January 27, 2011
7:12 a.m.
The Los Angeles Police Department announced significant new progress in the Grim Sleeper case, saying it is now investigating two new potential victims of the serial killer suspect and has identified 72 of the more than 180 women whose photos were found in his possession.
Detectives said the two new murder cases possibly linked to suspect Lonnie David Franklin Jr. involve women killed in the 1990s. They declined to give further details saying the case is still being investigated.
"There is a connection between Franklin and these women [in the new murder investigations] that we are not talking about," Det. Dennis Kilcoyne told The Times. "This is the first time we've mentioned it."
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| Lonnie David Franklin Jr. appears in a Los Angeles court on charges as the alleged "Grim Sleeper" killer. |
The series of killings began in South Los Angeles in the summer of 1985 and continued with some frequency until 1988, when a female survivor was raped and shot. She lived to describe her attacker as black, in his 20s, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, about 160 pounds, soft-spoken and articulate, with neatly trimmed hair and a pockmarked face.
For more than 13 years, the killer had no known slayings until the body of a teenage girl was discovered in Inglewood in March 2002, a lull in attacks that led to his description as "The Grim Sleeper." Eventually, DNA and ballistics evidence connected the killings of 10 women and one man from 1985 to 2007, police said.
On July 7, 2010, Los Angeles police arrested Lonnie David Franklin Jr., a 57-year old black man, at his home in South Los Angeles, a location they described as being "right in the heart of it all." Authorities said the landmark use of familial DNA led them to Franklin.
Prosecutors said they have charged Franklin with 10 counts of murder, noting that he is eligible for the death penalty. He has not been charged in the 1986 shooting death of Thomas Steele, a 36-year old black man, although authorities believe Steele's killing is connected to the other cases.
Since the early 1980s, at least five serial killers, and possibly more, were active in the South Los Angeles area. These killers targeted mostly young African American women, dumping their bodies in alleys, vacant buildings or parks.
