Just read this ebook. About an hour’s reading. A decent intro to a subject I had not previously heard about.

The full title is:

Young, Queer and Dead: A biography of San Francisco’s most overlooked serial killer: the Doodler.

Much of the book is just a fast recounting of some of the challenges investigators faced as they discovered that a huge number of gay men were being murdered both in San Francisco and across California. It is also largely a recounting of the victims that were found.

Prose is easy reading. It is a very short read. Left me with lots of questions.

The killings started in Sept 71 and continued for many years. Appears to have been the work of different individuals, although the book is nominally about a suspected killer nicknamed the Doodler.

What is perhaps most amazing is that the killings were not given much attention in the media, especially compared to the Zodiac Killer, despite the large number of murders and the number of killings. This may have been due to public attitudes towards gays at that time.

Also interesting is that the man believed by police to have been the Doodler was never arrested and the so called Doodler murders have remained unsolved for over 40 years.

Not a brilliant book, but good for the price, easy to read and told me something I didn’t know.

Regards,

G