Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker...

...killer, died at age 53. From his obit in the Times (my emphasis):

Four years after his arrest, a jury found Mr. Ramirez guilty of all 43 crimes of which he was accused. These included 13 counts of first-degree murder, one of second-degree murder and many more of rape, burglary and sodomy. He was sentenced to death.

His weapons included guns, knives and hammers, and his victims were both men and women, ranging from a 6-year-old to octogenarians.

He became known for mutilating corpses, gouging out one woman’s eyeballs.

Doesn't sound like a very nice guy, does he?

So how do you explain this?

While on death row, he married Doreen Lioy, a freelance magazine editor, in 1996. She had begun writing to him in 1985 after his arrest, and he proposed in 1988, choosing Ms. Lioy over other correspondents who were also hoping for a relationship with him.

I'll never understand women who fall in love with convicted murderers in prison. And, in this case, there were several! (That's the cute couple in the picture above.)

How depressing must that be for all those young single men out there who can't meet any women?