A serial killer known as the “Night Stalker” for a chilling spree of 13 killings in California in the 1980s died Friday in custody, officials said.
Richard Ramirez, sentenced to death in 1989 for the gory murders committed over a 14-month period, died of natural causes in the Marin General Hospital, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
The 53-year-old had been on death row in San Quentin State Prison, north of San Francisco.
The self-proclaimed devil-worshipper earned his name for the time of night he crept into homes, killing the occupants either by shooting, strangling or slitting their throats.
He left spray-painted Satanist pentagrams on walls in a number of the victims’ homes, leading to a surge in gun sales and security equipment as fear reigned across southern California.
The killings occurred between June 1984 and August 1985, when the former drifter was caught on the street by a group of angry residents in east Los Angeles.
As well as the murders, he was also convicted of 30 other counts, including attempted murder, rape and first-degree burglary.
At his sentencing hearing in October 1989, Ramirez grinned at spectators in court and vowed to be “avenged.”
“You maggots made me sick, hypocrites one and all,” he said, adding: “You don’t understand me .. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience.
“I am beyond good and evil.”
California's 'Night Stalker' serial killer dies
