"Walking Dead": Richard Ramirez on Philip Carlo's Death-Row Tapes

Name: "Walking Dead": Richard Ramirez on Philip Carlo's Death-Row Tapes
Uploaded: 2025-06-19
Duration: 12 min 9 s
Description: Death-row audio tapes presented as the author Philip Carlo's recordings, released in a 2024 NBC News Studios series: Ramirez on his cousin, cocaine, Satan, his capture and death.

Death-row audio tapes presented as the author Philip Carlo's recordings, released in a 2024 NBC News Studios series: Ramirez on his cousin, cocaine, Satan, his capture and death.

Subject: Richard Ramirez
Recorded: about February 8, 1994
Runtime: 12:09

Content warning: Ramirez talks about killing, burglary, a murder he says he saw the aftermath of as a boy, and Satanism; the page refers to murders and sexual assaults.

The Interview

In December 2024 NBC News Studios released a two-part Peacock series, "Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Tapes", built around death-row audio interviews with Ramirez. The tapes are presented as recordings made in the 1990s by the New York author Philip Carlo for his biography "The Night Stalker", published in 1996. Carlo died in 2010. This twelve-minute clip, posted online by a third party, strings together excerpts of the tapes as heard in the series. It opens with the interviewer's slate: "it's 2-8-94, about 9 a.m.", in prison with Richard Ramirez. The interviewer's questions are heard throughout.

Historical Context

In 1984 and 1985 the "Night Stalker" broke into homes at night across Los Angeles County and in the San Francisco area, murdering, raping and assaulting the people inside. Ramirez was captured in East Los Angeles on August 31, 1985, after residents recognised him from newspaper photographs. On September 20, 1989, a Los Angeles jury convicted him of 13 murders and all 43 counts against him, and on November 7, 1989, he was sentenced to death. He remained on death row at San Quentin until his death in 2013.

Circumstances of the Interview

According to the series and its reviewers, the recordings were made on audio tape for Carlo's book, not for broadcast, and were largely unheard until 2024. The series' own publicity says it draws on more than 25 hours of tape, most of it never heard before; one review reports that Carlo recorded over 100 hours. The clip is an edited montage rather than a single session: at least two passages are heard twice, and the exact dates of the excerpts after the opening slate are not given.

What the Interview Covers

Ramirez lists his reasons for killing as "hate, anger, sex, self-gratification, for money, for excitement". He says a child is shaped by environment and describes looking up to his cousin Mike, a Vietnam veteran, whose saying he repeats: "There's no thrill like a good kill." He recalls entering the house where Mike had shot his wife, finding her purse and realising she was dead. He talks about burglary, coming to California, cocaine, his turn to Satan, locking himself in downtown Los Angeles hotels, the fear in the city, and his capture. He says that in prison he has formed relationships "mostly" with women, mentions Doreen, and, when the interviewer praises his 1989 courtroom speech, appears to reply, "I prepared it." He ends with Jack the Ripper, how he would choose to be executed, and the "death rattle".

What Makes the Recording Significant

The tapes catch Ramirez speaking informally to a writer, swearing, joking and boasting, rather than performing for a camera.

Important Caveats

Everything Ramirez says about his motives, his cousin's influence and Satan is his own account. Some details differ from published sources: he says he was "probably 11" when he first saw what his cousin showed him, and that he came to California in 1979, while biographies give later dates. The clip is a third party's re-edit of a broadcaster's series, the interviewer is identified from the series' description rather than on the tape, and several short exchanges are hard to attribute. The reply "I prepared it" follows YouTube's captions; the machine transcription heard it differently, so it should be confirmed by listening. The transcript has not yet been checked by a human listener.

Interviewer: Testing. Testing. Okay, it's 2-8-94, about 9 a.m., and I'm [unclear: "saying" / "sitting"] in prison with Richard Ramirez. Richard, as we sit here, you've got 19 death sentences on your head. You talked about this death rattle. Have you heard it?

Richard Ramirez: [unclear: "It's quite" / "Despite"] what I would think it would sound like. [unclear: "Again, man,"] there is such a thing as a death rattle. It's a last breathing out. It's one last breath out.

Interviewer: The last breath out?

Richard Ramirez: Right. It is sort of like the spirit leaving the body at the same moment this breath is given.

Richard Ramirez: I was asked recently why I did it, right? Hate, anger, sex, self-gratification, for money, for excitement. The intensity of the moment.

Interviewer: Yes.

Richard Ramirez: You're not going to make me look bad, are you?

Interviewer: It's not a matter of looking bad or looking good. I am concerned with the truth. Is there such a thing as a bad seed? When a baby is born, is he already a serial killer? Is it environmental, you're saying, or is it genetics? What do you think?

Richard Ramirez: I believe that it is the environment that will determine how a child will, or who he will grow up to be.

Interviewer: Was your cousin Mike an influence on you?

Richard Ramirez: Yes, I looked up to him. This motherfucker, he was vicious, mean, strong, determined.

Interviewer: What about the [unclear: "creatures that we showed you" / "creatures of his children"; possibly "pictures that he showed you"]?

Richard Ramirez: I saw it when I was young. I was probably 11.

Interviewer: How did that affect you?

Richard Ramirez: Pretty good. I didn't mind seeing all that [unclear: "boring violence" / "boring vitamin"; possibly "gory violence"]. It was a turn-on and it was exciting. I was young, I remember it. I don't think I had seen stuff like that before. My cousin, he used to say, "There's no thrill like a good kill."

Richard Ramirez: It was a sunny day, about 3 p.m. The incident happened. Mike's mother called my father and my mother a week or two later, asking them if they would go into the house and get some things for him. Me and my father went inside. There was like particles floating in the air. Everything had a musty, bloody odor to it. I walked around and I found Jessie's purse, and I saw her driver's license. I saw her picture, and it struck me that she was dead. It was a weird feeling, that I knew that she was dead. I realized at that point that it was something I enjoyed seeing more so than the average individual.

Richard Ramirez: I used to love, you know, doing burglary so much, right?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Richard Ramirez: I still dream about this shit, man.

Interviewer: You dream about it now?

Richard Ramirez: Yeah. Walking around, we're driving around [unclear: "2:00 in the morning" / "took a buck in the morning"], with the fog out. It's just like, I mean, some people get that same feeling from skydiving. It's just a [unclear: "really intense" / "brilliant patch"].

Interviewer: Maybe you should have taken up skydiving.

Richard Ramirez: I came to California in 1979. I came here to live, and I came looking for a pot of gold, but I found a pot of iron instead.

Interviewer: I'd like to know your feelings about, uh, what they call the devil's dandruff, cocaine.

Richard Ramirez: Right. I love it. I think it's, uh, very harmful to the body, but the sense of pleasure it gives is very profound, very.

Interviewer: What could you compare that sense of pleasure to, Richard?

Richard Ramirez: There is nothing on earth. To me, anyway.

Interviewer: Let's talk about Satan a little bit, okay? As I know, you [unclear: "brought up" / "were brought up"] a Christian and turned to Satan.

Richard Ramirez: Throughout my childhood and up to the time I was 18 years old, I believed in God. When I reached the age of, uh, 20, 21, I came to California. I met a guy, and he told me about Satan, and I picked it up from there. Satan is a stabilizing force in my life. It gives me a reason to be. It gives me an excuse to rationalize. I was in alliance with the evil that is inherent in human nature, and that was who I was. Lucifer, I believe he exists. Lucifer was cast down with his angels and became a demon. And, uh, demons are very dangerous. Demons, if you believe in them, you help them and they help you. You help them by doing those things, right?

Interviewer: And then you also fulfill your desires. It's like scratching each other's backs.

Richard Ramirez: Scratching the backs of the demons, yeah.

Richard Ramirez: Reading that book you gave me, pretty good.

Interviewer: It is, isn't it?

Richard Ramirez: And it really describes how I felt at that time. The writer gave me a sense of what I went through.

Interviewer: Right. Okay.

Richard Ramirez: He's stalking a victim, and, like, his fucking heart is thumping, and he hears the lady's footsteps.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Richard Ramirez: And he's like, it's just anticipation.

Richard Ramirez: I would go to hotels in downtown LA and lock myself in for four days, three nights, and I'd come out. Just getting high. This was right in the fucking middle of everything.

Interviewer Or Richard Ramirez: [unclear: "April, man, join" / "Aren't they a boom away? About June"]

Richard Ramirez: When you mainline it, it's like crack. It's very addictive. Some people go berserk on it.

Interviewer: Do you think it's evil?

Richard Ramirez: It has to find, how do they say it, a place where...

Interviewer: Fertile soil?

Richard Ramirez: Fertile soil. Good term. Good term.

Richard Ramirez: Serial killers have a dead conscience. Some of them don't even care whether they live or die themselves. And, uh, they are just walking dead. Serial killers, they're like robots. They don't take time off to really enjoy what they're doing. He is caught up in a frenzy, and by the time it's over and done with, he'll reflect back on it and wish it had lasted longer.

Richard Ramirez: Look, there's 12 million people in LA. I [unclear: "know" / "say"] about 8 million, 7 million know me.

Interviewer: Not only know you, but felt the fear, right?

Richard Ramirez: It was the last thing they spoke about before they went to sleep. They were fucking dreaming about it, man.

Richard Ramirez: But if you do something so many times, it's bound to happen wrong sometimes.

Interviewer: Right.

Richard Ramirez: You can't have it good all the time. And I ran into some situations that were very precarious. I sat down hoping that I could catch a breather and start running again. I saw a sheriff's patrol car coming down the street, at which point in time I knew that my life was over. I was just really pissed off at the way things had turned out. I was arrested on Saturday. I was taken to a cell, stripped, photographed, fingerprinted. I was taken for my arraignment.

Richard Ramirez: When I was on the street, I was a loner. I really had no contact with people. And it's only been since I've been in prison that I have really developed relationships with people, and mostly women.

Interviewer: No, these women, do you think they would want you because of your notoriety?

Richard Ramirez: Uh, they're drawn to me for all sorts of reasons: to get something out of me, to question me. Maybe they're intrigued by murder or murderers. Some are religious, some are sympathetic. They've come to me from different walks of life, these women.

Richard Ramirez: Listen, if you want to get any messages to me...

Interviewer: Yeah.

Richard Ramirez: Talk to Doreen. I talk to her every day. You don't have to hide nothing from Doreen. Doreen has level one security clearance.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Richard Ramirez: The thing is with Doreen...

Interviewer: Yeah.

Richard Ramirez: [unclear: "Mustn't mention other girls" / "he wasn't mentioned as a girl"].

Interviewer: I never do. Okay.

Richard Ramirez: That's the only thing.

Interviewer: I got you.

Richard Ramirez: Other than that, yeah, I trust you with that.

Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah.

Richard Ramirez: Fourteen months. I had to go to court Monday through Thursday, every day, shackled. Uh, it was the same routine every day. I knew that they would find me guilty. I knew that.

Interviewer: You know what? I like that fucking speech you made in the courtroom.

Richard Ramirez: I prepared it.

Interviewer: Yeah? You're kidding. I didn't know that. So, would you think you're running for office? How many women have come to visit you since you're [unclear: "in the massacre" / "arrested"]?

Richard Ramirez: Doesn't matter.

Interviewer: 600?

Richard Ramirez: Doesn't matter.

Richard Ramirez: There is no protection against a mad killer. If he's looking for a certain type of victims and you happen to match his preference, at the right place at the right time, [unclear: "and" / "he"] takes advantage of that. Some serial killers will take pity while others won't. Some killers are hell-bent on just killing. They have made up their minds even before they encountered you.

Interviewer: Mhm.

Richard Ramirez: So there is no way out of it.

Richard Ramirez: The first really noted serial killer was Jack the Ripper. I remember in my childhood reading about him with his black cloak...

Interviewer: Right.

Richard Ramirez: A fog...

Interviewer: Right.

Richard Ramirez: Nighttime. The media tends to, if not glorify, but paint him in a way that is very sinister and diabolical. To some of us, that is appealing. Certainly it was to me.

Interviewer: Mhm. Do you think that evil can be reincarnated, that a killer like Jack...

Richard Ramirez: I hope so.

Interviewer: Richard, as we sit here, you've got, uh, 19 death sentences on your head. And if the day comes when you have to be executed by the state of California, which way would you choose?

Richard Ramirez: Me, myself, I don't really care, because to me death is [unclear: "death" / "dead"].

Interviewer: You were just talking about death. So you find that funny, right?

Richard Ramirez: No. Um, I just think that society is, uh, fascinated with death.

Interviewer: What about how we die? What's that about? You talked about, uh, this death rattle.

Richard Ramirez: There is such a thing as, uh, a death rattle.

Interviewer: Mhm.

Richard Ramirez: It is a spasm of the voice box.

Interviewer: Mhm.

Richard Ramirez: It is sort of like the spirit leaving the body at the same moment this breath is given. These things are, to me, mystical and spiritual, right? Birth and death are major events, not only in the person who is being born and dying, but in the people around him, right? And the legacy that we leave behind. We're born alone and we die alone. [music] And in between [unclear: "is" / "this is"] our lives.