Expendable For A Cause.

“We’re on a Highway to Hell!”

*Please note: there is use of swear words and sexual references in parts of this post.*

Summer 1985, picture the scene: a young addict, a stolen car, cruising through Los Angeles in the darkest hours of the night.

Cocaine surging through his veins, adrenaline pumping, he slams a cassette tape into the car stereo and disappears into the night, in search of women to rape, people to kill. Music pounding, he feels invincible, he knows Satan is on his side, protecting him.  Because, fuck yeah, AC/DC!

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That’s the often-told tale, part of the myth surrounding this case, that Richard Ramirez, self-confessed Satanist, committed his heinous and diabolical crimes due to the influence of heavy rock.

“Satanic Panic!” – a very brief over view

In the 1980’s USA, the phenomenon, that came to be known as the “Satanic Panic” came to a head, the frenzy, fuelled (as ever) by the media, led citizens to believe that Satan was lurking around every corner.  He was coming for your children, poisoning their minds through heavy metal/rock music, Dungeons and Dragons; and they were also being ritually abused or slain by a vast network of Satanists, hiding in plain sight throughout the country.

This “moral panic” had been teetering on the edge since the late 60s and into the 70s, with the founding of the Church of Satan in 1966, the release of film The Exorcist, the Manson case and the plethora of Serial Killers throughout the 70s, and their supposed links to the occult, in particular The Zodiac Killer and David Berkowitz, aka The Son of Sam. It spilled over in the 80s with the release of the (now debunked) book Michelle Remembers and the highly publicised McMartin Preschool case in Los Angeles.

Satanic Panic persisted late into the decade, with TV personalities like Geraldo and Oprah dedicating hours of time to the subject. Geraldo claimed there were over one million Satanists hiding in neighbourhoods, and this fear did not begin to disperse until after the McMartin case had also been debunked and parents turned their fears in another direction.

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“The Filthy Fifteen”

Ahh, yes, Satan’s favourite, some good old rock music.

Bands such as Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Twisted Sister, and of course, AC/DC, were in the firing line, coming in for hatred and blame, accused of hiding “Satanic messages” within their lyrics, with the suggestion that if you played your vinyl records backwards, demonic sounds were heard.  That’s just stupid, yes, you got warped sounds — because it pushed the needle backwards.  It just ruined the record, so you went out and replaced it! Genius marketing.

(I know this, because I tried it with my sister’s Led Zeppelin IV album, not because I believed in subliminal messages, but I wanted to hear if it was true, none the less. I wrecked both the album and the turntable stylus, both of which I had to replace. I still have the replacement album, sadly not the turntable)

Music, in particular, rock or metal, was thought to be influencing the young, to encourage them in the participation of drinking, sex, drugs and devil worship.

This eventually led to the birth of the Parents Music Resource Center, in 1985, and the “Filthy Fifteen”, a list of what was deemed the most disgusting songs and the requirement of parental advisory stickers on albums.  Most were about sex and drugs, but a couple on the list were because of the “Occult”.  AC/DC made the list, but not for Highway to Hell, Hell’s Bells or Night Prowler.

What a load of basket cases.

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Ride like the Devil..

Just when you think things couldn’t couldn’t possibly get any crazier, along comes a couple of evangelists to prove us wrong.

‘Southern Ohio evangelist Jim Brown claims that he and cohort Greg Hudson have discovered that the theme song to the old ”Mr. Ed” television show contains a satanic message when played backward’.

Chicago Tribune, May 1986

Here’s the article in full for you.

Oh, and a video from YouTube.

Es tu, Mr Ed?

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Stranger Danger!

With the Reagan administration came a new panic, this time in the shape of stranger danger. The theme of social chaos and disorder permeated the air, and with family values and law and order at the heart of the Reagan campaign, the combination of the two “panics” came at the perfect time.

In 1982 CBS News informed a horrified nation that 50,000 children were abducted by strangers every year, although these figures had been wildly inflated, it served to create further uproar. A stranger was coming for your child!   

THIS article, which went to print the day after the arrest of Richard Ramirez, again debunks the exaggerated numbers.  Whether this article had much impact on either the city or wider county of Los Angeles is hard to say, after all, they had been terrorised for weeks and months over the so-called Night Stalker killing spree. 

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Los Angeles was a hot-bed of crime before, during and after the Night Stalker crimes, the only difference was public perception and media attention.

Richard

Into this maelstrom, out of nowhere, they dropped Richard Ramirez.  Here at last, was the perfect example of everything they had been warning about for years.  The drug addicted, rock music-loving, Devil worshipping, thief, rapist and murderer: the stranger in your perfect world, the “drifter”, as he was called in many news articles.

The media went wild and so began the circus, the show trial and the railroading of Ramirez.

Photograph caption dated September 1, 1985 reads:

“Police hold back crowd that gathered at the LAPD’s Hollenbeck station.”

Photograph snipe dated August 31, 1985 reads:

“Nite [sic] Stalker vigil at LAPD’s Hollenbeck. Crowd on St. Louis St. being pushed back by LAPD officers to across the street and onto First St. for crowd control by the police station where the night stalker suspect was moved from.” Additional photograph caption reads, “After the capture, crowds surged around Hollenbeck station in East Los Angeles to catch a glimpse of the Night Stalker.”  

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Richard’s chances of a fair trial were slim to zero, right from the beginning, as we have shown many times. 

A review of the L.A. Times showed extremely prejudicial and inflammatory language used to describe and characterise Ramirez and the “Night Stalker” crimes:

• “Satanic Overtones”
• “Devil Worshipper” (Ex. 76, L.A. Times Articles Reviewed by Dr. Bronson)
• “Diabolical”
• “Satan Worship”
• “Satanic rituals”
• “At House hearing regarding alleged pornography in rock music, panel was told by an expert about AC/DC ‘one of their fans, I’m sure you know, is the accused Night Stalker,’ referring to serial murder suspect, Richard Ramirez’” (this is a reference to the Filthy Fifteen)

You get the picture, and there were hundreds of these articles.

Every fourth article, or one-quarter of the actual amount of L.A. Times
articles ,was devoted to the Night Stalker, and this information was drip-fed to a non-sequestered jury.

“People knew my lifestyle, and the connection was made by them – and eventually the police – that because of my beliefs, I was the perfect candidate for being the Night Stalker”

Richard Ramirez, from a 1993 interview with Hustler.

For Richard, his love of rock music, coupled with an interest in the occult, and his criminal activities, of both stealing and dealing, created the perfect storm, one in which he remains embroiled forever.

“I’m an angry motherfucker and I just hope all those that are deserving get what they got coming. I’ll leave it at that.”

Richard Ramirez

~ Jay ~