Serial Killer Kraft Files Libel Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES —  Convicted serial killer Randy Kraft, on Death Row for the sexual torture murders of 16 men, claims in a $60-million libel lawsuit that a book about his grisly crime spree defames his good name.

Superior Court Judge Richard Montes, who is weighing whether to dismiss the suit, may hear arguments today over the telephone from Kraft, who is in San Quentin State Prison.

Kraft, who authorities said may have been involved in as many as 65 murders, maintains that the 1991 book “Angel of Darkness” unfairly portrays him as a “sick, twisted” man. Furthermore, Kraft says, the book casts him as being “without moral values” and destroys his chances for future employment.

The convicted killer also says the book ruins any hope of having his conviction overturned on appeal. Kraft, who did not testify at his trial in Orange County, maintains his innocence.

Kraft was arrested on Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo near the Crown Valley Parkway exit in May, 1983, after California Highway Patrol officers stopped him for erratic driving. A dead Marine was in his passenger seat.

“It’s baloney,” Bryan Brown, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, said of the libel action. “He has been found guilty by a jury of being a serial killer.”