Stanley Dean Baker

Case record: Stanley Dean Baker

Background

Stanley Dean Baker was a hitchhiker arrested in California and later convicted of murder in Montana. Police statements described him as a hippie hitchhiker who admitted shooting a Montana man to death and cannibalizing the body. Investigators found mutilated remains of Montana victim James Schlosser in the Yellowstone River, with the heart and several fingers missing.

Popular press branded Baker a “hippie satanist” because, at the time of his arrest, he had a recipe for LSD and a copy of The Satanic Bible in his possession. Baker later told law enforcement officials and fellow inmates that he had participated in a “blood drinking cult” in Wyoming. He later confessed that his crimes were the result of drug use and had nothing to do with any involvement with satanism.

The offence

A male body was found in the Yellowstone River in Montana after a fisherman snagged it at the end of his line. The body was clad only in shorts. The head was missing; the arms had been severed at the shoulders; and the legs had been chopped off at the knees. The abdomen and chest were covered with stab wounds, including “a particularly large ugly hole in the chest.” The heart was missing, and the chest had been cut open and the heart removed.

An autopsy indicated the victim had been stabbed twenty-seven times with a sharp-pointed blade of at least five inches in length. The removal of the head and limbs had been crudely performed, possibly with the knife used to inflict the stab wounds. Police concluded the victim had been dead for twenty-four hours when found.

Police described the pattern as consistent with cult murder, and they noted a rash of killings connected with secret groups of devil-worshippers.

Investigation

Deputy Bigelow responded to a call about a hit-and-run accident at Big Sur. Patrolmen found two long-haired males walking down a nearby road and noted similarities in their descriptions. Under questioning, one suspect readily confessed involvement in the accident, adding: “I have a problem. I'm a cannibal.”

Stan Baker turned his pockets out and palmed a human finger bone, removed from his most recent victim in Montana. Baker’s sidekick, Harry Allen Stroup, was also carrying a bony digit. Both were taken into custody on suspicion of homicide.

Investigators in Montana found mutilated remains of victim James Schlosser in the Yellowstone River. Police teletyped details of the victim to Wyoming and other neighbouring states. Investigators searched the river and its banks for many miles but found no traces of missing limbs.

The earth was splattered with dried blood at the camp location Baker described, and a bloodstained hunting knife was found. Investigators also found human bone fragments, teeth, skin, and a severed human ear.

Arrest

The arrest began after two suspects were identified in connection with the collision in California. The Yellowstone River torso identification came through a teletype message about a missing person resembling the torso: James Michael Schlosser, aged twenty-two, missing from Roundup, a hundred miles away. Schlosser had set out on the Friday to drive to Yellowstone Park in his Opel Kadett sports car and had not turned up for work on the Monday.

Sheriff Guitoni alerted police for sightings of Schlosser’s Opel Kadett, described as a 1969 yellow vehicle with black racing stripes.

The Opel Kadett was later involved in a collision on a dirt road in Monterey County, California. The driver of the truck approached the car after the crash and observed two large young men emerging. Both were described as typical Californian hippies with long hair and beards. The men were friendly at first; the truck driver tried to exchange driver’s licences, but neither man had one. He took the registration number and suggested driving them to the nearest telephone for police notification. The two men got out and ran away into nearby woods. The truck driver then phoned police, reporting the registration number of the vehicle, which matched the missing Schlosser’s car.

Patrolman Randy Newton found the two suspects walking along the road just two miles out of Lucia, attempting to hitch a lift. The two men admitted having been the two men in the Opel Kadett involved in the accident. Newton arrested both men, and fellow officers arrived to handcuff them and advise them of their rights.

When questioned, the blond man identified himself as Stanley Dean Baker, aged twenty-three, and his companion as Harry Allen Stroup, aged twenty. Baker and Stroup were taken to the police station in Monterey; police searched them and found small lengths of bone in Baker’s pockets. Baker blurted out: “They ain't chicken bones. They're human fingers.” Baker then added: “I have a problem. I'm a cannibal.”

Trial

After Baker and Stroup were taken into custody, Officer Newton continued questioning and police investigated Baker’s statements.

Detective Dempsey Biley took over questioning at the police station. Baker almost boasted about how he had killed the owner of the Opel Kadett, saying Stroup had not been with him at the time. Baker stated that he and Stroup split up when they reached Big Timber because Baker hitched a ride with James Schlosser. Baker stated that when Schlosser said he was going to Yellowstone Park for the weekend, Baker asked to go along, and the two men camped close to the Yellowstone River. Baker stated that in the middle of the night he crept over to his sleeping companion and shot him twice in the head with a .22 pistol he habitually carried. Baker stated that he then cut up the body into six parts, removing the head, arms, and legs.

When asked what he had done with the dead man’s heart, Baker replied: “I ate it. Raw.” Baker stated he cut off the dead man’s fingers to have something to chew on and dumped the remainder of the body in the river, along with the pistol, before driving off in his victim’s car. Baker later said he met up with Harry Stroup along the road and offered him a lift, and he insisted Stroup had not been involved in the murder.

Baker’s possessions included a recipe for LSD and a paperback book called The Satanic Bible, described as a handbook of devil-worship with instructions on how to conduct a black mass. Baker described the location of the camp where he had killed Schlosser, and police officers located it and searched it.

Baker and Stroup were taken before a judge in California and waived extradition. They were flown back to Montana, where they were arraigned before District Judge Jack Shamstrom on 27 July. The pair were remanded in Park County jail. On 4 August Judge Shamstrom approved a motion that Baker be sent to Warm Springs State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

No motive for the crime was claimed by the prosecution, apart from the cannibal aspect: the lust for human flesh.

Sentencing

Baker was convicted of murder and sentenced to prison. Stanley Baker was sentenced to life in prison in Montana in 1970. Harry Stroup discharged his sentence and was released in 1979.

Baker continued efforts on behalf of the cult in prison. Authorities reported that he actively solicited other inmates to join a Satanic coven. Administrators also allowed him to travel through the prison system, teaching transactional analysis to other inmates.

Baker was sometimes described as threatening prison guards, and he was relieved of homemade weapons on eleven separate occasions.

Appeals

The case record described Baker’s later parole and release, but it did not describe any appellate history.

Outcome

Stanley Baker was paroled to his native Wyoming six years later, and requested that his present whereabouts remain confidential. He was released in 1985.

Other details

Stanley Dean Baker had electric shock treatment for a nervous disorder when he was seventeen. He claimed to have developed a taste for human flesh after that treatment and referred to himself as “Jesus.”

Baker also confessed participation in the April 20, 1970 murder of Robert Salem, a 40-year-old lighting designer in San Francisco. Salem had been stabbed 27 times and nearly decapitated; his left ear had been severed and carried away. Baker attributed the killing to orders from the Grand Chingon. Slogans painted on the walls in Salem’s blood included “Zodiac” and “Satan Saves.”

Baker told police he had been recruited by Satanic cultists from a college campus in his home state of Wyoming. He alleged membership in the homicidal “Four Pi movement,” sworn allegiance to the cult’s master known to intimates as the “Grand Chingon,” and committed other slayings on the cult’s behalf. Baker also reported human sacrifices in the Santa Ana Mountains, south of Los Angeles.

An additional narrative detail described a quoted sequence by Coroner Davis: “I never saw anything like it,” followed by: “The poor fellow's been stabbed about twenty-five times and I figure he's been in the water about a day ... He was a young fellow, probably in his early twenties.” The coroner continued: “There's one other thing,” and “The heart is missing!”