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The Cult Dossier · No. 175 · Shared Psychosis / Mandated Killing

Herbert Mullin

The Santa Cruz earthquake killings

1972-1973 · Santa Cruz County, California, USA

XVII. SHARED PSYCHOSIS AND THE MANDATE TO KILL

A private cosmology assembled from Catholic sacrifice imagery, reincarnation and Eastern reading. IT HAD NO CONGREGATION AND NEVER ACQUIRED A SINGLE FOLLOWER.

Who led it

HERBERT WILLIAM MULLIN (18 April 1947 - 18 August 2022), born in Salinas, California, and voted most likely to succeed by his high school class.

What it worshipped and taught

A mandate to kill, held by one man alone. Mullin believed he had been born on the anniversary of the 1906 SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE and was therefore charged with preventing the next one. He believed the SAN ANDREAS FAULT required a continuous supply of deaths to stay quiet; that the VIETNAM WAR had been supplying them; and that as American involvement wound down in late 1972 THE DEATHS WOULD HAVE TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE. He reported receiving telepathic instructions, including from his own father, naming who was to die.

Who was in it

Herbert Mullin; his thirteen victims; DONALD LUNDE, the forensic psychiatrist who examined him and later wrote the standard account; EDMUND KEMPER, who occupied an adjoining cell and dismissed the whole earthquake theory.

How it ended, or where it stands

CONVICTED, IMPRISONED FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, AND NEVER RELEASED. He died in custody in 2022.

The dead

Thirteen.

Of note

MULLIN IS IN THIS ERA WITHOUT THE SHARED HALF OF IT, AND THAT IS PRECISELY WHY HE BELONGS.

Every other case here has two people. Mullin had one. HE PRODUCED, ALONE AND UNAIDED, THE FULL STRUCTURE THAT A CULT NORMALLY REQUIRES A LEADER AND A GROUP TO BUILD: a cosmology, an unfalsifiable stake, a duty, a body count and a justification that made the deaths necessary rather than wicked. He needed no congregation because HE WAS BOTH THE PROPHET AND THE ENTIRE FOLLOWING. Read against entry 171, this is the same machine with the second person removed, and it still ran.

THE LEGAL POINT IS THE MOST USEFUL SENTENCE IN THIS ERA AND IT SHOULD BE READ SLOWLY. NOBODY AT THE TRIAL DISPUTED THAT HE WAS SCHIZOPHRENIC. HE WAS CONVICTED ANYWAY. California asked the jury the narrow question — did he know the nature of his acts and know they were wrong — and the evidence that he did was behavioural rather than psychiatric. He chose isolated victims, he concealed bodies, he hid a weapon, he ran. A MAN WHO BELIEVES HE IS SAVING CALIFORNIA DOES NOT NEED TO RUN. THE DIAGNOSIS WAS REAL AND IT WAS NOT A DEFENCE, because the clinical question and the legal question are not the same question and never have been. Compare 173, where the defence lost the same argument in 1954, and 176, where it won in 2006 on facts that answered exactly this point.

HE HAD BEEN INSIDE FIVE TIMES AND WAS RELEASED FIVE TIMES. The killings began in the same years California was emptying its state hospitals, and his family had tried and failed to have him committed. THIS FILE WILL NOT TURN THAT INTO A SINGLE CAUSE, because it cannot be shown and the claim gets made far too easily. What can be shown is narrower and bad enough: the system that had repeatedly identified him as psychotic had no mechanism to keep track of him once he stopped attending. See 163.

ONE CAUTION ON SOURCES. A great deal of what circulates about Mullin comes from two places — Donald Lunde's clinical account and prison interviews with EDMUND KEMPER, who despised him. KEMPER IS AN ENTERTAINING WITNESS AND AN INTERESTED ONE. Where this entry states a fact it rests on the trial record, not on the cell next door.

Its timeline

  1. 1965 His closest friend DEAN RICHARDSON is killed in a car accident shortly after their high school graduation. Mullin builds shrines to him and becomes preoccupied with reincarnation. Those who knew him date the change from here.
  2. 1969-1972 ADMITTED TO MENDOCINO STATE HOSPITAL IN 1969 AND CYCLED THROUGH FIVE MENTAL HOSPITALS OVER THE FOLLOWING YEARS. HE WAS RELEASED EVERY TIME. Paranoid schizophrenia was diagnosed. His family sought commitment and did not obtain it.
  3. 13 OCTOBER 1972 Kills LAWRENCE WHITE, 55, on a road outside Santa Cruz.
  4. 24 OCTOBER 1972 Kills MARY GUILFOYLE, 24, a student hitchhiking to an appointment.
  5. 2 NOVEMBER 1972 KILLS FATHER HENRI TOMEI, 64, INSIDE HIS OWN CHURCH.
  6. 25 JANUARY 1973 Kills JIM GIANERA, 25, and JOAN GIANERA, 21, then KATHY FRANCIS, 29, and her two young sons, DAEMON, 4, and DAVID, 9.
  7. 10 FEBRUARY 1973 SHOOTS FOUR TEENAGE BOYS CAMPING IN THE WOODS — DAVID OLIKER, 18, ROBERT SPECTOR, 18, BRIAN CARD, 19, and MARK DREIBELBIS, 15.
  8. 13 FEBRUARY 1973 Shoots FRED PEREZ, 72, in his garden in full view of a neighbour, who takes the licence plate. HE IS ARRESTED WITHIN MINUTES. Thirteen dead in four months.
  9. 30 JULY 1973 Trial opens. THE PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS IS NOT SERIOUSLY CONTESTED BY ANYONE. The question put to the jury is legal sanity: did he know what he was doing and know it was wrong.
  10. 19 AUGUST 1973 AFTER ABOUT FOURTEEN HOURS THE JURY REJECTS THE INSANITY DEFENCE. Convicted of TWO COUNTS OF FIRST-DEGREE MURDER — the Gianeras and Kathy Francis, held to be premeditated — and EIGHT COUNTS OF SECOND-DEGREE MURDER. Sentenced to life.
  11. 11 DECEMBER 1973 Pleads guilty to second-degree murder for Father Tomei.
  12. 1980-2022 DENIED PAROLE AT EVERY HEARING. Held for most of his sentence at Mule Creek State Prison.
  13. 18 AUGUST 2022 DIES OF NATURAL CAUSES, AGED 75, AT THE CALIFORNIA HEALTH CARE FACILITY IN STOCKTON. He had been in custody for forty-nine years.

Its people

Herbert Mullin

Herbert William Mullin

Killed thirteen people to prevent an earthquake · 18 April 1947 – 18 August 2022 · active 1972–2022

Voted most likely to succeed by his California high school class. After the death of his closest friend DEAN RICHARDSON in a 1965 car accident he became preoccupied with reincarnation and built shrines. Paranoid schizophrenia was diagnosed by his mid-twenties. He came to believe that he had been born on the anniversary of the 1906 SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE and was charged with preventing the next one, that the SAN ANDREAS FAULT required a continuous supply of deaths, and that as the Vietnam War wound down THE DEATHS WOULD HAVE TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE. He reported telepathic instructions, including from his father, naming who was to die. He killed thirteen people in four months.

Before the law. Convicted 19 August 1973; life imprisonment; never paroled; died in custody 2022.

Where things stand. Deceased. HIS CASE IS THE CLEAREST STATEMENT IN THIS DOSSIER OF A DISTINCTION THAT GETS BLURRED EVERYWHERE ELSE: THE CLINICAL QUESTION AND THE LEGAL QUESTION ARE NOT THE SAME QUESTION. He was schizophrenic and everyone at the trial agreed he was. He was convicted anyway, because California asked only whether he knew the acts were wrong, and the evidence that he did was BEHAVIOURAL — he chose isolated victims, concealed bodies, hid a weapon and ran. A MAN WHO BELIEVES HE IS SAVING CALIFORNIA HAS NO REASON TO RUN. Read L301 immediately after this file: same test, opposite answer, and the hinge is conduct after the act.

  1. 1969–1972 Admitted to Mendocino State Hospital and then cycled through five mental hospitals. RELEASED EVERY TIME. His family sought commitment and did not obtain it.
  2. 13 OCTOBER 1972 – 13 FEBRUARY 1973 Thirteen killings across Santa Cruz County, including a priest in his own church, a mother and her two small sons, and four teenage boys camping in the woods.
  3. 13 FEBRUARY 1973 Arrested within minutes of shooting Fred Perez in front of a witness who took his licence plate.
  4. 19 AUGUST 1973 CONVICTED. Two counts of first-degree murder and eight of second-degree. THE INSANITY DEFENCE FAILS THOUGH NOBODY DISPUTED THE DIAGNOSIS.
  5. 11 DECEMBER 1973 Pleads guilty to second-degree murder for Father Henri Tomei.
  6. 1980–2022 DENIED PAROLE AT EVERY HEARING.
  7. 18 AUGUST 2022 Dies of natural causes at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, after forty-nine years in custody.

Checked 2026-09-06

Donald Lunde

Donald T. Lunde

Forensic psychiatrist; examined Mullin and wrote the standard account · 2 March 1937 – 15 December 2007 · active 1973–2007

A Stanford professor of psychiatry for thirty years and, before that, part of the team behind the first successful heart transplant — he published the first paper on the psychiatric complications of transplantation. He became the best-known forensic psychiatrist in California, examining HERBERT MULLIN, EDMUND KEMPER, PATTY HEARST (058) and DAN WHITE, and writing MURDER AND MADNESS and THE DIE SONG, the latter his account of the Mullin case.

Before the law. None. He was an expert witness and an author.

Where things stand. Deceased. A CAUTION THAT APPLIES TO EVERY SOURCE ON MULLIN, INCLUDING THE GOOD ONES. Most of what circulates about that case traces to two places: Lunde's clinical writing, and prison interviews with EDMUND KEMPER, who occupied the adjoining cell and despised Mullin. Lunde is the better source of the two by a wide margin, but he is still a secondary source with a thesis. WHERE ENTRY 175 STATES A FACT IT RESTS ON THE TRIAL RECORD.

  1. 1937 Born in Milwaukee.
  2. 1969 Made full professor of psychiatry at Stanford.
  3. 1973 Examines Herbert Mullin and testifies at his trial.
  4. 1976 Involved in the PATTY HEARST proceedings — see 058, where a coercion argument failed in court in the same decade Mullin's insanity argument failed.
  5. 1970s–1990s Publishes the books that became the standard secondary accounts of both cases.
  6. 15 DECEMBER 2007 Dies of cancer, aged 70.

Checked 2026-09-06

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