Richard Ramirez

This will be a short entry because today's subject is a really bad person. But a blog such as this cannot fail to comment on today's news:

Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, died today.

Ramirez was a serial killer who terrorized California (namely Los Angeles and, briefly, San Francisco) in 1984-1985. He was convicted in 1989 of 13 counts of murder, 5 counts of attempted murder, 11 counts of sexual assault (one of which was the rape of a little girl), and 14 counts of burglary. He was awaiting execution on death row when he died of liver failure around 9 AM today (June 7).

The best part of the Night Stalker story is his capture. To elude police capture, the Night Stalker (whose face had been in the newspaper) ran towards East LA looking for a car to boost. He found one sitting in a driveway with the keys inside. When he started the car, he found out why the keys were inside: the owner was underneath the car making repairs. The owner jumped onto his own car like an action-film hero and wouldn’t get off. Since his vision was obstructed, Night Stalker abandoned that car and tried to car-jack a woman who was getting ready to drive to work. When she screamed, her husband came running and started beating on Night Stalker. His shouts alerted the neighbor man, who came running with his strapping teenage sons. Night Stalker exited the car and took off running down the street. The neighbors recognized him from the newspaper picture, so they took off after him, eventually catching him and subduing him (no doubt through a beat down). And so, the Night Stalker was brought low by teamwork. Go East LA!

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez.