The Story of Louis Craine: A Journey into Darkness

In the heart of South Los Angeles during the mid-1980s, a shadow loomed over the city—a man who would later be identified as Louis Craine. Born on January 6, 1957, in Los Angeles, California, Craine's life was marked by turmoil from the very beginning. He was the third child in a family of four, and early on, he showed signs of intellectual disability. Despite these challenges, the city he called home would become the backdrop for a series of heinous crimes that would earn him the moniker of a serial killer.

Early Struggles

Craine's academic journey was brief; he managed to complete only up to the fourth grade. This early departure from formal education led to a life filled with social conflicts within his family. By the early 1970s, he had left his parents' home and became a vagrant, surviving on low-skilled jobs in the construction industry. By 1987, when the police finally apprehended him, he was unemployed and adrift.

A Trail of Murder

The saga of Louis Craine took a dark turn on May 29, 1987, when he was arrested for the murder of 29-year-old Carolyn Barney, a prostitute whose body was discovered in an empty house. She had been raped, sodomized, and strangled. The scene of the crime was chillingly close to the homes of Craine's family and his brother. Craine's peculiar behavior at the crime scene, where he was seen watching the police investigation, drew their suspicion. This led to his arrest and subsequent hours of intense questioning, during which he confessed to murdering Barney and two other women: 24-year-old Loretta Perry and Vivian Collins, both of whom had met their end in a similar brutal fashion.

During his interrogation, Craine tried to shift blame for Collins's murder onto his older brother, Roger, claiming that Roger had strangled her during a paid sexual encounter. However, this accusation fell apart when their mother and other relatives provided an alibi for Roger, leading to no charges against him. As the investigation deepened, Craine was implicated in the deaths of two more women: Gail Ficklin, aged 24, and Sheila Burton, aged 30, killed on August 15, 1985, and November 18, 1984, respectively. These murders shared the grim proximity to where other victims were found, all near Craine's family home.

The Trial

In early 1989, the trial of Louis Craine began, with a blood-stained shirt as the prosecution's key piece of evidence. This shirt bore the blood type of one of the victims and damning testimonies from Craine's own family. His mother recounted his aggressive tendencies towards prostitutes and recalled seeing him in a bloodied shirt after one of the murders. Craine's confession to the murder of Loretta Perry was corroborated by a posthumous examination that confirmed his account.

Despite the mounting evidence, Craine maintained his innocence throughout the trial, retracting his confession and alleging coercion. He claimed the bloodied shirt did not belong to him, accusing his family of lying under oath. His defense argued that Craine's intellectual disability, evidenced by an intelligence quotient of 69, made him susceptible to suggestion and manipulation. Yet, a request for a forensic psychiatric examination was denied. Ultimately, on May 16, 1989, the jury found him guilty of four murders, although he was acquitted of Sheila Burton's killing. The court handed down a death sentence on June 6, 1989.

A Grim Conclusion

Following his conviction, Craine was sent to San Quentin State Prison. However, health issues soon necessitated his transfer to a prison hospital in San Rafael, California. There, on November 3, 1989, Louis Craine's life came to an end due to complications from AIDS, closing the chapter on a grim saga that had haunted South Los Angeles.

Sources

• California Condemned Inmates Who Have Died Since 1978
• Map: Serial killers in South L.A. Aug. 3, 2010
• "It was a terrifying time" in South Central – THEN and NOW. Aug 4, 2010
• Serial killer: Louis Craine, Los Angeles Times, August 3, 2010
• THE BIRTH OF LOUIS CRAINE
• Chen, Edwin (April 27, 1989). "Man Convicted of 4 Murders; 2 Linked to Southside Slayer Case," The Los Angeles Times
• Carolyn Barney, 29, Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1987
• Loretta Perry, 24, Los Angeles Times, January 25, 1987
• Vivian Louise Collins, Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1987
• Pelisek, Christine (2017). The Grim Sleeper: The Lost Women of South Central, Berkeley, California: Counterpoint, ISBN 9781619027732
• Sheila Burton, 30, Los Angeles Times, November 18, 1984
• Gail Ficklin, 24, August 15, 1985
• Prosecutor Concludes Southside Slayer Case, Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1989
• Death sentence recommended for killer of four women, United Press International, May 16, 1989
• Pelisek, Christine (2017). The Grim Sleeper: The Lost Women of South Central, New York City: Catapult Publishing, ISBN 9781619027732