Oct. 13, 2025

Terrifying & True | Vampire of Sacramento: Richard Chase — A Scary Halloween Horror Case File

Terrifying & True | Vampire of Sacramento: Richard Chase — A Scary Halloween Horror Case File
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Halloween horror stories—making spooky season terrifyingly real. 

Richard Trenton Chase, the “Vampire of Sacramento,” whose 1977–1978 crimes turned neighborhood fear into a citywide lockdown. We connect the early warning signs to the unlocked-door “invitation” pattern, the frantic manhunt and FBI profile, and the courtroom fight over sanity and responsibility. With clear sourcing and zero fluff, we trace how untreated psychosis, blood-fixated delusions, and institutional failures produced one of America’s most nightmarish true-crime horror cases.
Inside this episode
  • Early warning signs: Escalating animal cruelty, delusions, and missed interventions.
  • Method of entry: Why unlocked doors became his “permission”—fueling the vampire legend.
  • Timeline of murders: From Dec 29, 1977 (Ambrose Griffin) through Jan 1978 home invasions marked by mutilation and blood-drinking.
  • Profilers move in: How the FBI Behavioral Science Unit sketched a near-perfect suspect.
  • Arrest & evidence: The apartment, the freezer, and what they revealed about ritual and motive.
  • Trial, verdict, and death: The sanity battle, death sentence, and end on death row.
  • Legacy & lessons: Media panic, myth vs. pathology, and what communities can learn.

If you’ve ever wondered how a horror legend becomes flesh-and-blood fact, this is the case.

We’re telling that story tonight.

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🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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A quiet street, a door left unlocked by nightfall, A

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home becomes a tableau of ritual and blood. The headlines

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say vampire, detectives say predator. We'll show you how a

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man's delusion became Sacramento's nightmare.

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What you were about to beat you is burd to

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be based on witness accounts, testaments, and public record. This

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is terrifying and treat treat.

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On a winter evening in Sacramento, California, a routine visit

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turned into a discovery so grotesque that veteran officers struggled

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for words. In the days that followed, more victims, each

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scene marked by a chilling constant, an unlocked door, and

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a visitor who never should have crossed the threshold. Tonight,

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we retrace the path of a gaunt intruder whose private

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madness spilled into public terror, and we ask who failed

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to intervene and when could it have made a difference.

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We're telling that story right after this. In the late

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nineteen seventies, Sacramento, California, was stalked by a nightmare made flesh,

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a string of grisly murders marked by blood draining, cannibalism,

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and necrophilia. Gripped the community with terror. The perpetrator was

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Richard Trenton Chase, a twenty seven year old schizophrenic whose

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delusions drove him to slaughter six victims in the span

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of a month. Dubbed the Vampire of Sacramento for his

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obsession with drinking blood, Chase's brief reign of terror ended

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just before Halloween nineteen seventy eight, but the horror he

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unleashed was eternal. What follows is the nightmare mos true

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story of Richard Chase, from the early warning signs of

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his madness to the lasting legacy of his crimes. Richard

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Chase did not become a monster over night. The warning

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signs were visible from early on. Born May twenty third,

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nineteen fifty, he endured a troubled childhood with abusive, disciplinarian parents.

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By the age of ten, Chase displayed the infamous MacDonald

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triad of behaviors. Persistent bedwetting, fascination with fire setting, and

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cruelty to animals, often considered red flags for future violence. Indeed,

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young Chase was known to torture and kill cats and

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other small animals, even drinking the blood of a bird

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at least once. Such acts, combined with a violent home environment,

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hinted at the fatal madness growing inside him. As a

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teenager in the nineteen sixties, Chase descended into heavy drug

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use LSD, marijuana, and alcohol, which only worsened his mental instability.

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He struggled socially and sexually. Chase was unable to maintain

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an erection with girlfriends, and a psychiatrist suggested his impotence

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stemmed from deep psychological issues as well as bottled anger.

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Increasingly erratic, Chase moved out at eighteen years old and

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bounced between roommates, who were all alarmed by his bizarre behavior.

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He would wander the apartment naked and remain constantly high

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until his roommates, terrified fled rather than live with him.

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Chase's paranoia also intensified. He became convinced something was physically

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wrong with him. He believed his cranial bones were shifting

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under his scalp, and even shaved his head in order

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to watch them move. He also suspected his mother was

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poisoning him, and after heated arguments, he left to live

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on his own in an apartment his father paid for.

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Chase's delusions soon took on a medical horror quality. In

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his early twenties, he developed extreme hypochondria, complaining that his

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heart had stopped beating or that someone had stolen his

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pulmonary artery, and holding oranges to his head in the

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belief that vitamin C could be absorbed directly to his brain,

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he fixated on his blood and organs. Chase was convinced

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he wasn't producing enough blood and that his heart was shrinking.

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Desperate and delusional, he began killing and eating animals in

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a twisted attempt at a sort of self medication. Living alone,

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Chase would capture rabbits, cats, even dogs, gutting them and

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blending their entrails with coca cola to drink. He truly

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believed that by ingesting these creatures, he could prevent his

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heart from shrinking further and stop his blood from turning

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to powder. Neighbors began to notice the steady disappearance of

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local pets entering his apartment, never to be seen again.

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The mental health system repeatedly failed to contain Richard Chase's

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downward spiral. In nineteen seventy three, at age twenty three,

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he sought help at a psychiatric hospital, begging for treatment

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as he felt his blood had stopped flowing and he

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was suffering from cardiac arrest. Doctors observed a tense, nervous,

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wild eyed young man who was filthy and disheveled and

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diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. Yet after only a brief

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seventy two hour observation, Chase's mother angrily demand did her

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son be released, and hospital staff discharged him against all

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medical advice. For a time, medication improved his condition, but

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his mother soon weaned him off of the antipsychotics due

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to their side effects. Without medication, Chase's psychosis deepened. In

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nineteen seventy five, he injected himself with rabbit's blood in

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a bizarre experiment and nearly died from blood poisoning. This

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incident led to his involuntary commitment at Beverly Manor, a

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psychiatric hospital, where doctors documented his severe illness. Staff there

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nicknamed him Dracula after finding him with blood smeared around

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his mouth. Chase had been biting the heads off off

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of birds and drinking their blood through the institution's window bars.

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He even managed to steal syringes in order to draw

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blood from therapy dogs for later consumption. Despite these extreme behaviors,

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bureaucratic decisions put Chase back on the street. After a

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year of treatment with psychotropic drugs, in nineteen seventy six,

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officials deemed him no longer a danger and released him

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into his mother's custody. Hospital staff strongly protested, insisting that

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Chase was still gravely ill and dangerous, but their warnings

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went unheeded. Almost immediately, his mother stopped his medication and

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allowed him to live alone again, Chase's psychosis and blood

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fixation roared back with a vengeance. He continued torturing and

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killing animals, purchasing puppies only to strangle or mutilate them

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for blood and raw organs. On one occasion, Chase's mother

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walked in on him tearing open the belly of a

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dead cat and smearing its blood over his face and body,

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a ghastly scene, yet she never reported this incident to authorities.

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Over the summer of nineteen seventy seven, Chase's behavior grew

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more unhinged and brazen. In August of that year, police

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in rural Minsvada found him naked, covered in blood, and

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carrying a bucket with a bloody liver inside. He had

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driven to the area, and witnesses said he had a

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puppy with him earlier. The dog was never found. Chase

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told the officers a far fetched tale. He claimed the

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blood was his own leaking out of him, and he

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had no idea what happened to the animal. The blood

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turned out to be from a cow, and with no

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evidence of a crime, authorities inexplicably let Chase go. It

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was yet another missed opportunity to stop the unfolding tragedy.

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Chase returned to Sacramento, arms and mind full of bloodlust,

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ready to make the escalation from animals to humans. In

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the span of a single month, from late December nineteen

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seventy seven through January nineteen seventy eight, Richard Chase unleashed

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a series of murders so gruesome that they defy belief.

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His first known victim was fifty one year old Ambrose Griffin,

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an engineer and father of two. On the evening of

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December twenty ninth, nineteen seventy seven, Griffin was shot in

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the chest and killed in a random drive by shooting

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as he helped his wife carry groceries into their East

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Sacramento home. The murder was shockingly motiveless, a stranger killing

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that baffled detectives at first. Griffin's wife initially thought he

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had had a heart attack and only later realized a

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bullet had struck him. Two days before this shooting, a

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nearby resident had reported a mysterious gun shot through her window,

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and police found a spent twenty two shell casing at

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her home, likely a practice shot by Chase in the

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same neighborhood, but at the time there was little to

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connect these incidents. Neighbours gave vague descriptions of a young

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man fleeing, and leads grew cold. The community was left

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rattled by the seemingly random killing of a good Samaritan

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on his own driveway. Chase's pattern of predation soon became apparent.

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He cruised residential areas, testing front doors at random. If

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a door was locked, he took it as a sign

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he was not welcome and moved on. But if a

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door was unlocked, that, in his twisted logic, was an

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invitation to enter. In the weeks after Ambrose Griffin's murder,

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Chase had a series of near misses that could have

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been additional tragedies. On one occasion in early January nineteen

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seventy eight, a young woman came home to find a gaunt,

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wild eyed man inside her house. He had entered through

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her unlocked door, urinated on her infant's bed, and defecated

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in a drawer, then fled when discovered. It was later

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confirmed this prowler was Chase, in indulging in disturbing acts

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of home invasion without yet committing murder. Around that same time,

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Chase accosted a female neighbor, restraining her until she handed

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over a cigarette pack, as if testing his own willingness

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to use force. Each incident was a prelude to the

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carnage to come. Chase was escalating, growing bolder and more

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violent as his fantasies demanded more than just the blood

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of animals. On January twenty third, nineteen seventy eight, Richard

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Chase struck in horrifying fashion. He targeted Teresa Wallin, a

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twenty two year old, three months pregnant homemaker in a

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quiet suburban neighborhood. That afternoon, Terry Wallen was taking out

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the garbage when Chase walked up to her doorstep and

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found the door unlocked. He pulled out a twenty two

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caliber pistol the same used on Griffin, and shot the

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young woman three times. One bullet hit her hand, a

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defensive wound won her jaw, and a final shot to

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her temple that knocked her to the floor. Chase then

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followed her inside and proceeded to commit acts of almost

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unspeakable depravity. He stabbed the dying or deceased woman repeatedly

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with a butcher knife, lit her torso open from sternham

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to navel, and disemboweled her. He cut off her nipples

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and attempted to remove other organs, scattering blood everywhere in

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a grotesque ritual. He collected Wallin's blood in a bucket

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and drank it, smeared blood on the walls, and even

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stuffed animal feces from her yard into her mouth. Chase

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sexually assaulted the corpse, penetrating her post mortem, an act

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of necrophilia that he found arousing in a way regular

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intercourse never was for him. By the time he left

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the Wallen home, the scene was a mutilated bloodbath. The

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victim's husband, David Wallen, returned home from work to find

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his young wife's body in this horrific state, torso gaping

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open organs, missing, blood splashed across the walls. He was

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so traumatized that his mind couldn't immediately process the sight.

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Quote I had no idea where I was, or who

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or what I had seen. David later said, it was

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just beyond all comprehension. The wall and murder shocked Sacramento police,

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who now realized the earlier Griffin shooting was no random

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one off. A serial killer was emerging, one who committed

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homicidal acts so depraved that even seasoned detectives were shaken.

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Investigators known noted the chilling, vampiric elements of the crime.

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The killer had drunk the victim's blood and taken body

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parts as trophies, something virtually unheard of. The press seized

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on these details, and soon the mysterious killer was being

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called the vampire or Dracula killer in headlines. Fear gripped

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the community. Previously care free suburbs now bristled with double

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locked doors and firearms kept within reach. As one reporter observed,

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this was an era when doors were left unlocked, and

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Richard Chase represented the most terrifying prospect, a predator who

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could strike any home at any time if invited by

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mere casual carelessness. Only four days later, on January twenty seventh,

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nineteen seventy eight, Richard Chase's killing frenzy reached its horrifying climax.

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That morning, thirty eight year old Evelyn Miroth was at

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her home on Marywood Drive, babysitting her twenty two month

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old nephew, David. Also present were Evelyn's friends, Dan Meredith

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fifty one, who had stopped by for a visit, and

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Evelyn's own son, Jason, age six. Around midday, Chase roamed

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the neighborhood performing his usual door check routine. He found

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the Myrath House's front door unlocked and let himself in

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with pistol in hand. Ine he encountered Dan Meredith in

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the hallway and shot him point blank in the head,

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killing him instantly. Chase then turned the gun on Evelyn Merov,

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who was cornered in her bedroom, and shot her once

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in the head as well. With all the adults dead,

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he savagely attacked their bodies. Just as with Wallin, Chase

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mutilated Evelyn's corpse grotesquely. He dragged her onto the bed,

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stripped her, and performed post mortem sexual acts on her

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body using a kitchen knife. He opened her abdomen and

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removed several organs, pulling out intestines and internal tissue. Investigators

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later noted that the blood had been drained from the

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corpse and collected. Chase had clearly drunk from the body

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as part of his ritual. He stabbed Evelyn repeatedly, including

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wounds to her anus and an attempt to cut out

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an eye. The brutality eclipsed even the wall and scene. Tragically,

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Chase did not spare the children in the home. He

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shot six year old Jason Mero twice in the head,

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killing the little boy on his mother's bedroom floor. Jason's body,

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mercifully was left untouched by mutilation. He was simply executed,

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but baby David Ferriera suffered a fate as ghastly as Evelyn's.

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Chase seized the toddler from his crib and cut open

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the boy's skull to partly remove the brain for consumption.

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He stabbed the infant in the head and body and

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drank the child's blood, just as he had with the adults.

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By sheer chance, a knock on the door interrupted this carnage.

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A neighborhood girl, a playmate arriving for a scheduled playdate

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with Jason, came to the front door and startled Chase.

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Not wanting to be caught, he fled out the back,

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but not before snatching the bloody corpse of baby David

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and taking it with him. Chase stole Dan Meredith's station

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wagon and sped away from the scene, leaving behind an

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absolute house of horrors. When the alarmed little girl alerted

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a nabor, police rushed to the Mireth home and were

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nearly overwhelmed by what they found. Seasoned Sacramento detective Ray

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Beyondi described it as a house of carnage, with blood

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literally everywhere. In the entryway lay Dan Meredith's body in

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a pool of blood, car keys still in hand. In

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one bedroom, officers discovered Jason's small body in his pajamas,

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killed by gunshots to the head, lying on the floor

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amid spattered blood and the signs of a struggle. But

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it was the sight in the master bedroom that would

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haunt even veteran detectives. Evelyn Meroth's nude corpse sprawled on

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the bed, her abdomen torn open and organs strewn about

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like a grotesque parody of an autopsy. There was evidence

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of both necrophilia and cannibalism, blood pulled around the body

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and gaping wounds where organs had been removed, and then

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the baby was missing. Little David's crib was empty, soaked

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with blood, but no sign of the child, sending officers

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into a frantic search for the infant, praying he might

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somehow still be alive. The reality, however, was even more macabre.

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Two months later, on March twenty fourth, nineteen seventy eight,

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a decomposing cardboard box containing the remains of baby David

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was found discarded in a vacant lot not far from

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Chase's home. The tiny body had been mutilated, a portion

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of the brain, some body parts, and blood were evidence

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in Chase's refrigerator, confirming that the killer had taken the

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infant's remains with him to consume at his leisure. At

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this point, the full scope of the monster was clear.

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In just four weeks, Richard Chase had massacred six people men, women,

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and children, increasing the brutality, with absolutely no discernible motive

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beyond bloodlust. He left behind nightmarish crime scenes without any

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attempt to cover his tracks. Police found perfect hand prints

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and shoe prints in the victim's blood at the Wallen

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and Mirath homes. It was as if Chase wanted the

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world to see his work. The community was petrified. A

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psychopath was on the loose, so said the newspapers, and

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anyone could be the next target. The random nature of

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Chase's home invasions, determined only by an unlocked door, meant

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everyone was vulnerable. As Halloween nineteen seventy eight approached, vampire

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costumes and spooky decor took on a new painful meaning

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for Sacramento residents. The usual autumn fears of ghosts and

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goblins were replaced by the lingering trauma of a real

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life vampire who had stalked their streets in plain clothes.

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In community meetings and over dinner tables, families whispered about

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satanic cults and deranged killers, wondering if such occult horrors

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00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:27.119
were creeping into their very own neighborhoods. The season of

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costumes and masks now carried the shadow of Chase's crimes,

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blurring the line between make believe vampires and the very

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real monster who had drunk human blood in their town.

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What could drive a man to such extreme acts of savagery.

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In Richard Chase's case, untreated mental illness and elaborate delusions

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combined to create a perfect storm of psychosis. From his

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earliest adulthood, Chase suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, a diagnosis made

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multiple times during his psychiatric commitments. He also exhibited traits

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of antisocial personality, a disregard for the rights and lives

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of others, and had a heavy substance abuse history, particularly

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hallucinogenic drugs. Modern forensic psychologists note that this triple morbidity

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of psychosis, drug abuse, and antisocial traits dramatically increases the

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risk of violent behavior. Chase was a textbook example of

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this deadly trifecta. However, his particular brand of madness was

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uniquely grotesque, rooted in blood focused delusions and bizarre conspiracy theories.

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Chase truly believed his own blood was vanishing, that he

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was dying from the inside out. He told doctors and

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later law enforcement that he suffered from a mysterious illness

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that made his blood turn to powder and his heart

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begin to shrink. In his psychotic mind, the only way

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to sustain himself was to absorb blood from outside sources.

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He began with animals, convinced that by drinking rabbit and

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dog blood, he could stave off his imagined blood insufficiency. Eventually,

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that morbid logic extended to humans, consuming their blood and

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organs he thought could prevent his own body from deteriorating.

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After his capture, Chase candidly explained that he killed to

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obtain blood because he had to it was necessary to

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sustain his life. In his twisted view, these murders were

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not crimes at all, but acts of self preservation. Quote.

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Under California law, it is justifiable homicide when a person

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kills to save his own life. And in my case,

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I was killing to obtain blood to live, Thus it

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was justifiable, Chase reasoned to FBI profilers. This warped rationale

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00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:01.319
shows how completely Chase's delusions overtook reality. Layered on top

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00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:06.559
of his blood obsession, where Chase's paranoid fantasies of conspiracy

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00:32:07.160 --> 00:32:12.880
and cosmic threats, he wove an elaborate internal mythology that

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00:32:13.039 --> 00:32:19.119
explained why he felt his blood was disappearing. FBI agents

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00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:24.079
Robert Wrestler and Russ Vorpagl, who interviewed Chase at length,

319
00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:29.759
found that his delusions were quote rooted in nonsensical theories

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00:32:29.839 --> 00:32:36.559
about UFOs, the mafia, and the CIA, all classic content

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00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:42.160
for a paranoid, schizophrenic mind. Chase believed he was the

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00:32:42.279 --> 00:32:54.039
victim of a grand plot. He believed evil forces were

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poisoning him and stealing his blood. In particular, he fixated

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00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:05.440
on the idea of Nazi extraterrestrials. He spoke of Nazi

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UFOs that emitted poison or death rays, which caused his

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blood to decay. He was equally terrified of imaginary Nazis

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and aliens working in tandem to kill him. In one

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jailhouse conversation, he implored agent Wrestler to help stop the

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Nazi UFO conspiracy. Chase asked for a radar gun so

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that he could capture the Nazi spaceships he believed were

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hovering invisibly, holding them responsible for the murders he committed.

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He also rambled about how prison officials were in league

333
00:33:48.920 --> 00:33:53.200
with the Nazis. He even handed Wrestler a wadded up

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blob of Macaronian cheese from his pocket, claiming he hadn't

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00:33:58.119 --> 00:34:03.400
eaten it because the night Azis had poisoned it. These

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delusions were typical of a paranoid, psychotic personality. The FBI

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00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:17.480
later noted grandiose, bizarre, and utterly disconnected from reality. Chase's

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psychosis had a clear impact on how he selected victims

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00:34:21.880 --> 00:34:26.400
and committed crimes. One of the eeriest insights from his

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interviews was his explanation that quote, if the door was locked,

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00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:38.239
that means you're not welcome. In his fractured logic, a

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locked door signified that he might be repelled or harmed

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by whatever malevolent forces he imagined. An unlocked door was

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a sign he could proceed safely. This is why every

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one of his victim's homes had an unlocked door, a

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quirk that back baffled investigators until Chase provided the answer.

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It was as if some dark vampire folklore played out

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in his mind, recalling the legend that a vampire cannot

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enter a home without an invitation. For Chase, an unlocked

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00:35:20.280 --> 00:35:25.920
door was that invitation. It's chilling to think how close

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other households came to tragedy simply by the luck of

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a locked latch. It's also worth noting how Chase's sexual

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dysfunction and violence became entangled in his pathology. He was

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impotent in normal sexual relationships, which caused him great frustration

355
00:35:50.280 --> 00:35:56.119
in youth. Yet at his crime scenes, investigators found evidence

356
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that Chase became sexually aroused by death itself. The autopsies

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of his female victims showed signs of post mortem rape

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and sexual mutilation. In Evelyn Mirov's case, seamen was found

359
00:36:12.719 --> 00:36:18.599
inside her corpse, including anal injury, indicating Chase was able

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to perform sexually with a dead victim. This suggests that

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the only outlet for his sexual impulses was through acts

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of extreme violence and necrophilia. In the twisted theater of

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his mind, blood murder and sexual release were fused, he

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00:36:40.760 --> 00:36:45.599
literally could only achieve an erection amid gore and death,

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00:36:46.199 --> 00:36:51.480
a fact that cements just how profoundly disturbed his psyche was.

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Chase's psychology was a perfect horror. He saw himself as

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a persecuted victim even as he prayed on innocent people,

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and he reveled in acts that combined survival, domination, and

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perversion all at once. It's no wonder that professionals later

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described him as one of the most deeply mentally ill

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serial killers of all time. Chase's final murders occurred in

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late January of nineteen seventy eight, but the specter of

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the Vampire of Sacramento loomed large later that year as

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Halloween approached. Normally, Autumn and America brings playful frights, children

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dressed as vampires, ghosts and devils, and households carving jack

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o' lanterns, But the Chase case had blurred the line

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between Halloween fantasy and reality. When October ninnineteen seventy eight,

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00:38:01.320 --> 00:38:07.000
rolled in Sacramento was barely beginning to recover from the horror.

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The newspaper had spent months detailing Chase's gory deeds in

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court coverage, and the nickname vampire killer was indelibly stamped

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in the public's imagination. Parents who might otherwise hang cardboard

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vampire decorations and windows now shuddered at the thought knowing

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a real vampire had stalked their streets. The usual fun

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of spooky season was tainted by the lingering question, what

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if real monsters are out there among us? In the

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late nineteen seventies, Americans were growing anxious about a perceived

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rise in satanic or ritualistic crime and the dangers of

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00:38:57.719 --> 00:39:02.679
the severely mentally ill. Just a few years earlier, the

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nation had been shocked by Charles Manson's cult murders and

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the occult claims surrounding the Son of Sam's shootings. Chase's

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crime poured fuel on that fire. Coming at a time

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when the public was primed to see signs of the

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devil in violent crime. Here was a killer who drank

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blood and violated corpses, behavior straight out of a truly

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dark horror movie or demonic folklore. Operating in a nice,

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normal suburb. It was easy for imaginations to run wild.

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Rumors swirled about Satanism and black magic in connection with

398
00:39:49.079 --> 00:39:54.719
the case, though in truth, Chase's demons were all in

399
00:39:54.800 --> 00:40:00.079
his mind. Community meetings on crime and safety suddenly the

400
00:40:00.159 --> 00:40:05.519
included talk of mental health reform and even the supernatural.

401
00:40:06.800 --> 00:40:12.920
In Sacramento, some residents started drawing connections between Halloween's iconography

402
00:40:13.880 --> 00:40:19.760
and the grim reality they just experienced. Was it harmless

403
00:40:19.800 --> 00:40:23.960
for children to dress up as vampires and monsters when

404
00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:29.440
a real vampire had butchered a family next door? Such

405
00:40:29.639 --> 00:40:34.599
was the level of public fear and confusion that Chase wrought.

406
00:40:36.440 --> 00:40:41.239
The timing of Chase's capture late January meant that by

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the time the Halloween season neared, the trial was under

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00:40:45.519 --> 00:40:50.679
way and all of the gruesome details were spilling into

409
00:40:50.760 --> 00:40:57.440
headlines daily as prosecutors presented evidence of blood soaked blenders

410
00:40:57.800 --> 00:41:03.960
and cannibalized remains. The media coverage ensured that Chase's atrocities

411
00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:16.800
stayed in the public consciousness for months. By October, just

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00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:21.320
weeks before the trial verdict, the local press was still

413
00:41:21.400 --> 00:41:26.039
running stories on the case, keeping it very much alive.

414
00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:32.960
In minds of residence. The infamous monikers Vampire of Sacramento,

415
00:41:33.679 --> 00:41:40.519
Dracula Killer were repeated over and over, a constant reminder

416
00:41:40.639 --> 00:41:46.679
that true evil had visited their community. One can imagine

417
00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:51.800
parents steering their kids away from vampire costumes that Halloween,

418
00:41:52.800 --> 00:41:58.519
or recoiling at plastic fangs and fake blood used as decor.

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The usual dual haunted house attractions suddenly felt trivial compared

420
00:42:05.800 --> 00:42:09.920
to the house of real horrors left behind by Chase.

421
00:42:11.239 --> 00:42:14.320
In a broader sense, the Chase case fed into a

422
00:42:14.360 --> 00:42:21.000
growing national anxiety about how society should handle violent insanity.

423
00:42:22.760 --> 00:42:26.199
The late seventies saw the beginning of what would become

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the Satanic Panic of the nineteen eighties, A fear that

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00:42:31.519 --> 00:42:37.480
cults and devil worshipers were committing hidden atrocities. While Chase

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00:42:37.679 --> 00:42:42.880
was not actually involved with any cult, the nature of

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00:42:42.920 --> 00:42:50.519
his crimes drinking blood, necrophilia, dismemberment, dovetailed with people's worst

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00:42:50.639 --> 00:42:58.800
nightmares of satanic behaviour. Simultaneously, America was questioning its policies

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00:42:58.880 --> 00:43:03.960
on the mentally ill, as deinstitutionalization in the nineteen seventies

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00:43:04.440 --> 00:43:10.559
had released many psychiatric patients into communities without adequate support.

431
00:43:11.639 --> 00:43:16.559
Stories like Chases, a diagnosed madman, slipping through the cracks

432
00:43:16.880 --> 00:43:22.880
and committing unspeakable crimes, made headlines and prompted public outcry.

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00:43:23.800 --> 00:43:29.280
As Halloween arrived, editorial pages debated, is this horror the

434
00:43:29.360 --> 00:43:34.280
price of failing our mental health system? Neighbors handed out

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00:43:34.400 --> 00:43:39.960
candy with one eye, nervously looking over their shoulders, wondering

436
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.639
if there could be another Richard Chase out there. The

437
00:43:44.679 --> 00:43:48.440
season of make believe ghoules was clouded by the memory

438
00:43:49.159 --> 00:43:53.400
of a real ghoul who had lived among them, and

439
00:43:53.519 --> 00:44:01.119
it made that Halloween one of the most uneasy Sacramento had.

440
00:44:02.039 --> 00:44:06.000
From the moment the details of Chase's murders became public,

441
00:44:06.559 --> 00:44:10.920
the media seized on the sensational nature of his crimes,

442
00:44:11.719 --> 00:44:18.559
and a wave of public panic ensued. Local newspapers and

443
00:44:18.800 --> 00:44:23.559
TV news stations provided wall to wall coverage of the case,

444
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often emphasizing the most gruesome aspects to an already frightened audience.

445
00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:35.119
It was the press that immortalized Chase with his dramatic nicknames,

446
00:44:35.639 --> 00:44:41.239
the Vampire of Sacramento and the Dracula Killer. Almost immediately

447
00:44:41.280 --> 00:44:44.239
after the Wall and murder came to light. With its

448
00:44:44.760 --> 00:44:52.199
vampiric overtones, headlines invoked those monikers. This branding of Chase

449
00:44:52.639 --> 00:44:57.840
as a literal vampire, a creature from horror lore, had

450
00:44:57.880 --> 00:45:03.239
a twofold effect. On one hand, it captured the imagination

451
00:45:03.840 --> 00:45:09.039
in a morbid way, ensuring the story spread far and wide.

452
00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:15.039
On the other hand, it arguably heightened public fear. To

453
00:45:15.159 --> 00:45:20.199
a frenzy Chase was no longer just a man. He

454
00:45:20.760 --> 00:45:25.639
was a monster, may be even a supernatural one, in

455
00:45:25.719 --> 00:45:31.960
the eyes of an increasingly anxious public. Sacramento residents who

456
00:45:32.119 --> 00:45:35.840
followed the news began to view the once safe city

457
00:45:36.440 --> 00:45:41.239
through a lens of dread. The media reported how the

458
00:45:41.360 --> 00:45:45.639
killer broke into homes in broad daylight and committed acts

459
00:45:45.639 --> 00:45:51.519
of cannibalism, and necrophilia, often in lurid detail, though notably

460
00:45:52.119 --> 00:45:56.360
some outlets like Oxygen decades later felt the need to

461
00:45:56.400 --> 00:46:01.920
withhold many details due to their graphic no needs nature. People

462
00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:06.760
absorbed these reports with horror. Gun shops saw a rise

463
00:46:06.880 --> 00:46:11.960
in sales as citizens armed themselves, and hardware stores ran

464
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:16.719
low on locks and dead bolts as nearly everyone began

465
00:46:16.880 --> 00:46:23.519
fortifying their home at night. One contemporary account noted that

466
00:46:23.639 --> 00:46:28.760
during the month of Chase's spreee, local news buzzed with

467
00:46:28.880 --> 00:46:35.000
reports of an unknown individual committing brutal murders, leaving detectives puzzled,

468
00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:41.039
which only fed the atmosphere of alarm and confusion. The

469
00:46:41.079 --> 00:46:44.679
fact that police seemed stumped since the killer had no

470
00:46:44.840 --> 00:46:53.079
clear pattern beyond extreme savagery, that made it all the

471
00:46:53.199 --> 00:46:59.760
more terrifying. In the media narrative, Richard Chase was overwhelmingly

472
00:47:00.159 --> 00:47:05.480
trade as an inhuman fiend. The vampire label did more

473
00:47:05.559 --> 00:47:09.960
than reference just his blood drinking. It painted him as

474
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:17.840
something almost otherworldly, a figure of pure nightmare fuel. Journalists

475
00:47:17.960 --> 00:47:23.440
often compared crime scene details to horror movies or gothic novels,

476
00:47:24.079 --> 00:47:28.519
reinforcing the notion that this case was beyond the pale

477
00:47:29.480 --> 00:47:33.920
at times. Chase was also called an apparent psychopath and

478
00:47:34.239 --> 00:47:41.239
deranged killer in reports, language that, while not inaccurate, further

479
00:47:41.360 --> 00:47:46.840
dehumanized him in the public eye. There was relatively little

480
00:47:46.880 --> 00:47:52.199
focus in initial reporting on his schizophrenia diagnosis or the

481
00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:57.400
failures of the system. Those discussions came later during the

482
00:47:57.480 --> 00:48:03.679
trial and in retrospectives. Instead, early media coverage leaned into

483
00:48:03.679 --> 00:48:10.079
the sensational and the scary, effectively turning Chase into a

484
00:48:10.159 --> 00:48:16.639
local boogeyman. This framing had consequences. Many in the public

485
00:48:16.760 --> 00:48:23.320
viewed mentally ill individuals with increased suspicion, Unable to separate

486
00:48:23.440 --> 00:48:28.679
Chase's sickness from his evil deeds. Rather than see him

487
00:48:28.760 --> 00:48:32.719
purely as a patient who slipped through the cracks, the

488
00:48:32.840 --> 00:48:37.440
prevailing public sentiment, stoked by the press was that he

489
00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:44.840
was simply evil incarnate. Any nuance about his psychiatric history

490
00:48:45.199 --> 00:48:52.800
was often lost under headlines like vampire Killer's House of Blood. However,

491
00:48:53.440 --> 00:48:57.679
once Chase was captured and the story shifted to the courtroom,

492
00:48:58.400 --> 00:49:03.199
some media did begin to explore how someone so disturbed

493
00:49:03.679 --> 00:49:08.599
had been released from hospitals. Articles appeared questioning the role

494
00:49:08.679 --> 00:49:13.360
of Chase's family and doctors and whether more should have

495
00:49:13.400 --> 00:49:17.960
been done when he began to exhibit clear red flags,

496
00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:21.840
such as his blood soaked incident in Nevada or his

497
00:49:22.039 --> 00:49:29.599
institutional nickname Dracula, which in hindsight seemed ominously apt. Still,

498
00:49:29.719 --> 00:49:34.039
these analyzes were often drowned out by the more visceral,

499
00:49:34.440 --> 00:49:40.159
gripping trial coverage. Importantly, the timing of Chase's crimes in

500
00:49:40.280 --> 00:49:44.119
nineteen seventy seven and seventy eight put him among a

501
00:49:44.159 --> 00:49:51.400
notorious roster of California serial killers dominating headlines. Just a

502
00:49:51.519 --> 00:49:56.079
year prior, in nineteen seventy seven, the Son of Sam

503
00:49:56.159 --> 00:50:00.599
case in New York, though reported across the country, had

504
00:50:00.639 --> 00:50:07.039
Americans on edge about random killers. Nineteen seventy eight also

505
00:50:07.239 --> 00:50:10.880
saw the arrest of the Hillside Stranglers in Los Angeles,

506
00:50:11.639 --> 00:50:16.119
and not long after in the nineteen eighties, the area

507
00:50:16.199 --> 00:50:27.559
would be struck by the Nightstalker. The media lumped Chase

508
00:50:27.719 --> 00:50:33.639
into this pantheon of monsters, sometimes comparing their body counts

509
00:50:33.920 --> 00:50:40.679
or brutality. One content analysis noted that Chase was depicted

510
00:50:40.760 --> 00:50:46.079
as much more heinous and ravenous than many other killers,

511
00:50:46.840 --> 00:50:50.760
thanks in part to the vampire nickname and the ghastly

512
00:50:50.880 --> 00:50:57.599
particulars of his deeds. In truth, Chase's victim count six

513
00:50:58.360 --> 00:51:02.440
was lower than that of several serial killers like Ted

514
00:51:02.519 --> 00:51:07.800
Bundy or John Gacy, but the sheer brutality of each murder,

515
00:51:08.559 --> 00:51:14.119
the evisceration, the blood drinking, made him far more terrifying

516
00:51:14.159 --> 00:51:18.760
in the public mind. The press played this up relentlessly,

517
00:51:19.400 --> 00:51:27.000
and Sacramentanes responded accordingly with panic. Oral histories from Sacramento

518
00:51:27.119 --> 00:51:31.119
residents recall that people stopped going out at night if

519
00:51:31.159 --> 00:51:34.840
they didn't have to, and neighborhood watch groups sprang up

520
00:51:34.880 --> 00:51:40.920
in the immediate aftermath. For weeks, rumors circulated every transient

521
00:51:41.079 --> 00:51:45.440
or odd ball in the city suddenly drew suspicion as

522
00:51:45.480 --> 00:51:51.800
a possible second vampire. In short, the media's depiction of

523
00:51:51.920 --> 00:51:56.719
Chase as a virtually inhuman creature helped create a climate

524
00:51:56.760 --> 00:52:02.719
of fear where nobody felt safe. Richard Chase was finally

525
00:52:02.760 --> 00:52:07.119
brought to justice through a combination of astute profiling, a

526
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:12.119
lucky encounter, and solid police work. In the wake of

527
00:52:12.199 --> 00:52:16.239
the mass murder at the Mirath Home, the FBI's Behavioral

528
00:52:16.320 --> 00:52:20.679
Science Unit was called in due to the unprecedented savagery

529
00:52:21.239 --> 00:52:27.679
of the crimes. Veteran profilers Robert Wrestler, credited with popularizing

530
00:52:27.719 --> 00:52:32.960
the term serial killer, and Ross Vorpagl analyzed the crime

531
00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:38.920
scenes and put together a remarkably accurate offender profile. They

532
00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:42.400
predicted the killer would be a young white male in

533
00:52:42.480 --> 00:52:47.840
his mid twenties, thin and malnourished, likely a loner with

534
00:52:47.920 --> 00:52:52.599
a history of mental illness and drug use, living alone

535
00:52:52.719 --> 00:52:58.079
in disorganized squalor within a mile of the crime scene.

536
00:52:58.400 --> 00:53:02.119
They even suggested he might not have a driver's license

537
00:53:02.480 --> 00:53:07.360
or car given the disarray of his life, and that

538
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:11.360
he may attempt to continue killing given his lack of

539
00:53:11.480 --> 00:53:18.400
planning and impulse for blood. This profile was dead on.

540
00:53:19.320 --> 00:53:25.880
It was essentially a portrait of Chase himself. Meanwhile, witnesses

541
00:53:25.960 --> 00:53:30.039
and tips were starting to surface. Several people had seen

542
00:53:30.119 --> 00:53:35.400
a tall, skinny, disheveled man in an orange parka lurking

543
00:53:35.480 --> 00:53:39.199
around the victim's neighborhood around the time of the murders.

544
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:45.199
Police released a sketch based on these sightings. One person

545
00:53:45.239 --> 00:53:49.280
who saw it was Nancy Holden, a young woman who

546
00:53:49.280 --> 00:53:55.079
had gone to high school with Richard Chase. Astonishingly, Nancy

547
00:53:55.159 --> 00:53:58.440
had run into Chase at a shopping center just days

548
00:53:58.480 --> 00:54:02.480
before the Merath murders. At the time, she found the

549
00:54:02.639 --> 00:54:09.400
encounter deeply unsettling. Chase, whom she barely recognized, had approached

550
00:54:09.440 --> 00:54:15.039
her in his grubby orange jacket and asked bizarre questions

551
00:54:15.079 --> 00:54:17.960
like whether she had been on a motorcycle when her

552
00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:22.960
former boyfriend was killed in an accident. Nancy left the

553
00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:28.199
interaction feeling that something was very wrong with him. When

554
00:54:28.199 --> 00:54:31.199
she later heard about the police search for a suspect

555
00:54:31.239 --> 00:54:36.599
in a parka, she immediately suspected Rick Chase. In a

556
00:54:36.639 --> 00:54:41.480
courageous move, she contacted authorities and told them about her

557
00:54:41.559 --> 00:54:46.519
strange meeting with Chase, emphasizing that he matched the description

558
00:54:47.320 --> 00:54:52.599
and had a history of disturbed behavior. This tip was

559
00:54:52.679 --> 00:54:57.559
the Brake investigators needed a background check on Richard Trenton.

560
00:54:57.760 --> 00:55:01.880
Chase revealed that he owned a twenty two caliber handgun

561
00:55:02.360 --> 00:55:06.840
and had a record of psychiatric problems. He also lived

562
00:55:06.920 --> 00:55:12.440
roughly one mile from the major crime scenes, exactly as

563
00:55:12.480 --> 00:55:19.159
the FBI profile predicted. On January twenty seventh, nineteen seventy eight,

564
00:55:19.719 --> 00:55:23.960
the very same day as the Mirath murders, police raced

565
00:55:24.159 --> 00:55:28.599
to Chase his address, an apartment not far from the carnage.

566
00:55:28.719 --> 00:55:33.000
He just left when they knocked on his door, Chase

567
00:55:33.119 --> 00:55:37.440
refused to open it. He was inside, likely in the

568
00:55:37.480 --> 00:55:43.159
process of hiding or destroying evidence. The officers, aware that

569
00:55:43.239 --> 00:55:48.480
he was likely armed and extremely dangerous, devised a quick ruse.

570
00:55:49.639 --> 00:55:53.599
They hid out of sight down the hallway and pretended

571
00:55:53.599 --> 00:55:59.639
to leave, calling out, okay, let's go as if giving up.

572
00:56:00.840 --> 00:56:05.480
Sure enough, the paranoid Chase took the bait. Believing the

573
00:56:05.519 --> 00:56:09.480
police were gone, he emerged from his apartment carrying a

574
00:56:09.559 --> 00:56:15.079
box later found to contain bloody rags and remains. He

575
00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:20.039
still wore his stained orange parka, and notably, he had

576
00:56:20.159 --> 00:56:24.880
Dan Meredith's wallet in his back pocket. In a flash,

577
00:56:25.320 --> 00:56:29.800
officers converged and tackled Richard Chase to the ground. The

578
00:56:29.840 --> 00:56:33.800
struggle was brief. The thin, sickly twenty seven year old

579
00:56:33.880 --> 00:56:37.960
was no match for multiple police officers, and he was

580
00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:42.519
taken into custody right there in the dingy apartment hallway.

581
00:56:43.559 --> 00:56:48.239
Officers noted that Chase himself was literally covered in blood,

582
00:56:49.159 --> 00:56:53.599
not from any injury, but from the gruesome trophies he

583
00:56:53.639 --> 00:57:00.239
had been handling. What detectives found inside Chase's apartment immediate

584
00:57:00.440 --> 00:57:05.119
confirmed that they had their man, and also revealed the

585
00:57:05.159 --> 00:57:11.559
full extent of his ghastly activities. Every surface seemed to

586
00:57:11.599 --> 00:57:16.599
be coated in blood. The walls, the floor, the kitchen, appliances,

587
00:57:17.119 --> 00:57:22.559
The place reeked of decay. Investigators discovered a blood soaked

588
00:57:22.559 --> 00:57:26.880
blender on the counter, the same blender he had used

589
00:57:26.920 --> 00:57:32.480
to pure animal entrails now being used for human organs,

590
00:57:33.480 --> 00:57:37.760
as well as several pet collars with no pets in sight.

591
00:57:39.320 --> 00:57:45.000
Opening the refrigerator, police were confronted with a scene straight

592
00:57:45.039 --> 00:57:49.880
out of a horror film, body parts wrapped in plastic

593
00:57:49.960 --> 00:57:55.960
in foil, including pieces later identified as belonging to Evelyn

594
00:57:56.039 --> 00:58:02.199
Mirrath and Teresa Wallin. In the they found human brains

595
00:58:02.239 --> 00:58:06.840
and organs, notably a piece of brain matter in a

596
00:58:06.920 --> 00:58:12.519
tupperware that proved to be baby David's. A bucket in

597
00:58:12.559 --> 00:58:18.000
the kitchen contained more visceral remains mixed with blood. The

598
00:58:18.039 --> 00:58:22.679
bloody box Chase had been carrying held soiled newspapers and

599
00:58:22.800 --> 00:58:28.639
rags used to transport pieces of the infant. It was

600
00:58:28.679 --> 00:58:32.880
an appalling cachet of evidence, but it meant the case

601
00:58:32.920 --> 00:58:45.159
against Chase was ironclad. Chase was swiftly charged with six

602
00:58:45.320 --> 00:58:48.639
counts of murder, and the case moved to trial. In

603
00:58:48.760 --> 00:58:54.960
nineteen seventy nine. Given the overwhelming physical evidence and Chase's

604
00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:59.679
own statements, there was never any doubt that he had

605
00:58:59.679 --> 00:59:06.119
committed the killings. His own attorneys conceded as much. The

606
00:59:06.159 --> 00:59:12.039
primary question was his sanity and degree of culpability. The

607
00:59:12.079 --> 00:59:16.800
defense's strategy was to avoid the death penalty by portraying

608
00:59:16.960 --> 00:59:21.039
Chase as a severely mentally ill man who was not

609
00:59:21.239 --> 00:59:26.159
fully in control of his actions. They argued for a

610
00:59:26.239 --> 00:59:31.519
verdict of second degree murder or manslaughter due to diminished capacity,

611
00:59:32.199 --> 00:59:35.480
which would have meant a life sentence in a psychiatric

612
00:59:35.559 --> 00:59:43.519
facility rather than execution. Indeed, Chase's history of schizophrenia and

613
00:59:43.599 --> 00:59:47.719
the utter irrationality of his crimes provided a strong basis

614
00:59:48.159 --> 00:59:53.719
for an insanity PLEA t court appointed psychiatrists examined him

615
00:59:54.280 --> 00:59:59.719
and somewhat surprisingly declared that Chase was competent to stand

616
00:59:59.719 --> 01:00:04.480
tru he understood the charges and could assist in his

617
01:00:04.559 --> 01:00:10.960
defense despite his delusions. This meant the trial would proceed

618
01:00:11.119 --> 01:00:15.159
in a typical fashion, with the jury task to decide

619
01:00:15.199 --> 01:00:19.519
if he was legally sane at the time of his crimes.

620
01:00:20.519 --> 01:00:23.840
The trial of Richard Chase in early nineteen seventy nine

621
01:00:24.039 --> 01:00:28.800
was highly publicised and intensely followed by the local community.

622
01:00:29.679 --> 01:00:34.719
In the courtroom, the thin, sallow defendant cut a markedly

623
01:00:34.840 --> 01:00:41.000
unimposing figure, a far cry from the mythical vampire of headlines.

624
01:00:41.960 --> 01:00:47.599
He often sat quietly, occasionally twitching or whispering to himself,

625
01:00:48.239 --> 01:00:55.519
but largely appearing detached. Prosecutors presented the grisly evidence in full,

626
01:00:56.199 --> 01:01:00.000
graphic photos of the crime scenes, the blender and tools

627
01:01:00.280 --> 01:01:05.960
from his apartment, and medical testimony about the mutilations. The

628
01:01:06.079 --> 01:01:10.559
jurors and the crowded gallery listened in horror as forensic

629
01:01:10.639 --> 01:01:15.800
experts described how Chase had opened skulls and abdomens to

630
01:01:15.920 --> 01:01:22.599
extract blood and organs. Family members of victims gave tearful testimonies.

631
01:01:23.480 --> 01:01:28.400
Most heartbreaking was David Wallin's account of finding his pregnant

632
01:01:28.400 --> 01:01:32.679
wife's body, and the grief of the Miroth family, who

633
01:01:32.760 --> 01:01:38.880
lost three generations in one afternoon. Some of them, overcome

634
01:01:38.960 --> 01:01:44.280
by emotion, had to leave the courtroom during the graphic testimony.

635
01:01:45.920 --> 01:01:49.880
The defense experts, on the other hand, detailed Chase's long

636
01:01:50.039 --> 01:01:56.599
history of psychiatric disturbance. They recounted his delusions of stolen arteries,

637
01:01:57.079 --> 01:02:01.039
his dracula antics, in the hospital, and the fact that

638
01:02:01.119 --> 01:02:07.960
he was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic years before the murders. One

639
01:02:08.039 --> 01:02:13.599
psychiatrist testified that Chase lived in a separate reality. He

640
01:02:13.719 --> 01:02:18.840
truly did not comprehend the wrongness of his actions because

641
01:02:18.920 --> 01:02:23.880
he was driven by imaginary forces and desperate fear for

642
01:02:24.039 --> 01:02:30.719
his own life. However, under cross examination, these experts had

643
01:02:30.760 --> 01:02:34.639
to admit that Chase knew killing was against the law.

644
01:02:35.280 --> 01:02:40.079
He simply believed he had no choice. The prosecution hammered

645
01:02:40.079 --> 01:02:45.920
this point. Legal insanity in California requires not understanding the

646
01:02:46.039 --> 01:02:50.320
nature of one's act, or being unable to distinguish right

647
01:02:50.719 --> 01:02:55.920
from wrong. They argued that Chase, for all his illness,

648
01:02:55.920 --> 01:02:59.119
still went to lengths to hide some of his actions,

649
01:02:59.639 --> 01:03:04.000
for example, disposing of the baby's body where he thought

650
01:03:04.000 --> 01:03:08.320
it might not be found quickly and fleeing when interrupted.

651
01:03:09.639 --> 01:03:14.559
This suggested he did know his acts were wrong. The

652
01:03:14.599 --> 01:03:20.320
prosecutor described Chase not just as insane, but as evil,

653
01:03:21.280 --> 01:03:24.719
a man who made a conscious choice to act on

654
01:03:24.840 --> 01:03:30.400
his blood cravings. After a trial that lasted five months

655
01:03:30.719 --> 01:03:35.360
and featured some seventy witnesses, the case went to the jury,

656
01:03:36.440 --> 01:03:40.400
and it did not take them long. On May eighth,

657
01:03:40.519 --> 01:03:45.760
nineteen seventy nine, the jury returned a verdict finding Richard

658
01:03:45.800 --> 01:03:50.920
Trenton Chase guilty of six counts of first degree murder.

659
01:03:52.159 --> 01:03:57.559
In doing so, they rejected the insanity defense, implicitly concluding that,

660
01:03:58.039 --> 01:04:03.519
however disturbed, Chased knew what he was doing. Jurors later

661
01:04:03.639 --> 01:04:07.119
said that the meticulous cruelty of his crimes and the

662
01:04:07.159 --> 01:04:12.239
planning such as loading his gun, bringing knives, choosing victims

663
01:04:12.239 --> 01:04:17.320
at random, convinced them that Chase was legally sane during

664
01:04:17.400 --> 01:04:23.119
his rampage. The same jury then had to decide his punishment.

665
01:04:24.360 --> 01:04:31.239
Considering the heinous circumstances multiple victims, including a child, extreme depravity,

666
01:04:32.079 --> 01:04:36.679
it was perhaps no surprise that they opted for the

667
01:04:36.760 --> 01:04:40.840
death penalty. It took them only an hour of deliberation

668
01:04:41.039 --> 01:04:45.079
to affirm Chase's sanity and a few more hours to

669
01:04:45.280 --> 01:04:51.000
unanimously sentence him to death in the gas chamber. When

670
01:04:51.000 --> 01:04:56.320
the verdict was read, Chase reportedly showed little reaction. Some

671
01:04:56.440 --> 01:05:01.400
witnesses say he nodded to himself slightly. Others recall him

672
01:05:01.480 --> 01:05:07.159
staring off into space. The public, however, reacted with relief

673
01:05:07.559 --> 01:05:13.159
and approval. After months of living with this vampiric tale.

674
01:05:13.280 --> 01:05:18.880
Seeing the monster condemned to death was cathartic for Sacramento.

675
01:05:19.800 --> 01:05:24.400
Outside the court house, crowds actually cheered the verdict. The

676
01:05:24.440 --> 01:05:29.360
Sacramento Bee ran the headline vampire guilty to die in

677
01:05:29.480 --> 01:05:34.920
gas chamber, capturing the community's sense that a menace was

678
01:05:34.960 --> 01:05:39.960
being purged. It's worth noting that Chase's mother, who had

679
01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.000
been in denial about her son's illness for years, did

680
01:05:44.039 --> 01:05:48.400
attend parts of the trial. In a bizarre and tragic moment,

681
01:05:49.039 --> 01:05:54.199
she reportedly approached Teresa Wallin's grieving husband during a recess

682
01:05:54.920 --> 01:05:59.760
and criticized the Walin's dog for not protecting Teresa on

683
01:05:59.800 --> 01:06:04.920
the day of the murder. The comment stunned those around her.

684
01:06:05.679 --> 01:06:09.480
It seemed even in that moment, Chase's mother could not

685
01:06:09.719 --> 01:06:16.880
fully grasp the human responsibility her son bore, instead blaming

686
01:06:16.920 --> 01:06:21.960
a pet for not stopping a killer. Such a disconnect

687
01:06:22.079 --> 01:06:28.679
underscored the deep dysfunction surrounding Chase's life. The trial ended

688
01:06:28.719 --> 01:06:34.199
with Chase formally sentenced to San Quentin State Prison's death row,

689
01:06:35.159 --> 01:06:38.840
and the judge remarked that the case was one of

690
01:06:38.880 --> 01:06:50.880
the most disturbing he had ever seen. Richard Chase spent

691
01:06:50.960 --> 01:06:54.920
the remainder of his short life on death Row at

692
01:06:55.000 --> 01:07:01.519
San Quentin, but his story did not end quietly. In prison,

693
01:07:02.039 --> 01:07:06.679
the man once feared as a vampire became an object

694
01:07:06.800 --> 01:07:13.400
of revulsion even among hardened criminals. Other inmates, aware of

695
01:07:13.480 --> 01:07:19.159
the graphic and perverse nature of Chase's crimes, feared him

696
01:07:19.400 --> 01:07:24.800
and reportedly kept their distance. Prison officials noted that even

697
01:07:24.960 --> 01:07:29.920
gang members wanted nothing to do with Chase. In fact,

698
01:07:30.679 --> 01:07:35.599
a kind of dark prison lore grew around him. Inmates

699
01:07:35.719 --> 01:07:40.760
taunted Chase and encouraged him to kill himself. They would

700
01:07:40.840 --> 01:07:45.119
shout things like drink your own blood or do the

701
01:07:45.199 --> 01:07:50.679
world a favor through the cell bars. To them, he

702
01:07:50.800 --> 01:07:55.840
was beyond any code. Someone who killed babies and defiled

703
01:07:55.920 --> 01:08:03.079
corpses was the lowest of the low. Chase's mental state, unsurprisingly,

704
01:08:03.599 --> 01:08:09.559
did not improve an incarceration, if anything. Removed from any

705
01:08:09.639 --> 01:08:15.239
treatment and isolated in a cell, his delusions continued to fester.

706
01:08:16.319 --> 01:08:21.800
To FBI agents, Wrestler and another profiler visited Chase on

707
01:08:21.920 --> 01:08:25.600
death row as part of their research into serial killers.

708
01:08:26.720 --> 01:08:30.880
These interviews with Chase became an important case study in

709
01:08:30.960 --> 01:08:36.319
the minds of criminal profilers. Chase spoke freely about his theories.

710
01:08:36.920 --> 01:08:40.319
He reiterated that he had to kill to stave off

711
01:08:40.399 --> 01:08:45.359
the Nazis and aliens plodding against him. He rambled about

712
01:08:45.720 --> 01:08:49.279
needing a radar gun to track the UFOs that the

713
01:08:49.359 --> 01:08:54.880
Nazis had, which were beaming signals into his head. Wrestler

714
01:08:54.960 --> 01:08:59.760
recounted in his book Whoever Fights Monsters the incident we

715
01:08:59.800 --> 01:09:05.920
described earlier, involving a pile of Macaronian cheese in Chase's pocket,

716
01:09:06.640 --> 01:09:09.279
which he had been hoarding in order to have it

717
01:09:09.439 --> 01:09:14.800
tested because he believed prison officials were poisoning his meals

718
01:09:15.399 --> 01:09:20.640
on the Nazis orders. It was an unprecedented glimpse into

719
01:09:20.680 --> 01:09:25.520
the mind of a disorganized, paranoid serial killer, and these

720
01:09:25.600 --> 01:09:29.920
conversations have since been used to train law enforcement on

721
01:09:30.159 --> 01:09:35.760
criminal psychology. In the later years, the FBI would cite

722
01:09:35.800 --> 01:09:40.960
the Chase case when teaching how a disorganized killer, one

723
01:09:41.079 --> 01:09:48.359
driven by internal psychosis rather than careful planning, behaves. Unlike

724
01:09:48.479 --> 01:09:54.319
methodical killers, Chase left chaotic crime scenes, struck at random,

725
01:09:54.479 --> 01:10:00.920
and had no clear objective besides satisfying delusional impulses, making

726
01:10:01.000 --> 01:10:07.199
him a classic study in this category. Chase's legal appeals

727
01:10:07.319 --> 01:10:11.560
went nowhere. He had little basis to appeal, given he

728
01:10:11.680 --> 01:10:15.319
was clearly guilty and had been found sane by both

729
01:10:15.399 --> 01:10:21.880
jury and prior psychiatric evaluation. In the end, Richard Trenton

730
01:10:22.039 --> 01:10:27.800
Chase took matters into his own hands. On December twenty sixth,

731
01:10:27.920 --> 01:10:33.560
nineteen eighty, the day after Christmas, a guard doing mourning

732
01:10:33.680 --> 01:10:39.800
rounds found Chase lying awkwardly in his cell, not breathing.

733
01:10:41.319 --> 01:10:46.000
The thirty year old had died by suicide, a final

734
01:10:46.079 --> 01:10:51.479
act of control by the killer who loved control. He

735
01:10:51.560 --> 01:10:57.079
had been stockpiling his prescribed antidepressant pills for weeks, hiding

736
01:10:57.119 --> 01:11:01.319
them instead of taking them. That at night, he ingested

737
01:11:01.359 --> 01:11:05.680
a lethal dose of these hoarded pills. By the time

738
01:11:05.720 --> 01:11:10.960
the guards reached him, Richard Chase, the Vampire of Sacramento,

739
01:11:12.239 --> 01:11:16.880
was dead in a grim irony. The man who had

740
01:11:16.920 --> 01:11:23.960
so feared being poisoned had ultimately poisoned himself. Prison officials

741
01:11:23.960 --> 01:11:29.800
and psychiatrists were not surprised. In fact, one had noted

742
01:11:30.319 --> 01:11:33.920
that other death row inmates had goaded Chase to do it,

743
01:11:34.680 --> 01:11:38.800
and likely he succumbed to his inner demons and the

744
01:11:38.840 --> 01:11:45.399
hopelessness of his situation. After his death, the legacy of

745
01:11:45.560 --> 01:11:51.159
Richard Chase lived on in many disturbing ways. True crime

746
01:11:51.239 --> 01:11:56.640
authors and filmmakers quickly recognized the morbidly fascinating aspects of

747
01:11:56.680 --> 01:12:02.239
the case. In nineteen eighty seven, director William Friedkin released

748
01:12:02.239 --> 01:12:08.000
the film Rampage, loosely based on Chase's story. The film

749
01:12:08.079 --> 01:12:12.640
explored the insanity defense and the moral questions of executing

750
01:12:12.680 --> 01:12:17.880
a mentally ill murderer, clearly drawing from the debates sparked

751
01:12:17.920 --> 01:12:24.159
by Chase's trial. Notably, Rampage even features a prosecutor character

752
01:12:24.720 --> 01:12:28.600
who changes stance on the death penalty after witnessing the

753
01:12:28.600 --> 01:12:34.600
fictionalized killer's atrocities, a scenario reminiscent of the real jurors

754
01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:41.079
who had no qualms sentencing Chase to death. Chase's crimes

755
01:12:41.119 --> 01:12:46.319
have been referenced in songs, novels, and numerous documentaries. He

756
01:12:46.359 --> 01:12:49.479
appeared as a case study in episodes of shows like

757
01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:55.399
Most Evil, and was discussed in several true crime books.

758
01:12:55.439 --> 01:13:01.720
In legendary FBI profiler Robert Wrestler's memoir Whoever Fights Monsters,

759
01:13:02.199 --> 01:13:07.760
an entire chapter is devoted to Chase, including verbatim excerpts

760
01:13:07.800 --> 01:13:13.640
from their chilling prison talks. Wrestler considered Chase an exemplar

761
01:13:13.800 --> 01:13:19.760
of the disorganized lust killer, someone driven by delusion and

762
01:13:19.880 --> 01:13:25.880
sexual violence as opposed to calculated motive. For the field

763
01:13:25.920 --> 01:13:31.600
of forensic psychology, Chase's case became a cautionary tale about

764
01:13:31.640 --> 01:13:36.279
the importance of treating severe mental illness. It highlighted how

765
01:13:36.359 --> 01:13:41.520
a perfect storm of schizophrenia, substance abuse, and social isolation

766
01:13:42.239 --> 01:13:49.000
can explode into violence if not adequately monitored. In academic literature,

767
01:13:49.279 --> 01:13:53.880
some have cited Chase when discussing the future of deinstitutionalization,

768
01:13:54.800 --> 01:13:58.960
noting that in the nineteen seventies many psychiatric patients were

769
01:13:59.000 --> 01:14:05.439
released with without proper follow up, sometimes with dire results. Indeed,

770
01:14:05.520 --> 01:14:09.520
the Chase case raised public awareness about the thin line

771
01:14:09.640 --> 01:14:14.319
between a mentally ill person who is merely odd and

772
01:14:14.439 --> 01:14:20.640
one who is truly dangerous. It forced difficult conversations could

773
01:14:20.640 --> 01:14:24.880
this have been prevented. The hospital staff who treated Chase

774
01:14:25.399 --> 01:14:29.680
certainly believed so. They had tried to warn that he

775
01:14:29.800 --> 01:14:35.640
was dangerous. After the trial. Lawmakers in California even referenced

776
01:14:35.720 --> 01:14:39.600
the case in calls to titan gun laws. Case had

777
01:14:39.680 --> 01:14:43.600
lied on his firearms application about his mental health and

778
01:14:43.720 --> 01:14:47.680
to allow longer commitments for individuals deemed a threat to

779
01:14:47.800 --> 01:14:52.760
themselves or others. In popular culture, the mythos of the

780
01:14:52.840 --> 01:14:57.359
Vampire of Sacramento endures as one of the most disturbing

781
01:14:57.439 --> 01:15:01.640
true crime stories on record. He is often brought up

782
01:15:01.680 --> 01:15:07.720
around Halloween for obvious reasons, his story more macabre than

783
01:15:07.800 --> 01:15:13.119
any fiction. Podcasts like these and YouTube channels recount his

784
01:15:13.239 --> 01:15:20.680
crimes to audiences both horrified and grimly intrigued, often emphasizing

785
01:15:20.760 --> 01:15:27.960
the lesson that monsters can be real. Generations of Sacramento

786
01:15:28.119 --> 01:15:33.000
residents have passed down the folklore always lock your doors

787
01:15:33.720 --> 01:15:40.399
or else the vampire might come in. That warning originated

788
01:15:40.479 --> 01:15:47.079
directly from Chase's case. As one Sacramento reporter quipped, Richard

789
01:15:47.199 --> 01:15:52.239
Chase is the reason people started locking their doors at night,

790
01:15:53.119 --> 01:15:57.159
And so when the Halloween decorations go up each year

791
01:15:57.760 --> 01:16:02.439
and plastic vampires leer with fanged grins, the tale of

792
01:16:02.560 --> 01:16:09.319
Richard Trenton Chase remains a uniquely cautionary tale. It reminds

793
01:16:09.439 --> 01:16:14.680
us that sometimes the truly scary monsters are not those

794
01:16:14.840 --> 01:16:21.640
from ancient legends, but ordinary men walking our neighborhood streets.

795
01:16:22.960 --> 01:16:28.000
The Vampire of Sacramento was flesh and blood, and that

796
01:16:28.760 --> 01:16:33.640
is perhaps the most chilling fact of all. His brief,

797
01:16:34.119 --> 01:16:39.800
bloody rampage has long since ended, but the echoes of

798
01:16:39.880 --> 01:16:45.960
his madness and murder continues to haunt those who dare

799
01:16:46.079 --> 01:16:52.359
to look into the abyss of the human psyche, especially

800
01:16:53.039 --> 01:16:58.600
on dark autumn nights, when the veil between nightmares and

801
01:16:58.720 --> 01:17:06.800
reality feels perilously fin Terrifying and True is narrated by

802
01:17:06.880 --> 01:17:11.039
Enrique Kuto. It's executive produced by Rob Fields and Bobbletopia

803
01:17:11.239 --> 01:17:14.800
dot com and produced by Dan Wilder, with original theme

804
01:17:14.880 --> 01:17:17.640
music by Ray Mattis. If you have a story you

805
01:17:17.720 --> 01:17:20.560
think we should cover on Terrifying and True, send us

806
01:17:20.600 --> 01:17:24.199
an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com, and

807
01:17:24.239 --> 01:17:25.760
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808
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809
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811
01:17:33.760 --> 01:17:35.520
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812
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Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay a little bit more

813
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and they are Johnny Nix, Kate and Lulu, Jessica Fuller,

815
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Mike Escuey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansford, Karenwemet, Jack Ker, and

816
01:17:49.199 --> 01:17:51.439
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817
01:17:51.560 --> 01:17:54.399
for listening. We'll see you all right here next time.

818
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On Terrifying and True