Night Stalker Richard Ramirez Dies On Death Row The convicted serial killer known as the Night Stalker has died while awaiting execution, according to officials in California. Richard Ramirez, 53, died on Friday morning, San Quentin State Prison spokesman Lieutenant Sam Robinson said. He had been taken from the jail's death row to Marin General Hospital. The Department of Corrections said he died of liver failure. Ramirez was on death row for decades and it has been years since anyone has been put to death in the state. He was convicted of 13 murders that terrorised Southern California in 1984 and 1985, and was sentenced to death. Most of his victims were shot, but others were strangled or had their throats slashed. Spray-painted satanic symbols were found at some of the murder scenes and some victims were forced by the killer to "swear to Satan." Police believe he entered his victims' homes through unlocked windows and doors. Ramirez was captured and beaten in 1985 by residents of an East Los Angeles neighbourhood while attempting a carjacking. At his first court appearance, he raised a hand with a pentagram drawn on it and shouted, "Hail, Satan." Ramirez was sentenced to death in 1989 after a four-year trial. He also was convicted of sexual assaults and burglaries. In 2006, the California Supreme Court upheld Ramirez's convictions and death sentence. In 2009, DNA evidence linked him to the unsolved 1984 murder of nine-year-old Mei Leung, who was sexually assaulted and killed in her family's San Francisco home. Ramirez had been living nearby at the time, police said.