The Vampire of Sacramento

 

 In my research for a photo essay about the memorials on campus I came across Richard Trenton Chase who was listed on American River College’s website as an ARC notable person.  I wondered who he was and if there is a memorial to him on campus.  What I found was both interesting and shocking. 

Richard Trenton Chase was a serial killer! He was also known as the Vampire of Sacramento.

During the months of December 1977 and January 1978 Chase killed 6 people, 2 women, 2 men, a 6-year-old boy and a 22-months-old baby.  These horrific crimes have placed Chase at the top of the worst serial killers in the United States.  According to the FBI his case is still used as a classic model for understanding the disorganized killer in the behavioral training program for FBI profilers.

Movies like Rampage, Unspeakable and Deadly Obsession have used Chase as the model for their characters.  The TV series Criminal Minds refer to him in several episodes. Books have been written about him and untold studies have been done about his life and why he became a serial killer.

Local media gave Chase the title “Vampire of Sacramento”, because he drank blood and consumed various body parts of his victims. Hannibal Lector would be so proud.

According to records introduced during his trial Chase’s was born in Sacramento to a dysfunctional middle class family in 1950.  By the time he was 12 he was torturing and killing cats and small animals, setting fires and bed wetting, all classic symptoms of the MacDonald Triad. During his teenage years he turned to drugs and alcohol. 

In 1964 he attended Mira Loma high school.  It was in high school that he was first arrested for drug use and possession. He managed to graduate in 1968. Between the years of 1968-1971 he attended American River College. His time at ARC was marked by average grades mostly C’s.

When he was 18 he sought out the help of a psychiatrist for a problem with erectile dysfunction as he was failing with the girls he dated in high school according to medical records released during his trial. These records indicated that he had a problem with severely suppressed anger and that he was suffering from mental illness.  This diagnosis, the first of many to indicate his mental illness, only fueled his belief that he was suffering from a blood disorder and that the only cure was to drink fresh blood. 

During this time period he increased his drug use and his belief that something was wrong with him intensified.  During interviews conducted by FBI agent Robert Ressler, Chase explained that he was being poisoned by Nazi’s and that aliens beings where living in his body and turning his blood to powder.   

From 1972 to 1978 Chase was in and out of mental institutions and it was from the staff at one such institution that he got the nick name “Dracula” because of his bizarre behavior of killing birds and drinking their blood.   

There were instances of his arriving at hospital emergency rooms complaining that his heart was stopping, his pulmonary artery had been stolen, his blood was being turned to powder and that the bones in his head were being rearranged.  Doctors tried to treat his mental illness with anti –psychotic drugs but where unsuccessful. He was institutionalized, however when doctors determined that his mental illness was caused by his massive drug use and he was again released. 

Chase’s need for blood escalated from small animals to larger animals. In August 1977 he was arrested near Pyramid Lake Reservation in Nevada after reservation police found him wondering naked and covered in blood.  Officers recovered 2 rifles and bloody clothes from his stranded vehicle. It was later determined by police that the blood was from cows. 

His parents though divorced continued to provide support for Chase. They paid for his apartment his food and medical expenses.  Chase eventually went on welfare for extra money. By having his own apartment his psychotic behavior not only escalated but went unnoticed. 

December of 1977 Chase purchases a .22 caliber pistol which he used to kill his first human victim, Ambrose Griffin. Chase shot Griffin in his driveway on the 29^{th  of}  December. Chase later told police that he was angry and frustrated because his mother had not let him come home for Christmas.

In January 1978 he was institutionalized for paranoid schizophrenia. Again was released. This time his psychotic schizophrenia produced deadly results.  

From January 23-27 of 1978 Chase goes on a rampage.  He breaks into and ransacks several houses. Theresa Walling 23, who was twelve weeks pregnant at the time, had just returned to her home on Tioga Way in Sacramento. Chase entered her home through an unlocked front door. Police records indicate that Wallin, was shot, stabbed multiple times, mutilated and disemboweled. She was also sexually assaulted after she had died.   There was evidence that her blood and several of her organs had been consumed at the scene. 

As police were investigating this horrific crime scene they were called to the scene of an even gorier murder.  Evelyn Miroth, her friend Daniel Meredith, Jason Miroth Evelyn’s 6-year-old son and David Ferreira Evelyn’s 22-month-old nephew had been slaughtered.  

Crime scene photo notice the circle of blood

Police found Miroth’s body mutilated, her torso ripped open and several of her organs missing. Bloody rings near the body were later determined to indicate that her blood and organs had been collected. She had also been sodomized in addition to being raped after her death. Both Meredith and 6-year-old Miroth had been shot.  Their bodies left alone.  Ferreira the 22-month-old nephew was missing. Investigators did not have much hope for him as a bullet hole and a large blood stain was found in his crib.  The boy’s decapitated corpse would be found several months later.

Detectives led by Lt. Ray Biondi of the Sacramento Sheriff’s department were able to zero in on the killer.  Fortunately for them Chase was what the FBI now classifies as a disorganized killer.  He had left plenty of finger and foot prints behind.

Days after the killings detectives apprehend Chase as he was leaving his apartment.  Blood stained clothes and rags littered the apartment, a .22-caliber pistol was found and most damaging of all, human brain tissue and body parts matching the victims were found in the fridge.  Several blenders were also found with blood and cut up body parts ready to be made into a bizarre vampire smoothie. 

 

A calendar was also found hanging on the wall, with the words “today” written on the dates of the killings.  But even more chilling were the 44 future dates Chase had inscribed on the calendar.

Chase’s trial began on Jan. 2, 1979.  Prosecutor Ronald W. Tochterman intended to seek the death penalty while defense attorney Farris Salamy argued that Chase was not guilty by reason of insanity.  His trial went on for 5 months.  The jury found him sane enough to know that what he had done was wrong. He was convicted on six counts of murder in the first degree.  The court sentenced him to death.  

While waiting to be executed Chase became his final victim, he killed himself by overdosing on hoarded anti-depressants that he had been given to help keep him calm.  

On Dec 26, 1980 the Vampire of Sacramento was dead. 

During interviews with Chase, FBI agent Ressler asked how he selected his victims. Chase replied that he went down the streets testing doors to find one that was unlocked. “If the door was locked,” Chase said, “That means you’re not welcome.”

A good reason to keep your doors locked.