| Richard Chase | |
|---|---|
Richard Chase mugshot |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Anthony Richard Trenton Chase Tuma |
| Also known as | The Dracula Killer The Vampire of Sacramento |
| Born | May 23, 1950 Santa Clara County, California, United States |
| Died | December 26, 1980 (aged 30) |
| Cause of death | Suicide by overdose |
| Conviction | Murder, Marijuana possession, Possession of a weapon |
| Sentence | Death |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 6 |
| Span of killings | December 29, 1977–January 27, 1978 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | California |
| Date apprehended | January 27, 1978 |
Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was a United States serial killer who killed six people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California. He was nicknamed "The Vampire of Sacramento" because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their remains.
Contents |
A self-described victim of abuse at the hands of his mother, Chase exhibited by the age of 10 evidence of the Macdonald triad: enuresis, pyromania, and zoosadism. In his adolescence, he was known as an alcoholic and a chronic drug abuser. He suffered from erectile dysfunction due to "psychological problems stemming from repressed anger".[1]
Chase developed hypochondria as he matured. He often complained that his heart would occasionally "stop beating", or that "someone had stolen his pulmonary artery".[2] He would hold oranges on his head, believing the Vitamin C would be absorbed by his brain via diffusion. Chase also believed that his cranial bones had become separated and were moving around, so he shaved his head in order to watch this activity.
After leaving his mother's house (believing she was attempting to poison him), Chase rented an apartment with friends. Chase's roommates complained that he was constantly intoxicated on alcohol, marijuana, and LSD. Chase would also walk around the apartment nude, even in front of company. Chase's roommates demanded that he move out. When he refused, the roommates moved out instead.
Once alone in the apartment, Chase began to capture, kill, and disembowel various animals, which he would then devour raw, sometimes mixing the raw organs with Coca-Cola in a blender and drinking the concoction like a milkshake. Chase reasoned that by ingesting the creatures he was preventing his heart from shrinking.
In 1975, Chase was involuntarily committed to a mental institution after being taken to a hospital after injecting rabbit's blood into his veins.[3] He often shared with the staff fantasies about killing rabbits. He was once found with blood smeared around his mouth, but hospital staff discovered he had been drinking the blood of birds; he had thrown the birds' corpses out of his hospital room window. Staff began referring to him as "Dracula".
In one of the many incidents in which he was held at the institution, he substituted the blood from the therapy dog to curb his addiction. He claimed he obtained the syringes from cracking open the disposable boxes left in the doctor's offices. It took them weeks before they figured it out, and then they no longer brought any therapeutic animals in. Occasionally, he was discovered to have defecated on himself at which point he would paint art on the walls of the institution with feces.
Chase was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. After undergoing a battery of treatments involving psychotropic drugs, Chase was deemed no longer a danger to society and, in 1976, he was released under the recognizance of his mother.[4]
Chase's mother decided that he did not need to be on the prescribed antipsychotic medication, stating it made her son "a zombie".[5]She weaned him off the medication and got Chase his own apartment.
Later investigation uncovered that in mid-1977, Chase was stopped and arrested on a reservation in the Pyramid Lake (Nevada) area. His body was smeared with blood and a bucket of blood was in his truck. The victim was found to be bovine and no charges were filed.[3]
On December 29, 1977, Chase killed his first known victim in a drive-by shooting. The victim, Ambrose Griffin, was a 51-year-old engineer and father of two.[6] After the shooting, one of Griffin's sons reported seeing a neighbor walking around their East Sacramento neighborhood with a .22 caliber rifle. The neighbor's rifle was seized, but ballistics tests determined that it was not the murder weapon.
Two weeks later, he attempted to enter the home of another woman but, finding that her doors were locked, walked away; Chase later told detectives that he took locked doors as a sign that he was not welcome, but that unlocked doors were an invitation to come inside. He was later chased off by a returning couple as he pilfered belongings from their home and urinated and defecated on their beds and clothing.
Teresa Wallin was Chase's next victim on January 23. Three months pregnant, Wallin was surprised at her home by Chase, who shot her three times, killing her. He then had sex with the corpse, mutilated it, and bathed in the dead woman's blood.
Two days after killing Wallin, Chase purchased two puppies from a neighbor. He killed them and drank their blood.
On January 27, Chase committed his final murders. Entering the home of 38-year-old Evelyn Miroth, he encountered her friend, Danny Meredith, whom he shot with his .22 handgun. Stealing Meredith's wallet and car keys, he rampaged through the house, fatally shooting Miroth, her six-year-old son Jason, and her 22-month-old nephew, David. As with Wallin, Chase engaged in necrophilia and cannibalism with Miroth's corpse.
A six-year-old girl with whom Jason Miroth had a playdate knocked on the door, startling Chase, who fled the scene in Meredith's car, taking David's body with him. The girl alerted a neighbor, who alerted police. Upon entering the home, police discovered that Chase had left perfect handprints and shoe imprints in Miroth's blood.
Chase returned to his apartment on Watt Ave., where he drank David's blood and ate several of the child's internal organs (including the child's brain) before disposing of the body at a nearby church.
In 1979, Chase stood trial on six counts of murder. In order to avoid the death penalty, the defense tried to have him found guilty of second degree murder, which would result in a life sentence. Their case hinged on Chase's history of mental illness and the suggestion that his crimes were not premeditated.
On May 8, the jury in the highly publicized case found Chase guilty of six counts of first degree murder and Chase was sentenced to die in the gas chamber. They rejected the argument that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. His fellow inmates, aware of the graphic and bizarre nature of Chase's crimes, feared him, and according to prison officials, they often tried to convince Chase to commit suicide.[7]
Chase granted a series of interviews with Robert Ressler, during which he spoke of his fears of Nazis and UFOs, claiming that although he had killed, it was not his fault; he had been forced to kill to keep himself alive, which he believed any person would do. He asked Ressler to give him access to a radar gun, with which he could apprehend the Nazi UFOs, so that the Nazis could stand trial for the murders. He also handed Ressler a large amount of macaroni and cheese, which he had been hoarding in his pants pockets, believing that the prison officials were in league with the Nazis and attempting to kill him with poisoned food.[6]
On December 26, 1980, a guard checking cells found Chase lying awkwardly on his bed, not breathing. An autopsy determined that he committed suicide with an overdose of prison doctor-prescribed antidepressants that he had saved over several weeks. It is unclear if he did this because of the inmates' suggestions or his own mental state.[8]
The 1988 movie Rampage, an adaptation of of the William P. Wood novel of the same name, was loosely based on Chase's crimes.[9]
Investigation Discovery's 2011 TV special Lore: Deadly Obsession was a two hour documentary reenactment of Chase's crimes. Chase was played by Dylan John Seaton. [10]