Story highlights
Serial killer Richard Ramirez died of lymphoma, coroner finds
He was dubbed "Night Stalker" for breaking into houses overnight and attacking victims
He had been sentenced to death for 13 murders, 11 sexual assaults and other crimes
Condemned serial murderer Richard Ramirez, known as the “Night Stalker” to the Californians he terrorized in the 1980s, died of cancer, according to coroner’s findings released Monday.
Ramirez had been sentenced to death for 13 murders, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries in the spring and summer of 1985. He died earlier this month of complications from B-cell lymphoma in a hospital in Marin County, outside San Francisco, at age 53, the county sheriff’s department reported.
A self-professed Satan worshiper who inflicted physical and emotional pain on his victims in myriad ways, Ramirez told the court that sentenced him to death, “I am beyond good and evil. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells in us all.” He died on June 7, the 59th California inmate to die of natural causes while awaiting execution.
Most of his victims were in Southern California, though two of those killed were in the San Francisco area. He was arrested after residents of an east Los Angeles neighborhood spotted him trying to steal two cars, caught and subdued him, then held him down until police arrived.
The rest of his life was spent at the home for many of California’s most dangerous felons, San Quentin State Prison, which sits like a fortress along the bay just north of San Francisco.