Los Angeles, CA– LAPD is scheduling a press conference later this afternoon to announce they believe John Floyd Thomas, Jr, 72, a workers compensation insurance adjuster, may have raped and murdered as many as 30 victims since 1966.
Thomas’s Mother died when he was 12. He was raised by his Aunt and his godmother. He received a dishonorable discharge from the USAF in 1956 and was convicted of robbery and attempted rape in 1957. Upon his release in 1966 the terror of the West Side Rapist began.
LAPD Det. Richard Bengston said in addition to 2 cold case killings Thomas was charged with April 2nd, DNA evidence connects him to the rape and murder of 5 other cases, and is the prime suspect in as many as 25 more. Of his alleged attacks, there were 20 survivors.
Thomas’s alleged attacks occurred in the Westside and Claremont sections of Los Angeles upon white elderly women and occurred a decade apart.
Thomas was convicted of rape in 1978 in Pasadena when a woman took down his license plate. When he was released in 1983 he moved to Chino, and a killer began stalking older women in the Inland area.
Over the time span following 1983 Thomas worked as a social worker and Hospital peer group advisor. In 1989, the year the rapes and killings seemed to stop, Thomas began his career in the state workers compensations office in Glendale, where he was an adjuster until he was arrested on March 31st.
It is not clear how this man, twice convicted of rape, one with “drugging” of a victim eluded suspicion for 43 years. Thomas has also used the alias Willie Eugene Wilson.
LAPD plans to reveal details about the case in an afternoon press conference later today.
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