In this photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, inmate Richard Ramirez is seen in 2007 in San Quentin, Calif.

Richard Ramirez, the serial killer who terrorized Southern California in the 1980s as the "Night Stalker," has died in prison while awaiting execution.

Ramirez died of natural causes at Marin General Hospital. He was 53 years old.

San Quentin State Prison spokesman Lt. Sam Robinson confirmed Ramirez's death Friday.

Ramirez was sent to San Quentin's death row in 1989 after he was convicted of 13 murders, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries during a yearlong spree in 1984 and 1985. Some of his victims were shot to death, others were strangled or had their throats slashed.

Reports of Satanic symbols at bloody crime scenes and a killer who stole through unlocked windows and doors at night heightened Los Angeles residents' fears. The news media dubbed him "Night Stalker."

When he was captured trying to hijack a car in East Los Angeles in 1985, angry residents surrounded Ramirez and beat him. 

Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, only 13 condemned inmates have been put to death, according to Robinson. Fifty-nine more have died from natural causes, 22 have committed suicide and six have died from other causes.

There are 735 offenders currently on California's death row.

Two former guests at a downtown Los Angeles hotel where the decomposing body of a 21-year-old Canadian tourist was found in a water cistern have sued the hotel.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by Steven and Gloria Cott against the Cecil Hotel, one week after Elisa Lam was discovered at the bottom of a 4-foot-by-8-foot tank on the building's roof, The Associated Press reported.

The Cotts say that when they paid $150 for a two-night stay at the 15-story hotel they were promised running water safe for drinking and washing.

During their visit, Lam's body was found by a maintenance worker after hotel guests complained the building's water pressure was too low, police said.

The Vancouver, B.C., native had been last seen on Jan. 31 and is the subject of an LAPD homicide investigation, according to NBC Los Angeles. An autopsy was performed, but the official cause of death has not been disclosed.

Los Angeles health officials announced last week that water from the hotel's tanks does not contain harmful bacteria.

Ho / AFP - Getty Images

This undated image released by the Los Angeles Police Department shows Elisa Lam of Vancouver, Canada.

Samples taken from inside the water cistern and within the building all tested negative for fecal coliforms and total coliforms, according to Angelo Bellomo, director of environmental health for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

"It's likely there was sufficient chlorine in the tank to destroy any bacteria that might have otherwise been present," Bellomo said.

A do-not-drink order is still in place in the building, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Representatives for the Cecil Hotel did not return calls for comment.

Related: No harmful bacteria in hotel water tank where dead tourist was found