Lonnie Franklin Jr. "The Grim Sleeper"

In this episode of SoCal Slaughters, we dive into the disturbing case of Lonnie Franklin Jr., also known as “The Grim Sleeper.” Operating in South Central Los Angeles over decades, Franklin evaded capture while targeting vulnerable women, leaving behind a chilling legacy that shocked the city once uncovered.

We break down the timeline of his crimes, how DNA evidence ultimately led to his arrest, and the systemic failures that allowed him to go undetected for so long. This episode also explores the victims, the investigation, and the lasting impact on the community.

As always, we paired this case with a custom cocktail inspired by the story 👇
🍹 LA Sunset• 2 oz Reposado Tequila• 2 oz Fresh Blood Orange Juice• 1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice• 1/2 oz Agave Syrup• Tajín Rim• Blood Orange Ring Garnish

✨ “Bri-lixir” Version (Non-Alcoholic)• 2 oz Grapefruit Soda• 2 oz Fresh Blood Orange Juice• 1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice• 1/2 oz Agave Syrup• Tajín Rim• Blood Orange Ring Garnish

Viewer discretion is advised — this episode contains discussion of violent crimes.

If you have any information related to this case, please contact local authorities or submit tips anonymously through official channels.

🎙️ Subscribe to SoCal Slaughters for new episodes covering Southern California’s most infamous crimes, mysteries, and killers. New episodes every Sunday.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Hi guys, welcome to the podcast. I'm Brie.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

I'm Joey. I'm Rachel. And this is SoCal Slaughters.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

How are we? How's everybody? Happy 420. Happy 420 in whatever capacity that means to you.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

However, you choose to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

However, you can it used to be um like Earth Day as well.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

It is still Earth Day. Isn't it? I believe.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I thought Earth Day was in March.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

No, it's I'm pretty sure it's always 420.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah.

unknown 0:56

I think.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Um, yeah. So how are you guys feeling today? Pretty good. First day that our podcast actually appeared on YouTube.

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Yes, launch day. Launch day. Uh would have been yesterday, but we underestimated the length of time it would take.

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Evidently, it takes an entire day to upload.

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Full 10 a.m. to 10 a.m. day.

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Our podcast is very juicy and thick.

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Heavy.

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Heavy.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

I believe the word was heavy. Heavy.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yeah. It was being thick with information. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

I mean, uh, it's that now though. It might have taken a whole day and it actually caused us to be kind of liars because it actually came out today instead of yesterday. But we did put it out yesterday. It was not, it was outside of our control. Right. So blame YouTube. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

As is the audio. So please bear with us because we have worked out all the kinks.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

I by now, hopefully, we've already had one episode out that we've, you know, cleared the audio issues that we were having in those first two episodes. So we should be on a roll. Yeah. At this point. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

And then we will not only be on YouTube, which like, subscribe, comment, share all the stuff.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Engage. Engage.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

But we'll also be on Spotify soon.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

This one, well, this one in as this is airing, we should have one already out on for the first time on the audio platform. Right, yeah. So just our first two episodes are YouTube home. Yeah, exclusive. They were exclusives.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Yeah, we're exclusives.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Just turn your volume all the way up. All the way up and highlight for those first two episodes.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

It's all right. We're learning.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yeah. I think we have learned. Yeah. We want to provide the content from all the stories that we've researched that we care about, that we've put our heart and soul into. And hopefully that will still come across.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Yeah. I mean, you're still getting the information. You can hear that person the most in those two videos anyway. You're getting stories. Yeah, that's where the story's at. You know, we're just here for the peanut gallery.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Jinx.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

But you know, now it's the peanut gallery is fun though.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

So it is really Charlie Brown, though.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

It's like it's fine, guys. It's fine. Well, what kind of we have today?

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Let's go on tonight because our story does take place in LA. This cocktail is the LA sunset. Oh cute. And what's more LA than a little tequila cocktail, tahheen, and my favorite, the chamois. Chamoit straws.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

My favorite. You're you bit your bottom. Although this is um suck through it right now, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

I mean, hopefully.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

It's an illusion because ours is not a straw. Yeah. We did not know that. And we were like trying to get it.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

I don't know that there's a graceful way to not have it either. So all right.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it on the camera.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Cheers, ladies. Cheers, on selfish.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Yeah, we got that tahine. Yeah. Let's see. It was successful. This works. Oh my gosh. So good. Yum. That's blood orange. Like fresh, squeezed blood orange. You'll see the video.

unknown 4:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

You'll see our cocktail video. Delightful.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Mine is, as always, a mocktail or a vrelixer.

SPEAKER_04 4:29

A vrelixer.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

So mine is a little bit more tart, but honestly, it's so well balanced. And I'm very proud of this cocktail. Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

You should be. It's very good.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

We have a little true crime news. Um, for anyone that's been following, I guess by the time this comes out, it will be old news. But as of today, seeing her David, who is only 21. Yeah. I didn't realize he was that young.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

It's still bad, but I mean for sure.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

He was still 18. Yeah. I thought he was way older, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Well, she hasn't been in the trunk for three years.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

No, but when they met. Oh yeah. Like when because it they had a full couple year like relationship going.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

So she was 11? She was she went missing April 2024. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Okay. Then she still met her when he was 18, which would make her 11, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:23

She was in like middle school. Yeah. That's hard.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Maybe, maybe elementary, depending on some schools.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

This is why everything that I say to my daughter, you cannot trust people, no matter how nice they are to you. Listen to your mom kids.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Also, when they're that much older than you, no matter what they tell you, you are not mature for your age.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

Oh, yay. No.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

You're a baby. No, it's not a real thing. It's not a real thing. It's not a real thing. Because do they have guy friends that age?

unknown 5:53

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

No.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

That's what it's your best friend an 11-year-old. If you are, I hope that there's, you know, some other circumstances that make you more equivalent to an 11-year-old. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Celeste Rivas was found in the trunk of his car, car registered to him in September 2025. She was 14.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah, at that time.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

They arrested him a few days ago. As of today, I wrote it down because I forget. Um, he is being charged with first degree murder with special circumstances, which is lying in wait, committing a murder for financial gain, yeah, and murdering a witness in an investigation. And then he is also being charged with lewd and lascivious sexual acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a human body.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

Yeah, mutiling a course.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

So this was, is it Indiana? Where now they're executing child pressure. I think so.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

I'm not mad at that. I'm not mad at that. Um, he could face a maximum sentence without parole or um with the death penalty. Yeah. Which in California we don't have a death penalty, so it just means death row until if it gets reinstated, then he could be executed. Right. I don't think it will be. I support that. I'll sign that.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

I mean, it's just finally.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah, I mean, we've all known. How long did this take? Uh it took way. At least what month is it? April? Yeah. Like seven months.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Yeah. This guy started his tour.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

Yeah, and he continued his tour. Like while he knew that this was happening. And even like, I mean, it that just didn't look good either way. Right. Like, even if you knew it wasn't you. Right. Like, if I heard that somebody found a body in my trunk, I'll be home. I'm coming home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

This is especially someone he had such a close relationship with. This wasn't just a stranger in his car. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

They weren't close. Well, because they hid they were trying to hide everything on like so like there was a bunch of stuff on social, like, but everything was being hidden, and she like her face was always being hidden and stuff. Well, because she was a missing person.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Missing person 13 years old. Why is he hanging out with a 13-year-old?

SPEAKER_01 8:11

And wasn't it like one of it was a teacher that they had, a mutual teacher? Yeah. Was the one that came forward and was like, no, no, no. They had a relationship. Oh, I didn't heard that.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Yeah, gross. Damn. But and we all knew it, but they can't just arrest you. Yeah. They could mess up the entire investigation if they don't have enough evidence and enough things to hold.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

From what from what I read, they the the I believe was it the grand jury was dragging their feet and the police were like, nope, we're gonna go and we're gonna arrest this guy. We know what's going on. Yeah, it was going to be upheld.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Yeah. Yeah, because um they took so long. I mean, there was no arrest even for just way too long. And then finally they were talking to him. Yeah. We got it. It's handled. Let's go. Well, let's hope that the case is strong enough. Right. I mean, it it seems pretty strong. Yeah. There was so, I mean, so many things happen. We'll cover it in total because it's Southern California. We'll keep we'll we'll keep going on the updates on this guy. Trial update. Trial update, yeah, something like that. But eventually we'll cover the exact findings and timelines and stuff like that. Yes. Yeah, but it's still good news today.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Yeah. Still really good news today. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Uh how are you feeling? Are you ready to jump in?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Oh, I am ready. All right. This case is going to take us on a very long journey. Oh. And because it covers the span of 25 years. Okay. So I will do my best to pay as much tribute to as many of the victims as possible, but we're gonna try to not go into crazy depth with all of them because we would be here for a very long time. Okay. But each person has their own story.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Of course. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

I'll do my best to honor them.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

All right.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

So here we go.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Okay. So Southside Los Angeles. It's the early morning of July 1st, 2007. Okay. So a man is digging through a dumpster in an alley when he comes across a black bag that's sealed tight. So black garbage bag inside of this dumpster, and immediately he's like, something ain't right.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

He ends up calling it into police, and what seems to be a very similar case to many others on the streets of Southside Los Angeles is actually related to so many others. And they're about to find out, okay? So it's the mid-80s. We're gonna jump back to the mid-80s in Southside Los Angeles. It was in the throes of a major crack epidemic. So we had a lot of families that at one time this community was thriving. There were a lot of it is a black community. There was, you know, these were proud families, these were good families. And unfortunately, when the crack epidemic hit, it ran through every household. So pretty much everybody knew somebody or had a family member that was going to be affected by this. So everybody's lives on a daily basis were filled with crime and drugs and violence. So in the midst of this, we have a lot of young black women who are being found dead on the streets. And a lot of times they got overlooked by police because they thought it was drug-related or that they were a sex worker and something had gone wrong. It was the perfect place for a serial killer to be on the loose. And that's exactly what happened. So the man behind this, he lived right in the center of this. The people that knew him were like, he's a friendly guy. He is always had a neighborly smile. He had a seemingly normal household. He was married with children, he had a steady job, and he would regularly help people on the block. So unsuspecting, right? But really, he had turned this neighborhood into a hunting ground. So according to Dr. Scott Bond, professor of sociology and criminology, most serial killers have what's known as a comfort zone. Usually, this is you know, close proximity to their home, a place where they can easily stalk and find their next victim and feel completely comfortable. And that's exactly what Jonnie Franklin Jr. did in South Central LA. So he hunted down, he beat, he shot, he sexually assaulted, and he dumped the bodies of at least 10 known victims over the course of 25 years and in just a five-mile radius. And he looted police and the community for 25 years. So he had them just in a chokehold, basically.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Because they were talking it up to drug like drug-related deaths.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Well, we'll get into this, okay, but there are various reasons why it was delayed as long as it was. But this man lucked out in a lot of ways over the course of that 25 years. So I'm gonna take you back. The years 1984 to 1988 marked an era of fear within this community, beginning in 1984 with the discovery of Sharon Desmuke in a gas station restroom. She'd been shot twice in the left side of her chest with a 25-caliber handgun. She'd been gagged with a white cloth and left for dead. 1985, the body of Deborah Jackson was discovered under a piece of carpet in an alleyway. She had been shot three times in the chest by a 25-caliber handgun. She had also had a piece of cloth stuffed in her mouth. And though DNA was collected at the scene, at that time, the technology for DNA just wasn't advanced enough, but they still collect and bagged all the evidence. 1986, the body of Henrietta Wright was found wrapped in a blanket. Her body had been hidden by a mattress in an alleyway, and it was just, it wasn't that far from Deborah Jackson's body. Henrietta had been shot twice in the chest at close range, and again, her mouth had been gagged with a clause. Just like Sharon Dismuke, just like Deborah Jackson, all of these women had been shot with a 25-caliber handgun. They had been gagged. You would think that with all of these similarities, it'd be alarm bells for police officers. But at this time, it was unfortunately pretty normal to find the bodies of black women on the street that had just been discarded and covered up. It the time just seems wild to me.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

It just seems a little bit ridiculous that they wouldn't have seen the similarities in.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

I will say this. It did not go unnoticed to the community for sure that that was the take.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

But the LAPD.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I cannot say because I definitely never want to um put down our police officers because of what they go through. But at the same time, it was absolutely the feeling of the community that that's they were just, it's another one. Right. You know, which is so unfortunate.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

So at the time that these murders took place, the police were obviously not connecting things. But unfortunately, we're gonna see that this pattern is going to continue. Eventually, through actually good police work, they do start to notice that these crimes have to be the same. And that came when ballistics reports started to come out. They were able to tie the 25-caliber handgun, the slugs found, to each other. They knew that it was the same man, but they when they ran this through the system, it didn't hit on anybody that was tied to a handgun that was in any way in the system. They had not been used in any other crime, so unfortunately, they couldn't do anything with it, but they knew what it was. They knew that they were tied to each other. In January 1987, an anonymous phone call comes in to 911 dispatch. Someone has witnessed a body being dumped in a dark alley. The witness says that a man dumped a body, covered it with debris, and then got into a white and blue van and drove away. He said it was too dark for him to identify the driver, but he gave them a driver's license number. Or excuse me, a license plate. So police arrive at the scene, and then other police they run this license plate right away. When police arrive at the scene, it is so dark in this alleyway that they actually have trouble locating the body. Wow. But they do have this license plate. So they run it through, and sure enough, it is connected to a white van with blue stripes on it. But this van belongs to a church.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

What really?

SPEAKER_01 18:07

So police officers go down to the church and they interview everybody that was there at the time of the body dump, and all of them are accounted for. And really unfortunate, they fingerprint the van. All of those fingerprints prints belong to church members who were all accounted for. So it's a total dead end. But what the driver was trying to provide with regards to a story to throw people off, I guess, is what we're thinking. He was actually giving them a clue that allowed police officers to know, hey, this guy is probably the killer. Because how would this man be able to describe that van and see a license plate and look that dark, right? So dark that they couldn't even locate this body. So they were like, This guy, most likely the killer, which means that he's paying attention and he's actually kind of taunting us a little bit. Right. So unfortunately, we do have another body. It is the body of Barbara Ware. So her her body was discovered in the alley. She was also shot in the chest with a 25 caliber handgun. And she was discovered right next to a dumpster, beaten, shot, and strangled. Also gagged with a piece of cloth. Next was Mary Lowe. Lowe was last seen on Halloween night getting into what witnesses describe as a red-orange pinto. So she was found in the alleyway behind a business center. She'd been being strangled and shot once in the chest.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

It just seems so over the top. Yeah. Like you're strangling them and shooting them. And then you're shooting them. Right. All the time. Like just to make sure that he finished the job. Yeah. I mean it's this overkill. I not no pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

What I feel like it seems as if just because I've heard so many of these stories before, strangulation to then be able to sexually assault somebody.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

And then killing them before body is my thought of like a chain of events.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

I don't know. I didn't think of it like that. Like a very angry man that's got some real angry person. Okay. The last time someone saw her, they saw her getting into a red and orange pinto. The cops could have used this, but they did not connect her to the previous crimes right away. They found her body and they just didn't follow up on the lead because at the same time that this was going on, there were two other serial killers that were on the streets of Richard Ramirez, which is one. So that lead dried up, which is unfortunate.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

But but also, well, okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

No.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Well, Richard Ramirez wasn't killing people in alleys, he was breaking into their homes. Yes. But I guess they're busy with a lot of other things. Yeah. Can't really I mean it's LA.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Yeah. But still, like, I mean, this is what four victims?

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Year after year of this happening.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

And they all have the same, you know, same M. M.O.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Like shot with the same gun, strangled, and then the clock closet both, you know, be in dead giveaway.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

So it's like for me, it is.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

He's not straying at all from his tactics.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

No. And all in alleyways.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

All very close proximity. But South Central. LA is very tight. Busy. Yes. 1988 brought with it the discovery of two new victims. Oh, excuse me. Three new victims. 22-year-old Lacretia Jefferson's body was discovered also in an alleyway. She had been covered with a piece of plywood in an attempt to cover her body. And Lacretia's case is special in the later part of this story. Just holding on to that, but it is very significant. So she had been shot twice as well. However, rather than gagging her with a cloth, the killer had taken a paper napkin, which he had written AIDS on, put it in her mouth, and he taped over it with a piece of surgical tape. Also found next to her body was a used and discarded condom. So this evidence was collected, even though they couldn't use it then. Police knew that the technology was tiny. Yeah. So they saved it. And that evidence was going to be crucial later on because there was a lot of DNA in this case. Next, on September 11th, the body of 18-year-old Monique Alexander was found. She had been sexually assaulted and had a gunshot shot wound to the left side of her chest. Investigation into Monique's case found that she had been seen right by her house getting into a red-orange pinto. Now, I've watched a few documentaries and her brother, gosh, it breaks my heart because he just he was like, She was such a good kid. She got straight. She was great in school. She was a great person, and she would never have gotten into a car with someone she didn't know. She got into a car right by her house. So uh he was of the idea that she felt comfortable enough to get into this car.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

That's what I'm that was my thought. It's like he said specifically that she didn't know. She that maybe like leads to the fact that he was at least somebody in the community that she had met, diagnosed, seemed like well, at least that's how he felt.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Yeah. Because this isn't another person that or another woman that maybe had ties to sex work or addiction. This was a good girl that had just, she was just a vulnerable person. Yeah. But because of that link to that red orange pinto that she was seen getting into, police were able to then tie it to Mary Lowe's case.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

And they knew at that point, A, that they fucked up. Yeah. Because they didn't put out they could have searched all of California for that red orange pinto if they would have actually used that information when they were given it. But here we are now, and they did a DMV search of all red orange pintos in the area, but nothing came up. There were no positive leaks. Anyone that they found, those people had alibis, though those people were completely cleared. So it's another, it's another dead end.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Then on November 20th, 1988, comes the first major break in this case. Emetria Washington, a 30-year-old nurse just on her night off, arrived at her friend's house, crawling onto the stoop, bloody from a gunshot wound. Oh my god. She passes out. She immediately her friend calls 911 and she is rushed to the hospital. She spends hours in surgery and she survives. Oh good. When Etrea wakes up, she's able to talk to police, and the story that she tells them is wild. So she was out front of her house on a Friday night. She was getting out there ready to go and have a party or go to her friend's house for a party. And this guy in an orange and red or orange red pinto pulls up and they start chatting. She says, He's super charismatic. She's like, Oh, I'm going to party. What are you going to do tonight? You know, just like an average exchange. But what she said was that he was very persistent in giving her a ride to her friend's house. And she was like, you know what? He seems nice. He seems cool. And she goes inside and is like, I'm going to change real quick and let's go. And she hops in the car.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

No.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

You don't ever do that.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Because her friend's house is right around the corner. I think she thought, like, what's what's good? What's the harm?

SPEAKER_03 26:43

Well, I mean, once you get in a car, you don't know what it doesn't matter where things are.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

She said he was charming and very charismatic. But so they start to drive and she notices almost immediately that they're not going in the right direction.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

But the man that was driving said, Hey, I just gotta stop by my uncle's house real quick and pick up some money. Nope. And they do. They stop, he hops out. She sees him, she sees him talking to this guy in front of an apartment building. She waits there a little while longer and he gets back in the car. They take off, and she said almost immediately she felt a shift. His demeanor completely changed. He starts acting really aggressive to her, and he's saying crazy stuff to her. But while he's yelling these things at her, he's calling her Barbara. And she's like, Who is Barbara? My name is not Barbara. This is just alarm bells going off for her. Enetria's grown up on these streets, though. So she is like, I absolutely am not doing this. So she reaches for the door handle. It's right then that she gets shot at point Blake range in the chest. Eniria wakes up to the flash of a photo being taken of her. This man is on top of her, sexually assaulting her, and taking shots of her with his Polaroid camera of her bleeding body that's totally incapacitated. She says that she came in and out of consciousness because of course she's been shot, but she notices that it's dark out. When she had gotten picked up, it was still light out. So she knows time has passed.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Even though she's in and out of consciousness, he the next thing that she knows is that she's getting rolled out of the side, dumped in an alley, and the car takes off. That's when Ania Johnson crawls to her friend's house.

SPEAKER_04 28:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

So this woman has survived a gunshot, has fought her way to get to her friend's house. She survived surgery. And when she gets interviewed by police and she tells them all of this, she's able to give the sketch artist a comp or the sketch artist is has created a composite drawing of this man. She's even able to take the police along the route that they took. Wow. Because this is her neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 29:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

She drove them directly to the house that he stopped at. So they're like, Oh yeah. Great, we're gonna catch him. They go. This house is owned by a 70-year-old man, so it's definitely not the young black man that had picked her up. And they search the house, they find a 22-caliber handgun, but it's not the one. They cannot trace anything back to the owner of this home, and they know it's not him. Right. So even though she's survived, she's given them all this information, there, the person that picked her up is nowhere to be found. So what they're thinking is that he took her to this house and then darted somewhere else and picked up that gun. However, they don't have any leaps. This this now has been what the fourth time that this guy has gotten away with all of this evidence stacked against him. So she's just gotta go back home to where this man picked her up in front of and live her life. About a year later, Ane is outside of her home.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

And a man approaches her, and he walks up to her and says, Do you know who I am? And she goes, No, should I? And he looked her dead in the eyes and she said she just felt it.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Oh my god. That's terrifying.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

She was horrified. She knew in her heart that it was him, but she didn't really recognize this man as someone she knew.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

That's crazy because she was able to give a composite sketch.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

But it's been a year. Yeah. You know, it's been a year, and she wasn't expecting somebody to just randomly walk up to her, you know, catching her completely off guard.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

But terrified.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

So after Anaitria Johnson, the killing stopped. But science, science did not stop. And it was so that was his last known victim?

SPEAKER_02 31:32

No. No. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

So while this has stopped, DNA evidence or DNA forensics actually continues to develop. And it was introduced in the late 80s. Unfortunately, it wasn't something that they were starting to implement in a lot of cases yet. But it was in 1998 that the FBI officially launched the NDIS or the National DNA index system. And before that, there wasn't a place where DNA evidence was being uploaded and shared throughout the entirety of the US. So this is like next level, next level CODIS. And CODIS is the combined DNA index system that we know and use today. So at that point, all 50 states are all sharing the DNA evidence that they have all compiled. And in 2001, the LAPD established the cold case homicide unit. Um, they began the process of entering all the DNA from all the cold case evidence kits at that point. And due to the fact that it was not required federally for offenders that had felonies to upload their DNA or to keep their DNA on file, Lonnie Franklin, even though he did go to jail and did have a felony, his DNA wasn't taken. Wow. So wild that he got to he just keeps like slipping just through all these little cracks. Yeah. So 2002, we're gonna jump ahead. Okay. The body of 15-year-old princess Bertham. Her body was found naked, strangled, and beaten in an alley. She was the youngest victim, and man, I'm not going to get completely into it, but this young woman's story is horrifying. She at two years old became the worst victim or the worst case of child abuse ever in LA history.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

It's terrible what happened. Yeah, we don't need details on that.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

But she was placed in a foster home at two, and she lived with her foster family, who became her family, for 10 years until her foster mother passed away. It was at that time her the sister that she, the only family that she knew was her foster family, and her older sister tried to petition to keep her, but she just didn't meet the requirements. So she was put into the system, and that's how she ended up in South Central LA. At 12, she was placed there, and then at 15, she ran away. Three days later is when her body was found. Just it the most tragic. But DNA evidence from her case was uploaded into CODIS. No matches were found. July 11th, 2003 was the discovery of Valerie McCorvey. She was found by a crossing guard in an alley. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Now, this is different than the other cases because they weren't shot, they were strangled. But something about the way that their bodies were left in an alley, though they knew that these cases were tied. It was just bringing up all of these familiar feelings. But they couldn't officially tie it. However, it didn't stop the LAPD from forming a task force that was going to be looking into tying these cases together. 2006, an LA weekly reporter by the name of Christine Peleski heard about these murders from the coroner's office, and she began to investigate them on her own. So 38 different women were found on the streets from the early 80s to where they're at in 2006. And she took it upon herself to say, what is going on? There's something going on in South Central LA. There's more than what the police are telling us.

SPEAKER_03 36:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

She starts getting in with the family. She interviews all of them. She's trying to make sure that the community knows you guys have a serial killer in your midst. There's somebody. I don't know how all of these are tied together. They may not be, but you guys need to know that this is actually happening. And they knew. They knew and they felt the fact that the police were not giving them all the information and they were not solving any of these crimes. In 2008, Puleski knew that the police were dragging their feet. So she decided to write another article. In that article, she knew that she needed to grab the reader's attention. So that's when she dubbed him the Grim Sleeper. And it was because of that 14-year hiatus that he took from 1988 to 2002 that she they knew that this that this was the same serial killer. They were had to have all been connected, but they just didn't know how far reaching it was at that point. The LAPD got word that this article was coming out, and that's when they chose to have a press release and informed the public that they had a serial killer that was amongst them. And LA City Council offered up a $500,000 reward for any leads that would lead to the capture of this man. Biggest reward ever offered in LA history. So they were taking it seriously. Now, yes, now I think that they were before they had formed the task force, but they didn't have any significant leads. And they did not want to spook whoever was doing this and have them go into hiding, had them flee. They didn't want him to know, or at least this is what I've read, they didn't want him to know that they were after.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

So finally in 2007, the body of Genecia Peters was found by a man digging through the dumpster in the alley. Her red fingernails stood out in stark contrast to that black garbage bag that he had dumped her in. DNA taken from the twist tie of that garbage bag was linked to the 2003 murder of Princess Bartholomew and Valerie McCorvey. However, it was when the DNA sample was uploaded into CODIS that they were able to link it to the murders that happened in 2000, or excuse me, in 1980. So it was only then that they were actually able to link it together. The reporter saw the similarities, the community saw it, but it wasn't until this last murder that they were able to definitively link the murders, which is wild to me.

SPEAKER_03 39:23

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

So unfortunately, there wasn't a match in the system. So now they're just waiting. So do you guys remember the 911 phone call that happens that identified that van? It's when police were going over those details that they actually are going. So there is that big clue. This was too dark. This had to have been the killer, right?

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

So in that, they really start to hone in on the fact that this has to be a man from the area. And they start to release the recording of that 911 phone call in hopes that somebody's going to be uh able to identify his voice. Recognize his voice. Because they no longer in any way believe that it was anyone but the killer.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

So it was in 2008 that they finally got a huge break in this case. The Attorney General of California approved the use of familial DNA from cold cases. So for those of you that don't know what familial DNA is, it's establishing a familial link in a DNA sample. And they use through the process of elimination the father, uncle, brother, they're able to identify the next of kin based on one felon's DNA. So it can be a partial match, and they'll be able to then go back through and establish a family tree and eliminate people based on age, based on their location at the time. So many different things. And it's when Detective Dennis Kilcoin learned of this approval that he was like, this is our chance. There were over a million samples that were currently in CODIS at that time. And he was like, if we have any opportunity, this is going to be it. So they uploaded it and they waited because they have to go through every single one. But there were no matches. And again, they're just waiting. And three years later, they he knows more people have been uploaded. It's about 400,000 more people have been uploaded into this system. And guess what? There's a match. It's a partial match, but there's a match. It's for a felon by the name of Christopher Franklin. He's 21 and he was in jail on a weapons charge. It was a felony weapons charge. And what they were able to see is that okay, so Christopher's 21. Couldn't be him because he wasn't alive then.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

And the partial match indicated that it was a first-order male relative, meaning that it was either his brother or his father.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

Father, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Christopher doesn't have a brother, but he has a father who is very much alive. His father, 51-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr. That would make him exactly the perfect age to have taken part in those 1980s killings and then be 51 today. So Lonnie Franklin lives in South Central LA on 81st Street, which is literally in the center of that five-mile radius. Um, he is 57, sorry, not 51, which would make him perfect for that age. He once worked as an LAPD garage attendant, and then he became an LA sanitation worker. So he worked for the department.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Wow, so he knew exactly which alleys to all of the alleyways.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

He knew where to go, he was familiar with all of them. Not only that, but where he lived was just three doors down from where anetria was picked up. Wow. Which is insane to me. But it's a killer hiding in like in plain sight. Yeah. So with all that mounting evidence, police began a huge surveillance operation. They are monitoring wherever this man went, just praying for him to discard a cigarette butt or a piece of trash or anything that could have his DNA on it on it, but nothing. This man, they We're waiting and nothing was taking place for weeks. And then they got their chance. He went to a birthday party at a pizza parlor, and uh a one of the detectives disguised as a busboy.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

Wait, this is like one of my top three favorite, like yeah, catch-a-killer stories. Top three.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

So he's waiting and he clears his plate, his cup, his napkin, and they take discarded food and they take it straight to the crime, the crime lab, and they just wait. While they're waiting, they continue their surveillance. But the crime lab is able to get Lonnie Franklin's DNA off of a piece of cheese on a pizza. It had hardened and they were able to pull a sample from it. Like a piece of cheese on a pizza.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

This man illusionally his car, his DNA. He was in jail, and you got taken out. Freaking cheese on a pizza.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

But he never left a pizza in the state.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

I hope he chokes on the pizza that he has forever. But they armed with this, police execute a search, or excuse me, an arrest warrant. They go to his house and they quietly arrested him. When they searched his home in his garage, they found videotapes of women in his home in various states of uh inebriation, we'll call it. And they saw a hole in the drywall and they reached in. They found somewhere between 135 to 150 Polaroids. In those Polaroids was someone taken of Anyetria.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

Oh, they just got shells. Yeah, because once you said that, the pictures came back on like 100%. I knew like that he was taking pictures of every single one of them. Like if he was, you know, if he took that picture of Enietria, like that was part of his thing. That was part of his collect collection.

SPEAKER_02 46:11

But also, side bar, um, he also used to, like when he would have sexual relations with consensual sexual relations with the women, he would take pictures. He would show them to the guys like in the neighborhood. So when all these guys would even see him with all these women anyway, they were like, Oh, that's just that's just Lonnie, like with his women.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

When he ended up talking to people that he knew, friends, neighbors, they all, I mean, there was quite a few that were completely caught off guard, but there were other people that were like, oh gotcha. He showed a box of underwear to some to a woman neighbor. That's like so fucking weird. That's okay. Like, I guess it's a red flag of just like maybe I'm just not gonna talk to me anymore. Yeah, but he was also seen as that guy that you know what that guy worked on my car one time, you know, went for free. Like he was helpful in all these ways, like staying under the radar. Well, staying on the radar, watching out for the neighborhood, but really he was watching for who the most vulnerable people were, you know, like oh, I can't, I can't. So they arrest Lonnie, and in the interrogation, they start asking him about the murders, and he's like, No, no, and they start showing him pictures, and he's like, I don't recognize any of them, and then they show him an atria, and it's undeniable. And they already know they got him, but he denied everything. His wife, who he had been married to for 32 years, a devout Christian woman, just completely stonewalled the investigators. Just she never cooperated at all. His son has done interviews and other documentaries, but he just seems like indifferent to it at times. He doesn't seem like he's in any way defending his dad, but he also just very like matter-of-fact.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

And to me, I'm like, I don't feel like he was like hiding as well as he thought because I feel like his son, his son didn't turn out that well. I mean, he's that felony weapons charge, and he doesn't seem to like be denouncing his dad. Yeah, he just seems indifferent to it.

SPEAKER_03 48:33

So I he might have just disconnected from it.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Maybe I don't know, but wild.

SPEAKER_03 48:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

So he was formally charged and convicted for the deaths of 10 people, nine women and one 15-year-old girl, um, whose all of their bodies were discovered from 1985 to 2007. Notice that I say 1985, because the first murder we talked about was in 1984.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Because they weren't able to get the DNA evidence back in time to prove that he had actually murdered her but for the time of the trial. But when it came to sentencing, you better believe that they were they had the right information, and all of the cases were presented at that time. The Polaroids were presented, and Anatrea Washington was pivotal to this case, to making sure not only that he was convicted, but that his sentencing was harsh. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Yeah. So that must have been hard for her to relive.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

I saw a documentary with her in it, and she said that he actually came up to her before a trial and tried to apologize.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

Bitch.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

Like, I don't know how you could not like attack him. There's no way.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

How do you apologize for that? Yeah, yeah. Like, what is that? Yeah, that's not a thing. That's not like that's not a real yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:59

Thank you. Thank you so much. Like your apologies. What?

SPEAKER_03 50:02

It's not, that's not, you don't know. No.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

No. I it's wild to me. This case is crazy. Um, but so LAPD, once they did know that they conclusively had them, they had a private meeting with all of the loved ones of all of the victims to let them know. They got informed first. That's good. Which is really good. In an attempt to identify more victims, LAPD worked with local news agencies and local newspapers to and they released the Polaroids that they weren't able to identify women. So they got a lot of hits. There were women that were absolutely still alive that said they remembered it and he was cool. It was, it wasn't anything like crazy creepy. They they definitely said that he was a freak, but they were safe afterwards. Some of the women had passed away, not by his hand, but there still are about 35 unidentified women. So they continually post these Polaroids. The LAPD has a link on their current website where people can go and try to identify them to this day.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

I think that's the same for Rodney Ocala. They found like 200 plus pictures in his locker in Huntington. Yeah. And released all of them.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

Yeah, that's wild.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because he's he's up in North Anderson. He's like he's a North Andes, so he's a up and down the coast killer.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

But that was uh here and then in Washington, right? Yeah. His storage units were kept all of those things. Yeah. All the maybe the locker was up. It was on Orange. Yeah. Yeah, it was. With the like um with his little trophies.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Yeah. But he did have victims in Honey.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 51:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

So in a community of people that were already struggling, Lonnie Franklin Jr. spent decades terrorizing them. Um, many of him his victims were just overlooked for whatever various reasons, reasons, socioeconomical, what their profession was. And it took the persistence of investigators, journalists, and the community to finally bring enough light to this case to get it the manpower that it deserved.

SPEAKER_03 52:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Franklin died in prison in 2020, as he should.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Was it awful? Did he suffer? Here's hoping.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

But for the family of the victims, I don't I it's closure, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 52:45

Yeah, I mean to a to an to an extra degree, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:50

But for the unidentified women in those photos and their families, I there's no closure yet. Yeah, no, you know, it's I hope that people continue to go onto the LAPD website and look through those photos. If you have a loved one that's missing, maybe we can link it. Oh yeah, we'll link it. We'll link it in the show notes for sure, for sure. But definitely try. So that is the case of Lonnie Franklin Jr. or the South Side Slayer or the 25 caliber killer or the Grimmsleeper. The Grim Sleeper. The Grim Sleeper.

unknown 53:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

That's a that's a heavy one. That was a heavy one. That's why very big exhale after that. It's a big one.

SPEAKER_03 53:38

That's gonna take a wild up one.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Oh my gosh. We'll give that a 48-hour yeah, head start.

SPEAKER_03 53:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:47

So also I wanted to mention, um, since our release date happened today, we've had friends and family watching all day. Um, one of my best friends, Melissa, who is from San initially from San Bernardino, um her grandfather, after retiring from the post office, got a part-time job at Patton State Mental Facility. And he worked in the cafeteria in the early 2000s. So he might have been there. Wow. Yeah, there's a little fun fact for you.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

Charles Alloway could be somebody that he served in the middle of the country.

SPEAKER_02 54:22

Very high possibility.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

Throw some food out here.

SPEAKER_02 54:25

Yeah. She did say that they eat very well at that place. Yeah. So that's good to know.

SPEAKER_01 54:29

It's supposed to be like five, like a five-story resort.

SPEAKER_03 54:33

Yeah. Five-star resort.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:35

I mean, as mental health is.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

And not all of them are um murderers at the hospital. Yeah. It's not like yeah, they're, you know.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

So I imagine that quite a few are criminals.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Well, I mean, again, it's it's also um like minimum security, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're not gonna put like yeah, the hardest of criminals there.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

So like girl interrupted.

SPEAKER_03 54:59

Yeah. Or like the one that uh Morgan Geyser just escaped from. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

Yeah. Just and there she goes. Yeah.

unknown 55:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Well, she's fine. She's back now.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

If they learned her their lesson on that, put her back in jail.

SPEAKER_03 55:12

Put her back where she belongs.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

Yeah, if you can escape there, you might just put you, we'll lock you up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

How do we feel about that, ladies?

SPEAKER_03 55:22

That was again. It was a he's a bad one. He's a bad guy.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

I'm glad he's dead.

SPEAKER_03 55:27

But I mean, it was, I mean, that was a lot of information. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

I uh I I tried. Yeah. Tried there was a lot.

SPEAKER_03 55:33

That yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

Every single one of those victims deserved their own at-length story. I'm sorry that our show is as short as it is. But I did the best that I could to ensure that each one of them got acknowledged because Yeah. Yeah, way too many. Alright, ladies, are you ready to close the tab on tonight?

SPEAKER_03 55:57

Yes. I definitely am. Yep. Until next time.

SPEAKER_02 56:02

Don't get don't get absolute.