ABThe Orange County Register Sunday, September 1, 1985

'NIGHT STALKER': SUSPECT CAPTURED

Manuel de la TorreStruck suspect with fence post

'STALKER':Citizens talkabout rewardsFROM A1

"It's the killer!" the 29-year-oldwoman cried excitedly in Spanish."It's the killer!"

Within five minutes, de la Torresaid, the bruised and bloodied Ra-mirez was being bandaged andpushed into a police car by Los An-geles sheriff's Deputy Andres Ra-mirez, LAPD Sgt. Edward Es-queda and LAPD officers DannyRodriguez and David Strandgren.

"It's me. It's me, man," he toldpolice in a dazed, resigned tone ofvoice. Then, in Spanish, witnessesjiejard him add: "I'm lucky theJOTS caught me."JjRamirez was taken to a first-Jkjor holding cell in the Los Ange-

Police Department's Hollen-station. As police from Los

, Orange County and Sanrancisco interrogated him in the

iell, hundreds of neighbors and cu-jjNqsity-seekers crowded excitedlyground the station house to catch a^chilling glimpse of the man be-lieved to be the "night stalker."

Sales of ice cream and cold beerwere brisk in the 90-degree cityheat, and the second-biggest topicwas whether the citizens of Hub-bard Street will get the $70,000 be-jng offered in rewards.

Occasionally a voice called out,till him! Kill him! "But the moodnerally was one of nervous pride

good will, and most calls fortribution were couched in som-' tones.

|2f.'(The people here) have been*&yihg hang him, hang him," said^Anna Rodriguez, 26, of BoyleRights. "Well, they should. He de-jserves it. Why should anybody feeli&rry for him? Anybody who coulddo this must be sick."

Police say the "night stalker's"path of violence began in Februaryand initially seemed concentratedin the San Gabriel Valley.

Within months, though, the killerhad moved north to San Francisco;and then south to the unincorporat-ed community of Mission Viejo. In'nearly every case, the killer creptby night into tidy, suburban homes-through unlocked or easily forcedwindows and doors. Usually, heshot any adult males immediatelyand then sexually assaulted wom-en and children! In some cases, hekilled the women afterward. Inothers, he let them live.

: With the onset of summer, thekillings began to occur with alarm-ing frequency.

Two victims in February. Fourin March. Another in May and twomore in June. Five in July. Twomore in August. And those figuresdo not include the victims who sur-

', vived the bullet wounds, beatings-and brutal rapes.

William Cams, the stalker's firstOrange County victim, was one ofthose who lived. Shot three times inth'e head in the early hours of Aug.1&, the Mission Viejo engineer alsowas the most recent victim.

It was as Cams' assailant left thescene of that attack that the firstbig break in the "night stalker"investigation occurred, sourcessaid.' ''A 14-year-old Mission Viejo boy

who had gotten up early to fix hiscar heard someone trying to breakinto the locked garage where hewas working. He ran to awaken hisfather, and the two noticed a mandriving off in an orange Toyota Co-rolla station wagon. They noted apartial license plate and passed theinformation on to police.

As it turned out, the car was sto-len. When it was found abandoned•inia Los Angeles parking lot shortlyafter the Carns attack, policescoured the vehicle for links to the"stalker." They said they foundRamirez's fingerprint inside.

That print matched a set ofprints recovered from a burglaryin San Francisco two days before a"night stalker" killing there. ByFriday, the list of suspects hadbeen narrowed to Ramirez. Fridaynight, his name and photographwere made public.

Apparently, Ramirez did notlearn he was the suspect until hereturned to Los Angeles on Satur-day. Witnesses said he had spentjfrnday in Northern California,inhere he tried to buy a shotgun at[Mack's Trading Post, a gun shop inWe working-class Bay area town ofSan Pablo.

"You know how everybody hasthis drawing of him, that makeshim look so spooky?" said Joe Wil-

SUSPECT: Neighbors recall a troubled youth

Gary Ferrato/The Register

David Avalos watches as Jaime Burgoin, right, who aspires to be aCalifornia Highway Patrol officer, explains how he tackled RichardRamirez, suspected of being the so-called 'night stalker.'

son, manager of Mack's TradingPost. "Well, he's not spooky at all.... I would never in the world sus-pect this guy. He could walk in any-where and get away with anything.He's very normal."

Wilson said the man he believesto be Ramirez was in the store forabout 20 minutes at about 2:30 p.m.Friday. He bought a box of shotgunshells, then left. A half-hour later,he returned and wanted to buy ashotgun, but was turned down be-cause he had no identification, asrequired by state law, Wilson said.

He bought an air rifle instead,saying it was for his son's birthdaySunday, Wilson said.

Susan Righter, owner of Mack's,

said she, too, was positive shespoke to the man arrested Satur-day.

"When he walked through thedoor, his features were very strik-ing to me. ... I'd never seen himbefore, his features were very dis-tinctive. ... And he never turned hisback on the front door."

She said the soft-spoken man shebelieves was Ramirez kept hismouth closed as much as possiblewhen talking, but that she still no-ticed his extremely bad teeth.

Contributing to this report werestaff writers Edward Humes, CarrollLachnit, Lennie LaGuire and EnriqueRange).

FROM A1

His old neighborhood was buzz-ing Saturday with news of his ar-rest. When shown Ramirez's pic-ture in the newspaper, many in theneighborhood recognized him im-mediately.

"When he was young, he wasvery nice. But he grew up andstarted messing with drugs,"Mary Mijares, a neighbor, said.

Mijares said Ramirez and herson, John Quintero, were boyhoodfriends. But she said the two wenttheir separate ways when theywere IS. Quintero became a Jeho-vah's Witness and Ramirez startedusing drugs, she said.

"He wasn't mean. I can't say hewas mean, (but) killing people, it'shard to believe," she said.

Ramirez is the youngest of Ju-lian and Mercedes Ramirez's fivechildren. Besides his sister, he hasthree brothers, Julian, 37, of LosAngeles; Ignacio, 36, of El Paso;and Robert, 34, of Tucson.

Julian Ramirez, in an interviewpublished in the El Paso Times,said he learned on television Fri-day night that his son was wantedby California police, but he didn'timmediately understand the accu-sations.

He said he had not seen his youn-gest son in two or three years, andthat drugs had caused them togrow apart.

"I believe the marijuana he'sbeen smoking put him out of con-trol," said the elder Ramirez, anemployee of the Santa Fe Railwayin El Paso. e

"There was a break between us.He didn't want to do what we toldhim to," he said.

Of the allegations against hisson, Julian Ramirez said, "In myheart, I can't believe he wouldhave arrived at that. But if the au-thorities there have proof, whatcan we do?"

After leaving El Paso, Ramirez .

$70,000 reward is up for grabsThe Register

With the arrest Saturday of Rich-;ard Ramirez, suspected in the so-called "night stalker" slayings andattacks, a $70,000 reward is avail-able.

Authorities said Saturday thatthey did not know how or to whomthe money would be distributed.Contributing to the fund were thestate of California, the city of SanFrancisco and Los Angeles Coun-ty.

Residents of the Boyle Heights

neighborhood who participated inthe capture Saturday had differingthoughts about rewards. .

"I don't expect nothing," saidOlegario Garcia. "I just want tosleep good tonight."

But Jaime Burgoin, a 21-year-oldcollege student, said he would useany money to buy a car and pay forschooling, where he hopes to studypolice science.

Burgoin said the significance ofwhat he helped accomplish is "stillsinking in."

lived with his brother Julian. But,Flores said, the brothers had a fall-ing-out over a car repair and Ra-mirez moved out. Since then, shesaid, he has lived with friends.

Ramirez's parents moved to an-other part of El Paso during thepast five years, but Flores stilllives in the old, one-story, whitehome with green trim where thechildren were reared.

Flores said her brother's teethare badly stained, a problem thatplagues many family members.Police investigators linked a manwith badly stained, gapped teeth tothe "night stalker" killings.

Authorities in El Paso and Cali-fornia Saturday disclosed a historyof crimes allegedly committed byRamirez. The incidents span a pe-riod from 1977 to 1984. It was notknown whether Ramirez ever wasconvicted in any of the cases.

The arrests in Texas include:• 1977 for theft. Charges were

dropped.• 1979 for possession of mari-

juana.' • 1982 for possession of mari-juana.

In California, the arrests in-

clude:• 1981 for petty theft in Pasa-

dena.• 1982 for grand theft from a

person in Los Angeles.• 1983 for stealing a car in Al-

hambra and for grand theft from aperson in Los Angeles.

• 1984 for stealing a car in LosAngeles and for being under theinfluence of an opiate, possiblyheroin.

Authorities also said Ramirezhas been arrested for several nar-cotics violations and has been citedfor resisting arrest.

Flores said Saturday that herparents were taking the news oftheir son's arrest "real bad" andwere under sedation. They have noplans to go to Los Angeles, shesaid.

Flores said she last talked to herbrother about four or five weeks ;ago when he called on the tele-phone. She said he didn't have 'much to say, but she recalled he '|seemed "real calm. He was socalm.

"I feel like I'm living a night-;mare here," she said.

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