True Crime All The Time - Richard Chase "The Vampire of Sacramento"

Episode Date: October 23, 2017

Richard Trenton Chase was a troubled youth who grew up to be a troubled man. He was obsessed with blood and would routinely kill innocent animals to satisfy his sick obsession. But at some point the killing of animals was not enough for Richard Chase. He would become a serial killer, turn his murderous attention to humans, and ultimately earn the ominous nickname "The Vampire of Sacramento".Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the details of serial killer Richard Chase. And these details are not for the faint of heart. Chase was given his nickname due to his propensity for drinking his victims' blood. He also engaged in necrophilia and cannibalism. This guy was as bad as it gets.You can help support the show by going to patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact and merchandise information. While you're there make sure to click through our Amazon link for all of your Amazon shopping. It's a great way to support the show!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

everyone and welcome to episode 50 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, what's going on? Did you say 50? 50. 50. 5-0? The big 50. Can you believe it? I can't believe it. Did you count them right? Yeah, I count them. I say them every episode. Last week I said 49. Yeah. I didn't ask you if you counted them correct then. Probably should have asked you a while back ago. Should ask me every episode. I just can't believe it, man.

It seems like yesterday that we started the podcast. We're on episode 50. 50. You just keep repeating everything I say. I just can't believe it's been 50. I'm surprised. It seems like a big number when you say it like that. My contract's about up.

It is. 52, I'm out. 52 and Gibb is out. Don't scare people, dude. That really will scare people. No more cubes. All right, let's do Patreon. We have new Patreon supporters, Anthony Parachia.

Paratia. That's it. Nicky Zarnacki. Yeah, like I said, it sounded like from the movie Greece. Canicky? Canicky. We have Megan Wallace. Yeah.

Scotland. Merle Elizabeth jumped out at way above our highest level. This has kind of been a week. a week thing. You just walk away after doing that. Yeah, it's like, you know, started with Samantha, and then you had Jacob A. Stone Esquire last week.

And it seems like every week somebody's just trying to top it. So Merle jumped out at $30, man. That's unbelievable. Much appreciate it. Yeah, we had Taylor Roy, Sasha Hampton jumped out at our highest level. Sasha. And then we had Gary Place.

He's in first. First place. So I did think that was a good, name because I said, you know, if you don't belong to Patreon, you probably didn't hear it, but I said Gary Place. So if you're friends with him, what do you say? Let's go back to Gary's Place. Yeah. But on, no, Gary, Gary Place's Place to watch NFL football. Yeah. You got to go to Gary Place's Place's place. Yeah. It could be a little confusing. It's funny, though. It is funny. Funny when I said it. It was. My head. Everything's funny in your head, though, right?

It's a freaking hilarious. It's a rodeo in there. And then we had, so, you know, we appreciate everyone that supports us on Patreon. And then we had Chad Eberhardt that came out, supported us on PayPal through PayPal. Yeah. So that was awesome. They contribute on social media. Yep. And then going back into the vault Gibbs.

So I want to give a special shout out this week to Janet Harp, longtime Patreon supporter. And just want to say big thanks to her. And a big thanks to everybody. right our new patron supporters the people that continue to support us month after month add on top of that our Facebook followers the P and they're out there sharing what we post you've got the people that are following us on Twitter and there's been a lot of retweeting lately of our episodes which helps it helps other people you know get to know us see us try us see what they think try us Try us?

Give us a try. Give us a try. Try the podcast. Maybe I should have said try the podcast. Yeah. And then, and I don't want to leave out our Instagram followers because they're doing a lot too. I'm seeing a lot of people post in their stories that they're listening to a certain episode. Yeah.

They'll even take a picture of their phone. It's just really cool. It's, it is cool. So all of that combined, helping us financially, helping us on social media. it's just what is allowed us to grow and it's unbelievable. I can't say enough. And because the holidays are coming up, we can probably just take it one more notch if you don't mind,

if you have the time. Is this your sales pitch? Yeah. That's it. And you want to be my latex sales. That's right. So I think what Gibby's getting ready to say is if you're shopping on Amazon, you're going to buy stuff on Amazon anyway from here,

now forward to the holidays. Might as well go to True Crime All the Time.com. Click on the Amazon banner. If you go through that, Amazon gives us a little something, something. A little bit, but every little bit helps defray

the cost of production and us putting out the podcast. And the great thing about that is it doesn't cost you anything. The price is always the same. You're going to spend that jack on whatever you're doing on Amazon anyway. Go through our little link

and yeah helps us out so i don't towed it a lot no i probably will say it a little bit more as as we get closer to christmas bring it up every now and then but that you know it's cool now somebody did reach out to me the other day and say that the link wasn't there and i think it might have something to do with like like an ipad or a kendal for some reason it may not show up it definitely shows up on my on the laptop or on a computer so if you go through a kendall Like a smaller screener on your phone. It may not show up for some reason. If you're saying if you used an Amazon tablet,

you couldn't get to the Amazon link. No, it doesn't show up on our web page, I think. Oh, I gotcha. Have you tried the link lately? There's only so much, no, I haven't. Maybe I should try it. Is that what you're saying? Maybe I want to try the link.

You are the webmaster. No, she didn't say it didn't work. She said it wasn't there. Yeah. Do we need to hire a professional webmaster? Dude, we need a professional a lot of things because you and I are professional at nothing. We can't afford it. We can't afford it.

We're lucky to get two podcasts out a week. Yeah. That takes everything we got. So big shout out to Maggie for her writing and research of this episode. You know, it's unbelievable what she's been doing for us over the last several months. Can't say enough good things about her. And then after you listen to this episode, if you haven't already, make sure you check out. True Crime all the time Unsolved.

There's an episode out right now about Ricky McCormick. Different episode, Gibbs, from... Yeah. It's a little departure. Now, there's a murder. There is a murder. But this is a real mystery. I don't want to give too much away.

Yeah. It's not like the Oriental Express. No, but it's really more about the mystery. I don't want to take anything away from the murder of Ricky McCormick, but there's a mystery associated with the murder that really has led to... It's more like a Rubik's Cube. If you say so. It's like a murder with a Rubik's Cube inserted.

Well, that sounds real dark. All right. Are you ready to get on with episode 50? I'm ready to move forward with it. If you want to get on, you get on. Are you going to get on or not? I'm just, I'm ready to move forward. Get on board with episode 50.

We're talking about Richard Trenton Chase. and they gave him the nickname the Vampire of Sacramento. So that alone's got to tell you something. You know, this is going to be a rough and tumble episode. I mean, a lot of ours are. You know,

we don't, we try not to hold back on the details. We've said that from day one. We like to get into the details. We like to tell the story. There's some rough details in here. I'm not going to lie. It's in tumbling.

There's some rough and tumbling. So this is one of those. Gibbs, and we've made this statement on a few, this is not one to listen to why you're eating your lunch at work, while you're eating your dinner. You might want to just eat this one. Just eat this one? You might want to just listen to this one while you're not consuming food. Yeah, this is a good one to work out too. It's a good one to listen to right before. Yeah, that's it. Really? You're just going to leave it hanging, like a hanging Chad. Yeah.

You had something, though. I saw the wheels turning and it just... I thought I better not. It faded. It faded. You know, it's funny you started talking about when to listen stuff. I can't believe how many people say they listen to us as they're falling asleep. Yeah, that's kind of...

This one, hey, you might have some really cool nightmares. Strange. Yeah, visions. Yeah. I mean, I don't mind it. It's, you know, hey, if we put you to sleep and help... I don't care. However you listen, Wyatt.

Maybe they think our voices are soothing. I don't know. I don't know. I'll say, good night. A lot of the stuff we talk about doesn't seem like bedtime story type material, though. No. Well, you know, I know a lot of people watch stuff in bed.

And I know my, you know, wife watches. All right. I don't need to know what you do. No, she watches. I wake up middle night and she's watching, you know. ID? The ID. Yeah.

She's getting. She's getting ideas, man. I know. She's probably putting together a hit kit. Well, she's just getting grabbed mine. The reason to put one together. It's right there. All right.

So let's get into Richard Trent and Chase. He was born on May 23rd, 1950 in Santa Clara County, California. When Richard was three years old, his family moved into their first home. You know, up until that point, they had been renting. And during this time, Richard was abused. by his parents. I mean, it's evident. It comes out. And by the age of 10, he's already starting to display some of the signs of the McDonald triad. We haven't talked about the McDonald triad in a while. And that's not a hamburger fries and shake. No, that is definitely not. He was committing fires.

So he was into arson. He was displaying signs of being cruel to animals. And cruel is not the right world. I mean, by this point in time, you know, he's already torturing and killing animals, especially cats. It was well documented that he killed a lot of cats. And we're talking 10 years old. But his family was having a lot of problems as well. I mean, his mom was said that she was seeing multiple psychiatrists. You know, she was suffering from some mental health issues. And the family was also suffering from a lot of financial problems. So much so that in 1963, Richard Chase is 13 years old, they lost their house because of these financial problems. So Chase goes on to attend Miraloma High School. It didn't get good grades. I mean,

it talked about Cs, Ds and Fs. I don't think this guy ever saw an A or B in his life. He was arrested his sophomore year for possession of marijuana. and in the juvenile court, they ordered him to get a job on the weekends. I don't know what that serves gives, maybe just to keep him out of the trouble on the weekends. What are you laughing about? I was trying to remember the hamburger movie

where they were all potheads working there. Is that where they kept seeing visions of hamburgers? Is that John Cusack? No. Oh. Hamburger of the movie? It was a... Not the guy from Nickelodeon this now on Saturday Night Live, is it?

Yeah. Those two kids that were on Nickelodeon? Yeah. Oh, I never saw that. I didn't either, but it was all about smoking weed and working at the hamburger. Oh, was it? I just don't remember the name of the movie. That's what I was just thinking about.

Yeah, think about that has something to do with this. I know. I'm just messing with you. Well, I just want to say, maybe you got a, maybe working at whatever that place was called. Maybe. I couldn't know what was called. So that went nowhere. Yeah.

But even though, you know, he's getting horrible grades, he ends up graduating from high school in 1968, and after graduation, he enrolled in American River College. So Cs, Ds, and Fs, you graduate, and then he go right to college. See, it can happen. It can happen for anybody. You can get there. Now, in college, it said that he had a C average. Should be a shocker. Wait, I don't even think he had a C average in high school, but now he's at college with a C average. Yeah, but you know, you got to at least maintain a certain average if you're going to continue on with college. Well, don't you have to have a certain average before they let you graduate? Yeah, yeah.

I don't know. Back then, man, I think some people, they just wanted to get to hell out of Dodge. Yeah, it's like Spacoli. They just wanted you out. Spacoli. I love Spacoli. So he's got this C average, but he's taking a lot of drugs. So Richard chases into a lot of drugs.

And it's at this point in his life where he starts seeing a psychiatrist of his own. So his mom, we know, had some mental health issues. Richard's going to have his own. But he starts seeing the psychiatrist because of erectile dysfunction. That's rough. I know you know. In college, man.

That's rough in college for sure to have erectile dysfunction. And I'm not making fun of anybody that has it like yourself. But what the doctor or the psychiatrist was telling Richard Chase was that, you know, this ED was probably as a result of some. repressed anger that he had. But on top of the erectile dysfunction, I think the psychiatrist pretty easily could tell that Richard Chase was also suffering from some type of mental illness. The problem with what's going to happen, though, is that at that point, he doesn't get any type of help. You know, he goes in for this erectile dysfunction. He doesn't come out with any type of help for

what is obviously some type of mental illness. And one of the things that the psychiatrist thought was that Richard Chase was a hypochondriac. And this would only get worse as he would get older. You know, it was said that he would say that his heart would just stop beating, which is not a good sign. But obviously that's not happening. But he feels like it is. But the other thing that he would say, and this came out a lot,

he would tell people that someone stole his pulmonary artery. He just reached in and grabbed it and took it out. Yeah, like Raiders of the Lost Ark, the second one. Second one. I forget what it's called now. Temple of Doom. Just like Temple of Doom. They just reached in and stole his pulmonary artery.

Obviously, that didn't happen. But you're seeing the signs that, and you're going to see a lot more of them. There's no doubt that Richard Chase had. various forms of mental illness. And he had a very strange practice, which included taking oranges and holding them to the side of his head because he thought his brain could absorb the vitamin C that way. Maybe.

Well, maybe. Maybe. I don't believe so, but that's what he thought. Did he cut them first? Or did you have to just put up their hole? I don't know. I would have cut them. And just let the...

absorption. Just let the juices drip down. He also believed that his cranial bones had separated on their own or that they were separating. They were pulling apart. We're trying to get after that OJ, man. And at some point, he shaves his head so that he can sit in front of a mirror and watch it. He literally thinks that he's watching the bones separate. Are we sure? he wasn't on any type of drugs? No, he was taking drugs. Like good stuff. There's no doubt about it.

He was taking drugs, but this is mental illness, man. I think it, there's no doubt about that. Maybe a combination of the two. A little something. So he leaves college at 21 and he moves into an apartment with some friends. This is 1971. And he would board up all of the doors, his closet, the room doors.

And later on it's going to come out, right? This is indicating some type of paranoia. To your point, he's into drugs. But it talked mostly about marijuana, but very heavy marijuana use. Now that can cause some paranoia. And the munchies. It does cause the munchies too,

from what I hear, from what you told me. Allegedly. Allegedly. But so he rented this, the reason why he rented this apartment is speaking to the paranoia aspect, he thought that his mother was trying to poison him. And we have to talk about Richard Chase living in a house with roommates.

So he's drinking. He's doing some LSD, I think. That's where you might, you know, get into some mind-altering drugs. That's where I can see sitting there having oranges up against your head. Right. Shaving your head to watch them. That does some, that does some strange things.

But I do think it's a combination. There's no doubt about the mental illness. He's always done. and he'd like to walk around naked. So you've got a roommate that's on copious amounts of drugs, alcohol, walking around naked, whether you're there, whether you bring guests over. So needless to say, Gibbs, this is not your ideal roommate. No, man, he's got walking around naked.

Oranges up against his, sorry, it's funny. That part is funny. Maybe a banana up his ass. I don't know. I don't know what he's got. Yeah. But he's living with other people. Okay, if you, if you're by yourself walking around naked, doing your orange thing, that's one thing.

I mean, I find it very strange every time I come here that you do the podcast with no clothes on. I've gotten used to it. It takes a while, though. The first 10 episodes, very weird. Very rough. Yeah, very weird. But, you know, now I understand that it's just you. And really, I don't see anything anyway.

So imagine. though, imagine living with this guy. This situation is not going to last long, right? For me and you to have somebody like this. Yeah, I'd be out. Yeah. Well, they tried to kick him out. So they asked him to move out and he refused.

So at some point, they just said, you know, screw this. We're leaving. All of the roommates leave, leaving Chase holding the bag with this apartment, which he can't pay for on his own. So now he's living buying. himself. Now he can do whatever he wants. Not that he seemed to be holding a whole lot back to begin with, but this is when it said that he starts capturing animals. He starts to, you know, cut them open, take out their innards. And he starts to eat some of these animals raw. Now,

that's bad. That is bad. But then he would take the internal organs. in the other parts of the animal, and in a blender, mix that with Coca-Cola. Yeah, that's gross. Blend that up and drink it. Somebody just spit their drink out over that. Okay, I should have said, don't be drinking anything either.

That's not, uh, wow, I don't even know how you make the decision that that is something you're going to try. But to him, what would, you know, what would be said later on is that what his thought pattern was, is that by doing this, he would stop his heart from shrinking. Because he had this thought in his head that his heart was shrinking.

And he thought he had to do this to keep it the same size. It's almost like a compulsive thought that told him he needed to do this. So if he did it, it would stop. If he didn't do it, and he just fed that compulsive disorder. It's not good. No, it's not good. And it's not good. But to this point, he hasn't hurt any.

I shouldn't say that because he's hurt animals. He hasn't hurt any other individuals. He's doing some strange things and he has hurt animals. But obviously, as we know, this is going to get much, much worse. So with his roommates moving out, you know, eventually he's not able to stay at this apartment. He can't pay the whole rent. So he has no choice but to move back home with his parents. This is still in 71. So this experiment, this roommate apartment, apartment experience. experiment didn't last very long. You know, he moved in in 71. I think he was, they moved out in May.

He probably moved out a short time afterwards. In 1972, the next year, his parents would separate and ultimately divorce. And Chase would end up splitting time. He would live sometimes with his mom, sometimes with his dad. But again, he's dealing with a lot of mental health issues. So in 1973, Chase is attending a lot of mental health issues. a party at the home of a friend. And he sexually assaults a woman at this party by fondling her.

So it's a sexual assault. It's unwanted sexual act conduct or contact. Yeah, it's a no-no. It's a no-no. He was asked to leave the party, but would later come back to the house. And they had to call the police on him. And as the police are escorting him out of this party, out of the house, a 22-caliber pistol falls out of his belt or out of his pants. He had it tucked in and he gets taken to jail.

His father bailed him out of this one. In May of that year, he decides to move to L.A. and live with his grandma. She's probably okay with that naked thing. It's okay, honey. You can walk around naked around here. Yeah, I don't know if he did, but if he's not afraid to do it in front of other people, is he afraid to do it in front of his grandmother? I don't know. Maybe grandma can't see it. Maybe. Maybe she doesn't know. Her vision's not good. He looks, you know, like she's just walking around and his regular clothes.

Never know. We don't know. None of the things that he's suffering from have gone away. He's not getting treatment for any of these mental illnesses that he has. And this severe hypochondria, he's all the time complaining of head injuries and all types of illnesses that he didn't have. They just, they weren't real. But to him they were.

Anything can be real. You believe, you know, all you have to do is believe it. If you just believe. If you believe, you achieve. Should put that on a poster. Yeah, I might already be on one. I know. That's why I said that.

But as grandma gets tired of this, right? Whether it's the walking around naked or it's just the constant, you know, hypochondria always talking about, got something wrong with me. Or probably getting tired. I can't find no. Oranges in the refrigerator. Right. She's running out of oranges all the time.

Whatever the reason is, she's tired of it. This experiment only lasts a couple months. And she ships him back to Sacramento. He's going to the doctor a lot. I mean, I said he's not getting help for his mental illness, but he has no problem going to the doctor. He's seeing all kinds of doctors. The problem is he's seeing them for these, not the mental illnesses that he has,

but these illnesses or injuries that he thinks he has, he's telling the doctors he has them, but they're not real. You know, we're talking about various head injuries, stomach issues. I mean, he's seeing neurologists,

all kinds of specialists. And let's be, let's be frank, you know, back then. Can I be Bill? Because I'd rather be Bill. We'd be Bill,

but then we'll just be frank about it. Okay. But, I mean, they really didn't have the mental illness arena back then that we have today. Yeah, definitely not to the extent that we have today.

You're right about that. I'm not going to disagree. But what I will say is that he's seeing these other doctors, you know, like a neurologist. And the neurologist says, hey, there's nothing wrong with you physically. There's nothing wrong with your head. We're doing whatever tests we have to do. But the neurologist comes out and says that you've got psychiatric issues. and I think the doctor actually was quoted as saying of major proportions.

So this is a neurologist, not a psychiatric professional, but that can clearly see that Richard Chase has psychiatric issues. So in December of 73, he's admitted to the American River Hospital. This is in Sacramento. And again, he's telling the doctors, he's telling the nurses, someone had taken his pulmonary artery and that his blood was no longer flowing through his body. So they know this is not right. They know this is not someone that's coming from a good place.

They place him in the psychiatric ward, but his mom takes him out. She removes him. And then three years later in 76, he sent again to a mental institution. His father had caught him injecting himself. with a syringe filled with rabbit's blood. So he is shooting this into his veins like someone would shoot heroin. People start calling him Dracula. I mean, they're giving him the nickname Dracula because at this point, he's so obsessed with

blood. And while he's at the mental institution, he manages to catch a couple of birds through a window. I don't know if they were sitting there and he was quick enough to grab them. I don't know. But he breaks the necks of these two birds and drinks their blood. No, this can be healthy, by the way. No. No, drinking the blood of animals, I don't, I don't know what it does to you, but I don't, it could be.

Can't be good for your digestive system. I don't think it could be good for anything. But it's also said that he was able to get his hands on syringes and he would take the syringe and stick it into some therapy dogs that were there at the mental institution and draw their blood. So he already has a syringe full of blood. Pretty easy now to shoot that right into your veins. This guy's getting a lot of blood pumped into him, either through his veins, drinking it. It's no wonder that people around the institution are calling him Dracula.

But it seems like everybody knows about it. That's the strange part for me. It wasn't like it was this big secret, but it's at the hospital that he's finally given a diagnosis paranoid schizophrenia, along with suffering from somatic delusions. Because some of the things that he's telling doctors and people in power at the mental institution is that he was reincarnated and not just reincarnated, but that he was one of the younger brothers. And these were famous bank robbers that rode with Jesse James. Jesse James, man, the original outlaw. Jesse James and the younger brothers. So he believed that he in a past life was one of

the younger brothers. But at least now he's in the mental institution. He's getting treatment. And this treatment comes in the form of drugs. And through this treatment, administrators at the hospital say that at a certain point, he's no longer a threat to himself or to society, and they release him to the custody of his mother. And his mother actually helped him out quite a bit. You know, helped him get off drugs, helped him get his own apartment. Both his mother and father were helping him financially, paying his bills and paying for his groceries, things like that. But now he's in his own apartment all by himself. And he starts to capture. and torture animals again.

He's drinking their blood. He would steal neighbors' pets, kill them, drink their blood. And then he would call the neighbors and harass them, mock them on the phone about what he had done to their pets. What messed up dude. He is. He's messed up. But again, you know, he's mentally ill. There's just, there's no way around it.

And what's not a good combination is. is that he starts to become obsessed with guns. So that's not a good combination, Gibbs. Mental illness, firearms. Yeah. Not at all. Don't equate. No, they don't go together.

So he buys some guns. It was said that, you know, he practiced shooting quite a bit. And he also was fascinated by the Hillside Stranglers. Sure. We just covered them too. Which we just covered. But he wasn't just fascinated with them. because they were murderers.

Chase was fascinated with them because, well, first of all, he thought that he was a victim of some UFO conspiracy. And he had it in his head that Bianchi and Bono were a part of this conspiracy or had been victims of it as well. So we're in 1976. He's 25 years old. He gets into an argument with his mom, slaps her in the face and knocks her to the floor, which is never good. Don't hit your mama.

Never hit your mama. Mama going to knock you out. She should have. She should have. It's the next year in 77 because, you know, I haven't really talked about it much, but, you know, they released him to his mom's care. But it's in 77 that they basically dissolve that conservatorship. So he's not bound, right, to be tied to his mom. Yeah, more important for her.

She's not bound. Yeah, yeah. He's on his own, basically. And he's living alone in his apartment. And he starts to decline very, very quickly. He stops showering, stops taking care of himself. He's not brushing his teeth. He doesn't even eat.

I mean, this is how badly he's not taking care of himself. at one point he gets down to 145 pounds. So he goes to visit his mom one day and he brings along a dead cat. And for some reason, I don't know whether it's animosity towards his mom. I mean, obviously there was some there. He slapped her, knocked her down. He shoves this dead cat in her face, then throws the cat down on the floor. He kneels down on the floor, rips the cat open with his bare hands and.

smears the blood all over himself. Now it was said that apparently he was screaming and ranting and raving the whole time as he was doing this, but his mom never did anything. She never told anyone. She never called anyone. I mean, this is some serious behavior. If you witness that, you would think we have a serious problem on our hands. Mother's love goes deep, man.

Yeah. I mean, I guess, or she just didn't want to think that. meant anything was seriously wrong. I don't know. But remember, she was dealing with her own issues with mental illness as well. So I don't know how much that played into it. But you're right, Gibbs. I think she did love him, you know, unconditionally because it wasn't too far long after this point where she helped him plan a trip to Washington. And she gave him the money to go. He used part of the money to buy a 1966 Ford Ranchero,

which wouldn't be my first choice, but that's what he, that's what he picked. You'd probably go for the El Camino. I'd rather have El Camino. Yeah. It's during this travel, he's in Nevada,

and the police from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, they find his car. And inside the car, they find a 22 caliber, they find a 30-30 rifle. And when they find him, he's naked near this, Pyramid Lake reservation.

He has killed a cow, taken out its liver, and rubbed blood all over himself. And when the police confront him, he tells them that all of that blood was his, that it was leaking out of his body. So they arrest Chase, they impound the car. But he's let go because the U.S. District Attorney doesn't want to press charges against him. And I'm not really sure what they would press. I mean, maybe the weapons charges. What would you call it, Gibbs?

Killing a cow, maybe. Indecent exposure. I mean, there's not a lot to... Cruility to animals. Cruility to animals. I mean, but he's naked. I don't know what's there. He hasn't hurt anybody besides the cow.

But you would think there was something, right? He could have charged him with something. Because his, you know, his behavior is not going to get better. And it's towards the end of that year, he starts buying dogs. from the SPCA. So he's buying dogs. He's stealing dogs. We talked about him stealing his neighbor's dogs.

And he's killing all of these dogs and drinking their blood. And this guy is, he's all about the blood. He's Dracula. I don't know if he thinks he's Dracula. But again, he continues to call these families of dogs that he has stolen and he's harassing them. He's giving them a hard time. He's taunting them about.

stealing their dogs and drinking their blood. Yeah, it's just a prick, man. I mean, it's terrible. Do that thing, the innocent animals, and then on top of it, you're going to taunt the families that own those dogs. Now, we have to talk about this time, right? This is back before no caller ID.

You don't know who's calling. So these people don't know who he is. They don't know who to call the cops on. But on December 2nd, 1977, Chase buys a 22 caliber pistol. Is that a little bit bigger than that 13 caliber? It's a little bit bigger than the 13 caliber. But he's in California.

And he's got to wait the waiting period to buy a handgun. So he doesn't get the gun until December 18th. Fast forward to December 27th. He uses the gun to fire shots into a random home in Saccharacter. Sacramento. And the woman calls the police. Police come out. They find the bullet when they search the house. But luckily, no one was hurt. This happened to me, Gibbs. This was a nine millimeter that came through my house one time. Really? Yeah. Up in Detroit? No, here. Really? Yeah. In the upstairs, one of the upstairs bedroom. So why you had my back against the wall? And it was so crazy because we called

the police. They come out. They did like some CSI. stuff where they stuck a dowd to trajectory. Right. And they figured out it came from this house kind of way over that has a bunch of land. But it was like in the county and they said they couldn't do anything. We were in the city and they were in the county and they said, no, we can't even go talk to it. So like they shot it up in the air, it came back down or they just kind of? No, I think they were just shooting and kind of got high or something.

I don't know. So if it would have hit one of your daughters. Well, then I think they could have done something. Oh. Well, of course, I would have just taken care of it myself at that point. Yeah. It was weird. It was really kind of a scary thing. That is really scary.

We weren't home. Do they talk to the people at least? No, they said they weren't even going to talk to them. They weren't going to talk to them. Nope. Yeah, just keep shooting them. Yeah. What's odds of you hitting somebody?

I thought it was very strange. Sorry, I got off on a tangent there. But two days later, Richard Chase is going to commit his first murder. And he does it by a drive-by shooting. That's how he commits his first murder, which seems very strange from what we know. know about him and what's to come. It's almost like he's warming up for other crimes that he's, he's planning to carry out, right?

He shot a random house, not up close and personal. And now he shoots a man named Ambrose Griffin. This is a 51 year old father of two. And he just drives by and fires two bullets out of his car, hits Griffin in the chest and it kills him. So anybody that says the 22 is not dangerous, I mean, they're full of it. You can kill somebody with the 22. Rickusay effect, man.

It definitely does. But Griffin was in the driveway. His wife had just got home with groceries and he was helping her bring in the groceries when he was shot and killed. And one of his sons said that he saw one of their neighbors walking around with a 22 caliber gun. So obviously the police go out, talk to the neighbor,

they take the gun, but ballistically, it doesn't match up to the bullet that killed Ambrose Griffin. But what it does match up to is the bullet that was fired into that woman's house

a few days earlier. So they are able to match it to that. So Chase has fired a bullet into a woman's house. He's killed a man but he fired a bullet, you know, from his car and then sped off. And now he's graduating to actually going up to people's houses. And he tries to enter the home of a woman.

He turns the knob and the door's locked. And so he just leaves. And later on, Richard Chase would say that if a door was locked, to him, that meant that he was not welcome inside. but that if he came upon a house where the door was unlocked, he took that as a sign that he was allowed to go in. I mean, to the point where he was caught one time by a couple when they came home, he was going through all their stuff.

They chased him out of the house. Nobody got hurt. But after he left and they're walking through the house and trying to figure out what all had happened, they found out that he had peed and he pooped on their babies. crib. It's weird. And some of the baby's clothing. It's very strange. It's really strange. Trying to think about, you know, what's going through his head at that point. He doesn't hurt these people. He just goes in and takes a duker. Why on the baby's crib and on some of its clothing? All places. You just can't make sense out of some of that stuff. But he keeps doing this. It's almost like he's just trying to see whose houses are unlocked.

And he is looking for his next victim. And he finds the home of David and Teresa Wallen. Teresa's three months pregnant. And she only left the door unlocked to take the garbage outside. So Chase tries the doorknob. He finds the doors unlocked. He goes inside. He catches Teresa by surprise.

Shoots her three times. Two of these shots were to the head and they killed her. And what he does next, Gibbs, he drags her body to her bedroom, he has sex with her corpse, and while he's doing this, he has a butcher knife, and he's stabbing her while he's having sex with the corpse. I mean, she's already dead, and he's stabbing her repeatedly. And when he finishes, he cuts her body open, remove some of her internal organs, and he uses a bucket and fills this bucket with her blood. takes the bucket into the bathroom, into the tub, and pours it on himself.

Like he's bathing. Yeah. He sliced off her nipple. He drank some of her blood. And right before he left, he goes out to the backyard. He finds some dog do-do. And he takes this back in, as if what he's done to this woman is not enough. He uses this dog feces.

takes it, shoves it into her mouth. I mean, this is sick shit. There's no, this is messed up. There's no other way around it. I knew this was going to be bad, but this is bad. It's bad. And it's, we're just, unfortunately, it's just getting warmed up. Yeah, it's bad.

A couple of days after that, you know, he's still killing dogs. He's drinking their blood. He buys some puppies from one of his neighbors, kills these puppies, drinks the blood, and then leaves their bodies on the neighbor's lawn that he just bought them from. Now, at that point, I don't know what's going on with that neighbor. Whether he didn't think it was him, he didn't know it was him, he didn't feel like he could call the police, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know either.

I would have taken care of business old school. I know you would. And if anybody deserved it, it was this sum of a bitch. I might even give you permission. Not that you would need my permission, but. You might help me bury that body, huh? I might. I know I said I wouldn't, but.

I might help you. Might. Might. Right. Richard Chase committed his last murders, and this is going to be like a mass murder on January 27th. And he entered the home of a 38-year-old woman named Evelyn Marath. Evelyn was babysitting her two-year-old nephew, David. Her six-year-old son, Jason, was in the house as well, along with a neighbor, Dan Meredith.

He had come over just to check on Evelyn, make sure. sure everything was okay. He was watching the kids, Dan Meredith, while Evelyn took a bath. And Dan Meredith hears Richard Chase come into the house. He gets up. He goes into the front hall to check out, see what's going on. He shot immediately, point blank range, killed. Richard Chase takes his keys and wallet. At this point, six-year-old Jason tries to get out of the house. He runs to his mother's room, but Richard Chase shoots him twice, killing him. He also shoots Little David in the head. Chase makes his way to the bathroom where Evelyn's taking a bath, shoots her in the head,

killing her. He drags her out of the bathtub to her room, puts her on the bed, sodomizes her, and drinks her blood after making some cuts along her neck. And the medical examiner is going to come out late. you know, after this is all said and done, and would say that he found a large amount of semen in her rectum. So he visited it more than once. Actually quoted as an unusual amount. Yeah. So I don't know what that means, but that's what the medical examiner said. But he's not done. And by far, this is the worst part. So if anybody's squeamish hit the fast.

forward button like a couple times. Now you're going to say they're squeamish. Well, it gets worse. It does get worse. I don't even know how to say it. My gosh. Okay. This guy is, is, is he was brutal. He stabbed Evelyn multiple time. I mean, she's already dead. You know, stabbed her all over her body and, you know, inner anus. I mean, just all over. And again, he used a bucket. it, but this time instead of bathing in it, he drank her blood. And Gibbs, this is tough. This is really tough for me. But Richard Chase ends up eating some of the two-year-old's brain. Now, he gets scared off by a knock at the door. It's one of the six-year-old's friends that has come over to see if Jason can play. That scares him off. He takes off in Dan Meredith's car. And the friend

friend told a neighbor what she had seen, somebody rushing out, getting in a car, taking off. The neighbor comes over, comes into the house, and finds this horrific scene. Couldn't imagine. Couldn't imagine walking in on this, any of this. Calls the police. And the police, as they're doing their investigation, they find handprints. They find soul imprints. Bloody.

that were left in in Evelyn's blood. But what they don't find is the two-year-old David because Richard Chase had taken David with him. Now, keep in mind, he's already dead. And he proceeds to do some horrible things. And, you know, you and I talk about details. It's one of the things that we, I'm not, I can't even go into all the details of what he does to this little boy.

It's pretty, I mean, everything up to this point is. really bad, but this is this is brutal. I mean, if you want to know about it, you can look it up. You can look it up. I just, I can't even talk about it. It's so bad. But police find Dan's car abandoned, not too far from the house. And where they find the car is only about 100 yards away from where Richard Chase lived. So, you know, he committed this heinous murder not far at all from where he was living. The FBI at this point, it's already on the case. They had started to develop a profile of a killer.

And what they said is that, you know, this was probably, most likely a disorganized killer with some signs of psychosis. He didn't plan these crimes out ahead of time. He didn't try to hide or destroy any evidence. He left everything in plain sight. To the FBI, it didn't seem. as though the killer cared about what he was doing, who he was doing it to, or if he would be caught.

He just like he didn't care. That's what they thought. I don't think they were very wrong. No, I think they were spot on. I don't think this guy cared about anything. No. And the one thing that they were sure of was that this person was going to kill again and again would not stop until he was caught.

And this is 1977, Gibbs. I mean, this is early, I would think. This would have to be early FBI profiling days. Yeah, I would think so. Because, you know, I actually started watching that show Mind Hunter. Everybody, you know, on the forum and the... Yeah, everybody loves it. The Facebook group, they keep saying watch Mind Hunter.

And I started watching it. And it's basically about FBI profiling in the 70s. It's actually a good show. I like it. You like it a lot? I like it a lot. And Gibbs, we have to talk about a woman named Nancy Holden. She's shopping one day at a shopping center, very close to the Wallen residence.

When she has a very strange encounter, man approaches her, he appears to be very confused. She tries to avoid him, but he comes right up to her and asks her a question. And the question was, were you on the motorcycle when Kurt, was killed. And it startles her because 10 years earlier, she had dated a boy named Kurt who had been killed on a motorcycle. And she takes a look at this man and she realizes that she knows who he is. She knows him as Rick Chase. She had gone to high school with him. But he didn't look anything like the Rick Chase that she went to high school with. You know, back then he had been pretty clean cut. but now, you know, he's grimy, he's stained, he's very agitated, he's nervous, and she talks with him

for a few minutes. She's looking for a way out of this conversation, and he follows her out into the parking lot, trying to get a ride from her, but she's able to get in her car, lock the doors, and pull away. Now, she knew that was rude. That was a rude thing to do. Sure. But that was also the right thing to do. Really smart. And smart in that situation. And it's later on that Nancy Holden is going to see a police sketch of a disheveled-looking man that was seen in the neighborhood wearing an orange ski parquet after the mass murder

on January 27th. And she immediately recalls that Richard Chase, or who she knew as Rick Chase, had been wearing this same type, same color ski parka that day when he talked to her. So she gives police that information. They've got that. Then they get another clue from the gun registration, that 22 caliber gun that Richard Chase had bought in December of 1977. And then they were able to find out that on January 10th, he had bought some 22 ammo.

So the police have all this information on Richard Chase. They also find out through background check, his history of mental illness, concealed weapons charge, some minor drug bus, and his arrest out in Nevada. And it's just one day after the horrendous triple murder that they go out to pay him a visit. Saturday afternoon. The police talk to the apartment manager and they find out that Richard Chasel, you know, that Richard Chase's mother paid his rent, but that he refused to let her into his apartment. They knock repeatedly on his door, but he wouldn't open. But they could hear him inside making some noise. So they acted like they were going to leave and they waited. Richard Chase comes out of the

apartment with a box in his arms, starts towards his car. Detectives converge on him. They tackle Richard Chase. And they notice immediately that, he's wearing an orange parka has dark stains all over it and that the shoes that he has on appear to be covered in blood. He had a 22 caliber semi-auto handgun on him. It also had blood stains on it. They found Dan Meredith's wallet in his back pocket along with a pair of latex gloves. And then police open the box that Richard Chase is carrying and inside they find, they find pieces of bloodstained paper and rags. So they take him to the police station.

They're talking to him. They're trying to get him to confess. All he will admit to is killing some dogs, but will not talk about any of the murders. Now, remember, they still have not found two-year-old David. And they've got everybody, you know, in the city is looking for this two-year-old boy. They don't know what happened to him. And while they have chase in custody, they're not. They search his apartment.

They're looking for clues about the missing baby. And when they get into his apartment, they say it smells like death. It's, you know, it's putrid, disgusting. Everything in his apartment is bloodstained. The food, all of his drinking glasses. In the kitchen, they find some small pieces of bone. They find some dishes in his refrigerator with body parts on them. He has a container that has some human brain parts in it.

And they're checking out his blender and it's stained. It's stained because of all of the blood. And it smelled just rotten. They find multiple pet collars inside the house, but no pets. They find some newspapers, the classified section, which were circled where people were selling dogs. And when they find a calendar on the wall, they see the word today is written on the dates of both the Wallen and the mass murder on the 27th of Evelyn, David, and Daniel Meredith and Jason. But not only that, they see that word today written on 44 future dates.

So dates to come in 1978. So Gibbs, I mean, is he planning on 44 more gruesome, horrific murders? Man, I don't know how you can handle it much more than what we already heard. So I'm glad he didn't. I mean, what happens if they don't catch this guy? Yeah. They always mess up somehow. But they do.

And at what cost? And I don't think, like you said, I think the FBI was right. I don't think this guy was trying not to get caught. I mean, he wasn't doing anything. special not to get caught. It's why he got caught. But just imagine if he was more meticulous, was more worried about getting caught and had done things a little differently.

More like Israel Keys? Yeah. I mean, this guy, he could have gone on to kill a lot of people. And he would have. There's no doubt in my mind. There is no way that a man like this is going to stop on his own. He is either going to have to be. killed or captured, one of the other. But the fact that he had already picked 44 dates,

I mean, he's not planning out next week. I mean, he's way out into the future. So while he's being held, Chase apparently told some inmates in the jail that he drank the blood of his victims because he had blood poisoning. And he started off drinking the blood of animals, but that was no longer working. And that's the reason why he had to kill humans. He also was interviewed by multiple psychiatrists. And it was said that he displayed no expressions of remorse, no guilt. So it was on March 24th, 1978, when they would finally find the body of little two-year-old David. And his remains were found by a church janitor who called the police. The baby had been decapitated and they could tell that it had been shot in the head.

But underneath the body, they found Dan Meredith's car keys that Richard Chase had stolen, driven the car, and then eventually dumped the body with the car keys underneath. So the trial of Richard Chase would open on January 2nd, 1979. he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but the prosecution set out to prove that Richard Chase knew what he was doing. He knew right from wrong. And there was so much notoriety around this case, so much infamy that they had to move it over 100 miles away.

Richard Chase would be examined by more than a dozen psychiatrists during this process. he would admit to psychiatrists that he was disturbed about what he had done, the murders that he had committed. You know, psychiatrists found him to be antisocial personality, but not schizophrenic. They concluded that he was aware of what he was doing. So wasn't going to get off on a insanity plea. No. He was charged with six counts of murder.

And what the prosecution really kind of. of hung their hat on was that there had been some planning. He had brought rubber gloves to some of the crimes. He marked his calendar. He did mark his calendar. So, you know, they're basically telling the jury, this wasn't something that he couldn't help. He did things that. Thank goodness they could show that because you could see a real good presentation to say, to demonstrate that he could have been just insane. Because how could anybody sane do what he did? I mean, this is beyond your typical killing. I mean, this is a whole other level. Yeah, yeah. That's what I was going to say. He took it to a whole another level. I mean, when you see the crime scene photos, and I wouldn't suggest looking at them.

No, no, I did that. It's as bad as you'll see. I didn't expect to see what I saw. And, yeah, I wish I could erase what I saw. Yeah. You can't. Once you see him, you can't unsee him. Nope. So they had over 250 prosecution exhibits. They had his gun. They had Dan Meredith's wallet that was found on Richard Chase when they arrested him. That's a bad thing.

They had the footprints that were found in blood at both the Morath house and the Wallen house. And speaking of that Wallen murder, the very first witness that, that the prosecution called was David Wallen, who on the stand had to describe the scene that he found when he came home of his wife, who had been brutally murdered by Richard Chase, had been violated in the most unimaginable ways, Gibbs. I mean, it's unspeakable. It's a nightmare. They had over 100 witnesses, test.

and Richard Chase would take the stand in his own defense, which is rare. Doesn't happen all the time. But what I really took away from this was that at this point, he was down to 107 pounds. 107 pounds. Yeah, pretty thin, man. That's, that don't even seem real. He had lost so much weight that he was described as, you know, his eyes were like sunken into his head.

And on the stand, you know, he claimed to have been out of it. Basically, while he committed the murders, he didn't remember a lot of it. Now, he admitted to drinking the blood of Teresa Wallen. So he remembered some of it, but he said he didn't remember everything. He spent a lot of time talking about his early childhood, how he'd been mistreated. he didn't remember hardly anything about the mass murder that took place at the Maroth home. But he did say on the stand that he knows that he shot the two-year-old baby in the head and that he decapitated the baby.

The defense fought hard for second-degree murder. They were trying to get Richard Chase out of the death penalty by saying, you know, he was clearly mentally ill. He had never gotten any type of proper treatment. And then you had the prosecution saying, this guy's a sexual sadist. He's a monster. He knew exactly what he was doing. And on May 8th, 1978, the jury gets the case, only took them five hours to deliberate.

They returned a guilty verdict on all six counts of first degree murder. Richard Chase was sentenced to death and sent to death row at San Quentin State Prison. But he wouldn't be there long. This is like May of 1979. Before that year is out, he's going to commit suicide. He's going to save up some of the medication that he's been given and take it all at one time and end his life. Coward. Yeah, he was a lot of things, man.

And that's just one of them. And Gibbs, I mentioned Mine Hunter before. And Robert Wrestler, you know, one of the kind of the first. developers of criminal profiling. And he might be who they pattern that off of. I don't know. I didn't read or check up on it. He actually went and visited Chase in prison just like they do in the show.

And obviously this is before Richard Chase killed himself. Right. So it was a pretty short window of time that he had to talk to this guy. But during, you know, some of these talks, he told wrestler that he felt like he had to kill to preserve his own life. Wrestler learned that there were other inmates in the prison that were taunting Richard Chase. I keep in mind, this guy weighs 107 pounds.

He's not, I'm sure he's not in general population, but. Oh, they want a piece of him. They want a piece of him. And during this taunting, they're urging him to kill himself. They didn't, they didn't want to be near him. This guy's on the bottom. He killed kid. Right.

He violated women. I mean, they would have killed this guy if they could have got their hands on him. Oh, yeah. But the next best thing was to taunt him into killing himself. Yeah. Which he ultimately did. Wasn't a painful death, which it was painful for him. I don't know that it was.

I think he took the easy way out. That's it. That's the story of Richard Chase, Richard Trenton Chase. I mean, one of the worst monsters Gibbs, you have to say, from the axe, the axe alone and the gory details, the things that he did. I just, a lot of it doesn't, you can't get a whole lot worse. No. Nope.

It's a pretty bad dude, pretty bad stuff. Don't know how the human mind allows somebody to do something like that. But we know it happens. And, you know, the other thing I'm thinking is, what was going on in the 70s? In the late 70s. was at time, it's just a lot of serial killer activity. LSD, man. A lot of the really, there seemed like there's a lot of bad stuff.

Yeah. A lot of the people that we profile, the bad guys, a lot of this stuff seemed like it happened in the late 70s. Yeah, maybe that LSD asset man really messed with people's minds. I don't know. I thought that was a lot more 60s than 70s, but I guess it was carried over into the 70s too. All right, Gibbs. Let's do some voicemails.

We've got to cleanse ourselves, man. I guess. I don't know how we're going to do it, but this one was dark. Hi, my name is Max Brew, and I'm calling from the Atlanta area. And I've got to say, Mike, Gibby, you do a great job on the show. Just halfway through Bob Crane, a few things to say. Dick Van Dyke, still working today. My daughter, I watched the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse a couple years ago.

He's singing along. Sounds great. Two, very topical, Bob Crane with the sexual, pretty much misconduct. And you just got here at Harvey Weinstein breaking. Or Harvey Weinstein from Miramax. And also, great description when you're talking about that Dawson's son with Bob Crane and Bob Crane gloating. And the kid basically just acknowledging what most of us think, what a creep, what creepy behavior. Again, you guys do a hell of a job.

Mike, I don't know where you find the time to do all your work, considering I guess you have a real gig. you guys both should really be full-time into the entertainment because you do a great job thanks a lot again i really appreciate it you guys are great by now hey gibbs that's a great voicemail by max it was and he thinks we should be full-time i think so too no the problem with that equation is to be full-time you got to make money got to make money if not you're doing your like he said your real gig. Yeah. And that's what we're doing, our real gig.

Luckily, I love my day job, too. My guy's in the mail just now. Oh, my God. You guys are so unbelievably nice. Like, throwing in this extra stuff, I'm not even kidding. I've got this a big of fire right now. Oh, my gosh. You know, I am like a tea and coffee addict,

so I'm already just thrilled that I got a mug, and I'm a sticker addict. So I was already thrilled that I was going to get a sticker. but you guys, oh my gosh, I love it so, so much. I just wanted to call and say thanks without, you know, like not in person, but with my voice, because I felt like just typing it out was like totally not going to be able to convey my excitement. Thank you guys so much. Oh my God. Oh, and one thing I realized, I have not yet said this in my outro, so stay safe and keep your own time ticking.

Bye guys. Dude, did you not call her and tell her we sent the wrong box? No, I didn't. But I will say, Gibbs, that has got to be the most excited. Anybody's ever been. In her own voice. In her own voice. Yeah.

To leave us a voicemail. Yeah. Too much coffee. She's had some coffee. She loves coffee. I know that. Yeah. But what she's talking about, so she ordered some stuff.

And a lot of people don't know this, but I always try to stick a little something extra in there. So it's like you get something you didn't order. It's kind of my signature. It sure is. And she was excited about it. So I'm happy. If she's happy, we're happy. That's all it matters.

Appreciate it. Hey, Mike and Gibby. It's Lauren. Just wanted to say, hey, love the podcast again. Thank you guys for being there. If anyone ever needs to talk, just read out to one of the guys. I'm not only there to be your podcast friends, but that'll be your friends in real life, seriously.

I know we've all tried to message other podcast makers, and they don't always get back to you, but these guys do. So I just want to say, keep your own time sticking. Thanks, guys. Bye. I really appreciate that voicemail from Lauren. Yeah, I do too. I mean, it's something that you and I have tried really hard,

is to, you know, interact, not leave anybody hanging, reply to everybody. Now, it's getting harder and harder. I will say that. Yeah, it's not always the easiest. But I don't think we've let anybody down. Might take longer than it used to to get back to people. Definitely easier if you tag us.

Yeah. So, hint, hint. Because at least it pops up. You're not having to scroll. Yeah, search, search. Because I will miss stuff like that because I don't get to see everything. Right. I appreciate it. It's something that we've tried very hard from the beginning. Absolutely. Love it.

All right, Gibbs. I don't know. That helps, that helps cleanse it a little bit. Yeah. Excitment. Shake it off. Nice voicemails. Like Tay Swift. Good feelings. Is that who said that? What is it? Shake it off. Tase Swift. Tase Swift. Tays Swift. Yeah. No, I got you. Yeah. I got you. It'll be all right. What are you? 16 years old? All right. That is it for number 50, the 50th episode of true crime all the time. We're halfway to a hundo. You are. I'm way over a hundo. Yeah. But we'll probably be there before we know it. Yeah. I mean, the first 50 kind of went by pretty quickly. Pretty fast. The next 50,

I think we'll too. We are all right. As long as people keep listening and enjoying what we're doing, better to listen. We'll keep putting it out. All right. So that's it for Mike. And Gibby. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.