John Floyd Thomas, Jr.
| John Floyd Thomas, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 26, 1936 Los Angeles |
| Other names |
The Westside Rapist The Southland Strangler Willie Eugene Wilson[1] |
| Criminal penalty | Seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole |
| Killings | |
| Victims | 7-15+ |
Span of killings | November 1972–June 1986 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | California |
Date apprehended | March 31, 2009 |
John Floyd Thomas, Jr. (born July 26, 1936)[1] is an American serial killer, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole convicted of the murders of seven women in the Los Angeles area during the 1970s and 1980s, and suspected by police of 10 to 15 more.[2][3][4]
Early life
Thomas was born in Los Angeles and his mother died when he was 12 years old. He was later alternately raised by his aunt and a godmother. Throughout his childhood, Thomas attended public schools, including the Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles.[5] Thomas served in the U.S. Air Force in 1956 for a brief period of time. While stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, a superior noted that Thomas was regularly "late" and "slovenly" in appearance.[5]
He received a dishonorable discharge, according to his military records, and was arrested for burglary and attempted rape in Los Angeles. Thomas was convicted of these crimes and sentenced in 1957 to six years in the California state prison system. As a result of a pair of parole violations, Thomas remained incarcerated until 1966.[5] Thomas had one of the longest known crime careers of raping and killing women in U.S. history, which extended for over a half century; from at least 1957 till his final arrest in 2009.
2009 arrest
Thomas was arrested on March 31, 2009, and on April 2, 2009 he was charged with the murders of Ethel Sokoloff in November 1972 and Elizabeth McKeown in February 1976. On September 23, 2009, he was charged with the murders of Cora Perry in September 1975; Maybelle Hudson in April 1976; Miriam McKinley in June 1976; Evalyn Bunner in October 1976; and Adrian Askew in June 1986.[3]
A break in solving the related murders came in October 2008 when Thomas, then an insurance claims adjuster, provided a DNA sample to authorities as part of an effort to assemble an offender database in the state of California.[6] He was held without bail at the LA County Jail.[7]
On April 1, 2011, Thomas pleaded guilty to the seven counts of murder as part of a deal to avoid the death sentence for the Adrian Askew murder. He was therefore sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.[4] Floyd is serving his sentence in Corcoran State Prison.
Case history
In the first wave of killings in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, a man police dubbed "The Westside Rapist" entered the homes of dozens of elderly women who lived alone, raped them and choked them until they passed out or died. The 17 women killed were found with pillows or blankets over their faces. During that time, Thomas was a social worker, hospital employee and salesman. The attacks stopped in 1978 — the year Thomas went back to prison for the rape of a Pasadena woman. After his 1983 release, he moved to Chino in San Bernardino County and took a job as a hospital peer counselor in nearby Pomona. That year, a series of attacks on elderly women began that included five slayings in the nearby Los Angeles County town of Claremont. The attacker also used blankets or pillows over his victims' faces. Despite some 20 survivors, detectives didn't connect the two cases. There were conflicting descriptions from victims, a lack of communication between agencies and an absence of DNA technology. Ironically, Thomas went back to the area where he had killed a woman twenty years earlier, and raped and attempted to kill his former victim’s daughter, she survived, however. The 72-year-old insurance claims adjuster may be the most prolific serial killer in the city's history, having raped and strangled as many as 30 older women.[8] The case soon became a cold case for the investigators until John Floyd Thomas came to light in 2009.
References
- 1 2 "California Registered Sex Offender Profile - John Floyd Thomas". Megan's Law - California Sex Offender Registry. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
- ↑ Bone, James (2009-04-30). "DNA reveals John Floyd Thomas as LA's most prolific serial killer". The Times (London). Retrieved 2009-05-01.
- 1 2 Blankstein, Andrew (2009-09-24). "Prosecutors link John Floyd Thomas to five more slayings". latimes. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
- 1 2 Kim, Victoria; Andrew Blankstein; Jack Leonard (2 April 2011). "Serial killer John Floyd Thomas Jr., dubbed the Westside Rapist, is sentenced to life". Los Angeles Times.
- 1 2 3 Blankstein, Andrew; Mozingo, Joe (2009-04-30). "LAPD ties 72-year-old man to two waves of serial killings". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
- ↑ "Police call man LA's 'most prolific serial killer'". Associated Press. 2009-04-30. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
- ↑ "DNA leads to suspect in 1970s Los Angeles serial killings - CNN.com". CNN. 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
- ↑ Crime Scene Blog "http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime"