27 January 1974 was a Sunday. In the early hours, just before 01:30 A.M., a call came through the San Francisco Police Department Emergency Dispatch.

“I believe there might be a dead person ... on the beach ... across from Ulloa Street, if you follow the street right down to the water,” the caller told a San Francisco police dispatcher. Presumably male, the call didn’t give his name, and just hung up.

Believing that it could be a drunk civilian passed out or at worst an accidental drowning, Officers rushed down to Ocean Beach to assist. Nothing could’ve prepared them for what they found at the scene.

On the water’s edge, half in and half out of the water, a man’s lifeless body. The Officers pulled the man back onto dry sand and took a close look. He seemed to be approximately 50 years old, balding, and heavy-set. But what stood out the most, they man had sustained multiple stab wounds, front and back, on his hands. He had tried to fight off his killer and succumbed to his injuries during the struggle.

This was the first confirmed victim of an unidentified serial killer believed to be responsible for between six and sixteen murders and three assaults of men in San Francisco, California, between January 1974 and September 1975. The perpetrator targeted gay men, believed he met at gay nightclubs, bars, and restaurants. He had a peculiar and ominous habit of sketching his victims prior to stabbing them to death.

This is the profile of the “Doodler.”