Words of Cheer and Criticism : Jailhouse Letters Tell of Kraft’s Fears About Trial

In selected jailhouse letters made public Thursday, convicted serial killer Randy Steven Kraft told friends and family that he worried whether he could get a fair trial in Orange County because of his negative image in the news media and because he is gay.

“Jay said the press is painting me as a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, preying upon (my) own lot,” Kraft wrote about a friend to his former roommate, Jeff Selig, a few weeks after his arrest in 1983. “It really disturbed me, got my juices flowing. I tried to meditate it down, but it didn’t work.”

Kraft also encouraged his family to stay together during the ordeal of his arrest, not to let problems tear them apart.

“We are only as strong as our weakest link; let’s not have that link be the family,” Kraft wrote to a sister.

Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin had refused to allow the jury to see the letters. But on Thursday, after the defense had called its last witness in the death penalty phase of Kraft’s trial in Santa Ana, McCartin allowed the news media to see about 50 of Kraft’s letters.

Kraft, now 44, a Long Beach computer consultant, was convicted in May of 16 murders in Orange County. During the death penalty hearing, prosecutors linked him to eight more. Prosecutors contend that Kraft may be the most prolific serial killer in the nation’s history, responsible for the deaths of at least 45 people over a period of 11 years.

The victims were all young men, most between the ages 18 and 25, whose bodies usually had been dumped along freeway ramps or in remote areas. Many of the bodies showed evidence of sexual assaults or mutilation.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations next week on one issue: Whether Kraft should be sentenced to die or to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The last defense witnesses to be called included two of Kraft’s three sisters, both of whom are local residents, and a former supervisor.

Kraft, who did not testify in the guilt phase of his trial, did not take the witness stand for the penalty phase either.

Nevertheless, jurors did hear a great deal from him. Because the courts permitted him co-counsel status, Kraft was allowed to question witnesses. He used the privilege only once in the guilt phase, but he did not question prosecution witnesses in the penalty phase. Kraft did, however, question nearly everyone that defense lawyers put on the stand. Most of Kraft’s questions were an attempt to persuade jurors that he was innocent. He would have friends, for example, tell the jury that he was not an aggressive type and that he showed no special interest in young men.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown did not object to the defense’s having Kraft ask many of the questions. The prosecutor drew the line, however, at defense attempts to put his jailhouse letters before the jury. Brown said that would be Kraft’s way of trying to testify without having to face cross-examination.

The judge agreed. The defense argued that the letters show Kraft as a caring, sensitive human being interested in others, but McCartin called them “100% self-serving hearsay.”

However, after McDonald did not object, the judge did grant a request from The Times to see the letters. The letters are only a small number of the total Kraft has written while in jail.

Most of the letters were to Kraft’s sisters or nieces, or to Selig, his former roommate. Most were written within the first two years after his arrest on May 14, 1983, when two California Highway Patrol officers found the body of a Marine in the front passenger seat of his car.

Kraft was aware that the letters were being opened and read by the staff at the Orange County Jail. In fact, all the letters were copies that the prosecutors had turned over to the defense under routine discovery orders by the court.

They do contain numerous passages in which Kraft was trying to cheer up members of his family and friends.

“Sounds like Dad is really having trouble with his back,” Kraft wrote to one sister. “I wish him my best. I hope he can hear me when I talk to him over the phone.”

To another sister, Kraft wrote about how much he missed working with the trees, shrubs and other plants in his yard.

“I’m glad I did not take these things for granted; I did experience them as fully as I could.”

He wrote one niece, almost sheepishly, that his cell walls were plastered with pictures of Bruce Springsteen. He joked with her about an Ogden Nash poem that he liked and asked her about the latest Pee-wee Herman movie.

The AIDS crisis became major news after Kraft’s arrest. Some of his earlier letters include questions to gay friends about it.

“Do you know anyone who has it, or has died from it?” he asked one friend. “It seems like I only hear about someone I knew after they had died. I guess that is one way I’m lucky to be in here. I couldn’t catch it even if I wanted to.”

Criticism of Others

But some of the letters are critical of other people. One particularly harsh letter to Selig chastised him for letting the pressure of Kraft’s arrest and business troubles affect his emotions.

Kraft’s mother had become angry with Selig, and Kraft wrote to him: “I asked her to give you some space and not to be too quick to judge. I reminded her that in any crisis, you were the first one to pull the panic button. Jeff, it’s time you started handling emergency situations in some other way than flying off the handle.”

He also expressed concern that Selig wanted to sell their house in Long Beach for some quick money.

“We have decided twice before that the equity in the house is to be used for my defense; considering all the money and time I have put into it, I deserve at least that much. For you to panic now (because of business problems) is terribly shortsighted . . . and selfish.”

One acquaintance trying to cheer him up apparently had made a reference to Kraft’s homosexuality. Kraft wrote back tersely: “If you desire to be my friend, may I please ask that you stop using the clinical H-word. It is demeaning as well as offensive. When asked to classify myself, I use the term which has been common to my millions of brothers and sisters--gay.”

Kraft also expressed frustration about his lawyers.

“I’ve been trying to commit my attorneys to some sort of schedule, so we could evaluate our performance against objectives,” he wrote one friend. “They are not too receptive.” Kraft added, though, that he really had no right to criticize his attorneys because “I realize they are probably better than most.”

In the first few months after his arrest, Kraft criticized Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates, who had held a news conference linking Kraft to several other murders.

“Hang in there and hold your head high, it’s all hogwash,” he wrote to Selig. “They are just trying to bury us by sheer numbers. They are trying to make us buckle under. There is no truth to (these charges), I assure you.”

Kraft also wrote about his confinement. He has been in Orange County Jail more than six years, longer than any other inmate ever.

“The key to surviving is not to expect (jail) to be more than it is,” Kraft wrote one friend.

To Selig, he wrote: “Now that all diversions are taken away . . . the only thing I have to explore is me.”

Little About Case

Kraft actually says very little in the letters about his case. But in some, he did reveal how important it was that family and friends be behind him.

He wrote to two gay friends: “As this thing progresses slowly, but inexorably, I feel that friends, family and even business associates are going to play an important part for me . . . to create positive press to counteract all the negative that is going down. The evidence isn’t going to convict me because it isn’t there. There (are) some circumstances, only a few, but I don’t think they are particularly damning. What can hurt me is if we go into trial with all the negative press uncontested.

“People will think I’m no different from (the Hillside Strangler) or (the Freeway Killer) or all those others. They will assume I am a loner, a weirdo, with no friends, no responsibilities, which isn’t true.”