A Bad Influence
Ricardo “Richard” Leyva Munoz Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1960, the youngest of five children. His father was a former Mexican cop who emigrated to the US and got a job as a railway man. Ramirez’s dad was a violent alcoholic who often flew into drunken rages, and abused his wife and children. To escape his father’s uncontrollable fits, a young Ramirez often snuck out of home at night and go sleep in a nearby cemetery. That macabre environment contributed to what became a lifelong fascination with death. He also began to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol at age ten.
As if that was not bad enough, when the future Night Stalker was twelve-years-old, he fell under the influence of an older cousin, Miguel “Mike” Ramirez, who was already a psychopathic serial killer. A decorated Vietnam War Green Beret, Mike Ramirez had sexually assaulted, murdered, mutilated, and dismembered numerous Vietnamese girls and women. He documented what he did to his victims, step by step, with Polaroid photos. Photos which he showed his young cousin, along with graphic descriptions of his wartime atrocities. Richard was not repelled by the gory images, but was instead drawn to and fascinated by them.