1980s serial killer Ricardo Richard Ramirez was a truly macabre figure. A monster raised in a family that had more than its share of monsters, he slept in cemeteries as a child and was taught how to stealthily stalk and murder by a relative who was himself a serial killer. When he grew up, Ramirez put those lessons to use in a series of horrific crimes that got him nineteen death sentences. Yet, despite that gruesome record, many macabre admirers loved and lusted after Ramirez as he awaited execution on death row. Following are thirty things about those and other macabre historic facts.
30. The Macabre Night Stalker and the Macabre Environment in Which He Grew Up
Serial killer Richard Ramirez, who became infamous as the Night Stalker, was raised in a toxic environment that almost guaranteed that he would grow up to become a messed-up dude. Although just how messed up he became probably shocked even those who knew him in his younger years and realized that he was going to be trouble. By his mid-twenties, Ramirez had advanced by steps from a peeping Tom to a burglar, child abuser, kidnapper, serial rapist, and serial murderer.
Raised in an extremely dysfunctional and violent household, Ramirez came from a family that was full of bad people. Not the “mom and dad were distant and never there for me and didn’t understand me” type of bad, but downright horrible and terrifying relatives. There was a father who beat the daylights out of his wife and children. There was a Special Forces older cousin who was, himself, a serial killer as vile or even worse than Ramirez became, who gave lessons on stalking and murder. There was even a peeping Tom uncle who took Ramirez with him to peek through unsuspecting women’s windows.