The Doodler Murders

There was a podcast about this case some 3-4 years ago.

I always wondered who the "entertainer" was. I've heard gossip that it was either Rock Hudson or Richard Chamberlain

I listened to the podcast and it was really good!

From a 2023 news item...

One of the surviving victims met the suspect after the bars closed in July of 1975 at the Truck Stop diner near Market and Church streets, where the suspect drew animal figures on a napkin. He told the victim that he was in art school and was studying to be a cartoonist, police said.

According to police, two different attacks in 1975 occurred within two weeks of one another in the Fox Plaza Apartments. Both victims lived on the same floor but did not know each other. Investigators made a connection between those attacks and attacks at or near Ocean Beach.

Soon after the first composite sketch was released, police say a woman called them and provided a name and vehicle plate for the suspect, calling twice in ten days. Police are now hoping to find this woman. Additionally, at least two other people called the SFPD and provided the same name. Police are also hoping that these people will again come forward.

Police said that they interviewed the man identified by the callers in January of 1976 and that he was considered a "strong suspect" and is still the focus of the case.

All of the Doodler's victims men who were believed to be gay, and there is speculation that some surviving victims feared coming forward at the time because they didn't want their homosexuality or sex with men revealed.

"We believe there are other persons who may have survived attacks by this same suspect or may have information regarding this suspect and these attacks," said the SFPD.

SFPD has increased the reward for information leading to the identification, apprehension and conviction of the suspect from $200,000 to $250,000. Police had already doubled the $100,000 award last year.

Anyone who thinks they have information regarding these homicides and attacks should contact that SFPD Cold Case Investigators team: Tom Newland (415) 553-1144; Dominic Celaya (415) 553-9856; Daniel Dedet (415) 553-1450 or Daniel Cunningham (415) 553-9515

Why didn't the psychiatrist testify?

The Truck Stop Diner at 2100 Market St. would go on to become The Church Street Station before it's last incarnation as "Home" before it was demolished to build a seven story apartment building.

The Truck Stop had a companion bar back there called The Rear End (which reportedly "attracted an attractive clientele"). And during the long tenure of Church Street Station, which took over the space from 1977 to the early 1990s, the bar in back was called Hideaway.

The cops botched this case big time.

Why do they say the killer is white?

"The suspect was described as a black man between 19 and 25 years of age. He was about six feet tall with a slender build."

[quote]San Francisco police were excited as they now had identified the attacker... Either the boy's psychiatrist contacted the police or the police found him through other contacts, but the doctor told police... actually confessed the slayings to him and readily agreed that he was "The Doodler....

[quote]The Doodler case went cold

WAIT? How could it go "cold" when they had the name and pertinent info of the perp?

[quote]The cops botched this case big time.

Disagree. Without witness testimony from the victims, the DA can’t prosecute, and won’t file a complaint.

[quote]Why didn't the psychiatrist testify?

Doctor-patient privilege. The Tarasoff case (1976) hadn’t been decided yet. Third party hearsay. Even if shrink did testify, unreliability of out-of-court statement by a known psychiatric patient, without direct in-court identifying by surviving victims of the defendant.

This needs to be a Netflix series

I thought this was DL creative wring at first.

The Doodler sounds over the top even for the 1960s Batman series that included Egghead and Lola Lasagna.

What do you think happened to him? Suicide? Did a potential victim kill him?

No idea, R12. The reward for his capture and conviction is $250,000, doubled recently. That's a lot of money. The cops are under tremendous pressure to put away a guy they let get away some fifty years ago. They ignored an informant who had the address and vehicle plate of the killer. They couldn't even arrest him even though he confessed. The SFPD fucked up big time, probably because it wasn't that important to them -- it was the murders of drag queens, leather queens, and closet queens. Back then gays had no power in SF. Now they do. They say the killer would be in his 60s now.

[quote]The Doodler sounds over the top even for the 1960s Batman series that included Egghead and Lola Lasagna.

That's SENORA Lola Lasagna to you, fuckface!

[quote]They couldn't even arrest him even though he confessed.

Disagree. The police could arrest him, but they couldn’t keep him, because his ALLEGED confession to a psychiatrist was INADMISSIBLE in court, therefore he could not be successfully PROSECUTED.

The laws of evidence and due process weren’t written by law enforcement. Their hands were tied, and the DA had nothing else to conclusively tie this defendant to the crimes, most likely.

There may be more to this story, but going on what’s posted here, this is a perfect example of what happens when victims are unable to testify, or refuse to. The DA can’t make the case in court, given the legal requirement to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal cases.

Analogous to historical cases where victims of a serial rapist would refuse to testify. The defendant couldn't be held if the DA had insufficient evidence to prove guilt.

Haven’t you ever watched Law and Order, ffs?

He must have had a huge cock because those composites are ugly as fuck.

R12, as far as I know, he's still alive and the police are keeping up with him. They just don't have a real case against him.

I’m more interested in the prancy dance murders and the canoodling homicides