Community activists claim that for the first time since the killings started 24 years ago, the LAPD released a composite sketch last week of the man believed to be “The Grim Sleeper” — the serial murderer who prowled South L.A. neighborhoods from 1985 to 2007 and killed 10 Black women and one Black man and raped and shot one Black woman, who managed to get away.

It was “Jackie,” the only known survivor of the Grim Sleeper, who provided the description of the killer after she escaped his clutches in 1988, yet no composite was released by police until Nov. 23, some 21 years later, a belief that has outraged members of the Black Coalition Fighting Serial Murders. 

The police asked that the survivor’s true name not be used in this story, as she still resides in South L.A., so I’m calling her “Jackie.” She was the killer’s ninth victim and she escaped after being raped and shot in the chest. The bullet in Jackie matched the bullets in the other victims, making her the only person on the planet who can positively identify the Grim Sleeper and the vehicle he rode in on. 

The coalition held a recent public forum on the unsolved serial killings and expressed concern that the murders have not been prioritized by the police and public officials. The activists claim the cops and other public servants are giving the crimes short shrift because the victims are African-American women being murdered in South L.A.

The forum was attended by several of the victims‘ parents and siblings and they, too, expressed their belief that had their loved ones been white and murdered in Beverly Hills or Hollywood, their deaths would have been taken more seriously by law enforcement, elected officials and the media and the killer’s spree would have ended years ago.

Forum attendees were extremely critical of how the LAPD has handled the serial murders over the past 24 years and particularly with the inattention the deaths have received from the mayor’s office.

“We had a large informational meeting on the murders at Hamilton AME Church with the police and elected officials on Nov. 14 and asked the mayor to attend and we were told the mayor needed 30 days notice for such a request,” said Margaret Prescod, leader of the coalition. “We are insulted, as that shows what the mayor thinks of Black women being murdered in his city.

“As a community, we care for the family members and children left behind by these deaths,” Prescod added. “Every life is of value and Black women’s lives count. The authorities have taken the attitude that these victims were Black prostitutes and brought their murders upon themselves, and are, therefore, not worth anyone’s concern, but we reject that attitude in the strongest possible terms.

“Some may have been prostitutes, we don’t know, but some of them definitely were not,” Prescod continued. “One worked as a switchboard operator for the L.A. Times, one was a registered nurse, one was a waitress, etc., and they all had value and deserved to live and to have their murderer caught and brought to justice.”

Police Chief Charles Beck, who as deputy chief in charge of detectives and who has spent almost all of his 31-year LAPD career in South L.A., decries as a misconception that police have ignored the Grim Sleeper’s killing spree. “This case has always been important to me — to us — and we take it personally,”

Beck said. “We’ve gone all across the country chasing every lead we got and we’re still doing it. We’ve investigated every bit of forensic evidence. We’ve got the billboard up, a big reward posted for information and now we’re doing a ‘familiar DNA’ search.”

The chief described the “familiar DNA” thusly: The Grim Sleeper’s DNA is not in the database. But now that the database of possible suspects has greatly increased over 24 years, his father’s, son’s or brother’s DNA could be in it. “We have never given up on this case and we never will,” Beck said, “It’s just that we haven’t been able to solve it yet; but it’s not for lack of trying,” he added.

Capt. Kevin McCure, head of the LAPD’s Grim Sleeper Task Force, said the composite sketch of the killer was initially released to the public in 1988 when it was drawn from “Jackie’s” description of him and his car.

“The investigation was stymied when the suspect suspended his activities for about a 10-year period during which we had nothing new to connect to this case,” McCure said. “But that doesn’t mean we suspended our activities. We kept going over what we had; we just weren’t getting anything new to lead us to him,” he said.

McCure said the composite was re-released last week because “situations change.” McCure said that while the suspect’s composite has not changed over the years, the people looking at it have. “People can look at this face and may recall having known somebody 20 years ago who looked like this — somebody they went to school with or worked with or who lived in the neighborhood — or somebody looking at this picture may have been afraid or reluctant to say anything 20 years ago but may now be compelled to speak up,” McCure said.

“The re-release of this composite is another attempt on our part to find this killer and we would appreciate all the assistance we can get from the public. Call us at (877) 529-3855 with anything you know,” he added. “This has never become a cold case that went on the shelf.”

According to law enforcement, what is sometimes known as the “South L.A. Serial Murders” began in 1985 and were committed along the Western Avenue corridor, going south from about Gage Avenue into Inglewood. The victims, who ranged in age from 14 to 36, were shot and mostly found in alleys. They were, in order of their murders: Debra Jackson, 29, Aug. 10, 1985; Henrietta Wright, 35, Aug. 12, 1986; Thomas Steele, 36, Aug. 14, 1986. Steele was the only man killed but McCure said Steele is linked to the 10 women’s deaths through ballistics. Steele was shot in the head and his body was discovered in the middle of an intersection, unlike the women, but he was shot with the same .25 caliber handgun as the women.

Barbara Ware, 23, Jan. 10, 1987; Bernita Sparks, 25, April 15, 1987; Mary Lowe, 25, Nov. 1, 1987; Lachrica Jefferson, 22, Jan. 30, 1988; Alicia Alexander,16, Sept. 11, 1988; “Jackie,” 30, Nov. 20, 1988; Princess Barthomieux, 14, March 19, 2002; Valerie McCorvey, 35, July 11, 2003; and Janecia Peters, 25, Jan. 1, 2007. Peters was the mother of a 5-year-old boy, whom his grandmother, Laverne Peters, says desperately misses his mommy.