Randy Steven Kraft
Randy Steven Kraft (born March 19, 1945 in Long Beach , California ) is an American serial killer who was sentenced to death for the murder of 16 men between 1971 and 1983. He is suspected of being responsible for 51 other murders.
Life
Kraft grew up with his parents and three sisters in Westminster , California , where he also attended high school and graduated in 1963. He then attended Claremont McKenna College, where he joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps and worked as a bartender . In 1968 he received his bachelor's degree in economics and worked as an election assistant for Robert F. Kennedy . In the same year he enlisted in the United States Air Force , where he was immediately accepted and assigned to Edwards Air Force Base due to his high IQ of 129, the excellent results of the entrance tests and his impeccable past . When he confessed to being gay in 1969, he was discharged from the military and started working as a computer technician.
Randy Kraft was stopped by a police patrol at around 1am on May 14, 1983 on the San Diego Freeway in Mission Viejo because of his lurching driving style. After failing the alcohol test, he was arrested for drunk driving. When trying to wake the supposedly sleeping passenger, the officers found that he was dead. The one strangled with a belt was Terry Gambrel, 25, from nearby El Toro Marine Air Base. In Kraft's car, there were also photos of murdered or missing men and a notepad with entries and descriptions of 67 victims. During the subsequent house search, clothing and traces of blood from several victims were also found.
Since several serial killers were up to mischief on the California highways in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, only 16 murders could be proven beyond doubt. It was revealed in court that he brutally tortured his victims before killing them. Some he hung up on a tree with their feet up, tortured them with fire and stuck various objects in their anus and urethra. Sometimes he dismembered her alive. He simply left the bodies of his victims on the side of the road.
Kraft was sentenced to death on November 29, 1989 and is awaiting execution in San Quentin State Prison .
Web links
- LA Times article from 1988
- http://www.geocities.com/verbal_plainfield/ip/kraft.html ( Memento from February 9, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kraft, Randy Steven |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American serial killer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1945 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Long Beach , California |