Coroner says cancer, drug use killed California 'Night Stalker' serial killer Richard Ramirez

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Coroner's officials say a form of cancer killed the serial killer known as the Night Stalker who terrorized Southern California in the mid-1980s.

Richard Ramirez died June 7 at age 53 at a hospital where he had been taken for treatment of liver failure.

The Marin County coroner's office said Monday that Ramirez died of complications from B-cell lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. It listed other "significant conditions" including chronic substance abuse and hepatitis C, which is often spread by the use of intravenous drugs.

He had been on death row at San Quentin State Prison since he was convicted in 1989 of 13 murders in 1984 and 1985 as well as rape, sodomy, oral copulation, burglary and attempted murder.

However, executions have been on hold for years.