Herbert Mullin

Herbert Mullin

Herbert William Mullin (born April 18, 1947 in Salinas , California ) is an American serial killer who committed murders in California between 1972 and 1973.

Childhood and youth

Mullin grew up in Santa Cruz . His father, a veteran of the Second World War , raised him strictly, but not abused him. He often told of his heroic acts of war and showed his son how to use a weapon at an early age. Mullin had many friends at school and was considered by his classmates as the one who would have the most success in life.

Shortly after graduating from high school , one of his friends was killed in a car accident. Mullin was very upset. He built a shrine for his late friend in his bedroom . He later spoke of fear of being of the same sex predisposition even though he had a steady girlfriend.

As he grew up, his behavior became more and more unstable. Grabbed by an obsession with impending earthquakes , he gave up his relationship with his girlfriend for no apparent reason, and asked his sister to become intimate with him . He expressed a need to go to India to study religion, which he never did.

In 1969, Mullin, 21, had his family referred to a psychiatric hospital. In the following years he went to various institutions, but always left after only short stays. He put cigarettes on his skin, talked to himself, tried to become a priest and lost his apartment after repeatedly beating about and yelling at people who didn't exist.

Series of murders

In 1972 Mullin moved back to live with his parents in Santa Cruz. He heard voices in his head telling him that an earthquake was imminent from which the only way to protect the people of California was through murder. Mullin's birthday was the anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , a match he felt was pregnant with meaning.

On October 13, 1972, Mullin killed a homeless man with a baseball bat. The victim was the biblical prophet Jonah and gave him a telepathic message: “Pick me up and throw me over the boat. Kill me so that others will be saved. "(" Take me and throw me overboard. Kill me so that others will be saved. ")

The next victim was Mary Guilfoyle, 24, whom Mullin hitchhiked. He stabbed her, cut open her stomach, and dumped the body on the side of the road. When she was found, people mistakenly thought she was another victim of serial killer Edmund Kemper .

The third victim followed in November. Mullin wanted to confess his sins, which ended with his killing the priest Henri Tomei. He then decided to join the United States Marine Corps . He managed to pass the physical and mental tests. However, his request was denied because of his previous arrests for bizarre and disturbing behavior. This blow fueled Mullin's paranoid delusions of a conspiracy that he suspected might be a powerful group of hippies .

After acquiring several firearms, Mullin decided to kill Jim Gianera, a high school friend who had sold him cannabis . When Mullin went to his house on January 25, 1973, he found that Gianera had moved away. Kathy Francis now lived in the house, and Mullin was able to find out his friend's new address. Mullin murdered Gianera and his wife with bullets in the head and stabbed their bodies several times. Then he went back to Francis and shot her and her two sons (nine and six years old). Because Francis' husband, who was not in the house at the time of the crime, was a drug dealer, the act was first assigned to the drug scene and the motive was suspected to be a settlement.

Francis' murder made it Mullin later impossible (to "not guilty by reason of insanity" not guilty because of insanity) to plead because he had killed with it a potential witness who it could burden.

On February 10, Mullin saw four teenage boys camped out at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park . He went up to them and engaged them in conversation by claiming to be the park attendant. Then he pulled out a gun and shot all four of them.

Mullin's last murder took place three days later, on February 13, 1973. Mullin drove around alone in his car, then parked on the side of the road, got out, and shot an older man who was mowing the lawn. Then he drove away. Since that murder had taken place in broad daylight, there were multiple witnesses and Mullin was caught quickly.

He killed 13 people in just four months.

Court and imprisonment

Mullin confessed his crimes, testifying that the voices in his head ordered the murders to prevent the quake. Thanks to his work, there actually wasn't any.

Ultimately, he was charged with ten murders (not the first three). His trial began on July 30, 1973. Since Mullin had confessed to all the crimes, the work of the court focused on the question of whether he was sane and guilty . The prosecution highlighted the fact that he covered his tracks and committed some of his crimes with intent, while the defense argued on Mullin's psychiatric history.

On August 19, 1973, Mullin was the double murder (Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis, because he had committed these acts with intent) and the eightfold manslaughter (since these acts were impulsive nature) found guilty and to life imprisonment for convicted. The sentence can be suspended on probation at the earliest in 2025.

literature

• Peter & Julia Murakami: Lexicon of Serial Killers . Munich: Ullstein. 9th edition 2003, p. 399f. ISBN 3-548-35935-3 .
• Peter Vronsky: Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters . New York: Berkley 2004 ISBN 0425196402 .

Web links

• Crime Library: Herb Mullin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vernetta Watts, Virginia Douglas, Doreen DeWitt, Erin Walker et al .: Serial Killer Timeline - Herbert Mullin. Radford University, Department of Psychology. From maamodt.asp.Radford.edu, accessed November 15, 2019.