This serial murder case has been cold for more than 40 years. Now police might have a suspect - CNN
"A series of grisly killings
The first of the Doodler's alleged victims to be found was Gerald Cavanagh, a 50-year-old who had worked in a mattress factory. According to the coroner's report, he never married. Cavanagh's body was found early one January morning in 1974, lying at the water's edge on Ocean Beach where Golden Gate Park meets the Pacific. The coroner states that Cavanagh's corpse was, "Lying on the sand, in a supine position. ... There were multiple stab wounds. ... There was an apparent defense wound on the left little finger." Cavanagh had been stabbed 16 times.
"I know the case. I remember the case," says Cunningham, who in January began wading through the Doodler case files, cross-referencing details with the scant media coverage from the time.
There are four other corpses on Cunningham's list. Joseph Stevens, a 27-year-old drag queen, was the next to die. His body was found by a dog walker in Golden Gate Park early one morning in June 1974. Stevens had been stabbed five times. According to the coroner's report, "Approximately 10 feet west of the deceased's feet was a large disturbed area of brush, with a pool of blood. There were drag marks from this point to where the deceased was found, indicating that an
He's blamed for 12 killings, 45 rapes - and authorities don't know who he is
Less than two weeks later, another early morning walker found another body on Ocean Beach: Claus Christmann, a 31-year-old German. According to the coroner, "The deceased's pants were unzipped and open." The report details multiple stab wounds on Christmann's neck and shoulders, "In a manner which seemed as though the assailant had attempted to decapitate the deceased."
A police bulletin released regarding those first three killings reads, in part: "Victims one and two have homosexual propensities and due to underclothing and makeup in victim number three's pocket he also may have the same propensities." Police said the third victim, Claus Christmann, was wearing "orange bikini shorts" at the time of his death. According to the coroner, he was married.
In the summer of 1975 two more bodies were found. Frederick Capin, a registered nurse in his early 30s, was found stabbed to death beside the highway that runs parallel to Ocean Beach. The coroner notes, "There was dried blood smeared on the soles of both shoes, on the hands, about the face and upper torso, anterior, lateral and posterior." Capin was wearing a corduroy jacket and a striped "Picasso" shirt when he died.
A month later, the fifth and final corpse was found in bushes near the 16th tee of the Lincoln Park Golf Course, a little to the northeast of Ocean Beach. "Deceased had no underpants and his blue pants were unzipped," wrote the coroner. The dead man was Harald Gullberg, a 67-year-old Swedish sailor.
Five men had been found dead within 4 miles of each other, all within 18 months. "There was fear among gay men," says Randy Alfred, news editor at The Sentinel, a gay newspaper. "Particularly among men who were attracted maybe to the young hustler types."
The search for the killer
A few months after Gullberg's death, the SFPD released the artist's sketch and a description of the suspect. Inspector Rotea Gilford, the lead investigator on the case, told The Sentinel that the suspect "often sits in bars doodling caricatures and cartoons on napkins." Sometimes referred to as the Black Doodler, he was described at the time as African-American, between 19 and 22 years old, slender, a little shy of 6 feet, and frequently wore "a Navy-type watch cap."