Skid Row Alarm Sounded While Police Hunt Killer

Los Angeles police and Skid Row rescue missions warned transients Tuesday to avoid sleeping in isolated places at night as detectives pressed the search for a killer who may be responsible for the deaths of four men shot in the head while they slept.

The warning--posted in numerous Skid Row agencies and passed on by word of mouth--was issued while investigators looked for a link in the slayings in the past three weeks of four men shot in the back of the head, apparently with a small-caliber weapon, in out-of-the-way places in the downtown area.

“We haven’t definitely made a link in the murders but we are making the assumption that the crimes are connected,” police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said.

Ballistic tests, which might prove that the same weapon was used in all four shootings, have not yet been completed, Central Division detectives said.

The victims’ bodies were found outside of what is generally considered Skid Row--an area bounded by 2nd, Main, San Julian and 7th streets. Three of the bodies were found in alleys north of Sunset Boulevard and the fourth was discovered in the 200 block of West 18th Street.

Police Lt. William Hall could not say if there was any significance to the fact that the transients were slain away from the tough streets of Skid Row.

The warnings by Skid Row agencies and the police began circulating as the transients lined up for lunch at some soup kitchens.

“Please tell everyone in the chapel and those along the street . . . to come to any of the missions and the shelters,” said a memo at the Rescue Mission Union, 226 S. Main St. “When they are full, please tell the men not be alone at night, but to huddle together for safety.”

The memo was put out after homicide detectives called Rescue Mission staffers, said Director George Caywood.

A police flyer issued late in the afternoon cautioned the homeless to be “especially careful in selecting” sleeping spots for the night.

The cautions, however, were not new for the men and women of Skid Row.

“We’re not telling them something they already don’t do,” said Clancy Imuslund, director of the Midnight Mission on South Los Angeles Street.

‘Exposed . . . Every Day’

“These killings are not as distressing to the men on the street as they are to you and me. They’re exposed to this every day . . . getting stabbed for a bottle of liquor. It’s very sad.”

Many of the homeless did not seem to be worried that a killer might be stalking them, according to those who work in Skid Row agencies.

Typical of the transients’ mood seemed to be the comment of a 34-year-old unemployed carpenter who was asking for money from passers-by on Wall Street.

“Let me tell you--there are a lot meaner dudes here than this punk shooting lonely souls at night,” he said.

The police flyer provided a sketchy description of the suspect--a tall black male, weighing between 150 and 170 pounds, with a medium-to-large Afro hair style.