The Actor Who Was Pen Pals With The Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez

Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker," is remembered among the worst serial killers in American history, a brutal murderer and rapist who terrorized the West Coast for two years in the mid-1980s before he was finally caught in dramatic fashion in 1986. He was convicted of 13 murders in total and may have been responsible for many other attacks (the last to which he was linked by DNA emerged in 2009). He showed no remorse during his trial, and those near him have claimed that throughout his life he continued to believe that he was the devil's son.

Despite the depravity and inhumanity of his crimes, commentators including the killer's own attorney Robert Bryan have noted his supposed charisma, with his high cheekbones seemingly putting him among the ranks of "charming" serial killers, such as Ted Bundy. And, like Bundy, during his lifetime Ramirez saw himself become the target of infatuation by many women, who developed parasocial relationships with him and even made steps to befriend him by letter; one even married him in 1995.

The women who became infatuated with Ramirez became targets of derision at the time, as his surviving victims and the loved ones of those he had killed saw him spend more than 23 years on death row without his execution being carried out. However, there was one famous figure whose contact with the Night Stalker put them on the right side of history: actor Sean Penn, who, despite going through difficulties of his own at the time, undoubtedly made the right call when it came to Ramirez.

Sean Penn enjoyed a momentous rise to stardom in the 1980s, having started his career on Broadway in the early part of the decade before starring in "Fast Times in Ridgemont High" in 1982 and "Bad Boys," for which he received adulation from critics, in "1983." Movie roles continued to come at him thick and fast, and his star rose again after his marriage to Madonna in 1985. But soon, things were starting to fall apart.

The actor, who cultivated a real-life bad boy image in the press, had grown increasingly aggressive toward paparazzi as they hounded him following his famous marriage. Often volatile on set and in public, in 1987 Penn was sentenced to 60 days in county jail and was sent for psychological treatment for reckless driving and punching an extra on the set of a movie who had tried to take his picture without his permission. He surrendered on July 7 and would go on to serve 37 days behind bars, during which time he would be contacted by "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, who was being held in the same complex while awaiting trial.

The story of Sean Penn's brief acquaintanceship with "Night Stalker" Richard Ramerez came to light in 2015 when the actor was giving a talk as part of the "Hollywood Masters" series at Loyola Marymount University's School of Film & TV. Penn recalled that shortly after finding himself behind bars, he encountered Ramirez repeatedly without any direct contact. That was until around a month into his sentence, when he says he received a note from the killer, who requested his autograph, which read: "Hey, Sean, stay tough and hit them again — Richard Ramirez, 666'" (via The Hollywood Reporter). The note included a pentagram and an image of the devil, representing Ramirez's supposed Satanism.

Despite the Night Stalker seeking to build a rapport between them, Penn says he was disgusted by Ramirez's contact. "I said, 'You know, Richard, it's impossible to be incarcerated and not feel a certain kinship with your fellow inmates. Well, Richard, I've done the impossible, I feel absolutely no kinship with you. And I hope gas descends upon you before sanity does, you know? It would be a kinder way out.' And they gave it to him." Nevertheless, Penn says he kept the note he received from the Night Stalker for several years. "And then my house burned down years later, and that damn thing of his burned with it" (via The Hollywood Reporter).