The Doodler | 1. The Coldest Case in San Francisco

Summary

The Binge Crimes: The Doodler | Episode 1: The Coldest Case in San Francisco

Release Date: July 1, 2025
Produced by Sony Music Entertainment

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Introduction

In the premiere episode of The Binge Crimes: The Doodler, host Kevin Fagan delves into one of San Francisco’s most haunting and overlooked serial killer cases from the mid-1970s. Known as “The Doodler,” this killer targeted gay men in the city’s vibrant queer neighborhoods, leaving a trail of fear and unanswered questions. This episode meticulously unpacks the investigation’s complexities, the socio-cultural backdrop of the time, and the renewed efforts to bring closure nearly half a century later.

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The First Victim: Gerald Kavanaugh

The story begins on the night of January 27, 1974, when Gerald Kavanaugh, a 49-year-old Canadian furniture finisher, was found brutally murdered on Ocean Beach. Discovered by an anonymous caller, Kavanaugh’s body was laden with 17 stab wounds across his torso, back, and stomach, suggesting a calculated act of rage rather than a random robbery (02:35).

Notable Quote:
Kevin Fagan reflects on the case’s personal impact:
"I've held the hands of the victims' mothers and fathers as they grieved. There's one case that still angers and confounds me." (02:40)

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Modus Operandi of The Doodler

The Doodler earned his ominous nickname due to his chilling ritual of sketching his victims’ portraits on cocktail napkins before murdering them. This disturbing habit not only signifies a desire for control but also left minimal forensic evidence, complicating the investigation. Unlike notorious contemporaries like the Zodiac Killer and the Zebra Killings, The Doodler operated with a stealthy discretion, avoiding the spotlight and eluding media scrutiny (03:07).

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San Francisco in the 1970s: A Complex Landscape

The 1970s was a transformative and tumultuous period for San Francisco, especially for the gay community. While the city became a sanctuary for many seeking acceptance and liberation, underlying homophobia and societal tensions persisted. Gay men faced daily threats, including beatings and harassment, often unreported or dismissed by authorities (22:05).

Notable Quote:
Anne Cronenberg highlights the victim’s plight:
"He wanted to be who he was in those days, to express himself and bond with others, but he was brutally murdered for it." (27:27)

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Parallel Threats: Zodiac and Zebra Killings

Amid The Doodler’s reign of terror, San Francisco was also grappling with other infamous killers. The Zodiac Killer terrorized the city with cryptic letters and claimed multiple victims, while the Zebra Killings involved a series of random shootings targeting individuals without apparent motive (23:11). These concurrent threats created an atmosphere of fear and overwhelmed the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), diverting attention and resources away from The Doodler’s cases.

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The Investigation: Challenges and Overlooked Clues

Initial investigations into Kavanaugh’s murder were constrained by the era’s limited forensic technology and the societal stigmas surrounding the gay community. Police initially viewed the stabbing as a random act of violence, missing the underlying pattern targeting gay men. The Doodler’s methodical approach—selecting victims from gay bars and cruising spots—was not fully realized until years later.

Notable Quote:
Dan Cunningham, SFPD investigator, emphasizes the complexity:
"There's a lot happening—Zodiac, Zebra, and Doodler. It was a tough time for law enforcement." (06:16)

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Renewed Pursuit: Reopening the Cold Case

Forty-seven years after the first murder, the SFPD reignited the investigation in 2019, aiming to piece together decades-old clues with modern techniques. A significant development included releasing an updated sketch of The Doodler, hoping to jog public memory and elicit new leads. Kevin Fagan partnered with Dan Cunningham to explore this cold case, conducting interviews with former investigators, victims’ families, and community members to reconstruct the killer’s profile (07:02).

Notable Quote:
Kevin Fagan shares his journalistic mission:
"I want to honor the memories of the dead and unravel the Doodler mystery." (07:46)

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Impact on the LGBTQ+ Community

The Doodler's killings had a profound and traumatic impact on San Francisco’s gay community. During a time when being openly gay was still fraught with danger, these murders instilled a pervasive fear among men who frequented gay bars and cruising areas. The lack of media attention and police action exacerbated the community's vulnerability, highlighting issues of discrimination and neglect (21:58).

Notable Quote:
Cleve Jones, LGBT rights activist, reflects on the era’s fears:
"Walking around San Francisco, you wondered, Am I going to get killed by the Zodiac or the Zebra Killings?" (22:57)

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Ongoing Investigation and Unanswered Questions

Despite the renewed efforts, many questions about The Doodler remain unanswered. The killer's identity, motive, and the full extent of his victim count are still shrouded in mystery. Kevin Fagan’s investigative journey spans dives into genealogy websites, interviews with international contacts, and collaborations with private investigators like Mike Taylor. The possibility that The Doodler might still be alive adds urgency to the case (22:32).

Notable Quote:
Anne Cronenberg expresses frustration over the unknowns:
"To speak about it is to relive the horror, but it’s essential for closure." (27:28)

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Closing Reflections

Standing at Ocean Beach, where Gerald Kavanaugh was last seen alive, Kevin Fagan and Dan Cunningham reflect on the tragic loss and the enduring quest for justice. The episode underscores the importance of revisiting cold cases, especially those intertwined with marginalized communities, to ensure that no victim is forgotten.

Notable Quote:
Anne Cronenberg poignantly summarizes the tragedy:
"He didn't know he was going to be killed, he was just trying to live his life." (27:28)

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Looking Ahead

As The Binge Crimes: The Doodler series continues, listeners can anticipate deeper explorations into each victim’s story, potential suspects, and the broader societal implications of The Doodler’s crimes. The pursuit of truth and justice for the forgotten victims serves as a compelling narrative drive, inviting the audience to engage and contribute any newfound information.

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Conclusion

Episode 1 of The Binge Crimes: The Doodler sets a somber yet determined tone for the series, blending meticulous reporting with heartfelt narratives. By shedding light on a neglected chapter of San Francisco’s history, the podcast not only seeks to solve a decades-old mystery but also to honor the lives lost in an era of societal upheaval and discrimination.

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Connect with The Binge Crimes:
Subscribe to The Binge Crimes and other compelling true crime stories on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to fuel your true crime obsession.

Transcript

[Host/Advertiser]

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[Kevin Fagan]

The bench.

[Host/Advertiser]

You'Re listening to the Doodler, a re release series from the Binge archives. If you're a subscriber to the Binge, you can listen to all episodes ad free right now. Visit the Binge channel on apple podcasts or getthebinge.com to browse all the great shows on the channel. The Binge feed your true crime obsession.

[Kevin Fagan]

This series contains depictions of violent assault and murder. Listener discretion is advised. This emergency call was made on the night of January 27, 1974. Can I help you? Yes.

[Dan Cunningham]

I believe there might be a dead person on the beach at right across from Ulloa Street. Aloha Street. They just wanted to let somebody know, maybe needs help or something, but still does my duty to report it.

[Kevin Fagan]

47 years later. I'm standing on Ocean beach at the spot where that body was found.

[Anne Cronenberg]

We're standing here at 48th and Yoloa. It would have been right across from where we are.

[Kevin Fagan]

With me is Dan Cunningham, an investigator with the sfpd.

[Anne Cronenberg]

At some point when the police got there, the tide was rising and his body was getting hit by the tide.

[Kevin Fagan]

To police in the 70s. Right away it was clear that this was A murder victim. The San Francisco examiner identified him two days later. Towards the back, on page 42, here's Dan Cunningham.

[Anne Cronenberg]

Gerald Kavanaugh, who was a Canadian man, 49, 50 years old.

[Kevin Fagan]

The paper said that Gerald Kavanaugh was a furniture finisher. Whoever killed him had stabbed him 17 times in the chest, the back and the stomach. 17 times. The article didn't include much other information. In fact, it was soliciting leads. Police provided a phone number for readers to call.

[Anne Cronenberg]

So there's people that are out there that were terrified, terrified. And they started bringing it back up again and talking about it. It was almost like, they don't want me to come by to talk about it. Because all these feelings came back up again.

[Kevin Fagan]

Cunningham was in high school when Kavanaugh was found on this beach. But today, he's the guy tasked with this cold case and the cases of four other dead men, maybe more. All of them are linked to one suspected killer. Dan and I have been in touch for about two years. We talk, but Dan can't give me too much information. Technically, the investigation is still active. I'm Kevin Fagan. I've been a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle for 28 years. I've covered the Zodiac, William the Freeway Killer, Bonin and the Unabomber. I've watched the executions of seven killers at San Quentin Prison and held the hands of the victims, mothers and fathers, as they grieved. I lived on the streets of San Francisco for six months to cover the stark reality of homelessness. I care about the forgotten and the marginalized people at the heart of this city. And there's one case, one unsolved case, that still angers me. It confounds me. Between 1974 and 1975, San Francisco was victimized by one of the most prolific killers of gay men in modern history. He preyed on people in queer neighborhoods across the city in the Tenderloin, Polk Gulch and the Castro. He went to gay bars, places with disco music blasting and men dancing. They say this killer watched them, maybe while leaned up against the bar or sitting in the corner of the room. He'd pick someone. Then he would draw, sketching their portrait on a cocktail napkin. Once he showed that man their picture, they were his. The killer would tell his target that he wanted to go somewhere more private. They'd leave the crowded bar behind. And the next morning, the man he had sketched was dead. And that's how this killer earned his name. The Doodler. Most people in San Francisco at the time never even heard about the Doodler. His murders weren't headless news. They were missed by the mainstream media. Relegated to the back pages of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Doodler didn't even make it into the paper by name until January of 1976, well after his last victim was identified. The question is why? There was a lot of stuff going on.

[Dan Cunningham]

There was Zebra, there was Zodiac, there was Doodler. So there were a lot of mysterious, random murders.

[Kevin Fagan]

I feel like it was overlooked, maybe just because it had to do with a gay population.

[Dan Cunningham]

People are getting mugged. People are getting harassed. People are getting beaten. And the Doodle that took it to another level is that he was killing people and getting away with it because the police didn't. Be honest with your career.

[Kevin Fagan]

It's been 47 years since the Doodler lurked in San Francisco. And it might seem strange that a prolific murderer went unnoticed for so long. But police at the time didn't have all the information, tools, and context at our disposal today.

[Natalie Morales]

First, the Golden State Killer, and now there is word of a potential break in the case of another serial killer who terrorized the Bay Area.

[Kevin Fagan]

He was nicknamed the Doodler because the.

[Tom Amiano]

Serial killer sketched each of his victims before killing them.

[Kevin Fagan]

In 2019, the SFPD held a press conference announcing they were actively pursuing this case. They released an updated sketch of what the Doodler may look like today. I was there at that press conference.

[Anne Cronenberg]

We know that in the 1970s, this was gripping the gay community in San Francisco. And so Inspector Cunningham reopened all the cases that were involved at that time to see if we could identify who that is so that we could get closure for those victims and hopefully make an arrest in those cases.

[Kevin Fagan]

There was a sudden urgency in this case. After all those years. Police were asking the public for new tips and offering a reward. On the one hand, I wanted to ask, why now? But on the other, I also wanted to ask, why did it take all these years? In my conversations with police, I realized that to get to the bottom of this case, to answer any questions I might have, I needed to go back to the very beginning. That's what this podcast is all about, putting together what the cops have already found. With a new investigation mine, I want to unravel the Doodler mystery. Talk to victims, families, friends, anyone who will get me closer to understanding what happened all those years ago. This story bounces from California to Canada to Germany to Sweden and back. I've interviewed retired investigators, online sleuths, drag queens, and queer historians. I've talked to sisters and daughters, and I'm still chasing leads on one anonymous actor and a foreign diplomat. Because there's another reason behind this urgency that I've discovered in my digging. Police believe the killer is still alive today. Listen to this series carefully and let us know if anything you hear in this show jogs a memory of yours. We've got more information on our website, thedoodlerpod.com and if you've got a tip, you can call us at 415-570-9299. From the San Francisco Chronicle, Ugly Duckling Films and Neon Hum Media. This is the untold story of the Doodler In San Francisco. You're never that far from the water. But even on a summer's day in July, your walk can be engulfed by fog, a weather pattern so familiar that some folks have taken to naming the fog Carl Ocean beach stretches 3 1/2 miles down SF's Pacific coast. Bike paths and pedestrian walkways swerve and climb through the white sandy dunes and the sea grass. The ocean is alive with deadly rip currents and huge waves. Dan Cunningham and I walked along the beach around midday talking about Gerald Kavanaugh.

[Anne Cronenberg]

We might have met him walking along the beach. We don't know. Yeah, I gotta keep everything open minded about it, sure. But this is, I believe this is what Gerald Kavanaugh probably did that night.

[Kevin Fagan]

We're walking along the route he probably walked along.

[Anne Cronenberg]

Yeah, we're walking.

[Kevin Fagan]

Investigator Dan Cunningham always wears a tie and a jacket on the job. His gray hair is clipped short. He's been working murders for years and he's seen things most people don't want to see. Cunningham's a dogged investigator. He's the kind of guy who doesn't give up. The fact that Dan is here with me is a big deal. I'm a journalist and journalists always want to know the stuff that cops aren't ready to make public. Still, we share a goal. We both want to unravel this mystery. In fact, Dan Cunningham is how I first learned about the Doodler. He called me a couple of years ago looking for a reporter who used to cover the case. He mentioned the Doodler and my interest was piqued. By August of 2020, I'd convinced my editors to let me work on the Doodler case full time. A month later, Cunningham agreed to meet me at a cafe in the North Bay. He still didn't want to make all of his progress public, but we could at least share notes on the original investigation.

[Anne Cronenberg]

It's easy for me to sit here and say, Monday morning quarterback. I would have done this, I would have done that. And when. In fact, I think that the investigators that were working the case at the time did every, took every measure they could to follow through and locate a suspect.

[Kevin Fagan]

So number one, let's, let's look at the first Doodler killing. Describe what happened.

[Anne Cronenberg]

He was found parallel to the great highway in the surf. And this was brought to police attention after a phone call was made.

[Kevin Fagan]

When police arrived at Ocean beach that night in 1974, it was dark, almost pitch black.

[Anne Cronenberg]

There's not like light poles down there, it's pretty dark.

[Kevin Fagan]

The victim was on his back. He was middle aged and balding, short, stocky. With a flashlight they could see he was covered in blood. There were stab wounds all over his torso and a defensive wound on his hand. He didn't have any identification on him, just a couple of dollars in his pocket and a Timex watch on his wrist.

[Anne Cronenberg]

The surf was starting to take it out when the police arrived. They themselves had to drag the body, I believe a little bit away before the medical examiner's office got there because they were fearful that it was going to wash out to sea.

[Kevin Fagan]

Something about this stabbing led cops to believe it was possible two different knives had been used. The brutal severity suggested this was a rage killing, not a spur of the moment robbery. But to police at the time, it was just a random act of violence.

[Anne Cronenberg]

If you hung around the beach at 2:30 in the morning, people might think something of you because at that time a lot of the bathrooms that were down by Ocean beach were kind of used as a center for gay sex.

[Kevin Fagan]

The cops didn't realize it yet, but Kavanaugh was likely targeted because he was gay. The first in a series of killings like this to come. Did this killer know Ocean beach was a cruising spot? Did he cruise this beach himself? Or did he meet Kavanaugh somewhere else and take him here? All of that is unclear to me and probably to SFPD too, but they did release a recording of the emergency call they got that night off here.

[Dan Cunningham]

Yes, I believe there might be a dead person on the beach at. Right across from Ulloa Street. Aloha Street. If you follow the street right down to the water, walking along there, and I still have somebody lying there, but I didn't want to get too close cuz you know what could happen.

[Kevin Fagan]

The caller reported a body by the water, Gerald Kavanaugh's body. The dispatcher asked if the caller would give his name.

[Dan Cunningham]

No, I don't think that's necessary. I just wanted to let somebody know Maybe needs help or something. Okay, fine. What?

[Anne Cronenberg]

The person that made the phone call was never located or found.

[Kevin Fagan]

There's a feeling, if I remember right, this might be the guy, right? Bragging or. Or wanting people to find. Find the body before it swept out to sea.

[Anne Cronenberg]

We've thought of that, and that's a possibility.

[Kevin Fagan]

Who was ever on call that night gets that case. All right, that's retired SWAT Sergeant Bob Del Torre. It went in order. This went right down the line.

[Anne Cronenberg]

Who's next? Who's next? It's just a handoff.

[Kevin Fagan]

Two inspectors got the call the night Kavanaugh was killed. They showed up in the pre dawn hours. They combed the beach for evidence and took photos of the body like they did for every case.

[Anne Cronenberg]

These guys were tops in their trade. They were very methodical.

[Kevin Fagan]

That's retired inspector Frank Falzone. When he thinks back on his work in the 1970s, he lights up.

[Anne Cronenberg]

Things were happening in the 70s that were. I think I said to you once, I couldn't wait to get to work. It was like I searched for adventure. I didn't know what I was going to be walking into each and every day.

[Kevin Fagan]

At the time, homicide detectives on the SFPD worked cases in pairs, and they worked a lot of cases. The Zodiac killer was still sending letters to the Chronicle, and the first wave of zebra killings had begun. A streak of seemingly random shootings that terrorized the city. So the 16 guys working Homicide had plenty on their hands. Falzon calls it an adventure. But to many, the surge in crime that characterized the 1970s was just a horror. Before that, the perception was that murders were commonly committed amongst friends, families, co workers, people who might have grudges. These cases were different with the Zodiac, the Zebra, and now with the Doodler. Motives were becoming less clear. Crime was changing, but so was culture.

[Tom Amiano]

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[Host/Advertiser]

Making True crime podcasts is a busy life. Between chasing down interviews, editing late into the night and then coming home to wrangle two kids under seven, I don't have time for high maintenance clothes. I need things that just work. That's why I'm obsessed with Quince's summer gear, especially their European linen chore jacket. It's lightweight, but it feels structured. I can go straight from preschool, drop off to a pitch meeting and not look like I just crawled out of a studio. Made from 100% European flax linen, it breathes like a dream, which is key when you're juggling summer heat and a toddler meltdown. And it layers perfectly over a tee or button down when I need to look semi professional or like I didn't sleep in the booth last night. And the price? Somehow half of what I used to pay for clothes that didn't hold up half as well. That's Quince's thing. They cut out the middleman, work directly with top makers and deliver premium quality without the markup. Give your summer closet an upgrade with quince. Go to quince.com Crimes for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q U I-N-C-E.com Crimes to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Crimes.

[Kevin Fagan]

Back in the early 70s, San Francisco was just becoming a mecca for gay men. If you were gay in Omaha, Nebraska or Birmingham, Alabama, you were in danger. Gay men were portrayed as sexual deviants, pedophiles, criminals. Identifying yourself as gay was extremely risky, even to loved ones. What is the worst incident that has ever happened to you since you've been gay? As far as being gay, I guess my parents, you know them.

[Dan Cunningham]

Finding out was the worst.

[Cleve Jones]

People came to San Francisco from other parts of the country because they were gay and because they felt like they could be themselves here and that they could start a new life and not be closeted.

[Kevin Fagan]

That's Anne Cronenberg. She was active in the gay liberation movement and worked for activist and icon Harvey Milk. LGBTQ wasn't even a term Back then.

[Cleve Jones]

There was this freedom. If you were in San Francisco and, you know, anything goes, it was like sex and drugs, and you had the bath houses, and the bars were just overflowing and dancing, and it was just such a fun time.

[Kevin Fagan]

There were entire neighborhoods where you could be surrounded by gay people. Bars by the dozens all around. The summer of love was over, but the hippies were still living like it.

[Anne Cronenberg]

Was 1969, time of great liberation and electricity.

[Kevin Fagan]

That's Tom Amiano. He's a longtime gay activist, a former San Francisco supervisor and state assemblyman.

[Anne Cronenberg]

We had a lot of the civil rights movement, the gay movement, the peace movement, the women's movement. There's a lot of shit happening.

[Kevin Fagan]

The politics and social activism of the 60s and 70s were momentous. People were marching in the streets against segregation and discrimination. Social revolution was in the air. Can you tell me what you feel about the homicide movement? I think it's great. I think it's really dynamite. And I think the only way to.

[Dan Cunningham]

Achieve it is through force and marches like this.

[Kevin Fagan]

But even San Francisco wasn't immune from homophobia. Two men could walk hand in hand in some neighborhoods, but Tom Amiano says gay bashings were still common. You had to keep your eyes peeled.

[Anne Cronenberg]

What is now considered a hate crime was something, I think the LGBT community, you know, we were resigned to it.

[Kevin Fagan]

For decades, these attacks went unreported by the victims or ignored by police.

[Dan Cunningham]

But the big issue in the gay community is as simple as law and order.

[Kevin Fagan]

Gay people are simply afraid to walk the streets at night.

[Dan Cunningham]

Beatings are an everyday occurrence here in the Castro neighborhood.

[Kevin Fagan]

It kind of goes against the image of the fabulous gay haven we imagine San Francisco to be. Cleve Jones, an LGBT rights activist, lived in it. People forget that it was still considered criminal behavior to be gay. You know, we didn't decriminalize until 76, and the police department didn't quite seem to get that memo. For a while, there were police raids on gay bars, murders, beatings, and discrimination. Here's Anne Cronenberg again.

[Cleve Jones]

Gay men are getting busted after they've been at a bar for the night and pulled into jail because what they did was illegal.

[Kevin Fagan]

In quotes, but Charles Manson, the Patty Hearst kidnapping, the Zodiac, the zebra killings, and the wave of violence that kicked up in the late 60s and early 70s. Those were the stories that took center stage in California.

[Cleve Jones]

I was in college in the early 70s, and I can remember, like, walking around San Francisco on the street corner and, like, am I going to get killed by the Zodiac? The zebra killings because it felt like there was so much going on.

[Kevin Fagan]

The Zodiac is still one of the best known serial killers of the last hundred years and the most famous to be associated with the Bay Area. He killed at least five people, but he claims he killed more. He made those claims in a series of cryptic letters to San Francisco newspapers, including the chronicle. And on January 29, 1974, two days after the Doodler's first victim was found on Ocean beach, the Zodiac sent a letter to the San Francisco chronicle. It read, Me 37 SFPD0. And that same day, the second wave of a completely different murder spree started. The Zebra killings. Five people were shot seemingly at random. The victims were going about their daily lives, running errands, doing laundry at the Laundromat. And someone would come up, shoot them and run. San Francisco's mayor at the time, Joseph Alioto, summed it up perfectly. Now one of the problems we're having every time you have a mindless thing without motive and when the victims themselves are selected at random, when that kind of a thing is there, you can't really investigate it as you would a regular murder. There's no way of doing it after that. The normally busy streets of San Francisco emptied out. Nightlife and tourist traffic dropped to almost nothing for a while. Kavanaugh's murder happened in the midst of all all this. Maybe that worked in the killer's favor. The Zodiac and the Zebra Killers wanted to terrorize. They wanted an audience. The Doodler didn't seem like that. He didn't want to draw attention.

[Tom Amiano]

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[Natalie Morales]

I'm Natalie Morales of 48 Hours. So much of our reporting focuses on the stories of victims who didn't survive. But what about those who live to tell?

[Tom Amiano]

I survived a violent home invasion.

[Kevin Fagan]

There's no earthly reason why I'm alive.

[Natalie Morales]

From 48 hours. This is it could have Been Me.

[Cleve Jones]

It makes you grateful for what?

[Anne Cronenberg]

Everything you have, you know you can.

[Natalie Morales]

Follow and listen to it could have Been Me on Tuesdays in the 48 Hours podcast feed on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kevin Fagan]

Standing here at the site of the Gerald Kavanagh's Last Breath on Ocean Beach, Dan and I are surrounded by a beautiful panoramic scene. A cool breeze is coming off the surf. What do you make, what do you pull from standing here where Kavanaugh died? What do you learn from this?

[Anne Cronenberg]

I mean, it's horrific that a person could come out here not knowing they're going to be killed and getting brought down into deported by somebody.

[Kevin Fagan]

Yeah.

[Anne Cronenberg]

So to speak. And end up getting murdered in a spot like this, almost getting your body washed out to sea potentially, when all you. You did was you wanted to be who you were in those days. That was the way people met each other to express themselves, to bonding with other people, have sex. And I don't think he should have been murdered for it. And I believe that nobody should have none of these other murders. Nobody should get murdered ever. But these were horrific because I think that was the last thing on his mind when he was walking down that beach. Me, you and I just walked down at 1:30 in the morning, whatever time it was, and thinking he was gonna have possibly potentially sex and then do whatever he's going to do after and live his life for how many more years he had on this earth. And it all stopped right in front of us.

[Kevin Fagan]

In 2018. When Cunningham started on this case, he started from the very beginning. He went through all the notes, the crime scene photos, all the contacts the original inspectors were able to scrape together. That's the kind of stuff he isn't allowed to share with us. But he understands that I want what he wants to figure out what really happened all those years ago. Our investigations are separate but parallel. How many boxes of files were there?

[Anne Cronenberg]

So there was some binders And I found a binder that was the inspector of the cases.

[Kevin Fagan]

Dan gives a lot of vague answers like that. He needs to hold on to a few things only the killer would know. Save it for the interrogation room. But what's in there is sparse, short on detail.

[Anne Cronenberg]

I mean, as we even speak now, I'm still looking for things in regards to it because the offices have moved. Different things have happened throughout the years.

[Kevin Fagan]

Dan can't show me these case files or even the boxes they sit in, but I can still piece together this story from other sources. At this early stage, all possibilities are open on this case. Police presumed Kavanaugh's killer was a man and a well prepared one. Dan told me police theorized that maybe he brought two knives with him to stab Kavanaugh. Like he had a backup plan in case things went wrong. He picked a well shielded spot, too. The sound of the waves would drown out any screams for help. But there were still more questions. Did he live in the city? Did he pick Kavanaugh at random? Or did he know him somehow? I did some digging through genealogy websites looking for anyone who might have known Gerald Kavanaugh. He reportedly worked for a mattress company in San Francisco. But after scouring business records and talking to mattress company owners and managers dating back to the 1970s, I could find no record of him. I discovered he was an immigrant from Montreal, Canada. He has family there, but so far no one has responded to messages. Kavanaugh is buried in Colma, California, thousands of miles from his hometown and any family he had there. His headstone is set into the ground on a broad windswept field surrounded by hundreds of others just like it. Maybe that's what he would have wanted, but I doubt. Feels like his memory was just erased. One of my goals for this project is to undo that. To honor the memories of the dead. Five months after Kavanaugh was found on the beach, Joseph J. Stevens, a drag queen from Concord, was found stabbed. Then it was Klaus Christmann, a German on holiday in San Francisco. Then Frederick Kappen, a decorated Navy veteran, was killed. And lastly, this killer took Harold Goldberg, a merchant sailor. Those are just the names we know. My reporting leads me to believe there's at least one more to profile. The Doodler. I need to gather everything I can about the people he killed. And surfacing new information is tough. All I've got are newspaper clippings and a few retired police contacts. But most importantly, I've got a guy who can find people. Next time on the Doodler. Hello. Hey there. It's Kevin. Okay, so we're on the. We're on the machine now. Oh, yeah. If I stand any chance at all of breaking this case, I need someone who can get to friends, family, anyone who might have known the victims. Mike Taylor and I worked together as reporters at the Chronicle. These days he's a private eye. We're looking at something that's 45 years old and so probably a majority of the people connected to it are gone. But it doesn't take long for him to strike gold. I just got an email that I.

[Anne Cronenberg]

Saw in the lower right corner of.

[Kevin Fagan]

My screen from Melissa saying hi, would love to talk to you. Great. Tell her yes. I'll go visit her Thursday. Tell her I can come in person. That's next time on the Untold Story of the Doodler.

[Cleve Jones]

Want more true crime? Subscribe to the binge to get all episodes of Seven Silver Bullets ad free today and get instant access to over 50 other jaw dropping true crime stories. Plus, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series on the first of every month. Every month. Search for the binge channel on Apple Podcasts or head to getthebinge.com to subscribe today. The binge feed your true crime obsession.

[Kevin Fagan]

The Doodler is created by the San Francisco Chronicle and Ugly Duckling Films and produced in association with Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment. It is reported by me, the hosts, Kevin Fagan and Mike Taylor. Produced and written by Tanner Robbins. Natalie Wren is our co producer and Odelia Rubin our supervising producer. Associate producers are Bennett Purser, Chloe Chobel and Ryan J. Brown. Our sound designer and composer is Honsdale Su. Our editor is Nick White and our executive editor is Catherine St. Louis. Editorial support from King Kaufman and Tim O' Rourke for the San Francisco Chronicle. Executive producers are Sophia Gibber and Lena Bousager for Ugly Duckling Films and Jonathan Hirsch for Neon Hum Media.

[Cleve Jones]

Did it occur to you that he charmed you in any way?

[Dan Cunningham]

Yes, it did. But he was a charming man.

[Anne Cronenberg]

It looks like the ingredients of a.

[Kevin Fagan]

Really grand spy story because this ties together the Cold War with the new one. I often ask myself now did I know the true Yan at all? Listen to hot agent of Chaos wherever you get your podcasts.