John Floyd Thomas Jr. (born July 26, 1936) is an American

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

, serving a

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are c ...

without the possibility of parole for the murders of seven women in the

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area during the 1970s and 1980s. Police suspect Thomas committed 10 to 15 more murders. On April 1, 2011, Thomas pleaded guilty to the seven counts of murder as part of a deal to avoid the death sentence. Investigators have said Thomas is possibly one of the most prolific serial killers in the city's history.

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

Manual Arts High School Manual Arts High School is a secondary public school in Los Angeles, California, United States. History Manual Arts High School was founded in 1910 in the middle of bean fields, one-half mile from the nearest bus stop. It was the third high sc ...

in Los Angeles. Thomas served in the

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in 1956 for a brief period of time. While stationed at

Nellis Air Force Base Nellis Air Force Base ("Nellis" colloquialism, colloq.) is a United States Air Force military installation, installation in southern Nevada. Nellis hosts Aerial warfare, air combat exercises such as Exercise Red Flag and close air support exerc ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, a superior noted that Thomas was regularly "late" and "slovenly" in appearance. 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.

Case history

The first wave of murders came in the mid-1970s, when police were on the hunt for a serial killer targeting older women in the western districts of

, which led to the police dubbing the killer the "Westside Rapist." The killer's

calling card ''Calling Card'' is the sixth studio album and eighth album overall by Irish singer and guitarist Rory Gallagher. Released in 1976, it marked the second of four albums he released on Chrysalis Records during the 1970s. The album was co-produced ...

was letting himself into the homes of elderly women who lived alone, raping them, either choking or suffocating them and leaving pillows or blankets over their faces after the attacks. The killings appeared to stop in 1978, leaving at least 17 elderly women dead. However, in the mid-1980s, the police in the

Pomona Valley The Pomona Valley is located in the Greater Los Angeles Area between the San Gabriel Valley and San Bernardino Valley in Southern California. The valley is approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. History The earliest inhabitants of Pomo ...

area became aware of a serial killer with the same ''

modus operandi A (often shortened to M.O. or MO) is an individual's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as . Term The term is often used in ...

'' as the "Westside Rapist." The killer, who was dubbed the "Southland Strangler," also used blankets or pillows over his victims' faces. Those murders left at least five women in

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dead. The killings again appeared to stop in 1989, but the two serial murderer cases were not thought to be connected. Both cases left more than 20 people dead.

CODIS launch and re-examination

In 2001, the

LAPD The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

launched the "Open-Unsolved Homicide Unit," which reopened

cold case ''Cold Case'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series. It ran on CBS from September 28, 2003, to May 2, 2010. The series revolved around a fictionalized Philadelphia Police Department division that specializes in invest ...

s that included biological evidence that belonged to the perpetrators. The unit started after the launch of

CODIS The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is the United States national DNA database created and maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. CODIS consists of three levels of information; Local DNA Index Systems (LDIS) where DNA profiles ori ...

, which used DNA evidence left in cold cases and compared it to the DNA in federal databases. One of the many cases looked at was the murder of 68-year-old Ethel Sokoloff, who was found sexually assaulted and choked to death in her home in November 1972. The re-investigation proved that there was biological evidence that was left behind but previously not examined. Based on this, a male DNA profile of the suspected killer was made. In 2005, it was found that the biological evidence left at the murder scene also matched the evidence left at the murder scene of 67-year-old Elizabeth McKeown, who was found sexually assaulted and murdered in March 1976.

2009 arrest

On March 27, 2009, the

California Department of Justice The California Department of Justice is a statewide investigative law enforcement agency and legal department of the California executive branch under the elected leadership of the Attorney General of California (AG) which carries out comple ...

notified the

that a CODIS DNA match had been made and the killer had been identified in the murders of Ethel Sokoloff and Elizabeth McKeown, as well as the victims in the cases being investigated by the

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and the

LASD The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff, sheriff's department in the United ...

. The offender had been identified as John Floyd Thomas, a resident of Los Angeles. A review of Thomas's criminal history revealed that he was arrested a number of times between 1955 and 1978. His criminal convictions consist of multiple burglaries, many of which involved sexual assaults of his victims. Other than an arrest for prostitution in 1993, Thomas has not had any other known law enforcement contact during recent years. When the "Westside Rapist" killings appeared to stop in 1978, it was around the time Thomas was convicted and sentenced to state prison for the rape of a

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

woman. Thomas was released in 1983 and moved to Chino, which coincided with the "Southland Strangler" murders in the

area. Those murders appeared to stop when Thomas took a job with the state workers compensation insurance agency in Glendale. Thomas was arrested on March 31, 2009, and on April 2, 2009, he was charged with the murders of Ethel Sokoloff and Elizabeth McKeown. 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 Adrienne Askew in June 1986. A break in solving the related murders came in October 2008 when Thomas, then an

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

claims adjuster Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

at the

State Compensation Insurance Fund The State Compensation Insurance Fund (State Fund) is a workers' compensation insurer that was created as a " public enterprise fund" by the U.S. state of California, and today has partial autonomy from the rest of the state government. It is req ...

, provided a DNA sample to authorities in connection with an effort to create a database of such samples from convicted sex offenders in the state of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He was held without bail at the LA County Jail. Although he was charged with seven murders, investigators said they strongly believe he killed 15 or more women in the "Westside Rapist" and "Southland Strangler" period, and raped many more. On April 1, 2011, Thomas pleaded guilty to the seven counts of murder as part of a deal to avoid the

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

for the Adrienne Askew murder. He was sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

without the possibility of

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

Murders

Thomas was charged with the following murders: * Ethel Sokoloff (#1), 68, was found murdered in her Mid-Wilshire home on November 25, 1972 * Cora Perry (#10), 79, was found murdered on September 20, 1975; her kitchen window was found open, the screen missing * Elizabeth McKeown (#13), 67, was reported missing on February 16, 1976; she was found raped and strangled two days later in the trunk of her car * Maybelle Hudson (#14), 80, was found beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled in her garage in April 1976 * Miriam McKinley (#15), 65, was found beaten and strangled in her garage in June 1976 * Evalyn Bunner (#16), 56, was found slumped in the front seat of her car on October 29, 1976; the back of her dress was unzipped and pulled up to her waist, revealing bruises on her upper legs * Adrienne Askew (#18), 56, was found sexually assaulted and strangled in June 1986, just three years after her mother had suffered the same fate, in the same apartment
Thomas was suspected of being involved in the following murders: * Ethyl Grimes (#2), 81, was found robbed and strangled in her apartment on May 13, 1974 * Maye Scialesi (#3), 72, was found murdered on November 7, 1974; the killer entered her apartment through her bathroom window * Lucy Grant (#4), 92, was found raped and murdered in her home on November 8, 1974; there were signs of forced entry, and the home appeared to be burglarized * Ramona Gartner (#5), 74, was found murdered in her apartment on December 4, 1974 * Sylvia Vogel (#6), 71, was found under a blanket in the backseat of her car, beaten, raped, and murdered, on March 22, 1975 * Una Cartwright (#7), 78, was found raped and murdered in her apartment on April 8, 1975; her door was found open, and a TV was stolen * Olga Harper (#8), 75, was last seen entering her apartment on April 20, 1975; three days later, she was found beaten, raped, and murdered in her home on April 23, 1975 * Effie Martin (#9), 86, was found beaten, raped, and strangled in her apartment on May 22, 1975; the murderer was suspected to be the "Westside Rapist," but some sources also referred to the killer as the "Wilshire Area Rapist" * Leah Leshefsky (#11), 63, was found raped and strangled in her home on October 29, 1975; her window was forced open, and her apartment was ransacked * Lilian Kramer (#12), 67, was found murdered in her apartment on November 14, 1975; police suspected the Westside rapist because of "certain points of similarity" * Isabel Askew (#17), 85, was found, partially decomposed, 11 days after she was reported missing from her apartment on October 22, 1983

References