Bruce Emmett Drake, a 46-year-old white man, was killed on October 30, 1978, in Los Angeles. His death was one of several brutal stabbings in the Skid Row area that fall, a pattern that drew law enforcement attention because victims were often homeless or otherwise vulnerable and were attacked with a double-edged knife.

Investigators later linked the series to a suspect named Bobby Joe Maxwell, who was arrested in April 1979 and charged with multiple murders, including Drake’s. Police found Maxwell standing over an intoxicated man and discovered a knife they said matched wounds on several victims; his palm print was also found on a bench near one crime scene. Prosecutors pointed to a logbook entry attributed to Maxwell reading Satan, praise be unto you.

The case became a flashpoint in debates over wrongful convictions and the reliability of evidence in serial crime investigations. Did anyone who knew Bruce Emmett Drake or who was on Skid Row that autumn see or hear anything that could shed light on his killing?