Lonnie Franklin Jr.

What the record shows

Lonnie David Franklin Jr., known as the Grim Sleeper, was convicted by a Los Angeles County jury on May 5, 2016, of 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for attacks on women and girls in South Los Angeles between 1985 and 2007. According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, the jury found true the special circumstance of multiple murders, and Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy sentenced him to death on August 10, 2016. He died on death row at San Quentin State Prison on March 28, 2020, at age 67. Prosecutors presented evidence of four uncharged killings at the penalty phase, and CBS Los Angeles reported that prosecutors said he may have had as many as 25 victims. Franklin never confessed.

The District Attorney's conviction announcement lists the 1980s victims by the date their bodies were found: Debra Jackson, 29, on August 10, 1985; Henrietta Wright, 34, on August 12, 1986; Barbara Ware, 23, on January 10, 1987; Bernita Sparks, 26, on April 16, 1987; Mary Lowe, 26, on November 1, 1987; Lachrica Jefferson, 22, on January 30, 1988; and Alicia Alexander, 18, on September 11, 1988. Eight of the ten victims were shot with the same .25-caliber firearm; two were strangled. On November 19, 1988, Enietra Washington, 30, was shot and pushed from Franklin's car; she survived and testified at trial as the attempted-murder victim.

The killings linked to the gun then stopped for roughly 13 years, the gap behind the nickname. The District Attorney identifies the later victims as Princess Berthomieux, 15, found strangled on March 9, 2002; Valerie McCorvey, 35, found on July 11, 2003; and Janecia Peters, 25, found shot inside a trash bag in a dumpster on January 1, 2007. According to Wikipedia, DNA from the Peters scene was connected to the earlier series in 2007, and the LAPD formed a task force.

The break came through familial DNA searching. An Associated Press report published by NBC News on July 7, 2010, said a DNA profile from Franklin's son, taken after a felony weapons conviction, closely resembled the crime-scene profiles. An undercover officer posing as a busboy collected items Franklin discarded at a pizza restaurant, and the DNA matched. Franklin, 57, was arrested at his home on 81st Street on July 7, 2010. The District Attorney's Office said the pistol used to kill Peters was recovered from his home under a search warrant.

The trial opened in February 2016. Deputy District Attorneys Beth Silverman and Marguerite Rizzo told jurors every victim was tied to the same killer through DNA, firearms evidence, or both; the defense argued an unidentified man was responsible. The jury deliberated about a day and a half before convicting Franklin on all counts. In the penalty phase, a woman testified that Franklin and two fellow soldiers had kidnapped and raped her in Germany in 1974. The jury recommended death on June 6, 2016. At sentencing, more than 15 family members addressed the court; CBS Los Angeles reported that Judge Kennedy denied a motion for a new trial.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said Franklin arrived on death row on August 17, 2016; CDCR reported that staff found him unresponsive in his cell at about 7:20 p.m. on March 28, 2020, and that he was pronounced dead at 7:43 p.m. with no signs of trauma; the department's register of condemned inmates who have died later recorded the cause as natural causes. NBC News reported that community members had long said police were slow to act because the victims were Black, poor and often drug users or sex workers.

Franklin was born in Los Angeles on August 30, 1952, according to Wikipedia, and served in the U.S. Army, where a West German court convicted him in 1974 over the kidnapping and rape of a teenage girl; he was dishonorably discharged in 1975. The AP reported that he worked as an LAPD garage attendant from 1981, became a city refuse collector in 1982, and left city employment in 1989. He lived for decades in the neighborhood where the bodies were found.