'Slasher' of L.A. kills 9th victim

From First Page

The two most recent killings were the first outside downtown Los Angeles.

Police issued a composite picture of the slasher, and suggested that the killer probably is a 6-foot, 190-pound homosexual with long, dirty blond hair. The composites brought hundreds of calls to police yesterday.

One of the most striking of the slasher's patterns is the way he kills.

A Los Angeles County Coroner's Office official said the killer beats and overpowers his victims. then cuts their throats deeply in an overkill suggestive of a ritual.

"He picks his victims, picks his own time and location, and he controls the situation the environment in which he attacks and that's cold-blooded," a police spokesman said.

"For one thing, we think he's a loner, some guy who probably lives like a hermit and only creeps out of his hole to commit these horrible crimes.

"He strongly identifies with the derelicts and drifters he kills, and we think he's trying to resolve his own inner confilicts by turning his wrath and hatred outward, against those with whom he identifies.”

Until the last two murders, the slasher had killed mostly down-and-outers on Skid Row.