Herbert Mullin murdered 13 people in California during 1972-73 in a fit of drug-induced mental illness. He was born in Salinas on April 18, 1947 and his family moved to San Francisco in 1952. His mother was a strict Catholic and his father Martin, a furniture salesman, was a WWII veteran who enjoyed discussing his exploits in the war and showing his son how to use a gun. He also disagreed with his wife's religious beliefs and thought her too strict. Herb was popular at school and voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by classmates at San Lorenzo Valley High, but he also had pronounced psychological problems.He would later claim his parents ruined his life and were "killjoy reincarnationalists who believe that by spoiling the enjoyment of others they improve their birth position in the next life." Herb claimed his father wouldn't let him have friends and even told neighbors to ignore him. He also claimed the Catholic services he attended as a child were maniacal. "When I was in the second grade they told me that Jesus Christ, the person, actually lives in the Holy Eucharist. It is a lie, designed to induce naiveté and gullibility in young children. Thereby making them susceptible to receive and carry out telepathic subconscious suicide orders."He graduated high school in the spring of 1965 and for a while his life seemed normal. Mullin took up an engineering course at Cabrillo College and considered joining the Army. On September 9, his best friend Dean Richardson was killed in a car accident. Mullin was devastated, built a shrine to Richardson in his bedroom, and became fascinated with the concept of reincarnation and began studying Eastern religions. He began to heavily indulge in LSD and marijuana use, which put off his girlfriend. Mullin told her an earthquake was coming and he might need to move to Canada to avoid it. He was prone to talking to himself or rambling nonsense and she finally left him when he told her he might be gay.
Taken as a whole, Mullin seemed like a typical young person in 1960s California, during an era when rebellion was in vogue. His drug use and opposition to the Vietnam War were appalling to his conservative father. In 1969 he announced that he wanted to study religion in India. But his behavior was getting increasingly erratic and concerning. While visting his sister's house one evening, he mimicked her husband's every gesture and word (known in psychiatric terms as "echolalia" and "echopraxia"). His sister said he copied her husband's every move and action for about four hours and then just sat and stared blankly at them. They had him committed to a mental hospital, which he willingly consented to, but he was released in two weeks.Some time later Mullin demanded his sister have sex with him. When she refused, he asked if her husband could have sex with him instead. Needless to say, Herb's family was getting increasingly concerned. They rightfully suspected that his mental issues were drug-related--after all, it was the late '60s and he even sported a "Legalize Acid" tattoo, but it was more likely that drugs just aggravated a preexisting mental condition he had. He briefly worked in a cafeteria in South Lake Tahoe after getting out of the mental hospital. One day Mullin was found in the Santa Cruz State Park by a ranger sitting in a meditating pose. The ranger asked him to leave. Mullin continued to stare straight ahead while reaching for a knife he had with him. The ranger disarmed him and had him arrested, but he was soon released.
He went down to San Luis Obispo and told his roommate that he was getting messages to do things. He meditated, burned the tip of his penis with a cigarette butt, and tried to talking his roommate into performing sexual acts on him. The latter by coincidence happened to be the son of a psychiatrist and Mullin was quickly committed to mental health care where he was pronounced "a danger to others, a danger to himself, and gravely disabled."In 1970, Mullin began dating a woman ten years his senior and they went to Hawaii together but he was quickly locked up in a psych ward again where he talked about yoga, pacifism, and left the hospital in his gown to look for a job. His parents wired him money to buy a plane ticket home but he scared them so much with his bizarre rants that they pulled over to call police. He was released after a night in jail and went back to Santa Cruz. Mullin shaved his head bald, went on a vegan diet, took up boxing, wore a sombrero, and claimed to be Mexican. Although he talked pacifism, he once smashed a hatchet into a fireplace when a Japanese-American woman he met refused his suggestion that they have a mixed race child together.Mullin moved to San Francisco a few weeks after his 24th birthday, staying in cheap flophouses alongside junkies and addicts, his mental state continuing to deteriorate. He took up boxing at a YMCA with such enthusiasm that trainers had to restrain him from pummeling an opponent to death. He pounded a punching bag until his fists were bleeding. Sometimes he would stand still and talk to himself. After losing a boxing match, Mullin gave up the sport and talked of becoming a Catholic priest or an artist. He was evicted from his apartment after he pounded on the floors and yelled at God at the top of his lungs.
In September 1972, Mullin went back to live with his parents in their home in Felton. He had quit taking his psych meds and was also angry at his father. Also Mullin believed another disastrous earthquake was coming and that soldiers killed in the Vietnam War had temporarily appeased the universe but as the war drew to a close, he believed he would need to start murdering people to ensure an earthquake didn't happen, and he claimed his father communicated with him telepathically and told him to kill. The earthquake was predicted by a self-proclaimed scientist and crank to most, but Mullin took his every word seriously.On October 13, Mullin encountered Lawrence White, a 55 year old transient. Mullin pulled over in his Chevrolet station wagon and said he had car trouble. White replied that he could help work on his car in exchange for a ride. Instead, Mullin bashed in White's head with a baseball bat and threw it in some woods where it was found the next day. He said White looked like the Biblical character Jonah and telepathically told him to kill him so others could be saved. White wasn't missed by anyone; he was mostly known to local police for living a homeless lifestyle and occasionally being arrested for public intoxication or vagrancy, and his death only warranted a brief paragraph in the newspapers. No family claimed White's body and he was buried in a pauper's plot.
On October 24, Mullin encountered 24 year old Mary Guilfoyle, a student at Cabrillo College. She was late for class so he offered her a ride. Hitchhiking was a common practice in this era and often resulted in tragedy, but Guilfoyle thought the driver of the Chevrolet station wagon, a slightly built and relatively good-looking young man about the same age as her, seemed completely harmless. Mullin stabbed Guilfoyle in the chest and later cut her abdomen open to examine her organs for support of his theories about air pollution, but he found the "autopsy" too gory for his taste so he decided not to do it again. The body was found four months later.Mullin then began to doubt if his father was really communicating with him telephatically. He went to St. Mary's Church in Los Gatos on November 2, All Saints Day, with the idea of confessing to the priest there. The priest of this church was Fr. Richard Howley and he was told during lunch break that someone requested a priest to hear his confession. Howley was busy eating and suggested that the assistant priest Fr. Henri Tomei, a 64 year old native of France and a naturalized US citizen, go take care of it instead. Tomei agreed.
Mullin tried to pull open the confession booth door. Tomei opened it to see what was going on out there, but Mullin stabbed him in the chest. A parisioner walked into the church, saw the attack take place, and turned and ran for it. The local community were horrified that someone would kill a priest, especially as Tomei had served in the French Resistance movement during World War II and there was speculation that a Satanic cult was behind the attack.It wasn't the first time Mullin had "rebelled" against his Catholic upbringing. Back in 1970, he was kicked out of a church for telling parisioners that they were wrong and should follow his philosophy instead. While in the San Luis Obispo mental hospital, Mullin tried to convert fellow patients to his philosophy and had as mentioned previously been kicked out of an apartment for yelling at God. But other times he seemed to celebrate his Catholic upbringing and talked of joining the priesthood.Mullin, the one-time antiwar activist, now decided on a military career. Shortly after killing Father Tomei, he tried to enlist in the Coast Guard but was turned down after failing a psychological exam. He was now claiming the flower power crowd had deceived him and he had to join the military to get revenge. Mullin decided to kill John Hooper, an old friend of his, and went to his house armed with a knife but Hooper was having a party with several other people present. Mullin then went to buy a gun and claimed on the registration form that he had never been under psychiatric care.
Next, Mullin decided to try his luck with the Marines and he applied for the service in early January 1973. The recruiting sergeant was skeptical but Mullin was insistent, so he recommended him for service. He wrote in his report that Mullin was "very enthusiastic" and "would be a benefit to whatever unit he is assigned to." Mullin passed the physical and psychiatric exams for the Marine Corps but was finally rejected for service when he refused to sign the part of the enlistment form certifying that he had no criminal history. He was heartbroken and went back to live with his parents, telling them everything was their fault. They finally tired of his antics and evicted him from the house. Mullin moved into a flophouse apartment, his mental illnesses continuing to fester.Around the same time he swore off drugs and began to believe they'd been the cause of all his problems. He decided to track down Jim Gianera, an old acquaintance who first turned him onto marijuana--they met on the beach in 1966 where Gianera offered him a joint and discussed the antiwar movement. Mullin was convinced that everything that went wrong in his life since was Gianera's fault. "If he'd given me Benzadrine instead, I would have become an artist."
On January 25, Mullin drove to an outskirt of Santa Cruz where he believed Gianera was living. It was a wet, rainy winter day as he walked up to a cabin, knocked on the door, and was greeted by Kathy Francis, the 29 year old occupant of the cabin. She told him that Gianera and his wife Joan were living in town on Western Avenue. Mullin thanked them and left. He found the house and Gianera and demanded to know why he got him into drugs and ruined his life. Unhappy with Gianera's answer, he shot him in the chest. Dying, he made his way to the bathroom and told his wife to lock the door but Mullin went inside the house and shot her too. He then went back to Kathy Francis's house and shot her, her children 9 year old David and 4 year old Daemon, and stabbed all the bodies multiple times. Police believed the murders to be drug related as Francis's husband Bob, who was not present at the time, was a known drug dealer. He was quickly cleared as a suspect as he'd been in Berkeley when the murders took place. Police asked Francis if he had any ideas who could have done this. He named a couple of people including other dealers, acquaintances, and "enemies" of his but Herb Mullin wasn't among them.
On February 10, Mullin was hitchhiking in the Santa Cruz state park when he met a group of teenagers (Bob Spector, Brian Card, Dave Oliker, and Mark Dreibelbis, ranging in age from 15 to 19) illegally camping. The boys were friendly and asked what was up. Mullin however was not friendly. He told them they had to leave because they were polluting the park (as he would later admit, he was angry about the incident back in 1969 when a ranger kicked him out of this same park and felt these kids shouldn't be allowed to get away with it if he couldn't). The boys just laughed him off so Mullin shot all of them dead with a .22 pistol, which he claimed took less than a minute. He then stole their .22 rifle and some money they had on them. Their bodies were discovered by Brian Card's brother a week later and seemed to dispute the idea that it had been over quickly as the campsite showed that the boys had fought for their lives. One of them had tried to claw his way out of their tent but they were trapped inside and unable to escape.
On the 13th, Mullin was driving around in his car when he spotted Fred Perez, a retired boxer and seafood merchant a month from turning 73, working in the front yard of his Santa Cruz home. He aimed his .22 rifle and fired a single shot into Perez's chest, killing him. A neighbor had witnessed the incident and got Mullin's license plate number. Within a few hours police spotted him and pulled him over. His .22 pistol was in the passenger seat of the car next to him.He confessed to all the murders, which surprised police as none of them had been connected to a single individual due to the widely different victim types and M/Os. Mullin's trial began July 30 and his attorneys claimed he was mentally ill and not responsible for his actions. Prosecutor Chris Cottle countered that he had tried to cover his tracks and killed Kathy Francis to remove a witness to the murders of the Gianeras, proving that he clearly knew what he was doing. On August 19, the jury took 14 hours to find him guilty of murdering Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis.One of the prosecutors in the case wrote to Governor Ronald Reagan to protest that all this happened because of the state's efforts in recent years to close down mental hospitals. Reagan replied back that it was clearly a failure of the mental health system if they allowed Mullin back on the street knowing his mental issues.
Mullin next had to stand trial in Santa Clara County for murdering Henri Tomei, but he opted to plead guilty to second degree murder in that case. He was sentenced to 7 to life and claimed he killed to save the environment. First up for parole in 1980, Mullin was turned down and denied again seven more times over the years. He passed away on August 18, 2022 at age 75. Mullin's next parole hearing would have been in 2025.
>>16887927>Mullin thanked them and left. He found the house and Gianera and demanded to know why he got him into drugs and ruined his life.them feels, man, them feels. we've all had "that" kind of friend before. i've never killed anyone but i can sure sympathize with his desire to waste this asshole.
>>16887950>his attorneys claimed he was mentally ill and not responsible for his actions.KILL LAWYERS HANG LAWYERS TAKE A LAWYERS HEAD AND KICK IT AROUND THE FIELD WITH THE BOYS
>>16887950>Reagan replied back that it was clearly a failure of the mental health system if they allowed Mullin back on the street knowing his mental issues.Also kill all psychiatrists with a roundhouse kick to the head.
>>16887903he probably raped at least 25 altar boys so i don't care that he died
>>16887990He didn't have to kill the guy's wife or the other bitch and her kids though, that's going too far.
The entire state of California was one giant looney asylum in the 60s-70s, not sure it made a difference if he was locked up or not.
>>16887872>>16887865>>16887880Herb, Herb, Herb. You are freakin' nuts, man. Seriously, your head should be gone.
>>16888003It sounds like his psych ward stay was involuntary. After reform in the 60s, you couldn't just forcibly commit someone indefinitely that easily even if a psychiatrist deemed them dangerous. I think the initial hold lasts 72 hours, and they need another assessment to extend that. Psychiatric hospitals are also short on beds, and I doubt it was much better in 1969 during deinstitutionalization.
>>16887865>and his father Martin, a furniture salesman, was a WWII veteran who enjoyed discussing his exploits in the war and showing his son how to use a gunLemme guess, he was behind the lines folding blankets. Nobody who was actually in combat in any war ever bragged about it. Most prefer to not even talk about it at all. God knows my grandfather sure didn't.
>>16887865>>16887872Least insane Californian ever.
It all went wrong for this guy starting when he got brain damaged from leaded gas fumes.
>>16888000Public defenders don't have a choice in who they represent. You get a client and have to do the best you can even when you know the guy is guilty as sin.
>>16887934>On February 10, Mullin was hitchhiking in the Santa Cruz state park when he met a group of teenagers (Bob Spector, Brian Card, Dave Oliker, and Mark Dreibelbis, ranging in age from 15 to 19) illegally campingman California sounds nice. you can go camping outdoors in the middle of winter. try doing that in Ohio.
>>16888245Anyone in Ohio who has any ambition in life at all leaves Ohio and moves to California after high school.
>>16887990lol this anon became a junkie
So why did they put him in a psych ward 3+ times but never hold him?
>>16888360as a prank, don't forget to like comment and subscribe for epic pranks like this one
>>16888245On the other hand you can't go camping in summer because the whole state is burning
>>16888360Locking up someone in a mental hospital is not easy. You kinda need them to do something 1st and be sent there by a judge... and he wasn't caught till he killed a whole bunch of people. I mean imagine if psychiatrists could just declare people insane and hold them indefinitely.
He was housed along with Ed Kemper who did psychological "experiments" on him. Kemper thought Mullin was a crybaby and didn't have any real hardship growing up. All things said by most serial killer standards Mullin's parents seemed relatively normal.
https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/239114Some contemporary news footage of Mullin's murders.
>>16888625see what anon said? middle of February and it looks like at least April there. green vegetation and everyone walking around lightly dressed. in the Northeast everything is gray and brown and cold and dank that time of year.
>>16888648Santa Cruz is also a fair bit further south than the Northeastern US, it's at 36N which is at the latitude of Tennessee. Oregon is more at the latitude of the Northeast and it's cold and rainy all winter.
>>16888593Yeah I kinda side with Kemper on this. Mullins sounds like a retarded schizo who blames all of his problems on others as an excuse for being a violent idiot.Kemper may be an A grade manipulator but he's relatively honest in comparison.
bump
>>16888015edgy
>>16888593>>16888858Kemper is a blowhard who likes to talk endlessly about his clever he is and was pumped up by the Mindhunter faggot. He was a failure in civilian life and would not have lasted in Genpop.
>>16889779Kemper is smart, smart enough to tell people what they want to hear and smart enough to manipulate people into believing what he wants them to be. Don't forget the Police had basically zero leads until he just straight up turned himself in and admitted to everything.He's not as smart as he think he is, or as much as he's been touted as, but he is still relatively intelligent. Compared to the average criminal, he may as well be a genius. Criminals and serial killers are very nearly always low IQ savage retards, and Kemper being relatively intelligent puts him leagues above 99% of the prison population.
>>16888237Let me get my tiny violin out
>>16888528It used to be easier. The invention of better outpatient treatment options in the 50s and the human rights activism of the 60s led to reforms that stand today.
>>16889799His murders happened around the same time as Mullin's, in the same area so police were totally confused and had no clue what was going on or if there were multiple killers active.
>Kemper described Mullin as having a "lot of pain inside, he had a lot of anguish inside, he had a lot of hate inside, and it was addressed to people he didn't even know because he didn't dare do anything to the people he knew." In that same interview, Kemper called Mullin "a kindred spirit there" due to their similar past of being institutionalized. Kemper said he told Mullin, "Herbie, I know what happened. Don't give me that bullshit about earthquakes and don't give me that crap about God was telling you. I says you couldn't even be talking to me now if God talking to you because of the pressure I'm putting on you right now, these little shocking insights into what you did, God would start talking to you right now if you were that kind of ill. Because I grew up with people like that."
>>16889853imagine beeing so deep in all this shit, that you can just say something like this. sheesh
>>16887990>GRRRRR I DONT BELIEVE IN PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!>EVERYTHING IS SOMEONE ELSES FAULT NOT MY OWN REEEEEEEEEEEEEI can tell you're an /r9k/ transplant
