Richard Schizophrenia Case Study

At the age of twenty-three Richard’s hypochondriac tendencies arose in disturbing ways. He continuously saw physicians for head injuries and stomach aches that were not really there. He also saw a neurologist who stated Chase “had a psychiatric disturbance of major proportions”. Around this time Richard was admitted to the Psychiatric Ward of the American River Hospital after telling nurses that some had “Stolen his pulmonary artery” and that his ‘Blood flow had stopped”. Even after these confessions his mother still removed him from the ward against the advice of many trained medical professionals. These episodes of truly disturbed physiological problems continued for several years and he was even diagnosed with schizophrenia. But Richards condition never got better since his parents refused to allow him to be treated for his obvious problems. His family was still fully supporting by the age of twenty-five but still went on welfare to cheat the system so he did not have to
He left full size finger, hand, and shoe prints for investigators showing that he did not care about what he was doing. He only cared about murder and blood. Many eyewitnesses had seen him the day before walking down the street testing doors to see if he was welcome or not. Once apprehended by police Chase showed no remorse or regret for what he had done, describing the crimes in a concrete manner. Richard pleaded not guilty due to insanity but all four psychiatrists that examined him deemed him sane at the time of the murders. After only four hours of deliberation Richard Chase was found guilty of all 6 murders and was sentenced to death. Once in prison his cellmates were again terrified of him, stating that he had no emotion about what he has done. On December 24th, 1979 Richard intentionally overdosed with his prescribed anti-depressants ending his disturbing and terrible