The sweet-faced child in the photograph would one day make an entire state sleep with the lights on. His childhood was soaked in violence, terror, and blood. But no one around him could imagine what he was slowly becoming. By the time the world learned his name, it was already too late.
He was born into poverty, fear, and brutality, but countless children endure horror without becoming monsters. Richard Ramirez chose to embrace it. The head injuries, the crucifixions in the cemetery, the cousin’s point-blank murder of his wife – all of it twisted together with drugs, voyeurism, and a growing obsession with darkness. When he finally stepped into the night as the “Night Stalker,” he wasn’t just killing; he was performing, carving Satanic symbols into flesh and walls as if demanding the world witness his transformation.