Jury Urges Death for Convicted Serial Killer

Jurors on Tuesday recommended the death penalty for convicted serial killer Louis Craine.

Two of the murders for which Craine was convicted on April 26 had been linked to the so-called Southside Slayer killings of prostitutes in South-Central Los Angeles.

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

Called Relatives ‘Liars’

An unemployed construction worker from Watts, Craine had confessed to police shortly after his 1988 arrest. But he recanted those statements, which were taped by police and later played for the jury during the trial. Other evidence against Craine 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 murder victims.

Testifying on his own behalf, Craine earnestly proclaimed his innocence, calling his relatives “liars” and saying that he had never seen the shirt before. He said 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.

The defense lawyers portrayed Craine as an illiterate man with a fourth-grade education and an IQ of 69, who is prone to exaggerations 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.

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

Strangulation Confirmed

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

Besides Perry, Craine was convicted of having murdered Gail M. Ficklin, found dead on 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 murder of Sheila Rae Burris, who was found stabbed and strangled on Nov. 18, 1984. She, along with Ficklin and Barney, had been linked by police to the Southside Slayer killings.

After deliberating 1 1/2 days, the jury settled on death in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison rather than life in prison without possibility of parole. Compton Superior Court Judge Janice Claire Croft set June 6 for formal sentencing.

Charges against another suspect in three of the Southside slayings, former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Rickey Ross, were dismissed Monday after ballistics tests linking Ross to the murders were proven wrong.