San Francisco police are taking a new look into the 1970s-era cold case “Doodler” serial killer investigation — doubling the reward money and saying they’ve identified an additional victim.
They’re offering $200,000 for information that helps break the case – in which they’ve had a person if interest for decades but not enough evidence to bring charges. To that end, they’ve released an “age-progression” sketch showing what the victim may have looked like in the ‘70s and what he could look like now, and asking for any potentially additional victims to come forward.
The Doodler, described as a Black male between 19 and 25 years old, attacked White, gay men, according to authorities. He would meet them at after-hours gay clubs or restaurants, lure them out for sex and then stab them to death in “rage killing” attacks.
“In the 1970s, this was gripping the gay community and San Francisco,” city police Commander Greg McEachern said at a news conference in 2019.
Police discovered the Doodler’s first victim, 50-year-old Gerald Cavanaugh, 48 years ago at Ocean Beach. The Doodler is believed to have killed an additional five White, gay men between 1974 and 1975 and attacked others who survived.
The Doodler got his name because a surviving victim told police that when he met the suspect at a diner after hours on a July night in 1975, his attacker drew animal pictures on a napkin. In the past, he was described as being around 6 feet tall and having a “lanky” build with a medium complexion.
The Doodler told the victim he was an art student who aimed to become a cartoonist. The survivor told police that he “believed the suspect to be skillful in drawing.”
The latest victim attributed to the killer, Warren Andrews, was found unconscious on April 27, 1975 at Land’s End, a waterfront park. Rather than being stabbed to death like the other victims, he was bludgeoned, possibly because he put up a fight and the Doodler dropped his knife. But police said they now believe he is a Doodler victim despite the different cause of death.
Andrews never woke up and died several weeks later, according to authorities.
Police identified a person of interest in 1976 but did not have enough evidence to bring charges. They say that man is “still the focus” of their investigation in 2022. But due to a lack of evidence, they declined to release his name.
Authorities are asking for any other potential survivors to come forward to help crack the case.
