Who was 'Grim Sleeper'? Serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr shot and raped Enietra Washington but she survived
Investigation Discovery's latest true-crime documentary 'The Grim Sleeper: Mind of a Monster’ revisits the chilling case of Lonnie David Franklin Jr, a notorious serial killer who haunted the alleyways of Los Angeles, California from 1985 to 2007.
He was dubbed 'The Grim Sleeper' after it appeared that he took long breaks between his murders. Franklin Jr is confirmed to have ended the lives of at least 10 women, and attempted but failed to kill one woman. The documentary tells us what happened to his lone survivor, Enietra Washington, who testified in court about her harrowing ordeal before Franklin Jr was sentenced to death.
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Who was the Grim Sleeper?
Born in 1952, Lonnie David Franklin Jr grew up in South Central Los Angeles. He was married to Sylvia Franklin for over three decades and the couple had two children together. At the time, he worked as a mechanic for the Los Angeles Police Department and later as a sanitation worker as well. Neighbors remembered Franklin Jr as a regular joe leading an unassuming life. It would later emerge that there was a lot more to him than being just another family man.
During the 1980s, Lonnie stalked the streets of Los Angeles and preyed on vulnerable Black women -- usually drug addicts or prostitutes -- before raping and killing them. The bodies of his victims were usually found in alleys, hidden behind stray bushes, or in trash cans.
According to police, most of his victims were beaten and raped, while others were strangled. Authorities also noted that he shot and killed most of his victims with the same 25 caliber gun. He killed at least seven women between 1985 and 1988, and then ended the lives of three more between 2002 and 2007.
Enietra Washington, the lone survivor
"My name is Enietra Washington, and I was left for dead by a serial killer," is how the 63-year-old lone survivor introduces herself in Investigation Discovery's 'The Grim Sleeper: Mind of a Monster.'
On the night of November 19, 1988, Enietra Washington, then 30, was walking to her friend’s house when a stranger pulled up next to her in his pimped out Ford Pinto and politely offered her a ride.
The mother-of-two initially declined the offer, but the killer wouldn't relent. “That’s what’s wrong with you Black women. People can’t be nice to you," he told her at one point.
Washington felt sorry for the man and changed her mind. She described him as shorter than her, in his early 30s, and dressed neatly in a button-up shirt and khakis.
“I guess I appeared stand-offish and when he said it, I thought he was being nice and I felt sorry for him,” she said. “I thought maybe I came off rough and I said 'OK you can take me to the house.'"
That wrong decision would end up haunting Washington for more than two decades. She said the conversation started out smoothly. "It was comfortable," she recalled. "It wasn't too out there and he wasn't putting any red flags up."
But then Franklin Jr took a left turn instead of going straight ahead. "As soon as he turned the corner, he snapped. He was calling me by someone else's name and I was like, 'Who are you talking to?'" He subsequently went on an unhinged rant and threatened to kill her if she yelled, leaving Washington bewildered and confused. She remembered thinking to herself, "Okay, it's time for me to get out of this car, because he's tripping."
Out of nowhere, Franklin Jr pulled out his signature .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun and shot Washington in the chest.
"And I was like, 'Oh sh**, what happened?'" she told producers. "So I reached for the door and he said, 'You open that door, bi***, and I'll shoot you again.'"
It wasn't until Franklin Jr said those words that Washington realized she was shot. "I'm like 'What? You shot me?' I didn't feel no pain. I told him to take me to the hospital."
"He looked at me like I was crazy, and then said, 'No, I can't do that,'" she said, remembering the horrifying sequence of events.
Washington passed out for a while and when she came back to her senses she saw Franklin Jr snapping pictures. She remembered seeing the flashes and passing out again. The next time she opened her eyes, Lonnie was on top of her.
"You know, my panties were torn. I got raped by him," Washington said. "Then I started feeling the pain, because it was like something was crushing me."
Somehow, she opened the car door and that's when he pushed her out of the vehicle, sending her rolling in the alley. Enietra was bleeding and disoriented, but she somehow managed to walk to her friend's house nearby and passed out on her front porch. She was subsequently rescued and rushed to a hospital.
"I woke up under a sheet, butt-naked," Enietra remembered. "I thought I died." Doctors later told her how lucky she was as the bullet had been deflected by her rib cage and missed her heart. "I was like, 'Thank you, Father God," she recalled.
Arrest and subsequent conviction
Franklin Jr was eventually arrested in 2010 and charged with 10 murders and one count of attempted murder. DNA and ballistic evidence linked him to the crime scenes, and after considerable delays, he finally stood trial in 2016 and was found guilty of all charges. Authorities recovered thousands of photographs of women from his property, leading them to believe he had likely killed a lot more people than just the murders he had been charged with.
Franklin Jr, who pleaded not guilty to all counts, was convicted of murdering 9 women and 1 teenage girl in addition to the attempted murder of Washington in 1988, who later testified at his trial.
On March 28, 2020, 67-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr died from natural causes while on death row at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.
Investigation Discovery's 'The Grim Sleeper: Mind of a Monster’ will be available to stream on Discovery+ on April 23.