RICHARD CHASE: THE VAMPIRE OF SACRAMENTO

Richard chase was a serial killer and cannibal born in May of 1950 and was also known as The Vampire of Sacramento and over the span of one month would go on to kill six people. His victims included fifty one year old Ambrose Griffon, Teresa Wallin who at the time of her murder was three months pregnant, and in one mass murder killed Jason (twenty months of age), David (six years of age), and Evelyn Miroth (thirty eight years of age) along with neighbor of the Miroth family Dan Meredith. Chase was once institutionalized at one point before committing the murders and was thought by doctors to be a paranoid schizophrenic. Early on he had shown the stages of the MacDonald triad which includes the habits of bedwetting, pyromania, and zoosadism. In his adolescence he became a heavy user of LSD, marijuana, and alcohol. He would also develop signs of hypochondria and would make claims that someone stole his pulmonary artery and that his heart would on occasions stop beating or would be shrinking. Along with these claims he would often shave his head in saying that his cranial bones were separated and would move around within his head and wanted to observe said activity.

He would eventually move from his mothers house under the belief that she was attempting to poison him. He then moved into an apartment with a small group of friends. Upon moving in he boarded up his door and created an escape hatch so ìno one would sneak up on meî. His roommates soon left Chase to himself in the apartment after becoming infuriated with him due to his constant intoxication and his habit of walking around the apartment naked even in front of company. Although it was originally the other tenants that asked Chase to leave he refused and they left instead. Left by himself in the apartment Chase began capturing rats and other small animals that infested it and would eat them raw. On occasions Chase would mix the organs of the deceased rodents with Coca-cola and drink the contents like a milkshake. When questioned about this it was said that he did it to keep his heart from shrinking. In 1975 while still living by himself he injected a rabbits blood into his veins and contracted blood poisoning. Upon being treated for his blood poisoning he was involuntarily committed to a mental institution. While there he gained the nickname Dracula from the staff after being found with blood smeared around his face, his excuse for this was ìI cut myself shaving.î. Although it was later discovered that the blood was from two birds that heëd captured and drank the blood from. It was also disputed during his stay whether he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia or his actions were brought on by a drug induced psychosis.

In 1976 after a series of treatments including psychoactive drugs he was released under the care of his mother as he was deemed no longer a danger to society. While staying with his mother she came to the conclusion that the drugs that were prescribed to him werenít necessary stating that they made her son ìa zombieì. She soon began to wean him off his medication and eventually was able to get Chase his own apartment. Once on his own again he soon started to murder people rather than animals. His first victim was fifty one year old Ambrose Griffin killed on December 29, 1977 by a drive by shooting while helping his wife carry groceries into the house. Just shy of two weeks after his first murder on January 11, 1978 he forced a neighbor into giving him a pack of cigarettes. Two weeks after the incident on the eleventh he attempted to enter the home of a single woman however upon finding her doors were locked he left the area, he would go on to tell detectives that locked doors were a sign that he was unwelcome but unlocked doors were a sign of welcome. While wandering around after the failed attempt of breaking and entry he ran into a girl who heíd gone to high school with he tried to get a ride from her but she refused frightened by his appearance. After being denied a ride from his former schoolmate Chase continued to wander the streets until coming across the house of a married couple. After breaking into the home he stole several valuables from the couples home, urinated on a set of clothes belonging to their son and defecating on the sonís bed as well before the couple came home. Upon discovering Chase the husband attacked him although he managed to escape.

After escaping from the couples home he continued to look for unlocked homes then came across the home of David and Teresa Wallin. Teresa was alone in the house, her husband at work, and was taking out the trash while Chase entered undetected. As Teresa reentered the house she was taken by surprise as Chase fired three shots at her with the same gun used in his first murder, one shot hitting her hand and the other two in her head killing her. Chase then dragged the body to the bedroom of the coupleís house and raped the corpse as he repeatedly stabbed it. Once finished he mutilated the body removing several internal organs and cutting the victims nipples off. Before leaving Chase also gathered the blood from the body using a bucket and bathed in the blood and drank the blood from the nipple wound using a discarded yogurt container. Two days following the murder and mutilation of Teresa Wallin Chase purchased two puppies from a neighbor then killed them both and drank their blood. On January 27 Chase committed a mass murder of four people which would also be his last. At he time of Chaseís entrance into the home of thirty three year old Evelyn Miroth sheíd been watching her twenty two month nephew David. Mirothís six year old son Jason and Dan Meredith a neighbor who had came over to check up on Evelyn. Dan had been watching the children while Evelyn was in the bath. Chase entered the house as Dan was walking into the front hallway and was then shot pointblank by Chaseís .22 handgun killing him. Frightened by the gunshots Jason ran to his mothers bedroom as Chase stole Danís wallet and car keys. On his way to the bedroom where Jason had ran too Chase shot David in the head, once in the bedroom he shot Jason fatally in the head twice at pointblank range.

Chase then made his way to the bathroom and shot Evelyn in the head and dragged her body into the bedroom. Once there he placed the corpse on the bed where he sodomized it while drinking the blood from several wounds made in the back of the victims neck. Once finished sodomizing the body he then stabbed her in the anus at least a dozen times, the wounds penetrated her uterus. He then stabbed several vital points in the body causing blood from internal organs to pool within the abdomen. After stabbing the body he sliced open the abdomen and drained the blood into a bucket which he then consumed. He went back to retrieve the corpse of David taking it into the bathroom and split open the skull then consumed some of the brain matter. Chase was then startled by a knock at the front door of the home made by a six year old girl with whom Jason had a play date with. Chase fled the residence in Dan Meredithís car, upon seeing Chase flea in the stolen car the six year old alerted a neighbor who then entered the home and discovered the bodies and contacted police authorities. Once inside the home police found perfect hand prints and imprints of the soles of Chaseís shoes left in Evelynís blood. While the police investigated the Miroth home Chase had taken the boy of David back to his apartment where he removed the head and used the neck as a straw to suck the blood from the body. He then sliced open the body and consumed several internal organs, using the rest to make a smoothie like drink as heíd done before with the organs of rodents. He then later disposed of the body at a church near by his home.

In 1979 chase stood trail on six counts of murder. The defense attempted to have Chase found guilty on second degree murder which would result in life imprisonment rather than the death penalty which he at that time faced. The defense case relied on the history of mental illness and apparent lack of planning in his crimes of the defendant, however evidence was not permitted to them. On May 8th the jury found Chase guilty of all six counts of first degree murder. The defense asked for a clemency hearing, during which a judge determined that Chase was not legally insane. After the trail Chase was sentenced to death in the gas chamber, while in prison Chase was much feared by the other inmates whoíd heard the odd and graphic nature of his crimes. According to several prison employees inmates would often attempt to convince Chase to commit suicide, most likely because they feared him too much to get close enough to kill him themselves. During his stay in prison Chase was allowed a series of interviews by Robert Ressler. During the interviews Chase made claims that although he killed it was because of his fears of Nazis and UFOs, and killed to keep himself alive and that any person would do. He also asked Ressler to acquire a radar gun for him, with which he would use to apprehend the Nazi UFOs in order for them to stand trail. Chase also gave large amounts of macaroni that heíd been hoarding in his pants pockets, he claimed that it was evidence that prison officials had been working with the Nazis and UFOs in an attempt to kill him.

On December 28, 1980 while doing cell checks a guard found Chase in an awkward position on his bed not breathing. During his autopsy it was determined that Chase had committed suicide overdosing on antidepressants that had been prescribed to him by a prison doctor and had been saving them up in the weeks leading up to his suicide. Since his death there have been only two portrayals of Chase, the first of these was in 1988 in the film Rampage which loosely based on his crimes. The second was an underground retelling of Richard Chases life in a short subject film entitled The Psychotic Odyssey made by Carrey Burtt and was made using Barbie dolls.