California’s Forgotten Serial Killer

The Life and Crimes of Herbert Mullin

De: Mark Stokes

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Herbert Mullin was a man tormented by voices and delusions, convinced that his murders were necessary sacrifices to prevent natural disasters. Between October 1972 and February 1973, he terrorized Northern California, killing 13 people—men, women, children, and even a priest—often for no obvious pattern or motive. Mullin believed he was acting on cosmic orders, hearing telepathic instructions from his father or God, and subscribing to a twisted logic that every life he took might avert an earthquake.

California’s Forgotten Serial Killer reconstructs Mullin’s tragic descent from a seemingly ordinary life into psychotic violence. You’ll journey from his early highs—voted “Most Likely to Succeed” in high school—and the crushing grief over a friend’s death, through hospitalizations and drug use, into the murders that unfolded across Santa Cruz and surrounding counties. Mullin’s victims ranged widely in age, race, and gender—a detail that stymied investigators seeking a consistent modus operandi. All the while, he masked his rampage by normalcy: a polite young man, apparently harmless, until he snapped.

But this book is more than a horror chronicle—it’s a psychological study and a critique of how mental illness, institutional failure, and societal neglect can enable tragedy. It gives voice to the victims whose names were once lost in the headlines, to the investigators who pieced together fragmented clues, and to the communities left grappling with horror cloaked in silence. California’s Forgotten Serial Killer challenges readers to remember—not just the bodies—but the broken mind behind the headlines, and to ask: how many monsters slip through the cracks until their crimes can no longer be hidden?

Virtual voice

Somebody needs to go through an edit virtual voice. It was annoying to hear the man’s name pronounced as if he was some sort of added spice or the pronunciation of the word lives.

So until somebody can go through and correct that, I still don’t like virtual voice