Murder Suspect Had Taste for Porn, Hookers

07/09/2010

LOS ANGELES (July 8) -- Neighbors of the man arrested in the Grim Sleeper serial murders allege he had a penchant for prostitutes and pornography, often proudly displaying his photos to them.

Men who live near Lonnie Franklin Jr.'s home in South Central Los Angeles said they had seen pictures -- and in one case videos -- of nude prostitutes that Franklin reputedly picked up along seamy Los Angeles boulevards before having sex with them in his van.

"He'd say, 'Hey, Fernando -- look at this woman, I had her the other night,' " neighbor Fernando Cole told AOL News. "He had videos and pictures that showed them from the neck down. I couldn't see their heads."

Cole said he has known the 57-year-old mechanic for 15 years and has been shown the photos for as long as he can remember. The last time was about a month ago, he said.

"They are XXX-rated," Cole said.

Franklin was arrested Wednesday and charged with 10 counts of murder stemming from an L.A. killing spree that started in 1985 and ended in 2007. All the victims were black women, and many were prostitutes, authorities said. After they were shot or strangled, their bodies were discarded in alleys, placed in trash bins or covered with debris.

Franklin, 57, appeared in court today and did not enter a plea; the case was continued until Aug. 9.

Cole said he was shocked to learn of the charges; Franklin just seemed to be an average guy bragging about his conquests.

"[Franklin] had a wife who was a legal secretary or something like that. She went to church every week, but he never went," Cole said, adding that Franklin also had a son who'd recently gotten out of jail.

It was the son, in fact, who led detectives to Franklin's doorstep: After one woman survived a Grim Sleeper rape and assault, the suspect's DNA was run through the state system and came back a close match to the son. Felons in California are required to give DNA samples.

The investigation then zeroed in on the elder Franklin, who is old enough to have been the killer.

"I think he's a sick individual," said Keisha Smith, who told AOL News that another male neighbor had viewed Franklin's stash of nude photos months ago. "My friend told me that [Franklin] was picking up prostitutes on Western [Avenue], and the next morning he would be showing him the pictures."

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Police Department detectives and three bomb squad officers in protective vests continued to comb through Franklin's home for a second day in a row. The entire block was cordoned off with yellow police tape, keeping the media and curious onlookers in this working-class neighborhood away from the intense search.

If the inside of the house was any reflection of Franklin's backyard, police had their hands full. The backyard was littered with car parts and metal scraps piled 7 feet high. An old refrigerator and a motor home were in the center of the yard, surrounded by mounds of debris.

"I don't think for a minute we're going to find buried bodies in the backyard or any of that type of thing," lead LAPD Detective Dennis Kilcoyne told KNX News Radio. "But we're looking for papers, pictures -- just all kinds of whatever that may give us another name."

Although the Grim Sleeper got his name for apparently taking a 13-year hiatus during the middle of his killing spree, criminal profiler Katherine Ramsland told AOL News it probably didn't happen that way.

"All we know is that nothing was linked to him" in that time period, said Ramsland, a forensic psychology professor at DeSales University in Pennsylvania and the author of 38 books. "I believe that he found victims elsewhere and disposed of them elsewhere."

In that alternative scenario, the killer might have taken just a short break after his lone surviving victim escaped him in 1988, thinking police were probably closing in. But soon he was probably back trolling for victims. The media coverage and, later, billboards bearing his composite portrait were probably a sense of pride rather than paranoia, Ramsland said.

"Sometimes serial killers take great satisfaction that they made the news and no one caught them -- they feel smarter than the cops," Ramsland said. "It doesn't creep them out that they're on the billboards."

Although people theorized that Franklin was the Grim Sleeper, they still needed evidence. To that end, they followed him for weeks and finally last weekend saw him go into a restaurant. When Franklin left, quick-thinking detectives collected a half-eaten slice of pizza and eating utensils to test for DNA. It was a positive match to their serial killer.

News of the arrest rocked the close-knit neighborhood where Franklin worked out of his home as a mechanic, fixing cars for a discounted price. One of his customers was Keisha Smith, who shudders at the thought that she was alone with him several times.

"He seemed so nice," Smith said. "He always had a smile on his face. He even gave me a ride once when I didn't have a car and I didn't think anything of it."

From: http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/neighbors-describe-murder-suspect-lonnie-franklin-jr-as-sick-individual/19547455