From April to August , Ramirez murdered at least fourteen people during various break-ins, with his crimes usually taking place in the afternoon, leading to him being dubbed the Night Stalker , the Walk-In Killer , and the Valley Intruder.
He was convicted and sentenced to death in and died while awaiting execution in Ramirez's crimes were heavily influenced by a troubled childhood. Frequently abused by his father, he developed brain damage and started abusing drugs at the age of He began developing macabre interests in his early and mid-teens from his older cousin, a Vietnam War veteran with schizophrenia and PTSD , who extensively bragged about the war crimes he had committed , and who killed his wife in front of Ramirez when Ramirez was Ramirez learned military skills from him that he would later employ during his killing spree.
He also cultivated a strong interest in Satanism and the occult. By the time he had left his home in Texas and moved to California at the age of 22, Ramirez began to frequently use cocaine. He would often commit burglaries to support his drug addiction, many of which were later frequently accompanied by murders, attempted murders , rapes , attempted rapes, and battery.
The murder spree terrorized the residents of Greater Los Angeles and later the San Francisco Bay Area over the course of fourteen months.
However, his first known murder occurred as early as April ; this crime was not connected to Ramirez, nor was it known to be his doing, until Ramirez used a wide variety of weapons, including handguns , various types of knives, a machete , a tire iron and a claw hammer.
