''I've lost count of how many women I have killed. Killing women was my career.'' - Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer | Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s & 90s | GRAPHIC DETAILS

 (Gary Ridgway. Picture credit: seattletimes)

*Please be aware that disturbing details are shared in this post. I have tried to be as sensitive as possible without shying away from the facts of this case. The contents of this blog are not suitable for anyone under the age of 18*


The guys at work used to call him 'Green River Gary' as a joke because nobody could believe that quiet, mousy Gary Ridgway could possibly be one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. The guy they had known for decades (in a working capacity) was always a great guy, just quiet and pretty much kept himself to himself so when they found out that he'd been taken in by police investigators to be questioned over the horrifying Green River murders, they all assumed that it was a mistake and made a joke about it. Unknown to them and to his third wife, Gary was a real dark horse of the most unimaginable kind. He was indeed the elusive Green River Killer who had managed to evade justice for 2 decades.

It was a case that many people believed would never be solved but thanks to the tireless efforts of the dedicated investigative team and advances in DNA technology, Gary Ridgway's reign of terror was finally brought to an end and some of his victim's families finally got the answers they had been waiting years for. 

Depending on who you ask, some people believe the Green River Killer to be the most prolific serial killer in American history, but if we look back at some of the serial killer cases I have covered in the past, that horrific title is debatable. There are the numbers of victims he had confessed to murdering and the ones he has been convicted of murdering. We know that in many cases we will never know the true number of victims that a serial killer has been responsible for. Gary told investigators that he killed as many as 71 women but then claimed that he had lost count because at his most active time during his murder spree (which was the early 1980s) he was murdering up to two women per week. He was eventually convicted and confessed to murdering 49 women and teenage girls. He was originally convicted of the 48 murders but another conviction was added which brought the total to 49. 

Ridgway's choice of victims were female runaways and sex workers aged 14 to 38. He preferred his victims to be teenagers as he claimed they were easy to control and manipulate. His crimes reportedly began in 1982 well up until the 1990s. He was mostly active in 1982/83. He claimed that he hated sex workers (or in his words 'prostitutes') but wanted to have sexual intercourse without payment. His method of killing was strangulation and this would occur with him either tricking or forcing the victim into a position where he could be behind them as if about to have intercourse. He would move his arm around the victim's throat to crush their windpipe and in occasions where the victim struggled, he would wrap his legs around them. 

So this monster who was stalking the SeaTac strip (which is along the highway 99 south of Seattle, Washington in the USA) in the early 1980s and the 1990s was not only murdering innocent women and dumping them in various woodland areas (some were buried in the same locations and he'd call these burial spots 'clusters') near to landmarks so that he could know exactly where they were. He was also able to carry on working full time and go through three marriages as well as having a son. People who have watched footage of Gary Ridgway and investigators who have had to deal with him in person have all spoken of how 'ordinary' he seems, not a shred of remorse or feeling. Just straight face and he talked about his crimes very matter-of-factly. When he was eventually caught in November of 2001 he didn't seem to be bothered. There's so much to unpack with this case that it's hard to know where to begin. 

We'll take a brief journey into Gary Ridgway's background and you won't be surprised to read that there were red flags from the very beginning. Gary Leon Ridgway was born on the 18th of February 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah (USA). He struggled at school and his homelife wasn't any better. With a strict father and mother and brothers who seemed to be more athletic, academically gifted and sociable, he already felt out of the loop. He enjoyed indulging in animal cruelty whenever he felt frustrated or angry and even killed the family cat by locking it in a cooler box until it suffocated. He hated his mother with a passion and her behaviour was deemed by others to be highly inappropriate. She would walk around in lingerie and dress provocatively when attending Gary's school parents evening. Gary was embarrassed by his mother's behaviour and also hated the way that she spoke to him, constantly putting him down in front of other people. 

(Gary Ridgway. Picture credit: murderpedia)

Gary always had an issue with urinating in his bed and this would further enrage his mother. She would often put him in a bath and either force him to wash himself or she would do it for him. On one occasion he was in the bath tub and his mother was washing his penis when her robe fell open (she was completely nude underneath) and Gary became aroused. He began having sexually explicit thoughts about his own mother and often thought about killing her too. As well as this horrendous stuff going on the situation with his father was no better. Gary would often run errands with his father and go for long drives. On some of these occasions, his father would rant and rave about sex workers (in his words 'prostitutes') and how he considered them to be vermin and wanted the streets to be rid of them. At the same time his father would pick up a sex worker whilst Gary was present and Gary would either wait in the car or go for a walk whilst his father would indulge in sex acts with this particular working girl. 

So Gary was exposed to a lot of confusing behaviour from his parents in his childhood especially when it came to things like sex. He was already a bad seed with his horrible behaviour towards animals and wanting to kill his own mother as well as have sex with her. It was all really disturbing and as time went on it just got worse. When he was 16 years old, Gary decided that killing animals was no longer giving him the stress relief that it had done previously, he wanted to try something on a human being. He lured a 6 year old child into some woods and stabbed the poor boy before using the boy's shirt to wipe off the excess blood from the knife. Without missing a beat and without a care in the world he then said to the frightened and bleeding child ''I always wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone''. Gary was just 16 years old at the time and luckily the young boy survived but it was a horrific sign of more disturbing things to come in the life of Gary Ridgway. 

Having been brought up by his father to hate sex workers (in their words 'prostitutes' and 'whores') and see them as inhuman, he viewed them as vile but he still wanted to have sex with them. Despite his low IQ and difficulty with his school work, he managed to graduate and strangely enough, get married at a young age. Gary was able to split himself into different characters, he would behave differently depending on the situation and the person he was with. He had a stint in the US Navy and noticed that a lot of his friends were paying sex workers for their services and he joined in. He still hated them but not enough at that point to want to kill them. It was only when he discovered that he'd picked up some sexually transmitted diseases from the ladies that he had slept with that the rage in him reached boiling point. The marriage to his first wife was a disaster and fizzled out within a year. He managed to find himself a second wife and he would be quite aggressive when it came to sex and would try and force his wife to partake in rough sex but she didn't feel comfortable. As part of his split personalities, Gary became religious and passionate about reading the bible. He even began going to people's houses to help spread the word. His second wife became pregnant and they had a baby boy. With the marriage, the new baby and his devotion to religion you would have thought that Gary would have turned over a new leaf but no, he was regularly seeing sex workers. 

All three of Gary's wives said that he was a sex addict and would hound them for sex several times a day. The sex had to be rough and would often involve choking. He would enjoy having sex in public places (some of these places turned out to be where a few of his victims had been found) and in his car. In some cases it seemed like he was practicing for what he wanted to do to the sex workers that he planned to murder. 

(Gary Ridgway. Picture credit: oxygen)

When Gary began his killing spree he would manipulate the working girls into thinking he was a family man. He would make sure that the girls saw a picture of his son if he was attempting to get them into his car. He would have sex with the girls in his car or he would take them home with him. Sometimes he would pick up sex workers, have intercourse, pay them and let them go. He said he did this because he knew it was either going to be difficult to kill them for whatever reason or that he didn't have time and planned to kill them at a later date. Plus, he thought that it would look good for him if anyone asked around about him, he wanted to give off the reputation as a nice customer who let the girls go. With the ones he didn't have time to kill, he knew that being nice to them and letting them go on that occasion would make it easier for him to get them into the car the next time. 

His marriage to his second wife ended in 1981 and it was 1982 that the murders began. 1982 to 1984 was said to have been Gary's most active time although he continued to kill innocent women and girls right up to the 90s. When he began his horrendous crimes, he would not only sexually assault and murder his victims, he would also dump their remains in a very undignified manner. This is one of those cases where you think it's bad enough and too much to stomach but then it just keeps getting worse. So Gary would dump the victims either singularly in an area near to a landmark or a well known location to him or he would dump several of the victims in the same locations as I mentioned earlier which he called 'Clusters'. Gary would return to the victims remains and commit necrophilia even with the maggots and flies all over and inside the corpses. He would force the victim's legs open so that he could return on various occasions and his words, it would be easier for him to penetrate the corpses. 

On a side note (after that disturbing paragraph) Ted Bundy had an unusual part to play in the capture of Gary Ridgway. Bundy contacted the cops in the 1980s and said that he wanted to help investigators catch The Green River Killer. This wasn't done out of the goodness of Bundy's cold heart, he was just trying to buy himself some time and try and make himself out to be some sort of valuable asset to the police for future investigations so it would be worthwhile keeping him alive. The cops knew what he was up to but listened to what he had to say because they thought that he might opened up about his own murders. It was Ted Bundy who told the police that The Green River Killer would return to the bodies to commit necrophilia and advised them to keep their eyes on locations where victims were found as he might return. 

Gary later told investigators that he was ashamed of the necrophilia but thought this would stop him killing someone else plus he didn't want to pay for sex. He said that he started to bury the victims in an attempt to stop him committing such acts. 

With numerous victims being discovered in or near the Green River in Washington the police realised that they were looking for a serial killer which they nicknamed 'The Green River Killer'. Investigators set up a task force that were sorely devoted to the case. 

{The Green River. Picture credit: wikipedia)

Gary had been involved in an altercation with a sex worker in the early 1980s and had been arrested when the lady reported him for trying to strangle her. He came up with some fake story and claimed that she had bit him. The police took the matter no further. Investigators did question Gary in their hunt for The Green River Killer and this led his friends at work to think it was all some sort of joke because they saw him as a bit of a pip-squeak.

The cops had their eye on Gary but he managed to pass a lie detector test and this was also due to the fact that he really was a cold blooded killer who felt nothing for his victims.

When Gary knew the cops were on the hunt he tried to trick them by doing different things with the bodies like random locations and in one case he put fish on top of the deceased victim's body. 

Gary met his third wife in 1985 and they got married in 1988, this was said to have been the happiest time in Gary's life so the killings had somewhat gone down significantly. His wife Judith was more open minded when it came to sex and the pair seemed to be devoted to each other. Again with Gary Ridgway, he could be a totally different person depending on who he was with. With Judith he was said to have been her prince charming, the perfect gentleman who was a family man. He would bring her flowers and cook her dinner. The year before he and Judith married, the police had still kept their eyes on Gary and he'd given some samples of his saliva and hair however the case was slow moving and shockingly, it wasn't until 2001 that Gary Ridgway was finally arrested. 

(Gary Ridgway with his third wife Judith. Picture credit: imdb)

Gary was still in the same job as a paint sprayer for a truck factory and he had just finished his shift when he was arrested. At first he claimed that he was innocent and pleaded his case to Judith but it was no good, the evidence against him was overwhelming, The police had finally got The Green River Killer. Judith divorced him in 2002 and the whole ordeal had a profound effect on her wellbeing as it would do. Gary fooled her like he fooled everybody. 

In 2003, Gary Ridgway stood in a courtroom filled with his victim's relatives and pled guilty to 48 murders (another conviction was later added). Each of the families had a chance to have their say after years of torture and not knowing what happened to their loved ones. Gary just sat there without any emotion until Linda Rule's father stood before him and said ''Mr Ridgway, there are many people here today that hate you, I'm not one of them. I forgive you'', and with that, Gary Ridgway suddenly broke with emotion. 

The Judge who oversaw proceedings was none other than Richard A. Jones who was/is the brother of legendary music producer Quincy Jones (clearly a talented family). 

Gary Ridgway made his final statement in court after pleading guilty to the 48 murders (soon to be 49) and hearing from the victim's families. He said:

''I'm sorry for killing all those young ladies I have tried to remember as much as I could to help the detectives to find and recover the ladies. I'm sorry for the scare I put into the communities. I want to thank the police, the prosecuting attorneys, my lawyers and all others that had the patience to work with me and to help me remember all of the tragic things that I did and be able to talk about them. I know the horrible things my acts were. I have tried for a long time to get these things out of my mind. I tried for a long time to keep from killing any ladies I'm sorry I put my wife, my son, my brothers and my family through this hell. I hope they can find a way to forgive me. I'm very sorry for the ladies that were not found. May they rest in peace. They need a better place than where I gave them. I'm sorry for killing these ladies. They had their whole lives ahead of them. I'm sorry for causing so much pain to so many families.'' - Gary Ridgway (2003)

(The Green River. Picture credit: washingtonminerals)

Gary Ridgway is still alive today, he is currently 74 years old and serving his time in prison as part of his deal for not being given the death penalty in exchange for locations and information on his victims. Another chilling fact about this case is that Gary was able to remember so many locations where he had disposed of some of his victims. As I mentioned before, he always aimed to place the victim's remains near to a landmark or specific area well known to him that is how he was able to recall certain details so many years later. 

It was a huge sigh of relief when the Green River Killer was finally caught and so many families were able to have some sort of closure on what happened to their relatives but there are still so many victims and families who have never had justice. We know he's responsible for so many more deaths but the exact number, the personal details and locations of the victims is still unknown. 

(Some of the known victims of Gary Ridgway. Picture credit: quora)

I would like to take a moment to remember the victims's whos names that we know and to also think about the many victims who are still out there unidentified:

Wendy Lee Coffield

Gisele Ann Lovvom

Debra Lynn Bonner

Marcia Faye Chapman

Cynthia Jean Hinds

Opal Charmaine Mills

Terry Rene Milligan

Mary Bridget Meehan

Debra Lorraine Estes

Linda Jane Rule

Denise Darcel Bush

Shawnda Leea Summers

Shirley Marie Sherill 

Rebecca ''Becky'' Marrero

Colleen Renee Brockman

Sandra Denise Major

Wendy Stephens

Alma Ann Smith 

Delores LaVerne Williams 

Gail Lynn Matthews 

Andrea Marion Childers

Sandra Kay Gabbert

Kimi-Kai Pitsor

Marie M. Malvar

Carol Ann Christensen 

Martina Theresa Authorlee 

Cheryl Lee Wims 

Yvonne ''Shelly'' Antosh

Carrie Ann Rois

Constance Elizabeth Naon 

Kelly Marie Ware

Tina Marie Thompson

April Dawn Buttram

Debbie May Abernathy 

Tracy Ann Winston

Maureen Sue Feeney

Mary Sue Bello

Pammy Annette Avent

Delise Louise Plager

Kimberly L. Nelson

Lisa Yates

Mary Exzetta West 

Cindy Ann Smith

Patricia Michelle Barczak

Roberta Joseph Hayes

Marta Reeves

Patricia Yellowrobe 

Unidentified white woman known as 'Jane Doe B-17'

Unidentified white woman known as 'Jane Doe B-20' 

May they all rest in peace and prayers for strength and healing for their families. 

Further Reading & Sources:

- Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of The Green River Killer | Book by Ann Rule

- The Riverman: Ted Bundy & I Hunt For The Green River Killer | Book by Robert Keppel

- The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers | Book by Michael Newton

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood

- Gary Ridgway | Wikipedia

- 6 Terrifying Facts About The Green River Killer | Article by Crime & Investigation UK

- Gary Ridgway | Article by NBC News

- Gary Ridgway | Murderpedia

- Gary Ridgway | Article by The Washington Post

- Gary Ridgway | Article by A&E

- Gary Ridgway | Documentary: Real Crime/Born To Kill?

- 20 Year Hunt For The Green River Killer | Documentary: A&E

- Gary Ridgway | Courtroom Footage

- Gary Ridgway | Documentary | Professor David Wilson

- The SeaTac Strip | The Seattle Times

- Washington State Route 99 | Wikipedia

- SeaTec, Washington | Wikipedia

(Gary Ridgway. Picture credit: fox13seattle)

I appreciate that I have readers from all over the world who visit my blog every week and I know that a lot of you are based in America, maybe some of you are from Seattle and knew what it was like going through that fear of knowing The Green River Killer was on the loose, maybe you might have some information you're thinking about passing on to the police about this case? If you do have any information, however small, please contact 206-263-2130 (call between 7am  and 3pm to arrange to speak to a Detective. If you call after hours, please leave a voicemail so that someone can get back in touch with you). If you prefer to email you can send any information to greenrivertips@metrokc.gov 

Please have a look at this US government website for information on the case plus information about the unidentified victims. 

Check out my previous posts in my Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s & 90s Series:

- The Dating Game Killer

- He Murdered Over 90 Women

- The Killer Clown

- The Monster of The Andes

- The Many Faces of Ted Bundy

- The Butcher of Rostov

- BTK: Bind. Torture. Kill

- Child Killer: Robert Black

- The Grim Sleeper

- Serial Killer Groupies

- 5 British Serial Killers Deemed Too Dangerous To Ever Be Released From Prison


Thank you or taking the time to get through this case with me which was another tough one. I am now moving on to the decade of the 1990s and the first installment of that decade will be posted next Sunday. 

[For all of my links, click here / To help support my work by buying me a coffee, click here, Thank you]

Stay safe x 

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5 UK Serial Killers Deemed Too Dangerous To Ever Be Released From Prison


I am still working on my final post in the decade of the 1980s as part of my Serial Killers of the 70s, 80s & 90s series. It's a big case and I still have some research and reading materials to get through before I feel that I know the case 100%. In the meantime, I have put together this post which is in a similar vein and the focus is still on serial killer cases. 

After I publish my next post, I will be moving on to serial killers of the 1990s which will be interesting as there are a few names on my list which I'm not familiar with. It'll be interesting to delve into as many books and court documents as possible and see what the story is behind each of these six individuals. 

For this post, we will be looking at just a handful of serial killers, 5 to be exact, who are deemed too dangerous to ever be let out of prison and as you read through, you'll begin to understand why. You may recognize the faces as I have covered their cases before and others you might not be familiar with. I hope you find this post informative either way and I would love to hear your thoughts below, by email (jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com) or on my social media platforms 

Here are the cases that I have covered so far in my Serial Killers of the 70s, 80s & 90s series:

- Rodney Alcala: The Dating Game Killer

- Samuel Little: He Murdered Over 90 Women?

- John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Clown

- Pedro Lopez: The Monster of The Andes

- Ted Bundy: The Charismatic Killer

- Andrei Chikatilo: The Butcher of Rostov

- Dennis Rader (BTK): Bind. Torture. Kill

- Robert Black: Britain's Most Prolific Child Killer?

- Lonnie Franklin Jr: The Grim Sleeper


For more serial killer cases that I have covered, please check out my Archives.


Christopher Halliwell 

(Christopher Halliwell. Picture credit: standard)

Cold bloodied serial killer, Christopher Halliwell is the first name to appear on this short list. He was convicted in 2012 of the murders of two women. He was a sexual predator and pretty much like John Worboys, he saw his job as a taxi driver as an aid in his crimes. He would target vulnerable women and subject them to a horrific sexual assault and is said to be one of the most cold and calculating individuals you could ever come across. He is suspected of other murders and further investigation into possible links to him and unsolved cases is currently ongoing. For now and the rest of his natural born life, he is in prison serving a whole life order. 

I covered his case back in 2022, you can find it here


Steve Wright

(Steve Wright. Picture credit: wikipedia)

At the height of his reign of terror, Steve Wright was bringing back horrible memories of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe (Sutcliffe was an English serial killer who murdered woman in West Yorkshire during the 1970s & 1980s. The majority of his victims were sex workers and the hunt for him was one of the biggest investigations in British history. Luckily, he was later caught and died behind bars). Steve Wright created a level of fear in the UK that the public had not seen in years. For those of us who were not around during the 70s and 80s when Peter Sutcliffe was on the streets murdering innocent women (and nobody knew who was next) we got a taste of what it must have been like to live in fear. When you turned on the TV another woman's body would be found and everyone was tense. 

Like Sutcliffe, Wright frequented sex workers but had a love/hate relationship with them. He was well known to a number of the working girls and the women that he murdered. He was convicted of murdering 5 women in 2008 and given a whole life order. 

For the full case and background, please check out the post I previously wrote back in 2022, here. 


Stephen Griffiths

(Stephen Griffiths. Picture credit: nbcnews)

Stephen Griffiths was no stranger to odd behaviour, he had a history of acting eccentric and controlling with previous girlfriends, even stalking one and leaving chilling messages on her answering machine. He was a ticking timebomb and what was even more sinister about him was that he was actually intelligent with an interest in criminology which he would go on to study. Instead of just having an interest in human behaviour in terms of psychopathy and crime patterns, he idolized the likes of Ted Bundy and decided that he wanted to have books written about him and movies made about him. He wanted to be infamous and he frequented sex workers too. The working girls were used to seeing him around and would provide their services to him on occasion so this could be why they felt that he was harmless and felt comfortable enough to go back to his flat. 

He ended up being convicted of the murders of three women who were working girls, it has always been suspected that he is responsible for more deaths. He was given a whole life order in 2010. 

Stephen Griffiths turned out to be more of a monster than anyone thought and I go into all of the details in my post about his case here


Joanna Dennehy

(Joanna Dennehy. Picture credit: independent)

Joanna Dennehy was one messed up individual who claimed that she loved the taste of blood. She targeted her innocent victims just for the hell of it and never expressed an ounce of remorse or regret. In March of 2013 she murdered 3 innocent men, according to her she did it because she felt like it. Since she has been in prison (for which she is serving a whole life order) she has continued to show no remorse for her actions. 


Levi Bellfield 

(Levi Bellfield. Picture credit: mirror)

Levi Bellfield is one of the most evilest men to have ever existed and for him to have been issued with a whole life order is completely justified. He was found guilty in February of 2008 of the murders of three young women and the attempted murder of another. 

Levi was and is a bully and a braggart with a history of violence towards women but the strange thing is, he was a complete mother's boy with a dislike for girls with blonde hair due to his own insecurities. For the full story and background of his case, check out this three part series I wrote about him back in 2019. 

Well, I hope that you found this short post informative, obviously there are quite a number of dangerous individuals that I could have included here but I will save those for a future post. My next installment of my Serial Killers of the 70s, 80s and 90s series will be published here on my blog next Sunday (I post new content every Sunday evening) so I hope you will join me for that. 

Stay safe, hopefully I will see you in the next post and in the meantime, on my socials x

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Every Woman's Worst Nightmare: The Grim Sleeper | Serial Killer: Lonnie Franklin Jr | Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s & 90s

(Lonnie Franklin Jr. Picture credit: ranker)

Have you ever seen eyes as haunting as those of the individual pictured above? The person who's name is Lonnie Franklin Jr, otherwise known as The Grim Sleeper, sure has sinister eyes that you can just tell have seen a lot of dark and disturbing things in his lifetime. But it's not just his eyes that are disturbing, it's everything about him, especially his hands because those are the hands that carried out the murders of numerous innocent women. 

He was known as the good guy of the neighbourhood, a nice, helpful guy who was a dab hand at fixing cars. He could get you a good deal on a fridge freezer or get you some items that had ''fallen off the back of a wagon'' for half the price of what they retailed at in the stores. Everybody seemed to know Lonnie, always stopping by to share a coffee whilst he worked on various cars. It was common knowledge that Lonnie liked to dabble in stolen vehicles but he was so good that nobody ever knew how he acquired them (nobody witnessed him actually stealing them himself). He'd been driving cars since he was a child and had a natural talent for fixing them up as well as spending some time behind bars for his illegal activities. 

For the most part, Lonnie (who was 57 years old and lived in South Central, Los Angeles with his wife and two children in their modest home) was friendly and kept himself to himself. So when the cops showed up one day in 2010, it came as a shock to the locals in one way but not in another. People assumed that his dealings in stolen vehicles had finally caught up with him but they were soon to find out the truth. Stolen vehicles was the least of Lonnie's ill doings, for unknown to the neighbours and friends that he had grown up with, who he'd shared coffee with and did the odd favour for, Lonnie was actually a cold blooded serial killer who had been terrorizing their community for decades. 

He was the ultimate snake in the grass and nobody in the community knew, they knew he was no angel but a killer? they couldn't believe it! What was even more disturbing about this case was how the cops dealt with the investigation, it was utterly appalling. Lonnie had been on their radar for years and they knew that a killer was active on the streets murdering innocent black women but they did nothing to warn the public. The cops turned a blind eye because of the judgements about some of the lifestyles of the ladies involved, they didn't take the investigations into their deaths as seriously as they should have done. There was a clear pattern and link between all of the murders and the similarities spoke volumes even down to the weapons used but the horrible saga was allowed to continue. For someone like myself who delved more into this case for my current series, my eyes were fully opened to a lot of the mishandling and disrespect as well as full on racism that many people in the black community faced back then and sadly to the present day. Where I grew up nobody trusted the police but in South Central Los Angeles, who could blame the local community for feeling the way that they have done for such a long time, it's completely understandable when you look at everything people have been put through and how badly they have been let down time and again. 

So there was no protection for the women of South Central. Los Angeles in the 1980s (even before that and beyond) when this spate of murders were taking place and no warning. It shouldn't have been about whether somebody partook in drugs, sex work or was just travelling home from working at a grocery store, what people chose to do for a living in hard times should not have been an issue, everyone has the right to have proper police protection and fair warning if there is potential danger in their midst. 

The neighbourhood 'nice guy' Lonnie spent his life up until his arrest (with a short stint in the Army) in South Central, it was his own backyard and he was cruising the streets looking for lone female victims. He would target sex workers but not all of the victims did that line of work, some were just housewives or worked at a grocery store. He just wanted to kill women and it was clear from a young age that he had a negative attitude towards women all of his life. The way he would describe women and treat them was disgusting. He enjoyed taking photographs of women, especially sexually explicit ones and he would share them with his close friends. He frequented sex workers behind his long term wife's back and had a string of affairs. His wife claimed to have been oblivious to his hidden life and his close friends claimed that they only swapped explicit pictures of women with him but nothing more, they claimed to have no idea that Lonnie was a serial killer. 

So let's get into a bit of the background of Lonnie David Franklin Jr and how he was finally brought to justice after 25 years. He was born on the 30th of August 1952 and had a difficult childhood and struggled academically but was more talented when it came to mechanics. His father taught him to drive as a young boy and got him his first car. His relationship with his father was pretty normal but he wasn't as close with his mother. For one reason or another Lonnie began to fall of the rails and got into joyriding and stealing cars as well as fixing them up (changing number plates, wheels etc). When he was finally caught for this behaviour his father thought it would be best for him to join the army and hoped that it would get him out of this behaviour, however, Lonnie's horrific attitude towards women was beginning to show because after attempting to abduct one woman near to where he was stationed in Germany, he and his friends had managed to drag another poor girl into their vehicle for a horrendous sexual assault. 

The girl was terrified but tried to placate Lonnie by asking for his phone number in an attempt to appear interested in him. This was done in a way to make it look like she was comfortable with the horrible situation and wouldn't go to the police plus, she thought it would be a good way for the police to catch him. Lonnie did call the phone number the next day and authorities were informed. Lonnie was sent home from the army and no more was said about what he had done. Red flags from childhood and up until this moment were ignored. 

When he returned home he decided that he wanted to settle down and start a family. He met and married his wife and they soon began to build their family. Lonnie was a hard worker and had various types of employment that involved everything from cleaning to refuse collection. He also did work on the cars as well as stolen goods on the side and began seeing other women for affairs and liaisons with sex workers. He was leading a double life and is suspected to have started killing in the 1970s but his murderous timeline is often cited as from 1984 to 2007, as I always say with serial killers (especially ones like Lonnie who have managed to evade justice for so long) you never can tell exactly when they started killing and how many victims they are responsible for. 

Lonnie's method of killing would be shooting or strangulation. The women were subjected to a horrendous sexual assault and their bodies would be dumped under trash bags in alleyways. His youngest known victim was said to have been Princess Berthomieux who was just 15 years old, she was from Inglewood and her body was found on the 19th of March 2002. His oldest known victim was 35 year old Valerie McCorvey from Westmont, her body was found on the 11th of July 2003. When he was arrested he denied any connection to any of the victims and during the police interrogation when he was shown photographs of the victims who's bodies had contained some of his DNA, he pleaded ignorant and made sickening comments such as ''She's butt-ugly'' and ''she's fat''. He also laughed and appeared to be relaxed and unbothered throughout the interview but the police knew that they had the right man, DNA evidence doesn't lie. 

(Lonnie Franklin Jr's known victims. From Top left: Debra Jackson, Henrietta Wright, Barbara Ware, Bernita Sparks, Mary Low, Lachrica Jefferson, Alicia Alexander, Princess Berthomieux, Valarie McCorvey and Janecia Peters. Picture credit: afro.com)


It had taken the police so long to finally get Lonnie Franklin Jr off of the streets. A horrible, endless nightmare for the relatives of the victims and the long suffering wait was still not over because there was several delays when it came to the case going to trial. Eventually the relatives would see their day in court where the monster who took their loved ones would have to answer for his heartless crimes. Lonnie, who now looked even more like a frail old man because so much time had passed, sat looking unbothered and still carried on mumbling that he was innocent. The relatives of the victims and one of his known survivors, Enietra Washington had their say in court and justice was finally served. Lonnie David Franklin Jr was sentenced to death and convicted of the murders of 10 women and the attempted murder of Enietra Washington. It had been a long time coming for the exhausted families, Enierta and the investigators to finally see the day that Lonnie would get what he deserved. 

(Enierta Washington. Picture credit: buzzfeednews)

Some of the victim's relatives sadly passed away before they could see justice served but those there that day believed that their loved ones where there in spirit and that there was a sense of peace. Everyone knows that there are still victims of The Grim Sleeper out there who are yet to be identified, there are some unsolved murders that he is highly suspected of and some where they believe he was the perpetrator but there is a lack of evidence. 

When the police searched his home they found 180 photographs of women which Lonnie claimed had been taken whilst some of the the women were asleep, many were explicit photographs. Some of the women were identified and some remain unknown. Enierta said that during her attack, Lonnie took a photograph of her. It seemed that he liked to take pictures of his victims as his trophy collection. To think that he was only convicted of 10 murders plus one attempted murder is quite frightening when he is believed to have killed many more women. 

Even with the women he had affairs with he'd have unsavory nicknames for them based on the shape and size of their breasts, one of the ladies was given the nickname ''Droopy Titties''. He just had no respect for women whatsoever. 

(Some of the photographs that were found in Lonnie Franklin's house. Picture credit: dailyrecord)

In a final sour note to the story, Lonnie wasn't to meet his death at the hands of the law for he was found deceased in his cell on the 28th of March 2020. He was 67 years old. For some bizarre reason, details of his death have remained withheld from the public leading some to suspect that he may have been murdered by a fellow inmate but the only details we know is that there was ''no reported trauma''. Maybe he took his own life? The mystery remains, maybe the public will be informed at some point? 

(Lonnie Franklin Jr in court. Picture credit: rollingstone)

Lonnie never showed any remorse for his victims, their families or Enietra. He also never confessed to any of the crimes he was accused and convicted of but his DNA was on the victims. The gun used in the murders was found in his house and photographs of the victims were also found. There was no question that he was The Grim Sleeper who had haunted the streets of Los Angeles for decades. 

I just want to take a moment to remember the victims and the courage of Enietra Washington who was brave enough to stand up and face Lonnie in the courtroom. RIP: Debra Jackson, Henrietta Wright, Barbara Ware, Bemita Sparks, Mary Lowe, Lachrica Jefferson, Alicia Alexander, Princess Berthomieux, Valerie McCorvey and Janecia Peters. Also thinking of the many unidentified victims of Lonnie David Franklin Jr.

Further Reading & Sources: 

- The Grim Sleeper: The Lost Women of South Central | Book by Christine Pelisek
- The Grim Sleeper: Talking With America's Most Notorious Serial Killer, Lonnie Franklin Jr | Book by Victoria Redstall
- The Grim Sleeper: Article | Rolling Stone
- Lonnie Franklin Jr: Article | LA Times
- The Grim Sleeper: Article | People
- The Grim Sleeper: Article | NBC News
- The Grim Sleeper: Article | Daily Mail
- The Grim Sleeper: Article | CNN
- The Grim Sleeper | Wikipedia
- The Grim Sleeper | Murderpedia
- Tales of The Grim Sleeper | Documentary by Nick Broomfield
- The Grim Sleeper | History Daily
- Nick Broomfield's Official Website
- Lonnie Franklin Jr: Article | NY Times
- Lonnie Franklin Jr | Full Interrogation Video


Thank you for taking the time to read my latest post in my Serial Killers of the 70s, 80s & 90s series. I hope you will join me in my next installment. 

Take care & I hope to see you on my socials in the meantime x 

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''I Contacted Jeffrey Dahmer Through An Ouija Board.'' | True Crime & Serial Killer Groupies *GRAPHIC DETAILS*

(Yours truly: Jo aka Caledonian Kitty. Follow me on my socials x)

 I'm sure that if you were to ask anyone in the true crime community who happens to write about a particular serial killer or serial predator, they've probably seen their fair share of 'groupies'. I'm not sure what else to call them, their interest in a particular serial killer or predator goes way beyond just educational and wanting to know the how and the why of such individuals and why they do what they do. We are all fascinated with how evil people exist among us and how they've managed to evade justice or trying to get to the reasons of why their brains happen to be wired a certain way. 

I've been writing about various cases on this blog since 2019 and I've had all sorts of people contact me, from relatives of victims to relatives of convicted murderers, Jeffrey Dahmer fans and so on. I'm currently working on my next post in my Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s & 90s and that installment is coming next but I just wanted to say something about this topic of ghoulish groupies. 

I've had people tell me that they knew Ted Bundy personally, spoke in spirit to Jeffrey Dahmer through an Ouija board and knew who was responsible for unsolved murders. My email inbox is quite a roller coaster at times but it is easy to distinguish the obsessives to the people who are genuine and it's not just some women who can be obsessed with serial killers, some guys have contacted me too. Only just the other day I followed back a man (he had what looked like a family profile picture on Twitter) and within 5 seconds he asked me ''Who is your favourite serial killer?'' and ''Taylor Schabusiness is hot.'' (Taylor Schabuisness was not a serial killer but she was obsessed with Jeffrey Dahmer and had murdered her lover by strangulation before dismembering his body and committing sexual acts on his remains before leaving his decapitated head in a bucket for his mother to find). One check of this guy's 'likes' and I could see that he'd 'liked' every tweet mentioning Taylor. I promptly blocked!

There's been guys asking me to cover Jodi Arias and asked if I had her address (Jodi murdered her on/off lover Travis Alexander back in 2008. Travis had been stabbed multiple times and slashed across the throat so violently that his head was almost decapitated. Jodi had also managed to drag his body across the floor before shooting him in the head.) because they wanted to contact her ''cause she was hot''. It is both disturbing and interesting that such men and women fantasize about having sex with some of the most sickest and evilest of individuals if they happen to be somewhat attractive. It doesn't help when certain movies based on the cases have a tendency to over-glamourize the likes of Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez. 

As well as my interest in the human (or inhuman) behaviour of people who commit heinous crimes, I'm also interested in the psychology of their fanatics. How could anyone think of the likes of Richard Ramirez in a romantic way? It's baffling and it makes you worry for these people because those are the types that will fall in to traps laid by such evil doers. Those of us with a healthy interest in true crime (YES, having an interest in criminology is healthy because we are willing to put such cases under the microscope and try to understand and try to prevent such behaviours and personalities from occurring. Plus, we learn how to protect ourselves and become more self aware) do tend to be more vigilant and suspicious of people because we know not to judge a book by it's cover, just because someone has a pretty face, does not mean that they have your best intentions at heart. We all have to keep ourselves safe in this world both physically and psychologically. 

It's not just serial killer groupies that contact me, I had a very strange experience back in 2021 (I just looked at the date on the post involving what I am about to tell you and I didn't realize that it had been that long ago that I had published the Ian Watkins case). If you are a long time reader of my blog you maybe remember the post I had written about the former UK rock star Ian Watkins who was convicted of child sexual abuse offences. He was and is a pretty sick individual and when the story broke about what he had been doing, his fan base adored him so much that they refused to believe it. Ian had such devoted fans that they had his name and lyrics tattooed on their skin. He denied everything but the overwhelming evidence was there for all to see and he is still serving time at Wakefield Prison as of 2018. 

With Ian Watkins, a lot of his fan base was young people who turned to his music as a form of therapy, they felt that they could relate to him and his lyrics. There were a number of young teenage girls who adored him and he took advantage of that fact. He was and is a manipulative groomer who is able to have a frightening psychological hold on his victims. The girls (or should I say women because they are currently in their 30s) who started off as fans of his music have become so entangled in his web that they still believe he is innocent to this day. When I published my post about him, all hell broke loose and I had drama for about a month. I'd been contacted by, what I was led to believe as 5 different Ian Watkins fans plus Ian himself. I knew that Ian was not contacting me himself but the '5 girls' were actually one woman in her 30s who was obsessed with him. 

When I first published the post I noticed that various Ian Watkins Twitter accounts started following me and I was getting bombarded in my DMs. One woman sent me pictures of herself and Ian in a bedroom and told me that she had, had a relationship with him when she was a teenager. At first she sounded genuine and the pictures were real, she sounded mature and explained that she was a mother and a victim of his. She mentioned that she suffered from depression and that times were hard. I made the stupid mistake of giving her my phone number as a way of offering some support if she ever needed a chat. 

The next thing I know, she was begging me to be part of her 'group' of Ian supporters and wanted me to go to Wakefield prison to see him because ''you are his type, he'd agree to see you.'' The whole thing was bizarre and I had no idea what was going on. It started to become a real hassle because I refused to visit Ian Watkins and expressed my opinion of him which wasn't exactly complimentary (which didn't go down to well as she believed that he was like a God). I realized that this woman was a bit of a nutcase and was surprised to see that she had given me her real name, I researched her and found various newspaper articles about her. She had been so obsessed with Ian and had written to him a few times in prison. She did have a brief relationship with him a long time before but had never seemed to let go. Ian Watkins, one of the vilest individuals to walk the earth, actually had to have her banned from the prison. He refused her letters and visits and prison officials were that fed up with her harassment that they made sure that she never set foot wherever Ian was. 

I said that I was going to delete the post and that seemed to make things even worse because I was being bombarded on all of my social media platforms and the scary thing is that it was all one woman. She was pretending to be Ian and 4 other girls. She became obsessed with me and it was at this point I was trying to figure out the best way to deal with this. I realized that I was dealing with someone who had severe psychological issues and so I started to think back to my counselling training and although she was trying to justify Ian's abhorrent actions by saying he had been through abuse and that he'd only did bits of this and that, I was trying to work out a way in which I could make her see sense. 

I decided to approach this in a sensitive manner and I asked her some questions about her childhood and it soon became clear. She had been through a lot in life and in Ian she saw this sort of saviour figure before any of his crimes were exposed. She was already obsessed with him before he was brought to justice and couldn't let go. Ian had been playing a few of his female fans whilst he was first in prison, he was using them for money and would groom each of them making them feel individually special. This woman was one of those girls who had been tricked into sending him money and when he cut her off she couldn't cope with it. 

I told her that I knew that Ian wasn't really contacting me and that the four girls didn't exist. I told her it was ok to tell me the truth, I wouldn't make anything public (I promised I wouldn't reveal her name and I'm keeping that promise to this day), I told her that I understood what it was like to come from difficult circumstances and feeling that you had this bond with someone who turned out to be not who you thought they were. I encouraged her to forget about Ian and tried my best to talk sense into her about how evil he was and how grooming works. 

I don't know if anything I said to her made a difference but she apologized for the catfishing and the weeks of harassment. Something in me forgave her, maybe because she was from a difficult childhood and had been through a lot of hardships in life. I just saw a frightened, confused young girl underneath it all and very much another victim of Ian Watkins. 

After our conversation she agreed not to contact me again and I agreed not to take the matter further. She deleted the Twitter and Facebook accounts and we both blocked each other on WhatsApp. It ended on a friendly note. I knew she was deeply embarrassed and probably a bit shocked at how I discovered that all of the accounts were hers. She tried to use different terminology on each account but I paid attention to the spelling of words, the placement of full stops etc and I knew it was all her. 

At the end of it all I felt sorry for her because there was a lot of problems there and I think she just needs proper help to get out of this frame of mind (I'm hoping that by now in 2023 she has moved on from the Ian Watkins obsession and is healthy and happy). 

I have so many stories from over the years that could fill a book, I know this post is a little bit different to my usual posts but I wanted to make sure that this week I kept my word in publishing regular content on a Sunday evening. I appreciate you guys and gals, your kind words about my work mean a lot to me and I appreciate the support. If you found this post an interesting read and would like me to talk more about my experiences with similar situations with groupies or even worse....so-called professional writers who have turned out to be compete nutcases who've tried to get nudes from me in exchange for help with publishing a book. Or, a guy who was so obsessed with serial killer Ian Brady that he wrote to him for years back in the 1980s and still had the letters which he wanted to show me in exchange for painting me naked. It was bad enough that he was creepy but he seemed to be actually proud of his contact with Ian Brady and used it as an attempt to try and impress me....which it didn't! I have always hated Ian Brady with a passion. 

Anyway, I have so much tea and creepy stories about my encounters to leave you scratching your head in confusion or worse, keep you up all night. Let me know if you would like me to include these types of posts in the future. For now, I return back to researching my latest installment of my Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s & 90s (which will be my next post) whilst also enjoying a big slice of chocolate cake. 

I'm always open to comments either below, on socials or privately by email (I know some people don't feel comfortable to leave comments on a true crime blog so fire away a few lines if you like to me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com) 

[Side Note: On a strange turn of events just after I typed up this post the other day, I found out yesterday that Ian Watkins had been attacked by 3 fellow prisoners at Wakefield Prison. He had been held hostage for about 6 hours and suffered from a severe beating as well as a slashed neck. He's currently being treated for his injuries but the level of severity is unknown. I will keep you updated on my original Ian Watkins post]

Please stay safe out there and online & I'll (hopefully) see you in the next post or on my socials 

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