At Least 8 Agencies Join Probe
Arrested man Is Investigated by San Bernardino County in Two Old Murders
by Long Beach (AP)
Randy Steven Kraft, charged with murder after a Marine’s body was found in his car, is now under investigation by at least eight Southern California law-enforcement agencies, including the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, authorities said. Police said patrons of Long Beach’s gay bars might provide clues to four unsolved homicides, while San Bernardino County sheriff’s detectives said at least two murders in that county fit a pattern of slayings that stretches across three states. All of the victims were apparently hitchhikers who had been strangled before their bodies were dumped along freeways or roads. Kraft, a 38-year-old computer programmer, remained in the Orange County Jail on Saturday in lieu of $750,000 bond, Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Leonard said.
Kraft is also under investigation by four agencies in Oregon and one in Michigan, Leonard said. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Arthur said Friday that the Sept. 30, 1978, murder of Richard Crosby, 20, of Wilmington, fits the pattern of the strangulation murders. At the time Crosby’s body was found near Euclid Avenue, north of Chino, detectives said the victim’s death appeared to be linked to a string of Orange County murders that had been occurring since 1972. In 1980, detectives speculated that Crosby might be a victim of William Bonin, the convicted “Freeway Killer.” Arthur said a sketch pad belonging to another victim, 16-year-old Gregory Jolley of Orange, was found in Kraft’s garage. Parts of Jolley’s body were found in plastic trash bags in San Bernardino County in September 1980.
Investigators are looking back to 1972 at unsolved slayings in the county, Arthur said. Kraft was charged Tuesday with the murder of Terry Lee Gambrel, 25, whose body was found in Kraft’s car May 14 in Mission Viejo. Arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday in Santa Ana Municipal Court. Gambrel, who was stationed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County, was buried Friday in Jackson County, Ind. Kraft’s lawyers say he is innocent and point out that he has only been charged in one case, and Kraft’s roommate said Friday he was “gentle, kind, giving and considerate” and incapable of killing Gambrel. Jeffrey A. Seelig, 25, said he was “totally shocked” that Kraft was arrested for investigation of murder in Gambrel’s death. Long Beach Detective Bill Collette said police are trying to link Kraft to the death of Keith Crotwell, 19, whose severed head was discovered May 8, 1975, in the ocean near a jetty.
“Kraft has frequented the better-known gay bars in Long Beach for some time,” Collette said Friday. Crotwell was last seen alive 10 days earlier in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach with a man police investigator later identified as Kraft, Collette said. The district attorney declined to issue a complaint against Kraft for lack of evidence. Collette said Long Beach police are also investigating three other unsolved strangling’s. Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates said Friday detectives had found enough evidence at Kraft’s home to “specifically link” Kraft to the murders of 14 young men six in California, six in Oregon and two in Michigan.
Investigators say they are also looking for evidence that could link Kraft to 11 more unsolved murders in Orange County, three in Seal Beach, three in Irvine, one in Anaheim and four in unincorporated areas. “Our interest has been piqued,” said Irvine police Sgt. Dick Bowman. “The circumstances of our cases fit the overall type.” In San Diego, sheriff’s Sgt. D.Q. Martin said Kraft is under investigation in the Feb. 29, 1975, slaying of Joseph Daly, 16, whose nude body apparently was dumped near Carlsbad. “It’s beginning to look as if this case could go on for six months if this is the guy we think he is,” Collette said.
