Additional information
by Pete Dove (Author)
California in the 1970s. Serial Killer central. Over a hundred bodies turned up, murdered, mutilated, assaulted in less than a decade. And at least two thirds of them were the result of just one man - compulsive killer Randy Kraft.
It is believed that there were at least three serial killers operating in the south western state at that time, possibly more, but Kraft was by far the most prolific.
On the night of May 14th, 1983 Sgt Michael Howard was on late night patrol. He and his partner were cruising the highway when they noticed a Toyota Celica driving erratically. It was trying to stay in its lane, but failing badly.
Sgt Howard put on the patrol car's red and blue flashing lights, but the Celica did not pull over. It continued on its way for several more minutes before finally easing to one side, so close to the barrier that the passenger door could not be opened. Howard got out of the patrol car and approached the stopped vehicle, and as he did so the driver's side door opened, and out stepped a moustachioed man in his thirties.
The policeman immediately realised this was going to be no routine case of driving under the influence because the suspect was displaying some very strange behaviour. But had Howard known then what he came to understand later, he would not have been surprised by the oddities with which he was now confronted. Because the man lurching before him was Randy Stephen Kraft. And he was acting under that part of his personality which came to the fore when compulsion became his driving force. A compulsion to kill.
