John Linley Frazier (January 26, 1946 – August 13, 2009), also known as The Killer Prophet, was an American mass murderer who killed five people in Santa Cruz County, California, the first of three men who would go on killing sprees in Santa Cruz County in the 1970s, the others being Herbert Mullin and Edmund Kemper.

Biography

John Linley Frazier was born on January 26, 1946, to Patricia Irene ( Adams) and William B. Frazier. After his mother remarried, to Santa Cruz resident Pierre Pascal, Frazier attended elementary and middle school in Capitola, followed by Santa Cruz High School, where he dropped out in 1961 as a freshman. Frazier's "first brush" with the juvenile justice system was at age 15, and he was held in police custody again in 1964. Following a car accident in the late 1960s, he had become a religious fanatic who obsessively studied the Bible. He believed the voice of God was telling him to commit homicides in order to prevent the environment from being destroyed by rich men like Victor Ohta. God, Frazier told friends, had chosen him to save the environment.

Murders

Background

The murders took place a little over a year after the Tate–LaBianca murders by Manson Family members in Los Angeles as well as the Zodiac Killer murders in San Francisco. Frazier had convinced himself that he was the John referred to in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation, and efforts by his wife and mother to get Frazier to seek therapy were unsuccessful. A week before the murders, he told his wife that "some materialists might have to die" for him to fulfill his destiny.

Day of the murders

On October 19, 1970, Frazier entered the home of wealthy

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgery, surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Followin ...

Victor Ohta in the oceanfront resort area of Soquel, a few miles south of Santa Cruz. Perched atop a hilltop overlooking Monterey Bay, the mansion had been designed by a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright. Frazier proceeded to murder Ohta, his wife, their two sons, and Ohta's medical secretary. He shot the five of them with a

.38 caliber .38 caliber is a frequently used name for the caliber of firearms and firearm cartridges. The .38 is considered a large firearm cartridge; anything larger than .32 is considered a large caliber.Wright, James D.; Rossi, Peter H.; Daly, Kathleen ...

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

and pushed their bodies in the home's swimming pool. After the killings, Frazier typed a note on a typewriter owned by Ohta, which he left on the window of Ohta's Rolls-Royce. The note read:

Halloween, 1970. Today World War III will begin, as bought to you by the People of the Free Universe. From this day forward, anyone and/or everyone or company of persons who misuses the natural environment or destroys same will suffer the penalty of death by the People of the Free Universe. I and my comrades from this day forth will fight until death or freedom against anyone who does not support natural life on this planet.
Materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...
must die, or Mankind will stop. KNIGHT OF WANDS KNIGHT OF CUPS Night(sic) OF PENTACLES KNIGHT OF SWORDS

He set fire to the home and blocked the roads to the property with the doctor’s car and the secretary’s car. Frazier fled in Virginia Ohta’s station wagon, which he later abandoned and burned in a railroad tunnel.

Arrest

Neighbors informed police that they had seen Frazier patrolling Soquel, California, armed with a gun. The firearm, a

, was believed to have been used in the slayings. There were also reports of Frazier being seen driving the Ohtas' missing

station wagon A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...

. Two sheriff's deputies, Bradley Arbsland and Rodney Sanford, went into the woods and found the cabin reported to be where Frazier lived. Upon entering the cabin they found it to be empty but noticed signs of recent activity. The two deputies staked out the vicinity of the cabin for 20 hours, hiding in some nearby brush. The next morning, October 23, at 7:30 A.M., the two deputies captured Frazier while he slept. He was captured four days after murdering the Ohta family.

Trial and aftermath

The jury found Frazier to be legally sane, and he was tried and convicted of five counts of murder. On the trial's first day, Frazier appeared in court with a new look representing the two sides of a

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

. One side had long hair and a long beard and the other side was totally bald with no beard, hair or eyebrow. He later shaved his head completely on advice from his attorney. Frazier was sentenced to death on November 29, 1971. However, in 1972 the death penalty was abolished in California and his sentence was commuted to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

. The Ohta family's two daughters, 18-year-old Taura and 15-year-old Lark, were away at boarding school during the murders. However, Taura died by suicide seven years afterwards.

Death

On August 13, 2009, aged 63, Frazier hanged himself in Mule Creek State Prison in

Ione, California Ione ( ) is a city in Amador County, California. The population was 7,918 at the 2010 census, up from 7,129 in 2000. Once known as " Bed-Bug" and "Freeze Out," Ione was an important supply center on the main road to the Mother Lode and Southern ...

In popular culture

Literature

*Ward Damio: ''Urge to Kill''. Pinnacle Books, 1974, . *David Everitt: ''Human Monsters''. Contemporary Books, New York 1993 *Donald T. Lunde: ''Murder and Madness''. San Francisco Book Co., San Francisco, CA 1976

Music

Doom Metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

band Church of Misery, released a track in 2013 called "All Hollow's Eve" about Frazier on their album, ''Thy Kingdom Scum''

Television

* The case was the subject of a 2014 episode of British tv series

Born to Kill? ''Born to Kill?'' is a British true crime television series, made by Twofour Productions. Each episode is an in-depth look at the childhood, and formative years of serial killers in an attempt to find out whether the individuals were born kille ...

* The case was the subject of a 2017 episode of Investigation Discovery's series ''

A Crime to Remember ''A Crime to Remember'' is an American documentary television series that airs on Investigation Discovery and premiered on November 12, 2013. It tells the stories of notorious crimes that captivated attention of the media and the public when t ...

'' (Season 4 Episode 7, "Killer Prophet")

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frazier, John Linley 1946 births 2009 suicides 20th-century American criminals American male criminals American mass murderers American murderers of children American people convicted of murder American people who died in prison custody American prisoners sentenced to death People convicted of murder by California Murderers who committed suicide in prison custody Prisoners sentenced to death by California Prisoners who died in California detention Suicides by hanging in California