Welcome to very scary people. Im donnie wahlberg. Some Crime Experts call the 1980s the decade of the Serial Killer. According to at least one study, there were about 200 of these murderers on the loose during that time. But one man stood out. His crimes were random and vicious. His victims ranged from toddlers to the elderly. The citizens of los angeles were paralyzed with fear while police struggled to stop him. His name was richard ramirez, and he was the night stalker. Man it happened in this Apartment Building in a groundfloor unit. Yochelson Jennie Vincow was a 79yearold lady living alone in an apartment in northwest los angeles. Jordan she had just turned off the light in her apartment, and because it was the peak of summer, she left the window open. Jennie vincows asleep in her bed, very vulnerable. Jordan while she slept, a shadow appeared at the window, and it was the outline of a man. And then he opened the window further and crept inside. He was looking for items to steal.
martin: virginia and chris petersen are in their bedroom, set for the night, and a noise awakens virginia. she realizes that there is someone, a male, standing in her room. linedecker: the night stalker shot the husband in the head twice. [ gunshots ] martin: virginia sits up, and she s immediately shot by her attacker. [ gunshot ] linedecker: petersen, as hurt as badly as he was, went after the night stalker. martin: two rounds are fired at chris. both of them miss. chris is nearly able to tackle and restrain the shooter. unfortunately, the shooter manages to escape. both chris petersen and virginia petersen survived the attack
and were able to provide police with details of the attack. man: virginia petersen did talk to a reporter by telephone. she said, you never really dream it would happen to you. i keep pinching myself, she said, hoping it didn t happen. but it did. if being responsible for multiple murders, that is at different times and different locations, defines a serial killer, then i guess we would have to say that, yes, we would have a serial killer. martin: it went from the suspicions of a serial killer might be operating to an absolute certainty. jordan: emergency crime calls to the lapd jumped by more than 15%. he looked like the man the news people have been showing? martin: gun sales supposedly doubled during this period measures that weren t necessarily heard of before. woman: the owner that owns the gun shop said he had a rash of women coming in