Between 1985 and 1990 eight women were killed in Frankford, a neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia. Police came to see the deaths as a possible series. The victims were all women, most had been stabbed, and most spent time in the bars of the neighborhood, investigators said in 1990. In the press the unknown attacker became the Frankford Slasher.
The case has been through two quite different explanations. In May 1990 police arrested a 38-year-old local man in the most recent killing and began questioning him about the others. Twenty years later, in December 2010, Philadelphia police described a different prime suspect: a man who had posed as a counselor in the neighborhood and who, they said, had left the state before they could close in and had since died. At that point all eight cases were still listed as open and unsolved.
Frankford lies in the northeastern part of Philadelphia, and the elevated Market-Frankford train line, the El, runs over its main avenue. In 2010 CBS 3 in Philadelphia described the bars where the victims spent their time as standing in the shadow of the El. Police said in 1990 that most of the women killed in the series had frequented bars on that avenue.
Police counted the deaths in the series from 1985. By May 1990, they said, seven women had been found dead in Frankford since that year, and they saw common features among the killings. All of the victims were women. Most had been stabbed. Most had spent time in the bars on the neighborhood's main avenue.
Most of the earlier victims went unnamed in the press of the time. Theresa Sciortino, 30, was stabbed to death in Frankford in January 1989. According to United Press International, no further victim in the series was found until Carol Dowd in April 1990.
Carol Dowd was 46 and lived in Frankford. She was found dead on April 28, 1990. Police said she had been stabbed. Hers was the first death police connected to the series since Theresa Sciortino's in January 1989.
In the first days of May 1990, police arrested Leonard Christopher, 38, who lived in the Frankford section, and charged him with murder in Carol Dowd's death. He worked at a seafood market in the neighborhood. He also faced other charges in the case. He was held without bail, and a preliminary hearing was set for May 9, 1990.
The owner of the market, who spoke to UPI on condition that she not be named, said Christopher had worked there for about a year, cleaning fish and waiting on customers. She described him as polite and not violent. "He was very nice, especially to the ladies," she told the wire service.
Police did not charge Christopher in the seven earlier deaths. On the day after his arrest, a detective told UPI, investigators were still questioning him about the unsolved killings, as they tried to learn whether the man accused of one death was responsible for others. In the spring of 1990 he was only a suspect in the earlier deaths, and no charge against him in any of them was reported.
In December 2010, while Philadelphia police were hunting the attacker known as the Kensington Strangler in a nearby neighborhood, they recalled the Frankford case in an interview with CBS 3 reporter Walt Hunter. By then, police said, the Frankford Slasher was suspected of killing eight women between 1985 and 1990.
The account police gave in 2010 described a man who had posed as a counselor and had even rented an office in a nearby church. He befriended women in those bars, police said, and some of the women were not seen again after leaving with him. Detectives produced a composite sketch.
According to police, they were close to moving on this prime suspect when he moved to another state, and the killings stopped. About two years before the 2010 report, police said, they learned that he had died. Police did not name the suspect, and no charge against him was reported.
Police told CBS 3 that they saw no link between the Frankford killings and the Kensington attacks of 2010.
As of December 2010 the eight Frankford murder cases remained open and unsolved, according to Philadelphia police. Police at the time asked anyone with information on the Frankford killings or on the Kensington case to contact the department.
Several points about the case remain disputed or unproven. The first is the size of the series. In May 1990 police treated Carol Dowd's death as the eighth killing in a possible series, and in 2010 police again spoke of eight women killed between 1985 and 1990. Not every woman counted in the series has been publicly named, and whether other deaths in the area belong to it has never been settled.
The second is the identity of the killer. The arrest of Leonard Christopher in 1990 concerned one death only. He was not charged in any of the other seven. The prime suspect police described in 2010 was a different man, unnamed, who had died by then; no charge against him was reported.
The third is the end of the series. Police said in 2010 that the killings stopped when their prime suspect moved away. That statement is a police view and was not tested in court.
1985: Police later date the first killing in the Frankford series to this year.
January 1989: Theresa Sciortino, 30, is stabbed to death in Frankford.
April 28, 1990: Carol Dowd, 46, is found dead in Frankford.
Early May 1990: Leonard Christopher, 38, is arrested and charged with murder, with other charges, in the Dowd case. Police question him about the seven earlier deaths but do not charge him in them.
May 9, 1990: A preliminary hearing in the Dowd case is scheduled.
Before December 2010: Police learn that their prime suspect, who had moved out of state, has died; in 2010 they say this was about two years earlier.
December 13, 2010: Philadelphia police tell CBS 3 that the eight Frankford cases remain open and unsolved, and that the series has no link to the Kensington attacks.