Perched on a private ridge in the upscale Soquel Hills, with sweeping views of Monterey Bay and the Santa Cruz countryside, stands a remarkably preserved example of organic mid-century modern architecture—one with a deeply disturbing past.
Completed in 1965, the residence at 999 North Rodeo Gulch Road was designed by Aaron Green, the protégé whom legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright considered almost a son.
The property is now listed for $4.6 million following a recent price reduction. It is also remembered as the scene of one of California’s most horrific mass murders.
Five years after the home was built, on the night of Oct. 19, 1970, 24-year-old local man John Linley Frazier entered the residence of respected eye surgeon Dr. Victor Ohta. The crime came just a year after the Charles Manson murders had shocked Southern California.
Frazier, a paranoid, Bible-focused hippie who referred to himself as “the Killer Prophet,” believed God had appointed him to punish people who “misuses the natural environment.”
Court records say Frazier restrained Dr. Ohta, his wife, Virginia, their sons Derek, 12, and Taggart, 11, and Ohta’s secretary, Dorothy Cadwallader, using silk scarves and neckties.
He then led the victims into the backyard and shot them in the back and head beside or in the swimming pool, where firefighters later found their bodies.
After the murders, Frazier ignited several fires inside the house and left a rambling typewritten message on the windshield of Dr. Ohta’s Rolls-Royce. According to TIME, the note proclaimed that “World War III” had begun and warned that anyone who damaged the natural environment would “suffer the penalty of death by the People of the Free Universe.”
When firefighters arrived, they discovered the five victims floating in the pool. The residence had suffered extensive damage from the deliberately set fires.
Frazier was captured four days later while sleeping in a nearby shack. He was eventually convicted on five counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
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The house was carefully restored in the early 1970s following the fire, and its remarkable architecture and craftsmanship remain largely intact.
Its indoor-outdoor design, hillside-integrated limestone masonry, redwood-framed glass walls, dramatic living room, polished concrete floors, five spacious bedrooms and four bathrooms all reflect the vision Green inherited from Wright. Custom built-ins, broad overhangs, terraces, gardens and expansive views complete the design.
Green translated Wright’s principles of organic architecture into virtually every detail of the estate.
The single-story home covers 4,166 square feet on nearly 10 secluded acres. A striking 25-foot living room is centered around one of the largest private residential fireplaces in Santa Cruz County.
An outdoor fireplace further connects the home to its natural surroundings, while more than 5,000 square feet of stone terrace extend around the pool house and traditional sauna.
The grounds also include a tennis court, a Japanese garden with a koi pond and waterfall, two expansive redwood decks, a bamboo walking path, a bocce court and a private hilltop lawn.
The lagoon-shaped swimming pool, however, remains a stark reminder of what happened there.
Frazier’s death sentence was later reduced to life in prison. He died by suicide in 2009, hanging himself in his prison cell.
Whether a future owner can accept that grim history alongside the $4.6 million asking price—or sees the property primarily as one of California’s finest and most important surviving mid-century residences—will come down to personal taste, courage and financial means.
