A retired police mechanic, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, was arrested and charged Wednesday in Los Angeles’ Grim Sleeper serial killings after decades of frustrated investigations into at least 11 slayings dating back 25 years -- between 1985 and 2007 in which the killer targeted young black women and one man. The killer was dubbed the “Grim Sleeper” because he apparently took a 14-year hiatus in his crimes.

The “Grim Sleeper” case has dogged police even though they had the killer’s DNA, a description from a survivor and had offered a $500,000 reward. The victims were shot, strangled, or both, usually after some kind of sexual contact. Ten victims were women and several were prostitutes. Police have said it’s possible that the male victim, Thomas Steele, who was shot in 1987, was a friend of another victim or discovered the killer’s identity. All the bodies were found outdoors, often in alleys a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, was arrested at his home in South Los Angeles on Wednesday morning after police said they made DNA matches linking him to the killings of 11 people over the last three decades. Prosecutors said they have charged Franklin with 10 counts of murder, noting that he is eligible for the death penalty. Dozens of police officials closed off a block around the 81st Street house where the arrest was made. Neighbors described the man who lives there as friendly and quiet. They said he was often seen working on cars in his front yard and would sometimes stop to chat with passers-by.

In recent days, the LAPD received the results of what is known as a familial DNA search, which trolls through state felon databases for partial DNA matches that would indicate a match to a relative. The suspect in the killings had left DNA evidence at several of the crime scenes. The LAPD learned that a man in state prison showed a strong familial match. Detectives questioned the man, who was too young to have committed several of the older murders, and he led detectives to his father, Franklin. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said detectives got a piece of discarded pizza with Franklin’s DNA to make the link.

The series of killings included victims, mostly female, in the city of Los Angeles, in unincorporated areas of L.A. County and in Inglewood since the 1980s. A survivor in 1988 described her attacker as black, in his 20s, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, about 160 pounds, soft-spoken and articulate, with neatly trimmed hair and a pockmarked face. DNA and ballistics evidence have connected the killings of 10 women and one man from 1985 to 2007, police said. After 1988, the killer did not commit any known homicides until 2002 and last struck on Jan. 1, 2007.

Franklin has twice been convicted of felonies, according to court records, both for receiving stolen property. One was in 1993 and the other was 2003. He served a year in jail for the first conviction and was sentenced to 270 days in jail in the 2003 case.

Franklin was expected to be arraigned Thursday.

-articles from various sources rewritten and adapted by admin-

The theory of a serial killer stalking Kurla has now been confirmed. The first and second rape and murder of minor girls in Nehru Nagar was carried out by the same person, as the DNA from the vaginal swabs have matched.

On February 9, a five-year-old girl’s body was found stuffed in a gunny bag at a staircase in a Nehru Nagar building. A month later, on March 7, a riot-like situation had erupted in Kurla (east) after a nine-year-old girl Anjali Jaiswal was found raped and murdered on the terrace of the police quarters opposite the Nehru Nagar police station – the DNA shows both murders have been carried out by the same person.

The police is now waiting for the reports from the vaginal swabs of nine-year-old girl Nusrat Khursheed Alam Sheikh. Sheikh had been missing since June 6 was recovered dead in a decomposed condition at an abandoned room at Vatsalatai Naik Nagar on June 19. “We are now awaiting reports of the third rape and murder to confirm the role of the same person,” added the officer. They already arrested Mohammad Ajmeri, who is known for his violent behaviour, for allegedly raping and murdering one of the girls. The medical reports however, and a DNA test of Ajmeri proved negative.

The police has stated that citizens are coming forward to help them and not creating any law and order problems in Kurla. “Citizens are cooperating with us. This is a time when the entire force is working to crack the case,” added the officer.

So far, since the first rape and murder in February, police has tested the DNA samples of over 300 people – with no luck. They believe the man responsible for these crimes is a local and was aware that over 70% houses at Vatsala Tai Nagar and the nearby slum remain locked for three months during summer. That helped him hide and leave the place after committing the offenses.

In further investigation they discovered that the killer left a two-rupee coin next to each of the three girls’ bodies. “We are investigating this angle. It might yield a glimpse into his mind,” officials said. Bar owners are asked to provide information on any suspicious visitors. A policeman added that people often reveal many things under the influence of alcohol and information overheard in bars by informers or cops has in the past helped nab many criminals. The officer said that apart from bars and sensitive locations, a team of police officials are keeping a continuous vigil at schools in the locality.

Kamlesh Sharma, a new suspect, arrested on Wednesday by the Vinoba Bhave Nagar police in Kurla for trying to entice a minor girl to accompany him, was remanded in police custody till June 29 by the Kurla Metropolitan Magistrate. Officers said they need his custody to verify if he could be the rapist-killer. “Sharma, 41 and bearded, does not match the description of the wanted rapist, supposed to be in his twenties and clean-shaven. However, we are taking no chances and have sought police custody so we can have DNA tests done and keep Sharma available for an identification parade before the girl who had escaped the rapist,” said an officer with the VB Nagar police. So far, there are no other leads in the case.

-articles from various sources rewritten and adapted by admin-

On Saturday, cops found the naked, decomposed body of a 9 years old girl from an empty house. It’s the fifth such discovery in 4 months in Kurla’s Nehru Nagar. Yet, no arrests have been made.

Police are yet to nail the rapist who has been driving terror into the hearts of Nehru Nagar residents in Kurla. At 9.30 am on Saturday, residents of Vatsalatai Nagar hutment near Nehru Nagar tipped off police when they found a stench emanating from a shanty, which has been unoccupied for the past three months. When police broke open the door, they found the body of a minor bound by a copper wire. The body was too decomposed to be identified. According to police, there were wounds on the thighs but it will only be ascertained after the post mortem if she was raped. Police called in the parents of eight-year-old Nusrat Shaikh, who had been missing since June 6, to identify the body. Nusrat’s father Khurshid Alam Shaikh, 42, identified the body when he saw her clothes. The room had been sold three months ago. Though there is the possibility of someone dropping a body into the room through a gap in the roof, the police are questioning the owner, hoping he’s the key that will help them unlock this mystery and find the current owner.

“We have detained 30 people in this case,” said Jailendra Khandagale, ACP, Kurla. Nehru Nagar police have also issued a sketch of the suspect. They believe Nusrat’s murderer could be the one behind the other five crimes involving minors in Nehru Nagar. However, they can’t even be certain whether it’s one person, two persons, a group of people behind these 6 cases, or if it’s all just a plain coincidence. The only man authorities have actually arrested in connection with the case is a local goon named Ajmeri, who has been a frequent guest at the police station for several years now. Ajmeri is notorious for breaking into homes in the night and stealing money, mobile phones, and small household articles to support his supposed drug addiction. It’s such an accepted fact that his family doesn’t even make excuses for him.

Other five cases include:

February 9: Body of a five-year-old girl was found in a gunny bag on the staircase of a building in Nehru Nagar, Kurla (E). The post-mortem report revealed that the girl was raped and killed.

March 7: A nine-year-old girl was first murdered and then raped. The accused had dumped the victim’s body on the terrace of the residential quarter of senior police inspector Prakash Kale.

April 27: The father of a seven-year-old girl lodged a complaint with Nehru Nagar police that his daughter was kidnapped by unidentified men who had attempted to rape her.

April 28: An eight-year-old girl was playing near her house in Makadwala compound in Kurla (W) when an unknown person lured her on the pretext of buying her a cold drink. He took her to the terrace of the railway police quarters in Kurla (E), right in front of Nehru Nagar police station, and molested her. However, she managed to escape.

May 12: At Vatsalatai Nagar in Kurla (E), an unidentified man lured a girl aged four-and-a-half to a remote place and tried to molest her. The girl was playing outside her house at around 5.30 pm when a man approached her with a chocolate and five rupees and took her to an isolated place.

-article from SKCentral rewritten and adapted by admin-

Britain’s top serial killer expert, Professor David Wilson, reveals the explosive evidence which has convinced him that serial killer Peter Tobin is dance hall fiend Bible John. He has been investigating Tobin for more than three years and says he would stake his credibility on Tobin being the notorious killer.

In exclusive extracts from his new book The Lost British Serial Killer, Wilson reveals why he believes Tobin committed the three brutal, unsolved murders in Glasgow that have been blamed on Bible John. And he describes the bombshell courtroom moment when he became certain that Tobin was guilty of the murders.

Wilson, professor of criminology at the Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research at Birmingham University, became convinced he was looking at Bible John during Tobin’s trial for the 1991 murder of teenager Dinah McNicol. Hitch-hiker David Tremlett was a reluctant witness, as police initially suspected he had murdered Dinah.

“He shared a hitched lift from Liphook Music Festival in Hampshire with her. She was sitting in the front of Tobin’s cab while he was in the back and he overheard a conversation where Tobin said to Dinah that the Cambridge Folk Festival was ‘more my style’. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He was trying to imply he was socially superior and that he could be trusted. This was the exactly the same type of conversation that witness Jeannie Williams had in the back of a Glasgow taxi all those years ago with Bible John. Jeannie recalled how the killer seemed to want to make out he was a cut above everyone else. He talked about how he didn’t support Celtic or Rangers, which was highly unusual in Glasgow, and how he didn’t drink at Hogmanay. He talked about his cousin’s hole-in-one at golf and it was exactly the same technique he was using.

“Tobin kept his head down and rarely made eye contact throughout the trial but he looked up at this statement and I thought, ‘You are looking up because you know the significance of that’. I looked around the court but no one else had picked up on it. Despite the decades between the conversations, the link, to me, was clear and I wanted to stand up and shout, ‘Peter Tobin is Bible John!’”

During his research for the book, Wilson visited the sites of the Bible John murders and interviewed witnesses and former detectives. The murders stopped when Tobin left Glasgow. His travels around Britain, raping and possibly murdering other women, could explain why the killings came to a sudden halt in 1969 after three deaths in less than two years.

Wilson first became interested in Tobin when he was convicted of murdering Angelika. The evil handyman hid her body under the floorboards of St Patrick ’s Church in Anderston, Glasgow. Wilson said: “I was fascinated that a man in his sixties was capable of such a violent crime. I tracked down his first wife Margaret Mackintosh. Bible John was a sexual sadist and we have testimony from Margaret of Tobin’s sexual sadism. Jeannie gave a surname for John and she thought it was something like ‘Sempleson’ or ‘Templeton’. Tobin used the name John Semple. That is a striking piece of evidence that cannot be coincidental.”

The criminologist accepts there may never be definitive proof that Tobin is the infamous serial killer but he added: “I am as convinced as it’s able to be. As far as I am concerned the case is closed.”

Tobin, 63, will die in jail, having been convicted of murdering Scots schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, Essex teenager Dinah and Polish student Angelika Kluk in Glasgow. He has since been linked with as many as 48 victims – and a special police operation has been set up to probe links between Tobin and a string of unsolved murders. We might never know the truth!

-article by Lynn Mcpherson rewritten and adapted by admin-

Derrick Bird, 52, described by friends as “a loner” who lived with his mother, started his bloody rampage with his twin brother, a family solicitor and then three taxi drivers with whom he had worked for years. He then embarked on a random spree through the Cumbrian countryside.

The shooting frenzy began close to Bird’s home village of Rowrah early in the morning. It is understood he shot dead his twin brother David, of Lamplugh, a former mechanic working as a lorry driver. He also killed Kevin Commons, the family solicitor. He set off for Whitehaven, where one of his first victims was Darren Rewcastle, 43, a taxi driver who had worked with Bird for years. Friends said they never had any problems in the past.

A taxi driver in Whitehaven, Cumbria, where Bird shot and killed two people, said last night: “From what I’ve been told, there was an argument between him and other drivers.” Afterwards Derrick shook all their hands and said: “There’s going to be a rampage tomorrow.” Bird then told his friend Peter Leder: “You won’t see me again.”

Turning the gun on two other taxi drivers, Bird killed one and injured another, believed to be Terry Kennedy, who is in his 40s. He moved on to the town of Egremont where he came across Susan Hughes, 57, who has two daughters, one of whom is understood to be severely disabled. She was walking home from a local shop when he killed her. Bird climbed out of the vehicle and shot her twice in the stomach with a .22 rifle before driving half a mile and shooting dead Ken Fishburn, a retired security worker who was in his 70s. He was believed to be on his way to a betting shop when he was killed. As he drove to Wilton, Bird killed a man, named locally as Spike Dixon. Last night it emerged that a couple named locally as Jimmy and Jennifer Jackson, both church stalwarts in their 60s, had also been shot dead at a house in Wilton, just outside Egremont. His next victim was Garry Purdham, 31, a former professional rugby league player, who played for Whitehaven and Egremont as well as Workington. Mr Purdham had been mending a fence on his father Jack’s farm near Gosforth. Bird fired twice and killed him.

Driving on to Seascale, Bird collided with a Land Rover being driven by Harry Berger, the landlord of the Woolpack pub at Boot. Bird fired two shots through his window. Mr Berger was hit but survived. Moments later, as he approached the village of Drigg, he came across Jane Robinson, 66, who was delivering catalogues. Bird passed and opened fire, killing her. Moments later Michael Pike was shot dead as he cycled past. Heading out of the village Bird opened fire once more, hitting a woman named locally as Jacqui Lewis.

It is believed Bird’s bloodbath claimed 12 victims and left 25 wounded with eight people in hospital, three fighting for their lives. By 12.41pm, Bird would have heard radio reports naming him as the gunman. From Seascale, he made the short journey to the hamlet of Boot where he left his car, walked into to a wood where he shot himself in the head.

Those who knew Bird said he was a quiet, “normal bloke” with two grown-up sons, one of whom had just become a father. He lived alone in Rowrah, near Frizington, Cumbria, and liked tinkering with his car. Bird was teased over his sex life and for being a “mummy’s boy”, later executing a friend who had taunted him for being a failure with women.

After a three hour manhunt, police found the serial killer lying in a pool of his own blood at 1.40pm.

-articles by Chris Riches, Rod Mills and Nick Fagge rewritten and adapted by admin-