CW: This episode contains retelling of violence and murder, as well as talks about schizophrenia. Listener discretion is advised. 

Santa Cruz in the early 1970s was dubbed “Murderville, USA” home to two active serial killers at the same time. One of them, Ed Kemper, became a media obsession. The other, Herbert Mullen, was nearly erased from public memory. Convinced he was preventing deadly earthquakes through human sacrifice, Mullen’s story was shaped by paranoia, untreated schizophrenia, and convictions of divine command. In this episode, we explore the silence that followed his crimes and what it reveals about how the media chooses its “monsters,” mental illness, and whose stories get told.

Sources:

• • A&E Real Crime. Herbert Mullin: The Serial Killer Who Believed He Was Saving California From Earthquakes. Read here
  • Wikipedia. Herbert Mullin. Read here