Richard Ramirez

He became ill with B-cell lymphoma while spending time on the death row and died on 7 June 2013, aged 53. At the time of his death, he had been on death row for more than 23 years awaiting execution.

Ricardo Leyva Ramirez was born on 28 February 1960 in El Paso, Texas, to a Mexican-American railway worker. He was the youngest among the seven children. His father was an abusive man.

As a young boy he began smoking marijuana and came under the influence of his older cousin, Mike, a decorated U.S. Army Green Beret combat veteran, who fascinated Richard with gruesome stories of how he raped and tortured women during the Vietnamese War. Richard was also present when Mike murdered his wife.

Hardened by his early experiences, he became increasingly drawn towards macabre things. He also took to using LSD as a teenager and delved deep into Satanism. With his interest in violence mounting, he dropped out of high school and ventured into a life of crime.

Richard Ramirez had started stealing and engaging in petty robberies by 1977, and it did not take long for the police to place him in juvenile detention. A few years later, he received a probationary sentence in 1982 for marijuana possession.

With time his crimes started getting more serious and he was arrested in 1983 for a car theft. By the time he was released in 1984, he was a hardened and callous individual with no prospects of leading a respectable life.

He committed his first known murder in June 1984. He broke into the house of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow, sexually assaulted her, robbed her home and stabbed her to death. The brutality of the attack shocked the police.

He struck again in March 1985, this time attacking Maria Hernandez. The terrified girl somehow managed to escape but her roommate was not so lucky and was murdered by the frenzied killer. The same evening, Ramirez also shot and killed Tsai Lian Yu.

A few days later he broke into the house of 64-year-old Vincent Zazzara and Zazzara's 44-year-old wife, Maxine. He first shot dead the husband and then tortured and killed the wife. He also gouged out her eyes.

Richard Ramirez initially claimed innocence despite the overwhelming evidence against him. He was charged with 14 murders and 31 other felonies in connection to his killing spree. However, the trial proved to be a very long and complicated one as Ramirez changed his legal counsel a number of times. The geographical spread of his crimes also complicated the trial.

The trial dragged on for four years and he was finally found guilty on 43 charges, including 13 counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, 11 sexual assault charges and 14 burglary charges. He received 19 death sentences in November 1989.