San Francisco offers $250,000 reward in Doodler cold case killings

San Francisco police have raised the reward for information in the Doodler killings to $250,000, the maximum allowed in cold cases, in a renewed push to identify the suspect behind six murders that scarred the city’s LGBTQ history. Investigators said they still need witnesses or anyone with firsthand knowledge to come forward, especially people who may know what happened to the man police believe targeted gay white men in the 1970s.

The case reaches back to the city’s shoreline and its most painful margins. The first known homicide came on January 27, 1974, when police were directed to a body at Ocean Beach across from Ulloa Street shortly after 1:30 a.m. Another victim, Warren Andrews, was assaulted at Lands End on April 27, 1975 and died weeks later. The San Francisco Police Department has named the six believed victims as Gerald Cavanaugh, Joseph “Jae” Stevens, Klaus Christmann, Warren Andrews, Frederick Capin and Harald Gullberg.

Police said the suspect earned the nickname the Doodler because one victim reported that he said he was a cartoonist and was doodling while they talked in a late-night diner. That account produced a forensic sketch in 1975, and investigators later created an age-progressed version. Even with those efforts, the case remained unsolved for decades, and the department revived its cold-case update in January 2023, when it increased the reward from $200,000 to $250,000.

The reward matters now because investigators believe the suspect may already be dead or, if still alive, would likely be in his 60s. Police have also said he may have left San Francisco after the killings and spent time in the Southeast, which makes old memories and long-buried contacts more important than ever. For a case that unfolded during a period when gay men faced severe violence and official indifference, the city’s latest appeal is as much about accountability as it is about evidence.

Anyone with information can contact the San Francisco Police Department’s Homicide Cold Case Unit, the department’s 24-hour tip line or Text-a-Tip program, and callers may remain anonymous. For a case tied to Ocean Beach, Lands End and the city’s LGBTQ past, police are betting that one person still knows enough to break it open.