The Case of Jennie Vincow

Jennie Vincow was 79 when she was murdered in her Glassell Park apartment on June 28, 1984. She was found in her bedroom with her throat slashed and multiple stab wounds. A fingerprint recovered from a window screen was eventually matched to Richard Ramirez, linking him to the killing and establishing it as the earliest murder for which he was convicted.

Jennie Vincow lived alone in a ground-floor apartment in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her son, Jack Vincow, lived in the same apartment building and last saw his mother alive on the afternoon of June 27, 1984. When he visited her the following afternoon, he found the apartment door unlocked and the interior disturbed. He discovered his mother's body in her bedroom and immediately alerted the building manager and police. At the time, there was nothing to indicate that her murder would eventually become connected to one of California's most notorious serial killers.

Jennie was found in her bed with her throat slashed and multiple stab wounds. The apartment had been ransacked. Investigators determined that the killer appeared to have entered through an open window after removing the window screen. A fingerprint was recovered from the screen. The fingerprint initially remained unidentified. The murder occurred almost nine months before the series of attacks that would eventually make Ramirez known as the Night Stalker.

The murder initially remained unsolved. After Ramirez was arrested in August 1985 following his Southern California crime spree, investigators began comparing his fingerprints with evidence from unsolved crimes. Police eventually matched his fingerprint to the window screen recovered from Vincow's apartment. Authorities announced in September 1985 that the evidence potentially connected Ramirez to the 1984 killing. The case became the earliest murder attributed to Ramirez. During his subsequent prosecution, the fingerprint evidence was a central part of the case. Prosecutors also pointed to similarities between the wounds inflicted on Vincow and the distinctive knife attacks associated with several later victims. Ramirez was ultimately convicted of Vincow's murder in 1989.

Richard Ramirez was found guilty of murdering Jennie Vincow during his 1989 trial. The conviction was part of the case in which Ramirez was ultimately found guilty of 13 murders, as well as numerous other felonies committed during his 1984–1985 crime spree. He was sentenced to death in 1989. Ramirez died on death row in 2013 while awaiting execution.

Jennie Vincow's murder is generally regarded as the first murder attributed to Richard Ramirez. The case was also the earliest of the 15 incidents presented to the jury during Ramirez's trial. Jurors later said it was initially one of the more difficult incidents to evaluate because the fingerprint proved that Ramirez had been inside the apartment but did not, by itself, establish when he had left the print. After reviewing the evidence as a whole, the jury found him guilty.