'Grim Sleeper' Serial Killer Gets Death Sentence: 10 Confirmed Victims Lonnie Franklin Murdered

Serial killer Lonnie David Franklin Jr., widely known by his nickname the Grim Sleeper, was given a formal sentence on Wednesday for murders he committed over a three-decade period throughout South Los Angeles.

A California jury voted for the death penalty this past June after an 11-week trial. The formal sentence was delivered Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy. Franklin was convicted of with the murder of nine women and one teenage girl between 1985 and 2007, according to USA News.

Franklin, a former trash collector, is now 63 years old.

According to the Los Angeles Times, prosecutors connected Franklin to five additional murders but detectives believed he may have killed as many as 25 women.

In a New York Post article, Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy was reported to have turned to Franklin, telling him, “I can’t think of anyone I’ve ever encountered in all my years in the criminal justice system that has committed the monstrous crimes that you have.”

Most of the murders that Franklin committed were the result of shootings, and one was tied to a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun that was found in Franklin’s 81^st Street home.

Many of Franklin’s victims were prostitutes who used crack cocaine, most of them during the mid-1980s. The Grim Sleeper murder cases came under fire for the lack of interest because of the women’s race, socioeconomic background and occupation.

These were the women Franklin murdered, in order of their untimely deaths, and age:

1. Debra Jackson, 29, was shot three times in the chest and was discovered in Aug. 10, 1985.
2. Henrietta Wright, 35, was found with multiple gunshot wounds on Aug. 12, 1986, almost exactly one year after Franklin’s first reported murder.
3. Barbara Ware, 23, was found on Jan. 10, 1987, on East 56^th Street in the Central-Alameda area.
4. Bernita Sparks, 25, was discovered with gun wounds, found dead on April 15, 1987.
5. Mary Lowe, 26, was discovered on Halloween, Oct. 31, 1987 on Western Avenue in Gramercy Park.
6. Lachrica Jefferson, 22, was discovered on Jan 30, 1988 on West 102^nd Place.
7. Alicia Alexander, 18, (also known as Monique), was found on Sept. 11, 1988 near 43^rd Place and Western Avenue.
8. Princess Berthomieux, 15, was found strangled and beaten on March 19, 2002 (although the coroner reported her body was found March 9, 2002).
9. Valerie McCorvey, 35, was discovered on July 11, 2003, on Denker Avenue in the Westmont area.
10. Janecia Peters, 25, was found on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 2007, on South Western Avenue.