Few crime sprees provoke such lasting outrage and horror as the brutal murders committed by Richard Chase in 1977-78. Known as the "Sacramento Vampire Killer" for gruesomely draining his victims‘ blood and cannibalizing their remains, Chase unleashed savage violence that still haunts those left behind decades later. How did a once-promising youth descend into such cruel psychosis? And could stronger intervention have prevented his bloodlusted rampage?
An Early Life Plagued by Dark Impulses
Long before his infamous murder conviction, early signs suggested Richard Chase had the capacity for violence and abnormal fixations.
Chase was raised in Sacramento by harsh disciplinarian parents who believed sparing the rod would spoil the child. As the eldest of three sons, Richard frequently bore the brunt of his father‘s belt, paddlings doled out for even minor transgressions. Classmates recall the sullen, isolated boy often arrived at school with suspicious bruises.
By adolescence, chilling behavior began manifesting. Chase increasingly engaged in torture of small animals like frogs, cats and rabbits—taking out his own abuse on even more defenseless creatures. According to younger brother Jim Chase, their garage supplemented Richard‘s hunting with cages full of stolen neighborhood pets awaiting grim fates. Richard also developed an obsession with guns and began experimenting with mind-altering substances that exacerbated his devolving mental state.
The most fateful warning sign came in Chase‘s senior year when police arrested him for possession of marijuana and illegal firearms.
Yet despite such aggressive tendencies, Chase‘s wealthy family‘s status helped brush the incidents under the rug. Their enduring code of secrecy kept Richard from enduring significant punishment or receiving psychiatric intervention during his formative years. Still living under their roof after high school in 1964, Chase‘s concerning behavior only grew more florid.
Spiraling into Deluded Madness
Without structure or treatment, Chase withdrew further from normal society throughout his 20s. He became consumed by outlandish conspiracy theories about Nazis and UFOs while neglecting basic self-care. Complaints of disembodied voices and paranoia increasingly dominated his psyche—clear symptoms of schizophrenia and other mood disorders left chillingly unchecked.
Chase also developed an unhealthy fascination with blood. According to Jim Chase, Richard began capturing small animals so he could inject their blood intravenously, seemingly attempting to infuse himself with their life force.
| Date | Alarming Chase Behaviors |
|---|---|
| 1964 | Arrested with drugs & firearms |
| 1970 | Begins IV injection of animal blood samples |
| 1973 | Forced hospitalization for erratic public behavior |
| 1976 | Released from institution – deemed "no threat" |
This preoccupation turned erotic by 1973 when Chase shifted to killing creatures so he could violate their carcasses. That year, his mother had him briefly committed after finding Chase soaked in blood with a dead cat—yet he somehow convinced doctors of sound enough mind for discharge after six months. Over the next year living with his mother, Chase escalated to nocturnal cemetery raids to exhume corpses for defilement.
But most appallingly, Chase told his mother that while listening to the radio, he heard secret messages directing him to go out and kill.
A Vicious Killer is Born
Now aged 27 and left unmonitored despite myriad warnings, Chase moved into an apartment on Watt Avenue in 1976. Freed from any supervision, his urges to attack humans could finally reach their horrific fruition.
He embarked on cautious stalking missions to abduct people for blood extraction fantasies. On some occasions, he only managed to enter homes before getting spooked off by locked doors or vigilant dogs. But soon enough, one residence provided the fatefully easy target Chase had hoped for.
The night of December 29, 1977, Chase used a stolen pistol to force entry to the Wallin household, surprising stay-at-home wife Teresa Wallin washing dishes. The 5‘10" Chase dragged the petite woman around the home, tearing off her clothes before stabbing her in excess of 20 times in the chest and abdomen with a four-inch blade. Crazed with bloodlust, he then mutilated her drained corpse even further before violating it sexually. Police arriving on scene required therapy to process the horrific sight.
Yet instead of laying low after committing such a barbaric crime, the euphoric blood high only further reduced Chase‘s grip on reality. He interpreted avoiding capture as confirmation of his ultimate power over others, entitled to keep spilling more blood in his quest for eternal youth and supernatural abilities.
One month later on January 23, 1978 came Chase‘s most brutal ambush. He entered the home of Lawrence Meyers, shooting the husband twice fatally as he slept beside his wife. Hearing gunfire, Teresa Meyers awoke only to also be shot directly in the head—yet somehow surviving despite fracturing her skull.
Chase then turned his attention to the couple‘s crying toddler son, 2 1/2 year-old David. Tragically, David‘s fate proved especially horrifying as Chase used a hammer to bash his tiny head in completely. Upstairs, Chase strangled the family dog into silence before resuming mutilation of Teresa Meyer‘s nearly lifeless body. Luckily, the couple‘s two young daughters sleeping in another room escaped before becoming Chase‘s next victims.
Police and medics arriving encountered a house of horrors beyond comprehension. Blood and brain matter covered nearly every surface. The violence far surpassed typical homicides, indicating the work of a dangerously depraved perpetrator police now realized they desperately needed to apprehend.
Trail of Terror Leads Back to Chase
The breakthrough came days later when a neighbor encountered a blood-soaked Chase fleeing the home of someone who had fortunately fought him off successfully—Evelyn Miroth. Her fateful decision to decline unlocking her door saved her own life along with her young nephew‘s. The boy described Chase‘s chillingly nonchalant attempt to enter before walking away. Police now had the fresh eyewitness lead needed to circulate a composite sketch and pinpoint their top suspect.
Investigators soon matched the drawing to a prior disorderly conduct booking photo of local resident Richard Chase. A team was assembled to stealthily surveil his Watt Avenue apartment. Peering inside, the unfathomable horrors within left even these seasoned personnel aghast.
Alongside SATANIC graffiti were telltale remnants of Chase‘s violence: blood-soaked laundry, clumps of hair, bone fragments, and a blender with ingredients no smoothie should contain. The smell overwhelmed officers despite having dead animals strewn about too. This had to be the lair of their man.
Observing Chase‘s return, he was promptly tackled by waiting police before unlocking his door. Cornered without victims to overpower or outrun, the deflated murderer wilted into confessions about his self-described "urges to kill." Detectives had closed in on the elusive "Dracula killer" newspapers dubbed the Sacramento Vampire.
In custody, prosecutors urged Chase undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine if he was mentally fit to assist his own defense. Yet despite severe schizophrenia, judges concluded Chase competent—setting the stage for a high-profile trial that would captivate the city‘s terrified population.
Day in Court for an Unrepentant Killer
The evidence presented in court against Richard Chase was as clear as his sanity was not. Police lifted dozens of irrefutably matching fingerprints off households and vehicles related to the string of murders. Bullets extracted from victims held identical grooves to Chase‘s .22 caliber handgun found in his apartment oozing with human residue.
Hair, bite mark analysis and even Chase‘s own nonchalant confessions to police further cemented his role in the brutal deaths of Ambrose Griffin, Teresa Wallin, Evelyn Miroth and David Meyers. Surviving witnesses Teresa Meyers, James and Debbie Kellett positively identified Chase as the invading attacker.
Yet despite overwhelming indications of guilt, prosecutors knew securing the harshest punishment required debunking Chase‘s psychiatric assessment. His public defenders hoped to convince the jury Chase was unaware his violent acts were legally or morally wrong at the time. If left believing him unable to determine right from wrong, Chase could be committed to an institution rather than given the death penalty the victims‘ grieving families demanded.
The defense psychiatrist depicted Chase‘s long history of delusions, blood fixation and profound difficulty forming relationships as indicia of severe mental break from reality. But cross-examination pressed the logic of certain actions that required cunning premeditation—scoping out targets, breaking locks, firing fatal gunshots and escaping capture for weeks—before unraveling on the witness stand.
"If you let this murderer go to an institution for six months or six years, that innocent blood that he‘s taken will keep crying out for justice," implored DA Roberts in closing arguments.
In the end, righteous indignation overpowered empathy for madness. The jury unanimously convicted Chase on all six counts of first-degree murder. One by one, Chase listened stonefaced as victims‘ family members emotionally condemned his cruel theft of their loved ones. Yet his own closing remarks chilled the court most by blaming his actions not on sickness but finite life itself, stating:
"So, pretty much, what I‘m trying to say is that none of you are safe, either you or your children, until I am destroyed."
Though eligible for the death penalty, Chase would not allow the state the final say over his fate. In December 1980—nearly three years to the date of his first human kill—Chase hoarded prescription pills from his cell to fatally overdose after scrawling "Please don‘t let me hurt or kill anyone else" across his suicide note manifesto.
Lingering Anguish Over a Preventable Tragedy
In the years since Chase terrorized Sacramento‘s streets, lessons learned from such unfathomable violence leave mixed reactions. Surviving relatives and investigators still grapple with grief and post-traumatic stress from encountering the horrific crime scenes he left behind. The names Teresa Wallin, Evelyn Miroth and David Meyers remain carved on local consciousness, their injustice a rallying cry for fellow residents left to mourn and move forward.
Many lambaste the consistent systemic failure to intervene with such an evidently troubled individual sooner. Chase warranted psychiatric confinement or registration on offender lists at several phases of his disorderly trajectory into literal inhumanity. Yet confidentiality restrictions coupled with the regression of support networks instead enabled his decline, argue critics.
More optimistically, Sacramento‘s mental health infrastructure has strengthened thanks to Chase‘s shadow. Stricter assisted outpatient oversight, crisis stabilization units, and violence prevention task forces aim to smooth care transitions and follow up aggressively at the slightest signs of threatening behavior escalation. Nothing can fully heal the deep scars left by this wandering madman‘s appalling acts—but giving the Chases of tomorrow a wide berth to self-correct under close supervision can hopefully circumvent another unfathomable crime spree before it begins.