During the sexual revolution
of the “Swinging Seventies,” many
bizarre acts were done— wife swapping
for one example. Sexual crime sprees were
staggeringly bold and filled the news pages. But one crime spree was not discussed. Between 1968 and 1982 over 60 Gay men were murdered in San Francisco, very often in hideous ways. This section of Q Files explores the details and tries to identify whether a serial killer was involved.  _________________________________________________________

Moral judgments are not a part of this investigation and analysis. Whether “Straight” or “Gay” or “Bi,” the sexual revolution of the 1970s introduced many practitioners of “freedom” into dangerous situations and lifestyles. Like sharks, perpetrators viewed these situations as a hunting ground and the victims’ lifestyle as a pattern for their M.O.’s. The bar scene was common to all. Those peculiar to the Gay scene are obviously of interest and relevance here.

     The categorizing here is one of victims and perpetrators.

     A very small subsection of the Gay Murders have been attributed to the so-called “Doodler” (1974-1975)— a young black man who met his intended victims in a bar or restaurant and ingratiated himself by doodling a caricature of the intended victim. Via this means they made their connections and left to the victim’s apartment where, supposedly, the “Doodler” carved them up. Insofar as this writer is concerned, the “Doodler” is a farce. He was created by a couple of SFPD detectives and largely promulgated by celebrity detective Dave Toschi. These series of murders will be dealt with in their turn within the chronology of the crime spree.

   Due to the subject matter, graphic language, details and imagery cannot be avoided. It will not be gratuitous, but at times it cannot help but seem casual. The subject matter and repetitive clues will simply have this effect. It will not be flippant. This is a serious examination of murder, murder of a specific type of victim in often compromising circumstances.

     Circumstances, mood, and ambiance were sometimes little different than those of Whitechapel 1888 during the Jack the Ripper murders. San Francisco was a city in flux due to the counterculture. It became the world’s gay Mecca. Young men hustled, “tricked,” innocently went to bars to hook up, to baths down dark brick alleys, and indulged in the exuberant lifestyle that got them dubbed “gay” (carefree, joyous, even gaudy) to begin with.

   I don’t play the politically correct game. Nor do I indulge narrowcasting outrage. Those who cater to a group do so by projecting themselves as reflecting a standard of established morality that you have somehow violated. The resulting outrage crowd generates for them a substantial income via clickbait.

   This is a study into murder, murder most foul and, as the Gay newspapers of the time put it, Murder, Most Queer. Nothing will be avoided that may shed light on revealing the killer or killers, whether serials or individuals, who committed dozens of macabre and hitherto unsolved murders.  

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Q Files is not spontaneous extemporanea.
 It contains the results of 33 years of the author’s
   personal investigations of the unexplained.