Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Scorecard Killer: Randy Kraft

Randy Steven Kraft (born March19, 1945) is an American serial killer known as the Scorecard Killer,the Southern California Strangler, and the Freeway Killer, whomurdered a minimum of sixteen young men between 1972 and 1983, themajority of whom he killed in California. Kraft is also believed tohave committed the rape and murder of up to fifty-one other boys andyoung men. He was convicted in May 1989 and is currently incarceratedon death row at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.

Kraft became known as the "ScorecardKiller" because upon his arrest, investigators discovered acoded list containing cryptic references to his victims; he is alsosometimes referred to as the "Freeway Killer", becausemany of his victims' bodies were discovered beside or near freeways.Kraft shares the latter epithet with two separate and unrelatedserial killers, William Bonin and Patrick Kearney.

Early life

Childhood

Randy Steven Kraft was born in LongBeach, California, on March 19, 1945, the fourth child and only sonof Opal Lee (née Beal) and Harold Herbert Kraft. Kraft's parentshad moved to California from Wyoming at the outbreak of World War II;his father was a production worker and his mother was a sewingmachine operator.

The Kraft family lived modestly, andKraft's mother undertook a succession of jobs to supplement herhusband's salary. Nonetheless, Opal Kraft always found time for herchildren; in contrast, Kraft's father seldom attended any socialgatherings with them, and was later described as being "distanced"from his family. As a child, Randy was doted on by his threeolder sisters and mother, although he was known to be accident-prone.

In 1948, the Kraft family moved fromLong Beach to Midway City in neighboring Orange County. Their homewas a small, wood-frame Women's Army Corps dormitory on BeachBoulevard that Kraft's father renovated into a three-bedroom house.

In Midway City, Kraft attended MidwayCity Elementary school, where his mother was a member of the PTA. Asa student, his intelligence was noted by classmates and teachers. By1957, Kraft was judged intelligent enough to attend acceleratedclasses at 17th Street Junior High School.

Adolescence and graduation

By adolescence, Kraft had taken a keeninterest in politics, becoming a staunch Republican and aspiring tobecome a U.S. senator. Shortly after his enrollment at WestminsterHigh School, he and two close friends founded a Westminster WorldAffairs Club. At Westminster High, Kraft was again regarded as apleasant, bright student who regularly achieved A grades. He was alsoknown to occasionally date girls, although some classmates andteachers later stated that they suspected Kraft was homosexual.

Kraft later stated he had known fromhis high school days that he was homosexual, although he initiallykept his sexual orientation a secret. On June 13, 1963, he graduatedtenth in his class of 390 students. That fall, he enrolled atClaremont Men's College in Claremont, California, where he pursued aBachelor of Arts degree in economics.

Claremont Men's College

Shortly after his enrollment atClaremont, Kraft enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps andregularly attended demonstrations in support of the Vietnam Warand—in 1964—campaign rallies for Republican presidentialcandidate Barry Goldwater. He later declared these actions weremerely a simulation of his parents' political views and not his own,describing his second year at Claremont as being when he abandonedthe "last gasp" of his conservative ideology. Thesame year, Kraft entered his first known homosexual relationship.