FILM REVIEW: TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER

Lonnie David Franklin Jr. in Tales of the Grim Sleeper.

Numbers of humans involved

By John Esther

In the latest documentary by Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney; Biggie & Tupac; the Aileen Wuornos docs), grave injustices against poor African-American women of South Los Angeles -- from within the community and those sworn to protect them -- are revealed in depth.

Between 1985-2007 at least 10 African-American females between the ages of 15-36 were murdered. Arrested in 2010 and yet to see trial, their alleged killer is Lonnie David Franklin Jr., of 81st Street, Los Angeles. Most of them, if not all of them, were likely raped and tortured before their deaths. A repeated felon, Franklin never supplied his DNA so there was no way to link him to the victims.

Beyond waiting for the matching data "and the murder weapon to come walking into a police precinct" the LAPD and Sheriff's office barely lifted an investigative finger to catch a serial killer. There were opportunites to catch the man. Instead the murders continued.

Perhaps because the victims were "NHI" poor, black women, the local law enforcement did not see serial killing in the community as an urgency. It certainly was not a priority for over two decades. If people of the community suspected anything (even the ones violently victimized) they did not see informing the authorities as a viable option (certainly not a pleasent one). 

The disconnect between the LAPD and the poor black community of South Los Angeles is a staggering disgrace to the city.

In fact, law enforcement never really paid attention to the multiple murders until Christine Pelisek broke the story in the LA Weekly. Members of the community had formed the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders back in the 1980s to address these crimes yet their pleas fell on indifferent ears in law enforcement and in the media. 

(Law enforcement even borrowed the moniker "Grim Sleeper" from the LA Weekly article, thus displaying their decades-long indifference.)

Some of the family's victims did not find out about the fate of their loved ones until years later.

It also does not help matters when too many male members of the community who take the serial killing anything less than dead serious. At least three of Franklin's aquaintances get a chuckle out of Franklin's alleged crimes. There was also this photo exchanging business going on where women are used as photo props -- a sort of simulcrum of possession.

By going into the community and talking to family, friends, foes, victims and advocates of Franklin, Broomfield's excellent documentary reveals how violence toward poor black women works in collusion between the personal and the political silence of members in the community who see the degradation of women as acceptable and the law enforcement and city hall officials who act as if it were permissible.