The verdict brings a measure of closure to the decades-long horror story that featured a killer who targeted mostly poor, black women, some of whom were prostitutes; a police force that was accused of not doing everything it could to protect the community; and the possibility that dozens or even hundreds of other women may have also been murdered by Franklin.
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Franklin, a former mechanic and sanitation worker, was also found guilty of the attempted murder of an 11th victim, who survived being shot in the chest, raped, pushed out of a auto and left for dead in 1988.
All of the victims were found dumped in alleys and rubbish bins in South Los Angeles.
The killings occurred between 1985 to 1988 and 2002 to 2007, with the assailant dubbed the “Grim Sleeper” because of the apparent 13-year break in the killings. He was also convicted of attempted murder in an attack in the late 1980s.
Since his March 2011 indictment, police said they had gathered evidence linking Franklin to at least six more slayings, some of which took place during the previously presumed lapse in killings.
Los Angeles police arrested Franklin in 2010 after DNA from Franklin’s incarcerated son led authorities to Franklin himself, as the Two-Way reported.
Franklin prowled the streets of East L.A., convincing his victims to get in his auto before surprising them with a gunshot to the chest or strangulation, then sexual assault before dumping their bodies like trash, Silverman said. He said the real killer had access to Franklin’s Ford Pinto and had told Washington he was stopping at an “uncle’s house” – believed to be Franklin’s – to get money while she waited in the vehicle.
Today marks the second day of deliberations in the trial of the alleged serial killer murders of nine women and a teenage girl over a period of two decades. Police uncovered almost 100 pictures of unidentified women from Franklin’s home.
In the 2000s, police investigators began digging into the city’s cold cases, using DNA evidence from hair and skin to find answers. An officer posing as a busboy at a pizza parlor got DNA samples from dishes and utensils Franklin had been eating with at a birthday party. In testimony given February 25, she identified Franklin as her assailant and said he took a Polaroid-type photo of her after shooting her.
But that interpretation of the evidence had no basis in fact, Silverman said. She said she was 100 percent sure he was the man who shot her and left her for dead.
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Defense lawyer Seymour Amster challenged what he called “inferior science” of DNA and ballistics evidence.
