One particular group of killings, which were linked by common elements including the use of a. All three of those murders remain unsolved. He was released after independent forensic analysis found it unlikely that Ross's gun was the murder weapon.
Ross was charged with the murders after his gun was forensically linked by the LAPD to the bullets from the murders. Sheriff's Detective Rickey Ross was arrested for the murders after being found with drugs and a sex worker in a vehicle that had a rusted 9 mm Beretta semi-automatic pistol in the trunk. The murders of Judith Simpson, Cynthia Walker, and Latanya Johnson, all committed with a 9 mm caliber pistol in late 1988, were also investigated by the Southside Slayer Task Force.
In addition, some of the murders may have been committed individually by the women's pimps or clients, unrelated to any serial killer. Over the following years, it was found that serial killer Louis Craine committed at least two of the so-called "Southside Slayer" murders, and serial killers Michael Hughes, Daniel Lee Siebert, Chester Turner, and Ivan Hill committed at least one each. John Zorn told the Los Angeles Times in December 1987 that "the flow of clues is almost non-existent at this point." Multiple serial killers The Southside Slayer Task Force began to be wound down in 1987 because of the lack of results relative to the expense and manpower being used. Evidence suggested that several serial killers – possibly four or more – were murdering women in South Los Angeles. īy late 1986, conflicting modus operandi and suspect descriptions caused the investigators to doubt their original theory of a single killer responsible for all of the murders. Prescod formalized her group of activists as a community group called the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders and in March 1986 pressured the Los Angeles City Council to increase the reward money they were offering for information on the killings from $10,000 to $25,000. More detectives were added to the joint LAPD- Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigation, which had become known as the Southside Slayer Task Force, but by 1986 the case was still under investigation. īy January 1986, fifteen murders had been linked to the case. She accused the LAPD of indifference to the deaths of women who were poor, black, drug users, and sex workers, which the LAPD denied. Prescod contrasted the apparent lack of police interest in the South Central murders with the significant attention given to the investigation of the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, a serial killer who targeted women in upscale areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Barbadian-American activist Margaret Prescod and other community activists held weekly protests outside of the LAPD's headquarters in an effort to pressure the department into forming a task force to investigate the murders. Following the press conference, the LAPD was heavily criticized for their failure to alert the South Central community to the possibility of a serial killer earlier. In September 1985, the LAPD described the case at a press conference and asked for tips from the public. At one point the murders were colloquially known as the "Strawberry Murders" ("strawberry" being slang for a woman who exchanges sex for drugs). The killer, dubbed the "Southside Slayer," was believed to be responsible for stabbing and strangling at least thirteen sex workers between 1983 and late 1985. In the mid-1980s, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) became aware of an apparent serial killer targeting black women who were chronic drug users and street sex workers. Investigation Original 1980s investigation He served time for one of the theft charges. In 1989, he was also convicted of two charges of theft, one charge of misdemeanor assault, and one charge of battery. During the gang rape, photographs were taken by one of the rapists – as Franklin did later of the women he raped and murdered. She was able to feign interest in Franklin and asked for his phone number, by which police identified him. When she accepted, they put a knife to her throat, drove her to a field and repeatedly raped her. Franklin and two other servicemen stationed in Stuttgart stopped to ask directions from the teen then offered her a ride home. He was given a dishonorable discharge from the United States Army on July 24, 1975, after being released from prison for his conviction of gang-raping a 17-year-old girl in Stuttgart, West Germany, in April 1974.
He grew up in South Central Los Angeles, California.