AC/DC pt. 1 (Rewind): A Satanic Serial Killer, A Police Man Hunt, and a Media Witch Hunt

In the 1980s, AC/DC’s biggest fan was a notorious serial killer. The band was an international best-selling hit machine, and members like the late Bon Scott and die-hard Angus Young became rock icons. But when the press caught wind of the disturbing fandom of the serial killer Richard “The Night Stalker” Ramirez, the news quickly dragged the world’s most fun, pure rock ‘n’ roll band straight down the highway to hell and into the center of a media firestorm around Satanic Panic and the inspirations of a murderer. This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including graphic depictions of violence and sexual assault. To see the complete list of contributors, visit ⁠disgracelandpod.com⁠ https://www.disgracelandpod.com/ This episode was originally published on February 21, 2023. To listen to Disgraceland ad free and get access to weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at ⁠disgracelandpod.com/membership⁠ https://disgracelandpod.com/membership. Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - ⁠GET THE NEWSLETTER⁠ https://mailchi.mp/doubleelvis/disgraceland-email-newsletter Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: ⁠Instagram⁠ https://www.instagram.com/disgracelandpod/ ⁠YouTube⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@disgracelandpod ⁠X⁠ https://twitter.com/disgracelandpod (formerly Twitter) ⁠Facebook Fan Group⁠ https://www.facebook.com/groups/491024204626127/ ⁠TikTok https://tiktok.com/disgracelandpod See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:13Speaker 00

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• 0:44Speaker 01

  Join me, Cyndi Lauper, with chef Michelle Bernstein and Dr. Panico to talk about psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, the potential connection and risk of developing permanent joint damage.

• 0:59Speaker 02

  Cosentyx secucinumab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis 300-milligram dose and adults with active psoriatic arthritis 150-milligram dose. Don't use if you're allergic to Cosentyx. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like tuberculosis or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Some are fatal. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough, had a vaccine or plan to, or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTIX or cocentix.com/cindy.

• 1:44Jake Brennan?

  Hey, guys. Time to dust off your detective skills while unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyage. Backed by popular demand, this five-night, adults-only escape sets sail March 20, 2027, to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year, along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version of Disgrace Land, along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, Podcast of the Year Award winners Wyscrack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind-the-scenes storytelling, exclusive meet-and-greets, and immersive true crime programming throughout this one-of-a-kind voyage.

• 2:28Jake Brennan?

  Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot. All right, guys. Welcome into another episode of Disgrace Land Rewind. We're dipping into our archive here to bring you our AC/DC episode, Part One. This was originally released back on February 21, 2023. I remember being shaken to my core with the research here regarding Richard Ramirez and the Night Stalker, a story that I knew, and I knew about its association with AC/DC, but I did not know the depths of this man's evil and how it pertained to their music. This is a fascinating story.

• 3:10Jake Brennan?

  Also, the music we made for this episode is some of my favorite that we've done for any episode of Disgrace Land. I was highly inspired by All Quiet on the Western Front, the remake that came out on Netflix before we put this episode together. I think you'll be able to hear that in the music here. Check it out. Let us know what you think.

• 3:31Speaker 04

  This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. Please check the show notes for more information.

• 3:38Jake Brennan?

  Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis.

• 3:51Jake Brennan?

  The connections between AC/DC and Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, are insane. AC/DC's song Night Prowler inspired the killer's moniker. An AC/DC hat was the first, and for a time, only clue in the serial homicide case that gripped greater Los Angeles in the 1980s. Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, carved a pentagram, a satanic symbol, into one victim's body, painted the symbol on another victim's wall, and carved it into the palm of his hand. And Bon Scott, AC/DC's lead singer, wore a pentagram around his neck on the cover of the Highway to Hell album, a detail that was not lost on the sensationalist news media.

• 4:34Jake Brennan?

  The Night Stalker killed 13 people that we know about: men, women, and children savagely beaten, strangled, stabbed, shot, and raped, most while sleeping peacefully in their homes. Richard Ramirez loved to kill, and Richard Ramirez loved AC/DC's music. Great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called UK Limo MK2. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon.

• 5:14Jake Brennan?

  And why would I play you that specific slice of "crawl upon the floor" cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the number-one song in America on March 17, 1985, and that was the day that a California serial killer left his AC/DC hat at the scene of a homicide, dragging the band into a media circus that would haunt them for the rest of the decade. On this episode: A Satanic Serial Killer, A Police Manhunt, A Media Witch Hunt, and AC/DC. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgrace Land.

• 6:23Jake Brennan?

  The headlines were ridiculous. "Mass Killer Driven by Rock and Devil Worship: AC/DC Music Made Me Kill," Night Stalker admits. Angus Young, the guitar player for AC/DC, was annoyed. The haircut sitting across from him and lead singer Brian Johnson was as ridiculous as the headlines for which he and his ilk were responsible. His questions proved it. Did AC/DC stand for Antichrist Devil's Child? The question was so dumb it didn't even deserve an answer, but there Angus was answering it. "Uh, no. We got AC/DC off of our sister's sewing machine. It stands for power." It was all a game, and the haircut knew it, too.

• 7:07Jake Brennan?

  You couldn't spend five minutes talking to Angus, Brian, Angus's brother Malcolm, or any other member of AC/DC, past or present, and walk away thinking, "Oh, yeah, those guys are devil worshippers." They were too down-to-earth, too grounded, salt-of-the-earth Aussies, meat-and-potatoes working class. That background, along with the aforementioned "power," was reflected in their music, music that had spread all over the world. Since releasing their seventh album in four years, Highway to Hell in 1979, and its follow-up, Back in Black in 1980, the band had become an international bestselling sensation, knocking off nearly 15 million in record sales by mid-decade in the U.S. alone.

• 7:50Jake Brennan?

  You'd be hard-pressed to find a high school in America in 1985 without legions of long-haired AC/DC fans. Their music was powerful, sure, and it played with familiar, dark rock and roll themes, especially from back when Bon Scott, their original singer, helmed the group. But the truth was, AC/DC was a straightforward, fun-loving rock and roll band. And though they made their living on the same side of the street as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, the truth was that AC/DC had more in common with the seemingly, for their era, anyway, conservative rock and roll stylings of Chuck Berry than they did the demonic imagery and devil-infused themes of Sabbath and Zeppelin. But that was the truth of it, and the truth didn't matter. Like I said, it was all a game.

• 8:34Jake Brennan?

  And when it came to the media, the game, of course, was, as it still is, all about the narrative. And at that moment in 1985, regarding Richard Ramirez, the notorious Night Stalker serial killer, AC/DC was a big part of the narrative.

• 8:54Speaker 05

  Richard Ramirez, the so-called Night Stalker, accused of murdering fifteen people in California, was influenced by the AC/DC song Night Prowler.

• 9:08Speaker 06

  That song, it's been completely taken out of context.

• 9:15Speaker 05

  Congress has been holding hearings recently on the subject of whether there should be warning labels on records whose lyrics are judged objectionable.

• 9:27Speaker 05

  Some people say that stands for Antichrist Devil's Child. Antichrist Devil's Child. Antichrist Devil's Child.

• 9:41Jake Brennan?

  Richard Ramirez put his back into his pool shot. All six foot one and one hundred and sixty pounds of him. He was tall and thin and like his favorite band, AC/DC, whose music was blasting throughout the pool hall at that moment. Richard Ramirez was powerful. He looked it, physically and otherwise. His hair was black and sore, his eyes. And he was dark skinned, but beyond that, he seemed to possess a layer of filth that perpetually covered his body. And when he walked into a room, a cloud of stench arrived about thirty seconds prior. He was filthy. His teeth were rotting out of his head despite his tender age of twenty-four. A combination of his lack of hygiene and drug use. Cocaine, mostly.

• 10:26Jake Brennan?

  And despite all of this, his good looks were irrepressible. He wore all black, tight black jeans, black Avia sneakers, black Members Only jacket, and a dark, near-black, midnight blue AC/DC hat. The band's music drove him. Especially their Highway to Hell album. It spoke to him. Or more accurately, Richard believed Satan spoke to him through AC/DC's music. But Richard Ramirez believed he was the chosen one. A dark soul, hand-selected by Lucifer himself to do the devil's business here on Earth. Satan spoke to Richard in ways that went beyond AC/DC as well. There was the pentagram tattoo on that horse thigh and the skin flick on the screen at

• 11:10Jake Brennan?

  the cameo theater from earlier in the night. Then there was Perry and Dick's complete and total lack of remorse inside the Cutter family's home. Capote had it dead to rights, in cold blood, no doubt. And that scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Pam's long walk in those short red shorts. All those teeth and human bones. And the devil's taunting Father Charis through Reagan's body in The Exorcist. Charis, that smug prick.

• 11:43Jake Brennan?

  All of it fed Richard Ramirez, and he needed to feed the devil. He split from the pool hall. It was time. Whores wouldn't do it. They laughed at him, at his teeth, at his weird foot fetish. Plus, there was no power in paying for it. Taking it was where the juice was. Charged him. He needed to get out of downtown LA. Out into the unsuspecting suburbs. Outside the pool hall, he hotwired a Toyota, popped the clutch, and went hunting.

• 12:19Jake Brennan?

  Richard hit the highway, and soon enough, the off-ramp. Rosemead, California. He cruised, slow, the windows down. In his head, he recited the lyrics to AC/DC's Night Prowler. It calmed him, steadied his growing adrenaline. And the lyrics, with their dark tale of breaking and entering, prowling about in pursuit of an unsuspecting victim's virginity or worse. Outside their windows, on the other side of the blinds, an unimaginable creepy fear. And that fear that the prowler caused, Richard longed for it, fed off of it. Chills, the murderous terror. It was all there, from Bon Scott's lips to Satan's ears. Richard searched for a house.

• 13:04Jake Brennan?

  It needed to be just right. The perfect mix of quiet and potential. And there, a tiny little condo, an unassuming, petite, attractive brunette, Maria Hernandez, pulling her gold Camaro under the rising automated door of her condominium's garage. Richard cut the engine, used his muscular forearms to pull the Toyota's now-manual steering wheel to the curb, glided over the gravel to a near-silent stop, and watched. As the condo's garage door began to wrench itself to a close, Richard sprung from his stolen car and sprinted. And before the door could shut, Richard slid underneath.

• 13:44Jake Brennan?

  Inside, Maria Hernandez heard an unexpected sound, turned, and there he was. Six feet of stacked evil, staring at her, less than twenty feet away. Maria quickly turned to insert her house key into the lock on the door that led into her apartment. Richard began walking toward her, slowly, with intent. The lock wouldn't take the key. Maria turned. Richard continued his approach. Now, he had a .22 pistol pointed straight at her, and the garage door fully closed. All of the light in the garage was completely blacked out. Maria could smell Richard's hellfire breath. "No, God, please don't," she said as she reflexively raised her hands in front of her face.

• 14:29Jake Brennan?

  Then, the loud, blinding light of the .22 pistol. Maria fell to the ground. And Richard kicked the door open and entered the condo with authority. There, in the kitchen, another petite and attractive brunette, Dale Akazaki, Maria's roommate. She ducked behind the counter. She didn't know Richard saw her. Richard slowly approached the counter from the other side. It stood silent. Richard waited. Nothing. He knew it wouldn't be long. He knew she would stand up sooner or later. Sure enough. When Dale stood to take stock of the horrifying situation she was in, she was staring into the cold, black eyes of her killer. Richard Ramirez pulled the trigger of his .22 from point-blank range, firing a single

• 15:13Jake Brennan?

  bullet into the middle of the victim's forehead. She fell dead instantly. Richard ignored the sexual charge rising up inside of him. He turned and headed for the front door, and as he headed out into the night, there, on the walkway, in the front yard, unbelievably, Maria Hernandez. The bullet he'd fired at her in the garage had been blocked by the house keys in her hand. She spoke to her would-be killer in spurts. "Please don't, please don't, please don't shoot me again." And Richard lowered his gaze and walked past her toward his stolen car. As he drove off, he realized his AC/DC hat was missing. He steered the hot Toyota back toward downtown LA and blasted his Walkman at full volume.

• 15:57Jake Brennan?

  AC/DC's Highway to Hell filled his ears. "Living easy, living free." "Living easy and living free" was right. Those lyrics from Bon Scott on AC/DC's Highway to Hell title track were basically a mantra. It was how Bon lived his life. It was how Bon Scott was living his life at this exact moment back in 1977, prior to the recording of Highway to Hell. He was stuck riding bitch between two new friends in the backseat of a big American V8 somewhere in Florida. Florida loved AC/DC. So did Texas. Radio stations and live audiences in those two big American states were almost entirely

• 16:40Jake Brennan?

  responsible for AC/DC breaking through in the United States on the heels of their seventy-seven full-length effort, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Bon was in a great mood. As he was on most nights, he screamed along to the Sex Pistols song blasting from the car radio. And all was well until the Quaaludes kicked in. How many Bon took, he didn't know. He also didn't know how much he drank. Blue Nun, sweet German wine. It washed the looeds down quick. Everything around him raced by at its normal speed as Bon Scott powered down and sank deeper and deeper into the seventies. "Living easy, living free."

• 17:45Speaker 02

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• 18:20Speaker 01

  Hi, I'm Cyndi Lauper, Cosentyx's lead detective in the new mystery series, Unpredictable Symptoms Squad. My team and I are on a curious case to gather clues about plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, and to learn how Cosentyx treats both, and can help stop further joint damage in psoriatic arthritis. Join Michelle Bernstein... Wow, I didn't even know this place was here. Gary... Yeah, it makes sense. Something mysterious would happen here. And me, as we team up with the experts, Dr. Farley and Dr. Panico, who help us uncover the truth about these suspicious symptoms.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  Connect the dots and crack the case. Talking to your doctor about your symptoms can make all the difference. Don't let mysterious symptoms go unsolved.

• 19:15Speaker 02

  Cosentyx secukinumab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis and adults with active psoriatic arthritis. Don't use if allergic to Cosentyx. Get checked for TB before starting. Increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Like TB or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections, some were fatal. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough, had a vaccine or plan to, or if IBD symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTIX or cosentyx.com.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  Discover Cosentyx for plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

• 20:07Speaker 02

  Watch the full mystery series, Unpredictable Symptoms Squad, at cosentyx.com.

• 20:15Speaker 04

  I'm Lacey Mosley, author, actor, stand-up comedian, creator, and host of Scam Goddess Podcast, the true crime comedy podcast all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Each week I bring on an amazing guest... Ooh, I scam them. What? I could talk to you for an hour. You're a generational yapper, like me. That's why I had to make yapping a job. And now you can catch full episodes of my show on YouTube. Start listening to Scam Goddess on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

• 20:41Jake Brennan?

  get your podcasts.

• 20:51Jake Brennan?

  1977, Los Angeles, Sunset Strip, the Continental Hyatt House, aka The Riot House. The notorious hotel was the scene of many a '70s rock star's debaucherous escapades. Tonight, it was Bon Scott from ACDC's turn. He strolled the hotel with a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and a tall, buxom blonde in the other. His band was in town for a set of shows up the strip at the Whiskey at Go-Go. But tonight was for letting loose. Bon had steam to blow off. Since arriving in America in support of their latest album, the beyond-excellent Let There Be Rock, living easy and living free was proving to be easier said than done.

• 21:36Jake Brennan?

  The critics were not impressed. The New York Times said that, quote, "The band is tight, but the singer is undistinguished." The Los Angeles Times claimed that Bon Scott himself was utterly unlistenable. What did the critics know, anyway? Nothing. The media were nothing but vultures. Kids knew the truth. They flooded radio station request lines for ACDC after every show the band played. Rock and roll was a lifestyle. The kids understood that. It was a commitment. You needed to live the life, walk the walk, talk the talk, so to speak, and Bon Scott did that. Concertgoers latched on to Bon Scott's rock and roll authenticity.

• 22:17Jake Brennan?

  And in my opinion, there is no better example of what a rock and roll frontman should be than Bon Scott. Voice? Check. There's none better in the genre. Raspy, knowing, bluesy, mysterious, powerful, and unlike anything before or since. Probably my favorite rock singer of all time. Looks? Check. Bon Scott looked like he'd fight you, fuck you, be your best friend, and break your heart all in the same night regardless of what sex you were. Bon had it all. He was utterly serious-looking, tattoos, broken teeth, yet totally irreverent, violently handsome, a rough piece of trade he could take home to mom. Well, not my mom, but you get the idea. Stage presence? Check. Bon Scott commanded the stage with a unique, powerful presence.

• 23:01Jake Brennan?

  No easy task when you're positioned up there next to Angus Young, a constant whirling ball of sugar-infused heavy metal energy in a schoolboy's uniform with a Gibson SG, who split his time stripping down to his skivvies and melting faces. Even in the face of that, Bon Scott did more than hold his own. He owned the audience with raw power, just like the rest of his band. Lyrics? Check. Bon Scott was a natural rock and roll storyteller, cut from the same cloth as the great one, Chuck Berry. ACDC's latest long player, Let There Be Rock, had Bon on the top of his game lyrically with songs like "Whole Lot of Rosie," a song about the virtues of the full-bodied female, and the title track, "Let There Be Rock," which took the listener through a blitzkrieg

• 23:43Jake Brennan?

  rock and roll history lesson. Bon Scott commanded audiences, and he told stories offstage, too, as he was now doing at the Hyatt House, surrounded by friends. "Problem Child," so the story went, was a song about Angus, but Bon was coming clean. Maybe the Jack Daniels was talking. The song, he said, was actually about himself. 1963, 16-year-old Bon Scott. Those other boys had it coming. Bon took on the lot of them, bare-knuckled. He would have prevailed if it weren't for the cop who broke it up, and the cop who caught one of Bon's flailing fists.

• 24:24Jake Brennan?

  And that little move ended up with the charge escalating to assault on a police officer. Bon did 12 months in a juvenile home for boys. And then there was the story about Deep Purple. They were supposed to headline the Sunbury Festival back on ACDC's Australian home turf back in '75. Deep Purple were huge at the time. Bon had barely been in ACDC a couple of months. Deep Purple backed out, and the promoter hired local upstarts at ACDC to fill in. Then, Deep Purple showed up, in their fucking Rolls Royces, no less, and they demanded to play. But one of the roadies took a swing at ACDC's manager, and Bon Scott pounced, leveled the dude. All hell broke loose backstage.

• 25:06Jake Brennan?

  Angus spilled out onto the stage to chill out the kids in the crowd who were desperate to know what was happening and eager to lend their countrymen a hand when they found out they were doing battle backstage with an English rock group. Angus chilled them out, but not before seeing his lead singer, Bon Scott, being whipped around on the back of a Deep Purple roadie he held in a headlock. Eventually, the melee came to an end, and all parties laughed off the incident, but it made for a good story. Just like the story about when Bon found himself at the maternity ward visiting two different women at the same time, both of whom were delivering his babies. It's true. That happened, according to Bon Scott, anyway. Another one of his good stories.

• 25:49Jake Brennan?

  But nothing topped Bon appearing on Australian national television to perform in 1975, fully in drag, dressed as a schoolgirl. Pigtails, blue eyeliner, lipstick, skirt. Australia would never be the same. Half the country was still horrified and half was still laughing, like Bon. It was all a joke. The arrests, the time, the drink, the fights, the unwed pregnancies, the shock and outrage, none of it was serious. It was all a put-on, living easy, living free. The only thing that mattered was the show, giving the kids what they wanted. And beyond power, what kids in the 1970s wanted was darkness.

• 26:34Jake Brennan?

  Richard Ramirez was one of those kids. Hell ain't a bad place to be. If you want blood, you got it. Dirty deeds done, dirt cheap. What's next to the moon? Night prowler and highway to hell. Indiscriminate murder, contract killing, violent crimes of passion, a glorification of Satan. All this darkness is present in these ACDC songs. Tremendous, transgressive rock and roll storytelling, delivered with ACDC's trademark power. Incredibly compelling stuff for disaffected teenagers everywhere, never mind those living in a post-Charles Manson Los Angeles. 1985 LA was its own kind of hell.

• 27:15Jake Brennan?

  The air itself was toxic, and the homeless problem, like it is now, was out of control. And the elite shuffled aimlessly up in their Hollywood Hills mansions as coke and crack addicts roamed the streets below, turning tricks and getting stoned in decaying bus terminals and hourly motels. It was in this hell that Richard Ramirez found himself, listening to ACDC, communing with Satan, and about to pay the devil his due.

• 27:45Speaker 05

  We'll be right back after this word, word, word.

• 27:50Speaker 00

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• 28:24Speaker 01

  Hi, I'm Cyndi Lauper, Cosentyx's lead detective in the new mystery series, Unpredictable Symptoms Squad. My team and I are on a curious case to gather clues about plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, and to learn how Cosentyx treats both and can help stop further joint damage in psoriatic arthritis. Join Michelle Bernstein. Wow, I didn't even know this place was here. Gary. Yeah, it makes sense. Something mysterious would happen here. And me, as we team up with the experts, Dr. Farley and Dr. Panico, who help us uncover the truth about these suspicious symptoms.

• 29:07Speaker 01

  Connect the dots and crack the case. Talking to your doctor about your symptoms can make all the difference. Don't let mysterious symptoms go unsolved.

• 29:19Speaker 02

  Cosentyx secukinumab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis and adults with active psoriatic arthritis. Don't use if allergic to Cosentyx. Get checked for TB before starting. Increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like TB or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Some were fatal. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough. Had a vaccine or plan to. Or if IBD symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTIX or cosentyx.com.

• 30:04Speaker 01

  Discover Cosentyx for plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

• 30:11Speaker 02

  Watch the full mystery series, Unpredictable Symptoms Squad, at cosentyx.com.

• 30:19Speaker 04

  I'm Lacey Mosley, author, actor, stand-up comedian, creator, and host of Scam Goddess Podcast, the true crime comedy podcast all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Each week I bring on an amazing guest. Ooh, I scammed them. What? I could talk to you for an hour. You're a generational yapper, like me. That's why I had to make yapping a job. And now you can catch full episodes of my show on YouTube. Start listening to Scam Goddess on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 30:53Jake Brennan?

  The Catholic Church compels its followers to develop a daily relationship with God, to speak to Him, to pray to Him, to commune with Him. Richard Ramirez did the opposite. He spoke with Satan. Hail Satan, the brother of him. From behind the wheel of his stolen car, Richard Ramirez absorbed the sounds of Highway to Hell and spoke in a trance. Hail Satan. Thank you for being a stabilizing force in my life. For driving me, for accepting me into your army, for enlisting me in your fight against Christ, for giving me purpose, for showing me the power of total domination. Hail Satan.

• 31:37Jake Brennan?

  Richard Ramirez believed that Jesus Christ was the enemy and that he, Richard Ramirez, was part of Satan's army here on earth. And who are we to argue? Richard Ramirez's evil was beyond compare, especially on the night of March 26, 1985. At around 2:00 a.m., Richard Ramirez slowed his new stolen car to a stop outside a tidy-looking home on Strong Avenue in Whittier, California. He crept slowly into the yard, peered into the living room window, on the sofa, a man sleeping in front of the television in his underwear. Richard crept to the back of the house. He peered into a bedroom window.

• 32:21Jake Brennan?

  And there, on the bed, a woman, sleeping, mid-40s. The sight of her and the thought of imminent sex charged Richard. Richard turned toward the front of the house, steadied himself with his 22 pistol aimed in combat position, and burst through the front door. The man on the couch woke in a start, and Richard immediately fired off a round. The bullet entered the man's skull just above his ear. A thin stream of blood shot out of the man's head and painted the living room wall three feet away. The man fell to the floor, dying. The sound of the shot woke the woman in the bedroom. Horror chilled her veins when she saw Richard enter the room. She screamed, and Richard screamed back. Where's the fucking money, bitch? Richard didn't wait for an answer.

• 33:06Jake Brennan?

  He quickly grabbed a necktie from the closet and bound the woman to the bed. Then he continued ransacking her bedroom for valuables. But while he was distracted, the woman loosened the sloppily tied necktie, undid herself, and made for the shotgun her husband kept under the bed. Richard hurt her, turned around, and was shocked to see the woman had the drop on him. She focused her aim, strengthened her grip, pulled the trigger in. No shotgun shells. Richard flew into a rage. How dare she try to hurt him? He was an agent of Satan. She was a weak pawn, insignificant sacrificial fodder. He quickly raised his 22 and shot her three times. Then he hit the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife he could find.

• 33:52Jake Brennan?

  When he returned, he pounced on the woman on the bed. He ripped off her shirt and proceeded to attempt to cut her heart out of her chest, but the knife wasn't strong enough and wouldn't penetrate the rib cage. It was a disappointment. Richard took the knife and carved a deep, bloody, upside-down cross into the woman's chest in homage to Satan. Without her heart as a souvenir, he turned his attention to her eyes. He took his knife and with precision, he cut her eyeballs out of her skull and carefully placed them into the woman's small jewelry box. His anger returned. He stabbed her repeatedly, in the throat, in the stomach, in the vagina. But Richard then tried to have sex with the dead woman's body, but his anger prevented him from getting an erection.

• 34:35Jake Brennan?

  He exited the house frustrated and covered in blood. He took the shotgun and the woman's eyes. On May 29, it was a different home, in Monrovia. Richard broke in. He prowled the entryway into the kitchen, where he found a hammer. Moving to the bedrooms, he found and tied up both residents of the Monrovia home. Two women, sisters, in their 80s, one of them disabled. And they helplessly took blows from that hammer, the claws of it gouging and breaking their bodies. And Richard's bloodlust fed his libido. What he wanted to do in Whittier, he did to the disabled woman in Monrovia.

• 35:18Jake Brennan?

  Afterwards, he shocked the one sister with an electric cord, took her lipstick, and drew pentagrams on her thigh and on the walls of the house. The two women's bodies weren't found for days. The very next night, in Burbank, he used handcuffs instead of rope to bind a 42-year-old woman and her 11-year-old son. He threw the kid in the closet and dragged the mom around the house, making her show him all the valuables he could steal. And then he raped her repeatedly, shouting at her the whole time. Don't look at me. I said, don't look at me. Don't you fucking look at me. I won't. I won't. I swear to God, I won't. Don't swear to God. Swear to Satan. I am the Night Stalker. Richard liked making his victims swear to the devil.

• 36:01Jake Brennan?

  A 63-year-old survivor from Monterey Park was made to pledge her allegiance to Lucifer. During a robbery in Sun Valley, he demanded the widow of the man he just shot in the head swear to Satan that she'd given up all her jewelry. And on another night in Diamond Bar, he made a different woman swear to the devil that she would stay quiet while he raped her. Every scene was raw, uncut, nightmare fuel. And then there was the attempted murder of Whitney Bennett. Stop, stop, she shouted, her mouth full of blood. The tire iron came down on her head, over and over, pummeling her innocent 16-year-old face. Richard had snuck in her unlocked bedroom window with the tire iron in hand.

• 36:43Jake Brennan?

  And as he brought it down again, her hands swatted at him in a useless defense. She had been asleep a minute ago, and she quickly slipped back into unconsciousness under the assault. Richard stepped out into the kitchen for a knife, but struggled to find one. Instead, he decided to finish the job by strangulation. An electric cord laced around her neck pulled taut. He yanked it harder, watched her skin go pale and then purple. Suddenly, the electric cord sparked and frizzed, filling the air above her body with a blue haze. It was as if her soul was visibly leaving her body. Except instead of dying, the 16-year-old began gasping for air and waking up again.

• 37:25Jake Brennan?

  For once, Richard Ramirez was the scared one. The blue haze over the girl's body, it freaked him out. Clearly, this was a sign of divine rather than satanic intervention. Her soul, he saw it, he swore. That was what scared him. Jesus intervening, overpowering Satan. Richard booked it out of the house, and Whitney Bennett survived after 500 stitches and some plastic surgery. Following this gruesome string of murders, it wasn't long before the press picked up on the fact that a serial killer was in their midst. When they found out one of the only clues was an AC/DC hat left behind at the scene of the Dale Akazaki murder in March of 85,

• 38:09Jake Brennan?

  the media feeding frenzy really kicked in. They even had a name for the killer. It was a take on his favorite band, AC/DC's song Night Prowler. And they called him The Night Stalker.

• 38:25Speaker 05

  The so-called Night Stalker is blamed for seven murders in the Los Angeles area. Now, police have linked the killer to a murder in San Francisco last weekend. Murder in San Francisco. Officials in Los Angeles are offering a $10,000 reward for the leading to the capture of the so-called Night Stalker.

• 38:49Speaker 04

  The same man is suspected in six to eight murders and 25 to 30 attacks. The latest victim, a 35-year-old man, shot in the head last Thursday. Shot in the head last Thursday. I'm afraid for everybody, elderly, young, everybody. I've been very apprehensive.

• 39:10Speaker 05

  I keep my doors locked and my guns loaded. My guns loaded. Night Stalker. Callers are flooding the sheriff's department with reported sightings, but so far, no solid leads. Night Stalker.

• 39:28Jake Brennan?

  And if AC/DC embodied Bon Scott, Richard Ramirez unfortunately embodied the violent themes Bon Scott incorporated into his music.

• 40:02Jake Brennan?

  The hat, midnight blue, near-black, glittery AC/DC logo emblazoned across the front. It fell off of Richard Ramirez's head, most likely when he scooted under Maria Hernandez's garage door before attempting to shoot her point-blank in the face. It was one of his first violent break-ins and the first clue he left for police. It would be months before the media would learn about that hat, and when they did, they looked into Richard Ramirez's favorite band. It was 1985, and AC/DC's latest album, Fly on the Wall, was a mediocre recording and commercial release for a band as successful as AC/DC. However, journalists on the hunt for a narrative didn't need to do much digging to connect the straight line

• 40:47Jake Brennan?

  between the murderous actions of Richard Ramirez and the influence of AC/DC. All they needed to do was trace the band's discography back a few years to 1979 to their album, Highway to Hell. On its cover, Angus Young sports his trademark schoolboy hat, modified with devil horns, and holds a long, pointed devil's tail in his hand. You'd have to be a complete fucking idiot to take the image of him seriously, but then again, we are talking about the American media. Perhaps more serious is the image of Bon Scott next to Angus. He's sporting a goofy smile. The photographer caught him in the middle of a laugh. It's a very Bon-type of image, one a thousand fans have seen before. As always,

• 41:30Jake Brennan?

  he's not taking himself too seriously. However, on his necklace hangs a very serious symbol, a five-pointed pentagram representing the five wounds of Jesus. Add a goat's head to the pentagram, and you have the official symbol of the Church of Satan. Catholic exorcists believe that symbols like the pentagram, or perhaps even this podcast, are used by the devil as entry points into the lives of men and women. Richard Ramirez believed this, too. After he was captured on August 31, 1985, he stood in court at his arraignment and flashed the palm of his hand. On it, a massive pentagram carved into the flesh

• 42:10Jake Brennan?

  above the number 666, the number of the beast. In case there was any doubt, after he pleaded innocent to murdering 13 people, Richard Ramirez yelled out "Hail Satan" to the judge and the rest of the court, including some victims' family members and members of the media. Media, who had already connected Richard's intentions to more than just Bon Scott's pentagram on the cover of Highway to Hell, they also connected the dots to Bon Scott's lyrics in the slow, evil menace of the album's final track, Night Prowler, which lyrically seemed to detail the creepy B&E murders of Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker. Many in the media went as far as to directly blame AC/DC for Richard Ramirez's actions.

• 42:54Jake Brennan?

  The members of AC/DC vehemently denied any serious connection to or influence from Satan, despite the imagery and themes they explored on record. Richard Ramirez did the opposite, saying in court, "I love all that blood. I love to kill people. I love watching them die. I believe in Satan. I am beyond good and evil. Satanists need to have more faith than Christians." Richard went further. He treated his trial like some sort of demonic celebrity come-out party. He dressed in a dark suit, wore sunglasses in the courtroom, and let his hair grow up. If you squinted, you could see the resemblance to AC/DC's

• 43:34Jake Brennan?

  previous singer, Bon Scott, who passed away tragically, drunk, and stoned, and drowned in his own vomit in the front seat of a French supermini on a cold English night five years prior in 1979. Living easy, living free, dead on your own puke inside the cold interior of a Renault 5. For a moment, the courtroom stage allowed Richard Ramirez to fill the void left by Bon Scott. Richard was now the rock star. The explosion of media coverage around his trial that blasted his evil rock star image all over television newscasts and newspapers daily led to a torrent of groupies. These were women who wrote to Richard

• 44:15Jake Brennan?

  Ramirez pledging their love. They sent him nudes, proposed polyamorous domesticity, and even hung out in and around the courtroom during his trial. One, Doreen Leoi, even married Richard after he was convicted and sent to San Quentin with a death sentence. Perhaps Doreen's love was a parting gift to Richard from the devil, paying his dues. Perhaps, as Bon Scott sang in 1977, "Hell ain't a bad place to be."

• 44:46Jake Brennan?

  Evil. Richard Ramirez was a special kind of evil, proof that Satan does indeed walk among us. The Night Stalker died in prison on June 7, 2013. In the end, it wasn't the electric chair, or lethal injection. It was B-cell lymphoma, cancer, bad blood. He was 53 years old. Richard Ramirez spent 20 more years on this earth than Bon Scott, who died at the age of 33. But only one of these men died a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand. Shazam, nanu nanu.

• 45:39Jake Brennan?

  DisgraceLand was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a DisgraceLand All-Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com/membership. Members can listen to every episode of DisgraceLand ad-free. Plus, you'll get one brand-new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelandpod.com/membership for details. Rate and review the show and follow

• 46:20Jake Brennan?

  us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook @disgracelandpod, and on YouTube at youtube.com/atdisgracelandpod. Rock-a'rolla.

• 46:32Jake Brennan?

  He's a bad, bad man. Alright guys, that's AC/DC, Part 1. We've got Part 2 coming up for you right now.