The Los Angeles Times reports that the Los Angeles Police Department have arrested a man they believe to be the “Westside Rapist” serial killer that haunted Los Angeles residence in the mid-1970′s.
John F. Thomas , a 72-year-old state insurance claim adjuster who has twice been convicted of sexual assault, was arrested on March 31 after LAPD Cold Case detectives learned that his DNA matched male DNA evidence collected from the crime scene deaths of Ethel Sokoloff, 68, in the Mid-Wilshire area in 1972, and Elizabeth McKeown, 67, in Westchester in 1976. Detective have also confirmed that Thomas’ DNA matched evidence found at three other murder scenes – spanning both the Los Angeles and Clairmont crime waves in the 70′s and 80′s – one in Lennox in 1975, one in Inglewood in 1976 and one in Claremont in 1986.
The first wave of killings occurred in the mid-1970′s in Los Angeles. The killer, preying on older women who lived alone, would rape them and squeeze their necks until they passed out or died. The 17 women that died had a pillow or blanket placed over their faces. The second wave of killings came a decade later in Claremont. Five older women were raped and strangled and had their faces covered in a similar manner to the Los Angeles murders.
However, despite 20 survivors, police detectives were never able to connect and/or solve any of the crimes due to the fact that the victims gave conflicting descriptions of the rapist, police in the two different jurisdictions did not communicate, and DNA technology was not in use.
The “Westside Rapist” would become one of the most notorious criminals of the era targeting 50 to 90-year-old women and believed to have raped 33 of them, killing 10. In 1978, the attacks appeared to stop. Coincidentally, a witness took down Thomas’ license plate after he raped a women that year. He was convicted and sent to state prison.
Thomas was released in 1983 and moved to Chino. Soon after, a killer began stalking the Inland Valler area.
The killings stopped in 1989. At that time, Thomas was working as a peer counselor in Pomona. Detectives were unable to solve the Clairmont cases and the “Westside Rapist” faded away.
In 2001, the LAPD created the Cold Case Homicide Unit to reopen about 9,000 unsolved slayings going back to 1960, using emerging state and federal DNA databases.
The break in the case came last October when two police officers collected DNA evidence from Thomas as part of an ongoing program to swab DNA from registered sex offenders. On March 27, the California Department of Justice DNA laboratory notified detectives that Thomas’ DNA matched the male DNA collected from the Sokoloff crime scene.
Thomas was arrested at his apartment in South Los Angeles and was charged April 2 with the murders of Sokoloff and McKeowan. However, according to LAPD Robbery-Homicide Cold Case Det. Richard Bengston, “[w]hen all is said and done, Mr. Thomas stands to be Los Angeles’ most prolific serial killer.”
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