African American Serial Killer

Feb 12 2013

More than 1,000 tips from the public

LOS ANGELES, Calif.–The Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles City Council today each approved their $100,000 contributions to the $1 million reward being offered for information leading to the capture and conviction of triple-murder suspect Christopher Jordan Dorner.

Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who recommended the county’s portion of the reward, said he received a call from officials in San Bernardino over the weekend looking for pledges toward the $1 million total.

Jun 22 2012

Slaying of the late Mayor Tom Bradley’s niece, Brenda Bradley

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A man who is already serving a life prison term without the possibility of parole for four murders was sentenced today to death for suffocating a 15-year-old girl and strangling two women between 1986 and 1993.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe said he was “satisfied beyond all doubt that Michael Hughes is guilty” and that the case “warrants the imposition of death.”

Aug 1 2011

Lonnie Franklin Jr.

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man suspected in the “Grim Sleeper” serial killings, a deputy district attorney announced today.

A jury will be asked to recommend a death sentence for 58-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr. if he is convicted, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said. Franklin has been indicted on 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Franklin, a one-time city employee, has been locked up since his July 7, 2010, arrest.

Gregg Reese  |   OW Staff Writer
Apr 14 2011

More women may be victims

In the latest installment of the Grim Sleeper investigation, detectives are working to confirm eight additional fatalities whose deaths share significant characteristics with the 10 already attributed to the killer. Like the other unfortunates, the newly added victims apparently led troubled lives.

Rolenia Morris, 29, was added to the list after her Nevada driver license was found among paraphernalia confiscated in the home of accused defendant Lonnie David Franklin Jr., along with a series of photographs allegedly showing her in sexually explicit poses.

Apr 1 2011

John Floyd Thomas Jr.

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A 74-year-old man pleaded guilty today to the sexually motivated killings of seven women in the Southland during the 1970s and '80s and was immediately sentenced to seven life prison terms, one without the possibility of parole.

John Floyd Thomas Jr.—nicknamed the Westside Rapist—pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree murder involving victims who ranged in age from 56 to 80 years old.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.