The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (Pinnacle True Crime) (Paperback)

On the whole this book full of information on every aspect of the story and very detailed, but there are arguably three minor criticisms that could levelled at it:

Firstly - the amount of detail given for the trial was a little bit overkilled - this took up 200+ pages which is more than 1/3 of the book. Having flicked through the book beforehand I was dreading trawling through all of that, but in fairness it did move along quickly enough I have to say, even if at times it felt like he was stopping just short of describing every lunch, bathroom or smoke break that the jurors, judge, lawyers and witnesses involved had along the way!! By eliminating a lot of the repetitive stuff like the Hernandez boys arguing with Halpin and the judge pulling them up and some other things like that, this could have been trimmed to 120 or less pages I would have thought.

Secondly - parts are badly edited and he seems to repeat himself on several occasions. This is particularly noticeable when uses the same metaphors/similes/symbols etc. at least twice in some cases. Also his written English is full of colloquialisms and bad (or maybe just American?!) grammer. Maybe he's primarily a researcher rather than a writer though. Not being an English scholar at all, this end of things has to be pretty poor for the likes of me to notice it.

Thirdly - he tries his best at times to present Ramirez as a person to feel some affiliation with. I've read of other readers who were taken into this, but certainly not this one. Whatever inconveniences Ramirez has now, he has brought entirely upon himself so I could not have anything more than zero sympathy for him. I refer to them as inconveniences rather than punishments because that's what they are when compared with his crimes. He has destroyed a lot of families and people, including his own.

On the whole, it's a horrific, sickening story. Equally sickening is the vast amount of attention that this evil entity receives from scores of women. They must be as messed up as he is. Basically they go for how he looks plus the fact he's dangerous and turn a complete blind eye to the depraved acts he did in the past and has shown no remorse whatsoever for either. Also conveniently forgotten is the fact that he is still a confirmed satanist who revels in the "celebrity" status he has been assigned by many folk. As regards the death penalty, I don't think it's right - he probably deserves it, but it still isn't right. Anyway this is a book review so that's a discussion for elsewhere.

Overall, Carlo has done a phenominal amount of research and done a very good job on this book. Well worth reading but not for those who are weak of stomach though - it's pretty grisly stuff to be honest. Buy it definitely if you're interested in the case.