Knifing Deaths of 4 Transients May Be Linked

Los Angeles police are investigating the stabbing deaths of four transients in the Koreatown area during the last two weeks that homicide detectives Saturday said may be the work of a single killer.

The latest slaying occurred Friday afternoon on 8th Street near Vermont Avenue, police said, when a homeless man was found stabbed to death. His name was not released.

A witness to one of the murders described the killer as a white male transient with blond shoulder-length hair in his late 20s, about 5 feet, 9 inches and weighing 140 pounds. The motive is apparently robbery, investigators said.

“My feeling is we have a new drifter in town; we’re dealing with a new psycho,” Detective Don Roberts told reporters Friday. “He stabs with such force, it’s almost instant death. He’s vicious and fast.”

The killings began Jan. 6, when Chris Michael Forsblade, 40, was found stabbed near 6th and Vermont, according to Detective Frank Garcia.

Eight days later Isaac Davis, 58, was stabbed in the back about noon on Menlo Avenue near Vermont while rummaging through a trash barrel, police said. Two hours later, another man was murdered while sleeping on the sidewalk on 9th Street near Vermont. His name has not been released.

Police said they do not believe that the string of murders is the work of the man who has shot to death 10 homeless men near downtown since September. Those murders, which suddenly stopped in October, were characterized by execution-style shots to the head. A task force has been working on those cases, but little is known except that the killer is a black male, police said.

Police have also been investigating the 17 strangling and stabbing deaths of women, most of whom were prostitutes, in the South-Central area of the city since 1983.