Police in San Francisco have identified a suspect whom they believe could be the serial killer who stalked the city’s gay community in the 1970s.
He was nicknamed “The Doodler” because his modus operandi involved chatting to strangers in gay bars and nightclubs and sketching their caricatures, and cartoons, on cocktail napkins.
After gaining his victims’ trust, he would leave with them – then later stab them to death.
Authorities believe that The Doodler is responsible for 14 murders and three assaults of men between January 1974 and September 1975.
A few months after his last known victim was found in 1975 on a golf course, the San Francisco Police Department released an artist’s sketch of a suspect.
The sketch was based on descriptions given by the three surviving victims.
The suspect was described as a slim African-American male, between 19 and 22 years old, and under six feet tall. It was also stated that he frequently wore “a Navy-type watch cap.”
The witnesses refused to testify, most likely, according to law enforcement sources, because they did not want their homosexuality exposed.
One of the stabbing survivors was reportedly a “well-known entertainer” and another was rumored to be a diplomat.
According to CNN, Inspector Dan Cunningham, who recently took control of the SFPD’s cold case unit, said that he is taking another look at the suspect who inspired the sketches.
Cunningham is reportedly looking at five murders, but believes that the killer may have been responsible for many more.
The first of The Doodler’s alleged victims to be found was Gerald Cavanagh, a 50-year-old who had worked in a mattress factory.
His body was found early one January morning in 1974 on Ocean Beach. He had been stabbed 16 times.
Cunningham is also looking into the cases of 27-year-old drag queen Joseph Stephens, and Claus Christmann, a 31-year-old German.
Like many of The Doodler’s victims Christmann was found with multiple stab wounds – and with his pants unzipped and open.
In the summer of 1975 two more bodies were found: Frederick Capin, a registered nurse in his early 30s, and Harald Gullberg, a 67-year-old Swedish sailor.
The news that five men had been found dead within 18 months struck fear into the gay community.
Gay sex was illegal in California until 1976.
Cunningham will also work with the SFPD crime lab to see if it could be possible to get a DNA sample from evidence gathered at two of The Doodler crime scenes more than four decades ago.
A number of cold cases are being re-investigated with renewed energy ever since The Golden State Killer suspect Joseph DeAngelo was arrested in April after breakthroughs were made through the use of DNA.
Investigators plan to release an updated sketch of the suspect.
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Read more: CNN
Main photo: A police sketch of “The Doodler” suspect that was released in 1975 [San Francisco Police Department]
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