The Sickest Criminal We Have Ever Covered on This Podcast

Richard Chase was found guilty on six counts of first degree murder and various other charges in May of 1979. His attorneys' appeals for clemency and his history of mental illness failed, but he was sentenced to die in California's gas chamber. Inmates at San Quentin were so afraid of him that they tried to convince him to take his own life by giving him a lethal dose of antidepressants. On December 26, 1980, three days shy of the three year anniversary of Ambrose Griffin's murder, a guard doing a routine cell check noticed Chase lying in an awkward position on his bed,. not moving and not breathing. At autopsy it was confirmed he'd overdosed. He had been hoarding them