The smiling boy in this photo grew up to be one of America’s most evil men

Mug shot of Richard Ramirez, taken on 12 December 1984 after an arrest for car theft, directly led to his apprehension / Los Angeles Police Department
Richard Ramirez, born in El Paso in 1960, became known as the “Night Stalker” after a series of murders and assaults terrorized California in 1984 and 1985. Accounts of his upbringing describe abuse and exposure to extreme violence, but those experiences do not excuse his crimes. His victims were people attacked where they should have been safest. Behind the notorious nickname were stolen lives, grieving families, and survivors carrying wounds long after the headlines faded.

The investigation gained momentum when teenager James Romero III recorded details of a suspicious car. A fingerprint subsequently helped identify Ramirez, and residents captured him in Los Angeles on August 31, 1985. In 1989, he was convicted of 13 murders, alongside sexual assaults and burglaries, and sentenced to death. He died in prison in 2013 from complications of lymphoma. His childhood photograph remains unsettling, but the people he harmed deserve the lasting place in this story.