2/1/1978 - Too late for at least six victims, the homicidal madness of Sacramento's Richard Trenton Chase, a serial killer, rapist, cannibal, and necrophile nicknamed "The Vampire of Sacramento" (he will also be known as "The Dracula Killer" and "The Vampire Killer") comes to a close with the monster's Wednesday arrest by local authorities (working with FBI profile agents, Robert Ressler and Russ Vorpagel) in the state capitol of California.
Monster
Born in Sacramento, California, on May 23, 1950, Chase's early mental problems are exacerbated by strict disciplinarian parents that beat and yell at the boy frequently (his mother, Beatrice, is a teacher, and his father, Richard Chase Sr., is a alcoholic computer specialist ... a baby daughter, Pamela, is born into the family when Richard is four), turning a child that is a Cub Scout, plays four years of little league baseball, has dozens of children attend his birthday parties and whom his teachers believe is a "sweetheart" into a budding monster. Displaying all of the early psychiatric indicators of Dr. John Marshall Macdonald's "triad of sociopathy" (first postulated by the doctor in a 1963 article for the American Journal of Psychiatry called "The Treat to Kill"), by the age of ten he is setting stuff on fire, killing and torturing animals, and wetting his bed. And his mind isn't helped at all by being exposed to the crumbling marriage of his parents. Troubles building (at 13, Chase believes he is an actual member of the James-Young Gang of Missouri infamy), by the time Chase is a teenager he is a hypochondriac smoking marijuana, taking LSD, consuming amphetamines, and drinking heavily, but still putting forth the appearance of normalcy ... he has a string of girlfriends, but nothing lasts, and he has intimacy issues that won't allow him to maintain an erection. Seeking guidance from a local psychiatrist due to his concerns about his erectile dysfunction, the youth is told that the root of his problems are the result of repressed rage or mental illness, but nothing is done to treat Chase.
High School
On The Way To Murder
Moving out of his parents' home when he is eighteen and graduates from Mira Loma High School in June of 1968 (his parents get him a Volkswagen Bug as a reward), Chase rents an apartment with friends and sinks deeper into his mental illness ... he will complain of his heat stopping from time to time, that a mysterious "someone" is attempting to steal his pulmonary artery, holds oranges to his head so that his brain can directly absorb the fruit's Vitamin C, believes his cranial bones have separated and shaves his head to observe the movements of the bones, thinks his stomach is backwards, lets his hair grow long, rarely bathes, doesn't brush his teeth, and nails the door of his closet shut to prevent people no one can see from invading his space. Enough finally enough for his pals when Chase continually walks around in the nude, often when guests are visiting, his fellow renters ask him to leave, and when he refuses, they all choose to vacate the premises. Left alone, he soon begins to believe his blood is turning to powder and that his heart is shrinking and comes up with a temporary solution, killing small animals (rabbits are a favorite), drinking their blood and then putting their organs in a blender with a Coca-Cola chaser, and drinking down the ghoulishly nasty brew. Not enough money coming in to continue living in the apartment, he is soon back at his mom's place (by this time his parents have divorced), but leaves again when he suspects his mother is poisoning him. Daddy to the rescue, Richard Sr. gets his son a place of his own and junior's mental faculties continue to deteriorate
Another Encounter With Authorities
Once more on his own, in 1973, Chase is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic suffering from a drug-induced toxic psychosis ... and yet he is released from a mental institution after only 72-hours of observation. The mental health community gets another crack at Chase in 1975 when he injects rabbit blood directly into his bloodstream and ends up with blood poisoning in a Sacramento hospital's emergency room. Committed to a mental hospital, in 1976, Chase escapes, makes his way back to his mother's place, is apprehended by the authorities, and sent to Beverly Manor, a facility for the criminally insane. A modern day Renfield, blood needs vocalized and soon on full display to doctor's and staff, the vampire catches two birds that fly through a window, breaks their necks, and drinks their blood, and using a stolen syringe, pilfers the blood of several dogs at the mental facility. Known as "Dracula" at the institute, in 1976, despite the objections of many members of the staff, Chase is deemed to no longer be a danger to himself or society, prescribed a set of psychotropic drugs, and released into his mother's custody. A major mistake, Ma Chase soon weans her soon from his regime of drugs and junior is soon going bonkers again ... in front of his mother on the front porch of Beatrice's home, he tears a dead cat apart and begins eating it's organs, smearing it's blood on his face, and screaming (the incident is not reported to authorities). Given the boot again, Senior finds his son another place, which mommy pays the rent for (and also supplies her boy with groceries).
Beverly Manor
Rubber room nuts, alone again (his parents do not renew custody of their son when it comes up for renewal), Chase becomes a fan of the Hillside Strangler killings (believing whoever is responsible is also afflicted with powder blood problems), begins to acquire firearms (why would anyone ever give this guy a gun?), and now thinks he is being poisoned by Nazis flying UFOs, with more blood of course the solution. Sneak preview of what's coming, on August 3, 1977, Nevada state police discover a Ford Ranchero stuck in the mud near Pyramid Lake. Searching the vehicle they discover two rifles, a pile of men's clothing, blood all over the cab, and a white plastic bucket containing a large liver belonging to a cow. Seeking the owner the vehicle, the police find Chase, nude and covered in blood. Fleeing, Chase is easily caught, and when all the blood is found to be bovine in nature and no one files a complaint over the beast, not wanting all the paperwork of another state's problem, he is released and sent on his way. Upset that his mother will not allow her boy to celebrate the holidays with his family, in December of 1977, treating himself to an early Christmas gift, Chase buys a .22-calber semiautomatic handgun, and practicing for slaughter, fires a round into the kitchen of a Sacramento woman. Then Chase's mad Sacramento rampage begins.
Chase As Dirty Harry
Randomly selected, Chase's first victim is 51-year-old Ambrose Griffin, a married engineer with two sons. On December 29, 1977, helping his wife bring a fresh load of groceries into their home, Griffin is shot in the back by an unknown person, and despite the best efforts of ER personnel, dies at a nearby Sacramento hospital, his body yielding a slug that matches the kitchen round. Enjoying the feelings the murder has produced, Chase begins 1978 seeking new victims, Dawn Larson, a neighbor in the killer's East Sacramento apartment complex, escapes her possible murder when Chase accosts her for a cigarette, and she gives him her whole pack (thinking the man lonely, she had not reported that she had noticed him brining forbidden pets into his apartment, but never seen any of the dogs ever go outside). Blood lust up, on January 23, 1978, a few blocks away from where Chase lives, Jeanne Layton finds an unkempt individual trying to break into her home (finding the doors and windows of the house locked, the stranger walks away after lighting a cigarette as he is confronted by Layton). Police cruising the area find no one matching Layton's descriptions and a little later, down the street from Layton's home, Robert and Barbara Edwards return from a grocery run and discover someone in their home (inside the couple will discover that the intruder has urinated on their baby's clean clothes and defecated on their child's bed), a skinny, dirty stranger who runs out the back of the house, and as Mr. Edwards pursues the man, jumps several fences and vanishes into the neighborhood, still searching for the right circumstances and victim. Sadly found, David Wallin returns home from work at about 6:00 in the evening and calls the police in anguish ... arriving minutes later at the home of Wallin and his 22-year-old, three months pregnant wife, Teresa, the authorities find a home that has been turned into a hellish abattoir in which Wallin's unlucky wife has been shot twice in the head while taking out the garbage (and through the hand as she strikes a defensive pose against her killer ... the bullets all match the one that killed Griffin earlier in the month), drug back into her home, taken to the bedroom, stabbed repeatedly in the chest and liver with a knife from her own kitchen, sexually assaulted, had her stomach opened up and her spleen and intestines pulled out, her kidneys cut out and then returned to the wound in her abdomen, her pancreas cut in two, and showing how evil the murderer is, her mouth filled with feces from her dog (the killer will also fill a bucket with her blood, take it into the bathroom and bath in the substance, while also drinking a mouthful from an empty yogurt container). Knowing a monster is on the loose, the FBI is immediately contacted by the Sacramento police and begin preparing a profile of the killer ... one that will almost exactly match Chase.
Teresa Wallin
Miroth
Jason & David
Meredith's Body
Filtering tips through the FBI's profile, the name of Richard Chase soon comes to the attention of Sacramento authorities by way of high school classmate Nancy Holden telling police of her encounter with Chase while visiting the Town and Country Village shopping center (on the same day that Wallin is killed) in which he tries to get a ride from her, but frightened by his transformation into a hobo , she drives off as he tries to get in her car, and neighbor Dawn Lawson relating her strange cigarette encounter with an individual who fits the description of the killer. Running background checks on Richard Chase, the authorities find their suspect has recently purchased a gun and ammunition that matches the recent deaths, discover his history of mental health issues, and find out that he lives less than a block away from where Meredith's stolen car had been discovered. Seeking to question their suspect, Chase refuses to open his door when the police come calling, but arrest him later when he steps outside carrying a cardboard box filled with bloody rags and papers, wearing a blood-stained orange parka (a piece of clothing that witnesses had identified as being the garb of the killer in the Miroth butchery), wearing blood stained shoes and carrying a .blood stained .22-semiautomatic pistol in a shoulder holster with Meredith's wallet in his pocket. Warrants issued, searching inside Chase's apartment officers find horror after horror ... there are blood stains everywhere, on the walls, on plates, on drinking glasses, on the refrigerator, and even on the ceiling, a penis with a straw through it that has been used to drink blood is found, kitchenware is soaked in blood, a blood soaked blender is found rimmed in rotted flesh and bits of bone, animal organs are found wrapped in aluminum foil in the refrigerator, Ferriera's brain is discovered inside a Tupperware container, and pieces of his body are found wrapped in Saran Wrap, organs belonging to Miroth and Wallin are discovered, there are multiple dog collars but no pets, and there is a calendar for 1978 with "Today" marked on the days Wallin and Miroth were killed, along with over forty upcoming days also containing the same designation.
Special Agent Ressler
The Vampire's Lair
Bloody Cook Ware
After being examined by a dozen psychiatrists, and a change of venue to Santa Clara County (one hundred and twenty miles south of Sacramento), represented by public defender Farris Salamy and prosecuted by District Attorney Ronald W. Tochterman, Chase is brought to trial on January 2, 1979. Obviously guilty of the six Sacramento killings (the prosecution will present 250 exhibits of Chase's guilt), the vampire's fate is waged over whether he is sane or cuckoo clock crazy (a wraith of only 107 pounds, Chase will testify on his own behalf, talking about his difficult childhood, the trauma not being able to have sex as a teenager caused, admits to drinking Mrs. Wallin's blood, and states that he killed baby Ferriera and decapitated the corpse, but thought he was shooting "something" other than a child, and that he is sorry about what has happened). Despite Tochterman's attempts to show Chase is not playing with a full deck of cranium cards (and also asking for verdicts of second degree murder to avoid his client from being executed), after four months of ghoulish exhibits and testimony, a jury takes five hours of deliberations to find Chase guilty of all six charges of first degree murder, and after a four hour competency hearing that rules him sane, the judge in the trial sentences Chase to execution in the San Quentin gas chamber. But in the gas chamber is not how the human vampire will go.
In Court
In San Quentin, the other inmates taunt Chase. They threatened to kill him and
encouraged him to commit suicide. Psychologists and
psychiatrists who examine Chase during this time suggest that he be transferred to
Vacaville Prison, California, a facility for the criminally insane, which Chase most certainly is! According to the authorities, Chase is psychotic, insane, and incompetent. Indeed! Chase is admitted to Vacaville in December and after being stabilized, sent back to San Quentin in
April, 1980. On the morning of 26 December, 1980, a correctional officer assigned to guard duty
on death row greets the prisoner in cell #5800. Chase is lying on his back and breathing
normally. At 11:05 the same day, the guard checked his cell again. This time Chase is lying on his stomach, legs extended off his bunk and feet on the floor. His head is buried
in the mattress and his arms extended upwards, to the pillow. Next to the bed were four
sheets of paper covered in handwriting. Two of them contained drawn squares filled with a
strange, cryptographic, like code of some kind. On the other two pages is a message in which Chase
indicates that he might take some pills which could cause his heart to stop beating .
It turned out that Chase had saved his three daily 50mg tablets of Sinequan (doxepin
hydrochloride), a psychotropic agent for depression, for approximately 3 weeks in order to
ingest them that morning. As a result, no wooden stake, cross, or garland of garlic necessary, the
life of 30 year old Richard Trenton Chase, the “Vampire of Sacramento," is lost ... a good riddance goodbye loss almost no cares about.
Monster
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