Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Vampire of Sacramento” Pt. 2: Richard Trenton Chase

Episode Date: October 14, 2019

1977 proved to be a turning point for 27-year-old Richard Chase. Killing dogs and rabbits for their blood just wasn’t enough anymore. Only people would suffice, and a half-dozen of his neighbors would soon fall prey to his vampiric appetite.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes graphic descriptions of murder, animal cruelty, and cannibalism, as well as discussions of necrophilia and sexual assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. The summer of 1977 was a stressful time for Beatrice Chase. Her 27-year-old son, Richard, had grown increasingly volatile since his discharge from the Beverly Manor

psychiatric hospital. Beatrice had not explicitly barred her son from visiting, but had not invited him over in a while. She found her life was simpler the less she saw of Richard. Then one afternoon while Beatrice was home alone, she heard a frantic banging at her door. It was too loud for it to be her cat. She didn't hear any voice, but guessed it was Richard. He was probably having one of his fits. She couldn't see him like this. Then the knocking ceased. and an even louder noise resounded off the porch. Beatrice rushed to the door, flinging it open. Richard stood there, holding her cat by the tail.

He had killed it with a single gunshot. Despite her horror at what her son had done, Beatrice Chase never reported the incident to police. What happened that summer day did not become public knowledge until after her son was a household name, after he had killed six innocent people. I'm Greg Polson. This is serial killers, a podcast original.

Every Monday, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other podcast originals for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. To stream serial killers for free on Spotify, just open the app and type serial killers in the search bar. Today, we're finishing the story of Richard Trenton Chase, also known as The Vampire of Sacramento.

At Parcast, we're grateful for you, our listeners. You allow us to do what we love. Let us know how we're doing. Reach out on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. And if you enjoy today's episode, the best way to help us is to leave us five-star review wherever you're listening. It really does help. Last week we discussed Richard's troubled youth in Sacramento, California, and the two times he was institutionalized to treat his clear cognitive issues. As a young man, he developed a fixation with his health, insisting to doctors and his family that he did not have enough blood inside of him. This obsession led him to kill animals and drink their blood, which often made him very ill.

This week, we'll follow Chase as he progresses toward more extreme and extremely disturbing acts of violence. Towards the end of 1976, Richard Trenton Chase's neighbors began noticing how strangely he was behaving. One of his neighbors, Linda Dillon, experienced a number of deeply uncomfortable encounters with him. She described him as wandering around with a black look on his face, sometimes dragging his feet behind him. As she gives no concrete dates for these encounters, it is possible that Ms. Dillon's account of the zombie-like Richard Chase took place when Richard was heavily sedated by antipsychotic medication. Richard had been given a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia when he was discharged from

Beverly Manor Hospital in late 1976. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. Part of the reason for Chase's discharge from the hospital was that a number of doctors believed he had the potential for improvement. It seemed like the medication they prescribed did dampen his more violent tendencies. Antipsychotic medication is designed to treat positive symptoms, such as delusions or hallucinies.

and it certainly had that effect on Richard. However, the use of antipsychotics was still a relatively new field, so the drugs that were prescribed to Richard also rendered him listless. His mother Beatrice found this too hard to deal with, so she took it upon herself to wean Richard off his medication. By the beginning of 1977, Richard was his unmedicated self once again, and his strange behavior started to seem a little more dangerous. By July of 1977, all traces of Richard Chase's so-called recovery had vanished.

Schizophrenia is manageable with proper treatment, but after Beatrice weaned her son off of his medication, he received no treatment at all. Without any outpatient care or medication, he was left totally adrift. He frequently turned violent toward his family and forbade most of them from entering his apartment. He still received regular visits from his father, Richard Sr., who in spite of everything, wanted to make sure his son did not fall into isolation. Then the Chase family dogs disappeared. Richard Sr. immediately suspected his son and accused him of kidnapping and killing the dogs.

Richard Jr. denied it, but his father remembered the flocks of rabbits he kept at his apartment, supposedly for eating, he was not convinced. Richard's behavior toward his neighbors only grew more aggressive. Linda Dillon recalled a particularly disturbing encounter she had with him in early 1977. Dylan encountered him in the garage of their apartment building. He cornered her and asked her for a cigarette. She gave him one, and he did not move. Blocking her from the exit, he demanded more.

She gave him the entire pack and fled. Sometime after this encounter in early August, Richard packed up as Ford Ranchero and drove to Pyramid Lake on the Paiute Tribal Reservation in Nevada, 200 miles northeast of Sacramento. We don't know what Richard intended to do on this trip, but somehow his pickup truck got caught in the sand near the lake. A man, Carmen Toby Sr., saw Chase abandon his vehicle with a dog. Toby took a look inside and immediately called the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Officers Charles O'Brien, Manuel Sabori, and Leland Johnson arrived, along with tribal officers Leroy Phoenix and Edward Crutcher. They found the vehicle still abandoned and searched it.

The interior of the vehicle was heavily stained with blood. Two rifles lay in the passenger seat and next to them was a white bucket. inside the bucket was more blood and a liver. O'Brien searched the surrounding area with his binoculars and saw the bloody figure of Richard Chase watching them from the distance. O'Brien wrote in his report, he was approximately one-half to three-quarters of a mile away from us. He was completely nude.

Richard turned and ran away from them towards the lake. The Bureau of Indian Affairs officers pursued on foot, while the tribal officers went to head him off in their vehicle. Eventually, they caught up with Richard, who promptly identified himself to the officers. When asked where all the blood came from, he told them it was his own and that it had seeped out of him. Confused by his nonsensical answers,

the officers arrested Richard and took him in for holding. The dog Carmen Toby had seen with Richard was nowhere to be found. Richard was held in custody in the Washu County Jail while the blood and liver were sent away for testing. The results determined that the blood and liver belonged to an animal, not a human. Once again, Richard's father had to drive out to pick up his son from jail. Richard told him exactly the same thing he told his mother over the phone. This was all a misunderstanding.

He had spilled rabbit blood on himself and been arrested by mistake. Richard's car was impounded due to problems with the registration, but otherwise he was free to go. Later that summer, Richard returned to Nevada to retrieve his car. According to Miss Masia Luis of the Washu County Sheriff's Department, Richard looked disheveled, but treated her politely. This was in stark contrast to his behavior behind closed doors. Privately, Richard was nursing a growing tendency toward violence, His yearning for blood continued to increase, and rabbits weren't satisfying him anymore.

On October 1, 1977, he bought a dog from the SPCA for $15.90. He returned on October 10th and bought another. Shortly afterward, in either late October or early November, Richard purchased a dog from Elaine Meyer and attempted to haggle down her asking price of 25. dollars. His attempt at bargaining was unsuccessful, but he purchased the dog anyway. According to Meyer, the dog was extremely wary of him as Richard took it away. In mid-November, Richard visited Daniel Owens, who was selling Labrador puppies for $10 each. He introduced himself as a breeder, but Owens noted that he paid no attention to sex when selecting which dogs he was going to buy.

None of it sated, Richard, but he didn't have enough money to keep the same. up. Around the same time in November, the Sunset family, neighbors of Richards, reported their family dog missing. When he saw their ad in the newspaper, Richard called the Sunsets and taunted them, saying he had taken their dog. According to Mr. Sunseth, the man on the phone sounded almost incoherent and possibly high. When Mr. Sunseth demanded to know who he was, Richard hung up. None of the dogs Richard acquired. were ever seen again. But dognapping was not the only thing that occupied Richard Chase.

In the first week of December, 1977, he walked into Big Five sporting goods and purchased a 22-caliber Lugar-style pistol for $69.99. To purchase the gun, he was asked if he had ever been admitted into a psychiatric institution. He lied and said no. Richard was approved for the gun. but there was a mandatory waiting period, which meant he could not pick up the weapon for a couple of weeks. Short of funds after buying the gun,

he called his mother to purchase a holster for him. She declined, but didn't ask further questions. She was used to Richard's odd requests and had learned not to read too much into them. In fact, his mother had reason to be optimistic. Two days before he picked up his weapon, Richard seemed to be on the verge of getting his life together. He cut his hair, trimmed his beard, and mentioned to her he was considering getting a job.

When they saw him, both of Richard's parents and his grandmother noticed, and complimented his more put-together appearance. On December 18th, he went back to the store for the pistol. This same week, he picked up several editions of the Sacramento Bee, cutting out an article from the out-and-about section on dating and circling several ads for free dogs. A few days before Christmas, Richard Sr. took his son shopping, where he bought Richard Jr. an orange parca that he liked. Richard Sr. spoke to his son multiple times that December, noting that Richard, quote, said nothing bizarre or abnormal and did not complain about his blood.

Despite these outward improvements, a single phone call upset the whole balance. Sometime during mid-December, Richard's mother called and told him that he was not allowed to come home for Christmas. Though she likely didn't say why over the phone, she claimed later that it was because Richard's sister Pamela was scared of him and did not want him around anymore. Richard was extremely upset by this. Though accounts vary on the time frame, it was at this point he started driving around his neighborhood, firing shots into random windows. A woman named Mrs. Polinsky was doing her dishes when a bullet pierced her kitchen window. The shot fired from the street flew mere inches over her head. It was only a matter of time before someone was killed.

Coming up, Richard Trenton Chase tastes human blood for the first time. Now back to the story. 1970 was a turbulent year for Richard Trenton Chase. After his release from a mental institution, the schizophrenic 27-year-old had been weaned off his medication and relapsed. He suffered from violent and unpredictable tendencies, which climaxed when he was arrested near Lake Tahoe with a car full of weapons and blood. When the authorities determined it was animal blood, he was released,

and he went back to Sacramento. But that fall, his behavior became increasingly erratic. He bought a number of dogs from local sellers and stole others. He would later confess to bringing the dogs back to his apartment where he killed and ate them. But these killings did not satisfy him, and he purchased a 22-caliber pistol on December 18th. His neighbor, Linda Dillon, heard muffled gunshots coming from his apartment

on several different occasions. This only strengthened her resolve to move out of the apartment complex as soon as possible. If he hadn't already, this neighbor of hers was going to do something bad really soon. She was right to worry.

On December 29, 97, Richard committed his first murder. That evening, 51-year-old engineer Ambrose Griffin was unloading groceries in his driveway. Suddenly, he was shot by a figure in a passing car. He died almost immediately. The police were mystified. It was the most difficult type of crime to solve,

one where the killer had no motive or physical connection to the deceased. Griffin had never met Richard Chase, so the only possible evidence the police had were two 22-caliber shell casings on the street. In early 1978, the Sacramento Bee ran an editorial about the killing. Richard bought a copy for himself on January 5th and kept the editorial. He seemed to enjoy reading press coverage of his killings.

Eleven days later, he would begin to show signs of paranoia. He suspected his neighbors of snooping on him, so he devised a strategy to get them away. On January 16th, several of Richard's neighbors on Watt Avenue heard a loud knocking on their door. A moment later, they noticed smoke billowing from their garage. They found burning newspapers inside and quickly put them out. Unlike the murder of Ambrose Griffin, it was a victimless crime, and the police did not look far into it. His neighbors had no idea who had set the fire until months later.

Soon after the fire, Richard told his mother over the phone that he wanted to go rock hunting. Richard's father showed up that Saturday to take him hiking. Mr. Chase recalled Saturday, January 21st, as an ordinary day. He said Richard, did not act bizarre, said nothing unusual, had no complaints about health, no arguments, and generally acted like a normal 27-year-old spending time with their father. Richard Sr. had no way of knowing that three weeks prior, his son had become a murderer. On the evening of January 22nd, Richard's mother, Beatrice, and grandmerexie, mother, Holly, niece, were having a quiet Sunday in Beatrice's apartment. They were surprised by

Richard's appearance at the door, and even more surprised by how normal he looked. Before leaving, Richard asked his grandmother how her dog was doing. Flattered by Richard's surprisingly considerate behavior, Holly gave him $10 on his way out. But the next day, all their hopes about Richard's new normalcy would be shattered. At around 9 a.m. on January 23rd, Gene Layton was watching television in her home several blocks away from Richard's apartment. She began to hear a strange noise at the back of her house. Ms. Layton stood and went to see what it was. Richard Chase was sitting on her back porch, wearing a blue jacket.

When he saw her through the window, he said, excuse me, as if trying to get her to let him in. Ms. Layton promptly called the police, but only a few minutes after placing the call, the unsettling young man had vanished. About an hour later, Robert and Barbara Edwards were returning home from some morning errands. As they entered their home, they saw Richard Chase in the process of robbing them. He had taken $16 and had begun to fill a bag with other valuables. Seeing the homeowners return, Richard fled. leaving through their back window and jumping over a fence, Mr. Edwards charged after him, yelling at him to stop.

During the chase, Richard yelled back, with a typically strange response, I'm only taking a shortcut, as if Mr. Edwards thought he was a trespasser rather than a burglar. Richard managed to evade Edwards, and Edwards finally returned to his house. It was in shambles. Aside from the wreckage, one would normally associate with the burglar, Edwards found that the intruder had defecated on their child's bed and urinated in one of their clothing drawers. Sightings of Richard Chase continued throughout the day,

each one stranger than the last. Shortly after 11 a.m., a young woman named Nancy Holden, parked her car at the pantry market to go shopping. Someone called her name. She turned and saw a strange, disheveled man in an orange jacket. He looked filthy. She immediately noticed some kind of crusty, yellowish substance around his mouth. He asked her a question which at first confused her.

Weren't you on Kurt's motorcycle when he was killed? Kurt was her high school boyfriend who had died in a motorcycle accident. She told this man that she had not been and asked who he was. He said he was Rick. Finally, she remembered who he was, Rick Chase, one of Kurt's friends. He'd looked nothing like he had in high school. He was disheveled and awful smelling, a far cry from the clean-cut boy she remembered. He broke off their conversation, but as Nancy kept shopping, Richard approached her over and over,

asking her where she was going. By the time he stepped behind her in the checkout line, she knew she had to get away from him. The moment Nancy finished her shopping, she went straight for the parking lot. She jumped into her car. But Richard caught up with her, and it takes a time. attempted to grab at the passenger side door. He missed, and Nancy Holden sped away, panting in fear, she checked the rearview mirror and saw Richard staring after her, not making any effort to pursue. Nancy Holden did not report this incident for days until its connection to Richard's future

grisly actions became known. Immediately after Nancy Holden's strange encounter, Richard Chase was spotted by another bystander, Between 11.30 a.m. and noon that day, Richard Eastlick was watching television in the living room of his house, which was located almost immediately behind the pantry market. Outside the window, he saw a thin white male wearing what he described as an orange ski jacket walking through the neighborhood. And then, moments after he'd been seen, the man passed out of sight once again. Two doors down. 22-year-old Teresa Wallen was spending her day off cleaning the house she shared with her husband, David.

Teresa was three months pregnant, so was trying not to overexert herself. She was carrying a white garbage bag toward the door. When it unexpectedly swung open, a man stepped through. He was a horribly dirty man and wore an orange jacket. In his hand was a pistol. He raised it and fired two shots. Before she could react, he raised the weapon and fired. Richard Eastlick later told the investigators that he heard three to four shots coming from the south of his home, but he did not investigate.

In fact, no one nearby went to check on Teresa. That evening, at around 6 o'clock, Teresa's husband, David Wallen, returned home from a long day at work. Their house was dark when he arrived. He unlocked the door and entered. Garbage was scattered all over the floor, and their stereo was playing. He called for Teresa, but received no response. A figure slunk through the darkness,

moving quietly toward David. It was their German shepherd, Brutus. The dog whined. Something was wrong. David could see the floor was spotted with large, dark, circular stains, like the ring left by a bottom of a glass, or bucket. At first, David thought they were oil. He followed them, step by step, to the master

bedroom. He opened the door and peered inside. Then he screamed. What he saw inside shook him to his core. Teresa lay splayed on her back, her sweater pulled up, and her pants below her ankles. Her chest had been mutilated, and her torso was cut open below the sternum. A year, a year. A year, used paper yogurt cup was beside her body, stained with blood. David realized with horror that the rings he had been following were the approximate size and shape of a bucket. It was as if the murderer had collected her blood as he dragged her out of the living room. Panicking and inconsolable, David ran to his neighbors to report the horrible scene he had found in his home. The first policeman on the scene were patrol officers.

Gary Flanagan and Tom Savage. Before even entering the house, they noticed that the murderer had left a 22-caliber shell in the mailbox, almost like a calling card. Savage was the first of two to lay eyes on the body, while Officer Flanagan waited on the porch with the rest of the Wallen family. He would later tell reporters that the scene gave him nightmares for weeks afterward. The evidence indicated that Richard Chase had sexually assaulted the body of Teresa Wallen, as well as butchered her for her blood. Criminologist David Wilson later posited that the horrible state of Teresa Wallin's body was an expression of curiosity due to prolonged sexual frustration.

But for the moment, investigators were unsure what to make of it all. The next day, on January 24th, Richard purchased another copy of the Sacramento Bee, just like he had following the murder of Ambrose Griffin. Later that evening, he called his mother. She wasn't home. So he spoke to his grandmother, Holly niece. According to her, he seemed in good spirits. Then, on January 25th, the badly mutilated body of a puppy was found not far from the

wall in home. Richard's thirst for blood was far from sated. Lieutenant Ray Biondi, the officer in charge of the emergency, investigation, was sure that whoever had committed the unspeakably violent act against Teresa Wallen would kill again soon. Richard spent the next few days canvassing the neighborhood, going door-to-door pretending to be a collector of old magazines. Many residents of the area reported hearing strange sounds at their doors, which would cease once they called out. Then, on January 27th, he arrived at the Murroth

residents on Marywood Drive, less than a mile and a half from his Watt Avenue apartment. Here, he found his next victims. Evelyn Marath lived there with her two sons, the 13-year-old Vernon and 6-year-old Jason. Vernon was at school on the 27th, but Daniel Meredith, an adult friend of Evelyn's, was visiting at the time. He had just purchased Jason a pair of snow shoes. Jason was planning to go to the mountains later that day with their neighbors, the Grand Guards. Evelyn was spending the day babysitting her 22-month-old nephew, David Ferrarah, who had been dropped off at 7 a.m. wearing the same orange jacket as father had bought him for Christmas,

and now also wearing gloves. Richard entered the house sometime between 10 and 1115 a.m. At 11.05, the neighbor girl, 6-year-old Tracy Grandguard walked up to the Maroth household, and knocked at the door. Her mother, Nioni, had sent Tracy to see what was holding Jason up. No one answered, and she returned across the street to her mother. Nioni looked out at the Murath household. There was a red station wagon in the open garage and no other cars in the driveway. When she looked back mere minutes later, the station wagon was gone.

When she expressed her concern to another neighbor, Nancy Turner, Turner took it upon herself to check it out. She went over to the Maroth household and stepped through the back door. Turner emerged a few minutes later, in a daze. She walked over to Nioni and said distantly, it's Evelyn, and I think she's hurt, and there's blood all over. Lieutenant Beyondy received a call from local police shortly after 1 p.m. Investigators arrived to find the Maroth house had been transformed

into a slaughterhouse. 52-year-old Daniel Meredith was the first body they saw. He had been shot through the head. Further in lay Evelyn's six-year-old Jason, shot through the head and neck. He was still wearing his brand-new snow shoes. Evelyn was found in her bedroom, and the bathroom tub was full of bloody water.

Her body had been stripped naked and horribly mutilated. the intestines removed. Forensic analysis later determined she was sexually assaulted with a kitchen knife. Even hardened police officers were scarred by the grisly scene they found at the Murath household. But as grotesque as the scene was, the most shocking thing was what was missing.

22-month-old David Ferrara was nowhere to be found. Up next, the police finally catch up. with Richard Trenton Chase. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue.

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take care of the rest. Who knew your questionable music taste will be a money-making machine? Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Deepop, where Taste recognizes taste. Now back to the story. By January 28, 1978, the 28-year-old Richard Trenton Chase had killed five people. The first Ambrose Griffin was a drive-by shooting. The other four were far more gruesome. He had killed Teresa Wallin, Evelyn Morath, Daniel Meredith, and Jason Marath with the same 22-caliber pistol, and mutilated Teresa and Evelyn's corpses. Evelyn Marath's 22-month-old nephew, David Ferrara, was still missing.

Investigators held on to a slim hope that the child was still alive, but even if he was, the clock was ticking. By this time, the FBI Behavioral Science Unit had become involved in the investigation. Agents Robert K. Ressler and Russ Vorgical developed a profile of the perpetrator. They surmised the killer was a white male in his mid-20s, malnourished, probably with poor hygiene. Wrestler based his assessment of the killer's body type on the now-dated studies of Dr. Ernst Kretschmere

and Dr. William Sheldon. Both Sheldon and Kretschmere believed there was a strong correlation between body type and mental temperament, so they believed introverted schizophrenics tended towards slim builds. Wrestler's assumption of the suspect's age was based on the theory that schizophrenia usually develops during one's teenage years and that most sexual murderers are under 35. Since the killings took place in a relatively small geographic area, police canvass the streets surrounding the borough of Sacramento, where the Wallen and Murroth murders had taken

place, searching for a suspect. Meanwhile, volunteers joined the search for the missing toddler, David Ferreira. Soon after they began their search, the name Richard T. Chase appeared on their radar. Nancy Holden, the former high school classmate of Chase's, had finally come forward about her uncomfortable encounter with Chase on the day of the murders. Her father, who was a retired police sergeant, had insisted she make a formal report when he heard her story. When Holden's description matched the other eyewitness reports almost perfectly, rookie detective Bill Robbins, was certain they had their man. He recruited two other detectives,

Ken Baker and Wayne Irie, to come with him to Richard's apartment on Watt Avenue. The three detectives positioned themselves around Richard's door and knocked. There was no response. Without a warrant, they could not force their way into the apartment. Roberts went to the apartment manager's office

and called Richard's number. Richard answered the phone and almost immediately hung up when he did not run. recognized the other man's voice. Roberts placed another call to a supervisor, Lieutenant Beondi, to ask what to do. Then he heard a scream behind him.

It was the apartment manager. Thinking the detectives had left, Richard had exited his apartment with a McDonald's French fries box in his hands, seemingly heading toward his parked Ranchero. Upon seeing Detective Irie, he broke into a run. Irie pursued.

Detective Baker, jumped out of the doorway he was hiding in and ordered Richard to stop. Richard threw the box at him. Baker knocked it out of the way and delivered a blow to Richard's head. As Richard went down, Detective Baker landed on top of him. Irie jumped on Richard as well. Iry would later describe the struggle. I pulled my service revolver and stuck it in his ear.

I told him to quit fighting or I was going to blow his brains out. Well, he didn't quit fighting. and that's when I found out I'm not like him. I couldn't kill him. Detective Baker drew his 45 and bashed Richard in the head with it. The heavy blow finally rendered Richard Chase docile enough to arrest. They pulled Richard Chase to his feet as the patrol cars arrived. Chase kept squirming, trying to reach for his back pocket.

The detective searched him and found Daniel Meredith's wallet. The volume of damning evidence against Richard only mounted when the officers looked in the McDonald's box. Inside was a small pile of evidence, bloody rags and papers, some brain matter, and a diaper pin from David Ferrar's crib. Their slim hope that the child was still alive dwindled even further. Detective Roberts picked up the phone in the apartment manager's office to make his report and realized, with some chagrin that his boss, Lieutenant Beyondy, was still on the line. He apologized, but Beyondy laughed off Robert's concern saying it was okay since he got a little busy. As Richard was being driven to the sheriff's department, he exclaimed,

my apartment is a lot cleaner, isn't it? All I did in my apartment was kill a few dogs. The interior of Richard's apartment was an appalling sight, almost Almost every surface was coated in blood. Counters, furniture, utensils, cups. In the kitchen, they found a pair of blenders that Richard had used to puree raw organs and viscera. They discovered a number of pet collars in the apartment, but no pets. His bedroom contained a blood-stained machete, some scraps of brain matter in the bedsheets, and feces on the floor. A calendar on the wall showed the dates of the 23rd and the 27th,

circled with the word today written on them. The same word was written on 44 upcoming dates on the calendar. Detectives Irie and Roberts were given the chance to question Richard, as they were the ones who made the arrest. But Richard did not incriminate himself, in spite of the overwhelming evidence against him. The ballistics team tied his weapon to all five. murders, but he claimed to have never taken a human life, insisting that he only killed animals. Even so, new eccentricities surfaced under the police interrogation. When someone tried to relieve him

of his empty shoulder holster, he grew anxious and started begging the detectives to let him keep it on, saying it made him feel safe. Curiously, he did not make any mention of his blood-focused delusions during the initial interviews, his paranoia manifested itself in less incriminating ways, including insisting he was being framed by Italians. He even claimed that he saw a different guy with an orange coat wandering his neighborhood. The police did not buy any of it. They took him into custody. Richard didn't make any friends in jail either.

Other prisoners tormented him constantly, some claiming they could not sleep due to the rumor, of what he had done. Many of the inmates threw excrement at him and promised to kill him if they get the chance. He was soon moved to an isolated cell. Over the next few months, Richard was subjected to further psychological evaluations. During this time, he was relatively cagey about his own history as a psychiatric patient, but his delusions had only gotten worse. He frequently rambled about being Jewish, which was probably untrue, and how he had seen lights in the sky

that might be UFOs, maybe from Mars. Meanwhile, the search for the missing toddler continued for almost two months. Finally, on March 24th, a church caretaker at Arcade Wesleyan Church, less than two miles from Chase's apartment, found a cardboard box with a child's remains in it. It was later found that Richard had eaten the baby's brains,

and apparently disposed of the body when routine police patrols started getting too close to his apartment. Over the following year, one of Richard's psychiatrists managed to gain Richard's trust. After some persuading, he managed to get a confession of sorts.

Richard admitted to the killings, but claimed it all had to do with some syndicate, which had it in for him. He claimed the syndicate got his mother to try and poison him, and if he was ever released, he would be able to bring them out in a court of law. This attempt to push responsibility onto some external conspiracy or force is a common symptom in murderers suffering from schizophrenia.

Richard even claimed this syndicate that poisoned him may have had ties to the Nazis. His guilt was beyond question. What wasn't as certain was how such an obviously mentally ill man would be punished. The prosecution wanted the doubt. penalty. The defense, on the other hand, aimed to prove Richard not guilty by reason of insanity. Their arguments were that he made very little effort to conceal evidence of his crimes, never cleaned up, and frequently wandered around with bloodstains on his clothes.

They wanted him institutionalized for life rather than executed. However, he was examined by four doctors, and all of them declared him competent to stand trial. In response to the In response, Richard wrote a statement saying he underwent temporary insanity during the events of the murders, so was not in full control of his actions. But the trial went on. It began on January 2nd, 1979. Richard was charged with six counts of murder. He looked notably emaciated on the stand, having dropped to 107 pounds. He was described by reporter Iris Yang as dull, limp, with a sallow complexion, and scarcely a spare ounce of flesh clinging to his bony frame.

Contributing to the prosecution's case was a written assessment of Chase by Dr. Theodore M. Udland. Udland summed up his opinion of Richard's claim of temporary insanity, saying, He showed no gross memory loss except for the killings, and my opinion is that this does not represent organic brain damage. My opinion is that Richard understood that he was killing people and that it was wrong to kill people. Amongst the many interviews he had with doctors, Richard dropped a single chilling reason for taking the body of David Ferrara.

He said it was, because I needed something to eat. On May 8, 1979, after five hours, the jury found Chase guilty. and after an additional hour of deliberation, they determined he was legally sane he would meet his end in San Quentin Penitenti's gas chamber. FBI agent Robert K. Ressler

vehemently disagreed with the verdict, believing Richard should have spent the rest of his life in a mental institution. He thought the punishment should be that of a mentally ill man who had been failed by society, rather than a criminal with perfect agency over his actions. More recent studies on the topic of delusions and criminal responsibility are more likely to agree with the jury in regards to Richard Chase's criminal culpability. In the 2013 study, delusions and responsibility for action, researchers Lisa Bordelotti, Matthew R. Broom, and Matteo Mameli, determined that even having beliefs that are epistemically bad and potentially dangerous, whether delusional or not, is not always sufficient.

efficient to motivate criminal action. Agent Ressler visited Richard on death row in 1979 and described his most striking feature as his eyes. It was his eyes that really got me. I will never forget them. They were like those of a shark in the movie Jaws. No pupils, just black spots. These were evil eyes that stayed with me long after the interview.

During the interview, Richard explained what he believed was happening to him. The murders, he claimed, were an act of self-defense. He suffered from what he referred to as soap dish poisoning. He believed he had been suffering from this condition since 1976. He described that it was turning his blood to powder, and everything he did was to replenish the blood he had lost. In a sense, it did not matter where the blood came from. asked if there was any particular method he used to choose his victims. Chase said that he went for the doors that were unlocked. A locked door signaled to him that he wasn't welcome. During the

rest of his time at San Quentin, the abuse from other inmates continued. A commentant was that he should kill himself. Wrestler and many of the psychiatrists on staff attempted to get Richard transferred to a psychiatric ward rather than the general population. They were all. They were unsuccessful. The families of the victims, as well as Chase's family, watched the papers for updates. Mr. Chase spoke to the Sacramento B in the aftermath of the trial saying, Society will kill my son. I think I've known that from the start. At 11.05 a.m. on December 26th, a guard came in to check on Richard Trenton Chase. Richard lay face down in his bunk, feet trailing on the first.

the floor. The guard called his name and he did not move. He went in and pulled the man off of his bed. Richard Trenton Chase, the Vampire of Sacramento, was dead. An autopsy determined that he had died of an overdose. He had been on a thrice daily dose of sine qua for his hallucinations and had hoarded enough of the drug to die by suicide. In the end, his father was proven wrong. society hadn't wound up killing his son after all. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. For more information on Richard Trenton Chase, amongst the many sources we used,

we found Vampire, the Richard Chase Murders, by Kevin M. Sullivan, extremely helpful to our research. We'll be back Monday with a new episode. You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other podcast originals for free on Spotify. Not only to Spotify already have, all your favorite music, but now Spotify is making it easy for you to enjoy all your favorite Parcast originals, like Serial Killers for free from your phone, desktop, or smart speaker.

To stream Serial Killers on Spotify, just open the app and type Serial Killers in the search bar. Several of you have asked how to help the show, and if you enjoy the show, the best way to help is to leave a five-star review. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parkast Network. We'll see you next time. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Anthony Valsick, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro and Paul Mahler.

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