[2Wycked]

A serial killer in L.A. has been found guilty of 10 murders today:

Quote:

Jurors found a 63-year-old man guilty Thursday in the "Grim Sleeper" serial killings of nine women and a teenage girl over two decades in the South Los Angeles area.

Lonnie Franklin Jr., a former sanitation worker and mechanic for the Los Angeles Police Department, could face the death penalty when he is sentenced May 12. Franklin was found guilty on 10 first-degree murder counts and attempted murder, involving a woman who escaped, after a day of jury deliberations and two days of closing arguments earlier this week in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The verdicts came following months of testimony about the killings, which spanned from 1985 to 2007. They were dubbed the work of the "Grim Sleeper" after an apparent 14-year gap in the violence after 1988, when one victim survived a gunshot and escaped.

Much of the killing occurred during the crack cocaine epidemic and the killer preyed mostly on young black women, some of whom worked as prostitutes. Several other serial killers were active at the time in South Los Angeles and community members criticized police for not aggressively investigating the slayings because the victims were black and poor.

"It just dawned on me, it's been nine years since (the final victim) Janecia Peters was murdered," said Kilcoyne. "These families, it's not a club you want to belong to. I think the world of these families."

Kilcoyne retired three years ago, one year after Franklin's arrest.

A break came for investigators when DNA of Franklin's son, collected after a felony arrest, had similarities to genetic material left on the bodies of many of the victims.

An officer posing as a busboy later retrieved pizza crusts and napkins with Franklin's DNA while he was celebrating at a birthday party. It proved a match with material found on the breasts and clothing of many of the women and on the zip tie of a trash bag that held the curled-up body of the final victim, Janecia Peters. She was found Jan. 1, 2007, by someone who was rifling through a trash bin and noticed her red fingernails through a hole in the bag.

Jurors began deliberations Wednesday after a surprise from the defense. Defense lawyer Seymour Amster argued for the first time this week in the long-running trial that a "mystery man," an unnamed nephew of defendant Lonnie Franklin Jr., was the real killer.

"Each and every murder in this case could have been done by a mystery man with a mystery gun with mystery DNA," Amster said.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman claimed that Amster had concocted an imaginary scenario at the last minute in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt.

"The theory of the defense is basically the equivalent of the skies opening up, a space ship descending and murdering all these women," Silverman said as members in the audience snickered.

Police and prosecutors believe the killer had more victims and may not have paused during the apparent hiatus. Photos of nearly 200 women were discovered in Franklin's house after his arrest and some of the women in those photos have never been found.

Photos of Peters and Enietra Washington, the only known survivor, were among the trove of snapshots.

Washington's testimony provided the blueprint of how Franklin preyed on women, Silverman said. He lured her into his car, shot her in the chest, sexually assaulted her and then dumped her from the vehicle, Silverman said.

The bullet removed from Washington came from the same gun used to shoot or kill seven previous victims, most of whom had Franklin's DNA on them, Silverman said.

But Amster said that the case collapsed on Washington's testimony because of inconsistencies in her statements to police. Washington described an assailant who was younger than Franklin and pockmarked, Amster said.

Amster then introduced the new theme of the defense. He said the real killer had access to Franklin's Ford Pinto and had told Washington he was stopping at an "uncle's house" -- believed to be Franklin's -- to get money while she waited in the car.

"It was not Mr. Franklin," he said. "It was the nephew, this mystery man."

Silverman said Amster had distorted the evidence and that Washington's descriptions of Franklin were always consistent. Washington identified a photo of Franklin and she pointed him out in court. She said she was 100 percent sure he was the man who shot her and left her for dead.

Amster said prosecutors had built a circumstantial case using inferior science that found the DNA of unknown men on the victims

The jury verdict being read:

I wonder why he took such a long break in his slayings. Usually, serial killers don't have the ability to stop killing on their own; usually circumstance gets in their way. Often times they spend time in jail or prison for an unrelated offense. Sometimes, like in the case of the Green River Killer, marriage or parenthood gets in the way of them indulging their murderous instincts.

Anyways, here is a photo progression of his age:



A documentary of the killings (looks like it's really long -- I only watched the first 10 minutes):

I haven't used his name once, as I believe that it encourages would-be killers when you use their name; it gives them the attention they believe they deserve. As far as I am concerned, this man has no name. He deserves to be buried in an anonymous grave and forgotten once he passes from this Earth.

Here is a list of his victims. May they rest in peace:

Quote:

1) Aug. 10, 1985: Debra Jackson, 29, found in alley near West Gage Avenue; LA
2) Aug. 12, 1986: Henrietta Wright, 35, found in alley south of 2514 West Vernon Avenue; LA.
3) Aug. 14, 1986: Thomas Steele, 36 (only male victim), found middle of the intersection of 71st Street; LA. (single gunshot wound to head.)
4) Jan. 10, 1987: Barbara Ware, 23,found in alley at 1356 East 56th Street; LA.
5) April 15, 1987: Bernita Sparks ^, found at 9400 block of South Western Avenue; LA.
6 ) Nov. 1, 1987: Mary Lowe, 26, found in alley near bushes behind the 8900 block of Western Avenue; LA.
7) Jan. 30, 1988: Lachrica Jefferson, 22, found in allyway north of 2049 West 102nd Place in Lennox. A napkin placed over her face with “AIDS” written on it.
8 ) Sept. 11, 1988: Alicia “Monique” Alexander, 18, found 43rd Place and Western Avenue.
Nov. 1988: ‘Jackie,' only known eyewitness survivor of the Grim Sleeper.
9) March 19, 2002: Princess Berthomieux, 14 *, found in allyway behind 8121 South Van Ness Boulevard, Inglewoo.
10) July 11, 2003: Valerie McCorvey, 35, found in allyway west of Denker Avenue between 108th and 109th streets.
11) Jan. 1, 2007: Janecia Peters, 25, found in alleyway at 9500 Western Avenue.

[SlickyBoy]

If he's 63 today who's the math whiz that has him at 30 in 1988?

Regardless I bet they find a way to keep him from the death penalty, which he deserves.

[vinman]

Serial killers do not stop and neither did he. He may have changed up how he killed and disposed of the bodies, but he still killed. Bet on it.

[All or Nothing]

(05-07-2016 12:04 PM)vinman Wrote:  

Serial killers do not stop and neither did he. He may have changed up how he killed and disposed of the bodies, but he still killed. Bet on it.

Killing people for a serial killer is like taking a shot of heroin for a major drug addict.

It's a really strange mental disorder.

I watched a documentary on Jeffrey Dahmer once, and I was always struck by the fact that outside of some deep obsessive desire to kill people, he behaved like a normal person.

[infowarrior1]

Those people are like social cancers that eat away at the integrity of the body. Executing them when proved beyond reasonable doubt within 1 year of his death sentence is like the removal of gangrene. Necessary and just.

Only the blood of the murderer can atone for the blood of the victims.

Let no man or woman get away with this crime.