Marcus Wesson, who to the outside world appeared to be a doting father, committed a crime over two decades ago so horrifying that those who witnessed its aftermath have never fully recovered.

For three decades, the ex-soldier abused his wife and her children, including several he fathered himself. After serving in Vietnam, Wesson began a relationship with Rosemary Solorio, moving in with her and her eight children.

By 1971, Rosemary had given birth to Wesson’s son, and just three years later, the twisted fiend began sexually abusing Elizabeth, his partner’s daughter, who was only eight at the time. When Elizabeth turned 14 and Wesson was 34, they married, and she gave birth to their first child four months later.

In total, the couple had 10 children, including one infant who tragically passed away. Moreover, one of Elizabeth’s younger sisters left her seven children with the couple, citing her drug problems as the reason she couldn’t look after them.

Wesson was a cruel husband and father. He never worked, living off welfare payments and the money he forced his children to earn and give directly to him, reports <a href=”https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/monster-raped-children-taught-oral-36121423″ rel=”Follow” target=”_self”>the Mirror</a>.

By 1989, he had been convicted of welfare fraud and perjury, and the family were often compelled to live in abandoned houses, dilapidated shacks, and even boats.

However, the most horrifying events took place behind closed doors. Wesson subjected his wife and children to abuse, forbidding Elizabeth from having any input in their upbringing and insisting on home-schooling them all.

Wesson wrote his own perverse version of the Bible, asserting that Jesus was a vampire, and convinced his children he was God. They were told to address him as Master or Lord, and the entire family was instructed to prepare for Armageddon.

His daughters were informed they needed to ready themselves to become his future wives, with their education including lessons on how to perform oral sex from as young as eight. Wesson sexually assaulted his two daughters and three nieces, resulting in all five becoming pregnant.

The children’s household duties included washing Wesson’s dreadlocks, armpits and head, and siblings were prohibited from speaking to their opposite-sex siblings or their own mother.

Then, in 2004, Wesson announced the entire family would be relocating from Fresno in California to Washington, where his parents resided. On 12 March, members of his extended family, along with two of his nieces who had rebelled and escaped the house of horrors, arrived to demand the release of the children.

Police were summoned to what they believed was a child custody dispute, and when officers arrived, Wesson asked them to wait at the door while he returned to his house. When he reappeared, his clothes were soaked in blood.

Despite their initial denial of hearing gunshots, police were met with a horrifying scene upon entering the house.

Nine bodies lay in a bedroom filled with antique coffins, each victim shot directly through the eye.

All victims – Sebhrenah April Wesson, 25, Elizabeth Breahi Kina Wesson, 17, Illabelle Carrie Wesson, eight, Aviv Dominique Wesson, seven, Johnathon St Charles Wesson, seven, Ethan St Laurent Wesson, four, Marshey St Christopher Wesson, one, Jeva St Vladensvspry Wesson, one and Sedona Vadra Wesson, one – were his own children.

The current Mayor of Fresno, Jerry Dyer, who was the police chief at the time, admits that the scene still haunts him.

Mr Dyer said: “It was just horrific, the worst mass murder that we had experienced in the history of our city, and it wasn’t just the fact that nine people were killed, it was how they were killed, the lifestyle that was occurring in that household, Marcus Wesson convinced his family that he was God, that Jesus was a vampire.”

Defence attorney Ralph Torres, who worked on the court-appointed Wesson defence team, also carries the chilling memories of the crime. He said in his extensive 34-year career it is the one he will never forget.

Mr Torres said: “I see all the evidence, it was the most gut-wrenching part of the case where I was just a young father. I had a five-year-old young boy, and there was a boy that looked from behind, like my kid.

“It was life-changing; I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve done 16 murder trials since then and there is nothing like it.”

According to ABC 30, the house where the horrific murders occurred has been demolished, leaving only an empty plot of land.

“There’s no way that that property could have existed or continued to exist without bringing back horrible memories, and property values would have been devalued,” Mr Dyer said.

Today, Marcus Wesson, now aged 79, remains incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Centre after being sentenced to death on 17 June 2005. He is no longer facing the death penalty after Governor Newsom put a stop to executions in California in 2019 and subsequently dismantled death row.

However, for Dyer, who visited Wesson in prison in 2008, the anger that he continues to live still lingers.

“Marcus Wesson was an evil person. He is somebody, as I said then to national media, he deserved the death penalty then, and he deserves the death penalty today. Unfortunately, that doesn’t look like it’s going to be the case,” Dyer said.