Randy Kraft: The Scorecard Killer (Part 2)

Summary

Morbid Podcast — Episode 699: Randy Kraft: The Scorecard Killer (Part 2)

Date: August 18, 2025
Hosts: Ash and Elena
Podcast Network: Morbid Network | Wondery

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Episode Overview

This installment is the intensely chilling second part of the three-part deep dive into the crimes of Randy Kraft, known as the Scorecard Killer. Ash and Elena deliver extensive research, harrowing victim stories, dark humor for levity, and insightful commentary as they chronicle Kraft’s devastating series of murders in 1970s-80s California. This episode traces the investigation’s near-misses, Kraft’s disturbing modus operandi, the difficulty of connecting his crimes, and the heartbreak of victims lost and unidentified. The hosts maintain compassion for the victims, inject necessary humor, and highlight the failures and biases of the era’s law enforcement.

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Main Discussion Points & Key Insights

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1. Setting the Tone & Levity Before the Darkness

• Light banter (02:22–11:26): The hosts open with a comedic discussion of 1990s romcoms, book recommendations, and meta-remarks about podcasting. They intentionally provide levity ahead of the episode’s emotionally taxing content.

“It's also… This is going to be a very tough episode, and it's a very tough series, so we might as well get some levity in the beginning here.”
— Elana (06:55)

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2. The Case So Far & The Challenges of the Era

• Intro to Kraft’s case (11:48–14:30): A recap of Part 1 and how Kraft’s case, despite its brutality and body count, was overshadowed in media by other infamous serial killers. The hosts stress the importance of not forgetting the victims, especially unresolved or unidentified ones.

“...Cases like this, they kind of… unfortunately can get buried in the history of other... serial killers happening. But this case is so upsetting. And there's so many victims… that are unidentified to this day. It's crazy.”
— Elena (12:05)

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3. The Abduction and Murder of Keith Crotwell

• Keith Crotwell and Kent May’s encounter (15:21–20:00):
  • Kraft approaches two teens, gives them beer and pills; the situation quickly turns alarming as both boys become heavily sedated.
  • Kent May is dropped off and survives; Keith vanishes.
  • Weeks later, Keith’s head is found; his death is initially dismissed by police as a runaway case—common police bias of the era.

“It wasn't until six weeks later that they learned how very, very wrong they were.”
— Ash (22:34)

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4. The First Close Call: The Investigation Stalls

• Police interview Kraft (25:11–32:38):
  • Detectives track Kraft’s distinctive Mustang to his home. He’s an ordinary, well-liked man—his “normalcy” a point of horror.
  • Kraft gives conflicting stories: initially, he denies knowing the teens, then spins a convoluted (and obviously fabricated) tale about leaving the car with Keith.
  • The DA declines to prosecute: no body (only a head), no forensic evidence, and only conflicting statements.
  • Official cause: accidental drowning. The lack of inter-agency communication and forensic evidence leaves the case cold.

“...All they had was conflicting stories, and that wasn't enough to build the case. And to be honest, you wouldn't be able to convince a jury on that. No way.”
— Ash (32:34)

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5. Who Was Randy Kraft?

• Background and personality (33:15–49:10):
  • Detailed biography: Born 1945, Los Angeles. Early head injuries, intelligent, somewhat spoiled, had difficulty following rules, but no reported abuse.
  • Concealed his sexuality growing up. Came out during military service and was met with family disappointment and military discharge.
  • Difficulty maintaining employment and relationships; increasing reliance on prescription drugs.
  • Early known offense: sexually assaulted a 13-year-old runaway (Joseph Fancher). The police fail to act due to the victim “voluntarily” taking drugs; devastating aftermath for the victim.
  • First long-term partner: Jeff Graves.

“You should—look, your love for your child should not be conditional.”
— Elena (44:54)

“...13 years old... That will change you for a long, long, long time.”
— Ash (47:27)

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6. A Pattern of Violence — The Escalation & Hallmarks of Kraft's Crimes

• Mark Hall’s murder (50:23–55:15):

  • Victim: Mark Hall, US Marine. Crime particularly brutal (burns, mutilation, sexual torture, suffocation with debris).
  • “This is top brutality I've ever heard.” — Elena (54:08)
  • Investigators find a thumbprint on a glass bottle used in the killing—but can't link it to Kraft due to lack of fingerprints in national databases.

• Wave of victims (58:07–68:02):

  • After a 2-year silence, Kraft resumes killing, now averaging a victim every few weeks. Victims are often Marines or hitchhikers, almost all young men.
  • Trademark MO: victims are drugged (Valium or other sedatives), occasional excessive alcohol, strangulation or stabbing, extreme post-mortem mutilation (particularly to genitals), cigarette lighter burns (notably on nipples and eyes).
  • Victims pushed from moving vehicles; signatures include missing shoelaces, redressed bodies, body part removal, and dumping along highways and freeways.
  • Forensic connections: carpet fibers, ligature marks, matching tranquilizer types.

“...he had also been burned with a car cigarette lighter, including on the eyes, nose, and nipples. And his genitals had been removed while he was alive. Most of this was done while he was alive.”
— Ash (53:08)

“Oh my God, all of that. The cause of death was listed as anoxia due to suffocation.”
— Ash (68:02)

• Difficulties in connecting cases:
  • Crimes span multiple counties and jurisdictions; lack of inter-agency communication prevents connections.
  • Reluctance to officially link the killings in the media.

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7. Systemic Bias, Missed Opportunities, and Law Enforcement’s Blind Spots

• Insensitive language & homophobia (25:44–28:13, 26:16–27:57):
  • Detectives and Kraft’s employer display 70s-era homophobia and cluelessness about “gay tendencies,” which the hosts criticize and poke fun at.
  • Law enforcement's biases repeatedly surface: they easily dismiss runaways, and are suspicious of gay men while also oblivious to actual threats.

“He held his fingers kind of like he was gay. What is a gay finger? I'm not really sure. How is one finger straight? Is there a bisexual finger?”
— Ash and Elena, riffing off a detective and employer quote (27:45)

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8. The Staggering List of Victims and Their Unlucky Paths

• Victim stories (throughout 58:07–75:09):
  • Many victims are portrayed as young men seeking adventure, traveling, escaping family conflicts, or simply serving in the military. Several are last seen hitchhiking.
  • The hosts lament the dismissiveness of authorities when victims are labeled as runaways or otherwise marginalized.

“This poor fellow who was just going to see Disneyland. It broke my heart.”
— Elena (72:15)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On forensic cold cases
  “It's the same kind of thing with John Wayne Gacy, that there was a couple of unidentified victims... Identify people decades and decades later. Don't give up on it.”
  — Elena (12:46)
• On law enforcement’s bias
  “He held his fingers kind of like he was gay. What is a gay finger? ...I've never looked at someone...and been like, ‘You know, I could tell by the way he holds his fingers.’”
  — Elena & Ash (27:22)
• On the magnitude of violence
  “...How am I never hearing about this case ever?...This is top brutality I've ever heard. Top.”
  — Ash & Elena (54:08)
• On heartbreak for victims
  “...Just the fact that he was on vacation here...he was just going to see Disneyland. Absolutely heartbreaking. He was only 19.”
  — Ash & Elena (72:15)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Romcom/levity and personal updates: 02:22–11:26
• Case context, importance: 11:48–13:02
• Kraft first comes on police radar: 15:21–32:38
• Kraft's background and failed institutional response: 33:15–49:10
• Brutal escalation, victim hallmarks: 50:23–55:15
• Victim sequence and freeway murders: 58:07–68:02
• Police reluctance, media spin, and systemic failures: 65:27–68:02
• Final victim rundowns and foreshadowing arrest: 68:02–75:09
• Reflection and emotional winding down: 75:17–76:46

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Tone & Takeaway

While maintaining their signature blend of casual banter and dark humor, Ash and Elena consistently center the victims and spotlight the flaws in the criminal justice response of the time. The episode is heavy, filled with bleak details and empathetic asides. The hosts urge listeners to decompress, show compassion, and look forward to the case’s resolution in the next episode.

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Ending Thoughts:

“...It's a heavy case and it's just upsetting. It really is. And the way it was reported on is upsetting. The things that come out of some of the investigators' mouth is upsetting. The things that come out of some of these employers' mouths is upsetting... But it's a lot. Yeah. So take a minute after that...”
— Elena (76:34)

Next:
Part three will cover Kraft’s final crimes, his arrest, and the aftermath.

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This summary omits sponsorships, ads, and unrelated intro/outro material, preserving the original conversational tone, detail, and focus on the case as presented by Ash and Elena.

Transcript

[A]

Hey weirdos. Before we dive into today's twisted tale, let me tell you about a place where the darkness never ends. Wondery. It's like stepping into a haunted mansion where the floorboards creak with ad free episodes. And early access to new episodes lurks around every corner. So come join us if you dare. Morbid is available one week early and ad free only on Wondery. You can join Wondery in the Wondery app or in Apple podcasts or Spotify.

[B]

You're listening to a morbid network podcast.

[C]

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[B]

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[C]

Hey weirdos. I'm Ash.

[A]

And I'm Elena.

[C]

And this is Morbid.

[A]

Foreign. This is morbid. And this is part two of a very, very intense series. Yeah, yeah. It's not getting better in part two. It's not getting easier in part two. I dare say it's getting worse in part two. Wow. Not really sure how, but it is. It's going to be a three parter, so there will be a resolution.

[C]

When you said he gets apprehended in this part, and I like that part.

[A]

He gets.

[C]

So they get on to him.

[A]

They. They're going. They're getting ideas. All right. You know, he's getting on the radar.

[C]

Are we talking about anything first or.

[A]

We can. We can get into a vibe and then crash it right down. Okay. If you would like.

[C]

Have you ever seen My Best Friend's Wedding?

[A]

You want to hear something funny about me? No.

[C]

You never seen it.

[A]

You'd hate it. No.

[C]

Yeah, you would hate that movie so much.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

But one thing about me is that I love that movie so much. I used to fall asleep to that movie for, like, years. Wow. In my childhood. I love Julia Roberts and I love Cameron Diaz and I like that guy that's in that movie, but I forget his name.

[A]

Yeah. I don't remember.

[C]

Everyone's probably yelling at me, but it's fine. I found out this morning that they're doing a sequel.

[A]

Oh.

[C]

And I'm a little bit nervous, but I think everybody is returning. So. Speaking of part twos.

[A]

Oh, there you. Same thing. Same thing is happening. And I'm very adjacent.

[C]

I'm apprehensively excited. Very adjacent. I just wanted to talk about it.

[A]

Okay. No, I get it. You know what's funny to me is that Julia Roberts always plays. I mean, can we be honest? She always plays that in that movie that, like, steals your man.

[C]

She kind of does.

[A]

She just like. Like America's sweethearts.

[C]

I've never seen that.

[A]

She's that girl.

[C]

She's that.

[A]

She's that girl that steals your man. It's like the.

[C]

She's a mystic people.

[A]

She's always the chill girl. That's like, I'm not like other girls, and I'll just steal your guy.

[C]

Yeah, that's actually pretty fair.

[A]

Like, that's kind of her type in movie.

[C]

I don't think she steals anybody's man. And mystic pizza.

[A]

Maybe she does.

[C]

I don't think she does. I think she's engaged.

[A]

She wanted to probably run away.

[C]

Bride. She's not stealing anyone's man.

[A]

No, but she's running away.

[C]

She finds a man.

[A]

She does. And it's not someone else's.

[C]

Pretty woman. She's not stealing anybody's man.

[A]

No, she Finds a rich man. She just. You know, she's got two movies where you do that. Might be two movies.

[C]

Well, now it could be three, because who knows what's going on?

[A]

Yeah, it might be three, but, yeah, I never saw that. Wow. Because that's what it's about. Right? I just. I remember, like, reading things about it, about it and hearing people talk about it.

[C]

For anybody who hasn't seen My Best Friend's Wedding, this is so. It's, like, from the 90s, but Julia Roberts. I forget her. The name of her in the. I forget who she plays.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

But she loves this guy named Michael, and he's getting married to Cameron Diaz's character named Kimmy. And Kimmy's just, like, crazy, like Cameron Diaz, but we love her. Like, she's adorable and sweet, and I think it's Jules is her name Julia Roberts character. Which should have been easy to remember, but it wasn't.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

But she's basically trying to stop him from making Marrying Kimmy.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

When I said, you would hate it.

[A]

You would hate this movie. Wow, Elena.

[C]

But it's just, like, enjoyable because in the end, spoiler alert, he stays with Kimmy.

[A]

Oh, really?

[C]

When she realizes, like, that she shouldn't have done what she did and she feels bad for it, It's a rom com, so it ends up happy.

[A]

Oh, man. I would. Yeah. Make me angry.

[C]

One time I was crying, and me and Karen watched that movie together, and it's one of my favorite memories.

[A]

I love that a lot. Aside from the crying.

[C]

And so now they're coming out with Part two, and I'm excited. This isn't an ad for it? No, I just heard about it this morning.

[A]

This isn't an ad.

[C]

This isn't an ad for my best friends.

[A]

Weirdly, I know you guys thought it.

[C]

Was, but it just seems like a very random topic.

[A]

What a weird ad to discuss that would have been that I'm just like, yeah, that movie sounds like it sucks. You're like, no, it doesn't. I think it's kind of okay.

[C]

No, it doesn't.

[A]

I know it's a horrible subject, but sure. Yeah.

[C]

But she steals a big delivery truck at one point.

[A]

I can't even say. I can't even talk shit, though, because. I'm sorry. We're just going to talk for a second.

[C]

No, we.

[A]

No, it's.

[C]

Do you know what? I. I saw a lot of people the other day saying that they want us to talk more.

[A]

Oh, I love that.

[C]

That's why I brought up this random topic.

[A]

It's also. This is going to be a very tough episode, and it's a very tough series, so we might as well get some levity in the beginning here. I can't even talk shit about My Best Friend's Wedding because I used to love that movie Something Borrowed, and it's literally probably worse than that.

[C]

Oh, you liked that movie?

[A]

I did like that movie. I hated her character.

[C]

I can't believe you.

[A]

But I like the movie that there's.

[C]

A girl named Darcy in that movie. It's Kate Hudson.

[A]

Kate Hudson. I can.

[C]

Okay, so you might like My Best Friend's Wedding in that case.

[A]

I don't know. I don't know.

[C]

It's very similar vibes.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

It's actually almost exactly the same story, the same premise.

[A]

I think I also love.

[C]

It's actually better because Jules doesn't even sleep with Michael.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[C]

In the timeline, she did at one point.

[A]

Oh.

[C]

But in the timeline.

[A]

In the timeline, you know, like, in.

[C]

The timeline of the wedding, she's.

[A]

I felt like, you know what? It. I felt like Something Borrowed had the same vibe. Says, he's just not that into you. And I also like that it's the same actress. It's like a fun comfort movie, I think, because it's just like. Yes, you can just sit there and just. You can turn into goo watching that movie.

[C]

I read that book when I was, like, 12.

[A]

Did you really? Yeah.

[C]

Something about it.

[A]

When you were 12?

[C]

Yeah, my mom and I used to swap books back and forth that, like, I definitely shouldn't have been reading.

[A]

I love that.

[C]

That bitch loved a beach read.

[A]

She loved a beach read. She did that.

[C]

And the Other Bullen girl, which I wouldn't consider a beach read, but I did read that. Way too young.

[A]

Yeah. You know. Yeah.

[C]

They were talking about that on sup the other day, and I was like, why the fuck did I read that when I did? Yeah, just talking about, like, Anne Boleyn and King Henry viii. Like, fuck in.

[A]

I'm serious.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You were way too young.

[C]

I was way too young to read.

[A]

What's going on there? I don't know. Damn. Yeah. Oh, and speaking of books, you have one you can buy? I have a couple. You can get the paperback version of The Butcher game. August 12th. That comes out. You can pre order it now. Anywhere you want.

[C]

New update. Not only does it fit in your pants pocket, Aliyah is just telling people to put it in their pants.

[A]

Now.

[C]

The book.

[A]

That is. So I did a talk shop live. By the time this comes out, it'll.

[C]

Have happened years ago.

[A]

Cars will be flying. So I don't, I don't think we'll be. I don't think it'll matter, but, but you know, that'll be different later, but by the time this comes out, it won't really matter. But on the Talk Shop Live, I should showed you that you can in fact fit the Butcher Game paperback, which comes out August 12th. And you can pre order it now if you want to, you can fit it in your pants pocket. And I said if you want to put it in your pants, that's your prerogative as well, because you're an adult and I stand by that.

[C]

Okay, I interrupted with the next question because I felt it was going to a weird place, but new development in the Butcher game. In the life of the butcher, you.

[A]

Don'T even have to fold it to fit it in your pants pocket. True. You can just boop right in there. So I was correct. You can put it in your pants.

[C]

She was wearing stretchy pants. If you're wearing jeans, you'll probably have to fold it. And you shouldn't do that.

[A]

But you know, do whatever you want. It's your prerogative. Okay. As long as you read it. That's all I ask.

[C]

Don't, don't just put it in your pants without reading it.

[A]

Yeah, don't just put it in your pants. And you know, like, because, you know, who knows, who knows if there's more, you know, who knows? So put in your pants.

[C]

Okay, sounds good.

[A]

Yeah. So that's the Butcher Game. And also I'm gonna start doing that like, thing where I was, I like, recommended like one book on my Instagram and I was like, oh, I want to do this. And then I just didn't do it again, like an asshole. Yeah, but I've had a lot of you have like messaged me or said you really want me to do that more, do it. So I'm gonna do that more. Yeah. And again, by the time this comes out, hopefully I will have done that already.

[C]

Well, and I feel like it's also something that we could do for the bonus episodes. Like another fun thing. We could, like, you know, who knows what we'll do with those bonus episodes? But we could talk about books because.

[A]

Remember, once we move to Sirius, you're gonna get an extra episode every single month, one week per month. You will not get two episodes. You will get three episodes, an extra.

[C]

One week out of the month.

[A]

And that bonus episode can be anything. So if you guys, you know, have Things that you would like to hear us talk about. You can also suggest it. And maybe we can throw them on those bonus episodes.

[C]

Hell yeah, bro.

[A]

And they'll be for everybody again, they're free, they're for everybody. They're not locked anywhere.

[C]

No.

[A]

But yeah, so that'll be cool. So maybe we can do that to talk about books sometimes. And that'll be fun. I love it because we're so excited for Sirius.

[C]

Did you guys catch that? We kept saying seriously in episodes.

[A]

We've been saying it for a few weeks.

[C]

We would go like, seriously, seriously. Did you guys catch that?

[A]

Seriously.

[C]

Hehehe, ha ha. We're so stealth a loaf.

[A]

Oh, I guess we should probably get into the rest of this case. Cause it's an important case to talk about. It's just a very upsetting one, as you guys probably noted in the first part of it.

[C]

But it's fascinating.

[A]

But it's fascinating, it's upsetting and it's something that needs to be told. Because I did not know about this case before this.

[C]

I think I had heard of like the name, like the monarch's name.

[A]

The moniker. Yeah.

[C]

But not any of the details whatsoever.

[A]

Yeah, I definitely hadn't heard the details. So I feel like it's, it's important to get it out there. These kind of cases that I feel like they kind of like unfortunately can get buried in the history of other. You know, and especially around this time in the 70s, 80s and around this location in California, there's just so many, a lot of serial killers happening. And I think a lot of the, the ones that a lot of people know off the top of their head, Zodiac and Kemper, Ted Bundy, Hillside Stranglers, Charles Manson, all those, those kind of buried it. But this case is so upsetting. And there's so many victims and there's so many victims that are unidentified to this day. It's like crazy.

[C]

That is truly nuts.

[A]

It's the same kind of thing with like John Wayne Gacy, that there was a couple of unidentified victims and a couple of them got, they got identified recently. So it's like we should never forget about these things. Identify people decades and decades later. Don't give up on it.

[C]

Like familial DNA, all the. It's there. Just who knows what's going to, what, what's going to come next.

[A]

So I hope they don't forget about these. No. But yeah, when we last talked, they were. The investigators were trying to profile the killer along with the FBI's Behavioral Science.

[C]

Unit, which Was like super new.

[A]

Super new. Like watch Mindhunter if you're interested in that. I'm telling you that she was so fucking awesome.

[C]

I for no reason fell off the second season.

[A]

I was think get back in there when you.

[C]

I think you said it during part one. I need to finish that.

[A]

You got to get back into Mind Hunter.

[C]

I think I might just like rewatch it.

[A]

That show not continuing is a travesty. I know. Because it is one of the most. I'm not going on a long tangent, I promise, but it is one of the most well done. Yeah. Shows and the cast is perfect. I cannot believe how well they did on that show. Like, that show is honestly one of my top shows. And the fact that it didn't go past two seasons is really gross. But go watch those two seasons. Cause they're worth it. But yeah, in the last episode we talked about how they were coming up with a profile for this killer. And it was helping them with a few things. Like, you know, that there was probably more victims than the investigators even knew about at that time, that they hadn't discovered that were connected to this killer. That the killer was not somebody who was gonna feel guilt or remorse, was not gonna be one of those people that turns themselves in or begs the police to stop them because they can't help themselves. He doesn't give a shit.

[C]

No.

[A]

And also that it was unlikely that he was ever gonna stop unless he was caught. He was never gonna stop on his own volition. No. So again, this was. I mean, this was a really great profile to have, but it wasn't exactly leading them to anyone because they had nothing to go on at this point. And within a couple of months of the last murder, which was Craig Jonaitis, the killer, was out again. It didn't take long. Like he was not taking time between these instances. And on the morning of March 29, 1975, 19 year old Keith Crotwell caught a ride with some friends down to San Diego, which was about 40 miles from his home. And he was going to be spending the day at the beach. This was something that he had done a million times before. He did it alone, he did it with friends. This was nothing different.

[C]

I think most California teenagers could relate. A beach day with their friends.

[A]

Yeah, very routine. That afternoon Keith met up with his friend, 15 year old Kent May. And they just hung out all afternoon. It was getting near midnight and they started to notice that while the parking lot had mostly cleared out by them, there was still one man standing nearby just watching them.

[C]

I hate that.

[A]

Yeah. Ew. The man came over and started talking to them and just started chatting. But they said they both. They felt pretty uneasy by his presence, and they just didn't. They didn't like his overall vibe, but they weren't, like, scared of him. It was just like, this is a little uncomfortable.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

A little off putting. Yeah. A few minutes later, the two boys and their new friend were back at this man's car now, which was a 1974 black and white Mustang. And this stranger gave them two beers. And, you know, they're teenagers. Just hands them. He's a grown man.

[C]

That's bad.

[A]

Hands them to two teenagers. And they all get in the car and went for a ride. And as learned through interviews later, May and Crotwell knew there was a certain risk with, you know, accepting rides or substances from strangers. But Crotwell said, or May said, that he, quote, deferred to Crotwell's judgment because he was the younger one. So he's deferring to the older ones. And since Keith thought the guy was all right, Kent decided there was really nothing to worry about. He's 15. Yeah. He's just looking.

[C]

What's the amount of dumbass situations I got myself into at 15 because I was, like, following my older friends.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

I get it.

[A]

Is it recommended? No, but it's 10 out of 10. Yeah. Not long after leaving the beach parking lot, the driver started passing around pills. Oh, fuck. And Crotwell quickly and easily identified these as Valium. That's not a. I remember in part one, Valium was something found in one of the victims. Yeah.

[C]

And also, like, no one's taken Valium to party.

[A]

Like, what the. And he warned Kent to go easy on the drugs. Crotwell. Keith did. It wasn't the first time either of them had taken tranquilizers. So they each popped a pill and they were just waiting for, you know, whatever to set in. But within 15 minutes after that, Kent said he started to feel something coming, but then it, like, left really quick. And what left him. What it left him with was like a numbing effect. Like a very powerful numbing effect. And he described on it bordering on catatonia. The fuck? Yeah.

[C]

Doesn't Valium, like, chill you out to a. I've never done Valium.

[A]

Does it. I thought it chill you out, but this was, like, to a numbing degree. Valium isn't supposed to numb you out into oblivion. Like, especially one. Yeah. You know, so this felt like it had something different from where he was sitting. Keith seemed to be experiencing the same effect as well. And the driver though, seemed to be stone cold sober. They drove around for what seemed like a long time, but Kent May said it was very hazy. He could recall very little of this trip. It was just like kind of in and out. I mean he's been drugged at this point. At some point Kent passed out in the backseat and the next thing he knew he was waking up in his own bed at home. What the fuck? And he said the sunlight was coming through his windows like middle of the day. That's horrifying. He said. The night before, total blank to him after that, after passing out, couldn't remember basic things like how he'd gotten home. And fortunately, Kent's roommate Terry Dittmar was able to fill in some of the gaps for him. According to Dittmar, he and his brother Frank had been partying at the home of another friend that night and decided to call it a night. A little after midnight, after settling in at home, Terry stepped outside for some fresh air when a black and white Mustang pulled into the parking lot and the passenger side door opened and Kent came tumbling out of the car. Oh, kicked out of the car. Terry ran over to help his friend up and when he looked in the car he saw Keith Crotwell in the front side and he was passed out. Later, Dittmar would describe the driver to the authorities as, quote, a confident sober face, accented with dark bushy brows, blonde hair and cold blank shark size. Oh, not shark size. Fucks me up.

[C]

Yeah, that, cuz that, that is.

[A]

Yeah, that's, that's a description as hell. Yeah, that's intense.

[C]

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[A]

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[C]

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[A]

Several days passed and still no one had heard anything from Keith.

[C]

And he's the older boy.

[A]

He's the older one. So the roommate, Dittmar and Kent May convinced their parents to file a missing persons report for Keith. Yeah, Keith had come from a kind of troubled home and was living with friends at the time. So the police just assumed he was a runaway.

[C]

Very 70s.

[A]

It wasn't until six weeks later that they learned how very, very wrong they were on the afternoon because of that.

[C]

It would have, like, it wouldn't have been as long for them to realize that people weren't runaways because they were still doing that in the 80s.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

It's like all these people you lost in the 70s and realized that they hadn't just run away, they'd actually been a serial killer.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Can we, can we just have a process for this?

[A]

Can we change this way of thinking? Yeah. And instead of assuming because also, again, overreact. If he's a runaway, then cool, you'll Find out he's a runaway.

[C]

He must not have gotten far.

[A]

And, yeah, you put some energy into it, but you found out that he ran away. And you can give up now, but if you do it, flip it the other way, it always turns out bad. Yeah, it never turns out good. Now, in the afternoon of May 8, three teenagers at the Long Beach Marina were climbing over a rocky wall in search of small crabs and, you know, other marine life around there. At the end of a jetty around 300 yards offshore, and one of them spotted something wedged in the rocks. The object had clearly been in the water for a few weeks and been worn down by the constant movement of water over the surface. But it was pretty easily identifiable for what had had one spin. It was a human head. Oh, they saw a human head wedged into some rocks at the end of a jetty.

[C]

That is awful.

[A]

Yeah. Investigators and divers scoured the area all afternoon, but they weren't able to find anything additional. They just found the head. A few days later, a local dentist was able to identify the skull as matching the dental X rays of Keith Crotwell. Once the skull had been identified and the Crotwell and Dittmar families got in touch with investigators and gave them the information about the man in the black and white Mustang that they'd seen with Keith the night before he disappeared. Unfortunately, Kent may still couldn't remember anything from that night, but the lead about the car was still a good one. And if they could find its owner, there was a good chance that Terry Dittmar could identify him because he was the one who saw him.

[C]

His Gary Sharkey's.

[A]

Yeah. Without a body or any forensic evidence, there was no way for the medical examiner to identify how Keith had died or what happened in the hours leading up to his death. He's literally got nothing, you know, without the presence of what would become the killer's signatures, at that point, investigators really didn't have a reason to connect Keith's death either without, like, strangulation involved. Yeah. But investigators spread out across the area around Long Beach Marina in search of that Mustang and its driver. They went door to door. They were talking to witnesses, anything they could. And five days later, they discovered a car matching the description provided by Dittmar.

[C]

Nice.

[A]

It was parked in front of an apartment building less than one mile from the beach. Whoa. A search of the DMV records indicated the car belonged to Randy Steven Kraft. Hey, I know that name. It was a man who'd recently relocated to the area from an address in Orange County. None of the neighbors seemed to know Kraft or even recognize the name though. But fortunately for detectives, one of the local mayoral carries knew the name and were like, this is where he lives. Here you go. When Detective Mike Woodward knocked on the door and very average looking man appeared and invited him right into the apartment.

[C]

Average.

[A]

From all appearances, Randy Kraft was a perfectly ordinary middle class man. Pretty indistinguishable from the countless other people living on the beach. Yeah, he did not stand out. I get did occur to Woodward early on in their exchange that Craft, apparently he. He gleaned this by some something that he was gay. Okay. He just said he knew. He said he spoke with a very mild timid type voice and he appeared to me to have some gay tendencies. That is a direct quote.

[C]

I wish you could see the side eye that I'm doing right now. The phrase what are gay tendencies?

[A]

Thank you. The phrase gay tendencies.

[C]

What are gay tendencies? Aside from sleeping with a male?

[A]

And how does one appear?

[C]

Did you watch, did you see him sleep with a male?

[A]

That's the thing. How do you. You appear to have them.

[C]

No, you don't.

[A]

How do you just appear to see gay tendencies in someone? You don't. It's a very strange way.

[C]

That's just being a judgmental.

[A]

Very seventies. Very seventies. I just want to know what he.

[C]

Did that the guy was like gay.

[A]

He was like, must be gay. Jesus Christ. So Randy Kraft's boss at Aztec Aircraft would later confirm Woodward's suspicion. Again, this is all going to be very offensive, but it's coming from 70s detectives and men. So just, just you know, know that this is his employer. Okay. At Aztec.

[C]

Sorry, Randy's employer?

[A]

Yes, Randy's employer. He told Detective Woodward, he was like, yes, you are correct. He's so gay. He said, and I quote, oh no, he was a little bit affected. He held his fingers kind of like he was gay. How do you hold your fingers like you're gay? And talked effeminate a little. But he was a very good employee. People just talked like that.

[C]

Like the gayness didn't affect his work.

[A]

I gotta know. He held his fingers kind of like he was gay. What is a gay finger? I'm not really sure. How is one finger straight? Is there a bisexual finger? Like where. Where Mikey's trying to show me right now.

[C]

Is there bisexual finger?

[A]

I'm just confused. That's a weird statement. It is. I've never looked at someone.

[C]

It didn't affect his work at all.

[A]

Didn't affect his work.

[C]

His sexual preference never affected his work.

[A]

He wasn't out here kissing dudes while he was working. And it's like, yeah, okay, this is.

[C]

This is making me so angry.

[A]

My entire.

[C]

I need to see if my worrying is like, you're stressed right now.

[A]

You're stressed right now. He held his fingers kind of like he was gay. I'm never. Get over that guy.

[C]

Go yourself. I'm engaged right now, by the way.

[A]

You're engaged?

[C]

Engaged on my.

[A]

You're engaged to be married. Engaged to be angry. I'm engaged to be angry. But a simple check into Kraft's background proved that not only was he a good employee, but he was also held in high regard by just about anyone who knew him. All right. According to author Dennis McDougall, Kraft, quote, had a reputation among his friends for loyalty, caring, and an even tempered nature.

[C]

Damn, that's terrifying.

[A]

He also had no arrest record or any interactions with law enforcement. How the fuck did he. And even the bartenders at the nearby Ripples bar, which we talked about before, spoke very highly of him. What? And while it was true he was. He did happen to be gay, there was a large percentage of the population in the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long beach that was also gay. So, like, it's not the only one.

[C]

There's gay people in the Long Beach.

[A]

There's more gay people than just you. Believe it. Yeah. And that fact, even with the presence of the black and white Mustang, didn't make him a killer. So, I mean, you can't just rely on that. What do you have? You gotta have some forensic evidence here. Initially, when he was asked about the night Keith Crotwell went missing, Kraft denied having met either boy and claimed he was somewhere else that night. But Woodward didn't believe him and asked him to come to the station and talk to him and said, take your.

[C]

Gay fingers down to the station.

[A]

And I think it was like, you do have a black and white Mustang and you are a mile away from this. Yeah, I mean, we better talk to you. But at the station, Kraft continued to deny that he picked up Kent and Keith that night. But eventually, after a little more talking, his story started to change. Actually, he said he was walking to his car after leaving Ripples when he saw a young couple in the parking lot arguing. Yeah. Kraft told him, quote, finally, the girl had eventually had it. And I believe she got in the car and left with some people. And the guy comes over and was talking to me right there in my car. What? Kraft claimed that the guy who's talking to him, meaning Keith, was soon Joined by another man and that they all had beer and decided to go for a drive.

[C]

Not a man, honey.

[A]

A 15 year old. Exactly. Kraft claimed that the three of them drove around for a while, then they returned to the parking lot, where Kent got out of the car and rejoined his friends. Nope. But Keith wanted to keep drinking, so Kraft kept driving with him. At that point in the interview, Kraft's story began to spin out into a very convoluted story about Keith driving the car and getting it stuck in the mud. At which point, Randy decided to walk several miles to a restaurant where he called his roommate for help and left Keith with the car.

[C]

He left a stranger with his car.

[A]

Here's something.

[C]

After letting a stranger drive his car.

[A]

Everybody should learn this right now. The more details that come spinning out and the more convoluted it comes, the more they are lying. Yeah, there's not. No, you don't. You don't need all those details. When you call in sick for work.

[C]

When you're really doing something else and you get way too detailed with it and your boss is like, yeah, come on in.

[A]

Yeah, like I know you're bullshitting me. Now, when Kraft got back to the car, he said Keith was nowhere to be found. He told Woodward, we were pretty drunk. So, you know, it crossed my mind that he might have passed out. And when he finally got the car unstuck, you know, from the mud, Kraft says he went out to get some breakfast and didn't think another thing about Keith Crotwell. Okay. He just disappeared. That's not my problem.

[C]

Crazy that you were, like, the last person to see him before he disappeared and his head was found wedged into a jetty.

[A]

Yeah, it's crazy. Investigators checked out Kraft's story with his roommate, J.E. graves, who confirmed that Kraft had called him for help that night and he met him at a restaurant. They even went as far as driving out to the area where he claimed the car had become stuck. And they discovered a service road with tire ruts deep enough to have caused trouble for a driver. Okay. These two discoveries seemed to confirm Kraft's story. Yeah. Yet something about the whole thing was feeling right to Woodward and his partner. They at least had that sense of, like, something's off here. Well, that's good. The detective decided there was enough suspicion and there was enough circumstantial evidence to file charges against Kraft for the potential killing of Keith Grotwell. But when he brought it to the case to the district attorney, he was told, forget about it.

[C]

I kind of get that there's really.

[A]

Not a lot there. They said they don't have a body, just a head. And there's no forensic evidence tying Kraft to this head. Yeah. All they had was conflicting stories, and that wasn't enough to build the case. And to be honest, you wouldn't be.

[C]

Able to convince a jury on that. No way.

[A]

You didn't have enough there at all.

[C]

Like, if I didn't know the outcome, I'd be. I'd still be sitting here.

[A]

Like, I don't know if I even did all this. Yeah. I don't know. The coroner's official cause of death for Keith Crotwell is listed as accidental drowning still. And the rest of his remains are believed to have sunk somewhere in the ocean. Oh, they never found them. Yeah. Where even if they were discovered, they would obviously be too badly damaged to be of any use in any criminal case. Woodward and his partner did the best to keep the case alive, but after a month or so of inaction, other cases came in and they were just given priority, and it kind of got shoved to the side. That's really sad. Yeah. So who is Randy Kraft, though?

[C]

Please, tell me everything.

[A]

Who just entered the chat here? So, for five years, investigators had just spun their wheels and just tried and tried to no avail to connect these murders in a case where the. Where the killer had left absolutely not one shred of evidence to lead to him. Now, they finally had some suspect, at least something, you know, like this is at least in one of the cases that they believe is connected, but they couldn't come up with anything to hold him, so now he's there, and they can't hold him still. That didn't stop detectives from looking into Kraft's background. And much of what they learned in hindsight fit a more modern profile of a serial killer, to be honest. So Randy Kraft was born March 19, 1945, in Los Angeles, California. That doesn't make him. Is he an Aries? Pisces. Yeah.

[C]

He's right on the cusp, though, because March 21st is Aries.

[A]

I don't know what that means, but Pisces. You know what?

[C]

I will say, ever since I started taking my astrology class, you really can't glean all the information about one person just based on their sun sign. But Pisarian people are usually very dreamy.

[A]

Okay, that's interesting.

[C]

They're usually, like, artsy.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

But I'm assuming he doesn't really have the positive qualities of a Pisrian.

[A]

No, I don't think he's got Those he doesn't have a lot of positive attributes. He was the fourth child born to Harold in Opal Craft.

[C]

That's a pretty name.

[A]

I know. Isn't that adorable? According to Dennis McDougall, the obstetrician, and this is a quote, the obstetrician who delivered him reported no congenital malformations, no birth injuries, and no complications.

[C]

Hey, that's great.

[A]

It's great. Normal births, sick. Congrats. Good news. That's awesome.

[C]

That's what you're trying to hear.

[A]

Super happy about that. The family lived in Long beach, where Harold and Opal worked the production lines and Douglas Aircraft. Meanwhile, at home, Randy's three older sisters watched over and doted on their baby brother while their parents were at work. Cute. According to his sister Doris, Randy was, quote, a very calm baby, but that didn't prevent him from getting hurt every now and then.

[C]

Yeah, he's a kid.

[A]

A little after his first birthday, he fell off a couch and broke his collarbone, which is upsetting. Then a year later, while the family was looking at a new house, he fell down the front steps and hit his head on the concrete and actually lost consciousness. Oh, that's not good, Harold.

[C]

And we don't love an early head injury.

[A]

We hate an early head injury. Harold and Opal rushed him to the nearest hospital, and he did regain consciousness and was released to his parents. And they said there was no complications later.

[C]

But they also didn't have a lot of information or insight into that.

[A]

No, they did not. As the only boy in this family, he was definitely spoiled by his parents, very doted on, treated better than his sisters could ever remember being treated by their parents.

[C]

If you have a brother and only one brother, you totally know that's how that goes.

[A]

Yeah. In fact, while the entire family was very, very devoutly religious and very active in their church community, Randy didn't really have an interest in church. And so he didn't want to attend and he didn't have to, but the girls had to.

[C]

That's such bullshit.

[A]

I think that's such bullshit. So of the time, also, none of his sisters recall Kraft being abused in any way at home or anywhere else in the community. And any medical records that would have shown abuse are gone. So, like, it doesn't. But obviously we can't tell for sure if he was abused or not. But we do know that nobody in his home, school, or anywhere else in his community reported or thought there was any abuse present in that home.

[C]

He ends up saying that he was abused. Huh.

[A]

It's just it's just one of those things. Okay, so at school, Randy was quickly singled out by teachers for being highly intelligent. Oh, and he was placed in very accelerated classes very early on. He was, according to McDougal, who We have cited in the show notes, he was, quote, a likable egghead, always good to crib homework assignments from, but not a first round draft choice for the flag football team.

[C]

All right.

[A]

You know, but while Randy was clearly a good and capable student, he wasn't always compliant. And his former teacher, Lee Manley said he was one of those people who felt the rules didn't apply to him, which is not great. When he wasn't in class, he played saxophone in the school band and would be found otherwise with his two best friends, Billy Manson and Paul Whitson. They dubbed themselves the Three Musketeers. They were like inseparable and they weren't really exactly inclusive when it came to other students. But like they were very tight nipped group. Okay. They always managed to be looked upon pretty well by their peers and, you know, they succeeded in, you know, romantic endeavors from time to time. They didn't have trouble with the ladies. All right. But you know, Manson recalled later, there were a batch of girls that we ended up spending a lot of time with, with, in rotation almost.

[C]

What a way to put that, sir. I said, wow, Dang. Billy, Billy.

[A]

Damn.

[C]

I bet those girls wouldn't like to hear that.

[A]

Yeah. Holy.

[C]

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[D]

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[A]

Now, years later, Randy Kraft would acknowledge that he knew he was gay at this time, obviously, but he never let on to anyone else. And it seems that no one ever did suspected it either. Okay, that's just how it was.

[C]

Nobody saw his gay fingers back then.

[A]

Nobody noted. Nobody noticed his gay fingers. Yeah, yeah. Gay fingers goes crazy. That goes crazy. So it turned out that although Randy was genuinely liked, you know, by his peers, by adults in his life, not everyone thought highly of him, which I don't think anything. You can never get. 10 out of 10, Steve Manley said, which was one of his friends. I didn't trust him and I didn't like him. Shit. All right, so this was one of Steve Manley.

[C]

Put it blunt.

[A]

This wasn't like one of the Three Musketeers, obviously. It was like an acquaintance of his, but like, he didn't like him. Apparently he was four years younger than Randy and was in the same Boy Scouts troupe with Kraft. He said he was the kind of person who'd say one thing to the parents and then do almost the opposite. I didn't ever feel comfortable around him and I never understood why. Guy, huh? So that guy had, like, a gut. Yeah. After graduating from high school, Randy was accepted to Claremont Men's College on an academic scholarship. And in the fall of 1963, he began his first year. He participated in Claremont's Reserve Officers Training Corps program. Rotc. It's a military training program designed to, like, you know, it helps students pay for college, also kind of training them to go into the military.

[C]

They had that at my. One of my high schools.

[A]

Yeah, ROTC is a pretty common thing. Yeah. But by 1965, the war in Vietnam was ramping up a little bit, and many young people, Kraft included, began speaking out against the military activity in Southeast Asia. It was a very big movement. Randy had always been interested in politics, so the war gave him something to speak out against. He felt he also. He wanted to pursue a political career. At one point. He was very interested in that. Most of his teenage and young adult life, he spoke out very actively, politically. Wow. In the summer of 1966, he moved to Huntington beach with a friend from college. And that same year, he was arrested there after he was picked up in a vice raid on one of the known cruising spots by the beach, and he was charged with lewd conduct. Oh, so there was that.

[C]

Or nor.

[A]

So it is funny that later he was found to have no arrest record.

[C]

Yeah, because he was arrested.

[A]

Fortunately, he was let go with a warning because it was his first offense.

[C]

Was he 18 at this point? He might have been, like, 17.

[A]

That's a great point. Yeah, it might have been that. But he was living a secret life at this point. Nobody knew who he really was. You know, he wasn't out, but he was also trying to maintain this, like, public Persona a little bit, and it was taking a toll on him. Yeah, that's a lot. I imagine that is very tough. Later that year, he developed serious anxiety, and it led to migraines, stomach problems, and this led to him becoming a regular user of Valium and other painkillers. In 1968, Randy was out of college, and his deferment, which had kept him out of the army, had expired. So he was going to be drafted. He decided to be proactive, and he joined the Air Force. He figured it was safer than the army or the Marines. That was just his reasoning. After enlisting, he was sent to Texas for boot camp and technical training. But rather than being sent to fight in Vietnam, he was assigned to the Air Force Test center as a protective coding specialist, also known as a painter of test planes, which is interesting. That's cool. Things got worse. The Next year, though, because he did come out to his family the next year, According to Dennis McDougall, quote, his father went into a rage, howling that no son of his could possibly turn out queer. His mother was more understanding if disapproving. She held out hopes that he was just going through a phase and would get over it.

[C]

That's the worst thing you could ever say to your kid when they come out as gay. Not the worst, but it's up there.

[A]

Horrifically traumatic. Yeah. Coming.

[C]

Don't ever say to your kid like, this is just a face.

[A]

Because don't ever say to your. Don't just. Why don't you be who they are.

[C]

And trust them when they tell you who they are?

[A]

You should. Look, your love for your child should not be conditional. It just shouldn't.

[C]

If you're worried that you're gonna have a gay kid, you probably just shouldn't have a kid.

[A]

Yeah. Because guess what? What? Just have a kid.

[C]

Chances are pretty high.

[A]

Who gives a. Yeah. As long as they love a consenting adult, you know, like together, like, it's like, that's. As long as they're not hurting anybody and no one's hurting them. Yep. What are you disapproving of? Yeah.

[C]

Let them live their life.

[A]

Let them live. Randy's sister K, on the other hand, blamed his sexuality on having attended an all male college. But she tried to be sympathetic and understanding of his situation. Regardless of whatever attempts Kay made. Randy's relationship with his family was very strained after this.

[C]

I can imagine.

[A]

And it appeared to worsen his anxiety. Yeah. Although his family wasn't supportive, he did find a supportive community outside of the family. He frequented bars in the area and started actually going on dates. Like, just starting to actually, like, live authentically, you know. Unfortunately, as he suspected, his newfound openness got him discharged from the military. Insane. Yeah. But he was given a general discharge rather than a dishonorable one. Whatever positive feelings he may have had at this point of his, like, you know, being so authentic and being who he was, there was no denying at this point that being openly gay in the 60s and 70s had a lot of drawbacks. Yeah. It came with, unfortunately. For one thing, it pretty much destroyed any chance he had at running for public office, which he was interested in. And that had been like a dream of his, to be honest. And since being out had earned him a discharge, he found himself unemployed, which. Which means he couldn't pay his rent.

[C]

Yeah, That's a very tough position to be in.

[A]

As a result, he had to move back in with his parents and found a job tending bar at one of the local bars. The arrest for lewd conduct a few years earlier had been Randy's first experience with the law enforcement, but it certainly wasn't going to be his last. In March 1970, 13 year old runaway Joseph Fancher went to the police in Long Beach. 13 years old, and reported that Randy Kraft had picked him up hitchhiking and taken him back to his apartment where he gave him drugs and alcohol. What Joseph didn't tell police at the time was that after giving him drugs and alcohol, Kraft had repeatedly sexually assaulted him. Oh, no. Years later, when he was asked why he didn't tell this information to the authorities, Joseph replied, how do you tell something like that to your mom? Something you don't understand yourself? Yeah. At 13 years old, 13, that will.

[C]

Change you for a long, long, long time.

[A]

Poor baby. I know. In his courtroom testimony given to nearly two decades later, Joseph Fancher explained that he'd met Kraft at the Huntington beach pier and the man had taken him back to his apartment where he showed him black and white porn and offered to find a woman for him to have sex with. He was 13.

[C]

Jesus.

[A]

Eventually he started showing him boy images of himself having sex with other men and then he gave him a large amount of pills and wine and sexually assaulted him. After the whole ordeal was over, Fancher got dressed and left the apartment. But he was stumbling so much because he was very inebriated that a passerby stopped and helped him to a nearby restaurant and somebody called an ambulance. It's very reminiscent of Jeff. Jeffrey Dahmer. Yeah. Fearing that no one would believe him and knowing that an accusation could reflect badly on him him, Joseph chose not to tell anybody about the sexual assault. Just lived with that.

[C]

That's a lot for a 13 year old to just stuff down.

[A]

According to Joseph, police took the report of him having been drugged and physically assaulted and got a warrant to search Kraft's apartment. But because Joseph had admitted to taking the drugs voluntarily, which I'm like, he's 13, he can't take drugs to do that. Like, let's be real. The officers had no cause to arrest Kraft and ultimately it just went nowhere. The report. Yeah.

[C]

What a world we used to have.

[A]

So in the aftermath of the whole thing, Joseph claims his family abandoned him, at which point he descended into a life of petty crime and substance abuse that plagued him for decades.

[C]

His family abandoned him because he came forward with this.

[A]

Isn't that awful?

[C]

Yeah, what a shit family.

[A]

In the years after that Randy got involved with several people, but none were really long term dating prospects. He was just dating around. In fact, it wasn't until he met Jeff Graves, who Detective Woodward assumed to be his roommate, that Randy started dating someone seriously.

[C]

Oh, so he was actually his partner.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. But in the beginning, when Woodward talks about it, he's like, oh, it was his roommate. In the meantime, his mom.

[C]

His disapproving mom.

[A]

Yeah, that's just his friend. That's just his friend. In the meantime, he found more steady work at the aircraft factory, working with electronics. And for the first time in his life, he was feeling like he was starting to make something for himself. But then he ran into a streak of bad luck. Starting in 1975, being picked up and questioned in the Crotwell case was just the first of many frustrations. So we're up to the point where he is picked up for the Crotwell case. So he's already been through some shit before that. Not long after he was questioned by Woodward, Randy was laid off from his job at the aircraft factory and began working as an independent computer consultant. And it's wildly inconsistent work. Barely paid enough for him to get by. Then at the end of 1975, he and Jeff Graves relationship ended and Graves moved out.

[C]

Because Graves was like, hey, why are the police here?

[A]

Yeah, he's like, something is wrong here. It seemed to Randy like everything he'd worked to achieve in the previous 10 years had just slipped away in a matter of months. Now, years later, the significance of Kraft being questioned in the Crotwell case case would not be lost on investigators. For four years, they had been searching for a brutal killer who'd left more than a dozen bodies. But they'd made almost no progress. Yeah. And although they didn't know it at the time, they had the man they'd been looking for in their custody pretty briefly. But without any evidence to charge him with a crime, they just had to let him go. Maybe it was because of all the chaos happening in his life at the time, or maybe the arrest scared him. But whatever it was, Randy Kraft's killing spree, which had been averaging a new victim every five or six weeks. Yeah. Came to an abrupt halt after he was interviewed by Detective Woodward. Scared him. Then, on January 3, 1976, an off duty Santa Ana police officer was riding a dune buggy with friends near Silverado Canyon when they came upon the body of 22 year old mark Hall. According to his friends, Mark hall had gone out drinking with another friend on New Year's Eve. And they had visited a bar before. Attending a party at a friend's apartment later in the night at the party hall. Drank a lot and smoked some pot. But by the end of the night, he was like, very intoxicated. He's at a party? Yeah. Deciding they wanted to go to another party, hall and his friend walked about two blocks to another friend's apartment. But by the time they got there, Mark was so drunk that he passed out as soon as he leaked down on the couch. You know, whatever happens. Later that night, when the party was kind of winding down, Mark's friend Philip Homer was looking for him so they could leave together. But according to Homer, Mark was nowhere to be found. Assuming his friend had found it. Just another way to go home. Homer eventually left the party and figured he'd just check on Mark the next afternoon after he slept it off. A few days later, Mark's body was discovered just feet from the road. To anyone familiar with the other murders and the circumstances in which the bodies were discovered, there was really no doubt that Markal was a victim of the same killer. But this time, everything seemed a little worse. If you can imagine that Markhall's body was nude and he had clearly been tortured brutally before death. His mouth and trachea were, quote, densely packed with dirt and leaves. Oh. Which the coroner believed had become impacted from his having been force fed debris.

[C]

What the fuck?

[A]

He was alive when it was shoved down his throat.

[C]

Like force fed dirt and debris.

[A]

Dirt and leaves and debris. Jesus. He had also been burned with a car cigarette across various parts of his body. A car cigarette lighter. Excuse me. With various parts of his body, including his eyes, nose, and nipples. And his genitals had been removed while he was alive. Most of this was done while he was alive. The medical examiner also found that a swizzle stick had been shoved into his urethra, into his bladder. Oh, my God. And the genitals had been inserted into his rectum. I didn't know it could get worse, but it got worse. It sure did. Like, how. How. How am I never hearing about this case ever? Yeah.

[C]

That's insane.

[A]

I'm. That's the thing. Like, this is one of the worst.

[C]

Any of these details ever, ever, ever.

[A]

This is nuts. This is top brutality I've ever heard. Top and I. It's. Oh. And nearby the body, the detective discovered a broken bottle with blood on it, which they believe was used to cut the body post mortem. Wow.

[C]

A broken bottle.

[A]

Yeah. There were also clear ligature marks around Hall's neck and the medical examiner listed the cause of death as a combination of alcohol poisoning and suffocation from the blockage in the airway, he suffocated on the debris that was shoved down his head.

[C]

Of course he did.

[A]

Yeah. At the time of death, Hall's blood alcohol level was 0.67. For context, a blood alcohol level of around 0.45 or 0.50 would pretty much result in death. Wow. So hall was well beyond that at the time of his death. Later, when the evidence and photographs were shown in the courtroom, the prosecutor referred to this as the worst of Kraft's murder due to the brutality and the extent of the wounds and the fact that the victim was alive when most of these injuries were inflicted. Yeah.

[C]

Like that is used a car lighter to burn his eyes.

[A]

Unthinkable. Yeah. Now, initially, investigators were hesitant to publicly declare Hall a victim of the same killer, which is shocking to me.

[C]

I mean, he escalated so much.

[A]

For sure he did.

[C]

But still, I mean, you. That's kind of to be expected after.

[A]

A cool off period, I would think. That's the thing. And they did acknowledge that while it was sheer speculation, there were similarities in the murders. Yeah, I understand. They're trying not to, like, jump the gun and again, create mass hysteria. More importantly, this time, the killer hadn't gotten away with leaving no evidence. This time, because on the broken bottle used to slash Hall's body, forensic investigators found a latent fingerprint that didn't. Didn't belong to the victim. Nice. Because it had been used to cut the victim, it stood to reason that the thumbprint on the glass belonged to the killer. Yeah. Unfortunately, when the print was run through the database, it didn't match any prints on file.

[C]

Run it through another database.

[A]

That left detectives waiting for another victim in the hope that the next crime scene could produce maybe a little more evidence.

[C]

You just can't talk to somebody else with a different database.

[A]

Because the most frustrating that wait turned out to be much longer than anyone had predicted. But for a killer who had been leaving victims with, like, very consistently and quickly, the unknown suspect had seemingly disappeared after this murder. In the months that followed, authorities in California had arrest arrested Patrick Kearney, who confessed to the murder and dismemberment of 28 boys and men over the span of 15 years. Jeez. @ first, it seemed as though investigators first finally caught the person responsible, but, like, for these killings. But the hope definitely fell apart quickly, because when the cases were compared, there were similarities, but there were far more dissimilarities. Most importantly, all of Kearney's victims had been shot in the head. Oh, and there was no evidence of torture in those cases.

[C]

Yeah, that's very different.

[A]

Ultimately, investigators would wait nearly two years before they had their next crime scene.

[C]

And how many more people lost their lives?

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

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[A]

On April 16, 1978, Anaheim Police received a call about the discovery of a body laying about five feet from the road beside the on ramp and the riverside highway. When they arrived, they found the fully clothed body of 18 year old Scott Michael Hughes, a marine stationed at nearby Camp Pendleton. The third person, Hughes, had obviously got your marks around his neck, which were consistent with a belt. And his body showed signs of road burn, indicating that he was pushed from a slow moving vehicle. Medical examiner listed the cause of death as cerebral anoxia, which was the result of strangulation. There was also anti mortem abrasions, possibly from being tossed out of a moving vehicle. And the killer had cut open Hughes. This is horrifying and brutal, just putting that out there. The killer had cut open his scrotum and removed one of his testicles. There was no sign of alcohol in his system at the time of his death. But the medical examiner did note diazepam was present at about three times the therapeutic level. Wow. Which would have caused sleepiness and mental confusion. According to administrators at Camp Pendleton on April 14, Hughes had told another marine that he was planning to hitchhike to Washington to visit his brother, who was suffering from cancer. After which he was scheduled to be reassigned to a base in Okinawa, Japan. Wow. So he's gonna be completely out of here. The next time anyone saw Scott was two days later when his body was found on the freeway. Also, the crime scene itself yielded few clues and almost no evidence. Again, but there was very distinct carpet fibers found on the victim's body, which were collected, and they hoped that they could at least use them in some way. For two years, there had been silence, and it seemed like he had come back and was apparently trying to make up for lost time. Because in the early morning hours of June 11, just two months after the murder of Scott Hughes, a driver on Irvine Center Drive called the police. Police to report she saw what she thought was a body on the side of the road. About 20 minutes later, a Santa Ana firefighter called police with a similar report. And the officers were sent to the scene where they found the lifeless body of 23 year old Ronald Roland Young. Just hours before the body was discovered, Young had been released from the custody of the Orange County Sheriff's Department after being picked up on a misdemeanor charge of public drunkenness. They had let him sober, so he was totally sober when he was let out. Investigators theorize that after being released from custody, he was likely picked up by the killer when hitchhiking. Yeah. Which is like, what the fuck? What are the odds? To those familiar with the case, this was very eerily familiar. Crime scene. Young wasn't wearing a shirt, but the killer had obviously redressed him and everything else, which always gives me the willies. I don't know what it is. He wasn't wearing a left shoe or his belt. He was also missing the shoelaces from his right shoe. And his jeans weren't soaking wet from a large amount of blood. During the autopsy, the medical examiner noted that his cause of death was blood loss following four stab wounds to the chest, all of which struck the heart. Oh, wow. This was a deviation from the killer's usual method of strangulation. But there were other hallmarks. Yeah. According to the medical examiner at. And this is a quote, at or near the time of death, a sharp knife had been used to cut the scrotal sac and remove one testicle and some skin from the penis.

[C]

Sorry, you said while he was still alive?

[A]

Yeah, at or near the time of death. Okay. Young's blood alcohol at the time of death was around the legal limit, 0.08. But there's a large amount of Valium in his system, which when combined with the alcohol, would have made him lethargic if not unconscious. Definitely. Detectives on the Young case had barely begun processing this evidence on June 19th when a Los Angeles firefighter discovered the body of 20 year old Richard Keith laying on the side of Moulton Parkway. Like most of the other victims, Keith had been strangled. And there were ligature marks on both wrists as well. It indicated obviously he had been bound. His blood alcohol level was 0.07. But the medical examiner also noted a large amount of Valium in his system. And the combination had apparently caused him to choke one white froth which was found in his throat. Oh yeah. Upon investigation, it turns out that Richard Keith was yet another marine stationed at Camp Pendleton number four. Now, according to Keith's girlfriend, he had gone with her to visit her mother on June 18, the day before, and he left around 11pm because he had no car and didn't arrange for a ride, he hitchhiked to his girlfriend's house and was presumably planning to return to Camp Pendleton the same way. Otherwise, there was little else about the body or crime scene that would give them anything else to go on. Almost like clockwork, another body was discovered on July 6th. My God. This one. Just off the side of the road on Interstate 5. After receiving the report from a driver on the I5 around 3:30am, officers came to the scene to find the body of 23 year old Keith Klingbile laying half in and half out of the slow lane. So, like on the highway when they arrived, officers were expecting a dead body. But upon closer examination, they discovered that Klingweil was unconscious and had had a very weak pulse. What? He was still alive? Paramedics were called and he was rushed to the hospital, but he died shortly after arriving. He was found alive. There were obvious ligature marks on his neck indicating strangulation. But according to the autopsy, his cause of death was determined to be acetaminophen overdose with ligature strangulation a contributing factor.

[C]

Acetaminophen. Isn't that like Advil?

[A]

Yeah, Tylenol, right? Tylenol, yeah. Because Advil is ibuprofen, right? Yeah, yeah. So yeah. The ligature marks weren't the only thing though, tying Keith's murder to the other victims. He had also been burned repeatedly with a car cigarette lighter, including on the eyes, face and the apparently the left nipple is his like thing that he burns. And it happens in a lot of these cases. It'll happen a few more times.

[C]

Maybe it's because he's right handed or.

[A]

Something, I don't know. But Keith had recently hitchhiked to California from his home in Everett, Washington. He was apparently visiting his mother who lived in San Diego. Among the items found in his pockets were a number of matchbooks from various businesses, including one from a Chevron station in Long beach, which was another piece of evidence tying him to Kraft's growing list of victims. Other aspects of the case that linked him to the other victims included his missing laces from one of his hiking boots and the fact that like many of the others, he had been pushed from a Moving vehicle on the side of the road. Like the previous cases, investigators strongly suspected the four most recent murders were definitely committed by the same individual. And now, now the press was calling this and this killer the Freeway Killer. That's what was named because they hadn't yet found the scorecard. Oh. So he was initially called the Freeway.

[C]

Killer, but there already was another Freeway Killer.

[A]

There probably is, yeah. But they were reluctant to say that much in press conferences that there was a connection between these four bodies. The investigators weren't. Detective Willie Stansberry told the press during one of the conferences, we have to give a lot of consideration as to them all being committed to by the same person. So they're like, we're considering it.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Still, while they felt confident that at least these latest four killings were connected, detectives readily admitted that the investigations were already starting to go cold just a few weeks later. Even though they were connected. Yeah. Stansberry said, it's virtually at a standstill because we have no place to turn. That must be in.

[C]

Maddening.

[A]

Infuriating.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Two months later, another body was discovered along the highway in San Bernardino County.

[C]

It's like, where does it end?

[A]

But this case was even more vague and void of evidence than the others. On September 30, 1978, a driver reported seeing a body along the Interstate 83. And it turned out to be 20 year old Richard Crosby. Richard was known to be a regular hitchhiker. And that night he was just headed to the movie theater. Crosby's cause of death was listed as suffocation. And his body's body showed a lot of signs of torture, including the same burn marks and the same spots with a car cigarette lighter. Less than a month later, on November 18, the body of 21 year old Michael Interbeaten was discovered along the side of the 7th street exit on the 405 Freeway, just a few yards from where the first victim, the very first victim, Edward Moore, had been found. Years earlier, according to friends, Michael had gone out to some nightclubs along the Pacific coast highway the night before his merger, where he and some others eventually found a ride with some other patrons. Yeah, because the car was full. One of the young women was sitting on Michael's lap and you know, according to reports later, he started to pinch her in what she said was a not very good area. Oh. So she slapped him in the face and he became angry and he demanded to be let out of the car. Okay. His friends reported to police that that was the last time they saw him. Him, he was walking towards the Pacific coast highway in the direction of his home. Now, Michael was discovered wearing only a pair of pants which had been pulled down slightly. Like many of the others, he had been burned in the eyes and other places that we discussed with a car lighter. And his scrotum, testicles and skin from his genitals had been removed. Wow. All of which was likely happened when he was still alive.

[C]

Oh my God.

[A]

All of that. The cause of death was listed as anoxia due to suffocation. But while there were ligature marks around both wrists, there were none around his neck, indicating he had not been strangled. Interesting. But he was suffocated. His blood alcohol level at the time was 0.16, which would have rendered him drunk, but only mildly. Really? Yeah. Not like crazy. He also had Valium and cecobarbital, both tranquilizers in his system. The combined effect of those two would have made him heavily sedated at the least, if not possibly unconscious. So that seems to be the pattern here. Yeah. In their statement to the press, investigators remained pretty reluctant to connect his murder to the larger pool of victims. But with a total of 18 victims now across three counties. 18. It was getting pretty hard to ignore the obvious connections being made to the press. Y. But when he was pressed about the connection, the sergeant GF Buzzard would only concede that Michael's death may be connected with the others. That's all he would say. Because the murders were occurring across multiple counties in Southern California and law enforcement agencies from those counties didn't always communicate. Well, we've talked about that. Yep. If they communicated at all. The connection between one victim and the others wasn't always apparent immediately. Also, information about potential suspects, light as it may have been, wasn't always passed along or discussed in inter agency meetings because remember, they all have egos and they don't want to share their shit. Yeah. You know, if anyone had considered Randy Kraft a suspect in these murder cases, it doesn't appear that his name was circulated widely nor was he ever identified as a suspect during this time. Wow. To investigators surprise. Following the discovery of Michael's body, Michael interbeaten the murder stopped again for nearly seven months. Okay. Then on June 16, 1979, another U.S. marine was found dead on the side of the 405 Highway Highway. According to one of the Marines station At the base, 20 year old Donald Cresel was last seen around 1:30am on the night of the 16th when he told a fellow marine he was going to go to a restaurant like close to the base. At 9:30pm, a driver on the 405 spotted Cresel's body along the side of the road and called the police. When the first officer arrived at the scene, he felt for a pulse. Didn't find any. But he did note that the body was very warm and there was blood coming from his nostrils. Nostrils indicating that he had been killed very recently. Yeah. His body had many cuts and scrapes that came from him being pushed out of the car. When the autopsy was performed, the ME noted the obvious ligature marks on his neck, but the cause of death was attributed to an overdose of multiple drugs. Okay. In addition to a blood alcohol of 0.06, cresel had unusually large amounts of acetaminophen two antihistamines and phenycetin and chloram pheniramine, both prescription painkillers. Okay. That was difficult to say. Yeah. The autopsy also showed that his left nipple had been burned with a car cigarette lighter. To those working the case, the killer seemed to be defying any kind of pattern for when he would kill. They were trying to come up with like, is there a random pattern, you know, like anything? Sometimes bodies would appear like they were on a cycle and then he would just disappear for large stretches of time and they couldn't predict when he was coming back. Yeah. This next, this time. The next body showed up on August 29, but not in the usual method either, like having been dumped on the side of the road out of a car. On the morning of August 29, police in Long beach received a call about human remains having been discovered behind the Union 76 gas station on the Pacific Coast Highway. And they meant human remains. When they arrived, investigators found a human head, torso and left leg in garbage bags in the station's dumpster. Oh. There was no indication of the person's identity, but there was a sock stuffed into the anus, strongly indicating who the killer was. Okay. It would take many years, but eventually this victim was identified. It was 21 year old British tourist Keith Jackson.

[C]

Oh, my God.

[A]

Just the fact that he was on vacation here. And unfortunately, despite like really intense efforts from authorities, they never could find the rest of his remains. Remains, which is really sad. Just two weeks later, on September 19th, the remains of 19 year old Gregory Jolly were discovered in a plastic bag along the hot at the side of the Highway 330 in San Bernardino. The first discovery was a headless torso. But the following day, investigators found Jolly's head in what the press reported as, quote, other body parts and trash bags. About 25 miles from where the torso was discovered. Now it's always just scattering body parts. Yeah. Like, what the. So, unable to identify the body, the sheriff's department reached out to the FBI, who ran the fingerprints through the national database and found that it was Jolly. It turned out that he was from Jacksonville, Florida, and nobody seemed to know why he'd come to California or who he might have been with on the night of his murder. Huh. According to his parents, he left home two months earlier, and they hadn't seen or heard from him since. In talking to his friends, detectives learned that Gregory had said he was hitchhiking to California, quote, quote, because he wanted to see Disneyland. Oh. But he also indicated that he might look for work as a dishwasher while he was there. Yeah, that broke my heart. Yeah, that's absolutely heartbreaking. Like, truly broke my heart. He was only 19. Yeah. The victim's injuries, particularly the removal of the genitals, were what led investigators to suspect he was definitely one of the victims. Years later, several items belonging to Jolly were discovered in Brandy Kraft's home, which confirmed their suspicions. Later, during their investigation, detectives learned that Gregory was, quote, known to wear military clothing and tell people he was a Marine, which is probably how he came in contact with Kraft in the first place. Oh, no. In the following months after Jolly's murder, several young men matching Kraft's preferred victim profile went missing or were murdered in and around Los Angeles. At first, investigators on the interagency task force considered whether more than two dozen new victims could be attributed to this unknown killer. But eventually, only one of the victims, 19 year old Mark Allen Marsh, is believed to have been killed by Kraft. Okay. Like many of the other victims, Marsh was a Marine stationed at a base in El Toro, just outside Irvine. The last time anyone saw him, he was hitchhiking in the direction of Buena Park, a city in Orange county. It's about 20 miles, I think, south of Los Angeles. Yeah. On February 18, 1980, his body was found alongside the i5. The killer had cut off his head and hands and, quote, a large object had been stuffed into a body cavity. Oh, I'm unfortunately going to leave you there because I need a minute. Yeah. After that. And we will get to part three, where Randy Craft will be discovered and arrested, and this will all come to an end.

[C]

So he was like, a little bit apprehended, but it didn't really work out.

[A]

This time.

[C]

They got him, but they had to let him go.

[A]

Next time it's gonna work out okay.

[C]

There's hope.

[A]

That was a Lot. That was a lot of bodies. That was a lot of victims. A lot of young men who were just going about their business one night.

[C]

This is just, just like some of their stories too. Like they're like the ones who like didn't have a great relationship with their family. Just kind of like setting off on their own. This poor fellow who was just going to see Disneyland.

[A]

It's heartbreaking.

[C]

Like the poor guy who was literally just here as a tourist.

[A]

Yeah. Like that's the thing. It's like what the fuck? I just. That's heavy. This is a heavy case. It's a heavy case and it's, it's just upsetting. It really is. And the way it was reported on is upsetting. The things that come out of some of the investigators mouth is upsetting. The things that come out of some of these employers mouths is upsetting. And it's just like the fact that I didn't, I mean maybe I'm, maybe I'm in the, in the like minority here that I didn't know about this case and I feel very remiss that I didn't. But I feel like this, this isn't talked about a lot. Yeah. I haven't seen this. Never.

[C]

I've never heard it covered before.

[A]

It's very upsetting. Yeah. But it's a lot. Yeah. So take a minute after that read for Ledger or something. You know, just do something like me, have some hot cocoa.

[C]

Go watch Bravo.

[A]

I know it's like 90 degrees.

[C]

Hug someone you love.

[A]

Yeah, do something that isn't Manifest the fall. Manifest the fall with us.

[C]

Let's all manifest the fall.

[A]

We need that.

[C]

I'm really manifesting early fall.

[A]

Same, especially right now.

[C]

And you should too.

[A]

But take a beat and we'll get back to you with the third, third and final part of the series.

[C]

So in that case, we hope you.

[A]

Keep listening and we hope you keep it weird.

[C]

But not so weird that you decompress. If you like morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcast Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey.

[E]

The town of Agda in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex. But lately life on the coast has taken a strange turn. The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption. His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant. Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.

[A]

I am the Archangel Michael.

[E]

The whole town has been thrown into.

[A]

Chaos as the mayor is unable to carry out his duties. I would like to address you. All legal proceedings have been initiated.

[E]

Join me, Anna Richardson and journalist Leo Schwann chic for the mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption and magic. Binge all episodes of the mystic and the Mayor, exclusively and ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Start your free trial in Apple podcasts, Spotify or the Wondery.

[A]

Applause.