South Bay serial killer who murdered 13 dies in Stockton hospital
STOCKTON -- A convicted serial killer died of natural causes at age 75 in state prison on Thursday evening.
Herbert Mullin, who confessed to killing 13 people during a four-month period in 1972 and 1973, was being housed in the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The San Joaquin County Medical Examiner's Office will investigate the exact cause of Mullin's death, CDCR officials said.
Mullin was admitted to the state prison from Santa Cruz County in September 1973, following two concurrent life-with-possibility-of-parole sentences for first-degree murders and eight concurrent five years-to-life sentences for second-degree murders.
Later in the year, Mullin was also convicted of another second-degree murder that sentenced him to a consecutive five years-to-life prison term.
Mullin was denied parole most recently in March 2021, with Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeffrey Rosell saying then that Mullin still "poses as high of a risk to the community" as he did when he murdered 13 people in the early 1970s.
Rosell's office said at the time of the parole hearing that Mullin was convicted for the murders of 10 of his victims who were killed in Santa Cruz County, ranging in age from 4 to 73.
The serial killer was also convicted of killing a priest in a church confessional booth in Los Gatos. Mullin confessed to two other murders for which he was never charged, prosecutors said.