Herbert Mullin: The Santa Cruz Killer Who Believed Murder Prevented Earthquakes

0:00 Santa Cruz, 1973. A city already drowning in serial murder violence gets hit with something nobody saw coming. A clean cut, former Boy Scout starts killing strangers because he thinks their deaths will stop California from falling into the ocean. Thirteen victims, six months, and a delusion so complete that even after his arrest, Herbert Mullins still believed he'd save the world. In 1973, two of California's most notorious serial killers ended up in prison cells right next to each other.

0:59 Edmund Kemper, the co-ed killer in one cell, Herbert Mullins in the other. Kemper murdered his own mother, decapitated college students, kept their heads as trophies, and this guy looks at Mullins with absolute disgust and says, "Herb killed people for no good reason." When someone who did what Kemper did thinks you're pointless and irritating, that tells you something about how disturbing this case really is. Herbert Mullins was born April 18, 1947 in Salinas, California. Raised Catholic, stable family the whole package. This kid built tree houses with his friends, played literally baseball when on Boy Scout camping trips.

1:39 At San Lorenzo Valley High School, he was legitimately popular. Good grades, genuinely kind to people. Had a girlfriend named LaRetta, who probably regrets that now. His classmates voted him most likely to succeed, the teachers adored him. But one thing bothered him. His birthday was April 18, the same exact date as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that killed thousands and leveled the city. Most people that's just a weird coincidence. For Herb, it planted something that would eventually consume him completely. Summer of 1965, right after graduation, his best friend Dean Richard dies in a sudden car accident.

2:20 This is where Herb's entire personality fractures. He doesn't grieve like a typical teenager. He completely withdraws from everyone, including his girlfriend LaRetta. He starts building elaborate shrines to Dean in his bedroom. Full shrines. He becomes obsessed with reincarnation with this idea that dead people leave behind some spiritual debt that the living have to settle. He enrolls at Cabrio College, keeps changing his major because nothing feels right to him. He's caring to psychology and back again. He's desperately searching for some framework to explain what's happening inside his head. Then he reconnects with Jim Giannera, a mutual friend of Dean's. Jim offers him some pot.

3:01 One joint. Herb smokes it. And in his increasingly fractured mind, this single moment becomes the source of everything wrong with him. He decides that marijuana poisoned his brain permanently. He will never forgive Jim for this. In 1969 and 1972, Herb gets committed to psychiatric facilities five separate times across California. Every single time psychiatrist diagnoses him with paranoid schizophrenia, the symptoms are completely obvious. He's hearing voices, giving him commands, experiencing hallucinations, doing this thing called "ecopraxia" where he involuntarily copies other people's movements.

3:42 Doctors write in his charts that his prognosis is poor and grave. He knows he's dangerous, but California had recently passed the Lanter Men Petra's short act. The intention was good. Protect civil liberties of mentally ill people. Prevent indefinite warehousing. But the execution was catastrophic because there was zero infrastructure for community care. So Herb keeps getting released after 72 hour holds, over and over. His internal world becomes this terrifying place. He starts hearing what he calls "die songs" in his father's voice, telling him "blood is necessary to keep the world stable." He fixates on the Vietnam War, but not politically.

4:22 He genuinely believes that as long as American soldiers are dying in Southeast Asia, their deaths function as human sacrifices, keeping the tectonic plates from shifting. As long as blood keeps flowing over there, California stays anchored. When the war starts winding down in 1972, Herb's anxiety goes through the roof because in his delusional framework, the sacrifices are stopping. He hears about some psychics prediction that a massive earthquake will hit California on January 4th, 1973. To him, this is scientific certainty requiring immediate action. So he formulates a plan. He's got to find 13 people who will telepathically volunteer to die.

5:04 He calls it "singing the die song." And his psychotic reasoning, he'll communicate with people on some spiritual frequency, ask for their permission, and they'll agree because they understand the cosmic necessity. Their deaths will satisfy what he calls "the nature god." California will be saved. He tries to enlist in the Coast Guard and Marines because he wants some legitimate framework for the violence that he feels compelled to commit. Both branches reject him because of his psychiatric history, so he realizes he's going to perform these sacrifices as a civilian. October 13th, 1972. Friday the 13th. Herb is driving his Chevy station wagon along the mountain road when he spots Lawrence White, a 55-year-old transient.

5:49 Herb pulls over, pops his hood like he's having car trouble. Lawrence stops to help. Herb beats him to death with a baseball bat. Later, he tells investigators he perceived Lawrence as the biblical "jona" and that Lawrence telepathically beg to be thrown overboard so others might live. Eleven days later, Mary Margaret Gullfoyle is running late to an appointment. She's 24, a student at Cabrio College. She decides to hitchhike, which would really calm him back in Santa Cruz in that time. Herb picks her up. While driving, he stabs her multiple times through the chest and back. He drives her body to a remote hillside, disembowels her because he claims he's searching for physical proof of the pollution he believes is contaminating humanity.

6:35 November 2nd, 1972. Herb goes to St. Mary's Catholic Church in Los Gatos. He's having doubts, feeling like he needs to confess. He enters the confessional booth where father Henry Tomé, a 65-year-old priest, is hearing confessions. During the sacred ritual, Herb's psychosis completely reframes the interaction. He becomes convinced that the father has telepathically volunteered to become the next sacrifice. He attacks the priest inside the confessional. Beats him, kicks him, stabs him to death in this holy spacemen for redemption. The community is horrified, but law enforcement can't connect these murders. A transient, a hitchhiker, a priest.

7:17 There's no discernible pattern link here. After murdering Father Tomé, Herb goes quiet for two months, but January 4th passes without any earthquake, and his paranoia intensifies. He decides he needs to eliminate the one person who started this mental deterioration, the guy that gave him the marijuana. January 25th, 1973. Herb drives the gyms' old address, but Kathy Francis lives there now. She's friendly, tells him Jim and his wife Joan recently moved to a cabin in the woods, gives him directions. Herb drives to the cabin and confronts Jim. He demands to know why Jim gave him that marijuana. When Jim's answer doesn't satisfy him, Herb shoots him.

7:59 Jim tries crawling to warn his wife, but Herb breaks down the door and shoots her as well. Then he stabs both their corpses repeatedly because this murder is deeply personal. But now he has a problem. Kathy Francis can link him to the generis, so he drives back to her house. She's home with her two young sons, nine-year-old David and four-year-old Damien. Herb murders all three, shoots both children in the head and stabs their small bodies. When the police discover the massacre, they're like, "Uh, yeah, it looks like drugs." Looks like drug-related. They have no idea what's going on here and they have no idea how this connects to anything else. February 10th, 1973.

8:40 Herb is hiking through Henry Cowell State Park when he encounters four teenage boys illegally camping. Robert Spector, 18, Brian Card, 19, David Oiker, 18, and Mark Drobelbus, 15. Herb approaches them pretending to be a park ranger. Tells them they're polluting the forest and they need to leave. The boys dismiss him. The next day, Herb returns and shoots all four in the head through the tent fabric. He later claims that he asked each telepathically for permission and they all agreed. Three days later, February 13th. Herb is driving through Santa Cruz and sees Fred Perez, a 72-year-old retired price fighter working in his front yard.

9:23 Herb busts a U-turn, rests his rifle across the hood and shoots Fred in the heart. In broad daylight. A neighbor witnesses everything. She writes down his license plate and immediately calls the police. Herb gets pulled over within minutes. He doesn't resist, doesn't say a word. And his mind, his mission, is complete. Herb 13 human sacrifices performed. California is saved. The trial becomes an intense legal battle over sanity. Herb admitted to all 13 murders. The only question is whether he understood right from wrong. His defense, of course, presents his psychiatric history brings in forensic experts who tells everyone that he genuinely believed he was saving millions.

10:05 But the prosecution points to the generic and frances murders. The fact that Herb returned to eliminate a witness demonstrates he understood legal consequences. The jury deliberates 14 hours and returns a split verdict. First degree murder for Jim Genera and Kathy Francis because those were premeditated revenge for the other victims' second degree murder because they were impulse killings driven entirely by delusions. Herb eventually gets housed right next to Edmund Kemper. Kemper stands six foot nine and absolutely despises Herb. Hates his constant singing, his bizarre behaviors. Kemper would throw water on him to shut him up, given peanuts as rewards when he stayed quiet like training an animal.

10:48 Herbert Mullin was denied parole eight consecutive times. He died of natural causes on August 18th, 2022 at age 75. No believing he had successfully saved California from catastrophic destruction. Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories. I'm Joe, I'm the host and here's an email. long drives on the i80. Joe, I drive i80 across Nebraska for work more often than I'd like.

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