Night Stalker’s Love of Killing Quoted in Court Documents
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ A drifter accused in 15 ″Night Stalker″ killings claimed he took photographs of himself next to the propped-up bodies of his victims and gouged out the eyes of a woman, according to newly released court documents.
Richard Ramirez also boasted he was an uncatchable ″super-criminal″ who had killed 20 people in California and that he enjoyed watching people die, Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Ellis quoted him as saying.
″I would shoot them in the head and they would wiggle and squirm all over the place and then just stop; or cut them with a knife and watch their face turn real white,″ Ellis quoted Ramirez as saying after his arrest Aug. 31.
″I love all that blood,″ he said. ″I love to kill people. I love watching them die.″
The transcript of Ellis’ statements made while in jail was unsealed Thursday by Municipal Judge James Nelson, a day after Nelson released earlier testimony quoting Ramirez as saying, ″Of course I did it,″ and linking Satan to the four-month rampage of slayings, rapes and beatings.
Ramirez’s attorneys deny their client made the statements.
Earlier this week, Nelson ordered a trial for the 26-year-old drifter on 14 murder counts and 36 other felony charges. He faces a May 21 arraignment.
Ramirez, who grew up in El Paso, Texas, also is accused of killing a 66- year-old an accountant in San Francisco and wounding the man’s wife.
Ellis quoted Ramirez as admitting that he killed the accountant, named Peter Pan. ″Boom, boom 3/8 I did them in,″ Ramirez is quoted as saying.
Ramirez also is quoted as saying on Oct. 10 that he mutilated one victim: ″One time I told this lady to give me all her money. She said no. So I cut her and pulled her eyes out.″
Sheriff’s Deputy Russell Uloth testified at Ramirez’ preliminary hearing that Night Stalker victim Maxine Zazzara, 44, slain with her husband, Vincent, 64, on March 29, 1985, in their Whittier home, had her eyes cut out.
Ramirez also claimed to have taken pictures of his victims: ″I would do someone in and then take a camera and set the timer so I could sit them up next to me and take our pictures together.″
Authorities would not verify if such photos existed.
Ellis said Ramirez complained he ruined his crime spree when he left behind a fingerprint.
On Wednesday, Nelson released the testimony of police Officer George Thomas who said in a closed court session last month that Ramirez confessed the Night Stalker crimes to him after he was caught by angry East Los Angeles residents.
″I want the electric chair. They should have shot me on the street,″ he quoted Ramirez as saying. ″I did it, you know. You guys got me, the Stalker.″
Thomas testified he took notes while sitting with the handcuffed Ramirez in an interview room at an East Los Angeles police station.
Ramirez volunteered the statements before he had been informed of his constitutional right to remain silent, officer Daniel Rodriguez testified. The officer added that police did not ask any questions before he started talking.