Speaker 1: In the nineteen seventies, San Francisco cemented itself in history
Speaker 1: as a place with a thriving gay community. It was
Speaker 1: a place people could flock to and live their lives. However,
Speaker 1: though it was a place the LGBTQ community could prosper,
Speaker 1: they had to do so at night, as there were
Speaker 1: still a looming stigma around their way of life. So
Speaker 1: people took to the shadows to have fun and romantic encounters.
Speaker 1: The only problem is that in the shadows, evil also
Speaker 1: is able to fester. It was here that a mysterious
Speaker 1: man would sketch his victims before viciously attacking them under
Speaker 1: the guise of romance. This is the unsolved tale of
Speaker 1: the man simply known as the Doodler.
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked Ingram,
Speaker 2: a true crime podcast.
Speaker 1: The following material more mature audience listeners. Hot Coffee, hot Tea,
Speaker 1: and a true crime podcast. I mean, this is going
Speaker 1: to be a good episode, right ready to go. It's
Speaker 1: always a good episode when you have a good drink
Speaker 1: in your hand. And I want to clarify when I
Speaker 1: say a good drink in your hand could be alcoholic,
Speaker 1: could be non right now, we're enjoying non alcoholic ones.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well it is Friday, though, so you forgot what
Speaker 2: you could have put Carolines in there?
Speaker 1: Oh, I know I had carolines earlier this week, and
Speaker 1: I think it was Tuesdays.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, because like Friday, Saturday, Saturday, Sunday. It's like
Speaker 2: kind of fair game. I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I usually irish up my coffee. I guess if
Speaker 1: you want to put in that terms on the weekends,
Speaker 1: and yeah, starting Friday, I usually do that if I want.
Speaker 1: But I took a cheat day this week, so I
Speaker 1: need to make up for it, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We had a very married life conversation right before this.
Speaker 1: We did. We really did.
Speaker 2: Then had like a fuzzy or something on his eyelid,
Speaker 2: and I like stopped and I was like, can you
Speaker 2: take that? Also, I don't have to stare at it
Speaker 2: this whole hour episode or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we recorded the intro and Nicole stopped the recording.
Speaker 1: She's like, you need to fucking take care of that.
Speaker 1: I'm not staring at that for the next fucking hour
Speaker 1: while we record. So here we are.
Speaker 2: I would literally, I don't know, just like with my
Speaker 2: OCD and shit, I would just be staring at that
Speaker 2: the whole time, like it would not go well.
Speaker 1: It's like a piece of lettuce in someone's teeth or something.
Speaker 1: I gotcha, I feel you.
Speaker 2: Oh anyway, that's what That's what you get for being
Speaker 2: married for fifteen years, I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it's only the beginning as long as hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, we enjoying a full life, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean?
Speaker 2: So yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: But we are talking about a unsolved case today. I know,
Speaker 1: I get shipped from you primarily, but a lot a
Speaker 1: lot of other people as well. When all of a
Speaker 1: sudden at the end, it's like, oh my god, it's unsolved.
Speaker 1: I'm warning you flat out this is an unsolved case.
Speaker 1: And I will also warn you I wish I had
Speaker 1: more time to do a deeper dive into this tale.
Speaker 2: Could it have been a deep dive?
Speaker 1: Oh, it definitely could be a deep dive. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: with all unsolved cases, there is only so much information
Speaker 1: out there, of course, but I just really wish that
Speaker 1: I had more time to really get into the nitty
Speaker 1: gritty of this one. So I'm gonna after this episode,
Speaker 1: I want you guys to Hey, if you feel the
Speaker 1: same way, go ahead and dive deeper into it, because
Speaker 1: I have a feeling it's gonna be worth it. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: because I know I will be.
Speaker 2: I also have to say that I like, I'm obsessed
Speaker 2: with San Francisco. It's one of my favorite cities.
Speaker 1: I've never been, but everything I've heard it's fabulous.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean that both like in a joking way, ye,
Speaker 1: in a literal just it just sounds fucking fabulous.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been there twice, but I haven't been there.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh. Like the last time I was there was
Speaker 2: probably six or so years ago, so it's been a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, get prepared to take a little bit of
Speaker 1: a travel back into San Francisco because we are going
Speaker 1: to the nineteen seventies. Okay, So we are diving into
Speaker 1: a time that is far less accepting than the world
Speaker 1: we are living in today. Although I know that there's
Speaker 1: many political and social troubles going on with much of
Speaker 1: the world, so let's just throw that aside. This time
Speaker 1: period that we're going to is definitely still less accepting
Speaker 1: than today now. Despite that, it in fact, it did
Speaker 1: help shape many of the rights and freedoms that people
Speaker 1: do have in the modern age. Because like after the
Speaker 1: gay liberation movement in the late sixties and early seventies,
Speaker 1: the city of San Francisco, like of course, this is
Speaker 1: the United States, became a beacon for the LGBTQ plus
Speaker 1: unity and its people.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: So it was seen as a rare place where people
Speaker 1: in this community could actually live openly, free from you know,
Speaker 1: constant fear of persecution that followed them elsewhere anywhere in
Speaker 1: the world where they would live right. The city's vibrant
Speaker 1: nightlife created opportunities to connect fine community community, like minded individuals,
Speaker 1: and simply exist without shame. But not everyone welcomed this
Speaker 1: new cultural shift. The San Francisco Police Department, for example,
Speaker 1: which had you know, a deeply conservative ties at the time,
Speaker 1: had an official policy against hiring LGBTQ plus officers. In fact,
Speaker 1: in an interview, a police officer outright stated that the
Speaker 1: LGBTQ plus people were quote bad moral characters whah yeah,
Speaker 1: and made it clear that they had no intention of
Speaker 1: hiring covert homosexual holy shit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guaranteed they had probably some on their force.
Speaker 2: But then those poor individuals.
Speaker 1: Just had to hide it exactly. So that's what we're
Speaker 1: looking at here. There's a lot of this community that's
Speaker 1: the riving and people are flocking to it for this. However,
Speaker 1: they still have to hide who they are. It's just
Speaker 1: this community has its certain areas or clubs or you know,
Speaker 1: nights where they you know, can thrive. Ye, so under
Speaker 1: the daylight, it's kind of like a vampire situation in
Speaker 1: a satirical way. You know, during the day, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got to blend in. You you can't really do
Speaker 1: your thing. You got to just wait till the night
Speaker 1: comes and then you can, you know, go out and
Speaker 1: and be what you want to be.
Speaker 2: Which sucks. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, the police regularly rated gay bars, harassed people on
Speaker 1: the streets, and even resorted to physical violence, all which
Speaker 1: rarely made the mainstream news. Because of this, many of
Speaker 1: the community didn't trust the police and often avoided reporting crimes,
Speaker 1: even when they were the victims of some serious offenses themselves.
Speaker 1: The lack of protection led to a significant rise in
Speaker 1: violence against the LGBTQ plus community. In fact, one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty nine people of this community were murdered in
Speaker 1: San Francisco in nineteen seventy four alone, followed by another
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty one in nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, Yeah.
Speaker 1: So you are over. You're nearly three hundred people in
Speaker 1: two years older.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So to help paint this picture, there was an
Speaker 1: incident in nineteen seventy three where a gay man was
Speaker 1: pulled over for a minor traffic violation. Now, this traffic violation,
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure what it was, whether it was speeding,
Speaker 1: rolling a stop sign, I don't know, that's kind of unclear.
Speaker 1: But what I do know, Yeah, what I do know
Speaker 1: is this traffic stop should have been a routine stop,
Speaker 1: right However, it turned brutal fast. The officers actually beat
Speaker 1: this man so severely that he suffered permanent brain damage. Now,
Speaker 1: he did later receive a six figure settlement, but no
Speaker 1: charges were ever actually filed against the officers.
Speaker 2: It's like, I don't know, I know, I don't even think.
Speaker 2: I mean cool, like you got some money, but not
Speaker 2: like that's not okay.
Speaker 1: It's not okay. But the problem is, what's he going
Speaker 1: to do if he files a complaint, which no formal
Speaker 1: complaint was filed. What's gonna happen of it? It's probably
Speaker 1: even if it does go through, it's going to paint
Speaker 1: a picture on him. Officers are gonna come seeking him out, you.
Speaker 2: Know, probably. But I mean I'm just saying, like your
Speaker 2: health is priceless, right, Like no amount of money is
Speaker 2: gonna like help with that to fix that really.
Speaker 1: Which is exactly why he didn't form a complaint because
Speaker 1: his livelihood, his his well being was more important than
Speaker 1: filing complaint against the officers because it could mean his
Speaker 1: life is on the line if he did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like so right now he still is able to
Speaker 2: He's still alive.
Speaker 1: I guess exactly, now, I know what you're meaning. Like
Speaker 1: the six figure settlement meant nothing, because it's like your
Speaker 1: health is more important.
Speaker 2: He has like brain damage now, right exactly, I know.
Speaker 1: What you're meaning. It just totally goes along the lines
Speaker 1: of why no formal complat was filed. So but with
Speaker 1: that no complaint being filed, nothing happened to the officers.
Speaker 1: They walked away Scott free.
Speaker 2: Oh that is terrible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, like no, like everyone knew that speaking out
Speaker 1: just basically would make things worse, not better. Now, as
Speaker 1: one of the community members put it, quote, even in
Speaker 1: a place like San Francisco, being gay meant living with
Speaker 1: constant judgment. The police were more interested in shutting down
Speaker 1: bars and targeting us in public spaces than protecting us
Speaker 1: from real threats. And this is unfortunately the life that
Speaker 1: many people were living. And honestly, it's even sadder to
Speaker 1: think that this is where people were flocking to because
Speaker 1: this was the best place to be openly gay at
Speaker 1: the time, well as openly gay as you could.
Speaker 2: This is kind of just like piss us off, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I feel like, oh, definitely, Oh well, if I'm infamal,
Speaker 1: honest like, that's that's kind of the worst of the uh,
Speaker 1: discriminatory acts right there. Yeah, I'm telling you kind of
Speaker 1: like the climate of what it's like in the era
Speaker 1: and what it's like in you know, San Francisco, even
Speaker 1: because you know, I'm painting a picture of the times,
Speaker 1: right So the times were bad and it was in
Speaker 1: this climate that you know, fear and distrust led to
Speaker 1: a serial killer named the Doodler to be born, and
Speaker 1: he was able to target gay men relentlessly because of
Speaker 1: this atmosphere. Now, he attacked at least five and possibly
Speaker 1: as many as fourteen people during his serial killing career,
Speaker 1: let's put it that way, leaving behind three survivors because
Speaker 1: you know, of their social status, none of them would
Speaker 1: come forward to testify. So with no conviction, he simply
Speaker 1: faded into history, getting away with these crimes. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're looking at. So let's actually get into the
Speaker 1: events and not just the history of San Francisco and communities.
Speaker 2: Sounds good.
Speaker 1: So in the quiet hours of the night, Ocean Beach
Speaker 1: Golden Gate Park took on an eerie stillness. Now by
Speaker 1: the day it was filled with energy of tourists and
Speaker 1: locals going outside and enjoying San Francisco's you know, green
Speaker 1: spaces and parks and you know, going for leisurely walks, jogs, whatever. Right,
Speaker 1: But after dark that all changed. It was a place
Speaker 1: where people could, you know, slip away and get a
Speaker 1: little privacy in the dark for some well private encounters.
Speaker 2: Okay, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So on this day, it was just before two
Speaker 1: am on Sunday, January twenty seventh, nineteen seventy four, when
Speaker 1: a man's body was found near the water's edge at
Speaker 1: Ocean Beach. It was close to the eastern boundary of
Speaker 1: Golden Gate Park, he had been stabbed multiple times. His
Speaker 1: hands had deep defensive wounds, which of course suggests that
Speaker 1: there was a desperate struggle to survive as he likely
Speaker 1: tried to escape. You know, the victim or sorry, the
Speaker 1: the culprit, the attacker.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: When authorities searched the man's body and effort to try
Speaker 1: and identify him, they discovered that whoever it had killed
Speaker 1: him had also taken the man's identification, leaving him as
Speaker 1: an anonymous John Doe for now. The early signs of
Speaker 1: rigamortis were setting in on the remains, and it suggested
Speaker 1: that the two investigators that he had been murdered somewhere
Speaker 1: between late Saturday night and in the early hours of
Speaker 1: Sunday morning, the same morning which his body was discovered.
Speaker 1: Eventually the victim would be identified, and he was found
Speaker 1: to be forty nine year old Gerald Earl Cavanaugh, a
Speaker 1: Canadian immigrant who had made San Francisco his home. Now,
Speaker 1: not a whole lot is known about Gerald and what
Speaker 1: his life was like, but we do know that he
Speaker 1: worked in a mattress factory and was practicing Catholic. Also,
Speaker 1: on his corner report, under marital status, the word never
Speaker 1: married was put which was also likely a subtle stab
Speaker 1: at his identity as a potential gay man.
Speaker 2: Okay, not necessarily, but yeah, not necessarily, but it how
Speaker 2: would the coroner know that he's never married? I guess, Oh, geez,
Speaker 2: oh gosh, okay, I guess yes, wow, huh.
Speaker 1: I mean at a time where you know, marying gay
Speaker 1: was highly illegal and you couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, my brain just didn't, like, doesn't go there,
Speaker 2: I guess, like, which is good.
Speaker 1: Well, it means that, yeah, you're kind of a little
Speaker 1: more on the innocent side and not someone who would
Speaker 1: think that, oh, you know, gay people can't get married,
Speaker 1: Like that's honestly, in today's society, that's where we should
Speaker 1: be at, like people can get married, Like what are
Speaker 1: you're talking about? Yeah, to just be a standard, but
Speaker 1: unfortunately that's not always the case.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that was kind of like, yeah, that meant okay,
Speaker 2: I see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, where his body was found near water would
Speaker 1: prove to be rather significant, or at least in these
Speaker 1: parks in this area, but that comes later. Now, as
Speaker 1: I already already mentioned, at the time, violence against you know,
Speaker 1: this LGBTQ plus community was disturbingly common and in this case,
Speaker 1: police had little evidence to work with still, though they
Speaker 1: collected biological samples at the scene, though forensic technology wasn't
Speaker 1: quite advanced enough to make anything any use of them.
Speaker 1: Yet all they know is that they had, you know,
Speaker 1: a murder against someone in this community, which honestly isn't
Speaker 1: all that uncommon, as we discussed earlier, and they're going
Speaker 1: to collect some some samples, some evidence and beyond their day.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm curious if they even like gave it there
Speaker 2: all really, Like, I don't know if you'll get to that,
Speaker 2: but I'm curious.
Speaker 1: Well by the statter to them, by the sounds of it,
Speaker 1: the police were doing their job, yes, okay, I mean
Speaker 1: the only problem is, like, as I mentioned, there's like
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty plus murders in a year. So
Speaker 1: how can you give it you're all on a case
Speaker 1: when there's that many cases, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's just murders like within this community, right, yes,
Speaker 2: so I'm sure there's more than that, but that's just of.
Speaker 1: This that's just of this community in this city.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, that is not okay, that is so many
Speaker 2: I know, holy shit.
Speaker 1: Now, Gerald was laid to rest on Holy Cross Catholic
Speaker 1: Cemetery in Colma, and his murder was added to a
Speaker 1: long list of unsolved cases. As the months passed, more
Speaker 1: victims followed, and a pattern began to emerge among them.
Speaker 1: It was when another man by the name of Joseph
Speaker 1: or also known as Jay Stevens so first named Joseph,
Speaker 1: last name Stevens, but we'll be calling him Jay, was
Speaker 1: found deceased, investigators began to connect the dots between the two.
Speaker 1: Now originally from Texas, Jay had come to San Francisco
Speaker 1: in his late teens, like so many others, drawn to
Speaker 1: the city with promise of freedom in his sexuality. As
Speaker 1: he and so many others in the community saw it,
Speaker 1: San Francisco was a haven for young people seeking to
Speaker 1: live their life, you know, and be themselves without fear.
Speaker 1: And Jay lived life that blurred lines between performance and reality.
Speaker 1: So by day, Jay navigated the world as a man,
Speaker 1: but by night, under the bright lights of San Francisco's
Speaker 1: club scene, Jay transformed into a glamorized female impersonator, entertaining
Speaker 1: the crowds with dazzling costumes and lip sync performances. Or
Speaker 1: simply put, Jay was a drag queen performer, and by
Speaker 1: the sounds of it, he was fucking good at what
Speaker 1: he did.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: While it's unclear what pronouns Jay personally identified with, historical
Speaker 1: records suggests Jay lived publicly as a man so like
Speaker 1: outside his performances as such, So that's what I'll be
Speaker 1: referring to Jay as is, you know, he in him.
Speaker 1: One of the most famous venues in San Francisco's drag
Speaker 1: scene was a place called Finuccinos, a club that had
Speaker 1: been a cornerstone in the city's night life since it
Speaker 1: started as a speakeasy in nineteen thirty three until it
Speaker 1: eventually closed in nineteen ninety nine. Now, the word finaccio finccio,
Speaker 1: not finicccino, I should correct myself there. It's finaccio means
Speaker 1: fennel in Italian. But it was also used as a
Speaker 1: slur against gay men. Now regardless, Finiccchio eventually became known
Speaker 1: for its high caliber drag performances, which I honestly kind
Speaker 1: of fucking love because it's like, we're taking this slur
Speaker 1: against the community and we're using it to like make
Speaker 1: us proud of our community, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, you know what I'm meanure. Yeah, I wasn't
Speaker 2: sure how that was going to go. Like, okay, so
Speaker 2: they like it actually is a welcomed place, like they
Speaker 2: are welcoming.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, no, this is it's. Finccio's is a place
Speaker 1: known for its like drag performances, Entertainers donned extravagant gowns,
Speaker 1: lip syncs popular songs.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was unlike much of the other like dingier or
Speaker 1: even like grittier underground, kind of like LGBTQ plus bars.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Finccio's had a high class, polished and even a tour
Speaker 1: tourist friendly reputation. So this was a gay hot spot
Speaker 1: to put it in short term, like a safe place definitely.
Speaker 1: Now the club was located in North Beach and it
Speaker 1: had a culturally diverse neighborhood that was home to poets, punks,
Speaker 1: Indian immigrants, and of course the LGBTQ plus. It was
Speaker 1: here that Finaccios became a landmark of its time. Now
Speaker 1: j had been a fixture in the city's drag scene
Speaker 1: for nearly a decade at this point before he died,
Speaker 1: and he had just secured himself a summer performance spot
Speaker 1: at Finiccio's. It was a dream come true for him,
Speaker 1: and a significant milestone in his career as well, one
Speaker 1: that unfortunately would have been cut short.
Speaker 2: Like did he get to a perform there at all?
Speaker 1: Or do you know, as far as I'm aware, no,
Speaker 1: he did not.
Speaker 2: Ah shit.
Speaker 1: Now, In recent months, Jay had been exploring comedy as
Speaker 1: well as a new creative outlet, expanding beyond the traditional
Speaker 1: drag female impersonators and that sort of thing. Right, He's
Speaker 1: trying new avenues of his repertoire, and on the night
Speaker 1: of Monday, June twenty fourth, nineteen seventy four, Jay was
Speaker 1: last spotted leaving the Cabaret Club, another North Beach hotspot.
Speaker 1: It's unknown whether Jay had left alone that night or
Speaker 1: if he had left the club with someone else, but
Speaker 1: police later suspected that he had at least arranged to
Speaker 1: meet someone that night, suggesting no witnesses had actually reported
Speaker 1: being seen accompanying him outside the bar. Early the next morning,
Speaker 1: a woman was walking her dog through Golden Gate Park
Speaker 1: and she made a grim discovery Jay's body laying in
Speaker 1: the bushes near Spreckle's Lake. He had been stabbed three times,
Speaker 1: and blood around his nose and mouth suggested he had
Speaker 1: been attacked violently. His wallet his jewelry were missing, preventing
Speaker 1: immediate identification. Now, of course, he would be later identified, right,
Speaker 1: but this was becoming to be a little bit of
Speaker 1: a pattern already.
Speaker 2: Man. He seemed I mean, I'm sure the other one,
Speaker 2: the uh Jared I think was the other guy's name, Gerald, Gerald,
Speaker 2: like both awesome guys. But Jay just seemed like he
Speaker 2: had so much like potential and he was like this
Speaker 2: creative person that was like, you know, making a name
Speaker 2: for himself and like the community kind of.
Speaker 1: Well exactly, and that's what he was doing. He was
Speaker 1: literally making a name for himself. Yeah, I mean he's
Speaker 1: about to perform at the yeah, the place to be
Speaker 1: for drag, right, So I mean, good on him, But unfortunately, yeah,
Speaker 1: he fell victim to the wrong person. Now, the scene
Speaker 1: born unsettling similarities to the murder of Jerald Cavanaugh. Now,
Speaker 1: Gerald's body had been found just a mile away on
Speaker 1: Ocean Beach earlier that year, from where Jay was now found.
Speaker 1: Investigators also discovered Jay's abandoned car parked near the crime scene,
Speaker 1: leading them to believe that he had either driven himself
Speaker 1: there or had been accompanied by someone he trusted. Now,
Speaker 1: given the secluded nature of the spot, it was likely
Speaker 1: chosen as a place for a private encounter, something that
Speaker 1: was rather common practice for you know, gay men at
Speaker 1: the time. They're trying to be openly affection in public
Speaker 1: and that carried risks. So, hey, you're in a park
Speaker 1: where it's a little bit more quiet, little dark people
Speaker 1: can't see they're doing their thing, right now, Most signs
Speaker 1: pointed to Jay Willingly going to Spreckels Lake expecting to
Speaker 1: have this intimate moment with someone new. Instead, however, this
Speaker 1: encounter didn't turn out out as expected, and instead the
Speaker 1: moment of romance met in violence. Now, whether the killer
Speaker 1: was someone that he met at this cabaret club or
Speaker 1: perhaps was a stranger looking in the shadows of the
Speaker 1: park remains a mystery because there is a potential that
Speaker 1: he went there to meet someone and along the way
Speaker 1: someone else crossed his path, right right, So yep. Now,
Speaker 1: What was becoming clear to you authorities, though, was that
Speaker 1: San Francisco's LGBTQ plus community was being targeted and the
Speaker 1: murders were likely far from over and they were right.
Speaker 1: Claus Chrisman was a thirty one year old German national
Speaker 1: visiting San Francisco, and he was staying with friends mister
Speaker 1: and Missus Booker Williams. He had been in the city
Speaker 1: for three months while his wife and two children remained
Speaker 1: at Germany. Early on the morning of Sunday, July seventh,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, a woman, again walking her dog, was
Speaker 1: the one to make the discovery of finding Klaus's body
Speaker 1: lying in Lincoln Way, a street connecting Golden Gate Park
Speaker 1: and Ocean Beach.
Speaker 2: Gosh, is it the same woman? Could you imagine that? Man,
Speaker 2: brig I would definitely be changing.
Speaker 1: My root No kidding, And honest, we've had this conversation before,
Speaker 1: like how often does a body get discovered by someone
Speaker 1: going out in water?
Speaker 2: I know, I just hate that. I don't know. You
Speaker 2: kind of envision like how you would act, but I
Speaker 2: don't even think you can predict that. Really, No, it's terrible.
Speaker 1: But I mean, honestly, if you look at it, there
Speaker 1: is a silver lining in everything. And the silver lining
Speaker 1: I pulled from from that of you know, you go
Speaker 1: and walk your dog, you're going to find a body
Speaker 1: because that happens lots. The silver lining I find is
Speaker 1: dogs make you active, dogs will get you outside because
Speaker 1: it's not very often that just someone walking alone finds
Speaker 1: a body. You find someone walking a dog, so they're
Speaker 1: getting outside and enjoying time with a companion. That's the
Speaker 1: silver line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that poor dog's never going to get to go
Speaker 2: for a walk again. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: They'll get a private yard. They'll buy a house and
Speaker 1: have a yard, and that's where the dog will get Yeah.
Speaker 1: But anyways, I digress, enough of the jokes. Back into this. Now,
Speaker 1: where the body was found was only mere two miles
Speaker 1: from Spreckles Lake where Jay Stevens had been found, and
Speaker 1: less than a mile from Ocean Beach in the crime
Speaker 1: scene where Gerald Cavanaugh had been found. Now, the attack
Speaker 1: on close was particularly brutal. One investigator, who had also
Speaker 1: worked on the infamous Zodiac killer case described it as
Speaker 1: the most savage stabbing he had ever seen. The coroner
Speaker 1: even suggested that the killer may have attempted to decapitate
Speaker 1: him gosh. Now, like the other victims, Klaus's identification was missing,
Speaker 1: leaving him classified as a John Doe until authorities could
Speaker 1: find his identity.
Speaker 2: What the hell is with the decapitation? I don't understand
Speaker 2: why someone would even like go there. You know that
Speaker 2: seems so weird and gross.
Speaker 1: The way I look at it, there's two possibilities. There's one,
Speaker 1: there's aggression being taken out, and two, I think morbid curiosity.
Speaker 1: Those are the two reasons that I can think of
Speaker 1: in my head.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess so. I mean, you watch a lot
Speaker 2: of movies and stuff and in war or or like
Speaker 2: any kind of fight. We watched like a Viking show
Speaker 2: the other day and like, yeah, there was a decapitation
Speaker 2: in there, So maybe it comes from entertainment and you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: I wonder what that would be.
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, and if we're going back into history,
Speaker 1: like removing someone's head like that, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a tactic of It was a scare tactic, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a head on a pike outside, you know, a village,
Speaker 1: removing the king's head and holding it up so his
Speaker 1: army could see those sort of things. It was a
Speaker 1: scare tactic and like a thing of power removing the
Speaker 1: head of someone. So maybe there is that power dynamic
Speaker 1: in there as well. Okay, Yeah, Now, details from the
Speaker 1: coroner's report painted a picture of white what might have
Speaker 1: led Klaus to that secluded area. Now, his pants were unzipped,
Speaker 1: suggesting that he had gone there for a consensual encounter
Speaker 1: before being attacked. In his pocket, police found a tube
Speaker 1: of face paint, and beneath his clothes, he wore bright
Speaker 1: orange bikini shorts. Now, these details led investigators to speculate
Speaker 1: that he may have secretly been involved in drag performances,
Speaker 1: though they were uncertain. This was the third murder happening
Speaker 1: in close proximity to the others and with strikingly similar circumstances,
Speaker 1: Police officially began investigating the killings as the work of
Speaker 1: a serial killer. Their working theory was that the killer
Speaker 1: was motivated by internalized shame of their own sexuality, engaging
Speaker 1: in sexual encounters with men before turning violent, either during
Speaker 1: or immediately afterwards. Now there is also the potential, I
Speaker 1: do want to point out that he led them there
Speaker 1: and then never did actually have these encounters and raged
Speaker 1: prior to.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but I yeah, even like at the start
Speaker 2: of this, I was wondering if he himself, you know,
Speaker 2: was struggling or identified as differently than you know, what
Speaker 2: he actually wanted to be and stuff.
Speaker 1: So now, the Sentinel and LGBTQ plus publication that followed
Speaker 1: the case more closely than mainstream media did, because hey,
Speaker 1: you know, mainstream media didn't care too much to publish
Speaker 1: that about what the community was suffering, and instead just
Speaker 1: went with hey, you know, literal mainstream. But I digress now.
Speaker 1: The Sentinel ran a series of articles in August of
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four reporting that police had formally linked the
Speaker 1: three murders. In one article from August ninth, they summarized
Speaker 1: the growing concerns quote all apparently involved the victim meeting
Speaker 1: someone who suggested driving to a remote area such as
Speaker 1: the beach or Golden Gate Park, were viciously stabbed front
Speaker 1: and back. All three were stripped of identification and property.
Speaker 1: A police bulletin for the reinforce the departments perspective on
Speaker 1: the case as well. Quote victims one and two had
Speaker 1: homosexual propensities, and due to underclothing and makeup in victim
Speaker 1: number three, Klaus Chrisman in his pocket, he also may
Speaker 1: have the same propensities. Now, I have to say, propensities
Speaker 1: is a new word for me, so I don't even
Speaker 1: really know exactly what that means. But I'm sure we
Speaker 1: can all assume. I'm sure you guys know I've never
Speaker 1: heard that word in my life. It's a new one,
Speaker 1: so it was tough for me to actually pronounce it.
Speaker 1: But now, despite recognizing the emerging pattern in the three
Speaker 1: different cases, police faced some challenges. Other violent deaths were
Speaker 1: also occurring across the city. Now I kind of alluded
Speaker 1: to this earlier. Officers were being pulled in multiple different
Speaker 1: directions as they were chasing leads from case to case.
Speaker 1: So at the time some speculated that San Francisco had
Speaker 1: not just one, but even three step active serial killers
Speaker 1: operating at once.
Speaker 2: Well, honestly, that's not surprising with those numbers, right, it's not. So.
Speaker 1: While I don't know one hundred percent, this is my
Speaker 1: speculation that the authorities were doing their job, regardless of
Speaker 1: the community being LGBTQ plus whether it was you know what,
Speaker 1: a straight white person, color person, I don't know, regardless
Speaker 1: of who the person was, they were treating a murder
Speaker 1: case like a murder case, and they were trying to.
Speaker 2: Solve that case. Well, we can help, yes.
Speaker 1: We can hope, and that is my assumption. But because
Speaker 1: of the sheer volume of you know, attacks and violence
Speaker 1: that were occurring, it was taking their attention away from
Speaker 1: many of the cases.
Speaker 2: Well then also too, I'm just kind of thinking, how
Speaker 2: easily would they be able to necessarily chat with the
Speaker 2: community that, you know, they had treated so poorly. These
Speaker 2: these people who could be like helpful might not want
Speaker 2: to talk to them, which is totally fair.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that. Oh okay, yeah, trust me, we'll
Speaker 1: get into that now. In response to everything that was
Speaker 1: going on, police ramped up their presence in the LGBTQ
Speaker 1: plus spaces, visiting bars and clubs in the Castro, the Tenderloin,
Speaker 1: and other districts known for their nightlife. It's actually funny,
Speaker 1: I recognized the Tenderloin. I don't know if that came
Speaker 1: from another case that we covered before, potentially, but I've
Speaker 1: heard of that place before.
Speaker 2: It could have.
Speaker 1: Now they questioned patrons, hoping to identify, you know, a
Speaker 1: suspect or uncover some sort of connections between victims. Right,
Speaker 1: But even as the investigation intensified, the murders weren't stopping.
Speaker 1: Frederick Elmer Kappan, a thirty two year old from Washington State,
Speaker 1: had served as a medical corpsman in the Navy during
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War. He even earned recognition in his service
Speaker 1: after his time in the military, he moved to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: where he worked as a registered nurse. Despite being far
Speaker 1: from home, Frederick remained close with his family, particularly his
Speaker 1: grandparents and sister in Port Angelus, Washington. But on Monday
Speaker 1: May twelfth, nineteen seventy five, a hiker found Frederick's lifeless
Speaker 1: body laying in the sand dunes just a quarter mile
Speaker 1: south of Ocean Beach, the same area, same area where
Speaker 1: the first known victim had been found. Now, unlike the others,
Speaker 1: there were clear drag marks in the sand leading to
Speaker 1: his remains, which showed that he had been moved after
Speaker 1: he was killed, and these drag marks suggested he had
Speaker 1: been moved about twenty feet.
Speaker 2: That is so creepy. Yeah, oh, the drag marks like
Speaker 2: and I'm assuming this hiker you know, what's that? And
Speaker 2: when looked like, oh gosh.
Speaker 1: Now it also, as far as I can tell, this
Speaker 1: hiker didn't have a dog.
Speaker 2: I know, I was wondering where the hell is his dog?
Speaker 2: His dog would have gone and looked for now.
Speaker 1: The coroner estimated that he had been dead for approximately
Speaker 1: ten hours, placing his death or his time of death
Speaker 1: on the night of Sunday, May tenth, he had been
Speaker 1: stabbed multiple times, with fatal wounds to his heart and
Speaker 1: a order. Once again. The murder had taken place in
Speaker 1: an isolated outdoor location, secluded enough for a private encounter
Speaker 1: but also for a predator to strike without witness.
Speaker 2: It's interesting that because it doesn't seem like he's necessarily
Speaker 2: hiding the bodies per se, right, So it's interesting that
Speaker 2: he would have like even dragged it at all.
Speaker 1: Well, there is potentially that maybe the spot like maybe
Speaker 1: it was a little bit up on a hump and
Speaker 1: it was a little bit more visible, so he's just
Speaker 1: drugging out of view or something.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, I guess give him.
Speaker 1: More time to get away and you know, close that
Speaker 1: gap or so widen the gap of you know, when
Speaker 1: it was found. So who knows. It's hard to say.
Speaker 1: Maybe a wolf grabbed him. Maybe I don't. I'm joking,
Speaker 1: but you know, used to say, who knows. Now. Frederick
Speaker 1: was now the fourth confirmed victim in what was clearly
Speaker 1: a pattern, but the San Francisco Police Department was still
Speaker 1: overwhelmed as they were juggling multiple homicide cases at a
Speaker 1: time and trying to determine even which ones were linked
Speaker 1: to each other and which ones would be linked in
Speaker 1: this case. Right, So, five months after Frederick's murder, the
Speaker 1: San Francisco Police Department finally released a composite sketch of
Speaker 1: a suspect. Now, the man they were looking for was
Speaker 1: described as a black man between nineteen and twenty two
Speaker 1: years old, slim, around five foot ten and six foot tall,
Speaker 1: and often seeing navy style watch cap. He was known
Speaker 1: to frequent bars and restaurants in the Upper Marquee and
Speaker 1: Castro area. Investigators suspected he might have been an art student,
Speaker 1: as he had a habit of sketching his victims before
Speaker 1: luring them away. Now, despite the progress, the sketch that
Speaker 1: was made of this suspect was never made public. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which was strange. Now, clearly the police knew more than
Speaker 1: they were letting on because there was a lot of
Speaker 1: details released in this They had apparently even identified an
Speaker 1: actual suspect. Clearly, Now, when I say they had identified
Speaker 1: a suspect, I mean they had identified a suspect because
Speaker 1: they had someone who is a suspect who reportedly confessed
Speaker 1: his actions to a therapist in one of his sessions,
Speaker 1: confessing to the murders. In this session, what authorities even
Speaker 1: spoke to this therapist confirming that a patient, yes, had
Speaker 1: admitted these killings, but without witnessing sorry, any witnesses coming forward.
Speaker 1: Apparently their hands were tied and they could do nothing.
Speaker 1: Huh huh, because who's to say this is an actual confession, right?
Speaker 1: Police might might have questioned this guy. We don't know
Speaker 1: because this has happened behind the scenes. Might have questioned
Speaker 1: this guy and he's like, I don't know what you're
Speaker 1: talking about. No, wow, So what can they do?
Speaker 2: Oh man? Okay? And like the therapist is allowed to
Speaker 2: probably I know, there's like so much with confidentiality, right,
Speaker 2: but they're allowed to spill the beans there.
Speaker 1: I think when it comes to harm of an individual, yeah,
Speaker 1: so like harm of yourself or someone else. If you're
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna hurt myself, yeah, they can call in,
Speaker 1: like this guy's gonna hurt himself, right, or it's like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kill some one or I have killed someone.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, imagine.
Speaker 2: Just sitting in a room with this person a and
Speaker 2: they confessing shit like that.
Speaker 1: No kidding. Now, That same publication, The Sentinel was dedicated
Speaker 1: to covering this case, and once reported that you know,
Speaker 1: police had detained this man fitting the suspects description at
Speaker 1: a nightclub. Witnesses had even seen him offering sketches to patrons.
Speaker 1: Now officers approached him and allegedly he dropped a butcher knife. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the man. Psychiatrists later confirmed that he confessed these murders.
Speaker 1: But still, regardless of the butcher knife the apparent confession,
Speaker 1: nothing came of it.
Speaker 2: Hmm. Okay.
Speaker 1: Now I mentioned that without witnesses the police couldn't do anything.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and I was just thinking too, I guess
Speaker 2: they don't really like have DNA and all that sort
Speaker 2: of jazz really back then either, exactly. Now.
Speaker 1: The unfortunate part, though, was police technically weren't without witnesses. See,
Speaker 1: there were actually three witnesses, three men who had encountered
Speaker 1: the man and survived. One of these survivors was a
Speaker 1: well known entertainer, and he recounted a meeting with a
Speaker 1: young man who offered to draw his portrait. Another survivor
Speaker 1: was a European diplomat. A similar experience was had and
Speaker 1: he had approached it was approached by a man who
Speaker 1: sketched him before attempting to take him somewhere private. Now
Speaker 1: apparently he was moments away from going home with him
Speaker 1: until he dropped a knife from out of his coat.
Speaker 2: Gosh, why is he just dropping butcher knife from his coat?
Speaker 2: That is I don't know, not Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, a third survivor was actually attacked and was even
Speaker 1: stabbed six times, but managed to escape. The only problem
Speaker 1: was none of them were willing to work with police
Speaker 1: or testify really because they were concerned for their own safety.
Speaker 1: They were that afraid of police.
Speaker 2: Oh jeez, oh, I hate that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I remember when you were saying that if
Speaker 1: only they work with police, Yeah, I said, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're here, we're talking about that.
Speaker 1: They were not willing to because of that stigma because
Speaker 1: you know, because of how they were treated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is just so terrible, because like it could
Speaker 2: save lives and stuff, right, But then I mean, you
Speaker 2: gotta protect yourself too, right, So that's just a really
Speaker 2: tough position.
Speaker 1: It's seriously tough and very unfortunate. Now in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: San Francisco, we also have to talk about, like it's
Speaker 1: not just the you know, fear of the police. They
Speaker 1: were also afraid of, you know, being publicly identified as gay,
Speaker 1: which could destroy careers, reputations, break apart families. You know,
Speaker 1: many of these men probably or these individuals were probably married,
Speaker 1: right and living a day life, you know, covering their
Speaker 1: their true set els so they could go out and
Speaker 1: live at night and do what they really wanted to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they had These men had survived their encounter, but
Speaker 1: they were just not willing to risk coming forward and
Speaker 1: without that cooperation, police had no case.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: During this time, a writer by the name of Armistead
Speaker 1: Maupin was documenting his life in San Francisco through the
Speaker 1: Tales of a City series. In his writings, he even
Speaker 1: referenced the elusive murderer known as the Doodler, describing him
Speaker 1: as a sinister black man who sat at the bar
Speaker 1: and sketched your face before taking you home to murder you.
Speaker 2: I don't even know how that would work like nowadays.
Speaker 2: I'm just thinking if someone was like just sketching you like,
Speaker 2: you would be like, holy shit, well you are creep
Speaker 2: and I'm getting the hell away from you.
Speaker 1: It's kind of funny because it's reminiscent of some creators
Speaker 1: I've seen on like TikTok and Instagram and stuff. They
Speaker 1: go on like trains, and then they'll like sketch a person.
Speaker 1: They'll give the sketch and it's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: that's so cool, thank you, and stuff like that. And
Speaker 1: you see it with photographers too. Photographers will go out
Speaker 1: take a photo of someone they have like a little
Speaker 1: mini portable printer, quickly edited up on their phone, printed out,
Speaker 1: and give them their portrait. It's no different. It's the
Speaker 1: same thing that's happening. Just the only difference is this
Speaker 1: man was like, now I'm gonna stab you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But in all those cases that you just listed,
Speaker 2: I think i'd be like, no.
Speaker 1: Well, in the videos, I'm pretty sure they always get
Speaker 1: the consent and talk to the person first. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure it's staged. But regardless, I digress now. Overtime investigators
Speaker 1: came to believe that the Doodler could have killed as
Speaker 1: many as fourteen different people during his spree, and here
Speaker 1: we are decades later. The case is still unsolved, but
Speaker 1: it was reopened at one point, with police revisiting at
Speaker 1: least five unsolved murders they believe could be connected. Now,
Speaker 1: a forensic artists recently updated the original composite sketch aging
Speaker 1: the suspect to show what might look what he might
Speaker 1: look like now if he was still alive, and the
Speaker 1: Doodler would be in his sixties. But that's all we have.
Speaker 1: That's all we know. The story and the identity of
Speaker 1: the Doodler. It remains a mystery and it remains unsolved
Speaker 1: to this day. However, with advances in DNA technology and
Speaker 1: renewed interest in the case, many people still hold out
Speaker 1: hope that the killer who terrorized San Francisco's LGBTQ plus
Speaker 1: community might one day be unmasked and finally held accountable
Speaker 1: for his brutal crimes. And that's the story of the
Speaker 1: Doodler that.
Speaker 2: Is interesting because it's it seems as though they know
Speaker 2: they knew exactly.
Speaker 1: Who it was, and then the only problem is prove it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But then so you wonder if you know, a like,
Speaker 2: did this person just stop killing people and what made
Speaker 2: them stop or did they themselves like get killed or something, right,
Speaker 2: because an attacker could potentially have like turned on or
Speaker 2: a victim could have turned on him, you know.
Speaker 1: That definitely, all it takes is for one victim to
Speaker 1: also have a knife. You know, if there's stories of
Speaker 1: this Doodler going around and people I'm sure are you know,
Speaker 1: arming themselves to protect themselves, and all it takes is
Speaker 1: for him to you know, stab someone back, yeah, grow.
Speaker 2: Them in the ocean or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Or maybe he's now on a list of
Speaker 1: an unsolved murder as well because someone else murdered him
Speaker 1: and now he's actually one of the like you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Yeah, he's on the victim list.
Speaker 2: Wow, huh. It just pisses me off though, Like I
Speaker 2: you almost want to think something like that, because to
Speaker 2: think that he took that many people's lives and then
Speaker 2: just like got to live his life. It's just such
Speaker 2: a piss off.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I hate it, absolutely hate it.
Speaker 1: Whah people get to walk away like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, like I say, I do think that there's
Speaker 1: more that we could have discussed on this episode. So
Speaker 1: I do recommend you know, doing your own research and
Speaker 1: watching some documentaries and such on it. I know I'm
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, in my spare time checking
Speaker 1: some more stuff out about it and doing a little
Speaker 1: bit more learning. But if you guys want to join
Speaker 1: maybe a discussion on this case, I think we're definitely
Speaker 1: going to open a thread on you know, our patreon
Speaker 1: to really talk about this one, because I do want
Speaker 1: to talk about it a bit more. You guys can
Speaker 1: feel free to message us, email us, or join us
Speaker 1: on Patreon, where we will discuss this one a bit more.
Speaker 1: All links are in the description of this podcast.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's always more, right, Like, the information and
Speaker 2: research you can do is like endless.
Speaker 1: Most cases, it really is. It really is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, but that seems yeah, you cover that well there.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's sad. I just like sometimes cases
Speaker 2: get you right, and this one it just feels. It
Speaker 2: just feels kind of yucky. I guess at the end
Speaker 2: of it, it does.
Speaker 1: And the biggest thing for me is that like they
Speaker 1: were so helpless, you know what I mean, they had
Speaker 1: nowhere to turn to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's almost hard to even fathom that. But
Speaker 2: then it isn't as well, and I know that people
Speaker 2: to this day still face that sort of thing, right,
Speaker 2: So yeah, it just makes you think, yeah and feel
Speaker 2: all the fields.
Speaker 1: Shit, you're getting me in the fields?
Speaker 2: Oh man? Okay, well, good job.
Speaker 1: Thank you. We appreciate you being here. If you guys
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Speaker 1: all these reviews make a big difference.
Speaker 2: Sure do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're produced, owned, recorded, researched by us in our
Speaker 1: tiny home.
Speaker 2: Yeah there you go. Yeah, So until next episode, stay wicked.