Infamous serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr., who targeted vulnerable Black women living in South Los Angeles, was found dead in his California prison cell.
Franklin, who was also known as the “Grim Sleeper” was found unresponsive at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday in his cell on San Quentin State Prison’s death row, People reports.
According to the report, staff worked to revive the 67-year-old, but he was pronounced dead at 7:43 p.m.
“There were no signs of trauma,” California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton told People, who added that an autopsy will be conducted by the Marin County coroner’s office. “They don’t know why he died.”
Franklin Jr. has been on death row since 2016, after being convicted and sentenced for the murders of 10 women during a killing spree that began in the 1980s and terrorized the community.
“I’m shocked,” Diana Ware, the stepmother of Barbara Ware, one of Franklin’s victims told the news site. “I won’t say I’m pleased he died but at the end there was justice for all the bad things he did in his life. We can now be at peace.”