Randy Kraft

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.[9] Kraft's father had moved to California from Wyoming weeks after the American entry into World War II;[10] upon finding employment as a production operative at Douglas Aircraft Company, he was joined by his wife and three daughters.[9]

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.[11] 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.[12] As a child, Randy was doted on by his three older sisters and mother,[12] although he was known to be accident-prone.[9]

In 1948, the Kraft family moved from Long Beach to Midway City in neighboring Orange County.[13] 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.[14]

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.[14]

By adolescence, Kraft had taken a keen interest in politics, becoming a staunch Republican[15] 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.[16] He was also known to occasionally date girls,[17] although some classmates and teachers later stated that they suspected Kraft was homosexual.[18]

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.[17] That fall, he enrolled at Claremont Men's College[19] in Claremont, California, where he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.[20]

In March 1970, Kraft encountered a 13-year-old Westminster youth named Joseph Alvin Fancher at Huntington Beach.[28][29] Fancher explained to Kraft that he had run away from home that day. Kraft invited the youth to his apartment, promising that Fancher could live with him and offering him sex with a woman he claimed to know. Fancher agreed and accompanied Kraft to his Belmont Shore apartment, where he was drugged, beaten, and repeatedly sexually assaulted. Hours later, Fancher escaped from the apartment after Kraft left to go to work. A member of the public, alarmed by Fancher's drugged and disheveled condition, called an ambulance. Fancher's stomach needed to be pumped due to his ingested drugs.[30]

At the hospital, Fancher informed police that Kraft had given him drugs and beaten him.[31] He did not disclose to either his parents or the police that he had been sexually assaulted due to shame and fearing no one would believe him.[30][32] A search of Kraft's apartment was conducted with the cooperation of his roommate. However, as Fancher had confessed to police he had taken the pills offered to him voluntarily and the officers had searched without a warrant, no charges were filed.[33]

In 1971, Kraft found new employment as a forklift driver in Huntington Beach. After his military discharge two years earlier, he enrolled at Long Beach State University, majoring in education to further his career prospects. There, Kraft became acquainted with Jeff Graves, a fellow teaching student from Minnesota four years younger than Kraft, with whom he began a relationship.[34]

On October 5, 1971, police found the nude body of a 30-year-old Long Beach resident named Wayne Joseph Dukette discarded close to the Ortega Highway. Dukette, a bartender at a gay bar named "The Stable" in nearby Sunset Beach, had last been seen alive on September 20. Putrefaction had destroyed any signs of foul play on the body. The cause of death was listed as acute alcohol poisoning due to a high blood alcohol level.[42] The first entry in Kraft's journal (referred to as his "scorecard") reads "Stable," leading investigators to believe Dukette was Kraft's first murder victim.[43][44][45]

Fifteen months after the murder of Dukette, Kraft killed a 20-year-old Marine named Edward Daniel Moore. Moore was last seen leaving the barracks at Camp Pendleton on December 24, 1972. His body was found beside the 405 Freeway in Seal Beach during the early hours of December 26. Abrasions on Moore's body indicated he had been pushed from a moving vehicle. An autopsy revealed he had been bound at the wrists and ankles, then beaten with a blunt instrument about the face before being garroted. His body also exhibited numerous bite marks, and a sock had been forced into his rectum.[46]

Forensic reconstruction of the first unidentified male located in Wilmington, California.

Early forensic sketch of the second unidentified male located in Wilmington, California.

Six weeks after the murder of Moore, on February 6, 1973, the body of an unidentified male, estimated to be between 17 and 25 years old,[47] was found alongside the Terminal Island Freeway in Wilmington. This victim had been strangled with a ligature and also had a sock inserted in his rectum.[48] Two months later, on April 14, the body of 17-year-old Kevin Clark Bailey was found beside a road in Huntington Beach.[49][50] Bailey had been emasculated and sodomized prior to his murder. By July 28, a further two victims had been murdered: an unidentified youth whose dismembered body was found in Wilmington on April 22,[51][52] and a 20-year-old named Ronnie Gene Wiebe,[53] whose strangled body was discarded beside an on-ramp of the 405 Freeway on July 30, two days after he had disappeared.[54] Welt marks on Wiebe's wrists and ankles suggested he had been bound and suspended from a device before his murder.[55]

Kraft is known to have killed at least once more in 1973. The victim was a 23-year-old bisexual art student named Vincent Cruz Mestas, whose body was found in the San Bernardino Mountains on December 29.[9] As with several previous victims, one of the victim's socks had been forced into his rectum.[43] Mestas's hands had been severed from his body and were never found.[56]

By November 1974, five more victims had been found beside or close to major roadways in southern California, three of whom had been conclusively linked to the same killer. Two of these victims—20-year-old Malcolm Eugene Little and 19-year-old James Dale Reeves—had each been found beside a freeway with foreign objects inserted into their bodies, whereas the body of the third victim, 18-year-old Marine Roger Edward Dickerson, bore evidence of bite marks much like several earlier victims.[57]

On January 3, 1975, Kraft abducted and murdered a 17-year-old high school student named John Leras.[58] The youth was last seen boarding a bus in Long Beach; his strangled body was found the following day, discarded at Sunset Beach with a foreign object protruding from his anus. Drag marks along the beach close to where his body was found suggested that two individuals had carried Leras's body into the water. Two weeks after this murder, on January 17, the body of a 21-year-old named Craig Jonaitis was found discarded in the parking lot of the Golden Sails Hotel near the Pacific Coast Highway and Loynes Drive in Long Beach.[3] Jonaitis had been strangled to death with a length of string,[59] possibly a shoelace.

By January 1975, a total of fourteen victims—whose bodies had been found discarded across four separate counties over the previous three years—had been linked to the same killer. All the victims had been Caucasian males with similar physical characteristics. On January 24, homicide investigators from several jurisdictions in southern California convened in Orange County to discuss their progress in the hunt for the unknown killer.[60] An FBI profile of the killer was read to investigators, describing the individual as a methodical, organized lust killer of above-average intelligence who exhibited an indifference to the "interests and welfare of society." [61]

Some investigators believed the murders to be the work of more than one individual, one or more of whom had a military background, as two victims had paper tissue residue in their nostrils, a procedure known to be used in the military to prevent bodies from purging after death. The insertion of socks inside the victims' rectums was also theorized to have been intended to prevent purging as the body was driven to the disposal location.[60] At this stage, investigators had no solid suspects.[62]

On the evening of March 29, 1975, Kraft lured two youths, Keith Crotwell and Kent May, from a Long Beach parking lot into his Ford Mustang.[63] The youths were given beer and Valium as Kraft drove in a random, aimless manner around Belmont Shore and Seal Beach. May later recalled feeling catatonic as a result of the Valium and alcohol he had ingested before he passed out.[64]

In the parking lot where Crotwell and May had last been seen, two friends of the youths observed a distinctive black-and-white Mustang pull in and stop before the driver leaned across, opened the passenger door, and pushed the unconscious (but otherwise unharmed) May out onto the pavement. The driver then sped away from the scene. As he did so, the friends noted Crotwell slumped against the unknown driver's shoulder.[65]

On May 8, Crotwell's skull was found on a jetty close to the Long Beach Marina; the remainder of his body was found six months later.[66] After hearing the news, the two friends of Crotwell and May—who suspected that the murderer was a patron of a Belmont Shore gay bar—searched their neighborhood for the distinctive Mustang. They found the car less than a mile (1.6 km) from their home, wrote down the license plate number, and gave the information to the police. The vehicle was registered to Randy Kraft.[67]

Long Beach police questioned Kraft about Crotwell's abduction and murder on May 19, 1975. Initially, he denied having ever met either Crotwell or May, and the police, skeptical of Kraft's denial, summoned him to the police station for further questioning.[66] Kraft admitted that on or about March 29, he had encountered two youths in the Long Beach parking lot in question and persuaded them to drink alcohol and consume Valium with him as he drove. He claimed to have returned May to the parking lot and then to have driven with Crotwell to a side road close to the El Toro offramp, where his car subsequently became embedded upon an embankment. He claimed to have walked alone to a gas station to call a tow truck while Crotwell remained with the car. Upon returning to his vehicle, Kraft claimed, Crotwell had disappeared.[68]

Although Kraft's roommate confirmed that Kraft had phoned him on the date of Crotwell's disappearance, claiming that his vehicle was stuck on an embankment, detectives remained unconvinced by Kraft's version of events. The following week, two detectives attempted to file homicide charges against Kraft. However, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office declined, citing the coroner's conclusion from his autopsy of the remains thus far found (consisting only of Crotwell's skull) that the youth had died of accidental drowning.[69][70]

Perhaps because he had been questioned as a suspect in Crotwell's murder and because of additional turmoil in his personal life in the summer of 1975, Kraft is not known to have killed again until December 31, when he abducted 22-year-old Mark Hall in San Juan Capistrano.[69] In this instance, later described by prosecutors as "the worst" of all of Kraft's known murders,[39] Hall was driven to a remote canyon, where he was bound to a tree. The autopsy report listed the cause of death as asphyxiation caused by leaves and earth found lodged deep in Hall's trachea. The autopsy also revealed that Hall had been sodomized and emasculated, with his severed genitals inserted into his rectum. Additionally, his chest, scrotum, nose, and cheeks had been burned with an automobile cigarette lighter, which was also used to destroy his eyes. The autopsy report also listed numerous incisions on Hall's legs which had been inflicted with a broken bottle.[71] Forensic experts were able to determine that Hall had been alive throughout much of the ordeal.[72]

Following the December 1976 murder of Fuchs, Kraft is not known to have killed again for sixteen months. On January 3, 1978, homicide investigators again convened to discuss progress concerning the manhunt for the still-unidentified killer.[75] By this time, investigators knew there was more than one murderer at large: the previous July, police had arrested Patrick Kearney, who subsequently confessed to the murders of 28 boys and young men, many of whom he had dissected and discarded in trash bags beside freeways in southern California. Although Kraft had dismembered some of his victims, he never killed his victims by shooting them in the temple as Kearney had.[75] Additionally, Kearney had never tortured any of his victims: his modus operandi differed significantly from Kraft's, and investigators were certain that an unrelated killer was still at large.

On April 16, 1978, Kraft abducted an 18-year-old Marine named Scott Michael Hughes. Hughes was plied with Valium before Kraft slit open his scrotum and removed one of his testicles, then strangled him to death with a ligature before discarding his fully clothed body—missing only his shoelaces—beside a freeway on-ramp in Anaheim. Two months later, on June 11, the body of 23-year-old Roland Gerald Young was found near a San Diego freeway. Young had been emasculated before being stabbed to death. Abrasions to his body indicated that he had been pushed from a vehicle traveling at high speed. Eight days later, the body of a 20-year-old Marine named Richard Allen Keith was found discarded beside a road on Moulton Parkway. He had last been seen alive by his girlfriend in the city of Carson. Welts on Keith's wrists indicated that he had been bound before he was strangled with a ligature. Froth in his throat indicated that he was also drowning as a result of flurazepam and alcohol he had consumed at the time he was strangled.[76] Keith is believed to be referred to on Kraft's scorecard as "Marine Carson."[77]

Three weeks after the murder of Keith, on July 6, Kraft killed a 23-year-old hitchhiker named Keith Arthur Klingbeil. Klingbeil had ingested large doses of acetaminophen and alcohol before he was strangled with his shoelace and his body discarded beside the Interstate 5 freeway.[78] Although Klingbeil was still alive when discovered, he would die shortly after his admission to Mission Community Hospital. A subsequent autopsy revealed that, before Klingbeil's strangulation, his left nipple had been seared with an automobile cigarette lighter.[79]

Two months later, on September 29, the body of 20-year-old Richard Anthony Crosby was found discarded 200 yards north of Highway 71 in San Bernardino.[80] Crosby had disappeared the previous day as he hitchhiked home from a theater in Torrance. He had been suffocated, and his left nipple had been mutilated with an automobile cigarette lighter.[81]

The last known victim murdered by Kraft in 1978 was a 21-year-old Long Beach truck driver named Michael Joseph Inderbieten, whose castrated body was found along an on-ramp to the I-605 on November 18, 1978.[82] In addition to having been castrated, Inderbieten had been violated with a foreign object and had suffered burns similar to those inflicted on victim Mark Hall two years previously. The cause of death was listed as suffocation.[79]

In the summer of 1980, Kraft traveled to the neighboring state of Oregon on an extended business trip.[91] During this trip, he lived in a town close to Portland. Before returning to California in August, he is believed to have murdered two more victims—both of whom were listed on his scorecard with cryptic references, including the word "Portland."[94]

The first victim, a 17-year-old Denver youth named Michael Sean O'Fallon, was killed on July 17.[95] O'Fallon had been on a solo hitchhiking trip across the U.S. and Canada before his enrollment at college at the time of his murder. He had consumed both alcohol and Valium before he was strangled to death. O'Fallon's nude, hogtied body was discarded ten miles south of Salem.[95] O'Fallon was listed on Kraft's scorecard as "Portland Denver", and his camera—inscribed with his mother's initials—was later found in Kraft's garage.[96] The following day, Kraft is believed to have killed a man estimated to be aged between 35 and 45 years old[35] whose body was found beside a freeway in the city of Woodburn. This victim—listed as "Portland Elk" on Kraft's scorecard—had ingested a toxic level of Valium and Tylenol before he was strangled to death with a ligature.[97]

A Polaroid photograph of victim Robert Wyatt Loggins, sitting on Kraft's couch. Kraft took this image at his Long Beach residence in August 1980.[98]

On September 3, 1980, one month after Kraft's return to California from Oregon, the bound body of a 19-year-old Marine named Robert Loggins was found discarded in a trash bag close to the El Toro Marine air base. Loggins had last been seen alive by two fellow Marines close to the Pacific Coast Highway on August 23. Photographs—and the negatives—subsequently found in Kraft's possession show Loggins in Kraft's living room slumped fully clothed on his sofa, apparently intoxicated, and in various nude, pornographic postures. All these pictures depict Loggins with his eyes closed; it is unknown whether the victim was alive or dead when they were taken.[99]

On April 10, 1981, the body of a 17-year-old youth named Michael Cluck was found beside the Interstate 5 freeway close to Goshen, Oregon.[40] Cluck had been abducted while hitchhiking from Kent, Washington, to Bakersfield, California,[100] the day prior to his body being discovered. Thirty-one blunt-force blows to the head had destroyed the back of his skull, killing the youth. Cluck had also been sodomized and savagely beaten, kicked, and scoured. Cluck is believed to have been recorded on Kraft's scorecard as "Portland Blood" due to the extensive blood and debris found at the murder scene. At the time of the murder, Kraft had once again been sent on assignment to Oregon by his employers. In addition, on the day Cluck's body was discovered, Kraft visited a Lane County hospital to receive treatment for a bruised foot.[95]

Four months after Cluck's murder, on August 20, 1981, the partially clothed body of 17-year-old male prostitute Christopher Allen Williams was found in the San Bernardino Mountains. Williams had ingested both phenobarbital and benzodiazepine, and was found with tissue paper lodged deep in his nostrils, causing him to choke to death on his own mucus.[101]

By early 1982, the relationship between Kraft and Seelig had become marred by frequent fights and episodes of temporary separation. In an effort to resolve their personal differences, the couple began attending weekly counseling sessions in Huntington Beach. These sessions began on June 22, 1982.

Following complaints from residents of Echo Park regarding a foul odor emanating from the direction of the Hollywood Freeway on July 29, 1982,[102] a Cal Trans employee found the decaying body of a 14-year-old[103] Pittsburg, California youth named Raymond Davis discarded alongside the Rampart Boulevard offramp. Rudimentary efforts had been made to conceal Davis's body beneath leaves and soil. He had last been seen alive in Echo Park on June 17,[104] searching for his missing dog. The youth's wrists had been knotted behind his back in much the same manner as had victim Michael O'Fallon two years previously, and he had been strangled to death with his shoelace. The entry on Kraft's scorecard reading "Dog" is believed to refer to Davis. Just forty feet from Davis's body, the same Cal Trans crew also found the body of 16-year-old Robert Avila.[105] Avila had been missing since July 21, and his body was also markedly decomposed.[104] He had been strangled to death with a length of stereo speaker wire.[106]

Kraft is not known to have killed again until November 1, 1982, when he abducted and murdered a 24-year-old Modesto man named Arne Mikeal Laine.[107] Laine was last seen hitchhiking towards Orange County in search of work. His body was not found until January 1984, discarded on a hillside close to the town of Ramona. Four weeks after Laine's murder, the semi-nude body of 26-year-old Brian Whitcher was dumped from a moving vehicle alongside the Interstate 5 freeway, close to the city of Wilsonville, Oregon. Whitcher had ingested high levels of both alcohol and Valium, but he died of asphyxiation.[95]

On December 3, 1982, a 29-year-old carpenter named Anthony Jose Silveira disappeared while hitchhiking towards Medford. His body was found two weeks later, strangled, sodomized, and violated with foreign objects before his murder. At the time of the murders of both Whitcher and Silveira, Kraft was again known to have been in Oregon on a business trip, which concluded the day of Silveira's death. On December 4, Kraft drove from Portland to Seattle to visit friends. During this brief visit, he was observed wearing a military jacket inscribed with the name "Silveira".[108] On December 5, Kraft flew from Seattle to Grand Rapids, Michigan—again on business.[108]

Two days after his arrival in Grand Rapids, Kraft encountered cousins Dennis Alt and Christopher Schoenborn at a seminar in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. Kraft was seen talking with the pair in the hotel's reception area shortly before midnight. Their bodies were discovered on December 9 in an open field close to the hotel.[38] Both victims had been plied with alcohol and Valium before their sodomy and murder, and the bodies had been arranged in sexually suggestive positions. Alt, aged 24, had died of asphyxiation, whereas Schoenborn, aged 20, had been strangled to death with his belt. In addition, a ballpoint pen had been inserted into Schoenborn's urethra before his murder. Both victims were recorded upon Kraft's scorecard in a single entry reading "GR2".[109] A set of keys belonging to Schoenborn, plus Silveira's military jacket, were left by Kraft in the hotel.[n 1]

On December 8, Kraft traveled from Michigan to Portland.[111] Within twenty-four hours of his return to Oregon, he had killed a 19-year-old hitchhiker named Lance Taggs. Taggs had last been seen hitchhiking from the city of Tigard to the home of a relative in Los Angeles on December 8.[112] His body was discovered the following day, discarded alongside a rural road in Clackamas County, close to where the body of Whitcher had been found just two weeks earlier.[80] As with Alt and Schoenborn, Taggs had consumed alcohol and Valium before his murder, although Taggs had died of suffocation caused by a sock thrust into his trachea.[112]

Noting the passage of time between periods of activity when bodies of young males had been found discarded near mass transportation with alcohol and/or pharmaceuticals in their bloodstream in Oregon, investigators theorized that their killer resided in another state and struck in Oregon only when there on business. Following the murders of Silveira, Whitcher, and Taggs, Oregon investigators relayed details of the murders to police in other states, describing the modus operandi of the killer they were seeking and requesting feedback from any police force that had unsolved murders of young males on their files with similar characteristics.[113] A response from southern California counties was swift: the pattern of killings was identical to victims linked to the unknown killer in California. The six Oregon murders committed by Kraft were thus linked to the murders he had committed in California.[110]

At 1:10 a.m. on May 14, 1983, two California Highway Patrol officers observed a Toyota Celica driving erratically on Interstate 5 in the Orange County community of Mission Viejo. Observing the vehicle perform an illegal lane change, the officers—suspecting the motorist was driving under the influence—signaled for the vehicle to stop.[117] The driver slowed the vehicle to a halt and exited the car, discarding the contents of a beer bottle onto the pavement as he did so. Officer Michael Sterling met the individual, who identified himself as Randy Kraft, at the front of his patrol car and observed that his jeans were unbuttoned. Sterling had Kraft perform a field sobriety test, which he failed. He then arrested Kraft for driving while intoxicated.[118]

Sterling's partner, Sgt. Michael Howard approached the Celica and observed a young man slumped with his eyes closed in the vehicle's passenger seat, partially covered by a jacket. Several empty Moosehead beer bottles and an open prescription bottle of Lorazepam tablets were strewn around his feet.[119] Howard attempted to wake the man. Receiving no response, Howard attempted to rouse the man by shaking his arm, only to note the individual had a low body temperature. Upon checking for a pulse, Howard noted the man was dead, with a ligature mark visible around his neck.[120] Lifting the jacket from the victim's lap, Howard noted the victim's jeans had been opened to expose his genitalia. In addition, the victim's hands had been bound with a shoelace, and his wrists bore evidence of welt marks. Later identified as Terry Lee Gambrel, a 25-year-old Marine stationed at El Toro air base, the victim had been strangled to death.[121]

The coded list of 61 neatly printed terms and phrases found in the trunk of Kraft's car is believed to refer to each of Kraft's victims. Many entries appear innocuous, but each is believed to refer to a specific murder victim or double murder. Several entries reference victims' names (for example, the entry reading "EDM" refers to the initials of victim Edward Daniel Moore, whereas "Vince M" refers to victim Vincent Mestas). In other instances, entries indicate torture or mutilation inflicted upon victims' bodies and/or the locations where they were last seen. The entry "Marine Head BP," for example, is believed to refer to victim Mark Marsh; a Marine found decapitated, having been last seen hitchhiking towards Buena Park.[126] Other entries simply refer to body dump locations; the entry "Golden Sails," for example, refers to the fact the body of Craig Jonaitis was found in the parking lot of the Golden Sails Hotel.

The list also contains entries indicating a minimum of four double murders: "GR2" (victims Dennis Alt and Christopher Schoenborn, last seen in Grand Rapids); "2 in 1 Beach" (victims Geoffrey Nelson and Rodger DeVaul); "2 in 1 Hitch" and "2 in 1 MV to PL" (neither entry of which has been linked to any double murder or disappearance).

Investigators contend that two victims of whose murders Kraft was convicted (Church and Gambrel) are not listed on Kraft's scorecard. However, since the list is in code, the possibility exists that Church, in particular, is included on the scorecard as an entry that investigators cannot recognize as referring to him. Gambrel may also be included on the list; although Kraft was arrested while he attempted to dispose of the body, he may not have recorded an entry referring to Gambrel on his scorecard. These possibilities indicate the scorecard lists a minimum of 65 and possibly 67 victims.

On May 16, 1983, Kraft was formally charged with the murder of Gambrel.[4] By September 8, investigators had interviewed over 700 witnesses and had gathered more than 250 physical exhibits which pointed towards Kraft's guilt in a further fifteen homicides committed between December 1972 and February 1983.[127][128] He was formally charged with these fifteen murders—in addition to two counts of sodomy and one of emasculation—on this date.[129]

On June 5, 1989, the same jury reconvened to hear further testimony from the prosecution and defense regarding Kraft's penalty. This phase of Kraft's trial would last until August,[124] and it was at this point that the prosecution introduced evidence of several additional homicides committed in both Oregon and Michigan, which they were certain Kraft had also committed and for which he had not been tried in Orange County. The defense dismissed the prosecution's assertions as being "highly speculative"[141] and introduced testimony relating to a PET scan conducted on Kraft which, they asserted, revealed abnormalities in the frontal lobes of his brain, therefore reducing his ability to control both his emotions and impulse.[142] The prosecution rebuffed this testimony by stating to the jury: "There is nothing wrong with Mr. Kraft's mind other than that he likes killing for sexual satisfaction", adding that the fact that his family and friends had found it difficult to believe he had committed any murders simply showed "what a good salesman he is."

The prosecution believed Kraft's former lover Jeff Graves may have assisted Kraft in several murders. Graves, who had lived with Kraft between 1971 and 1976 (when sixteen known murders attributed to Kraft occurred), had been questioned concerning the Crotwell abduction and murder in 1975 when he verified part of Kraft's statement to police. When questioned further about the incident following Kraft's arrest in 1983, Graves had informed investigators: "I'm really not going to pay for it, you know."[147] Graves died of AIDS on July 27, 1987.[148] At the time of his death, police had been preparing to question him further.

In January 2000, journalist Dennis McDougal, the author of a 1991 book about Kraft entitled Angel of Darkness,[149] published an article which recounted interviews with a small-time criminal named Bob Jackson, who reportedly confessed to murdering two hitchhikers with Kraft: one in Wyoming in 1975 and another in Colorado in 1976. Authorities in both Colorado and Wyoming were unable to corroborate these claims.[145]

Jackson also claimed to McDougal that Kraft's scorecard included only his "more memorable" murders; in Jackson's opinion, Kraft's total body count stood closer to 100. McDougal reported these allegations to the police and provided tape recordings of the interviews. Detectives interrogated Jackson and eventually persuaded him to enter a mental institution; no murder charges were filed against him due to an absence of direct incriminating evidence.[150]

Kraft sued McDougal and the publisher of Angel of Darkness in 1993, seeking $62 million in damages. The suit contended that the book smeared his "good name", unjustly portrayed him as a "sick, twisted man", and destroyed his prospects for future employment by ruining his chances of overturning his conviction on appeal.[151] The lawsuit was dismissed by the California Supreme Court in June 1994.[152]