Mark Richards (1953–) is a convicted murderer serving life without parole in California State Prison, SolanoWikipedia's W.svg at Vacaville, California.[1] He prefers to be known as "Captain" Richards, although he never served in the military. After graduating from high school in 1971, he attended the College of Marin and then graduated from Dominican College in San Rafael in 1976. He has spun multiple bizarre yarns about his service in the so-called "Secret Space Program" battling alien forces, in addition to his imaginary service in the US Navy
Investigation by a journalist from the Marin Independent Journal revealed a dimension to the murder that was literally incredible. The writer, Erik Ingram, reported that behind the Baldwin murder "may be a secret organization, called Pendragon, that appeared to be planning an armed takeover of Marin." Ingram reported that police detectives had retrieved from Richards' home maps, aerial photographs of Marin County, plans for a laser-gun, instructions for the construction of machine-guns, and "notebooks containing references to a new form of government." He wrote that behind the Baldwin murder "may be a secret organization, called Pendragon, that appeared to be planning an armed takeover of Marin."
In the weeks that followed, a number of witnesses came forward with stories indicating that the Pendragon group in fact existed. Crossie Hoover told investigators that one of the inducements to the murder was Richards' promise to appoint him Duke of Angel's Island. It appears that Richards fantasized about converting Marin County into a version of King Arthur's Camelot, with himself as King. He allegedly promoted plans in meetings with his workers to take over Marin County by destroying the Golden Gate and Richmond-San Rafael bridges and placing a laser gun on top of Mount Tamalpais. Carl Shapiro, a San Anselmo attorney representing Richards, asserted that the documents found by the police were research materials for a science-fiction book (Imperial Marin) that Richards was writing. The prosecution countered that regardless of Richards's writing, he used the Pendragon material to manipulate Hoover into committing the murder.
Starting in November 2013, Richards became a major source for conspiracy theorist Kerry Cassidy. On that date Cassidy conducted a 1h 18m video interview[2] at the prison in Vacaville. Cassidy regards Richards as an important whistleblower exposing the "Secret Space Program." She has said that he was framed for the Baldwin murder, and that he is imprisoned by the Illuminati-Draco run planetary government.[3][note 1] At the time of writing Cassidy says she has conducted nine interviews with Richards, for an aggregate time over 14 hours. Since recording devices are not allowed in the prison, the normal format of these videos is Cassidy speaking to camera recalling what was said immediately after her meeting with the convict. Her tenth Interview with Richards was released in March, 2019.
Much of the material consists of tales of personal heroism, as Richards commands exotic space battleships fighting and defeating aliens. He commanded an Orion battleship at the asteroid Vesta in August 1979. Soon after that, he led an attack against aliens to reclaim a secret base at Dulce, New Mexico. The aliens had violated a treaty and abducted humans for experimentation.[4]
Richards claims that he was on active duty at the age of 13, with a high security clearance. After graduating from high school, Richards said he became an Army officer flying helicopters in Vietnam and later became a Navy Captain. He also claims to be a Rhodes Scholar with several advanced degrees and to be a member at the highest levels of the Republican National Committee. Neither Cassidy or Richards have provided documentation to support his claims.[5]
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May 7 202659 mins