Etan Patz (Stanley Patz)
SEX OFFENDER: José Ramos (right) was found civilly liable in the death of Etan Patz (inset). (
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The drifter long thought to be little Etan Patz’s killer will walk free from a Pennsylvania prison today after serving almost three decades on unrelated child molestation charges.
José Ramos, 69, was a prime suspect in the still-unsolved 1979 disappearance and presumed murder of 6-year-old Etan. Investigators never gathered enough evidence to charge Ramos, but in 2004 the Patz family won a $2 million civil settlement that found Ramos responsible for Etan’s death.
“This is truly a dangerous man. He’s been convicted of ruining the lives of young boys, and I don’t see that he’s reformed,” said attorney Brian O’Dwyer, who represented the Patz family in the 2004 suit.
“People have to be genuinely concerned that he is out on the street.”
Several chilling connections link Ramos to Etan’s disappearance. After photos of young boys were found in a Bronx drainpipe where Ramos was living in 1982, the homeless pedophile admitted to dating a single mother paid to walk Etan home from school.
Investigators even got Ramos to confess to bringing a boy back to his apartment for sex the day Etan went missing — but Ramos claimed he released his victim. He later got a lawyer and stopped talking.
“This guy had the opportunity and motive [to kill Etan Patz],” said a law enforcement source. “He had the criminal history, he was a pedophile, he was in the area at the time. His name was at the top of the list.”
Etan’s father, Stanley, every year sent the same photo of Etan to Ramos with “What did you do to my boy?” written on it.
Because Ramos served his entire 27-year sentence, no parole board or other agency will monitor his actions or living situation.
“He is maxing out, so he has served his entire sentence,” said Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton. “When someone maxes out, they are not on parole.”
While Ramos won’t have to report to a parole office, he will have to register as a sex offender — and if he ever works, 10 percent of his wages will be garnished, said O’Dwyer, the Patz family attorney.
“There is a judgment against him, and that judgment will be enforced if he starts making one dime,” O’Dwyer said. “We can enforce the judgment any place, and we intend to do that.”
The Etan case became the biggest missing-person case in New York City history, with hundreds of police officers chasing thousands of tips.
Earlier this year, the feds got a warrant to dig up a SoHo basement after Othniel Miller, a local handyman at the time of Etan’s disappearance, told his wife that he raped his young niece a few years after Etan went missing.
Earlier this year, Pedro Hernandez, a schizophrenic Jersey man, confessed to murdering Etan.
He was charged in May, but there’s no clear physical evidence linking him to the crime, law enforcement sources have said.
Unless Ramos makes bail, he’ll be spending the next week back at his old digs at Dallas Prison. He faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly giving bad information on his post-release whereabouts.