On this page you will find some information about Richard Ramirez. Although Danny took his alias 'Ramirez' from this infamous murderer the two are only linked through the inverted pentagram and an attraction to the Dark Side. However, Danny Ramirez doesn't condone killing people and doesn't think of Richard Ramirez as someone to be honoured or praised or something. He was a killer and got what killers deserve. In May 2004 Danny Ramirez released a tape titled The Night Stalker!, with 10 songs about the life and times of Richard Ramirez.

Although there might be some of you out there who think that Danny Ramirez is some sort of a Mexican living in the Netherlands, this ain't the case. In fact, Danny Ramirez chose his moniker after the notorious serial killer from the mid 1980s namely Richard Ramirez. The inverted pentagram which shows on Danny Ramirez's first tape cover and on his disputed T-shirts, was one of the symbols the killer left carved in his victim's bodies or painted on the walls of the crime scenes. Back in the day Danny needed a cover for his first tape and decided to use the inverted pentagram. It also led him to adopt the alias Danny Ramirez for his musical outings, instead of for example Danny Berkowitz, Danny Gein, Danny Dahmer or even Danny Rakowitz (who actually thought the Number of the Beast was 966).

Something more that was decisive for Danny was that Richard apparently was one Hell of a Satanist. Although Danny himself only follows some of the 11 LaVeyan rules by accident (like most of the human population) and never considered himself a satanist, especially in his younger years he wrote some songs of an 'entertaining satanic' nature. Richard liked to listen to amongst others AC/DC, being the 'Anti Christ Devil's Children' as regarded by some hard-line christians who during the late 1970s and early 1980s tried to put a ban on the upcoming hard rock and metal scene. Though because of their ignorance they totally forgot about Venom, Slayer and Mercyful Fate and instead showed their loyalty to their God by focussing on the more well known hard rock bands, such as the 'Knights In Satan's Service' (Kiss) and AC/DC.

One of the real Devil's Children was Richard Ramirez. He was born February 29, 1960, and probably no one would have known about this burglar, if he weren't to commit a row of brutal murders during 1984 and 1985, mostly in the US west-coast City of Los Angeles. It was in the night of June 28, 1984, that Ramirez unleashed his killing spree. Richard Ramirez began his trail of death with the killing of an elderly woman by slitting her throat. It is later suggested that Ramirez was influenced by the song Night Prowler from AC/DC's 1979-album Highway To Hell, which tells of a murderer entering through a bedroom window.

By 1984 Richard Ramirez already lived in Los Angeles for several years, using alcohol, coke, PCP and LSD. He made a living by burglary and stealing cars. Eventually just robbing people at night, he turned into a sadistic murderer after he made his first recorded victim in June of 1984. Although there are no reports of Ramirez killing more people that year, the following year however he would cause terror in Los Angeles and San Francisco for more than six months. During his nocturnal reign of fear he not only turned his lust on women, but now and then also kidnapped young children, releasing them again miles away from where they lived.

During the first months of 1985 Richard Ramirez struck again and used a gun instead of a knife. On the night of March 17 he shot a man in the forehead, at which crime scene he lost his AC/DC cap. Somewhat later that night he shot a woman after he dragged her out of her car. Ten days later Ramirez again killed two people in one night. March 27 he forced his way into a ranch house bringing with him both his gun and his knife -- and a lust to maim. After having shot the married occupants of the house, Richard Ramirez mutilated the deceased woman by cutting her face and taking her eyes with him before he left in the early spring night. Besides the .22 Ramirez reportedly used several firearms with different calibres. Furthermore he also killed with his bare hands and by bludgeoning people to death.

For some time Ramirez apparently didn't kill anyone, but in May he started his murder spree again only to escalate into merciless brutality more often. Ramirez resumed his murdering by the killing of a man in his house, molesting and raping the victim's wife. With several more deadly attacks during the following weeks, the LAPD announced there was an active serial killer on the loose. After first being nicknamed 'The Valley Intruder', in the summer of 1985 the press started to refer to Ramirez as 'The Night Stalker' (which is also the title of the first song of the 1993 Sinister Slaughter album by the murder metal band Macabre). It was in those weeks that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) connected a Reebok shoe print size 11 (which is 41-42 in European sizes) found at a cult-hall supposedly used for Satanic rituals to similar prints found at the murder scenes. Questioning the followers of this cult however didn't lead them to unmasking the killer.

So Ramirez continued stalking Los Angeles with the killing of an elderly couple and a man on one night in July. This man's wife was being raped after she was forced by Ramirez to pledge a vow to Satan not to scream while he took his way with her. Macabre used this phrase 'swear to Satan' as the prelude to their Night Stalker song. August 8 Ramirez again shot a man, while his wife was raped and beaten by the intruder. Nine nights later he shot a couple in their home and left an inverted pentagram on a wall. Apparently not satisfied with his alias 'The Night Stalker' Ramirez possibly tried to change his nickname by writing 'Jack The Knife' underneath the Satanic symbol.

A week later, August 25 1985, he murdered again. While her boyfriend laid dead in the house the woman was forcibly raped and had to reiterate the words 'I love Satan' during the acts of sadistic lust Richard Ramirez exposed her to. Having already a criminal record and his picture and fingerprints in the police archive for car theft in December 1984, after his fingerprints were discovered his photograph was published in the media late August 1985. Apparently unaware of the fact that he was in the newspapers, Ramirez walked into a liquor store in Los Angeles on the morning of Saturday August 31, 1985, and saw his face staring back at him from the front page.

Richard had just arrived from Phoenix, Arizona, by Greyhound bus and didn't expect to be in the newspaper like this. In panic he ran out of the store, but he already was recognized by the crowd. In order to escape he tried to pull a woman from her car on the parking lot. He got attacked by several people but managed to escape into the Hispanic East L.A. area. After a foot chase Richard Ramirez was beaten up by some of the people following him and got rescued by policemen fearing he would be beaten to death.

Throughout his trial -- which started in July 1988 with the jury selection, and eventually began in January 1989 -- Ramirez showed very unpredictable behaviour by sometimes saying nothing for hours, shouting 'Hail Satan' and at other moments placing his index-fingers along the sides of his head like the Horns of the Devil while reciting the word 'evil' for some time. Sometimes he just laughed loudly during testimonies or was getting on the nerves of the witnesses by staring them right in the eyes. Richard wore the Sign of the Inverted Pentagram on the palm of his left hand, showing it every now and then to the eager press photographers which were present at his trial.

It took over four years after his final murder before Richard Ramirez got his verdict. Reason for this was amongst others the fact that the jury was dismissed twice. Some member of the jury fell asleep and when a second jury was installed one of them got killed in a murder unrelated to the case. In September 1989 he was convicted of all charges laid upon him, and in November 1989 the Night Stalker was sentenced to death. In 1996 he'd got married to one of his female admirers, but they seperated in early 2011 and divorced some time later. With the death sentence being very rarely carried out in the state of California Ramirez was never put to death, and died in prison on June 7, 2013. While imprisoned Richard 'The Night Stalker' Ramirez drew rudimentary 'evil art', of which you can find examples by clicking somewhere in this line.