The Richard Trenton Chase CaseBy Gary C. King
Editor: Rachel Frank RICHARD TRENTON CHASE
Richard Trenton Chase was dubbed "The Vampire Killer of Sacramento" because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their body parts. Between Dec. 28, 1977, and Jan. 27, 1978, he claimed six known victims. This story is not for the squeamish, and it's one that readers will not soon forget. Background Chase was born on May 23, 1950, in Sacramento, Calif., to middle-class, dysfunctional parents who eventually divorced. As a child he regularly wet the bed, set fires and tortured animals. When he reached adolescence, he was already abusing alcohol and other drugs, including marijuana and LSD. By the time he moved out of his mother's house, he had developed hypochondria and was intoxicated nearly all the time. In and out of mental institutions for much of his life, Chase at one point told doctors at American River Hospital in Sacramento that someone had stolen his pulmonary artery, causing his blood to stop flowing, according to a case summary by the psychology department at Radford University. Later in life, Chase claimed he was abused by his mother. At age 21, Chase lived in an apartment with a number of roommates. He frequently walked around naked, including in front of visitors, until his co-renters were fed up with his aberrant behavior and told him to find another place to live. Unable to make him leave, his roommates moved out instead and left him alone in the apartment. Chase couldn't swing the rent on his own and was forced to move back home with his mother. He didn't remain there long, however. Believing that his mother was attempting to poison him, he found another apartment for which his father agreed to pay the rent. He had absolutely no social life and no girlfriends. He also suffered from erectile dysfunction, according to Radford University's case study. Information about his sexual orientation is scant, but it is generally believed he was heterosexual, according to the FBI. Chase took up capturing and killing animals again, most of them from his neighborhood. He would either eat them raw or disembowel them and place their organs in a blender to make a repulsive mixture that he would drink. |
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