Joshua Rudiger

Joshua is a 22 year old murderer who claimed that he is a 2000 year old vampire.  The incident happened in San Francisco in 1998 that led to the injury of 3 men and a woman who died due to the loss of too much blood.  Joshua Rudiger allegedly cut the throat of a homeless woman named Shirley Dillahunty and drank her blood.  But those who survived from his attacks did not record an event that Rudiger wanted to drink their blood.

Upon his capture he apparently told the investigators that a “prey is prey”.  He also said that he was a samurai warrior, according to his videotaped statement:

"I'm a samurai. I was samurai before I was born, even in another life.  I'm like a tiger. I'm okay if you leave me alone, but if you bother me, I strike.''

Rudiger was believed to be suffering from mental illness who said he has an alternate persona of a ninja warrior and a vampire.  Rudiger was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.  Before he turned 18, he apparently told a psychiatrist that he will soon turn into a vampire and feed on the blood of the people.  When Rudiger left the mental institution he was not yet cured.  He attacked a friend using a bow and an arrow.

During the trial, the defence attorney entered a plea of not guilty and uses an insanity defence hoping that the court will listen to them. But nonetheless, the court gave a guilty verdict for the second degree murder for the murder of Shirley Dillahunty, a homeless woman.  The lawyer insisted that Rudiger must be sent into a mental Asylum and receive a proper treatment but despite of that Rudiger still has to spent 23 years behind bars.

The local press picked up the story and gave him an alias of “The Vampire Slasher”