Man Convicted of 4 Murders; 2 Linked to Southside Slayer Case

An unemployed construction worker was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder Wednesday by a Superior Court jury.

Two of the murders for which Louis Craine was convicted had been linked to the so-called Southside Slayer killings of prostitutes in South-Central Los Angeles.

Craine, 31, was also found guilty on several counts of sexual assault in the strangulation murders. He was acquitted on a fifth count of first-degree murder.

Compton Superior Court Judge Janice Claire Croft ordered the jury of six men and six women to return May 8 to decide whether Craine should be given the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Craine had confessed to police shortly after his 1988 arrest. But he then recanted his hours-long confession, which was taped by police and later played for the jury during the trial that began March 27.

Other evidence included the testimony of several of Craine’s relatives, including his mother who linked him to a shirt that was stained with blood of the same type as one of the victims.

As recently as April 17, Craine had earnestly proclaimed his innocence, calling his relatives “liars” and maintaining that he had never seen the shirt before. He added that he thought his relatives, especially his mother, were mad at him for having left home at an early age.

Defense attorneys Morris B. Jones and Ronald V. Skyers did not dispute Craine’s confession. Rather, they contended that their client made his statements only after sustained police interrogation.

“He was unable to understand what he was saying,” Jones said.

Portrayed as Illiterate

The defense portrayed Craine as an illiterate man with a fourth-grade education and an IQ of 69 who is prone to exaggeration and has a tendency to “parrot” the statements of others.

They said Craine made his incriminating statements only after investigators had given him certain information about the murders. All the victims were believed to be prostitutes and drug addicts.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. John Watson contended that Craine’s statements contained information only the killer could have known.

For instance, the cause of death of one of the victims, Loretta Perry, had initially been listed as a cocaine overdose. Her body was found Jan. 25, 1987, in the 9500 block of South Defiance Avenue. But after Craine spoke of having strangled Perry, her body was exhumed and a second autopsy confirmed strangulation as the cause of death.

Besides Perry, Craine was convicted of murdering Gail M. Ficklin, whose body was found Aug. 15, 1985; Vivian Louise Collins, found strangled in the 1600 block of East Century Boulevard on March 18, 1987, and Carolyn Barney, found in a vacant lot near Craine’s parents home in the 9700 block of South Grandee Avenue in May, 1987.

Craine was acquitted in the slaying of Sheila Rae Burris, who was found stabbed and strangled Nov. 18, 1984.

Southside Slayer Killings

She, along with Ficklin and Barney, had been linked by police to the Southside Slayer killings. Police believe that no one killer was responsible for all 18 slayings.

Daniel Lee Siebert, a convicted killer imprisoned in Alabama, was charged last year with two of the murders. Charles Mosley was convicted of the 1986 murder of a third woman. In another case, veteran Sheriff’s Deputy Rickey Ross, 40, was charged in February with murdering three prostitutes in South Los Angeles.

It was Craine’s second trial on the charges. The first proceeding ended in a mistrial in August when a clerk mistakenly gave deliberating jurors portions of a witness statement that they were not supposed to see.