2nd South-Central Wave of Prostitute Slayings Probed

Several prostitutes have been found dead in South-Central Los Angeles, police said Thursday, adding that “an effort is being made” to caution women who fit the victims’ profile “to watch out.”

The case is the second involving the serial killing of prostitutes in the area in recent years, and the leader of a coalition that prodded authorities to investigate the first string of slayings more diligently harshly criticized investigators for keeping a lid of secrecy on their probe.

Beyond saying that the victims are called “strawberries” in street jargon because they sell sex for drugs, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lt. Fred Nixon would offer no other details of their profile.

“I will confirm that an investigation is currently being conducted on female victims who were engaged in prostitution for drugs,” Nixon said.

However, he would not confirm a television report that all of the victims had been shot.

On its newscasts Thursday, KABC-TV reported that at least nine and as many as 12 prostitutes have been found shot to death over the past three years, a period overlapping investigation of the so-called Southside Slayer.

Between September, 1983, and July, 1986, 17 women were found strangled in South-Central Los Angeles. Nearly all had been stabbed, and all but a few had arrest records for prostitution. One man has been convicted in one of the deaths, and two other suspects were charged separately in seven of the slayings.

The KABC broadcast Thursday cited unnamed sources as saying that evidence shows conclusively that all of the killings now being investigated were committed by the same man.

The killer first struck in August, 1985, when a prostitute was found shot to death in an alley off West Gage Avenue, the station reported. Another victim, found last September, was 17, the report added.

Investigation of the slayings has been handled quietly, without any publicity, the KABC report said, because police officials feared protests from residents.

Members of the community protested what they called the lack of progress in the earlier series of slayings.

“I can say without equivocation that our reluctance to publicize (the killings) has nothing to do with (a fear of) any major demonstrations,” Nixon said Thursday.

He would not confirm any of the KABC report, saying that “the mere publicity in this investigation would hinder our efforts. We are just not able to supply any more details.”

But Margaret Prescod, founder of the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders, said that the police handling of the investigation “feels as though history is repeating itself. Eleven women were already murdered before they called a press conference to tell us about the Southside Slayer.”

Prescod’s organization has been widely credited with prodding the Los Angeles City Council and the county Board of Supervisors to offer rewards for information leading to the arrest of the Southside Slayer, or slayers.

The coalition was also a constant thorn in the side of the Police Department, initially losing no opportunity to chastise investigators by calling them less than diligent because most of the victims were prostitutes and were black.

“I think it is outrageous that the LAPD did not come to the community. The community is in the best position to help solve the murders.”

A spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department said homicide investigators knew of no cases in their jurisdiction such as the slayings being investigated by Los Angeles police. He added, however, that a more “complete” statement would be issued today.