Expendable For A Cause.

By Venning

After Ramirez was identified as the prime suspect in the Night Stalker crimes, several police agencies were keen to ‘clear the books’ by looking through open cases and attempting to find links. Because Ramirez conveniently had no modus operandi, they could blame anything on him: stabbing, throat slashing, bludgeoning, shooting, and kidnapping; it did not matter. As established on this blog, police morphed suspects who were originally described as very different to Ramirez into the Night Stalker.

Most of this can be blamed on the LASD and LAPD’s character creation. However, San Fransisco police would join in the metamorphosis game – open cases in that city that vaguely matched the multiple M.O.s of the Night Stalker would be linked to Richard Ramirez. There were 153 homicides in San Francisco between January 1984 and December 1985 – many unsolved – and police were keen to close them by any means possible.*

One example is the Caldwell sisters who were victims of frenzied knife attacks on 20^th February 1985. Former SFPD Inspector, Frank Falzon, claims Ramirez confessed to the Caldwell murders – although he was never formally charged for the crime, which might suggest the San Francisco District Attorney did not agree… or perhaps Falzon is making it up – like Detective Carrillo, a lot of Falzon’s claims are not supported by evidence. It is strange how so many detectives forgot to record Ramirez’s supposed confessions or there is a weak excuse for why they did not – in this instance, Ramirez allegedly shouted the confession as Falzon was walking away.

Many news articles, then and now, link Richard Ramirez to the murder of celebrated chef Masataka Kobayashi in November 1984. However, Falzon believed the suspect was a paedophile neighbour, who was obsessed with Kobayashi’s teenage son. Kobayashi sent his son away to boarding school to protect him and shortly after, he was found dead just inside his front door, and the neighbour was questioned. He was never charged despite remaining Falzon’s prime suspect. Falzon does not believe it was Ramirez, due to it not matching his M.O. – but what M.O.? He allegedly had so many.

Another San Francisco crime – that is forever connected with Ramirez – was the murder of Edward Francis Wildgans on 2^nd June 1985. Wildgans was sleeping when he was shot in the head by a small calibre weapon. His girlfriend, Kathy Moore fought off her assailant as he attempted to sexually assault her. This seems to match other Los Angeles Night Stalker attacks, such as Doi, Khovananth and Abowath – and even the untried case of Carns in Orange County.

At the time of Ramirez’s arrest, he was linked to Edward Wildgans, though again, never formally charged – but newspapers stated that Kathy Moore’s description of the killer matched Richard Ramirez.

From the Los Angeles Herald Examiner:

“In San Francisco, police said yesterday that investigators are looking closely at three additional homicides to see if they are linked to the Night Stalker case.
Detectives are examining the June 2 shooting death of 29-year-old Edward Wildgans … Wildgans’ girlfriend, who was not injured in the attack, provided a description of the killer that matched that of Ramirez, [Lieutenant] Kowalski said.”

The San Francisco Chronicle told the same story.

“A girlfriend, who was unharmed, gave a description of the attacker that matched Ramirez’s general description [Inspector Mike] Mullane told the San Francisco Chronicle.”

Kathy Moore was invited to the 5^th September 1985, line-up in Los Angeles. Below, an article from the San Francisco Chronicle: Inspector Mike Mullane would not say whether Moore chose Ramirez, only that he was pleased with the result.

We now know from habeas corpus document 20.3, that she did chose Ramirez. Here is Kathy Moore’s witness card.

At the preliminary hearing in 1986, video evidence came to light that showed a sheriff’s deputy using hand signal to encourage witnesses to pick Ramirez at the live line-up. This happened at both line-ups. Watch the silhouetted man who emerges from the right hand side.

However, before the Night Stalker hysteria had reached San Francisco – even before the hype had taken hold in Los Angeles – the Wildgans suspect was described as someone very different.

Ramirez has shapeshifted many times over the course of the Night Stalker case, managing to be Mexican, Chinese and white at various times, while his height ranged from 5’6” to 6’4” and his hair ranged from blonde to black – as well as various lengths and styles. But this is a new one: thinning hair.

A shortish balding murderer turned into tall Richard Ramirez with thick curly hair. It is sad – and also appalling – that a victim could either lie – or be so vulnerable that the police can manipulate them into identifying an innocent man and years later, forensics specialists were still desperately clutching at reasons to implicate him by searching for DNA.

* the cold case database mentioned in this article is from 2005 – some of the crimes have since been solved. Ramirez is still not listed as the suspect for the Caldwell crime or Wildgans and had yet to be implicated in the Leung case. He is only listed for the Pan Incident.

First written on 5th August 2023