John Linley Frazier

Case record: John Linley Frazier

Background

John Linley Frazier was from Soquel and was later arrested in connection with the deaths of Dr. Victor Ohta, his wife Virginia, their two sons Taggart and Derrick, and Dr. Ohta’s secretary Dorothy Cadwallader.

Frazier became involved in an ecology-focused counterculture. He dropped out of high school and worked as an auto mechanic in Santa Cruz. His marriage ended and he began taking drugs in the spring of 1970, after which he lived in the counterculture and showed interest in tarot cards. He was described as paranoid and as a loner who drifted away from hippie communes, then lived in a self-styled hermit lifestyle in a small shack in the woods near Soquel, not far from the Ohta property.

Frazier had been charged and tried in connection with the killings at the Ohta family residence in Soquel.

The offence

On October 19, 1970, Dr. Ohta’s secretary Dorothy Cadwallader were killed at the family residence in Soquel.

Firefighters responded to a blaze at the Ohta home in the Soquel hills. Firefighters found evidence that the house had been deliberately set on fire, while the scene inside was treated as a homicide scene.

The victims were bound with colorful silk scarves. They were found with their bodies in and around the swimming pool area, including five bodies floating in the swimming pool. The victims were identified as Dr. Victor Ohta, his wife Virginia, their two sons Taggart and Derrick (aged 11 and 12), and Dr. One report stated that the victims had each been shot in the back of the head execution-style, one bullet each except for Dr. Ohta who had been shot four times. Another report said each person was shot from behind with a small caliber gun, while no shell casings were found around the area; it also stated that autopsy reports indicated Dr. Ohta had been shot twice in the back and once under the arm with a .38-caliber pistol, while each of the others had suffered a single wound to the back of the neck, and another gun, a .22, had been used. The reports also stated there was evidence from water present in the lungs that some victims might have still been alive when pushed into the pool and then drowned.

A typewritten note was found on Dr. Ohta’s Rolls-Royce. The note included the message about “World War 3” being initiated “as brought to you by the people of the free universe,” and stated that anyone who misuses the natural environment or destroys it would “suffer the penalty of death by the people of the free universe.” It also stated that Frazier and “comrades” would “fight until death or freedom” against anything or anyone who did not support natural life on this planet, and it included the line “materialism must die, or man-kind will.” The note was dated “Halloween, 1970” in multiple versions. The note’s sign-off included “KNIGHT OF WANDS,” “KNIGHT OF CUPS,” “KNIGHT OF PENTACLES” (or “KNIGHT OF PENTICLES” in one version), and “KNIGHT OF SWORDS.”

Investigation

Investigators found the note beneath one of the windscreen wipers of the Rolls-Royce. Reports described Manson-like overtones in the note and raised fears in the community that another Manson-type assault could occur.

Detectives narrowed suspects and focused on John Linley Frazier. He was seen driving the Ohta’s car the day of the murder. Investigators also said they found evidence such as fingerprints on the Rolls-Royce and a beer can at the scene, and other objects inside the house.

A green station wagon was reported missing and was later found burned and abandoned in a Southern Pacific railroad tunnel about 20 miles to the northwest.

Police and investigators also worked the immediate aftermath as a crime scene involving both arson and homicide, and they searched for additional perpetrators while considering the killings as planned. Investigators discussed the possibility of more than one perpetrator, based on the scene and the time needed to subdue the victims.

A tip led investigators to Frazier. A group of informants associated with hippie hangouts had read about the note in the press and provided Frazier’s location. The informants said Frazier had been talking about “ripping off materialists” and had seemed zealous; one report stated a person paled and said, “This is right on.” The informants named him as John Linley Frazier, 24, also identified as John Linley Pascal, and they stated he lived in a shack downhill from the Ohta property on land owned by Pat Pascal.

Police went to Frazier’s shack on Cornwell Road. They found it had been made difficult to access via a cable-and-plank drawbridge over a ravine. Posting men to wait, police had Frazier in custody by dawn on Friday, October 25. Reports also described that he did not resist arrest and asked for a glass of water when taken into custody.

Arrest and charges

John Linley Frazier was arrested four days after the October 19, 1970 murders, at his shack near Soquel. He was arraigned before Municipal Court Judge Donald O. May on October 25 on five counts of murder.

A grand jury indictment returned a true bill indicting Frazier on five counts of murder on October 28, and he entered a plea of innocent the next day. A gag order was imposed to prevent information from leaking to the media.

Trial

A trial began in October 1971 in Redwood City with a four-man and eight-woman jury, after a change of venue. During the guilt phase, prosecutors presented witnesses who knew Frazier and documentation about the Ohtas, as well as forensic evidence including fingerprints on the stolen car and on a beer can, and testimony that a metallic substance found on Frazier’s knife was consistent with the wire cords that had been cut inside the Ohta home.

Jurors were taken by bus to visit parts of the case including a partially reconstructed Ohta residence, the area where the train hit the abandoned car, and the drawbridge and shack where Frazier had been apprehended. The jurors later convicted Frazier of the five murders.

A second phase addressed sanity and punishment. Frazier was declared legally sane. The trial record included psychiatric testimony from David Marlowe, and other forensic psychiatrists, including Donald T. Lunde and John Peschau from Agnews State Hospital, as well as testimony presented by prosecutors. The defense included the position that Frazier was insane. Frazier’s courtroom behavior included shaving part of his head and face and muttering phrases such as “far out” and “right on,” hurling crumpled newspaper clippings at reporters, and reading George Orwell’s “1984” during trial. In one account, he also appeared completely bald without eyebrows, hair, mustache, or beard on December 16.

Frazier was sentenced to death in San Quentin’s gas chamber. The jury delivered the death sentence, and Frazier’s death sentence was later commuted when California abolished the death penalty.

Sentencing and appeal-related developments

Frazier was sentenced to die in San Quentin’s gas chamber on Nov. 29, 1971.

California abolished the death penalty in 1972, automatically commuting Frazier’s sentence to life imprisonment.

A Santa Cruz county assistant district attorney issued a statement after Frazier’s death sentence period, saying: “Some people deserve to be punished for the rest of their lives. Frazier is such a man.”

Frazier later came up for parole every five years, with his last hearing described as in November 2008.

Outcome

Frazier died by suicide in prison by hanging himself in his cell on August 13, 2009.

A prison official stated the coroner ruled the death was a suicide; one report stated he died of asphyxiation and that prison officials reported he was pronounced dead at 1:33 p.m. A correctional officer found him unresponsive in his cell and reported he was alone in the cell.

District Attorney Bob Lee said: “It’s definitely not a chapter being closed because what John Linley Frazier did affected so many people,” and also: “There’s always that unanswered question, Why did he do this terrible thing.’ Unfortunately that will probably rest with John Linley Frazier.”

Mule Creek State Prison spokeswoman Terry Thorton said, “the circumstances of the suicide were very compelling,” while declining to provide specifics.

Aftermath

The Ohta mansion was later restored and put on the market by the Wells Fargo Bank for $185,000, as reported on August 24, 1972.

Victims

Five people died:

• Dr. Victor Ohta
• Virginia Ohta
• Taggart Ohta (aged 11)
• Derrick Ohta (aged 12)
• Dorothy Cadwallader

Timeline

• Oct. 19, 1970 — Five people were killed at the Ohta residence in Soquel; firefighters found the bodies in and around the swimming pool area, and a note was left on Dr. Ohta’s Rolls-Royce.
• Oct. 23, 1970 — Frazier was arrested without incident at a cabin a short distance from the Ohta home.
• Oct. 25, 1970 — Frazier was arraigned before Municipal Court Judge Donald O. May on five counts of murder.
• Oct. 28, 1970 — A grand jury returned a true bill indicting Frazier on five counts of murder.
• Oct. 18, 1971 — The trial started in October 1971.
• Nov. 29, 1971 — Frazier was convicted for the murder of five persons and sentenced to death in San Quentin’s gas chamber.
• 1972 — California abolished the death penalty and Frazier’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
• Jan. 8, 1974 — Frazier’s sentence was commuted to life in prison on resentencing after the California Supreme Court found the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the state constitution.
• Nov. 2008 — Frazier had a parole hearing; a statement was issued by the Santa Cruz county assistant district attorney.
• Aug. 13, 2009 — Frazier committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell.

Other details

Frazier wrote a rambling letter on Dr. Ohta’s typewriter about “World War III” and stated that anyone who misuses the environment would suffer the penalty of death.

A version of the note was quoted verbatim as:

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 must die, or Mankind will.

Another version of the note was quoted verbatim as:

Today world war 3 will begin as brought to you by the people of free universe. From this day forward anyone 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 anything or anyone who does not support natural life on this planet, materialisum must die or man-kind will. KNIGHT OF WANDS KNIGHT OF CUPS KNIGHT OF PENTACLES KNIGHT OF SWORDS

Frazier admitted to killings to psychiatrist David Marlowe, describing a version of the events in which he bound and shot the victims.

Watsonville Police Chief Terry Medina, who investigated the Ohta murders in 1970, said Frazier tried to throw off police and feign insanity by referencing tarot cards, and Medina also said: “He was smart enough. No one bought into him being a nutcase.”

Frazier was serving a life sentence for five counts of first-degree murder at the time of his death. One report described his conviction as being for the Oct. 19, 1970 murders of Victor M. Ohta, Virginia Ohta, Derek Ohta, Taggart Ohta, and Dorothy Cadwallader at the Ohta’s home in Soquel.