Douglas Gretzler and William Steelman teamed up in the early 1970's in Denver, Colorado, and launched a killing spree that stretched throughout the Southwest. Mixing a lust for blood and robbery, the duo killed seven people in Arizona and another nine in Victor, California, while robbing a store. Four of the California victims were children.

Gretzler and Steelman were cornered in 1973 at a Sacramento, California, hotel. Steelman, a former mental patient, had to be tear gassed from on of the hotel's rooms. Both were first given life sentences in California and then sentenced to death in Arizona (Gretzler was subsequently executed on June 3, 1998, while Steelman died of natural causes after ten years on death row). Police believe that combined the two may have been responsible for more than thirty murders.

Douglas Gretzler was executed on June 3, 1998.