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City of Angels investigators raced to find not one but several independent killers who targeted black women in the 1980s and 1990s. The details are detailed in a new true crime feature now available on Oxygen.
How to watch
Watch Serial Killer Capital: Los Angeles on Oxygen Sunday, October 20th at 7/6pm.
Serial Killer Capital: Los Angeles gives audiences a front-row seat to the elusive killer known as the “Southside Slayer,” once believed to be a single killer who strangled and shot his victims in South Central Los Angeles I will. The dozens of victims were primarily black women who fell prey to the city’s crack cocaine epidemic and turned to sex work.
“Families were left devastated and frustrated as the body count rose and bloodshed wreaked havoc on the community. But the truly horrifying details of this story came to light when investigators discovered the horrifying truth. The Southside Slayer was not one man, but four separate serial killers operating in the same location at the same time.
According to the Los Angeles Daily News, one such perpetrator was Chester Turner, 57, a former pizza delivery man and security guard at a local mission where he frequently stayed. He was convicted of raping and murdering 14 women.
Where is Chester Turner now?
Turner has been on “death row” at the Richard J. Donavan Correctional Facility in San Diego since 2002, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). This status was previously given to men sentenced to death and held in San Quentin State Prison. But a 2016 ballot proposition, also known as Proposition 66, would allow convicted men to be detained elsewhere in the state as long as the necessary security is provided.
Turner remains “guilty,” but Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended the death penalty in 2019, and the execution date will remain undetermined unless the executive order is lifted, according to the CDCR.
People convicted of crimes in California are not eligible for parole.
Over the years, Turner’s prison has been home to notorious figures including the Menendez brothers, former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan, and Manson Family killer Charles “Tex” Watson. It has been shared.
What did Chester Turner do?
According to ABC Los Angeles affiliate KABC-TV, Turner raped and strangled more than 14 women, most of them murdered, between 1987 and 1998 near Figueroa Avenue south of the 10 Freeway. Most (if not all) of the victims were black women who were involved in sex work.
As profiled in Serial Killer Capital: Los Angeles, Turner was first arrested in 2002 for raping a transient woman named Maria Martinez behind a dumpster; survived. The victim recognized her assailant from Midnight Mission, a homeless shelter where Turner worked and sometimes stayed in the men’s ward.
She reported the rape to shelter authorities.
“Chester Turner was arrested, charged and convicted of raping Ms. Martinez,” Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace told Serial Killer Capital: Los Angeles. Turner provided a DNA sample to police and began serving time in state prison for the rape of Martinez. ”
In the early 2000s, several employees within L.A.’s Robbery-Homicide Division created a cold case unit tasked with reviewing murders committed by the “Southside Slayer.” The DNA in 14 of those cases may match DNA submitted by Turner in connection with Martinez’s rape conviction.
Detectives said the man lived and traveled with his mother, and the victim was often within walking distance.
RELATED: Florida firefighter’s wife found naked, bludgeoned and stabbed to death, suspect was an acquaintance
About Chester Turner’s victims
Turner murdered a total of 14 women, strangling them and leaving their bodies in various locations around the city, including alleys and behind stores. Until serial killer Sam Little was convicted in 2014 and subsequently confessed, Turner was widely considered to be L.A.’s “most prolific serial killer.”
One of the victims, 27-year-old Regina Washington, was strangled to death in September 1989 when she was six months pregnant, and her body was found in the detached garage of a vacant home, the Los Angeles Times reported. Turner was initially found guilty of killing the fetus, but the California Supreme Court reversed the verdict in 2022 after the commission heard expert testimony regarding fetal viability guidelines. However, the remaining 14 murder convictions were upheld.
Turner’s other victims included Diane Johnson, 21, according to KABC-TV. Annette Ernest, 26 years old. Anita Fishman, 31 years old. Desarae Jones, 29 years old. Andrea Triplett, 29 years old. Debra Williams, 32 years old. Mary Edwards, 42 years old. Natalie Price, 31 years old. Mildred Beasley, 45 years old. Paula Vance, 41 years old. Brenda Breeze, 37 years old. Cynthia Johnson, 30 years old. and Elandra Bunn (34).
Then, on June 14, 2024, CBS News reported that DNA linked Turner to the 1998 murder of 21-year-old Itisha Camp, who was found strangled with a scarf in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is said that there was. Like Turner’s other victims, Camp was reportedly involved in sex work, and Turner fled to Utah that year to escape auto theft and drug-related charges, according to KABC-TV. He was said to have violated his parole.
Utah’s lawsuit against Turner is still pending.
Turner’s victims were lumped together with those of other Los Angeles-based serial killers who were eventually arrested, including Louis Crain, Michael Hughes, and Ronnie Franklin, also known as the Grim Sleeper.
Investigators featured in Serial Killer Capital: Los Angeles say the four serial killers may have been responsible for the murders of up to 105 women.
Serial Killer Capital: Los Angeles is now available to watch on Oxygen.
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