Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Scorecard Killer” Pt. 2: Randy Steven Kraft

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

We are thrilled to bring you a brand new episode of Serial Killers today and for the foreseeable future. We thank you for your patience during this unprecedented time. For more than a decade, Randy Steven Kraft preyed upon vulnerable young Californian men—torturing, dismembering, and murdering dozens. His killings were made all the worse by the blasé approach authorities took to his case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Watch only on Prime. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, rape, torture, and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. In the pre-dawn hours of March 29, 1975, teenagers Keith Cronwell and Kent May sped down the freeway in a shiny new Mustang. Their bleach blonde acquaintance, Randy Kraft, was behind the wheel. As they drove, Kraft offered the excited teens a six-pack of beer, and a handful of pills.

The boys happily washed several pills down. Within minutes, their buzz turned into a pleasant lightness, like floating on air. But after a few minutes of floating, the boy's bodies turned catatonic. Kent sank into the back seat, unable to talk or prop himself up. He faded into unconsciousness,

a sense of dread persisting through the darkness. The next thing he knew, Kent was being pushed out of the car onto the pavement of the Long Beach Pool Hall parking lot. His friends rushed over to help, wondering where he'd been the last few hours. As the Mustangs sped away, they caught a glimpse of a seemingly unconscious Keith Cratwell, resting his head on the driver's shoulder. The friends tried to give chase, but the car quickly disappeared around a corner. Later that day, Kent May woke up with no recollection of that morning,

unaware of how lucky he'd been. His best friend Keith would not survive his encounter with Randy Stephen Kraft, the scorecard killer. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is serial killers, a podcast original. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we'll finish our look into Randy Stephen Kraft, the scorecard killer. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson.

Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Parcast originals for free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To stream serial killers for free on Spotify, just open the app and type Serial Killers in the search bar. At Parcast, we're grateful for you, our listeners. You along us to do what we love. Let us know how we're doing. Reach out on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. Last week, we covered Randy Stephen Kraft's early days, from model student to beloved hedonist in the Orange County gay bar scene, where he found his first victims. This week, we'll dive into the height of Kraft's killing spree through the 1970s and into early 80s, and the mistake that ultimately brought his 12 years of murder, torture, and mutilation to an end. In 1973, 28-year-old Randy Kraft acquired his. teaching credentials at Long Beach State in California. That same year, he got a teaching assistant job

and was well on his way to becoming a full-time teacher. To the outside world, everything in his life was on track. However, his personal life wasn't going as well. Kraft had chronic health problems, namely severe headaches and depression. It was also during this time that his longtime partner, Jeff Graves, grew distant. Kraft didn't feel like he had anyone to turn to about these problems, as he also felt disconnected from his family. They disapproved of his sexuality. And so to find solace, he gave in to his darkest impulses, murder. Kraft claimed three victims in a matter of months, Joseph Duquette, Edward Daniel Moore, and John Doe 16, who Kraft called Wilmington on his scorecard. When police consulted with UC Irvine psychologist Dr. Mansell-Pattison,

He warned the investigators that the sadistic killer showed no remorse for his actions. Therefore, until he was caught, he would continue to kill unabated. Criminologist Scott Bonn wrote about why many serial killers continue their cycle of violence. He explained, serial killers gain valuable experience and confidence with each new successful murder. Along the way, they perfect all of their skills and techniques while minimizing problems and avoiding critical mistakes. In other words, serial killers get better and better at the business of murder with experience. As they continue to operate and avoid capture, serial killers become increasingly emboldened and empowered.

They relish their ability to kill and avoid detection and may come to believe they will never be apprehended. Indeed, having successfully gotten away with three murders, Kraft only escalated his crimes. On Easter weekend, 1973, Kraft ventured to the pike, a run-down amusement park on the Long Beach waterfront. The place was known to be crawling with petty thieves, seedy carnival folk, and sex workers. It's likely that's where he found his next victim, an unidentified man who will call Nick. Nick was a sex worker in the Long Beach area. Kraft would have had no trouble luring him into his car. It's unclear where the two went.

likely a place Kraft had previously scouted so his sinister plans would go uninterrupted. Once there, he bound Nick and subjected him to horrendous torture. Please be advised the following descriptions are graphic. After strangling and sexually assaulting Nick, Kraft found this wasn't enough to satisfy his sadistic urges. Kraft cut off Nick's genitals while he still clung to life. Once Nick finally died, Kraft proceeded with... with his usual disposal of his victims, shoving his body from a moving vehicle. Orange County investigator George Troop was still working to identify Kraft's second victim

when Nick's body turned up in Huntington Beach. At 1.30 a.m. Easter Sunday, authorities arrived at an intersection locals had dubbed airplane Hill. Marks on the body suggested it was thrown from a vehicle going at least 50 miles per hour. He had no wallet, ID, or anything that could help identify him. When medical examiners arrived, they discovered the 18-year-old had been castrated. Police considered this wave of fatalities, gay killings. So they sent out a flyer to local gay bars, hoping someone could offer an ID.

Like in February's John Doe 16 case, gay bar clientele recognized the victim as a local sex worker. The police would never get a full name or a lead on potential. potential suspects. Meanwhile, Kraft remained off the police's radar. As Kraft's crimes escalated in 1973, his professional life flourished. He found a job as a teaching assistant, as well as additional work as a dispatcher at Aztec Aircraft. He impressed his superiors and was quickly promoted to run the office computer, where he taught himself how to handle the payroll and other data processing tasks. Kraft finally felt as intellect stimulated by these new personal computers. After years without direction, he had finally

found a career he was passionate for. Although Kraft was on track to a fulfilling and well-paid job, life at home remained tumultuous. Now nearing 30, he wanted to put an end to the partying and promiscuity and finally settled down. Unfortunately, his partner, Jeff Graves, with whom he had an open relationship, wasn't ready for that. Instead, he continued to do more of what sent Kraft into bouts of rage, one-night stands, and days-long absences. That April, Kraft's anger led him to unleash his most depraved urges yet. He dragged another unidentified young man into his nightmarish fantasies. Kraft must have first bound and raped the man, per his MO. He then moved on to viciously biting the victim's nipples and genitals.

The man squirmed and tried to turn away, tried to shut his eyes to the horror. But Kraft wanted him to look. In a moment of disturbed inspiration, Kraft cut off the young man's eyelids. The victim was forced to watch his own castration, but Kraft didn't stop there. During the course of the night,

he separated all of the young man's limbs and his head from his torso. Randy Kraft had reached a new level of brutality, but the worst was yet to come. After this, more bodies appear throughout Southern California. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptitide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet

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The first half of 1973 was Randy Kraft's most prolific killing period yet. During these months, he committed four murders, and as the 28-year-old's personal life flailed, his attacks grew more frequent and more gruesome. Randy Kraft seemed to have a type. His three most recent John Doe's were all attractive young men. However, Kraft mutilated their bodies, robbing them of their beauty, especially his latest victim, who would only be known as John Doe 52. Kraft's actions might be attributed to erotaphonophilia, which the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders defines as

murder associated with sexual sadism. The DSM explains that errataphanophiles have extreme violent fantasies and typically kill their victims during sex and or mutilate their victim's sexual organs. In addition, such killers tend to choose their victims on the basis of sexual attractiveness, although there might be one particular physical attribute that's sexualized by the killer. This is referred to as an erotaphonophilia's ideal victim type. John Doe 52 must have fit Kraft's ideal victim type better than any of the previous young men. He suffered the most vicious attack Kraft had ever unleashed on anyone. In early May of 1973, police received reports of a severed head found behind a Long Beach supermarket. Not long after, the arms, torso, and right leg were located in a trash bag on the side of the road in nearby Sanp.

The other leg was dumped behind a bar in Sunset Beach. The hands were never found. Examiners tried to rebuild the victim's body as best they could, but it was too far gone. The body parts had completely bled out and slipped into quick decomposition. The only clues that linked John Doe 52 to the previous bodies were the faint wire marks left around the ankles. Orange County Detective George Troop and his team, perhaps blinded by their on their many victims homosexuality refused to see the signs of a serial killer at work. They maintained that these men were all victims of separate one-night stands gone wrong,

a symptom of their high-risk lifestyle. They even cited BDSM play getting out of hand as a possible cause of death, but the next victim would challenge that theory. In the summer of 73, 20-year-old Ronnie Weeb, had taken on a girlfriend during a separation from his wife. He liked having his old bachelor life back. He spent his time dancing with his girlfriend and drinking in the local bars. In the early hours of Saturday, July 28th, Weeb left a sports bar in Los Alamitos north of Orange County.

He discovered his car had a flat tire, but friendly, Randy Kraft offered to give him a lift home. Craft's cool surfer facade and flashy muscle car quickly disarmed. Weeb, so he jumped on to the passenger seat. In the hours that followed, a brutal attack on the young man unfolded. His wrists and ankles were bound by wire. He bore teeth marks on his torso and genitals, likely inflicted while he was alive. Kraft finally put an end to Weeb's suffering, with fatal blows to the head. When police got the call two days later, they discovered that not only did their latest

John Doe bear the same signs of torture, as Edward Daniel Moore, down to the sock, stuffed into his rectum. He was also dumped on the same freeway on-ramp in Seal Beach. This time, the body didn't remain a John Doe for long. Ronnie Weeb's sister grew worried when her brother failed to return home. She eventually tracked him to his last known whereabouts, the sports bar in Los Alamitos. There she found Weeb's abandoned car

and quickly notified authorities of her brother's disappearance. When authorities finally I don't know. identified the body as Ronnie Weeb of Fullerton, their belief that the killings were limited to those in the gay community was shattered. Weeb wasn't only married. He also had a girlfriend. The team thought it unlikely that he was gay. They suddenly realized that the killer's victim type had widened in scope. He wasn't just picking up sex workers. Any naive young man could fall prey to Kraft's disarming charm. In the months following Ronnie Weeb's death, Kraft seemingly took a break from his murderous activities. Instead, his work at Aztec aircraft, and his new fascination with learning everything he could about computers, took up most of his time. But after a five-month lull in body dumpings,

Kraft managed to get in one last victim before the end of the year. In late December, 23-year-old Vincent Cruz messed us, an art student at Long Beach State, told his roommate he was heading to the mountains to do some landscape drawings. He grabbed his sketchpad and pencils and left the apartment. It's unknown how he came across Randy Kraft that day. It's possible he tried to hitchhike to the mountains and Kraft offered him a ride. Mestis had also occasionally engaged in sex work by the Long Beach waterfront, a place Kraft was known to cruising.

Whatever the case, Mestis' decision to travel with Kraft was one of the last he ever made. Three days later, on December 29, 1973, a group of hikers in the San Bernardino Mountains stumbled onto Vincent Mestis' body at the bottom of a ravine. When authorities arrived, they were welcomed by another grisly scene. Although the body had been redressed, bloodstained seeped through the clothes. The most immediate sign of torture was the absence of his hands, as plastic sandwich bags were tied around the bloody stumps. Like with previous jauntos, there were bite marks all over the body and genitalia.

Craft's gruesome signature. By 1974, various police departments had tried to solve the seven roadside killings of the previous two years, but they had no leads. After interviewing dozens of witnesses, cataloging endless pieces of evidence, and putting possible suspects through polygraph tests, they were no closer to solving the murders than when they first started. it. Kraft's reign of terror was allowed to continue. In June of 1974, 29-year-old Kraft came out of a five-month-long hibernation when he spotted a young man in Western Boots trying to hitch a ride. After a short stay in

Southern California, Malcolm Little, a 20-year-old unemployed trucker, had grown disillusioned with the place. He was determined to get back home to Alabama. He considered himself lucky when the The Mustang pulled over and offered to give him a lift. Kraft couldn't resist pouncing on the young country boy. Kraft told Little he was also headed east toward the California desert. For the first couple of hours, Kraft gave no sign that he was lying. But somewhere along the dusty and desolate road, mild-mannered craft turned on Little. Somewhere near the Salton Sea in the sparsely populated Imperial County, Kraft managed to overpower

and bind his passenger. He likely raped Little before emasculating the young man. When police found Malcolm Little on June 2, 1974, they didn't immediately connect him with the string of murders that had occurred miles away in Orange County. The connection was made all the more difficult to recognize because of how Kraft decided to dispose of Little's body. Rather than dump Little from his moving car,

Kraft had propped the corpse up on a mesquite. tree for all to see. His legs were spread to show his missing genitals, and in Kraft's final act of savagery, he sodomized Little with a mesquite branch. Malcolm Little was proof that Kraft escalated his torture with each victim. Each kill became an exploration into new levels of brutality. According to Dr. Catherine Ramsland, Professor of Forensic Psychology and author of the forensic psychology of criminal minds. Signature analysis has not been subjected to many systematic studies, and so a myth has arisen that signatures always present in the same way. In fact, as many as 50 percent of offenders have admitted that they experiment with their rituals. A primal

compulsion might drive them, but different victims and different situations present new opportunities to tinker. Randy Kraft was more preoccupied with testing those. limits of his victims than sticking to a so-called signature. Little's murder also saw Kraft try something completely new, posing the body rather than carelessly pushing it out of a moving car. Perhaps his only true signature was savagery. Nevertheless, like those before him, Malcolm Little became another entry on Randy Kraft's scorecard. It simply read Teen Trucker. Less than three weeks after the discovery of Malcolm Little's body, Kraft was back in familiar territory looking for his favorite type of prey, a marine.

On the evening of June 20, 1974, he found 18-year-old Roger E. Dickerson in one of the bars around the Camp Pendleton Base. Friends recalled last seeing Dickerson in a bar in San Clemente with plans to hitchhike to Los Angeles for the weekend. That's when he met Randy Kraft, who offered. a ride, conversation, and a few beers, a no-brainer for Dickerson. Unbeknownst to him, the beer had enough sedatives mixed in to put down a horse. His body was found on June 22nd in Laguna Beach. The marks of torture on the corpse no longer surprised Orange County detectives, nor the spree that

would follow. By the end of 1974, Kraft added four more unidentified victims to his scorecard. In a matter of two years, he had killed nine people. The onslaught of young men's bodies turning up all over the Southland showed no signs of stopping. Authorities described the killer as like nothing they had ever seen before. This man made the most notorious murderers of the time, like the Manson clan, look tame in comparison. By mid-January, 1975, another victim was found. Detective George Troop acknowledged his office was out of its depth. On the morning of January 24, 1975, a task force was created to bring an end to the menace that had gripped Southern California. The group included sheriffs from

departments in San Bernardino and Imperial counties, in addition to neighboring police departments. They were joined by a special investigator from the state and FBI agent Howard Tetan from Quantico's multiple murder investigative unit. Agent Tedden opened the meeting with an analysis of a new breed of criminal, which the FBI's behavioral sciences unit suspected was growing across the nation. Although the term serial killer wasn't commonly used yet, he described their man as something close to it, a mass murderer. This type of killer was, quote, a methodical and cunning individual, as demonstrated in the perpetration of his crime. He's fully cognizant of the criminality of his act and its impact on society, and it is for this reason that he commits the crime. He's fully cognizant of the

crime. However, 30-year-old Randy Kraft wasn't as methodical and careful about approaching his victims as the FBI would have liked to believe. Kraft had grown complacent after successfully leading a double life for the past four years. No one, not even his boyfriend Jeff Graves, suspected the nascent computer programmer had darker tendencies beneath his mild-mannered exterior. Criminologist Scott Bonn explained that the longer a killer goes undetected, the more outlandish their behavior might become. He wrote, prolific serial killers who go undetected for long periods of time

may begin to take shortcuts and become reckless or even careless in their work. For Randy Kraft, that meant changing his MO. The next time he hunted, he selected two victims. On March 29, 1975, Kraft was at Ripples, a popular Long Beach gay bar, when he spotted two teens at a pool hall across the street. When he approached Keith Crodwell and Kent May in the pool hall parking lot,

they were immediately suspicious. But Kraft was able to set the boys at ease after chatting with them for a few minutes. They were impressed by his muscle car. Eventually, the bored teens hopped in the stranger's Mustang and down the beer and valium pills that he provided. As they drove around the Long Beach streets, the boys started to black out. out from the booze and pills. Kraft circled back to the pool hall parking lot where they'd met

and pushed a semi-conscious Kent May out of the car. Frank and Terry Ditmar, Keith Crotwell's friends, saw a bleach blonde man drive away with a sleeping Crotwell. Terry remembered getting a good look at the BDI driver, who, unlike his passengers, seemed completely sober. It struck Terry as strange, but his attention was soon drawn to a dazed Kent May struggling to walk. The Dittmar brothers didn't realize the danger Cratwell was in until the Mustang sped away. Sometime before sunrise, Kraft incapacitated Cratwell before subjecting him to his regime of rape, torture, and mutilation.

Once again, his sadistic urges drove him to butcher the teen's body, removing his hands and head. After he disposed of Crotwell, Kraft listed him as parking lot on his now lengthy scorecard. Weeks later, on May 8, 1975, Keith Crotwell's severed and decomposing head was found in the Long Beach Marina. The rest of him wouldn't be discovered until October. Kent May and the boy's friends were convinced the guy in the Mustang was involved in Crockwell's death. They reported what they knew to police, but also took more. matters into their own hands. Over the course of five days, they scoured the city block by block

until they found the black and white Mustang parked outside an apartment complex in Belmont Shore. Long Beach detectives took over from there. They ran the car's license plates and got a name, Randy Stephen Kraft. The detective showed up at Kraft's door asking questions about the night Keith Crotwell was murdered. For the first time ever, Kraft was struck with fear. The police were onto him. After this, Randy Stephen Kraft becomes a true suspect. Now back to the story. In May of 1975, 30-year-old Randy Kraft was shaken by a visit from Long Beach detectives. They grilled him about the March death of 19-year-old Keith Cronwell, the latest of Kraft's 12 victims. He denied ever meeting this.

A lie the cops saw right through. They invited the nervous Kraft to visit them at the station for a more formal interview, and Kraft agreed to join them. At the time, he thought this was his best move. During his May 19th interview, Kraft went back on his initial story. He admitted to meeting Crotwell and his younger friend Kent May outside the pool hall. However, he claimed that they were the ones who approached him, asking for a beer. That led to their short drive.

around Long Beach, after which May grew bored and asked Kraft to take him back to the pool hall parking lot. He then told detectives that Cratwell wasn't ready to go home, so they took a longer drive to Southern Orange County, but the car got stuck in a loose patch of dirt. According to Kraft, around 2 a.m., he left Crotwell with the car as he walked back to a diner looking for a phone to call his boyfriend Jeff Graves, my other half, he told investigators. He managed to wake a sleeping Jeff and had to make the long drive back to the rural El Toro freeway exit. When Kraft and Jeff got back to the car, Crotwell was gone. The detectives drove down to the El Toro exit, looking to see if Kraft's story checked out. They managed to find the road with loose dirt, so that part of

the story seemed true. They also spoke with Jeff Graves, who corroborated his boyfriend's story. They even hooked Jeff up to a polygraph test, which he passed. Despite this, the cops had a gut feeling that Randy Kraft was responsible for Keith Cretwell's death. They believed there was enough circumstantial evidence to charge him for murder. But Long Beach prosecutors disagreed. The prosecutors believed they would never have a convincing case without discovering Crodwell's entire body. In the end, the prosecutor's office declared Crockwell had died from an accidental drowning after he had stumbled into the ocean inebriated.

They believed sea creatures had eaten away at his body until his head became detached and floated onto shore. With this absurd and unfounded explanation, Kraft was off the hook for murder once more. Kraft might have evaded justice that spring, but the ordeal had a negative ripple effect on other aspects of his life. The stress brought back more crippling indigestion and insomnia that had plagued him years before. Then in June of 1975, he spent five days in county jail after being picked up in a vice sweep. He was charged with lewd conduct for loitering in a known cruising spot. Later that same month, he was laid off from his job at the struggling Aztec aircraft. To top things off, that same summer, Jeff Graves ended their years-long relationship.

Jeff wasn't happy about being put through polygraph tests. when Kraft was suspected of murder. He moved out, leaving an unemployed and broken-hearted craft on his own. Although Kraft now had more free time than ever and an apartment all to himself, his murder sprees quieted down for most of 1975. Instead, he focused on getting his life back on track. By the end of the year, he found work again as a programming consultant and met his next boyfriend, 19-year-old,

Jeff Seelig. With his outward life back on track, his inward homicidal tendencies returned. On New Year's Eve, 1975, Kraft was expected at his parents' home for the annual family party. One of his nieces recalled her favorite uncle arriving around 10 p.m. that night, looking especially lively. Not at all like someone who had just gotten off work. She was right. Kraft had been in Southern Orange County where he picked up 22-year-old Mark Howard Hall. He drugged Mark with Valium and took him into the wilderness area that borders San Diego County. Under the cover of darkness, Kraft raped Hall. He then tormented the young man with a car cigarette lighter, pressing it into his genitals, face, and eyes. Another first for the seasoned killer.

Once Kraft decided he was done, he stuffed Hall's throat with dirt, ensuring an agonizing death as the man slowly choked. Shortly after, like the flip of a switch, Kraft arrived at his family party. He pretended to be the doting brother and loving uncle ready to play board games into the new year. 1976 would see more of that duplicity. Craft moved in with his new boyfriend, Jeff Seelig, and quickly fell into the monogamous relationship he always wanted with graves. All the while, Kraft spent his free time in 1976, dumping bodies on the rural Ortega Highway. Even as his body count mounted, he continued to evade frustrated authorities. Their desperation even led them to consult with a psychic for one of the murders, but she was of no help. Then, in July of 1977, investigators finally got a break in

the case. A man claiming to be behind dozens of roadside murders, 37-year-old Patrick Kearney, turned himself into the police. He gave names and descriptions that proved he was indeed responsible for the killing, mutilation, and freeway drops of several young men. Local newspaper headlines cheered the incarceration of the sadistic killer. Gay communities relaxed and hitchhikers became less wary. However, as investigators continued to interview Kearney, they realized he was no torturer.

Kearney dismembered his victims post-mortem and never stuffed their orifices with socks or stakes. Instead, more than one mass murderer had been terrorizing Southern California. Although Patrick Kearney was behind bars, 1978 saw five more slayings as crass scorecard grew. By the end of the year, Southland Police had a record number of unsolved murders. While 1979 brought more frustration to police, it was a good year for Randy Kraft. He and his boyfriend were both making enough income to buy a home. Kraft's love for computers led to more steady programming work, and it eventually gained him the respect of his family,

although they still disapproved of his sexuality. Meanwhile, the task force that had formed four years earlier acknowledged that the worst murderer remained at long. In 1979, more than a dozen bodies of young men turned up by the side of L.A. and Orange County freeways. At the same time, gay bars were flooded with a steady stream of police bulletins asking for help in identifying their latest John Doe, many of them anonymous sex workers. According to Dr. Deborah Sherman Coughlin, a criminal profiler and expert on serial crimes, Kraft's choice of victims is what allowed him to roam free for so long. Smart killers target victims who are less likely to draw attention. Some have figured

out that it's easier to target a minority. In Kraft's case, this minority was gay men. Dr. Sherman Cofflin continues by asserting that police don't dedicate as much energy into solving crimes committed against people from marginalized groups. Killers who study these things have wised up and realize that if they target these groups, then they're less likely to be caught. They abduct and kill without fear of someone watching or reporting. By 1980, 35-year-old Randy Kraft had become a high-earning, jet-setting professional, a yuppie. His job provided him with subordinates, an expense account, and constant business travel. This offered him the chance to widen the scope of his attacks. Between 1980 and In 1982, Kraft traveled four times to the Portland, Oregon area as part of his consulting job.

At the end of each visit, he left behind a mutilated young man by the side of the road. The sporadic attacks led Oregon police to correctly assume they had an out-of-state killer on their hands. Similarly, after a work trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in December of 1982, two bodies appeared in a field bearing signs of Kraft's signature torture. All the while, Kraft's personal life continued to appear normal. But during that time, Randy Kraft and Jeff Seelig had opposite work schedules and sometimes went days without actually seeing each other. It took a toll on their relationship. They began couples therapy to work through the rough patch. Their therapist noted Kraft struggles with anger and guilt. These issues were worrying, but the therapist believed he was very capable

of working through these issues to improve his life. Therapy seemed to smooth out the couple's relationship, but outside of the home, 38-year-old Kraft remained an active killer. Police suspect his kill count had reached the dozens by spring 1983. He likely felt invincible, getting away with murder for so long. Perhaps Kraft was getting bored with that feeling. In searching for a new thrill, he grew reckless.

In the pre-dawn hours of May 14, 1983, California Highway Patrol pulled over a brown Toyota swerving on the freeway. Officer Sterling and his superior Sergeant Howard found a glassy-eyed Randy Kraft behind the wheel. Sergeant Howard also saw a man in the passenger seat, 25-year-old Marine Terry Gambrell. Howard tapped on the window, but Gambrell was out cold. Howard then opened the passenger door to a disturbing sight. Gambrell's hands were bound with laces.

His pants were pulled down, leaving his genitals exposed. His lap was also wet, like he had recently emptied his bladder. Most disturbingly, the Marine wasn't breathing. From the other side of the car, Kraft calmly turned to Sergeant Howard and asked, How's my friend doing? Craft's indifference made Howard's blood run cold. After years of patrolling the highway and coming across dozens of mutilated bodies, the officers knew they had encountered the elusive freeway stalker, fresh from his latest kill.

Hours later, Randy Kraft was booked into jail. Detective searched his vehicle and found 47 photographs of nude and unconscious young men hidden under the car's floor mat. Along with the pictures was his handwritten, score. with cryptic names like Hollywood Bus or Westminster Date. Police quickly link the photos and scorecard to unsolved murders from the past 12 years. He was suspected of killing 67 men total. Despite the overwhelming evidence, Randy Kraft claimed that he was innocent. For years, he dragged on an expensive legal battle with Orange County prosecutors

until finally on November 29th, 19th, 49, 44-year-old Randy Stephen Kraft was convicted of 16 murders and sentenced to death. His demented scorecard game was finally brought to an end. As of March 2020, Kraft remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back next week with a new episode. For more information on Randy Stephen Craft, amongst the... many sources we used, we found Angel of Darkness, the true story of Randy Kraft, and the most

heinous murder spree of the century by Dennis McDougall, extremely helpful to our research. You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other podcast originals for free on Spotify. Not only does Spotify already have all your favorite music, but now Spotify is making it easy for you to enjoy all of your favorite podcast originals, like serial killers for free. from your phone, desktop, or smart speaker. To stream serial killers on Spotify, just open the app and type Serial Killers in the search bar. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast

and Twitter at Parcast Network. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Cereal Killers was created by Max Cutler and is a Parcast Studios original. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Dick Schroeder, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden, and Aaron Larson.

This episode of serial killers was written by Edlin Ortiz, with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon and stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th,

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