some deals with movies. jordan: in the 80s, some serial killers were treated like celebrities, and the media outlets would actually compete to get the rights to their stories. ramirez was in that group. linedecker: he did what a lot of people like him do. he suddenly decided that, gee, i m a celebrity, and i m going to milk this for everything i can milk it for. yochelson: there was some indication that there was a book deal in the works, which poses all kinds of ethical issues, so the judge actually appointed another lawyer just to advise ramirez as to the possible issues of financing his defense through a book deal, and ramirez refused to talk to that lawyer. ultimately, daniel and arturo hernandez came on the case. they re not related, even though they have the same last name. the family has retained us officially, and as far as we re concerned, we are the attorneys for mr. ramirez. hernandez: we ended up with the case, and it made a big difference, absolutely,
to lock their doors and windows, use their lighting. this is information we re trying to put out all the time, not just when we know we have a killer on the loose. yochelson: the media had a lot of different names for him. the local nbc affiliate called it the walk-in killer. but another name stuck. martin: the term night stalker emerged from one of the daily newspapers. the other names had been floated valley intruder, walk-in killer but night stalker was the one that ultimately caught on and remains to this day. man: this meeting was the third in arcadia in the past month. all along, investigators have said a tip from the public might be the key to breaking this case. that s becoming more and more important as the investigation goes basically nowhere. linedecker: police started putting together a profile. man: we re doing everything within our power and our resources to protect the community and apprehend the suspect. martin: you look at the type of residents and all the physic
you know, and that was our duty. reporter: but as vincow described how he found his mother s body, ramirez leaned forward and smiled. hancock: he had a little smirk on his face. he was just radiating evil. just just pure malevolence. i could feel waves of hatred coming out of him and just pure malice. and i looked at him, and i thought, i better not look at him anymore. dietz: when he got the nickname night stalker, why not play it out a little more and get some more power by scaring people in the courtroom, creating images that would be remembered decades later of his antics in the courtroom? so he succeeded. yochelson: this was a long trial. we had approximately 165 witnesses, some 8,000 pages of transcript or testimony
yochelson: she said, don t kill me. and, inexplicably, he turned and shoved his gun into his belt and left, just like that. she was left alive. yochelson: she went inside and found her roommate, dayle okazaki, dead a gunshot to the head. later, when the police were searching the area, they found a baseball cap on the ground, which was really the first clue that they had come across. it was a baseball-style cap. it had the words ac/dc on the front. so that was thought to have been left by the killer. jordan: even more important than the hat with maria, we have a witness to the crime, and she came face to face with the suspect.
man: it happened in this apartment building in a ground-floor unit. yochelson: jennie vincow was a 79-year-old 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 vincow s 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.