableness and neuroticism I would say that Ramirez is probably high and openness to experience his extremely low and conscientiousness I'm not sure you can get much lower than what he demonstrates here in his behavior we see low extraversion probably extremely low as well low agreeableness and low and most facets of neuroticism but not low in the angry hostility facet so what makes Ramirez unusual right he's clearly different than a lot of other serial killers what really stands out here well as I mentioned before there really wasn't a serial killer category that fit Ramirez when he was arrested mostly he's labeled as a disorganized thrill killer who is also sadistic when I listed all those offenses in the timeline we see that he had contact with 14 victims that he did not kill and likely had contact with many other victims as well and he did not kill them now he certainly tried to kill some of them but with other victims he let them live even though he had a clear opportunity to kill them so that's quite different than most serial killers we see that Ramirez was particularly brutal the judge that sentenced him to death said that his actions demonstrated cruelty callousness and viciousness beyond any human understanding the damage that Ramirez caused cannot be measured by only the murders his assaults also caused tremendous suffering many of the victims developed post-traumatic stress disorder or symptoms of that disorder we see the Ramirez did not wait for victims to come to him he made entry into people's houses sometimes breaking in but most of the time entering through an unlocked or open window many serial killers stalk to some degree so they follow victims or they wait for victims to kind of cross in front of them Ramirez was very active in his pursuit kind of random though too so he would pick a house probably based on how easy it was to make entry they didn't have victims in mind in advance he didn't watch people for days and he didn't stay put he was mobile and this really makes him quite a bit different again a lot of the serial killers we see Ramirez took a tremendous number of chances when he committed his crimes he was not particularly careful about evidence being left behind but when he would steal automobiles he would wipe down those vehicles to remove his fingerprints although he missed at least one fingerprint and that's what led to his arrest now most serial killers tend to stick with the same method of killing their victims but Ramirez used a wide variety of weapons just name a few a 22 caliber revolver a 25 caliber automatic various knives a lamp a hammer an electrical cord a telephone cord a machete and a tire iron he also punched and kicked victims as well he did not seem to have an age preference for his victims this has also been unusual typically serial killers do have a range that they're looking for we see that stealing cash jewelry and other valuables was important to Ramirez he used this money to fuel his substance use habit we see Ramirez would commit murders one after the other and often commit more than one in the same morning so not just more than one homicide but more than one location so we see a lot of energy and a lot of rage here the last unusual characteristic of Ramirez about cover here is that he actually lived through this crime spree he was sneaking in or breaking into people's homes it was common knowledge that he was on the loose we saw that gun sales increased dramatically during a time when he was active and yet many people left their windows unlocked or open and no one was able to engage him with a loaded firearm during the commission of his crimes so he was just kind of again randomly going from one place to the next committing these vicious crimes and there was not one occasion that somebody was able to stop him what's interesting about the way he committed the crimes was from the most part he would make entry into the house and then survey the situation so he'd walk from room to room he would try to see everyone who was in the house like if there was any children in the house or whoever else might be there he wanted to know that before he started his attack so if people had like alarm systems or a dog or something like that they may have detected his presence and they could have engaged him if they had a weapon now if I had to guess though I would say that Ramirez actively avoided houses with alarm systems and dogs and this might explain why nobody was able to engage him and stop him so bringing everything together what do I think happened with Ramirez how did he become this way well he was exposed to a number of negative elements I know this happens to a lot of people but with Ramirez what really stands out is just how young he was when these factors started influencing him we see toxic chemicals in utero the concussions at age two and age five using marijuana 10 the disturbing photographs and stories from his older cousin Mike at age 12 witnessing a homicide at age 13 it seems like he just didn't have a chance if one factor didn't cause trouble for him another factor would have and on top of all this of course we see the substance use just added fuel to the fire and that behavior escalated quite dramatically through his criminal career the story of Ramirez is a story of missed opportunities there are many factors here that could have been recognized and an intervention could have taken place to prevent the crimes from occurring later on but all these things kept happening all these factors his criminal activity when it was younger began the substance use all these different factors and no meaningful intervention ever occurred Ramirez would go on to devastate the lives of scores of innocent people I know whenever I talk about topics like serial killers there will be a variety of opinions please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 1,036,594

Keywords: Richard Ramirez, night stalker, serial killer, walk-in killer, valley intruder, antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, factor 1 psychopathy, factor 2 psychopathy, sociopathy, vulnerable narcissism, hypersensitivity to criticism, mental health, counseling

Id: b8XOUMLkueM

Length: 25min 35sec (1535 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020