Doreen Lioy first heard of serial killer Richard Ramirez, better known as the Night Stalker, when she saw his mugshot on TV and a report detailing his horrific crimes.
Struck by his “vulnerability”, she began writing to Ramirez, who was responsible for the gruesome murders of at least 14 children, women and men in California before he was finally caught in 1985.
Yet despite his unforgivable crimes, Ramirez captured the hearts of women across the country – including Doreen’s.
Ramirez’s rampage across LA and San Francisco began in June 1984, and included a string of horrific killings, sexual assaults, robberies and carjackings that terrified the entire nation.
The 24-year-old’s brutal crime spree is documented in the Netflix doco series Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer, which shows frightened residents cowering in their homes, installing security systems and adopting large dogs to ward off an attack from the then-unknown assailant.
But for a small group of women, Ramirez’s penchant for Satan worshipping and brutal acts of molestation, rape and murder – not to mention his lack of remorse over his evil crimes – weren’t enough to deter their affections.
By the time he faced trial in July 1988, Ramirez – nicknamed “Death Row Romeo” – had amassed a fan club called the “Ramirez Groupies”, which included lovestruck Doreen.
‘GREAT PERSON’
For more than a decade she sent him 75 letters while he faced death row for his crimes.
As their relationship became serious, Doreen, a magazine editor, began to visit up to four times a week, adamant that her lover was innocent despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
“I just believe in him completely,” she told CNN in 1997.
“I think he’s really a great person. He’s my best friend – he’s my buddy.”
It was during a visit in 1988 that Ramirez proposed to Doreen.
Their wedding was delayed due to prison rules, but on October 3, 1996, they tied the knot at California’s San Quentin State Prison.
Dressed in a short white dress embellished with pearls, Doreen, 41, a self described virgin and practising Catholic, couldn’t wait to wed her “funny, kind and charming” fiance.
“I can’t help the way the world looks at him. They don’t know him the way I do,” she said on her wedding day in a televised interview.
Doreen said she “didn’t see the evil in him”.
The only guests to attend the 15-minute service were Ramirez’s brother, sister, niece, lawyer and an author who was writing a book about the convicted serial killer.
Following the union, Doreen’s family all but disowned her, with her twin sister speaking out in 1996.
“It’s unfortunate for me that I’ve been linked with all of this. I was taken aback by the news. To be related by birth is fine… I don’t want to be a part of this. It’s been a painful event for the family,” she said.
CUTTING ALL TIES
Doreen, who took Ramirez’s surname after they wed, was so devoted to her husband that she said she would commit suicide when her husband was executed so they’d never be apart.
However, in 2009 after almost 13 years of marriage, Doreen split from Ramirez when DNA evidence linked him to the rape and murder of nine-year-old San Francisco girl Mei Leung.
Ramirez went on to have a relationship with another of his groupies, writer Christine Lee.
He died in 2013 at the age of 53, after complications from B-cell lymphoma.
Ramirez had been on death row for more than 23 years.
