"Do you promise to tell the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth?" Richard Ramirez's mouth did - it was his rotten gnashers that helped police nail the Night Stalker.
Ramirez's reign of terror lasted from 1984 until 1985, during which time he clocked up 14 victims, breaking in to their homes, brutally attacking them with knives, tyre irons, guns, machetes and a hammer, and brutally raping them. There were two dozen more rapes, too. Ramirez made the most of the Californian heatwave, and would break in to houses between midnight and 6am, gaining access through unlocked doors and windows.
Those who survived the madman told police of his "bulging eyes and wide-spaced, rotting teeth".
When he was arrested, forensic dentists explained that nine of his teeth were decayed, with teeth missing from his lower and upper gum. His hideous teeth didn't just put a hole in his smile either - they also brought down his alibi.
His dad had claimed that he was home at El Paso in Texas TX, during a week of three attacks but an LA dentist proved he had treated him during that period.
MORE RICHARD RAMIREZ
Ramirez's longterm friend Donna Garcia explained how his teeth got to become so disgusting in an interview with People Magazine in 1985. Explaining that he was homeless in LA and sought shelter in cars, she said hygiene was never top of his agenda... unlike having a ready supply of batteries to listen to his beloved AC/DC.
She said: “He dressed in dark clothes, always dark clothes. He liked to eat junk food and yogurt—Pepsi and cupcakes and banana splits—and he never brushed his teeth.
"He carried a backpack and a small satchel. He had his clothes, vitamins and tapes in them. He always carried a Walkman tape player and wore a black baseball cap.”
Ramirez later had his teeth fixed at US taxpayer's expense while on death row... brings new meaning to 'killer smile'.
Comments