Herbert Mullin killed thirteen people, believing his actions would prevent catastrophic California earthquakes.

Science · Published 20 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the early 1970s, Herbert Mullin embarked on a four-month killing spree across California. Driven by paranoid schizophrenia and elaborate delusions, he convinced himself that his victims were blood sacrifices necessary to forestall natural disasters. His case remains a chilling study of untreated mental illness and the complexities of legal insanity.

Born in 1947, Herbert Mullin was once a promising student, voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by his high school peers. However, his mental health deteriorated significantly in his teens, marked by a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and heavy LSD use. By 1969, he had been admitted to Mendocino State Hospital and subsequently cycled through five different mental health facilities. Despite these interventions, he was repeatedly discharged when deemed to pose no immediate risk to himself or others.

Mullin’s descent into violence was fueled by a bizarre internal logic. He believed that the Vietnam War had previously provided enough deaths to serve as a sacrifice to nature, but as the conflict wound down in 1972, he felt compelled to take lives himself to prevent earthquakes. His victims were varied—including hitchhikers, a priest, and former acquaintances—and he often justified these acts through command hallucinations, claiming his father’s voice or the victims themselves directed him to kill. His actions were further complicated by the concurrent crimes of Edmund Kemper, which obscured the pattern of Mullin's activities from police.

The legal proceedings in 1973 centered on whether Mullin was legally sane, a standard requiring the defendant to understand the nature of their actions and distinguish right from wrong. While the defense argued his delusions drove the killings, the prosecution highlighted his efforts to cover his tracks as evidence of premeditation. Ultimately, he was convicted of ten murders, receiving first-degree murder charges for killings deemed premeditated and second-degree for those considered impulsive. Mullin spent the remainder of his life in prison, dying of natural causes in 2022 at age 75.

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