Grim Sleeper

Lonnie David Franklin Jr. (August 30, 1952 – March 28, 2020), better known by the nickname Grim Sleeper, was an American serial killer who was responsible for at least ten murders and one attempted murder in Los Angeles, California from 1984 to 2007. He was also convicted for rape and sexual violence. Franklin earned his nickname when he appeared to have taken a 14-year break from his crimes, from 1988 to 2002.

In July 2010, Franklin was arrested as a suspect, and, after many delays, his trial began in February 2016. On May 5, 2016, the jury convicted him of killing nine women and one teenage girl. On June 6, 2016, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and on August 10, 2016, the Los Angeles Superior Court sentenced him to death for each of the ten victims named in the verdict.

On March 28, 2020, Franklin was found dead in his cell at San Quentin State Prison. No cause of death was ever publicly revealed.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was born on August 30, 1952, and grew up in South Central Los Angeles. He married and had two children. He was given a dishonorable discharge from the United States Army in July 1975, after being released from prison for his conviction in the kidnapping and gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in Stuttgart, West Germany, in April 1974. Franklin, who was sentenced to three years and four months in prison by a West German court, and two other servicemen, who had tried to kidnap a woman earlier that night, stationed in Stuttgart stopped to ask directions from the teen and offered her a ride home. When she accepted, they put a knife to her throat, drove to a field, and spent the rest of the night raping her. She was able to feign interest in Franklin and asked for his phone number, by which police identified him. During the gang rape, photographs were taken by the rapists — as Franklin would also later do with the women he raped and murdered. The victim would later testify at the sentencing phase of Franklin's capital murder trial.

In 1989, Franklin was convicted of two charges of theft, one charge of misdemeanor assault, and one charge of battery. He only served time for one of the theft charges.

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. The killer, dubbed the "Southside Slayer," was believed to be responsible for stabbing and strangling at least 13 sex workers between 1983 and late-1985. At one point, the murders were colloquially known as the "Strawberry Murders" ("strawberry" being slang for a woman who exchanges sex for drugs).

In September 1985, the LAPD described the case at a press conference and asked for tips from the public. 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. 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. Prescod contrasted the apparent lack of police interest in the South Central murders with the significant attention given to the investigation of Richard Ramirez, the serial killer dubbed the Night Stalker who targeted women in upscale areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco between June 1984 and August 1985. Prescod accused the LAPD of indifference to the deaths of women who were poor, Black, drug users, and sex workers, which the LAPD denied.

By January 1986, 15 murders had been linked to the case. More detectives were added to the joint LAPD-LASD investigation, which had become known as the Southside Slayer Task Force, but by 1986 the case was still under investigation. 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.