The
Vampire of Sacramento:
Richard
Trenton Chase
Mugshot
Artwork image taken of Richard
Chase, taken following his arrest.
In 1978, on a four day murder
spree, Richard Chase shot and
slashed six people between January
and. he broke into the victims
homes, slaughtered the victims,
who included a pregnant woman
and a two year old child.
Once
arrested, he confessed to the
killings and confessed to drinking
the blood of his victims, and
to carrying pieces of the victims
with him to gnaw on when he so
desired. Chase was sentenced to
life in prison for the murders.
On December 26, 1980, a prison
guard found Chase dead in his
cell. Coroners determined Chase
had committed suicide by overdosing
on his medication, possibly taking
three weeks worth of medication
at once, killing himself.
Story
Compiled By Anthony Capucci
Artwork,
Ricardo Pustanio © 2008
A
self-described victim of abuse
at the hands of his mother, Chase
exhibited by the age of 10 evidence
of the MacDonald triad: bedwetting,
pyromania, and zoosadism (allegations
which were later called into question).
In his adolescence, he was known
as an alcoholic and a chronic
drug abuser. He suffered from
erectile dysfunction due to "psychological
problems stemming from repressed
anger".
Chase
developed hypochondria as he matured.
He often complained that his heart
would occasionally "stop
beating", or that "someone
had stolen his pulmonary artery".
He would also hold oranges on
his head, believing the Vitamin
C would be absorbed by his brain
via diffusion.
After
leaving his mother's house (believing
she was attempting to poison him),
Chase rented an apartment with
friends. Once he moved in, he
immediately boarded up his bedroom
door and created an "escape
hatch" through his closet
wall so "no one can sneak
up on me". Chase's roommates
complained that he was constantly
intoxicated on alcohol, marijuana,
and LSD. Chase would also walk
around the apartment nude, even
in front of company. Chase's roommates
demanded that he move out. When
he refused, the roommates moved
out instead.
Once
alone in the apartment, Chase
began to capture, kill, and disembowel
various animals, which he would
then devour raw. Chase reasoned
that by ingesting the creatures
he was preventing his heart from
shrinkin
In
1975, Chase was involuntarily
committed to a mental institution
after being taken to a hospital
for blood poisoning, which he
contracted after injecting rabbit's
blood into his veins. He often
shared with the staff fantasies
about killing rabbits. He was
once found with blood smeared
around his mouth; hospital staff
discovered he had drank the blood
of birds. Staff began referring
to him as "Dracula."
There
were arguments as to whether Chase
was schizophrenic or suffering
from a drug-induced psychosis.
After
undergoing a battery of treatments
involving psychotropic drugs,
Chase was deemed no longer a danger
to society, and in 1976, he was
released under the recognizance
of his divorced parents; various
staff members at the institution
protested this decision. [1] His
mother, deciding that her son
did not need to be on the antipsychotic
medication that he had been prescribed,
weaned him off it and got him
his own apartment.
Later
investigation has uncovered that
in mid-1977, Chase had been stopped
by a Native American agent on
a reservation in the Lake Tahoe
area and arrested. He was wearing
a blood soaked shirt and driving
a truck containing guns and a
bucket of blood. He convinced
them that it was a misunderstanding
involving an animal he'd hunted.
No charges were filed.
Richard
Chase
Richard Trenton
Chase (May 23, 1950 – December
26, 1980) was an American serial killer
who killed six people in the span
of a month in California. He earned
the nickname The Vampire of Sacramento
due to his drinking of his victims'
blood and his cannibalism. He did
this as part of a delusion that he
needed to prevent Nazis from turning
his blood into powder via poison they
had planted beneath his soap dish.
Chase developed
hypochondria as he matured. He often
complained that his heart would occasionally
"stop beating", or that
"someone had stolen his pulmonary
artery". He would also hold oranges
on his head, believing the Vitamin
C would absorb into his brain via
osmosis.
After leaving
his mother's house (believing she
was attempting to poison him), Chase
rented an apartment with friends.
Once he moved in, he immediately boarded
up his bedroom door and created an
"escape hatch" through his
closet wall so "no one can sneak
up on me". Chase's roommates
complained that he was constantly
Intoxicated on alcohol, marijuana,
and LSD. Chase would also inexplicably
walk around the apartment nude, even
in front of company. Chase's roommates
demanded that he move out. When he
refused, the roommates moved out instead.
Once alone
in the apartment, Chase began to capture,
kill, and disembowel various animals,
which he would then devour raw. Chase
reasoned that by drinking this drink
he was preventing his heart from shrinking.
Murders
On December 29, 1977, Chase killed
his first victim in a drive-by shooting,
Ambrose Griffin, a 51-year-old engineer
and father of two. After the shooting,
one of Griffin's sons reported seeing
a neighbor walking around their East
Sacramento neighborhood with a .22
rifle. The neighbor's rifle was seized,
but ballistics tests determined that
it was not the murder weapon.
On January
11, 1978, Chase asked his neighbor
for a cigarette and then forcibly
restrained her until she gave him
an entire pack.
Two weeks later,
he attempted to enter the home of
another woman but, finding that her
doors were locked, went into her backyard
and walked away; Chase later told
detectives that he took locked doors
as a sign that he was not welcome,
but that unlocked doors were an invitation
to come inside. He was later chased
off by a returning couple as he pilfered
belongings from their home.
Chase's next
victim was Teresa Wallin. Three months
pregnant, Teresa was surprised at
her home by Chase, who shot her three
times, killing her. He then had sex
with the corpse and mutilated it,
bathing in the dead woman's blood.
On January
23, 1978, two days after killing Teresa
Wallin, Chase purchased two puppies
from a neighbor, killing them and
drinking their blood.
On January
27, Chase committed his final murders.
Entering the home of 38-year-old Evelyn
Miroth, he encountered her neighbor,
Don Meredith, who he shot with the
same .22 handgun. Stealing Meredith's
wallet and car keys, he rampaged through
the house, fatally shooting Evelyn
Miroth, her 6-year-old son Jason,
and Miroth's 22-month-old nephew,
David. As with Teresa Wallin, Chase
engaged in necrophilia and cannibalism
with Miroth's corpse.
A six-year-old
girl with whom Jason Miroth had a
playdate knocked on the door, startling
Chase, who fled the scene in Meredith's
car, taking David's body with him.
The girl alerted a neighbor, who alerted
police. Upon entering the home, police
discovered that Chase had left perfect
handprints and perfect imprints of
the soles of his shoes in Evelyn's
blood.
Chase returned
to his home, where he drank David's
blood and ate several of the infant's
internal organs before disposing of
the body at a nearby church.
In 1979, Chase
stood trial on six counts of murder.
In order to avoid the death penalty,
the defense tried to have Chase 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 lack of planning
in his crimes, evidence that they
were not premeditated.
On May 8 the
jury found Chase guilty of six counts
of first degree murder and Chase was
sentenced to die in the gas chamber.
Waiting to die, Chase became a feared
presence in prison; the other inmates
(including several gang members),
aware of the graphic and bizarre nature
of his crimes, feared him, and according
to prison officials, they often tried
to convince Chase to commit suicide.
Chase granted
a series of interviews with Robert
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. He also
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.
On December
26, 1980, a guard doing cell checks
found Chase lying awkwardly on his
bed, not breathing. An autopsy determined
that he committed suicide with an
overdose of prison doctor-prescribed
antidepressants that he had been saving
up over the last few weeks.
The 1988 movie
Rampage was loosely based on Chase's
crimes.
Carey Burtt's
underground short subject The Psychotic
Odyssey of Richard Chase retells Chase's
life story using Barbie dolls, not
unlike in Superstar: The Karen Carpenter
Story.
An apparent
victim of abuse at the hands of his
mother, Chase exhibited by the age
of 10 evidence of the MacDonald triad:
bedwetting, pyromania, and zoosadism.
In his adolescence, he was known as
an alcoholic and a chronic drug abuser.
He suffered from erectile dysfunction
due to "psychological problems
stemming from repressed anger".
Sources and
references
Robert Ressler on profiling the Vampire
Killer
Richard Chase at the Crime Library
Richard Chase Art and Livejournal
Group
The Psychotic Odyssey of Richard Chase
on youtube
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