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California cult led by 'master manipulator' committed brutal murders, detective says: 'One body after another'
Detective Gary Deckard and his team walked into a real-life nightmare on Elm Street.
Shortly after midnight on May 21, 1990, police entered a house at 5223 Elm Street in Salida, a small farming town in California. Inside were the bodies of Dennis Colwell, Darlene “Emmie” Paris, Franklin Raper and Richard Ritchey. All the victims suffered blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds. Paris had been nearly decapitated.
“When I got to the crime scene, we had two deputies who responded to the first 911 call,” Deckard, the lead investigator, told Fox News Digital. “All these deputies were spooked by what they saw. And these are very big deputies… When I entered the crime scene, I understood why.”
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Members of “The Cause,” led by Gerald Cruz, killed four people. The case is being examined in the true-crime series, “The Real Murders on Elm Street.” (Investigation Discovery)
“When they went to murder these people, they flipped off the electricity,” Deckard explained. “So it was completely dark in there… It was just a horrific crime scene. One of the female deputies told me it felt like Freddy Krueger was going to come out of the closet. It was one body after another in this small house.”
The quadruple homicide is being explored on Investigation Discovery’s true-crime series, “The Real Murders on Elm Street.” It explores chilling cases across the country that all took place on “Elm Street.” It features interviews with loved ones and investigators, among others.
“People have always wanted to know why anyone would go to a house and savagely kill people,” said Deckard. “Was this the act of an individual or a leader of a group?”
Detective Gary Deckard was the lead investigator in the case. (Investigation Discovery)
The police would soon get their answer.
There was one survivor, a woman named Donna, who managed to escape the attack. She described how the murders were committed by several people who had been dressed in camouflage and wore masks.
“I tried to get as much information out of her as possible,” said Deckard. “What I learned was that Donna arrived at the house. She had nowhere to go that particular night. She arrived with another individual who ended up being one of the victims. She was in one of the bedrooms when the murders started taking place. One of the suspects had taken off his mask. That allowed Donna to see his face.”
“As everybody was being murdered, Donna ran to the garage,” Deckard continued. “There were no lights inside, but she found a pile of clothes. She hid underneath the clothes and the suspects didn’t see her… When she had a chance, she ran down Elm Street and knocked on people’s doors, hoping somebody would hear her screams. Someone finally did. That’s how the 911 call came in.”
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Police would later learn that Gerald Cruz ordered everyone in the home to be killed. (Investigation Discovery)
Many in town gathered outside the crime scene. After getting a description from Donna of the suspect she saw – a Caucasian male with Afro hair – one of the locals said, “It sounds like a guy named Jason. He lives off ‘the Camp.’”
Police were familiar with the residential area known to locals as “the Camp.” Those who lived there kept to themselves.
When police headed there, pieces of camouflage clothing were found hanging on a clothesline. Investigators then headed to a nearby trailer that belonged to Gerald Cruz. He denied knowing anything about the murders but gave a few names of members of his commune.
Authorities soon identified Jason LaMarsh from “the Camp.” He matched the description of the suspect that Donna saw that night. As the investigation continued, police learned that Cruz was the leader of “The Cause,” a group that, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, “was supposed to be the advancement of mankind.” LaMarsh was connected to the group.
Richard Vieira, pictured here, claimed Gerald Cruz ordered him to kill Darlene Paris. (Investigation Discovery)
“Gerald Cruz was a dynamic personality,” said Deckard. “He would take people off the street, those who were maybe unemployed, didn’t have any money. He would then become like their father, promising that he would provide for them. They became so emboldened… that they would do almost anything for him.”
Investigators got a search warrant for Cruz’s home. Inside they found masks, bomb-making materials, a receipt for a knife and satanic literature. Court documents revealed that Cruz’s journals had the signatures and fingerprints of those who were recognized as his followers.
There was also the “Wheel of Punishment.” Deckard said the device was used to torture Cruz’s followers if they ever disobeyed. Some of the punishments included eating off the floor, beatings and sodomy in front of the group.
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On May 20, 1990, Gerald Cruz gathered James Beck, pictured here, Richard Vieira and Jason LaMarsh. He gave them assignments and had them wear camouflage. (Investigation Discovery)
“When we found it at the property, we didn’t know what that wheel was about,” said Deckard. “I interviewed other people who were part of the group that Gerald Cruz oversaw. They described to me that the ‘Wheel of Punishment’ was used if you got in trouble for anything. And Gerald ruled with an iron fist. If you got in trouble, you had to toss up the wheel. Wherever your thumb landed on the wheel, that’s the punishment you got.”
“There were all sorts of punishments,” said Deckard. “But the most bizarre punishment would be having sex with somebody else of the same gender. But it could be a beating, it could be several things.”
According to court documents, Cruz was arrested for possession of explosives. Other followers were taken in.
Ronald Willey, pictured here, was among those ordered to storm Franklin Raper’s home. (Investigation Discovery)
“What we learned was that they had a meeting at ‘the Camp’ where they all mostly resided,” Deckard explained. “During that meeting, they were getting psyched up in preparation to go over and kill Franklin Raper. That was the motive. They did not know anybody else was going to be at the house. But Gerald Cruz’s instructions were to make sure there were no witnesses.”
Court documents revealed that in January 1990, Raper, who was about 50 years old, moved his trailer into “the Camp.” He would go on to have “an acrimonious relationship” with Cruz.
Cruz later told an acquaintance before the murders that he would “like to get his hands on” Raper. Following one dispute, Raper’s car was set on fire.
The episode revealed that Raper was never afraid of Cruz and would not think twice about standing up to him.
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According to court documents, Michelle Evans entered a plea agreement. She was sentenced to one year in prison in exchange for her testimony. (Investigation Discovery)
The series also revealed that Raper was known for bringing people in who had no place to go.
Deckard said Raper was targeted by Cruz and his group. The other victims were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
According to the episode, Cruz and his followers ambushed Raper in his home. There, they gathered all the victims in the living room. Raper was beaten with a bat so badly that his head and face were “distorted,” said court documents. He had also been stabbed, and his arm was broken.
From left to right, James David Beck, Ronald Wayne Willey, Gerald Dean Cruz, Michelle Lee Evans and Richard John Vieira are seen here in the Stanislaus County courtroom. (Investigation Discovery)
Deckard said that when Paris was screaming and pleading for her life, Cruz told Vieira to “shut her up.”
“Gerald Cruz had so much power over him,” said Deckard.
The episode shared that LaMarsh and Ronald Willey were convicted of four counts of second-degree murder. Both were sentenced to 62 years in prison. Vieira is on death row at San Quentin, along with Cruz and James Beck. Michelle Evans pleaded guilty as an accessory to murder. She was sentenced to one year in prison in exchange for her testimony at trial. She served six months.
Detective Gary Deckard admitted that the case still haunts him decades later. (Investigation Discovery)
To this day, Deckard still has questions.
“Why would somebody forfeit their lives to please one individual, a master manipulator?” he said. “How could someone have so much authority and rule a whole camp as a father and provider for everybody? Why would people just sacrifice their whole lives and kill people they don’t even know? People who have never done anything to them? It was just appalling. I have no answers.”
“The Real Murders on Elm Street” airs Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. on ID. It will be available to stream on Max.
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Democrats have come out against federal law enforcement’s use of lethal force following shootings involving federal immigration officials in Minneapolis and Portland last week, with some going so far as to accuse them of murder.
However, their attitudes about lethal force after a U.S. Capitol police officer killed Ashli Babbitt paint a very different picture of these Democrats’ views on police using lethal force.
As recently as this year, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who have rebuked Trump administration arguments that shootings involving federal immigration officials last week were justified, also rebuked a multimillion-dollar settlement awarded to the family of Ashli Babbitt earlier this year, calling it a “slap in the face” and a “sickening message to police.” Babbitt was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer during the Jan. 6 riot as she was pushing and beating against a door that led into the Speaker’s Lobby just outside the House chamber along with a mob of others.
Several other Democrats who supported law enforcement’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, have gone off on federal border patrol officials following the Portland and Minneapolis shootings last week, with some going so far as calling them murderers.
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Representative Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., speaks during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In Minneapolis, a woman accused of interfering with federal deportation efforts was fatally shot by ICE in Minneapolis, while an illegal immigrant couple who DHS said were deeply involved in criminal activity were shot by CBP agents in Portland after the driver of the car tried to ram his vehicle into agents.
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., referred to the actions of ICE in Minneapolis as “murder” in a post on X. However, just days before, on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, Goldman reintroduced legislation to “honor those who defended the capitol” when a mob took it over in 2021.
Rep. Primal Jayapal, D-Wash., who has claimed to have been very close to Babbitt when the Speaker’s Lobby was trying to be breached, has chastised Republicans who she believes have failed to adequately honor U.S. Capitol Police for their work on Jan. 6, 2021. “They were begging for protection from Capitol Police. Yet they refused to honor Capitol Police there[after], refused to accept that it was real,” Jayapal told Teen Vogue in 2022.
Meanwhile, after the shootings last week, Jayapal too accused federal border patrol officials of committing murder, telling local news the incident “looked like outright murder” to her eyes.
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal talks at a press conference on Capitol Hill. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., were also among those Democrats praising Capitol Police for their actions on Jan. 6, 2021 last week, while condemning the federal officer involved in the shooting that occurred as well. Crow complained that a plaque honoring U.S. Capitol Police officers who protected people on Jan. 6 was not hung up because of GOP obstruction, but was unafraid to condemn federal officials for “kill[ing]” someone. Raskin, who has also condemned the multimillion-dollar settlement to the Babbitt family, said he was “sickened” at ICE agents for “killing” a woman in Minneapolis.
Raskin’s colleague from Oregon, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., demanded on X last week that federal immigration officers be held accountable for their involvement in the Portland shooting. She referred to the illegal immigrant gang members shot as “victims,” even though they tried to ram their car into officers. However, after the Capitol riot in 2021, Bonamici regularly praised the “heroism” of the U.S. Capitol Police and suggested they should be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, sought to explain the discrepancy between Democrats’ reaction to Babbitt’s shooting versus the ICE shootings in a post on X, arguing “Babbitt was a domestic terrorist,” and the victim killed in Minneapolis, Renee Good, “was a mom, murdered by ICE.”
When reached for comment, Raskin echoed Wilson’s sentiment, arguing two different investigations found the Babbitt shooting was “entirely reasonable and appropriate.” He added that anyone taking the position that Good was treated properly would also have to agree that hundreds of protesters on Jan. 6, 2021 “could have been legitimately shot in the face three times.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks to reporters outside the House Speaker’s office inside the U.S. Capitol building. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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“Without the benefit of any investigation, Trump and his Administration have labeled Ms. Good, a U.S. citizen and 37-year-old mother of three, a ‘domestic terrorist’ and immediately excused her killing after she was shot three times at point-blank range, not while charging at the police but while trying to get away from them,” Raskin said. “In both cases, the Trump Administration is telling the American people to ignore the law and the evidence of their own eyes.”
Raskin also demanded in his comments to Fox News Digital that, following the Minnesota ICE shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “must appear to answer questions” before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
During the subsequent days following last week’s shooting, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks slammed rhetoric from left-wing politicians for emboldening folks to do things like ram their cars into federal immigration officials.
“The rhetoric they are putting out. The constant lies they are putting out to their constituents – saying things like kidnapping, disappearing, it’s encouraging these people to continue violating the law. They are actually putting their constituents in danger.”
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San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Airport’s Fear of Flying Clinic Welcomes Nervous Passengers Aboard | KQED
The fear of flying is less a single phobia than a place where other fears converge. For many people, it’s rooted in one or more anxieties that flying brings into focus — the fear of turbulence, of heights, or of having a panic attack in front of strangers with no escape.
For Vance, being inside an aircraft activates her claustrophobia — a condition she developed at nine years old. A series of surgeries caused her to feel severe anxiety in closed spaces. Her panic attacks increased during her teenage years, especially on airplanes.
“If I’m in a car, I can pull over, open my door and get some relief,” she says. “But when I’m in a plane, there’s no out.”
A safe space to face the fear
Air travel isn’t something that most people can do often enough to ease their anxiety. Each trip can feel like starting all over again.
Luckily, Vance found somewhere to practice being uncomfortable: the Fear of Flying Clinic, a nonprofit support organization hosted at the San Francisco International Airport.
Fran Grant and Jeanne McElhatton, both licensed pilots, founded the clinic in 1976 in San Mateo, California. They created an educational program in order to help Grant’s husband overcome his turbulence anxiety so he could travel to Australia.
The curriculum demystified air travel and addressed the physical and psychological roots of fear. The first clinic welcomed a small group of anxious travelers and, by the end, Grant’s husband was calm enough to sleep through turbulence that had once overwhelmed him.
Today, clients from across California spend two consecutive weekends understanding the mechanics of flight and learning how to rewire their anxious thoughts. A four-day workshop culminates in a round-trip graduation flight to Seattle.
Vance arrives at the clinic on the first day with her mother, Louise, joining eight other participants, including one couple who drove in from Fresno. Volunteers run the workshop — many of whom are nervous flyers and have gone through the clinic themselves — and include instruction from working pilots, air traffic controllers, flight attendants and aircraft maintenance technicians.
Volunteer psychotherapist Paula Zimmerman begins the workshop by asking everyone to introduce themselves and their concerns about flying. Reasons for signing up range widely: panic attacks, childhood trauma from an earthquake, a decades-old rescue mission during the Vietnam War. One participant in their fifties had never even been inside an airplane.
Often, Zimmerman says, they sign up because of an important upcoming trip.
Retrain the brain
Zimmerman wants participants to understand the difference between adrenaline and real danger. Her goal is to help them to distinguish between the thing that’s happening to them and how they think about the thing that’s happening to them.
She writes the letter “A” on a large sheet of paper at the front of the room. A stands for an activating event — like, for example, turbulence.
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