Herbert Mullin murdered thirteen people across Santa Cruz County in a seven-month period that began in October 1972.
His crimes unfolded against a backdrop of social upheaval and personal mental collapse. Mullin, then twenty-five, acted on auditory hallucinations that instructed him to kill in order to prevent a catastrophic earthquake. The killings took place in and around the coastal city of Santa Cruz, a community already unsettled by the recent murders committed by Edmund Kemper. Authorities initially treated the deaths as unrelated, allowing Mullin to continue until a routine traffic stop ended the spree.
The case remains a stark example of how untreated schizophrenia can intersect with violent fantasy when no effective intervention occurs. Contemporary records show that Mullin had been hospitalised several times yet received inconsistent follow-up care after his release. His selection of victims appeared random to investigators, ranging from a Catholic priest to young hitchhikers and families in remote cabins. Each death fed the same delusional narrative that Mullin later described in detail during police interviews.
Background
Herbert William Mullin was born in Salinas, California, in 1947. He grew up in a stable household and showed early promise in school and sport. By his late teens, however, marked changes emerged. Friends noticed increasing withdrawal and erratic statements about impending disasters. Mullin graduated high school in 1965 and briefly attended community college before dropping out.
Drafted into the army in 1967, he served without incident but received an early discharge on psychiatric grounds after exhibiting signs of acute distress. Subsequent years brought multiple short-term admissions to mental-health facilities. Diagnoses consistently pointed to paranoid schizophrenia, yet prescribed medication was often discontinued once Mullin felt improved. By 1972 he lived in a succession of cheap rooms in Santa Cruz, supporting himself through odd jobs while his condition deteriorated further.
The Crimes
The first confirmed killing occurred on 13 October 1972. Mullin beat Lawrence White to death with a baseball bat inside a remote cabin near Ben Lomond. Over the following months he struck again at intervals of days or weeks. Victims included Father Henri Tomei, stabbed inside a church confessional; four campers at a state park; and several individuals picked up while hitchhiking. In each instance Mullin used whatever weapon lay at hand and left the bodies where they fell.
Mullin later told detectives that the voices he heard demanded a precise number of deaths to maintain seismic balance. He viewed the murders as sacrificial acts rather than personal crimes. The randomness of victim selection and the geographic spread across Santa Cruz County initially masked any pattern that might have alerted police sooner.
Investigation and Capture
Santa Cruz detectives worked the cases in isolation until February 1973. A stolen vehicle report led officers to pull over Mullin on 13 February. Inside the car they found bloodstained clothing and a knife consistent with recent attacks. Under questioning Mullin provided a full confession, detailing each murder and the earthquake-prevention rationale that guided his actions.
Search of his residence yielded journals filled with apocalyptic calculations. Officers recovered additional evidence linking him to every unsolved homicide under review. The investigation concluded within days once Mullin’s statements were corroborated by physical evidence and witness accounts.
Trial and Conviction
Mullin stood trial in Santa Cruz Superior Court in July 1973. The prosecution presented the confession, forensic matches and eyewitness identifications. Defence counsel argued diminished capacity due to schizophrenia, seeking a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury rejected that plea after hearing testimony from both prosecution and defence psychiatrists.
On 19 August 1973 Mullin received thirteen consecutive life sentences. He has remained in the California prison system ever since, housed primarily at facilities equipped for inmates with serious mental illness. Parole hearings have consistently upheld the original term.
Psychological Profile
Court-appointed evaluators described Mullin’s schizophrenia as severe and longstanding. Auditory hallucinations formed the core of his belief system, commanding specific actions under threat of global catastrophe. He displayed organised thinking within the delusion itself, calculating victim totals and timing attacks to align with perceived seismic risk.
No evidence emerged of sadistic sexual motivation or premeditated financial gain. The killings served an internal logic that Mullin regarded as altruistic. Post-conviction assessments have reaffirmed the original diagnosis and noted that medication stabilises his presentation but does not erase the underlying disorder.
Legacy and Community Impact
Santa Cruz residents lived through two separate serial-killer episodes within a single year. The combined toll prompted local agencies to improve coordination between patrol divisions and mental-health services. County records show increased funding for crisis-intervention training after 1973.
Mullin’s case continues to appear in studies of untreated psychosis and violence. Law-enforcement training materials cite the investigation as an example of how fragmented case management can delay identification of a single perpetrator. Victim families have maintained a low public profile, consistent with the respectful distance observed by local media at the time.
Conclusion
Herbert Mullin’s crimes illustrate the destructive potential of severe, unmanaged mental illness when combined with a coherent yet false belief system. The thirteen victims lost their lives to a delusion that offered no external warning signs until the final arrest. Santa Cruz emerged from the period with strengthened institutional responses, yet the human cost remains fixed in the county’s documented history.
Bibliography
Bugliosi, V. and Gentry, C. (1974) Helter Skelter. New York: W.W. Norton.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (2023) Inmate Information: Herbert Mullin. Sacramento: CDCR.
Leyton, E. (1986) Hunting Humans. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
Newton, M. (2006) The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. 2nd edn. New York: Checkmark Books.
Ressler, R.K. and Shachtman, T. (1992) Whoever Fights Monsters. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Santa Cruz Sentinel (1973) ‘Mullin confesses to 13 slayings’, 15 February.
Schechter, H. (2003) The Serial Killer Files. New York: Ballantine Books.
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