Most media outlets, just maybe, did not consider gay men sufficiently sympathetic to rate coverage. When the killings began, it had been just a year since the American Psychiatric Association Board of Trustees ceased classifying homosexuality as a disorder. It was, perhaps, somewhat a matter of timing. Unlike cases with similar body counts - the Zodiac Killer and David Berkowitz, for example - this one was quickly forgotten. As a veteran detective told me, “Anyone in my position who tells you otherwise, especially when there hasn’t even been an indictment, is either untrustworthy or lying.”įorty years after the fact, the story of the Doodler killings has not been even cursorily told. It’s a fool’s errand to say any single victim is definitely the work of the Doodler, or to rule out the possibility of others. (The larger figure may be due to the frequency with which gay men were murdered in those years it’s possible that several distinct cases were conflated and the Doodler given too much credit.) Five men were contemporaneously identified in the newspapers as Doodler victims, but the count shouldn’t be considered definitive. But it is far more likely there were, in fact, five or six. One encounters this figure in the era’s press accounts and books of recent vintage. To the extent the case has been written about, the Doodler has been credited with fourteen victims. Once they were alone, the men were stabbed and their bodies left on waterfronts and in parks. 1 Amused, flattered, perhaps titillated by the attention, man after man would leave the bar with their killer for a more secluded, intimate spot.
THE TUBE SOCK KILLER SKIN
From January 1974 to September 1975, The Doodler - or, as he was sometimes known, the Black Doodler, on account of his skin color - caught the eye of the Castro’s bar patrons by drawing caricatures and cartoons of them. “Never married,” wrote the coroner.Ĭavanaugh was the first victim in a string of homicides that, to this day, remain unsolved. He was five-foot-eight and weighed 220 pounds. A photo that ran in the San Francisco Sentinel after his death shows that he was balding. He was born in Canada on March 2, 1923, and lived in San Francisco. In his pocket was $21.12 and on his wrist a Timex.Īs befits a man initially identified as John Doe #7, very little is known about Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh wore underwear, shoes, socks, pants, a shirt and a jacket. His body was, as the coroner’s register put it, “in a supine position” and showed signs of slight rigor mortis.
![the tube sock killer the tube sock killer](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61OLtHnTa0L._AC_UX522_.jpg)
His left hand betrayed a defensive wound. Gerald Earl Cavanaugh, 49, had been stabbed multiple times. on January 27, 1974, a corpse was found at the water’s edge on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.
![the tube sock killer the tube sock killer](https://cdn.teamexpress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1ff9e0c768a0b8b3a19109048ff96b8f/p/f/pf29_1.png)
Unfortunately the amount of info online is pretty light so if anyone knows anything or has other resources please share.Įn.m./wiki/Mineral,_Washington_murders This case is very creepy and I feel it deserves more attention and there is another couple that may also be a victim of the same killer but I didn’t include it in the write up. As I’ve seen Reimer was not completely ruled out but seems unlikely due to the daughter being completely abandoned and friends said that was not like him. Since Reimer could not be located he was originally considered to be a potential suspect until his skull was found in 2011, although the cause of death could not be determined due to the time that had passed. Her boyfriends(Mike Reimer) body was searched for in the area but not found.ĭiana’s body was stabbed 17 times and also had the tied tube sock around her neck in the same type of not as the first case mentioned. Near her body was her boyfriend’s truck abandoned with a note that said “I love you Diana” as well as blood stains. She was sent to foster care and eventually turned over to a grandparent.Ī search was done and nearly 2 months later the female (Diana Robertson)was found by a motorist near the car deceased.
![the tube sock killer the tube sock killer](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/b1/2d/45b12d90f55ca3a4137ea855f4b2ef1e.jpg)
Later this same evening the 2 year old daughter is discovered abandoned at a Kmart 30 miles away and said “Mommy was in the trees”. Roughly a month later on December 12 1985, another couple and their daughter went in the same area to find a Christmas tree. Then on the 28th of October the females body was found 50 feet away from the site the skull was found, the body had been shot in the stomach area and had a tube sock tied around the neck. The skull of the female was found in October the 26th about 1.5 miles away from the male victim. It was assumed due to his position he was shot while sleeping. Another case that has always interested me but I feel didn’t get the exposure it deserved was the tube sock murders In Washington state.Īround August 10, 1985, a couple went camping and a few days later the male was found by hikers shot in his sleeping bag in tule lake in Yelm.