Herbert Mullin

Herbert Mullin (born 1948) was a serial killer who operated in California in the early 1970s.

Childhood and youth

Born on April 18 1948, and raised in Santa Cruz, Mullin had relatively normal childhood. His father, a World War II veteran, was said to be stern but not in any way abusive. He told young Herbert about his heroic activities in the war and even showed his son how to use a gun at an early age. Mullin had plenty of friends at school and was voted "most likely to succeed" by his classmates. However, shortly after graduating from high school, one of Mullin's best friends was killed in a car accident, and Mullin was devastated. He built a shrine in his bedroom to his deceased friend and later voiced fears that he was gay, even though he had a long-term girlfriend at the time.

After that, as he entered adulthood, Mullin's behaviour drifted into eccentricity. He broke off his relationship with his girlfriend for no particular reason, started talking of impending earthquakes, pestered his sister to have sex with him, and also claimed he was going to go to India to study religion, although he did not get round to going. These antics were partly the result of heavy cannabis use, but also the onset of schizophrenia. In 1969, aged 21, Mullin allowed his family to commit him to a mental hospital. Over the next few years, he was committed to various asylums, but he would discharge himself after only a short stay. His behaviour soon went from eccentric to psychotic. He burned cigarettes out on his penis, talked to himself, attempted to enter the priesthood and was evicted from an apartment after he repeatedly pounded on the floor and had shouted at people who were not there.

Murder spree

By 1972, Mullin was 24 and had moved back in with his parents in Santa Cruz. By now he was hearing voices in his head that told him an earthquake was imminent, and that only through murder could he save California (Mullin's birthday, April 18, was the anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which he thought very significant).

On October 13, 1972, Mullin went out and battered to death a homeless man with a baseball bat. He was to claim that the victim was Jonah from the Bible, and that he had sent Mullin a telepathic message saying, "Pick me up and throw me over the boat. Kill me so that others will be saved."

The next victim was Mary Guilfoyle, 24, who Mullin picked up hitch-hiking. He stabbed her to death, sliced open her stomach and dumped her corpse at the side of the road. When Guilfoyle's body was found, it was mistakenly thought to be a victim of another serial killer operating in the area at the time, Edmund Kemper.

In November, Mullin claimed his third victim when he went to confess his sins but ended up stabbing the priest, Father Henri Tomei, to death. After that, Mullin decided to join the U.S. Marines and actually managed to pass the physical and psychiatric tests. However, he was refused entry when it was found out that he had a number of minor arrests for his bizarre and disruptive behaviour in the past. This rejection fuelled Mullin's paranoid delusions of conspiracies, behind which he believed was a powerful group of hippies.

Having purchased several guns to carry out his murderous work, Herbert Mullin decided to kill Jim Gianera, a high school friend who had sold him cannabis, a drug that Mullin thought might have worsened his mental condition. However, when Mullin went to Jim Gianera's house on the January 25, 1973, he found that his old friend had moved away. The house was now occupied by Kathy Francis, and she gladly gave Jim Gianera's new address. Mullin thanked her and immediately went to the address he had been given, where he slaughtered both Jim Gianera and his wife with shots to the head, then stabbed their bodies repeatedly. Having accomplished his mission; Mullin then went back to Kathy Francis's house, where he shot her and her two sons, aged 9 and 6, dead. Because Kathy Francis's husband—who was away at the time—was a drug dealer, as was Jim Gianera, of course, the five slayings were thought to be motivated by drug trafficking. (It would later be pointed out by prosecutors that the murder of Kathy Francis eliminated Mullin's claims of not guilty by reason of insanity because he killed her to rub out a witness who could link him to the Gianera killings.)

On February 10, Mullin was wandering around Henry Cowell State Park where he saw four teenaged boys out camping. He walked over to them, engaged in a brief conversation and claimed to be a park ranger, then, without provocation, pulled out a gun and shot all of them to death.

The final killing took place three days later on February 13. Mullin was driving along when a voice apparently told him to kill someone. He pulled over and shot dead an old man who was mowing his lawn. Then he got back into his car and cruised off. It was broad daylight and there were a number of witnesses, and Herbert Mullin was quickly arrested. In the space of five months he had slaughtered thirteen people.

Trial and imprisonment

In custody, Mullin confessed to his crimes, and also his motive, that he had been told by voices in his head to kill people in order to prevent an earthquake (and he claimed the fact that there had not been an earthquake recently was due to his handiwork).

Mullin was eventually charged with ten murders (he was not charged with the first three), and his trial opened up on July 30, 1973. Mullin had admitted to all the crimes and therefore the trial focused on whether he was sane and culpable of his actions. The fact that he had covered his tracks and shown premeditation in some of his crimes was put forth by the prosecution, whilst the defence argued that the defendant had a history of mental problems and psychotic behaviour. On August 19, the verdict was delivered. Herbert Mullin was declared guilty of first-degree murder in the cases of Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis—because they were premeditated—whilst for the other eight killings Mullin was found guilty of second-degree murder because they were more impulsive.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment and will be eligible for parole in 2025, when he will be 77.

External links

• Crime Library: Herb Mullin