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'Grim Sleeper' Lonnie Franklin Jr. Dies on Death Row at San Quentin

Franklin, 67, condemned for murdering nine women and a teenage girl in South Central Los Angeles, was found unresponsive in his cell; officials reported no signs of trauma.

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AI-generated illustration, not the real place or event: an old prison on a rocky bay shore at dusk

Lonnie David Franklin Jr. had spent nearly four years on California's death row. On the evening of Saturday, March 28, 2020, staff at San Quentin State Prison found the man known as the Grim Sleeper unresponsive in his single cell at about 7:20 p.m. They gave him medical aid and called for an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead at 7:43 p.m. He was 67.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced the death the next day. Its cause was left to an autopsy, with the Marin County coroner to make the determination, but the department said there were no signs of trauma. Prison officials also said there had been no reported cases of the coronavirus at San Quentin.

His killings in South Central Los Angeles stretched across more than two decades. He was on death row for the murders of nine women and one teenage girl committed between 1985 and 2007. A Los Angeles County judge sentenced him to death on August 10, 2016, for 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, and he arrived on death row a week later, on August 17. That sentencing date, KPIX noted, fell exactly 31 years after the death of his first confirmed victim, Debra Jackson, in 1985.

What finally broke the case was his own son. Detectives working the killings got a DNA hit on Christopher Franklin, who had been convicted of a felony weapons charge. When the son was ruled out, they turned to the rest of his family. An undercover officer followed Lonnie Franklin to a pizza parlor he favored and, posing as a waiter, collected his dishes, silverware, glasses and pizza crusts. Saliva found on the victims matched his DNA. Investigators also found that he had used the same .25-caliber gun in the attacks and had kept photographs of his victims in his home.

His trial ran for several months. The jury took a single day to find him guilty.

The cause of Franklin's death had not been announced when his death was reported; the department said only that an autopsy was pending and that there were no signs of trauma. The account of the DNA investigation is KPIX's, from its report on his death.

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