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A Serial Killer Target Used Her Car Keys To Deflect A Gunshot To The Head
You don't get a name like "Night Stalker" without being darn good at murder. Indeed, Richard Ramirez killed at least 13 people in a little over a year in the mid '80s, which is pretty successful, if you're inclined to call such things successes. That's what makes the slip-up which partially led to his conviction all the more bizarre.
One night, when Ramirez was out stalking, he encountered Maria Hernandez and followed her from her car to her apartment. Hernandez turned around when she heard noises behind her, which Ramirez took as his cue to shoot her in the face. But when he fired his gun, the bullet was blocked by the car keys that Hernandez was incredibly luckily still holding. It's not known what kind of metal is used to both make keys and block bullets, but she apparently drove a Wolverine. Despite suffering only a broken finger, Hernandez dropped to the floor and played dead. After delivering a few good kicks to what he believed to be a corpse just for fun, Ramirez stepped over Hernandez and entered her apartment, where her roommate met a decidedly less fortunate fate.
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