Post by CCADP on Aug 28, 2005 7:36:13 GMT -5
Whittier Daily News
20 years ago, Night Stalker's murder spree ended
By Ruby Gonzales, Staff Writer
THE VICTIMS
A list of people Richard Ramirez was convicted of murdering in 1984 and 1985.
June 27, 1984 - Jennie Vincow, 79, was slain in her Eagle Rock apartment. Her throat was slashed.
March 17, 1985 - Dayle Okazaki, 34, was shot in the head inside the kitchen of her Rosemead condominium.
March 17, 1985 - Tsai-Lian Yu, 30, of Monterey Park died after being dragged from her car and shot repeatedly.
March 27, 1985 - Vincent Zazzara, 64, was shot to death in West Whittier where he lived with his wife, Maxine, 44. She, too, was shot, but was also stabbed and was the only victim mutilated her eyes were gouged out after her death, according to a coroner s pathologist.
May 14, 1985 - William Doi, 66, was shot to death in his Monterey Park home.
May 29, 1985 - Mabel Close Bell, 83, of Monrovia died six weeks after being bludgeoned with a hammer in her home. A pentagram was drawn on Bell s leg and on the wall above her bed in lipstick.
July 1, 1985 - Mary Louise Cannon, 75, died in her Arcadia home after having been bludgeoned with a lamp, strangled with an electrical cord and having her throat slashed.
July 7, 1985 - Joyce Lucille Nelson, 60, was beaten to death in her Monterey Park home.
July 20, 1985 - The bodies of Maxon Kneiding, 68, and his wife Lela, 64, were found in their bed in their home in Glendale. They had been shot to death and their throats slashed.
July 20, 1985 - Chainarong Khovonanth, 32, was shot to death in his Sun Valley home.
Aug. 8, 1985 - Elyas Abowath, 35, was shot to death in his Diamond Bar home.
Fear of a serial killer kept many a window shut during the sweltering summer of 1985.
The Night Stalker spread fear among Southland residents when he broke into homes then murdered, raped and stole. He drew a pentagram on one victim's leg and left the same mark on a wall.
The Stalker slew 13 people, including seven San Gabriel Valley residents and a West Whittier couple. Ten other victims survived.
His reign of terror ended 20 years ago this summer when East Los Angeles residents chased, beat and captured Richard Ramirez after he tried to steal cars. The day before, on Aug. 30, 1985, law enforcement officials identified Ramirez as the Night Stalker.
"Murder was his primary motive. Everything else was secondary. He was driven to kill," said retired sheriff's Detective Frank Salerno who was one of the lead investigators in the case.
Why?
"He would never explain that to us," Salerno said.
In 1989, Ramirez was convicted of 13 murders, five attempted murders, rape, oral copulation, sodomy and burglary. He was sentenced to death but is appealing.
Ramirez's lawyer, Geraldine Russell, didn't return phone calls. But she and his other lawyer in the appeal argue Ramirez didn't get a fair trial because he was mentally incompetent and picked bad lawyers.
"We say he received effective representation," said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.
Both sides are waiting for the California Supreme Court to set a date for oral arguments on the appeal, Barankin said.
TERROR IN THE SOUTHLAND
The case remains vivid in the minds of many.
"He attacked people in their homes at random. He had people in his grip. And he started bouncing around in the county," Salerno said.
He pointed out Ramirez was first centralized in the San Gabriel Valley then went to San Fernando Valley, Orange County and San Francisco.
"You just didn't know where he would be next," Salerno said. "This guy, his victims were all over the place as far as race and age went. He shot people, stabbed people. He stomped one woman to death."
Los Angeles County has not had a serial killer before or since who used methods as diverse and got citizens as frightened, according to sheriff's Lt. Gil Carrillowho was the other lead investigator. Carrillo was the first to deduce the slayings could be the work of a serial killer.
If his victims were a couple, Salerno said Ramirez would kill the man first, usually by shooting them as they slept. He'd deal with the woman next.
"Then if she resisted, he'd kill her," Salerno said.
The Stalker first struck June 27, 1984, in Eagle Rock when he slashed the throat of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow. Just weeks before he was caught, Ramirez shot 35-year-old Elyas Abowath in Diamond Bar on Aug. 8, 1985.
Ramirez is also suspected of the Aug. 17, 1985, killing of Peter Pan in San Francisco but hasn't been tried for that murder.
It was a fearful time. Police got more calls about prowlers and suspicious-looking people. Sales of dogs and door locks jumped.
Joseph Santoro, was then a lieutenant with the Monterey Park Police Department when the Stalker killed three, raped one and abducted a child in that city.
"There was a lot of fear in Monterey Park and other cities," he said.
But residents weren't the only ones taking precautions.
Carrillo, who lived in the San Gabriel Valley, kept a gun in his nightstand. His wife and children stayed with relatives for a while and came back home after Ramirez was caught.
Santoro lived in San Gabriel at the time.
"I nailed shut all the windows of my home. My family slept in a separate room together. We borrowed money from my mother-in-law to get air conditioning and to keep the door closed," Santoro said.
Monterey Park was the first to put together town-hall type meetings, Santoro said. He remembers Monterey Park Chief Jon Elder calling Sheriff Sherman Block on a Sunday morning saying they needed to do this, needed to get the information out to the public.
"At the time it was very rarely done," Santoro said.
They put out how the killer broke in, spread the word that people must be vigilant and the police needed the public's help.
They held news briefings with the media every day. Police told residents to call immediately on anything suspicious. More cops patrolled the streets.
They used a grant to buy deadbolts that were given to seniors and anybody who wanted one, he said.
The department also changed the concept of Neighborhood Watch. Ramirez was hitting in the middle of the night while people slept so they had the Neighborhood Watch do shifts at night.
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"We would strategically put them in neighborhoods so instead of just seeing the neighbor, they're able to see the entire block," Santoro said.
They also had ham radio operators stationed in strategic locations in entrances to residential neighborhoods, Santoro said. Their job was to record license plates.
"The next morning, we had a whole shift run the plates in DMV to find out what reason they had in the neighborhood," he said.
A former Monrovia police chief, Santoro is now dean of the Rio Hondo College Department of Public Safety, Criminal Justice and Fire Technology.
When Ramirez was captured in East Los Angeles on Aug. 31, 1985, residents at first didn't know who they had. They chased him because they thought he was a car thief.
Jose Burgoin, 74, was among the residents who caught Ramirez. He remembers he was watering his garden when Ramirez ended up in his Hubbard Street neighborhood.
Ramirez tried to steal a Mustang but crashed that into a house. He then went for the Ford Granada occupied by Burgoin's neighbor, Angie De La Torre, and tried to grab her car keys away.
Burgoin said he went to his neighbor's rescue. De La Torre's husband, Manuel, hit Ramirez with a metal bar. Ramirez ran, chased by residents. It was the end of the line for the Stalker.
As deputies led Ramirez away, he reportedly yelled out in Spanish: "It's me! It's me! It's me! I'm lucky the cops caught me."
NO CLOSURE
Vincent Zazzara and his wife, Maxine, fell prey to Ramirez on March 27, 1985. Ramirez shot the 65-year-old Vincent in his West Whittier home then shot and stabbed 44-year-old Maxine. She was the only one of his victims who was mutilated; he gouged her eyes out.
Why he did that remains a mystery.
"You'd have to ask Richard why. He did say to one surviving victim, Don't look at me or I'll cut your eyes out,' " Carrillo said.
Peter Zazzara, the youngest of Zazzara's children, said he thinks of the case every day since they haven't executed Ramirez.
The 44-year-old tries not to think about it as much as he can because he gets upset. When told of the progress of Ramirez's appeal, Zazzara called the whole system "unbelievable."
"Until he's dead, there's no closure for me. I'd pull the switch if I can," Peter Zazzara said. "All I can really say is our family will always be tormented by the whole thing."
He feels helpless because he said the state isn't doing its job. If the state has the death penalty, he asked why not use it?
"My dad was a World War II veteran. The way they honor (him) is by letting a scum live like this in Death Row," Peter Zazzara said. "I just hope they execute him soon."
SAN QUENTIN
There are 612 Death Row inmates at San Quentin Prison.
Ramirez is housed in the adjustment center along with 83 men condemned to die and 16 inmates placed there for security reasons, according to prison spokesman Sgt. Eric Messick.
"He's never been a problem to staff," Messick said. "He doesn't socialize. A very quiet guy."
In his unit, Ramirez has a chance to go to the prison yard for 90 minutes and gets three showers a week. Currently, he has no phone privileges.
"He goes back and forth. Sometimes he lives on the east block. It's not for disciplinary reasons. I think he prefers living in the adjustment center," Messick said.
Meals are brought to the cells. Breakfast at 6 a.m., a bagged lunch around 11 a.m. and dinner at 5 p.m.
Death Row inmates can't have conjugal visits. They're not allowed physical contact with anybody, Messick said. Visitors talk to them by phone behind Plexiglas.
Ramirez once asked the two lead detectives if they would be at his execution. While Carrillo said he wasn't too happy watching someone die, he'd be there if Ramirez wanted him to.
"I told him I was planning on it if it ever happens," Salerno said. "I just wish they'd hurry up with his appeal and they'd execute him. If there's anybody who deserves the death penalty, it's Richard Ramirez."
-- Editorial Assistant Claudia Palma contributed to this report. Ruby Gonzales can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2718, or by e-mail at ruby.gonzales@sgvn.com.
20 years ago, Night Stalker's murder spree ended
By Ruby Gonzales, Staff Writer
THE VICTIMS
A list of people Richard Ramirez was convicted of murdering in 1984 and 1985.
June 27, 1984 - Jennie Vincow, 79, was slain in her Eagle Rock apartment. Her throat was slashed.
March 17, 1985 - Dayle Okazaki, 34, was shot in the head inside the kitchen of her Rosemead condominium.
March 17, 1985 - Tsai-Lian Yu, 30, of Monterey Park died after being dragged from her car and shot repeatedly.
March 27, 1985 - Vincent Zazzara, 64, was shot to death in West Whittier where he lived with his wife, Maxine, 44. She, too, was shot, but was also stabbed and was the only victim mutilated her eyes were gouged out after her death, according to a coroner s pathologist.
May 14, 1985 - William Doi, 66, was shot to death in his Monterey Park home.
May 29, 1985 - Mabel Close Bell, 83, of Monrovia died six weeks after being bludgeoned with a hammer in her home. A pentagram was drawn on Bell s leg and on the wall above her bed in lipstick.
July 1, 1985 - Mary Louise Cannon, 75, died in her Arcadia home after having been bludgeoned with a lamp, strangled with an electrical cord and having her throat slashed.
July 7, 1985 - Joyce Lucille Nelson, 60, was beaten to death in her Monterey Park home.
July 20, 1985 - The bodies of Maxon Kneiding, 68, and his wife Lela, 64, were found in their bed in their home in Glendale. They had been shot to death and their throats slashed.
July 20, 1985 - Chainarong Khovonanth, 32, was shot to death in his Sun Valley home.
Aug. 8, 1985 - Elyas Abowath, 35, was shot to death in his Diamond Bar home.
Fear of a serial killer kept many a window shut during the sweltering summer of 1985.
The Night Stalker spread fear among Southland residents when he broke into homes then murdered, raped and stole. He drew a pentagram on one victim's leg and left the same mark on a wall.
The Stalker slew 13 people, including seven San Gabriel Valley residents and a West Whittier couple. Ten other victims survived.
His reign of terror ended 20 years ago this summer when East Los Angeles residents chased, beat and captured Richard Ramirez after he tried to steal cars. The day before, on Aug. 30, 1985, law enforcement officials identified Ramirez as the Night Stalker.
"Murder was his primary motive. Everything else was secondary. He was driven to kill," said retired sheriff's Detective Frank Salerno who was one of the lead investigators in the case.
Why?
"He would never explain that to us," Salerno said.
In 1989, Ramirez was convicted of 13 murders, five attempted murders, rape, oral copulation, sodomy and burglary. He was sentenced to death but is appealing.
Ramirez's lawyer, Geraldine Russell, didn't return phone calls. But she and his other lawyer in the appeal argue Ramirez didn't get a fair trial because he was mentally incompetent and picked bad lawyers.
"We say he received effective representation," said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.
Both sides are waiting for the California Supreme Court to set a date for oral arguments on the appeal, Barankin said.
TERROR IN THE SOUTHLAND
The case remains vivid in the minds of many.
"He attacked people in their homes at random. He had people in his grip. And he started bouncing around in the county," Salerno said.
He pointed out Ramirez was first centralized in the San Gabriel Valley then went to San Fernando Valley, Orange County and San Francisco.
"You just didn't know where he would be next," Salerno said. "This guy, his victims were all over the place as far as race and age went. He shot people, stabbed people. He stomped one woman to death."
Los Angeles County has not had a serial killer before or since who used methods as diverse and got citizens as frightened, according to sheriff's Lt. Gil Carrillowho was the other lead investigator. Carrillo was the first to deduce the slayings could be the work of a serial killer.
If his victims were a couple, Salerno said Ramirez would kill the man first, usually by shooting them as they slept. He'd deal with the woman next.
"Then if she resisted, he'd kill her," Salerno said.
The Stalker first struck June 27, 1984, in Eagle Rock when he slashed the throat of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow. Just weeks before he was caught, Ramirez shot 35-year-old Elyas Abowath in Diamond Bar on Aug. 8, 1985.
Ramirez is also suspected of the Aug. 17, 1985, killing of Peter Pan in San Francisco but hasn't been tried for that murder.
It was a fearful time. Police got more calls about prowlers and suspicious-looking people. Sales of dogs and door locks jumped.
Joseph Santoro, was then a lieutenant with the Monterey Park Police Department when the Stalker killed three, raped one and abducted a child in that city.
"There was a lot of fear in Monterey Park and other cities," he said.
But residents weren't the only ones taking precautions.
Carrillo, who lived in the San Gabriel Valley, kept a gun in his nightstand. His wife and children stayed with relatives for a while and came back home after Ramirez was caught.
Santoro lived in San Gabriel at the time.
"I nailed shut all the windows of my home. My family slept in a separate room together. We borrowed money from my mother-in-law to get air conditioning and to keep the door closed," Santoro said.
Monterey Park was the first to put together town-hall type meetings, Santoro said. He remembers Monterey Park Chief Jon Elder calling Sheriff Sherman Block on a Sunday morning saying they needed to do this, needed to get the information out to the public.
"At the time it was very rarely done," Santoro said.
They put out how the killer broke in, spread the word that people must be vigilant and the police needed the public's help.
They held news briefings with the media every day. Police told residents to call immediately on anything suspicious. More cops patrolled the streets.
They used a grant to buy deadbolts that were given to seniors and anybody who wanted one, he said.
The department also changed the concept of Neighborhood Watch. Ramirez was hitting in the middle of the night while people slept so they had the Neighborhood Watch do shifts at night.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We would strategically put them in neighborhoods so instead of just seeing the neighbor, they're able to see the entire block," Santoro said.
They also had ham radio operators stationed in strategic locations in entrances to residential neighborhoods, Santoro said. Their job was to record license plates.
"The next morning, we had a whole shift run the plates in DMV to find out what reason they had in the neighborhood," he said.
A former Monrovia police chief, Santoro is now dean of the Rio Hondo College Department of Public Safety, Criminal Justice and Fire Technology.
When Ramirez was captured in East Los Angeles on Aug. 31, 1985, residents at first didn't know who they had. They chased him because they thought he was a car thief.
Jose Burgoin, 74, was among the residents who caught Ramirez. He remembers he was watering his garden when Ramirez ended up in his Hubbard Street neighborhood.
Ramirez tried to steal a Mustang but crashed that into a house. He then went for the Ford Granada occupied by Burgoin's neighbor, Angie De La Torre, and tried to grab her car keys away.
Burgoin said he went to his neighbor's rescue. De La Torre's husband, Manuel, hit Ramirez with a metal bar. Ramirez ran, chased by residents. It was the end of the line for the Stalker.
As deputies led Ramirez away, he reportedly yelled out in Spanish: "It's me! It's me! It's me! I'm lucky the cops caught me."
NO CLOSURE
Vincent Zazzara and his wife, Maxine, fell prey to Ramirez on March 27, 1985. Ramirez shot the 65-year-old Vincent in his West Whittier home then shot and stabbed 44-year-old Maxine. She was the only one of his victims who was mutilated; he gouged her eyes out.
Why he did that remains a mystery.
"You'd have to ask Richard why. He did say to one surviving victim, Don't look at me or I'll cut your eyes out,' " Carrillo said.
Peter Zazzara, the youngest of Zazzara's children, said he thinks of the case every day since they haven't executed Ramirez.
The 44-year-old tries not to think about it as much as he can because he gets upset. When told of the progress of Ramirez's appeal, Zazzara called the whole system "unbelievable."
"Until he's dead, there's no closure for me. I'd pull the switch if I can," Peter Zazzara said. "All I can really say is our family will always be tormented by the whole thing."
He feels helpless because he said the state isn't doing its job. If the state has the death penalty, he asked why not use it?
"My dad was a World War II veteran. The way they honor (him) is by letting a scum live like this in Death Row," Peter Zazzara said. "I just hope they execute him soon."
SAN QUENTIN
There are 612 Death Row inmates at San Quentin Prison.
Ramirez is housed in the adjustment center along with 83 men condemned to die and 16 inmates placed there for security reasons, according to prison spokesman Sgt. Eric Messick.
"He's never been a problem to staff," Messick said. "He doesn't socialize. A very quiet guy."
In his unit, Ramirez has a chance to go to the prison yard for 90 minutes and gets three showers a week. Currently, he has no phone privileges.
"He goes back and forth. Sometimes he lives on the east block. It's not for disciplinary reasons. I think he prefers living in the adjustment center," Messick said.
Meals are brought to the cells. Breakfast at 6 a.m., a bagged lunch around 11 a.m. and dinner at 5 p.m.
Death Row inmates can't have conjugal visits. They're not allowed physical contact with anybody, Messick said. Visitors talk to them by phone behind Plexiglas.
Ramirez once asked the two lead detectives if they would be at his execution. While Carrillo said he wasn't too happy watching someone die, he'd be there if Ramirez wanted him to.
"I told him I was planning on it if it ever happens," Salerno said. "I just wish they'd hurry up with his appeal and they'd execute him. If there's anybody who deserves the death penalty, it's Richard Ramirez."
-- Editorial Assistant Claudia Palma contributed to this report. Ruby Gonzales can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2718, or by e-mail at ruby.gonzales@sgvn.com.