Other names the Skid Row Slasher Country United States | Span of killings 1964–1975 Role Serial Killer Name Vaughn Greenwood | |
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Full Name Vaughn Orrin Greenwood Victims 11 murdered, 1 survivor | ||
Date apprehended February 3, 1975 | ||
Vaughn Orrin Greenwood (born 1944) is an American serial killer known by the nickname the "Skid Row Slasher."
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Crimes
The first attacks occurred when Greenwood killed two transients in November 1964. A ten-year gap period between murders occurred due to Greenwood being convicted and sentenced to a knifing assault in Chicago in 1966. He spent five and a half years in jail for this conviction before returning to California. Greenwood continued his murder spree in December 1974 and killed nine victims between December 1974 and February 1975.
Greenwood was convicted of nine counts of murder, including eight of the "Skid Row Slasher" killings in Southern California. The "Slasher" victims had their throats cut from ear to ear. There was evidence that the killer drank the blood of the victims. Greenwood left cups of blood and rings of salt around the corpses. The items left around the bodies have caused some to believe the murders to be linked to Satanism. This is disputed by K.V. Lanning.
On 19 January 1977, Greenwood was sentenced to life imprisonment. He is serving his sentence in the California Los Angeles County Jail.
Victims
These are the Skid Row Slasher's known victims in chronological order of attack: