Douglas Daniel Clark, infamously known as the “Sunset Strip Killer,” has passed away in San Quentin State Prison at the age of 75. Clark, responsible for a series of gruesome murders along Los Angeles’ Sunset Boulevard, died of natural causes, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Clark, a former factory worker from Burbank, gained notoriety for his involvement in at least six murders, including one where he decapitated his victim and kept her head in his refrigerator. His criminal activities, often performed with his girlfriend and partner in crime, Carol Bundy, targeted young prostitutes and teenage runaways who frequented “The Strip” in Los Angeles at night.

The victims, mostly women, were sexually assaulted and brutally murdered, often by a gunshot to the head using a .25-caliber firearm. Some of the victims had their heads severed, which Clark kept as gruesome mementos. Additionally, he was found guilty of performing sexual acts with the corpses of his victims.

Clark and Bundy were apprehended in August 1980, with Clark attempting to act as his own lawyer during his infamous trial. Testimony presented during his 1983 trial revealed Clark’s obsession with necrophilia, disclosing that he had sexual encounters with some of his victims’ corpses before disposing of them in the San Fernando Valley.

In March 1983, Clark received six consecutive death sentences for six counts of first-degree murder, along with additional prison time for mutilation and sexual contact with human remains, as well as attempted first-degree murder. He was later condemned to death on March 24, 1983. However, Clark spent the next four decades in prison until his recent passing.

Bundy, Clark’s accomplice, avoided the death penalty by agreeing to testify against him as part of a plea deal. This case, like many other true crime stories, has garnered attention, but it’s essential to remember the victims of these heinous crimes.

The known victims of Douglas Daniel Clark and Carol Bundy include Gina Narano and Cynthia Chandler, both teenagers at the time, who were sexually assaulted and fatally shot in the head before being dumped in a Los Angeles garage on June 1, 1980. Karen Jones, aged 25, was shot in the head and raped, with her body found in a wooded area off the Ventura Freeway on June 24, 1980.

Exxie Wilson, 20, was sexually assaulted and shot in the head on July 11, 1980. Her body was discovered the next day, with investigators noting post-mortem mutilation. Marnette Comer, aged 17, was sexually assaulted, fatally shot in the head, and discarded near the Forest Lawn Cemetery, where she was found on July 12, 1980. An unidentified body was found in Newhall, California, on August 26, 1981.

The death of Douglas Daniel Clark closes a dark chapter in the history of Los Angeles, but the memory of his victims should not be forgotten.