Night Stalker's Capture Site

Author: Jewls Krueger

For more than a year, the man the press called the Night Stalker broke into homes across the Los Angeles area and, later, the San Francisco region, attacking people while they slept. The terror ended not in a police raid but on an ordinary residential street on the east side of Los Angeles, where neighbors recognized Richard Ramirez from his freshly published photograph and held him until sheriff's deputies arrived. The capture, on the 3700 block of East Hubbard Street, became one of the most remembered citizen arrests in California history.

Richard Ramirez

Richard Ramirez was born Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez on February 29, 1960, in El Paso, Texas, the youngest of five children. He suffered head injuries as a child and later became a heavy drug user with a deepening interest in Satanism. He drifted to California in his early twenties and picked up arrests for theft and drug offenses, which placed his fingerprints in police files. Those records would eventually help investigators put a name to the Night Stalker.

The Night Stalker Crimes

Between roughly April 1984 and August 1985, Ramirez entered homes through unlocked doors and windows, most often at night. He shot or attacked the men inside and assaulted the women, and he left satanic symbols at some scenes, in a few cases forcing victims to swear allegiance to Satan. His victims ranged widely in age and background, and the seemingly random pattern made the case difficult to solve. By the summer of 1985 the attacks had spread panic across Southern California and the Bay Area, driving a surge in gun sales and home alarms.

The Manhunt and Identification

The break came from physical evidence. Investigators recovered a car linked to the attacks and lifted a fingerprint from it. A newly installed computerized fingerprint system matched the print to Ramirez, who was already in the database from earlier arrests. On August 30, 1985, authorities released his name and mugshot, which ran on television and on the front pages of California newspapers, including the Spanish-language daily La Opinión.

The Capture

On the morning of August 31, 1985, Ramirez rode a bus from downtown into East Los Angeles, apparently unaware that his face was on newsstands across the city. He stopped at a store and was recognized by people who had seen the front page. He fled on foot into a residential neighborhood and tried to take several cars on the 3700 block of East Hubbard Street, in Boyle Heights.

The attempts drew the neighborhood out. When Ramirez tried to pull a woman from her car, residents ran to help. Jose Burgoin, who was watering his plants when he heard the calls for help, pulled him from the vehicle, and a neighbor struck Ramirez in the head with a pipe. Burgoin sent his sons after Ramirez when he tried to run, and the group cornered him and forced him to the sidewalk. A neighbor arrived with a copy of La Opinión and confirmed that the man they had trapped was the killer police were hunting. Sheriff's deputies reached the scene and took Ramirez from the crowd before the beating went further. Within hours, officials confirmed the man in custody was the Night Stalker.

The Trial

Jury selection began in 1988, and the trial ran into 1989. On September 20, 1989, Ramirez was convicted of 13 counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, 11 sexual assault charges, and 14 burglaries. He was sentenced to death. Throughout the proceedings he leaned into his image as a Satanist, at one point displaying a pentagram drawn on his palm and saying "Hail Satan" as he left the courtroom. Ramirez died on June 7, 2013, at age 53, of complications from cancer while in the custody of San Quentin's death row.

The Capture Site Today

The 3700 block of East Hubbard Street remains a quiet residential neighborhood in Boyle Heights, on the east side of Los Angeles. National coverage at the time often described the arrest as taking place in East Los Angeles, and the two areas sit directly beside one another. The homes on the block are private residences, and the families who live there have no connection to the case. There is no marker or memorial at the site. Visitors who want to see the street should stay on public sidewalks, avoid photographing homes or residents up close, and remember that this is an ordinary neighborhood where people live.