Ambrose Edward Griffin, a 51-year-old engineer and father of two, was tragically killed on December 29, 1977, in Sacramento, California. Griffin was helping his wife unload groceries from their car when he suddenly collapsed. Initially, his wife thought he had suffered a heart attack, but it was later revealed that he had been shot in a random drive-by attack.
The incident occurred in front of their home, and the sound of gunshots was initially mistaken for other noises.
The investigation into Griffin's death revealed that he was the first victim of Richard Trenton Chase, later known as the "Vampire of Sacramento." Chase, who was suffering from severe mental illness, had embarked on a killing spree that would claim the lives of six people over the span of a month. On the day following Griffin's murder, a news crew discovered two spent shell casings near the Griffin residence, which were linked to the .22-caliber weapon used in the shooting.
Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man with a rifle in the neighborhood, and a 12-year-old boy later recalled under hypnosis that a man with brown hair had shot at him from a brown Pontiac Trans Am. Despite these leads, the investigation initially stalled. However, further police work connected a shot fired into a nearby home two days before Griffin's murder to the same weapon, confirming the presence of a dangerous individual in the area.
Richard Trenton Chase was eventually apprehended in January 1978, after a series of brutal murders that included not only shootings but also acts of necrophilia and cannibalism. Chase was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. He committed suicide in prison in 1980 by overdosing on antidepressants. The case of Ambrose Edward Griffin remains a chilling reminder of the random and senseless nature of some violent crimes.
