Serial killer sentenced to death after being found guilty of killing at least 10 women over a 22 year period
The 64-year-old raped his victims before strangling or shooting them
AN AMERICAN serial-killer has been sentenced to death for murdering nine women and a teenage girl in a crime spree lasting 22 years.
Lonnie Franklin Jr, dubbed ‘The Grim Sleeper’ by police, was found guilty after a two month trial and sentenced today.
Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy said: “I can’t think of anyone in all my years that has committed the kind of monstrous and the number of monstrous crimes that you have.”
She read the names of his 10 victims, and for each one said “you shall suffer the death penalty”.
Franklin also was found guilty of attacking an 11th victim, who survived being shot, raped, pushed out of a car and left for dead in 1988.
She testified against him during the trial and told the jury how he had offered her a lift as she walked to a friends house before attacking her.
The 64-year-old, who is also a suspect in other unsolved slayings, showed no emotion as the sentence was imposed.
Prosecutors say Franklin stalked the streets of South Los Angeles, preying on prostitutes and drug addicts in a crime spree beginning at the height of a crack cocaine epidemic in the area.
His victims’ naked or partially clothed bodies were found dumped in alleys and bins.
He targeted vulnerable young black women in inner city Los Angeles.
The former binman raped his victims before strangling or shooting them, and then dumped their bodies during his killing spree in Los Angeles.
He was arrested in 2010 after a DNA search of an inmate database led to a partial match with his son.
The LA Police Department’s special task force then followed Franklin to a restaurant and tested his discarded pizza slice.
His DNA proved a match.
Lonnie Franklin was dubbed the “Grim Sleeper” by police
During the LAPD raid on his home, officers found more than 1,000 photos of women and several hundred hours of video.
Investigators fear he may have targeted as many as 180 women.
After the photos were made public, one of the victim’s families came forward to identify their daughter.
“Once he saw he could get away with murder, literally, he just kept doing it,” Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told the jury during closing arguments.
Franklin was found guilty of shooting seven women to death from August 1985 to September 1988, then strangling a 15-year-old girl, and strangling or shooting two other women in a second round of killings between March 2002 and January 2007.
He earned the nickname ‘Grim Sleeper’ after taking the break from slayings.
It could take up to 10 years before Franklin is executed pending appeal.
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