Clear Channel and L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks joined forces December 18 a second time to post a billboard in South Los Angeles that offers a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the Grim Sleeper, a serial killer who has been victimizing African American women in South Los Angeles since 1985.
Clear Channel agreed to donate four billboard spots to aid in the search of the killer who has left the bodies of 10 women and one man almost exclusively along a section of Western Avenue. Each billboard is slated to stay up for one month. The first billboard went up on November 3 on the corner of Western Avenue and 98th Street, and was covered by hordes of local media. Last week's unveiling, however, drew far less attention.
The last two billboards are scheduled to go up in January on the corner
of Colden and Figueroa Street, and Western Avenue and Century
Boulevard.
Parks, whose district encompasses the Grim Sleeper's kill zone, offered the $500,000 reward in September a week after the LA Weekly
broke the story that the serial killer had struck again on January 1,
2007. Then, the body of 25-year-old Janecia Peters was found in a
Dumpster along Western Avenue by a homeless man.
So far, no
word on the identity of the Grim Sleeper or how close the cops are to
solving the case. Earlier this month, results from a long-awaited “Familial DNA” test were a huge disappointment, failing to turn up any clues about the Grim Sleeper's identity.
In
recent months, Angelenos have attacked the Los Angeles City Council for
allowing Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor to “modernize” over 800 static billboards
into digital displays. Last week the council voted for a three-month
billboard ban on digital displays and supergraphics so the city could
reevaluate and change its ever-changing, Sybil-like billboard ordinance.
However,
some cynics are wondering if Clear Channel is just playing nice to show
Angelenos that billboards are public safety assets and not just
colossal eyesores. To some neighborhood activists the billboards are
crimes in their own right.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.