Thursday, March 17, 2011

St Patrick's Day trivia

Remember St Patrick's Day of 1985? Probably not. But that was the day that Night Stalker Richard Ramirez killed his second known victim, Dayle Okazaki, in Rosemead. He also shot Okazaki's roommate, Maria Hernandez, but she lived to identify Ramirez in a line-up and at the trial. He killed again the next night.

On the 19th, the report of the murder was grouped in news of "The Region," under a headline about a Writers Guild contract. In July the wrong man was arrested for the murder, but by August 8th the police knew (I think because of the gun) that a serial killer was at large.

I must be in a morbid mood to even notice that.

Trivia: On Sunday,March 17, 1985, there were 1,060 pages to the Los Angeles Times. The pictures on the front page were of a Lebanese family mourning after an Israeli attack, and a Tehran neighborhood hit by an Iraqi missile. News stories pointed out friction between the Reagan administration and Western Europe over US policies in Central America.

The Metro section ('member that?) featured a day in the life of Mayor Bradley, and an evaluation of how the year-old smog check program was/wasn't working. And ads....dang, there were a lot of ads! Ads for clothes and mattresses and half-off film developing (ask your parents what that was)

The Night Stalker continued to kill frequently through the spring and summer, and we all started locking our windows at night. By the time he was caught in late August of 1985, he'd murdered at least 14 and raped and beaten many more.

I was going to run a picture of him, but he's just too evil-looking.

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