April 2, 2020 – Serial killer Lonnie (The Grim Sleeper) Franklin died in San Quentin Prison this week at age 67. He had been on death row since 2016 for a series of slayings that spanned two decades. His bloodletting took a 14-year hiatus though. A garbage man by trade, Franklin terrorized Los Angeles, killing at least 10 women in a murder spree that began in 1985 and concluded in 2007. Authorities suspect he was guilty of many more. There were no murders committed between 1988 and 2002 tied to Franklin, leading investigators to believe his instinct to kill “went to sleep” and giving way to his nickname. Prison guards found him unresponsive in his cell Saturday. L.A. Police detectives finally nailed Franklin in 2010 after his son was arrested and a DNA sample showed similarities to the Grim Sleeper’s. An undercover team collected Franklin’s DNA to test when he attended a nephew’s birthday party at a local pizza parlor. Police discovered a gun used as one of the murder weapons and pictures of some the murdered women in a search of Franklin’s residence. Almost 200 photos of seemingly random women were unearthed in storage boxes located in the garage.
