Sylvia Franklin
Sylvia Franklin is the Belizean wife of death row inmate, Lonnie Franklin. Sylvia’s husband also known as the Grim Sleeper –has been given the death penalty for the killing of at least 10 people.
Sylvia’s serial killer husband has been convicted of 10 horrific murders. Lonnie committed the killing in the Los Angeles area from 1985 to 2007.
Franklin, a former city sanitation worker, was arrested in July 2010 after his DNA was connected to some crime scenes. His trial began in February of this year, more than three decades after the death of the first victim.
The women –most of them prostitutes were all between the ages of 15 and 35. Lonnie’s signature was to strangle and shoot his victims only to leave the bodies in alleyways or dumpsters. He was nicknamed “Grim Sleeper” because of an apparent 14-year gap in the murders, between 1988 and 2002.
When his trial began this February, he pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. He was found guilty on all counts in May, following an 11-week trial. Over 100 nude photos of the victims were found at the home he shared with his wife and children.
He was convicted of fatally shooting seven women between August 1985 and September 1988. He strangled or shot three other women, including a 15-year-old girl, between March 2002 and January 2007.
One woman who survived, Enierta Washington, testified against Franklin at the trial. The jury convicted him of attempted murder after he shot Washington in the chest, raped her and then pushed her out of a car, leaving her for dead in 1988. She was his 11th victim.
The same jury that found him guilty recommended in June that he be sentenced to death.
According to the LA Times, Sylvia Franklin worked in a legal office and may have owned some rental property elsewhere in South Los Angeles.
LA Weekly described Sylvia Franklin as “his loyal wife” in 2014. The report also says she is a school employee in Inglewood.
Since being arrested in 2010, Lonnie received regular visits from Sylvia Franklin –at the time her husband hadn’t been convicted yet so like any other wife, she offered her support.
Sylvia is the mother of the couple’s two children, a son and a daughter. The wife and mother two, raised the couple’s children throughout her husband’s bloody spree–not knowing that her husband was in reality a serial killer. Retired FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole, had this to say about Sylvia Franklin: “It must be difficult to believe this person is a serial killer” “it sounds to me like she is holding out because he is innocent until proven guilty.”
According to the Inglewood Unified School District Directory, Mr. Sylvia Franklyn is listed as an Administrative Secretary/ Confidential Senior Clerk to the Supt. and Board.
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