Randy Kraft
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Randy Kraft
Randy Kraft.png
Kraft’s mug shot, taken May 14, 1983
Born Randy Steven Kraft
March 19, 1945 (age 76)
Long Beach, California, U.S.
Other names The Freeway Killer,
Southern California Strangler,
The Scorecard Killer[1]
Alma mater Claremont Men’s College
Conviction(s) Murder
S*****
Mutilation[2]
Criminal penalty Death Penalty (de jure)
Details
Victims 16–67
Span of crimes September 20, 1971–May 13, 1983
Country United States
State(s) California
Oregon
Michigan[3]
Date apprehended May 14, 1983
Imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison
Randy Steven Kraft (born March 19, 1945) is an American serial killer known as the Scorecard Killer, the Southern California Strangler, and the Freeway Killer,[4] who murdered 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 r*** and murder of up to fifty-one other boys and young men. He was convicted in May 1989[5] and is currently incarcerated on death row at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.[6]

Kraft became known as the “Scorecard Killer” because upon his arrest, investigators discovered a coded list containing cryptic references to his victims;[7] he is also sometimes referred to as the “Freeway Killer”, because many of his victims’ bodies were discovered beside or near freeways.[8] Kraft shares the latter epithet with two separate and unrelated serial killers, William Bonin and Patrick Kearney.