I read something on the Internet one recent evening that made a brief and tangential reference to a serial killer preying on Marines in Southern California in the 1970s and early ’80s. Having been stationed at Camp Pendleton, I thought, “How come I never heard about this?” I had returned to the East Coast upon my discharge in September 1980, but still. So I searched “serial killer California Marines 80s” and came up with the name Randy Kraft.

There’s plenty of information on the Web; the short story is that Kraft is possibly the most prolific serial killer in American history, far worse than those with more notoriety, such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. Some investigators believe he may have killed as many as 100 people between 1971 and 1983 when he finally was caught in Orange County, driving on the 405 Freeway with a dead Marine in the seat next to him.

Kraft liked to photograph his victims before, during, and after his acts of sex and torture, and further memorialize his kills in a notebook. The perverse cruelties he inflicted while his victims were still alive are beyond imagination. Quite a few were young Marines he picked up in bars, or hitchhiking. They ended up as strangled, mutilated corpses dumped on roadsides.

He even had a preferred type of Marine. Ideally, they were white, near his 5-foot, 10-inch height and 160-pound weight, and with light brown hair. He liked them youthful and tough, a Marine’s Marine. He also liked straight men. Maybe he took this as a challenge.

Kraft didn’t assault or use weapons to subdue his victims. Typically, he won their trust while plying them with beer, Valium, and similar drugs, then waited for them to become incapacitated. He often was described as notably warm and charismatic, intelligent, and prosperous, with an IT career, active in the Long Beach gay community, and living with a long-term partner who never was implicated in any of his crimes.

So imagine my surprise when my Web search brought up photographs of Kraft, and my first reaction was, “Oh dear mother of Jesus, that looks exactly like that guy … .” My second thought: A photo of me may well have been among those in Kraft’s possession when he was arrested.

The following is a story I’ve never told in 33 years...READ MORE