Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft and the Most HeinousMurder Spree [Mass Market Paperback]

Dennis McDougal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1992

Randy Kraft was highly intelligent, politically active, loyal to his friends, committed to his work--and the killer of 67 people--more than any other serial killer known. This book offers a glimpse into the dark mind of a living monster. "To open this book is to open a peephole into hell".--Associated Press. Photographs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Randy Kraft is believed to have committed more than 60 murders before he was apprehended by California troopers in 1983. He kept a meticulous scorecard and photos of his killings in his small brown Toyota. The young men died in agony--tortured with an automobile cigarette lighter, often impaled and sexually mutilated. Surprisingly, though, Kraft is not very famous. Perhaps that's because he killed only male hitchhikers and patrons of gay bars. Or perhaps it's because he never spoke about his crimes: he maintained the winsome smile and shy-guy pose that had served him well as a computer consultant in Orange County. Even his lover of many years, a gourmet candy maker who bought a house with Kraft, never suspected. Dennis McDougal (author of Mother's Day and In the Best of Families) tells the story effectively, combining extensive research and well-paced narrative with a wry, world-weary prose style that has just a touch of mordant humor.

From Publishers Weekly

Perhaps the most prolific serial killer of modern times, Randy Kraft murdered at least 60 young men in at least three states, usually torturing and sexually abusing them first. A factor that hindered his capture was Kraft's apparent normality; a successful computer programmer, he was a helpful and obliging co-worker, and he sustained two long-term gay relationships during the 12 years of his murder spree, 1971-1983.tighter. aa Los Angeles Times reporter McDouglas here draws a multidimensional portrait of a psycho- and sociopath, not sparing the reader details of the incredible cruelty that Kraft inflicted on his victims, of the scorecard he kept to record his "successes" and of the impaired lives of the families whose sons, brothers and husbands he slaughtered. Kraft was convicted in 1989 and now lives ok?aa/no, restore; to say now lives seems incredibly callous. gs on San Quentin's death row. A fine true-crime book.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (May 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446363022
• ISBN-13: 978-0446363020
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

With the recent publication of "Five Easy Decades" (John Wiley & Sons, 2007), Dennis McDougal has authored a total of nine books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles in a career that has spanned over 40 years. Currently, he is working on "The Acid Chronicles," a documentary film about the history and renaissance of LSD as a powerful tool in the treatment of mental illness.

Before he began covering movies and media for the Los Angeles Times in 1983 and, more recently, the New York Times, McDougal was a staff writer at the Riverside Press-Enterprise (1973-1977) and the Long Beach Press-Telegram (1977-1981). A UCLA graduate, McDougal holds a Bachelor's in English and a Master's in Journalism.

In 1981, he was awarded a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University and spent a year teaching and studying in Japan and Canada, as well as at the Palo Alto campus. Over the years, his journalism has won over 50 honors, including the National Headliners Award and several Associated Press awards.

Before turning his attention full-time to writing books in 1993, McDougal reported on the glamorous and occasionally corrupt aspects of Hollywood as a staff writer for ten years at the Los Angeles Times. As a Times investigative reporter concentrating on movies, television and pop music, McDougal took readers behind the scenes of pop star Michael Jackson's troubled career, beginning with his "Victory" tour in the early 1980s; exposed the waste and mismanagement of Band Aid, USA for Africa, Farm Aid, and other "pop charities" of the 1980s; and followed celebrity courtroom dramas, such as the so-called "Cotton Club" murder trial, which featured former Paramount Pictures chief Robert Evans in a major supporting role. He was a producer for CNN during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

McDougal's reporting has taken him to the top of San Francisco's Mt. Tamalpais at sunrise with Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama, Rodney King's rap music debut, Ethiopia with Harry Belafonte, Tokyo with former U.S. Ambassador Mike Mansfield, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer's Washington Heights bedroom for a discussion of the elements of good sex. He has interviewed dozens of celebrated men and women who have influenced our lives: pop stars, politicians, moguls and cultural icons.

A contributing writer with TV Guide through the 1990s, his last story for the magazine was the murderous saga of actor Robert Blake and his late porn queen wife Bonny Lee Bakley. McDougal and co-author Mary Murphy turned that story into the book "Blood Cold" (Putnam, 2002), which Mark Sennet Productions optioned for a motion picture. McDougal is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and has also written for Los Angeles Magazine, Brill's Content, Premiere, and the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine.

McDougal has been a lecturer in journalism and creative writing at UCLA, the University of Memphis, and the California State Universities at Fullerton and Long Beach. He and his wife, Sharon, live near Memphis, Tennessee, have five children, and ten grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy, terrifying story about a little-known killer, March 2, 2001

By 

Thomas A. Morrow (Oak Ridge, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft and the Most HeinousMurder Spree (Mass Market Paperback)

I had not intended to write a review of this book. But after I read some of the unjustly negative criticisms of McDougal's book on this page, I had to respond.

Angel of Darkness tells the story Randy Kraft, one of the most brutal serial killers in American history that, surprisingly, few people have heard about. I hadn't either until I read this book, and I'm surprised that Kraft still remains so anonymous.

This man was a true Jekyll and Hyde. By day, Kraft was a respected computer consultant who impressed his colleagues with both his brilliance and his humanitarian compassion. But at night, he would pickup young male hitchhikers and then drug, rape, photograph, and eventually hog-tie and torture them to death with shockingly sadistic cruelty.

This story was particularly disturbing because Kraft hid his secret life and perversions so well. Furthermore, his violent murder sprees just didn't make sense in light of his privileged background, business, and social status.

Two critics on this page complain that the story jumps around too much and is too difficult to follow. Nonsense! Although McDougal's book doesn't follow a strictly sequential story line, the narrative itself flows smoothly and effortlessly.

Another critic complains that this book introduces too many ambiguities, such as whether many of Kraft's victims could've been attributed to other "freeway killers" roaming Southern California (which the author discusses at length), or whether the evidence against Kraft points to other possible accomplices as well.

Well, Duh! This is a real-life account of real life murderer! Of course the facts remain shrouded in mystery because Randy Kraft didn't confess to any crimes, and still maintains his innocence on California's death row today. He even has a personal web site that solicits contributions for his legal defense. Unresolved controversies will surround anyone suspected of slaughtering 67 people over two decades!

If you're a True Crime fan, Dennis McDougal's book is an obvious must-read. Better yet, if your kids are tempted to take up hitchhiking, MAKE them read it. Afterward, they'll never attempt such a foolish risk.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read!, September 8, 2002

By 

Mark A. Smiddy (Benton, Kentucky United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft and the Most HeinousMurder Spree (Mass Market Paperback)

Dennis McDougal delivers a true-crime page turner that I simply couldn't put down. Ignore the more negative reviews, the book is well written and superbly researched, painting a truly nightmarish picture of true evil. Randy Kraft is one of the worst serial killers in American history gaining his morbid title by sheer numbers alone with a body count of at least 65! It's a chilling read of continous torture, rape and murder that spans an entire decade. The most disturbing part of the book is what isn't written...why haven't we heard of Kraft before now?

Everyone has heard of Gacey, Dahmer, Son of Sam, etc. but until this book I'd never heard of Kraft...the murder and torture of young women is considered by society as more fiendish because overall women are more easily accepted as helpless victims, while young men especially strong, masculine Marines can take care of themselves. Obviously Kraft proves that anyone can fall victim when evil stalks our streets.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A reminder of how vulnerable we all are....., May 16, 2000

By 

Minnesota Raven "Viking Vixen" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft and the Most HeinousMurder Spree (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is so scary because it is real. The author doesn't have to pump it up to make it seem like more than it is. It is told in a factual and to the point style and that alone is scary enough. I sometimes think the true crime books are worse on the nerves than the fictional books in that you can always tell yourself it was made up and no one would really do that. In this case it isn't so and it makes you glad that you haven't run into the likes of this nut case. As you read each turn of events you find yourself thinking that could of been me. For a few days afterward you find yourself looking at people, evaluating them until you finally start to lose that edge and to trust again. But in the back of your mind you will never be the same again because the awfulness of one human being to another has been explained to you in all too much graphic detail.