Marcus Wesson, a seemingly caring father to outsiders, shocked the world over two decades ago with a heinous crime that left witnesses traumatized. The ex-soldier had a dark history of abusing his wife and her numerous children, some fathered by him. Following his military service in Vietnam, Wesson entered a relationship with Rosemary Solorio, eventually living with her and her eight children.
By 1971, Wesson had fathered a son with Rosemary. Just three years later, he began sexually assaulting Rosemary’s eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. Shockingly, when Elizabeth turned 14 and Wesson was 34, they married, and she gave birth to their first child four months later. The couple had a total of 10 children, including one who tragically passed away. Additionally, one of Elizabeth’s sisters entrusted her seven children to Wesson’s care due to her struggles with drug addiction.
Living off welfare and coercing his children to provide him with money, Wesson was a ruthless patriarch. He controlled every aspect of his family’s life, forbidding Elizabeth from participating in child-rearing decisions and mandating homeschooling. Wesson manipulated his children, claiming to be divine and authoring a distorted version of the Bible where he portrayed Jesus as a vampire.
His daughters were groomed to be his future wives, subjected to disturbing teachings on sexual acts from a young age. Wesson sexually assaulted his daughters and nieces, resulting in pregnancies. The children were forced to perform degrading tasks for Wesson, such as grooming his dreadlocks and being isolated from each other and their mother.
In a shocking turn of events in 2004, Wesson announced the family’s relocation from Fresno to Washington, prompting concerned relatives to confront him. When police intervened, they discovered a chilling crime scene in Wesson’s home: nine bodies shot through the eye, positioned in a room filled with antique coffins.
All the victims, including Wesson’s daughters and grandchildren, fell prey to his ruthless massacre. The gruesome incident, labeled by Fresno’s current Mayor Jerry Dyer as the city’s worst mass murder, continues to haunt him. Wesson, now 79, remains incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center after receiving a death sentence in 2005. Despite the state’s halt on executions, Dyer and others still deem Wesson deserving of capital punishment for his malevolent acts.