Richard Chase

Richard Chase
Born	Richard Trenton Chase (1950-05-23)May 23, 1950 Santa Clara County, California, U.S.
Died	December 26, 1980(1980-12-26) (aged 30) San Quentin State Prison, California, U.S
Other names	The Dracula Killer The Vampire of Sacramento The Vampire Killer
Motive	Blood drinking, sexual pleasure, necrophilia, schizophrenia
Conviction(s)	First degree murder with special circumstances (6 counts)
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	6
Span of crimes	29 December 1977 – 27 January 1978
Country	United States
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	January 27, 1978

Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was an American spree killer, cannibal, and necrophile who killed six people in Sacramento, California, from December 1977 to January 1978. He was nicknamed The Vampire of Sacramento because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their remains.

Early life

Chase was a native of Sacramento, California. He was born shortly after his parents got married, and had a younger sister named Pamela.^[1] His parents were prone to arguing with each other during his childhood. On one camping trip in Oregon, his mother Beatrice accused her husband of having an affair with a woman hiding in the bushes, which is described as having ruined this trip.^[1] Chase's mother also said that her husband was annoying her in bed while she was sleeping, and that he must have somehow drugged her to do this.^[1] By the age of 5, Chase privately exhibited evidence of all three parts of the Macdonald triad, a theory suggesting the development of violent psychopathy. The triad links cruelty to animals, obsession with fire-setting, and persistent bedwetting past the age of five, to violent behaviors, particularly homicidal behavior and sexually predatory behavior.^[2][3] These internal issues did not affect his early school life, with over 60 children coming to one of his birthday parties.^[1] In his adolescence, he was said to be a heavy user of drugs such as marijuana and LSD.^[4] As a teenager, Chase also discovered that he was impotent, which prevented him from having sexual relationships with women.^[1]

One of Chase's first instances of strange behavior as an early teen occurred when he started to believe he was a member of the James–Younger Gang. Chase even pasted his head onto photos of them. He tried to sell these photos to people, and wanted his mother to buy him a cowboy hat, but she refused.^[1] Chase would also sometimes sleep in his family's lounge room, and when he did this he would take off all his clothes, turn the heater on as high as it would go, and then open the windows.^[1] While Chase was described as being popular and clean-cut during his high school years, he started to become withdrawn once he entered adulthood, and had a more unkempt appearance.^[1] In spite of being unhappy with his slim, lanky physique as a teenager, Chase was able to get a girlfriend, whom he began dating in 1965. In subsequent interviews, this woman used the pseudonym "Libby Christopher". They were unable to have sex the first time they attempted to do so due to his impotence. The relationship continued nonetheless, although his continual failure to achieve an erection led to their eventual split in 1966. Once graduating from high school, Chase attended American River College between 1968 and 1971.^[5] His grades were declining and he started not attending classes, eventually dropping out.^[1]

Early adulthood

Chase developed hypochondria as he matured. He often complained that his heart would occasionally "stop beating", or that "someone had stolen his pulmonary artery".^[6][1]

He would hold oranges on his head, believing Vitamin C would be absorbed by his brain via diffusion. Chase additionally thought that his cranial bones had become separated and were moving around, so he shaved his head to be able to watch this activity.^[7] In 1973, Chase killed one of his cats when he heard a news story about a cat that had received high quality medical treatments. The story aggravated him since he believed that he deserved these treatments.^[1]

Chase's parents divorced in June 1972, and he often fought with his mother. He believed that she was trying to poison him, something which she had accused her husband of doing when he was a child.^[1] He often moved between his mother's and father's residence, since they were both finding it difficult to deal with his increasingly erratic behavior. When Chase's father kicked him out of his residence, he would stand still by the property, blankly staring at it for extended periods of time.^[1] He also had stints with his grandmother in Los Angeles, who noted his odd behavior. During an extended stay with his grandmother, Chase had a job as a bus driver for mentally disabled children, but was fired for never cleaning the bus and letting it run low on oil.^[1] After getting fired from this job, he spent most of the day in his bed, roaming the house at night. He became convinced that someone was trying to enter his grandmother's house through a window.^[1] His grandmother also once found him standing on his head in the corner of his room. He told her that he was trying to get the blood to run back down to his head.^[1] At other times, he complained to her that his heart was hurting and spoke of pain in his legs. In Los Angeles, he eventually found another job working at a paint store, but was fired within a few days.^[1]

When Chase returned to Sacramento, he began cutting out photos of human organs from a medical book, and pasting them all over his bedroom, in an effort to understand what was wrong with him.^[1] He saw two doctors about his supposed medical conditions, but was dissatisfied with the prognosis they gave him, so he went to see Doctor Donald Ansel, who concluded that Chase had a "psychiatric disturbance of major proportions."^[1]

Institutionalization

Chase spent two days in a psychiatric ward in December 1973, after walking into a emergency room, complaining about a variety of imagined ailments. He would be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.^[1] Chase was discharged when his mother confronted the hospital staff. A report from the hospital said she was "highly aggressive", and described her as the "the so-called schizophrenic mother".^[1] After being discharged, Chase's mental state allegedly improved over the next two years, once he started taking the hospital's medication. He also added 20 pounds to his thin frame.^[1] Chase's mother claimed that his condition deteriorated once he started using illegal drugs again.^[1] However, his father disagreed with this assessment, and believed at the time that the troubles in his life were due to a lack of motivation, rather than any mental health issues.^[1] Chase's mother said that as his condition grew worse, she would start to overhear him talking to himself. On two occasions, he also ordered her to stop controlling his mind, with Chase later accusing his sister Pamela of controlling his mind as well.^[1] During one lone trip to Utah, Chase was arrested for driving under the influence, and he told his parents that he had been gassed in the local jail, and that he wanted to sue the police. His father bailed him out of jail and convinced him against suing the police.^[1][8]

Chase began riding his bicycle to a rabbit farm, and after purchasing the rabbits he consumed them raw.^[1] When Chase's father asked why he had live rabbits in his room, Chase responded by saying that he was eating them, and his parents never looked into this any further, having already grown accustom to his strange statements.^[1] In 1976, he was involuntarily committed to a mental institution when he was taken to an emergency after injecting rabbit's blood into his veins. It caused blood poisoning and vomiting, with Chase telling emergency staff that he had eaten a rabbit which had battery acid in its stomach. They concluded that he was mentally ill. The staff at the mental institution nicknamed him "Dracula" because of his blood fixation. He broke the necks of two birds he caught through the institution window and drank their blood. He also extracted blood from therapy dogs with stolen syringes.^[4]

After undergoing a battery of treatments involving psychotropic drugs, Chase was deemed no longer a danger to society, and later in 1976, he was released to his mother's custody.^[9] The mental institution's staff disagreed with this decision, which was ordered by a doctor. Shortly after Chase's murders, one of the staff members told TV reporters that, "it was his turn to be released, and anything we had to say or do about it was irrelevant", adding that he thought that Chase was "sick and dangerous."^[10]

Chase's mother weaned him off his medication, since she disliked how it made him "like a zombie". and she got him his own apartment.^[1] Previously in 1971, he had lived in another apartment with a pair of male and female roommates, but they both moved out due to his behavior, which included walking around naked in front of visitors and barricading himself in his room out of paranoia.^[1] In his new apartment, Chase progressed from eating birds and rabbits to eating dogs. He purchased puppies and hanged them in his apartment. Chase would then cut open their stomachs, drinking their blood and eating their raw guts.^[1] The dogs he purchased were suspicious and didn't want to go with him.^[1] Chase's neighbor Dawn Larson said that he would aimlessly walk around their apartment complex with his mouth open, and that he didn't respond to her when she said hello. She also remembered seeing him bring dogs and cats, even though pets weren't allowed. She never saw the animals again and didn't know what became of them.^[1] Initially, Chase only allowed his mother to enter the door at his apartment, but he soon would not allow anyone to come in, and would speak to his mother through a crack in the door.^[1]

Later investigation uncovered that, in mid-1977, Chase was stopped and arrested on a Native American reservation in the Pyramid Lake, Nevada, area. His naked body was smeared with blood and a bucket with a liver was found in his truck, with police suspecting that a homicide had occurred.^[1] Witnesses reported that Chase had a dog with him earlier that day, but it was never recovered. When questioned by police at the scene, Chase claimed that the blood was seeping out of him and that he didn't know what had happened to the dog. The blood was determined to be cow's blood, and no charges were filed.^[4]

Murders

Chase purchased a 22 caliber pistol in 1977, and lied about his history of mental illness in order to do so.^[1] Neighbors soon heard shooting noises in his apartment. Chase later claimed that he had been shooting at voices that he heard, with bullet holes in the walls confirming this story.^[1] Chase continued to kill and eat dogs, and would now shoot them in the head, which made it easier for him to collect the blood, since he could put cups next to the bullet wounds.^[1] After killing small dogs, including Labrador puppies, he eventually tried to steal a large St. Bernard from a residence, but was unsuccessful.^[1] On December 29, 1977, Chase killed his first known human victim in a drive-by shooting. The victim, Ambrose Griffin, was a 51-year-old engineer and father of two.^[11] The shooting baffled police, who viewed it as being a random, motiveless crime.^[1] Chase claimed that in the lead up to the murder, he was angered by his mother's refusal to allow to him to come over to her house for Christmas. She wouldn't allow him in her house since his sister had become afraid of him, following a recent incident where he ripped apart a cat in front of his mother during an argument, smearing its blood all over his body.^[1]

Two weeks after the Griffin murder, he attempted to enter the home of a woman, but because her doors were locked, he walked away. Chase later told detectives that he took locked doors as a sign that he was not welcome, but unlocked doors were an invitation to come inside. On one occasion, he was caught and chased off by a couple returning home as he pilfered their belongings; he had also urinated and defecated on their infant child's bed and clothing. He broke into another unoccupied house and attempted to set fire to one of the drapes.^[1] Chase later said that he believed the residents of this house had been spying on him, and that he wanted them to leave the neighborhood.^[1]

On January 23, 1978, Chase broke into a house and shot Teresa Wallin (three months pregnant at the time). She had been taking out the trash, and he first shot her in the hand, as she attempted to protect herself. He then shot her in the cheek, breaking her jaw, before shooting her in the head, and rendering her unconscious. He had sexual intercourse with her corpse while stabbing her in the stomach with a butcher's knife from her kitchen. He then removed multiple organs, cut off one of her nipples and drank her blood through a yogurt cup he found in her trash bag. He stuffed dog feces from Wallin's yard down her throat before leaving.^[11] It was determined that she was still alive while some of the mutilation was occurring.^[1] Wallin's corpse was discovered by her husband, a truck driver who was at work when the murder happened.^[1] The husband only saw a split second of the corpse before screaming and getting out of there.^[1] He called his parents to come over and was hoping that they wouldn't have to look at her corpse.^[1] Wallin's eyes were open and her tongue was sticking out, with the one of the detectives saying that the terrified expression on her face had continued to haunt him over the years.^[12] Chase later told a psychiatrist that he spent the rest of that day watching television in his apartment.^[1] In the following days, Chase had a phone conservation with his mother. She said that he talked about rockets, spaceships and "little green men".^[1]

On January 27, Chase entered the home of 38-year-old divorced mother Evelyn Miroth, and proceeded to murder everyone inside the building. Chase said he was only semi-conscious when this happened, so the exact sequence of events are unclear. Near the door, he encountered Miroth's friend, Danny Meredith. Meredith had been introduced to Miroth through his sister and was being treated for a brain tumor at the time.^[1] Chase shot him twice in the head, also fatally shooting in the head Miroth, her six-year-old son Jason, and her 22-month-old nephew David Ferreira, before mutilating Miroth and engaging in necrophilia and cannibalism with her corpse. Like with Wallin, Chase cut open the organs of Miroth, in addition to repeatedly stabbing her in the anus and attempting to cut out one of her eyes.^[1] Chase also stabbed Ferreira in the anus and cut open a section at the back of his skull, so it would be easier to drink his blood. While the mutilations were occurring, six year Tracy Grangaard began knocking on the door, since her family had a scheduled daytrip with Jason Miroth.^[1] Chase said that this startled him, and so he "took the baby and split".^[1] He fled in Meredith's car with Ferreira's body and took it to his apartment. Chase went on to decapitate the baby and consumed parts of the brain.^[1] The family of the girl who startled Chase at Miroth's house alerted a neighbor, who called police. They discovered that the murderer had left complete handprints and shoe imprints in Miroth's blood, and due to the nature of the murder, immediately connected it to the Wallin slaying. During both murders, Chase had been wearing an orange ski parka his father recently bought him. Neighbors later reported that a disheveled long haired man in an orange ski parka had been knocking on their doors in the lead up to Miroth's murder, asking if they had old newspapers. Police soon created a sketch of this long haired suspect. Nancy Westfall, an old high school acquaintance of Chase, later told police that a man in an orange ski parka had approached her while she was shopping. Westfall didn't realize it was Chase at first since his appearance had changed so much since he was a teenager. She noted that he had blood stains on the white shirt underneath his parka, and noticed a yellow crust encircled around his mouth. His dirty appearance and strange behavior unsettled her, and she locked her car and drove off when he asked her for a ride. The encounter occurred shortly before Chase murdered Wallin.^[1]

Chase was arrested after this woman came forward and they checked his background. Police who searched Chase's apartment found that the walls, floor, ceiling, refrigerator, and all of Chase's eating and drinking utensils were soaked in blood. Several dog collars were also found, along with rotting organs, which were determined to belong to animals and some of his victims. He had been reading gun magazines, psychology magazines, a book titled Psychic People and he had circled classified ads in the paper about dogs for sale.^[1] Chase was uncooperative with police, claiming that he had only killed some dogs, and that he was being framed by the Italians.^[1] He speculated that the murders had been committed by a blonde man in an orange jacket, and that someone had been coming in and out of his apartment.^[1] It would take until March 1978 for the police to find Ferreira's decomposed corpse in a garbage bin. It had been placed inside a box.^[1] A few days after his January 1978 capture, he was interviewed by psychiatrists, and only went into vague detail about his mental health history. When they asked what was on his mind, Chase was not forthcoming. They rephrased the question and asked what was on the 'screen' of his mind, as if he were watching his thoughts on a television, Chase said "normal things" and "an exploding 747 jetliner". He also said that he saw lights in the sky that might be UFOs., and incorrectly claimed that he was Jewish, saying that he was beaten up by gangs of Italians because of his ethnicity.^[1]

Aftermath

In 1979, Chase stood trial on six counts of murder. While in custody and awaiting trial, Chase claimed the food he was being served was poisoned. He ordered his defense attorney to have the food tested, and it came back negative. In order to avoid the death penalty, the defense tried to have him found guilty of second degree murder, which would result in a life sentence. Their case hinged on Chase's history of mental illness and the suggestion that his crimes were not premeditated. Chase's defense attorney Farris Salamy remembered in 2010 that Chase was "the most deranged person" he'd ever met. During more interviews with psychiatrists during the trial, Chase admitted his guilt, saying "I didn't kill anybody, just a few people." He remembered very little from the Miroth family murder, and regarding the Wallin murder, Chase explained to psychiatrists, "my car had broken down and I had no money, so I walked into somebody's house and killed them."^[1] Chase acknowledged that he needed blood, saying that he'd gone to several places to get some, but was unable to. He believed that his lack of blood was preventing him from living a normal life.^[1] Chase told the jury that he was a good person, but had a weak heart. Chase also said that he was afraid that his victims would come back from the dead.^[1] Teresa Wallin's husband was involved in the trial, giving victim impact statements. One day during the trial, Chase's mother confronted him, and criticized their German Shepherd for not protecting them the day the murder happened, with this statement leaving Wallin's husband stunned.^[13]

On May 8, 1979, the jury found Chase guilty of six counts of first degree murder and, rejecting the argument that he was not guilty by reason of insanity, sentenced him to die in the gas chamber. His fellow inmates, aware of the extremely violent and grisly nature of Chase's crimes, feared him and, according to prison officials, often tried to persuade Chase to commit suicide.^[14] Chase was described as behaving psychotically from the moment he entered prison, and he was briefly housed in a mental health facility again.

Shortly before his death, Chase granted a series of interviews with Robert K. Ressler, during which he spoke of his fears of Nazis and UFOs, claiming that although he had killed, it was not his fault; he had been forced to kill to keep himself alive, which he believed any person would do. He asked Ressler to give him access to a radar gun, with which he could apprehend the Nazi UFOs, so that the Nazis could stand trial for the murders. Chase also claimed that he was Jewish, and said that there was a Star of David symbol on his forehead. He handed Ressler a large amount of macaroni and cheese, which he had been hoarding in his pants pockets, believing that the prison officials were in league with the Nazis and attempting to kill him with poisoned food.^[11] Chase wanted Ressler to have the food tested, and Ressler said he would do this.^[1]

On December 26, 1980, Chase was found dead in his prison cell. An autopsy revealed that he died from an overdose of sinequan, an anti-depressant that was prescribed to him. He had been secretly hoarding the pills in his cell, unbeknownst to officers.^[1][15] The exact reasons for his apparent suicide remain unknown.^[1] His heart was later examined, and it was found to be perfectly normal. Chase's parents would pass away in 1990 and 1991.^[16]

In popular culture

• In 1987, the film Rampage was made which was based on Chase's crimes.
• The CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode Justice is Served is about a serial killer who cannibalized healthy sportsmen to counteract porphyria.
• Investigation Discovery's 2011 TV special, Lore: Deadly Obsession, was a two-hour documentary reenactment of Chase's crimes.^[17][18]
• The 2009 Church of Misery song, "Blood Sucking Freak (Richard Trenton Chase)," is about Richard Chase.
• The 2010 Xiu Xiu song "House Sparrow" is about Richard Chase.

See also

• List of serial killers in the United States

References

Cited works and further reading

• Biondi, Ray; Hecox, Walt (1992). The Dracula Killer. London: Mondo. ISBN 978-1-852-86455-2.
• Evans, Colin (1996). The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 160–163. ISBN 978-0-471-07650-6.
• Sullivan, Kevin (2012). Vampire: The Richard Chase Murders. WildBlue Press. ISBN 978-1942266112.

External links

• Richard Chase at the Crime Library
• Robert Ressler on profiling the Vampire Killer at the Wayback Machine (archived October 11, 2007)