Murder, Mystery & Makeup - “Family Man” Grim Sleeper who Kept Photos Of ALL His Victims

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

Hi friends, happy Tuesday!   Today I’m talking about a creep who went undiscovered for so long and got away with murdering at least 16 people. His nicknames include “The Grim Sleeper,” “Strawberry Murders,” and “The Southside Slayer.” This case never got the attention it deserved, and was ignored for a long time. How they finally caught him is crazy, too. Let me know what you guys think.   Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian ________ :  :    F O L L O W    M E     :  : Discord: http://discord.gg/baileysarian Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d RECOMMEND A STORY HERE : [e-mail] Business Related Emails : [e-mail] Wanna Send Me Something? Bailey Sarian 4400 W Riverside Dr Ste 110-300, Burbank, CA 91505 _________ Get your first visit for only five dollars at https://www.Apostrophe.com/MAKEUP when you use our code: MAKEUP. Right now, Ibotta is offering our listeners $5 just for trying Ibotta by using the code MAKEUP when you register. Just go to the App Store or Google Play Store and download the FREE Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code MAKEUP. Refresh your everyday look with Thrive Causemetics. Beauty that gives back. Right now, you can get an exclusive 10% off your first order at https://www.thrivecausemetics.com/MAKEUP. 

Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's murder, mystery, makeup, Monday! If you're new here, hi, my name is Bailey Sarian and on Mondays I like to sit down and talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. So today's story is actually like a pretty famous one.

And it might be like even one of the most famous if you're from California. During the late 1970s and the 1980s, there was like a massive crime wave that was happening in almost every major city in the US. Like in New York, you had the infamous killer, like Son of Sam. Los Angeles was always thriving with killers. There's like the Hillside Strangler, the Night Stalker. The list really goes on forever.

It was just a time of murder across the country. There were just serial killers just everywhere. According to LA Weekly, so during this time frame, there were over 50 black women found dead in South Los Angeles alone. And yet the police effort to catch the person or persons responsible seemed lacking. Several of these victims even had like the same wounds or were abandoned in very similar ways to one another. And many of these cases were not even being connected in the first place.

So if you wanna talk about frustration, it's like, babe, listen, here we go, because they didn't even want to solve this, it felt like. But I mean, it didn't take long before people like started asking questions about how much the police actually cared about protecting this part of town, you know? And also if you're a dark history listener,

you might also remember like, this was a very complicated time specifically in Los Angeles because the appearance of crack cocaine had just hit the streets. Industry jobs that once held the area together were drying up. It was so bad.

I'm laughing because it was just really bad. And when you look at the picture, the whole picture, it's like, no wonder killers were on the loose during this time. This was Los Angeles specifically. It was really a place to thrive. The police were booked and busy. Like sadly, to this day, there are dozens of women who still remain unidentified and whose murders have never been solved and probably won't be solved. And I'm saying all this as kind of like just setting you up to maybe kind of understand what everything was looking like. Because this story is fucking rough. It was this frame, the 70s and 80s, when Los Angeles was absolute chaos. It was during this time that Lonnie Franklin Jr., better known as the Grim Sleeper,

made his appearance during a 25-year-long killing spree. So there isn't too much information about his upbringing, but I found little like tidbits, okay? Like when Lonnie was a kid, he suffered from migraines and didn't do well in school. And when Lonnie was seven years old, his dad actually taught him how to drive, drive his first car.

And this is when like Lonnie had found a new passion in life which was cars he also became really good at like uh taking apart the cars and fixing them and then he would later on like find work as a mechanic he was really good with his hands on top of that Lonnie was kind of like quite the charmer really people just really liked him he knew how to talk to the ladies um he was friendly he was nice seems like he had a lot of friends but when he was 16 years old he was arrested for grand theft auto and then shortly after he was arrested for burglary burglary it's like such a weird word for my mouth burglary. Burglary. It's like such a weird word for my mouth. Burglary. He's making bad choices. So his dad actually took notice of his son's behavior and wanted to like step in,

which he did. His dad had suggested to Lonnie that he should sign up for the army. And Lonnie actually did at the age of 21. In April of 1974 Lonnie was serving all the way out in Stuttgart, Germany which is like a mid-sized manufacturing town. It's kind of north of the Swiss border and about three hours west of Munich. For car people it's where Mercedes and Porsche have their headquarters, actually. Wow. But the thing is, like, Lonnie wasn't even there very long. On April 17th, 1974, Lonnie was out driving with his army mates,

and he was going around town in Stuttgart when they noticed, or they saw a young woman walking down the street. Mind you, it's really late. It's like 1230 a.m. And they see this girl and she's walking towards the train station, but she's alone. Her name was Ingrid and she was just 17 years old and she had just left her boyfriend's house and was on her way home. So she's walking to the train station right so lonnie and the boys they pulled up alongside the curb and they were calling out to her like hey hey girl you know being annoying like that so they're driving alongside her and they're asking her for directions once they got her like close to the car, they're like, hey, can we

give you a ride home? And maybe she felt like they were trustworthy or I don't know what they said but maybe she just, she was just afraid of what might happen if she didn't cooperate with these three men who were dressed for war by the way.

But either way, Ingrid agreed and she hopped into the car. Well pretty much as soon as she was in the car okay Lonnie and his two army buddies had her pinned to the seat and were speeding off. They drove out somewhere, somewhere they knew like no one would be looking and kept Ingrid in the car at knife point. So once they were sure like no one would see them, they each took turns attacking and sexually assaulting her. Like just awful. Ingrid remembers that there were like flashes going off, like literal flashes, as if someone were taking pictures with a Polaroid camera.

She remembered that. And I don't know how long they had her for. I don't, that wasn't mentioned. But what I do know is that after they were finished, they were driving Ingrid back to like the train station. Like they had no plans to kill her or anything like that. They were going to drive her back to the train station, which the logic was like, huh?

Okay, like milk it girl, right? Like, which she did because before they dropped Ingrid off, she was able to convince or like flirt with Lonnie and to make him believe that they could have another date. So she was able to get Lonnie to give her like his phone number. No joke. Now this was a pretty smart move because she actually now had information to like identify these people. She knew that they were Americans. She knew that they were in the army. And now she had like one of their phone numbers, specifically Lonnie Franklin's phone number. So

this is great for her, like finding these people who did this to her. So once Ingrid was free, pretty much, she went straight to the hospital. And then she even called the police and she had everything she needed to direct them directly to Lonnie and her attackers which was like great a few weeks later Ingrid even helps the police in Germany capture Lonnie oh yeah she had called him remember she has the phone number she calls him and she arranges like a date with him. And she's asking for him to meet her at the train station on May 6th. It was like literally not even long after the attack happened and he agrees.

He thinks like she wants to meet up again. He's all flattered. He's like, oh yeah, she really liked me. So they decide to meet up and Ingrid is standing there on the train platform. She's all dressed up and she's waiting for Lonnie. And it was just like the perfect setup. He literally thought he was coming

just to like meet up with this girl. He probably thought he was like the luckiest dude. You know, he was like, well, I can't believe she called me well. But as soon as Ingrid saw Lonnie through the crowd, she signaled the police who were hiding nearby. She's like signaled them and they jumped out of like the bushes or whatever

and they snatch him up. They caught him. I guess her signal, her signal to the police was like when Lonnie dropped a handkerchief on the floor. So police rushed in and guess what? They arrested him. Of course they did. Like what a great plan. Smart. After the police had grabbed him, like they quickly found his friends who were with him the night that they attacked Ingrid and they ended up having to go to trial which had only lasted like

eight days and during this trial Ingrid actually testified against them. In the end each of them were convicted for rape and kidnapping. Lonnie was sentenced to three years and four months in jail but then it gets real fishy because he actually like didn't really serve his sentence not the whole thing at least he was released within the first year of his sentence and nobody really knows why you guys like that's the part that nobody really knows nobody knows maybe good behavior i don't know but darren dupree was one of the detectives who investigated Lonnie's later crimes. He said that he knew Lonnie's accomplices in this case both served their full time, but the LAPD couldn't find out why Lonnie himself didn't have to.

So when obviously Lonnie got caught for doing this, he was discharged from the army, he was sent back to Los Angeles, and he would move in back in with his parents. So his parents have lived in the same house like for all of Lonnie's life. And when Lonnie gets older, it would become his house and so on. It's like been in the family forever, which I thought was cute because you don't really hear about that too often. You know, I like that. So once Lonnie was back home, he was kind of lost, like jumping from job to job. At one point he was actually working for the LAPD as like their garage attendant, but you know, it wasn't exciting for him. didn't like it so that's when he found a new job working still for the city this time he was working for the sanitation department as a garbage man so this

time Lonnie was living in LA his reputation wasn't his reputation wasn't bad or anything I mean nobody really knew about his past and Lonnie was just like well known in the neighborhood and just really well liked. His neighbors had talked very highly about him. Kind of like he was a linchpin of the community. He was always out on his driveway, either working in the yard or bent over the engine of like some car.

And people would just come up to him all the time and chat with him, you know? Let's say someone on the block needed some money or needed their car fixed. Lonnie was there, you know? And there are dozens of stories from people all over their neighborhood who all say the same thing that when they needed something or needed help

in some kind of way, Lonnie was the guy that you would go to. And that's great. Like, that's great, right? It's like, fuck. People described him as generous, kind, and friendly. And if you approached him on his lawn, like he would definitely talk to you, you know? Some of the people who lived in the same neighborhood

as Lonnie felt like it was a safer place because of him. He heavily disliked crack users, sex workers, and he would like yell at them or like chase him out of the neighborhood. So a lot of people were like, Ooh, like Lonnie's the best. He keeps our neighborhood safe. But it turns out this guy was super fucked surprise surprise

he reminds me of like john wayne gacy because it's like this everyone loved him on the outside in the community you know and without any criminal record and with all of this public goodwill for him people just never questioned any of lonnie's quote unquote stranger behaviors or habits. Habits or behaviors meaning he would have like photos of naked women that he kept stashed in the glove compartment of his orange Ford Pinto and many of these photos were women posed in very unique positions. And many of them just naked. Butt cheeks spread. Like, what?

Yes. Anyways, he would keep these, like, in his glove compartment. And if somebody came across it, they'd be like, oh, that's just Lonnie. He's just a little crazy. He's just a little perv, that guy. Is that normal for dudes to do that? I don't know, cause I'm not a dude. That's not normal, right?

I'm all like, I mean, I have pictures of dogs and when I go up compartment, they're not my dogs. So I guess like I'm pretty creepy too, in my own way. I don't know whose dogs they are. I mean, little did these people know that there was just so much more going on under the surface. So little did people know like, hey, maybe this was actually concerning behavior

and not like, oh, just Lonnie being a little weirdo. Okay, so like I had mentioned before in the 1980s, it was brute in Los Angeles. In 1985 alone, there were over a dozen young black women found dead in South Central Los Angeles. Like bodies were found down alleys, in dumpsters, or even many of them were just like dumped on the side of the street. And Lonnie, he was in the perfect place at the perfect time to repeat what he had done in Germany. And he sure did. Yeah, wow. I can't tell you how many people Lonnie killed during the 1980s, because the fact is that nobody really even knows.

What I can tell you is that there was a string of murder that happened between 1985 and 1988, and they were all linked to Lonnie, but it's believed that he has killed so many more that we'll never know about, but we'll get into that. Hold on. So the first known victim connected to Lonnie was Deborah Jackson. She was a 29 year old woman who was found on August 10th of 1985. She had been left in an alleyway, which was just like 10 minutes from Lonnie's house. She had been left in an alleyway, which was just like 10 minutes from Lonnie's house. She had been shot in the back three times and they realized it was with a 25 caliber gun.

And whoever had done it tried to put like stuff on top of her to kind of hide the body. But they did a terrible job. Then there was Henrietta Wright, who was 35 in 1986, when Lonnie, again, used a 25 caliber weapon to murder her. And he left her in the alley, hidden underneath a mattress. On January 10th, 1987, 23 year old Barbara Ware, she was found dead. January 10th, 1987, 23-year-old Barbara Ware, she was found dead and she was only like 15 minutes from Lonnie's house. In Barbara's case, her body was found shortly

after she was actually killed because an anonymous caller called 911 and this person saw someone dumping the body into an alleyway either near a dumpster or in the dumpster. I'm pretty sure it was near but then the caller is like oh they were trying to cover her up with whatever garbage they they had found. Now get this because this part annoyed me so much because whoever had called 911 they gave a description of the van that this person was driving to bring the body there. And on top of that, they even gave them a license plate number. Hello, license plate number? Doesn't that solve the mystery? You would think, right? So they

find out that the van had actually come from a church and i mean that's the south story goes the keys to the van were easily accessible to anyone who went to that church uh but the police didn't interview anyone from the church so you, and then the police, they also didn't even take much evidence from the van either, nor is it believed that they looked at it. It's unclear. So I just feel like that could have probably been helpful. Oh, but you have to also think, sometimes I forget, this is before DNA and all that. So they'd probably look at the van and be like, okay, cool. It's a van.

Noted. Lonnie went on to kill two more women in 1987. A woman by the name of Bernita Sparks and Mary Lowe. And both women were 26 years old and were killed by small caliber bullets. Sadly, both of them were just, well, all of Lonnie's victims were just like treated like garbage and left in trash cans or in alleyways near Lonnie's home. It's just so sad. Both of them looked like they had their clothes just completely ripped off. Some was just outright missing. And not only had he killed these women, but by the looks of it, it was clear that their killer was sexually assaulting them as well. So then in 1988, he killed two more women.

Latrika Jefferson, a 22-year-old who was found shot through the heart and underneath a mattress on January 30th. And then she also had a napkin covering her face with one word written on it, which just said AIDS. And given Lonnie's dislike for sex workers, it kind of seemed like he was trying to, I don't know, shame her, right? Shame her, just be a disgusting human. His final victim from the 80s was Alicia Alexander, who was an 18 year old girl who also been shot and found naked under a fricking mattress. And the police aren't putting these together.

They're like, that's crazy. They've all been found under a mattress, but they're not linked. There's no way, right? Yeah, there's no way. Like they're just so, hello, you know? The Los Angeles Times has a map of where all these women were found.

And it's like, when you look at it, it's like, oh, oh my God, all of them were found so close together. And all of the locations were just so, they're just so close where the bodies were found. That's what I'm getting at. So not one of them was outside the area of a few square miles of each other. I mean, all were found in alleys or trash bins,

all with the same type of bullets and mattresses, and they're not putting it together. You know? You know? Because Lonnie worked as a garbage man, it's thought that he knew the streets of LA so well, all of the different alleyways, which trash can went to what landfill,

and he used this knowledge to his advantage but it doesn't seem like he had a bigger plan with any of them really he was just treating them like literal garbage so other than uh ingrid from in germany anitra washington was one of lonnie's victims and one of his only victims to have survived that we know of so anitra was walking home late one night in the year of 1988 and she's walking home from a friend's house and she's minding her own damn business okay living her life and then lonnie happened to be driving in the neighborhood when he sees Anitra walking by herself. So he pulls over and he asked to give her a ride. He's like, you know, it's late. I gave you a ride, whatever.

She tells him no, you know, and she believed that she was polite about it. She's like, no, I'm fine. But he keeps asking her. He keeps asking her over and over again. And he's starting to get a little bit upset with her that she's not getting in the car. So he starts yelling at her from inside the car. And according to her, he yelled, quote, that's what's wrong with you black women. People can't be nice to you, end quote.

And after that, Anitra said that she felt really guilty and sorry for Lonnie. Like she's thinking to herself, like maybe she had been rude, you know? And she was like, oh my God, like I am the bad person, you know? You know when that shit happens? When like you're being gaslit like that and you're like like oh my god like i am the bad person you know you know that shit happens when like you're being gaslit like that and you're like oh my god like i'm the bitch oops like i'm so sorry that's how she's feeling so she changes her mind and agrees to have lonnie drive her to her house once she got in the car though, Lonnie was heading in the opposite direction. He said that before he could take her home, he was going to drop by his quote,

uncle's house to pick up money. And according to her, he drove to a house on a nearby street, pulled over and left her in the car for about 10 minutes he just ran in did something and then came running out and she said when Lonnie had gotten back into the car she instantly noticed something was kind of different about him he seemed really agitated and angry but she had no idea why I mean she just met the guy shit you know like but she noticed that he was different and itra said at this point he accidentally called her by a different lady's name whoa you know and so she tells him she's like that's not my name she's like that's not my name i don't know how she said it but she said that's not my name okay and then at that moment that's when things went sideways according to her once she

said like that's not my name everything in Lonnie's car went quiet I should say just quiet and then a few moments later Anitra said she looked down at her chest and she felt warmth and saw blood she didn't even like she's not not processing what, what? Now I'm not sure if Lonnie had a silenced weapon or if the shock of just being shot overwhelmed her. But the way Anitra tells it is she didn't even like realize she had been shot. Oh, by the way, she had been shot. She had been shot and she wasn't processing it. She said once she did realize she had been shot, it was even more confusing to her.

And she kept asking Lonnie why over and over again and demanding he take her to a hospital, but he refused, of course. So at this point, she's just locked in the car, bleeding from her chest because of a bullet wound. And according to her, the next words out of her mouth were, quote, if I die, I'm going to haunt you. You are going to have to take care of my kids, end quote. Hell yes, I love that she said this. If I die, I'm going to haunt you.

Yep, good, I like that. I was like, hell yeah, you get him, haunt his ass. So after that, she said she was fading in and out, in and out of consciousness from the blood loss, but she had remembered being woken up a few times by Lonnie who had at some points like gotten on top of her and was like sexually assaulting her. I know this dude is fucking sick.

And Anitra said at some point she noticed flashing light, like real flashing light. Like it came from a camera. Oh shit. I know. The next thing she remembers happening was Lonnie's car like had started up again and he was pushing her out of the passenger side door and then he drove off. Lonnie pushed her out of the car, drove off, leaves her there for dead. She gets up. She walks to a friend's house who then called 911 and got her to the hospital. Like, incredible.

Incredible. Police are called and everything. And when she spoke to them about, you know, what had happened, she was able to give a super clear description of the vehicle that Lonnie was driving. And also she was able to give a very detailed description of what Lonnie looked like. His face, like someone did one of those drawings, you know, what are they called? Whatever. You know where they do the sketches? They did one of those, but according to police, it was hard to really look out for him because he had very common features. Like this guy did not stand out in any way.

There was nothing unique about him. He looked like every other dude. So it made it so much harder because it's like, who is this guy? He could be anyone. Like that must have been frustrating. But with word spreading that Henrietta survived, it's believed that this spooked Lonnie. I mean, how could it not? He was almost caught. You know, it was a little too close for him. So he decided to lay low for a while, like hide out. Okay, listen to this though, because this part kind of blew my

mind too. I guess a year later, Lonnie came and found Henrietta at her house. Not kidding, not kidding, not kidding. This part spooked me out. After the attack, she and Henrietta like had left her purse behind in the car, which like, yes, of course, right? She, that was the last thing I'm sure she was thinking about. So he had it and what's in her bag, her ID, her driver's license, everything. And this must have like led him straight back to her. Like a freaking creep, right? Like who does this?

What a weirdo. Oh my God, so embarrassing. Like he went back to her for what? Allegedly he came up to her while she was outside her house and he came up to her and he asked her, do you know who I am? And at the time, Henrietta said she didn't recognize him. So she responded by saying like, am I supposed to? And then after that, Lonnie turned around and like speed walked off. Later, she would have that, you know, that moment of like, oh my God, was that the guy who attacked me then? You know, she had a realization. But after that, again, like she didn't know where he went. And like,

how creepy is that? God, I don't want to imagine what would have happened if she said like, yeah, I actually do remember you, right? He's such a weirdo. Get a light. So all of this was going on and the police seemed incapable of stopping it, okay? So that's when the community started to take things into their own hands, okay, they were like, we're gonna stand up. With so many women found dead, it was like, how the hell did this go on for so long? I mean, Anitra survived her encounter with Lonnie in 1988. She met with police and told them the whole story, including all of the details she could remember about Lonnie, like the car, right? And the description of him, the bullet wound. The bullet wound she survived was even a 25 caliber one,

like the same as the other 10 women who had been shot dead within the last three years. But police are like, we don't know, man. We just don't know. This one's got us stumped. So according to Margaret Prescott, who founded the Black Coalition Fighting Black Serial Killers back in the 80s, took notice that the police

didn't care too much about what was going on. So she spoke to NPR back in like 2016. She said, quote, we went down to what was the Parker Center police headquarters to find out about the murders, see what was being done about it, and how the community was being informed. We were told by the guy in charge, why are you concerned about it? He's only killing hookers, end quote. And I feel like that kind of tells us all the key reason as to why Lonnie had gotten away with killing for as long as he did,

because in the eyes of law enforcement, he wasn't, you know, he wouldn't just, I think you get it. It's just nasty. Just nasty. Why is it so hard for some people to just do their job? Like, yeah, that's all you gotta do is just do the job. Just do the job.

It's like I do. Leave your personal shit at home, man. Do the job. So without any police support, together with other members of the neighborhood, Margaret founded her organization. And not kidding, they were the ones who were actually tracking Lonnie's killings all the way back in the 80s. They had canvassed the entire area with

flyers. They talked to people on the street and they also put pressure on the police. I mean, they were trying when nobody else was. And still, even with the testimonies that they had, the similarities between the victims, like where they had all been found and how they all had been killed, nothing happened. Oh my God. So as the decade sort of just petered out in the 1990s and early 2000s. Most of like these cases just went completely, completely cold. For 15 years, the police were honestly silent about this case.

Anitra's case was never even linked. I'm not kidding you. Never even linked to the other murders that Lonnie had done. Time just kept on passing. They really didn't give a shit. They really didn't. And for over a decade, these cases just sat on a shelf somewhere in the LAPD archives. And as far as the people were concerned, if the killer was still out there, this person seemed to be long gone. They hadn't made any moves in quite some time,

or at least that's what everyone thought. Okay, but then things started looking up because I'll tell ya, I'll tell ya. In the early 2000s, police got a brand new tool, DNA testing. Oh yeah. And that's when all things changed because hello, DNA groundbreaking. And it was in 2000, at least for Los Angeles

when they got the DNA testing, because that's when they started using DNA testing to try and solve some of those dusty old case files. And that's when police realize how dumb they've been, literally, because when the DNA from those old case files were examined, police discovered two things. One, many of the cold case murders

were connected to one person. They were able to find and confirm DNA that was left behind on all of the victims that we've mentioned today, but they weren't able to link it to Lonnie yet because his DNA wasn't in the system, but they knew that all of the DNA connected. Does that make sense?

Wow, I'm very, I just like really like went in on this one it's crazy thank god for DNA right like again I don't know how they were so anyone was solving mysteries before fingerprints and DNA the second thing they learned was even worse because the DNA attached to these cases from the 1980s matched that of DNA collected from crime scenes as recent as 2002 and 2003. So that's when police are realizing that Lonnie was still actively killing people 15 years later. I got the chills. That's so creepy.

What a fucking weirdo. Oh my God. So they connected his DNA to the murder of 15 year old Princess and 35 year old Valerie McCorvey. And both of them were found strangled and hidden the same way as his previous victims were. Then on New Year's Day 2007, dude, this guy's been, I know, he's just going forever. Are you paying attention? He's just going. On New Year's Day 2007, the body of Janisha Peters, a local 25 year old, she was found in a dumpster. Like she was a big black trash bag, completely naked except for a necklace she had on. She called her

mother literally like the day before, super excited, telling her that she had found a new place to live and that was the last time anyone heard from her. It wasn't until a local news outlet broke the story about Janisha's murder and this for the first time like on public tv or ever really this news station mentioned how it was connected to nine other murders that had happened in the area because police hadn't even done that like these this news outlet did and like they got for them because now people are like holy shit wait this is this has been going on like now people are starting to pay attention during this time is also how he was given the name the grim sleeper which is super spooky, right? I think that's the spookiest name of all, the Grim Sleeper. But he got this name because he had taken such a long break from

killing. It's like he was asleep and now he's awoken. They got spooky with his name, right? The Grim Sleeper? Come on, that's spooky. I don't like that. Spooky! Now that the media was involved, you know, pressure was on the police to solve this. Finally, in 2010, the state of California allowed for the use of something called a familial DNA search. Essentially, they wanted to see if the DNA they found on these women could be linked to anyone

who was in their database. Like a relative, a son, a daughter, anyone. They're like, we will take anyone with similar DNA. They have that similar DNA that was found on all the victims and they can hopefully just find some kind of close match. And like today, nowadays, this is pretty standard. But back then when this was going on, it was pretty controversial at the time.

Oh yeah. Because people didn't know like how factual it really was. So the police, you know, or whatever, they do the DNA run to see if they get any hits. And not even kidding, it didn't even take that long because shortly after they had a DNA hit. I know, a man by the name of Christopher Franklin. Who is this?

It was Lonnie's son. What? I know, plot thickens. So he was in their system because of a weapons charge back in 2009. And during his arrest, he was swabbed for DNA and put into, you know, the little DNA system thing. Well, they finally had a lead and a lead that took them directly to Christopher's father, Lonnie. Ooh, Lonnie.

Thought you can get away. I mean, he got away for so long, right? Okay, listen, because the technique that they used to find him in the first place was very new and controversial at the time, the police had to be sure that they were right before they made any arrests. So they spent weeks tracking Lonnie around LA, just watching him for like any type of suspicious activity. And they also wanted to collect some DNA, you know, and see if it matched the victims, but they were having a hard time, having a very hard time. So there was one night in 2010.

Yes, we're in 2010. It's been a while, huh? Are they ever gonna solve this? 2010, they followed Lonnie to a pizza restaurant and they waited for him to finish eating. They thought this would be the perfect moment for them to get their DNA from his scraps. So they wait and they wait.

Once Lonnie had thrown away his plate, his food, whatever, the detectives, they swooped right in and they snatched that right out of the trash. They got some pizza crust. They got some napkins. There was one source that said a cup, who cares, but they got his stuff and they were able to get DNA off of it.

Is it ironic that the trash man got caught by his own trash? I think it is. Is that ironic? I think that's the definition. Okay, so they used the DNA samples from those items to identify him, and guess what? It was a perfect match. Oh yeah, it was, it was a perfect match.

It matched with the DNA on those victims. Two hours later, police go to his house. They block off the street in front of Lonnie's home and they arrested him on suspicion of murder. It took them 25 years. Yeah, no biggie, just 25 years. But finally, the Grim Sleeper was in police custody. This is a side comment and belongs nowhere in today's story

but I was watching the police footage of when they were arresting him and it was like outdoor footage of his house and stuff. And I have to tell you guys, the house that he lived in, he painted it this ugly, horrible, offensive pistachio color. Oh, oh, it's so ugly. I was reading an article and it was like they picked him up in his cute family mint home. Mint colored home.

That was not mint. Oh, maybe it was actually. Either way, it was horrible. Oh my God. I don't know who thought that was a good idea. Murderous house reviews, next on the Disney Channel. So after they searched his house, the police had found two key pieces of evidence,

a 25 caliber handgun and hundreds, hundreds of Polaroids of women. And in these Polaroids, they found the picture of Anitra Washington, the one that she had described to police in her interview years before. So this was only just more proof that one, she's not a fucking liar. And two, like, hello, this is the guy. They never found his car. It's believed that it got junked or sold or something, you know, but they got the Polaroids. So now at this point, they're thinking like,

who are all these other women in the photos? Like, are these all victims as well? Because most of them were completely unknown, which led to even more questions than answers. And it got them thinking like, what did Lonnie do over the course of his 25 year career? I mean, did he really stop killing from 1988 to 2002? Do you really think he stopped?

I personally don't think he stopped, but no one was sure and no one had proof. But these photos were saying otherwise, because I would bet you that he probably just got a little bit more strategic when he got caught. Not when a neat truck came out and said like what had happened to her. I bet you he laid low, but he probably still killed

and just went about it a different way. Plus the fact that he worked for the sanitation department to me says that like he knows how to dispose of a body if he wants to. I mean, I don't know. But again, no one even knows. So it doesn't matter because no one knows. The fact that he'd been linked to the murders of all 10 of these people combined with his collection of photos led many in the public and some in the police force to believe that the Grim Sleeper hadn't really been sleeping at all, really. Maybe he had just like gotten better at covering his tracks,

but many believe they most likely ended up in landfills, many of his victims, and would probably never be found, which is horrid. Even though Lonnie was arrested in 2010 he wasn't actually put on trial until 2016 yeah part of the delay was because well the fact that they had used the familial DNA testing to capture Lonnie again it was very new it was very controversial at the time and people were trying to fight it, saying that they shouldn't be allowed to use it in court. And it just like pushed things back. It was really

stupid and frustrating. Anywho, so he sat in jail up until like 2014, when finally a California judge judge ruled that his half-finished pizza was indeed acceptable as evidence. And then finally, this would lead to his formal trial. Yeah, they're trying to fight the pizza, the pizza evidence. And listen, it was a hell of a trial. Let me tell you that. It took three months and included testimony from Anitra who openly confronted Lonnie and the jury recounting everything he had done to her. They even asked Ingrid, the girl he attacked in Germany, they asked her to fly out to Los Angeles and testify against him which she did almost four decades later and she was still like ready and willing to help put this guy away which absolutely love that same with the nitro like that's not easy to confront this fucking bozo weirdo who killed a lot of people you know that's i couldn't imagine being in that seat

in the end lonnie was convicted on 10 counts of murder. Then during the penalty phase, the prosecution connected him to at least 15 more. That meant that by the end of his trial, he was connected to as many as 25 murders. 25. Oh dude. Lonnie, when he was arrested, he was 57 years old. And at the time of his conviction, he was 63. So it took six years from the time he was arrested to finally put him away forever. And then, I hate this, he tapped out. Just four years later, Lonnie was found dead in his prison cell in San Quentin on March 28th, 2020. They don't know how he died. Maybe even COVID, huh? Because that was like COVID time.

But that's so lame. According to the people in the prison, there were no signs of trauma, no signs of like suicide attempt. Just tapped out. Lonnie, not kidding you, he maintained his innocence all the way up to his death. All the way through his trial, everything. It was obvious that the past had caught up with him, and they had hardcore proof, but he didn't want to accept it.

Some of his friends in his neighborhood thought it was madness to accuse Lonnie because he was such a nice guy. They believed that he was being targeted or framed. But once the DNA gets matched, it seems pretty open and shut. Like DNA, right? Doesn't lie. And like the bullets all match the gun that they found at his house. And of course, even without the DNA or the gun or whatever, all the pictures, he had all the pictures. Like you can't not think he didn't do it.

Wait, what am I saying? It's him. He swore he didn't though. But man, what a crazy life. I mean, he kept this such a big secret for so long that everybody was shooketh to their core that he would do this. Like it didn't make sense. And like, that's crazy, right? Well, to you, you're probably like, no, but the nice guy in your neighborhood, like that's so scary. I don't know what I'm getting at. Just this one spooked

me. Okay. Look, here's all we can say. Next time you're walking home and someone offers you a ride, don't take that ride. Call an Uber, which is kind of stupid because calling an Uber is also hopping in a car with somebody you don't know, but at least it's a little safer. Or call a friend, just don't. Wow, what a journey, huh? I truly believe he has way more victims

and it's sad that those families will probably never get closure, unfortunately, because his bo bozo died i hate when they don't confess it's like dude you're locked up for life just confess and like give the family's closure right that part drives me nuts and really i hope his son is okay i mean it's got to be hard finding out your dad is a fucking serial killer i would be like like, what? I really didn't see that one coming. That'd be nuts. Anyways, I hope you have a really good and resting day. Please be safe out there. Okay. Make good choices. But other than that, I hope you have a wonderful day. You make good choices and I'll be seeing you guys later. Goodbye.