Richard Ramirez, the “Night Stalker” who terrorized Southern California in the summer of 1985 with a series of random and horrific home-invasion murders, has died, according to reports.

KRON television in the Bay Area reports that the 53-year-old died of natural causes at San Quentin, where he awaited his fate on Death Row.

Ramirez was convicted of 13 murders for that summer spree that had Angelenos locking up their doors and windows even on the hottest of nights.

His M.O. was to creep around random neighborhoods, enter through unlocked windows, rape, slash and shoot.

Ramirez was one of the scariest serial killers of our time because no one knew where he'd strike next. There was for a moment a notion that he targeted yellow houses, but even that pattern was disproved.

Adding to the terror was his belief in Satan and love of hard rock music.

Ramirez was captured that summer by an angry mob in East Los Angeles after someone recognized him: His photo was plastered in that morning's newspapers and even as he rode a bus through downtown and the Eastside there was nowhere to hide.

The murderer was convicted in 1989, and the California Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

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