Jae Stevens
Age 2724 Jun 1974
San Francisco, California (USA)
Stabbed
TDoR list ref: tdor.info/24 Jun 1974/Jae Stevens
Jae was the second victim of the serial killer known as "The Doodler", who stabbed her five times.
Stevens, born in 1947, was an accomplished drag performer in San Francisco. She seemed well-loved by her SF peers, who spoke of her, in memory, as a good friend, with a “great ability to find humor in any situation.” On the morning of the 25th, Jae’s body was discovered near Spreckels Lake. She had been stabbed five times, three of which went directly into her heart. Two hours before the body was found, a suspect had been seen driving Ms. Stevens’ car. The suspect escaped, after crashing the car into a house.
A woman, never identified, found a body at Spreckels Lake in Golden Gate Park on June 25, 1974. Joseph Stevens, nicknamed “Jae,” had been stabbed three times; there was blood in [her] mouth and nose. [She] was last seen the previous night, leaving the Cabaret Club on Montgomery Street in the North Beach neighborhood. Police theorized that Stevens [herself] had driven the murderer to the park.
The 27-year-old was the Doodler’s second victim.
Stevens, born in Texas, was a popular female impersonator and had been named the summer replacement at Finocchio’s. Finocchio’s was an old-time club that had been around since the early thirties. It had once been a hot spot for the military and celebrities, wrote James Smith, but by the seventies “the high tourist attendance and…hands-off rules discouraged the gay crowd and they largely went elsewhere.” (It was, clucked the Sentinel, “about as respectable as the First Methodist Church back home.”).
“When Stevens first appeared on stage eight years ago, [she] made a sensation in San Francisco as a stunning impersonator,” said the Advocate. “Over the years, however, [she] had moved away from the role of impersonating beautiful women and concentrated more on gay comedy.”
Source: Drag Magazine, Vol 4, Num 16
https://www.theawl.com/2014/12/the-untold-story-of-the-doodler-murders/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72566050/father-of-joseph-stevens/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72565982/transvestite-joseph-stevens-killed/
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/What-a-Drag-Finocchio-s-to-Close-2899225.php
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72566790/killing-of-joseph-stevens-female/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72566343/murder-of-transgender-woman-joseph/
http://students673.ucr.edu/docsserver/lgbt/trans_remembrance_display_posters.pdf
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0
