Frank Charles Snyder
Love irony? There’s some irony at the bottom of this article. Enjoy.
In early 1991, Frank Snyder, nearing 30 years old, was a married college student majoring in sociology at the state university in Sacramento. By all outside appearances, he was a pretty nice compassionate guy too, volunteering as a suicide prevention hotline counselor.
Now enter Benjamin Carlson into the picture. In 1991, Mr. Carlson was 52 and recently separated from his own wife. He became a customer of the suicide prevention hotline, reaching out for help while struggling with depression and loneliness over the holidays.
In short order many of the volunteers at the center were refusing to accept calls from Carlson. Carlson would later deny most of the allegations testified by counselors in court. He was accused of obscenity, sexual harassment, and death threats. According to the service director, Carlson threatened to bomb her car and threatened her children. Carlson was calling the hotline 150 to 200 times a week.
But Frank Snyder was a nice, compassionate guy and decided that he would accept the calls nobody else would take and that he would try talk to Carlson. Snyder took it upon himself to ignore the hotline’s rules and decided to meet and befriend Carlson in person.
Snyder and Carlson quickly became buddies, visiting each others homes and fishing together. Snyder even gave Carlson a puppy. They even scooped up the puppy one night and all three partied together at a topless bar.
But the friendship became a struggle for Snyder. His grades were suffering, his relationship with his wife was at odds, and while helping Carlson through alcohol withdrawal, he himself began to drink more. The hotline center also found out about Snyder’s breaking policy and suspended his participation for three months. According to Snyder, Carlson was unwilling to end the friendship with his only friend when the suggestion was brought up.
On the evening of February 12, Snyder called Carlson and told him he wanted to come over to his house on Whitecliff Way in Sacramento to return some camping equipment he had borrowed. Carlson was not in the mood for a visit and told Snyder to leave the equipment on the front porch. Then Carlson made one of his routine calls to the suicide hotline…
It was past 11 in the evening when Carlson answered the knock at the door. Snyder and another man pushed their way into the house and Snyder slugged Carlson in the face informing him he was going to shut him up for good.
Snyder’s accomplice removed a blade from a snake bite kit he was carrying as the two men hauled Carlson into the bathroom. After slashing Carlson’s wrists with the small blade, the men stood over him waiting for him to bleed to death – all while Snyder held the puppy in his arms to keep it away from the blood.
Once Carlson was dead, the two accomplices were in the living room wiping away fingerprints when the phone rang. Carlson managed to answer it and discovered that the caller was a volunteer from the suicide hotline checking back with him after his earlier call.
“Frank’s here !! He’s cutting me, call 911!!”, Carlson begged to Cheryl who could recognize Snyder’s alarmed voice in the background before the line went dead. The accomplice slit Carlson’s throat and, believing Carlson was fatally wounded, they fled the house.
But Ben Carlson was not dead.
Responding paramedics rushed Benjamin Carlson to the hospital while police went out and had a little chat with Snyder at his home.
Homicide investigators were actually on their way to interview Snyder when, in less than twenty minutes after they were called, all hell broke loose and the sheriff’s department – already stretched thin by a gasoline tanker explosion in a residential area – found themselves responding to a triple homicide at a Quik Stop committed by Eric Royce Leonard (featured here on PYSIH.com).
Snyder’s arrest for attempted murder would be placed on hold for six weeks as the homicide division exhausted itself working nine homicide cases. In the meantime, Carlson – badly stitched and scarred from the wounds on his neck and wrists – would lose his home and job. Even after Snyder’s arrest, he would remain in fear of his life from Snyder’s unknown accomplice who had slit his throat.
Frank Snyder eventually confessed his attempted homicide to detectives. Frank called Carlson a loser who was too afraid to take his own life – so Frank decided to take things into his own hands. Snyder never gave up his accomplice, who to this day remains at large. Frank’s claim was that the man was a “friend of a friend” named “John” who was homeless and living in a car near the state capital.
A jury rejected Frank Snyder’s insanity defense and Snyder received a life sentence for attempted murder with torture.
He would have been eligible for parole in 2001.
In the early summer of 1994, the former suicide prevention counselor hung himself with an electrical cord while serving time at the state prison in Vacaville.
Would we see Frank Charles Snyder in Hell?
- Yes (76%, 150 Votes)
- No (24%, 48 Votes)
Total Voters: 198
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23 Comments »
That is one messed up story! Its like a twisted movie, only real
most effective suicide prevention program ever
using housecall murder to prevent suicide…
another example of arrogance destroying your life
Just move and change your phone numer- you will never never get away with it.
Wait,so ANYONE can help “prevent” suicide by talking to people from their house? Don’t get me wrong,some people are actually good and do it to help,but you can never really know who you’re talking to. And I agree with Satan’s Ballsack-it does seem like some twisted movie.
Even though Benjamin Carlson seemed like kind of a nutjob(calling the suicide hotline 150-200 times a week and saying inappropriate things.Really?) I think Snyder deserved time for what he did. Is it bad to feel sort of glad he killed himself?
I love a good story with a happy ending.
Sniff, sniff – me too!
the only reason Ii wrote this story was because of the puppy
you can never go wrong with a cute doggie
As soon as I saw the puppy mentioned in your post I got all worried, and thought, “Oh, let that puppy be ok!” I was much relieved that he went unharmed! Snyder is obviously a sick fuck but at least he didn’t harm that p uppydog and held him in his arms away from teh blood!
Good post BTW.
Ah but the puppy still has mental suffering, I’m sure, watching his master get cut up couldn’t have been very nice. Pets can be traumatized by horrific events, too, you know. :(
I’m more of a cat person -we have 3 – but we also have a dog. I have to agree – puppies are awfully cute. And it was the puppy that really pulled me into this story, does anybody know what happened to him?
We’ve got two spoiled brat cats, and would like a dog, but that’s someday. My husband wants a beagle, I want a pug or maybe two. Are your cats and dogs best-est friends?
Depends – the dog is a rottweiler, a species that is supposed to hate cats. She’s terrified of one of the cats and will avoid her at all costs. She is great friends with one of the other cats and they fight and play like brother and sister, while the third cat will occasionally play with the dog when she’s not antagonizing the cat the dog is afraid of.
I think cats and dogs get along fine – sometimes there’s a little squabbling, but why shouldn’t they get along? It’s not like they’re smart enough to worry about important things like skin-color, religion, or whether or not the other one is a homo.
My feelings exactly (yr last paragraph) the so called dumb animals seem to know how to get along with each other waaaay better than we do. That is too cute to think of a big ol rottweiler playing with a kittycat. I know a rottie whose best friend is a pug and the pug gets furious because she can’t keep up with rottweiler when they run races in the yard.
E, if you decide on a beagle make sure you find out if the puppy would be a better field dog than house dog. I had a beagle once she was the bane of my of my life for two years. After walking her every day building a fence and then an electrical fence also trying an invisible fence, springing her out of doggie jail six times, finding her at the neighbors and eventually me going to jail for an unpaid loose dog ticket I came to the conclusion that trying to keep her in the yard was impossible! I then talked to a friend of the family who told me(her son trains field dogs,beagles) that she sounded like she was better suited to field work. The last time I saw her she had run away to a neighbors. They also had problems keeping her corraled.
Would make a great movie! Weird
Thanks for the tip, dee, I had heard that certain breeds just do not make good house dogs and it makes total sense. I would proceed with caution if we ever decided to get a beagle. If he’s used to running and tracking he would probably not be happy in a house or even a yard. I’ve heard the same thing about border collies. fMy friend’s parents have a border and luckily are both retired because they have to exercise the critter almost continually.
I was stuck on the puppy too. My first thought “oh no he wouldn’t of made a point to mention the puppy unless something happened to it” but I like the surprise twist. really good intriguing write up.
I did vote ‘No’ for hell though because I think had he not befriended this nut bar he probably would have never killed any one. I have been around some severely crazy people and though murder never entered my head I know at the end of the day I wasn’t ever quite sure about my own sanity and would seek reassurances after being with these people.
All I’m saying is either Frank’s threshold for the absurd was lower than he thought or Carlson was that special kind of crazy that isn’t laughable and is ‘contagious’.
Ah ha ha what a fucked world we live in!!
Great story though……can anybody track down some pictures of these crazy bastards
I’ve been looking stormy – no luck so far. I’m also curious to know what one of these things looks like. I’d hate to eat one by mistake or something.
I was thinking of contacting the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Dept Cold Case Unit to see if they had a composite of the unidentified accomplice- now wouldn’t he be happy ?
Seems like everyone else would like to see a photo of the puppy!!! :D YAY PUPPY!
With ya on that one Vc…lol..”Show us the Puppy”…
Well, this was fucking bizarre.
So is Ben Carlson still ringing the hotline or what?….lol
(Come on…Really, you can’t tell me no-one wants to know lol )
Sooo…was Snyder cured of his suicidal aspirations after all this?