LA's serial killer-rapist: "Grim Sleeper" (video)

HBO; Margaret Prescod (sotrueradio); Frank Stoltze; CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

(HBO) Community activist Margaret Prescod pushes LAPD in "Tales of the Grim Sleeper."

 

The "Grim Sleeper" is the nickname for an accused serial killer in Los Angeles, California, believed to be responsible for at least [190] murders [many more based on unsolved photographic evidence], one suspected, and one attempted murder in L.A. since 1985.

The attacker was dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" because he appears to have taken a 14-year slumber from his crimes, from 1988 to 2002. [That's when he was in jail.]

(ABC News/Nightline, Dec. 21, 2010) 180 photographs taken by the serial killer suspect show new potential victims that are unaccounted for, but the LAPD is not worried. Using its slang, "no humans involved."

Chief suspect [military trained and convicted military-rapist] Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, worked as a [mechanic for the LAPD and city] garbageman during this period, suggesting he may have taken advantage of his employment and hidden his victims in a landfill.

On July 7, 2010, Franklin was arrested [because his son had been DNA tested and accused but was too young to have done the killing, which then pointed the finger at one of his relatives].

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office charged him with ten counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and special circumstance allegations of multiple murders in the case.

(The LipTV) Grim Sleeper serial killer documentary-maker Nick Broomfield

A grand jury indictment was issued on March 23, 2011. Franklin has been in jail since his arrest awaiting trial; the large volume of evidence in this case, some dating back 30 years, has caused a lengthy pretrial discovery.

The trial was originally scheduled to begin on June 30, 2015. [It concluded today, May 5, 2016 thanks in part to the tireless work of community organizer and KPFK radio host Margaret "Sojourner Truth" Prescod].

In May 2015, Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy delayed the trial until September 9 after Franklin's defense attorney requested more time to test several pieces of evidence. [Today at 1:00 pm it was announced that he was convicted on all counts.]

CONVICTED: Lonnie Franklin guilty
Frank Stoltze (KPCC, scpr.org, May 5, 2016)

He picked them up off the street at night and offered them rides. Instead, he shot and sexually assaulted them, dumping their bodies in back alleys and trash bins. Two of the women were strangled to death.
 

The trial featured gruesome crime scene photos of the women as well as long explanations of DNA and ballistics evidence.

One woman survived. In gripping testimony during the trial, Enietra Washington described being shot in the chest and sexually assaulted by a man she believed was Franklin in 1988.

For years, detectives "struggled" to solve the murders. [They didn't get much done during this "struggle," not so much as warning the public of the possibility that a serial killer was on the loose in LA.]

Family members accused the [racist] LAPD of giving their loved ones short shrift because they were poor and black.
 
A 2008 article in the LA Weekly chastising the LAPD for failing to publicize that fact that a serial murder was on the loose in South LA helped prompt the department to step up its efforts.

Defense Attorney Seymour Amster makes his final arguments in the "Grim Sleeper" serial murder trial in LA Superior Court against defendant Lonnie Franklin Jr. on May 2, 2016. The jury listened to the grisly details of how nine women and a 15-year-old girl were killed over two decades (Mark Boster/AFP/Getty).

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After a three month trial, an LA jury today found Lonnie Franklin Jr. guilty of 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder for a series of killings that started in 1985 and spanned three decades.
 

Franklin -- nicknamed the "Grim Sleeper" because of an apparent 13-year break in the murders -- [little known during his crime spree because police failed to tie the crimes together or show the least concern when they did recognize the pattern of evidence] immediately becomes one of L.A.’s most notorious serial killers.

 

Now, the jury will be asked to decide on a punishment. Prosecutors are asking for the death penalty. In California, only a jury can hand down capital punishment after a hearing in which the defendant can argue instead for life in prison. That hearing is slated for May 12.

Worked for the LAPD 
Franklin, 63, a former mechanic for the LAPD who worked as city garbage collector, preyed on young black women in South LA. Some were prostitutes. Others struggled with drug addition. More