Still Unsolved After More Than 45 Years
In the early morning hours of January 27, 1974, while it was still dark, a man's body was found at San Francisco's Ocean Beach. The corpse was starting to stiffen with rigor mortis.
The overweight, white, balding male had been stabbed various times, and his hand had evidence of defensive wounds. He only had $21 in his pocket and was wearing a Timex watch.
The murdered man turned out to be Gerald Earl Cavanaugh, 49, born in Canada who had moved to San Francisco. He was unmarried and worked in a mattress factory.
His murder was followed by others that seem to end in September 1975. The crimes were attributed to a killer dubbed the Black Doodler because of his skin color. He would meet men at the bars in the Castro. He would draw cartoons of them, which is how he earned his name. Eventually they would leave the bar. The victims would be stabbed in a secluded spot after having sex, and the bodies were left in parks and on the waterfront.
The Doodler is credited with killing five men, up until 2022 when San Francisco police identified a sixth victim. Warren Andrews was attacked on April 27, 1975. He was found unconscious at Land’s End, about 1.5-mile from Ocean Beach. He was bludgeoned with a rock and a tree branch, and never regained consciousness before dying several weeks later. Andrews was a lawyer for the USPS.
Joseph “Jae” Stevens, 27, was found stabbed three times in June, 1974. He was a female impersonator working at Finocchio’s, a club that was around since the 1930s. It’s believed he drove with the Doodler to Spreckels Lake in Golden Gate Park where he was found deceased.
The third victim was Claus A. Christmann, 31, who was found at the foot of Lincoln Way by a woman walking her dog. His throat was slashed three time and he was stabbed at least 15 times. Christmann was staying with friends, and his wife and two children stayed behind in Germany, where his body was sent for burial.
The Doodler disappeared for almost a year until May, 1975, when Frederick Capin, 32, was found behind a sand dune. He was killed by stab wounds of his heart and aorta.
The next victim was Harald Gullberg, 66, who was found by a hiker at a Lincoln Park golf course two weeks after he was killed. He was slashed across the neck.
Soon after the discovery of Gullberg’s body, the police department released a composite of the suspect. He was described as a young, black man, about 6 feet tall, slim and who frequently wore “a Navy-type watch cap.”
Police believed he had a serious personality, with an upper middle-class education. He was possibly an art student. His drawings have never been released by the police.
The police also believed the suspect had a history of “mental difficulties involving sex.” One paper reported he had “sexual identification problems” and was undergoing psychiatric care on “an out-patient basis.”
There were other incidents of men who survived an attack possibly from the Doodler. One was a European diplomat who in May 1975, met a young, black man in an Upper Market restaurant “where he was having a midnight snack.” The man asked the diplomat if he had any cocaine. They went back to the diplomat’s apartment, where the suspect stabbed him six times. For his part, the diplomat denied he’d had “sexual relations” with the suspect.
A second victim was a well-known, unnamed entertainer, and the third was a “well known San Francisco figure” who left the city and refused to answer questions. This man has never been identified either.
If the Doodler is alive today, he would be well into his 60s. During the years after the murders, several men were questioned, but ultimately no one was ever arrested or prosecuted, and the case remains unsolved.