Leads Pile Up Vs. Suspected Serial Killer

Cold case detectives were flooded with calls Friday from members of the public claiming they or long-dead relatives were victims of a man police believe is a serial rapist and killer.

Dozens of calls came in the day after the Police Department announced the arrest of 72-year-old John Floyd Thomas Jr., who police say could be responsible for killing as many 30 older women and raping many more, Detective Richard Bengtson said.

Some of the leads from the calls could result in additional murder cases, pushing the total beyond the 30 figure, he said.

"It could definitely range higher," he said.

It's believed, reports The Early Show National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman, that Thomas was the notorious "West Side Rapist" who terrorized Los Angeles in the '70s and '80s -- and that he may be the worst serial killer in the city's history.

Many of the callers claimed they, their mother or an elderly aunt had been sexually assaulted.

The victims in all cases under review were older white women, mostly of lower incomes and often widows living alone. All were sexually assaulted and most were strangled.

"The elderly are easier targets, they are much easier to control," Bengtson said.

So far, murder charges have been filed against the insurance claims adjuster after cold case detectives matched his DNA, which he provided, to the murder and sexual assault of a retired school administrator and another woman in the 1970s.

The Los Angeles Police Department said it also has partial DNA matches to two other killings, and he is a suspect in three killings in Inglewood. Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators are looking at his involvement in at least two other cases.

Thomas was being held on $1 million bond and could not be reached for comment. He had not yet been assigned an attorney and his arraignment was set for May 20.

Bengtson said his supervisors are considering assigning extra investigators to the cold case unit to handle the call volume.

When the attacks were taking place, Kauffman reports, police formed neighborhood watch groups. The attacks stopped in 1978, when Thomas went to prison for rape, but soon after his release, the attacks resumed.

"Mr. Thomas may be responsible for cases that go as far back to the mid-'50s," LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck told reporters, "and we're going to go all the way back to those cases."

Victims' relatives are expressing their relief, Kauffman adds. Bob Kistner, the grand-nephew of one victim, told a news conference, "I was always hoping for it I knew there had been samples collected at the crime scene. This was just a great wish of mine."

Police say they'll exhume bodies of other cold cases.

On The Early Show Saturday Edition, former co-worker Earl Hutchinson said he was shocked and astonished -- even feeling disbelief -- when he heard about Thomas' arrest. He said Thomas was always very congenial and affable, and "always had a smile."

Forensic scientist Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky told co-anchor Erica Hill, "DNA has changed criminal justice, and has helped us solve cold cases. As long as biological evidence exists, as long as DNA is not degraded, we can develop genetic information. We have a national database that has helped us to stop or catch recidivists."

L.A. cold case detectives have in recent years successfully used DNA evidence to unlock several old cases.

Chester Turner, a pizza deliveryman, was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to death for killing 10 women and a fetus in Los Angeles in the 1980s and '90s. He was serving an eight-year sentence for a 2002 rape when his DNA was linked to the murders.

And a different serial killer, Michael Hughes, who is serving a life term for killing four women was charged with four additional murders in a spree starting in the 1980s.

Detectives are still investigating at least a dozen other murders connected to an unidentified killer dubbed the "Grim Sleeper."