Randy Steven Kraft born March 19, is an American serial killer and rapist known as the Scorecard Killer , the Southern California Strangler, and the Freeway Killer , [ 4 ] who committed the rape , torture , and murder of a minimum of sixteen young men between and , the majority of whom he killed in California. Kraft is also believed to have committed the rape and murder of up to fifty-one other young men and boys. Kraft became known as the "Scorecard Killer" because upon his arrest, investigators discovered a coded list with sixty-one entries on a scorecard 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.
The Kraft family lived modestly, and Kraft's mother took several jobs to supplement her husband's assembly-line salary. Kraft's mother initially found employment as a seamstress in a Westminster garment factory before later obtaining employment as a cook in a local school. The family became active in the Westminster First Presbyterian Church, with Kraft's mother rising to the chairman of the deacons committee. His intelligence was noted by classmates and teachers and by , Kraft was judged intelligent enough to attend accelerated classes at 17th Street Junior High School.
By adolescence , Kraft had taken a keen interest in politics, becoming a staunch Republican [ 15 ] and aspiring to become a U. At Westminster High, Kraft was again regarded as a pleasant, bright student who regularly achieved A grades. Kraft later stated he had known from his high school days that he was homosexual, although he initially kept his sexual orientation a secret. On June 13, , he graduated tenth in his class of students.
Shortly after his enrollment at Claremont, Kraft enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps [ 20 ] and regularly attended demonstrations in support of the Vietnam War andβin βcampaign rallies for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
He later declared these actions were merely a simulation of his parents' political views and not his own, describing his second year at Claremont as being when he abandoned the "last gasp" of his conservative ideology. In , Kraft began working as a bartender at a local Garden Grove cocktail lounge that catered to gay clientele; he was also known to regularly travel to Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach to have casual sex with hustlers.
