AKA: THE VAMPIRE OF SACRAMENTO

Richard Chase

“If the door was locked, that means you’re not welcome.”

By: Kalyn Serman

Background

He was born in 1950 and raised in a strict household, where he was often beaten by his father. This caused him to become an alcoholic by his teen years and begin killing and mutilating animals and starting

fires. He wasn’t capable of holding a relationship in high school because he couldn’t become aroused by females,

only by violent and disturbed acts. When he moved back in with his mother after moving out, he accused her of attempting to poison him. This caused his father to move him into an apartment where Chase began to kill and disembowel animals. He would blend the animals organs into smoothies and drink them because he thought that it would prevent

his heart from shrinking. He feared that if his heart shrank too much, it would disappear and he would die. In 1975, he was involuntarily committed to a mental institution after being admitted to the hospital for blood

poisoning after injecting rabbits blood into his veins. He escaped, went to his mother’s house, where he was placed back into the mental institution for being

criminally insane. While there, he told the staff about his animal killing fantasies. The staff then found him with blood on his mouth that they later discovered was from sucking a bird’s blood.

This prompted the staff to call him “Dracula”. In 1976, he was released from the institution and his mother weaned him off of his anti-schizophrenic

medication. This caused him to kill more animals, including a neighbor’s pet, and become obsessed with firearms. He also stopped caring for himself (hygiene). On August 3, 1977, the Nevada state police found Chase’s car with two rifles, a pile of clothes, and a bucket of

blood with a cow’s liver inside. The officers tracked him down and found him naked and screaming in the sand while covered in blood. When asked, he told them that it was his own and that it had leaked through his flesh.

Crimes Accused of Committing

Crime Date Victim(s) PunishmentFired .22 caliber gun

into the home of a Sacramento woman. The slugs were found

but no one was harmed.

December 27, 1977 Sacramento woman (no name given)

Escaped.

Murdered a 51 year old male who was an

engineer and father of two. Police found that

the bullets matched the ones from the

Sacramento home.

December 29, 1977 Ambrose Griffin Escaped.

Murdered a pregnant woman her home. Shot her 3 times, raped her

post- mortem (after death) while repeatedly

stabbing her, cut her open, bathed in and drank her blood, and stuffed her mouth and throat with dog feces.

January 21, 1978 Teresa Wallin Escaped.

Most Recent/Final Crime

January 27, 1978. Chase committed a “mass murder” (killing multiple people at one

time), killing 4. Evelyn Miroth (38), her son Jason Miroth (6), her nephew David

Ferreira (22 months), and her neighbor Daniel Meredith (52). All were shot fatally in the head. Evelyn was the last one to go, and after she was dead, Chase

sodomized (forced sexual acts, especially anally) her while sucking her blood from cuts that he had made on the back of her neck. Once finished, he stabbed her repeatedly, which caused internal bleeding.

This prompted him to cut her stomach open and catch the blood in a bucket, which he then drank.

After this, he took David’s body to the bathtub, split his head open, and ate some of his brain matter.

Evidence against Richard Chase

After fleeing the residence of his last crime, he left a perfect handprint in the blood.

He had a .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol registered in his name, which was the same one that was used in all of his crimes.

He was arrested leaving his home with a bloody box, in which they found blood-soaked wallpaper and the blood-stained .22 caliber gun.

His shoes and parka were also blood-stained. Once they searched him, they found that he was carrying Dan

Meredith’s wallet. Police then searched his home, where they found everything had

blood on it. In the fridge was:

David’s brains in a Tupperware container Pieces of his body wrapped in Saran Wrap Evelyn and Teresa’s organs Multiple bodies of animals

Sentence

Sentenced to die in the gas chambers after being charged for 6 counts of first-degree murder (an unlawful killing that was both willful and premeditated).

Sentenced to death row at San Quentin State Prison.

On December 6, 1980, Chase was found dead in his cell from an overdose on prison doctor prescribed antidepressants that he had been hoarding for weeks.

Theory

I would say that Richard Chase falls under the Anomie Theory in the category of Innovation. This would mean that he cannot meet his goals through legitimate means, therefore he turns elsewhere in order to meet those goals.

I think that this suits Chase due to the fact that his goal is psychological: drinking blood in order to make his heart stop shrinking. Since he can’t obtain this goal by legally getting human blood, he turns to deviance by killing animals. When this no longer satisfies him, he moves on to killing humans, all in an attempt to get blood to “save his life”.

Cultural References

TV Shows: Criminal Minds, Season 1, Episode 11: “Blood

Hungry” Was based off of Chase’s crimes

Movies: Rampage (1987)

Loosely based off of Chase’s crimes

Books: Dracula Killer: Dracula Killer

Written by Lt. Ray Biondi in 1992