Serial Killer

In the ongoing search for a serial killer who has claimed at least 11 lives in South Los Angeles since 1985, police officials released a series of sketches Thursday that picture what the killer might look like today. The three new sketches were based on a description given to police in 1988 by the only woman known to have survived an attack by the man. Deputy Chief Jim McDonnell, head of detectives for the Los Angeles Police Department, said he hopes the images will jog the memory of someone familiar with the killer.

"The Raven"stars John Cusack in a gothic thriller pulled from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe that regrettably falls prey to its grand and grisly ambitions - it's neither grand nor grisly enough to seriously satisfy Poe-ish cravings for murder, mystery and literary allusions. More pulp fiction than macabre masterpiece, it is nevertheless a nifty idea screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare have concocted for director James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta"). Imagine a serial killer in 19th century Baltimore suddenly replicating Poe's stories, the murders mimicking those in "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," among others.

"The Raven"stars John Cusack in a gothic thriller pulled from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe that regrettably falls prey to its grand and grisly ambitions - it's neither grand nor grisly enough to seriously satisfy Poe-ish cravings for murder, mystery and literary allusions. More pulp fiction than macabre masterpiece, it is nevertheless a nifty idea screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare have concocted for director James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta"). Imagine a serial killer in 19th century Baltimore suddenly replicating Poe's stories, the murders mimicking those in "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," among others.

I Hunt Killers A Novel Barry Lyga Little, Brown: 362 pp., $17.99, ages 15 and up A generation ago, young horror fans had to "read up" to adult authors such as Stephen King. Now novelists such as Barry Lyga are tailoring gore for a teen audience. In "I Hunt Killers," Lyga attempts one of the more daring concepts in recent years by a young-adult author. His multiple-murder mystery focuses on the son of a notorious serial killer who is forced to confront his fears that he will follow in his dad's footsteps and must also reconcile his attraction to grisly deaths.

He joined the Marines to become a killer, police said, and studied anatomy to be swift and effective. And he set a goal — 16 slayings, if possible — of becoming one of America's prolific killers. "I knew that I had the killer gene," Itzcoatl Ocampo told detectives. The chilling portrait of the accused Orange County serial killer emerges in a grand jury transcript that offers the most detailed look yet at the prosecution's case against the 23-year-old Yorba Linda man and his alleged "serial thrill-kill" rampage that left six people dead, including four homeless men. Anaheim Police Det. Daron Wyatt told grand jurors that Ocampo's "demeanor would change, and he seemed to get excited" as he described the attacks to police after his arrest in January.

In July, when Los Angeles police arrested Lonnie Franklin Jr., the suspected Grim Sleeper serial killer, they scoured his South L.A. property for evidence. Among the unsettling discoveries was a cache of about 1,000 photographs and hundreds of hours of home video showing women, many of them partly or fully nude and striking sexually graphic poses. It was an eerie find in a case involving a man who is thought to have sexually assaulted his victims before or after killing them. Police also cannot account for large swaths of Franklin's life, including a 14-year gap between his alleged killings, during which investigators suspect he killed other women.

The serial killer who terrorized a South Carolina community by shooting five people to death before police killed him Monday was a career criminal paroled just two months ago, authorities said. Patrick Burris, 41, was shot to death by officers investigating a burglary complaint at a home in Gastonia, N.C., 30 miles from where the killing rampage started June 27.

Serial killer Wayne Adam Ford had few public admirers when Victoria Redstall, a former spokesmodel for breast enhancement supplements, breezed through the doors at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga determined to meet him. Redstall, a British-born actress from Studio City, admits to a lifelong fixation on serial killers and said meeting Ford in April -- to interview him for a documentary -- was "the dream of a lifetime."

Colorado cold-case investigators have linked a convicted murderer who died in prison in 1996 to four more slayings -- and say he may have been responsible for a score of others as well. Vincent Groves, 57, known for playing on a championship Colorado basketball team in the 1970s, strangled most of his victims, Denver Dist. Atty. Mitch Morrissey told The Times. “In my 30 years experience, he is the worst home-grown serial murderer,” Morrissey said, noting that Ted Bundy , believed to be responsible for several Colorado slayings, was more prolific overall.

One by one, the young women vanished from the dusty farm towns of the Central Valley. They were often addicts or prostitutes, and their disappearances over a 15-year period in the 1980s and '90s didn't seem to draw much official concern. Two childhood friends and locally renowned troublemakers, Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, were eventually arrested in 1999 for a series of murders known as the "Speed Freak" killings, and many of the missing were presumed to have fallen victim to the methamphetamine-addled duo. Shermantine and Herzog never disclosed where they dumped the mutilated corpses of their victims, leaving bereaved families with only grim speculation.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry had his "oops" moment on a Michigan debate stage. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) mixed up actor John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy. And Herman Cain referred to "Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan. " The 2012 Republican presidential campaign has provided a bounty of infelicitous phrasings, wrongheaded assertions and embarrassing gaffes. There was Perry's memory lapse on the debate stage, which came to be known as his "oops moment. " There was Bachmann in Waterloo, Iowa, trumpeting her pride at hailing from the same hometown as John Wayne, only to learn that her homie was serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

He joined the Marines to become a killer, police said, and studied anatomy to be swift and effective. And he set a goal — 16 slayings, if possible — of becoming one of America's prolific killers. "I knew that I had the killer gene," Itzcoatl Ocampo told detectives. The chilling portrait of the accused Orange County serial killer emerges in a grand jury transcript that offers the most detailed look yet at the prosecution's case against the 23-year-old Yorba Linda man and his alleged "serial thrill-kill" rampage that left six people dead, including four homeless men. Anaheim Police Det. Daron Wyatt told grand jurors that Ocampo's "demeanor would change, and he seemed to get excited" as he described the attacks to police after his arrest in January.

Colorado cold-case investigators have linked a convicted murderer who died in prison in 1996 to four more slayings -- and say he may have been responsible for a score of others as well. Vincent Groves, 57, known for playing on a championship Colorado basketball team in the 1970s, strangled most of his victims, Denver Dist. Atty. Mitch Morrissey told The Times. “In my 30 years experience, he is the worst home-grown serial murderer,” Morrissey said, noting that Ted Bundy , believed to be responsible for several Colorado slayings, was more prolific overall.

One by one, the young women vanished from the dusty farm towns of the Central Valley. They were often addicts or prostitutes, and their disappearances over a 15-year period in the 1980s and '90s didn't seem to draw much official concern. Two childhood friends and locally renowned troublemakers, Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, were eventually arrested in 1999 for a series of murders known as the "Speed Freak" killings, and many of the missing were presumed to have fallen victim to the methamphetamine-addled duo. Shermantine and Herzog never disclosed where they dumped the mutilated corpses of their victims, leaving bereaved families with only grim speculation.

They packed into the church's ranch house to say goodbye to a man society considered an outcast. But to his friends and family, Paulus Smit was someone who lived life on his own terms. Sporadically homeless, Smit chafed at authority and learned to live on the streets, hustling what he could from dumpsters he cheerfully called the "gettin' place. " He bristled at responsibilities but stayed in contact with his three daughters and their children, dropping off gifts during visits. At his funeral on Saturday, scores of well-wishers gathered at SeaCoast Grace Church in Cypress to remember the man known fondly as "Dutch," who was stabbed more than 60 times last month in a slaying linked to a serial killer who preyed on homeless men. FOR THE RECORD: A photo caption with an earlier version of this online article misspelled Tressa Cole's first name as Tessa and Julia Smit-Lozano's first name as Julie.

'That Certain Summer' Hal Holbrook and Martin Sheen played longtime companions in this milestone drama penned by Richard Levinson and William Link. 'The Night Stalker' Dan Curtis produced this cult favorite starring Darren McGavin as a reporter who believes a serial killer is actually a vampire. 'The Glass House' Tom Gries directed this prison drama shot at Utah State Prison starring Alan Alda and Kristoffer Tabori.

The slayings of a Goleta couple 30 years ago have been linked through DNA evidence to an unidentified man thought to be responsible for a string of rapes and killings in Sacramento, Ventura and Orange counties, Santa Barbara County authorities said Thursday. The DNA finding confirms a long-held theory that the July 1981 slayings of Cheri Domingo, 35, and Gregory Sanchez, 27, were the work of a serial killer whose last known crime occurred in Orange County in 1986. “With recent advancements in DNA profiling methods, it was important for us to push forward and reevaluate evidence in this case before it deteriorated and became useless,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.

In the more than two decades since Los Angeles police detectives began the search for a serial killer stalking young prostitutes in South L.A., they have had few breaks. One night in 1987, however, offered a tantalizing, agonizing clue. Shortly after midnight on Jan. 10, a man called police from a pay phone to report that he had seen someone dump a woman's body out of the back of a van and leave it in an alley. He gave the address, a description of the van and its license plate number: 1PZP746.

He would select the homeless men and hunt them down, prosecutors said, waiting for the perfect moment to end their lives. He hung out at the same Yorba Linda library as one of his alleged victims, scrolling through job listings on a computer. And he stalked his final victim after seeing the man's photo with a Los Angeles Times article about the killings of homeless men, authorities said. After he was arrested, detectives said, they found evidence that 23-year-old Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo had already selected future victims.

"Corporations are people, my friend," Mitt Romney declared in a testy back-and-forth with hecklers last summer in Iowa. It was among the first of what appears to be a growing list of gaffes Democrats will use to hang around Romney's neck in the less than certain but more than likely eventuality that he is the Republican nominee for president. Much like his more recent statement about how he likes to "fire people," the corporation remark has been taken grossly out of context.