Herbert William Mullin (bornApril 18, 1947) is an American serial killer who killed thirteenpeople in California in the early 1970s. He confessed to thekillings, which he claimed prevented earthquakes. In 1973, after atrial to determine whether he was insane or culpable, he wasconvicted of two murders in the first degree and nine in the second,and sentenced to life imprisonment. As of 2021, he has been deniedparole 11 times and is unlikely to ever be released.
Early life
Mullin was born on April 18, 1947, inSalinas, California, but grew up in Santa Cruz. His father, a WorldWar II veteran, was strict and often spoke of his war service.
Mullin had numerous friends at schooland was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by hisclassmates. Shortly after graduating from San Lorenzo Valley HighSchool, however, one of his best friends was killed in a caraccident, and Mullin was devastated.
He built a shrine to his deceasedfriend, Dean Richardson (1947–1965) in his bedroom. Later heexpressed fears that he was homosexual, even though he had a longtimegirlfriend at the time.
In 1969, at the age of 21, Mullinallowed his family to commit him to a mental hospital. Over the nextfew years, he entered various institutions, but discharged himselfafter only a short stay. He extinguished cigarettes on his own skin,attempted to enter the priesthood, and was evicted from an apartmentafter he repeatedly pounded on the floor, shouting at people who werenot there.
Many years later, FBI profiler RobertK. Ressler said Mullin had paranoid schizophrenia, manifesting asearly as his senior year of high school, which could have beenaccelerated by the use of LSD or marijuana.
Murder spree
By 1972, Mullin was 25 and had movedback in with his parents in Felton, California, in the Santa CruzMountains. By now he was hearing voices in his head that told him anearthquake was imminent, and that only through human sacrifice couldhe save California. Mullin's birthday, April 18, was the anniversaryof the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which he thought was verysignificant.
Mullin believed that the Vietnam Warhad produced enough American death to forestall earthquakes as a sortof blood sacrifice to nature, but that with the war winding down bylate 1972, he would need to start killing people in order to haveenough deaths to keep the earthquake away.
On October 13, 1972, Mullin beatLawrence "Whitey" White, a homeless man, to deathwith a baseball bat. White, 55, had been hitchhiking on Highway 9 andMullin struck him down after tricking him into looking at the carengine.
Mullin was to claim later that thevictim was Jonah from the Bible, and that he had sent Mullin atelepathic message saying, "Pick me up and throw me over theboat. Kill me so that others will be saved." White's bodywas found the next day.
His next victim, on October 24, 1972,was Mary Guilfoyle, 24, a Cabrillo College student who was runninglate for an interview and decided to hitchhike. Mullin picked her upand stabbed her through the chest and the back. He then dissected herbody and scattered her remains alongside a hillside road.
On November 2, 1972, Mullin went toconfess his sins at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Los Gatos. In adelusional state, he believed the priest, Father Henri Tomei (aFrench Resistance veteran from Marseilles who came to America afterthe war and was in his eighth year as assistant pastor), wanted tovolunteer to be his next sacrifice to keep away the earthquakes. Hebeat, kicked and stabbed Tomei, who bled to death in the confessionalwhile a parishioner watched Mullin run away. The witness descriptionof a tall young man in dark clothing and black boots did not help thepolice, who initially speculated Tomei was lured into the church orstartled a burglar.
After that, Mullin decided to join theU.S. Marines, and passed the physical and psychiatric tests. However,he was refused entry when it was found out that he had used drugs.This rejection fueled Mullin's paranoid delusions of conspiracies,behind which he believed was a powerful group of hippies. By January1973, Mullin had stopped using drugs and blamed them for hisproblems.
Mullin had purchased several guns anddecided to kill Jim Gianera, a high school friend who had sold himmarijuana, blaming him for his rejection from the Marines. However,when Mullin went to Gianera's house on January 25, 1973, he foundthat his old friend had moved away. The old cabin near the MysterySpot on Mystery Spot Road, was now occupied by Kathy Francis (an oldfriend of Gianera). She gave him Gianera's new address in Santa Cruz.There, Mullin killed both Gianera and his wife with shots to thehead, then Mullin stabbed their bodies repeatedly.
Mullin then went back to Francis'house, where he shot and killed her and her two sons, Daemon Francis(aged 4) and David Hughes (aged 9). As Francis' husband — who wasaway at the time — was a drug dealer, the five murders were thoughtto be motivated by drug trafficking. Prosecutors later argued thatthe murder of Kathy Francis eliminated Mullin's claims of not guiltyby reason of insanity because he killed her to remove a witness whocould link him to the Gianera murders.
In one published account of thesemurders, however, an FBI profiler states that Mullin killed theFrancis family first and then executed the Gianera couple.
About a month later, on February 10,1973, Mullin was wandering around Henry Cowell Redwoods State Parkwhere he encountered four teenage boys camping illegally in the park.He walked over to them, engaged in a brief conversation and claimedto be a park ranger. He ordered them to leave because they were"polluting" the forest, but they refused. Mullin shot themfatally and abandoned their bodies, which were not found until thenext week.
The final murder took place three dayslater, on February 13, 1973. Mullin was driving alone on the SantaCruz westside when he drove past Fred Perez, a retired fisherman, whowas weeding his lawn at his home on the intersection of LighthouseAvenue and Gharkey Street. For no apparent reason, Mullin made aU-turn, stopped his station wagon, and laid his rifle across the hoodto aim, killing the man instantly with a single shot to the heart.Then he got back into his car and "calmly" droveoff. It was broad daylight and there were a number of witnesses, oneof whom gave police the license plate number.
A "docile" Mullin wascaptured a few minutes later at the intersection of Highway 9 andCoral Street. The officer initially drew his weapon and prepared fora close-range shootout, because Mullin's rifle was in plain sight inthe passenger seat, but Mullin did not resist arrest.
Trial and imprisonment
In custody, Mullin confessed to hiscrimes and said that he had been told by voices in his head to killpeople in order to prevent an earthquake. He claimed that the reasonthere had not been an earthquake recently was, in fact, due to hishandiwork.
Eight days after Mullin's arrest, a Mw5.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Point Mugu area in SouthernCalifornia, causing an estimated $1,000,000 in damages.
The Santa Cruz County DistrictAttorney's office charged Mullin with ten murders, and his trialopened on July 30, 1973. Mullin had admitted to all the crimes andtherefore the trial focused on whether he was sane and culpable forhis actions. The fact that he had covered his tracks and shownpremeditation in some of his crimes was highlighted by prosecutorChristopher Cottle, while the defense argued that Mullin had ahistory of mental illness, and that he had paranoid schizophrenia. OnAugust 19, 1973, the verdict was delivered. Mullin was declaredguilty of first-degree murder in the cases of Jim Gianera and KathyFrancis—because they were premeditated—while for the other eightmurders Mullin was found guilty of second-degree murder because theywere more impulsive.
The Santa Clara County DistrictAttorney's office charged Mullin for the murder of Henri Tomei. OnDecember 11, 1973, the day his trial was to begin, he pleaded guiltyto second-degree murder after originally pleading not guilty byreason of insanity to first-degree murder.
He was sentenced to life imprisonmentin the Santa Cruz County trial, and has been denied parole eleventimes since 1980. He is currently incarcerated at Mule Creek StatePrison, in Ione, California.
Mullin is noted to have hadinteractions with Edmund Kemper, another serial killer active in thesame area and at the same time as him; the two shared adjoining cellsat one point, at the California Medical Facility. Kemper recalled"Well, [Mullin] had a habit of singing and bothering people whensomebody 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. Herbieliked peanuts. That was effective because pretty soon he askedpermission to sing. That's called behavior modification treatment."
Victims
Lawrence White M 55 October 13, 1972 Bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat
Mary Guilfoyle F 24 October 24, 1972 Stabbed to death and dissected
Henri Tomei M 64 November 2, 1972 Beaten and stabbed through the heart
Jim Ralph Gianera M 25 January 25,1973 Shot in the head and stabbed
Joan Gianera F 21 January 25, 1973 Shot in the head and stabbed
Kathy Francis F 29 January 25, 1973 Shot in the head and chest, then stabbed post-mortem
Daemon Francis M 4 January 25, 1973 Shot in the head, then stabbed post-mortem
David Hughes M 9 January 25, 1973 Shot in the head, then stabbed post-mortem
David Allan Oliker M 18 February 10,1973 Shot
Robert Michael Spector M 18 February10, 1973 Shot
Brian Scott Card M 19 February 10,1973 Shot
Mark John Dreibelbis M 15 February10, 1973 Shot
Fred Perez M 72 February 13, 1973 Shot in the heart
In popular culture
Andy E. Horne played Mullin (renamed"Herbert McCormack") in the 2008 direct-to-videohorror film Kemper: The CoEd Killer.
Mullin was the subject of an episode ofthe television documentary series Born to Kill?
Mullin was mentioned twice (and wasportrayed by uncredited actor Marco Aiello in a flashback) on thepolice procedural crime drama Criminal Minds.
Mullin was covered on the true crimepodcast The Last Podcast on the Left starting with episode 416.
Mullin was alluded to in the Church ofMisery song "Megalomania" from the album Master ofBrutality.