Sketches in the Dark: Hunting the Doodler

By Sky Adler

In the mid-1970s, San Francisco was a city of liberation and fear in equal measure. As the Castro blossomed into a haven for gay men, a shadow stalked its bars, parks, and beaches. Known only as "the Doodler," a young man who lured victims by sketching their portraits, he left behind at least six dead and many more terrified-but never spoke his name.

Sketches in the Dark: Hunting the Doodler uncovers the full story of one of America's most haunting unsolved serial murder cases. Through vivid narrative, it situates the killings within the broader landscape of 1970s San Francisco: a city wrestling with homophobia, police mistrust, and social upheaval. It restores the victims to history, charts the investigative failures, and follows the case into the present as modern forensics, community memory, and renewed police efforts strive to bring resolution.

This is not only a true-crime history, but also a portrait of resilience: of communities that refused to forget, of a city that learned to listen, and of justice that remains unfinished but still possible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1923593412
• ISBN13: 9781923593411
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"