Herbert William Mullin is an American serial killer, responsible for the murders of 13 people in California in the 1970s. When Mullin was 18 years old, his best friend Dean Richardson died and he built a shrine to him in his bedroom. He later confessed that he was scared that he may be gay, despite having a long-term girlfriend. At the age of 21, Mullin’s family, with his permission, committed him to a mental hospital. He would extinguish cigarettes on his skin, attempted to enter the priesthood and would pound on walls and floors, shouting at people who were not there. He would often discharge himself after just a few days. Later, FBI profiler Robert K. Ressler said Mullin was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, possibly accelerated by using LSD or marijuana. By 1972, 25-year-old Mullin had moved back home with his parents in Felton, California, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. By this time he was hearing voices that told him an earthquake was coming, and that only human sacrifice could help him save California; Mullin’s birthday, April 18, happened to be the anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which he thought was significant. Mullin believed that the Vietnam War had produced enough death to hold back the earthquakes, but with the war winding down he would need to start killing people in order to keep the earthquake away. On October 13, 1972, Mullin claimed his first victim when he beat Lawrence White to death with a baseball bat. White, a homeless 55-year-old man, was hitchhiking and Mullin hit him after tricking him into looking at the car engine. Mullin later stated that the victim was in fact Jonah from the Bible, and that he sent Mullin a telepathic message saying, “Pick me up and throw me over the boat. Kill me so that others will be saved.” His body was discovered the following day. 11 days later, 24-year-old Mary Guilfoyle, a college student, was running late and decided to hitchhike. Mullin picked her up and stabbed her through the chest and back. He dissected her body, scattering her remains along a road.
On November 2, 1972, Mullin confessed his sins at church. In his paranoid schizophrenic state, he believed Father Henri Tomei wanted to volunteer as his next sacrifice to prevent the earthquakes. He beat, stabbed and kicked the priest, who bled to death in the confessional while a parishioner looked on and ran away. The witness described a tall, young man in dark clothing and black boots, but this did not help police, who speculated that Tomei possibly startled a robber. Following this incident, Mullin attempted to join the U.S. Marines, but failed the drug test. This rejection fuelled Mullin’s delusions of conspiracies and groups of “hippies” out to get him. He stopped taking drugs, believing they were causing his problems in life. In December 1972, Mullin bought a .22-calibre revolver and decided to kill Jim Gianera, a high school friend who had sold him marijuana, blaming him for his rejection from the Marines. However, when he arrived at Gianera’s house, he discovered his old friend had moved. The cabin was now occupied by Kathy Francis, who gave Mullin Gianera’s new address. There, Mullin killed Gianera and his wife before returning to the Francis home, where he shot and killed her and her 2 sons (aged 4 and 9). As Francis’ husband, who wasn’t there at the time, was a known drug dealer, this was thought to be the motive for the triple homicide. Prosecutors later used the murder of Kathy Francis to dispute Mullin’s claims of insanity, as he killed her to remove a witness who could link him to the murder of Jim Gianera. Around a month later, in February 1973, Mullin was wandering around Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, when he encountered 4 teenage boys camping illegally. He walked over to them, and claimed to be a park ranger. He ordered them to leave as they were “polluting” the forest, but they refused. Mullin killed all 4 boys and abandoned their bodies, which were found a week later.
The final murder took place on February 13, 1973. Mullin was driving through Santa Cruz when he passed Fred Perez, a retired fisherman, who was weeding his lawn. For no apparent reason, Mullin doubled back and used his rifle to kill the man with a single shot to the heart. He then got back into the car and drove away. This incident occurred in broad daylight and there were several witnesses, one of whom got Mullin’s license plate number. He was captured a few minutes later and a “docile” Mullin was arrested without incident. During interrogation, Mullin admitted to his crimes, telling police that voices in his head told him to kill people in order to prevent an earthquake. He claimed that the only reason there had not been an earthquake recently was due to his handiwork. As Mullin admitted his crimes, the focus of the trial was whether he was sane and culpable for his actions. The fact that he showed evidence of covering his tracks and premeditation was highlighted by the prosecution, while the defence argued that Mullin had a history of mental illness and had paranoid schizophrenia. On August 19, 1973, Mullin was declared guilty of first-degree murder (premeditated) in the cases of Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis), while for the other 8 murders Mullin was found guilty of second-degree murder. He also pled guilty to second-degree murder in the case of Father Henry Tomei. Mullin has been denied parole 8 times since 1980. He is known to have interacted with Edmund Kemper during his incarceration, sharing a cell once. Kemper recalled: “Well, [Mullin] had a habit of singing and bothering people when somebody tried to watch TV. So I threw water on him to shut him up. Then, when he was a good boy, I’d give him some peanuts. Herbie liked peanuts. That was effective because pretty soon he asked permission to sing. That’s called behaviour modification treatment.”