No Connection Found Between Murders in Oakland, Los Angeles

There is no connection between the murders of 10 local prostitutes and the deaths of three women found slain in the Oakland area, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

Homicide Detective Fred Miller flew to the Bay Area city on Wednesday, police spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke said, and “after reviewing some of the evidence and discussing it with Oakland detectives, determined there was no relationship between those and the 10 we are looking at here.”

The nude or partially nude bodies of the local victims were found at various locations in South-Central Los Angeles, Gardena and Inglewood since Jan. 1, 1984. Most had been both strangled and stabbed in what one officer called “overkill.” All had prostitution records, and all but two were black.

In Oakland, however, only one of the three black victims was a known prostitute, and all were fully clothed when found. None had been strangled.

Oakland Police Sgt. Dan Murray said at the outset he did not believe that that city’s murders were done by the Los Angeles serial killer.

Apparently Los Angeles detectives did not really think so either, but Lt. Ed Henderson, acting commander of the Robbery-Homicide Division, said it “was something that had to be checked out.”

No new apparent victims of the Los Angeles serial killer have been discovered since police asked the public for help on Sept. 23.

Henderson estimated that there have been about 400 tips from citizens since then. But no suspect has been found.