ABThe Orange County Register Sunday, September 1, 1985 'NIGHT STALKER': SUSPECT CAPTURED

SUSPECT: Neighbors recall a troubled youth

FROM A1

Manuel de la Torre Struck suspect with fence post

'STALKER':

Citizens talk about rewards

FROM A1

"It's the killer!" the 29-year-old woman cried excitedly in Spanish. "It's the killer!" Within five minutes, de la Torre said, the bruised and bloodied Ramirez was being bandaged and pushed into a police car by Los Angeles sheriff's Deputy Andres Ramirez, LAPD Sgt. Edward Esqueda and LAPD officers Danny Rodriguez and David Strandgren. "It's me. It's me, man," he told police in a dazed, resigned tone of voice. Then, in Spanish, witnesses jiejard him add: "I'm lucky the JOTS caught me." JjRamirez was taken to a firstJkjor holding cell in the Los AngePolice Department's Hollenstation. As police from Los , Orange County and San rancisco interrogated him in the iell, hundreds of neighbors and cujjNqsity-seekers crowded excitedly ground the station house to catch a ^chilling glimpse of the man believed to be the "night stalker." Sales of ice cream and cold beer were brisk in the 90-degree city heat, and the second-biggest topic was whether the citizens of Hubbard Street will get the $70,000 bejng offered in rewards. Occasionally a voice called out, till him! Kill him! "But the mood nerally was one of nervous pride good will, and most calls for tribution were couched in som' tones. |2f.'(The people here) have been *&yihg hang him, hang him," said ^Anna Rodriguez, 26, of Boyle Rights. "Well, they should. He dejserves it. Why should anybody feel i&rry for him? Anybody who could do this must be sick." Police say the "night stalker's" path of violence began in February and initially seemed concentrated in the San Gabriel Valley. Within months, though, the killer had moved north to San Francisco ;and then south to the unincorporated community of Mission Viejo. In 'nearly every case, the killer crept by night into tidy, suburban homes -through unlocked or easily forced windows and doors. Usually, he shot any adult males immediately and then sexually assaulted women and children! In some cases, he killed the women afterward. In others, he let them live. : With the onset of summer, the killings began to occur with alarming frequency. Two victims in February. Four in March. Another in May and two more in June. Five in July. Two more in August. And those figures do not include the victims who sur', vived the bullet wounds, beatings -and brutal rapes. William Cams, the stalker's first Orange County victim, was one of those who lived. Shot three times in th'e head in the early hours of Aug. 1&, the Mission Viejo engineer also was the most recent victim. It was as Cams' assailant left the scene of that attack that the first big break in the "night stalker" investigation occurred, sources said. ' ' A 14-year-old Mission Viejo boy who had gotten up early to fix his car heard someone trying to break into the locked garage where he was working. He ran to awaken his father, and the two noticed a man driving off in an orange Toyota Corolla station wagon. They noted a partial license plate and passed the information on to police. As it turned out, the car was stolen. When it was found abandoned inia Los Angeles parking lot shortly after the Carns attack, police scoured the vehicle for links to the "stalker." They said they found Ramirez's fingerprint inside. That print matched a set of prints recovered from a burglary in San Francisco two days before a "night stalker" killing there. By Friday, the list of suspects had been narrowed to Ramirez. Friday night, his name and photograph were made public. Apparently, Ramirez did not learn he was the suspect until he returned to Los Angeles on Saturday. Witnesses said he had spent jfrnday in Northern California, inhere he tried to buy a shotgun at [Mack's Trading Post, a gun shop in We working-class Bay area town of San Pablo. "You know how everybody has this drawing of him, that makes him look so spooky?" said Joe Wil-

Gary Ferrato/The Register

David Avalos watches as Jaime Burgoin, right, who aspires to be a California Highway Patrol officer, explains how he tackled Richard Ramirez, suspected of being the so-called 'night stalker.'

son, manager of Mack's Trading Post. "Well, he's not spooky at all. ... I would never in the world suspect this guy. He could walk in anywhere and get away with anything. He's very normal." Wilson said the man he believes to be Ramirez was in the store for about 20 minutes at about 2:30 p.m. Friday. He bought a box of shotgun shells, then left. A half-hour later, he returned and wanted to buy a shotgun, but was turned down because he had no identification, as required by state law, Wilson said. He bought an air rifle instead, saying it was for his son's birthday Sunday, Wilson said. Susan Righter, owner of Mack's,

said she, too, was positive she spoke to the man arrested Saturday. "When he walked through the door, his features were very striking to me. ... I'd never seen him before, his features were very distinctive. ... And he never turned his back on the front door." She said the soft-spoken man she believes was Ramirez kept his mouth closed as much as possible when talking, but that she still noticed his extremely bad teeth.
Contributing to this report were staff writers Edward Humes, Carroll Lachnit, Lennie LaGuire and Enrique Range).

His old neighborhood was buzzing Saturday with news of his arrest. When shown Ramirez's picture in the newspaper, many in the neighborhood recognized him immediately. "When he was young, he was very nice. But he grew up and started messing with drugs," Mary Mijares, a neighbor, said. Mijares said Ramirez and her son, John Quintero, were boyhood friends. But she said the two went their separate ways when they were IS. Quintero became a Jehovah's Witness and Ramirez started using drugs, she said. "He wasn't mean. I can't say he was mean, (but) killing people, it's hard to believe," she said. Ramirez is the youngest of Julian and Mercedes Ramirez's five children. Besides his sister, he has three brothers, Julian, 37, of Los Angeles; Ignacio, 36, of El Paso; and Robert, 34, of Tucson. Julian Ramirez, in an interview published in the El Paso Times, said he learned on television Friday night that his son was wanted by California police, but he didn't immediately understand the accusations. He said he had not seen his youngest son in two or three years, and that drugs had caused them to grow apart. "I believe the marijuana he's been smoking put him out of control," said the elder Ramirez, an employee of the Santa Fe Railway in El Paso. e "There was a break between us. He didn't want to do what we told him to," he said. Of the allegations against his son, Julian Ramirez said, "In my heart, I can't believe he would have arrived at that. But if the authorities there have proof, what can we do?" After leaving El Paso, Ramirez .

$70,000 reward is up for grabs

The Register With the arrest Saturday of Rich-; ard Ramirez, suspected in the socalled "night stalker" slayings and attacks, a $70,000 reward is available. Authorities said Saturday that they did not know how or to whom the money would be distributed. Contributing to the fund were the state of California, the city of San Francisco and Los Angeles County. Residents of the Boyle Heights lived with his brother Julian. But, Flores said, the brothers had a falling-out over a car repair and Ramirez moved out. Since then, she said, he has lived with friends. Ramirez's parents moved to another part of El Paso during the past five years, but Flores still lives in the old, one-story, white home with green trim where the children were reared. Flores said her brother's teeth are badly stained, a problem that plagues many family members. Police investigators linked a man with badly stained, gapped teeth to the "night stalker" killings. Authorities in El Paso and California Saturday disclosed a history of crimes allegedly committed by Ramirez. The incidents span a period from 1977 to 1984. It was not known whether Ramirez ever was convicted in any of the cases. The arrests in Texas include: 1977 for theft. Charges were dropped. 1979 for possession of marijuana. ' 1982 for possession of marijuana. In California, the arrests inneighborhood who participated in the capture Saturday had differing thoughts about rewards. . "I don't expect nothing," said Olegario Garcia. "I just want to sleep good tonight." But Jaime Burgoin, a 21-year-old college student, said he would use any money to buy a car and pay for schooling, where he hopes to study police science. Burgoin said the significance of what he helped accomplish is "still sinking in." clude: 1981 for petty theft in Pasadena. 1982 for grand theft from a person in Los Angeles. 1983 for stealing a car in Alhambra and for grand theft from a person in Los Angeles. 1984 for stealing a car in Los Angeles and for being under the influence of an opiate, possibly heroin. Authorities also said Ramirez has been arrested for several narcotics violations and has been cited for resisting arrest. Flores said Saturday that her parents were taking the news of their son's arrest "real bad" and were under sedation. They have no plans to go to Los Angeles, she said. Flores said she last talked to her brother about four or five weeks ; ago when he called on the telephone. She said he didn't have ' much to say, but she recalled he '| seemed "real calm. He was so calm. "I feel like I'm living a night-; mare here," she said.

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