How Did Richard Ramirez Die? Here’s Why the Night Stalker’s Demise Didn’t Happen on Death Row 12 Years Ago

Richard Ramirez — a.k.a. the Night Stalker — terrorized Los Angeles with his twisted crimes in the 1980s.

From April 1984 to August 1985, Ramirez killed at least 13 people, sneaking into their homes in the middle of the night through open windows and unlocked doors, per CBS News. But his trail of terror didn’t stop there: Ramirez also robbed, raped and beat many others, using a wide variety of weapons (including handguns, knives and even a tire iron) to inflict his brutality, according to CBS. The randomness of his attacks and methods left authorities perplexed — and allowed Ramirez to escape capture for more than a year.

However, the Texas-born murderer was eventually caught on Aug. 31, 1985, as he attempted to steal a car in East L.A. An angry mob of citizens — who recognized him from media coverage as the Night Stalker — surrounded him, beating him with a steel rod until police arrived.

It would take another four years for Ramirez to be brought to trial for his crimes. But on Sept. 20, 1989, the man known as the Night Stalker was found guilty of all 43 counts — including 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries. Ramirez was given a total of 13 death sentences, and was sentenced to be executed by gas chamber, The New York Times reported. Ramirez died in June 2013 at 53 years old, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“He never showed any remorse for what he had done,” Frank Salerno, one of the detectives who helped capture Ramirez, said in the 2017 Reelz docuseries Murder Made Me Famous. “He was pure evil.”

So how did Richard Ramirez die? From the Night Stalker’s final days to his continued notoriety, here’s everything to know about his death behind bars.

How did Richard Ramirez die?

Richard Ramirez looks out the window of a police van. Credit:Bettmann/ Getty

Ramirez died while awaiting execution for the string of horrific crimes he committed in California between 1984 and 1985. Initially, California corrections officials stated that Ramirez died of natural causes, per the Los Angeles Times. However, a coroner’s report released 10 days after his death revealed that he had died due to complications from blood cancer.

According to the Marin County coroner’s office, Ramirez had B-cell lymphoma — a common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It was not clear when Ramirez had been diagnosed with cancer or whether he had been receiving treatment for it.

Additionally, Ramirez had other significant conditions at the time of his death, including “chronic substance abuse and chronic hepatitis C viral infection.” The drug abuse occurred prior to Ramirez’s imprisonment (more than two decades earlier) and was likely the cause of his hepatitis C infection, the Marin County assistant chief deputy coroner told USA Today.

“It’s likely something that he has been dealing with for years,” the coroner said about Ramirez’s hepatitis C infection, per USA Today. “It’s killing your liver.”

Shortly after his capture and arrest, a friend of Ramirez’s named Donna Myers confirmed that Ramirez had started to use cocaine the year prior, dissolving it in water and shooting it up. (Hepatitis C is often spread by the use of intravenous drugs, per USA Today.)

“He had cut marks, you know, tracks, running across his left arm,” Myers told PEOPLE about Ramirez’s extensive drug abuse. “He broke off a needle in his arm one day… he got so hooked on cocaine he just got wigged out.”

When did Richard Ramirez die?

Richard Ramirez appears in court wearing prison clothes on May 6, 1986. Credit: Bettmann/ Getty

Ramirez died at 9:10 a.m. on June 7, 2013, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Where did Richard Ramirez die?

Man identified by police as Richard Ramirez is taken from Hollenbeck police station on August 31, 1985, following his arrest in Los Angeles. Credit: AP Photo/Doug Pizac

Ramirez died at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, Calif., according to the Los Angeles Times.

He had been admitted to the hospital earlier in the week from San Quentin State Prison, where he had been on death row since receiving his sentence in 1989.

How old was Richard Ramirez when he died?

A mug shot of the “Night Stalker” serial killer, who perpetrated a series of brutal murders in the Los Angeles area in 1984 and 1985. Credit: Bettmann/Getty

Ramirez, who was born on Feb. 29, 1960, was 53 years old when he died.

What were Richard Ramirez’s last words?

Richard Ramirez with attorneys Randall Martin and Daro Inouye on October 5, 1990. Credit: AP Photo/John Mabanglo

While Ramirez’s final words before his death are unknown, his statements at his sentencing made it clear that he did not fear dying.

When the jury recommended the death penalty on 19 different counts at his October 1989 trial, Ramirez appeared unbothered.

“Big deal,” he told reporters, per the Los Angeles Times. “Death comes with the territory. See you in Disneyland.”

At his sentencing one month later, in November 1989, Ramirez delivered a chilling monologue to the packed courtroom — which included members of his family, victims who survived his attacks and relatives of those he killed.

“You don’t understand me. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience,” Ramirez said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He continued, “I am beyond good and evil. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells in us all. That’s it.”

What was the public reaction to Richard Ramirez’s death?

David Shinn, deputy chief of the San Francisco police department, speaks during a news conference beside a photograph of “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez on October 22, 2009. Credit: AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels

Emotions surrounding Ramirez’s death were mixed. Some expressed relief over the end of the serial killer’s life, while others felt disappointed that he did not face the execution by gas chamber that he was sentenced to.

Law enforcement officials viewed the death of the notorious serial killer as the closing of “a dark chapter in the history of Los Angeles,” NBC Los Angeles reported.

Though Ramirez was never executed, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Alan Yochelson expressed to the Los Angeles Times that “some measure of justice has been achieved,” since the notorious killer lived out the last two-plus decades of his life behind bars.

Many of Ramirez’s surviving victims and relatives of those he killed, however, felt that the killer known as the Night Stalker did not deserve to live as long as he did.

“It’s about time,” Bill Carns, one of the last people attacked by Ramirez, told the Los Angeles Times. “He should have been put to death an awful long time ago.”

Reyna Pinon, the wife of one of the men who helped capture Ramirez, echoed a similar sentiment: “To me, he had a better death than all those people whose lives he took,” she said.

Doreen Lioy, a freelance magazine editor who Ramirez married in 1996 while in prison, declined to comment to reporters following Ramirez’s death. However, Ramirez’s relatives in El Paso, Texas, released a statement asking for privacy.

“We are mourning the loss of our son and brother, Richard Ramirez,” the family told the El Paso Times. “The world judged him, whether fairly or unfairly, it no longer matters. He is now before the true judge, the judge that sees and knows all things. We ask that you respect our sorrow and grief.”

How have Richard Ramirez’s crimes been portrayed in the media?

“Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez confers with his attorney in a courtroom on May 21, 1986 in Los Angeles, CA. Credit: AP Photo/POOL

Ramirez’s reputation as one of the most notorious serial killers in history has lived on since his 2013 death — particularly in the L.A. area. Signs of the terror the Night Stalker inflicted on southern Californians in the 1980s still remain intact today.

“Everybody kept their windows open and he was crawling in windows,” Tiller Russell, who directed the 2021 Netflix docuseries Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, told PEOPLE. “So to this day in L.A., when you drive around, that’s why there are bars on the windows.”

The haunting memory of Ramirez has also been kept alive through pop culture references, with his life and crimes inspiring songs, television shows, films and documentaries. Since Ramirez’s death, the 2016 film The Night Stalker, the 2024 film MaXXXine, episodes of American Horror Story and multiple documentaries and docuseries have all told his sadistic story.