Serial Killer Who Hunted Down Gay Men May Have Had a Sixth Victim

Authorities in San Francisco on Thursday revealed a sixth victim who could be linked to the 1970s serial killer who targeted the city's gay population.

Between January 1974 and June 1975, the San Francisco Police Department investigated several instances of violent assaults on gay white men, according to a news release. Five men were found murdered in Ocean Beach-Golden Gate Park area.

However, police believe the same person who killed those men attacked two more men who survived. One of the victims gave authorities enough information that led to the first sketch of the suspect in 1975. Another victim told police that the suspect told him that he was in art school studying to be a cartoonist. The victim told authorities that the suspect doodled, drawing animals on a napkin while speaking with the victim. It's this characteristic that led to the suspected serial killer being dubbed the "Doodler."

A new investigation indicates a sixth person killed may have been a gay man named Warren Andrews. Authorities said Andrews was found unconscious in Land's End on April 27, 1975. He never regained consciousness, and he died weeks after he was found.

The investigation into Andrews's death was the subject of a series in the San Francisco Chronicle last year. Journalists followed cold case detectives Dan Cunningham and Dan Dedet, who were examining his death.

Police reconsidered Andrews's murder as the Doodler's due to the location and time period. "I'd be a fool not to consider him as a Doodler victim," Cunningham said.

January 27 marked the 47^th anniversary of the first Doodler murder.

Authorities have spent decades looking for the murderer, according to NBC News. They believe that he targeted gay men at gay establishments around the city and had sex with them before attacking them. While the other victims were stabbed, Andrews was bludgeoned with a rock and branch, NBC reports.

After one of the victims was found alive, a phone call was made to authorities with a name and a vehicle plate of a suspect. Soon after that call, others called in with information naming the same suspect.

"The person named was interviewed by SFPD Homicide in January 1976 and he was considered a strong suspect," authorities said in the release. "This same person interviewed by police in 1976 is still the focus of our investigation in 2022."

The San Francisco Police Department has increased its reward for information on the murders from $100,000 to $200,000.