How LAPD's "Closers" Nabbed the Westside Rapist
Fictional Detective Harry Bosch doesn't Believe in Coincidence. Neither do These Real Cops.
The Grim Sleeper should still be worried. Innovator, number-cruncher, and world-class organizer Diane Webb is not yet done. She strongly suspects that if 92 guys ducked their required DNA swabs in the group she studied, dozens from a larger pool of sex offenders — those people who have moved from Los Angeles — may have also escaped the DNA net.
“We will get to the bottom of who may have slipped out of the swabbing,” she says, matter-of-factly. Out there, somewhere, she holds out hope that another man who continually avoided his required swabs is quietly lurking.
Timeline of John. F. Thomas’
Key Rapes and Killings
March 1957: Raped a woman in South Los Angeles. Attempted five days later to rape another woman.
June 1957: Attempted to rape an elderly woman on West 35th Place but was shot by her son-in-law. Went to prison for five years on a greatly reduced “burglary” charge.
November 1972: Thomas’ DNA was left at the murder of Ethel Sokoloff.
September 1975: Thomas’ DNA was left at the murder of Cora Perry.
February 1976: Thomas’ DNA was left at the murder of Elizabeth McKeown.
April 1976: Thomas’ DNA was left at the murder of Maybelle Hudson.
June 1976: Believed to be the attacker of Miriam McKinley.
October 1976: Believed to be the attacker of Evalyn Bunner.
February 1978: Thomas raped and attempted to strangle Mrs. Stellern. Went to prison for five years.
August 1983: Released from prison, Thomas is believed to have raped and killed Isabel Askew in Claremont.
March and April 1986: Believed to have raped two of Isabel Askew’s neighbors.
June 1986: Believed to have raped and killed victim Isabel Askew’s daughter, Adrienne, in the same Claremont apartment where her murdered mother had lived.
—Research assistance by Kirsten Hall
Source: LAPD, law enforcement records
Contact writer Christine Pelisek at cpelisek@laweekly.com.
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