27. From Mentorship by a War Criminal, to Mentorship by a Peeping Tom
When his older cousin, Mike Ramirez, got locked up in a mental facility, a young Richard Ramirez became even more withdrawn from his family. In late 1973, he moved in his with older sister, Ruth, and her husband Roberto. Roberto was a voyeur who liked to spy on women as they undressed or performed other intimate activities. A peeping Tom, in short. He initiated his young brother-in-law in his voyeurism and took Richard with him on nighttime walks to catch peeks of unsuspecting women through windows.
As Richard hit the hormonal explosion of his teen years, the influences of his violent war criminal mentor, Mike Ramirez, and his degenerate peeping-Tom mentor, Roberto started to seriously mess him up. His teenage fantasies took flight, and began to combine voyeurism with violent forced bondage and forcible violation of women. Around this time, he began to use LSD and developed a strong interest in the occult and Satanism. When Mike Ramirez was released from a mental hospital in 1977, he resumed his mentorship of Richard and began to accompany both him and Roberto on nighttime peeping Tom expeditions.