Case Study #5 - Richard Ramirez

Date: 1984

Location: Los Angeles, California

Significance: Computerization of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) fingerprint records dealt a deadly blow to one of California’s worst killers.

The man who became known as The Nightstalker first struck in June 1984, when a young woman was stabbed to death in her Los Angeles home. Over the course of the next year, another twelve people would die at the hands of this psychopath. The murders followed a set pattern, usually occurring in the early hours of the morning and most often at homes where a window was left open. After gaining entry, the killer would sever the phone lines and then go about his evil business. Any adult males present were dispatched with a bullet to the head. Female victims were raped, often next to the bodies of their dead partners. At the seventh murder scene, the killer daubed a pentagram, a sign often associated with devil worship, on a bedroom wall and on the thigh of one female victim. Another woman, after seeing her husband shot to death, was ordered to “swear upon Satan” while being sodomized. Survivors described their assailant as a tall, slim scruffy Hispanic male, unwashed and stinking, with bad teeth.

The homicidal outburst culminated at Mission Viejo in August 1985, when a young couple was attacked at home. The Nightstalker shot the man through the head while he slept, then raped the woman beside him. Somehow, in the midst of this nightmare, the woman managed to keep her wits about her enough to note the license plate number of the killer’s old orange Toyota as he drove off. Records showed that the care had been stolen in Chinatown while the owner was eating in a restaurant. An all-points bulletin led to the vehicle being located two days later in a parking lot. After mounting around-the-clock surveillance in case the killer returned – he didn’t-officers eventually removed the car for forensic examination. This proved vital, as experts managed to lift a partial fingerprint.

In a city the size of Los Angeles, manually searching fingerprint files was a tedious process that could take days, and even then, human error always left open the possibility of missed correlations. But in 1985, the LAPD had installed a computerized fingerprint database system, similar to that used by the FBI and capable of more than sixty thousand comparisons per second. The system works by storing information about the relevant distance between the features of a print and comparing them to a digitized image of the suspect’s fingerprint. Within minutes, the computer provided a positive match for the print from the orange Toyota – the Nightstalker was Richard Ramirez, a twenty-five-year-old drifter from El Paso, arrested several years previously on a misdemeanor traffic violation.

Forensic Miracle

Those working in the fingerprint department described the identification as “a near miracle.” The computer had only just been installed, and this was one of its first trials. Moreover, the system contained the fingerprints of only those criminals born after January 1, 1960 – Ramirez was born in February 1960! Immediately his name and photograph were circulated to the media. Ramirez, on his way back from Phoenix, Arizona, after buying cocaine, returned to Los Angeles unaware that his face was front—page news.

Customers in the Eat L.A. liquor store first recoiled from the foul-smelling man buying a Pepsi and doughnuts and then noticed his similarity to the wanted killer whose picture appeared on the newspaper rack. East L.A. is a predominantly Hispanic area, and locals, infuriated by the prejudice that the Nightstalker had aroused against them, were in no mood to apprehend Ramirez gently. A wild chase ensured. After trying unsuccessfully to steal several cares, Ramirez ran panting into the arms of a waiting patrolman (curiously, also named Ramirez) and begged to be taken into custody before the crowd lynched him. A few days later, he was arraigned on thirteen counts of murder.

Ramirez, a master manipulator, managed to delay his trial for more than three years. During this time, he changed his appearance drastically, washing regularly, wearing smart clothes, and having extensive dental work done so that the man in court bore little resemblance to published descriptions of the Nightstalker. Even so, the case against him was ironclad. The gun used in the killings – a .22 caliber semiautomatic-was traced to a friend’s house, and jewelry stolen from the victims turned up at the home of his sister.

Another year would pass before he was convicted. In that time, hardened police and court officials stated that no defendant had ever so unnerved them. Ramirez, menacing behind dark glasses, would erupt into totally unpredictable bouts of rage, invoking Satan’s name and cursing everyone around him. On November 7, 1989, as he was led away after being sentenced to death, he grinned evilly and flashed photographers the devil sign. Earlier, Ramirez had delivered a chilling monologue to the court in which he warned, “I will be avenged.”

Conclusion

Without the recent installed fingerprint database, Ramirez might well have remained at liberty much longer at a cost of countless more lives. The inventors of the computer microprocessor could hardly have envisioned that one day it would play such a vital role in fighting crime.