Grim Sleeper killings - Los Angeles Times
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Full Coverage: Grim Sleeper killings

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The series of killings began in South Los Angeles in the summer of 1985 and continued with some frequency until 1988, when a female survivor was raped and shot. She lived to describe 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.

For more than 13 years, the killer had no known slayings until the body of a teenage girl was discovered in Inglewood in March 2002, a lull in attacks that led to his description as “The Grim Sleeper.â€

On July 7, 2010, Los Angeles police arrested Lonnie David Franklin Jr. at his home in South L.A. in connection with the killings. After a number of delays, his trial finally began Feb. 16.

On May 5, 2010, after a day and a half of deliberations, jurors found Franklin guilty on 10 counts of murder in the killings of nine women and a 15-year-old girl. Jurors also found Franklin guilty on one count of attempted murder.

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