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Hi, crime junkies. The story I have for you today is one that has truly consumed
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me. In the 1970s, there was a serial killer lurking in San Francisco. One who some believe would sketch his victims as
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a way to lure them in and then attack them in the most brutal ways. And the wild part is that pretty early on, tons
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of people were pointing the finger at one man. Even survivors who escaped his clutches picked him out of a lineup. But
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to date, everyone has been too scared of what would happen to their lives if they
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cooperated with police. So this man is free, living among us. And though some believe he hasn't been a threat since
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1976 when the murders stopped, the current detective thinks that we just might not know the true scope of his
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crimes. This is the story of the doodler man. Yes, I believe there might be a dead
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person. on the beach at uh right across from your lowest street. Uh if you follow the street right down
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to the water. I was walk along there. I thought somebody lying there, but I didn't want to get too close cuz you
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know what could happen. Okay. You want to give me? No, I don't think that's necessary. I
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just wanted to let somebody know that maybe needs help or something, but um felt it was my duty to report it.
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Oh, okay. Fine. We'll pick it up. Okay. That call came into San Francisco Dispatch in the early morning hours of
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January 27th, 1974. And I know that might have been a little hard to make out, but the gist is that
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the caller found a body on the beach. He didn't want to get too close to it and the caller would not leave his name. He
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just thought that maybe the guy on the beach might need some help. Now, within minutes, they had officers descending on
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the scene. And what they found when they got there was odd. I mean, they quickly
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spot the body that the caller told them about. But he's not just lying there on the beach like the caller said. He is
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fully in the water about to be pulled out with the tide. So much so that officers have to wade in and drag him
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back to dry land. And by the way, no one is thinking that this guy could have drowned or anything. He has got wounds
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everywhere. He was a victim of a homicide. No doubt. But here is the even stranger part. At nearly 2:00 a.m. when
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this call came in, it is very dark out and there isn't any lighting down by the water. So, when they get this body to
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the shore and have a minute to like take it all in, they're like, "Wait, what was this
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caller even doing out here on the beach in the middle of the night?" And how exactly did he spot this body in the
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pitch dark? Now, it is worth noting that this beach is a common hookup spot. Now, there's no
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one else around when they get there, but maybe that's why the caller was out there. like TBD who he is, who he was
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with, but it might be all the reason in the world not to give his name when he called this in. Who knows, right? Like,
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is he married? Who was he with? Blah blah blah. But the caller's name isn't the only thing that they're missing.
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They don't find a wallet or anything in the victim's clothes that would tell them his name either. I mean, really,
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they don't find much of anything at all. We asked retired homicide inspector Sergeant Dan Cunningham to describe the
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scene for us. He still works cold cases for the department, including this one. So, it was still pretty fresh in his
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mind. And he was basically like, uh, what scene? Because duh, the guy was like on the verge of being swallowed up
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by the Pacific, which doesn't leave investigators with a whole lot to work with. In the following days, they put
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out a couple of media requests for the caller to come forward. Maybe he could shed some more light on the
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circumstances around all of this. Like, were there other people on the beach? Was he with anyone when he found the
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body? Did he see anything? But whoever that guy is that called in, he either never gets the message that police are
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looking for him, which I find hard to believe this was going far and wide at the time, or he is intentionally laying
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low because he never comes forward. So when they get out there, did the guy in the water look like he had just gone
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in or had he been dead for like a while? So, I kind of think those are two separate questions because I don't think
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he had been in the water long because he wound up there on account of the tide coming in, not because of like he was
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killed and put there. As for how long he'd been dead, what I know is that the coroner finds that he was in the early
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stages of rigor mortise, which like quick reminder for crime junkies, that tends to begin around 2 hours post
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death, but can take up to 6 hours. Okay, so the TLDDR is at least 2 hours but possibly more.
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Right. The coroner also determines that their victim, who is a middle-aged white
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man, died from multiple stab wounds. 17 to be exact, in his chest, torso, front,
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and back. And he went out with a fight based on the defensive wounds he has on his hand. Now, the water washed away a
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lot in terms of evidence. Not that they even could have done much of anything with it back in 1974, but what it didn't
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wash away or degrade were his prince. Or at least that's how I'm assuming they ended up IDing him. It never actually
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says that specifically, but I know he did have a prior encounter with police, so I'm thinking that maybe they had some
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kind of record of him. And in 74, like those records were likely just Prince. However they do it,
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within a couple of days, they have determined that he is 50-year-old Gerald Kavanaaugh. He's a World War II vet
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originally from Canada, who at some point made his way to the US. And do we know what he had gotten in
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trouble with police for? Like why they had his records? I don't know how long this was before
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his death, but he'd actually been stopped in the same area where he was found before on suspicion of public sex
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in some nearby restrooms. And if you aren't picking up on it by now, this area where people would come to hook up,
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like have sex in restrooms. Like, this wasn't like a teenage lover's lane. This was a spot mostly frequented by gay men.
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We weren't able to speak with any of Gerald's family or loved ones. So, I have no idea why he was there or who he
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might have been with the night that he died, but I do know that the restrooms where he was suspected to have been
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having sex before, those were actually locked at night. So, if he did go there on his own the night he died, he was
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likely on the beach when he was killed. Which to me makes me wonder if maybe Gerald was out there like with the
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caller, like they were out on the beach together. I don't know. Maybe. I mean, the caller
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could have been out there with someone else as well. But maybe the who doesn't even matter
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and he just didn't want anyone to know that he was out there with another man or to meet a man. Like again, all just
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speculation. We may never know again cuz the scholar has never come forward. And
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in 1974, to be truthful, I don't think anyone really wanted to know. To put it bluntly, even in a city like San
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Francisco that was seen as progressive, 1974 policing didn't treat everyone as equal. And it doesn't seem like they put
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much effort into solving Gerald's case. Like, sure, a plea or two went out to the public, but if they made any real
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effort to get to the bottom of things, it's never reported on. And I know from our own reporting that the gay community
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was very much under the impression that not much was being done. So when a call comes in 5 months later about a body in
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Golden Gate Park, Gerald's death, which happened just a mile and a half away, isn't really on anyone's radar. It comes
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in early the morning of June 25th. And from the looks of things, it's another stabbing. The victim is fully clothed
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and he had been stabbed a total of five times. three times in the heart. But much like with Gerald, no wallet, no ID
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can be located. So investigators initially suspect a mugging gone wrong, especially because there is a scene here
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that tells a bit of a story. CNN reports that there is a pool of blood about 10 ft from the body with visible drag marks
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between the two spots, leading them to believe that the man was attacked where the blood is concentrated. Some kind of
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struggle ensued and then the killer dragged him to the slightly more hidden spot where his body was found. And it's
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wild that the body wasn't found sooner because when they canvas the area, a resident tells them that she heard a man
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screaming for help a little before midnight the night before. Sergeant Cunningham told us that she did call
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this in, although it's hard to tell if there was actually any follow-up because like I said, the body isn't discovered
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until close to 7. Now, thankfully, investigators ID their victim quickly this time. He's 27-year-old Joseph
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Stevens, who goes by Jay, and it turns out he's one of the most beloved performers in the city's drag scene. One
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of his regular gigs is at a club called Pinocchios, as the master of ceremonies,
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no less, which has been referred to as like the birthplace of American drag. So, Jay is like drag royalty.
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Yes. Yes. And okay, here's the thing. By the way, based on the available info, it
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is possible that Jay would identify as a trans woman today. His younger sister Melissa told the San Francisco Chronicle
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that there isn't a doubt in her mind that he would have. But whether it was a sign of the Times or Jay was just a sis
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gay man who loved dressing in drag, the pronouns that he used were he him. So like that's what I'm still going to use
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as well. So, investigators quickly find that Jay was last seen leaving a place called the Cabaret Club in North Beach
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sometime before midnight on the 24th. Now, nothing suggests that he left the club with another person, but where he's
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found in Golden Gate Park is a hike from North Beach. Investigators know that he's got a car, and clearly you would
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have needed one to get up there as quickly as they assume he did if those screams heard around midnight were him.
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But his car is nowhere to be found in or near the park. And that's because, unbeknownst to these officers at the
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crime scene, Jay's car was some 45 minutes away being hauled away after it was involved in a crime at a separate
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crime scene. Two branches of the same tree, two pieces of a soul. Where one sister goes,
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the other will be. For she is but half of the whole. So, about 2 hours before Jay's body was
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discovered, an officer patrolling a neighborhood about 45 minutes away in a city called Hayward noticed a blue
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Toyota acting kind of sus. There had been a string of sexual assault in the area recently, so the cop figured he
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should like check this out. But when he initiated a traffic stop, the Toyota peeled off and it turned into a whole
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high-speed chase situation. But God bless dumb criminals, right? Because the driver raced over a set of railroad
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tracks and not at a railroad crossing and crashed right into a house on the other side.
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Now, the driver, a blonde 20some, jumped out of the car, fled on foot, and got away. But when police ran the car's
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place, and found that it was registered to Jay, they eventually touched base with SFPD, who immediately think that
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they've got their killer, or at least a description of their killer. Now, I don't have the exact like playbyplay,
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but one way or another, the blonde guy ends up getting IDed and located, and dude is shocked to learn that the car
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he'd crashed belonged to a homicide victim. He denies any involvement in Jay's death, swearing up and down that
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he just lifted the car from where it was parked at Golden Gate Park. And as unbelievable as I know that sounds, his
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story actually checks out. Seriously, he's literally just like the world's unluckiest car thief,
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which is a bummer for investigators because it means that their promising early lead turns into a dead end real
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fast. And with nothing else to go on and knowing they weren't making any connections to a larger pattern of
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crimes yet, it kind of feels like everyone just shrugged their shoulders and said like, "Oh well, we tried." Now,
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our team talked to Ron Huberman, who was the first openly gay investigator with the San Francisco DA's office in the
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70s, and as you can imagine, he had unique insight into the tense dynamic between the gay community and law
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enforcement at the time. And he said the simplest way to put it was that there was a ton of hate crimes happening at
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the time. The murders, he said, were like next level. But what he saw from the inside is that police just did not
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care. He also emphasized the level of tension, animosity even that existed between SFPD and the queer community at
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the time. Because you got to keep in mind that in 1970 San Francisco, morality laws were enforced. Cops pose
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as gay men at the time to entrap actual gay men and queer crime victims are liable to find themselves in cuffs if
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they go to law enforcement for help. Mhm. I mean, that same year, 1974, a gay man
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settled a lawsuit against SFPD for nearly a quart of a million dollars, which would be like $1.5 million today,
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after police pulled him from a car and beat him to the point of having permanent brain damage.
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And how was Ron even out at this time? I had the same question. So apparently, and this is super interesting, it had to
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do with the election of a DA who both sincerely wanted to integrate the gay community into mainstream and maybe saw
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the political benefit of doing so. And Ron told us that things at the police academy were kind of tense at first, but
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he was able to win some trainee over with a little humor, which I think came easy to Ron. I mean, okay, so literally
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his nickname in the gay community was Daddy Cop, which obviously was like tongue and cheek because like obviously
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the guy didn't take himself too seriously. But anyways, that was my long-winded way of
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emphasizing that these cases were kind of thrown to the side and thought to be one-offs. No one was thinking serial
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killer. I don't even know that serial killer was a thing that, you know, we had a word for at the time. But that
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changes 12 days after Jay's murder. That's when another man is found deceased on the beach really close to
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where Gerald had been found. This murder is especially brutal. The victim is another white man on the younger side
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like Jay and he was nearly decapitated. Sergeant Cunningham told us one of the original investigators said it was
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probably the worst crime scene he'd ever worked. And that dude worked the Zodiac
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investigation. Oh, this young man was found fully clothed, but yet again, no wallet, no ID. So, it takes 2 weeks to
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ID him as a 31-year-old German national named Klouse Chrisman. Klouse, investigators learn, has a family back
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home in Germany, like a wife and two kids, but he'd come to the US a few months back and has been staying with
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friends, this American couple who lived in the Castro, which I think is like like a suburb of
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it's like an area of San Francisco that in the 70s had a really vibrant progressive culture.
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Okay, got it. Yeah. So, he's become something of a regular at the city's gay bars. Now, investigators determined that
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one of those bars is actually the last place he was seen. Witnesses say he left alone at around 2:00 a.m. And even
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though Sergeant Cunningham told us that investigators found some of the men Klouse was known to have been involved
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with, all of them quickly get ruled out. So, when the culprit doesn't fall into their laps quickly, police move on to
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other cases. Though there is finally chatter amongst them that these were maybe more than just one-offs. I mean,
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there's clearly a pattern between Gerald and Jay and Klouse. But aside from each
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of them being part of the queer community, like there were no other connections and no task force or
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anything was being put together to try and find one. And they weren't even really alerting the public to the threat
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of a serial killer. But even though they weren't announcing it, I mean, this is a
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community that already has a target on their backs. They are quick to pay attention and spread the word amongst
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themselves. And soon rumors start running rampant about a possible serial killer in their midst. And everyone's
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waiting for the next shoe to drop. But it doesn't. Like weeks go by without another murder and then months and as
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they inch up on the oneyear mark from the last murder, I imagine people's guards are down. And maybe that is what
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allowed for the next murder to happen. On May 12th, 1975, SFPD is alerted to the discovery of another body on the
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beach. That morning, a hiker finds a set of bloody drag marks that leads to the body of a young man. Now, this time, it
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doesn't take police long to catch on. He has all the same hallmarks of all the previous murders, and they know in that
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moment that their killer is still out there, and he has no intention of stopping. So, maybe now's the time to
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put a little more effort into finding him before he can kill again. Which means it's task force time.
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Their version, maybe. So, here's something wild I just learned. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that in the
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1970s, homicide cases were worked by shift. So instead of, listen, instead of being assigned to a specific, like one
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homicide is assigned to a specific investigator, what they did was like whoever was on shift would work it and
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then like pass it off to the next guy when it was his turn. What? Dude, I know. Like no wonder this was a
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serial killer's heyday. My god. So inefficient. Like everyone knows like a tiny little piece of one case that
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just keeps getting like hot potatoed around to investigators. I know. Like it makes no sense. So
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literally no one has any idea what's going on, who has what case, what he's done, what still needs to be worked on.
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It is a hot mess that is especially messy when you have multiple cases that are connected. So, the higherups decide
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maybe we should assign this newest case and the stalled investigations to a dedicated team of homicide
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inspectors. Like, right. Great idea, actually. So, this isn't like a a task force like
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you're thinking where it's like multi- agency or whatever for this system. It's kind of a task
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force and they do get two of SFPD's finest. These guys have a track record second to
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none. And like listen, if this was a movie like Q slow-mo '7s title track where they like walk like head on into
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frame because the way that these guys are talked about, they are kind of legends in their own time. And they're
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fondly known as the Soul Brothers. So iconic. I know. Their names are Rota Guilford
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and Earl Sanders. And inspectors Guilford and Sanders are SFPD's first and second black homicide investigators.
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And it's hard to overstate just how radically they changed the course of the investigation. But first things first,
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they have to ID the most recent victim because I assume no ID on the body, right? Same as the others. But the
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victim, they find out, is a registered nurse. So his prints are on file with the state board of nursing. So somehow
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they get connected to those. And they find out he's 32-year-old Frederick Kappen. Like the others, Frederick was
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stabbed to death 16 times in total. the fatal wounds piercing his heart. Judging
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by the drag marks and the dried blood the coroner notes on the soles of his shoes, he went down fighting. Now, what
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they find out is Frederick was last seen alive at a gay bar the night before his
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body was discovered. Actually, the same one Klouse was last seen at this place called Bojangles. Do they ever find out
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where Gerald was last seen? Cuz I feel like that's the pattern here. The rest of them were all seen at like a bar or a
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nightclub. So, they're not sure where he last was. I think everyone's guess is that he was probably out on the town
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before his death, too, maybe. So, if this is the pattern, Guilford and Sanders decide to meet the gay community
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where they're at at the gay bars. Right now, these guys don't necessarily have the community's trust from day one,
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as you can imagine, but they're willing to work for it. And what do you know? A little respect and kindness goes a long
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way. And before long, they are hearing whispers of a rumor that has been making its way through the scene. Supposedly,
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there is a guy who likes to camp out at gay bars with a sketchbook in hand. And while everyone else makes merry around
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him, he quietly sketches the faces of other bar patrons. And word has it that this guy is like pretty good at what he
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does. Now, it doesn't seem like anyone is saying he did it or they saw him with the men or drawing the men or anything
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like that, but this guy has just been standing out for about as long as the murders have been happening. But before
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they can even begin to track down a name for this artist, it happens again. On June 4th, 1975, a man's badly
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decomposed body is discovered hidden in some bushes near the Lincoln Park Golf Course. Like the others, he's clothed,
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though his pants are unzipped and again, seemingly no ID. So, all the signs are there, and the case goes right to
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Guilford and Sanders. But this one's going to be different than all the rest. I mean, normally they're on a scene
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within hours of a murder, like things are fresh. But not this time. The coroner says that this man had been out
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there anywhere from 10 days to a month and badly decomposed might have been an understatement because Sergeant
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Cunningham told us that the remains are actually mummified, which basically throws their normal form of IDing the
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victim out the window. No usable prints. Somehow they do eventually ID him, though. He's Harold Goldberg, a
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66-year-old sailor and naturalized US citizen originally from Sweden. And then in July, another man is attacked, but he
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is alive when he stumbles into a local ER pleading for help. Now, dude is drenched in blood and he's saying that
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he's been stabbed. And though he does want immediate medical help, make no mistake, he does not want the police
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involved. Like does not want to file a report. He is adamant that he does not want a report filed. Like he will not
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cooperate if one is filed. Is he afraid of being outed? Mhm. He's a European diplomat and San
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Francisco is where he was stationed for his job. I actually don't know his name because that's never been released. So,
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I'm just going to refer to him as the diplomat, but they get his story nonetheless. I mean, again, he I don't
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know how they convince him, but they do. And his story is a doozy. He says that he was by himself in a diner called the
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truck stop. It's like 2:00 a.m. A nearby gay bar called The Rear End had just closed its doors and he noticed a guy
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sitting alone sketching animals on a napkin. And these sketches were pretty impressive. By total coincidence, the
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diplomat has some art training. So, they like strike up a little conversation about their shared hobby. And the guy
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doing the sketches was a young black guy, good-looking, total like artist vibes according to Ron Huberman. And the
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diplomat was intrigued when he mentioned that he was studying to be a cartoonist.
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So they're like chatting. They hit it off. And when the diplomat asks if he wanted to head back to his apartment,
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maybe for a night cap, whatever, the artist accepted the invite. So like, so far so good, right? But when they got
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there, things got real weird real fast. It started when the artist asked to use the bathroom. The diplomat was like,
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"Sure, no problem. So the artist goes in, but then the guy like wouldn't come out. Sergeant Cunningham told us that
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after so long, the diplomat was like knocking on the door. I mean, more than once, asking if he was okay. About 30
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minutes later, as the diplomat was standing with his back to the bathroom door, all of a sudden, it swings open,
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the artist growled something along the lines of, "You guys are all alike." and then he plunged a stake knife into the
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diplomat's back. Now, the diplomat started fighting back, but the artist managed to stab him six times before the
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knife broke off in his body. And thank God it did because only then did the artist run out the front door, allowing
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the diplomat to barely escape with his life. And his injuries are no joke. I mean, the poor guy is hospitalized for
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weeks. And this, by the way, is when their killer earns the nickname the doodler. Supposedly, Guilford and
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Sanders come up with it, although it's possible they heard it from the people in the community. So, the diplomat is
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recovering. And then, fast forward 2 weeks later, Guilford and Sanders learn that another man has just survived an
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attack by someone he'd taken home. And take a wild guess where that guy lives. same apartment building on the same
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floor as the diplomat. What? Yeah, they don't know each other, but I mean like they're so close they could
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borrow a cup of sugar. Yeah. This second attack isn't exactly the same as the diplomat. So this guy had
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been tied up possibly voluntarily when the guy that he brought home started beating the crap out of him. Thankfully,
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the attacker got spooked when neighbors heard screaming and started like pounding on the walls. And how do we
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know it was the same guy? Well, because the victim told police what he said as he started attacking him. All you guys
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are alike. Yep. But like the diplomat, this victim wants nothing to do with an investigation or an eventual
00:26:56
prosecution. Like he does not want to be outed. And though he also says his attacker was a black man in his early
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20s, Guilford and Sanders realize that he'd been pretty intoxicated and probably wouldn't be of much use with a
00:27:10
sketch artist. But they think the diplomat would be. Partly, Sergeant Cunningham told us, because he thinks he
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and his attacker were together for a while, partly because he was way less intoxicated, and partly because of his
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artistic training. So, they go to him and they promise to protect his identity, asking him to
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please just spend a few hours with their sketch artist. He is their only real shot at getting this guy before he
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strikes again. But every time they ask, his answer is no. No, no, no, no, no. And then suddenly he says fine. But
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that's all. Once they have their composite, stopping the guy is on them and they're going to have to do it
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without his help. Which like can you imagine like living in a world where like your own safety could be at risk,
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but like coming out and like just saying who you are is like scarier. It's more risky.
00:28:03
It's freaking terrifying. Guilford and Sanders jump at this proposal and once the composite sketch is released in
00:28:10
October, the tips start pouring in. The first big one is called in by an anonymous woman who recognizes the guy
00:28:17
in the sketch. She says he lives in the East Bay and his name is such and such. And I'm only being vague because I
00:28:24
couldn't let the name slip if I wanted to. It has never been released on or off the record. I mean, the one thing I will
00:28:30
say about this investigation is like they truly have like kept identities under wrap for decades. It's almost like
00:28:35
very impressive if I didn't want to know so bad. Now, what I do know is that it is apparently a common name. So,
00:28:42
initially the tip isn't super useful. Although, to be perfectly honest, I don't even think it reaches Guilford and
00:28:49
Sanders. Like, it just gets lost in the shuffle. I think so because the woman comes back
00:28:53
like it pisses her off because like by 10 days go by, she hasn't gotten contacted. She feels like nothing is
00:28:59
happening. So she's like, "My tip must not have been taken seriously." So she calls again mad. And this time she not
00:29:06
only gives his name, but she gives his address, his age, his freaking license plate number.
00:29:10
You know, not all heroes wear capes. Truly. So this second message does reach Guilford and Sanders, who put the guy
00:29:18
under immediate surveillance. They don't approach him just yet. Instead, they start putting together a profile, which
00:29:26
seems like the right move, I think. And here's where things get wild. Soon, another tip comes in about this same
00:29:35
guy. But your brain is going to explode when I tell you who calls this one in. I
00:29:39
mean, I I don't know the lady's name. I can't tell you who she is exactly, but I
00:29:43
can tell you her profession. She is a secretary at Highland Hospital in the East Bay. not for like a surgeon or
00:29:50
whatever, for a psychiatrist. If she's to be believed, her boss treats the guy that Guilford and Sanders have under
00:29:59
surveillance. And her boss treats him for issues relating to his inability to cope with his same-sex attractions. Oh,
00:30:06
and spoiler alert, he straight up confessed to the murders in his sessions with the doc, which like
00:30:15
what? I know. Three days later, that doctor calls in and he's like, "Yeah, so you know that thing my secretary said?"
00:30:21
It's completely true. My patient so- and so, whoever he is, is the killer? Everyone is calling the doodler. So,
00:30:28
he's not just saying that his patient confessed. He's saying that he believes that confession beyond a shadow of a
00:30:35
doubt. Like, this is your guy. I know this is your guy for a fact. I assume with him being called the
00:30:41
doodler, the public knows about the sketches, too. Yeah, they they do by this point.
00:30:45
And this guy is like a good artist, too, that they're calling in about. Yes. So, here's the thing. Outside of the
00:30:54
diplomats interactions with him where he said like, "Yes, he was." Answers on that are kind of hard to come by. Like,
00:31:00
I can't find a solid answer on like was this guy really a cartoonist? Was it like I don't know. Now, before long,
00:31:06
Guilford and Sanders decide it's time to confront this guy that they've been watching. And so in January of 1976,
00:31:14
they bring him in for questioning. He comes in voluntarily, doesn't even bring a lawyer, and while he denies being the
00:31:21
doodler, he doesn't deny everything. Guilford tells the San Francisco Chronicle, quote, he said he's reformed.
00:31:29
He said he'd had problems with his sexual identity since he was 13 and had homosexual experiences, had experimented
00:31:37
with it, but he said his sessions with the psychiatrist had cured him." End quote. Which sounds conversion therapy
00:31:46
to me, but like I could be wrong. Either way, this guy's description of himself couldn't fit the per profile more
00:31:54
closely, which is of someone who is quiet, intelligent, middle class, and absolutely drowning in self-loathing
00:32:03
over his attraction to men, which he probably acts on before lashing out violently with a kind of misdirected
00:32:10
self-hatred. And here's where things get really frustrating. Even though we have
00:32:15
survivors and even though they have a suspect, the survivors that they have won't cooperate to ID him as their
00:32:23
attacker. They even have found a third survivor by this point. But he's a super famous actor who, surprise, surprise
00:32:30
wants nothing to do with the case. And this guy wasn't actually physically attacked. Rather, he ended the
00:32:36
encounter, which was like a potential hookup, when a knife fell out of the guy's pocket. And are you saying that
00:32:43
they won't even like come in and ID the guy or they just won't cooperate if slash when it comes to testifying? I
00:32:50
know the diplomat at one point at least looks at a lineup. I don't know about the other guys. And when they finally
00:32:55
convince him to do that, he does pick their guy out as the doodler, but he still won't be caught dead in a
00:33:03
courtroom saying that that's the man he brought back to his apartment. And that's why this case solved in
00:33:11
everything but name as far as Guilford and Sanders are concerned goes cold ice cold for the next four decades. And it
00:33:20
seems that their suspect, if their suspect is their guy, gets like cold feet or whatever once he knows that the
00:33:28
cops are on to him because the Doodler killings in San Francisco just stop and they never resume again in all that
00:33:35
time. It wasn't until 2018 that Sergeant Cunningham picks the investigation back
00:33:41
up and started working it with another recently retired investigator working cold cases. This guy's name is Dan Det.
00:33:48
So, they have to go back and start from scratch because in the four decades that
00:33:51
the case sat untouched. The file, you know, got moved around. It got misplaced. Things got separated and
00:33:56
whatnot. So, the records they have are fragmented. They're incomplete. And I think Sergeant Cunningham almost views
00:34:03
this as a blessing and a curse like kind of thing because like they're almost forced to start from square one. And I
00:34:11
said blessing because starting from square one leads them to some surprising conclusions.
00:34:19
Take this. The number of dueler victims is pretty well settled by this point, right? There are five deceased victims
00:34:26
and three survivors. Eight people total. But they decide, you know what? we should look at all of the cold case
00:34:32
homicides of gay men from 74 and 75 eventually concluding that there was actually a ninth doodler victim. His
00:34:40
name was Warren Andrews. And at first glance, his case doesn't have much in common with the others. I mean, Warren
00:34:46
was found barely clinging to life on April 27th of 1975 at this cliff overlooking the ocean called Land's End.
00:34:55
But he wasn't stabbed like the others. He was beaten brutally with a rock and a tree branch and even though he was found
00:35:01
quickly, he was in terrible shape. He was in a coma for a couple of months and then eventually passed away.
00:35:07
So then what's the connection? I think mostly like who he was and the location where he was found. See, Warren
00:35:15
is thought to have been gay and L's End is another remote hookup spot. It's also
00:35:20
just a mile from where Harold Goldberg was found in a similar setting. And it's the cliffs that really get Sergeant
00:35:26
Cunningham's wheels spinning. It seems obvious to him that whatever happened there, it didn't go down the way the
00:35:32
killer wanted it to. It was especially messy. The victim was still alive when he was found, and the weapons the killer
00:35:39
used seemed improvised. Okay. Can you just put this a little bit in context for me? When Warren is
00:35:46
attacked in April of 75. Oh, so you have you have Gerald who was the first victim found on the beach in
00:35:53
the water. Then you have Jay, the second victim. Then Klouse is the third. Then there was that like almost 10-month
00:36:00
break where nothing happened. This attack on Warren was April of 75 and then May 75 was Frederick and June 75
00:36:08
was Harold. Got it. I wonder if it was after Harold because that's when he got the string of other victims that start
00:36:18
surviving. So the diplomat and the other guy who lived in his building. Yes, but
00:36:23
best I can tell the super famous actor guy was maybe in May. Although no one seems to like really know that for sure.
00:36:30
So So yeah, I don't know if his like MMO is changing or if you like usually you see the opposite. It
00:36:35
it's it's like deescalating almost. Yeah. Or he's just like I don't know if he's just like losing control and he
00:36:40
whatever it is. Anyways, they're thinking that looking at the scene where Warren was found, it wouldn't be hard to
00:36:47
imagine things going ary. Like what if the killer had intended to stab him like the others, but he somehow lost his
00:36:53
knife in a struggle or who knows? And Sergeant Cunningham told us it's easy to imagine the knife getting like knocked
00:36:59
over the cliff's edge, forcing him to like think on his feet. So Cunningham's getting his ducks in a row, right? Like
00:37:06
setting the record straight. And as he's getting things organized, him and his partner also find that there are some
00:37:12
items that can be sent out for testing. So they do that. Then they have the diplomats composite from all those years
00:37:19
ago. Age progressed. They release that to the public along with that weird 911 call that we played at the beginning of
00:37:26
the episode. All that comes out in February of 2019. They're hoping that someone is going to recognize that voice
00:37:33
cuz up until that point, they had not released the call. So why are they even doing all this? Like what exactly are
00:37:38
they looking for? Like there are a couple of possibilities. Like it could be I mean
00:37:43
at minimum a really important witness, but as Detective Cunningham told us, I mean he also very well could be the
00:37:49
killer, which would actually make a whole lot of sense in terms of how the caller even came across that body in the
00:37:56
dark on a deserted beach at 2:00 a.m. And Detective Cunningham wants to know the freaking answer. I mean, I haven't
00:38:03
mentioned this yet, but he has already interviewed our unnamed suspect person of interest. He did that back in 2018
00:38:11
cuz dude's still alive obviously and living in the East Bay now as an outgay man. But he told Sergeant Cunningham the
00:38:20
same thing he told Guilford and Sanders all those years ago. He's not the doodler. The end. Even though the guy is
00:38:27
a dead ringer for the age progressed composite. Now, DNA might end up doing the trick and tie him to the crimes.
00:38:36
That would be great, but they don't want to put all their eggs in one basket. I mean, who knows if they will even get a
00:38:41
usable profile from the evidence they sent off. So, they decide to think outside the box a little bit. Like, if
00:38:47
they can't use any of the survivors, they decide maybe they can go back to that psychiatrist and start there. Okay.
00:38:55
Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that. Like, he's saying this guy confessed to him. He believes the
00:39:00
confession. Like, dude, I don't run with that. I don't know why they couldn't use him
00:39:03
in 74. I don't know if it was like I don't even think Hippo was like a thing. And obviously, they're like coming to
00:39:08
police and telling telling him. I don't know. But now they want to start with the psychiatrist. Again, I don't know
00:39:13
that they're going to like use him in court necessarily, but they're like, "It's a good jumping off point.
00:39:17
Let's go to him." Except there's a huge problem. Of course there is. From their files, the only name they can
00:39:23
find for the psychiatrist is a note like scratched by Guilford that says Dr. priest psych equals C Highland Hospital.
00:39:33
And for the life of them, they cannot find any record of there being a doctor priest who practiced psychiatry at
00:39:40
Highland Hospital in the '7s. So, it's like this doctor never even existed. I mean,
00:39:48
TBD Records in the 70s plus like maybe he's already passed away. I mean, how old was he back then? Here's the thing,
00:39:55
though. It's not like they can't just find someone currently working there in 2019 when they go looking.
00:40:01
Like the hospital has no record of this guy at all, which I don't know. It's like wild to
00:40:07
me. And they can't just like get a list of all the old psych docs and just like go
00:40:12
line by line. Was there a chance the name was wrong? Like was it like a visiting doctor, like a temp, a sub?
00:40:19
They have a lower lift idea first that also wouldn't require a warrant, right? So,
00:40:24
they're going to ask the public for help. Oh. At the beginning of 2019, SFPD announces
00:40:29
a $100,000 reward for information leading to the Doodler's arrest. And they also asked
00:40:35
the public for their help in locating this elusive Dr. Priest. Spoiler alert though, no dice. But it's
00:40:43
not a dead end altogether. See, over the years, Cunningham and Det worked handinhand with a reporter from the San
00:40:50
Francisco Chronicle. And in 2021, this reporter and his PI think that they might have solved the puzzle of Dr.
00:40:57
Priest. They come across the name of a Dr. Howard Priest, P R E E C, who practiced psychiatry at Highland
00:41:07
Hospital in the 70s. And though Dr. Priest passed away in 2005, his daughter tells them, "Yeah, this Doodler guy is
00:41:15
exactly the sort of patient her dad would have treated. Sadly, she doesn't have any of his old records anymore, nor
00:41:24
does she know where they could be, if they even still exist. Now, Cunningham eventually asks a court to order
00:41:32
Highland Hospital to release Dr. Priest's records from way back when, but the judge denies the request, citing the
00:41:39
fact that there is no evidence that the patient still poses a threat to the public. says there's no indication that
00:41:46
he's posed a threat since 1976, which like again I don't know the rules around this, but to me it is wild.
00:41:55
Like I get maybe not a threat to the public, but do we not care about justice for his victim?
00:42:01
That's what I'm saying. Like I don't know what rule we're following here. Those are like two different things I
00:42:04
understand, but let's address at least one of them. Okay. But also, what if everyone's
00:42:10
wrong? What if he has posed a threat since 1976? See, one of the things Cunningham learns
00:42:17
about his guy is that he actually skipped town way back in 76 and spent some time on the road, moving from place
00:42:24
to place. So, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Cunningham researches whether there were any other
00:42:30
similar crimes in the years after 76 anywhere else. And wouldn't you know it, there were. Now, it's not totally clear,
00:42:39
but Cunningham said that he is in touch with various other law enforcement entities about it. And he's also
00:42:45
submitted more items for forensic testing, though far no one has been able to isolate a profile other than the
00:42:54
victims, like whatever victim was related to that item. And it's mostly because their deaths were just like so
00:43:00
bloody. But he emphasized to our reporter that he is still got high hopes on the DNA front. And there's one more
00:43:08
conclusion that Cunningham has come to about this case that I think is wild. He's not convinced that the doodler
00:43:14
actually did so much doodling. Ashley, we're we're calling him the doodler. I know. As far as he's concerned, that
00:43:22
trope is more lore than fact, springing from the diplomat story about his attacker sketching animals and then it
00:43:29
just kind of like took on a life of its own. And listen, I don't know where I kind of fall on this because Guilford
00:43:36
and Sanders certainly thought the doodling angle was accurate. And Ron Hooperman, like Daddy Cop working the
00:43:42
case for the DA's office, with his own deep ties to the gay community, he remains convinced of it to this day. Ron
00:43:48
told us that he talked to multiple people with firsthand accounts of this guy sketching men in bars and using the
00:43:54
sketches to hit on them. And he also told us that in the seven or eight years since the case has been reopened, he
00:43:59
hasn't been contacted, which I thought was kind of surprising. Like he was he was someone who was boots on the ground
00:44:05
at the time and was part of the community being targeted. So I don't know quite what to make of that.
00:44:11
But whether the doodler actually did all that much doodling, the fact remains that six men were brutally slain in 1974
00:44:19
and 75. And that's six that we know of. Mhm. There is a strong person of interest in
00:44:25
this case and the families of the victims still haven't received justice. These murders had ripple effects of a
00:44:32
magnitude that is hard to comprehend. I mean, take Jay's family for instance. His murder caused one of his sisters to
00:44:38
have a full-blown psychotic break. She was convinced that his death had unleashed evil spirits somehow. And just
00:44:45
3 months later, she attacked their mother and their other sister, Melissa. And their mother was killed and
00:44:50
dismembered. and Melissa just barely survived. I mean, one could even say that they're
00:44:56
like the second wave of victims of the doodler, you know? I I mean, I think so. That's what I said
00:45:02
when you say he's not like a threat to anyone. Like, it's like he's not a threat to the
00:45:07
community that he was a threat to at the time. But what he did like it still continues.
00:45:11
Yeah. And I think I want to close out with a quote from Frederick Kapp's niece. Frederick was a talented artist and a
00:45:18
dedicated nurse, providing care to his community day in and day out. He was also a war hero, having saved the lives
00:45:24
of four Marines in Vietnam. And his niece said in a podcast series by the San Francisco Chronicle, quote, "I just
00:45:32
want my uncle to be remembered for the good he did and not to be remembered for the circumstances under which he was
00:45:38
killed. He deserves that. I think all of the victims deserve that. It's been 50 years since the Doodler murders and time
00:45:47
for justice is running out. The San Francisco Police Department is still offering that reward which now has been
00:45:53
raised to $250,000. It's for anyone who can help them solve this case once and for all. So, if
00:46:00
that's you, you can call their 24-hour tip line at 415-575444 or you can text them at tip411
00:46:10
and you can remain anonymous. For all the source material for this episode, you can go to crimejunkiepodcast.com
00:46:16
and you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunk podcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new
00:46:21
episode. [Music]