The Night Stalker Hoax Part 1 (Richard Ramirez case files)

15 min readNov 11, 2023

Despite the many inconsistencies and weirdness surrounding the case of Richard Ramirez, most just blindly accept the official narrative as truth. After all, how could Netflix get something wrong? Or how could the police lie? But a critical look into his case reveals that the evidence against him was flimsy.

One murder was even a hit on a mafia couple ( the Zazzaras), who were ready for someone breaking in. And survivors described men that looked nothing like Ramirez. On top of that, serological testing did not match Ramirez at any of the crime scenes were testing was done.

This is a case of the police taking advantage of a mentally ill individual, an easy target, to either hide their own incompetence or protect organized crime.

First we’ll go into his background, and then we’ll look at the attacks case by case.

The Perfect Background

Richard Ramirez was born in El Paso Texas, to Mercedes and Julian Ramirez. He had 4 siblings who all had birth defects due to her mother working at a boot factory where she was exposed to chemical fumes. Richard on his end suffered a few head injuries, including getting knocked out unconscious after falling off a swing. [3]

His father Julian Ramirez was a Juarez Mexico cop, who later moved to El Paso Texas. He was said to be physically abusive towards his family. [3][4]

His cousin Miguel Ramirez returned from Vietnam and became close to Richard. He would tell him about raping and killing Vietnamese, and even show him photographic evidence of his deeds. Miguel eventually shot his wife in the face in front of a 13 year old Richard. [2][4]

The Vietnam veteran was found not-guilty due to reason of insanity, and surprisingly released 4 years after being institutionalized. [2][4]

Miguel is highly suspected of being part of the CIA’s Phoenix Program in Vietnam. A project that included creating violent assassins to intimidate the Vietnamese.[4][5]

In 1977 Richard was arrested for possession of Marijuana, and eventually moved from El Paso to California. There he developed a cocaine addiction, and learned how to hijack cars and burglarize homes with his child hood friends who were also part of an organized burglary ring. He was arrested for auto theft in 1981, and 1984. [2][4]

The Night of the Night Stalkers

April 10, 1984 — Mei Leung, age 9 [1]

Victim was raped, strangled and stabbed. The body was found hanging “like Christ” from a water spigot in the basement according to San Francisco Police Inspectors Michael Mullane, and Ronald Schneider. But various witnesses did not report her in this way. [6][8]

The police **really** wants you to believe this was the same man. (Source: 2009 Central City Extra magazine article)

It wasn’t until 25 years later that DNA evidence “linked” Ramirez to this crime. By then his image as a ‘serial killer’ was already well established and made him an easy blame. Strangely DNA technology was being relied on for convictions as early as 1986, but was not considered for this case until it turned cold for 2 decades.[7] [9]

Interestingly the cold-case unit was created in 2007 by then DA Kamala Harris, only a few months after Ramirez’ defense filed a Habeas appeal in an attempt to exonerate him. [10][11]

Matthew Gabriel, one DNA expert looking at the evidence, said that they had an “extremely difficult” 5 years analyzing the old samples. And even then (2009), they couldn’t officially charge him as the results were not conclusive. They even publicly asked help from witnesses who could have seen him at the crime scene in 1984. The police waited 3 years after his death to finally charged him in 2016, with the same old weak evidence. [10]

The lab later found that there was a second accomplice who’s DNA also matched. The name was not released because of “lack of evidence”. The singular individual was identified from the 1.2 million in their CODIS database, with the DNA coming from a handkerchief. [1][6][7]

The SFPD itself was not happy with the other suspect’s DNA being identified. Lab technician John Sanchez said that the evidence didn’t meet the standards. But strangely it fully met them for the then-death Ramirez. [6][8]

What we know of this suspect is that he was supposedly a juvenile in 1984, and was later convicted as a felon for unrelated crimes. His identity to this day remains protected. Why the special treatment? [6]

This is the only murder victim of this age range attributed to Ramirez. They also accused him of raping Anastasia Hronas, who said her abuser had a “native American tattoo”. But problem is that Ramirez didn’t have any tattoos, and no other survivor ever described him as having one.

June 28, 1984 — Jennie Vincow, age 79 [1]

Vincow was found nearly decapitated in her apartment.[1]

The body was found by one of her sons, Jack Vincow, who went to visit her house the same day of the murder. Jack told the police that his mother had moved to LA because of a dispute she had with his brother Manny who lived in New York. Manny was said to be verbally abusive towards his mother, and Jack claimed that Manny has hit her in the past. Neither of them had been in contact with Manny. [12][21]

The police asked Jack to take a lie detector test because witnesses had seen someone that looked like him at Jennie’s apartment before the body was found. Jack on his end said that his brother resembles him. But Jack still refused to take the polygraph test citing stress. [4][12][13]

Manny Vincow had a history of mental institution confinement. But unfortunately they couldn’t waste time investigating Manny or Jack. They already had a guy to blame and get a promotion off. [13]

The police then decided to bring in finger print “evidence” to use against Ramirez. This evidence came from a brand-new computer system that found his finger prints among 380,000 others; “only three minutes after the system was fed a partial print lifted from a stolen car”. AG John Van De Kamp called the finding a “fluke”, and said that the still unfinished Cal-ID system had to be reprogrammed to search its database for Ramirez’s prints.[14]

The News Pilot reported in 1985: “It was the computer’s first case. In 14 minutes, it spit out the names of Ramirez and five others with similar fingerprint patterns”.

According to the Netflix documentary, the police fed in the fingerprints and manually typed in the name “Richard” which gave them 8 results. But to confirm it was Ramirez, they just compared the fingerprints with the naked eye. Remember that they compared hundreds of fine lines in 3–14 minutes as they were in “a hurry”. [8]

This whole “analysis” took them about 3–14 minutes, because they were in “a hurry”.

Ramirez’s attorneys of course, in their sneaky efforts at continuing this circus did not bother arguing the dubious evidence. Other lawyers eventually tried to get a hold of the fingerprints used so they could get them verified by their own fingerprint expert Ron Smith, but they were blocked. [8]

The fingerprint fiasco continued in later cases, sometimes invalidating them.

March 17, 1985 — Maria Hernandez, age 22, Dayle Yoshie Okazaki age 34 [1]

Maria is shot in the arm with a .22 caliber and survived, but her roommate Dayle was fatally shot. Maria was the first one to provide a description of the Night Stalker, if we don’t count the Mei Leung killer’s sketch. [1][4]

Maria tried to block the bullet with her hands and the projectile ricocheted from the keys she was holding. The impact still made her fall to the floor. The attacker then went into her house and shot Dayle. [4][15][16]

Outside, Maria encountered the gunman who pointed his gun at her; [Maria] “I said ‘please don’t shoot me again.’ He put the gun down and ran.’”. [16]

Detective Carrillo met with Maria at the hospital, where she told him the attacker was a thin 5'9”-6'1” light-skinned male and was wearing a “Members Only” jacket. [15][17]

According to the police they both had a nose. (Source: Netflix documentary)

A sketch was created with the assistance of Maria, producing a picture that looks nothing like Ramirez.

After Ramirez’s arrest a year later, a suspect lineup was shown to Maria with Ramirez as suspect #2. Pictures of the lineup show Detective Carrillo putting up two fingers suggesting to Maria to pick suspect #2 (above), which she did. Ramirez’s attorneys argued this in his defense. [4][15][18]

The department admitted that the fingerprints found at the scene did not match Ramirez. [15][19]

The police also want you to **PLEASE** believe that they matched his fingerprints. (Source: Document 19–18)

The .22 gun supposedly used was never recovered, and due to bullet deformation it could not be concluded what specific weapon was used. [15]

The description matches “Julio” closer than Ramirez. Julio also burglarized homes with Ramirez. [21]

March 17, 1985 — Tsai-Lian “Veronica” Yu age 30[1]

Right after attacking Maria Hernandez, and killing Dayle Okazaki, the suspect allegedly drove to Monterey Park to murder Tsai-Lian Yu, in a ‘lovers quarrel’. [1]

Witnesses place Yu’s murder between 11:00pm and 11:30pm. But Maria Hernandez placed the attack at her condo also at “around 11:30pm” the same night. [21]

Police were called to Yu’s scene at 11:45pm, and Yu’s body was removed at 12:05am.[21]

The police claim they arrived at Hernandez’s residence at 10:45pm, but that is not congruent with Hernandez’s 11:30pm testimony. Detective Carrillo arrived at Hernandez’s condo at 12:20am. The police also claim that Hernandez’s attacker tried to ransack the home, so that means that he spent some time there, besides the time he spent waiting for Hernandez to arrive. [21]

One witness at Yu’s crime scene did describe a man with slanted eyes, but one did not. Both agreed on long wavy hair, but one said it was dark and the other said it was light. The heights given were 5'8” at the highest which is a noticeable drop from Ramirez’s 6'1” height. Witnesses eventually changed some details to align more with Ramirez’s description at a preliminary hearing a year later. The original police reports on the same night of the murder differ from what the witnesses claimed later. [20][21]

The witnesses, and Maria Hernandez’s account also differed in their description of the attacker’s clothing and vehicle.[20]

Ramirez’s defense stated that a “Christian medallion” that was ripped off during the struggle, was found on the scene and could cast doubt on Ramirez as the attacker. However Ramirez’s own defense failed him as the evidence “vanished”.[22]

The prosecution also violated Ramirez’s 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th amendment rights by showing the jury explicit pictures of Yu’s body to the Jury. [20]

Ballistics were also too distorted to be matched to the ones found in Hernandez’s crime scene.[20]

March 27, 1985 — Vincent Zazzara, age 64, Maxine Zazzara age 44 [1]

Vincent Zazzara is shot in the head with a .22 while sleeping and his wife is beaten before she grabbed an unloaded weapon. The intruder then shoots her in the temple killing her and gouges out her eyes. He then ransacked the house. This is also the first time he leaves the infamous Avia shoe prints. [1][24]

Six weeks earlier the Zazzara house had been burglarized but most of their money and jewelry were still there.[23]

The most important thing about this case is that one of Vincent Zazzara’s sons told investigators that his family was involved in organized crime. But investigators decided to dismiss this instead of investigating it. Ramirez’s own self-sabotaging “defense” never investigated it.[24]

The Zazzaras were armed as if they were expecting a break in. Maxine, an attorney, carried a .45 automatic in her purse. They also kept a shotgun under their bed.[32]

The Avia shoe prints were matched to 11–1/2 to 12. But it was never proven that Ramirez even owned a pair and the sizing was declared unreliable years later by shoe print identification expert Lisa DiMeo. [21][25]

Three ballistic experts could not agree on their findings. And crime scene analyst Steve Strong summed up how weak the prosecution’s evidence was against Ramirez:

May 14, 1985 — William Doi, Lillian Doi [1]

William is shot and left unconscious. His wife Lillian is then tied up and raped but left alive. The house is ransacked.[1][4]

Lillian described a man with short light-brown hair, and 5'10”. Neighbors also say that she told them that she did not believe Ramirez was her attacker, despite later pointing him out in the line up. [4][26]

Avia shoe prints, and combat boot shoe prints with cleats were found on the scene. The police claimed it was one of their officers who contaminated the scene. But the shoe prints were never confirmed to have come from any officer. [24][26]

A witness Launie Dempster a newspaper deliverer claimed that she saw Ramirez, and identified him months later after seeing his face on TV. However Dempster’s testimony was very weak; it was too dark to identify him inside his vehicle, she misidentified vehicles shown to her, and claimed she saw him again in the same area while Ramirez was allegedly committing another murder in Sierra Madre (July 5, Whitney Bennett). [24][26]

Coincidentally, Dempster met with Officer Reynolds of the Night Stalker Task Force, and had a conversation that was not documented on paper by the officer.[26]

Items stolen from the Doi residence were not found on Ramirez, but on his associate Felipe Solano. The ones that were seized by police from Ramirez were unrelated items. Luckily for Solano he was granted immunity for testifying. [27]

May 29, 1985 — Mabel Bell, age 83, Florence Lang [1]

The suspect finds Bell and Lang’s isolated residence in Monrovia, CA. Both women are bound and beaten with a hammer. A pentagram is drawn on the wall and on Bell’s body, and she is raped with a hammer. Both are left alive, but Bell dies days later. [1][4]

Fingerprint, blood, and hair identification “was unsuccessful”. One convenient exception was the Avia shoe print which originally according to LAPD’s Gerald Burke were not Avias. But he eventually changed his mind and said that they were actually Avias. Later on the very implication that any Avia shoe prints were actually found was challenged by Lisa DiMeo. 19 different shoes were found to have the same exact shoe print [21][26]

Family of Ramirez claimed that he was with them in El Paso TX on the day of, and day after the attack. They provided a photo as evidence. He was also proven to have been at the dentist in LA on the day after. [4][26]

Testings on various hairs found were done and did not match Ramirez. [21]

May 30, 1985 — Carole Kyle [1]

Only a few hours after the attack on Bell’s Monrovia residence, the suspect makes it to Burbank and binds Carole and her 12 year old son and demands valuables while pointing a gun at them. He rapes Carole but leaves her alive. He ransacks the house.[1][21]

The man told Carole “I don’t know why I’m letting you live. I’ve killed people before”. He was confused and asking the name of the town and directions before leaving. The suspect was described as 6' tall, hair parted on the left, with bangs and no facial hair. He was thin with prominent cheekbones, and straight white teeth. [21]

The rape kits results were never used in court. No fingerprints were collected. [21]

She provided two different sketches of the suspect.[28]

Closest one but still not a match. This is as good as the sketches get for the police’s hoax.

Ramirez’s defense argued that the suspect was not Ramirez, because Ramirez’s teeth were severely decaying, and the suspect’s were described as ‘straight and white’. The defense still failed Ramirez by not bringing up the fact that he went to a dental office in LA, the same morning of the crime (which occurred earlier at 4am). It’s worth noting that when Ramirez was arrested months later his teeth were very visibly decayed, and was already missing 12 teeth. [28]

Despite Ramirez’s face being shown on TV and newspapers in August, Carole did not contact the police accusing him of being the attacker. It wasn’t until September 1985 that she identified him in the lineup due to “the inflection of his voice”.[21][28]

The crime at Carole’s was occurring at the same time as the crime at Bell’s residence. Bell’s clock had been unplugged at 5:29am. [29]

Ramirez’s family say he was in El Paso TX from May 25–29. Photos with his family at his niece’s communion party exist. [21][28]

Prosecution falsely claimed that a handcuff key found at Carole’s matched handcuffs used at Bell’s scene. However there were no handcuffs found at Bells. So this was a blatant lie unchallenged by Ramirez’s own defense. [21][28]

July 2, 1985 — Mary Cannon, age 75 [1][21]

She is hit with a lamp, strangled, and stabbed with a knife. A file cabinet and jewelry box had been ransacked and there was a waffle shoe print pattern on the floor [1]

LAPD’s Giselle LaVigne tested blood on a piece of glass to determine PGM markers. The test originally did not match either Mary Cannon or Richard Ramirez. In court she testified that she unfortunately allowed the samples to dry out and could no longer exclude Ramirez as the killer. Another sample tested from a gray mitten with technology that bypassed the dried blood, did not match Ramirez either.[21]

The shoe prints were claimed to be from an Avia size 11 to 11–1/2. However at least one of the shoe prints was found to be falsified by police.[21][30]

Tests on recovered hair were done, and did not match Ramirez. [21]

July 5, 1985 — Whitney Bennett, age 16 [1]

Whitney is attacked as she sleeps in her home in Sierra Madre California. She is beaten unconscious with a tire iron and suspect attempts to kill her by strangling her with a cable, but failed and fled. All this happened while her parents were sleeping in the residence. She later woke up badly beaten and covered in blood. [1][4][21]

Blood testing found the suspect was Type A, which did not match Ramirez who was Type O. Same with antigens found on other items. [21]

The only thing they could peg down on Ramirez were the Avia shoe prints. But again, there was never any proof that those were Ramirez’s shoes and the shoe print could be attributed to many models. [21]

Discredited witness Launie Dempster claimed to have seen Ramirez at Monterey Park at the same time this crime occurred. Which means that the prosecution’s own witness literally gave Ramirez an alibi for this attack, if she wasn’t lying. [31]

July 7, 1985 — Joyce Lucille Nelson, age 60 [1]

Her home is burglarized and she is beaten to death while trying to fight off the intruder.[1]

A ‘medium brown’ hair is found, which does not match Ramirez’s black hair. Prints were gathered but were not used in court.[21][33]

The Avia shoe prints this time were found on Joyce’s face. And the police repeatedly misidentified the specific Avia model just to tie it to Ramirez. It was also later revealed that the inexperienced Gerald Burke did not use forensic-standard techniques to measure the shoe prints. [21] [33]

This killing was likely done by the same unidentified individual(s) involved in the Cannon and Bennett cases.[33]

July 7, 1985 — Sophie Dickman [1]

At 3:30 am Sophie was handcuffed at gunpoint while the suspect ransacked her house. He attempted to rape her but was unable to get an erection. He left her cuffed to the bed and escaped. She then heard her neighbor’s car engine start up near her bedroom window. Sophie stood up and was able to get help. Her neighbor was a LA crime analyst Linda Arthur. [21]

This attack occurred either a few hours before or after the Joyce Lucille Nelson murder. But in that attack a gun was not used, which could mean that it was not the same individual.[33]

Sophie described the gunman as 5'8”, thin, and with dark brown curly hair. But months later she changed the height to 6'1”, and ‘identified’ Ramirez despite admitting that she had seen him on TV but had not identified him from there. [21]

Sophie said that the suspect was able to tell between cubic zirconia and a real diamond. Which contradicts Sandra Hotchkiss’s statements that Ramirez did not understand jewelry. Hotchkiss took part in robberies with Ramirez. [34]