Killer of 6 Transients Pleads Guilty in Deal, Gets Life Prison Term

A drifter accused of stabbing to death six Los Angeles-area transients pleaded guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday in a plea bargain that will send him to state prison for life without the possibility of parole.

The defendant, Joseph Danks, a 27-year-old transient from Michigan, had pleaded not guilty a year ago to six murder charges in the deaths of transients in Koreatown and in Santa Monica.

Since then, he has been held in County Jail. Los Angeles County prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against Danks.

‘Dirty, Filthy Bums’

Despite his original plea of not guilty, Danks told authorities here shortly after his arrest that he had attacked the transients because he was offended by “dirty, filthy bums,” according to Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Darden, who prosecuted the case.

The thin, tousle-haired Danks had said that he was put off “by other bums that are not as well-kempt,” Darden said. “I’m a bum, but I’m a clean bum . . . . Some are so dirty you can’t tell if they’re white or black,” the prosecutor quoted Danks as having said.

Darden said Danks told authorities that his first attack against a transient occurred on Christmas Eve in 1986 in Santa Monica, which he carried out in anger after being turned away from a homeless shelter that was full.

On Nov. 17, during jury selection for his murder trial, Danks lunged at his lawyer, Los Angeles County Public Defender Larry Rivetz, with a makeshift knife, cutting the attorney’s nose before being subdued by court bailiffs.

Rivetz, 36, was not seriously injured.

Made From Razor Blades

The weapon Danks allegedly wielded in the courtroom was a crude knife fashioned from a toothbrush and razor blades.

Danks was arrested shortly after noon in January of 1987, minutes after a transient in Koreatown was attacked. A large kitchen knife believed to have been used in most of the killings was found at the scene, authorities said.

Little is known about Danks’ victims.

At the time, Danks was on five years’ probation for carrying a concealed weapon--a sawed-off shotgun--in Bay City, Mich. Danks also had been ordered to receive psychiatric evaluation. But he disappeared soon afterward.

Authorities said Danks comes from a broken home and had spent time in a school for juvenile delinquents in South Dakota. They said he also has been jailed in Florida for sleeping in a public place and being armed with a knife.