I don’t typically check out documentaries when I attend film festivals, but I think I might have to make an exception for Nick Broomfield‘s Tales of the Grim Sleeper at this year’s Toronto Festival as the director of such docs as Aileen Wuornos: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Biggie and Tupac digs into the case of the notorious serial killer known as the “Grim Sleeper,” who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a span of twenty-five years. The nickname comes as a result of what appears to be a 14-year hiatus between his crimes, from 1988 to 2002.
The doc is clearly meant to look into the fact the police have had Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, in custody for over four years now and there just may be more than a shadow of a doubt he did not do it. As the trailer notes, police officer Ricky Ross was, at one time, arrested for the crime in 1988, but “was released from jail after independent experts determined that the LAPD had wrongly claimed Ross’s gun matched the one that fired the bullets that killed the three prostitutes [source].”
Give the trailer a watch below.
