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The Grim Sleeper Serial Killer
They have his DNA. They have his fingerprints. Ballistics tests match the .25 caliber gun used in the crimes. They have a description from a survivor. But the elusive Grim Sleeper serial killer remained on the loose and claiming victims in Los Angeles for over a quarter of a century. The Grim Sleeper is believed to be responsible for between 10 to 20 murders and one attempted murder in Los Angeles since 1985. He killed by gunshot or strangulation and in some cases, both, usually after some sort of sexual contact with the victim. Ten of his victims were black women – several were prostitutes, their bodies typically found in alley ways, and most near Western Avenue in South Los Angeles. Six of the victims were found with the killer’s DNA on them but searches of DNA databases comes up blank.
The formation of the 800 Task Force
In June 2007, the murder of 25 year old Janecia Peters initiated the formation of the “800 Task Force”, the investigative group responsible for solving the Grim Sleeper case. Consisting of seven top notch detectives and lead by Chief Bill Bratton, they worked quietly for a year before the LA Weekly broke the news that a serial killer was on the loose. The LA Weekly discovered that the Janecia Peters kills had been tied to a series of murders going back 23 years. Victim’s families were shocked to find out that their daughters had been confirmed kills of a relentless serial killer.
Janecia Peters had been found shot to death in a trash bin located in a LA alley. A homeless man had been collecting cans in the alley on Western Avenue when he discovered the lifeless body near a discarded Christmas tree. She had been placed in a black garbage bag tied tightly with a twist tie. She was completely nude except for a gold heart pendant worn around her neck.
On February 25, 2009, for the first time, Los Angeles Chief Bratton held a press conference regarding the case at which police formally gave the killer the “Grim Sleeper” nickname chosen by L.A. Weekly. Bratton then released an eerie call from the 1980s made to a 911 operator in which a man calmly reports having seen a body, which later turned out to be a victim of the Grim Sleeper, getting dumped by the killer, with a detailed description and license plate number of the van (license #1PZP746).
The killings begin
In August of 1985, police received an eerie phone call. “Yes … I’d like to report a murder,” an anonymous caller says on the tape. “The guy that dropped her off was driving a white and blue Dodge van. He threw her out. … He threw a gas tank on top of her. All that you can see sticking out is her feet.” Police found the scene just as the caller had indicated. They even found the van which had been owned by a now defunct church group. The victim was identified as 29-year-old Debra Jackson. Debra Jackson was found shot to death and gained the notoriety of being the Grim Sleeper’s first victim.
Debra Jackson, a cocktail waitress, has left a friend’s home in Lynwood California on foot, to catch a bus back to her apartment in South Central LA. Three days later her body was found under a carpet in a back alley near West Gage Avenue. She had been shot three times in the chest with a .25 caliber gun.
On August 12, 1986, Henrietta Wright was found dead in an alleyway. Her body was discovered under a mattress on West Vernon Ave – three miles from the scene of the first murder. She had been shot twice with a cloth stuffed into her mouth.
Two days after Henrietta Wright was found, the body of Thomas Steele was discovered in the middle of an intersection. 35-years-old and from San Diego, Steele was found at the intersection of 71st and Halldale Avenue. In the neighborhood visiting his sister, he was the Grim Sleeper’s third victim.
Barbara Ware was found in a trash bag in January 1987. She had been shot once in the chest. In an alley on East 56th Street, Barbara’s body had been covered with trash. Witnesses saw a man take her remains from a vehicle (details were sketchy). A blue and white van were found nearby. The van belonged to the Cosmopolitan Church and said it had been loaned out to a member. Many years later, police began to think that the killer may have had ties to the now defunct church that was once located on Normandie Ave.
Bernita Sparks told her mother she was going to buy cigarettes but was found shot to death on April 16, 1987. Her body placed in a trash bin on South Western Avenue, she had been strangled, beaten, and shot in the chest.
Mary Lowe told her mother she was going to a Halloween party, and was discovered shot, on November 1, 1987. She had indeed made it to the party at Love Trap Bar that Halloween night but was killed later that night. She was last seen entering an orange or rust colored Pinto vehicle with a young black man. She was the Grim Sleeper’s sixth victim.
Lachrica Jefferson was found shot in January 1988. She was a known drug abuser and prostitute. She had been shot twice in the chest. Her body was also discovered in an alley with a cloth napkin placed over her face with the word “AIDS” written on it.
In September 11, 1988, Alicia “Monique” Alexander asked her father if he wanted anything from a liquor store and never returned. Witnesses saw Monique climb into a car on Normandie. Described as an orange or rust colored hatchback, the vehicle description had not come up in any of the other killings. She was found days later – raped and shot to death.
The lone survivor
The description of the Grim Sleeper came from a lone survivor who was shot by the killer on November 20, 1988. To be the 9th victim, this one miraculously survived. At the corner of Western Avenue and 81st Street, the killer had drove alongside her in an rust, red, or orange Ford Pinto with a white strip on the hood and offered to give her a ride. After a short exchange, she agreed and climbed into the good looking man’s car. He was a black man, with a low afro, and wore a black polo shirt, a sort of nerdy looking guy. She estimated his age to be between 25 and 35. Shortly after climbing into the car, he shot her in the chest and raped her. Seriously wounded, she persuaded the killer to spare her life. While driving to the hospital, the killer pushed her from the car. “I woke up in the dark, I was in the middle of the street.” She still lives in Los Angeles but prefers to remain anonymous (see photo to left).
Police determined that the bullet retrieved from her chest matched the .25 caliber gun used in the previous murders. The series of murders was dubbed the “Strawberry Murders”. Then the killer then went quiet for over a decade.
Police pursued, but ultimately discarded, many suspects, and investigated numerous alleged getaway cars. They sought a black man between 28 and 35, with a pockmarked face and a Caribbean or East Coast accent. A 1984 dark-colored Buick Regal with a baby seat. A late-model Plymouth station wagon. A 1960 Ford pickup with gray primer. A two-door red Ford Pinto with tinted rear-window glass. All dead ends.
Rickey Ross and the formation of the Cold Case Unit
Then in 1999, police got a break. They found the killer – or so they thought. Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Deputy Rickey Ross was arrested after have been caught smoking Coke in the “Strawberry Murdrers” area with a prostitute. Police searched Ross’s, an LA narcotics officer, and found a 9mm pistol in the trunk. Days later, based on ballistics evidence, Ross was charged with the murder of three black prostitutes. Later, charges were dropped after it was determined that the LAPD had botched the ballistics tests. Still, Ross was fired from the LA County Sherriff’s Department. Ross sued and reached a private settlement with the L.A. County’s Sheriff’s Department. Three years later, Ross died. Police were convinced that Ross was their elusive killer until one year later, when luck proved Ross’s innocence.
In 2001, LAPD started a “cold case” unit with the purpose of going back over old crimes, some as far back as 1960, to use modern techniques in an attempt to solve some of these “unsolved” cases. The unit began combing through old homicide books filled with witness descriptions and arrest reports, in an effort to discover old physical evidence. Three years later, their efforts paid off.
In 2004, they found a positive hit. Saliva found in the 1987 Mary Lowe case matched DNA found on two later victims that were killed in 2002 and 2003. Rickey Ross had died a month before the 2003 murder. Furthermore, ballistics was used to tied together the other cases in which no DNA evidence was found (or still existed). Police then knew that their killer had been killing for decades and was still out there somewhere.
The killings resume
The Grim Sleeper’s first victim after his 13-year hiatus was a habitual teenage runaway turned prostitute, 14-year-old Princess Berthomieux. Reported missing by her foster-care mother on December 21, 2001, her nude body was found four months later in an alley in Inglewood. She had been strangled and beaten. She was the Grim Sleeper’s tenth victim.
In July 11, 2003, a month after the wrongfully accused Ross died, a crossing guard discovered the body of 35-year-old Valerie McCorvey in an alley. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
Then after a short period of time off, 25 year-old Janecia Peters became the 12th victim. She had been seen the night before at a nearby hotel. Her naked remains were found in a garbage bag. She had been shot once in the back and most likely was strangled to death. Ballistics matched the nearly 30 year old previous murders.
A Unique Killer
Serial killers who take long periods off are the exception to the rule. Normally their killing sprees last only a few years. Regardless, police have several theories for the long period of time that the killer took off. Possibly he was incarcerated. Or maybe he never has stopped killing and police have simply yet to discover or tie together his other victims.
A suspect is arrested
On July 7, 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that an arrest had been made. 57-year-old Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was arrested in part due to the use of familial DNA analysis. Police had been unable to match the DNA evidence to anyone in California’s DNA profile database. Thus, police expanded the search to find stored profiles that were sufficiently similar to the crime scene evidence to allow police to infer a family relationship to the killer. Around the middle of June 2010, police found similar DNA belonging to Franklin’s son, Christopher, who had been convicted of a felony weapons charge. The DNA indicated a parental relationship and a follow-up test showed a chromosome passed from father to son.
Police then began tracking Christopher’s father. Most of the time Franklin stayed indoors with occasional pointless drives around the city. Finally, police followed Franklin into a pizza restaurant. After Franklin left, police collected a piece of discarded pizza that Franklin left on the table. DNA from the pizza slice matched DNA evidence found on the breast of one of the victims. Strangely, Franklin had an extensive prior criminal record but his DNA had never been collected and entered into the system.
At 9:20 AM, as Franklin walked out of his house, detectives approached him and quickly whisked Frankly away in a awaiting vehicle. Franklin was charged with ten counts of murder, all linked to DNA evidence. The death of an 11th victim was not included in the charges because no DNA evidence was ever found in that case.
A search of Franklin’s home revealed over 1,000 photos of women and several hundred hours of video in the home. Photos found were mostly of African American women, often nude, some in an unconscious state. Some of the photos date back 30 years.
In April 2011, the number of victims attributed to the Grim Sleeper climbed from an initial estimate of ten or eleven to nearly twenty when police discovered an additional eight women with connections to Lonnie Franklin Jr. Six of the women had been declared missing and one was the victim of an unsolved homicide. It is suspected that there are many more victims, possibly even some victims from the periods of time when police felt the Grim Sleeper was inactive.
Known Victims
These are the names of the “Grim Sleepers” victims in order of attack:
Debra Jackson – August 1985
Henrietta Wright – August 12, 1986
Thomas Steele – August 14, 1986
Barbara Ware – January 1987
Bernita Sparks – April 16, 1987
Mary Lowe – November 1, 1987
Lachrica Jefferson – January 1988
Alicia Alexander – September 1988
Unknown victim – November 20, 1988 – survived
Princess Berthomieux – April 2002
Valerie McCorvey – July 2003
Janecia Peters – January 1, 2007
Read more at I Want To Believe
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