Rape Link to Serial Killings Discounted
Police on Saturday discounted the possibility that a teen-ager charged with rape and attempted murder--after claiming to be on a Satanic mission to kill prostitutes--is a suspect in a series of unsolved murders of South Los Angeles streetwalkers.
Police Lt. Dan Cooke said that anyone suspected of a violent crime in South Los Angeles is initially “looked at as a possible suspect.”
“We have no reason to believe a Satanic worshiper is doing it,” Cooke said. “There is nothing in the homicides that would suggest an occult kind of killing.”
The youth, whose name was not disclosed because of his age, was charged Friday in assaults on two women Aug. 12 and Sept. 8. He allegedly abducted two women believed to be prostitutes, raped and stabbed them and left them for dead.
There have been 17 killings since 1983 in the Southside Slayer case. Police believe the murders are the work of at least two people, Cooke said.
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