Richard Ramirez Violent Cousin Influence

Future serial killer Richard Ramirez, later known as the Night Stalker, spent part of his youth in El Paso, Texas, in the early 1970s with his cousin Miguel “Mike” Ramirez, a Vietnam War veteran. Mike often bragged about killing in Vietnam, showed young Richard Polaroid photos of severed heads, and taught him military-style tactics and survival skills. In 1973, during an argument at home, Mike Ramirez shot and killed his wife, Jessie, in front of the teenage Richard. The traumatic incident became part of Ramirez’s troubled upbringing, and his cousin later avoided criminal conviction after pleading insanity.

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