Herbert Mullin

What the record shows

Herbert William Mullin was an American serial killer who admitted killing 13 people in and around Santa Cruz, California, between October 1972 and February 1973. A Santa Cruz County jury convicted him in August 1973 of two counts of first-degree murder and eight of second-degree murder, and in December 1973 he pleaded guilty in Santa Clara County to the second-degree murder of a Los Gatos priest. Serving life terms, he was denied parole repeatedly and died at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton on August 18, 2022, aged 75, of natural causes according to the state prison system.

Mullin was born on April 18, 1947, in Salinas and grew up partly in the San Lorenzo Valley, graduating from San Lorenzo Valley High School. According to the Wikipedia article, his mental health declined in his late teens and early twenties; he was admitted to Mendocino State Hospital in 1969 and passed through several psychiatric hospitals over the following years, being released each time when he was judged not to be a danger to himself or others. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and the article says his use of LSD worsened his condition. He later told investigators he killed to prevent a catastrophic earthquake in California, a belief he said was directed by voices.

The San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, profiling the victims in August 1973, reported that the first was Lawrence White, 55, a drifter struck with a baseball bat on Highway 9 south of Felton in October 1972; the paper dated it October 12, while the Wikipedia article and later reporting give October 13. Mary Guilfoyle, 24, a student picked up while hitchhiking near Cabrillo College on October 24, was stabbed and her remains were not found until months later. On November 2, All Souls' Day, the Rev. Henri Tomei, 64, associate pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Los Gatos, was stabbed in a confessional. The Valley Press reported in February 1973 that fingerprints and a palm print on the confessional door matched Mullin's, according to Los Gatos police.

On January 25, 1973, Mullin shot Jim Gianera, 25, a former high school classmate, and his wife Joan, 21, at their Santa Cruz home. The same day he killed Kathy Francis and her sons, David Hughes, 9, and Daemon Francis, in a cabin on Mystery Spot Road; the Examiner gave their ages as 28 and 3, the Wikipedia article as 29 and 4. In February he shot four teenagers camping in a shelter in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park: David Oliker and Robert Spector, both 18, Brian Scott Card, 19, and Mark Dreibelbis, 15. On February 13 he shot Fred Perez, 72, a retired fisherman, as Perez worked in a driveway near Lighthouse Avenue in Santa Cruz.

A neighbor saw the Perez shooting and noted Mullin's car, and a patrol officer stopped him within minutes, according to the Wikipedia article; he made no attempt to use the pistol on the seat beside him. Investigators then connected him to the earlier deaths, which police had initially not linked, in part because Edmund Kemper was killing in the same county at the same time. By February 21 he had been arraigned on six counts of murder, the Valley Press reported, and the district attorney was asked to charge him with the deaths of the four campers.

Mullin's Santa Cruz trial, on 10 murder counts, began with jury selection in July 1973. He did not dispute the killings, and the case turned on his sanity. The defense, led by public defender James Jackson, argued that his delusions drove the killings, while prosecutors pointed to planning and efforts to avoid detection. The Wikipedia article says the jury returned its verdicts on August 19, 1973: first-degree murder for Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis, treated as premeditated, and second-degree murder for the other eight. He was admitted to state prison on September 18, 1973. In the Tomei case he withdrew an insanity plea and admitted second-degree murder, receiving a consecutive term of five years to life on December 21, 1973.

Only 11 of the 13 killings reached a courtroom: the Associated Press reported in 2022 that prosecutors said he committed two murders for which he never faced charges. At a 2021 parole hearing he again admitted all 13 killings but blamed his upbringing and family, and Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeff Rosell argued he showed no true remorse; parole was denied. CDCR said the San Joaquin County medical examiner would determine the official cause of his death.