5 Transients Slain in Bell in 5 Months; Link Probed

Five transients have been found shot to death in Bell in the last five months and authorities said Monday they are investigating “a possible relationship” among the killings.

“Detectives are investigating the fact that there are similarities in all of these cases,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Kathryn Nielsen. “All were transients, all were shot to death, and all were found in Bell.”

And all five victims were white men in their 50s and 60s.

The announcement of the investigation followed the discovery Sunday morning of two bodies along a railroad right-of-way in the city of 30,000 southeast of Los Angeles. The small city is not considered to have a large transient population, according to experts.

Two Bodies Discovered

Nielsen said a body was discovered at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday by an unidentified couple collecting aluminum cans along the tracks near Pine Avenue and Randolph Street. A second corpse was discovered about 80 feet away by Bell police officers, who were searching for evidence after the first body was found.

One of the victims was identified as Jack Leonard Horn, 62. The name of the other, age 57, was withheld pending notification of relatives.

The first of the five victims was discovered on Dec. 21 along the same tracks near Randolph Street and Atlantic Boulevard, Sheriff’s Sgt. Bryan Williams said. That is about two blocks from the site where Sunday’s victims were found. That dead man was identified as James Stout, 51.

Second, Third Victims

The second victim, identified as Eric Ford, 66, was found in front of the city’s public library on March 14. The body of the third victim, Dennis Lynch, 66, was found in an abandoned building at 4553 Gage Ave. last Thursday.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Bryan Williams said no motive has been established for the killings. He said detectives would not release further details about the individual slayings while the investigation was continuing.

A brief press release from the Sheriff’s Department, whose homicide detectives are working with Bell police, did not use the term “serial killings.” The statement said only that a “possible relationship” among them was the subject of an investigation.

Williams, however, said that the “possible relationship” was whether the men were killed by the same person.

Transients have been the victims of serial killers in the past in the Los Angeles area.

In 1975, Vaughn Charles Greenwood, dubbed the Skid Row Slasher, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison after terrorizing downtown Los Angeles transients, cutting the throats of his victims as they slept. He was suspected of killing at least 13 people.

In 1984, Bobby Joe Maxwell, known as the Skid Row Stabber, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of killing two transients.

In the fall of 1986, 10 transients were shot and killed and an 11th wounded in a five-week period. Police later identified their murderer as Michael Player, 26, who shot himself in a motel room a day after the last shooting was discovered.

Continuing Killings

Since then, other transients, some with petty criminal backgrounds, continue to be slain individually.

“We’ve had quite a few transient killings since Player, but no serial killings on Skid Row,” said Los Angeles Police Homicide Detective Randy Addison. “Most of the murders stem from arguments over narcotics.”

He said the department’s Central Division, which polices the Skid Row area, has investigated about two dozen murders in the area since the Player killings. Of those victims, 80% were transients.