This week on Grim Curriculum, we begin our 200th episode series on one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, Richard Ramirez, better known as the “Night Stalker.”

In Part One, we trace Ramirez’s early life, his family history, and the deeply disturbing environment that shaped his formative years before his move to Los Angeles at just 18 years old. Even at this stage of the story, the warning signs are staggering. Violence, trauma, abuse, and dangerous influences surrounded Ramirez from an early age, raising difficult questions about nature, nurture, and how monsters are made. While there is no excuse for the horrors Richard Ramirez would later commit, this episode examines the circumstances that may have helped create the man he became. Was he born evil, or was he shaped into it by the people and experiences around him? ...