Ambercat
Well-Known Member
I mentioned this elsewhere, but don't think I've mentioned it on Websleuths:
Back in 1976, when I was 13, I hitched a ride for the 1-mile stretch from the El Porto section of Manhattan Beach to El Segundo. I was picked up by a man who looked to be in about his mid-40's. As we went down Vista Del Mar, he reached over and started patting me on the crotch, saying your swimsuit isnt wet is it? I dont want to get my car upholstery wet. He did it again a second time, saying are you sure?.
We came up on my drop-off point (Grand Ave.), and he continued right through. After I protested that he had passed the drop-off, he continued a few hundred yards, and finally pulled over and dropped me off in front of the Hyperion sewage treatment plant. I remembered thinking that earlier that day, my friend was showing me his step-fathers .357 magnum, and I was wishing that I had it with me (LOL).
A few decades later, I was reading about Randy Kraft. I saw his photo, and I thought to myself he sure looked like the guy who gave me a ride that day. He was driving a medium sized 2-door sedan similar to the brown sedan that Kraft was driving when he was arrested. But IIRC, this man's car was light blue.
It probably wasn't Randy Kraft. But it still haunts me today how I, a 13 year old kid who felt indestructable (as most kids do), could have gotten myself into a very dicey situation for hitching a 1-mile ride home from the beach.
Wow! I guess people are stranger than I would like to believe. :facepalm:
I think in 1976, Randy Kraft drove a black and white Mustang; he didn't get the brown Toyota Celica until a few years later. When he was working for Lear Sieglar, he also occasionally had rental cars.
The Mustang was the car that he was driving on the night he encountered Keith Crotwell and Kent Mays at Big Johns (later Yankee Doodles) in Long Beach. The vehicle was later found by Keith's friends, Terry Ditmar and Randy Cooper, parted near 1st Street and Gaviota Ave. Michael Woodward, one of the homicide detectives who questioned Randy Kraft about Keith Crotwell's disappearance in 1975 passed away recently http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_23168024/michael-woodward-former-long-beach-cop-remembered-at. Back in 1975, the LBPD wanted to charge Randy Kraft with Keith Crotwell's murder, but the Long Beach prosecutors decline to file charges against Kraft http://articles.latimes.com/1987-03-10/local/me-5705_1_murder.