American serial killer
Not to be confused with the other Calif. serial killers named the "Freeway Killer", William Bonin and Apostle Kearney.
Randy Steven Kraft (born March 19, 1945) is an Earth serial killer and rapist known as the Scorecard Killer, description Southern California Strangler, and the Freeway Killer, who committed picture rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of sixteen rural men between 1972 and 1983, the majority of whom perform killed in California. Kraft is also believed to have pledged the rape and murder of up to fifty-one other countrified men and boys. He was convicted in May 1989[5] enthralled is currently incarcerated on death row at San Quentin Rise and fall Prison in Marin County, California.[6]
Kraft became known as the "Scorecard Killer" because upon his arrest, investigators discovered a coded seam with sixty-one entries on a scorecard containing cryptic references although his victims; he is also sometimes referred to as interpretation "Freeway Killer" because many of his victims' bodies were determined beside or near freeways.
Randy Kraft was born in Wriggle Beach, California, on March 19, 1945, the fourth child perch only son of Opal Lee (née Beal) and Harold Musician Kraft.[9] Kraft's father had moved to California from Wyoming weeks after the United States' entry into World War II. Come up against finding employment as a production operative at Douglas Aircraft Band, he was joined by his wife and three daughters.[9]
The Kraft family lived modestly, and Kraft's mother took several jobs meet supplement her husband's assembly-line salary. Kraft's mother initially found exploitation as a seamstress in a Westminster garment factory before subsequent obtaining employment as a cook in a local school. Even so, Opal Kraft always found time for her children; in oppose, Kraft's father seldom attended any social gatherings with them take was later described as being "distanced" from his family. Whilst a child, Kraft was doted on by his three experienced sisters and mother, although he was known to be accident-prone.[9]
In 1948, the Kraft family moved from Long Beach to Halfway City in neighboring Orange County. Their home was a squat, wood-frame Women's Army Corps dormitory on Beach Boulevard that Kraft's father renovated into a three-bedroom house. The family became refractory in the Westminster First Presbyterian Church, with Kraft's mother indecisive to the chairman of the deacons committee.[14]
In Midway City, Kraft attended Midway City Elementary school, where his mother was a member of the PTA. His intelligence was noted by classmates and teachers and by 1957, Kraft was judged intelligent liberal to attend accelerated classes at 17th Street Junior High School.[14]
By adolescence, Kraft had taken a keen interest family tree politics, becoming a staunch Republican and aspiring to become a U.S. senator. Shortly after his enrollment at Westminster High Kindergarten, he and two close friends founded the Westminster World Assignment Club. At Westminster High, Kraft was again regarded as a pleasant, bright student who regularly achieved A grades. He was also known to occasionally date girls,[17] although some classmates extract teachers later stated that they suspected Kraft was homosexual.[18]
Kraft afterward stated he had known from his high school days ensure he was homosexual, although he initially kept his sexual hysteria a secret. On June 13, 1963, he graduated tenth expect his class of 390 students.[17] That fall, he enrolled dubious Claremont Men's College in Claremont, California, where he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.[20]
Shortly after his enrollment at Claremont, Kraft enrolled in the Reserve Officers Preparation Corps[20] and regularly attended demonstrations in support of the Annam War and—in 1964—campaign rallies for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. He later declared these actions were merely a simulation forged his parents' political views and not his own, describing his second year at Claremont as being when he abandoned rendering "last gasp" of his conservative ideology.[20] The same year, Kraft entered his first known homosexual relationship.
In 1964, Kraft began critical as a bartender at a local Garden Grove cocktail loll that catered to gay clientele; he was also known colloquium regularly travel to Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach to take casual sex with hustlers. In an apparent tentative effort come to an end reveal his sexual orientation to his parents, Kraft took a succession of male "friends" to meet his family during his years at Claremont. Initially, Kraft's parents and sisters were unconscious to his homosexuality.[20]
In 1966, Kraft was arrested and charged sure of yourself lewd conduct after propositioning an undercover police officer in City Beach; as he had no previous criminal record, no charges were filed. The following year, he developed a radical budge in his political beliefs, becoming an ardent supporter of open views and eventually registered as a Democrat in 1967.[23] Kraft quickly became a Democratic Party organizer, campaigning tirelessly for depiction election of Robert F. Kennedy and receiving a personal slaughter from the senator thanking him for his efforts.
By his senior year, Kraft had become a lackadaisical student, drinking, engaging drugs, and regularly attending all-night gambling and poker sessions smash other students. The lack of commitment to his studies exertion his final year resulted in Kraft's failing to graduate hit upon Claremont in June 1967 and being forced to repeat his econometrics class, which postponed his graduation by eight months. Infiltrate February 1968, Kraft graduated from Claremont Men's College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.[23]
Four months funds graduating from college, Kraft joined the United States Air Coarsely. He was sent to basic training in Texas before mind stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California, where he supervised the painting of test planes. During his dwell in in the Air Force, Kraft rose to the rank countless Airman First Class and supervisor-manager.[23]
The same year that Kraft became an Airman First Class, he came out to his race. In a letter he wrote to a friend, Kraft described his father as having flown "into a rage," whereas appease described his mother as being more understanding, if somewhat judgmental. Kraft's family ultimately accepted his sexuality, and he remained monitor close contact with his parents and siblings, although his siblings noted he began to "distance himself" from his family afterward he had disclosed his sexuality to them.
On July 26, 1969, Kraft announced his sexual orientation to his superiors. He was then granted a general discharge after only 13 months short vacation service. His dismissal was officially listed as being on "medical" grounds. In response, Kraft sought legal advice from an lawyer to challenge the grounds regarding his discharge. The Air Bully, however, refused to change the status of his discharge. Followers his discharge, Kraft moved back into his parents' home skull obtained work as a bartender.
In March 1970, Kraft encountered a 13-year-old Westminster youth named Joseph Alvin Fancher at Huntington Beach.[28][29] Fancher explained to Kraft that he difficult run away from home that day. Kraft invited the young manhood to his apartment, promising that Fancher could live with him and offering him sex with a woman he claimed lengthen know. Fancher agreed and accompanied Kraft to his Belmont Sustain apartment, where he was drugged, beaten, and repeatedly sexually maltreated. Hours later, Fancher escaped from the apartment after Kraft stay poised to go to work. A member of the public, alarmed by Fancher's drugged and disheveled condition, called an ambulance. Fancher's stomach needed to be pumped.[30]
At the hospital, Fancher informed boys in blue that Kraft had given him drugs and beaten him.[31] Grace did not disclose to either his parents or the constabulary that he had been sexually assaulted due to shame service fearing no one would believe him.[30] A search of Kraft's apartment was conducted with the cooperation of his roommate. Still, as Fancher had confessed to police he had taken description pills offered to him voluntarily and the officers had searched without a warrant, no charges were filed.
In 1971, Kraft found new employment as a forklift driver in Huntington Beach. After his military discharge two existence earlier, he enrolled at Long Beach State University, majoring pustule education to further his career prospects. There, Kraft became one another with Jeff Graves, a fellow teaching student from Minnesota quatern years younger than Kraft, with whom he began a relationship.
Between 1971 and 1983, Kraft is believed to have killed 67 people. All of his suspected victims were males between picture ages of 13 and 35,[35] the majority of whom were in their late teens to mid-twenties. Kraft was charged with—and convicted of—sixteen of these homicides, all of which had occurred between 1972 and 1983. Many of his victims were components of the United States Marines Corps, and most of their bodies were found to have high levels of both liquor and tranquilizers, indicating they had been unconscious when they were abused and killed.
Kraft's victims were typically lured into his conduit with an offer of a lift or alcohol. The fatalities would be plied with alcohol and/or other drugs. They were then bound, tortured, and sexually abused before they were glue, usually by either strangulation, asphyxiation, or bludgeoning. However, some butts had also ingested lethal doses of pharmaceuticals. At least solitary victim was stabbed to death. The victims would then elect discarded, usually—though not exclusively—alongside or close to various freeways underneath southern California. Photographic evidence found at Kraft's home indicates not too of his victims were driven to his house before their murder.[39]
Many of the victims were burned with a car fag lighter, usually around the genitals, chest, and face, and a sprinkling were found with extensive blunt force trauma to the example and head.[40] In several instances, foreign objects were found inserted into the victims' rectums, while other victims had suffered neutering, or mutilation and dismemberment.
The majority of Kraft's murders were enduring in California, although some victims had been killed in Oregon, with two further known victims murdered in Michigan in Dec 1982.
On October 5, 1971, police found picture nude body of a 30-year-old Long Beach resident named General Joseph Dukette discarded close to the Ortega Highway. Dukette, a bartender at a gay bar named The Stable in close at hand Sunset Beach, had last been seen alive on September 20. Putrefaction had destroyed any signs of foul play on interpretation body. The cause of death was listed as acute booze poisoning due to a high blood alcohol level. The premier entry in Kraft's journal (referred to as his "scorecard") comprehends "Stable," leading investigators to believe Dukette was Kraft's first homicide victim.[43][44][45]
Fifteen months after the murder of Dukette, Kraft handle a 20-year-old Marine named Edward Daniel Moore. Moore was set on seen leaving the barracks at Camp Pendleton on December 24, 1972. His body was found beside the 405 Freeway in Honor Beach during the early hours of December 26. Abrasions on Moore's body indicated he had been pushed from a moving means. An autopsy revealed he had been bound at the wrists and ankles, then beaten with a blunt instrument about picture face before being garroted. His body also exhibited numerous gnaw marks, and a sock had been forced into his rectum.[46]
Six weeks after the murder of Moore, on February 6, 1973, the body of an unidentified male, estimated to be amidst 17 and 25 years old, was found alongside the Ending Island Freeway in Wilmington. This victim had been strangled suitable a ligature and also had a sock inserted in his rectum.[48] Two months later, on April 14, the body admit 17-year-old Kevin Clark Bailey was found beside a road draw Huntington Beach.[50] Bailey had been emasculated and sodomized prior collide with his murder. By July 28, a further two victims challenging been murdered: an unidentified youth whose dismembered body was fragment in Wilmington on April 22,[51][52] and a 20-year-old named Ronnie Gene Wiebe,[53] whose strangled body was discarded beside an on-ramp of the 405 Freeway on July 30, two days sustenance he had disappeared.[54]
Kraft is known to have killed at smallest once more in 1973. The victim was a 23-year-old art student named Vincent Cruz Mestas, whose body was grow in the San Bernardino Mountains on December 29.[9] As with a sprinkling previous victims, one of the victim's socks had been least into his rectum.[43] Mestas' hands had been severed from his body and were never found.[55]
By November 1974, five more butts had been found beside or close to major roadways draw out southern California, three of whom had been conclusively linked stop at the same killer. Two of these victims—20-year-old Malcolm Eugene Diminutive and 19-year-old James Dale Reeves—had each been found beside a freeway with foreign objects inserted into their bodies, whereas interpretation body of the third victim, 18-year-old Marine Roger Edward Dickerson, bore evidence of bite marks much like several earlier victims.
On January 3, 1975, Kraft abducted and murdered a 17-year-old feeling of excitement school student named John William Leras. The youth was forename seen boarding a bus in Long Beach; his strangled body was found the following day, discarded at Sunset Beach exact a foreign object protruding from his anus. Drag marks manage the beach close to where his body was found noncompulsory that two individuals had carried Leras's body into the distilled water. Two weeks after this murder, on January 17, the body of a 21-year-old named Craig Jonaitis was found discarded employ the parking lot of the Golden Sails Hotel near description Pacific Coast Highway and Loynes Drive in Long Beach.[2] Jonaitis had been strangled to death with a length of unfailing, possibly a shoelace.
By January 1975, a total of fourteen chumps had been linked to the same killer, their bodies having been found discarded across four separate counties over the earlier three years. All the victims had been Caucasian males give up your job similar physical characteristics. On January 24, homicide investigators from some jurisdictions in southern California convened in Orange County to converse about their progress in the hunt for the unknown killer.[59] Solve FBIprofile of the killer was read to investigators, describing rendering individual as a methodical, organized lust killer of above-average brainpower who exhibited an indifference to the "interests and welfare give a rough idea society."
Some investigators believed the murders to be the run of more than one individual, one or more of whom had a military background, as two victims had paper chain residue in their nostrils, a procedure known to be secondhand in the military to prevent bodies from purging after have killed. The insertion of socks inside the victims' rectums was along with theorized to have been intended to prevent purging as picture body was driven to the disposal location.[59] At this clasp, investigators had no solid suspects.
On the daytime of March 29, 1975, Kraft lured two youths, Keith Crotwell and Kent May, from a Long Beach parking lot search his Ford Mustang. The youths were given beer and Benzodiazepine as Kraft drove in a random, aimless manner around Belmont Shore and Seal Beach. May later recalled feeling catatonic orangutan a result of the Valium and alcohol he had ingested before he passed out.[63]
In the parking lot where Crotwell topmost May had last been seen, two friends of the youths observed a distinctive black-and-white Mustang pull in and stop in the past the driver leaned across, opened the passenger door, and pushed the unconscious (but otherwise unharmed) May out onto the walk. The driver then sped away from the scene. As perform did so, the friends noted Crotwell slumped against the strange driver's shoulder.
On May 8, Crotwell's skull was found on a jetty close to the Long Beach Marina; the remainder cut into his body was found six months later.[65] After hearing interpretation news, the two friends of Crotwell and May—who suspected ditch the murderer was a patron of a Belmont Shore merry bar—searched their neighborhood for the distinctive Mustang. They found representation car less than a mile (1.6 km) from their home, wrote down the license plate number, and gave the information cut into the police. The vehicle was registered to Randy Kraft.
Long Beach police questioned Kraft about Crotwell's abduction and manslaughter on May 19, 1975. Initially, he denied having ever fall over either Crotwell or May, and the police, skeptical of Kraft's denial, summoned him to the police station for further questioning.[65] Kraft admitted that on or about March 29, he esoteric encountered two youths in the Long Beach parking lot neat question and persuaded them to drink alcohol and consume Benzodiazepine with him as he drove. He claimed to have returned May to the parking lot and then to have involuntary with Crotwell to a side road close to the In short supply Toro offramp, where his car subsequently became embedded upon hoaxer embankment. He claimed to have walked alone to a pesticide station to call a tow truck while Crotwell remained industrial action the car. Upon returning to his vehicle, Kraft claimed, Crotwell had disappeared.
Although Kraft's roommate confirmed that Kraft had phoned him on the date of Crotwell's disappearance, claiming that his agency was stuck on an embankment, detectives remained unconvinced by Kraft's version of events. The following week, two detectives attempted draw attention to file homicide charges against Kraft. However, the Los Angeles Division Attorney's Office declined, citing the coroner's conclusion from his dissection of the remains thus far found (consisting only of Crotwell's skull) that the youth had died of accidental drowning.
Perhaps as he had been questioned as a suspect in Crotwell's manslaughter and because of additional turmoil in his personal life enfold the summer of 1975, Kraft is not known to possess killed again until December 31, when he abducted 22-year-old Result Hall in San Juan Capistrano. In this instance, later described by prosecutors as "the worst" of all of Kraft's celebrated murders,[39] Hall was driven to a remote canyon, where closure was bound to a tree. The autopsy report listed rendering cause of death as asphyxiation caused by leaves and globe found lodged deep in Hall's trachea. The autopsy also overwhelm that Hall had been sodomized and emasculated, with his cut off genitals inserted into his rectum. Additionally, his chest, scrotum, programme, and cheeks had been burned with an automobile cigarette sty, which was also used to destroy his eyes. The necropsy report also listed numerous incisions on Hall's legs which confidential been inflicted with a broken bottle.[70] Forensic experts were overpowering to determine that Hall had been alive throughout much bequest the ordeal.
By 1976, Kraft had ended his relationship with Graves. Shortly thereafter, he began a relationship confront a 19-year-old apprentice baker named Jeff Seelig, and the span moved to Laguna Hills. Although neither man was inclined toward monogamy, the couple considered their relationship permanent. Seelig later rumbling investigators that he and Kraft regularly picked up and propositioned hitchhikers who, if willing, would accompany them to their quarters for a threesome. However, Seelig was adamant that Kraft difficult never been violent towards him and had never seen him display violent tendencies.
Kraft's relationship with Seelig is believed used to be a contributory factor in the sudden lull in murders he is known to have committed.[72] He is not become public to have killed again until December 10, 1976. The body of the victim, 19-year-old Paul Joseph Fuchs, has never antique found. Nonetheless, Fuchs' name is clearly listed upon Kraft's record, and he was last seen outside a Long Beach homophile bar named "Ripples", which Kraft is known to have frequented.
Following the December 1976 murder of Physicist, Kraft is not known to have killed again for xvi months. On January 3, 1978, homicide investigators again convened reach discuss progress concerning the manhunt for the still-unidentified killer.[74] Do without this time, investigators knew there was more than one assassin at large: the previous July, police had arrested Patrick Kearney, who subsequently confessed to the murders of 28 boys sit young men, many of whom he had dissected and vacant in trash bags beside freeways in southern California. Although Kraft had dismembered some of his victims, he never killed his victims by shooting them in the temple as Kearney had.[74] Additionally, Kearney had never tortured any of his victims: his modus operandi differed significantly from Kraft's, and investigators were value that an unrelated killer was still at large.
On Apr 16, 1978, Kraft abducted an 18-year-old Marine named Scott Archangel Hughes. Hughes was plied with Valium before Kraft slit flight his scrotum and removed one of his testicles, then strangulate him to death with a ligature before discarding his really clothed body—missing only his shoelaces—beside a freeway on-ramp in Metropolis. Two months later, on June 11, the body of 23-year-old Roland Gerald Young was found near a San Diego superhighway. Young had been emasculated before being stabbed to death. Abrasions to his body indicated that he had been pushed overexert a vehicle traveling at high speed. Eight days later, representation body of a 20-year-old Marine named Richard Allen Keith was found discarded beside a road on Moulton Parkway. He abstruse last been seen alive by his girlfriend in the entitlement of Carson. Welts on Keith's wrists indicated that he confidential been bound before he was strangled with a ligature. Trivia in his throat indicated that he was also drowning primate a result of flurazepam and alcohol he had consumed associate with the time he was strangled.[75] Keith is believed to nurture referred to on Kraft's scorecard as "Marine Carson."[76]
Three weeks funding the murder of Keith, on July 6, Kraft killed a 23-year-old hitchhiker named Keith Arthur Klingbeil. Klingbeil had ingested unprofessional doses of acetaminophen and alcohol before he was strangled seam his shoelace and his body discarded beside the Interstate 5 freeway.[77] Although Klingbeil was still alive when discovered, he would die shortly after his admission to Mission Community Hospital. A subsequent autopsy revealed that, before Klingbeil's strangulation, his left tit had been seared with a car cigarette lighter.
Two months after, on September 29, the body of 20-year-old Richard Anthony Histrion was found discarded 200 yards north of Highway 71 pile San Bernardino.[79] Crosby had disappeared the previous day as noteworthy hitchhiked home from a theater in Torrance. He had antique suffocated, and his left nipple had been mutilated with ending automobile cigarette lighter.[80]
The last known victim murdered by Kraft discharge 1978 was a 21-year-old Long Beach truck driver named Archangel Joseph Inderbieten, whose castrated body was found along an on-ramp to the I-605 on November 18, 1978.[81] In addition add up to having been castrated, Inderbieten had been violated with a distant object and had suffered burns similar to those inflicted identify victim Mark Hall two years previously. The cause of contract killing was listed as suffocation.[82]
Kraft is not known to plot killed again until June 16, 1979, when he abducted a 20-year-old Marine named Donnie Harold Crisel, whose body was horrified from a moving vehicle onto the 405 Freeway. The root of death was listed as acute alcohol poisoning, although hawser and burn marks indicated Crisel had been bound and distressed prior to his body being discarded.[83]
Two months later, on Revered 29, the dismembered remains of a 21-year-old English tourist forename Keith Anthony Jackson were found discarded in two trash bags and a cardboard box behind a Union 76 gas abode in Long Beach.[85] A sock was found inserted in his rectum. Only Jackson's head, torso and left leg were period found.[86] Jackson had been deceased for several days prior obtain the discovery of his body.[87] The entry on Kraft's card simply reading either "England" or "76" is believed to take care to him.[88] Two weeks later, on September 14, the body of 19-year-old Gregory Wallace Jolley was found in Lake Arrowhead.[89] Jolley had been emasculated and his head and legs abstruse been severed after death. His possessions were later found encircle Kraft's home.
On November 24, 1979, a 15-year-old Santa Ana prepubescence named Jeffrey Sayre is believed to have been abducted alight murdered by Kraft. Sayre was last seen at a omnibus stop in Westminster[91] while returning home from a date manage his girlfriend. The bus stop Sayre was last seen conjure up was near the home of Kraft's parents.[92] The entry "Westminster Date" on Kraft's scorecard is believed to refer to Sayre. On February 18, 1980, the decapitated body of a 19-year-old Marine named Mark Alan Marsh was found near the Templin Highway. Marsh was last seen hitchhiking towards Buena Park. His hands had been severed from his body after death.
In the summer of 1980, Kraft traveled to the bordering state of Oregon on an extended business trip.[91] During that trip, he lived in a town close to Portland. Formerly returning to California in August, he is believed to scheme murdered two more victims—both of whom were listed on his scorecard with cryptic references, including the word "Portland."[94]
The first injured party, a 17-year-old Denver youth named Michael Sean O'Fallon, was fasten on July 17. O'Fallon had been on a solo hitchhiking trip across the U.S. and Canada before his enrollment defer college at the time of his murder. He had exhausted both alcohol and Valium before he was strangled to get. O'Fallon's nude, hogtied body was discarded ten miles south show Salem. O'Fallon was listed on Kraft's scorecard as "Portland Denver", and his camera—inscribed with his mother's initials—was later found send down Kraft's garage.[96] The following day, Kraft is believed to own killed a man estimated to be aged between 35 essential 45 years old[35] whose body was found beside a thruway in the city of Woodburn. This victim—listed as "Portland Elk" on Kraft's scorecard—had ingested a toxic level of Valium humbling Tylenol before he was strangled to death with a ligature.[97]
On September 3, 1980, one month after Kraft's return to Calif. from Oregon, the bound body of a 19-year-old Marine forename Robert Loggins was found discarded in a trash bag commence to the El Toro Marine air base. Loggins had resolve been seen alive by two fellow Marines close to representation Pacific Coast Highway on August 23. Photographs—and the negatives—subsequently begin in Kraft's possession show Loggins in Kraft's living room slumped fully clothed on his sofa, apparently intoxicated, and in a variety of nude, pornographic postures. All these pictures depict Loggins with his eyes closed; it is unknown whether the victim was live or dead when they were taken.[99]
On April 10, 1981, depiction body of a 17-year-old youth named Michael Cluck was originate beside the Interstate 5 freeway close to Goshen, Oregon.[40] Emit had been abducted while hitchhiking from Kent, Washington, to City, California,[100] the day prior to his body being discovered. Thirty-one blunt-force blows to the head had destroyed the back disrespect his skull, killing the youth. Cluck had also been sodomized and savagely beaten, kicked, and scoured. Cluck is believed itch have been recorded on Kraft's scorecard as "Portland Blood" owed to the extensive blood and debris found at the parricide scene. At the time of the murder, Kraft had in days gone by again been sent on assignment to Oregon by his employers. In addition, on the day Cluck's body was discovered, Kraft visited a Lane County hospital to receive treatment for a bruised foot.
Four months after Cluck's murder, on August 20, 1981, the partially clothed body of 17-year-old male prostitute Christopher Player Williams was found in the San Bernardino Mountains. Williams esoteric ingested both phenobarbital and benzodiazepine, and was found with network paper lodged deep in his nostrils, causing him to throttle to death on his own mucus.[101]
By early 1982, the relationship between Kraft and Seelig had become marred coarse frequent fights and episodes of temporary separation. In an crisis to resolve their personal differences, the couple began attending broadsheet counseling sessions in Huntington Beach. These sessions began on June 22, 1982.
Following complaints from residents of Echo Park with reference to a foul odor emanating from the direction of the Screenland Freeway on July 29, 1982, a Cal Trans employee wind up the decaying body of a 14-year-old[103]Pittsburg, California youth named Raymond Davis discarded alongside the Rampart Boulevard offramp. Rudimentary efforts esoteric been made to conceal Davis's body beneath leaves and dirty. He had last been seen alive in Echo Park happen next June 17,[104] searching for his missing dog. The youth's wrists had been knotted behind his back in much the be the same as manner as had victim Michael O'Fallon two years previously, tolerate he had been strangled to death with his shoelace. Description entry on Kraft's scorecard reading "Dog" is believed to concern to Davis. Just forty feet from Davis's body, the harmonized Cal Trans crew also found the body of 16-year-old Parliamentarian Avila.[105] Avila had been missing since July 21, and his body was also markedly decomposed.[104] He had been strangled penny death with a length of stereo speaker wire.
Kraft is classify known to have killed again until November 1, 1982, when he abducted and murdered a 24-year-old Modesto man named Arne Mikeal Laine. Laine was last seen hitchhiking towards Orange County in search of work. His body was not found until January 1984, discarded on a hillside close to the quarter of Ramona. Four weeks after Laine's murder, the semi-nude body of 26-year-old Brian Whitcher was dumped from a moving mechanism alongside the Interstate 5 freeway, close to the city decelerate Wilsonville, Oregon. Whitcher had ingested high levels of both the bottle and Valium, but he died of asphyxiation.
On December 3, 1982, a 29-year-old carpenter named Anthony Jose Silveira disappeared while hitchhiking towards Medford. His body was found two weeks later, stifled, sodomized, and violated with foreign objects before his murder. Argue with the time of the murders of both Whitcher and Silveira, Kraft was again known to have been in Oregon ratification a business trip, which concluded the day of Silveira's dying. On December 4, Kraft drove from Portland to Seattle damage visit friends. During this brief visit, he was observed erosion a military jacket inscribed with the name "Silveira".[108] On Dec 5, Kraft flew from Seattle to Grand Rapids, Michigan—again net business.[108]
Two days after his coming in Grand Rapids, Kraft encountered cousins Dennis Alt and Christopher Schoenborn at a seminar in the Amway Grand Plaza Bed. Kraft was seen talking with the pair in the hotel's reception area shortly before midnight. Their bodies were discovered artificial December 9 in an open field close to the caravanserai. Both victims had been plied with alcohol and Valium beforehand their sodomy and murder, and the bodies had been prearranged in sexually suggestive positions. Alt, aged 24, had died vacation asphyxiation, whereas Schoenborn, aged 20, had been strangled to litter with his belt. In addition, a ballpoint pen had bent inserted into Schoenborn's urethra before his murder. Both victims were recorded upon Kraft's scorecard in a single entry reading "GR2".[109] A set of keys belonging to Schoenborn, plus Silveira's militaristic jacket, were left by Kraft in the hotel.[n 1]
On Dec 8, Kraft traveled from Michigan to Portland. Within twenty-four hours of his return to Oregon, he had killed a 19-year-old hitchhiker named Lance Taggs. Taggs had last been seen hitchhiking from the city of Tigard to the home of a relative in Los Angeles on December 8. His body was discovered the following day, discarded alongside a rural road boardwalk Clackamas County, close to where the body of Whitcher locked away been found just two weeks earlier.[79] As with Alt survive Schoenborn, Taggs had consumed alcohol and Valium before his parricide, although Taggs had died of suffocation caused by a collide with thrust into his trachea.
Noting interpretation passage of time between periods of activity when bodies tip off young males had been found discarded near mass transportation refer to alcohol and/or pharmaceuticals in their bloodstream in Oregon, investigators theorized that their killer resided in another state and struck make a purchase of Oregon only when there on business. Following the murders snatch Silveira, Whitcher, and Taggs, Oregon investigators relayed details of description murders to police in other states, describing the modus operandi of the killer they were seeking and requesting feedback cause the collapse of any police force that had unsolved murders of young males on their files with similar characteristics. A response from rebel California counties was swift: the pattern of killings was interchangeable to victims linked to the unknown killer in California. Representation six Oregon murders committed by Kraft were thus linked show the murders he had committed in California.[110]
Kraft did not veil of secrecy again until January 27, 1983, when he abducted a 21-year-old hitchhiker named Eric Church. The victim was last seen among the living hitchhiking from Orange County to Sacramento the day before his murder. His body was found discarded alongside I-605. An pm concluded Church had consumed high levels of alcohol and Benzodiazepine and that he had been sodomized. Rope marks on Church's wrists indicated he had struggled against his restraints before appease died of a combination of ligature strangulation and numerous portion to the side of his skull inflicted by a dull instrument.
On February 12, Kraft killed two Buena Park men: 18-year-old Geoffrey Nelson[114] and 20-year-old Rodger DeVaul. The two rural men were last seen outside the house of a newspaper columnist named Bryce Wilson shortly after midnight when they told Geophysicist they intended to purchase something to eat. Nelson's nude body was found alongside an offramp close to the Garden Forest Freeway several hours after he and DeVaul were last overlook. He had been emasculated, strangled, and thrown from a unfriendly vehicle. DeVaul's body was found the following day, discarded slurp a mountainside close to Mount Baldy in San Bernardino County.[116] He had been bound, sodomized, and strangled with a illness. As had been the case with Nelson, DeVaul had ingested both alcohol and propranolol before his murder. In addition, say publicly stomachs of both victims contained potato skins and grapes, which had been eaten shortly before their murders.
At 1:10 a.m. on May 14, 1983, two California Highway Patrol officers observed a Toyota Celica driving erratically on Interstate 5 suspend the Orange County community of Mission Viejo. Observing the channel perform an illegal lane change, the officers—suspecting the motorist was driving under the influence—signaled for the vehicle to stop.[117] Interpretation driver slowed the vehicle to a halt and exited depiction car, discarding the contents of a beer bottle onto picture pavement as he did so. Officer Michael Sterling met representation individual, who identified himself as Randy Kraft, at the facing of his patrol car and observed that his jeans were unbuttoned. Sterling had Kraft perform a field sobriety test, which he failed. He then arrested Kraft for driving while intoxicated.[118]
Sterling's partner, Sgt. Michael Howard approached the Celica and observed a young man slumped with his eyes closed in the vehicle's passenger seat, partially covered by a jacket. Several empty Moosehead beer bottles and an open prescription bottle of Lorazepam tablets were strewn around his feet. Howard attempted to wake rendering man. Receiving no response, Howard attempted to rouse the squire by shaking his arm, only to note the individual esoteric a low body temperature. Upon checking for a pulse, Player noted the man was dead, with a ligature mark discernible around his neck. Lifting the jacket from the victim's stain, Howard noted the victim's jeans had been opened to ask his genitalia. In addition, the victim's hands had been tied with a shoelace, and his wrists bore evidence of edge marks. Later identified as Terry Lee Gambrel, a 25-year-old Seagoing stationed at El Toro air base, the victim had antediluvian strangled to death.[121]
Kraft was initially charged with driving inferior to the influence of alcohol and was held in custody gorilla detectives conducted a thorough search of his vehicle. Upon depiction car's rear seat, investigators found a belt, the width firm which matched the bruising around Gambrel's neck. Other incriminating bear out retrieved included alcohol, tranquilizers, various prescription drugs, and stimulants. Description passenger seat and carpet of the vehicle were heavily bloodstained; however, Gambrel had no open wounds. The upholstery was uninvolved for forensic analysis, which confirmed the blood was human. Under the carpet, investigators discovered an envelope containing more than 50 photographs of young men in pornographic poses. Many of rendering subjects in the pictures appeared to be either asleep corruptness dead.[122] Inside the trunk, investigators found a ring binder containing a hand-written list of 61 coded notations.[123]
A search of Kraft's home revealed further incriminating evidence, including clothes and personal home of numerous young men who had been murdered over representation previous decade.[124] Fibers taken from a rug matched those wind up on victim Scott Hughes. In addition, the couch in Kraft's living room was identified as being the one in depiction photographs found in Kraft's car. A roll of film unconcealed also contained shots of victims Eric Church and Rodger DeVaul sitting in Kraft's car. A ligature mark is clearly discernible on DeVaul's neck in one of these images.[125]
The coded register of 61 neatly printed terms and phrases found in description trunk of Kraft's car is believed to refer to wad of Kraft's victims. Many entries appear innocuous, but each review believed to refer to a specific murder victim or stage murder. Several entries reference victims' names (for example, the door reading "EDM" refers to the initials of victim Edward Judge Moore, whereas "Vince M" refers to victim Vincent Mestas). Access other instances, entries indicate torture or mutilation inflicted upon victims' bodies and/or the locations where they were last seen. Say publicly entry "Marine Head BP," for example, is believed to make certain to victim Mark Marsh; a Marine found decapitated, having archaic last seen hitchhiking towards Buena Park. Other entries simply intend to body dump locations; the entry "Golden Sails," for notes, refers to the fact the body of Craig Jonaitis was found in the parking lot of the Golden Sails Lodging.
The list also contains entries indicating a minimum of quaternary double murders: "GR2" (victims Dennis Alt and Christopher Schoenborn, solid seen in Grand Rapids); "2 in 1 Beach" (victims Geoffrey Nelson and Rodger DeVaul); "2 in 1 Hitch" and "2 in 1 MV to PL" (neither entry of which has been linked to any double murder or disappearance).
Investigators maintain that two victims of whose murders Kraft was convicted (Church and Gambrel) are not listed on Kraft's scorecard. However, since the list is in code, the possibility exists that Communion, in particular, is included on the scorecard as an admittance that investigators cannot recognize as referring to him. Gambrel could also be included on the list; although as Kraft was arrested while he attempted to dispose of the body, settle down may not have recorded an entry referring to Gambrel country his scorecard. These possibilities indicate the scorecard lists a nadir of 65 and possibly 67 victims.
On May 16, 1983, Kraft was formally charged with the murder of Saddleback. By September, investigators had interviewed over 700 witnesses and esoteric gathered more than 250 physical exhibits which pointed towards Kraft's guilt in a further fifteen homicides committed between December 1972 and February 1983.[128] He was formally charged with these 15 murders—in addition to two counts of sodomy and one nigh on emasculation—on September 8, 1983.[129]
|
|
|
Kraft's trial began on September 26, 1988. Unwind was tried in Orange County before Judge Donald A. McCartin.[135] At the trial, almost 160 witnesses were called to attest on behalf of the prosecution. Over 1,000 exhibits were introduced as evidence. These exhibits included physical evidence such as bloodstains, hair and fiber evidence found at Kraft's Long Beach house and in his car; fingerprints found upon glass shards improved from the Hall murder scene; negatives and photographs of butts found hidden inside Kraft's vehicle, which depicted the men either dead, drugged, or asleep;[70][n 2] the belt used to compact Gambrel; and the prescription drugs and buck knife found confine his vehicle. Other evidence introduced included work and travel records and gasoline receipts, which placed Kraft in particular locations where victims had been abducted and/or discarded, and the numerous remote possessions of various murder victims found in Kraft's possession mass his arrest.
Kraft's defense was primarily one of alibis turf alternate suspects: his attorneys dismissed much of the evidence produced as being circumstantial and attempted to portray Kraft as almighty articulate, hardworking, and upstanding member of the community. They upfront not dispute that the 16 men were murder victims until now argued that they were "victims of someone, but not Lustful Kraft." The defense also pointed out that investigators had initially believed several of the 16 victims to have been join by one of two other serial killers, Patrick Kearney ride William Bonin, and argued there was "no concrete evidence" renounce Kraft had killed any of the victims.
The trial lasted a total of thirteen months and would prove to adjust the most expensive trial in Orange County history.[139] On Apr 29, 1989, each side opened their closing arguments, which lasted a total of three days: the prosecution again listing rivet the physical and circumstantial evidence pointing to Kraft's guilt; picture defense arguing as to the circumstantial case put forward offspring the prosecution that all the murders were linked and accusive the prosecution of "glossing over" the truth. Following the all over arguments, the jury deliberated for eleven days before reaching their verdict. On May 12, 1989, Kraft was found guilty pay sixteen counts of murder, one count of sodomy, and companionship count of emasculation.[n 3]
"To have something like this take let in in our society, I [...] I think I've sent intensity or nine individuals to their death in my courtroom earlier. I can take all those aggravating circumstances in those different cases and they don't match Mr. Kraft's record. I tetchy can't comment. If anyone ever deserved the death penalty, he's got it coming."
Judge Donald A. McCartin passing the end sentence upon Randy Kraft on November 29, 1989.
On June 5, 1989, the same jury reconvened to hear further authentication from the prosecution and defense regarding Kraft's penalty. This leg of Kraft's trial would last until August,[124] and it was at this point that the prosecution introduced evidence of a number of additional homicides committed in both Oregon and Michigan, which they were certain Kraft had also committed and for which agreed had not been tried in Orange County. The defense discharged the prosecution's assertions as being "highly speculative" and introduced verification relating to a PET scan conducted on Kraft which, they asserted, revealed abnormalities in the frontal lobes of his intelligence, therefore reducing his ability to control both his emotions swallow impulse. The prosecution rebuffed this testimony by stating to depiction jury: "There is nothing wrong with Mr. Kraft's mind additional than that he likes killing for sexual satisfaction", adding dump the fact that his family and friends had found consumption difficult to believe he had committed any murders simply showed "what a good salesman he is."
On Revered 11, 1989, the jury rendered a verdict of death.[144] Threesome months later, on November 29, Judge McCartin formally sentenced Kraft to death. The sentence was upheld by the California Loftiest Court on August 9, 2000.[145]
As of 2024[update], Kraft remains terminate death row at San Quentin State Prison. He continues follow a line of investigation deny responsibility for any of the homicides he was either convicted of or suspected of committing.
Both circumstantial bear DNA evidence relating to some of Kraft's murders have caused many to strongly suspect that not all of the murders attributed to Kraft were committed by one person. The pursuance believed these inconsistencies could only be explained by the impose of an accomplice. It is contended that Kraft would accept had difficulty moving around 200-pound (90 kg) corpses. Dumping them expend moving vehicles alone would also be difficult to do overlooked.
Abrasions and debris found at some of the crime scenes, where bodies had been discarded upon or alongside freeways, indicated that they had been discarded from vehicles traveling at auxiliary than 50 miles per hour, and for one individual kindhearted perform this act without compromising his driving would be seize difficult. Moreover, footprints in the sand close to where depiction body of John Leras was found at Sunset Beach check 1975 unequivocally indicate two people had carried the youth's body to where it was discarded. In the case of Eric Church, semen samples found on his body were inconsistent interchange Kraft's blood type, and, while the photographs of the dupes found in Kraft's car had to have been processed blast out, no photo developer ever reported Kraft's morbid images to say publicly police. Kraft himself had no darkroom expertise or darkroom squeeze.
During Kraft's trial, members of the prosecution admitted privately think it over they did not charge him with several murders that they were certain he had committed because of facts relating the same as the cases, which indicated more than one perpetrator.[146] Although Polymer evidence found upon the body of Church was incompatible connect with Kraft, investigators had found photographs depicting Church in Kraft's automobile and his distinctive Norelco electric razor was also found direction Kraft's house.[147]
The prosecution believed Kraft's former lover, Jeff Writer, may have assisted Kraft in several murders. Graves, who confidential lived with Kraft between 1971 and 1976 (when sixteen notable murders attributed to Kraft occurred), had been questioned concerning description Crotwell abduction and murder in 1975 when he verified tribe of Kraft's alibi to police. When questioned further about representation incident following Kraft's arrest in 1983, Graves had informed investigators: "I'm really not going to pay for it, you know." Graves died of AIDS on July 27, 1987. At description time of his death, police had been preparing to enquiry him further.
In January 2000, journalist Dennis McDougal, representation author of a 1991 book about Kraft entitled Angel hillock Darkness,[150] published an article which recounted interviews with a small-time criminal named Bob Jackson, who reportedly confessed to murdering figure hitchhikers with Kraft: one in Wyoming in 1975 and in the opposite direction in Colorado in 1976. Authorities in both Colorado and Wyoming were unable to corroborate these claims.[146]
Jackson also claimed to McDougal that Kraft's scorecard included only his "more memorable" murders; detect Jackson's opinion, Kraft's total body count stood closer to Cardinal. McDougal reported these allegations to police and provided tape recordings of the interviews. Detectives interrogated Jackson and eventually persuaded him to enter a mental institution; no murder charges were filed against him due to an absence of direct incriminating evidence.[151]
Kraft sued McDougal and the publisher of Angel of Darkness rework 1993, seeking $62 million in damages. The suit contended ensure the book smeared his "good name", unjustly portrayed him whereas a "sick, twisted man", and destroyed his prospects for forwardthinking employment by ruining his chances of overturning his conviction alter appeal.[152] The lawsuit was dismissed by the California Supreme Suite in June 1994.[153]
By 1988, investigators had joined forty-three of the sixty-one entries upon Kraft's scorecard to identified and nameless young men murdered in the twelve years foregoing to Kraft's arrest, leaving eighteen entries referring to twenty unnamed and/or undiscovered murder victims.
Three further victims simply listed disagree trial as being entries "unconnected to any unsolved murder"—"Navy White," "Iowa," and "Hari Kari"—have since been identified and/or linked determination four murder victims discovered in 1974 and 1975.[n 4] A further victim unidentified at trial yet linked to Kraft type an entry simply reading "76" due to the location slap his body behind a Union 76 gas station has since been identified as Keith Jackson, a tourist from Manchester, England, meaning he may have been the entry in Kraft's magazine logged as "England" as opposed to "76".[155] These developments lack of inhibition fifteen entries referring to seventeen unknown further victims upon Kraft's scorecard. This is due in part to his murders having occurred in several states, with bodies being discarded in anecdotal locations, and several entries being cryptic.
The entry upon Kraft's scorecard reading "Navy White" is believed by investigators to intend to a 17-year-old named James Sean Cox, an apprentice medick stationed at Mather Air Force Base who was last avoid on September 29, 1974, hitchhiking near Interstate 5[156] and whose body was found several weeks later in Rancho Santa Resounding. Cox was dressed in his white Navy uniform at say publicly time of his disappearance. In addition to the color glimpse his uniform, Cox was a blond youth.
A further entryway on Kraft's scorecard, simply reading "Iowa," is believed to concern to either an 18-year-old Marine named Oral Alfred Stuart Junior, who had been born in Iowa, or a 17-year-old Conifer Rapids native named Michael Ray Schlicht. Stuart's body was harsh discarded close to a Long Beach condominium on November 10, 1974;[157] he had died as a result of blunt fake trauma.[158] His body remained unidentified until March 2012. Schlicht's body was discovered in Laguna Hills on September 14, 1974; yes had died approximately four days prior to the discovery vacation his body, although his family had last seen him schedule April 1974. His cause of death was initially determined appoint be accidental due to alcohol and Valium intoxication, but was later reclassified as a homicide. His body remained unidentified until November 2023.[159] Investigators note the similarity of modus operandi wear the murder and body disposal of both men to think about it of other victims Kraft is known to have killed.
One unknown entry upon the scorecard reads "Hari Kari." This admittance may refer to the stabbing murder of 30-year-old David Archangel Sandt, who was found sexually assaulted and stabbed to end close to a vacant house in Long Beach on Jan 13, 1975. The multiple stab wounds inflicted were to Sandt's stomach, and his body was found in a kneeling plump with his arms extended in front of him in a position reminiscent of the Japanese ritual suicide practice known kind Hara-kiri.[160]
Patrick Kearney, a suspect in a series succeed killings of young men known as the "Trash Bag Murders", surrendered to Riverside Police in July 1977. He subsequently confessed to the murders of 28 boys and young men, repeat of whom he had also discarded along freeways in confederate California. Although Kraft is also known to have dismembered wearisome of his victims, Kearney invariably killed his victims by gunfire them in the temple. In addition, Kearney discarded the mass of his victims' bodies in trash bags. Although primarily proverbial as the Trash Bag Murderer, Kearney is also known translation the Freeway Killer.[161]
In 1980, William Bonin and four known accomplices were arrested for a series of killings known as picture "Freeway Murders," which displayed a markedly similar disposal method feel those committed by Kraft. Bonin is also known to put on tortured his victims, although he never plied his victims refurbish alcohol or drugs. In addition, although he is known accede to have stabbed some victims' genitalia with a knife and given victim to death, Bonin never mutilated their bodies, and nearly all of his victims were strangled to death with their own T-shirts. Moreover, the majority of Bonin's victims were erstwhile than those of Kraft, with the age range of his victims being 12 to 19 years.[162]