THE KRAFT CASE : A SPECIAL REPORT : RANDY KRAFT’S Scorecard?
Prosecutors in the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial say a paper with 61 entries, found in his car trunk when he was arrested May 14, 1983, is a death list--Kraft’s own score card of how many young men he had killed dating back to late 1971.
Kraft’s attorneys deny it is a death list, and call it meaningless information that will only inflame his jury. Kraft himself, in a 1983 interview, called the list nothing more than references to friends of his and his roommate at the time.
Whatever the explanation, it is expected to become a critical piece of evidence at his trial, which enters its second week of testimony Monday.
It was not until last week that Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin made public the complete list, plus prosecutors’
papers showing how they claim the list is tied to alleged Kraft victims.
Kraft is charged with 16 Orange County murders. But prosecutors have accused him of a total of 45 murders, including six in Oregon and two in Michigan. They claim that 43 of those 45 can be tied to the list.
The only ones not on the list, they say, are the last two victims: Eric Herbert Church, 21, found Jan. 27, 1983, in Seal Beach, and Terry Lee Gambrel, 25, a dead Marine found in Kraft’s car when he was arrested.
The graphic below shows the 61 entries on the list, and how prosecutors link them to alleged victims. The victims whose bodies were found in Orange County have white numbers.
1. STABLE--Wayne Joseph Dukette, 30, of Long Beach; his body was found Oct. 5, 1971, at the bottom of a ravine next to Ortega Highway in south Orange County. Prosecutors estimate the time of his death as two weeks earlier. Cause of death could not be determined, but pathologists say he suffered from acute alcohol intoxication.
He was last seen at the Stables Bar in Sunset Beach, where he was a bartender. His car was found in the Stables lot. Kraft at the time worked at the Broom Hilda, a gay bar next to Stables, and was a frequent Stables customer. “Stable†is the first entry on the Kraft list, and prosecutors claim Dukette is the earliest Kraft victim.
2. ANGEL--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
3. EDM--Edward Daniel Moore, 20, a Marine from Camp Pendleton, found Dec. 26, 1972, at the interchange of the San Gabriel and San Diego freeways in Seal Beach. Prosecutors say he had been strangled three days earlier. A sock was stuffed in a body cavity. The body had been re-dressed when found. (Part of the 16 murder charges on which Kraft is being tried.)
4. HARI KARI--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
5. AIRPLANE HILL--John Doe found on Ellis Street between Golden West and Gothard streets in Huntington Beach. The body had been re-dressed. Victim was sodomized and emasculated. Prosecutors say the area was known to local residents in the 1950s, when Kraft lived in nearby Midway City, as Airplane Hill. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
6. MARINE DOWN--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
7. VAN DRIVEWAY--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
8. 2 IN 1 MV TO PL--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder(s).
9. TWIGGIE--James Dale Reeves, 19, of Cypress, found Nov. 27, 1974, near the San Diego Freeway in Irvine. His body was nude except for a T-shirt. A 4-foot-long twig was stuffed into a body cavity. His car was found in the parking lot in front of the Ripples Bar in Long Beach, which Kraft frequented. Cause of death could not be determined.
10. VINCE M--Vincent Cruz Mestas, 23, of Long Beach, found Dec. 29, 1973, at the bottom of a ravine in a mountain area of San Bernardino County. His body had been re-dressed except for his shoes. A sock had been stuffed into a body cavity and his genitals mutilated. His hands had been severed from his body. Cause of death was strangulation. He was last seen by a roommate at their home three days before. It was a few blocks from Kraft’s home at the time.
11. WILMINGTON--John Doe found Feb. 6, 1973, along the Terminal Island Freeway in the Wilmington area, nude, with a sock stuffed in a body cavity.
12. LB MARINA--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
13. PIER 2--Thomas Paxton Lee, 25, of Long Beach, found Aug. 3, 1974, on a pier in an oil field area of Long Beach Harbor, fully clothed. Cause of death was strangulation.
14. DIABETIC--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
15. SKATES--John William Leras, 17, of Long Beach, found Jan. 4, 1975, floating in the surf at Sunset Beach. A wooden surveyor’s stake had been stuffed into a body cavity. He was seen the day before, boarding a bus en route to a roller skating rink carrying new skates, and leaving the bus near the Ripples Bar. Cause of death was suffocation.
16. PORTLAND--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
17. NAVY WHITE--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
18. USER--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
19. PARKING LOT--Keith Daven Crotwell, 19, of Long Beach, last seen leaving the parking lot next to the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach on March 30, 1975, with Kraft in Kraft’s car. His severed head was found July 30, 1975, near the 72nd Street jetty in Long Beach. His skeletal remains, with the exception of his hands, were found near El Toro on Oct. 18, 1975. Cause of death could not be determined. Forensic experts were unaware until after Kraft’s arrest in 1983 that the skeletal remains could be matched to the head found in Long Beach. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
20. DEODORANT--Robert Avila, 16, of Los Angeles, found July 29, 1982, in Echo Park, next to the Hollywood Freeway, in Los Angeles. He was known as a heavy deodorant user. Cause of death was strangulation.
21. DOG--Raymond Davis, 13, of Pittsburg, Calif., found July 29, 1982, in Echo Park next to the body of Avila. He
was visiting relatives in Los Angeles and had gone to the park to look for his lost dog. Cause of death was strangulation.
22. TEEN TRUCKER-- Malcolm Eugene Little, 20, of Selma, Ala., found June 2, 1974, in a remote desert area near the Salton Sea in Imperial County. His brother, a truck driver, had dropped him off at the interchange of the Garden Grove Freeway with the San Diego Freeway on May 27, 1974, to hitchhike back to Alabama. He was emasculated and a branch was stuffed into a body cavity. Cause of death was strangulation.
23. IOWA--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
24. 7TH STREET-- Ronnie Gene Wiebe, 20, found July 28, 1973, along the 7th Street on-ramp to the San Diego Freeway. He was last seen at the Sportsman Bar in Los Alamitos, where his car was found in the parking lot with a flat tire. The body had been re-dressed except for shoes. One of his socks had been stuffed into a body cavity. He had been ejected from a moving vehicle. Cause of death was strangulation.
25. LAKES MC--Gregory Wallace Jolley, 20, of Jacksonville, Fla., found Sept. 14, 1979, in the Lake Arrowhead-Big Bear area. He was known to wear military clothing and tell people he was a Marine. The body was found without head or legs. He had been emasculated.
26. MC LAGUNA-- Roger E. Dickerson, 18, a Marine at Camp Pendleton, found June 22, 1974, off a dead-end street in Laguna Beach. He was last seen by fellow Marines two days earlier trying to hitch a ride to Los Angeles from near a bar in San Clemente. He had been sodomized and mutilated with bite marks. Cause of death was strangulation.
27. GOLDEN SAILS--Craig Victor
Jonaites, 24, address not released, found next to the Golden Sails Hotel/Bar on Pacific Coast Highway near Loynes Drive in Long Beach, fully clothed except for shoes and socks. Cause of death was strangulation.
28. EUCLID--Scott Michael Hughes, 18, a Marine from Camp Pendleton, found April 16, 1978, on the shoulder of the Euclid Street on-ramp to the eastbound Riverside Freeway in Anaheim. He was last seen two days before. His body had been re-dressed, and the shoe laces had been removed from his shoes. He had been emasculated. Cause of death was strangulation. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
29. HAWTH OFF HEAD--John Doe found April 22, 1973. Victim’s torso was found at Alameda Street and Henry Ford
Avenue in Wilmington. His right leg was found on the Terminal Island Freeway at Anaheim Street in Wilmington. His arms were found on the Terminal Island Freeway in Long Beach. His head was found at 7th Street and Redondo Avenue in Long Beach. His left leg was found behind Broom Hilda’s, the bar where Kraft worked in Sunset Beach. Cause of death was strangulation and the victim had been emasculated.
30. 76--John Doe No. 299, found Aug. 29, 1979, in a dumpster at a Union 76 station at Pacific Coast Highway and 2nd Street in Long Beach. His arms had been severed at the shoulders, legs severed at the hip joints and head severed. Only the head, left leg, and torso were recovered. A sock had been stuffed into a body cavity.
31. 2 IN 1 HITCH--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder(s).
32. BIG SUR--Gary Wayne Cordova, 23, of Pasadena, found Aug. 12, 1974, down an embankment near Cabot Road and Oso Parkway in Laguna Hills. The body was clothed except for shoes and socks. He had told friends that he was moving from his Pasadena house and was hitchhiking to Oceanside. Prosecutors say he frequently talked about Big Sur. Cause of death was acute intoxication due to drugs.
33. MARINE HEAD BP--Mark Alan Marsh, 20, a Marine from the El Toro base, found Feb. 18, 1980, at Templin Highway and Interstate 5 near Castaic in Los Angeles County. He had indicated to fellow Marines that he was on his way to Buena Park. He was a known hitchhiker.
The head and hands had been severed. A large object had been stuffed into a body cavity. Cause of death undetermined.
34. EXPLETIVE DELETED--Paul Joseph Fuchs, 19, of Long Beach, disappeared Dec. 12, 1976. Last seen at Ripples Bar in Long Beach.
35. FRONT OF RIPPLES--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
36. MARINE CARSON--Richard Allen Keith, 20, a Marine from Camp Pendleton, found June 19, 1978, along Moulton Parkway between El Toro and La Paz roads. He was last seen hitchhiking from a girlfriend’s house the day before in Carson. Cause of death was strangulation. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
37. NEW YEAR’S EVE--Mark Howard Hall, 22, of Santa Ana, found Jan. 3, 1976, on the west side of Bedford Peak at the east end of Santiago Canyon. He was last seen leaving a New Year’s Eve party in San Juan Capistrano two days before.
Several parts of his body, including eyes and genitals, had been mutilated with an automobile cigarette lighter. He had been emasculated. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
38. WESTMINSTER DATE--Jeffrey Bryan Sayre, 15, of Santa Ana, disappeared Nov. 24, 1979, after a date with a girlfriend in Westminster. He had intended to ride a bus home, but the buses had ceased operating for the night.
39. JAIL OUT-- Roland Gerald Young, 23, address not listed, found along Irvine Center Drive near Deerfield in Irvine, near the San Diego Freeway. Just hours before, he had been released on a misdemeanor violation from Orange County Jail. His body had been re-dressed, and he had been emasculated. A jail-release form was found in his pocket. Cause of death was a stab wound to the heart. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
40. MARINE DRUNK OVERNIGHT SHORTS--Donnie Harold Crisel, 20, a Marine from the Tustin base, found June 19, 1979, on the Irvine Center Drive on-ramp to the northbound San Diego Freeway. He was clothed only in shorts. His left nipple had been burned with an automobile cigarette lighter. Cause of death was acute poisoning due to alcohol and drugs. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
41. CARPENTER--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
42. TORRANCE--Richard A. Crosby, 20, found Sept. 30, 1978, on Highway 83, north of Highway 71, in San Bernardino County. He had gone to a movie in Torrance and was a habitual hitchhiker. His left nipple had been mutilated with an automobile cigarette lighter. Cause of death was suffocation.
43. MC DUMP HB SHORT--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
44. 2 IN 1 BEACH--Geoffrey Allan Nelson and Rodger JamesDeVaul Jr. Nelson, 18, and DeVaul, 20, were last seen on foot near their homes in the Buena Park area in the early-morning hours of Feb. 12, 1983. Nelson’s body was found a few hours later on the Euclid on-ramp to the Garden Grove Freeway in Garden Grove. He was nude and had been emasculated. He was thrown from a moving vehicle. Cause of death was strangulation.
DeVaul’s body was found the next day in a ravine in the Angeles National Forest, a few miles north of Claremont Men’s College where Kraft had gotten his degree. His body had been re-dressed, and he had been sodomized. Cause of death was compression on the neck.
Prosecutors link them to “2 in 1 Beach†because sand was found on DeVaul. (Both part of 16 murder charges.)
45. HOLLYWOOD BUS--Christopher R. Williams, 17, found Aug. 20, 1981, in the Blue Jay area of the San Bernardino Mountains in San Bernardino County. He was clothed except for shoes, socks and underwear. Paper had been stuffed into a body cavity. Cause of death was pneumonia due to aspiration. He was a known male prostitute who worked from bus stops in Hollywood, prosecutors say.
46. MC HB TATTOO--Robert Wyatt Loggins, 19, a Marine from the Tustin base, found Sept. 3, 1980, in a trash bag, nude, on a dead-end street in El Toro. He had a large tattoo on his arm and was last seen with friends near the Huntington Beach Pier. Prosecutors claim that at one point, a sock had been stuffed into a body cavity. Cause of death was acute intoxication. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
47. OXNARD--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
48. PORTLAND ECK--John Doe, Oregon, found July 18, 1980, in Woodburn, Ore., near Interstate 5. Cause of death was strangulation. Prosecutors say they cannot connect ECK, but it was listed next to five other “Portland†entries on the list that they claim they can connect to the Kraft list.
49. PORTLAND DENVER--Michael Shawn O’Fallon, 17, found July 17, 1980, near Interstate 5 in the Salem, Ore., area. He was nude and had been sodomized. He had left his home in a suburb of Denver, Colo., to hitchhike in the Northwest. Cause of death was strangulation.
50. PORTLAND BLOOD--Michael Duane Cluck, 18, found April 10, 1981, in Goshen, Ore., near Interstate 5, partially nude. He had been sodomized and bludgeoned 31 times in the back of the head. Prosecutors say it was the bloodiest crime scene of all 45 cases.
51. PORTLAND HAWAII--Lance Trenton Taggs, 19, found Dec. 9, 1982, near Wilsonville, Ore. He had been re-dressed. A sock had been stuffed into a body cavity. Taggs’ small tote bag marked “Hawaii†was found at Kraft’s house, and he was last seen hitchhiking in a shirt with “Hawaii†printed on it.
52. PORTLAND RESERVE--Anthony Jose Silveira, 29, found Dec. 18, 1982, near Medford, Ore., nude, with a toothbrush stuffed into a body cavity. He had been sodomized. Silveira had recently completed duty in the National Guard. He was last seen Dec. 3, 1982, hitchhiking to a Guard drill in Medford. Cause of death was strangulation.
53. PORTLAND HEAD--Brian Harold Witcher, 26, found Nov. 28, 1982, near Wilsonville, Ore., near Interstate 5, fully clothed but without shoes or socks. He had been thrown from a moving vehicle. He was last heard from five days earlier and last seen in Portland, Ore. Prosecutors so far have not explained the “Head†connection on the Kraft list.
54. GR 2--Dennis Patrick Alt and Christopher Alan Schoenborn, two cousins, both 20, found together Dec. 9, 1982, in a field several miles from the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids, Mich., where they were attending a horticulture convention.
Alt, of Comstock Park, Mich., was clothed except for his missing boots and his genitals were exposed. Cause of death was asphyxia by choking. Schoenborn, of Conklin, Mich., was found nude with an Amway Grand Hotel pen stuffed into a body cavity. Cause of death was strangulation.
Recently unsealed prosecution papers allege for the first time new evidence linking the victims to Kraft.
Prosecutors say the two were last seen alive talking with Kraft in the hotel bar the night before their bodies were found. Alt’s vehicle keys were found in Kraft’s hotel room after he vacated it on Dec. 8. Also, a Federal Land Bank bottle opener belonging to one of the victims and Schoenborn’s jacket were found at Kraft’s Long Beach home.
55. MC PLANTS--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
56. SD DOPE--Mikeal Laine, 24, of Modesto, found Jan. 19, 1984--nearly a year after Kraft’s arrest--in a remote mountain area near Ramona in San Diego County. No clothes were found with skeletal remains.
He was last seen Nov. 21, 1982, without transportation in the Buena Park area. He was known for frequent drug usage and had a drug arrest on his record. His name was not added to the Kraft case until his remains were discovered.
57. HIKE OUT LB BOOTS--Keith Arthur Klingbiel, 23, of Everett, Wash., found July 8, 1978, in a traffic lane of northbound Interstate 5, just south of the La Paz exit in Mission Viejo. He was last seen the day before hitchhiking from Everett to San Diego, where his mother lived.
He had been burned with an automobile cigarette lighter on the left nipple. A boot lace was missing from his left hiking boot. He had been dumped from a moving vehicle. Cause of death was drug poisoning and strangulation. A Long Beach matchbook was in his pocket. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
58. ENGLAND--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
59. OIL--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
60. DART 405-- Michael Joseph Inderbieten, 20, of Long Beach, found Nov. 18, 1978, at the San Diego and San Gabriel freeways’ interchange. His body was nude except for pants pulled down below his waist. He had been emasculated and sodomized. Cause of death was suffocation. (Part of 16 murder charges.)
61. WHAT YOU GOT--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder.
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