Randy Kraft

Randy Steven Kraft (born March 19, 1945) is an American serial killer and rapist known as the Scorecard Killer, the Southern California Strangler, and the Freeway Killer, who committed the rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of sixteen young men between 1972 and 1983, the majority of whom he killed in California.

Kraft is also believed to have committed the rape and murder of up to fifty-one other young men and boys.

Randy Steven Kraft was born in Long Beach, California, on March 19, 1945, the fourth child and only son of Opal Lee (née Beal) and Harold Herbert Kraft.

Kraft's father had moved to California from Wyoming weeks after the American entry into World War II; upon finding employment as a production operative at Douglas Aircraft Company, he was joined by his wife and three daughters.

The Kraft family lived modestly, and Kraft's mother took several jobs to supplement her husband's assembly-line salary.

Kraft's mother initially found employment as a seamstress in a Westminster garment factory before later obtaining employment as a cook in a local school.

Nonetheless, Opal Kraft always found time for her children; in contrast, Kraft's father seldom attended any social gatherings with them and was later described as being "distanced" from his family.

As a child, Randy was doted on by his three older sisters and mother, although he was known to be accident-prone.

In 1948, the Kraft family moved from Long Beach to Midway City in neighboring Orange County.

Their home was a small, wood-frame Women's Army Corps dormitory on Beach Boulevard that Kraft's father renovated into a three-bedroom house.

The family became active in the Westminster First Presbyterian Church, with Kraft's mother rising to the chairman of the deacons committee.

In Midway City, Kraft attended Midway City Elementary school, where his mother was a member of the PTA.

As a student, his intelligence was noted by classmates and teachers.

By 1957, Kraft was judged intelligent enough to attend accelerated classes at 17th Street Junior High School.

By adolescence, Kraft had taken a keen interest in politics, becoming a staunch Republican and aspiring to become a U.S. senator.

Shortly after his enrollment at Westminster High School, he and two close friends founded the Westminster World Affairs Club.

At Westminster High, Kraft was again regarded as a pleasant, bright student who regularly achieved A grades.

He was also known to occasionally date girls, although some classmates and teachers later stated that they suspected Kraft was homosexual.

Kraft later stated he had known from his high school days that he was homosexual, although he initially kept his sexual orientation a secret.

On June 13, 1963, he graduated tenth in his class of 390 students.

That fall, he enrolled at Claremont Men's College in Claremont, California, where he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.

Shortly after his enrollment at Claremont, Kraft enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps and regularly attended demonstrations in support of the Vietnam War and—in 1964—campaign rallies for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

He later declared these actions were merely a simulation of his parents' political views and not his own, describing his second year at Claremont as being when he abandoned the "last gasp" of his conservative ideology.

The same year, Kraft entered his first known homosexual relationship.

In 1964, Kraft began working as a bartender at a local Garden Grove cocktail lounge that catered to gay clientele; he was also known to regularly travel to Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach to have casual sex with hustlers.

In an apparent tentative effort to reveal his sexual orientation to his parents, Kraft took a succession of male "friends" to meet his family during his years at Claremont.

Initially, Kraft's parents and sisters were oblivious to his homosexuality.

In 1966, Kraft was arrested and charged with lewd conduct after propositioning an undercover police officer in Huntington Beach; as he had no previous criminal record, no charges were filed.

The following year, he developed a radical shift in his political beliefs, becoming an ardent supporter of liberal views and eventually registered as a Democrat in 1967.

Kraft quickly became a Democratic Party organizer, campaigning tirelessly for the election of Robert F. Kennedy and receiving a personal letter from the senator thanking him for his efforts.

By his senior year, Kraft had become a lackadaisical student, drinking, taking drugs, and regularly attending all-night gambling and poker sessions with other students.

The lack of commitment to his studies in his final year resulted in Kraft's failing to graduate from Claremont in June 1967 and being forced to repeat his econometrics class, which postponed his graduation by eight months.

In February 1968, Kraft graduated from Claremont Men's College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.

Four months after graduating from college, Kraft joined the United States Air Force.

He was sent to basic training in Texas before being stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California, where he supervised the painting of test planes.

During his service in the Air Force, Kraft rose to the rank of Airman First Class and supervisor-manager.

The same year that Kraft became an Airman First Class, he disclosed to his family that he was homosexual.

In a letter he wrote to a friend, Kraft described his father as having flown "into a rage," whereas he described his mother as being more understanding, if somewhat disapproving.

He was convicted in May 1989 and is currently incarcerated on death row at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.

Kraft became known as the "Scorecard Killer" because upon his arrest, investigators discovered a coded list with sixty-one entries on a scorecard containing cryptic references to his victims; he is also sometimes referred to as the "Freeway Killer" because many of his victims' bodies were discovered beside or near freeways.