Police Link 10th Victim to Serial Killer

Homicide detectives Thursday linked the death of a Skid Row transient, who died Oct. 5 in a Palmdale hospital, to the serial killer who is suspected of shooting nine other transients and lone men in recent weeks in the Los Angeles area.

The 10th and latest victim was identified by Los Angeles police as Joseph Griffin, 47.

Investigators said workers from an Apple Valley rest home found Griffin on Sept. 13 at the corner of 6th and San Pedro streets in the Skid Row area after he had apparently been involved in a scuffle.

Representatives of the Booker T. Hardges Boarding and Rest Home, believing that the transient had been beaten up, “took (him) off the street” to their facility in the San Bernardino County desert city, police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said.

The transient continued to complain of pains, Booth said, and was taken to High Desert Hospital in Palmdale, where he died Oct. 5.

An autopsy revealed that he died of a gunshot wound, Booth said.

Los Angeles police learned of the death on Tuesday and subsequently assigned the case to the department’s transient killer task force, determining that there was a link with the gunman, who apparently uses a small-caliber weapon to shoot his victims in the head.