All language subtitles for Tales.of.the.Grim.Sleeper.2014.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

Lonnie Franklin lived on 81st Street in Western Avenue

in South Central, Los Angeles,

the poor part of town
with the worst schools,

the worst hospitals,
and no jobs.

Everyone knew Lonnie.

He was a good neighbor.

Someone to turn to for help,

whether it was to buy
a washing machine or TV,

borrow some money,
or buy you a meal.

Lonnie lived in this street,

fixed people's cars
in front of his house,

and always had time
for a chat.

Lonnie was so much
a part of the community

that when the Google car
went past.

Lonnie was found chatting to a neighbor as he always did by the front gate.

Then on the July 7th, 2010,

police raided Lonnie's house
and arrested him.

Lonnie Franklin is charged
with ten counts of murder,

and one case
of attempted murder.

His murders stretch from 1985 until his arrest in 2010.

He's also a suspect in
multiple other murders.

It is thought
Lonnie might have killed
more than 100 women

over a 25-year period.

I wondered
how this was possible.

Hi. Hi.

So, you saw him in the night
before he was arrested?

Yeah, I've seen him
the night before.

We was talking,
and he asked me
what was I doin',

and I told him
I was gonna go clubbing.

Well, I got in about 3:00,
woke up about 7:00,

and the whole street
was blocked off.

Couldn't go nowhere,
couldn't do nothing.

Just...
Street just closed off.

I mean, he was a nice guy.

Just never thought
I'd put anything
past him like that.

Don't make no sense.

This neighborhood
of suburban houses

with lawns
and gardens is deceptive.

Look closer, and there are
bars on the windows.

And the highest
homicide rate in the city.

Most visitors coming to LA

will fly directly over
Lonnie Franklin's house,

which is just below
the main LAX flight path.

Lonnie Franklin
grew up in this house.

His parents lived here
before him,

and his son Christopher
lives here now.

Everyone on the street
knew Lonnie.

These women
knew him for years.

So you were dating Lonnie?

Yeah. I dated him
a couple of times,
more than once.

Oh, yeah? Yeah.

What was he like
to date?

It was like...

Well, more so,
when I dated him,
he was quiet, low-key,

kinda acted funny though
at certain times.

Like what?
How did he act funny?

J... Jibbity. I mean... Jibbity?

Looking around, acting like
somebody looking for you.
What you done there?

Uh-huh. You know.

Hey, come on, now.
That made me nervous.
I can't do that one.

Hi.

I'm Donna. Hi, Donna.

Do I need to
state my whole name?

I had just came
from a party

and, uh, he pulled me
over to the side... MAN: Peckerwood!

And he was talking to me
and then, uh... MAN: Goddamn peckerwood!

Someone called me "Peckerwood" from across the street.

I thought "peckerwood"
was an endearing term,

but later learned

it's a white supremacist
prison gang.

Get your ass out of
the goddamn country!

Peckerwood.
You goddamn peckerwood!

Get your ass out of here!

The men in the street didn't like me talking to the women.

It was three of Lonnie's
best friends shouting.

Steve, Gary, and Richard,

who wanted to stick up
for their buddy,
who they think is innocent.

Media's exact words
when he was first arrested
for this crime

was, "They found
the Grim Sleeper."

Mm-hmm.

He's been accused of it. That's what
they want to believe.

"We have found
the Grim Sleeper."

That's... Even if
he has a jury trial,

everybody is saying,
"That's him."

"He did it."MAN: But it
might not be him.

So did you
three all use to hang out
together with Lonnie?

Occasionally. At least
once a week, we'd be
standing here all together.

Because we're neighbors. All together.
We'd be one group.

All together.
At least once a week.

I ran with Lonnie.
I ran with Lonnie.

We'd cop in a car
and we'd go and do our thing.

I ran with him too. Myself too.

I ran with him too.

Lonnie, he's a good guy.
What do you want to know?

Lonnie's a good guy to me. In the eyes of his neighbors.

And this is a close-knit block. This is a close block.

Very lose-knit.

Very close.

Everybody in this block
has been here for... Generations.

Forty, 35 years up here. Generations. Yeah.

Everybody just here now.

Me, 46 years.
Go ahead, man.

If you come
in this neighborhood,

just like this, you know,
Lonnie would be with us.

If you come
in this neighborhood,

and then if a person
wanted to try to

start a dope house
or something like that,
it's not happening.

He was shutted down. Nobody here.

He was shutted down. And he was right here with us.

So you didn't
suspect anything.

Never...

Do you know what?
When they picked him up
down the street right there,

do you know what
I thought it was?

For stealing cars. Bingo.

That's what everybody
thought it was.

Because that was
what he was known for.
Stealing cars.

That's what got him
in the back,

not because he was
such a convict.

He was such a good car thief,
that's why the hell

he's got all this stuff
upon him now.

My opinion of that is,

I've been knowing Lonnie
and his business a long time,

I've never, never
seen him steal a car.

He didn't steal cars.
Let me correct it there.

He did not steal cars.

He dealt in stolen cars,

but he did not steal cars.

I've never seen him
steal one neither.

Okay, let me rephrase myself.

He dealt with a shitload
of goddamn cars.

He dealt with a shitload
of goddamn cars.

It's hard for me to believe
because Lonnie,

the way that he would
raise his kids,
his grandkids.

Man, he had his son,
his son learned to drive
at the age of nine years old.

You know what I mean?
Taught him how to drive well,

how to do mechanics,
how to ride a motorcycle,

with his grandkids.

And for a man to have
a value of life like that,

how can you just take lives
and Lonnie had a conscience.

And carry on
a normal life
like he did?

A person that does
a thing like that... Normal life...

It's hard to believe it.

It's hard to believe it.
I'll go to my grave
believing that he didn't.

Lonnie appeared quite relaxed,

carrying
a Nora Roberts romance.

All right. This is
the matter of the people
versus Lonnie Franklin.

Gentlemen, take
your places, please,
from yesterday.

Pass it to the court.

Yes, Your Honor. We're
still engaging preparations...

The case is still
in pre-trial phase.

Lonnie is pleading not guilty to ten counts of murder,

and one count of
attempted murder.

Ten other murder cases
are pending.

Photos of 180 missing women

found at Lonnie's house
have also been circulated.

And do you think
there is a good chance of
his innocence being proved?

Again, as far as to examine
all of the evidence

to determine if he's
culpable of a crime or not.

Obviously, we are going to
put on any reasonable
defense we have

to show that he's not
responsible for these actions.

And are you making
progress in that?

We're looking at everything.

Can I see her picture?

This is Janecia.
This is my baby girl.

Right here.
The love of my life.

I don't think the pain
of losing a child
ever really goes away.

It's like, it's just there.

No matter what you do,
how well you're doing,

it's just there,
sitting right there,

like, Janecia's not here.

So... And she has a son,
and I've got to deal
with the son's pain.

And I have to tell him
sometimes like, I miss her
every single day too.

We both miss her,
but we have to learn...

We have to learn to...

go on. And that's
what we learned.

That you have to put
one foot in front of
the other and get up

and keep going.

That's the only way
we're gonna survive it.

That's right.

This is Margaret Prescod,

founder of Black Coalition
Fighting Back Serial Murders

who are critical of the police handling of the case.

Margaret Prescod
first started leafleting
the neighborhood in 1985,

25 years before
Lonnie was arrested.

He's been killing women all
for now the past three years.

I mean, just
on the Memorial Day,

they found her daughter
in the Sixty-Eighth Street
Elementary School,

she was the 17th victim.

All of
the women were found
strangled or stabbed,

their bodies dumped.

In January,
a task force was formed

to track down their slayer.

A month later, this group,
the Black Coalition
Fighting Back Serial Murders

was organized.

Before the arrest was made
of Lonnie Franklin,

we were actually out
in his neighborhood. We were
leafleting around there.

And the interesting thing
about it is that
it was shocking

how many people who lived
in the neighborhood knew nothing
about any serial murderer.

They just didn't know.

How is this possible?

There is very few communities
outside of a black

or brown community
in the city of Los Angeles

that that could have happened.

Where you have that
number of women.

If you have
these people killed,

and people who live
practically around the corner

don't know anything
about it,

that's unconscionable.

I'm telling you, back in
the 1980s, we had a count
of 90 women.

Only 18 of them were
on the books. What happened
to the rest of 'em?

Are some of them
in these photos?

Or if they are not
in these photos,
where are they?

I think many more women
were killed, and the police

admitted at the time,

or the police
are admitting today.

The police have no idea how many women were murdered.

It could be hundreds.

Lonnie worked here
for many years
driving a garbage truck.

Police say many victims
could be buried in landfill.

Did you ever know this guy
called the "Grim Sleeper"?

I didn't know him.

You didn't know him?

You guys are too late.
The guys that knew him
have probably gone home.

We're doing
this film about
this so-called "Grim Sleeper."

Okay. Lonnie Franklin.
Did you ever know him?

No, but I heard that
he used to work here.

He used to work here. That's what I heard.

Yeah. Said he
used to work here,

and I don't know
where he went after that,

but he was like a loader
before they used to have
the rear loaders.

Right. And he was a loader and...

Lonnie Franklin, if indeed
he is the Grim Sleeper,

was called that by journalists

because it was originally
thought there was a 14-year
hiatus in the killings.

Now it's thought
he most likely
carried on killing,

but the bodies
had never been found.

This was
also the period that
crack cocaine was running,

you know, in South LA.

Every time people talk to me
about South LA,

and they talk to me
about the murders,

I'm always very,
very concerned that

the context has to be
a community that has survived,

has survived against all odds.

People who moved... Black people who moved from the south coming to California,

a lot of them, you know,
wound up in South LA.

And that was the time that
there was some industry,

auto and other industry,

so people were actually
able to earn a living.

I mean, they had
some kind of income.

That industry, you know,
dried up at the same time

the factories and the jobs
fled from South LA.

So you had a whole
population of people

newly... I mean, it was never
an affluent community,

but, where are you
gonna get an income from?

At the same time,
there was an epidemic
of crack cocaine

coming in to
South Los Angeles.

Because of
the crack cocaine epidemic,

because of the poverty levels,

because the so-called riots
had happened,

that people felt,
"Well, who cares
about this community?"

They don't have
high-paid lobbyists,

you know what I mean?
There's nobody advocating
on their behalf.

So LAPD and the city officials

felt that they could
get away with it.

In the '80s,

crack dealers employed
more people in South Central

than AT&T, IBM,
and Xerox combined.

After leaving sanitation,

Lonnie worked as a mechanic
in this police station.

I called the leading detective

to try and get the police side of the Grim Sleeper story.

But the LAPD
refused to comment.

Pam met Lonnie on the streets

and agreed to
show us his world.

Crack comes with whores
and excitement and drama.

It ain't just about
getting high,

it's excitement,

it's how you're out here
looking like
Hobo motherfuckin' Kelly,

and motherfuckers
pick you up, and you know,
you're feeling good,

and twisting and turning,
you know what I'm saying?

You think you're all that,
and motherfucker, you know,
oops, this is a serial killer.

You know what I'm saying?
So you know what I mean?

So, you don't... It's about
the excitement, the chase.
It's about the chase.

The chase and the thrill.

"I'mma get this motherfucker,"

'cause that's what I said.
"Oh, this looks like
a super good one."

You know what I'm sayin'?
And the shenanigans began.

Well, I usually get what's
hoeing right around there,

on West Street
and 41st and 42nd,

up and down that way
by the Mustang, Snooty Fox
and the Comfort Inn motel.

He would pick me up
around there.

You know, he'd be
driving around in his van.

The last time I felt
something was wrong

'cause he was like,
"Bitch, you know what?"

And I said, "Bitch"?

He was like, "You don't
never want to do what
I really want you to do."

I said I'm not
a motherfucking dog.
"Bitch, now,

"You don't own me.
I'm not a motherfucking dog.

"What the fuck?
I'm not going to bark."

You know, and then
he was like... When he said
"I'm gonna drop you off,"

I said,"You ain't
gonna drop me off.

"I'mma leave right now.
I can make it from here."

Are you sure
he's okay to pet?

Jesus. Are you sure?

Blow! Blow! Blow!
Hey, you can't let him
get up on you...

This is my ex-husband.

He left. We were together
four years. He wanted to go
separate ways.

That's my son.

That's my mama.
She died in 2010.

That's my granddaughter,
and that's me,
and that's my mom.

And those are me.

Where is your husband? He's at home.
He lives in Long Beach.

There you go.

See him? There you go. Yeah.

It's cold out here
by myself.

And it's all right.
I live alone.

You know, for a girl... Yeah. You live alone?

Four years sober.
I've come to the light.

Four years sober? Four years sober.

And I have my own self.
This is me.

You know. I don't drink. What were you on before?

Drugs. Crack. I used to
smoke crack ever since
I met Lonnie.

That's how I know
all these girls
that you wanna know.

I know these girls
because I was
out there hoeing.

Let's go. Cool.

Let's go. Let's go.

Pam says she knows

some of the 180 missing
unidentified women.

The pictures were released
by the LAPD

and found at
Lonnie Franklin's home.

Many of the women are homeless so we looked on the street.

She was a young girl.
May she knows...

Hey, can I ask you a question?
I'm just curious...

I'm doing a research
about the Grim Sleeper.

Do you know anything
about the Grim Sleeper?

I've seen him actually
driving around.

I've seen him actually
talking to one girl.

When though? This is like a while back.

The victims ranged in age
from 14 to 36.

All had been shot
with a .25 caliber pistol

or strangled.

Hi, did you know
about the Grim Sleeper?

Were you out here at home
when the Grim Sleeper
was out here?

The what? When the Grim Sleeper...

When the killer, the man
was out here killing the women?

Were you out here then?

All right,
you have a good day
and be safe.

Huh? You have a good day
and be safe.

All right. How old are you?
You know me?

Wasn't we at that
train station together?

What train station?

I mean a bus station. What bus station?

See, there are lots of
bus stations down here. Yeah.

How old are you? Twenty.

Twenty?

Have a good day.

You know, because half
of these bitches got pimps,

you know what I'm sayin'?
I don't like pimps

so, you know,
I disrespect pimps.

You know. I don't like pimps.

I have no respect for any man
who puts a woman out here

and makes her sell her pussy.

He ain't selling his dick
out here with her.
That's wrong.

Yeah, put your
skirt on and come out here
and work with her.

That's wrong.
But you know,
some people like it,

some people with it.

Less than 50 percent
of this community

graduates from high school.

This is not just
a story about Lonnie,

but about a people in
one of the world's
most prosperous cities

who have been left behind.

Pull up right there.

Your mom
used to hang out with him?

Mm-hmm. They used to
drink and stuff.

See? Smoke.

Did you smoke? Huh?

Did you smoke?

Crack. Oh, no. I don't smoke.

My mom is a drug addict.
So, yeah.

But yeah, he used to
hand out with my mom,
stuff like that.

They smoked,
they used to drink together.

I didn't know him
in a negative way.

At his house? Mm-hmm.

Right next door. 81st,
Corner of Western.

81st. Cool.

'Cause he stayed next door. - How old
were you then?

Uh, I was about 19.

How old are you now? I'm 29.

Twenty-nine? You look good.
You don't look 29. Thank you.

I have a baby too. Yeah. You don't look 29.

I was surprised
that we still hadn't heard

any terrible stories
about Lonnie.

Everyone we met
seemed to like him.

I got a call from Gary, one of Lonnie's close friends

who I had met on the stoop,
saying he had
something to tell me.

How is it going? Everything's going good.

They going good? Yeah. Come on.

Thank you.

All right.
How's it going? All right.

So what
did you want to tell me?

Okay, like...

Like I said, I always,
first of all, you know,
my head... you know,

my heart, and I take
my hat off to the victims,

you know,
the victims' families,
you know,

because it's truly a tragedy.

Okay, now, as for Lonnie,

I don't believe
that Lonnie did it.

But after the fact,
there's a lot of things that
I've been thinking about,

you know, and the media is
kinda creating doubt within me.

Like the .25 automatic

that they say that he shot
the surviving victims with,

I would see him
with a .25 automatic,
standing in his front yard.

He showed it to me.

Where would he keep it?

He would keep it
in his top pocket. Where? Just...

In his top pocket.
Just like right here.

So you saw the .25. GARY: I saw it.

He showed it to me.

Okay, and...

A lot of things, you know,
has come up, where...

I saw handcuffs
fall out of Lonnie's car.

I went talked to him,
and then...

I joked with him and I said,
"Hey, man, what are you,
the police or something?"

You know, and he
laughed it off,
you know, but...

It's like he was
letting me see these things,

a lot of things,
you know.

Like, maybe he wanted me...

It was a $250,000 reward,

and maybe he was
feeling guilty or something,

I don't know. That's
where I'm looking at it now.

And maybe he wanted me
to get the reward.

I went in his house,
he showed me pictures
where he had...

a picture of a girl that
he took inside the house.

I'm like,"Lonnie,
this is inside your house.

"What are you...What was she doing?

He took naked pictures
of her, you know.

And I'm like, "Whoa,
where was your old lady?"

And he just gave his laugh.
You know, and all.

Do you think Lonnie almost
wanted to get caught?

I mean, you know,
that's the way that it,
to me, if he did do it,

Why would you show somebody
something like this?

$250,000 reward
and all this.

Man, you got the gun
and that's, you know...

the gun that's supposed
to have been used.

Man, you just showed me this.
You blatantly showed me.

Why do you think people
didn't tell the police
anything about Lonnie before?

Who knew?

What do you mean,
tell the police? Who knew?

Well, he was heavily into
women and pornography...

Oh, you're telling me,
after he got caught? No. Before.

So what he was into women?

A lot of people
are into women.
What do you do?

Go to the police and say,
"Hey, this man into women"?

No one have anything.
Women coming up dead.
We knew that.

They arrested a police officer
for the murders at one time.

But a lot of people said
Lonnie was weird.

Lonnie... he was weird
in his own way. He was weird.
But he was Lonnie.

If you know him,
you'd know him.
He was weird.

Richard also asked to meet up.

There were
some other things you
wanted to tell me?

Yes. I got permission
from... How should I say?

I got permission from
Lonnie's... Mrs. Franklin,

to tell you about
an incident that occurred
when I was with Lonnie.

We were driving around...

We were supposedly
scouting for a car.

We were driving down Figueroa,

he sees this girl,
he sort of flips.

So we passed her like
maybe ten to 15 feet.

Passed her, he pulled over.

He got out and ran back
there where she was,

they were having words,
and all of a sudden,
she tried to go away,

and he grabbed her,
put her arm behind and...

grabbed a handful of hair
and was pulling her to the car.

And all the time,
I'm looking back,
looking at this.

What was she doing?

She was hollering and
saying,"Let me go! Let me go!

"Help me! Let me go!"

And I said, "Man,
what the hell is you doing?
Dude, what are you doing?"

And he looked,
I guess he caught his senses,

he collected himself
real quick, he let her go,

and before he can...
after he let her go,

before he can just
walk plainly to the car,

the police came
out of everywhere.

Yeah.

We were both arrested.

They never charged me with
nothing, they never told me
why I was being arrested,

they just arrested us.

Did they take your prints
or anything?

That's the strange thing
about it.

They didn't even book us.
They didn't even fingerprint us
or nothing.

They just put us in a cell.
Just kept us there for hours.

Wouldn't talk to us
or anything.

Then all of a sudden,
the guy came and said,
"You're free to go."

But see, they had
split Lonnie and I up.

They took him out
of the cell with me,

and put him in another cell
for like three hours prior to
them releasing us.

And they didn't
charge him with anything?

No. He left with us.
His wife picked us up.

And no fingerprints,
no DNA?

No fingerprints,
no tests, no nothing.

Before Lonnie Franklin's arrest,

many people in the community believed the police themselves were involved.

A police officer, Ricky Ross was arrested for the murders,

but released
for lack of evidence.

However, the suspicions still exists in the community.

State your name
and spell it out, please.

My name is Lonnie Franklin.

L-O-N-N-I-E,
F-R-A-N-K-L-I-N.

Lonnie had 15 previous
felony convictions,

yet he never had
his DNA taken.

How many times
have you been convicted of
receiving stolen property, sir?

Uh, probably around
four, five times.

How about GTA?

Grand Theft Vehicle
or Auto?

Around five times.
Five times.

How about battery?

Battery?

Two. Two times.

How about assault with
force likely to produce
great bodily injury?

Have you also
been convicted of that?

Mm...

It's a possibility, yes. How many times?

Once.

How about false
imprisonment, sir?

False imprisonment? Mm-hmm.

Once.

Lonnie has now been in custody

without bail for
the last four years,

but he has still not
come to trial.

This is Diana Ware,

stepmother of Barbara Ware,

ne of the Grim Sleeper's
first victims.

She's come to
every court date

since Lonnie Franklin's arrest four years ago.

Yes, I have, and it's
important because

when Mr. Franklin comes
in to the courtroom,

he can see us.

And when he looks
in that audience,

I want him to see me

to know that
every time he's there,
I am there.

Because the people that
he murdered had family

that loved them
and supported them,

and they want to
see justice done.

That's why I am there
every time that he is in court.

Barbara Ware, age 23,

was murdered on
January the 10th, 1987

with a .25 mm gunshot wound
to the chest.

Police knew, in 1987,
from ballistics,

that the same .25 mm pistol
was used in
two previous murders,

and that they had
a serial killer
on their hands.

But they didn't release this information to the public

until August 2008,
22 years later.

Why didn't
the police tell you
it was a serial killer?

I really don't know.

I was really shocked.

Uh, I was home
when I heard the news
and it came on TV,

so I was really shocked
to hear that.

But... But I guess the police
knew from 1988

that there was
a serial killer.

I really don't know
anything about that.

I didn't think it was
that long, but,

I don't know.
I really don't know.

And when was it
that you found out?

I found out in 2008.

2008. Yes.

Yes. I found out...
I heard it on television.

So... But the police didn't
contact you first?

No. You know.

This 911 call
reporting the murder,

which many think
is the voice of the killer,

also wasn't released
for 22 years.

911 OPERATOR:
What's your name?

Okay, then, bye-bye.

Acknowledgment of
the serial killer

and the 911 call

were only made public after
the murder of Janecia Peters.

I feel bad for
all of the victims,

but I still always feel like

it didn't have to
happen to Janecia.

Why didn't they tell
the community

that there was someone
running around, you know,
killing girls,

Why didn't they
release the 911 call
when it happened?

Somebody might have
recognized the voice.

Mm-hmm.

The van that was being driven,

they found the van.
The church van.

Messed that up.

'Cause we were
outraged after

because they knew that
11 or 12 women
were already killed

before they even
announced anything.

And when we went and said
we were concerned about it,

they said, "Well, why are you
so concerned about it?"

And we were a bit shocked.

And they said,
"He's only killing hookers."

That was said to us
by the captain

or whoever it was down there.
Would you believe that?

The police don't care because
these are black women.

It wasn't like
he killed no...

It's not like Lonnie
killed no high-pro
white folk.

You know, it wasn't...
I mean,

we don't mean nothing
to them. We're black.

What the fuck?
Just another nigga dead.

You know, you shouldn't
have been out there
on them drugs.

This was... This case
is not a high-profile case

because they
didn't make it one.

Now if I was
a fuckin' celebrity

or a white woman,

you know, maybe they would
have did something. That would
put more emphasis on it.

You know what I'm sayin'?

But I'm a black woman.
Who gives a fuck about me?

Pam is still contacting women on the street she knows.

I like the way Pam refers to us as her friends from England

to explain why she's
riding around with
a couple of white boys.

Hey, Liz, come here!

Liz, remember the Grim Sleeper?

Did you ever get involved
with the Grim Sleeper?

Uh-uh. He never crossed
your path down here?

I'm just doin' a research.
You seen him?

Can you just tell them
what you saw?

These are my friends
from England and they are
doing a research.

Did you ever catch him here?
You ever dated him?

Uh-uh. No, I didn't.

You never seen him?

Uh-uh. Oh.

But I passed him by,
you know, in the neighborhood.

How are you doin'? I'm okay.

You're still
looking good, girl.

Thank you. You're all right.

She's been out here
for almost 40 years.

That's a damn shame. Forty years?

Forty years.

Shit, I started out...
When I was out here,
I started young.

I was 17. And I'm 45.

That bitch is older.
She's older to me.

She still looks good.

Bitch ain't lost no teeth,
all of 'em is her teeth.

Were you out here when
the Grim Sleeper was
out here killing those girls?

Were you out here then?

No? How old are you?

Nineteen?

She ain't got no panties on.

Look, you should get it.
Nick, can you see?

Nineteen.

Be safe. All right.

She ain't got no drawers on.
You don't see her?

Yeah. Damn. I guess
she's nineteen.

She's young. Nineteen.

She's out here,
ass out naked.

That's fucked up.

Let me see what she's doing.

Back up, back up, back up.

Can you back up? Back up.

Oh, that's a street girl.
She's trying to get a treat.
I ain't fuckin' with y'all.

Watch out. Watch out.

Okay, let's go around.

We'll pick the bitch up
and go and buy
a bunch of beers.

You gonna get the beers
'cause I might want the bitch.

What's up? Where are the rest
of the girls at tonight?

Ain't no girls out here?
You the only one out here?

You are like the police.

No, I ain't the police.
I'm an ex-hooker
just like you.

I just don't do it no more.

Because I'm doing a research
about the Grim Sleeper.
Don't trip.

It ain't got nothing
to do with you.

If I was the police,
you'd be in jail.

But that''s your thing.

Said I'm like the police.
Bitch, if I was the police,

bitch, I would have busted
your ass and made you go
put some clothes on.

Okay, which way
are we going now? Where you wanna go?

Should we go back up? Yeah.

I really admire Pam,

who's almost running
our production by now.

Recently Pam was turned down
for a job as a bus driver

because of a felony
conviction for possession.

Now she also can't vote,

get food stamps
or public housing.

Pam has managed to
contact number 147

on the police composite of photos found in Lonnie's house.

She lives on
this housing estate

but isn't a victim
or missing person.

Which one is it? Three?

Is this flat three?

Are you flat three?

Hi. Sorry to bother you.
We were looking for flat three.

This is DelaShawn,

whose picture was taken
by Lonnie Franklin

when she was dating
Christopher Franklin,

Lonnie's son,
at high school.

Well, this is
Christopher John Franklin.

Which one? Oh, there?

Oh, God, this is
a creepy situation for me
because I just think about it.

I spent my entire
eleventh grade summer
in that house.

I spent the night,
we went on vacations.

I was exposed to
his wife, his sister,
the rest of the family.

We did funerals...

I did a lot
with that family.

So... And how did they seem?

Normal.

Normal? Normal.

Normal family.
Typical family.

Mother and father,
work.

Uh...

Mr. Franklin didn't work,
he was always at home.

And if you ever
needed anything,

you'd just tell him,
and he'd get it for you.

Don't ask questions,
just know that
he got it for you.

How he got it,
we ever knew.

What kind of stuff?

If you wanted a TV,
he'd get it.

If you needed a car,
he'd get it.

If you needed a part
for your car, he'd get it.

There was no question of
how he got it, but he got it.

I still can't process
this person who
killed these women

being the person who would go
above and beyond to help you.

because this wasn't
the character he came off.

He would have
a conversation with you,

but during that conversation,
something perverted
would come out.

That's just who he was.
He's just a horny old man.

That's exactly how
everybody looked at him,
as a horny old man.

I can say there were...
Now I'm gonna get
a little personal.

There was a few times
when we would be in the room,

and you could tell
he was listening at the door

or at the door, like...

When you were in
the room with his son?

Yeah. Like, sometimes
he seemed like he was
a pervert. Seriously.

The lights are
always off in that house.

So it was always very damp in the hallways and in the back.

They opened the kitchen window with the blinds,

and the living room
with the blinds,

but the lights in the hallway,

the lights in it
and the bathroom lights
were never on.

It was always like,
tea candles were burning
in the bathroom.

It was always magazines...
Like, porn magazines
in the bathroom.

He kept porn magazines
on the side of the toilet.

And then at night
he would leave.

And I just remember,
he had a Pinto.

The backyard was junky,

the garage was junky,

the rooms were junky,
the house was junky.

It was just one of those places where there was always just stuff everywhere.

I do remember him
having a shoe box

with pictures
in the garage.

And I remember him
laughing with his buddies,

passing the shoe box around.

He always had
three cell phones.

I always asked him,
"So why do you have
three cell phones?"

He told me.
One was for business,
one was his personal.

And the third one
was for his hoes
or his crackheads.

And did he show you
pictures and stuff or...

He never showed me pictures
but we did borrow his...

He had a white van,
like a church van,

we did ride on that once.

And in the glove box,

I remember once Chris
asked me to get the screwdriver
out the glove box,

but when I opened
the glove box, there was
like a Polaroid picture,

it's like the old...
What are the ones
that you snap?

Yeah, Polaroids. And you fan 'em.

But there was a stack
in the glove box,

and in there were
like, lace panties,

or something lace
in the corner.

And I just grabbed
the screwdriver
and closed the glove box.

Yeah. Didn't think
anything of it.

So where are you guys headed?

We're filming
these alleyways where
the bodies were found.

Shall I ride? Yeah, you wanna ride?

Can you see how all the bodies were very close to where he lived?

Yeah. Western, Western,
Gage, Western, in between...

I see in between...

Well, you got one on Vernon.
2500 West Vernon.

That would be like on
Crenshaw and Vernon.

Right around his house.

Yeah, 81st,
Van Ness is the closest.

Very close.
That's five blocks.

There's been a couple of
bodies that were found

in this alley since
I've been living here.

I've been living here
since I was 12 years old.

And you know, couple of things
done happened through here,

you know,
gang-related shootings,

uh, people getting
dropped off
in the alley,

uh, things happened
in that alley.

Did you hear where
the Grim Sleeper body
was dropped off?

It was right here by this.

This post right here,
it was a black bag. Which one?

This post right here,
it was a black bag.

That's shooting right there. They're shooting.

There's shooting right here.
You hear it Nick?

Did you
hear the shooting?

I think we should go.

Well, let's just stay put
for a moment.
We don't wanna...

Where did that guy go?

We don't know
who's shooting, man.
That man ran.

We don't know
who's shooting, or why
is everybody running.

There a whole...
A lot of bodies have been
dropped in that alley.

People have been
shot in that alley,
killed in that alley.

So the Grim Sleeper
is just one more.

Lonnie's obsession

was taking photographs of all his encounters with women.

At first on Polaroid,

then graduating to video
and cell phone.

But he really... His specialty
is flipping pictures.

He likes taking pictures,
all kinds of positions.

You know what I'm sayin'?
Just, you know, naked,
close your eyes...

you know, all this...
Like a wild animal.

You know, taking pictures
of just dumb shit. He liked
snapping pictures.

What kind?

You know, You... Close my eyes,
you know, bend over.

You know, turn around,

prop my ass up, just
freaky shit, you know.

That's it. That's the best
what I can tell you about him.

He's just a freaky motherfucker

and I was just the lucky one
that I had the instincts,

when all bets were off,
finally got away.

Okay, it's in that door.

Gary and Richard,
both bachelors,

seemed to be part of a kind of amateur photographic society with Lonnie Franklin

and various others
in the neighborhood.

He would call and say,
"Man, I know some freaks."

You know what I'm sayin'?
'Cause he knew that
I knew some too, you know.

And we just, we compared notes,
you know what I'm sayin'?
I've got my divorce.

I was a single man, hurt,
and all this, you know
what I mean?

You know, I turned
into a bachelor.

You know. That's what
I've been doing.

You know, not proud of it,
but, you know, I would...

But I'm not into killing
and all that, you know.

These are...

Like I said, these are
some pictures. This is what
me and Lonnie would share,

you know, with each other.
I have some pictures, you know.

I got a couple of them
that Lonnie knew and others
I sort of knew them too,

and took out, you know.

But this is what
was going on, you know.

Just like this one right here,
and Lonnie,

he... He knows her, and then
just like I was saying, you see
the alcohol right there.

That's what she liked. So,
you know, that's how Lonnie
would get his women.

All right. You know.

You see...

So this is when he was
still taking pictures?

Yeah. And this is the girl
that came and talked to you
and stuff like that.

Definitely she was
on hoe stroll.

Okay, roughly,
these, uh, just, uh...

A girl that enjoys having sex
and posing.

She felt that the pictures
are a form of art.

And would you
sit around and show them
to each other

in the back of the garage
in the shoe box?

Yeah... You know.
Yeah. He knows her.

I didn't talk to Lonnie.

Lonnie would sit up there
just like this,

'cause that's what our
conversation would be about.

"Man, let me
tell you something."

Okay.

Now this right here,
we'd be comparing it,

just like this, he could
never be dirty.
He's like, "Bam!"

Oh, my goodness.

"Bam!"

Lonnie got a white van
and he had a camera
in the back of it.

Then he had
the mobile home.

He had it on a tripod,
a tripod like that,

and it was parked right
in front of his house.

There was a mattress
on the floor.

And that's where
he would do his work.

He'd be right there,
you never would see his face,

but, say for instance,
if this is between her legs,

you'll never see him.
You might see his fingers,

He'd be doin'... He'd have
his hands on the vagina, but
you never would see his face.

I didn't want to say
anything last night,

but a couple of times,
I had to...
You know I do carpets.

Yeah. I had to...

Lonnie paid me.
He gave me money
to clean the van.

The mobile home.

I always cleaned the carpet.

I cleaned the carpet
four to five times.

but I never suspected
it'd be-

I didn't know what dry...

You know, what it looks like,
but to e, it was like oil,

but I got it oiled up,
'cause I have the special
solution to get it out.

But the police
took the mobile home.

Did they ever
bring it back?

He had a legal shop
back there, so they
took all...

But I haven't seen
the mobile home back.

I don't know. - So you think
that might have been blood.

It could have been. I'm not...

It was easy to get off.

And it was dark like oil.

But it wasn't oil.
That's hard to get off.

Hmm.

Yeah, but...

Lonnie was by far, the wealthiest man in his street.

In this area
of high unemployment,

it's estimated that at least
one-third of black males

would receive
felony convictions
at some point,

and lose the right to vote,

get food stamps
and public housing,

and many jobs.

Lonnie could pick and choose
who he employed.

Everyone wanted to
work for Lonnie.

This man burned cars
for Lonnie.

So how
did you know Lonnie?
How did you know Lonnie?

Oh, man, I did
a couple of jobs for him.

Oh, you did? Yes, I have.

What kind of jobs? Uh, insurance.

I was involved... Knew Lonnie.
I did a couple of jobs for him,

which I told you,
were insurance jobs.

This one was kind of strange.

He said it was his,
he wanted to have it burned.

He said what? The car...

Yes, set the car on fire.

Did he bring you the car?

I came over to
where he was located,

Where was that? 81st.

Outside his house? Exactly.

Got the keys from him,
drove the car off over here.

Right. Over here.

And, like I said, when
I pulled up, I thought I was
gonna find something of value.

Searched through it, and
discovered some female clothes

which had some blood on it,

and in the backseat,
and on the floor.

There was blood? Blood.

A lot of it? Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Considering, yeah.

And you knew it was blood,
was it? Well, of course. In detail.

It was discolored,

but still, you could
tell it was blood.

And you didn't think
anything of the bloody...

Didn't think anything
of it. Never.

When you find bloody clothes
in a car, don't you think
that's a little odd?

Not really. I mean,
it's just...

hey, carried out
what I set out to do,

took care of that,
went back.

What did you set out to do?

Set the car on fire.

And so what
did you do exactly?

Uh, took out some...
A lighter, paper,

threw it, set it on fire.

Richard introduced us to Jerry.

Jerry worked with Lonnie
as a mechanic,

and was his companion at night picking up women.

Gentlemen, how are you
doing today? - Howdy.

Jerry says he was with Lonnie

with about half of the women on the police composite.

I met Lonnie when he
bought a bike from me.

You know,
bought a bike and all,

I said I won't charge him.
I was on crack cocaine.

And I was... He bought
the bike for ten dollars.

And ever since then,
me and Lonnie
became good friends.

He would see me
walking on the street,
he would pull over and say,

"Man, I'm looking
for such and such.

"You see such and such?"
And I would say, "No."

He said, "You wanna
make some money?"

I got a car I need to pick up.
I said okay.

You know, by me
being on crack cocaine,

I was anxious to do anything
to get another hit.

I discovered it was Jerry
on the Google image,

talking to Lonnie.

On the left is the camper van

where Lonnie allegedly
filmed and killed women.

Just describe
what it was like
picking the women up.

Well, majority of
the women we knew

and majority of the women,
we'd say how much
for both of us.

You know, and they'd say,"Well,

Sometimes they'd say
half and half,

or they'd want straight cash
or they want straight crack.

And then we'd stop to
get some liquor, whatever
they wanted to drink,

and we wouldn't have
no problems with it.

But some women get attitudes

because the majority of them
wanted dope to hit.

He wouldn't give it to them
'cause they weren't performing,

or he'd get mad
and put them out,

asshole naked.

But like I said,
sometimes,

he'd pick them up,
and he'd drop me off,

but he'd keep
the women with him.

How come you dropped
me off, you know?

'Cause... I would
have to go home to my girl,

or I had to do something.

Do you think
he killed those women?

Well, it might have been.

It could have been.
It could have been
the women he killed.

You know, if he did it.

You've allowed black women
to walk around here

when someone is hunting them,

not knowing that
they're being hunted.

Imagine if they
would have treated
victim number three

as if she was a student
over at UCLA,

with blonde hair and blue eyes.

How many other people
might still be living?

But the lack of concern

allow for this hunting ground

to just be free and open
for this person, you know?

And that is, for me,
the real, real, real tragedy.

You know, the real tragedy

is just the lack of concern
allowed so many more people
to be murdered.

Do you think
also that people were afraid

to come forward
and say something?

That's very, very plausible.

I mean, the relationship, its...
the relationship with the police
and the community is such that

no one wants to be

the person who's giving
the police information.
You just don't.

I tell my own son,
you know, he's 16 years old,

"If something terrible happens
and your mother's not home,

"here are the numbers
of people to call.

"But whatever you do,
do not call 911."

No, literally, for what?

So you gonna come
answer the door and they
can pull you away.

Don't call 911.

You know, while you're there,
you're trying to tell them
what happened to you,

they're trying to find out,
you know, do you use drugs
every once in a while?

Or you know,
are you art of this gang?

They're trying to fill out
their little field
identification card

when you're trying to explain
to them that someone has
done something. You know?

You cannot just,
as a black person,

walk into an LAPD station

or a LASD station
and just say,

"I have something to report"
and start describing something,

and think that you're going
to be, you know, be
treated with dignity,

treated with kindness,
treated with concern,

and be able to leave
feeling good, you know,

warm cockles of the heart
that "Yes, I've done something."

It is a 99% chance that
this is gonna be an unpleasant
situation for you.

I couldn't help wondering

how much Lonnie Franklin's
own family must have known
about what was going on.

His wife, son, and daughter,
living in this house,

which, as DelaShawn said,
had junk everywhere.

Sylvia Franklin,
Lonnie's wife for 30 years,

is well-respected
in the community.

She works in the school
superintendent's office,

and goes to the church
at the end of the street
every Sunday.

Matter of fact, if we had
came a little while earlier,

like five minutes earlier,

you would have seen her
leave the church.

Is that that church? It's the church.
It's right here.

Wait. Let me see.
There she is right there.
Look. Turn. Turn.

There she is in the shawl
with the cap on,

the white hat.

That's Lonnie's wife.

That was Lonnie's wife?
My goodness.

Do you think we should
go and say anything? - No. No.

No? No. She would be
awfully upset.

But that was her.

I always wondered,
I look at his wife,

and I'd be looking at Lonnie,

and remember the stuff
Lonnie done show me,

and I said, "Lonnie, how
the hell does she
put up with this?"

How does she put up with this?

She had to... Didn't know.

But I couldn't see her
being in the house with him

and didn't find none of
that stuff none of the time.

She had to.

You know?

Like those... Well,
then too, she never
went in the garage.

She never went back there.

That was Lonnie's domain.

The backyard was his domain.

She come out the house,
she's out the house, done.

Man, it didn't seem like...

"Are you guys really married?"

You know? That's what
we've been... I'm like,
"Wow." You know?

'Cause it's unreal.
You never saw them
together.

You never saw them
in the same car together.

You never, never,
not one time in my life

I've ever seen them together
in the same car.

Over twenty years, man?
Come on. Never.

Some people say
they had separate bedrooms.

I don't know.

You know, I don't know that.

But I've been in the house

and Lonnie don't let
everybody in his house.

Don't wanna believe it.

Don't wanna believe it.

Don't wanna believe it. Man.

That would blow my mind.

At the time,
I didn't know that they were
having marital problems.

I didn't know she actually
had her own place.

But it made sense because
she would not be there,

and then there was times
that she would be there.

She lived in her house
and he lived in his.

I don't think they ever
really lived together.

Or they did at some point
but then they weren't.

Because how do you leave
for days at a time

and then you come back
a day or two and then
you leave for days at a time?

So I'm assuming, with her
leaving for days at a time,

is why he was out
doing what he was doing.

'Cause no woman was there
to tell him or stay on him,

or there was no woman
there for him. So he
would go elsewhere.

Everyone said the closest
person to Lonnie

is his son Christopher.

He was always home.

He was little then.
He's a little guy.

But he was always home.

Up until he moved out,
but he was always home,

he was involved
in his dad's business,

I'm not saying he was
involved in the murders,

but he was always involved
in his dad's business.

I'm not speculating
on Chris, but,

it's very hard
for me to believe

that if anything went on
in that house, that
Chris didn't know about.

I really don't think he...
He had to know about some...

You know, even had a suspicion
of something going on,

that wasn't right.

Chris is a type of person
if he didn't like you,

he would attack you, or,

he would pull a gun on you.

He would try to stab you,

he would run over you.
Whatever he could do
to harm you, he would do,

and he would not
think twice about it.

And as a teenager,
I thought it was awesome.
I had a boyfriend who's crazy.

And then as I got older
I realized he was really crazy.

Do you think
he got a little of that
from his father?

I'm sure he did.

I'm gonna say
I'm positive he did.

I don't know. There is

plenty of times
when we would drive around,

he would have his gun
laying on his lap.

We're out driving,
going to get something to eat,

and he would have his gun,
a fully-loaded gun,
laying on his lap.

Pam thought she might
have the best chance

of getting
a meeting with Chris.

Should we go
over there now? Do you think
he'd be there now?

You want to go right through? We could try.

All right, let's go.

Mmm-mmm-mmm.

I thought you were saying
you were a little nervous
because...

I was, a little....you know, he's a scary...

Hey, I'm not scared
of nothing but God.

You know what I mean?

You have to understand
what I was saying.

You get a little... You know
what I'm saying? I ride around
with two white boys,

I'm from the hood,

I'm a crackhead,

I don't know
if y'all from England,

you motherfuckers
could be anybody.

And when did I become
a motherfucking investigator?

I don't give a fuck
about Lonnie.

You know what I'm sayin'?

See, 'cause I don't want
nobody to shoot at your car,

or do nothing to you,
and you gotta be careful.

I mean, you know
how they are. They think
you're the fucking FBI,

riding around there.
"Who is this?"

Then they figure, "This bitch,
who is this bitch?
Who the fuck is this bitch?"

Back up, back up, back up.
There's nobody on here.

Damn. Okay pull up.
Go on some more.

Go. There you go.

There you go. Was that Chris?

Let me see.
Keep going.

Keep going. Keep going.

I told go. Do you wanna get out?

Uh-uh. That's Chris. Just call across to him.

Pam gave Chris
her phone number to call.

He said he'd think about it.

This is Lonnie's dog,

famous after his arrest
among neighborhood kids

as the guardian
of the haunted house.

No one dares knock on
Lonnie or Chris' front door.

Turn it down?

Pam took us to find

Christopher's childhood
nanny Lili,

who now lives homeless on the same streets that Lonnie used to ride at night.

Pam introduced us to Roxanne

and showed her
the pictures of Lili.

Lili, you know Lili.
You know who Lili is?

No, she looks like
my home girl, Portia though.

You' haven't seen her,
never on Figueroa?

No. See her good?

Yeah.

Roxanne also knew Lonnie.

He paid me $40,
I ain't gonna lie,
for a blowjob.

He wanted me to go
to his house and go
in his garage,

but I didn't 'cause
I don't go to people's house.

And he got my friend Beamer,
we call her Beamer,

her real name was Brenda.
He cut her across her throat.

You know, she stayed
on 68 and Menlo,

but after that happened,
Beamer had left outta here.
You know, she got scared.

What did
Beamer say he did?
What was he like?

He raped her,

and then he cut her throat.

Tied her up and raped her,
and he cut her throat.

And like, sometimes, when
I would look at him, he would
look kind of evil, you know...

It didn't seem like
he was trying to hurt me,

but I was like,
"I don't wanna
go to your house,"

and he was like,"Baby,
you're going to the house,
and you'll go in the back,

"and you'll kick it back there
in the garage. I got a camper."
And all this.

And I was like, "No, I'm cool.
I'm cool," but I was scared.

So I went and did what I did,
he let me go.

And then when it happened
to my home girl Beamer,
I was like,

"That's the same guy!"

I promise to call.

All right.
Thank you so much.

Roxanne didn't find out
anything about Lili,

but she did put me in touch
with Beamer's pimp,

who said Beamer
was too scared to talk.

Hi, is Lili in there?
Hi, is Lili in there? Lili?

These motherfuckers,
I know these motherfuckers
over here

'cause I used to
smoke with 'em.

So we're gonna find her
if she's out here.

If she's out here.

This is where I used
to make money.
I used to live right there.

It's where I started out.

It is what it was.
Really crack... And
that's another crack house.

See them sitting out there?

It's just like the devil's den
though. You know,
you gotta be... It's just...

I almost lost my life
over here, so...

It's the devil's den.

Got to be no sign
to fuck around, so what?
You know passed through here,

but for as hanging,
you couldn't pay if I...

If I was to hit the pipe today,
I wouldn't come over here.

Hi, I'm Dion!

I need Lili. I live on Browning.

All right,
I need Lili.

Can you go get one girl
out there and fuckin' ask
for where Lili is?

Yeah. Give me five dollars.

Here you go.

I'm so broke.

Let me see.
There's five dollars.

I need it. I need it.

Okay, I'll get her.

I just need Lili. Which one?
Sherry or somebody?

Let e see Sherry. Okay, come on.

Where is the crack house?

Right here.
I'm gonna show you.

Which one? It's dead.
See how dark it is?

Nick, it's right here.

This is the crack house. This is the crack house.

Yeah. The dark one?

Yeah, the dark one.
You see? It's the devil's den.

Hey, come here.

I don't want that
five dollars back,

that's chump change to me. - I ain't
worried about that.

Okay. I need...
There's nobody in there?

Just my friend Ray-Ray,
like I said.

Ray-Ray, Ray-Ray.
Who's Ray-Ray?

Some young girl, 30... Oh, that silly nigga Ray-Ray?

You can't go in the house
or something?
You done fucked up?

Yeah. Oh, all right.
Thank you.

Here, give this cigarette
to your mom.

The irony is,

Lonnie's house is just
opposite the crash pad

where Pam found Lili
the following morning.

You know,
they want to know the truth.

And talk so that
they can understand you.

I remembered what Pam
had said about Lili.

Everybody use and abuse her.

Everybody use and abuse her.

That's what she likes.
To be used and abused.

She's a sweet girl,

but she's looking for love
in all the wrong
motherfucking places.

So you were the nanny...

Yes....for Lonnie's son.

Yes.

What was that like?

So he finally told me
his dad do profound things
to him,

and he has ladies
in the house,

and he sits and watches
dad through the peephole.

You know, so, um...

When Lonnie had come
to pick me up,

come pick...
He picked up Chris,

he would always ask me
to come to the car

and he had some things
to show me.

So I'm like, "Okay."

You know, and I would
set Chris down and let him
play the little Game Boy

until, well it was
Atari then,

but played the little games
until we came back.

So I would go to the car,
he would open up the trunk,

and he would always tell me,
"I want you to
wear some panties

"or some stockings
with some heels on,

"and I want you to..."
you know, he'd want to
tie you up and put...

So he would
do this to you while
you were babysitting?

Yeah. Yes.

He would wanna take
pictures of me, of poses,

you know, of very, like,
I would call it nasty.

But by me doing
the drugs with him...

Well, he didn't do drugs,
I did the drugs.

Drugs? Yes.

So, you know,
as my addiction went on,
I would do whatever it took.

You know, and then...
But he started getting
like, aggressive with me.

You know, like
he would wanna choke me.

You know, as he
had me handcuffed,

and I would be telling him,
"Don't do that.
I don't like that."

You know, and he would always
wanna have anal sex.

He would put a doggie,
what do you call it, leash?

Like a collar. Yeah, around my neck,

and would have sex with me
like I was a dog.

After a while, it got
kinda sickening to me,

and I couldn't babysit
his son anymore

because I couldn't take
what Chris was going through,

you know, and I wanted
to report him but I didn't,

you know, because of
my addiction. So,
that's my story.

Unless you wanna know more.

This is Fernando, one of
Lonnie's close friends

who said Lonnie would joke
about killing crackheads
and cleaning up the streets.

But no one ever believed him.

Where do you
think all the anger
and hate came from?

He said that
his first wife did it.

Made him hate women.

His first wife.
She's the one who did it.

She hated...

He hated women
because of his first wife.

It's what she did to him.

I heard that she was
a street crackhead.

Straight crackhead.
You come home,

He gave her the money.

He gave her the money
and she'd go spend it.

She'd go spend it on drugs.

Won't pay no bills. Won't pay no bills.

So he had
another wife.

No, this was his first wife. His first wife.

Lonnie's first wife.

Wife he got now,
she's cool. She's straight up.

So what did
the first wife do?

You think she made him
hate women?

Yeah. I believe so. I believe so.

I believe so too. Deep in my heart,
I believe she did.

Yeah, he really loved her.

You know, in reality
Lonnie is a good guy, man.
He's a good guy.

He really is. But it was something
inside of him,

the hatred that
triggers him off.

Yeah. That would trigger him.

I'd have to...
I don't know
how he did it...

What did he say
about his first wife?

He hated her. He hated her.

He hated her.

If he'd see a woman
down the street who's
a crackhead...

Man."Come here. Come here."

What did he say
about crackheads?

He hated them. He hated them.

He even hated men
that was on crack. Yeah.

He... He wouldn't... He didn't like drugs
and drinking at all.

He wouldn't... You know.

He'd look at you
like you're dirty.

Yeah. He would
look down on you.

Look down on you. If you drink or smoke...

He'd look down on you. He'd look down on you.

He'd like nobody who
drink, smoke, nothing.

Nothing. He wouldn't have
answered to you.

So why would he
give them crack?

He gave them crack
to get them in the car.

That's his thing
to get them in the car.

You see, you got...
I'mma tell you something, man.

You got women walk
up and down Western
24/7, midnight.

Western, Florence, Figueroa,

looking for crack,

or money or a treat.

There's a lot of the men... All of them are on crack.

But they don't know
they messing
with the wrong man.

That boy, you get
in his car, you ain't
coming back out.

You ain't coming
unless you're dead.

I got a message from Richard.

He said he'd just got
out of the hospital

after being beaten up by Lonnie's son, Christopher.

Hey, Richard.

When did you first notice
something weird was going on?

When I first walked up to him,
he was standing there
waiting on me.

When I walked up,
well, he said,"Man,

"I heard you've been
talking bad about my dad."

And he looked
down the street,

and I turned around and looked,
and I see four guys coming.

So, and I turned back
to him, he's backing up.

And they walked up to me.
One swung and he missed me.

The other ones started hitting

and as I'm looking to see
if Chris was gonna help me,

Chris was getting in the car.
He got in the car and drove off.

It's the police
in front of you.
You got your seat belt on?

Put your seat belt on.
The police have just seen you.

He just saw...
He just looked
in your car.

Is he turning around? No. Don't think so.

On the motorcycle. I don't think so.

How you doin'? Hi.

You're gonna stop
what you're doing, sir,

as your right front passenger
had no seat belt on...

He's filming me, sir.
He's filming a documentary.

ID, sir?

Give your registration
and insurance as well please.

My registration. Okay.

Richard, are you okay?

I'm okay. Just getting
a breather.

Where did they kick you? Everywhere.

Like where? Everywhere.

My ribs...

They tried to hit me
in the face, but I was
down like this.

But I don't know how
they did my jaw like that.

No, they got balls in here
to keep me from
biting too hard.

Were you involved in
the Grim Sleeper case at all?

No, sir.

That's why it was
so important to me

that nobody knows
or see you in the neighborhood.

So you think he'd do
that to me, what'd he
have done to you guys?

Do you think he'll do something? I know he will.

We ran into Jerry.

He's living homeless
on the streets now.

How's it going, fellas?

How's it going, Nick?
How's it going?

How are you doing? Okay.

I thought you were
staying with gang buddies.

Who that? On 80 something...

85th? Yeah.

Yeah, I was, but it was
too much trouble over there,
too much hanging out.

You know, me,
I don't like crowds,

because it's easy to get in,

plus the police try to
come around more and more
over there.

You know, because there's
a lot of guys hanging out.

So I'm just on the streets now.

Jerry knew most of the women
picked up by Lonnie,

but he still hasn't been
interviewed by police.

Did you get
a feeling that he hated them?

Yeah, he would torture
a lot of women. A lot of them.
He will.

I mean, there had been
times I was there
when he tortured them.

You know, they'd howl
and start crying,

and he thought it was fun,
he laughed, gave me that
little funny grin,

or he'd wink an eye at me

and let me know that, you know,
he's just having fun.

He never did show me no...

How can I say this,
that he was killing.

I didn't see that in him,

but I knew that he was
torturing them a lot.

And when I'm saying a lot,
I mean a lot of young ladies.

You know... How many would you say?

Huh? How many?

I gotta say... Ooh, I mean,
we used to go out every week.

Every day.

And weekends. We have...
Weekends were just fun
for us.

'Cause like I said,
there's a lot of strawberries,

lot of females like
dealing cocaine.

They call it crack,
and they'd do anything.

I mean, we done
picked the females,

then we done gave
two dollars, both of us
to fuck,

and we gave her two dollars.

You know, I can't sit here
and make no stuff up,

because I was there.

Actually, myself, I was there.
And I know what we did.

And what did he like
to do with the girls?

He liked to
be rough with them.

Like I said, fuck them
in the ass, all that.

And you know, sticking those
thick balls and them sticks,

screwdrivers up in them,
you know.

He would stick the handles
of the screwdrivers, stick it
in them and fuck 'em.

You know? Or he'd take
the screwdriver and just ram
them in the ass with it.

You know. I had seen it.

But, you know, I thought
like, "Shit."

At the time, I was
still smoking
while he was doing it.

And it didn't bother me
'cause I was on crack.

You know, there have been times
I actually asked God to
forgive me for what I did,

you know, but I knew for a fact
I didn't kill 'em.

Police say that
Enietra Washington

is the Grim Sleeper's sole
surviving witness.

It was Saturday night
November the 20th, 1988.

Enietra was going to a party
at a friend's house.

Then make a right.

Okay. Right here is
the corner store. I was
walking around the corner.

This store here?

And the car was parked
where the little white car is.

Uh-huh.

I didn't see him,
I saw his car.

His car was a Pinto.

I said, "That's
really remarkable,"

'cause I ain't seen a Pinto
in like, years.

I guess he saw me
looking at his car.

He asked me
where I was going,

and I said,"Oh,
I'm going to a party.

"I'm going around
my girlfriend's house
to let her do my hair."

And he says, "Come on,
I'll take you."

And then
at what point did he
pull the gun at you?

When he turned the corner.

All right. So you just
got around the corner?

And I was...
Yeah, we had just...
He just like got in the car,

pulled out, and
the next thing
I knew, it was...

He said, like I said,
he said something to me,

and I turned to ask him
was he saying something,

And everything
got really quiet.

And I was going,
"Okay, what happened here?"

You know, talking to myself,
then I heard him say...

I turned my head
to say something,

and he said, "Bitch,
I'll shoot you again."

I said, "
You shot me?"

Guess I must have passed out. Were you bleeding?

Yeah. I must have passed out
and I didn't know
I passed out, but no...

All of a sudden, I felt
pressure on me, and I kinda
like whatever got me out of it,

he was on top,
and I was there fighting him.

And at what point
did he rape you?

I don't know.
I passed out by then,

and I didn't even know
I passed out.

Like I said, I woke up
to the pressure that was
upon my chest.

That was hurting me so bad.

Was he raping you then?

Or he just got through,
probably, and I was
pushing him off.

The bullet taken from
Enietra's chest,

a .25 caliber, was found
by ballistics experts

to have been fired
from the same gun

that was used in the murder
of eight other women
in the very same area.

But this information
was not released
for another 20 years.

The murders themselves,
all involving black women

from the South Central area

weren't reported
in theLA Times,

and didn't even make it
into the local news.

The investigation moved
at a snail's pace

despite pressure from
the Black Coalition.

We had to press through
sort of political connections

to get somewhere from
the sheriff's department
to the table

and all they could tell us is
"We have a bullet,

"and we are waiting for
the gun that shot the bullet
to come through the station."

Like, really?

What kind of
police work is that?

If you think that this person
has killed just these 11 people,

let's not even worry about
what Margaret's talking about.

Let's just take these 11.

'You're waiting for the gun

"to come, you know, dressed
fashionably and walk in
to the station?"

This is how I was
talking to the detectives
in the meeting.

And say "Hey, here I am.
Match me to the bullet
if you can."

It's not gonna happen.

There was no movement
on the sheriff's end.

Enietra Washington should have been invaluable to the police.

She was able to describe
the Grim Sleeper's car,
the Pinto, in detail,

the same orange-colored Pinto

that Mary Lowe,
the Grim Sleeper's
previous victim,

was seen getting into
by a witness.

Enietra was also
able to bring detectives

to the very street that
Lonnie Franklin lived,

the street that he would be arrested in 22 years later.

All I remember is
the side way that he
walked around to the side.

Um, it wasn't made like this,
but I believe,

I believe it was
this house right here.

They painted it
'cause it was green.

So this is Lonnie's house,
and basically you told them...

Yeah,
it was two houses down.

You thought it was
not this house but the next one. - Right.

This one here. - Right.

And it then
took the police another...

twenty years
to find Lonnie's house.

Right.

Enietra also provided the sketch of the Grim Sleeper

which wasn't released
until 2009,

after theLA Weekly had already revealed there was a serial killer on the loose.

Police told me that
Enietra at the time

was regarded as unreliable.

Every black woman
is a hooker, didn't you know?

And so they
didn't take anything
she said seriously.

No, I mean, they got a sketch.
But what did they do
with the sketch?

They didn't show
the sketch to us.

We didn't see that thing
until over a decade later.

You know,
just the basic things
that you do.

You know,
just the basic things
that you do.

When we talked to the detective
in one of the meetings,
he was saying that

they did not
put out a sketch

because eyewitness
sketches often

are not that, um, reliable.

And so, that's why
they didn't put it out.

I said, "Ooh, can I use you
as an expert witness at my
criminal defense cases

"where my clients
are picked up

"based on eyewitness sketches

"because strangely, they're
super-reliable then."

You know, you guys
get up there and say,

"Look, the eyewitness gave us
the description, and we
turned it into a sketch,

"and it was close in time,
and so, this is what
the person must look like."

Now you're telling me that
these eyewitness sketches,
they're not for nothing?

This is wonderful.
Give me your card.
I need this information.

Come on!

Twenty-five years after
the killing began,

Lonnie Franklin was finally
arrested in July 2010.

One man preyed on the innocent,

stole the lives of women
living in some of
our toughest neighborhoods.

Today, I'm proud to announce

that this terror has
finally come to an end.

Amen.

Thanks to the recent
use of DNA evidence,

and even more importantly,
two decades of exhaustive
detective work,

25 years of reviewing
and reexamining evidence...

So what
was your reaction
to that press conference?

Oh,
the congratulatory one,

where Jerry Brown was there?
This was before
he was elected governor.

I thought it was quite a show.

And that's one of the reasons I took the mic.

Can I just...

Can I just add to that?

I'm Margaret Prescod,

founder of the Black Coalition
Fighting Back Serial Murders.

For us, it's been since 1985.

I have a file here

of documents going back
to 1985 that
were linear graphed.

It's a very emotional
time for us.

Detective Kilcoyne,
I'm not gonna get
up here and attack you.

I know that we've
been critical, and...

I think
they were a bit shocked.

I don't think
the police chief

have had anybody take the mic from him before.

If I were them,
I would have done that
whole thing a lot differently.

But, you know, they wanted
a whole PR job,

they wanted to
pat themselves on the back,

they were the greatest thing
since sliced white bread,

and to really cover up
all of what had gone on before,

that was a big show,
giving the impression

that they were on the case,
and now they had their guy.

Yesterday...

Yesterday the LAPD arrested
Lonnie David Franklin Jr.

I contacted Mayor Villaraigosa for an interview

to get the city's point of view on the Grim Sleeper case.

I received this reply.

I also tried to contact LA police chief, Charlie Beck,

who wrote back.

"The Department has
revisited your request

"and subsequently decided against granting an interview.

"Given that the primary area
of interest would be
the Lonnie Franklin case,

"neither the Chief
nor any criminologists

"from our Scientific
Investigation Division

"will be available
for comment."

We asked Dennis Kilcoyne,
head of the Grim Sleeper
Task Force

and his replacement,
Daryn Dupree,

repeatedly over a year
for an interview,

but they both refused.

We have done
our job correctly...

Margaret Prescod and
the Black Coalition

held their own press conference to put the record straight.

We're here
to say loud and clear
that every life is of value.

Could you imagine

if these murders
had happened
in Beverly Hills?

When Lonnie Franklin was
finally arrested,

it was by accident,

and through his son
Christopher's DNA.

Lonnie was a breast man. He loved breasts.

That's what they got
the DNA from.

On the bodies and stuff,
they said the dead bodies,
you know, the DNA,

he had been sucking
their breasts, and that's
where the DNA is from.

Now, like I said,
do you know the story?

The way that they supposed
to have caught Lonnie
was through his son Chris.

Chris was arrested.

Chris' DNA.

They take your DNA
when you get arrested now.

Chris' DNA, they saying,"Hey.

"This DNA match..."

Almost a perfect match. Almost a perfect match

to these bodies and stuff
that they have.

So they're saying it had
to be an uncle or a father...

A close family member. A close family member.

And then that's how
they got him. From Lonnie
to his son, you know.

And they said, "Ooh,
it's a match to Lonnie,"

and they followed Lonnie
to this pizza place.

and he was eating pizza
at the pizza parlor,

and then they got the DNA
from an empty cup
that he was drinking out of.

And bam, they arrested him.

They came to the house
and they arrested him.

That's how they got
the DNA through him.

And then the DNA on the girl,

that's where
the DNA come from,

'cause Lonnie was
a titty sucker.
He loves to suck titty.

That's Lonnie Franklin walking around in the pizza parlor

just before his piece of pizza was taken by police

and used for DNA analysis.

Four years later in court,

Lonnie's lawyers are
arguing that the DNA
was incorrectly seized,

and therefore,
can't be used as evidence

as it is a violation of
his Fourth Amendment right.

It is our issue
that Mr. Franklin

allowed his bodily fluid

to be taken under control
from what he thought was
a restaurant employee.

He believed it was
going to be mixed,

so the individualization of it

would be no longer identified,

and the general public would
no longer have access to it

until it was
put into a container

when you cannot identify
individually for himself.

Okay, what do you feel?

I felt it was gonna be mixed
with the rest of the trash.

Okay. And, um...
And then what did you think

would happen to it
once it was mixed with
the rest of the trash?

It would be disposed off. Okay.

And what do you mean
by "disposed off"?

Thrown away.
Just disposed off.

You know, got rid of,
in the trash. Okay.

Individually or collectively? Collectively.

And "collectively,"
what do you mean?
With other...

With other people's trash. Okay.

I've never heard of
the term "informed consent"

when it comes to
eating food at a restaurant

and having your items
cleared from the table.
You know, that's...

really out there, Mr. Amster.

So I'm gonna find that
once those items were
put into the trash,

and taken from the table,

he no longer had
Fourth Amendment interest
in those items anymore.

Lonnie's lawyers are accused of stalling to delay the trial.

I don't understand
what he's been
doing for a year.

We have the July trial date.
We're planning on going forward.

What is the date
when they'll be done
with the DNA?

I don't know. That's not
an acceptable answer.

Well, that's the answer
I'm giving.

Well, I'm asking
the court to...

Um, if we can't get...

I've never heard
of this before,

Well, I'm sorry, Your Honor.

If Your Honor wants
to make a motion,

to terminate me
from this case,

that will deter me
from, Judge Almeida,
I will be done with this thing.

But I am pushing this.
I've got 18 murder sheets,

I'm pushing this as far
as fast as I can,

I am putting other cases
out of the way,

and if the court thinks
there's somebody else
that can do it faster,

then let the court make
the decision on this.

Twenty-six...

Where is it?

Lonnie's son Chris called Pam.

He wanted to meet up.

Where do want? Twenty...

Just a minute.
Let me get it together.

There you go.
In the corner right there.

Where? Right there now.
A Honda.

There. He's sitting there.

I told you.
That's his green car.

So that's him.

Howdy.

Christopher said his father

had a lot of fans
in law enforcement

who admired him
for cleaning up the streets.

My dad has a lot of fans
in fucking jail systems and...

fuckin' weirdos
in the street,

uh...

Really?

There's a lot of sick people
out there. He got
a lot of fan mail.

It's crazy, man. People...
I've walked into sheriffs
that were like,

glorified that they were
able to talk to me.

"Oh, you're his son?
Dude, that's fucking crazy."

And you know,
I got all pumped up,

and I'm just
sitting there like,

"Please put me on
protective custody
away from you

"and the other fools
over there."

Chris was a prisoner himself

for the very offense for which his DNA was taken,

leading to Lonnie's arrest, when they both met in prison.

Did you feel guilty
about the DNA?

DNA. Fuck, man!

Like three years, man.
I just got over that.

I just got over that
probably this year.

Oh, yeah, you gotta
deal with the people.

The people,
the people are...
For me, man...

I didn't know how to
deal with that because
I'm from a line where

we don't have no snitches.

Nobody is a tattletale.
What do you do?
This is not third grade.

But people, they look at me
like that, like, oh,
told on my dad, like...

If I would have known,
I don't even think I...
I wouldn't have told.

I had a few of my family members telling me that I'd turned my dad in.

You know, that was funny.

You know, "My God, you sold
your dad out. We're not
talking to you anymore."

I haven't talked to
a lot of my family members
based on that,

because everyone thinks
I've turned my dad in.

My family is cold.
My family is real cold.

When you first saw him
after the arrest, did you hug?

No, we were handcuffed,
shackled. Head to toe.

So we just sat there and
twiddled our thumbs
while we were talking.

I mean, I probably would
have shot us both if we
didn't hug each other.

What did he
wanna talk about?

We didn't even know.

We were just there,
just... silence.

It's kind of...
I gotta say...

I don't know the word
to use for that,

but he speaks
in a different...

speaks in a different world,

like he's not even in there
for all the damn murders,

he's in there for
domestic violence or
receiving a stolen property.

And that kind of bothers me.

And did he apologize to you
or say anything to you?

What? No. For what?

This is really
one of them stories
where it's like...

I don't believe this.
No, seriously. No. No way.

What would he
apologize to me for?

Have you
kind of suffered a lot
through all this?

I lost my best friend, man. That was my dude.

There's nothing that
I can talk to him
about right now

because we're in
two different places.

And it's hard for me
to keep him up
with what's going on.

So, like I said,
I lost my best friend.

You know, you have somebody
to call on any time.

I just try. I try to
communicate with him,
you know, just...

I'm still his son.
Can't nobody change that.

So...

I just try and be there
for him as far as, you know,
this is a tough situation...

What was the first thing
he talked about?

I gotta say,
my dad was really...

Sometimes he talks about
how the attorneys are,

you know, doing what they can
and they're getting to
the bottom of things, or...

Clear his name,

and other stuff,

like he's innocent.
To the point.

Yeah. What do you
think about that?

It's all a mind game.

In the past, Los Angeles police used the term "NHI,"

police slang for
"No Human Involved"

to describe the murders of prostitutes and drug addicts.

Many feel this attitude
continues today.

Hi! - Hi.

There's Mikey right there.
See her?

That's Mikey. That's Mikey.

See her? That's Mikey.

There she go. Where she at?
Mikey, show 'em you're there.

That's Mikey right here.

These are all
Grim Sleeper survivors

Pam managed to find.

They all were too scared
to talk to police.

And why
were you looking like that?

I had fallen asleep.

Nodded out or something.

Why? Did he give you drugs? Yeah.

I was using drugs real bad
at the time.

Shall we go in?

Pam brought them to our office

because most of them
live on the streets,

and they're scared to
be seen talking with us.

Officially, Enietra Washington is the only surviving witness,

but in reality,
there are many.

So what's your name?

Cookie.

And how long have you
been on the street?

Uh, since I was 18.

And how long did you
meet Lonnie?

About six to seven months.

You were with him? Yes.

Ten times or more?

Yeah, maybe more.

Yeah, I have been
with him more, sexually.

Why did you go with him
so many times?

'Cause he paid me.

You know, I was prostituting
real, you know, heavy then,
so...

It was about the money.

I'm not a prostitute
nor a whore.

You know, I meet men
on the streets and
they'd be nice to me,

but this particular night,
this man wasn't nice.

I met him in '90...

'87. '87.

I think '91, '92.

2012. I mean 2007.

And he had approached me,

very kind man, sweet guy,

and asked me if I smoked.
I told him, "Yeah."

It was one late night,
I was walking down the street,

um, yes, I do drugs,
I was high at the time,

was trying to get more money
to get more drugs,

and a van pulled up.

I'd seen him circle the block.
He kept circling the block.

He pulled over,

and asked me
do I wanna get high,

mm, and do I need some money.

So I said, "Sure."

So I get in,
and I take my block down,

I keep the window down,
little safety,

'cause at nighttime,
your voice carries
if you scream.

He seemed nice, you know,
intelligent, in the beginning.

And he asked me why
would a pretty girl like me
be out there smoking.

Did I wanna go with him?

So I walked with him,
and we got in his car,

and he took me to his house.

The man's house is nasty.

Where would he take you?

In his garage.

He never wanted to go
in the bedroom, you know.

And he had pictures of
a lot of girls and stuff.

Crossed out. He used to
have them crossed out.

He was weird
'cause we had...

He wanted to do
different things,

he wanted to do
stupid stuff.

I got naked,

he showed me the money
but he never put it
in my hands.

Uh, then he started,
he wanted me to
give him head and stuff.

It was okay for me to do that,
but he never gave me the money.

It was normal
at first, and then

he started
doing weird things,

asked me to do weird...
you know...

sex with things,
with bottles, and...

He would ask me to
just take like
a 40-ounce bottle

and stick it in my pussy,
and I wouldn't do it.

You know, after he done
played with himself with it
or something like that.

Or paid me to go
get other girls and stuff,
you know,

and after that I never
seen them girls again or
heard from 'em, you know.

How many?

I brought him
like maybe four of 'em.

He paid me, but I've never
seen them again after that.

Did police
ever talk to you?

No, I never talked
to the police. No.

He took me to his house

on Western in 81st,

uh, at the time, I believe
the house was like green.

Green?

Yes. The house was green.

I remember that everything
in it was like soundproof.

No one can hear you outside.

He wanted to put
the handcuffs on me.

He wanted to put
the handcuffs, one
against the bed,

you know, hang me up.

And it scared me.
I mean, no.

I was scared.
Yes, I was.

It was one door

that he had locked
from inside and...

I knew.

So when he's saying that
I wasn't trying to

abide by what he wanted
me to do, then he
started getting aggressive.

You know, telling me,
"Oh, you're gonna
give me some head.

"You know you're gonna
give me some head."

And I'm like, "Give me money,"
you know?

And he was like, "Oh,
you're gonna get the money."

I tried to help him out
of his pants, but...

I couldn't.

You couldn't? I couldn't.

I...

I...

It was like picking up an egg.

Mm-mm.

And his body was... It was
like he had been in a freezer.

His body was cold.

His body... Part of his body,
it was cold.

And nothing was happening.
I couldn't...

I couldn't help him.

He got out the van
and got to the...

He picked my clothes.
I guess he was

taking my clothes so
I can't put them back on.

During the process when
he was getting out the van,

he left the van door
cracked a little bit.

I took off and
ran down the street.

I ran halfway down
the block butt-naked,

and this lady I seen,
I was screaming,
asking her for help,

she let me in her car
and she dropped me off
at a friend's house.

I keep Visine on me

'cause it puts people to sleep.
It really works.

I keep Visine.

and so I had some Visine
and, uh,

and I had him get a drink.
I had him get a Remy.

I remember I had him
go get a Remy.

And I put him to sleep.

I didn't insult him.

The Grim Sleeper? Yes, I didn't belittle him.

You know, I didn't
mock his body.

And then you wanna kill me?
And I didn't do that?

I didn't try to rob you,

I didn't set you up,
I didn't do any of that.

Yeah, okay, yeah,
I was out there.

That doesn't mean
I'm nothing.

That doesn't mean
I'm nothing.

Like I'm a piece of trash.

I was trapped.
I was trapped.

I was trapped.

It's not what I wanted.

That's not what I wanted.

That's not the life I wanted.

What I'm trying to explain to you and say to you is that

just because they have Lonnie
doesn't mean this is over with.

There's another motherfucker
out there just as sick as he is.

You know what I mean?