Women Were so Obsessed With the Night Stalker, He Was Nicknamed "Death Row Romeo"

Richard Ramirez, better known as “The Night Stalker,” was one of the most infamous serial killers who ended up on Death Row. Not only that, but along with the likes of Ted Bundy and Charles Manson, his infamy attracted swarms of girls rather than deterring them. One such girl attracted to the Night Stalker’s charm was Christine Lee.

Christine Lee was eight years younger than the Night Stalker, but that didn’t deter her from becoming one of his groupies. The media actually coined these girls the “Ramirez Groupies,” which makes the Night Stalker sound much cooler than he was. In reality, Ramirez was responsible for the deaths of at least 14 people before finally getting captured while capturing the hearts of women across the country. Now, we’re finally getting a closer retrospective on Netflix’s new docu-series, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer.

Despite the Night Stalker’s gruesome murders, in which he would typically break into homes, murder any men in the house with a shotgun, and then assault and murder the women and children in the house, many women became infatuated with Richard Ramirez. While some women admitted being sexually attracted to the serial killer, many seemed to be simply more intrigued by the Night Stalker. He loved the attention, and would put on displays of “emotional outbursts” while on trial to keep his groupies captivated.

Richard Ramirez had so many admirers that the media even dubbed him “Death Row Romeo.” In one disturbing interview with Christine Lee and another of the Night Stalker’s admirers, then-16-year-old Eva, the two discuss their relationship with the Night Stalker. Eva claimed that she and the serial killer exchanged poems, initially for a school project, but she became infatuated with him, not because of his looks, but because “he broke away from the system.” 

Lee, however, claimed she was not obsessed with Richard at all. In fact, he was the one calling her and writing her all the time. She maintained that when she met Richard four years prior to the television interview, when she was likely a teen, that she had no idea what crimes he had committed. She only visited him because his lawyer insisted she should. The likelihood of the truth here is pretty slim, since his crimes were broadcast all over the news.

Not much is known about Christine Lee, potentially because she stayed pretty tight-lipped in all her media appearances regarding the Night Stalker. Some YouTubers have even nicknamed her Christine “No” Lee, since in one interview with Geraldo Rivera, her only answer to him is “no.” In all interviews, Lee would not divulge any details about her relationship with the Night Stalker, and claimed she had never even touched him. 

On one show, Lee said that she was engaged to him, but she would not admit if she loved him. She also instigated a rivalry between another one of the Night Stalker’s frequent visitors, Kelly Marquez, who claimed that Christine Lee sent Marquez death threats. No one knows the truth, because when Marquez tried to file a restraining order, the judge ruled both Kelly Marquez and Christine Lee as “less than credible” and threw them out of court.

Lee was introduced as a mother of two and a writer, but to figure out what’s true and not is near impossible. Crime Viral stated that, “On June 7th, 2013, Ramirez died of complications from B-cell lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. He was 53-years-old. At the time of his death, he was engaged to 23-year-old Christine Lee.”

While it’s confirmed that’s how the Night Stalker died, and it’s possible he was engaged to Christine, it’s unlikely she was 23 years old in 2013, because she would have had to be a child in the '90s when she appeared in several interviews. Although Lee did do some interviews, real details about her are hard to come by. 

There is a phenomenon called hybristophilia, which encapsulates why so many women are often entranced by serial killers. It may be more than just their psychopathic manipulative charm that brings these women in. A few theories are that women see the vulnerable side of them and want to nurture that, or that they simply want their 15 minutes of fame. Another theory, which would make sense for Christine, is that a serial killer behind bars is “the perfect man.”

Christine is even reported to have said that she liked him because he “treated her right.” As a young single mother of two, it might have been easier for Christine to date a man behind bars than to try to form a relationship with a real person. At this point, we may never know the real answer, since any record of Christine Lee is nowhere to be found. It’s possible that her tie to the infamous serial killer caused her to eventually decide to get out of the public eye.

Or maybe we’ll find out on Netflix’s new series, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, which will be released Jan. 13.

If you need support, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit RAINN.org to chat online one-on-one with a support specialist at any time.