Sketch Shows How 'Doodler' Serial Killer Might Look Now

He terrorized SF's gay community 40 years ago
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 7, 2019 12:31 AM CST
New Sketch of 'Doodler' Serial Killer Released
This pair of sketches provided by the San Francisco Police Department, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019, shows what a serial killer might look like now in a cold case involving at least five stabbing deaths of gay men in the mid-1970s.   (San Francisco Police Department via AP)

More than 40 years after a serial killer dubbed the "Doodler" terrorized San Francisco's gay community, police released a sketch Wednesday of what the man might look like today and announced a $100,000 reward for details leading to his capture. Police believe the killer stabbed at least five men to death from early 1974 to late 1975. He became known as the "Doodler" after a victim who survived an attack told police the man was doodling while they talked at a late-night diner and said he was a cartoonist. At a news conference, police released a pair of images that showed a 1975 sketch of the man and an "age-progression" showing what he might look like now, the AP reports.

The killer targeted white men he met at after-hours gay clubs and restaurants in San Francisco. "In the 1970s, this was gripping the gay community and San Francisco," police Commander Greg McEachern told the news conference. Police described the killer as an African-American male, about 5 feet, 11 inches tall with a lanky build who was likely in his early 20s during the attacks. At the time, a witness was able to give investigators a description of the attacker, leading to a man being detained in 1976 but never charged. McEachern said police have interviewed the man since returning to the case and he remains a person of interest. Police have submitted DNA samples from some of the 1970s crime scenes and are waiting for lab results. (Police have been trying to track down a European diplomat believed to have survived a Doodler attack.)

(More serial killers stories.)

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