And he started doing bad things. He was doing something very wrong. My belief you live by the sword, you die by the sword, and thats just the way it is. Welcome to very scary people. Im donnie wahlberg. The media called it a rampage. There was a Serial Killer on the loose in california, random attacks throughout the spring and summer of 1985. No one felt safe. Police described his actions as savage. He broke into peoples homes, stole anything of value, then raped, beat, and murdered those he found inside. He had been linked to at least 15 murders, from children to the elderly, male and female, wealthy and poor. Now investigators had a promising lead, one that would finally end the Night Stalkers reign of terror. Heres part two of the Night Stalker i will be avenged. Reporter the victim her throat had been slashed. He found her horribly mutilated and murdered. Reporter it appears the suspect got in through an open window. He stole a lot of jewelry and graduated to these horrible crimes
Both had only been attorneys for about five years and apparently had never handled a capital case. jordan: at preliminary hearings, defense and prosecution would get into shouting matches with each other. woman: they re matters of public record, sir. there s presently pending in that court these liars. judge tynan and i did not get along, to say the least. he was always mocking us. he, to me, did not have what they call judicial temperament. he would get pissed off. yochelson: daniel and arturo hernandez made statements that the prosecution considered were unsupported by the evidence flat out lying or going for publicity. phil halpin, who was lead counsel, lead prosecutor very knowledgeable, knows how to handle a case, but there was really contention between the hernandezes and phil. and i think a lot of that was just natural, given the nature of the case and the stakes that were involved.
Who is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. jordan: and now police all over california are on the hunt for richard ramirez. the police were also staking out the greyhound bus station where he was known to frequent. so he gets off the bus, and the first thing that he sees is a newspaper stand with his picture on the front of l.a. times. big picture. vidal: and believe me, exactly what that booking photo looked like was exactly the way he looked. he s surprised when the crowd recognizes him. the jig is up. reporter #3: walk-in killer suspect richard ramirez had just discovered he was a wanted man and desperately tried to make a run for it. hernandez: he starts running. he gets into a bus. people recognize him in the bus. he jumps out the bus.
Martin: you ve got all these agencies that you ve got to coordinate. you ve got all these victims that you ve got to care for. this was a monumental effort, and then you add to it that this is a capital murder case. the preparations are absolutely incredible. yochelson: he was initially represented by two appointed members of the l.a. county public defender s office. great attorneys. he had excellent representation. but for whatever reason, ramirez s family chose to fire the public defender s office and bring in a series of private counsel. first issue that came up was who was paying for this defense, because mounting a capital defense under any circumstances is tremendously expensive. hernandez: and then he got mr. gallegos for a couple of weeks. woman: my understanding, mr. ramirez that you would like to have mr. gallegos as your attorney. is that correct? yes. mr. gallegos apparently had offered him
Of the tendency of many women to be attracted to bad boys, and there s some kind of beauty and the beast fantasy going on. you know, my love will transform this creature into a warm, loving being. hernandez: doreen lioy was one of richard s very persistent followers groupies. she was a, you know, very eloquent, very sharp lady. one of the things that she did was claiming that she wanted to die with him and she would go and kill herself, you know, if he was ever put to death. but she really liked to, you know, write to richard, and she apparently wrote very good letters. you know, this is los angeles, and even then, even as a young attorney, it just seemed to be par for the course. it s show biz, and it was a distraction