Infamous Night Stalker Serial Killer tied to 1984 killing of child

[Roo]

This guy is so evil.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MNJ01A9BP5.DTL

'Night Stalker' tied to slaying of S.F. girl

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, October 23, 2009

Two decades after the devil-worshiping "Night Stalker" killer was sentenced to die for 13 Southern California murders, DNA evidence has tied him to the 1984 rape and slaying of a 9-year-old girl in the Tenderloin, San Francisco authorities said Thursday.

The DNA links Richard Ramirez and possibly a second, unknown attacker to the April 10, 1984, killing of Mei "Linda" Leung, whose body was found hanging over a pipe in the basement of her apartment building at 765 O'Farrell St., police said.

The girl was with her 8-year-old brother when she lost a dollar bill and went looking for it, police said. The boy wandered away, then came back to the basement and found his sister dead. Police said she had been beaten, raped and stabbed.

The police cold-case unit recently revived the case. Investigators obtained a confirming sample of Ramirez's DNA Wednesday to compare with what was found at the scene of the killing and to a sample previously taken from the convicted murderer.

The girl was slain more than two months before Ramirez's first known murder, the killing June 28, 1984, of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow in the Glassell Park area of Los Angeles.

Killed as they slept

For more than a year afterward, Ramirez terrified Southern California with a string of slayings, earning the "Night Stalker" nickname because he murdered his victims as they slept.

At some of the scenes, Ramirez scrawled pentagrams, often associated with devil worship. Some of his victims were mutilated with the symbols and had their eyes gouged out. Ramirez allowed one victim to live after he made her swear upon Satan that she would not scream for help.

Arrested in 1985

Ramirez was arrested in August 1985 in Los Angeles after he tried to steal a car and was chased down and pummeled by residents. After a trial in which Ramirez giggled in court and yelled, "Hail, Satan," he was convicted in 1989 of 13 murders and 30 other felonies, among them child rape and sodomy.

Now 49, he remains on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison as his appeals work through the courts.

In addition to the Southern California killings, Ramirez was charged in a 1985 attack on a San Francisco couple, but was never tried.

On Aug. 17, 1985, about two weeks before his arrest, Ramirez allegedly shot and killed a 66-year-old accountant, Peter Pan, as he slept in his home near Lake Merced. Pan's wife, Barbara, who was beaten and shot, survived but was left disabled.

On the walls, the killer scrawled pentagrams and "Jack the Knife" in lipstick. Authorities later learned that someone matching Ramirez's description had sold Barbara Pan's jewelry in El Sobrante.

San Francisco prosecutors put the case on hold after their Los Angeles counterparts expressed concern that a trial could create conflicts in testimony and require some of the surviving Southern California victims to return to the witness stand.

San Francisco police also have long suspected Ramirez of killing Masataka Kobayashi, 45, chef and part owner of Masa's restaurant on Bush Street, on Nov. 13, 1984. He was never charged in that slaying.

Ramirez lived nearby

Around the time Mei Leung was killed, Ramirez was known to be living at 373 Ellis St., and 56 Mason St., both in the Tenderloin within about six blocks of the girl's apartment building, police said at a news conference Thursday.

Mei lived with her mother, a restaurant worker who had moved here from Hong Kong in 1980, her brother and two sisters.

Deputy Police Chief David Shinn said Thursday that the girl's family has been notified about the possibility that the killer has been found and that they had expressed relief.

"It's painful," he said. "Hopefully, this will bring some closure to the family."

Mei's mother, Yuk Yin Leung, now lives elsewhere in San Francisco. She declined to comment Thursday.

Police say they expect to submit the case within a few weeks to District Attorney Kamala Harris for possible prosecution.

Tough to analyze

Matthew Gabriel, a DNA expert at the Police Department's crime lab, said investigators had been working on the evidence from the killing for five years. He said the testing that yielded the match was done on an "extremely difficult item to analyze."

The match occurred soon after the sample was submitted to the state in September. On Wednesday, investigators served a search warrant at San Quentin to obtain a DNA confirmation sample from Ramirez.

Ramirez did not say anything when he provided the oral swab, said Inspector Holly Pera of the homicide unit.

Pera, who has been on the force for nearly 30 years, said she remembered the slaying from her days as a patrol officer.

"It's the type of case - involving a little girl - that you don't forget," she said.

[everything posh]

what a disgusting, evil monster. I was in Northern California over the weekend, and didn't even realize that San Quentin was there until we drove over the Golden Gate leaving San Francisco. We were going to visit a friend, and by one of the neighborhoods there it was! San Quentin!! It was so creepy to actually see this prison knowing the evil that is inside.

[natalie78]

DH's older sister went to school with Ramirez for a while when he lived in El Paso. She said that everyone thought he was wierd. Their radars were right about him. He should have been executed years ago!

[Roo]

I remember when Ramirez was on the prowl, before he was caught.... my dad had our house locked down like a fortress and slept with his gun under the pillow at night. Once they figured out that the same person was terrorizing people, everyone was really scared.

[Irishgal]

Ugh. Horrible.

[karmenzsofia]

So he's been in jail, where he lives rent-free, has meals prepared for him every day, TV and other forms of entertainment, free health care...

How is that a fitting punishment?

How about gouging his eyes with a hot spoon? He should also be skinned alive, dipped in vinegar till he loses his voice from screaming, and dumped to rot in a maggot infested swamp.....if you ask me.

[olialm1]

He is insane. I saw something on E! about serial killers and he was featured... don't quote me but apparently he's married to some woman who became his pen pal after he was put in jail...is that not insane? I'm glad I wasn't alive when he was on the prowl!!! I did some research on him via wikipedia and it makes me cringe! Hopefully this new information about the murder of this girl will give her family some closure. He is the epitome of a monster.

[natalie78]

He did marry a prison pen pal. You would be surprised at how many death row inmates marry their pen pals. And we're talking women from all over the world.

[Jahpson]

^ desperate women

Originally Posted by olialm1

He is insane. I saw something on E! about serial killers and he was featured... don't quote me but apparently he's married to some woman who became his pen pal after he was put in jail...is that not insane? I'm glad I wasn't alive when he was on the prowl!!! I did some research on him via wikipedia and it makes me cringe! Hopefully this new information about the murder of this girl will give her family some closure. He is the epitome of a monster.

that woman is sick. so what is she going to do? have some children for him so he can continue his sick acts?

[sunseasaltylife]

I was 9 in 1984 and grew up in the OC, so the perfect age and location for the Night Stalker to be the bogeyman of my childhood.
One of the networks (can't remember now) tried to air a series called "Night Stalker" a couple of years ago; it was supposed to be about this good guy /superhero type who roamed the city at night helping people. I'm convinced the show failed because many in the key demographic will never be able to dissociate 'Night Stalker' from this killer, and the dread we felt as kids.