`NIGHT STALKER' TO WED FREE-LANCER.

Byline: Associated Press 

Richard Ramirez, the so-called ``Night Stalker'' convicted of torturing, sexually abusing and murdering 13 people in Southern California, will get married early next month, the San Francisco Examiner reported Sunday.

The bride-to-be - a 41-year-old free-lance editor from San Rafael - is convinced she's found Mr. Right.

``I never found the one who was everything to me rolled into one. It may sound strange, but that's who I believe Richard is,'' the woman, identified only as Doreen L., told the Examiner in an interview Saturday. ``He's everybody.''

The woman said she fell in love with Ramirez, now on San Quentin's Death Row, the first time she saw him in 1988. And, despite his convictions of 13 murders and 30 other crimes that terrorized the Los Angeles area during in the early 1980s, Doreen L. doesn't believe Ramirez is guilty.

Instead of a vicious criminal who giggled and once yelled ``Hail, Satan'' during his trial, Doreen L. said she sees an attractive, vulnerable 36-year-old man who still exhibits boyish qualities.

Doreen L. Said she is prepared for the fallout when her neighbors and boss learn of her dubious choice in men. Already, she said, she has lost several friends, and neither her brother nor twin sister plan to attend the wedding.

``I love them deeply,'' she said. ``They are not anxious to welcome Richard into our family, and I understand that.''

The couple met after Doreen L., worried that Ramirez had not been treated fairly while awaiting trail, sent him a birthday card. Ramirez eventually invited her to visit in prison.

On her third visit he proposed - saying, ``It's my wish to marry you,'' as Doreen L. Recalled it. She immediately accepted.

``He has been worth every sacrifice I've made, and there are more sacrifices to come. That's how much he means to me,'' she said.