Arrest made in Los Angeles Grim Sleeper serial killer case

[sce56]

Source: CNN



(CNN) -- Authorities said Wednesday they have arrested a suspect in the Grim Sleeper serial killer case and will charge him with 10 counts of murder.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, faces an additional count of attempted murder, officials said.

Nicknamed for taking long breaks between attacks, the killer is believed responsible for at least 11 deaths since 1985 in south Los Angeles. The killer targeted black women, some working as prostitutes, using the same small caliber weapon.

Margaret Prescod, who founded the Black Coalition Fighting Black Serial Murders and worked heavily with the families of the victims in the case, told CNN she spoke with the Grim Sleeper Task Force who informed her of the arrest Wednesday. Prescod said Det. Dennis Kilcoyne, head of the task force, told her that unlike a previous arrest in the case that turned out to be wrong, he was sure they had gotten their man this time.

"He told me that what they have is very solid," Prescod said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/07/grim.sleeper.arrest/index.html?hpt=T1

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I like the way CNN fails to tell there listeners / readers that Margret Prescod has a radio show on KPFK!
Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod




Tues - Fri 7:00-8:00 AM
HOST: Margaret Prescod
PRODUCER: Margaret Prescod http://kpfk.org/programs/142-sojournertruth.html

[Mike 03]

1. Thank you for covering this haunting case.

K&R

[sce56]

2. Pizza slice helped link suspect to Grim Sleeper serial killings, sources say

L.A. NOW
Southern California -- this just in



Los Angeles police detectives used a piece of discarded pizza to help build their case against a man accused of being the Grim Sleeper serial killer, sources told The Times. Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, was arrested at his home in South Los Angeles on Wednesday morning after police said they made DNA matches linking him to the killings of 11 people over the last three decades. Prosecutors said they have charged Franklin with 10 counts of murder, noting that he is eligible for the death penalty. Franklin is a former city trash collector who at one time worked as a vehicle mechanic at an LAPD station, sources said.

“He’s the neighborhood mechanic" said neighbor Eric Robinson, 47. “He volunteers at the park. A very good man. His daughter just graduated from college, I believe. He’s a good mechanic, worked out of his garage. I’ve been here since 1976; that’s how long I’ve known him. I’m not pretty shocked, I’m all the way shocked." In recent days, the LAPD received the results of what is known as a familial DNA search, which trolls through state felon databases for partial DNA matches that would indicate a match to a relative, a source said.

The suspect in the killings had left DNA evidence at several of the crime scenes. The LAPD learned that a man in state prison showed a strong familial match. Detectives questioned the man, who was too young to have committed several of the older murders, and he led detectives to his father, Franklin, the source said. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said detectives got a piece of discarded pizza with Franklin's DNA to make the link.
The series of killings included victims, mostly female, in the city of Los Angeles, in unincorporated areas of L.A. County and in Inglewood since the 1980s. A survivor in 1988 described her attacker as black, in his 20s, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, about 160 pounds, soft-spoken and articulate, with neatly trimmed hair and a pockmarked face.

[msanthrope]

3. This is a pretty interesting case---between the pizza slice and the

fact this guy was an LAPD mechanic.....

[MadMaddie]

4. It's amazing to me how these serial killers are always

under the radar....no blips....the commit their crimes and then fade into the night.

[DeSwiss]

5. K&R n/t