Randy Steven Kraft

Randy Steven Kraft
Randy Kraft, pictured during his trial in 1989
Born	Randy Steven Kraft (1945-03-19) March 19, 1945 (age 72) Long Beach, California, United States
Other names	The Freeway Killer, The Scorecard Killer
Criminal penalty	Death
Conviction(s)	Murder Sodomy Mutilation
Killings
Victims	16–67
Span of killings	September 20, 1971–May 13, 1983
Country	United States
State(s)	California Oregon Michigan
Date apprehended	May 14, 1983
Imprisoned at	San Quentin State Prison

Randy Steven Kraft (born March 19, 1945) is an American serial killer known as the "Scorecard Killer" and the "Freeway Killer" who committed the rape, torture, mutilation, and murder of a minimum of 16 young men in a series of killings spanning between 1972 and 1983, the majority of which had been committed in California. Kraft is also believed to have committed the rape and murder of up to 51 further boys and young men. He was convicted in May 1989 of murdering 16 victims and is currently incarcerated upon death row at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.

Kraft became known as the "Scorecard Killer", because upon his arrest investigators discovered a coded list depicting cryptic references to his victims; and the "Freeway Killer", because many of his victims' bodies were discovered beside or near freeways. He shares the latter epithet with two separate and unrelated serial killers, William Bonin and Patrick Kearney.

Randy Steven Kraft was born in Long Beach, California, on March 19, 1945, the fourth child and only son born to Opal Lee (née Beal) and Harold Herbert Kraft. Kraft's parents had moved to California from Wyoming at the outbreak of World War II; his father worked as a production worker, and his mother worked as a sewing machine operator.

The Kraft family lived modestly, and Kraft's mother undertook a succession of jobs to supplement her husband's salary. Nonetheless, Opal Kraft always found time for her children, whereas in contrast, Kraft's father seldom attended any social gatherings with his wife and children, and was later described as being "distanced" from his family. As a child, Randy was doted on by his three older sisters and mother, although he was known to be accident prone.

In 1948, the Kraft family moved from Long Beach to Midway City, California, in neighboring Orange County. The Kraft's new family home was a small, wood-frame Women's Army Corps dormitory on Beach Boulevard that Kraft's father, Harold, renovated into a three-bedroom house.