The St. Cloud Vampire Murder
A vampire-obsessed teen killed so he could drink human blood
In 1988, Timothy, 18, and Mark, 19, Erickson were brothers who shared an apartment in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The brothers enjoyed helping others and often opened their doors to homeless and runaway teens in the area, giving them a safe place to stay. In March of the year, the brothers had four people staying with them; two guys, and two girls, who ranged between 15 and 17 years old.
The brothers were fascinated by vampires, especially after the release of The Lost Boys movie the prior year. Like many other youngsters their age, Mark and Timothy rented the VHS tape from the video store quite often and knew many scenes by hear, although Timothy felt more intertwined with the movie than his brother.
The movie played on repeat at the Erickson place, leading to frequent discussions about the scenes and vampires. Mark became obsessed with vampires and talked about the mythical creatures to anyone who would listen. He even asked his friend, Bill Benedict, about the occult, and suggested to his friends they start a admire cult. The friends, of course, thought he was joking.
A Party Gone Wrong
On March 21, 1988, six young men, including the Erickson brothers and the soon-to-be-victim- a homeless teen named Donald Gall, headed to Riverside Park planning on a night of partying and camping. The first couple of hours were spent around the campier drinking alcohol, talking, and smoking marijuana. Around 4:30 a.m. one of the six men left the group and Gall, now ‘sloppy drunk”, laid down near the fire and fell asleep.
The others weren't ready to end their night, so walked into the woods to continue drinking. The conversation soon turned grim when Timothy suggested the group kill Gall to drink his blood. He told the others to wake Gall and he’d stab him with the knife one of the boys in the group had brought along.
Mark thought his brother had lost his mind. He refused to participate in the murder. That would not stop Timothy, who along with the rest of the group, returned to the campfire and approached Gall with his knife, waking him. Timothy assured him they would take care of the fire and encouraged him to go back to sleep.
A Plan to Kill
The group returned to the woods to create a plan to kill Gall. Timothy told the others that he would hit Gall with his fist while the others kicked him. Michael refused to participate in this plan, although the others returned to the campfire and carried out the plan.
Timothy beat Gall in the head with a tree branch while others in the group kicked him. The group beat him into unconsciousness, and then Timothy slit his throat, allowing Gall to bleed to death.
The men licked the blood from their hands, stole Gall’s leather jacket, wristwatch, and wallet, and pushed his body into the river water. With the sun rising, the group parted ways.
Timothy bragged to the girls who lived at the home when the brothers returned. They bragged about drinking Gall’s blood, just like real vampires, and how they licked his blood from their hands.
Later that day, he called Bob Benedict and bragged about the murder. A drunken Bob staggered into the St. Cloud Police Department on the morning of March 24, 1988, to report the murder.
Teens Charged With Murder
Authorities located Gall’s body and took Timothy Erickson into custody. He initially denied any knowledge of the murder but changed his story after tests confirmed the presence of blood on his jacket.
Police also arrested Mark Erickson and a 13-year-old and 17-year-old juvenile, charging each of them with Gall’s murder.
At his trial, Timothy Erickson claimed “he was so intoxicated that he could not form the requisite statutory intent or premeditation,” and therefore, should not be convicted of first-degree murder. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. On appeal, Erickson claimed mental illness caused him to murder, and that he did not know it was wrong. The jury reaffirmed his original guilty verdict.
Erickson is currently serving his time at MCF-Faulbault.
Mark Erickson was found guilty of aiding and abetting an offender to avoid arrest and interfering with a dead body. He was sentenced to two years probation and placed on parole.
Sources:
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/03/25/Four-youths-arrested-in-vampire-slaying/1917575269200/
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/mn-supreme-court/1656758.html
https://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/supreme-court/1989/c8-88-2659-2.html
https://coms.doc.state.mn.us/publicviewer/OffenderDetails/Index/149521/Search
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Comments (2)
There was ALO an old book I got as a kid, a true crime thing from KMart book rack called "The Dracula Syndrome." All blood-drinking killers (John George Haigh, Peter Kurten, etc.) Sondra London has a book, "True Vampires", which also covers the same territory. it's good stuff really.
If you can track it down man, there's an obscure book called "Play the Yellow Tape" by Betty Lee which has the criminal history of central Indiana going back over a hundred years. Really obscure cases. THing is a goldmine, but I don't know how you'd find a copy these days. I found mine by accident, and realizing what it was, scooped it up quick. Book has NO index or TOC, no barcode, no ISBN--it was just, seemingly privately printed. But you can Google it. The author's mother, incidentally, was murdered. I've written a few knock-offs on some of the cases inside, but the true crime stuff depresses me after a while. I've written a few books on serial killers, the best ones being "Famous Serial Killers" by "Borg Schroeder," and "Notorious Crimes of the Upper MIdwest," under my own name. Anyway, keep on keeping on. Love and napalm.