"Grim Sleeper" Serial Killer in CA Enjoys Success for 23 Years *ARREST MADE*

[gee]

I agree... Some photos are very eerie

[Whisper]

Indictment of alleged 'Grim Sleeper' serial killer unsealed

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- A grand jury returned an 11-count indictment against Lonnie David Franklin Jr., the alleged "Grim Sleeper" serial killer accused of murdering 10 victims over a 20-year span, authorities announced Thursday.

Franklin, 58, was arraigned Thursday on 10 counts of murder with the special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders, said Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley in a written statement. He was also charged with one count of attempted murder in the case of an 11th victim who survived, according to the indictment unsealed Wednesday.

"The families of the victims should be accorded timely resolution of the allegations of the murders of their loved ones," Cooley stated.

Franklin was arrested and charged with the same counts in July 2010, but the indictment allows the case to move directly to trial instead of a potential lengthy preliminary hearing process, according to Los Angeles District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.
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Detectives also said there are four missing persons cases that may be connected to their overall investigation.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/24/...per/index.html

[Whisper]

LOS ANGELES ( KTLA) -- Los Angeles police detectives are investigating the possibility that accused 'Grim Sleeper' serial killer Lonnie David Franklin Jr. may have eight additional victims.

Franklin, 58, was charged in July of last year with the murders of 10 women in South L.A. over a span of two decades.

He also was charged with one count of attempted "willful, deliberate and premeditated murder" in the case of an 11th alleged victim who survived.

Franklin has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which include the special circumstances of multiple murders that could make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Now, the LAPD is asking for the public's help finding eight more women who had some connection to Franklin.

Detectives will hold a press conference on Tuesday to release photos of the women.
Six of the women are missing, one is the victim of an unsolved murder and one remains unidentified.

Police say three of the missing women are linked to Franklin by strong circumstantial evidence found at his house.

The three other missing women have similarities to other women police have identified as likely victims.

All were known to frequent Franklin's neighborhood before they went missing.

The unidentified woman's photo was found among scores of pictures of women discovered at Franklin's home.

Finally, police say a woman killed in 1988 may have been a victim of Franklin because of similarities between the case and others Franklin is accused in.

The 'Grim Sleeper' is believed responsible for the murders of at least 10 women and one man from 1985 to 2007. An 11th woman escaped after she was shot and raped.

After 1988, the killer did not commit any known homicides until 2002. He last struck on Jan. 1, 2007.

The 14-year hiatus between the two distinct sets of killings correspond to a time when Franklin was on disability, a law enforcement source said.

All the bodies were found outdoors, often in alleys a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

The victims were shot, strangled or both, usually after some kind of sexual contact.

Police have said it's possible the male victim, Thomas Steele, who was shot in 1987, was a friend of another victim or discovered the killer's identity.

[....]

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktl...,4908692.story

[Whisper]

L.A. police expand serial killer probe, seeking ties to 230 murders

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Los Angeles detectives have vastly expanded their investigation into the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer case and are now looking at whether any of 230 murders are connected to the alleged slayer, police said Wednesday.
In April, police were investigating the Grim Sleeper's connection to 55 unidentified women -- a quarter of what they're now probing -- whose photographs were found among 180 videos and photos taken from the Los Angeles home of Lonnie David Franklin Jr.

Now, authorities have widened their inquiry to include all homicides that occurred in a general area of south Los Angeles where Franklin lived from the 1970s, when he got out of the military, through the 1980s, police spokeswoman Karen Rayner said Wednesday.

That amounts to about 230 murders, and even though some had been believed to have been solved, police "are taking a second look at all of them," Rayner said.
Franklin, 58, is charged with the murders of 10 women as well as one attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
He is accused of killing females ranging from ages 14 to 36 between August 1985 and January 2007. Many of the victims were prostitutes, authorities said. Most of the victims were discovered dumped in south Los Angeles alleys and covered with debris, authorities said. All victims were shot; some were strangled too, an indictment alleges.
Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty against Franklin.
Prior to his arrest in July 2010, Franklin had worked for a time as a garage attendant at a Los Angeles police station, authorities said.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/10/...html?hpt=ju_c1

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Los Angeles police detectives have linked six more slayings to the alleged Grim Sleeper serial killer after reviewing hundreds of unsolved homicide cases, missing persons reports, as well as a cache of photos of unidentified women found at the suspect’s home.

Law enforcement sources told The Times that with the new cases, 16 killings have been linked to Lonnie Franklin Jr., 59, who is already accused of killing 10 women whose bodies were found on the streets of South Los Angeles over two decades. Police have also identified a second woman who they say survived an attack by Franklin.
[...]

Three of the newly identified 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 women, the source said.

Franklin’s link to the other three cases is more circumstantial. Police concluded that Franklin killed a woman based on a 911 call made at the time of the murder to report the location of the body. According to the source, police have matched the caller’s voice to Franklin. He allegedly made a similar call to police dispatchers in one of the cases for 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.

“There is some wisdom to that,” said Laurie Levenson, a criminal law professor at Loyola Law School and former federal prosecutor. “Every life counts, but they have to balance the work it would take to thoroughly prepare these new cases against the benefit that would bring.” Levenson added that the district attorney’s office could decide to file additional charges and that the new cases could serve as a “safety net” for prosecutors in the event that Franklin prevails against the current charges.
[...]

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 him the Grim Sleeper, although the detectives investigating the case have long been skeptical of the idea that Franklin stopped killing.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...r-suspect.html

[VXIII]

Yhanks for the update, I didnt even realize you guys had been keeping up on this...

[TheFirstZev]

In the hopes of identifying possible victims of the so-called "Grim Sleeper" killer, the Los Angeles Police Department has posted images of 42 women whose photos were found in the possession of Lonnie David Franklin Jr., a 59-year-old retired auto mechanic arrested in July 2010 in connection with a number of killings.

"These women have yet to be identified, and the Department is asking for the public’s help," the LAPD said in a press release. "If anyone recognizes any of the women in the photographs, Facebook or Twitter may be used to make a positive identification."

Two new social media accounts -- @LAPDGrimSleeper on Twitter and "LAPD Grim Sleeper" on Facebook -- were launched Thursday.

The photos, believed to have been taken between 1976 and 2010, are among thousands that police recovered from Franklin's home after DNA evidence allegedly linked him to the killings of 10 women that occurred between 1985 and 1988 and between 2002 and 2007. The serial killer was nicknamed the "Grim Sleeper" because of his unexplained 14-year hiatus.

All of the victims were black, and many were prostitutes. The victims were either shot with a handgun or strangled. Their bodies were dumped in alleyways and trash bins, authorities said.

This most recent appeal by the LAPD is not the first time they have sought help identifying potential victims. In December 2010, 180 photos found in Franklin's possession were released during a news conference. Some of the photos are duplicates, and police are not sure exactly how many different people were represented in them.

Following the initial release of the photos, all but 48 of the women were identified. That number has since been narrowed down to 42, according to the LAPD. Authorities have spent nearly two years trying to identify all of the women in the photos. Now they are hoping social media will help finish the job.

Franklin has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder that involved a near-fatal assault on a woman who was raped, shot and left for dead in November 1988.

Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty in the case.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact police at 1-877-527-3247. Anonymous tipsters can also contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...m_hp_ref=crime

Link directly to the picture on facebook of the unidentified women:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater

[Valasca]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...m_hp_ref=crime

Link directly to the picture on facebook of the unidentified women:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater

Awesome. I was just coming here to post this.
I, too, am a fan of Lohr. Except I cannot watch him when he's on Nancy Grace.