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Author Topic: CA Serial Killer "Grim Sleeper" (Lonnie Franklin ARRESTED!)  (Read 54149 times)
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MuffyBee
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« Reply #20 on: December 16, 2010, 05:15:23 PM »

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/12/trove-of-photos-could-yield-more-victims-in-grim-sleeper-case.html
Police release 180-photo trove from 'Grim Sleeper' suspect [updated]
December 16, 2010

In a bold effort to determine whether there are additional "Grim Sleeper" victims, the Los Angeles Police Department is releasing photos of scores of women found in the possession of a man charged in 10 South Los Angeles killings.

Police hope the photo display will generate new tips from the public. Since the July arrest of Lonnie David Franklin Jr., the LAPD has received 75 calls from the family and friends of missing women wanting to know the fate of their loved ones.

After comparing information in those calls with evidence gathered in the Franklin investigation, detectives were soon able to discount most of the cases, said veteran homicide Det. Dennis Kilcoyne, head of the task force that tracked down the former city sanitation worker and police garage attendant. But Kilcoyne said investigators were taking a hard look at information generated by a handful of those contacts.

This is not the first time Southern California law enforcement has employed the tactic to help deal with serial killings. Last year, the Huntington Beach Police Department made public photos of women taken by accused serial killer Rodney Alcala. In 2006, the L.A. Sheriff's Department released the photos of 50 women taken by another accused killer, Bill Bradford.   

In the Grim Sleeper case, any public tips will come on top of 30 cases that police investigators already are reviewing because they share similarities to the slayings in which Franklin is accused. Franklin has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

There is no DNA evidence in any of the 30 cases, which is significant because authorities said they tied Franklin to some of the 10 killings based on a combination of DNA and ballistics evidence. Many of the cases are three decades old and occurred during a period when several serial killers were allegedly operating in South Los Angeles.

Franklin allegedly killed seven women between 1985 and 1988, then his alleged crimes seemed to come to an abrupt stop, authorities said. The slayings resumed in 2002, with a killing that year, another in 2003 and a third in 2007, police said.

The L.A. Weekly dubbed the killer the Grim Sleeper because of the lengthy, unaccounted-for gap in the slayings. But officials have said repeatedly that they suspect Franklin may be responsible for more homicides, including during the apparent lull.

During the search of Franklin's South Los Angeles home, detectives collected photo albums, documents, business cards and other records that they hoped could give them a better picture of the suspect and perhaps provide links to other victims.

One of the more troubling discoveries was nearly 1,000 still photographs and hundreds of hours of home video showing women, almost all of them partly or completely nude and striking sexually graphic poses.

LAPD officials said that after months of trying to identify the women, they decided to go public with the images of about 160 women in the hope that they, family or acquaintances will recognize the pictures and contact investigators. They released 180 images, some of which show the same women.

[Corrected at 1:50 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said the police released images of 180 women.]

"There's going to be a lot of speculation about the condition of some of the women in these photographs," Kilcoyne told The Times on Wednesday. “Right now, I don't know the answer."
********************
Photos and links to photos in the article
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« Reply #21 on: December 17, 2010, 07:49:15 AM »

New Sketches of California Serial Killer
December 17, 2009


snipped.....just want to show the sketches of suspect against Lonnie F.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr. over the years.....

1993


1998


2010


2010


Another poster/date unknown ... obviously he has gained weight over the years.
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« Reply #22 on: December 17, 2010, 07:51:34 AM »

To view poster, click here
http://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/pdf_view/46775

To view all photos, click here.
http://s782.photobucket.com/albums/yy101/lpklapdonline/Grim%20Sleeper%20Photos/?albumview=slideshow
If you can identify any of these photos, please call 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (1-877-527-3247)

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call Crimestoppers at 800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may contact Crimestoppers by texting the number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters “LAPD.”
Tipsters may also go to LAPDOnline.org, click on "webtips" and follow the prompts.
http://www.lapdonline.org/
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« Reply #23 on: December 17, 2010, 07:53:45 AM »

Naturally, the first two links in the above post do not work for me.
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« Reply #24 on: December 17, 2010, 09:10:12 AM »

Naturally, the first two links in the above post do not work for me.

The first link kept loading and loading and loading, and I never got to see it:
http://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/pdf_view/46775

But I was able to see the second link:
http://s782.photobucket.com/albums/yy101/lpklapdonline/Grim%20Sleeper%20Photos/?albumview=slideshow
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« Reply #25 on: December 17, 2010, 07:19:39 PM »

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/grim-sleeper-serial-killer-victim-photos-released-los/story?id=12424559&tqkw=&tqshow=NL
(video)
'Grim Sleeper' Photos: Five Women Tentatively Identified From Tips
Los Angeles Police Say People Call In: 'It's Me in the Picture'
December 17, 2010

The Los Angeles Police Department has tentatively indentified five of the dozens of women found in photos discovered on the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer's property.
Deputy Chief of Police and Chief of Detectives David R. Doan said that "five people have identified five specific names" from photos posted on the L.A.P.D.'s website. All claims came through their tip hotline.

He said that "three or four of the five at this point" have come forward and said "it was me in the picture."

"We have not confirmed that and we're going to personally interview everyone," Doan said.

All of the photos were found on the property of the suspected "Grim Sleeper" serial killer, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., and police say they hope people will recognize the faces and contact investigators.

Police are investigating all claims called in and entering them into their computer database. Doan said they are now tracking down the people who made the calls, saying that they were turning most of their attention to people calling in to report that someone in one of the photos is a missing person.

"[It's a] hotter lead...if the person has not been seen for a couple of years," Doan said. "They say 'it's me' is not as hot as someone reported missing."

Doan said that all of the 160 images will remain on the L.A.P.D. website for now.

"We'll take them down if we're satisfied that the individual has been possibly identified," he said.

Los Angeles Police homicide detective Dennis Kilcoyne said various area police websites have recieved over 8 million hits since the photos were made public on Thursday, and the department has recieved hundreds of phone calls.

The photos show women ranging from teenagers to others who look as if they're in their 60s. Some are smiling, others appear to be unconscious.
"These people are not suspects," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said of the photos. "We don't even know if they are victims. ... We certainly do not believe that we are so lucky or so good that we know all of the victims. We need the public's help."

Beck also cautioned the public that some of the photos are decades old, and that the women "will have changed, aged."

victims

The Daily Beast's Christine Pelisek reported that the full photos of these women show them with either their breasts exposed or fully naked.

Detective Kilcoyne, who headed the team that tracked down Franklin, would not comment on the nature of the photographed women's "lifestyle or situation." He did acknowledge that the L.A. Police Department was showing only the women's faces, which was "indicative of the content in the photos."

"Our best wish is that we get a phone call from each and every one of the them and that everyone is OK," he said.
Detectives also encouraged any of the women who are still alive to come forward and explain how they came to be photographed.

Franklin, a 57-year-old mechanic, was charged with 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in July in the "Grim Sleeper" case. He is accused of murdering 10 young women between 1985 and 2007 in South Los Angeles.

When detectives searched Franklin's home and surrounding property, they found more than 1,000 photos and hundreds of hours of home video footage in his procession.

"It's a long period of time that he's been taking pictures," Kilcoyne said.

Authorities working on the case said they had been trying to identify the women in the images for months.

Franklin pleaded not guilty to the charges on Aug. 23, 2010, during a court appearance. He remains in custody.

Determining the identity of the "Grim Sleeper," who had eluded police for more than two decades, was helped by a DNA sample taken from the suspect's son.

ABC News' Neal Karlinsky reported on a technique called familial DNA led police to Franklin in July.

Police said the DNA technique could prove more revolutionary than fingerprinting in solving crimes.

"This is a landmark case. This will change the way policing is done in the United States," Beck said at the news conference today.

The technique may also be controversial, and likely faces legal challenges.

"This arrest provides proof positive that familial DNA searches must be a part of law enforcement's crime-fighting arsenal. Although the adoption of this new state policy was unprecedented and controversial, in certain cases, it is the only way to bring a dangerous killer to justice," said Attorney General Jerry Brown in a statement.

The familial DNA program was started by Brown in April 2008 as a way to fight violent crimes when there is "serious risk to public safety," according to the attorney general's office. California is the first state to use familial searches.

The high-profile case had languished unsolved, and had haunted the files of the L.A.P.D. cold-case unit for years.

According to the attorney general's office, the suspect's son was arrested and convicted on a felony weapons charge and swabbed for DNA last year. When his DNA was entered into the database of convicted felons, detectives were alerted to a partial match to evidence found at the "Grim Sleeper" crime scenes.

Police began investigating Franklin's son's relatives, and found a match in Lonnie Franklin. Police said he had never been a suspect until now.

The data bank, which contains more than 1.5 million samples, is the third largest criminal database in the world. Only data from convicted felons is collected, according to Brown, and a number of safeguards are taken before the Department of Justice releases the information to police.

Kilcoyne, who headed the investigation, said it was the second time a query was run for familial connections in the "Grim Sleeper" case. From the DNA matches, a tight circle of law enforcement officers zeroed in on Franklin based on the suspect's residence, location of the victims, his race and age.

Familial DNA database searches have come under fire from privacy and civil liberty advocates, who argue, among other things, that they put more minorities, who are disproportionally represented in the database, in an at-risk group.

The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of familial DNA sample collection and searches. Brown said the office of the attorney general will be in court again next week defending the technique, and raised the possibility of more legal challenges.

The killings of 10 young black women and one man, beginning in 1985, have all been blamed on the "Grim Sleeper." Franklin has not been charged in the shooting death of 36-year-old Thomas Steele, but police said they believe his death is connected to the other killings.
Neighbors Shocked by Franklin's Arrest

The cluster of killings stopped in 1988, but 14 years later police said they linked new murders to the same man. The nickname "Grim Sleeper" came from the long lull between killings. The most recent murder happened in January 2007.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised law enforcement officials for their "exhaustive detective work" in the past 25 years that led to nabbing the suspect. More than two dozen investigators worked to find the "Grim Sleeper."

"I'm proud to announce that this terror has finally come to an end," Villaraigosa said at a news conference.

Relatives of the victims who were in attendance said they were elated and thankful that the police finally brought the alleged killer to justice.

Police closed off the block on 81st Street in South Los Angeles where Franklin lived Wednesday and the arrest was made.

Residents said they were shocked. Neighbor Donna Harris said she has known Franklin, a retired mechanic, for nearly 20 years, and that he was supposed to fix her car that morning.

"Everybody on the block, we all knew if anything was happening with anybody's cars, he was always there for us. Especially the ladies," Harris said. "Even if we weren't at home, instead of calling Triple-A, he would help."

Franklin was reportedly a mechanic for a Los Angeles Police Department station near the center of the murder spree in the 1980s.

Though Harris counted Franklin as a friend, she said the news was frightening.

"It frightens me to know that somebody like that was that close," Harris said. "I don't want to believe it's true, [but] if he did what he's been accused of, God judged him for that."

Franklin has a criminal history dating back to 1989, according to public records. His four previous convictions include charges of a misdemeanor battery and assault, as well as two charges for stolen property -- one of which he served jail time for.

With these latest charges, he could face the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole.

The Long Search for a Los Angeles Serial Killer

A handful of detectives, headed by Kilcoyne, have been working full-time on the case for years, determined to find the "Grim Sleeper."

All the slayings have been connected to the same 25-caliber handgun, and matched to the same DNA, usually saliva taken from the victims' breasts.

"The commonality is that they're all from the same general area of the city in south Los Angeles," Kilcoyne said. "I don't think I would label them all as prostitutes per se, but they certainly have troubled lifestyles. They're broken people and easy targets."

In February, the L.A.P.D. offered a $500,000 reward -- the city's biggest ever -- advertised on billboards near where the victims were found. Investigators also released a 20-year-old 911 call in which a witness says he saw a van pull up in a dark alley and dump a body, which was identified as Barbara Ware.

Listen to the 911 call here.

The caller tells the dispatcher several details, everything from the license plate number of the van -- which was a dead-end lead -- to the way the body was discarded. But he refused to tell the 911 operator his name, saying he didn't see the killer.

Reporter Discovers Serial Killer, Alerts Community

Police say they wouldn't have known there was a serial killer on the loose if he hadn't starting killing again. "We became aware of it right around April of 2007," LAPD Detective Bill Fallon told "Nightline" in March 2009. "And we realized there was a serial killer because of DNA hits we started getting. So when we get those hits, we're like, 'Whoa.' That's when we started digging it."

But the police didn't notify the community until Christine Pelisek, a reporter from LA Weekly, began investigating.

"I was the one who told some of the family members that their daughters were victims of a serial killer," Pelisek said. "I mean, they didn't even know. The public safety committee, they had no idea. I mean, the police commission, I spoke to the police commission [to whom the police chief reports]. They didn't even know. So there were a lot of people very upset that the police didn't let the community know."

Fallon says investigators didn't want to alert the killer that they were searching for him.

"We wanted to get a a step ahead of the killer himself," he said. "I don't want you to know I'm coming for you until I find out who you are, where you are and what you are doing."
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« Reply #26 on: December 18, 2010, 05:19:43 AM »

Here is a good photo gallery

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-grim-sleeper-lapd-pictures,0,4635031.photogallery

some look dead  

some seem to be different shots of the same woman

« Last Edit: December 18, 2010, 05:32:24 AM by Nut44x4 » Logged

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« Reply #27 on: December 26, 2010, 07:00:04 PM »

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/21/local/la-me-grim-sleeper-20101221
LAPD identifies 21 of 160 women in Grim Sleeper suspect's photos
Authorities say investigators have received 200 tips about the identities of women whose photos were released last week. Lonnie Franklin Jr. is accused of sexually assaulting and killing 10 women in South L.A.
December 21, 2010

Los Angeles police said Monday they have tentatively identified 21 of the roughly 160 women whose pictures were released last week in an effort to determine whether there were additional victims linked to the alleged Grim Sleeper serial killer.

After identifying the women, police removed their pictures from the LAPD's website. One picture was of Janecia Peters, 25, who was fatally shot on New Year's Day 2007 and was among the victims Lonnie Franklin Jr. has been charged with killing, police said.
The identification of Peters in the group of photos was first reported in the Daily Beast. Members of Peters' family were unable to attend a meeting in which LAPD detectives allowed the victims' relatives to view the pictures before they were made public. Det. Dennis Kilcoyne said the department has since apologized to the family.

Franklin has been linked to Peters through DNA evidence. Other slayings in the three-decade series of killings have been linked through a combination of DNA evidence and ballistics.

Authorities also removed eight other photographs from the website after determining the women pictured were also in other photos.

Kilcoyne said detectives have received nearly 200 tips on the women's identities through phone calls, messages to their tip line and e-mails.

Two of the women whose identities have been confirmed had died of natural causes years ago, police said. Investigators also identified several missing persons in the group of photos and video stills, but Kilcoyne said it was not clear if they were potential victims.

Franklin is accused of sexually assaulting and killing 10 African American women in South L.A. He has pleaded not guilty and is in custody awaiting trial. During his arrest in July, authorities found about 1,000 photographs and hundreds of hours of video footage of women. Some of the images appeared to be innocent snapshots, but many showed the women in various states of undress and in sexual poses.

Detectives feared that some of the women may have been killed and set out to identify them. Some of the material, which was reviewed over the last several months, dated back to the 1980s and included video and digital camera images, Polaroids, conventional prints and undeveloped film.

The decision to release the photos drew criticism from Franklin's attorney, Louisa Pensanti, who said some of the images were of 18 relatives or friends of her client's. She also accused the police of tainting potential jurors.

Prior to releasing the photos, Kilcoyne said detectives asked Franklin's wife to review the images in order to identify family and friends. She declined to help, Kilcoyne said.

Police said they were sensitive to the harm and embarrassment the release of the photographs could cause women who never told their family or friends about the encounters. In the end, however, they decided that the need to identify the women outweighed the potential harm. The Times decided to publish the photographs for similar reasons.
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« Reply #28 on: January 27, 2011, 12:39:13 PM »

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-grim-sleeper-new-cases,0,815563.story
Police Reveal 2 More Possible 'Grim Sleeper' Killings
Lonnie Franklin Jr. has pleaded not guilty to the murders of 10 women.
January 27, 2011
 
LOS ANGELES ( KTLA) -- Los Angeles Police officials say they are investigating two additional murders that may be tied to the 'Grim Sleeper' case.

Detectives revealed the probes during a community meeting Wednesday night at Bethel AME Church, a few blocks from the South Los Angeles home where Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested last July.

The revelation was prompted by a question from a relative of one of the victims in the new cases, KTLA partner The Los Angeles Times is reporting.

No further information was released about the killings.
(snipped)
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« Reply #29 on: April 05, 2011, 11:45:50 PM »

http://www.39online.com/sns-rt-usreport-us-grim-sltre73509y-20110406,0,4233335.story
Accused 'Grim Sleeper' suspected in more deaths
April 6, 2011

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A retired sanitation worker accused of murdering 10 women and girls who has been dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" may have killed eight additional victims, police said on Tuesday.
Police officials said there may be even more victims of Lonnie David Franklin Jr, 58, who allegedly targeted black women and girls in south Los Angeles in a string of killings that began in the 1980s.

Investigators said they were not free to release new information about the other eight potential victims until now.

That is because prosecutors wanted Franklin brought to court first on Monday, to face an indictment for the 10 other murders and one attempted murder.

Police have no immediate plans to charge Franklin with the murder of the eight additional potential victims.

"I would doubt it," said Los Angeles police detective Dennis Kilcoyne. "Because that would be like starting over again with the wheel of justice that's slowly turning right now on Mr. Franklin, and we don't want to create that problem with the court system."

Police Chief Charlie Beck added most of the women's bodies have not been found, which makes it harder to prosecute.
more...
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« Reply #30 on: April 06, 2011, 02:09:42 PM »

Police link eight more murders to US serial killer‎

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hX1KqFn8K39BTwoAWvVcVYhmphpw?docId=CNG.8c65686ce30c8cd2566aeff7345e0307.471
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« Reply #31 on: August 19, 2011, 10:56:44 AM »

Grim Sleeper: LAPD expands serial killer probe to 230 cases


 August 9, 2011

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/grim-sleeper-lapd.html
interactive map
http://projects.latimes.com/homicide/list/grim-sleeper-killings/
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« Reply #32 on: October 28, 2011, 08:55:34 PM »

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-grim-sleeper-20111029,0,4224162.story
Police link 6 more slayings to Grim Sleeper suspect
The new allegations bring to 16 the killings linked to Lonnie Franklin Jr. But officials do not plan to seek criminal charges now in the new cases, fearing that would slow progress toward a trial.

October 29, 2011


Lonnie David Franklin Jr., at his arraignment last year. Police say they have linked him to a total of 16 slayings in the Grim Sleeper case. (Al Seib, Los Angeles Times / July 8, 2010)

Los Angeles police detectives have linked six more slayings to the suspect in the Grim Sleeper serial killings after reviewing hundreds of unsolved homicide cases and missing person reports, as well as a cache of photos of unidentified women found at the man's home.

Law enforcement sources told The Times that the new cases bring to 16 the number of killings linked to Lonnie Franklin Jr., 59, , who is already charged with murder in the slayings of 10 women whose bodies were found on the streets of South Los Angeles over two decades. Police also have now identified a second woman who they say survived an attack from Franklin.

Police investigators had long suspected that they would eventually find that the person responsible for the Grim Sleeper slayings had killed more than 10 women. Franklin was arrested in July 2010 and linked to the 10 slayings by ballistic and DNA evidence.

Detectives continued look for additional victims, taking the unusual step of releasing photographs of dozens of women found at Franklin's home, hoping the public could help determine if they too were victims.

Three of the newly identified six victims were allegedly tied to Franklin through physical evidence, said a police source with knowledge of the investigation, who requested anonymity because the additional cases have not been made public. In two of those cases, ballistic evidence showed that the bullets used to kill the women were fired from a gun Franklin is accused of using in other killings, while DNA and ballistic tests connected him to a third woman, the source said.

Franklin's link to the other three cases is more circumstantial. Police concluded Franklin killed one woman based on a 911 call made at the time of the slaying to report the location of the body. According to the source, police have matched the caller's voice to Franklin's. Police believe Franklin made a similar call to dispatchers in one of the cases in which he has been charged. The remaining two victims recently linked to Franklin were reported missing years ago and have never been found. However, possessions of theirs were discovered at Franklin's house, leading police to the conclusion that he killed them.

Police have made the strategic decision not to seek additional criminal charges from prosecutors in the new cases, the source said. With the case against Franklin moving slowly toward trial as prosecutors and Franklin's attorney wade through massive amounts of complex evidence, adding more charges, police feared, could lead to long delays and unnecessarily complicate matters, the source said.
 ::snipping2::
Prosecutors have alleged that Franklin, a former LAPD garage attendant and city garbage collector, sexually assaulted and then killed women on the margins of society — including some prostitutes and drug addicts — over nearly a quarter century. Seven of the women he is accused of killing died between 1985 and 1988 and the others between 2002 and 2007. That apparent dormant period led the L.A. Weekly to dub the killer the Grim Sleeper, although the detectives investigating the case have long been skeptical of the idea that the killer had taken a break.

Police at first speculated the killer may have been in prison during the gap in known killings, but that theory was tossed out when Franklin was arrested and investigators realized he had not been behind bars. That spurred them to launch the review of unsolved cases and missing person reports in search of victims that had gone unconnected to Franklin.

Franklin has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody. Along with 10 murder charges, he also is charged with one count of attempted murder.

Police officials would not comment about when the new cases occurred or reveal the identities of the victims, saying they would discuss them in detail at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday evening at Bethel AME Church, in the neighborhood where Franklin lived and where the killings occurred.
 ::snipping2::
In April, detectives went public with their suspicions that Franklin had killed seven women who had been missing for years, plus a woman killed in a style similar to other victims. The fate of three of those women were of particular concern: Ayellah Marshall, a high school senior when she disappeared in 2005; Rolenia Morris, a 25-year-old who also was reported missing in 2005; and an unidentified woman whose photograph was found at Franklin's residence when he was arrested. Police found identification cards or photos of the three in a refrigerator in Franklin's garage, where photos of Janecia Peters, one of the 10 women Franklin is charged with killing, were also discovered. Police have said they suspect that Franklin kept mementos of special significance in the refrigerator since they were separate from the other photographs found elsewhere in his residence.

It was not immediately clear if any of the six women police have now linked to Franklin were part of that group of eight.
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« Reply #33 on: March 21, 2013, 11:06:30 AM »

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/03/12/alleged-grim-sleeper-appears-in-court-for-pretrial-hearing/
Alleged ‘Grim Sleeper’ Appears In Court For Pretrial Hearing
March 12, 2013

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The alleged serial killer known as the “Grim Sleeper” was in court for a pretrial hearing Monday.

Lonnie Franklin, Jr., now 60 years old, faces 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder for the deaths of women who were shot, strangled or both over several decades in Los Angeles.

During the investigation, officials recovered nearly 180 photos of women, some dating back to the 1970s, from Franklin’s South Los Angeles home.

The Los Angeles Police Department continues to seek the public’s help in identifying women in 38 remaining photos.
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« Reply #34 on: March 21, 2013, 11:07:45 AM »

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/21/the-grim-sleeper-s-trial-is-moving-at-snail-s-pace-and-victims-families-are-furious.html
The Grim Sleeper’s Trial Is Moving at Snail’s Pace, and Victims’ Families Are Furious
March 21, 2013

Notorious serial killer the Grim Sleeper was on the lam for decades. Now a suspect is on trial, but his lawyers are dragging their feet. Christine Pelisek on the excruciatingly slow march to justice.
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« Reply #35 on: February 16, 2016, 04:38:52 AM »

http://www.startribune.com/opening-statements-set-in-long-awaited-grim-sleeper-trial/368920361/
Opening statements set in long-awaited 'Grim Sleeper' trial
February 16, 2016

LOS ANGELES — More than 30 years since the bodies of young women started turning up in alleyways and garbage bins in south Los Angeles, attorneys are set to give opening statements in the long-awaited "Grim Sleeper" trial on Tuesday.

Lonnie Franklin Jr. has pleaded not guilty to killing nine women and a 15-year-old girl between 1985 and 2007 in one of the city's most notorious serial killer cases. The "Grim Sleeper" nickname was coined because of an apparent 14-year gap in the murders between 1988 and 2002.

Franklin, 63, has been awaiting trial behind bars for nearly six years since his arrest in July 2010. The trial is expected to last up to four months.

Other than the 15-year-old girl, all the victims were women between the ages of 18 and 35. They were strangled or shot and dumped in alleys near Franklin's south Los Angeles home, usually after some kind of sexual contact.

The initial killings occurred during a time of chaos and extreme violence in parts of Los Angeles. Many young women, including most of the victims, were falling prey to crack cocaine and other drug addictions. Several had resorted to trading sex for drugs or money.

Family members of the Grim Sleeper victims and a survivor of the attacks have been frustrated by repeated delays in the case and are eager for the opening statements.
 
As many as 30 detectives investigated the Grim Sleeper killings in the 1980s but exhausted leads within a few years.

A special squad of detectives was assembled after the most recent known Grim Sleeper killing, the June 2007 shooting of Janecia Peters, 25, whose body was found in a trash bin.

Police arrested Franklin in July 2010 after his DNA was connected to more than a dozen crime scenes. An officer posing as a busboy at a pizza parlor got DNA samples from dishes and utensils Franklin had been eating with at a birthday party.

The Grim Sleeper was among at least three serial killers who stalked Los Angeles-area women during a crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.

The attacks were dubbed the "Southside Slayer" killings before authorities concluded more than one attacker was involved.

Chester Turner has been convicted of killing 14 women, including one who was pregnant, and was sentenced to death in 2007. Michael Hughes was sentenced to death in 2012 for strangling a 15-year-old girl and two women. He previously got life for four killings.
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« Reply #36 on: February 18, 2016, 06:32:06 PM »

http://www.chron.com/crime/article/Grim-Sleeper-serial-killer-suspect-Lonnie-David-6839212.php
'Grim Sleeper' serial killer suspect Lonnie David Franklin Jr. goes on trial; may have killed 200
February 18, 2016

A man is on trial in Los Angeles accused of a series of murders that captivated that area during a dark period in that city’s history.
Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 63, stands accused of killing at least 10 women between 1985 and 2007. He earned the nickname “The Grim Sleeper” because of a gap in the killings from 1988 to 2002.
British filmmaker Nick Broomfield has even made a documentary about Franklin, "Tales of the Grim Sleeper."
In addition to the 10 alleged murders, some suggest that Franklin could be responsible for the deaths of another 180 women found in a cache of photographs found among the suspect's possessions.
 
Opening statements began Tuesday and the prosecution is seeking the death penalty. Franklin has pleaded not guilty to the crimes.
It’s been alleged that Franklin used his female victims’ addiction to crack cocaine as an advantage. Victims were found in dumpsters and trash bins, some in various states of undress. Most tested positive for cocaine during autopsies. Some were shot and or strangled.
Broomfield's documentary alleges that the missing women and dead bodies were largely shrugged off because the victims were nuisances in the community. "Disposable people" is a term that Broomfield used in an interview with the Daily Mail.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s cold case unit has been credited for shedding new light on the killings.
Prosecutors are expected to introduce plenty of physical evidence that they hope will convince a jury to send Franklin to death row. A woman who allegedly escaped Franklin’s clutches, Enietra Washington, will be a star witness in the case.  She was sexually-assaulted but survived with a gunshot wound, according to CNN.
Franklin’s lawyer Seymour Amster told reporters that he plans on painting his client as “friendly, helpful and reliable” to neighbors and not the nicknamed serial killer he’s been portrayed as.

“We believe that before it is done, there will be a different story told than what the prosecution is stating,” he told ABC News.
It’s thought that the trial could be nearly four months long.
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« Reply #37 on: May 07, 2016, 11:03:43 PM »

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-grim-sleeper-verdict-20160504-story.html?track=lat-pick
Grim Sleeper verdicts bring justice to forgotten victims of serial killer, families say
May 5, 2016

Nearly 30 years after the first victim was found sprawled in a South Los Angeles alley, the man authorities believed was the “Grim Sleeper” serial killer was found guilty Thursday of murdering nine women and a teenage girl in a series of slayings that took decades to connect.

The verdict means that Lonnie David Franklin Jr., a former Los Angeles police garage attendant and city garbage collector, officially becomes one of California's most prolific serial killers. The murder counts at his trial spanned from 1985 to 2007, with a gap of 14 years from 1988 that earned him his infamous nickname.

 
All the victims were young and black, some leading troubled lives during the chaotic 1980s in South L.A. Many of the women were left strewn along a corridor in the Manchester Square neighborhood, their partially dressed or naked bodies — some decomposing — found amid the filth and garbage of alleyways.

All had been discarded without identification, and each was initially labeled Jane Doe.

“They suffered from the same frailties and the same imperfections that all humans do, and they had the same hopes and the same dreams for their futures that we all have,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman told jurors during closing arguments in the trial.

“None of them deserved to be brutally dumped like trash as if their lives had no meaning.”

The killing of the women, some of whom were drug addicts or worked as prostitutes, failed to elicit the same alarm that put Los Angeles on high alert during rampages of other prolific serial killers in the Southland, such as the so-called Hillside Strangler or Richard Ramirez, who was dubbed the Nightstalker.

The deaths attributed to the Grim Sleeper in the mid- to late '80s coincided with a surge of homicides linked to the crack cocaine epidemic. In addition, several other serial killers were operating in the same area in those years. Michael Hughes was later convicted of killing seven women, Chester Turner of 14 women and a fetus. Both are on California's death row.

But the Grim Sleeper proved to be the most persistent. His victims' deaths would not be connected for decades, and police kept the slayings quiet despite suspicions that a serial killer was stalking young black women.

That decision led to outrage and condemnation from many who attribute Franklin's longevity as a killer to police indifference.
 
Franklin's fate will be determined in the next phase of the trial when jurors hear evidence to help them decide whether he should be executed or sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors are expected to present evidence that Franklin, 63, killed at least five more women for which he wasn't charged.

 
Prosecutors argued that Franklin was connected to each of the 10 slain victims, as well as an 11th who survived, by DNA evidence, ballistics or both. Franklin's DNA was found on seven victims.

A gun found in Franklin's home was used to kill one woman, according to court testimony. Police criminalists testified that bullets from eight victims — seven whom were killed and the one who survived — were fired from another weapon that was never recovered. Franklin's DNA was on the bodies of three of those women, according to testimony.

“The evidence in this case is the voice of the victims who can no longer speak for themselves,” Silverman said during the trial.

Franklin did not testify. The defense argued that other men could have committed the murders, pointing to DNA not belonging to Franklin that was found on some of the women's bodies, their clothes and the crime scenes.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Seymour Amster suggested that a relative or an associate of Franklin's who called him “uncle” was responsible.

He seized on testimony by Enietra Washington, the woman believed to be the Grim Sleeper's only known survivor, who told jurors that she was raped and shot by an assailant nearly 30 years ago. In court, she identified Franklin as her attacker.

Amster, who did not attend the reading of the verdict, pointed to one account Washington gave police in which she said she accepted a ride from a “youngster” in his 20s who told her he needed to make a stop at his uncle's house to pick up some money. Washington testified that the house where he stopped was Franklin's home on 81st Street. After the stop, she said, she was sexually assaulted and shot.

Amster said Washington's description of her attacker did not match Franklin, who would have been 36 at the time.

“It is our position that there is a nephew, or a youngster, who is involved and did each and every murder,” the defense attorney told jurors. He did not name a possible suspect.

The prosecutor mocked the argument as a “grand conspiracy theory,” noting that Amster had waited to raise it until the last day of trial. Silverman pointed out that Washington told police that her attacker took photographs of her. Police later found a photograph of Washington in the wall of Franklin's garage, Silverman told jurors.

Ballistics tests showed that Washington was shot by the same firearm used to kill seven victims in the case, the prosecutor argued. Franklin was also found guilty of attempted murder for the attack on Washington.

The victims, in the order they died, were: Debra Jackson, 29; Henrietta Wright, 35; Barbara Ware, 23; Bernita Sparks, 25; Mary Lowe, 26; Lachrica Jefferson, 22; Alicia Alexander; Berthomieux; Valerie McCorvey, 35; and Janecia Peters, 25.

The trial highlighted the difficulty authorities encountered in identifying the perpetrator until breakthroughs in DNA science helped detectives zero in on Franklin. Police began to connect the victims after the discovery of Peters, whose body was found in a garbage bag inside a dumpster in 2007. DNA taken from her crime scene matched evidence from two earlier slayings, prompting investigators to begin matching the DNA with killings from the 1980s and more recent deaths up to the early 2000s.

Investigators, however, did not know to whom the DNA belonged.

In 2008, officials checked DNA taken from state prisoners but didn't find a match.

A year later, then-state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown approved a new technique called a “familial search” that allowed officials to check whether a crime suspect's DNA partly matched that of anyone in the state's offender DNA database.

Another check produced a partial match to Franklin's son, whose DNA had been taken when he was arrested in 2008 and charged with firearm and drug offenses.

Investigators focused their efforts on the elder Franklin and launched a surveillance operation.

Jurors were shown a video of an undercover LAPD detective posing as a busboy at a Buena Park pizza restaurant where Franklin was attending a child's birthday party in 2010. The detective could be seen retrieving a half-eaten slice of pizza, a fork, two napkins, two plastic cups and a piece of chocolate cake from Franklin.

The items were used to analyze his DNA — which matched genetic material found at some of the crime scenes and on the bodies of some of the women.

The next day, Franklin was arrested and authorities launched a search of his green house on 81st Street. There, investigators found inside a dresser drawer a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. It was the same weapon, two criminalists testified, that was used to shoot Peters.
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« Reply #38 on: June 06, 2016, 05:40:06 PM »

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/grim-sleeper-serial-killer-death-sentence-10-murders-article-1.2663428
‘Grim Sleeper’ serial killer gets death sentence for 10 murders over 30 years
June 6, 2016

 
Lonnie Franklin Jr., 63, a former city trash collector and garage attendant for Los Angeles police, was convicted of 10 counts of first-degree murder last month for crimes dating back more than 30 years.

Family members of the victims cried Monday as the verdicts on punishment were read. Some rocked back and forth. One said, “Thank you.”

A prosecutor had asked jurors to show Franklin the same compassion he showed his victims and give him the “ultimate penalty.” An emotional defense lawyer asked jurors to sentence him to life without parole to hasten the healing process for the victims’ family members.

The jury called for the death penalty on all 10 murder counts and the judge set formal sentencing for Aug. 10.

Franklin said, “Yes, your honor,” in regards to the date but otherwise sat quietly and stared straight ahead the entire time. As he walked into court, family members of the victims whispered, “Dead man walking.”

Most of the slayings fit a similar pattern. Women were either fatally shot, choked — or both — and their partly clad or naked bodies were dumped in alleys and trash bins in the impoverished area where Franklin lived.

Police didn’t connect the crimes to a serial killer for years and victims’ family members and community residents complained the killings weren’t thoroughly investigated because the victims were poor and black, and some were prostitutes who had been using cocaine.

Franklin came under suspicion after a task force began re-examining the cold cases following the final killing in 2007 and DNA from his son showed similarities to genetic evidence found on some of the victims.

A detective posing as a busboy at a pizza parlor later collected utensils and crusts from Franklin while he was attending a birthday party. Lab results connected him to evidence found on several discarded bodies.

The culprit had been dubbed the “Grim Sleeper” because of an apparent gap in slayings between 1988 and 2002. Police once thought the killer may have been in prison during that period and later surmised he may have laid low after one victim barely survived a November 1988 assault.

Authorities, however, now say they don’t think Franklin ever rested.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman was able to introduce evidence of four additional slayings during the penalty phase, including one that linked Franklin to a killing in 2000 during the apparent “sleep.” She also presented evidence of a 1984 slaying — a year before the first murder he was convicted of.

Prosecutors said they didn’t charge Franklin with the additional killings because it would have delayed the case that took nearly six years to bring to trial.


The 1984 killing of Sharon Dismuke, whose body was found naked in an abandoned gas station restroom, was like a bookend with the final slaying of Janecia Peters, who was found curled-up naked in a garbage bag in a dumpster in 2007, Silverman said.

Ballistics evidence showed the same gun was used to shoot both women and the weapon was found in Franklin’s garage after his arrest in 2010.

Defense lawyers questioned forensic evidence at trial and said DNA from other men was also found on several bodies. They suggested a “mystery man,” possibly a relative of Franklin’s, was the real killer.

The survivor who Franklin was convicted of attempting to murder helped prosecutors establish the killer’s modus operandi.

Enietra Washington described getting a lift from Franklin in his orange Ford Pinto and then having him shoot her in the chest while she sat in the passenger seat.

As she was losing consciousness, he sexually assaulted her and she remembered seeing the flash from a Polaroid camera.

A photo of a bleeding and partly nude Washington was later found hidden behind a wall in Franklin’s garage. Police found photos of other victims in the home.

Nearly 30 years after Washington was left for dead on the side of a road, she pointed at Franklin in court and said: “That’s the person who shot me.”
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« Reply #39 on: June 06, 2016, 08:03:37 PM »

 
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