'Devil cult' killer is eligible for freedom, but Gov. Brown turned him down last time

Orange County Register/March 24, 2016

By Sean Emery

A killer who took part in notorious devil cult murders has once again been found suitable for parole – less than a year after Gov. Jerry Brown ordered that he remain behind bars.

Arthur Craig “Moose” Hulse is serving a life sentenced for the brutal 1970 slayings of Santa Ana gas station attendant Jerry Wayne Carlin, 20, and El Toro schoolteacher Nancy Brown, 29.

The state parole board on Mar 17 determined that Hulse is eligible for release, said Jeffrey Callison, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Brown has until Aug. 14 to decide whether to reverse the parole board’s determination. When faced with the same decision last year, the governor blocked Hulse’s release, saying that Hulse still represented a danger to the public.

That decision was applauded by local prosecutors and surviving family members of Hulse’s victims.

Hulse has been denied parole more than a dozen times during his decades in prison.

When inmates are denied released by the parole board, they must wait at least three years for another hearing. But when the governor reverses the grant of parole, by law the case is returned to the parole board within 18 months.

The 1970 killings were carried out by members of the Sons of Satan motorcycle gang, a small group of transient, devil-worshiping drug users. The slayings came a year after the Manson family murders in Los Angeles, resulting in a wave of fear in Orange County.

Hulse was a 16-year-old “prospect” at the time of the killings, hoping to join the Sons of Satan. He used a rusty hatchet to kill Carlin, working overnight at a gas station.

A day later, on June 3, 1970, Hulse helped bury Brown in a shallow grave at an Irvine field, after the Sons of Satan hijacked the schoolteacher’s station wagon. The mother of four was stabbed more than 20 times.

Hulse reportedly suffered an unstable childhood, growing up with a mother who was a paranoid schizophrenic. In 2014, Hulse blamed his violent behavior on being bullied as an overweight child, drug use and a desire to gain acceptance from the Sons of Satan.

Prison authorities said that he hasn’t committed any violations behind bars for more than 20 years, has found religion and become active in self-help groups and classes.

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