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According to reports, when he was 12 years old, a cousin who was a Vietnam War veteran showed him pictures of Vietnamese women he had allegedly raped, tortured, and killed. The following year Ramirez was a witness to his cousin’s fatal shooting of his wife. Around this time, Ramirez began breaking into homes. After dropping out of high school, he moved to Los Angeles. He continued to commit crimes and was briefly imprisoned for stealing a car.

Richard Ramirez | Biography, Night Stalker, Death, Childhood, & Facts | Britannica

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According to Carlo’s book, ‘The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez’, Richard was scared of his father.
In a book about the Night Stalker, author Philip Carlo claims Richard’s dad was violent towards the children. He himself had been beaten as a child by both his father and grandfather. Despite vowing not to treat his five children the same way, things did turn violent if the children got into trouble.
According to Biography, Richard started experiencing epileptic fits in his early childhood, caused by multiple head injuries. When he was two, a dresser fell on his head, and at five he was knocked out by a swing.

Night Stalker childhood: What was Richard Ramirez's upbringing like?

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Bruno Polo managed two pizzerias owned by Vincent Zazzara. On March 28, 1985, about 8:30 p.m., Polo went to the home that Vincent Zazzara shared with his wife Maxine to deliver the day’s receipts from the restaurant and found the screen door unlocked and the front door ajar. Polo rang the doorbell and called out Vincent’s name, but received no response. He placed the receipts in the mail slot, as was his usual practice, and left. When Polo had not heard from Vincent Zazzara by the following morning, he and a fellow employee went back 4 to the Zazzaras’ house and found the door in the same position as the night before. They entered and found Vincent Zazzara lying dead on the couch in the den. He had been shot in the head from close range. Maxine Zazzara’s body was found in the bedroom lying on her bed, partially covered by a sheet. Her pajama top had been pulled up, exposing her breasts, and her pajama bottoms had been pulled down around her ankles. She had been shot in the head and neck at close range, stabbed in her neck, cheek, chest, abdomen, and pubic area, and her eyes had been cut out. Her eyes were never found. Drawers had been pulled out in the bedroom and bathroom, and clothing was strewn around the room. It later was determined that two .22-caliber bullets removed from Maxine Zazzara’s head and neck had been fired from the same gun later used to kill Chainarong K. Police discovered that the screen had been removed from a patio window at the Zazzara residence, which had been pried open. A bucket had been placed underneath the window. Footprints on the bucket and in the flower bed were made by an Avia athletic shoe.

People v. Ramirez - S012944 - Mon, 08/07/2006 | California Supreme Court Resources

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And when Ramirez was just 13 years old, he witnessed his cousin fatally shoot his own wife. Shortly after the shooting, Ramirez began to transform from a scared, abused boy to a hardened, sullen young man. From developing an interest in Satanism to becoming addicted to drugs, Ramirez’s life took a dark turn. Even worse, he was still under his cousin’s influence — since Miguel had been found not guilty of the murder by reason of insanity. (Miguel ultimately spent just four years in a mental hospital until he was released.)
Born on February 29, 1960, Richard Ramirez was raised in El Paso, Texas. Ramirez claimed that his father physically abused him and that he sustained multiple head injuries at an early age. One injury was so severe that it reportedly caused him to have epileptic seizures. To escape his violent father, Ramirez spent a lot of time with his older cousin, Miguel, who was a Vietnam veteran. Unfortunately, Miguel’s influence wasn’t that much better than his father’s had been. During his time in Vietnam, Miguel had raped, tortured, and even dismembered several Vietnamese women. And sickeningly, he had the photographic evidence to prove it. He often showed “little Richie” photos of the horrors he inflicted upon the women.
Getty ImagesRichard Ramirez was convicted of 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. Decades later, he was linked to another rape and murder — of a 9-year-old girl.

Richard Ramirez And The Twisted Story Of The "Night Stalker" Serial Killer

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California's San Quentin Prison, before dying from cancer on June 7, 2013, at age 53.
Apprehended in August 1985, Ramirez was sentenced to death at the conclusion of his trial in 1989.
interest in Satanism
he became a heavy drug user
developing epilepsy as a child,

Richard Ramirez - Murders, Death & Facts - Biography

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