Why do people ‘choose’ to kill? What goes wrong in someone’s life which leads them onto taking the life of an indivual and portraying no remorse for their actions, only to do it again. And again. Until they finally get caught that is. Is this all a way of reversing past trauma, getting back at the people who ruined them? Or is it to fulfill some inner desires no one can quite explain, to feel some kind of thrill of the innocent life that was taken — but they were once that innocent life too, right?
First case.
Richard Ramirez: night stalker
Crime summary: In 1989, Ramirez was convicted of 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries.
Ramirez was first introduced into this dyfunctional and criminal life when he was 12 years old, influenced by a cousin who was a Vietnam war veteran who would show him photos of vietnamese women he had allegedly raped, tortured, and killed. This was very simillar to what Ramirez went onto commit and was later convicted of. In addition, Ramirez was a witness to his cousin’s fatal shooting of his wife a year later — it is very likely that this added onto his already-held trauma, making it very difficult for him to distract himsef from as he grew up into the cruel, vicious and callous man he became.
It is clear that in this situation, Ramirez saw no hope for a life without crime as it was all layed out for him from the beggining of his childhood. This played a part in the style and nature of his crimes, having been exposed to violence and Satanism at a young age. It could be argued that things would have been different for him if his life situation was different or if he remained in eduaction — although we will never be able to know the true reason behind this particular serial killer’s crimes.
Psychiatrist Michael H. Stone describes Ramirez as a ‘made’ psychopath as opposed to a ‘born’ psychopath. This further emphaises that the things he was subjected to in early ages and the way he was raised led him to think that certain actions were normal as that was the only ‘norm’ he knew of. However, with the loss of his moral compass, Ramirez began to build up his own desire with the patterns of his killing, and this new thrill he never had before as he was portrayed as a terrifying, anonymous night stalker in the media all throughout his state. Until he wasn’t.
