Expendable For A Cause.

(Updated 14/05/2024 with new information.)

People often ask why the murders ceased after Richard Ramirez was imprisoned. The truth is, they didn’t. Statistics show there were many murders across the valley regions and throughout the rest of L.A. County. In some cases, the killers were apprehended so there isn’t the same publicity as a slew of open cases, but that does not mean the murders were not happening. They simply weren’t hyped up as the work of a serial killer.

According to the L.A. Almanac, there were actually fewer homicides during 1985, the year ‘Richard Ramirez terrorized Los Angeles’. In 1986, there were 1,408 homicides in L.A. County compared to 1,326 in 1985. There were 1,412 murders in 1987. 1984 crimes are not included in the L.A. Almanac statistics. The L.A. County (and Orange County) residents were reassured that they were safe again, and the heroic police had restored their oceanside, palm tree-lined, glamour-filled city to the peaceful utopia it once was. Never mind the fact they were in the midst of a crack epidemic, the south and east of the city overrun by gang warfare.

While there did seem to be a lull in homicides after Ramirez was captured, killing resumed in 1986. Below are the 1986 crime statistics. The cities in black boxes are where Night Stalker attacks took place (or cities close to areas where attacks occurred).

Some murders are not publicised at all, so it may be that they were happening but police and the media kept quiet about them. For example, the above table shows that there were three homicides in Rosemead during 1986, but a quick search of newspaper achives yields zero results. Even some of the Night Stalker victims were not reported at the time they happened (Tsai-Lian Yu and William Doi were not reported on until August 1985). The 1985 statistics show that there were six murders in Monterey Park, but only the Doi, Yu and Nelson murders ever received publicity, because they were linked to the ‘serial killer.’ Other similar attacks were occurring concurrently but discounted because of a lack of evidence or perhaps the location was out of the area the Night Stalker was believed to operate.

Nevertheless, there were multiple killers plaguing the city in 1985, after Richard’s conviction and well beyond, into the 90s. One only has to look at the Homicide Report to see how dangerous Los Angeles still is.

It would be time consuming and pointless to highlight every 1986 murder. The small selection mentioned in this post have been chosen because they bear resemblance to the Night Stalker crimes in methods – yes, plural because the Night Stalker had multiple M.O.s. This means intruder attacks that were carried out by knives, guns or blunt objects during the night. It will also include Orange County as it borders L.A. County and the Night Stalker also struck there. In fact, it is much easier to find articles on O.C. murders and rapes.

Murders and Attempted Murders

Originally feared to be the work of the Night Stalker, Cynthia Monnier was found naked and dead close to her Orange County home. A neighbour heard screams from a woman banging on the door. By the time she reached the door, Monnier was dead in the flowerbeds, having been stabbed. Monnier had been robbed two weeks earlier.

Jose Franco Gonzales raped and killed an elderly woman in September 1985. Beatrice Franco Terrones in Placentia, Orange County, as well as another murder in his home county of Mexico.

Just one week after Ramirez was arrested, Emily Humphreys, 81, was stabbed to death by an intruder who ransacked her house in Pasadena. That same day, also in Pasadena, a 79-year-old was robbed at knifepoint, On 13^th September, in Monrovia, 41-year-old woman, Gerry Coleman, was stabbed to death by an intruder. Police admitted that Richard Ramirez was not the only murderer doing this type of crime – yet the LASD pretended his crimes were new and unique and, as such, could only have been committed by one man despite their differences.

In Villa Park, Orange County, on 16th October 1985 – just 2.6 miles from Cynthia Monnier’s house, a man broke into a garage and shot the female resident, Helen Schwartz. Had this happened just six weeks earlier, Ramirez would have been blamed. The suspect, was thought to be Latino, 5’10”, wore a black shirt… and an AC/DC hat – just like the shooter seen by Maria Hernandez in Rosemead seven months earlier.

Yes – an AC/DC hat just the Night Stalker supposedly wore, except no victims actually reported their attacker wore a hat. It was instantly downplayed for its similarity to the Night Stalker.

This suspect had a beard. Maria Hernandez said her shooter also had a beard (you can just about see it in the image below, screen-grabbed from the Netflix documentary). The composite sketch (also on the documentary), displayed a moustache.

In April 1986, Eddie Wayne Stone raped and beat an 81-year-old woman to death.

In May 1986, Janelle Cruz, aged 18, was murdered with a pipe wrench in Irvine, Orange County. The attack is similar to the attempted murder of Whitney Bennett less than a year earlier. In 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo would be found guilty of this crime. He is known as the Golden State Killer or the Original Night Stalker. None of the Golden State Killer’s crimes were reported as connected in the newspapers.

Marvin and Myrtle Spitz, aged 70 and 68 respectively, were beaten and stabbed to death in their home near Canoga Park. Their son Robert was arrested but murder charges were dismissed more than once. The prosecution admitted their evidence was circumstantial. Robert Spitz suffered from severe mental health problems.

In Torrence, Los Angeles County, Mark Steven Erler stabbed, raped and beat several women over the head in the spring of 1986. Luckily all women survived.

In October 1986, 85-year-old Edwin Marriott and his wife Mary, aged 72, were found dead in their ransacked home. This occurred in Whittier (where the Zazzaras lived). The killer, Larry Lucas, was a man under the influence of a cocktail of drugs. He was sentenced to death but it was later overturned. He had left a bloody trail to his own home. Interestingly, whoever killed the Zazzaras left a pool of blood at their neighbour’s house.

A California politician, March Fong Eu, was almost hacked to death by an intruder in November 1986.

Intruder Rapists

These 1985 rapes occurred in the same locations, yet only a select few were blamed on Richard Ramirez. Richard was convicted of raping Carol Kyle in Burbank and Somkid Khovananth in Sun Valley, both in the San Fernando Valley, yet in the spring and summer of 1985, a rapist was doing the exact same thing in the same area, only stopped when a victim bit the tip of his finger off – just six days after the Khovananth attack. He was also reported for prowling in Glendale, near where the Kneidings were murdered.

The following attacks happened in Claremont (LA County) Fullerton, Anaheim and Santa Ana (Orange County) – Richard had been accused of attacking people as far away as Mission Viejo in Orange County, so these are relevant. This series of 22 rape-burglaries began in December 1985 and are similar to the attacks on Sophie Dickman and Carol Kyle.

They were not just older women. Some were in their 30s. These attacks spanned from July 1985 until April 1986. Here is another article listing the victims and their ages.

Between May and September 1986, an intruder was raping or sexually assaulting at least five women in the San Fernando Valley. He cut electrical power to apartments and entered through unlocked windows. There were similar attacks in North Hollywood and Studio City.

The media is surely responsible for this lie that the city and county were now safe now that Richard Ramirez had been caught. Under a false sense of security, women opened their windows and were attacked.

-VenningB-

December 2022