$250,000 Reward Offered for Information About Murders of San Francisco Gay Men
Six gay men were murdered between 1974 and 1975 by the so-called Doodler. Police are now renewing a call to the public to help solve the cases.
Featured image: Sketch of suspect via screenshot of ABC7 News showing the original sketch of the suspect made by police plus an updated one in 2019.
Authorities in San Francisco are again looking to the public to help them solve multiple cold case murders that happened in the 1970s, thought to be connected to the infamous Doodler killer.
The San Francisco Police Department announced last week that the spate of murders that happened between 1974 and 1975.
“Investigators believed all the victims were targeted because they were gay, white adult males, and the victims met the suspect shortly before they were killed in isolated coastal locations,” police said in a press release.
Police added that the suspect may have left San Francisco after the killings and traveled across the Southeast for some time.
The suspect was dubbed the Doodler because authorities believe he would sketch his victims at gay bars before taking them to secluded hook-up spots where he would attack them.
A reward of $250,000, which was originally set in 2023 and is the max allowed by the department, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, is still being offered.
Forty-nine-year-old Canadian American Gerald Cavanaugh’s body was found on January 24, 1974. He was the first of the murder victims. Other victims include 27-year-old drag and comedy performer Joseph “Jae” Stevens, 31-year-old German American Klaus Achim Christmann, 52-year-old lawyer Warren Andrews, 32-year-old nurse and veteran Frederic Elmer Capin, and 66-year-old Swedish immigrant Harald Gullberg, according to CBS News.
The men were either stabbed or beaten, according to the Chronicle.
Investigators said that the murders could be connected to violent attacks that happened in the city in 1975 also assumed to have been committed by the Doodler. However, police said a solid connection could not be made. A suspect involved in that attack is a person of interest in the murder cases and lives in the Bay Area.
The Chronicle reports that the suspect became known to police after a psychiatrist came forward, believing he had treated a man who he thought was the Doodler.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact the SFPD Homicide Cold Case Unit at (415) 553-1450, Monday-Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM. A tip line can be reached at 1-415-575-4444 or Text-A-Tip to TIP411, beginning a message with SFPD. Those with information can remain anonymous.
