The 1970s were unsettling times in San Francisco. The Zodiac Killer[1] continued to send encrypted messages to the San Francisco Chronicle[2], the Zebra Murders[3] had yet to be solved, and daily news focused on the Patty Hearst kidnapping[4]. The large number of gay men murdered in the City went under the public radar and yet the numbers are staggering: 95 in 1973, 129 in 1974 and 131 in 1975. Between January 1974 – September 1975 a man nick-named “the Doodler” is known to have killed six white gay men and brutally attack three others. The Doodler got his nickname from the fact that he approached his victims in Castro nightclubs, restaurants and bars after first sketching their portrait. He would then chat them up, invite them to meet up at a secluded spot at Ocean Beach[5], Golden Gate Park[6] or Lands End[7] under the pretext of a clandestine hook-up, and then brutally stab them.
The first victim was found in January 1974 on Ocean Beach, stabbed multiple times both in the front and back. The second victim was a female impersonator who performed at Finocchio’s[8]. His body was found at Spreckels Lake in Golden Gate Park, also stabbed multiple times. The third victim was a German national whose body was found at Ocean Beach, not only with stab wounds but with a slashed throat. It was after this murder that police realized they were dealing with a serial killer. The fourth victim was a Vietnam War veteran and registered nurse who was also found at Ocean Beach.
The fifth victim was Harold Gullberg, a 66-year old naturalized citizen from Sweden found decomposed under some brush near the 16th Hole of the Lincoln Park Golf Course at Lands End. It was determined that he had been dead for at least two weeks before being discovered. Unlike the other victims, who remained clothed, Gullberg was found with his pants unzipped. On January 27, 2022, almost 50 years later, the SFPD linked a sixth victim to the Doodler: a 52-year-old attorney who had been beaten as opposed to stabbed but met the rest of the Doodler Murders criteria.
There were three survivors: a European diplomat, a nationally recognized entertainer and a San Francisco businessman, none of whom have ever been identified. These men were able to create a composite sketch, identifying their attacker as a good looking and educated black man who was about six feet tall with a slender build. With this composite sketch the police were able to apprehend a suspect at a Tenderloin bar who was carrying a sketch book and a butcher knife. He was cooperative with police but never confessed. A case could not be made without witness testimony, and the three surviving victims refused to testify in court for fear that having their identities made public would harm their families and careers. It must be remembered that police were still arresting gay men for violating sodomy laws at this time. It was not until 1975 that the American Psychiatric Association Board of Trustees stopped classifying homosexuality as a disorder, and it was not until 1976 when California’s sodomy laws were finally repealed. Gay activist and future Board Supervisor Harvey Milk[9] supported these men’s decisions: “I respect the pressure society has put on them.”[10]
In 2017 Police Inspector Dan Cunningham reopened the Doodler Murders case. The original suspect was re-interviewed in 2019 but again, there is not enough evidence to make an arrest. The SFPD has offered a $200,000 reward to anyone who has information that leads to a conviction in these unsolved murders.
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