The Doodler | 7. The Man in the Sketch

Summary

The Binge Crimes: The Doodler | Episode 7 - "The Man in the Sketch"

Introduction

In this gripping episode of The Doodler, part of The Binge Crimes series by Sony Music Entertainment, host Kevin Fagan delves deep into one of San Francisco's most elusive serial killers—the Doodler. Operating in the mid-1970s, the Doodler targeted the city's gay community, leaving a trail of fear and unanswered questions that have lingered for nearly five decades.

The Doodler Killings

The Doodler's reign of terror seemed to cease around late summer 1975. Almost two years later, in 1977, Homicide Inspector Rote Guilford provided a retrospective on the investigation to the San Francisco Chronicle. Reflecting on the case, Rote expressed confidence in identifying the killer, attributing this belief to a significant lead that emerged in November 1975.

The Breakthrough: Dr. Priest's Tip

The pivotal moment in the investigation came when a psychiatrist, referred to in case files as Dr. Priest, contacted the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD). According to Rote Guilford, Dr. Priest's patient confessed to the Ocean Beach murders, marking the first substantial break in the case. Inspector Rote, along with colleague Earl Sanders, decided to bring this patient in for questioning.

“Most of what we know about this interrogation comes from that 1977 interview Rotta gave to the Chronicle.” (00:58)

Interrogation Challenges

During the interrogation, the patient denied being the murderer but admitted to struggling with his sexual identity since the age of 13. He claimed that therapy had "cured" his homosexuality and that he now had a steady girlfriend. This interaction left investigators with more questions than answers, as they lacked access to detailed case notes or additional insights into the patient's background.

“I didn't want to be gay, and he claimed that his sessions with the psychiatrist had, quote, cured him.” (03:18)

Potential Motives and Theories

Kevin Fagan discusses a prevailing theory that the Doodler's motive stemmed from his own internal conflict with his sexuality. This self-hatred may have driven him to target other gay men, a topic further explored by John Smid, a former employee of a gay conversion therapy organization.

“It's likely that the Doodler killed gay men because he was struggling with his own sexuality. Pent up self-hatred that he took out on other gay men.” (04:46)

The Stigma and Its Impact

John Smid provides invaluable insight into the societal pressures faced by gay men during the 1970s. Working at Love in Action, a gay conversion therapy organization, Smid recounts the emotional and psychological turmoil experienced by individuals trying to conform to heteronormative expectations.

“Years of denying and hiding your sexuality can intensify feelings of anxiety, fear and anger.” (06:48)

This stigma significantly hindered the investigation, as victims were reluctant to come forward or testify, fearing exposure and societal backlash.

Legal and Ethical Dilemmas

Dr. Paul Applebaum, a professor at Columbia University and former president of the American Psychiatric Association, discusses the ethical challenges faced by psychiatrists in such cases. While confidentiality is a cornerstone of psychiatric practice, there are exceptions when a patient poses a threat to others.

“In the case of a serial killer, the psychiatrist would be able to, under the standard tenets of confidentiality, to disclose that information for the sake of protecting potential future victims.” (08:27)

Dr. Priest’s decision to inform the SFPD was likely driven by the belief that his patient posed an imminent threat, yet this disclosure did not lead to the case's resolution.

The Case Goes Cold

Despite the promising lead, the absence of concrete evidence and the unwillingness of witnesses to testify resulted in the case going cold. The detectives were left without the necessary tools to charge their primary suspect, leading them to prioritize other cases.

“Rotea and Earl didn't have anything that would stand up in a court of law.” (18:10)

Social and Political Turmoil

The late 1970s in San Francisco were marked by significant social and political upheaval, which further complicated the investigation. The election of Harvey Milk and the subsequent tragic assassinations of Milk and Mayor George Moscone by Dan White shifted the community’s focus away from the Doodler case.

“The murders of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk sucked up lots of the attention for a while.” (22:00)

Resurgence of Interest: Renewed Hunt for the Doodler

Decades later, the Doodler case saw a resurgence in interest, spurred by individuals like Seth Hammelberg, who began re-examining unsolved gay murders from the 1970s. This renewed attention has reignited efforts to locate Dr. Priest and gather new evidence that could finally bring the Doodler to justice.

“How many people who were afraid to speak out about the doodler in the 70s would be alive to talk to us today? If not for the AIDS epidemic?” (24:30)

Current Investigative Efforts

Present-day investigators, including Dan Cunningham and Ron Huberman, continue to piece together the fragmented evidence. Efforts to locate Dr. Priest hinge on accessing historical directories and public records, with limited success so far.

“Nobody I or Cunningham has talked to can find this doctor Priest yet.” (30:01)

Despite the challenges, there remains hope that new technologies and persistent investigative techniques will eventually uncover the missing links necessary to solve the case.

Conclusion

The Doodler case remains one of San Francisco's most haunting and unresolved true crime mysteries. The intersection of societal stigma, legal constraints, and political distractions created a perfect storm that allowed a serial killer to evade justice for decades. However, with renewed interest and advancements in investigative methods, there is still hope that the truth behind the Doodler's identity will one day be uncovered.

“If the patient poses an imminent threat to others, the psychiatrist might disclose that information.” (08:31)

This episode underscores the profound impact of societal attitudes on criminal investigations and the enduring quest for justice in the face of adversity.

Transcript

[Kevin Fagan]

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[Narrator]

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. Listen to this series carefully and let us know if anything you hear in this show jogs a memory of yours. And if you've got a tip, you can call us at 415-570-9299. The Doodler killings seemed to stop around late summer 1975. Almost two years later in 1977, homicide inspector Rote Guilford spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle. Reading it now, it feels like a post mortem on the investigation, and it's a source for a lot of our best information. Quoted in the article, Rottea gives some background on the case. He talks about the living eyewitnesses and how he hopes one will testify. He makes clear that he's almost certain he knows who the Doodler is. Roteus says that certainly comes from the case's first true break, in November 1975, when a psychiatrist called the SFPD, the one that case files refer to as Dr. Priest. This Dr. Said that his patient admitted to all the Ocean beach murders. Rottea, Guilford and Earl Sanders decide to call this patient in for questioning, and the patient agrees. Hi, I'm Kevin Fagan from the San Francisco Chronicle. Ugly Duckling Films and Neon Hum Media. This is the untold story of the Doodler. Mike Taylor and I get on the phone all the time to mull over the Doodler case.

[John Smid]

I say this after spending nearly 40 years doing this shit. Why would anybody ever talk to a cop ever, right? Any suspect or person of interest?

[Kevin Fagan]

Yeah, you know, make them get it.

[John Smid]

Make him get a homicide life. Homicide, life in the streets.

[Kevin Fagan]

I did.

[John Smid]

Yeah, one guy. Yeah, there was one guy that they would continually bring in and he just lawyer up. He just sit there Very calmly and say, thank you, Officer. No, I prefer to talk to my attorney, go at him again. And they go at him again. Thank you, Officer. I prefer to talk to my attorney.

[Ron Huberman]

Yeah.

[Kevin Fagan]

And a good attorney is going to. Going to look at you and say, don't. Don't talk.

[John Smid]

Don't say a fucking word.

[Kevin Fagan]

From what I gather, Dr. Priest's patient met SFPD without an attorney present. Why? Maybe he was cocky. Maybe he had nothing to hide. Or maybe he wanted it to look that way. Keep in mind that most of what we know about this interrogation comes from that 1977 interview Rotay Guilford gave to the Chronicle. When questioned, the patient denied that he was the murderer, but he admitted that he had experimented with homosexuality. Apparently, the patient had struggled with his sexual identity since he was 13 years old. He didn't want to be gay, and he claimed that his sessions with the psychiatrist had, quote, cured him. He had a steady girlfriend now. I don't know how long the meeting lasted. I don't know what else was discussed or what's in the notes that were taken. The case file has this patient's name, and like I've said, he was their main person of interest. But Dan Cunningham and the SFPD have not given us that name.

[Dan Cunningham]

There's nobody in the police department that I think that we can ascertain who can say, you know, when I looked at this thing, there were a lot. There was a lot more paper. There's nothing like that. In other words, we don't know if Rotea actually did a full report. Rotea or Earl did a full report on the shrink at Highland and wrote down who it was when they saw him, what he said. None of that. We have no idea.

[Kevin Fagan]

SFPD's questioning of this shrink's patient supports a theory about the Doodler's motive, one that Earl and Mattea had and a theory that I share. I first mentioned it in episode three of this series. It's likely that the Doodler killed gay men because he was struggling with his own sexuality. Pent up self hatred that he took out on other gay men. This patient told police that he was wrestling with those kinds of feelings, even if he stopped short of saying that they had led him to violence.

[John Smid]

One of the common things with gay men is that for most of us, we were raised in a climate of deep confusion and. And pain and a lack of nurturing with regards to our own authenticity.

[Kevin Fagan]

That's John Smid. He worked at a gay conversion therapy organization for over two decades called Love in Action.

[John Smid]

Most of Us were trapped in a world that was heteronormative. And many of us raised in religious circles where we would frequently hear messages of damnation, of shame, and at the maximum of clear condemnation.

[Kevin Fagan]

Gay conversion therapy was a religious based pseudo therapy that came to prominence in the 1970s. It promised its patients that they could be changed from gay to straight. Today, the practice has been completely discredited, and SMID has since left and denounced the Love in Action organization. But while he was there, he. He heard harrowing tales of ruined lives.

[John Smid]

Yeah, we heard all kinds of destructive stories of where people had sexually abused other people, where they had acted out repeatedly in very dangerous sexual practices and ethics. I mean, I remember one guy that committed arson, serious insurance fraud. He was just so desperate.

[Kevin Fagan]

A lot of people were desperate. Years of denying and hiding your sexuality can intensify feelings of anxiety, fear and anger.

[John Smid]

Those experiences create a tremendous amount of psychological and psychiatric harm. I have no doubt that the outcome of that is and could be a tremendous amount of acting out against other people.

[Kevin Fagan]

It was a long shot, but maybe someone who fit the profile of Dr. Priest's patient had come to love in action around the time SMID was there. So we had to ask, did anybody.

[Dan Cunningham]

That you recall, did anybody come in and confess to killing someone?

[John Smid]

No, I don't remember anything like that.

[Kevin Fagan]

We called more than a dozen people involved with conversion therapy in the 70s, and none of them remembered anyone resembling the Doodler. But we don't know for sure whether Dr. Priest's patient had actually pursued gay conversion therapy. But we do know that once Dr. Priest gave SFPD this tip, his patient quickly became the top suspect for the Doodler murders. And we know that this doctor Priest had gone out on an ethical limb to warn the cops about him. This is Dr. Paul Applebaum. He's a professor at Columbia University and a former president of the American Psychiatric Association.

[Dr. Paul Applebaum]

If a patient reveals to their psychiatrist that they have committed an offense, a serious offense, perhaps a murder, the question is, does the psychiatrist have the right to disclose that information to the authorities?

[Kevin Fagan]

He says that in most states, any information shared during therapy is confidential.

[Dr. Paul Applebaum]

But there is an exception in circumstances in which the information suggests not just that a crime was committed in the past, but that there is a likelihood of future violent behavior. For example, in the case of a serial killer, the psychiatrist would be able to, under the standard tenets of confidentiality, to disclose that information for the sake of protecting potential future victims.

[Kevin Fagan]

This was more or less the case in early 1976, too. To disclose confidential information was at a psychiatrist's own discretion. And it's a difficult decision to make. It requires a betrayal of trust. So for Dr. Priest to have made that call to the SFPD, he likely believed that his patient would kill again. But could Dr. Priest have done more than just put in a call? To build their case, Rottea and Earl would need people who could testify. Could this psychiatrist help bring the doodler to justice?

[Dr. Paul Applebaum]

So every state in the country and the federal courts have some form of testimonial privilege for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals that prevents them from being compelled to testify in court about information disclosed in confidence by one of their patients without the patient's consent.

[Kevin Fagan]

So shrinks can't testify against their patients either. Except, again, when the patient poses an imminent threat to others. But remember, in the months between the time Dr. Priest put in that call to SFPD and when the patient sat down for questioning, the dude they're killing stopped. And during that sit down, the patient told Rottea that he'd been reformed, cured of homosexuality, settled down with a woman. So maybe now that danger wasn't so imminent. Or at least not enough for Dr. Priest to break confidentiality to testify. How frustrating this had to be. Rotea and Earl had their eye on someone they were pretty sure was the doodler. They just couldn't build a strong enough case to charge him. Would Rotea and Earl have any other cards to play?

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[Kevin Fagan]

Couldn'T count on testimony from Dr. Priest, was there anyone else they could count on it from? Without access to the original case files, Mike Taylor and I are left to piece this together mostly on our own. Luckily, in that same interview Rottea gave to The Chronicle in 77, Rotta talked about some living witnesses, people who had survived likely doodler attacks. I've already told you about the actor and the diplomat, neither of whom, it seems, were willing to testify. The actor had left town. The diplomat, for some reason, was too angry with the investigation to cooperate. But in that same interview, Rotea talked about a third witness, a man he described as an entertainer. Was there a third witness involved in this or.

[Unnamed Witness]

When I look at the newspaper article from 1977, I see that there's a third person.

[Kevin Fagan]

I asked Dan Cunningham what he knows about this man Rotea described, and Cunningham says the man was probably not an entertainer. We don't know what his job was, but he lived in Fox Plaza, the same building as the Diplomat. In fact, he lived just down the hall.

[Unnamed Witness]

It was another thing like, you know, 2:15 in the morning, this guy was pretty intoxicated. This guy gets a knock on his door, opens it up and there's guy's there and he goes, hey, can I use your phone.

[Kevin Fagan]

Okay. Wow. Middle of the night, a guy's drunk at home, and here's a knock at the door. They later discover the unexpected visitor matched the description in the Doodler sketch. This couldn't possibly be a coincidence, could it?

[Unnamed Witness]

Actually know he's hog tied and tied up?

[Kevin Fagan]

How come he didn't kill him?

[Unnamed Witness]

I don't know. He started. This guy starts screaming. Yeah, this guy started screaming and I believe security came up.

[Kevin Fagan]

The guy is hogtied, screams loud enough for help to show up, and the attacker gets away before security could stop him. Another close call. This whole attack leaves me with a ton of questions. How did the attacker get away? Had this victim interacted with his attacker before? Or maybe the attacker was returning to what he thought was the diplomat's apartment. Really, I have more questions than answers. And the truth is we don't have the full story here in 77. Rottea told the Chronicle this third victim was torn between his desire for justice and his desire to keep his sexuality secret. So Rotea said he was likely gay and he didn't cooperate with the cops. And that's understandable. We spent a whole episode of this podcast telling you about why the queer community didn't totally trust police at the time. And sadly, we'll probably never get the full story. Cunningham tells ME he is 95% sure that now, almost five decades later, this third victim is dead. Ron Huberman was an investigator for the San Francisco DA's office in 1981. He's had first hand experience with gay victims.

[Ron Huberman]

The DA's office at that time had a. A huge, huge number. I'm going to say it was as high as 50%, but maybe much higher than that of victims who were gay who had not come forward. People are too terrified of being outed by having to testify in a case. Gay men didn't really want to go ahead anyway because they were totally embarrassed. You know, there was not an acceptance of the lifestyle like there is now. And they were worried about people at work would see an article in the paper about it or this that. So it was a forced coming out.

[Kevin Fagan]

Huberman is talking about concerns that were certainly on the minds of the living doodler victims. They were afraid of losing their jobs and their families. There were many gay men who had wives and children.

[Ron Huberman]

It was just too difficult to get on the stand and explain why you were in somebody's car or why you went back to some floppy hotel. You know, I mean, it just. The only way I can use an analogy, it's the Same thing if a straight guy has a hooker and the hooker robs him. You know, when they're questioning you, the DA would be very careful as to what questions would be asked. Now, the defense, you know, you have no control over. So the defense would always malign the victims. And I felt horrible about it, but I would be honest with the victims and I would tell them, the defense is going to make you to be a dirty old man. The defense is going to make it look like that nobody on this jury would like you. And some of these guys, you know, wouldn't follow through. They just couldn't testify and, you know, there's nothing we can do. I mean, we can hold them in contempt because they didn't come in with a subpoena, but, you know, I'm not going to add insult to injury, you know, and so we would lose the case.

[Kevin Fagan]

Looking back today, with the doodler still out there, it's clear that none of these witnesses ultimately agreed to testify. Without their cooperation and with no hard evidence connecting doctor, Priest patient to the crimes, Rotea and Earl didn't have anything that would stand up in a court of law.

[Ron Huberman]

You got to understand the, the antagonistic situation between the, the real world, as I called it, and the gay world. It just there hadn't been a fit yet.

[Kevin Fagan]

I asked Earl's son, Marcus Sanders, about the case falling apart on the two detectives.

[John Smid]

Yeah, I think that the story was that they met with him, they had a conversation, but there was no evidence that they could connect him, you know, connect him to the case, you know, where they could bring a charge or go forward. He was the first adventure. You know, they live with it. But, you know, like I said, the reason I'm familiar with Doula Case, Doula Case bothered that he didn't get. He couldn't put a case together.

[Kevin Fagan]

Remember, after Rotea interviewed the patient, there were no more Doodler killings. It made Earl and Rotea even more convinced they had the right guy. They clearly rattled him, but they hadn't caught him. To me, the 1977 interview that Rotea gave to the Chronicle, that article where we've since gleaned so much information, it felt like Rottea was putting all his cards on the table. A last ditch effort to see if he could rustle up any leads. But eventually they had to move on to other cases, cases they could solve, criminals they could put behind bars. For now, the Doodle case was going to remain a round neck, one of the ones they couldn't solve.

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[Kevin Fagan]

There was never a moment where the Doodler case officially ended. It just faded into the background. Harvey Milk, the most unorthodox politician, a homosexual, elected not in spite of it, but because of it in a district that is largely homosexual. Harvey Milk was elected about a year after the Doodler case went cold. His election marked a milestone for gay rights in San Francisco. And with the support of Mayor George Moscone, there was a feeling that progress on gay liberation, civil rights and women's rights was just around the corner. In 1978, Rotay Guilford was appointed by Mayor Moscone to lead a council on criminal justice reform. He was just one step away from being appointed as the chief of police. And Inspector Earl Sanders continued working in Homicide with a new partner, Napoleon Hendricks. The cultural and political pendulum in San Francisco was swinging Toward more inclusion. But on November 27, 1978. The pendulum quickly and violently swung in the other direction.

[John Smid]

As president of the Board of Supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement.

[Kevin Fagan]

Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. Former Supervisor Supervisor Dan White was the culprit. This is the body of Supervisor Harvey Milk as it was taken from City Hall. Witnesses say. After killing the mayor. White ran down the hall and fired three shots at Milk, killing him.

[Dan Cunningham]

As a member of the Board of.

[Kevin Fagan]

Supervisors, Harvey Milk championed homosexual rights. The one supervisor who consistently voted against homosexual rights. Even voted against a gay rights parade this year. Was former Supervisor Dan White. White was arrested and charged. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder. And when that news was released, the gay community kind of went berserk. That's Jim Van Busker, gay historian and author of Gay by the Bay. After the ruling, crowds of angry queer people gathered at City Hall. For what came to be known as the White. I mean, they knew it was coming. And demonstrated at City Hall. Breaking the front door of City Hall. And there were some fires set. And then after that, the SFPD officers retaliated. By going into the Castro neighborhood. And attacking the Elephant Walk, the gay bar. It was direct retaliation for the violence at City Hall. All the progress the city had made on gay issues stalled. It was a shocked city, an angry city. It's hard to describe, but the murders of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk. Sucked up lots of the attention for a while. And then the 80s came. And with them, a mysterious disease. It's a disease first detected in the gay community. That has now spread beyond that. A disease experts are now calling a national epidemic. Hiv. AIDS tore through the gay community. It's still tearing through the gay community today. More than 700,000 people in the US have died of AIDS. How many people who were afraid to speak out about the doodler in the 70s. Would be alive to talk to us today. If not for the AIDS epidemic? Around the end of 2017, Dan Cunningham was getting coffee with a reporter. And they got to talking about a trove of unsolved gay murders.

[Unnamed Witness]

So Seth Hammelberg, I think his name is from the Bay Area.

[Kevin Fagan]

Reporter, yeah.

[Unnamed Witness]

And asked me about several different cases they're being looked into from the 1970s. And I started to look through a couple cases. And I came across the Doolittle case. And I remembered it because a couple of the homicides happened out by. Where I lived, by Ocean Beach. So then it kind of all came back to me, I thought about the people that had died down by Ocean beach and started looking into it.

[Kevin Fagan]

That neighborhood kid who heard about the Ocean beach murders, as they happened, is now charged with solving the case. And his investigation runs parallel to ours.

[John Smid]

Everybody's got these different roles to play, and ours is not. We're not supposed to go there with handcuffs and say, okay, Jack, come on, you're going to go down and testify.

[Kevin Fagan]

A lot of what we know leans on what he tells us or doesn't. Here's an example. Mike Taylor and I hopped on a call with Cunningham about six months into our investigation. This was actually the first time Mike and Dan spoke directly. And after months of my asking Cunningham about the diplomat, the surviving doodler victim, and getting almost nothing out of him, Mike comes in with some new pressure.

[Dan Cunningham]

Let's go back just for a minute to the diplomat. Is it safe to say I told.

[Kevin Fagan]

Mike that we've had this conversation.

[Dan Cunningham]

Is it safe to say that the diplomat is a citizen of the country, that. Whose consulate he worked in?

[Unnamed Witness]

Not sure.

[Dan Cunningham]

Is there any way we can sort of narrow down at least the country in whose consular office he worked?

[Unnamed Witness]

I would say no, because the fact. Really easy to figure out who it was.

[Dan Cunningham]

Okay, but what we're talking about, Europe or Northern Europe, right? Sort of.

[Unnamed Witness]

I like you, Mike.

[Kevin Fagan]

He would have fit in. I mean.

[Dan Cunningham]

I have a list here of all the countries in Northern Europe and sort of going through them one by one. I mean, does he have an American name or a name from Europe or.

[Unnamed Witness]

Just going, we're going on that road again?

[Kevin Fagan]

If you have us talking to him, we'll elicit more memories, right?

[Unnamed Witness]

I'm sure you guys would, but.

[Dan Cunningham]

Well, if you were. If you were in Fox Plaza, would you say he lived on the top. One of the top three or four floors?

[Unnamed Witness]

Well, I'll say this is that when the person that was referred to as a dueler met him and they walked away from the restaurant that night and he told them where he lived, the cooler made a comment to him. Well, you must have a pretty good view there, so I'll leave it at that.

[Kevin Fagan]

We're pushing Cunningham because there's still a chance for this case to break in 2021. If the diplomat or another one of those living witnesses could come around and decide to testify, or maybe if we could find the psychiatrist, doctor, priest, things might change. And Cunningham can help us a little. He's let the diplomat know we want to talk to him. He drove to the diplomat's house in early February to ask A few more questions. And while he was there, the diplomat told Cunningham he might talk to us. For now, Cunningham has likely gotten everything he's going to get out of the Diplomat. He's more focused on finding Dr. Priest. There are things he doesn't know that only Dr. Priest could explain, like why his name didn't crop up more in the investigation and what exactly his patient confessed to.

[Unnamed Witness]

I contacted. I think it's Chicago. The Board of Psychology had a listing, and they weren't able to provide me any information on Dr. Priest. That would have been Highland Hospital at that time or anybody with that name. There is a nurse that was over at Highland during that time period that worked around the psych unit, and I. I had a buddy of mine from Oakland PD contact her with the name. He was pretty sharp. Apparently, she never heard of it.

[Kevin Fagan]

Nobody I or Cunningham has talked to can find this doctor Priest yet. I don't know why he waited until now, but Cunningham revealed there was a phone number for the psychiatrist in the original file.

[Unnamed Witness]

My partner ran a bunch of stuff up.

[John Smid]

I don't know what the hell he did.

[Unnamed Witness]

He's better on the computer than I am. And he found out that those numbers were Highland numbers.

[John Smid]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Witness]

And the extension was a Highland number.

[Kevin Fagan]

And Mike had an idea.

[John Smid]

You know the thing about if there was a number, a phone number with an extension. If we found a phone directory for Highland in 1975, you know, that's one way of finding out.

[Kevin Fagan]

In our public records request with Alameda county, we are asking for exactly that. The phone numbers are long out of date, but the Highland directory would list the name of the psychiatrist and maybe even the secretary.

[John Smid]

I have come up with a doctor who's actually pretty useful. He ran the emergency room at Highland from 73 to 76. And he said, you find the records, I'd be happy to go over them with you and tell you which doctors did what.

[Kevin Fagan]

It seems as though finding Dr. Priest hinges on that directory. God willing, he'll be alive and remember details about the patient he warned the cops about all those years ago. Next time on the final episode of the Doodler. Dan Cunningham interviews the SFPD's main person of interest in the case. Is he living as a gay man today?

[John Smid]

Yes.

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[Kevin Fagan]

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[John Smid]

It's on.

[Kevin Fagan]

Prime 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's reported by me, the host, 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 Chloe Chobel and Ryan J. Brown. Our sound designer and composer is Hansdale Suit, our editor is Nick White and our executive editor is Kathryn St. Louis. Editorial support from King Kaufman and Tim O' Rourke for the San Francisco Chronicle. Executive producers are Sophia Gibber and Lena Bowsegur for Ugly Duckling Films and Jonathan Hirsch for Neon Hum Media.