by Amanda Seaton
Canny suspected Los Angeles serial killer, The Grim Sleeper, earned his sobriquet by “going out of business” for 14 years. That is, he took an extended vacation from murder from 1988 until 2002. His is a shocking and riveting tale and the good news is the police believe they finally have the right man in custody. The suspect, 57-year-old Lonnie David Franklin, Jr. is a former Los Angeles sanitation worker who may have worked for LAPD for a period of time.
Los Angeles, like many large metropolitan areas, has certainly had its share of serial killers over the past several decades including the Hillside Strangler team, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, who tortured and murdered 14 girls during a four month period beginning in 1978; the Freeway Killer, William Bonin, who raped, tortured and murdered no fewer than 21 boys and young men in a series of killings in 1979 and 1980; and of course, the notorious Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, who mutilated and murdered anywhere from 13 to 16 victims between 1984 and 1985.
These three (in)humans all shared the characteristic of killing and brutalizing their victims in a very short period of time. The Grim Sleeper, however, appears to have been in no rush.
In the 1980s, following the deaths of several women in South Central Los Angeles, community members formed the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders. Appalled by the number of unexplained murders occurring in this large working-class section of Los Angeles, the group pressured police into setting up a task force and demanded that they acknowledge the deaths as serial killings. The Coalition launched a media campaign and set a monetary award aiming to capture the killer. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department-LAPD investigation initially decided that the murders were committed by a single person they labelled the “Southside Slayer”. This claim, which was quickly debunked, was announced to the public in September of 1985.
Investigators soon uncovered evidence suggesting that several serial killers were murdering women in South Central Los Angeles. Louis Craine committed at least two of the “Southside Slayer” murders, and three men, Michael Hughes, Daniel Lee Siebert and Ivan Hill were connected to at least one murder each. Then the detectives isolated a separate series of killings that began with the murder of Debra Jackson. This slayer preferred a different modus operandi involving a firearm. These murders were dubbed, misleadingly, the “Strawberry murders”. Oddly enough, a Sheriff’s Detective, Ricky Ross, was suspected at one point and was wrongfully arrested due to a ballistics error. It would not be until two decades later that the suspect wanted for the murders would be dubbed the Grim Sleeper, due to his long period of inactivity between the murders.
In May of 2007, a beautiful 25-year-old victim named Janecia Peters was found nude in a dumpster by a passerby. She would ultimately prove to be the first of the Grim Sleeper’s victims to be identified and the last to be murdered. Ms. Peters was eventually linked to 11 other victims through the process of familial DNA analysis. The first of The Sleeper’s murders occurred in 1985, while the last one was confirmed in 2007. It seems that Los Angeles law enforcement kept a tight lid on the existence of the Sleeper, which gave a striking blonde investigative reporter named Christine Pelisek the opportunity to delve deeply into the case. In fact, she is credited by some with leading investigators to the door step of the Sleeper, who turned out to be the 57-year-Franklin.
Christine Pelisek, who claims she and her editor deserve the credit for coming up with Franklin’s nickname, wrote in The Daily Beast on July 10, 2010, three days after The Sleeper was arrested:
In a 2008 front page story for the LA Weekly, where I work as a reporter, I wrote about the existence of the secret task force investigating a number of killings that went as far back as 1985, beginning with the murder of cocktail waitress Debra Jackson…
My editor and I came up with the name “Grim Sleeper” in a nod to his mysterious and long break from killing…
A few days after my story was published, the LAPD held its first press conference to acknowledge that a serial killer was afoot, finally asking for the public’s help in apprehending him. Bernard Parks, a City Councilman, helped get the approval for a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the Grim Sleeper. Parks, a former LAPD chief, was furious that police officials had never bothered to inform him that a serial killer was on the loose in his own district.
Police had apparently struggled for a considerable period of time to find an exact match between DNA found at the crime scenes associated with the Grim Sleeper and any of the profiles in California’s DNA profile database.
They eventually located DNA similar to that of the victims belonging to Franklin’s son, Christopher, who had been convicted of a felony weapons charge. Los Angeles District Attorney, Steve Cooley, explains that detectives then used a piece of discarded pizza with Lonnie Franklin’s DNA, which may or may not have been collected by reporter Christine Pelisek, to make the link. According to one story, a LAPD undercover 
police officer pretended to be a waiter at a restaurant where the suspect ate. The officer collected dishes, silverware, glasses, and pizza crusts, all of which were used to obtain a conclusive DNA match, which was used to arrest Franklin after his DNA was obtained. Saliva found on his victims’ breasts was used to obtain the necessary match to link Franklin to the murders
It turns out that Los Angeles police missed an opportunity to apprehend Franklin in 2003 when he was arrested for a felony, but they failed to obtain his DNA.
Franklin’s victims varied in age, but were all black and many were prostitutes:
- Debra Jackson, 29, was Grim’s first victim. Her body was found on August 10, 1985.
- Henrietta Wright, 34, was found on August 12, 1986.
- Thomas Steele, who oddly enough was a 36-year-old male. was found on August 15, 1986.
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Next came Barbara Ware, a 23-year-old female found on January 10, 1987.
- Bernita Sparks, 26, was found on April 15, 1987.
- Mary Lowe, 26, was The Sleeper’s next victim. She was found on November 1, 1987.
- Lachrica Jefferson, a 22-year-old female, was found on January 30, 1988.
- Jefferson was followed by Alice Monique Alexander, an 18-year-old female whose body was found on September 11, 1988.
- The Sleeper’s next victim, 30-year-old Enietra Margette Washington, was fortunate and managed to survive.
- Princess Berthomieux is said to be Franklin’s youngest victim. She was 15-years-old when she was found on March 19, 2002. Thus, Princess has the honor of being The Sleeper’s first victim after his long hiatus.
- Valeria McCorvey, 35, was found on July 11, 2003.
- This left only Janecia Peters, whose body was found on January 1, 2007, after another long break.
Thus, we see that The Sleeper’s main killing spree occurred within a window stretching from the summer of 1985 to September of 1988.
Now although The Sleeper has only been definitively linked to these murders, investigators found scores of photographs at Frankin’s home and have asked the public to help identify the 180 women found in the pictures, which depict women who appear to be deceased. To date, investigators have not been able to link any more bodies to The Sleeper.
In December of 2010, LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck stated:
“These people are not suspects, we don’t even know if they are victims, but we do know this. Lonnie Franklin’s reign of terror in the city of Los Angeles, which spanned well over two decades, culminating with almost a dozen murder victims, certainly needs to be investigated further.”
Investigators have reportedly found about 1,000 photographs and hundreds of hours of video at Franklin’s house, which reveal a wide range of potential African-American victims ranging from teenagers to middle-aged women.
The Grim Sleeper is currently being held in the Los Angeles County Jail, without bond, awaiting the start of his trial, which will presumably begin sometime after a pre-trial hearing that is scheduled for June of this year. The case seems to be moving at a snail’s pace, leaving the distraught families of the victims enraged with the Los Angeles court system. Many of these folks have been waiting since Franklin’s arrest in 
2010 for an actual solid trial date so that they can begin to put this horrific tale behind them and try to pick up the pieces of what is left of their lives.
On the other hand, Prosecutor Steve Cooley’s office may be biding its time in the hope that more victims will be identified before the trial begins. As is so often the case, however, The Sleeper may well never be prosecuted for all of the murders he may have committed.
Click here to view previous posts by Amanda Seaton:
Zodiac, Zodiac, Who Is the Zodiac (Killer)? We May Never Know
Jeffrey Dahmer, Serial Killer, Always Liked Dead Things
Amanda Seaton is a freelance writer/editor and graduate student. Ms. Seaton earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Criminal Justice and Homeland Security in April of 2013, and began a Masters of Science program in Forensics in June of 2013 where she is acing every class.