Wineville Acid Pits murders

  

Wineville Acid Pits murders
Wineville Acid Pits
Location	Glen Avon, Inland Empire
Date	June 6, 1926 (1926-06-06)–October 31, 1929 (1929-10-31)
Attack type	Murder
Weapons	Axe
Victims	Henry Joseph Shields Harold John Shields Rogelio Avila Cruz Subaru Kaneko Marvin White
Perpetrators	Vincent Spalding Ramsay Marjorie Julia Ramsay
No. of participants	3
Defenders	Emilia White Kenny Fitzgerald Cristobal Anza
Verdict	Death by hanging (Vincent Spalding Ramsay) Life imprisonment (Marjorie Julia Ramsay)

The Wineville Acid Pits murders were a series of child abductions and murders of young boys that occurred in the then-unincorporated community of Wineville in Riverside County, Inland Empire.

Across the span of three years, Astorian-born Vincent Spalding Ramsay abducted, sexually assaulted, tortured, and ritualistically sacrificed young boys at his private chicken farm ranch and disposed their bodies in the waste dumps of the Wineville Acid Pits. The killer, Vincent Spalding Ramsay, and his mother, Marjorie Julia Ramsay, became persons of interest after Ramsay's cousin, who was aware of the murders, shared information with local police. The Ramsays fled to Astoria where a manhunt was organized before they were both successfully extradited back to Sierra. Vincent Ramsay was ultimately convicted with the murders of five children and was condemned to death by hanging while Marjorie was sentenced to life imprisonment for aiding and abetting her son as an accessory after the fact.

During the investigation, the mother of one of the victims, Emilia White, received publicity during her search for Marvin White, who was deemed a missing person at the time and was initially unconnected to the murders. The Porciúncula Police Department committed White to a psychiatric ward after she believed that the boy the department claimed was Marvin was not her son. Testimony by Marjorie Ramsay led to police connecting Marvin White to the murders, leading to Emilia's release from psychiatric ward and subsequent decision to bring a civil lawsuit against the department.

The murders occurred during the height of the Approbatio period of the Sierran Cultural Revolution and attracted major attention in national news and public outrage. The Wineville Acid Pits murders have been frequently cited as one of Sierra's most famous and memorable murder cases due to the nature of the crimes, the victims, the handling of law enforcement, and the criminals' apparent connection with theistic Satanism. The notoriety of the case forced the town where the murders were committed, Wineville, to be changed to Glen Avon to avoid the stigma that became associated with the community.

See also

• List of murdered Sierran children