In the early 1970s, Santa Cruz, California, was already living through an extraordinary period of violence. Then Herbert William Mullin began killing people for a reason almost impossible to comprehend.

Mullin believed his murders were human sacrifices necessary to prevent a catastrophic earthquake from destroying California. Between October 1972 and February 1973, he killed 13 people, ranging in age from four to 72. His victims included a priest, a college student, a former high school friend, children, and people he encountered seemingly at random.

His first known victim was Lawrence “Whitey” White, a 55-year-old man Mullin beat to death with a baseball bat after White stopped to offer him help. Days later, Mullin murdered 24-year-old Mary Margaret Guilfoyle, a Cabrillo College student who accepted a ride from him. Then he entered a Catholic church and killed Father Henri Tomei inside the confessional.

The violence escalated.

Mullin murdered former friend Jim Gianera, Gianera’s wife Joan, and four members of the neighboring Francis family, including two young boys. He later shot four teenage campers and finally killed 72-year-old Fred Perez in broad daylight while the man worked in his yard. A witness recorded Mullin’s license plate, and police arrested him minutes later.

After his arrest, Mullin confessed.

The central question at his trial was not whether he had committed the killings, but whether his severe mental illness made him legally responsible for them. A jury ultimately convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and nine counts of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Adding another bizarre chapter to Santa Cruz crime history, Mullin’s killing spree overlapped with that of Edmund Kemper, the Co-Ed Killer. The two men were operating in the same general area during the same period, complicating investigators’ efforts to understand the seemingly unrelated murders occurring around Santa Cruz.

Herbert Mullin remained incarcerated for the rest of his life. He died of natural causes at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton on August 18, 2022, at age 75.

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On December 27, 2011, Betsy Faria was found brutally murdered inside her home in Troy, Missouri.

Betsy had been battling terminal cancer, but this was no natural death. She had been stabbed dozens of times, and when her husband, Russ Faria, returned home and discovered her body, investigators almost immediately focused on him.

There was just one problem.

Russ had an alibi.

He had spent the evening with friends, and receipts, cellphone records, and other evidence supported his account. Yet prosecutors built their case around the grieving husband, and in 2013, Russ Faria was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison.

Meanwhile, another person had been one of the last people to see Betsy alive.

Her friend Pam Hupp.

Just days before the murder, Betsy had changed the beneficiary of a $150,000 life insurance policy, making Hupp the beneficiary. Hupp became a key witness against Russ and offered investigators increasingly controversial information about the Faria marriage. But evidence involving Hupp was largely kept away from the jury during Russ’s first trial.

In 2015, Russ received a new trial.

This time, the defense was permitted to introduce evidence pointing toward Hupp as an alternative suspect. Russ was acquitted, finally walking free after spending years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. Lincoln County later paid more than $2 million to settle his civil rights lawsuit over the investigation.

Then the story became even stranger.

In 2016, Hupp shot and killed Louis Gumpenberger, a man with significant physical and cognitive disabilities. Prosecutors alleged she had deliberately lured him into a bizarre scheme designed to make it appear that someone connected to Russ Faria had sent Gumpenberger to kill her. Hupp ultimately entered an Alford plea and received life in prison without parole for Gumpenberger’s murder.

That killing caused investigators to take another look at Betsy’s murder.

In 2021, Pam Hupp was charged with murdering Betsy Faria. She has pleaded not guilty and has denied killing her. As of April 2026, prosecutors have agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for Hupp waiving her right to a jury trial, and her bench trial is scheduled for January 31, 2028.

The extraordinary case inspired the Dateline podcast The Thing About Pam and the NBC series starring Renée Zellweger, turning Betsy Faria’s murder into one of the most recognizable true crime cases of the past decade.

But beneath every strange twist is the reason this story exists at all:

Betsy Faria was murdered.

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On December 27, 2011, Betsy Faria was found brutally murdered inside her home in Troy, Missouri.

Betsy had been battling terminal cancer, but this was no natural death. She had been stabbed dozens of times, and when her husband, Russ Faria, returned home and discovered her body, investigators almost immediately focused on him.

There was just one problem.

Russ had an alibi.

He had spent the evening with friends, and receipts, cellphone records, and other evidence supported his account. Yet prosecutors built their case around the grieving husband, and in 2013, Russ Faria was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison.

Meanwhile, another person had been one of the last people to see Betsy alive.

Her friend Pam Hupp.

Just days before the murder, Betsy had changed the beneficiary of a $150,000 life insurance policy, making Hupp the beneficiary. Hupp became a key witness against Russ and offered investigators increasingly controversial information about the Faria marriage. But evidence involving Hupp was largely kept away from the jury during Russ’s first trial.

In 2015, Russ received a new trial.

This time, the defense was permitted to introduce evidence pointing toward Hupp as an alternative suspect. Russ was acquitted, finally walking free after spending years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. Lincoln County later paid more than $2 million to settle his civil rights lawsuit over the investigation.

Then the story became even stranger.

In 2016, Hupp shot and killed Louis Gumpenberger, a man with significant physical and cognitive disabilities. Prosecutors alleged she had deliberately lured him into a bizarre scheme designed to make it appear that someone connected to Russ Faria had sent Gumpenberger to kill her. Hupp ultimately entered an Alford plea and received life in prison without parole for Gumpenberger’s murder.

That killing caused investigators to take another look at Betsy’s murder.

In 2021, Pam Hupp was charged with murdering Betsy Faria. She has pleaded not guilty and has denied killing her. As of April 2026, prosecutors have agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for Hupp waiving her right to a jury trial, and her bench trial is scheduled for January 31, 2028.

The extraordinary case inspired the Dateline podcast The Thing About Pam and the NBC series starring Renée Zellweger, turning Betsy Faria’s murder into one of the most recognizable true crime cases of the past decade.

But beneath every strange twist is the reason this story exists at all:

Betsy Faria was murdered.

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In 1978, Rodney Alcala appeared on the popular television show The Dating Game.

He smiled for the cameras, flirted with the contestant, and won the date.

What no one in the studio knew was that Alcala was already a violent predator—and was in the middle of a murder spree. His bizarre television appearance would eventually earn him one of true crime’s most chilling nicknames: the Dating Game Killer.

Alcala often used photography as a way to approach women and girls, convincing them to pose for him before gaining their trust. After his arrest, investigators discovered a massive collection of photographs depicting hundreds of unidentified women, girls, and boys, raising fears that some may have been additional victims.

His crimes stretched across multiple states and decades.

In California, Alcala was ultimately convicted of murdering Robin Samsoe, Jill Barcomb, Georgia Wixted, Charlotte Lamb, and Jill Parenteau. He later pleaded guilty to the New York murders of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover, and investigators have linked or suspected him in still more cases.

One of the most disturbing elements of Alcala’s story was how many opportunities there had been to stop him.

Years before his murder convictions, eight-year-old Tali Shapiro survived a brutal attack by Alcala after a witness saw him lure her away and alerted police. Other women also survived encounters with him, including Morgan Rowan, who later spoke publicly about the violence she endured.

Yet Alcala repeatedly returned to the streets.

In 1979, the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe finally led investigators to him. He was convicted and sentenced to death, although his case went through multiple trials and appeals before later DNA evidence connected him to additional murders.

The true number of Rodney Alcala’s victims remains unknown. Authorities conclusively tied him to multiple murders, while investigators have long suspected that his actual body count may have been far higher. Alcala died of natural causes on California’s death row in July 2021 at age 77.

Listen now as we break down:

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Around the year 1895, Cordelia Adelaide Botkin met the love of her life, John Preston Dunning. Problem? They were each married to other people. But that didn’t stop them from entering a passionate affair. Another problem? John Dunning would eventually leave Cordelia. This is Cordelia Botkin. Death is like a box of chocolates. You never know how you’re gonna go.



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January 4th, 1935. A young bellboy is sent to a hotel room in Kansas City. The switchboard operator wants him to urge the resident to put the hotel phone back in the cradle. What the bellboy finds after letting himself into the room is a man who’d been stabbed, strangled and is on the brink of death. This is a case shrouded in mystery for 87 years. This is the Murder in Room 1046.

August 14th, 1980. Two people are found dead in a home in West Hollywood; both killed with a twelve-gauge shotgun. One is a small-time hustler. The other a beautiful twenty-year-old Playboy Playmate who’d gone from making soft serve to being in a movie with Audrey Hepburn. Although legally separated, these two are married. This true crime has been studied, captured in films, written about in songs—you name it, it’s probably been done. She was beautiful, young and innocent. And then she was dead. This is a story of jealousy, hatred and fear. One man would discover her, two more powerful men wanted to claim her. This is the story of Dorothy Stratten. The Hollywood Beauty and the Beast.

In January 2013, 21-year-old Elisa Lam was searching for happiness. She hoped to find that joy by traveling from Vancouver, Canada to the sunny state of California. Instead of happiness, however, Elisa Lam stumbled into the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles—a hotel half a block away from Skid Row. And a hotel plagued by a history of drugs, prostitution, suicide, and homicide. And when Elisa Lam disappeared, police would take a hard look inside The Cecil Hotel, looking for any sign of the lost 21-year-old. But they wouldn’t look everywhere. This is the story of Elisa Lam. Lost in La La Land.

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Saturday, July 6, 1985. El Dorado Hills, California. Estranged from her husband, Jane Anker Hylton and her thirteen year old daughter are staying at the home of a friend. Also living in the home at the time, the owner's grandson, Ricky Davis and his girlfriend, Connie Dahl. Ricky and Connie go to a party that night. Autumn, Jane's daughter also goes out with friends. When they all return in the wee hours of the night, Jane is dead. Stabbed. Twenty-nine times. Who would want Jane dead? And why did accounts of that night by Ricky and Connie keep changing? After fourteen years, the cold case would be solved. Or was it? This is a case of murder, lies, coercion, DNA, exoneration and surprise. This is the Murder of Jane Anker Hylton. It's all in the DNA.

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