Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez (/rəˈmɪərɛz/; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), known as Richard Ramirez, was an American serial killer, serial rapist, kidnapper, pedophile, and burglar. His highly publicized home invasion crime spree terrorized the residents of the Greater Los Angeles area and later the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area from June 1984 until August 1985. Prior to his capture, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the news media

The Night Stalker Richard Ramirez; Los Angeles - USA

Hometown Murders a new weekly True Crime Podcast. Each episode features a massive case from a single town or city around the world.

True crime

Harold Jones (11 January 1906 – 2 January 1971) was a child murderer who committed the murder of two preadolescent girls in Monmouthshire, Wales in 1921 when he was 15. Jones was acquitted of the murder of his first victim, 8-year-old Freda Burnell, at Monmouthshire Assizes on 21 June 1921. Just 17 days later, he murdered an 11-year-old neighbour named Florence Little. Jones pleaded guilty to Little's murder and also confessed to having murdered Freda Burnell at his second trial. Owing to his being under 16 at the time he committed the murders, Jones escaped capital punishment for his crimes; instead being sentenced to be detained at His Majesty's pleasure on 1 November 1921.[4] Jones was released from prison in 1941, later marrying and fathering a child. He died of bone cancer in 1971 at the age of 64.

Harold Jones; Abertillery - Wales

The murder of Julia Martha Thomas, dubbed the "Barnes Mystery" or the "Richmond Murder" by the press, was one of the most notorious crimes in the Victorian period of the United Kingdom. Thomas, a widow in her 50s who lived in Richmond, London, was murdered on 2 March 1879 by her maid Kate Webster, a 30-year-old Irishwoman with a history of theft. Webster disposed of the body by dismembering it, boiling the flesh off the bones, and throwing most of the remains into the River Thames.

Julia Martha Thomas; Richmond - England

The murder of Ann Ogilby, also known as the "Romper Room murder", took place in Sandy Row, south Belfast, Northern Ireland on 24 July 1974. It was a punishment killing, carried out by members of the Sandy Row women's Ulster Defence Association (UDA) unit. At the time the UDA was a legal Ulster loyalist paramilitary organisation. The victim, Ann Ogilby, a Protestant single mother of four, was beaten to death by two teenaged girls after being sentenced to a "rompering" (UDA slang term for a torture session followed by a fatal beating) at a kangaroo court. Ogilby had been having an affair with a married UDA commander, William Young, who prior to his internment, had made her pregnant. His wife, Elizabeth Young, was a member of the Sandy Row women's UDA unit. Ogilby had made defamatory remarks against Elizabeth Young in public regarding food parcels. Eight weeks after Ogilby had given birth to Young's son, the women's unit decided that Ogilby would pay for both the affair and remarks with her life. The day following the kangaroo court "trial", they arranged for the kidnapping of Ogilby and her six-year-old daughter, Sharlene, outside a Social Services office by UDA man Albert "Bumper" Graham.

Romper Room Murder, Ann Ogilby; Belfast - Northern Ireland

The murder of Muriel Drinkwater is an unsolved 1946 child murder case from Wales. Drinkwater, a 12-year-old schoolgirl, was raped and shot in the woods in Penllergaer, Swansea. The case, which became known as the Little Red Riding Hood murder, is one of the oldest active cold cases in the United Kingdom. In 2008, a DNA profile of the suspect was extracted from her clothes, possibly the oldest sample in the world to be successfully extracted in a murder investigation. In 2019, the DNA was used to rule out notorious Welsh murderer Harold Jones as a suspect.

The Night Stalker Richard Ramirez; Los Angeles - USA

Download our free app to listen on your phone