Notorious serial killer and necrophile Douglas Clark, known as one of of the infamous Sunset Strip Killers who terrorized Los Angeles in 1980, has died while on California’s death row, according to a statement by the state Department of Corrections on Thursday.
Clark, aged 75, had been serving six consecutive death sentences at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. According to prison officials, he died of “natural causes” at an external medical facility on Wednesday.
Douglas Clark, along with his accomplice Carol Bundy, targeted vulnerable young women in Hollywood, often focusing on runaways and prostitutes. Many of their victims suffered dismemberment and decapitation.
Their murderous spree was relatively short, spanning just three months from June to August in 1980.
On June 11, 1980, told Bundy that he picked up stepsisters Gina Narano, 15, and Cynthia Leigh “Cindy” Chandler, 16, on the Sunset Strip, which is how they have gotten the infamous moniker. the two teenagers were found the following morning beside the Ventura Freeway, near Griffith Park; each had been shot in the side of the head. Clark told Bundy that he ordered them to perform fellatio on him and then shot them both in the head before taking them to a garage and raping their dead bodies.
Ultimately, the weight of their crimes became unbearable for Bundy, and she confessed to coworkers and the police, implicating Clark, which led to his arrest.
In 1983, Clark was convicted on charges of first-degree murder, mutilation/sexual contact with human remains, attempted first-degree murder, and mayhem, resulting in a death sentence.
Bundy herself passed away of heart problems in prison in 2003.
Los Angeles Magazine reports that Clark continued to claim that he was innocent of murder into his later years. “I don’t think I’ll ever live long enough to get out of here,” he told KSBW in 2015. “But you get by. I’ve always been a very Zen person.”
