DNA Leads Los Angeles Police to John Floyd Thomas Jr., Charged in Two 1970s Killings of Older Women
Police said the 72-year-old insurance adjuster was suspected in as many as 30 murders, including attacks once blamed on the "Westside Rapist."
Published
Killings of older women blamed on Los Angeles's "Westside Rapist" went unsolved for decades. On April 29, 2009, police announced that DNA had led them to John Floyd Thomas Jr., a 72-year-old insurance adjuster.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Thomas had been linked by DNA to two cold-case murders: Ethel Sokoloff, 68, found dead in her home in 1972, and Elizabeth McKeown, 67, attacked after parking at her home in 1976. Detectives in a cold-case unit created in 2001 had sent evidence from the women's sexual-assault kits for DNA testing. In 2004, the male profiles from the two cases were matched to each other, and later that year to three unsolved murders between 1976 and 1986 in Inglewood and Los Angeles County, but no name came up. Thomas, a registered sex offender, gave a DNA sample the previous October. On March 27, 2009, the California Department of Justice told police the sample matched.
Detectives arrested Thomas on March 31, and his bail was set at $1 million. On April 2, prosecutors filed two counts of murder with special circumstances, making him eligible for life without parole, and a decision on the Inglewood and county cases was expected at his May 20 arraignment. Police said Thomas was suspected in as many as 30 murders and scores of rapes in the region in the 1970s and 1980s. He had been arrested a number of times between 1955 and 1978, with convictions for burglaries, many involving sexual assaults. "We have yet to reach the depths of what he has done," Police Chief William Bratton said.
The Los Angeles Police Department said detectives arrested Thomas on March 31, 2009, while CNN reported that he was arrested on April 2.
Sources
- Arrest of Suspected Southland Strangler Serial Killer NR09209kr, Los Angeles Police Department
- DNA leads to suspect in 1970s Los Angeles serial killings, CNN