LAPD On The Hunt For Serial Killer

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By Joel Rubin and Richard Winton - Los Angeles Times Staff Writers - August 28, 2008

LAPD on the hunt for serial killer

Task force looking into the deaths of 11 in South Los Angeles have linked one man to the crimes using DNA evidence.

An elusive serial killer, linked to 10 slayings in South Los Angeles and Inglewood over nearly two decades, resurfaced early last year to kill again, Los Angeles police officials said.

Long stretches of time between known killings and a disjointed, often dormant investigation that spanned different generations of detectives left police unclear for years that a single man was behind the slayings. The latest slaying was tied conclusively to the others by DNA analysis in May 2007.

"The day those tests came in, we realized we had a serial killer on our hands who has been active for 23 years," said LAPD Det. Dennis Kilcoyne, who heads a task force of seven detectives charged with solving the killings.

Except for one black man, the killer has targeted young black women. He sexually abused the women, detectives said, and left almost all of their bodies in a corridor along Western Avenue in South Los Angeles, often in alleys. Detectives suspect that most of the women were working as prostitutes at the time they were killed.

Kilcoyne and his team have been working quietly, trying to breathe life into the investigation without tipping off the killer. They have retraced cold leads and are collaborating with state officials on an exhaustive search of prison records. Detectives have begun examining nearly three dozen other cases that bear similarities to the serial killers' slayings. The latest killing was reported this week by the LA Weekly.

For more than two decades before that, however, the killer slipped on and off the LAPD's radar.

The first known slaying occurred in the summer of 1985, when 29-year-old Debra Jackson was shot three times in the chest, police said. Her body was left in an alley near West Gage Avenue. It was a particularly dark period for the city, when widespread cocaine use, rampant crime and vicious killings were rife in South L.A. Three years passed before police realized that something larger was occurring, when ballistics tests showed that the same handgun used to kill Jackson had been used in seven other killings.

Detectives handling the investigation were stymied. In late 1988, the killer shot a woman in the chest with the same gun, sexually assaulted her and "left her for dead," Kilcoyne said. She survived, giving police their first, albeit vague, description of the man as an African American in his mid-30s. She also described his car -- an orange Ford Pinto. The new information led detectives to pull registration records on every Pinto in Los Angeles County, Kilcoyne said, but the search led nowhere.

Then the trail went cold. For about 13 years, no new deaths were linked to the killer.

"Everything dried up. They ran out of clues, they got on to other things," Kilcoyne said of the detectives working the case. The cases "got moved further and further back on the shelf."

The killer had been all but forgotten until a few years ago, when recently developed DNA analysis technology made it clear he was still at large and still killing. In 2001, LAPD detectives under the direction of Police Chief Bernard C. Parks began delving into the thousands of unsolved cases that had built up over the years.

In 2004, Det. Cliff Shepard was poring over old murder cases from South L.A. and found a preserved DNA sample that was taken from the body of one of the killer's earlier victims. Analysis of the DNA showed conclusive similarities to samples found on the body of a 35-year-old woman killed in 2003 and on 14-year-old Princess Berthomieux, who was found strangled and beaten in an Inglewood alley in March 2002.

"All of a sudden we had two more," Kilcoyne said.

But, again, the case faded with detectives no closer to finding the killer. And again he seemed to disappear with no more killings tied to him.

In 2006, an Inglewood detective made headlines when he traveled to a Fresno prison to get a DNA sample from a 65-year-old white inmate who had made incriminating statements about killing prostitutes in L.A. to law enforcement officials. But tests showed he was not the killer.

Then, on the first day of 2007, a homeless man found the body of Janecia Peters, 25, on South Western Avenue. She had been shot and covered with a garbage bag. When DNA tests linked her killer to the earlier slayings, Police Chief William J. Bratton ordered Kilcoyne to launch the task force.

Investigator checked the killer's DNA against a federal DNA database of known criminals but found no matches.

One popular theory among detectives, Kilcoyne said, was that the killer was in prison during the two distinct periods when no killings were connected to him. Following that lead, investigators at the California Department of Corrections have been working with the LAPD task force to sort through a list of about 50,000 inmates from Los Angeles County who were convicted of violent crimes during one of those periods and do not have DNA samples on record. The two agencies are filtering the lists in search of men who were in prison during both periods of the killer's apparent inactivity.

But Kilcoyne said the killer may have just avoided detection and committed crimes that have not been connected to him. "We cannot be so arrogant to think that everything this guy has ever done came with an LAPD crime report attached to it," he said.

The task force has identified 33 old LAPD cases that have similarities to the killings and have begun the painstaking process of reviewing them. Task force members also automatically receive alerts when other LAPD detectives or uniformed cops report a homicide involving females found outdoors. They have visited more than 15 crime scenes, but none have had the marks of the suspect they are looking for.

One promising route the LAPD has not yet been able to try is comparing the serial killer's DNA with samples in the criminal database in search of one of his close relatives. The "familial searches" can be done, but only with the permission of Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown.

The technique is controversial, with critics calling it an invasion of privacy. A spokesperson for Brown declined to comment on whether, or when, Brown would approve a familial search on this case. LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck, meanwhile, said the department "would love to pursue it if it becomes available."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...0,334507.story

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latimes.com - August 29, 2008

Unsolved slayings

Detectives say 11 killings that occurred mostly in South Los Angeles are tied to the same assailant:

• Aug. 10, 1985: Debra Jackson, 29

• Aug. 12, 1986: Henrietta Wright, 35

• Aug. 14, 1986: Thomas Steele, 36

• Jan. 10, 1987: Barbara Ware, 23

• April 15, 1987: Bernita Sparks

• Nov. 1, 1987: Mary Lowe, 26

• Jan. 30, 1988: Lachrica Jefferson, 22

• Sept. 11, 1988: Alicia "Monique" Alexander, 18

• March 19, 2002: Princess Berthomieux, 14

• July 11, 2003: Valerie McCorvey, 35

• Jan. 1, 2007: Janecia Peters, 25

Source: LAPD

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...0,685295.story

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. . .
llustration by Brian Stauffer

By Christine Pelisek - laweekly.com - Published on August 28, 2008

Grim Sleeper Returns: He's Murdering Angelenos, as Cops Hunt his DNA

The most elusive serial killer west of the Mississippi took a 13-year break. Now he's back

There's a small room at LAPD headquarters where the public isn't allowed, where the door is quickly shut to the hall, where arguments erupt and frustrations fester. It's off-limits to most other detectives, no press allowed. Lest anyone forget, a memo on the wall says so.

The six men inside call themselves the "800 Task Force" even though they no longer occupy Room 800, having moved to a lower floor of Parker Center to make room for a sex-crimes team. Their new room is cramped, the desks piled with mounds of paperwork. What is striking about their space is its main wall, heavily papered with photographs of dead young women.

The 800 Task Force was assembled in 2007 under Chief Bill Bratton to solve 11 perplexing murders in Los Angeles dating from 1985. Police have followed several trails, made a few arrests, and endlessly theorized about the killer or killers responsible. Homicide detectives have retired, new ones have joined the investigation. Each group thought they detected patterns, each group thought they had solid leads. Each was proved wrong.

For four years, police have known that a single madman is out there, a man whose audacity and sick good luck have made him the most enduring serial killer in California history and the longest-operating serial killer west of the Mississippi. In 1988, he stopped the slaughter for more than 13 years, then killed again in 2002 and 2003. L.A. Weekly has learned that he is actively murdering Angelenos again — and the single best clue to his identity may hinge on whether Attorney General Jerry Brown allows a controversial DNA probe of the California felon database.

"He could be some computer nerd out there for all we know," says Detective Dennis Kilcoyne, a friendly yet hardened man in his early 50s, as he sips a coffee at a Starbucks one morning in late summer. It was Kilcoyne who urged the LAPD brass to set up the 800 Task Force. "It could be anybody.... In this case, it has gone on so long — we have to be open to any possibility."

The killing began on a warm August evening in 1985 at a desperate point in U.S. urban history, a time filled with PCP rages and crack wars. Los Angeles' murder rate — and that of most big cities — had soared to an all-time high. Amid the bloodshed, during a three-year period, seven young women and one man were killed and left in alleyways and Dumpsters, almost exclusively along Western Avenue in South Los Angeles. Ballistics matches showed the same gun was used in each case.

Then, slayings committed with the .25 caliber gun abruptly halted. The crack and PCP era faded. Los Angeles became the second-safest big city in America, and DNA matching became the hot new crime-solving tool. Under orders from Chief Bernard Parks, in 2001 the LAPD began delving into a backlog of unsolved cases from the violent 1990s, '80s and earlier, testing bits of hair and skin saved from cold crimes. The LAPD's lab workers in 2004 and 2005 hit pay dirt. Like a long-delayed tripwire, the tests found matches between new killings in 2002 and 2003 and old human traces left at the eight Western Avenue shootings in the '80s.

A monstrous Phoenix, the 1980s killer, had re-emerged. "I thought, 'Holy ****,'" says 800 Task Force detective Cliff Shepard. "This guy is out there working. I was not expecting that."

Despite the discovery of an old serial killer back in business, detectives were spread thin on cases like that of killer Chester Turner, whose DNA was linked to 14 deaths by strangulation. Chief Parks was forced out of his post by Mayor James Hahn, and newcomer Bill Bratton did not make the South L.A. serial murders a priority. In fact, detectives tell the Weekly that in 2004, one of Bratton's captains decided, in the wake of the two new murders in 2002 and 2003, that a task force wasn't even needed. Nor were elected officials paying any attention. The killings weren't going down in Silver Lake or Westwood, and the year was 2004: City Hall's leaders were transfixed by a three-way race for mayor between Hahn and challengers Bob Hertzberg and Antonio Villaraigosa.

Nobody with any pull — no homeowners association, no local chamber of commerce — was demanding answers to 10 murders by the same guy in a poor section of town.

Last year, the disinterested Bratton got a wake-up call — of sorts. On January 1 of 2007, a homeless man collecting cans from a Dumpster off Western Avenue discovered the lifeless body of 25-year-old Janecia Peters near a discarded Christmas tree. She'd been placed in a black garbage bag wrapped tightly with a twist tie. She was nude but for her gold heart pendant. Her shooting barely registered with the Los Angeles media, which misreported it, calling it a stabbing. .....

Continued @ Below Link X 7 Page Article

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/

[odette]

By Christine Pelisek - laweekly.com - Published on August 28, 2008

Grim Sleeper's Victims

Eleven lives stolen and one lucky survivor

• On August 10, 1985, Debra Jackson, 29, a cocktail waitress, left a friend's home in Lynwood to take a bus back to her apartment in South-Central. Days later, her decomposing body was found in an alley near West Gage Avenue. She had been shot in the chest three times with a small caliber pistol.

• On August 12, 1986, Henrietta Wright, 35, was found dead in an alley south of 2514 West Vernon Avenue. Her mouth had been gagged with a cloth. She had been shot twice in the chest.

• Two days later, Thomas Steele, 36, was discovered dead in the middle of the intersection of 71st Street and Halldale Avenue, with a single gunshot wound in his head. The San Diego native had come up for the day to visit his sister.

• On January 10, 1987, Barbara Ware, 23, was found dead in an alley at 1356 East 56th Street, shot once in the chest. According to the autopsy report, neighbors saw a man remove Ware's body from a vehicle and hide it in a heap of trash.

• On April 15, 1987, Bernita Sparks was shot in the chest, strangled and beaten. Originally listed as Jane Doe No. 25, she had told her mother that she was going to the store to buy a pack of cigarettes. She was found in a trash bin the next morning, covered with garbage, on the 9400 block of South Western Avenue.

• On October 31, 1987, Mary Lowe, 26, told her mother, Betty, she was going to a Halloween party. "I said she was crazy to go out in the rain like that," recalls Betty. "She kept on walking." Lowe was found the next morning, in an alley near bushes behind the 8900 block of Western Avenue. According to Betty Lowe, a neighbor saw Mary Lowe get in a car with a young black man driving a rust or orange Ford Pinto.

• On January 30, 1988, Lachrica Jefferson, 22, died from two gunshot wounds to the chest. She was found in an alley north of 2049 West 102nd Place in Lennox by L.A. County Sheriff's deputies. A napkin placed over her face had the word "AIDS" written on it.

• On September 11, 1988, Alicia "Monique" Alexander, 18, asked her father if he wanted anything from a liquor store on 68th Street and Normandie Avenue, then she vanished. Her father, Porter Alexander, remembers, "I woke up and asked my wife where she was. She said she hadn't come back. ... I never saw her again." Alexander was found dead a few days later, in an alley around 43rd Place and Western Avenue. She had been shot once in the chest and sexually assaulted.

• Just before a 13-year gap in these related cases, in November of 1988, a young black man driving an orange Ford Pinto picked up a young black woman in South Los Angeles, shot her in the chest and raped her. She persuaded her attacker to allow her to escape, and she is the only known eyewitness survivor of the Grim Sleeper. She is not being named by L.A. Weekly.

• On December 21, 2001, Princess Berthomieux, 14, vanished, and was found March 19, 2002, strangled and beaten in an alley behind 8121 South Van Ness Boulevard in Inglewood.

• On July 11, 2003, Valerie McCorvey, 35, was found dead by a crossing guard in an alley west of Denker Avenue between 108th and 109th streets. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. Police initially suspected her boyfriend, but he was ruled out when DNA found on her body matched DNA found on Berthomieux, killed in 2002, and Mary Lowe, killed in 1987.

• On January 1, 2007, Janecia Peters, 25, was found dead by a homeless man near 9500 Western Avenue. She'd been shot in the back and placed in a garbage bag. Her death barely registered with the local press, which even misreported it, calling it a stabbing.

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/n...ucky-survivor/

[SaraSidle]

Originally Posted by odette

By Christine Pelisek - laweekly.com - Published on August 28, 2008

Grim Sleeper's Victims

Eleven lives stolen and one lucky survivor

• On August 10, 1985, Debra Jackson, 29, a cocktail waitress, left a friend's home in Lynwood to take a bus back to her apartment in South-Central. Days later, her decomposing body was found in an alley near West Gage Avenue. She had been shot in the chest three times with a small caliber pistol.

• On August 12, 1986, Henrietta Wright, 35, was found dead in an alley south of 2514 West Vernon Avenue. Her mouth had been gagged with a cloth. She had been shot twice in the chest.

• Two days later, Thomas Steele, 36, was discovered dead in the middle of the intersection of 71st Street and Halldale Avenue, with a single gunshot wound in his head. The San Diego native had come up for the day to visit his sister.

• On January 10, 1987, Barbara Ware, 23, was found dead in an alley at 1356 East 56th Street, shot once in the chest. According to the autopsy report, neighbors saw a man remove Ware's body from a vehicle and hide it in a heap of trash.

• On April 15, 1987, Bernita Sparks was shot in the chest, strangled and beaten. Originally listed as Jane Doe No. 25, she had told her mother that she was going to the store to buy a pack of cigarettes. She was found in a trash bin the next morning, covered with garbage, on the 9400 block of South Western Avenue.

• On October 31, 1987, Mary Lowe, 26, told her mother, Betty, she was going to a Halloween party. "I said she was crazy to go out in the rain like that," recalls Betty. "She kept on walking." Lowe was found the next morning, in an alley near bushes behind the 8900 block of Western Avenue. According to Betty Lowe, a neighbor saw Mary Lowe get in a car with a young black man driving a rust or orange Ford Pinto.

• On January 30, 1988, Lachrica Jefferson, 22, died from two gunshot wounds to the chest. She was found in an alley north of 2049 West 102nd Place in Lennox by L.A. County Sheriff's deputies. A napkin placed over her face had the word "AIDS" written on it.

• On September 11, 1988, Alicia "Monique" Alexander, 18, asked her father if he wanted anything from a liquor store on 68th Street and Normandie Avenue, then she vanished. Her father, Porter Alexander, remembers, "I woke up and asked my wife where she was. She said she hadn't come back. ... I never saw her again." Alexander was found dead a few days later, in an alley around 43rd Place and Western Avenue. She had been shot once in the chest and sexually assaulted.

• Just before a 13-year gap in these related cases, in November of 1988, a young black man driving an orange Ford Pinto picked up a young black woman in South Los Angeles, shot her in the chest and raped her. She persuaded her attacker to allow her to escape, and she is the only known eyewitness survivor of the Grim Sleeper. She is not being named by L.A. Weekly.

• On December 21, 2001, Princess Berthomieux, 14, vanished, and was found March 19, 2002, strangled and beaten in an alley behind 8121 South Van Ness Boulevard in Inglewood.

• On July 11, 2003, Valerie McCorvey, 35, was found dead by a crossing guard in an alley west of Denker Avenue between 108th and 109th streets. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. Police initially suspected her boyfriend, but he was ruled out when DNA found on her body matched DNA found on Berthomieux, killed in 2002, and Mary Lowe, killed in 1987.

• On January 1, 2007, Janecia Peters, 25, was found dead by a homeless man near 9500 Western Avenue. She'd been shot in the back and placed in a garbage bag. Her death barely registered with the local press, which even misreported it, calling it a stabbing.

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/n...ucky-survivor/

Surely they can do familial dna. I cannot see why the Judge would not allow that. We have a something serious going on here. IMO

[odette]

Joel Rubin and Richard Winton - The Guardian - Saturday August 30 2008

LA police hunt killer linked to 11 murders

Police in Los Angeles are hunting a serial killer linked to 11 murders in south Los Angeles and Inglewood over two decades, officials have confirmed.

Long stretches of time between known killings and a disjointed, often dormant, investigation left police unclear for years that a single man was behind the killings. The last murder in January 2007 was tied conclusively to the others by DNA analysis in May 2007.

"The day those tests came in, we realised we had a serial killer on our hands who has been active for 23 years," said Los Angeles police detective Dennis Kilcoyne. He is heading a task force of seven detectives charged with solving the murders. Details of the case emerged for the first time this week.

The killer has targeted young black women and one man. He sexually abused the women, detectives said, and left almost all of their bodies in one area of south Los Angeles.

His first known murder was in the summer of 1985, when 29-year-old Debra Jackson was shot three times in the chest and left in an alley. Three years passed before ballistic tests showed that the same handgun used to kill Jackson had been used in seven other murders.

In late 1988 the killer shot a woman in the chest, sexually assaulted her and "left her for dead," Kilcoyne said.

She survived, giving police their first, albeit vague, description of the man as black and in his mid-30s. Then the trail went cold. For about 13 years, no new murders were linked to the killer.

The killer had been all but forgotten until recently when newly-developed DNA analysis made it clear he was still at large. On 1 January 2007, a homeless man discovered the body of 25-year-old Janecia Peters. She had been shot and covered with a rubbish bag. The task force was launched after DNA tests linked her killer to the other murders.

Detectives say the killer was probably in prison during the two periods when no murders were connected to him. The task force has identified 33 old LAPD cases that are similar to the serial killer's and have begun the process of reviewing them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/30/usa

[odette]

. . . . .
. . . . . Mary Lowe, 26

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

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. . . . .
. . . . . Debra Jackson, 29

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

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. . . . .
. . . . . Henrietta Wright, 35

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

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. . . . .
. . . . . Monique Alexander, 18

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

[odette]

. . . . .
. . . . . Bernita Sparks, 25

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

[odette]

. . . . .
. . . . . Janecia Peters, 25

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

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. . . . .
. . . . . Princess Berthomieux, 14

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

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. . . . .
. . . . . Thomas Steele, 36

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

[odette]

2003 07/11/2003 -- Valerie McCorvey

Address: W 108th St - Los Angeles, CA 90044, US

Category: Southside Slayer? DNA/Ballistics Linked Killings

. . . . .

http://www.communitywalk.com/locatio...killings/68730

[odette]

. . . . .
Urban hunt: Detective Dennis Kilcoyne and five other cops are tracking the Grim Sleeper's DNA.

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/1

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BODY COUNT - Christine Pelisek - laweekly.com - Published on June 08, 2006

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THE SEX MURDER FILES - Christine Pelisek - laweekly.com - Published on June 08, 2006

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Excerpt: A Fresno man named as a suspect in a string of 10 prostitution-related killings in Los Angeles has been cleared by DNA tests.

Sixty-five-year-old Roger Hausmann, who remains in a Fresno jail on unrelated kidnapping charges, is no longer a suspect in the cases dating back to 1985. "It is definitely not Hausmann," said Inglewood Detective Jeffrey Steinhoff. "We are back to square one."

Law enforcement officials still believe the murder spree to be the work of one person. "It isn't solved," said Captain Ed Winter, who supervises the L.A. County coroner's serial homicide team. "Obviously there is still someone out there."

Roger Didn't Do It - Christine Pelisek - laweekly.com - Published on July 13, 2006

[SaraSidle]

nice reporting Odette. I hope they get this sicko!!!!!!!!!

[odette]

Originally Posted by SaraSidle

nice reporting Odette. I hope they get this sicko!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Sara.

[odette]

Excerpt: Reports are coming out of Los Angeles of a serial killer who has been stalking that city, largely unheard for the past 23 years. This alone makes him something of an oddity, since serial killers largely have so long a record. Only a few in the past few years have managed to avoid capture for so long, mainly the BTK Killer and Green River Killer. Another man, the Bike Path Killer also managed to escape the police for years, until a recent murder in 2006 provided police with DNA evidence they could link to previous crimes and to Altemio Sanchez, who later pleaded guilty to the crimes. ... continued

LA Serial Killer Still On the Hunt After 23 Years

[SaraSidle]

Originally Posted by odette

Excerpt: Reports are coming out of Los Angeles of a serial killer who has been stalking that city, largely unheard for the past 23 years. This alone makes him something of an oddity, since serial killers largely have so long a record. Only a few in the past few years have managed to avoid capture for so long, mainly the BTK Killer and Green River Killer. Another man, the Bike Path Killer also managed to escape the police for years, until a recent murder in 2006 provided police with DNA evidence they could link to previous crimes and to Altemio Sanchez, who later pleaded guilty to the crimes. ... continued

LA Serial Killer Still On the Hunt After 23 Years

I wonder if he was imprisoned when the murders stopped. IMO

[rph3664]

Originally Posted by SaraSidle

I wonder if he was imprisoned when the murders stopped. IMO

Either that, or he was living somewhere else and killing people there.

for all the victims.

[odette]

Originally Posted by SaraSidle

I wonder if he was imprisoned when the murders stopped. IMO

It's very likely Sara.

Excerpt: "Detectives say the killer was probably in prison during the two periods when no murders were connected to him. The task force has identified 33 old LAPD cases that are similar to the serial killer's and have begun the process of reviewing them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/30/usa

[Bluefox]

I believe the word 'aids' has some significance here. What kind of crime would merit a 13 year sentence, does he have aids, if he does, he would likely receive treatment for it in prison. His time will be limited, so he may wanna take a few people out before it's up.

[Super Volcano]

Originally Posted by SaraSidle

Surely they can do familial dna. I cannot see why the Judge would not allow that. We have a something serious going on here. IMO

Yea, I agree. Seems like maybe someone on the inside might be involved somehow.

[Super Volcano]

Originally Posted by odette

2003 07/11/2003 -- Valerie McCorvey

Address: W 108th St - Los Angeles, CA 90044, US

Category: Southside Slayer? DNA/Ballistics Linked Killings

. . . . .

http://www.communitywalk.com/locatio...killings/68730

It is heart breaking looking into the faces os these young vibrant women. One thing I know for sure, (being a Christian) is that come judgment day, each one of these women will stand as a witness against whoever this mad man is. They will get their true justice then.

[Bluefox]

I know Los Angeles is a huge place, can you tell me if each of the killings were quite close, i.e. cluster, or are they quite a distance apart?

[odette]

Link: Record $500,000 Offered for Grim Sleeper - Police seek help in catching the longest-operating serial killer west of the Mississippi

The Los Angeles City Council is offering a record $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a serial killer believed to be responsible for the murders of 11 people in South Los Angeles dating to 1985.

Dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" by L.A. Weekly, which broke the news last week that he is still operating in the area, the murderer left the bodies of 10 women and one man almost exclusively along a section of Western Avenue.

The reward is the largest ever offered by the City Council. "They have linked these cases as having common threads of evidence — ballistics, DNA and a variety of other forensics," says City Councilman Bernard Parks, the former chief of police who sponsored the reward because most of the killings occurred in his 8th City Council District. ...cont.

[Bluefox]

This will probably become a matter of course, this is the 21st century, and the law, strategies and tactics will change in the way they catch criminals. It's a natural progression, and those who have nothing to hide, have nothing to fear! Murderers and serial killers are an abhorrence, and i agree with whatever tactics they use to apprehend them.

Is the Western Avenue a poor area? I can't help thinking that, as most of the killings are in one area, the killer has to live there, he knows the area, he fits in, or a loner whom people think harmless.

[odette]

Bluefox .. I did read somewhere that it was a poorer part of town where all of these murders have occurred. I'm thinking that the killer most likely lives in the area too.

"We need to get this turkey off the street," Alexander later told the Weekly. "This [reward] will give us something to hope for. ... He is very slick. I think he knows his way around the area. He swoops in and swoops out. He is not an outsider. He is very much aware of South Los Angeles."

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-04/n...-grim-sleeper/

[Bluefox]

It's easier for him to get victims in a poorer area and for no-one to pay much attention to him, especially if he's poor also, and blends in.

Can people on Welfare afford to run a car? In the UK, it's nigh impossible to run a car on welfare money, unless they're cheating the system.

He need not be very clever, just cunning, and he's not making people suspicious. Just my thoughts! If he's not a complete loner, there has to be people who are very wary or even a bit scared of him.

Lack of DNA in the databases is very mystifying indeed. If he wasn't in prison for those missing years, where was he? The only possible answer is, he moved! Pity they can't match up the same MO in other areas.

There are very few black serial killers, and they usually stick to the same type of victim, but it seems not all these ladies are prostitutes. Some of them are strikingly beautiful, why does someone want to destroy that? and one only 14 yrs of age. He must have a lot of hate in him for women.

Could this guy have mental problems, has he been in some kind of insitution? could that be why they have no DNA? sorry rambling again.

I hope the familial tests come through soon, and they catch this one.

[Fish Face Frank]

Here is a website with all of the victims and what not.

It looks rather small as of now but it will probably build information as more information is available.

http://thegrimsleeper.com/index.php

[odette]

Link - Police search for possible 'Grim Sleeper' victims

• Story Highlights
. • Police review unsolved murder cases for possible links to unidentified serial killer
. • Killer, dubbed the "Grim Sleeper," suspected of 11 slayings in Los Angeles
. • Many victims in unsolved cases match body dumping location of killer
. • Police have DNA sample of the killer but haven't found a match

Excerpt: "He's a maniac. He's a broken person," Deputy Police Chief Charlie Beck said when asked about possible motives.

Police have a DNA sample of the killer but have been unable to find a match in any prison database. Detectives want to run the sample against wider databases to see if it is similar to any family members, but California Attorney General Jerry Brown has not yet approved this.

One physical description exists, taken from a victim who survived a 1988 attack. She said the assailant was a black man in his 30s driving an orange Ford Pinto, though police said her account is not reliable because she was so traumatized.

Kilcoyne said the killer now would likely be aged from 43 to his late 50s.

The hiatus between episodes prompted the LA Weekly newspaper, which first reported the case, to dub the killer the "Grim Sleeper.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/15/grim.sleeper.ap/

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Link - A serial killer in L.A.

Editorial - Los Angeles Times - September 13, 2008

A serial killer in L.A.

He has haunted South L.A. for years. Why are police only now alerting the public?

Thirteen years after his last murders, a serial killer is on the move again in Los Angeles, terrorizing the neighborhoods of South L.A. The gruesome body count of his long spree -- 11 young African American women shot, sexually assaulted and stuffed in trash bags, as well as one man -- makes him the deadliest serial killer in California history. Yet until news of the killings surfaced last month in the LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Police Department didn't see fit to notify the community that a predator was on the loose. That's raising some troubling questions.

Expert "profilers" say it's hard for outsiders to judge the Police Department's actions -- working a case without alerting the community means keeping the killer in the dark and giving officers an advantage. Widespread publicity has been known to work both ways in such cases: Some killers bask in the attention and make crucial mistakes that reveal their identity; others go underground.

But not alerting the public also means passing up an opportunity to rally potential witnesses. Few crimes are solved because a David Caruso-like detective outwits a criminal. Rather, acquaintances and neighbors of the victims -- or the criminals --step forward with evidence. What's more, the fact that the victims in this case were mostly troubled young black women with histories of prostitution adds an unavoidable element of class and race to the case. If the victims had been well-to-do white women living on the Westside, would police have kept mum for so long?

Despite the killer's lengthy history, the LAPD didn't discover there was a single perpetrator behind the slayings until DNA analysis tied them together in May 2007. When news of the murders broke in August, it prompted a community outcry, but the department waited until Friday to issue a statement informing the public of the slayings and asking for its help finding the killer. It still has not explained its decision not to issue a warning last year.

The LA Weekly has dubbed the killer the Grim Sleeper because there appears to have been a years-long gap between the slayings, and it's as good a name as any. But such lulls are extremely rare among serial killers, according to experts. It may be that police simply haven't connected other slayings to the same killer -- an LAPD task force has identified 33 cold cases with similarities to the 11 killings, so there may be more bad news coming. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles City Council has offered a record $200,000 to $500,000 reward for the killer's capture. It's about time.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,7582632.story

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scotsman.com - Published Date: 06 September 2008 - By CRAIG HOWIE - in Los Angeles

Echoes of TV's CSI as forensic team hunts for 'Grim Sleeper'

ON THE last day of 2007, Janecia Peters, 25, excitedly phoned home to say she had a new place to stay in South Los Angeles. She told her worried mother, Laverne, that despite her troubled times, at last she'd found her own little safe house.
The next day, a homeless man wandering down a back alley found her body wrapped only in a black plastic bag next to a discarded Christmas tree.

Continued @ link

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/...CSI.4465247.jp

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quote: Another victim, Lachrica Jefferson, 22, was found in January 1988 in an alley with a napkin placed over her face, on which was scrawled one word: Aids

Can you tell me if Lachrica was also sexually assaulted?

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LINK - Reward Poster Released for 'Grim Sleeper' Serial Killer

. . . . .

More @ Link

http://laist.com/2008/09/12/grim_sleeper.php

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LAPD goes undercover to find a killer

Police have the DNA of the man who has claimed 11 victims in South L.A., but they have not been able to find him.

Late one afternoon last week, a prostitute sauntered out of the dismal City Motel and put herself on display at the corner of Figueroa and 48th streets. Hands on hips and dressed in a pink tank top, tight shorts and clear plastic heels, she cast smiles at men as they slowed their cars. The sun hung low in the sky behind her, bathing South Los Angeles in a soft yellow glow.

A white van passed by and pulled over to the curb. A short, middle-aged man with glasses and a thin mustache got out, stuck his hands in his pockets and walked back to the hooker. He paid no attention to a man sweeping the sidewalk across the street or another leaning against the motel wall.

The john and hooker struck a price -- $70 for sex. As the john returned to his van to retrieve something, the two men he had ignored earlier closed in. One flashed his Los Angeles Police Department badge, told the stunned-looking john to turn around and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. The hooker, also an undercover officer, disappeared into the motel.

It was the kind of arrest the members of the LAPD vice squad had made hundreds of times. That afternoon, however, the stakes were higher. With the LAPD hunting for an elusive serial killer who has claimed 11 victims in South L.A. since the mid-1980s, the squad was hoping for the equivalent of a lightning strike.

• Article Continued

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...0,417579.story