After studying and analyzing the acquired content, the investigators stated that Maxwell was a satanist. Īfter his arrest, Maxwell's apartment was ransacked, during which his shoes, clothes, diaries and letters were seized. Perhaps another peculiarity was that while Maxwell was in prison, the Skid Row Stabber didn't commit any murders, and based on these facts, he was arrested on suspicion of murder in April 1979. He was convicted and spent several weeks in the county jail, before being coincidentally released only three days before when, according to the investigators, the Stabber committed his last murder. In December 1978, he demonstrated deviant behavior against sleeping homeless people, and was arrested on charges of disturbing the public order.
#Skidrow la free
A casual worker, Maxwell spent a lot of his free time in the Skid Row area, along with the homeless residents. In early 1979, a forensic examination of the fingerprints from the palm print found next to García's body were revealed to belong to 29-year-old Bobby Joe Maxwell, who had been released from prison in his native Tennessee and moved to Los Angeles in 1977. Suspect ĭuring the investigation, several people were suspected by authorities. Three months later, in January 1979, the inscription "My name is Luther, and I kill them to save me from misery", was found in the toilet of the Los Angeles Bus Terminal building. According to the witnesses, the criminal was a 30-year-old black man, who spoke with a Puerto Rican accent and introduced himself as "Luther". Investigation ĭuring the subsequent investigation, witnesses were found to David Jones' murder: three friends of the deceased claimed that an unknown person had talked with them for several minutes before committing the murder, after which he went up to Jones and stabbed him. The last confirmed victim of the Skid Row Stabber was 26-year-old Luis Alvarez, who was stabbed to death on January 21, 1979. No witnesses were located, but an imprint of a man's hand was found next to García's body, which, according to the investigators, could've been left by the killer. Despite the fact that this murder occurred in a prestigious area of the city, with a large crowd present, the killer managed to escape unnoticed.
#Skidrow la serial
Three days later, the serial killer committed his next murder against 45-year-old Frank García, whose body was found on November 23rd, near City Hall. On November 17th, 34-year-old Milford Fletcher, a Native American, was also killed.
![skidrow la skidrow la](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/06/30/2311869-homeless-women-1-edit_custom-3dd7d02fb10eb1d75ed4902cffbc058fff504fd0.jpg)
The day after, the Stabber committed a double murder, killing both 36-year-old Frank Floyd Reed and 49-year-old Augustine E. Only two days later, 57-year-old Francisco Pérez Rodriguez became the next victim. Henderson was killed, and on November 9th, 39-year-old David Martin Jones was attacked and brutally killed near the Los Angeles City Hall in the downtown. On October 29th, the Stabber killed his second victim, 32-year-old Jose Cortes, followed a day later by 46-year-old Bruce Emmett Drake. The first victim was 50-year-old Jesse Martinez. As victims, the killer chose the homeless, whose corpses were dumped in the alleyways of the various streets, located close to each other. Pras and the others involved in the project deserve praise for their courage and gratitude for opening our eyes to the problem through their film.The murders began on the morning of October 23, 1978. The enormity and seeming intractability of the problem can make watching this film an overwhelming experience for the viewer, but there are glimmers of hope in seeing how many of the individuals who work with the homeless were themselves down-and-out at one point in their lives (many are themselves recovering addicts), but somehow managed to pull themselves up and are now giving back to those they left behind.
![skidrow la skidrow la](https://photos.lensculture.com/large/2206cdea-7adb-4b5f-8027-5005843b53d8.jpg)
But the message shines through in Pras' heartbreaking encounters with drug addicts, runaways, and friends and families of individuals who have gone missing and may be living on Skid Row. The movie, shot with a hidden camera, is a fairly straight-forward documentary, though the substandard sound recording makes some of the dialogue hard to make out.
![skidrow la skidrow la](https://cdn2.lamag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2021/05/ft_ACE_FINAL-SELECT_SKIDROW_LA-MAG_2020_4740_1500x2250px-2-1068x712.jpg)
#Skidrow la how to
The movie hits us with a slew of depressing statistics and provides a brief history of the place, while Pras learns how to survive through begging and panhandling and by maneuvering his way through a world few of us will ever know – or even care to acknowledge. "Skid Row" documents the nine days and nights he spent trying to make it in the homeless capital of the world, Los Angeles. His purpose? To experience first hand what life is like for those who live on the streets, and to share that experience with the world at large. Nine dollars and a tent – that's all hip-hop artist Pras Michel (of The Fugees) brings with him when he goes undercover to live on Skid Row disguised as a homeless person.