Happy New Year, dark passengers! Welcome to our first True Crime Thursday. I thought we’d start off with a case that ties in well to the various themes you’ll find running throughout this blog: mental illness, addiction, the bizarre…and vampires.
Meet Richard Trenton Chase.
He was born into the typical unhappy home on May 23, 1950. Four years later, the typical younger sister was added to the family. Really, everything about his childhood was your run-of-the-mill upbringing; nothing at all out of the ordinary.
For a serial killer.
At a relatively young age he began killing small animals. This killings would continue throughout his life, at some point morphing into mutilations. Later, he would begin to consume their blood; first by blending their intestines to a drinkable liquid (how that’s drinkable, I’ll never know), injecting rabbit blood directly into his veins and finally by drinking the blood in true vampire fashion.
Chase exhibited a history of mental illness that was exacerbated by his frequent drug use. The inability to perform sexually during his teen years further served to alienate him from his peers. It is unknown whether his parents knew the extent of his issues during his youth, but his mother was witness to an incident on her front porch where he killed an animal, threw it to the ground and began to smear the blood all over his face as he consumed it. As with any other behavior she or his father may have been witness to, she failed to report the incident to anyone who might have been able to help him.
At the age of 27, Chase committed his first murder. Six men, women and babies were dead within the next month; many killed and mutilated in some of the most horrid manners. While I do have the details of the death, I don’t feel this is the appropriate forum in which to go into them due to the graphic and disturbing natures of the crimes. For full details, you can either perform a google search on Richard Trenton Chase or read the article written by Katherine Ramsland at the link provided.
Just remember I warned you. It’s disturbing. Even the man’s picture.
So why did Chase murder these people and drink their blood? Why did he have an additional 44 separate targets planned?
Simply put, Chase believed because there was goo under the soap in his soap dish that his blood contained a powder that would absorb all of his blood if he did not continue to ingest blood to replenish it. Killing humans was more efficient than animals as they possessed more blood. He claimed to feel guilty about having to take their lives, but since his blood would disintegrate without it, he had no choice.
His story later changed to say that what had started from necessity had developed into more of a preference…
While this may seem like just another serial killer with a bizarre mental illness, Chase was dubbed the “Vampire of Sacramento” by various sources. This raises the question as to whether there is more to this than can be explained by criminal psychology and science alone; whether it has a more paranormal origin.
So, what do you think? Is it possible that, while unusual with the soap dish stuff, Chase was a vampire? Was he mentally ill or did he truly require blood?
First tell me what you think and then join me tomorrow for Fang Bangin’ Friday where we’ll continue the discussion of Richard Trenton Chase’s strange case of alleged vampirism.
Jen
“Let your dark passenger come out to play…Be your own nemesis!”
It starts out innocent enough. A single rose left on the hood of your car after work…A typed poem sitting on your desk…Perhaps an anonymous invitation out to dinner for Valentine’s Day. Each time you receive something there’s a little quickening to your pulse. It’s exciting. The mystery man of your dreams is here - finally - to sweep you from your feet.
So why stalk someone? I can’t pretend to know all the answers to this one because I’ve never been a stalker myself. I think the closest I ever came was taking a different hallway to class in high school so I could get a little extra face time with the guy I was pre-dating. (You know what I’m talking about. It’s when you aren’t exactly dating yet, but it’s about to be there. You’re just sort of “talking.”) I do have some ideas though. I like to break stalking down to 3 categories: love lost, love endangered and love obsessed. Continue Reading »
