Joshua Rudiger

 VICTIMS : 1

In the years that I've spent reading about murderers I've always found that the nuttier the killer, the more I enjoy the story. So, despite only killing one person, I think you’ll agree that Joshua deserves this space.

At his trial Dr. Paul Good, his psychiatrist, spoke of Rudiger’s childhood. He was the son of a homeless drug-addicted prostitute and an unknown father. According to Dr. Good, Rudiger sank deeper into mental illness despite years of treatment. “He did not know right from wrong at the time of the crime,” Good said. “The records show him to be psychotic from age 4, one diagnosis after another.” Good added that with an IQ of 81, Rudiger was far from intelligent. Medical records show at age 7 months, Rudiger was found amid filth in the bathtub of his mother's apartment, unattended for two or three days.

He lived in four different foster homes in two years. At the age of 4 he would bang his head, bite his tongue and force himself to vomit. A diagnosis of mentally retardation and psychosis was given at this time. It was also about this time, he later told doctors, that he began living a "double life" in which he saw himself as a ninja warrior.

Rudiger lived in a succession of foster homes until age 15, when he tried to end his rather pitiful life by stabbing himself with a samurai sword (as all good Ninja's do). 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. ``I'm going to be a vampire and suck their blood out,'' he told one therapist. When he left, at age 18, tests showed he was in worse shape than when he went in.

Following this stay in the nuthouse 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, carrying a dead fish, saying he was on his way to Japantown in San Francisco and hoped to use a lighter to cook "ninja sushi." (I always thought sushi was raw, but I'm not a ninja, so what do I know)

In 1997, he was arrested for a knife attack on a homeless man. But Joshua got really lucky and the victim died soon afterward in an unrelated incident, so with no one to testify against him police had no choice but to release Rudiger. At the time, he told hospital doctors he was a samurai.

In August, 1997, Rudiger 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 Rudiger fit for trial. Once again Rudiger got lucky, the victim refused to testify, so Rudiger was placed on probation and ordered to a live-in treatment center.

Soon afterward, he disappeared, moving to a residential hotel in Oakland. Five months after being put on probation, Rudiger began his attacks on homeless people in San Francisco.

Two days before Halloween 1998 Rudiger found 48-year-old Shirley Dillahunty sleeping in a doorway. He pulled out his knife and slashed her throat. He then drank her blood. Rudiger must have been very thirsty because Dillahunty died from a lack of blood.

Within three weeks another three homeless people, all male, unwillingly donated blood to the Vampire Ninja, although none of these men suffered Dillahunty's fate, all surviving their neck wounds.

The local press showed a complete lack of imagination by claiming the attacks were at the hands of "The Vampire Slasher". A truly pathetic effort, and one not worthy of a character as bizarre as Joshua Rudiger. But anyway, back to the story.

Since it was fairly well known that Rudiger was a total nutcase, and that he was a Vampire (or thought he was) it didn't take long to link him to the attacks.

When arrested he told authorities that he had been a samurai in another life who burned down the holiest temple in Japan, killing worshipers, and was punished by God in this life by being forced to drink human blood to maintain his "vitality."

At his trial he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but this was rejected by a jury. They chose instead to believe the prosecutions claim that Rudiger’s mental illness was invented so as to escape punishment for the attacks. So the jury chose to ignore the fact that he had been diagrosed as mentally incompetent for his entire life and found his sane. I really do believe that this decision must be one of the most incompetent I've ever heard of.

And what does this decision mean for Joshua? It means he will face prison rather than placement in a mental institution. No help for him, just punishment. How fucking stupid is that?
 

MY OPINION

Poor Bastard. This is the kind of shit that really pisses me off with America. There is this great claim from the country that it is the greatest on earth, yet in the blind search for ‘justice’ guys like Joshua, who are already disadvantaged in life, are left to rot just so certain people can claim they are keeping the streets clean. If this guy isn’t insane, then I don’t know what the fuck insane is. Anyway, he is a truly interesting character, and hopefully he will receive at least some help while inside, although I highly doubt it.