‘Night Stalker’ Richard Ramirez Dead

He’d been awaiting execution on death row for decades, but serial killer Richard Ramirez died of natural causes early Friday morning. Known as the “Night Stalker,” Ramirez, 53, was taken to a California hospital from San Quentin State Prison, where he had spent the past 24 years after being convicted of 13 murders between 1984 and 1985 and sentenced to death in 1989. In most cases, Ramirez broke into homes and strangled, stabbed, or shot his victims, marking his crimes with a Satanic symbol—the pentagram—which he spray-painted on the walls. Ramirez was finally captured in August of 1985 and sent to death row after a four-year trial. “Big deal. Death always went with the territory,” he was quoted as saying when he left the courtroom.