Herbert Mullin: The Santa Cruz Killer Who Believed Murder Prevented Earthquakes
10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories
Joe
4.9 • 638 Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1972, Herbert Mullin murdered thirteen people across Santa Cruz, California, during a six-month killing spree that terrorized the community already known as the "Murder Capital of the World." The homicide investigation revealed victims ranging from a hitchhiking college student to a Catholic priest killed inside a confessional booth, with forensic evidence and detective work eventually connecting the seemingly random murders to one disturbed killer whose conviction would hinge on whether his paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis proved legal insanity.
Herb Mullin genuinely believed he was saving California from sliding into the Pacific Ocean. He wasn't hunting for power or sexual gratification. He was a former high school golden boy, voted Most Likely to Succeed, who had his brain completely shatter after his best friend died in a car crash. He thought if he could get thirteen people to telepathically agree to die, their blood would keep the San Andreas Fault from ripping the state in half. The mental health system saw him deteriorating in real time and still couldn't prevent what was coming.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Santa Cruz, 1973. |
| 0:04.0 | A city already drowning in serial murder violence gets hit with something nobody saw coming. |
| 0:10.0 | A clean-cut, former Boy Scout starts killing strangers because he thinks their deaths will stop California from falling into the ocean. |
| 0:19.0 | 13 victims, 6 months, |
| 0:21.6 | and a delusion so complete that even after his arrest, |
| 0:24.6 | Herbert Mullen still believed he'd save the world. |
| 0:28.6 | ... In 1979, two of California's most notorious serial killers ended up in prison cells right next to each other. |
| 0:59.0 | Edmund Kemper, the co-ed killer in one cell, Herbert Mullen, in the other. |
| 1:04.0 | Kemper murdered his own mother, decapitated college students, kept their heads as trophies. |
| 1:09.0 | And this guy looks at Mullin with absolute disgust |
| 1:12.5 | and says Herb killed people for no good reason. When someone who did what Kempard did thinks |
| 1:17.9 | you're pointless and irritating, that tells you something about how disturbing this case really is. |
| 1:24.0 | Herbert Mullen was born April 18, 1947, in Salinas, California, raised Catholic, stable family, |
| 1:31.6 | the whole package. This kid built tree houses with his friends, played Little League baseball, |
| 1:36.7 | went on Boy Scout camping trips. At San Lorenzo Valley High School, he was legitimately popular, |
| 1:43.0 | good grades, genuinely kind to people, |
| 1:46.0 | had a girlfriend named Loretta, who probably regrets that now. |
| 1:49.9 | His classmates voted him most likely to succeed. |
| 1:52.9 | The teachers adored him. |
| 1:54.6 | But one thing bothered him. |
| 1:56.7 | His birthday was April 18th, the same exact date as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that killed |
| 2:03.9 | thousands and leveled the city. For most people, that's just a weird coincidence. For Herb, |
... |
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