Philip Carlo > Quotes

“For dead men tell no tales.”
― Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

“Stupid is as stupid does.”
― Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

“Mercedes took Richard to the hospital. He was examined perfunctorily and Mercedes was told he was an epileptic and was experiencing grand mal seizures. There was nothing to worry about—he’d “grow out of it.” He was not given any medication, nor was Mercedes asked to bring him back. At home, Ruth began noticing that her baby brother was having long staring spells in which he would just sit still and look at something—a wall, a table, the floor—for five, ten, fifteen minutes without speaking or moving. He was having petite mal seizures, but no one realized it then, and Richard wasn’t diagnosed or treated. Richard had one to two dozen of these petite mal attacks every month until he entered his early teens, when they, as well as the less frequent grand mal seizures, lessened and eventually stopped altogether. According to Dr. Ronald Geshwind, a certain number of people who suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy have altered sexuality and hyper-religious feelings, are hypergraphic (have a compulsion to write), and are excessively aggressive. Van Gogh, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Dostoevsky, and Lewis Carroll all suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. Years later, after all the trouble, Richard would be diagnosed as having temporal lobe epilepsy.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“The only exercise I ever got was carrying dead bodies.”
― Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

“He who hesitates is lost, my friend.”
― Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

“With money you were a succesful man, without it you were a failure.”
― Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

“With books he could leave his cell and go wherever the story went.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“There's a will, there's a way my friend.”
― Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

“That first year in L.A., Richard became addicted to cocaine. It was 1978, and coke was the “in” drug, selling for $100 per gram. This was prior to the Colombian cartels applying modern corporate techniques to the importation and distribution of cocaine in the States, which brought the price of a gram down to thirty-five dollars by the mid-eighties.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“That night she again slept in the back of her brother’s car, hidden under her raincoat, afraid of the rats, of the police, and of men who got their kicks from hurting women. Ruth knew it was a cruel world filled with people who were capable of terrible things.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Old habits die hard.”
― Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

“Richard had grown into a psychotic sadist who had discovered a way to hurt and kill people, and get paid for it. Life was good.”
― Philip Carlo, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

“Judge Nelson announced he’d found enough incriminating evidence to hold Ramirez over for trial. Because of the multiple murder counts Ramirez could face the death penalty. The judge read into the record all the counts: fourteen murders, five attempted murders, fifteen burglaries, five robberies, four rapes, three acts of oral copulation, and four acts of sodomy. The attacks were on sixteen different L.A. households, between June 27, 1984 (Vincow) and August 8, 1985 (the Abowaths). While the judge read the counts in a factual, dispassionate way, Richard sat low in his seat and looked forward as all eyes in the courtroom focused on the back of his head.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Cindy Haden continued visiting Richard every chance she got. She’d come mostly on weekends, when Doreen was visiting, too. The two women began seeing each other at the jail. Doreen felt Cindy was a “low-down, hypocritical bitch” who could have hung the jury. Whenever Doreen saw Cindy at the jail, she would narrow her eyes and regard her with utter disdain. When Doreen asked Richard why the hell he would allow that Benedict Arnold to visit, he said she was a juror and might be of help if he chose to appeal his conviction. After a few months of Cindy driving all the way to San Francisco every weekend, she began thinking she would move north permanently so she could be close to Richard. She was in love with him and had pictures of him in frames on her night table and on the wall opposite her bed. Cindy had told her parents about her relationship with Richard and had actually brought her mom and dad to the jail so they could meet him. When Richard first sat across from them in the visiting booth, Cindy said, “Mom, Dad, this is Richard,” as Richard smiled shyly. “I know you’ve heard some bad things about him, but he’s got a lot of good points, too.” Richard sheepishly said hello, waved, and began talking to Cindy’s father, who, like his father, had worked for a railroad. They had “something in common,” as Cindy later put it. Cindy agreed to do several national talk shows—“Donahue” once and “Geraldo” twice—and told the world, in a very passionate voice, that Richard Ramirez had had improper counsel and his convictions should be overturned.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“When she got home, Cindy wrote Richard a long letter, saying how sorry she was about the death sentence, and tried to explain that she, and the jury as a whole, had had no legal alternative but to vote for death. She mailed the letter and anxiously waited for a response, which took only four days. Richard wrote her back and said he understood, that she shouldn’t feel bad about anything, not to beat herself up, and asked her to write him some more and maybe even come and visit. Cindy was thrilled when she got his letter and immediately wrote him back.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Then, as now, he adamantly claimed that he never sexually abused any young people and that the police and the prosecutor had conspired to hang abduction and sexual abuse charges on him so they could pollute the L.A. jury pool further—hopefully, beyond repair. The Hernandezes planned to ask for a change of venue, to Oakland, perhaps.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“was like being struck by a speeding train.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Killing with a knife is very personal; you actually are holding it as it goes in, and when death comes, you can feel your victim dying through the knife. It’s like sex.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Based on the standards set by the state bar for attorneys in capital crime cases, the Hernandezes were woefully inexperienced. Neither of them had ever tried a murder case, let alone one of this complexity. Richard wasn’t particularly impressed by Arturo and Daniel. They weren’t as seasoned, sharp, and well tailored as Gallegos, and they had had very little courtroom time. Richard told them, after repeating his rationale about why he was pleading guilty, that he had hired Gallegos.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Cynthia Haden learned about the murder from juror Choclate Harris, who called her at her home that evening. Quickly, word of Singletary’s death traveled to all the jurors and alternates; and that night few of them slept well. They were all haunted by the prospect of Richard Ramirez being responsible in some way. They had seen his groupies and the Satanists parading in and out of the courtroom daily for the last fourteen months. Charles Manson had, they all knew, sent people to kill Sharon Tate and her friends and Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca. After all, this was Southern California. Anything was possible.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“In August of 1993, Frank Salerno, the famous bulldog of Sheriffs Homicide, retired from police work for good.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Satan, he began to vehemently believe, would have approved of the thoughts and feelings he was having, and he started to think maybe Satan would be a more appropriate god, a power, for him to follow and worship.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“In February 1990, Ramirez was moved to the San Francisco County Jail, where he had access to a phone and a television and interacted with other inmates. Almost immediately, he got into a fight over the phones and beat up some guy who’d called him a punk. Richard knew he couldn’t let anyone abuse him in any way, for the abuse would surely get worse and more than likely end up as an assault against him. He was quick to let everyone in the jail know if you bothered him, you’d better be ready to fight to the end. This resulted in his being left alone and he could do his time without being bothered.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“At 10:50 on September 20, the jury announced they had reached a verdict—a unanimous decision. Daniel Hernandez and Ray Clark were summoned. Richard was brought from the jail. He refused to change into a suit and wore jail blues. The press packed the courtroom. All the networks interrupted broadcasts to announce that a verdict had been reached. At 2:12, everyone was gathered in the packed courtroom. Carrillo and Salerno sat in their usual places. Clark told Judge Tynan that Richard did not want to be present for the verdict. Halpin said he wanted him there. Tynan refused to have Richard chained up to hear the verdict. It wouldn’t be good for the jury to see him that way before the penalty stage. He ruled Richard could hear the verdict from the court holding cell, citing “the Ninth Circuit of California v. Spainer. ”He queried Richard on the record, asking him four times if he relinquished his right to be present during the verdicts, and each time Richard said yes. He signed a waiver and was taken back to the holding cell.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Julian was introduced to the commandante of the Juarez Police. He immediately liked the way Julian looked and was pleased to hear he knew about the handling of guns from his time in the army. He was sworn in right away, given a uniform and a gun, and told to report for duty the next morning.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Toward the end of July, Richard reportedly told a sheriffs deputy that he was going to have one of his girls sneak a gun into the courtroom and he was going to shoot Halpin to death, then people in the audience, then himself. Security was already tight, but the bailiffs took Ramirez’s alleged threat seriously, set up metal detectors, and searched everyone coming into the courtroom.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Carlo: The phenomenon of serial killers—is it a sexual thing, too, Richard? Is sex part of the crimes? Ramirez: Sex? For some serial killers, sure. For some it is the very act of killing another human being that is ... that ... uh ... that is sexual to them. It’s a bloodlust, I guess you can say.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Judge Soper, her eyes on Richard and his attorneys, told the packed courtroom that she’d given a lot of thought to letting the Hernandezes become Richard’s counsel. She was concerned that a contract assigning book and movie rights to the Hernandezes in lieu of payment would violate Richard’s rights, for a story that ended in acquittal would be less valuable than one that ended with a guilty verdict. But the defendant, she pointed out, had refused to see lawyer Victor Chavez, whom she had sent to the jail to explain to Richard his rights after he’d reviewed the contract. Nevertheless, she said, the assignment was legal under California law, and the defendant, according to the Constitution, could choose his own counsel. Judge Soper had decided to reverse herself and allow the Hernandezes to represent Richard. The Hernandezes smiled at one another and shook hands. Halpin shook his head in utter disbelief and disgust.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“Death, as such, held no fear for Richard. More than ever he believed in his heart that he would go to Hell and sit at the right hand of Satan. He believed all the hardest criminals throughout history would be there and he’d get to know them. Jack the Ripper, Al Capone, John Dillinger, Ted Bundy, Adolf Hitler, and all the others sent to Hell for their deeds. Heaven and Hell were as real to Richard as the helicopter now taking him to San Quentin.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez

“He’d first make sure the guests were asleep by listening at the window. When he was satisfied, he’d open the door, enter quickly, get down to the ground, and wait, making certain the guests weren’t disturbed. Then he’d crawl across the floor, as Mike had taught him, and find the wallets, cash, and watches using a penlight to see.”
― Philip Carlo, The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez