Richard Chase: The Vampire of Sacramento, California
There are killers in history whose actions are incomprehensible to the rest of us, and then, there are killers who throughout their early childhood, displayed warning signs that were ignored. Before they were killers, before their point of no return, they may have been begging for help they didn’t get. And when people finally noticed, it was because they were too far gone.
Today we’re looking at Richard Trenton Chase also known as The Vampire of Sacramento. A man who at various points in his life cried out for help but either was refused or refused it himself.
A man who had a constant paranoia of losing and needing more of the vital fluid required to survive… his own blood. And if his body couldn’t produce it, he was willing to do the most heinous and monstrous acts to get it himself.
PART 1 - The Warning Signs
“We create monsters and then we can't control them”
Joel Coen
Richard Trenton Chase was born on May 23, 1950, in Sacramento, California. Raised in a home with a strict father and a mother who at times, didn’t seem to care. His parents fought constantly leading to violent outbursts. As Richard became older, he would also become the target of his father’s violence causing him to repress his anger as a psychiatrist would later point out.
Richard Chase’s Childhood
But before then he would begin to exhibit signs that he may be developing a mental illness. By the age of ten, Richard was setting small fires and killing cats mutilating their bodies, an early sign of what was to come.
As a teenager in school, Richard showed a different side. Nancy Holden, a high school classmate years later would describe Richard as studious and clean-cut during high school. He even had several girlfriends but never had a steady relationship. One girlfriend would later report the cause of this was his inability to perform sexually citing impotence.
The problem bothered Richard so much he went to see a psychiatrist on his own accord. The evaluation showed his impotence was possibly due to repressed anger or mental illness. At the time it was not recommended he be committed and Richard never followed up.
Paranoia
It wasn’t long after that he would turn to drugs, at first it was just smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol but then, he got into the heavier drugs leading him to constantly get into trouble, never once showing remorse or regret for his actions or his increasingly bizarre behavior.
Between the ages of 21 and 25, it was clear Richard’s mental stability was failing at a dramatic rate. His drug abuse increased and he became a hypochondriac, feeling like something inside of him was wrong. In a way Richard was right.
At one point, Richard entered an emergency room with multiple strange and impossible complaints. He said someone had stolen his pulmonary artery, that his stomach was backward, his heart would stop beating randomly, and finally that the bones in his skull were coming out of the back of his head.
Another psychiatrist would be brought in to review Richard, diagnosing him as a paranoid schizophrenic. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that can cause hallucinations and delusions.
No Help
Unfortunately due to, at this point, Richard having been arrested multiple times for minor drug offenses, the psychiatrist incorrectly assumed he was suffering from a drug-induced toxic psychosis. Richard was placed on a 72 hold but was not forced to stay and was allowed to leave of his own volition.
After this, he moved back in with his now-divorced mother, but quickly his delusions would begin to manifest again. He accused her of poisoning him, believing a Nazi crime syndicate was paying her. Poison would become a common theme in his delusions, especially a form of poison that could turn his blood into powder, leading him to believe he needed more.
Later in his life, he would explain he believed the poison could be identified by your soap dish. If you lifted your soap dish up and it was dry, then you were safe, but if you lifted your soap dish and it was gooey or wet, then you were poisoned. That poison would enter your blood turning it into powder, and depleting your life energy.
The fights with his mother and delusions led to his father purchasing Richard an apartment and forcing him to move into it, alone. Without supervision, his delusions continued to take over his life.
Blood Poisoning
In an effort to keep his heart from shrinking and disappearing from his body, Richard believed he needed blood, fresh blood. He captured rabbits, killing them and eating their organs raw. But he needed a quicker way to get that blood into him, resorting to blending the intestines with blood to quickly drink the concoction.
And even that was deemed too slow. In a desperate attempt to refill his blood supply, Richard injected the blood of a rabbit directly into his veins. This event would finally lead to others seeing the troubled man Richard had become if only temporarily.
After the blood injection, Richard became extremely ill, suffering from blood poisoning. At the hospital, he would tell doctors the reason it didn’t work was that the rabbit must have ingested battery acid that seeped into his stomach.
This led doctors to once again evaluate his mental condition diagnosing him as a schizophrenic suffering from somatic delusions. Somatic delusion is defined as the false belief that your internal or external bodily functions are abnormal.
Hospitalization
Richard was committed to the hospital where doctors tried various antipsychotic medications including ones that showed his illness may have begun before his drug use.
At the age of 26 in 1976, Richard escaped from the hospital but was eventually returned and committed to Beverly Manor, a facility for mental patients. Here he would tell the staff about his fantasies, his need to kill rabbits and drink their blood, he told them he needed and craved blood in order to live.
Several days later, the staff would find Richard with blood around his mouth. They realized his hunger for blood got the better of him and they discovered, he caught two stray birds through the bars of his window, killing them and drinking their blood earning him the nickname of Dracula.
Outside Spiral
Months later after several treatments, Richard was deemed no longer a danger to society, he was placed on anti-schizophrenic medication and released into the care of his parents. His mother took it upon herself to decide Richard no longer needed to be on medication and weaned him off of it.
His parents then put him into an apartment on his own. Now without supervision or medication, Richard spiraled into his delusions, even deeper than ever before. His personal hygiene halted, he dropped to 145 pounds, no longer bathing or brushing his teeth.
He captured, tortured, and drank the blood of animals, rabbits, dogs, cats, and even the pets of his own neighbors. He became fascinated by the Hillside Strangler believing the Hillside Strangler was also a victim of the same Nazis that were poisoning him.
In 1977 he visited his mother, throwing a dead cat at her door. When she opened, he screamed, cutting the cat open and spreading its blood on his face. His mother didn't report the incident or react, she just closed the door on him.
Just a few months later in December of 1977, Richard Trenton Chase purchased a 22-caliber semiautomatic handgun and made plans to cement himself as the Vampire of Sacramento.
PART 2 - Point of No Return
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
Edgar Allen Poe from The Raven
Ambrose Griffin
On December 29th, 1977, 51-year-old Ambrose Griffin and his wife returned home from grocery shopping. From the trunk of their car they each take a few bags to bring inside. With New Year’s right around the corner, like many of us, they were probably stocking up, and Ambrose would have to make a second trip to the trunk for the rest.
Mrs. Griffin stays inside while Ambrose blissfully steps back outside. From inside she hears the screeching of tires speeding by. The neighborhood had been the target of what they believed to be joy-riding kids so the Griffins and the rest of the neighborhood were used to the sounds. They had also heard rumors about their neighbors having porch lights shot out and even windshields bearing bullet holes.
The very next thing she hears are two loud pops coming from outside, now, she was on alert, and rushed outside to check on Ambrose.
She finds him on the ground, and in a split second, her quick thinking has her on the phone calling an ambulance believing her husband has collapsed from a heart attack. But when she steps back outside, she sees a pool of blood spreading from his body.
Ambrose Griffin died later that day at American River Hospital from a bullet wound to the chest. He left behind his wife and two adult children.
Search for a Killer
The police searched the neighborhood looking for any clues or hints as to who might have killed Ambrose. One woman tells them of the joy-riding kids who have been shooting what she believes is a gun into the neighborhood. In fact, she thinks a bullet may have lodged itself in the walls of her kitchen.
After searching her home police find a slug and match it to the bullet that killed Ambrose Griffin. They have now linked both crimes to a 22-caliber handgun. Unbeknownst to them, it was the same gun Richard Chase had purchased earlier that month.
Richard was escalating and he was now on the hunt for victims. When interviewed later in life, Richard said he was going around checking doors and windows, since locked doors meant you weren’t welcomed in the home but unlocked, meant you were allowed in.
Nancy Holden
On January 23rd, 1978 he would find a couple of unlocked doors but not before making a stop at a shopping center where he bumped into an old high school acquaintance, Nancy Holden. Richard approached her, asking her questions about a previous boyfriend she had, who had passed away ten years prior.
Nancy at first didn’t recognize the Richard in front of her, the Richard she remembered wasn’t grimy, stained, and aggressive. She quickly ended the small talk and left the store while Richard was paying for his items. But just when she thought she was safe, Richard followed her to her car.
He tried to ask her for a ride but his creepy demeanor freaked her out. She got into her car, locked the doors, rolled up the windows, and drove past him. We will never know what Richard would have done to Nancy had he gotten that ride, instead he directed his intentions to the homes nearby.
New Victims
The first house he found unlocked, he also found it empty but that didn’t stop Richard from the depravity he wanted to cause. The home belonged to Robert and Barbara Edwards. They arrived home from buying groceries a little while later and were shocked at what they found. The home was in shambles, with furniture and belongings knocked over, and tossed around the home. And then they heard a sound coming from further in the house.
Robert Edwards rushed in, finding Richard stepping into the backyard, he attempted to lunge at him but Richard ran off, jumping over the fence, and escaping. The Edwards would later find feces in their child’s bed and urine on their clothing.
They described Richard to the police as a fairly tall, skinny, dirty white man with long dark hair. But as the police were investigating this break-in, Richard had found another unlocked home, this one belonging to David and Teresa Wallin. This time someone was home, while David was at work; Teresa was doing chores around the house.
Richard walked in through the unlocked door and just around the corner bumped into Teresa Wallin on her way to take out the garbage. Shocked, she dropped the bag, raising her hands defensively, as Richard raised his 22-caliber handgun.
Police Discover Richard’s Crimes
Later that day at around 6 pm police arrived at the Wallin home, responding to a call from David after he found his wife brutally murdered. The police walked in, walking past the bag of garbage on the ground, following a trail of blood to the bedroom. Here police found the body of Teresa Wallin half naked, she had been sexually assaulted after being shot three times. Once through the palm of her hand, and twice in the head.
While sexually assaulting her, Richard also stabbed her multiple times, mutilating her body, and taking several of her organs. There was evidence of Richard taking her blood in buckets into the bathtub and rubbing it over his face and body, as well as evidence of Richard drinking her blood from a yogurt cup that came from the garbage bag.
Teresa Wallin was only 22 years old, she was three months pregnant.
The police were shocked at the brutality of the scene and reached out to the FBI for assistance in creating a profile of the killer. Agents Russ Vorpagel and Robert Ressler were assigned to the case and quickly created a profile. They determined the killer would be tall, malnourished, a loner, and unclean; and if not stopped, he would continue to kill.
Just four days later on January 27th, they would be proven right.
Evelyn Miroth
The police and FBI arrived at the home of 36-year-old, Evelyn Miroth. Her neighbors had called the police after their 6-year-old daughter told them of seeing a strange man through the window of the Miroth home. The 6-year-old had a playdate scheduled with Evelyn’s son, Jason, who was also 6 and when he didn’t arrive on time, her parents sent her to check.
When she described what she had seen through the windows. The neighbors became worried and went over to enter the home.
After what they saw, they immediately called the police.
Upon arriving the police found the body of 52-year-old Dan Meredith lying in a pool of blood in the hallway, he had been shot in the head and was missing his keys and wallet. In the bathroom they found a bath of bloody water, following the trail of blood on the ground led them to the bedroom where Evelyn was lying naked. Like Teresa Wallin, she had been shot in the head.
Richard had surprised her in the shower, shot her in the head, then dragged her body to the bedroom. He once again sexually assaulted his victim, stabbing and carving her body in the process. Evidence showed he had stabbed her at least a half dozen times in the anus, and stabbed her in vital points of the body causing her blood to pool into her abdomen, making it easier for him to collect it into a bucket. Like before, evidence also showed he took several organs and drank blood at the scene.
On the other side of the room, the police found the body of 6-year-old Jason, he had been shot twice in the head.
While at the scene, Karen Ferreira arrived, she was Evelyn’s sister-in-law and she had left her 22-month-old son, David, with Evelyn that morning. The police searched for evidence of the boy but only found a pillow that had been in David’s crib. It was soaked in blood with a bullet hole through the center.
Searching for A Vampire
The police and FBI ramped up their search, through interviewing the neighbors they learned Dan Meredith’s red station wagon was also missing from the driveway. They also learned an 11-year-old girl had seen a strange man around the Miroth home earlier that day. The description she gave matched the description of the man who broke into the Edwards home 4 days ago and the FBI’s profile.
The next day as news spread of the description and murders, the FBI and police received a call from someone with the name of a suspect. On the line was Nancy Holden and she was sure the man they were looking for was Richard Chase.
PART 3 - Too Far Gone
“Sometimes there is no solution. Sometimes there's simply an end.”
Sara Ella from Unraveling
On January 28th, 1978 a day after the savage murders in the Miroth home, Detectives run a background check on Richard Trenton Chase after a tip from Nancy Holden.
They find his history of mental illness, a series of minor drug busts, a concealed weapons charge, but most damning of all, they find the gun registration for a 22 semi-automatic handgun sold to Richard in December of 1977.
Catching A Killer
With his address in hand and 22-month-old David Ferreira still missing, the detectives made their way to Richard’s home. There they knocked and banged on the door but Richard refused to open and without a warrant, the detectives couldn’t bust in.
Instead, they decided to trick him, they pretended to leave and waited at the end of the complex. A little while later, Richard emerged from his home carrying what looked to be a dark stained box in his arms. Before he could reach his car, detectives closed in. Seeing the dark stains on his clothing and what appeared to be blood on his shoes, they arrested him.
On his person, they found a pair of latex gloves, his handgun also with apparent blood stains, and Dan Meredith’s missing wallet. In the box, they found bloodstained wallpaper and rags.
They had found their killer.
At the precinct, the police attempted to get a confession but Richard would only admit to killing animals and refused any talk about murders. Their only other hope was to find evidence in his apartment and what they found, was more than enough.
Richard Chase’s Apartment
The police were welcomed with a putrid smell of death in the home of Richard Chase. Blood had stained every room. Blood stains were found on walls, floors, ceilings, drinking glasses, bowls, plates, forks, spoons, and especially the sink.
In the kitchen they found three electric blenders caked in coagulated blood and emanating a smell of rotten corpses. The fridge was the stuff of nightmares, dishes holding severed body parts, animal parts wrapped in aluminum foil, human organs in saran wrap, containers holding organs, and one with pieces of brain.
On Richard’s table, the detectives found photographic overlays of human organs from a science textbook, circled newspapers of ads selling dogs and cats, and a calendar with the dates January 23rd and January 27th circled with the word “Today” inscribed, the dates matching up to the dates of his murders.
There were forty-four other dates circled for the rest of the year. Even with all of this evidence they still had no leads on where 22-month-old David Ferreira was being held.
The Search for David Ferreira
The police widened their search, using bloodhounds which led nowhere. They even tried to speak with Richard’s mother, who was uncooperative, she believed her son was innocent despite being told of the evidence they found.
At the police station, various blood samples were taken from Richard’s clothing and hair, throughout the collection Richard seemed cooperative. It wasn’t until they needed a blood sample from him that he started to lash out, requiring him to be restrained.
This was the first the police learned of his intense fear of losing his blood and stories of his blood poisoning at the hands of Nazis and UFOs. It would become the cornerstone of his defense when his attorney entered a plea of Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.
After a change of venue due to the notoriety of the case, the trial was scheduled to begin almost a year later, on January 2nd, 1979. But before then, the police would keep searching for David Ferreira.
Finding David
On March 24th, 1978 a janitor of a local church found a box containing David’s body. Evidence showed Richard had shot and killed David at the scene of the murders on January 27th before bringing the body home with him. There he removed and ate the organs, decapitating the body and placing the pieces into a box, he disposed of it before the detectives ever even knew his name.
Forensic evidence would go on to show the organs in this refrigerator belonged to Evelyn Miroth, Teresa Wallin, and 22-month-old David Ferreira. The pieces of brain found in his refrigerator also belong to David.
The Trial of Richard Chase
Richard Trenton Chase was charged with six counts of murder with the prosecution seeking the death penalty. The trial would last four months with questions on Richard’s sanity, knowing right and wrong, and whether Richard’s beliefs would excuse him for his barbaric actions.
Up to a dozen psychologists interviewed Richard during the trial and found that he truly believed his blood was poisoned and that without new blood, he would die. But they also found he was aware that what he was doing was wrong, even fearing those that he killed would try to come for him from the dead. One psychiatrist even concluded he wasn’t schizophrenic but instead suffering from an antisocial personality disorder.
During the defense phase of the trial, Richard testified he was only semi-conscious during all the killings and apologized for his actions. He believed his issues stemmed from his upbringing and mistreatment during his life.
With this, the defense asked for a verdict of second-degree murder, to avoid the death penalty putting forth that Richard Chase was a man clearly insane but had never been given proper help throughout his entire life.
On May 8th, 1979 after five hours of deliberation the jury found Richard Trenton Chase guilty of six counts of first-degree murder. After another hour of deliberation, they found him legally sane and sentenced him to death via the gas chamber at San Quentin Penitentiary.
Deathrow for Richard Chase
While awaiting the gas chamber Richard Chase was given daily medication for his hallucinations and depression but was not placed in the psychiatric ward of the prison.
In his book, Whoever Fights Monsters former FBI Agent Robert Ressler wrote about his visits to speak with Richard Chase. During one visit he urged the prison to move Richard to the psychiatric ward but after a short time, he was returned back to the general population of the prison.
Ressler also wrote about the other prisoners taunting Richard about the full extent of his delusions. Richard explained the Nazis were linked to the UFOs who were beaming messages to him. He believed the FBI could help since the UFOs were still following him around even while in prison. He then gave Ressler a cup of macaroni and cheese he wanted to be analyzed for poison.
On December 26th, 1980 during a routine safety check, Richard Chase did not respond to the guards greeting. When told to move, Richard didn’t flinch. The guards opened the cell and found Richard Chase dead.
The cause of death was toxic ingestion. Over the course of several days prior Richard had stockpiled his medication meant for his delusions and taken them all at once causing his death from overdose.
The Vampire of Sacramento was gone. The early events in his life were full of red flags and the choices made for him by psychiatrists and his parents, along with his own choices led him down a terribly dark path.
Today we know Richard Trenton Chase as the Vampire of Sacramento. In the end, he was his own last victim but we also shouldn’t forget the lives he cut short. Ambrose Edward Griffin, 51; Teresa Lyn Wallin, 22; Daniel J Meredith, 52; Evelyn Elizabeth Miroth, 36; Jason Bradford Miroth, 6; and David Michael Ferreira, 22 months.
