Tuesday’s halt to the scheduled execution of David Leonard Wood has raised questions about serial killers in Texas and the legal process that has kept Wood alive over the last 33 years. Wood was convicted in 1992 of murdering six women in El Paso. Tuesday’s reprieve by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the second reprieve for Wood since his conviction. Wood, dubbed the “Desert Killer” has argued that he is innocent, and that DNA would prove it. In a writ filed with the 171st Judicial District Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas on February 17, 2025, Wood argues that he is “actually innocent.” According to the filing, a DNA sample “excluded him” as the killer because it was not his DNA in the blood stain. Wood argues that the State of Texas “has steadfastly and inexplicably refused” to do more DNA testing.
The US legal system defines mass killers as someone killing simultaneously and a serial killer as someone who murders at least three individuals over a period of time with a pause between the murders.
According to information collected by the University of Michigan for a database they are building of serial killers across the globe, the US leads significantly in the number of serial killers with 3,613 since 2023. England follows with only 176. According to Northeastern University, there are less active serial killers in America today than there were in the past. There were 300 known active serial killers in the 1970’s and 250 in the 1980’s. Today, there are fewer than 50 known active serial killers.
However, unlike serial killers, mass shootings have increased in recent years with 170 mass shootings recorded between 2013 and 2022. Previously, there were only 12 mass shootings between 1966 and 1975. Over 95% of the mass murderers have been male. From 2014 through this year, there have been 5,239 mass shootings, including 48 so far in 2025. In 2021, there were 690 recorded mass shooting in America, the highest number recorded in a year.
Serial Killers In/From El Paso
Although Leonard Wood is associated with El Paso because he killed the individuals in the community, he was not born in El Paso. Wood was born in San Angelo, Texas. However, the murders he was convicted of occurred in El Paso, connecting his criminal activities to the city.
There have been at least three other serial killers with connections to El Paso, in addition to Wood. One was born in El Paso and killed people in California.
The Night Stalker
Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez, known as Richard Ramirez, was born in El Paso on February 29, 1960. According to Ramirez, he was influenced by his cousin, Miguel Angel Valles because Valles would tell him stories of war crimes he committed while serving Vietnam. As they smoked marihuana, Valles would show Ramirez pictures of the Vietnamese women he said he tortured and mutilated.
Ramirez, who was dubbed the Night Stalker, was convicted in California on September 20, 1989, on 43 charges, including 13 murders. He was sentenced to death for the convictions. Before he was to be executed, Ramirez died in prison on June 7, 2013, from a blood cancer.
Dear reader, I hope you appreciate this article. Before reading more, I ask that you consider my work and make a small donation to help keep this publication open for everyone. El Paso lacks news diversity. I offer 20+ years of historical knowledge about El Paso’s politics and public policy. Media diversity matters. Make a small donation today to help keep my work going for another 20+ years. Thank you.
Miguel Angel Valles
Ricardo Ramirez told authorities that his older cousin, Miguel Angel Valles shared with him pictures of the Vietnamese women Valles said he killed and mutilated while on military duty during the Vietnam War. Ramirez said in interviews that Valles influenced his criminal behavior, including witnessing the murder of Valles’ wife.
According to news reports of the time, in 1978 Valles was found guilty of killing his wife. Josephina Valles, on March 4, 1975. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Stories about the influence of Valles on Ramirez’ crimes incorrectly list at least two ages for Ramirez, 13 and 15 when he allegedly witnessed Valles kill his wife. He would have been 15 years old when the wife was murdered. Several reports about Ramirez also incorrectly state that Valles was found not guilty by reason of insanity. However, news reports about the murder at the time contradict both assertions.
Valles died in El Paso on April 8, 1995. He is buried at the Fort Bliss National Cemetery.
The Railroad Killer
A month after authorities identified Angel Maturino Resendiz as the likely serial killer of Claudia Benton in Houston and two other murder victims in Houston, the so-called Railroad Killer, walked across the international bridge from Juárez into El Paso and surrendered to police. According to Maturino, he was promised by the Texas Ranger he surrendered to that his surrender meant he would not receive the death penalty.
In 2006, Maturino was executed for the murder of Benton, although he was linked to at least 15 other murders across the US. In his final statement at his execution, Maturino suggested that he was guilty of the murders.
The Case of Henry Lee Lucas
Henry Lee Lucas, the so-called Confession Killer because he falsely confessed to killing as many as 600 people was charged in El Paso for the murder of Librada Apodaca in 1983. But there was a problem with Lucas being the killer. He was in Bowie Texas taking a driver’s license test when Apodaca was murdered. It was impossible for Lucas to have killed her. In 1986, amid allegations that El Paso prosecutors and police botched the case, the case was dismissed by the judge. The county’s taxpayers paid over $500,000 prosecuting Lucas.
The Truck Stop Killer
Serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades, the Truck Stop Killer, was a truck driver who picked up two hitchhikers in El Paso and killed them. His only known connection to El Paso was the murder of Patricia Walsh and Douglas Zyskowski. Rhoades had picked up the pair in El Paso, and he killed Zyskowski shortly after and dumped his body in Odessa. It wasn’t until nine months later when Walsh’s body was found in Utah with marks on her body suggesting she was tortured by Rhoades before he killed her. Officially, Rhoades was implicated in the killing of five teenagers and was convicted of killing Regina Walters and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder. Rhoades later plead guilty to two murders and received a second life sentence. Although charged with the murders of Walsh and Zyskowski, Rhoades was not prosecuted for the murders because the families asked that the charges be dropped so that they did not have to testify in open court.
Prosecutors believe that Rhoades is responsible for other murders because he had been a long-haul truck driver for 15 years regularly traveling through 22 states and likely several times though El Paso.
Because of the Lucas case, where El Paso law enforcement botched the case and the proximity to the US-México border there are likely other serial killers that called El Paso home or killed in El Paso. Currently there is the case of Patrick Crusius that has languished in court because of the turnover of three District Attorneys and jurisdictional issues between the State of Texas and federal authorities.
Patrick Crusius
On August 3, 2019, Patrick Wood Crusius walked into an El Paso Walmart and opened fire inside the store with a semiautomatic rifle, killing 23 people at the store. Crusius said that he driven 600 miles to kill Mexicans. Crusius plead guilty to 90 federal charges, including murder and hate crimes on February 8, 2023. On July 7, 2023, Crusius was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences after the death sentence was removed as a sentence option as part of the agreement for him to plead guilty.
State charges against Crusius remain pending. The two previous district attorneys, Yvonne Rosales, and Bill Hicks, who was appointed to replace Rosales after she resigned, stated that they would seek the death penalty for Crusius. James Montoya, the current district attorney told KFOX14 on November 11, 2024 that he was “unsure,” if he would seek the death penalty for Crusius.
Since 2006, there have been at least 614 mass killings in the United States. Over 3,000 people have lost their lives to mass murderers since 2006. () Mass killings are murders that happen in a short span of time, usually within hours.
There are currently 2,240 incarcerated criminals from El Paso.
The El Paso Incarcerated Criminals
According to State of Texas records, there are 2,240 El Pasoans incarcerated for various offenses. Ten of them are 18 years old. Eight of the 18-year-olds were convicted for smuggling of people. One was convicted of aggravated robbery and the other of robbery.
The oldest is 86-year-old Lisbeth Ann Garrett, a woman who is scheduled to be released in 2060. She was sentenced to 45 years in prison for a 1977 murder. Her last parole was denied in December 2024. Of the incarcerated El Pasoans, 175 are women. According to race, 189 are Black, and 1,753 are Hispanic and 290 are listed as White.