While these were single homicides, the investigations into each are well known to police and the public. Few, however, outside of the seamy areas of Los Angeles, California, know the names of Debra Jackson, Henrietta Wright, Princess Berthomieux, or Janecia Peters; or the six other women and one man known to have been the victims of a single serial killer (someone who commits three or more murders with an emotionally cooling off period between crimes), dubbed by the media as “the Grim Sleeper.”

This killer, who investigators believe could easily be responsible for between 12 and 30 murders, got his moniker because of the lack of crimes connected to him between 1988 and 2001, a 13-year (sleeper) hiatus that is highly unusual for serial killers. Most killers either get caught right away, or they get better as they practice their “tradecraft,” noting one of many studies concerning serial killers suggests the “average” period of time on the streets for such killers was less than four years, with many committing the vast amount of their homicides in a one-year period. “Jack the Ripper” is believed to have brutally murdered somewhere between four and nine women in London’s East End in 1888, while Washington State’s “Green River Killer,” Gary Ridgeway, plead guilty to killing 48 women in the 1980′s, but has bragged of killing twice this many victims, some of whom were suspected prostitutes. Ted Bundy confessed to killing 30 women between 1974 and 1978, while some still believe his total may have exceeded 100. Then there was Dennis Rader, the notorious “BTK Serial Killer,” (“Bind them, Torture them, Kill them”), who murdered 10 victims in Wichita, KS, between 1974 and 1991, only to drop from sight until 2004, thereby avoiding capture until he “surfaced” to again taunt authorities, acts that would finally lead to his identification and arrest.

In the case of “the Grim Sleeper,” he, like Gary Ridgway, is believed to have sought out at least some of his victims as they engaged in high risk activities (drugs and/or prostitution), in high risk areas, in this case in “the City of Angels.” There have been estimates suggesting over 400 serial killers have operated in the U.S. in the last century, and that at least 50 could be roaming our streets at any one time. LA’s current high profile serial killer has left a number of calling cards, what investigators call “linking physical evidence,” with many of his known victims. Ballistic tests would confirm that most of the victims were shot with the same .25 cal handgun and many had the same male DNA, in this case saliva collected from the breasts of his victims, which would later be compared with both the California State and the FBI National DNA data base, both of which were negative. Investigators are now trying a new scientific technique called “familial DNA” in hopes of ID’ing their killer, something that will surely be challenged by the ACLU in the future. Familial DNA assumes that approximately 40% of violent criminals have a blood relative in jail. If a close, but not identical match could be made with a current or former inmate, then a search of the inmate’s family tree should help to identify the currently elusive killer. To date, no such match has been made.

As a former FBI Profiler, I know that many investigators do not believe that a serial killer will stop of his own volition. He may quit or rest for a short time, they will say, but he likes, or needs, to kill and will once again return to stalk, hunt, and murder. Many thought the BTK killer had died, or had somehow been incarcerated, or perhaps had left the country. All the while, though, Dennis Rader just hid in plain sight in the same community, keeping his terrible secret, and his urge to kill, to himself until he “needed” to again be recognized for the horrific deeds he had done, and could do again. Buffalo’s “Bike Path Killer,” Altemio Sanchez, is believed to have murdered three and raped at the very least 14 women in the years between 1981 and 2006, and to perhaps have taken multi-year breaks between some of his crimes. Why the Grim Sleeper has returned to kill again is unknown to investigators, but murders in 2001, 2003 and 2007 have apparently been linked by physical evidence to the same believed killer. This proves that he is still out and about, looking for, perhaps stalking a new victim even today.

The members of the “800 Task Force,” the name given to the LAPD team of detectives trying to track this killer down, believe he still walks among members of his community, and even more ominously, believe he will strike again. While they don’t have his fingerprints, they know his choice of weapons, they have his DNA, they know the type of victims he seeks, they know the type of car he once drove, and they know what he looks like (or looked like 21 years ago), all thanks to “the one that got away.”

It was in late November, 1988, that he picked up a new female victim from an LA street, shot her in the chest, then raped her, beat her with his gun and then unbelievably let her get out of his car, a red or orange Ford Pinto with a white racing stripe on the hood, probably believing she would soon die. She didn’t. She would tell police her assailant was “a preppy black male” in his 30′s with short hair. She described him as “respectable looking, like a regular guy who had just gotten off work.” Apparently wanting a trophy of his handiwork, he took a Polaroid picture of his latest victim before pushing her out of his car and onto the darkened street. Later she would describe her assailant’s car as being “pimped out” with a gear-shift handle resembling a ping-pong-sized marble ball. The inside of the car was all-white, with white diamond-patterned upholstery. The car matched the description of one that two other murder victims were seen entering, and the flattened .25 caliber bullet removed from her chest matched slugs taken from other believed victims of the same unknown killer.

In January, 1988, the so-called Grim Sleeper killed a 22-year-old woman, his suspected 7th murder victim. Part of his MO appears to be to cover his victims with trash, perhaps to lengthen the time before police could find and link each new victim, and perhaps some type of personal statement concerning his opinion of his victims. This young woman died from two shots to her chest, but when the discarded mattress was removed from her limp body, police found a hand written note on her face, a note on which her believed killer had written “AIDS.” While police can only speculate at the possible significance of this act, we do know that at least in the case of this victim, her killer wanted to send a message through her death.

The LAPD has taken a lot of heat concerning this case, some of which may be well deserved. “Why,” family members of the killer’s victims ask, “has this case not received major attention from police over the years?” “Was it because the victims were black, or poor, or junkies, or hookers, or was it the section of town they came from, or were found in, or what?” And why was the very existence of a serial killer kept from the community by police? Cold case detectives, unlike those portrayed on TV, really have their work cut out for them. Evidence is many times lost, missing, or destroyed. In other cases witnesses have either died or moved away, and the sheer number of unsolved homicides in the LA area, almost 10,000 in the last 50 years, makes solving a single homicide almost impossible; without evidence like DNA that is. It is such evidence that may well, according to police, link other unsolved murders to the same elusive killer, now in his third decade of criminal activity.

Because of the reemergence of this unknown serial killer, police, in their desperate attempt to identify him, have put a $500,000 reward on his head and have released a January 10, 1987, 911 call made at 12:19 a.m., this from a believed witness, someone who called police to report watching a man dispose of the body of a woman. (see pictures of the victims and listen to the 911 tape here: http://www.latimes.com/video/?slug=la-me-serial25-2009feb25-vid. Like in any high profile case, so-called psychics have chimed in, with at least one suggesting that the killer, who the psychic says has murdered 33 people, “is named Michael and his face, when young, was a cross between that of Tiger Woods and O.J. Simpson.” Readers of this column know my experience and that of the majority of investigators is that psychics don’t help investigations, therefore why don’t these people keep their wacko thoughts to themselves?

The dead woman would be identified as a 23-year-old prostitute, and her murder would be linked to the shadowy serial killer. The unidentified witness watched the killer drive away in a blue and white van, and even gave its license number to police. Investigators quickly found the van parked near a church some 4.5 miles from the victim’s body that, like most if not all of the killers other known victims, were found near churches, either an interesting coincidence, a fact related to the number of churches in LA, or, perhaps, a critical characteristic of the killer. The van’s engine was still warm when it was located, but the killer was as gone then as he is today. Detectives hope the anonymous 911 caller, or someone recognizing the caller’s voice, will contact police. Investigators are betting that an almost 25-year-old tip could help them identify the killer, hopefully before he strikes again.

But wait; there is another possible alternative in the search for the 911 caller. Could this murderer, like the BTK killer some 18 years later, have craved the attention and wanted the publicity for his murderous acts so badly that he, and not some anonymous bystander, made the mysterious call to police almost a quarter century ago? Could the voice on the 911 tape actually be that of the killer himself; someone who wanted credit for his own handiwork, someone who wanted to taunt, to challenge the police to catch him? Either way, witness or killer, the voice on the tape is a long shot, at best, for authorities. But the 40-60 year-old killer who years ago had a handsome face is once again prowling the streets of LA, and every woman on those streets may have something to fear from him. And his possible need for recognition and his desire to create fear could, just could be the eventual key to his identity.