‘Vampire cult’ killer returns to Lake for his resentencing

Howard Scott Anderson, who is serving life in prison for his involvement in the 1996 “vampire cult” killings in Eustis, was transported to Lake County this week for court proceedings that could lead to a lighter sentence.

Anderson is due a new sentencing because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that found giving juveniles life in prison without the possibility of parole amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, which is against the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

When Richard and Ruth Wendorf were bludgeoned to death in their home with a crowbar swung by cult leader Rod Ferrell, Anderson was 16 and also inside the residence. He is now 37.

“We’re going to get into the development issues, mentally and emotionally,” said J. Edwin Mills, an Orlando attorney representing Anderson, who is incarcerated at Calhoun Correctional Institution in the Panhandle. “Those are the things that all of the studies the U.S. Supreme Court based their decision on.”

Ferrell, also a teenager at the time, was originally sentenced to death but that was later reduced to life in prison because of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

“Younger people … can’t be looked at in the same vein that a mature adult can,” said Mike Graves, public defender for the five-county 5th Judicial Circuit, who represented Anderson in the ’90s. “You’re really not giving individualized justice.”

At the center of the double homicide in Eustis was Ferrell, who had amassed a group of young followers. He believed he was a 500-year-old vampire named “Vesago.” His members called him “maker” and drank each other’s blood.

Mills said Anderson’s resentencing hearing should be held within the next several months.

“We’re in the process of doing the investigative work and the psychological work,” he said. “We should be ready to go sometime this summer.”