Expendable For A Cause.

The Net Closes

A series of events caused detectives to home in on Richard Ramirez. After the Khovananth attack, the LAPD disseminated a police bulletin as well as a ‘wanted poster’ of the suspect. They told the public that this man, a Latino, had attacked a dozen people and was armed and dangerous. His distinguishing features were curly brown hair, and stained, gapped teeth, as well as wide, crazy eyes. Sometimes he wore a baseball cap and he preferred black clothing.

We now know from the victims’ original police statements that this is untrue. The police had already decided the Night Stalker’s appearance, based on an encounter with ‘Richard Mena’ (Richard Ramirez’s alias) in which he drew a pentagram on a stolen car. The Khovananth attack was the only incident where the suspect’s features matched who police believed was the Night Stalker.

Two Ricks in Two Cities

By August 1985, Los Angeles was in a state of hysteria, with many people reporting sightings of the Night Stalker. Police were inundated with thousands of calls about shady neighbours, or even people in the local pizza parlour who vaguely resembled the composite sketch. Tall, curly-haired men were being stopped and searched. Ramirez was unlucky. Due to his looks and his proclivity for burglary, two seemingly separate sets of ‘friends’ reported him to the police.

On 26th August, a mysterious man called Alejandro Espinoza called the police (in Los Angeles) and reported that he had a friend called ‘Rick’ who sold stolen goods to a ‘fence’ named Felipe Solano – close to the dates of murders. Espinoza later went ‘missing.’

Next, in Lompoc, Califonia, Earl Gregg and his wife Deleen had recently received some jewellery from Ramirez, while visiting Deleen’s mother Donna Myers in San Pablo (these events and relationships are detailed in this post).

Earl Gregg’s sister Laurie Ochoa suggested Ramirez was the killer – after all, a murder had recently occurred in San Francisco (Peter Pan), where Ramirez had recently visited. Despite Earl and Deleen’s incredulity, Ochoa successfully encouraged her brother to call the Lompoc Police Department to report their ‘burglar friend Rick.’ Lompoc PD contacted San Francisco PD, as a stolen bracelet was engraved with an S.F. driver’s licence number.

It turned out the items Ramirez had given them were not from the Pan murder, but a burglary in the Marina District. However, SFPD’s Inspector Frank Falzon had a hunch that the crimes were connected and he demanded that Lompoc PD put him in contact with the Greggs. He and his partner Carl Klotz interviewed them and they guided them to Donna Myers.

Myers described Ramirez, which matched the false information the two Los Angeles police agencies had been spreading. Myers told police about Ramirez’s childhood friend Armando Rodriguez, and the SFPD detectives travelled to El Sobrante to find him. Rodriguez attempted to give Ramirez an alibi.

Because detectives were already persuing a lead on ‘Richard Mena’ via city dentists, having two different informants naming a ‘burglar called Rick’, was a very promising lead. Especially as ‘Rick’ had visited San Francisco in the same week as a murder.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with police assuming a connection and following this lead, but everything wrong with continuing to hunt down one man, especially after a tangled web of potential suspects began to emerge. From this point, events snowballed for Richard Ramirez, and weak circumstantial evidence appeared to come together.

Next: Jesse Perez.

-VenningB-