Posted on 08/25/2012 3:43:56 PM PDT by South40
The killer crept into the backyard.
The single-story house was on Via Zaragosa in Mission Viejo. It was about 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 25, 1985 – 27 years ago.
Inside the house, a 13-year-old boy couldn't sleep. His family had come home from Rosarito Beach several hours earlier, and James Romero III wanted to retrieve a pillow he had left in his family's camper. His parents and sister were asleep.
The boy left his house through a side door.
Romero had no idea, in that dark moment, how close he was to Richard Ramirez, who was about to become known as "The Night Stalker."
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
I thot the Night Stalker was captured in east LA when he went through a Latino neighborhood and they chased him down and captured him? Anyone else recall?
He was caught in LA. This Mission Viejo incident only helped identify him.
I remember that; and that he murdered an older woman around the block from where I live. I was terrified that summer.
Yes. Once that had his name, they put his face on the cover of the paper. Ramirez would be apprehended by a Hispanic mob screaming "El Diablo!" as they chased him through their neighborhood after recognizing him from the photos.
I remember it very well. I would leave for work before dawn and every exterior light at every house was still burning. My girlfriend wanted me to spend the night every night until he was caught. Her parents had known the elderly couple killed in Glendale. Hard to believe this all happened 27 years ago.
At the time, I was a 10 year old kid in Nebraska. Remember it was a huge national story and seeing news reports indicating they thought the killer could be headed west. Scared everyone in the country.
I lived in that area then, spent a very hot summer with the house buttoned up tight after sundown. My pregnant wife was terrified.
Sorry heading “East” :)
Not to be forgotten was then San Francisco mayor Diane Feinstein's moronic move of revealing important clues to the media. The homicide detectives couldn't believe what she had done and they were pissed. She is every bit the same moron to this day only she is in the senate where she can do more harm.
The mexican immigrants almost killed Ramirez. Ramirez was lucky the police showed up or he would have been a dead man. They knew who he was and they were not happy. (His picture had been published in the paper right before his arrest, so the people that were beating him knew who he was)
Also interesting about this case is how loose lips Diane Feinstein, then the mayor of San Francisco, almost botched the case up completely.
The Night Stalker wore a size 13 shoe and shoe prints at the crime scenes indicated that the killer was wearing a new style athletic shoe of which only one pair in size 13 had been sold in the LA area. That information had not been made public until big mouth Feinstein told the SanFran press that the unique shoe print found at a SanFran crime scene matched those found at LA crime scenes. Of course, the first thing Ramirez did was to dump the shoes!!
Never liked the woman after that.
* Patty Higgins, 32 years old, Arcadia. (June 27) Killed in her home, her throat slashed.
* Mary Louise Cannon, 75 years old, Arcadia. (July 2) Found in her home, beaten, throat slashed.
* Diedre Palmer, 16 years old, Arcadia. (July 5) Beaten at home with a tire iron. Survived.
Until the Mission Viejo attack, his crimes had mostly been in or around LA. I was in Huntington Beach and I had a sister who lived in MV. It was scary thinking that he had driven near or by my house to commit his latest crime near hers.
Convicted in '85, and still waiting on an "execution date" to be set.
I was living in SF when this happened. The Peter Pan killing was weird, and DiFi (who was, I hate to say it, a lot more sane than many of the other politicians in SF) really blew it with this one.
I was living in SF when this happened. The Peter Pan killing was weird, and DiFi (who was, I hate to say it, a lot more sane than many of the other politicians in SF) really blew it with this one.
They want to make sure they have the right guy. /s
Very interesting, thanks for elaborating. Disgusting about DiFi.
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