In order to catch a serial killer who has claimed the lives of at least 11 South L.A. prostitutes, police announced that they will release a recording of the mysterious phone call to the public; After murder of Barbara Ware, an informant called the police, telling them about the body.

It’s been over two decades since LA detectives were trying to solve the murders of at least 11 prostitutes, with no luck, as there were no clues to follow. One night in 1987, however, offered a tantalizing, agonizing clue. Shortly after midnight on Jan. 10, a man called police from a pay phone to report that he had seen someone dump a woman’s body out of the back of a van and leave it in an alley. He gave the address, a description of the van and its license plate number.

“Is that T like Tom?” the dispatcher asked, according to several Los Angeles Police Department detectives who have heard a recording of the call.

“No, P like puppy,” the man said, speaking in a raspy, deep voice.

The call lasted no more than 30 seconds. At the end, the dispatcher asked for the man’s name.

He chuckled nervously at the question. “I know too many people. OK, then, bye-bye,” he said, hanging up the phone.

Now, more than twenty years later, police believe that the call may still hold the key to identifying the elusive killer. “There has got to be something to this. There is just too much information here for there not to be something of value for us,” said Det. Dennis Kilcoyne, who heads a task force charged with catching the killer. “We’re hoping somebody out there will be able to help us make the connection between this body, the van and the caller.”

So far, police couldn’t find any vital information that would help them solve the case. They have the killer’s DNA profile but it failed to match any of the millions stored in state felon databases. They have even found a vain, that the mysterious caller had described – registration records showed that the van was owned by the nearby Cosmopolitan Church. It turned out that couldn’t help any in way, since the church did not keep close tabs on who drove the van, which was used to pick up elderly members from home.

In all, detectives have tracked down about 10 men associated with the now-defunct church, including one who worked as a driver, and taken DNA samples to test against the suspected killer’s, and got no results. With no blood or other physical evidence found in the van that proves it was actually used to dump Ware’s body, detectives are not dismissing the possibility that the caller that night was lying in an effort to mislead police. And Kilcoyne is the first to acknowledge that releasing the tape is a long shot, but with little else to go on, he’s hoping former church parishioners will hear the tape and come forward with clues.

-article from LA Times, rewritten and adapted by admin-

An elusive serial killer, linked to 10 murders in South Los Angeles and Inglewood over nearly two decades, resurfaced early last year to kill again. Over years, it’s been unclear that a single man was behind the slayings. Police linked those cases and tied the latest slaying after conducting DNA analysis in May 2007.

“The day those tests came in, we realized we had a serial killer on our hands who has been active for 23 years,” said LAPD Det. Dennis Kilcoyne, who heads a task force of seven detectives charged with solving the killings.

Except for one black man, the killer has targeted young black women. He sexually abused the women, detectives said, and left almost all of their bodies in a corridor along Western Avenue in South Los Angeles, often in alleys. Detectives suspect that most of the women were working as prostitutes at the time they were killed.

The first known attack came in the summer of 1985, when 29-year-old Debra Jackson was shot three times in the chest, at a time when widespread cocaine use, rampant crime and vicious killings were afflicting South L.A. Overwhelmed by the violence, police did not realize they were confronting something larger until three years later, when ballistics tests showed that the same handgun had been used in seven other killings.

The last known murder linked to this serial killer happened on the first day of 2007 when a homeless man found the body of Janecia Peters, 25, on South Western Avenue. She had been shot and covered with a garbage bag.

Investigator checked the killer’s DNA against a federal DNA database of known criminals but found no matches. One promising route was to try comparing the serial killer’s DNA with samples in the criminal database in search of one of his close relatives.

The possibility of a match had raised hopes among LAPD detectives that they would catch a break in a case that has stymied the department for years. However, search of DNA databases for the killer’s family members came up empty. The task force is now left to continue with ongoing efforts to revive leads from old cases, search for missed clues and hope someone with knowledge of the killer comes forward.

“We were hoping,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck, who is overseeing a task force of detectives working to solve the case. “Police work is very much about exploring every avenue. We went down this one and it didn’t turn out to be fruitful.”

-article by Joel Rubin and Richard Winton, rewritten and adapted by administrator-

A serial killer Timothy Krajcir who had confessed to nine cold-case killings, got away with murder for decades, police say. They say he preyed on women he could easily overpower. He always struck at night to avoid detection. When he killed, he never spoke of it to anyone. Police even say they considered a cop might be behind the killings.

Timothy Krajcir was born in November, 28th, 1944, and has been in and out of prison since 1963, and will now serve 14 life sentences plus 80 years for murders and other offenses committed across three states, over a thirty year period. He minored in psychology and majored in administrative justice. Police chef Carl Kinnison explained why most people choose that major: “Most of the time, it’s people that are interested in pursuing a law enforcement career, someone who is interested in getting into police work.” He said Krajcir would stalk victims, break into their homes and wait for them. He had no connection to the victims or even the town where police said he committed the killings. He was looking for easy, unsuspecting targets, and all that in order to make sure he wouldn’t get caught.

However, he knew they would get him, sooner or later: “I’ve had conversations with him where he’s acknowledged that as the science grew, he knew that at some point this day was going to arrive,” Carbondale, Illinois, police Lt. Paul Echols told CNN. “He was aware of DNA technology and that he was part of that database — that someday that he would be matched. He knew it was coming.” And that’s exactly what happened when the DNA results came back – they were a perfect match. Krajcer then confessed to committing those crime, putting an end to nine killings that happened during the past thirty years.

For more information, make sure to check out this video from CNN:

• How Serial Killer Stumped Cops for Decades

A psychological profile from 1983, written by Dr. Paul Gross states that Krajcer didn’t have a good childhood: “His lack of stability was accentuated by a mother who he describes as cold and unaffectionate,
“He somehow tries to justify his behavior on his past childhood experiences and once was told by a therapist that he is action out his anger towards his mother on other women,” wrote Gross. “His rapes have been proceeded by intense fantasies of sexual abuse and rape on women.”

This is not a new information, he confessed to the ninth murder back in 2007, but reading about it was interesting enough for me to decide to share it with you guys. I am wondering if a troubled childhood is really what made this man kill and rape over and over again during three long decades before getting caught? Blaming on troubled childhood and parents, especially mothers, sounds more like an excuse to me, but I do believe it has a great influence on one’s behavior. However, it’s what YOU do with YOUR life that really matters…

-article from CNN by Ismael Estrada, rewritten and adapted by administrator-