Richard Chase

Richard Chase was born in Sacramento, California, on May 23, 1950, the first of two children born to Richard Edgar and Beatrice Lorene ( Neese) Chase; his only sibling was a younger sister named Pamela Lee (b. October 8, 1953). The Chase household was middle class, and the family followed the Presbyterian faith. His parents were disciplinarians, and both siblings were frequently beaten by their father throughout their childhood. Both parents were prone to arguing with each other during Chase's childhood, and his mother—tormented by suspicions her husband was unfaithful to her and trying to poison her—sought psychiatric treatment on at least two occasions in the early 1960s. The couple separated in 1964, with their children briefly residing with relatives in Los Angeles, but later reconciled. By the age of ten, Chase had begun exhibiting the traits of the Macdonald triad: cruelty to animals, fire-setting, and bedwetting, He is also known to have developed a rich fantasy life dominated by thoughts of power in addition to a selfish and inconsiderate personality. These internal issues did not greatly affect Chase's early school or social life, with over sixty children attending one of his birthday parties. Adolescence From 1964 to 1968, Chase attended Mira Loma High School. While enrolled at high school, he developed a reputation among his peers as something of a loner, although he did have a small circle of friends—many of whom were known throughout the school as "acid-heads". By his mid-teens, he had become a heavy user of drugs such as marijuana and LSD in addition to frequently drinking heavily. He would accrue a minor criminal record throughout the 1960s for both possession and theft, for which he was ordered to perform community service. Although Chase possessed an average IQ of 95, he was a largely unmotivated student—typically achieving C, D and F grades. Nonetheless, Chase did graduate from high school on June 6, 1968. He received a Volkswagen from his parents as a graduation present. Although Chase generally had difficulty interacting with women, he did begin dating girls in 1965; however, he soon discovered that he was impotent, which greatly affected his self-esteem. According to one former girlfriend, she and Chase were unable to have sex the first time they attempted to do so due to his inability to maintain an erection. The relationship continued nonetheless, although his continual failure to achieve or maintain an erection contributed to their eventual split in 1966. Shortly thereafter, at a friend's party, Chase—intoxicated—broke down in tears and confided his frustrations regarding his impotence to his friends. Seven months after Chase's eighteenth birthday, he visited a psychiatrist who specialized in adolescent issues to discuss his impotence and tensions within his family; he was informed his inability to maintain an erection may source from extreme suppressed anger, possibly directed at women in general. ==Early adulthood==

College Shortly after graduating from high school, Chase enrolled at American River College. Beginning in 1969, while still enrolled at American River College, Chase began working as an administrative assistant for Retailers Credit Association. This employment lasted several months, but would prove to be the only job Chase held for any significant duration of time. Chase would alternate between various roles of employment over the following two years, although due to his poor work ethic and drug use, none of these jobs lasted more than a few weeks. In 1970, Chase moved out of his parents' home and into an apartment on Annadale Lane. He shared this apartment with two young women named Cyd Evans DeMarchi and Rachel Statum, both of whom he knew and whom he had convinced to let him become their roommate. His parents gave him $50 each month to help him pay his share of the rent. Three months later, DeMarchi and Statum moved out of the apartment due to Chase's behavior and his neglecting of household responsibilities. He was usually high on drugs, suspected of dealing marijuana, and frequently walked around naked in front of female visitors. Increasingly isolated, he also barricaded himself in his room, explaining that he did this so no one would be able to "sneak up" on him. Shortly thereafter, Statum's brothers and their friends moved into the apartment. These roommates had a rock band, and Chase often interrupted their rehearsals, insisting on playing the conga with them; however, they resisted these requests due to his poor musical ability. This resistance frequently caused arguments, but Chase joined in anyway. of Chase, taken following his arrest for possession of marijuana Within months, Statum's brothers and their friends had also moved out of the apartment due to Chase's erratic behavior, extreme drug use, and poor hygiene. As Chase was unable to afford the rent, he soon moved back into his parents' home. Typically achieving C grades and again developing a reputation among his peers as a loner, a lackadaisical student and a heavy user of drugs and alcohol, Chase eventually dropped out of college in 1971. In December of the same year, he was arrested by the Sacramento Police Department for the possession of marijuana. Mental deterioration Chase's parents separated in June 1972; they divorced six months later, and his father later remarried. Thereafter, Chase divided his time between his parents, although both parents found it difficult to deal with his increasingly erratic behavior in addition to an increasingly slovenly lifestyle. His father continued to believe that the troubles in his son's life sourced not from mental illness, but a poor work ethic and misguided values. As such, the two frequently argued, with Richard Sr. frequently instructing his son to "straighten up" and "get a job". During one heated argument with his mother in late 1972, Beatrice attempted to call the police. In response, Chase grabbed the phone and struck his mother across the head with it before running out of the house and jumping over a fence. Chase's mother did call the police; she was informed she could press charges against her son if she wished, but decided not to. During one lone trip to Utah in 1972, Chase was arrested for driving under the influence. Two weeks later, having returned to California, he claimed to his parents that he was "quite ill" due to being gassed by officers in a Utah jail, and that he intended to sue the police. His father—who had bailed him out of jail—convinced him against suing the police. By early 1973, Chase had begun obsessively worrying about his physical health. That summer, he began cutting out photos of human organs from a ''Gray's Anatomy'' medical book and pasting the images on his bedroom walls in an effort to understand what he believed was wrong with him. He also began seeking medical help for his perceived ailments; on one occasion in approximately 1973, Chase called an ambulance to his house, which arrived with a stretcher that he had requested. However, the paramedics refused to take him to the hospital when they determined that he was not suffering from a medical emergency and suggested he undergo a psychiatric evaluation. By this stage, Chase's sister had become markedly afraid of him and made efforts to avoid being alone in his company; his mother—having noted he had begun hearing voices and regularly made comments to the effect of "Stop bothering me!" to himself—made arrangements for him to see two separate doctors. Chase was dissatisfied with the prognosis these doctors gave him, so he went to see a doctor named Donald Ansel. Ansel discovered no physical ailments, and concluded that Chase had a "psychiatric disturbance of major proportion." In part due to increasing tensions between himself and his parents, Chase relocated to Los Angeles to live with his paternal grandmother in May 1973. His grandmother and uncle both worked for a school for mentally disabled children, and his uncle was able to obtain employment for Chase as a school bus driver. He was fired from this job for failing to perform the necessary maintenance work on the vehicle and allowing it to run low on oil. After being fired from his job, Chase spent most of the day in his bed, roaming the house at night. His grandmother also noted his odd behavior and evident hypochondria, with Chase constantly complaining of heart and stomach pains. He refused to eat any meals his grandmother cooked for him, and insisted on cooking his own meals. His grandmother also heard him talking to himself when alone in his bedroom — most frequently asking himself the question, "Richard, are you a good boy?" before replying to himself, "Yes, you're a good boy." On other occasions, Chase's grandmother observed him standing on his head; his explanation was that his head hurt and he was attempting to increase the circulation of blood to his head. Chase's grandmother later bought him a plane ticket to return to Sacramento. Institutionalization On December 1, 1973, Chase walked into the emergency room of the American River Hospital in a manic state, alleging to have suffered a cardiac arrest and shouting that the blood had ceased flowing through his body, that he was unable to breathe and claiming both that his head was changing shape and that his pulmonary artery had been stolen. Physicians discovered no ailments, and Chase was admitted to the hospital's psychiatric unit. Doctor Irwin Lyons noted in his report that Chase was "tense, nervous and wild eyed", describing him as a "filthy, disheveled, deteriorated and foul-smelling white male". Hospital staff diagnosed Chase as a chronic paranoid schizophrenic, though conceded the possibility the condition sourced from his extreme drug abuse. Two days after his admission to the psychiatric unit, Chase was discharged from the facility against the doctors' advice when his mother confronted the psychiatric ward staff. In his discharge report, Lyons noted Beatrice Chase was "highly aggressive, hostile [and] provocative", adding that she was "the so-called schizophrenogenic mother". ==Release==

Following his discharge from the psychiatric unit, Chase's mental health allegedly improved. According to Beatrice Chase, her son had been distressed by the experience of his institutionalization and she was able to "work with him" for approximately two years—ensuring he took his medication, refraining from drug and alcohol abuse, eating healthier, and improving his personal hygiene. (Richard Chase Sr. would later dispute these claims.) Relapse By late 1975, Chase had relapsed into frequent drug abuse, and from early 1976, his mental health began to deteriorate considerably. He became markedly paranoid and intemperate, and his hypochondria led to behavior such as his holding oranges onto or alongside his head, believing vitamin C would be absorbed by his brain via diffusion. Convinced his body was not producing sufficient blood, his fixation with blood increased greatly. Chase additionally believed that his cranial bones had become separated and were slowly moving around his skull; on one occasion, he shaved his head to be able to monitor this activity. As her son's mental state deteriorated, Beatrice Chase again began hearing him talking to himself. According to his mother, he began to struggle to effectively sign his own name, and on two occasions, he also ordered her to stop controlling his mind; he later also accused his sister Pamela of controlling his mind. On several occasions, Chase and his mother engaged in heated arguments, occasionally resulting in either Chase striking his mother, or she and her daughter fleeing the household and summoning Richard Sr. to calm his son. On one occasion in approximately February 1976, as Chase spoke with his father on the telephone following another heated argument, Chase tore his mother's phone from the wall, terminating the call. This incident prompted both of Chase's parents—but particularly his father—to resolve to find an apartment for their son. Thereafter, he briefly resided with his father, who soon found an apartment for his son on Cannon Street. He moved into this apartment in early 1976, surviving on welfare, and with his father paying his rent and visiting him on a weekly basis. ==Cannon Street==

Shortly after moving into his Cannon Street apartment, Chase began to frequently consume animal blood in a delusional belief that his doing so was a survival necessity to replenish his own insufficient and contaminated blood supply. Initially, Chase primarily killed rabbits he bought at a nearby rabbit farm; after purchasing the rabbits, he consumed their raw entrails and flesh at his apartment—frequently liquefying the animal intestines and blood, mixed with cola, in his blender in the belief his doing so would prevent his heart from shrinking. Initially, Chase kept his apartment relatively clean, and his father would frequently visit to play games of chess. When Chase's father asked why he had begun keeping live rabbits, Chase responded by saying that he was eating them; his father never looked into this claim further, having long grown accustomed to his son's fanciful statements. The staff at this institution also diagnosed Chase with severe schizophrenia; staff also noted he failed to react to prescribed anti-psychotic medication, leading doctors to conclude his mental issues stemmed from his heavy and prolonged drug use. Second release Despite several setbacks, by the summer of 1976, Chase's condition had markedly improved, with the battery of treatments involving psychotropic drugs producing positive results. Staff notes indicate that by mid-September, he had not mutilated any birds, or requested blood to drink for "some time now". In addition, he had actively participated in group activities for over two months. Doctors believed they could not help him improve further and released him to his mother's custody on September 29, his parents having been granted a conservatorship to be subject to annual review and staff strongly emphasizing Chase continue to take his medication. ==Watt Avenue==

Shortly after his release from the Beverly Manor Psychiatric Hospital, Chase moved into an apartment on Watt Avenue, with his mother paying his rent on the first day of each month and both parents shopping for his groceries and monitoring his condition. Initially, Beatrice Chase ensured her son took his medications, but increasingly believed the medications simply made him "easier to handle". Uncomfortable with her son's docile and submissive drugged status and believing he no longer needed to be medicated, Chase's mother weaned him off his medication, without consulting doctors, and by January 1977, Chase was no longer taking any prescribed medication. Shortly thereafter, Chase's delusions returned, and he began accusing his mother of attempting to poison him with dish soap. Chase's preoccupation with his own health soon developed into extreme somatic delusions. Again convinced his heart was shrinking and that he needed to drink animal blood and eat their viscera to survive, Chase progressed from eating birds and rabbits to eating dogs. Suspecting that a homicide had occurred, Chase was arrested despite protesting the blood on his body and within his vehicle had seeped through his own skin. He later amended his story to claim he had shot a deer in Colorado "sometime in May" and had simply undressed to wash the blood from his body in the lake when arrested. Four days later, laboratory tests confirmed the liver to source from a cow and the blood to be of bovine origin. As such, no charges were filed. Shortly thereafter, Chase returned to Sacramento, having been able to retrieve his vehicle but not his rifles. ==December 1977==

On December 2, 1977, Chase purchased a .22-caliber Stoeger Luger semi-automatic pistol for $69.99, having lied about his history of mental illness to do so. He was allowed to collect the gun on December 18. Thereafter, neighbors heard him shooting within his apartment. As the first box of bullets Chase purchased with the pistol contained fifty rounds of ammunition and he is known to have purchased a second box of ammunition on December 26, Chase is believed to have fired the gun on at least fifty occasions between December 18 and December 26. In the early evening of December 27, Chase fired his pistol at the wall of a home as he drove by the household. Nobody was injured in this incident. Shortly thereafter, at approximately 6:30 p.m., he fired into the kitchen window of a nearby household. Nobody was injured in this second incident, although one bullet did tear through the hair of a woman named Dorothy Polenske, narrowly missing her head. ==Murders==

Ambrose Griffin On December 29, 1977, Chase killed his first known human victim. The victim, Ambrose Edward Griffin, was a 51-year-old engineer and father of two whom Chase targeted in a drive-by shooting. Griffin had just returned from a shopping trip with his wife, Carol, and was returning from the kitchen of his home to his vehicle to continue carrying bags of groceries into his house when his wife heard two "popping noises" before hearing her husband scream, turn to face her, then crumple to the ground. One of the rounds fired missed and struck a tree, but the other struck Griffin in the chest. Griffin's wife—initially believing that he had suffered a heart attack—ran to his side, screaming for help. Griffin died of his wounds in a hospital emergency room. The shooting baffled police, who viewed the murder as a random and motiveless crime—possibly a thrill killing. January 1978 Two weeks after the murder of Ambrose Griffin, Chase attempted to enter the home of a lone woman; as her doors were locked, he walked away from the premises. On January 10, 1978, he purchased three further boxes of ammunition. One week later, he set two fires in apartments close to his own, believing the occupants had been spying on him and in an effort to force the occupants to leave, and on the weekend of January 21–22, Chase went rock-hunting with his father, then visited his mother's house. Both parents later stated Chase seemed calm and pleasant. On the morning of January 23, Chase entered an unlocked and unoccupied household; he escaped from a window when the owners returned home at 10:40 a.m. The owners discovered $16, binoculars, a knife, a cassette player, and a stethoscope had been stolen, and that Chase had also urinated and defecated on their infant child's bed and clothing. Chase then returned home, retrieved his gun and changed from a blue jacket into an orange ski parka. Teresa Wallin On January 23, 1978, Chase broke into a house on Tioga Way and shot 22-year-old Teresa Lyn Wallin to death before extensively mutilating her body. Wallin was three months pregnant at the time of her death. She had been taking a bag of trash from the kitchen to the garbage when she encountered Chase, who entered her home through an unlocked door. Chase first shot Wallin in the right hand as she dropped the bag of garbage and raised her hands to protect herself. This bullet passed through her palm and into the left side of her scalp. Chase then shot her through her right forearm, with the bullet entering her cheek, breaking her jaw and causing her to collapse to the floor, before approaching her body and fatally shooting her in her left temple from a distance of less than six inches. He then dragged her body into the master bedroom before retrieving a butcher's knife from the kitchen silverware drawer and an empty yogurt cup from the trash bag Wallin had dropped to the living room floor. Wallin was extensively mutilated while lying on her back. Her turtleneck sweater was pulled up to expose her breasts before Chase severed her left nipple, repeatedly stabbed her breast through the wound, then cut open her torso from her sternum to her left hipbone, exposing her internal organs and causing sections of her intestines to protrude through the wounds and fall to the floor. The knife had penetrated her torso to a depth of a minimum of six inches, and multiple organs were removed, including the spleen, which was completely severed from her body. He would be undernourished, with an extensive history of drug use, and suffering from one or more forms of paranoid psychosis. The murderer was a markedly disorganized offender, with evident mental health issues which had most likely begun to develop at around the age of fifteen, with the depth of the offender's psychosis increasing in severity over the previous eight to ten years, to the point of committing a murder of this nature and evidently consuming his victim's blood and retaining sections of her body. The FBI profile also said that as a result of this mental illness, the killer likely didn't take care of himself, and would have a dirty, disheveled appearance. Furthermore, evidence of the crime would be found at the offender's residence, and the perpetrator would most likely repeatedly strike until he was caught. Miroth family On the morning of January 27, Chase parked his car in a shopping center, then entered the nearby Merrywood Drive home of 36-year-old divorced mother-of-three Evelyn Elizabeth Miroth. All four occupants in the household were shot to death, with Evelyn Miroth's body mutilated in a manner similar to that of Teresa Wallin. Their bodies were discovered by a neighbor at approximately 12:30 p.m. The crime scene was less than a mile from the home of David and Teresa Wallin. crime scene image of the Miroth family home, January 27, 1978 Chase claimed to have been in a semi-conscious state when committing these particular murders. As such, the exact sequence of events which unfolded is unclear. Evidence indicates that in the hallway to the household, he encountered Miroth's 52-year-old friend Daniel James Meredith. Chase shot Meredith twice in the head—including once between the eyes—at close range, with both wounds exiting the back of his skull. Six-year-old Jason Bradford Miroth may have been shot prior to Meredith, as forensic evidence indicates Meredith had stepped in Miroth's blood before he fell. Evelyn Miroth and her 22-month-old nephew David Michael Ferreira were also shot to death, with evidence upon an extensively blood-soaked pillow within Ferreira's crib indicating Chase had shot the toddler while he was in his crib. Chase then dragged the bodies of Evelyn and Jason Miroth into the master bedroom, where he first undressed both himself and Evelyn Miroth, then extensively mutilated her abdomen with knives from her own kitchen in addition to engaging in necrophilia and cannibalism with her body. He also repeatedly stabbed Miroth in the anus, incised her neck, and attempted to enucleate one of her eyes. The bathtub was filled with bloodied water in addition to sections of brain and fecal matter, suggesting that Evelyn's corpse had been dragged from within or close to the bathroom to the bedroom where she was mutilated and sodomized. Aside from Meredith's wallet and car keys, nothing had been stolen from the crime scene. While Chase was committing the mutilations upon Evelyn's body, a six-year-old neighbor, Tracy Grangaard, began knocking on the family door by prearrangement to inquire whether Jason Miroth was ready to accompany her and her mother upon a scheduled family day trip into the Sierra Nevada. Chase later informed police that this development startled him, and so he "took the baby and split". He fled the Miroth household with Ferreira's body in Meredith's Ford station wagon, which he parked in the lot of an apartment building on Marconi Avenue before taking the toddler's body into his own nearby apartment. He then retrieved his own vehicle. Minutes later, the mother of Tracy Grangaard, having noted Meredith's station wagon was now missing from the Miroth household, alerted a neighbor named Catherine Belli as to Evelyn's uncharacteristic absence. She then drove with her daughter to the Sierra Nevada, deciding Evelyn had simply changed her plans. Belli informed a friend named Nancy Turner of these developments; Turner then attempted to knock on the back door, only to discover the door open. She entered the property and discovered the body of Daniel Meredith. Turner fled from the house, alerting neighbors. Two men driving a Salvation Army truck nearby contacted the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office. Officers began arriving at the Miroth household at 12:43 p.m. The first officer dispatched to the scene, Ivan Clark, discovered Daniel Meredith lying face down on the floor near the hallway with two live and one spent .22-caliber cartridges near his body; they also discovered a nude woman lying on the bed in the master bedroom with extensive mutilations from her sternum to lower stomach and several internal organs protruding from the gaping wounds. She had been shot above her right eye. Two bloodstained knives lay on the bed near her head and left hand, and her hair was still wet, as if she had recently bathed. Jason Miroth's fully-clothed body lay beside the same bed, having been shot once in the head and once in the back of the neck. A large circular bloodstain was upon the floor by her bed. The bathroom tub was full of bloodstained water, feces, and brain matter, and an empty coffee cup lay on the floor near the door. A single, spent .22-caliber casing was discovered in a bloodstained, empty crib. At his apartment, Chase decapitated Ferreira's body before mutilating his chest, removing several organs and collecting and drinking his blood. He also stabbed Ferreira in the anus and cut open sections of the back of his skull, consuming sections of his brain. Ferreira's partially mummified body was discovered concealed in a cardboard box in an alleyway between a church and a supermarket on March 24. The location was approximately three-quarters of a mile (1.21 km) from Chase's apartment. Police investigation Due to the nature of the mutilations upon the female victim, the evident consumption of the victim's blood, and the close proximity of the crime scenes, investigators almost immediately connected the murders to the Wallin slaying. Investigators also discovered that the murderer had left complete handprints and shoe imprints in Evelyn Miroth's blood, thus providing further physical evidence as to his identity. Furthermore, Meredith's station wagon was discovered close to the crime scene with the door ajar and keys still in the ignition, supporting investigators' contentions the perpetrator lived locally—most likely less than from where the vehicle had been abandoned. Armed with an updated psychological profile of the murderer and a composite drawing of the suspect, over sixty police officers conducted extensive door-to-door inquiries in the neighborhood of the Wallin and Miroth households, primarily focusing on properties within a half-mile radius of the abandoned station wagon. Residents questioned were asked if they had seen either the red Ford station wagon or a young, disheveled and undernourished white male on January 27. Two eyewitnesses had seen the station wagon being driven in the neighborhood on January 27, but were unable to provide a clear description of the driver; however, shortly before midday on January 28, a former high school acquaintance of Chase named Nancy Holden contacted the police to inform them that, shortly before midday on the date of the Wallin murder, she had been approached by a man in an orange ski parka while she was in a shopping center close to the Wallin household. Initially, Holden had failed to recognize the individual, but when the man asked her if she had been "on the motorcycle when Curt was killed", she replied "No", and asked who he was. He introduced himself as "Rick" and she realized the man was Richard Chase. ==Arrest==

A police search of DMV records revealed that a Richard Trenton Chase resided in an apartment on Watt Avenue, less than a block from Meredith's abandoned station wagon. A criminal record check further revealed this individual had been arrested in 1973 for carrying a handgun, and that he had been briefly listed as missing from the American River Hospital in 1976. Shortly after 5:40 p.m., three detectives drove to Chase's apartment to formally question him with regards to the murders. Initially, Chase refused to either open his door or let police into his apartment. He also terminated a phone call from one of the detectives. Police then attempted a ruse to lure Chase out of his apartment by deceiving him into believing they were leaving, with one officer ostensibly leaving the scene as two others strategically positioned themselves at either side of his front door. Shortly thereafter, Chase left his apartment, carrying a box of bloodstained rags beneath his arm. He was subdued, arrested, and his pistol confiscated following a brief chase and scuffle during which he shouted to the officers that he had "done nothing". As Chase was driven to the police station, he remarked to officers: "My apartment's a lot cleaner, isn't it? I didn't do anything in my apartment except kill a few dogs." A search of the box of bloodstained rags Chase had been carrying at the time of his arrest—which he had thrown at one of the officers immediately prior to being subdued—revealed the contents to also include a bloodstained green plastic bucket, a diaper pin, and pieces of a toddler's brain. That evening, officers obtained a warrant to search Chase's apartment and vehicle. A search of Chase's vehicle revealed a twelve-inch butcher's knife and a pair of bloodstained rubber boots in the trunk. The walls, floors and ceiling of his apartment were extensively bloodstained, with investigators also discovering an extensively bloodstained electric food blender in the kitchen. Several dishes in the refrigerator contained human body parts, and a container held human brain tissue. He freely admitted to having killed numerous animals and to drinking their blood and consuming their viscera, but denied any culpability in the recent murders. He remained steadfast in this assertion when confronted with the physical evidence upon his person at the time of his arrest and the discoveries within his apartment, on one occasion stating to detectives: "My parents didn't bring me up that way. I wouldn't do anything like that" before alleging police were attempting to frame him for the crimes. On the evening of January 28, Chase was formally charged with the murders of Teresa Wallin, Daniel Meredith, and Evelyn and Jason Miroth, plus the kidnapping and murder of David Ferreira, with Sacramento County Sheriff Duane Lowe informing the media investigators had obtained sufficient physical evidence to conclude Ferreira was also deceased. Shortly thereafter, ballistic testing revealed Chase's pistol had also been used to kill Ambrose Griffin, and he was additionally charged with his murder. He was formally indicted by a grand jury to stand trial for all six murders on February 28, with the 11-count indictment also accusing Chase of one count of robbery, and several counts of mayhem in relation to the mutilation of three of his victims' bodies. Psychological assessments Prior to his indictment, Chase was assessed by two psychiatrists at the request of the district attorney's office. Initially, he refused to speak with them, but later consented to be interviewed and evaluated. He gradually recounted his crimes in a detached manner—insisting his motive for the murders had been to replenish his own contaminated blood supply. Chase also claimed that his mother had been poisoning him with "doses of dish soap" for some time and that his father, while "easy to get along with", did not care about his being poisoned. He denied suffering from any form of paranoid delusions, replying to this particular question with the statement: "There seems to be enough evidence that proves that I don't think I'm suffering from any delusions or persecution, but that I am really persecuted." In June 1978, Chase formally complained to the assistant district attorney that he had discovered "volatile acid" and "venereal diseases" in his food—all of which, he contended, resulted from a coordinated campaign against him by prison officials. He insisted on being provided with an angiogram to determine the extent of his body's deterioration. Although this request was denied, a judge did later rule Chase undergo a physical examination to determine whether he suffered from brain or stomach tumors. This ruling resulted in Chase's trial being postponed from November 1978 to January 1979. Chase was later assessed by two court-appointed psychiatrists named Martin Bremer and Leland Silva to determine whether he was competent to stand trial. Both independently concluded Chase understood the criminality of his actions, was thus sane via the definitions of the law of California, and was able to testify in his own defense, with Bremer concluding Chase's actions sourced from a desire to seek relief from an "intolerable distress" resulting from delusions of his being poisoned, but that he appreciated the criminality of his actions; Silva concluded Chase suffered from a paranoid, antisocial personality disorder, but not schizophrenia, and that he had observed a "distinct shift in [Chase's] manner" when discussing legally sensitive topics, thus leading him to conclude Chase exhibited "no involuntary and uncontrollable disruption of the normal flow of thought processes". Furthermore, both Bremer and Silva concluded Chase's mental deterioration most likely began at approximately age fifteen. ==Trial==

Chase was brought to trial in Palo Alto, California, on January 2, 1979. He was tried before Superior Court Judge John Schatz, charged with six counts of first degree murder. The chief prosecutor was Ronald Tochterman; he was assisted by Albert Locher. Chase was defended by Farris Salamy, who entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on his behalf. Opening statements In his opening statement on behalf of the prosecution, Ronald Tochterman outlined his intention to seek the death penalty, adding he intended to prove the murders had been "purposeful and calculated" and that Chase had demonstrated sufficient malice aforethought at the time of the crimes to conform his conduct to the requirement of the law. Tochterman further referenced the conclusions of a court-appointed psychiatrist who had extensively evaluated Chase prior to trial and who had determined Chase "was capable of not killing people. He had that choice." Farris Salamy—who had previously unsuccessfully argued his client was incompetent to stand trial—declared in his opening speech his intention to prove that Chase's murders were not premeditated but a result of his client's "delusional thought process" On March 29, Richard Chase testified in his own defense. He freely admitted his murders, but claimed to be unable to recall all the details. Chase claimed to have not seen Ambrose Griffin when he fatally shot him, and to have been aimlessly wandering in a "semiconscious" state on the date of Teresa Wallin's murder, although he did recall drinking some of her blood. In reference to the Miroth murders, Chase claimed to have originally planned to shoot an old acquaintance he believed had become a political revolutionary, although he had changed his mind and instead entered the Miroth residence. He claimed to be unable to recall mutilating Evelyn Miroth's body, but conceded it was possible; he also claimed to have believed David Ferreira was not a toddler, but refused to elaborate, although he admitted taking the child's body from the Miroth residence in a "green bucket" and later decapitating him to obtain his blood. In discussing his motive in five of the six murders, Chase emphasized the murders had been committed to obtain the victims' blood due to his own waning and contaminated blood supply, which had been the source of his physical ailments, thus preventing him from living a normal life in addition to normal sexual relations with women. Alluding to Chase's delusions and paranoia pertaining to his perceived blood poisoning, Salamy elicited testimony from Chase regarding his refusal to consume prison food, with Chase stating he refused to do so as he may "catch a worse case of cancer than [he already had]". Closing arguments and conviction The trial of Richard Chase lasted four months. On May 3 and 4, 1979, both counsels presented their closing arguments before the jury retired to consider their verdict. The defense repeatedly referenced Chase's documented mental illness and behavior attesting to insanity, with Salamy referencing the testimony of the psychiatrists who had testified on their behalf as to Chase's suffering from an extreme persecution complex and his being legally insane—thus meaning he should not face the death penalty. Salamy also outlined the numerous, documented instances of his client's mental deterioration over the previous decade for which he had seldom received adequate treatment. He concluded his closing argument by urging the jury to find Chase guilty of second degree murder. Ronald Tochterman presented the prosecution's closing argument before the jury. Tochterman described Chase's murders as being driven by a "sheer sexual sadism motivated by a literal blood lust". Although Tochterman conceded Chase "had and has" mental issues, he emphasized the premeditation of the murders, and how Chase's efforts to avoid detection demonstrated his legal sanity under the definitions of California law. Tochterman concluded his closing argument by urging the jury to disregard the testimony of the two defense psychiatrists who had stated Chase was legally insane before urging the jury to convict Chase of six counts of first degree murder. Following six hours of deliberations over the course of two days, the jury found Chase guilty of six counts of first degree murder. The sanity phase was deferred until Monday, May 14. On this date, psychiatrists for both prosecution and defense again testified as to Chase's mental state at the time of the commission of the crimes before the jury began deliberations as to Chase's sanity. They would deliberate for sixty-five minutes before ruling Chase to have been sane under California law at the time of the commission of the murders, with the lead prosecutor convincing the jurors that Chase, while mentally disturbed, still appreciated the criminality of his actions. Three days later, the jury rendered a death verdict. One month later, on June 8, Judge Schatz upheld the jury's death verdict and formally sentenced Chase to death, ruling the aggravating circumstances of Chase's crimes outweighed the mitigating circumstances and stating he would be transferred to San Quentin prison within ten days. Upon hearing the judge affirm the jury's recommendation that he be sentenced to death, Chase shouted that he remained the victim of poisoning conspiracies, blurting: "But they brainwashed me! There's a conspiracy and I'm still being poisoned here." Chase was transferred to San Quentin prison to await execution. His death sentence was automatically appealed to the Supreme Court of California. ==Imprisonment==

. Chase was held on death row at this facility until his death in 1980. While incarcerated on death row, Chase repeatedly requested staff provide him with fresh blood—human or otherwise—to consume for sustenance. His requests were denied. He was frequently taunted and threatened by several of the eighteen other death row inmates within the facility who, Shortly after his incarceration at San Quentin prison, Chase agreed to a face-to-face interview with FBI profiler Robert Ressler. In this meeting, Chase freely admitted to murdering his victims, but insisted the motive behind his crimes had been to preserve his own life via consuming their blood and organs, that his doing so had temporarily alleviated but not cured his "condition", and the powder had been increasingly consuming his body and reducing his functioning capacities. He further claimed to have been instructed by telepathy to kill and replenish his blood, stating: "So you see, Mr. Ressler, you see very clearly that the killings were in self-defense." He further stated that all his victims had been chosen at random on dates he had preselected to murder, and that he had formed the belief that if a home he attempted to enter was locked, this was a sign that he was not welcome in the household, but that unlocked doors were an invitation to enter the premises. Prior to concluding the interview, Chase handed Ressler a plastic cup containing sections of a packaged macaroni and cheese dinner, contending this was proof prison staff were attempting to poison him and requesting "the FBI lab in Quantico" analyze the contents to prove his claims. Ressler agreed to his request. Shortly after this interview, at the request of prison psychologists, Chase was temporarily transferred to the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, California, which housed the criminally insane. He remained at this facility for four months. Ressler was supportive of this decision, having opposed the initial decision to send Chase to San Quentin following his conviction and believing that he should have instead been permanently institutionalized. He was eventually transferred back to San Quentin in April 1980, having been deemed to be stabilized. By late 1979, Chase had begun frequently writing letters to both Robert Ressler and FBI agent John Conway, emphasizing he needed to travel to Washington, D.C. to perfect his appeals and offering to share his knowledge with the FBI that the UFOs he claimed had communicated with him via telepathy were now causing airplane crashes and connected to antiaircraft weapons used against the United States. In his final letter to Ressler, Chase suggested that the FBI could easily detect the UFOs by radar and thereby conclude they followed his movements, adding "they follow me and are stars in the sky at night that light up through some type of controlled fusion reaction machines". ==Death==

At 11:05a.m. on December 26, 1980, Chase was found dead in his death row cell at San Quentin. He was lying on his stomach, with both legs extended off his bunk and his feet touching the floor. His head was turned into his mattress and his arms extended upwards into his pillow. He had last been seen alive when served breakfast at 7:45a.m., when a guard observed him. An autopsy revealed Chase had died from an overdose of fifty-milligram Sinequan tablets, a drug prescribed to treat depression and hallucinations, and that he had died approximately one hour prior to the discovery of his body. He had taken thirty-six times the recommended dosage, and unbeknownst to officers, had been secretly hoarding the pills in his cell for between two and three weeks. His autopsy also revealed no abnormalities with his heart. San Quentin prison staff discovered four sheets of A4 paper covered in handwriting and illustrations within a cardboard box beside Chase's bunk. Two of the sheets contained an illustration approximating a graph, with the marking squares filled with an unknown cryptographic code; the other two pages contained a message in which Chase indicated that he may consume some pills which could cause his heart to stop beating. In 1992, Sacramento detective Ray Biondi would reflect on the manner of Chase's death by writing: "I did note the irony in the way in which he died: Richard Chase ended up being poisoned to death all right—by his own hand" before adding, "Now, frankly, I was just relieved he was gone." ==Media==

Film • Rampage (1987). Directed by William Friedkin and starring Michael Biehn. The script of Rampage is inspired by a novel directly based on the life of Richard Chase. Bibliography • • • • Television • Born to Kill? S02E03 "Richard Trenton Chase" (2010). A 45-minute documentary commissioned by Twofour Productions. Forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison is among those interviewed for this documentary. • ''World's Most Evil Killers'' S04E05 "Richard Chase" (2020). Narrated by Fred Dinenage. This 45-minute documentary was first broadcast in 2020. ==See also==

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