Joshua Rudiger

Case record: Joshua Rudiger

Overview

Joshua Rudiger was an Oakland man who was accused of being the “Vampire Slasher” and who was found guilty of second-degree murder in connection with the slaying of a homeless woman in San Francisco. The jury also convicted him of assault charges in attacks on three homeless men.

Rudiger pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and he told police in a videotaped statement that he was a 2,000-year-old vampire. He admitted attacking homeless people and killing Shirley Dillahunty as she slept in a Mission District doorway.

Rudiger was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison in 1999.

Timeline

• Oct. 29, 1998 — Shirley Dillahunty was killed in the Mission District doorway where she slept after Rudiger slashed her throat.
• Oct. 16, 1998 — Rudiger was suspected of slashing the throats of two homeless men in a Nob Hill alley; both men survived.
• Nov. 11, 1998 — Joshua Rudiger was arrested after a fourth victim in a monthlong string of throat-slashing assaults was attacked in Chinatown.
• May 1998 — Rudiger was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with great bodily injury and given three years’ probation after a bow-and-arrow attack case.
• 1997 — Rudiger was arrested for a knife attack on a homeless man.
• August 3, 1997 — Rudiger was arrested after his former friend was shot with a homemade bow and arrow.
• 1997 — Rudiger spent six months at Atascadero State Hospital after a bow-and-arrow attack on a former friend.
• 1999 — Rudiger was found guilty of second-degree murder and assault charges; he was also sentenced to 23 years to life in prison.

The offence

The jury found Rudiger guilty of second-degree murder in the throat slashing of Shirley Dillahunty on Oct. 29, 1998. The jury rejected a first-degree murder charge and instead returned a second-degree murder verdict.

For three other knife attacks, the jury rejected attempted-murder charges and convicted Rudiger of lesser assault counts.

In descriptions of the attacks, the prosecutor told jurors that Rudiger struck in the early hours of the morning, picking homeless people because they were vulnerable and there would be few or no witnesses. The prosecutor did not offer a motive for the attacks.

Rudiger’s claims to police included that he was a vampire and that he used blood of victims to drink and to write a character signifying death. The prosecutor told jurors that Rudiger used the blood of victims to write a Chinese-language character for death, and that the symbol was also tattooed on his chest. Rudiger told police he drank the blood.

One witness described waking to find his assailant drinking blood from his slashed throat:

• Willy Jackson testified that he lost consciousness after he was attacked and awoke to find his assailant drinking the blood from his slashed throat.

The jury was told that the surviving victims did not report the attacker trying to drink their blood. A source close to the investigation said a claim was “particularly gruesome” and that the attacker said he “sucks the blood of the victims after he has cut their throats,” but authorities said the surviving victims did not report that behavior and that it “could be delusional.”

Investigation

Deputy Chief Richard Holder said that “We have physical evidence tying four of these attacks together,” and that at three crime scenes the attacker left behind “an Asian character or symbol.”

Holder said the character was the word “death,” and that Rudiger claimed to have written it in blood.

Holder also said Rudiger had “admitted some guilt to the four incidents,” and added, “We need to corroborate his statements.”

Authorities described a tattoo across Rudiger’s chest that referred to childhood or youth.

Arrest and custody

Joshua Rudiger was arrested at 12:30 a.m. after a 48-year-old homeless man fought off an assailant who slashed his throat as he slept on a park bench near Vinton Court and Quincy Street in Chinatown. The unidentified man alerted police and was expected to survive.

Officers Alane Baca and Gregory Huie spotted Rudiger about two blocks away at Grant Avenue and Sacramento Street. Rudiger allegedly had a bloody knife in his belt.

At the time of arrest, Rudiger was booked on suspicion of murder and assault and was being held without bail at San Francisco County Jail.

Rudiger was slated to undergo psychiatric evaluation that day at San Francisco General Hospital.

San Francisco police searched Rudiger’s first-floor room and interviewed a roommate, Christopher Brown, 41. Brown declined to speak to reporters.

A next-door neighbor, Pam Johnson, 43, said she believed a man she recognized as Rudiger kept making noise in his room while she tried to watch Monday Night Football and said, “It ruined the last quarter.”

Rudiger had been staying for the past week at the Highlander Motel on MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland, possibly under an assumed name.

Trial

Jury and verdicts

The jury deliberated for a day and a half, taking the Thanksgiving Day holiday off, before reaching verdicts.

The jury rejected first-degree murder in the death of Shirley Dillahunty and convicted Rudiger of second-degree murder.

For the other three knife attacks, the jury rejected attempted-murder charges and convicted Rudiger of the lesser assault counts.

Rudiger pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Jurors deliberated a day and a half, taking the Thanksgiving Day holiday off, before reaching verdicts.

Defence and prosecution positions

Rudiger’s attorney, William Maas, argued that Dillahunty’s death was an accident that happened as Rudiger was trying to “draw a bead” to drink her blood. Maas also argued that Rudiger denied committing the attacks on the three homeless men.

In the next phase of the trial, which began after the verdicts, the defense planned to try to prove that Rudiger was insane to allow him to be hospitalized indefinitely rather than be imprisoned for 15 years to life.

Assistant district attorney Braden Woods told jurors that Rudiger picked homeless people because they were vulnerable and there would be few or no witnesses, but Woods did not offer a motive for the attacks.

Woods told the jurors that Rudiger used the blood of victims to write a Chinese-language character signifying death and that the symbol was tattooed on his chest. Woods also argued that Rudiger drank the blood.

Maas argued the police investigator Mike Johnson used pressure tactics and lies to obtain a confession for crimes Rudiger did not commit.

Maas told the jury that his client was “troubled” and that he drank blood of victims to obtain “vitality.” Maas said the prosecution portrayed Rudiger as a mastermind when he was “merely a dupe” who did not intentionally inflict fatal injuries on anyone.

Maas said:

• “The prosecution’s theory is that this little fellow over here is the Napoleon of crime,” and Maas added:
• “troubled”
• “vitality.”

Maas said Rudiger sounded “like an idiot” during the police interview:

• “like an idiot”

Maas also described Rudiger’s feelings about the killing:

• Rudiger told investigators he hoped he “hadn’t done too much damage” to Dillahunty. Maas stated:
• “He believes he’s a vampire; he says he needs it (blood) for vitality.”
• “Maybe it’s all going on in his head.”

Witnesses and related victims

Jackson and Sin testified at trial. The record described:

• Willy Jackson: attacked, later testified; Kurtz died of a drug overdose in January.
• Robert Kurtz: attacked; he died of a drug overdose in January.
• Phat Sin: attacked and testified.

Braden Woods described the attacks as happening in the early hours of the morning and said Rudiger picked homeless people who were vulnerable.

Sentencing

A judge ordered Rudiger to undergo psychiatric treatment as a result of a 1997 case in which he pleaded guilty to wounding a former friend with a bow and arrow. Rudiger did not show up at a treatment center. Officials conceded that his violent past and long waiting lists would have all but eliminated his chances of getting in.

Rudiger had spent six months at Atascadero State Hospital after the bow-and-arrow attack.

Rudiger had spent three years at Napa State Hospital after he attempted suicide using a samurai sword at age 15.

He was recommitted to Atascadero after his arrest in the slashings last fall and later was found mentally fit to stand trial.

Prosecutors said they had two doctors who examined Rudiger and found him legally sane.

Appeals

No appellate or appeal outcome was stated.

Aftermath and background

Rudiger had maintained at various times that he was a vampire, a samurai, or a ninja warrior.

The psychiatrist Dr. Paul Good testified about Rudiger’s childhood. Dr. Good said:

“He did not know right from wrong at the time of the crime,”
“The records show him to be psychotic from age 4, one diagnosis after another.”

Dr. Good said Rudiger’s IQ was 81 and that he was far from intelligent.

Medical records described that at age 7 months Rudiger was found amid filth in the bathtub of his mother’s apartment, unattended for two or three days.

Dr. Good described that Rudiger lived in four different foster homes in two years.

At age 4, Rudiger would bang his head, bite his tongue, and force himself to vomit. A diagnosis of mentally retardation and psychosis was given at that time.

The account said that about that time Rudiger later told doctors that he began living a “double life” in which he saw himself as a ninja warrior.

The account described that Rudiger lived in a succession of foster homes until age 15, when he tried to end his life by stabbing himself with a samurai sword. It described:

• He spent the next eight months in six different psychiatric hospitals, winding up at Napa State Hospital.
• Rudiger would sneak out of his room at night and lick the chests of other patients.
• Rudiger told one therapist: “I’m going to be a vampire and suck their blood out.”

At age 18, the account said tests showed he was in worse shape than when he went in.

The account said he was sent to an adolescent treatment center in San Jose, but he walked away after three months.

Not long after he was picked up by police, the account said he was carrying a dead fish and said he was on his way to Japantown in San Francisco and hoped to use a lighter to cook “ninja sushi.”

In 1997, the account stated he was arrested for a knife attack on a homeless man. It said the victim died soon afterward in an unrelated incident, leaving no one to testify against Rudiger, and police released him.

At the time of the 1997 arrest, the account stated he told hospital doctors he was a samurai.

In August 1997, the account said he spent six months at Atascadero State Hospital after a bow-and-arrow attack on a former friend. Doctors said then that he was schizophrenic and had bipolar disorder, but in May 1998 they found him fit for trial.

The account said that once again the victim refused to testify, and Rudiger was placed on probation and ordered to a live-in treatment center.

It said he disappeared soon afterward, moving to a residential hotel in Oakland.

The account described that five months after being put on probation, Rudiger began attacks on homeless people in San Francisco.

The account stated that two days before Halloween 1998, Rudiger found 48-year-old Shirley Dillahunty sleeping in a doorway, pulled out his knife, slashed her throat, and drank her blood. It said Dillahunty died from a lack of blood.

It also stated that within three weeks three homeless people, all male, unwillingly donated blood to Rudiger although none of these men suffered Dillahunty’s fate.

A local press label described the assailant as “The Vampire Slasher,” and the account included an extensive narrative critique of the press characterization, including phrases:

• “The Vampire Slasher”
• “A truly pathetic effort, and one not worthy of a character as bizarre as Joshua Rudiger.”

The narrative also stated that when arrested Rudiger told authorities he had been a samurai in another life who burned down the holiest temple in Japan, killing worshipers, and that he said he was punished by God in this life by being forced to drink human blood to maintain his “vitality.”

Other details

Rudiger’s courtroom history included a 1997 bow-and-arrow case in which he pleaded guilty to wounding a former friend.

The later case included a claim that the earlier San Francisco stabbing case “destroyed that case” after the victim was arrested on a drug charge and then was killed by another inmate in jail.

A quote attributed to John Shanley, spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said:

• “That destroyed that case,” and Shanley also said:
• “We considered it a good plea in light of the fact we had no victim and no witnesses,” and:
• “It’s a sad situation,” and:
• “This case involved a lot of strange circumstances. We’re just pleased the police picked him up before he killed again.”