LAPD on the hunt for Elusive SK-Grim Sleeper

[rumaj]

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.

By Joel Rubin and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
10:19 PM PDT, August 28, 2008

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."
_________________
"Sell Crazy Someplace Else. We're all stocked up here."

Line from the movie As Good As It Gets

[ThinkTank]

WOW! Thank goodness for DNA to tell us what is happening.

[Liam1306]

Sounds like some cop is about to retire...,

Again, all municipal, county, state and federal employees should be required by law to submit to DNA profiing.

Has any one LE officer/personnel been on the case since the first?

[rumaj]

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
By Christine Pelisek
Published on August 28, 2008

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 sh*t,'" 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.

MORE AT: (7 page article)
http://www.laweekly.com/2008-08-28/news/grim-sleeper/
_________________
"Sell Crazy Someplace Else. We're all stocked up here."

Line from the movie As Good As It Gets

[rumaj]

Grim Sleeper's Victims
Eleven lives stolen and one lucky survivor
By Christine Pelisek
Published on August 28, 2008

• 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.
_________________
"Sell Crazy Someplace Else. We're all stocked up here."

Line from the movie As Good As It Gets

[rumaj]

"Grim Sleeper" Story Sparks Comment
By freelance
Published on September 04, 2008

Comments from laweekly.com on Christine Pelisek's story "Grim Sleeper" [Aug. 29–Sept. 4]:

The silence of the city toward the black and poor communities never ceases to amaze me. This is a serial killer actively operating; THAT alone should have everyone, no matter what race, class or neighborhood, let alone city office, up in arms. It does make this Angeleno wonder what would happen if the killings were occurring on the Westside or in hipster Silver Lake.

Posted by Terri Lloyd, Aug. 29


I am a black, 38-year-old South L.A. resident. I remember the "Hillside Strangler" and even the "Wilshire Strangler." People dying in South L.A. has always taken a backseat to what happens on the Westside. Hundreds had died before gang violence was even considered an issue. We blame others, but our own politicians (whom we repeatedly, blindly re-elect) don't fight for us on issues that don't bring them some type of political exposure.

Posted by Charles Mincy, Aug. 31

What a shame that Pelisek had to turn this into an anti-Westside, "silverware bandit" screed, conjuring up bogus bogeymen of race and discrimination/favoritism once again. The fact that well over a dozen old ladies on the Westside and Santa Monica were assaulted in their homes at gunpoint, usually in the middle of the night as they slept (though a few during the day), by someone who threatened to kill them if they didn't turn over their valuables is in no way responsible for what's going on in South L.A. This killer has apparently just resurfaced after many years, and your article blaming the Westside for Bratton's alleged lack of concern ... is just plain harmful to all sides.

Posted by Suhina from Santa Monica, Sept. 1

Mixed reactions to Jonathan Gold's article on a new cafe ["Tierra Mia Explores Coffee for the Latino Palate," Aug. 29–Sept. 4]:

Tierra Mia has great coffee; I am a coffee freak and it has the best brews I have ever tasted. Its original creations — the horchata blend and the beans-and-rice blend — are worth taking a road trip for.

Posted by George from Bell, Aug. 23

Just another coffee clone. ... Some different flavors like horchata and other Hispanic tastes, but it feels like this establishment is trying to tap into the pockets of Latino people.

3Posted by Lee from the O.C., Aug. 24


write your comment

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-04/news/quot-grim-sleeper-quot-story-sparks-comment/
_________________
"Sell Crazy Someplace Else. We're all stocked up here."

Line from the movie As Good As It Gets

[Unsomnambulist]

I updated my map about this and other similar killers around Los Angeles:

http://tinyurl.com/587sxe

This guy seems to target prostitutes along the same corridor in South Los Angeles, and almost all victims are raped, strangled, then shot in the chest. Not surprisingly, during his first long wave he was reported to be driving a Pinto... while black serial killers are rare, serial killers use of cheap cars is not.

I also don't think that the 13 year gap was necessarily due to prison time - it followed the one known time he allowed a victim to escape. Perhaps he layed low after this, or moved, or simply had a change of heart...

That said, my guess is that after this newest publicity blitz, he also won't strike for quite a while.
_________________
I remain,
The Unsomnambulist aka David Markland
------
http://www.davidmarkland.com

[Prinetta]

I get the feeling this guy isn't a serial killer, per se, just a punk who dwells in his parent's dank, musty basement, has a low-paying, dead end job, makes Joel Rifkin look like Rambo and has a grudge against women because he once got ripped off by a hooker who ran off with his 20 bucks and he didn't get his hummer in some dark alleyway, the same dark alleyway, in his mind, that he leaves his victims in as a form of getting his lame-o revenge.

Giving this guy the moniker 'serial killer' is just too much a status thing anymore, I call him a punk with a (no doubt dirty) gun who cowardly attacks defenseless women, nothing more. 'Serial killer' or repeat, cowardly, skinny, pizza-faced punk? You make the call.
_________________
But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, DO ya, PUNK?

-Dirty Harry (copyright 1971, Warner Bros.)

[Unsomnambulist]

Prinetta, many serial killers have been punks who live with their parents and have dead end jobs. He's also been active for a couple decades, so I doubt he's a skinny, pizza faced punk any more.

He's still clearly a sociopath who has likely killed dozens of women.

Just surprising one can exist this long in the middle of Los Angeles.
_________________
I remain,
The Unsomnambulist aka David Markland
------
http://www.davidmarkland.com

[seesthru]

He was probably in prison or they came real close to catching him, thus making him back off. My bet s prison or he left the area and is responsible for some unsolved killings of black women elsewhere. He is more than likely black.
_________________
Edward Cullen isn't a Vampire. He lives in the forest , he doesn't eat people , he sparkles, and he can fly!. He's obviously a Fairy!

[Prinetta]

Since violent people rarely change and meaness becomes a way of life for the majority of these types, it's just crazy that mandatory DNA profiles are not taken for those convicted of violent crimes, in Los Angeles, and everywhere else. These people need to know their DNA is in an international database, it would deter them, I feel, and besides that, the main reason is to have their DNA to compare to victims, like this pizza-face punk and his wussy orange Pinto (but he's no doubt moved up to a groovy purple AMC Pacer by now). It's quite clear this guy's African American, he's not crossing racial lines, he may even be mulatto. I'm also sure that when he's caught, he'll be as mundane as Ridgway and Rader, no criminal genius, just a punk with a gun that targets high-risk women. The cops probably had his name within the first three months of their serial investigation, but missed him for whatever reasons, they should go back and reanalyse their initial data, I bet a paycheck (someone ELSES, of course, heh, heh) the guy's been under their noses all along.....

What I'd do is start a media blitz, asking the public if anyone remembers a guy who drove an orange Pinto, a coworker, neighbour, an acquaintance, a relative, anyone, in and around LA at that time. He may not have lived in the area he hunted in, he may come from the outskirts to find his game, but his orange Pinto would most likely be remembered by someone, somewhere, and the police could get a name and nab the creep. It may not have been registered, it could have had stolen plates, who can say, all I know is that if I ever hung out with a guy with an orange Pinto, I'd not soon forget it, it's just too unique and downright memorable a car.
_________________
But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, DO ya, PUNK?

-Dirty Harry (copyright 1971, Warner Bros.)

[rumaj]

$500K Reward Offered in 'Grim Sleeper' Serial Killer Case
Last Edited: Saturday, 06 Sep 2008, 10:57 PM PDT
Created: Wednesday, 03 Sep 2008, 4:15 PM PDT

Los Angeles (myfoxla.com) -- Porter Alexander last saw his youngest daughter one evening in September 1988 as the 18-year-old ran out for what was supposed to be a quick trip to the store.

Four days later, police knocked at the front door of the family home. They'd found the body of Alicia Monique Alexander in a nearby alley with a gunshot wound in the chest.

Los Angeles police detectives say Alexander was the victim of a serial killer who has claimed the lives of at least nine other women and a man in a two-part string of violence spanning more than two decades. All the victims were black and were found in or near South Los Angeles. Police believe some of the women were prostitutes.

"I said make sure you go to the store and come back. She says, 'OK,"' Porter Alexander said. "She left, and that was the last time I saw my baby."

Monique Alexander was the last known victim in the first round of killings. In a three-year period starting August 1985, six other women and a man were also murdered. All eight were killed with the same handgun.

The women had been sexually assaulted and their bodies were often dumped in the same alley in South Los Angeles.

A 13-year hiatus followed Alexander's death, police said, and investigators retired or moved on to other cases.

"What accounted for that gap, we still don't know," police Capt. Denis Cremins said at a news conference Wednesday, before the Los Angeles City Council approved a $500,000 reward in the case. "We try not to engage in conjecture."

The hiatus ended in March 2002, when 14-year-old Princess Berthomieux was found beaten and strangled in an alley in the city of Inglewood. DNA samples linked her to the suspect in the earlier murders.

Another killing came in 2003, and the most recent homicide was in January 2007 when the body of Janecia Peters, 25, was found shot and covered in a garbage bag.

The length of time between the killings prompted the LA Weekly newspaper, which first reported the case, to dub the killer the "Grim Sleeper."

Though police have a DNA sample, only one physical description of the killer 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.

"But that's one person's account who was traumatized," Cremins said.

Investigators are poring through prison and jail records to screen prisoners with a violent history who were locked up during the break in the killings. Authorities also hope to search DNA databases to see if there are any possible matches to the killer's family members.

Parts of Los Angeles suffered extreme violence in the 1980s and '90s and many young women turned to the streets to fund newfound addictions to crack cocaine and other drugs.

Chester Turner, a pizza deliveryman, was convicted last year and sentenced to death for killing 10 women and a fetus in Los Angeles in the 1980s and '90s. Turner was serving an eight-year sentence for a 2002 rape when his DNA was linked to the murders. Nearly all his victims were impoverished women or prostitutes.

A different serial killer serving a life term for killing four women is facing new charges of committing four additional murders in a spree starting in the 1980s. Michael Hughes, 51, is charged with sexually assaulting and strangling two women and two teenage girls in the Los Angeles area between 1986 and 1993.

Turner and Hughes have been eliminated as suspects in the current case.

Alexander said police initially seemed to drag their heels when it came to investigating his daughter's death. He said he did not believe his daughter was a prostitute but that she did have a drug problem.

The reward on Wednesday was proposed by Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks, who as police chief in 2001 ordered the department to look into a backlog of unsolved cases.

VIDEO AT:
http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7353785&version=6&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
_________________
"Sell Crazy Someplace Else. We're all stocked up here."

Line from the movie As Good As It Gets

[rumaj]

LA serial killer could be connected to other cases


(09-13) 01:30 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --

Investigators are reviewing at least 30 unsolved murder cases for possible links to an unidentified serial killer suspected in at least 11 slayings since 1985.

The unsolved cases have many similarities to those carried out by the serial killer, including locations where the bodies were dumped, Los Angeles police Detective Dennis Kilcoyne said Friday.

He estimated at least six of the 30 cases would be linked to the murderer.

"We don't know who he is, but his numbers are building," Kilcoyne said. "Once we are done, I am quite confident this will exceed anything we have ever seen in the city."

Kilcoyne's comments came after the Los Angeles Police Department held a news conference to announce for the second time a city-funded reward of up to $500,000 for information. The reward was first announced last week but authorities distributed the wrong phone number for the public to call so responses were limited.

The killer apparently operated in two distinct periods, first from 1985 to 1987, when he allegedly killed seven women and a man. He is known to have killed again three times since 2002, most recently in January 2007.

The victims in the 30 unsolved cases were all women. Many were dumped in a South Los Angeles location, the same area as many of the killer's other victims, Kilcoyne said. Many of the killer's victims worked as prostitutes and he had sexually abused them.

"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."
_________________
"Sell Crazy Someplace Else. We're all stocked up here."

Line from the movie As Good As It Gets

[Prinetta]

'The Grim Sleeper', eh?

Let's try 'The Scumbag Cowardly Punk That Needs Some Charles Bronson In 'Deathwish' Action On His Funky, Skinny, Cowardly Butt'.

It never amazes me how all the labels like The BTK, The Green River Killer and The Happy Face Killer all conjure up in one's mind visions of shadowy genius killers, all enigmatic and elusive, lithe like a snake and twice as venomous, then, when they're ID'd, they turn out to be fat, balding bespectabled chubkins, geeky painters and boneheaded, loser drifter truck drivers who haven't bathed in months.

Giving creeps like these all these heavy-duty handles, I think, only plays into their self-centered egos and fuels them more, I feel we should call them as they are, dangerous psychos that need a can of whoop-a$$ opened on 'em and creamed pigeon on toast every morning for breakfast.

*rolls eyes*
_________________
But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, DO ya, PUNK?

-Dirty Harry (copyright 1971, Warner Bros.)

[rumaj]

September 15, 2008
Should the LAPD have Warned the Public Earlier?

Grim Sleeper rewardIn a weekend editorial about Los Angeles' serial killer, the "Grim Sleeper," the LA Times said it was about time they came public with information.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-serial13-2008sep13,0,7582632.story

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?

The department still has not come clear about why they are only now announcing a reward for information leading to the capture of the killer. It was in May 2007 after DNA testing linked the cases together that they knew that had a serial killer on the loose.

Photo of reward poster by Tom Andrews/LAist

http://laist.com/2008/09/15/serial_killer_grim_sleeper_now_publ.php

more photos from press conference here
http://laist.com/2008/09/12/grim_sleeper.php
_________________
"Sell Crazy Someplace Else. We're all stocked up here."

Line from the movie As Good As It Gets