Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was most commonly known as the Grim Sleeper or least commonly called one of the [many] Southside Slayers. Born August 30th, 1952 the Grim Sleeper’s past could not be more ominous. Aside from a lack of details of his mysterious past that may hint at reasons as to why Lonnie Franklin terrorized Southern Los Angeles for more than twenty years, he appeared fairly normal to his neighbors and surrounding family members. Serial killer Lonnie Franklin had a long career before he was ever caught, in fact it was DNA evidence that both caught Franklin and was actually one of the primary reasons as to why he wasn’t apprehended sooner. Franklin has yet to be executed and still more can be learned from his years of freedom when
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When his [Franklin’s son] DNA was entered into the database of convicted felons, detectives were alerted to a partial match to evidence found at the "Grim Sleeper" crime scenes,” (ABCNEWS).
It took several weeks of undercover police work to officially determine Lonnie Franklin was the probable culprit in the family. Even after all that on July 5th, 2010, to simply confirm LAPD detectives keeping tabs on Franklin ‘worked’ at a restaurant called John 's Incredible Pizza for a few hours to collect napkins, glasses, a fork, and a partially-eaten slice of pizza from Franklin. “DNA evidence from these items clinched the cops ' case, and two days later they arrested Franklin,” (Fox, 2016).
While it’s wonderful that officers finally detained Franklin after more than two decades, the LAPD came under a lot a scrutiny for how long it took to detain the nefarious Grim Sleeper and the way they went about doing it; not to mention the fact that he slipped through the cracks and would’ve been caught earlier had DNA testing been required when he was convicted of a felony and serving three years of …show more content…
In fact many in the public found out from the LA Times (who found an anonymous source in the LAPD), rather than an actual police statement coming out to inform the general public. It’s said that because the Grim Sleeper went on more than a ten year hiatus (after one of his victims lived through the horrors of being sexually assaulted, shot, and thrown out of a car) the police figured he’d stopped and it had simply become another cold case, thus people had little reason to worry anymore. That, and it was back in a time where racism was present and the death of a few black women was ‘less important’ and
When his [Franklin’s son] DNA was entered into the database of convicted felons, detectives were alerted to a partial match to evidence found at the "Grim Sleeper" crime scenes,” (ABCNEWS).
It took several weeks of undercover police work to officially determine Lonnie Franklin was the probable culprit in the family. Even after all that on July 5th, 2010, to simply confirm LAPD detectives keeping tabs on Franklin ‘worked’ at a restaurant called John 's Incredible Pizza for a few hours to collect napkins, glasses, a fork, and a partially-eaten slice of pizza from Franklin. “DNA evidence from these items clinched the cops ' case, and two days later they arrested Franklin,” (Fox, 2016).
While it’s wonderful that officers finally detained Franklin after more than two decades, the LAPD came under a lot a scrutiny for how long it took to detain the nefarious Grim Sleeper and the way they went about doing it; not to mention the fact that he slipped through the cracks and would’ve been caught earlier had DNA testing been required when he was convicted of a felony and serving three years of …show more content…
In fact many in the public found out from the LA Times (who found an anonymous source in the LAPD), rather than an actual police statement coming out to inform the general public. It’s said that because the Grim Sleeper went on more than a ten year hiatus (after one of his victims lived through the horrors of being sexually assaulted, shot, and thrown out of a car) the police figured he’d stopped and it had simply become another cold case, thus people had little reason to worry anymore. That, and it was back in a time where racism was present and the death of a few black women was ‘less important’ and