John Linley Frazier was born on January 26, 1946, in the United States. Raised in Santa Cruz County, California, Frazier’s early life didn’t immediately hint at the darkness to come. He was described as a quiet and intelligent individual in school, though he struggled with personal identity and purpose. As he reached adulthood, Frazier became increasingly isolated and fell deep into paranoia and religious delusions. He began obsessing over environmentalism and became convinced that materialism and modern society were evil. These beliefs slowly consumed his thoughts until they were no longer ideas but a dangerous ideology.

Frazier claimed he had received messages from God instructing him to start a war against those he saw as "polluters of the Earth." Friends and neighbors noted his increasingly erratic behavior, including living in a small shack in the woods and quoting scripture about the apocalypse. 

On October 19, 1970, John Linley Frazier carried out one of the most shocking mass murders in Santa Cruz County history. Armed with a .38 caliber revolver, Frazier broke into the home of Dr. Victor Ohta, a wealthy ophthalmologist. Inside the house were Dr. Ohta, his wife Virginia, their two sons Derrick and Taggart, and Dr. Ohta’s secretary, Dorothy Cadwallader. Frazier forced them at gunpoint into the home’s indoor pool area, where he tied them up and shot each of them in the back.

Before setting fire to the home, Frazier left behind a typewritten letter claiming to speak for God. The note warned of a coming war against those destroying the environment and materialistic society. The murders and the eerie message shocked the community and drew national media attention.

Frazier fled the scene and hid in the nearby woods, but police arrested him within a day. During his trial, he showed no remorse and often rambled about God and prophecy. In November 1971, he was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. However, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after California temporarily abolished the death penalty in 1972.

Frazier spent the rest of his life in prison, mostly in isolation due to his mental instability. On August 13, 2009, he was found dead in his cell at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California. He had died by suicide, hanging himself with a bedsheet.