thanks to an observant teenager, police were armed with their most promising lead yet, and now they had the identity of a prime suspect. the lapd issued an all-points bulletin, and after so many false starts, they could finally bring the night stalker into the light. what happened next, no one saw coming. in part two of "the night stalker." i'm donnie wahlberg. thanks for watching. good night. ♪ milam: me and ricky were best friends. he was just a normal kid like everybody. we went to school together. he was very smart. god-fearing person. he studied the bible. he was a good, good student. and then certain things started going wrong with ricky,

and he started doing bad things. he was doing something very wrong. my belief -- you live by the sword, you die by the sword, and that's just the way it is. ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome to "very scary people." i'm donnie wahlberg. the media called it a rampage. there was a serial killer on the loose in california, random attacks throughout the spring and summer of 1985. no one felt safe. police described his actions as savage. he broke into people's homes, stole anything of value,

then raped, beat, and murdered those he found inside. he had been linked to at least 15 murders, from children to the elderly, male and female, wealthy and poor. now investigators had a promising lead, one that would finally end the night stalker's reign of terror. here's part two of "the night stalker: i will be avenged." ♪ ♪ reporter: the victim -- her throat had been slashed. he found her horribly mutilated and murdered. reporter: it appears the suspect got in through an open window. he stole a lot of jewelry and graduated to these horrible crimes of violence. it was a night of sheer terror. she begged him not to shoot her. it was an isolated murder here and an isolated one there,

but then, that summer, it was just constant. reporter: five murders and three sexual attacks in the past eight weeks. this man may be linked to at least six homicides. reporter #2: seven bodies beaten, stabbed, or shot. reporter #3: 33 cases, including 14 murders, have definitely been linked to the walk-in killer. the killer leaves the pentagram, the mark of the devil. he was openly bringing a satanic aspect to the attacks. i'm nervous. you know, i'm nervous for my family, nervous for my friends and neighbors. reporter: 29-year-old bill carns was shot in the head. yochelson: but what was different about this incident -- there was a young man who lived a couple blocks away. jenkins: he spotted a suspicious man, and he is able to get a partial license plate number. jordan: the license plate matched with a 1976 orange toyota station wagon. and so it was one of the best leads that they got

through the whole investigation. martin: it affords law enforcement the ability to issue an all-points bulletin for the orange station wagon. ♪ and, ultimately, that station wagon turns up abandoned in a parking lot. so the police -- they watch the car for 24 hours, and the driver never showed up. eventually, they brought it in to be processed for evidence. martin: the forensic examination of the car helped reveal the presence of a latent fingerprint off the rearview mirror of the car. yochelson: there was a brand-new technology that was just coming online. it was called the automated fingerprint identification system, or afis, and it's computerized technology where a fingerprint is scanned.

it goes through a database. and compared. the computer spits out possible matches, and then there's a physical match. martin: he'd been arrested in december of '83 for auto theft, and that was on file. that's where the make occurred. and it came in just in time to help them identify the night stalker. block: the individual who we believe is responsible for these crimes -- a man by the name of richard ramirez. richard ramirez was a tall, thin, dark-haired, dark-eyed, hispanic male with rotting teeth, a 25-year-old described drifter from el paso, texas. martin: there was a booking photo, and his photograph was published. block: at this very moment, an alert is going out to all law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for this individual,

who is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. jordan: and now police all over california are on the hunt for richard ramirez. the police were also staking out the greyhound bus station where he was known to frequent. so he gets off the bus, and the first thing that he sees is a newspaper stand with his picture on the front of "l.a. times." big picture. vidal: and believe me, exactly what that booking photo looked like was exactly the way he looked. he's surprised when the crowd recognizes him. the jig is up. reporter #3: walk-in killer suspect richard ramirez had just discovered he was a wanted man and desperately tried to make a run for it. hernandez: he starts running. he gets into a bus. people recognize him in the bus. he jumps out the bus.

he fled on foot and tried to steal a car. i was assigned to my car, 4a57, with my partner. we handle a radio call. [ siren wails ] we receive a broadcast over the air of a possible night stalker sighting. [ siren wails ] hernandez: he tries to hijack this old classic mustang. you don't do that in east l.a. reporter #3: he chased after the suspect after he claims ramirez was trying to steal his red mustang. and even though he says he was being threatened with a gun, pinon fought that suspect anyway. then i got him by the neck. reporter #3: got him by the neck, and then what? then we struggled back and forth over the car. during this time, we're hearing broadcasts of requests for additional units to respond. the air unit, police helicopter, was requested to follow any possible suspect.

he was last seen traveling eastbound on 8th street. yochelson: they chased him physically. a number of the other neighbors got involved. [ siren wails ] hernandez: and people were just yelling, "el matón," "the killer," and "the night stalker." [ siren wails ] and i remember going up on indiana to percy street, and we see people pointing down the direction where this person was going. so then it was a mob. it was a mob scene. then ramirez attempted to carjack another vehicle. big mistake. reporter #3: saw another man hitting his wife while pulling her out of her gold granada. he hit her? yes, he tried to -- where'd he hit her? [ speaking spanish ] oh, he hit her right here, all over right here. what was she thinking? was she scared? yes. reporter #3: that's when torres grabbed the pipe

and began hitting that man. vidal: when i exited my police car, he was bleeding from the back of his head. i remember that. ultimately, a group of folks realize who it is and wind up grabbing onto ramirez. at that point, he was dead meat. my concern was i wanted to remove him from that hostile situation that he was in at the time. he was hit over the head with, like, a copper rod they used to ground these telephone poles. i'm sure he was happy to see the cops show up. vidal: he was on the grass parkway of the street, south side of hubbard, and he was laying there, and the deputy had just rolled him over. we requested a rescue ambulance to come. you look at the media coverage of the time, you'll that he's bandaged because he was struck on the head during the arrest.

and these citizens were heroes. they caught the night stalker. ♪ $5 all you can eat pancakes are back to celebrate ihop's 65th anniversary. so come on in. even if it's your birthday, too. available for a limited time only at ihop. download the app

and start earning free food. #1 isn't a status earned overnight. it's earned in every wash, and re-earned every day. tide. america's #1 detergent. [music playing] subject 1: cancer is a long journey. it's overwhelming, but you just have to put your mind to it and fight. subject 2: it doesn't feel good because you can't play outside with other children. subject 3: as a parent, it is your job to protect your family. but here is something that i cannot do. i cannot fix this. i don't know if my daughter is going to be able to walk. i don't know if she's going to make it till tomorrow.

[music playing] interviewer: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. families never receive a bill from st. jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. subject 4: childhood cancer, there's no escaping it. but st. jude is doing the work, continually researching towards cures, giving more than just my child a chance at life. interviewer: please, call or go online right now and become a st. jude partner in hope for only $19 a month. subject 5: those donations really matter because we're not going to give up. and when you see other people not giving up on your child, it makes all the difference in the world. interviewer: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt.

you can wear to show your support to help st. jude save the lives of these children. subject 6: st. jude is hope. even today after losing a child, it's still about the hope of tomorrow, because. childhood cancer has to end. interviewer: please, call or go online right now. [music playing] walls: we're happy to report that the suspect that we have in custody is richard ramirez, otherwise known as the night stalker. vidal: he's handcuffed, hands behind his back.

when i was talking to him, i felt just different. you might call it satanic. i mean, he just looked the presence of evil before you. he was a drifter. he was in arizona for a while. came to california for unknown reasons. started out as a burglar and graduated to these horrible crimes of violence and the satanism, which my personal view, was an affect on his part to stir up notoriety. the night stalker was now in custody, but the big question was, what happened to this person that created this monster? ricardo leyva ramirez was born february 29, 1960, in el paso, texas. hancock: richard's mother worked in a boot factory, and his father worked for the santa fe railroad.

richard was the youngest of five kids. milam: we went to school together. he was very smart. god-fearing person. and then he started doing bad things. hernandez: when we interviewed some people, people were saying that he was, like, a little petty thief. and he didn't have a very good reputation. hernandez: we found out through medical records that he had had many seizures in the sixth, seventh grade, and we had a doctor examine him. and they did some scans on his brain, and they found some abnormalities. there was something wrong with him. maybe he was epileptic, but he never got an official diagnosis. richard ramirez also had a very disturbed childhood. he had what can be considered now a very abusive father.

the father was very authoritarian. he would not hesitate to use the whip and, you know, belt him. he would go and steal things. he would get, you know, caught by his dad, and part of that corrective measure that he would use, he would tie him up at a cemetery that was right next door to where they used to live. put him on crosses, tied up, overnight. so he had to endure those things very early age. we're talking about when he was 12, 14 years old. jordan: richard's father was clearly an influence, but many believe that it was another family member that may have done the most damage. martin: part of ramirez's childhood specific to his teen years had to deal with a cousin, a vietnam veteran who had shared with him

some of the details of war, of combat, of some of the killings that he had witnessed. he taught him how to use the knife and how to cut throats. milam: ricky was very, very scared of mike, and he had panic attacks. he told me how much he despised mike. schecter: mike, who had all these tales about vietnamese women he had raped and killed and polaroid photographs which he would show young ramirez of decapitated heads of women he had raped and then beheaded, and who really schooled him in how to kill stealthily. sometimes gruesome pictures put images in your mind. and they did have a great impact on ricky. ♪

there's no question that his criminal behavior later in life reflects lots of sex offenses that are violent, that involve torture, that involve horrific, brutal acts. so for him, there was a clear fusion between lust and cruelty. hancock: when richard was 13, he was present when mike got into an argument with his wife and shot her in the face and killed her. dietz: ramirez shot many of his victims in the face. that is not a common place to shoot people. and yet he is shooting victims in the face disproportionately often, just like his cousin mike shot the first homicide victim ramirez ever witnessed in the face. hancock: after he shot his wife, he went to trial, and he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

he was given a lighter sentence, and he actually, after he finished his sentence, came back into richard's life. it seems like a pivotal, harrowing moment in this young kid's development. jordan: hardened by his early experiences, richard became increasingly drawn to macabre things. richard took to sleeping in cemeteries. he would wear a lot of black clothes and go into what you can perceive as a persona of a gothic, evil night marauder. he started with marijuana and then later on went into heavy drugs like acid. he was having epileptic seizures. coupled with the drugs and, you know, all that stuff, it's a combination. he explained it to me that, "you don't care about nobody,

not even yourself," and when you come to that stage, it's a very, very dangerous stage. hancock: he didn't go to school much. he started hanging out with a rough gang. richard dropped out of high school when he was 14. he got in trouble with the law. and once that happened, i guess he decided not to go back to school. and then certain things started going wrong with ricky there. ♪ jordan: after ramirez was finally captured, the arresting officers said that he was very polite, but he refused to cooperate. yochelson: the sheriffs came and transported him later to the county jail, where he was booked. when he was arrested, his arrest had led to a locker at the greyhound bus station.

there was a trove of evidence recovered in that bus locker -- stolen property that was linked to the victims. the guns weren't recovered, but ammunition that had been in those guns were recovered and linked to ramirez. the charges were filed within 48 hours, as required by law. jordan: richard ramirez was charged with 14 murders, 19 burglaries, 7 rapes, and a slew of other charges. richard was arrested in '85, and it was three years before he went on trial. he came to court wearing sunglasses. he changed from a really ugly, evil-looking guy to a rock star. ♪ the minute you drive off the lot. or more. that's why farmers new car replacement pays

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they made us feel completely comfortable in our home. and, yes, it's affordable. i wish we would have looked into it sooner. think i might look into one myself. stay in the home and life you've built for years to come. call... and take advantage of our no interest aw, you ain't no reporter. jenkins: richard ramirez was finally behind bars, and californians could finally sleep at night after a year of being on edge. now came the monumental task of bringing the night stalker to justice. judge: all right, this again is case number a771272, the people of the state of california vs. richard ramirez, the defendant. there were tremendous challenges just putting the case together.

martin: you've got all these agencies that you've got to coordinate. you've got all these victims that you've got to care for. this was a monumental effort, and then you add to it that this is a capital murder case. the preparations are absolutely incredible. yochelson: he was initially represented by two appointed members of the l.a. county public defender's office. great attorneys. he had excellent representation. but for whatever reason, ramirez's family chose to fire the public defender's office and bring in a series of private counsel. first issue that came up was who was paying for this defense, because mounting a capital defense under any circumstances is tremendously expensive. hernandez: and then he got mr. gallegos for a couple of weeks. woman: my understanding, mr. ramirez -- that you would like to have mr. gallegos as your attorney. is that correct? yes. mr. gallegos apparently had offered him

some deals with movies. jordan: in the '80s, some serial killers were treated like celebrities, and the media outlets would actually compete to get the rights to their stories. ramirez was in that group. linedecker: he did what a lot of people like him do. he suddenly decided that, "gee, i'm a celebrity, and i'm going to milk this for everything i can milk it for." yochelson: there was some indication that there was a book deal in the works, which poses all kinds of ethical issues, so the judge actually appointed another lawyer just to advise ramirez as to the possible issues of financing his defense through a book deal, and ramirez refused to talk to that lawyer. ultimately, daniel and arturo hernandez came on the case. they're not related, even though they have the same last name. the family has retained us officially, and as far as we're concerned, we are the attorneys for mr. ramirez. hernandez: we ended up with the case, and it made a big difference, absolutely,

knowing the culture, bilingualism, because, you know, in el paso, we speak both languages. we seem to get along very well. hernandez: he was very impressed that i unshackled him and not -- you know, we broke the ice, so he hired us. he signed the substitution of attorneys that need to be filed. but we were not welcome in l.a. we were really in danger. i was working as a paralegal with arturo hernandez, who is now my husband. the day that judge soper let them into the case, i received a phone call late in the evening, and they said, "we know who you are. we are the family of one of the victims in the ramirez case, and we're going to kill you." so i immediately hung up on the person and hightailed it out of the office. yochelson: and there was an issue that was brought up as to whether or not they were qualified to handle a case like this.

both had only been attorneys for about five years and apparently had never handled a capital case. jordan: at preliminary hearings, defense and prosecution would get into shouting matches with each other. woman: they're matters of public record, sir. there's presently pending in that court -- these liars. judge tynan and i did not get along, to say the least. he was always mocking us. he, to me, did not have what they call judicial temperament. he would get pissed off. yochelson: daniel and arturo hernandez made statements that the prosecution considered were unsupported by the evidence -- flat out lying or going for publicity. phil halpin, who was lead counsel, lead prosecutor -- very knowledgeable, knows how to handle a case, but there was really contention between the hernandezes and phil. and i think a lot of that was just natural, given the nature of the case and the stakes that were involved.

and in the middle of all of this chaos was richard ramirez. reporter: richard ramirez came into court for the final day of his pre-trial hearing flashing the same grin he displayed during testimony about the grisly details of the night stalker killings. he kept smiling as judge james nelson ruled there is sufficient evidence to bind the 26-year-old drifter over for trial on 14 counts of murder plus 36 other counts of attempted murder, rape, robbery, and burglary. yochelson: he was arraigned and immediately took on the persona of the night stalker as he left court, and the circus began. reporter: ramirez revealed a pentagram, a symbol of devil worship, on his left palm and later shouted out what most observers agreed was "hail satan." hail satan. aguilar-hernandez: the first time that i spoke to richard ramirez on the phone, it was -- it was very scary, very scary, because i knew what he had represented on his hand

and all the satan hype that had happened after he had done that in open court. yochelson: i truly believe that all of this was simply him acting out and wanting to play the role of the celebrity serial killer -- that he's the night stalker, he should be feared. ♪ hi! need new glasses? buy one pair, get one free at visionworks! how can you see me squinting? i can't! i'm just telling everyone!...hey! buy one pair, get one free for back to school. visionworks. see the difference.

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♪ welcome back to "very scary people." on august 30, 1988, almost three years after his arrest, the night stalker finally stands trial in los angeles. but the man who terrified the nation for more than a year isn't finished yet. instead, he begins a bizarre new chapter that has some wondering if the night stalker could escape justice after all. linedecker: it was one of the biggest trials in the history of l.a. the courtroom was packed, and you had to get there hours ahead of time to even have a chance to get inside the courtroom. richard really loved the attention. jordan: ramirez, who had spent months in the shadows, now seemed to relish his time in the spotlight.

hernandez: we got him some armani suits donated from goodwill. he changed from a really ugly, evil-looking guy to a rock star. and shades, the teeth -- you know, yeah, we got his teeth fixed, so he became a very well-looking guy. his transition was just another part of the kind of circus atmosphere that the case was taking on. it's almost what you expected because he just seemed to be enjoying his role as the defendant, the star of this case. the gratification he was getting, he was being fed, so he said, "wow," you know, "i'm getting all this fame now." and, unfortunately, he got all his glory. aguilar-hernandez: he had a very powerful energy, but it wasn't a good energy. it was something other than good. it was just difficult to explain what you felt.

man: case number a771272, richard ramirez. ramirez's father took the stand and tried to alibi him. hancock: julian ramirez had testified that richard was at a family gathering in el paso at the same time that were several attacks in los angeles. which would eliminate him as a suspect because if ramirez didn't commit these, he didn't commit the others either. the prosecution brought me in as a rebuttal witness to the father's testimony. i interviewed julian ramirez in 1985. he said to me, "i have not seen him for two or three years." yochelson: ramirez periodically acted up between trial -- or acted out. [ speaking indistinctly ] parasites. yochelson: he came to court wearing sunglasses. judge tynan ordered him to take off the sunglasses, and he said, "no," in a very loud voice.

security in the courtroom was increased after ramirez threatened to have an unidentified friend smuggle a gun in to him so that he could kill the prosecution team. they had to erect metal detectors, blocking the entrance to the courtroom, and then ramirez was brought in heavily guarded and shackled. there were rumors about everything -- he was gonna bring in a gun -- so we were frisked all the time. came with the territory, i guess. there was something that happened in the lock-up where the bailiffs took him to the ground. two officers that were martial arts, ex-navy seals -- they were watching him. they said that he went like this, "i'm gonna cut your head off," threatening the witness. that causes a whole, you know, bar-fight-like scenario. they grabbed him, they drag him, and beat the crap out of him. jordan: with so much drama happening in the courtroom, the judge decided that the two hernandez attorneys needed help.

yochelson: judge tynan appointed a third lawyer. he made a great selection in ray clark, who came on and took over a lot of the case. hernandez: a wonderful, wonderful guy. he helped out a lot. but ray clark also had a controversial strategy. reporter: any speculation on how mr. ramirez might stand right now at this point? hopefully not guilty. i think somebody else did it. he is innocent in your mind? he is not guilty in my mind, and i would like for the press to make the distinction. the argument at trial was that somebody else did all these crimes. linedecker: some other dude did it. i don't think there was another dude like richard ramirez. jordan: and that wasn't even the oddest thing about the trial. the entire back row was filled with goth girls. ♪

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woah. ( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) constant contact delivers the marketing tools your small business needs to keep up, excel, and grow. constant contact. helping the small stand tall. [music playing] subject 1: cancer is a long journey. it's overwhelming, but you just have to put your mind to it and fight. subject 2: it doesn't feel good because you can't play outside with other children. subject 3: as a parent, it is your job to protect your family. but here is something that i cannot do. i cannot fix this. i don't know if my daughter is going to be able to walk. i don't know if she's going to make it till tomorrow. [music playing]

interviewer: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. families never receive a bill from st. jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. subject 4: childhood cancer, there's no escaping it. but st. jude is doing the work, continually researching towards cures, giving more than just my child a chance at life. interviewer: please, call or go online right now and become a st. jude partner in hope for only $19 a month. subject 5: those donations really matter because we're not going to give up. and when you see other people not giving up on your child, it makes all the difference in the world. interviewer: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt. you can wear to show your support

to help st. jude save the lives of these children. subject 6: st. jude is hope. even today after losing a child, it's still about the hope of tomorrow, because. childhood cancer has to end. interviewer: please, call or go online right now. [music playing] my cpa told me i wouldn't qualify for the erc tax refund, so i called innovation refunds. their team of independent tax attorneys will work with your cpa to determine if your company is eligible. [whip sound] take the first step to see if your small business qualifies. reporter: why were you in the courtroom today? i just wanted to see what he looked like. i think he's cute. yochelson: he loved the attention. at this point, the women started showing up, the so-called groupies, who would come to court and want to see ramirez and who were rooting for him.

hancock: the first thing i remember is that i walked into the courtroom, the entire back row was filled with goth girls in black leather dresses and dark black hair and silver and chains. all kinds of people -- really crazy, you know, street folks and some other professional ones. there was a lot of weird stuff -- you know, "send me your semen. i want to have your baby." you know, i mean, people -- people are really crazy. the thing that really astonished me in this was the attraction of what you'd describe as otherwise intelligent and capable women attracted to somebody who is accused of crimes of this horrific magnitude. woman: everyone makes him look so bad, you know, but i know that he's -- he's a nice person 'cause i've met him and i know. it's an extreme, exaggerated form

of the tendency of many women to be attracted to bad boys, and there's some kind of "beauty and the beast" fantasy going on. you know, "my love will transform this creature into a warm, loving being." hernandez: doreen lioy was one of richard's very persistent followers -- groupies. she was a, you know, very eloquent, very sharp lady. one of the things that she did was claiming that she wanted to die with him and she would go and kill herself, you know, if he was ever put to death. but she really liked to, you know, write to richard, and she apparently wrote very good letters. you know, this is los angeles, and even then, even as a young attorney, it just seemed to be par for the course. it's show biz, and it was a distraction

because it was annoying. at that time, it was like the -- the case of the century. yochelson: there was a lot of press coverage. mostly print reporters were there. there were still photographers in the courtroom. television filmed the closing argument. many of the jurors had tears in their eyes as they listened to the horror. yochelson: there was direct evidence. surviving victims were able to identify ramirez and describe what he did. you connect his fingerprints to a couple of the scenes. it's either ramirez doing this or that somebody else was wearing his fingerprints.

the guns were linked to ramirez that were used at the crime scenes, so that's another piece of the circumstantial evidence. and all the stolen property traced back to him, as well. yochelson: richard ramirez stole a lot of jewelry, and a lot of this jewelry was recovered that was in turn identified by either the victims or the victims' survivors. jordan: despite all the evidence, the defense team continued to argue that richard ramirez was just the wrong guy, and in one case, they actually tried to implicate the victim's family. reporter: jack vincow discovered the body of his 79-year-old mother stabbed to death in her los angeles apartment, but vincow later admitted under defense cross-examination that his mother had often engaged in loud disputes with vincow's mentally disturbed brother manny. jenkins: so the defense was shooting from the hip trying to create any kind of diversion from ramirez's guilt. we were not here to provide total exoneration. we're trying to throw in some kind of a reasonable doubt,

you know, and that was our duty. reporter: but as vincow described how he found his mother's body, ramirez leaned forward and smiled. hancock: he had a little smirk on his face. he was just radiating evil. just -- just pure malevolence. i could feel waves of hatred coming out of him and just pure malice. and i looked at him, and i thought, "i better not look at him anymore." dietz: when he got the nickname "night stalker," why not play it out a little more and get some more power by scaring people in the courtroom, creating images that would be remembered decades later of his antics in the courtroom? so he succeeded. yochelson: this was a long trial. we had approximately 165 witnesses, some 8,000 pages of transcript or testimony

that the jurors had to go through to reach their verdict. and then a bizarre twist made the public wonder if richard ramirez was still killing from behind bars. one day, one of the jurors didn't show up. but big deal. death always went with the territory. i'll see you in disneyland. ♪ (dad) we got our subaru forester wilderness to discover all of the places that make us feel something more. (vo) subaru is the national park foundation's largest corporate donor, helping expand access for all.

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reporter: dark sunglasses and shackles -- that was richard ramirez's daily attire throughout the almost year-long night stalker trial. and from the very beginning, prosecutor philip halpin left no doubt about his intentions for ramirez. ray clark's argument was, we got to have sympathy even for the worst of all people. but you're not gonna get sympathy for a guy that had done all these horrible things. some people would hang you for spitting on a sidewalk. i wouldn't hang you for atrocities such as hitler did. hernandez: i would've argued differently. we're talking about a death penalty. we're gonna take somebody's life. the state is gonna execute somebody. the prosecution's argument was a very methodical argument. it was simply going through all the crimes, listing all of this evidence that linked ramirez.

jordan: it was a long and tumultuous trial. in the end, there were 165 witnesses and 658 pieces of evidence presented before the defense and the prosecution gave their final closing arguments. as the jury was deliberating this mountain of evidence that they had to consider, one day, one of the jurors didn't show up. then she was found dead. there was a lot of speculation in the media that -- that the murder of this juror was really somehow related to the case, that it was a conspiracy -- maybe, perhaps ramirez had followers who had done this, that ramirez had somehow orchestrated this. well, the rumors included me as a co-conspirator. i was the prime suspect. yochelson: none of this was true. it was an act of domestic violence on the part of the juror's husband. but this was all out there,

and the defense argued that there should be a mistrial because they were afraid that the jurors would speculate that it was somehow connected to the case. you know, i thought, "oh, boy. if they're gonna need to declare a mistrial, that's gonna be god awful." an alternate juror was substituted in, and under california law, the jury had to begin their deliberations all over again. jordan: after such a chaotic trial, the jury had to deal with this awful distraction and the murder of one of their own. but in the end, they did their job. ♪ reporter: richard ramirez wasn't in the courtroom to hear the verdict against him. he opted to stay in his cell for what was a loud and clear decision. "we, the jury in the above entitled action, find the defendant, richard ramirez, guilty of murder." yochelson: they came back with verdicts convicting ramirez of 13 counts of murder, murder in the first degree,

with various what are called special circumstances making him eligible for the death penalty, and then 30 other felonies. he was yelling from the holding cell, "i'm guilty. i want the death penalty. i want to die now." reporter: when richard ramirez was found guilty, he left the courthouse flashing the sign of satan. evil. reporter: when he returned to find out if he would live or die, he flashed an obscenity. ♪ the final courtroom chapter of a serial killer was played out for richard ramirez. the 29-year-old devil-worshipping drifter from texas had been found guilty of the heinous crimes. this courtroom date was to pronounce final sentencing. i don't think anyone was surprised when the sentence was read. "we, the jury in the above entitled action, found it to be an intentional murder, fix the penalty therefore at death." reporter: and ramirez finally spoke, evoking the spirit of satan after a year-long trial.

when he was leaving the courtroom for the last time, he made some statements. reporter: he made it very clear he is not afraid to die. but big deal. death always went with the territory. i'll see you in disneyland. jordan: as the trial ended, his time in the spotlight was over, but still there was one person who would stick by his side. man: here she comes. man #2: she's here and walking in the door. martin: doreen lioy was the winner in the serious suitors that he had attracted during the course of the trial. i just wanted to say i'm ecstatically happy today and very, very proud to have married richard and to be his wife.

and i hope that you will be very respectful of the day and let me go and enjoy my day in peace, and i appreciate your patience. thank you. reporter: couldn't you respond to some of the allegations that you're a recluse, that you live in a fantasy world, things like that? -no. -don't you want to speak to us? can you just say why, doreen? in 2009, the san francisco police department was able to link an unsolved homicide of a small child. once he had his dna in the system, they started finding out, for example, the little girl, 9-year-old that was killed in san francisco. she was killed and sexually assaulted, which was a terrible case. jordan: doreen lioy divorced ramirez, citing this information as the reason she wanted to distance herself from the night stalker.

kristof: he never showed any sign of remorse all through the trials. he never showed any sign of remorse whatsoever. he was just a monster. i don't think we've seen the likes of him before or since, and thank god for that. since the mid-1980s, i've asked the correctional officers to unchain the inmate that i was going to interview so that he'd be comfortable. richard ramirez is the only inmate i've interviewed for whom i did not request he be freed and unchained. carns: it has put a huge detour into my life. i wasn't the same person i was prior to the injury. now it's time to pick up the pieces and keep going on. he would've never stopped.

he would've never stopped. richard ramirez continued to attract female admirers from behind the walls of san quentin up until his end. after almost 24 years on death row, ramirez died on june 7, 2013, at the age of 53 -- not by execution but from complications related to b-cell lymphoma. meanwhile, victims' families and survivors of the night stalker's vicious attacks did what they could to move forward with their lives. i'm donnie wahlberg. thanks for watching. good night.