This book should have a trigger warning, due to the graphic detail of what Richard Trenton Chase did to a baby, so you have been warned, it's disgusting and disturbing. This true crime book won't be for everyone, it's understandable if you don't finish reading it.
This true crime book was difficult for me to read, since it made me feel physically sick due to the graphic detail of the murders committed by "the vampire of Sacramento" Richard Trenton Chase.
I will not mention the details of the murders due to the disturbing and graphic and disgusting detail of what he did, none of the victims deserved to be killed in the way they were murdered especially the 22 month old baby, it made me feel sick reading about it.
Richard Trenton Chase was a paranoid schizophrenic but sane during the murders he committed, he was a vampire, cannibal, necrophile and killed 6 people including a 22 month old male baby, a pregnant woman, rabbits, a cat that was his pet, dogs that he shot, mutilated and consumed the flesh and blood due to his delusional beliefs that he needed to "consume blood to repair his body" because he believed that he was/had been "poisoned with iodine or mercury" He purchased rabbits and drank their blood, and attempted to inject himself with their blood which lead to him being hospitalised for a few days where he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic due to his behaviour and paranoid beliefs. He purchased dogs, hung them up, cut their organs out of the body and partially ate them and drank their blood.
He was "eating dog viscera raw"
He used a .22 calibre Luger pistol and knives during the murders and kidnapped the baby after murdering his family, he shot the baby in the head, consumed part of his brain matter, mutilated his body and decapitated him because "cause...I needed something to eat" After he murdered a victim he would keep a copy of the newspaper asa trophy to re-live the crime by reading about it.
He was similar in some ways to Jeffrey Dahmer both seem like they were loners wrapped up in their delusional fantasy world that only existed in their minds. All the victims were not connected to each other except the small geographical area where they lived and were murdered was very close to where Richard Trenton Chase was living at the time of the murders.
The murders occurred within walking or driving distance from his house, where he was living at the time of the murders. From a young age he was developing a extremely violent and predatory nature towards animals or people, so even if he wasn't a risk to others he would have been a risk to himself. He cut the paw of his pet dog and would frequently have attempt to crush the jaw of the dog by tightly gripping it around it's jaw almost to the point of broking it's jaw.
He believed his family was trying to poison him or control his mind, he also had conversations with people that were not real or no one else saw. His mother thought it was a good idea to slowly stop giving him his medication till eventually he wasn't taking his medication and his paranoia became a problem again.
If he continued taking his medication he would have been fine, and possibly none of the deaths of any of the animals or people he killed would or happened, it could have been avoided and lives would have been saved.
He was a disorganised killer that left fingerprints or evidence of his presence at the crime scenes, due to the violent, graphic way he killed his victims.
People were known to fire guns in a creek, near or around the area of some of the crimes and the gunshots were heard by multiple people in the area at various times of the night.
When Richard was living with his family he behaviour become very bizarre and they all thought that something was off about him, that something was wrong despite acting or appearing normal most of the time, he was known to talk to himself however. "Richard, you're a good boy aren't you?
Yes you're a good boy" He would do a handstand because he wanted the blood in his body to flow back to his head and would wrap a towel with oranges slices on it around his head.
He was unable to keep a steady job due to not doing his job properly and inadequate in terms of dating due to a inability to perform sexually with women, which is one of the reasons he might of hated women and murdered them due to humiliation and rejection.
The closer he came to murder the better he looked in terms of appearance or demeanour.
He was aware of social condemnation in social for his actions.
He would target homes that didn't have a car outside, but he would knock first to see if anyone was at home so no one would die.
During the murders he was considered sane due to being aware of his actions being wrong, he was aware of what was right or wrong so wasn't able to claim "temporary insanity" as a way to get a more lenient sentence he knew what he did was wrong and excited about reading about his crimes in the newspaper after he committed them, he liked the attention.
Eventually he was caught due to eyewitness testimonies and the the daughter of the one of the investigators being approached by Richard in a supermarket, that felt uncomfortable being around him and talking to him. All the evidence pointed to Richard Trenton Chase and he was finally brought in to be questioned, then brought to trail in a court and convicted of 6 counts of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death in the gas chamber. He decided to killed himself to cure whatever he believed ailed him his whole life that he never re eived sufficient help for because he was delusional and it was all in his head.
He overdosed on Sinequan (a medication for depression) while in prison.

Why did I read this? I've read about Chase's crimes before. He was batshit crazy and off his meds. He was also on mind altering drugs.

The author moralizes like mad here. Feeling sorry for the victims and horrified about the crimes that Chase brought to their doors can co-exist with understanding that mental illness stole all of their lives. It doesn't make him any less horrifying or bizarre. It doesn't shift the blame. It just puts his terrible crimes in a different category. Calling him evil and diabolical isn't appropriate. His crimes were evil for sure, but using diabolical to describe Chase is way off the mark. He was frenzied, impulsive and not the brightest crayon in the box.

So yeah, describing Chase as some kind of evil genius and diabolical is dumb. He was no Hannibal Lecter. Dude barely made it through High School because the crazy was setting in.

I'm beginning to think I have to stop reading true crime books. I am picking up repeat cases now and books by inferior authors.

Who am I kidding? It's summer. I'll be reading true crime all over the place. ( )

A short but very thorough account of Richard Chase's life and crimes. The writing is extremely graphic, but that's to be expected given the nature of the murders Chase committed. I thought the author did a good job of showing how, batshit crazy though Chase may have been, he was not insane under the legal standard. (Which, to me, speaks volumes about our need to broaden our application of insanity, but that's neither here nor there.) Anyone who wants to learn about this particularly gruesome serial slayer could not go wrong with his book. ( )