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World's Most Evil Killers S06E09 Chester Turner
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00:01In February 1998, the murder of 41-year-old Paula Vance
00:07was captured on CCTV in downtown Los Angeles, California.
00:12The grainy footage made it difficult to identify Paula's killer,
00:16but the detectives watching the murder play out before their eyes
00:20knew they were seeing a serial killer in action.
00:24When we saw the tape, we both exclaimed at the same time,
00:27this isn't his first time, but we didn't have any other murders
00:30at that time in that area to blame on this unknown person.
00:34It would take another five years before the killer was unveiled
00:39as 37-year-old Chester Turner.
00:41The 6'2", 250-pound murderer had strangled 14 women to death
00:48across an 11-year reign of terror.
00:51I tried to get the jurors to imagine how long Chester Turner's hands
00:56were on the throats of these women, and what they went through
00:59to see kind of the reflection of their eyes and his eyes
01:04as he's choking the life out of them.
01:06There's a horrible, horrible way to die.
01:10DNA would lead to the downfall of the prolific killer
01:14who was sentenced to death for his savage crimes.
01:18He was ruthless, merciless. He was a killing machine.
01:21He targeted the most vulnerable people in society
01:24and treated them like nothing more than rubbish,
01:27detritus to be chucked away.
01:30With his reign of terror finally over,
01:33Chester Turner had been unmasked
01:35as one of the world's most evil killers.
01:58In April 2007, 40-year-old Chester Turner
02:03was found guilty of the murder of 10 women across Los Angeles,
02:07and sentenced to death.
02:09A second trial seven years later found him guilty of another four.
02:15He strangled the lives out of all 14 of his victims,
02:20but he's never spoken about their deaths.
02:22LAPD homicide detective Cliff Shepard
02:25worked on the cold case unit
02:27that would eventually uncover Turner's murderous career.
02:35They were just victims of opportunity for him.
02:38He came across them, they approached him,
02:41and I think especially in Paula Vance's case,
02:42we have that on tape.
02:44The two of them are talking.
02:46They're face to face when he suddenly attacks her.
02:49Did he do that with all the women?
02:51Probably.
02:52But we don't have anybody surviving to tell us.
02:56Turner never confessed to his crimes,
02:59even in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence against him,
03:03which suggests there could be many more victims out there.
03:07Prosecutor Bobby Grace helped to put the serial killer behind bars.
03:12There have been other cases that I've done
03:15that have gotten more media attention,
03:20but no other case that tugged at my emotions more than this case,
03:25because there were so many stories of the women who had lost their lives
03:29and how it had affected the victims.
03:32That's something that will stay with you forever,
03:35and you really can't shake it.
03:41This killer's story begins on the 5th of November, 1966.
03:47Chester DeWayne Turner was born in Warren, Arkansas.
03:52When he was just four years old, his parents split up,
03:55and his mother moved him to California.
03:58Chester Turner had a fairly normal background.
04:02He grew up here in the Los Angeles area,
04:05attended Los Angeles area schools.
04:08Per his mother, he had no violence in his childhood,
04:12no child abuse.
04:13He had a half-brother.
04:15Mom owned a house around Century and Hoover.
04:19Chester grew up in the area, attended school in the area.
04:23Turner was known as Chester the molester at school
04:26because he used to act very inappropriately
04:29with his female classmates.
04:31He just used to go and grab them.
04:32So from a very early age,
04:34he feels this sense of entitlement
04:35to do what he wants with women,
04:37to just go and take what he feels entitled to from them.
04:44Growing up in South Los Angeles
04:46led to a tough existence for Turner,
04:49who at 6'2 and 250 pounds was an imposing figure.
04:55During Turner's adult life,
04:57there was quite a lot of turbulence.
04:59He moved from job to job.
05:01He ended up having four children.
05:03He was in and out of prison.
05:06Chester started dealing drugs.
05:07He admitted to that.
05:09There's a scar on the right side of his face
05:11that he claims some other young men
05:13attacked him to rob him,
05:15and he put up a fight.
05:17He's a big kid,
05:18and they cut him across his face.
05:25Turner often found himself
05:27on the wrong side of the law.
05:29While on parole for a minor offense in L.A.,
05:32he headed to Salt Lake City in Utah,
05:35where his mother now lived.
05:37But trouble seemed to follow him wherever he went.
05:40He had a violent temper,
05:42a man who...
05:44you didn't know it,
05:46he would never show it,
05:47but was always somehow on the edge.
05:50And it was not difficult to get him to ignite.
05:53In Salt Lake City,
05:55he had an incident with another girl
05:58that he became involved with.
06:00Chester and his wife separated.
06:02The other girl
06:04had a little bit of a relationship with Chester
06:06until one night,
06:07Chester became angry with her
06:09and slapped her.
06:11With that,
06:12the woman phoned the police.
06:13Police responded,
06:15found out Chester was on parole from Los Angeles,
06:18that there was a parole violation,
06:20and arrested him
06:22and sent him back to Los Angeles.
06:27Turner couldn't financially support his children,
06:30and when he wasn't in prison,
06:32he would struggle to find a roof over his head.
06:36He's on his own.
06:37He's separated from his wife and kids.
06:39He's separated from his mom and half-brother.
06:42They're in Salt Lake City.
06:43So he was now left up to finding a place to live,
06:48and he ended up in some Los Angeles missions,
06:51downtown Los Angeles.
06:54Turner's misdemeanors were mainly non-violent.
06:57Theft and drug-related convictions
06:59led to most of his prison stays.
07:02But there was, sometimes,
07:04a sexual element to his crimes.
07:07It appears that one day
07:09he was walking down the street
07:10near the area he lived,
07:14and he exposed himself to people at a bus stop.
07:18Police responded.
07:19He was arrested.
07:20The jail released him.
07:22He went out.
07:23He did the same thing
07:24and got arrested again, twice in a day.
07:28You know, I don't know
07:29what's going through his head at that point.
07:31If it was drugs,
07:33he's becoming a sexual deviant.
07:35I don't know.
07:40While appearing on the surface
07:42to be a small-time criminal,
07:44Chester Turner was to evolve
07:46into one of Los Angeles' most prolific serial killers.
07:50By 1998,
07:51he'd raped and murdered at least 14 women,
07:55but the police were none the wiser.
07:59However, in March 2002,
08:02after encountering 47-year-old Maria Martinez,
08:07Turner would make a mistake
08:08that changed everything.
08:10She was homeless,
08:11and she lived in one of the downtown homeless shelters,
08:16and she was well-known to the security guards
08:21and some of the other people
08:23who lived in and around
08:25the Skid Row area of Los Angeles.
08:29When Chester was homeless
08:31and he was staying in a mission downtown,
08:34apparently Maria knew who he was
08:37because he worked security at the missions, too.
08:40One night, Maria is walking
08:42around downtown Los Angeles in the evening,
08:45and she saw Chester.
08:46Chester called her to him
08:49and asked her for a cigarette,
08:51and a light.
08:52She was reluctant,
08:54but she approached him,
08:55and as soon as she did,
08:56it was like a trap.
08:59He grabbed her,
09:00picked her up,
09:01pulled her behind a parking lot
09:03behind some dumpsters
09:04and sexually assaulted her.
09:10Unlike his previous victims,
09:13for some reason,
09:14Turner let Maria live
09:15and even accompanied her
09:17back to the homeless mission,
09:18but Maria wanted to make
09:20an impromptu stop en route.
09:23Maria started walking
09:24towards the police station,
09:26Chester next to her.
09:29They got to the front
09:31of the police station,
09:32and he told her,
09:33you don't tell the police
09:34or I will kill you.
09:37Terrified,
09:38Maria instead went back
09:40to the mission
09:40while Turner disappeared
09:42into the night.
09:44There she showered
09:46and broke down
09:47and told one of the counselors
09:48what happened to her.
09:50The counselor notified police.
09:53Police responded,
09:54interviewed her,
09:55got information about Chester.
09:57They tracked Chester down
09:59at another mission
10:01and located him hiding
10:02in the bathroom.
10:06This really trips him up
10:08because she's somebody
10:09that he knows.
10:10She's someone from the neighborhood.
10:12She can identify him.
10:14And I think at this point in time,
10:15he is feeling absolutely untouchable.
10:18He feels that he can go
10:19and do whatever he wants
10:20to this woman
10:21and get away with it,
10:22but fortunately,
10:23that wasn't the case
10:24because he thought,
10:25there's no way
10:26that she's going to report this.
10:27That's how arrogant he was.
10:32Turner was promptly arrested.
10:35On the 16th of March, 2002,
10:37he was found guilty
10:38of sexual assault
10:40and sentenced
10:40to eight years in prison.
10:42While behind bars,
10:44his cheeks were swabbed
10:46as part of a new
10:47statewide legislation.
10:49In the state of California
10:51at that time,
10:51there was a new law
10:53that had been passed
10:54that if you were convicted,
10:56of a felony offense,
10:58and a felony is anything
10:59that you can go
10:59to state prison for,
11:01you have to give
11:03a DNA sample.
11:04And so as part
11:06of his conviction,
11:07Chester Turner
11:08had to provide
11:09a DNA sample,
11:10which was then
11:12turned over
11:13to California's
11:14DNA database.
11:15So that actually
11:17is really the beginning
11:18of the story
11:19to this particular case.
11:22The authorities
11:24didn't know it yet,
11:25but they had just
11:26imprisoned one of the
11:27most dangerous men
11:28in Los Angeles.
11:30The DNA evidence
11:31collected from
11:32Chester Turner's mouth swab
11:34would soon reveal
11:35a history of murder
11:36that would shock
11:37the entire city.
11:48In March 2002,
11:5135-year-old Chester Turner
11:53had been jailed
11:54for the rape
11:55of 47-year-old
11:56Maria Martinez
11:57in downtown Los Angeles.
12:00Authorities had no idea
12:02they'd actually captured
12:03an active serial killer
12:05who'd begun attacking women
12:07over a decade beforehand
12:08during a turbulent time
12:10across the city.
12:17In the early 90s,
12:19L.A. City and L.A. County
12:21were experiencing
12:21about 1,000 murders
12:24each year.
12:25I mean, that's
12:26three people a day.
12:28That's a lot of murders.
12:30That's a lot of information,
12:32a lot of violent people
12:33out there.
12:34At that time,
12:36rock cocaine was coming
12:37into being,
12:38and rock cocaine
12:39was very popular
12:40with people,
12:41with both drug dealers,
12:44gang members,
12:45and users.
12:46It was easily obtainable
12:48and highly addictive.
12:51And one of the major
12:52problems with crack cocaine
12:54was that it was mainly
12:57sold on the streets
12:59openly,
13:00almost brazenly,
13:02in many parts
13:03of South Los Angeles.
13:05And it contributed
13:06to a lot of other violence,
13:09including robberies,
13:11shootings,
13:12other incidents,
13:13because the drug use
13:15was so prevalent
13:16at that time.
13:23Despite the alarming
13:24number of murders,
13:26coverage in the media
13:27was next to nothing.
13:29The truth must be
13:30that many of the victims
13:33were rather disregarded.
13:34They were absolutely
13:35on the very fringes
13:36of society,
13:38homeless or addicted.
13:40Some were sex workers,
13:42not all.
13:43But they were people
13:44who were not valued
13:46by society
13:48and certainly not
13:48by white society
13:50in Los Angeles
13:51at that time.
13:53If this had happened
13:54in Beverly Hills,
13:56if it happened
13:56in West Los Angeles,
13:57it would have been
13:59national or international
14:00in news.
14:01Because it was
14:03black women
14:04in South Central,
14:06people could ignore it
14:08or chalk it up
14:08to the lifestyle
14:10that these women led
14:11that, you know,
14:13is a ready-made
14:14explanation as to
14:15why they died.
14:17It actually got
14:18little to no coverage
14:20in the major media
14:23publications
14:24and broadcast news
14:26at the time.
14:27This is horrifying.
14:29But in the background
14:31of Los Angeles,
14:32the south side
14:33of Los Angeles
14:33at that time,
14:35sadly,
14:35it's not uncommon.
14:38These people are
14:39or are regarded
14:41as disposable.
14:43They are somehow
14:44not very significant.
14:46That is what makes
14:48it truly horrifying
14:49for me.
14:56It was around
14:57this time
14:58that LAPD
14:59homicide detective
15:00Cliff Shepard
15:01was concerned
15:02at how quickly
15:03the murder rate
15:04had spiraled
15:05out of control.
15:06I was aware
15:08that we had
15:08many unsolved murders
15:10of women
15:11in South Los Angeles.
15:14Women whose bodies
15:15were found
15:16in alleyways,
15:17abandoned buildings,
15:18in parkways,
15:19in the street.
15:21That was an epidemic.
15:23One such victim
15:25was 41-year-old
15:26Paula Vance.
15:27In February of 98,
15:30I was working
15:30Central Homicide,
15:32that's downtown
15:32Los Angeles.
15:33My partner,
15:34Jay Moberly,
15:35and I were working
15:36one morning
15:37when we received
15:38a notification
15:39of a woman's body
15:40being found
15:41behind the university
15:42club at 6th Street
15:43and Hope.
15:44That's right near
15:45the main library
15:47downtown.
15:52It was clear
15:53that Paula
15:54had been strangled
15:55to death
15:56and the downtown
15:57CCTV network
15:59had captured
16:00her murder.
16:00On that tape,
16:02you could see
16:02the deceased
16:04and a man
16:05walking to the rear
16:07of the building
16:07at about 6,
16:096.30 in the evening
16:10before her.
16:12They're having
16:13a conversation
16:14when suddenly
16:15the man
16:16makes like
16:17a wrestling move,
16:18throws his arm
16:19around her
16:20and suddenly
16:20he's on top of her
16:21and he takes her
16:22down to the ground.
16:24And for the next
16:2520 minutes,
16:26you can see
16:26him assault her.
16:29and you can see
16:30her from the camera
16:31footage trying
16:32to struggle
16:34and then
16:35he's able
16:37to put all
16:37of his full weight
16:38on her.
16:39He's much bigger
16:41than her.
16:42I believe that
16:43she was
16:435 foot tall
16:45or less.
16:46Then you can't
16:48see her move
16:49anymore
16:49and it's apparent
16:51that she's
16:52she's no longer
16:53living.
16:54He
16:56is still
16:57attempting
16:57what appears
16:58to be
16:59a sexual assault
17:01and then
17:02he gets up
17:03casually
17:04and leaves her
17:05for dead.
17:10When we saw
17:11the tape,
17:12both exclaimed
17:12at the same time,
17:14this isn't
17:15his first time.
17:16But we didn't
17:17have any other
17:18murders at that
17:19time in that area
17:20to blame on
17:21this person,
17:22that unknown
17:22person.
17:24The footage
17:25was shocking
17:25and the quality
17:26of the images
17:27made identifying
17:28Paula's killer
17:29near impossible.
17:31The footage
17:32was very grainy
17:33but it showed
17:34her basically
17:34being dragged
17:35away.
17:36This is really,
17:37really chilling
17:38footage.
17:39We have got
17:39a front row seat
17:40to the murder
17:41of this poor
17:42woman.
17:43You don't get
17:45a great image
17:46of the man.
17:47I mean,
17:47you can see
17:48he's big,
17:48you can see
17:49that he's a male
17:49black,
17:50he appears
17:51to have a shaved
17:51head.
17:52He was wearing
17:53a unique jacket
17:54that had a design
17:55on the back.
17:56We were able
17:57to determine
17:58that it was
17:58a Buffalo Bills
17:59logo that was
18:00on the back
18:00of that jacket.
18:02So for days,
18:03my partner
18:04and I would be
18:04out in the evenings
18:05looking for
18:06somebody,
18:06anybody,
18:07wearing that jacket
18:08that sort of
18:09fit the man's
18:09description.
18:10We got nowhere
18:11with that.
18:14Sadly,
18:15Paula Vance
18:16became just
18:17another number
18:18in the tally
18:18of unsolved murders
18:20across Los Angeles.
18:24Three years
18:25after her death,
18:26an improvement
18:27in technology
18:28led to a new
18:29investigation.
18:30In 2001,
18:31Los Angeles
18:32Police Department
18:33started a cold
18:34case unit.
18:34I was able
18:35to get into that
18:36along with five
18:37other detectives
18:38because of the
18:40advances in DNA,
18:41ballistics,
18:42fingerprints,
18:43and other things.
18:44We had around
18:449,000 unsolved
18:45murders between
18:461960 and the
18:48present.
18:49The thought
18:50was that we
18:51could solve
18:51many of these
18:52cases by using
18:53the technology
18:54that we had,
18:55especially with
18:56DNA.
18:56That was the
18:57emphasis.
18:58Because the
18:59majority of
19:00these women
19:01were sexually
19:01assaulted in
19:03addition to being
19:04killed,
19:05the Los Angeles
19:06Police Department
19:07at that time
19:07would do what
19:08is known as
19:09a sexual assault
19:10kit,
19:11where forensic
19:12analysts would
19:13take samples
19:14of places
19:15from the
19:16crime scene
19:17and, most
19:17importantly,
19:18from the
19:18victim's body
19:19in an effort
19:20to try to
19:21get forensic
19:22material that
19:23could be used
19:24later to try
19:25to identify
19:26the person
19:26who was
19:27involved in
19:27the crime.
19:33Investigators
19:34from the
19:34cold case unit
19:35were particularly
19:36interested in a
19:38number of
19:38unsolved murders
19:39which had all
19:40occurred within a
19:41small radius of
19:42each other.
19:43The murders
19:44were confined
19:45to an area
19:46that we call
19:47the Figueroa
19:48Corridor in
19:49South Los Angeles.
19:50There's a major
19:51street in the
19:52city of Los Angeles
19:53called Figueroa
19:54Street that
19:56stretches all
19:57the way from
19:57downtown Los
19:58Angeles up
19:59through the
20:00harbor, which
20:01is about 30
20:03miles.
20:03But that
20:04particular area
20:05was also
20:06significant because
20:07it cuts right
20:08through what is
20:09known as
20:09South Central
20:10L.A.
20:11That area
20:12was the
20:13ground zero
20:14for the
20:16crack cocaine
20:16epidemic.
20:18A lot of
20:19women are
20:19addicted and
20:20they're looking
20:21for cocaine,
20:22they're using
20:22cocaine.
20:24They're easy
20:25victims.
20:26He would
20:27probably approach
20:28them, show
20:29them some rock
20:30cocaine, and
20:31they'd go,
20:31okay, let's go.
20:32And then he
20:33would kill them.
20:34Even though you
20:35were able to get
20:36crack cocaine
20:36very openly,
20:38most people
20:39would not
20:39smoke it
20:40right on the
20:41open in the
20:42street where
20:43they could get
20:43arrested by
20:44police.
20:44So it was
20:45going to be
20:46usually in
20:46some secluded
20:47area.
20:48Unfortunately,
20:50the Figueroa
20:50Corridor created
20:51the perfect area
20:53where you could do
20:54this kind of thing
20:54and not be
20:55easily seen.
20:57And so he,
20:59for lack of a
20:59better word,
21:00he had the
21:01perfect hunting
21:02ground and the
21:03circumstances
21:05surrounding it
21:05to get away
21:06with doing
21:07what he was
21:07doing.
21:13Detectives
21:14wondered if
21:15the murders
21:15might be
21:16linked to
21:16one perpetrator,
21:18but it was
21:18a victim from
21:19outside the
21:20Figueroa
21:21Corridor that
21:22would provide
21:22the breakthrough
21:23in the case.
21:24The unit
21:25inexplicably
21:26out of the
21:27blue got
21:28a DNA
21:29hit on
21:30the case
21:31of Paula
21:32Vance,
21:33which was
21:34the murder
21:35that was
21:35captured on
21:36closed-circuit
21:37TV.
21:38So when we
21:39were notified
21:40that we had
21:41a suspect,
21:42I needed to
21:42know who he
21:43was and
21:44his background.
21:47The DNA
21:48belonged to
21:48a convicted
21:49felon, a man
21:50whose sample
21:51had been taken
21:52and added to
21:52the statewide
21:53database when
21:54he was imprisoned
21:55for sexual
21:56assault in
21:562002, 35-year-old
21:59Chester Turner.
22:01Turner's DNA
22:02also linked him
22:03to one of the
22:04victims from
22:05within the
22:05Figueroa
22:06Corridor.
22:0745-year-old
22:08Mildred Beasley
22:09had been murdered
22:10in November
22:111996, over a
22:13year before
22:13Paula Vance.
22:15We began in
22:16November 2001,
22:17I think it was
22:18finally in
22:19September of
22:192003.
22:20We received an
22:21answer that
22:22Chester was a
22:24suspect in the
22:25Paula Vance murder
22:26and the Mildred
22:27Beasley murder.
22:28That started looking at
22:30Chester for other
22:31murders.
22:31Knowing that he
22:33lived in South
22:34Los Angeles, that
22:36we had a lot of
22:37unsolved murders
22:37down there, now
22:39we had to find
22:40those murders.
22:43Investigators
22:44found themselves
22:45in uncharted
22:46territory.
22:47They had a
22:47murderer who was
22:48already behind
22:49bars.
22:50Instead of
22:51hunting the
22:51killer, they
22:52were hunting for
22:53his victims.
22:54And it would
22:55become apparent
22:56that Chester
22:56Turner was one
22:58of the most
22:58prolific killers in
23:00Los Angeles' history.
23:11In September 2003,
23:14Chester Turner had
23:15been identified as
23:17the killer of two
23:17women, Paula Vance
23:19and Mildred Beasley.
23:21The 35-year-old convict
23:23was already serving
23:24time for sexual
23:25assault, and
23:26detectives from a
23:27cold case unit were
23:29just beginning to
23:30learn about his
23:31crimes.
23:38With Chester,
23:39because of where
23:40he lived, we
23:42focused on South
23:43Los Angeles.
23:44We came up with
23:46probably about 30
23:48victims in the
23:49area, between
23:50Southeast Division
23:52and 77th Division.
23:55Turner very
23:56deliberately chose
23:56his hunting
23:57ground as his
23:58own neighbourhood
23:59because this was
24:00a place where he
24:01felt powerful, he
24:02felt confident, he
24:04knew the streets, he
24:05knew the people who
24:06were on the streets,
24:07and by killing on
24:09his own patch, he
24:10is minimising the
24:11risk to himself.
24:13There's quite a lot
24:14that he feels in
24:14control of in this
24:16area, and he gets
24:17away with it time
24:18and time and time
24:19again, so he feels
24:21very territorial over
24:22this particular area.
24:27Turner had begun
24:28killing over 16
24:30years previously.
24:31In March 1987, he
24:34took the life of 21-year-old
24:35Diane Johnson with his
24:37bare hands.
24:39Diane Johnson is the
24:40first known victim of
24:42Turner, and she was
24:43found on a construction
24:44site around about six
24:45blocks from where she
24:47lived, and there were
24:47some drag marks that
24:48led to the site where
24:50her body had been
24:51deposited.
24:52She'd been strangled, and
24:54she was naked from the
24:55waist down.
24:56She's just discarded on
24:58this construction site,
24:59and that is quite
25:00revealing in terms of how
25:02Turner sees his
25:02victims.
25:03He's had his fun with
25:04them.
25:05He's just going to
25:05discard them.
25:06It's like a predator
25:07with a carcass.
25:10By September 1989,
25:12Turner had claimed a
25:14fifth victim.
25:15The prolific killer
25:16murdered 27-year-old
25:18Regina Washington in a
25:20garage on Figueroa Street.
25:22She had been strangled,
25:24murdered, but on top of
25:25that, the suspect had tied a
25:28TV cable around her neck,
25:30and she was suspended off the
25:32ground by a few inches
25:34because of the cable.
25:36I'm looking at the
25:37photographs of the crime
25:38scene, and this guy, he's
25:41got some real anger.
25:42I mean, yes, you sexually
25:44assaulted this woman, you
25:46strangled her, and then
25:48you're sending more message
25:49that, you know, you really
25:51hated her.
25:51Was it just her?
25:52Is it all women?
25:53And showing how violent you
25:56can be.
25:57She was strangled with an
25:59electrical cord, and her
26:00body was found in an
26:02abandoned premises.
26:03Again, we've got this idea
26:05of the victim as just trash
26:08to be discarded.
26:12A post-mortem confirmed
26:14what detectives could see
26:15for themselves at the crime
26:17scene.
26:18Regina Washington was six
26:20months pregnant.
26:21When we first filed charges
26:23against Chester for that
26:25murder, we argued that the
26:27fetus was viable and should
26:30be counted as another victim.
26:32We included it with the
26:34charges.
26:35It's wickedness at the
26:37highest level.
26:39A pregnant mother trying to
26:42eke out a living, partly
26:44trying to get straight for
26:45her baby.
26:45It's a heartless act, which
26:48marks Turner out as a man of
26:50very significant wickedness.
26:57As Turner's DNA continued to
26:59be discovered on the historic
27:01murder victims, detectives came
27:03up with a potential modus
27:05operandi.
27:06It's believed Turner would lure
27:08his vulnerable victims with the
27:10promise of drugs.
27:11You look at the murders that
27:13Chester Turner committed, I mean,
27:14they're all female, and many of
27:17them had been using cocaine,
27:20which makes them extremely vulnerable.
27:24They're very easy victims.
27:26They're guards down, and they have
27:29this desire to just obtain more
27:31drugs, and they don't care how
27:33they get it.
27:34So anybody that approaches them,
27:36offering them money or drugs, they
27:39will probably go with them.
27:41There were a lot of people who found
27:43themselves on LA's skid row, down on
27:46their luck.
27:47They were runaways.
27:48They were throwaways.
27:49And I think this kind of area was very
27:51attractive for Turner, because it's full
27:54of people who are off the social radar
27:56anyway.
27:57They are the missing missing.
27:59These are people that you can attack,
28:01that you can kill, and nobody's really
28:03going to care very much about them.
28:06It's sometimes hard not to feel sorry
28:07for them, to be honest.
28:09But Turner didn't feel like that.
28:11He saw them as his victim pool.
28:14They were people he could prey upon.
28:19Another of Turner's signatures was the
28:21way in which he left his victims.
28:24Chester Turner would rape his victims
28:26and then leave them partially undressed.
28:29So in most cases, the victims were left
28:32with their pants down, uh, or if they
28:36had a dress, the dress would be pulled
28:38up, which was, you know, a telltale sign
28:42that there was some sexual assault.
28:44But he also brazenly left them in areas
28:48where they wouldn't necessarily be found
28:51right away, but it wasn't, he wasn't
28:53like trying to hide the fact that he was
28:55trying to kill these women.
28:59His eighth victim was 29-year-old
29:02Andrea Triplett.
29:04Turner murdered Andrea in April 1993.
29:08Once again, her body was discovered
29:10on Figueroa Street.
29:11She'd been strangled to death.
29:13Most of his victims were manually strangled.
29:17He had one or two of the victims,
29:19uh, he used a ligature, article of clothing
29:21or something, but most of them he used his hands.
29:24You're talking to the guy face-to-face,
29:26you're having a conversation, suddenly, boom,
29:29he takes you down and you're on the ground
29:31and he's striking you and choking you.
29:35I don't think anybody was prepared for that.
29:38And that fit right into the size and strength
29:42of Chester Turner, because you could easily see,
29:45because of his size and strength,
29:48that he could easily strangle someone to death
29:51and that those people would not be able
29:53to fight back significantly against him
29:56because he would be able to physically overpower them,
29:59but still, you know, have the strength
30:01to strangle someone to death with his bare hands.
30:08In a brazen display of cold-heartedness,
30:12Turner attended the wake for Andrea Triplett
30:14just days after he'd squeezed the life out of her.
30:18Not a sign in Turner's mind of remorse, guilt.
30:22I mean, it requires a most disgraceful attitude.
30:29One might almost call it inhuman,
30:33to insert yourself into the wake.
30:36And this tells us about quite a sadistic side of him.
30:39It's not enough for him to kill these women.
30:41He's almost got to go and rub it in,
30:43in terms of going and liaising with their families afterwards.
30:47This guy is really unsavoury indeed.
30:50But it's also indicative, so often it's the case,
30:53that serial killers love to revisit their crimes.
30:56They like to find out what they've done.
30:59They like to go back to the crime scene.
31:01They like to take trophies.
31:03They like to take pleasure in it.
31:05And here, Chester Turner is demonstrating
31:08precisely those classic characteristics.
31:11He's inserting himself into the agony
31:14of the family and friends of Andrea Triplett.
31:23In total, Chester Turner's DNA linked in with
31:26into 10 murders between 1987 and 1998.
31:31Detectives interviewed the killer,
31:33but he had no intention of helping them
31:35with their investigation.
31:37He's handcuffed at a table, and we're talking to him.
31:40We're not telling him everything just yet.
31:43We want to feel him out, and I said, you know,
31:47there's been women who've been murdered,
31:48and your name's coming up.
31:50And you could see in his face.
31:53Suddenly, his jaw started trembling.
31:56So he knows he's been caught now,
32:00and he knows he's in really deep trouble
32:03and what could happen to him.
32:06But then suddenly, it was, I didn't murder nobody.
32:11Chester Turner told the police
32:13that he did not kill any of these women
32:15and that he just had sexual relations
32:18with a lot of women.
32:19And it's just a coincidence that his DNA was found
32:23with 10 women who ended up strangled to death.
32:28It was just a tragic coincidence.
32:31So at that point, I figured that we may never get him
32:34to admit to anything, anything about the murders.
32:38No matter how much evidence we tell him that we have
32:41or even show him that we have.
32:45Investigators would have to let the science do the talking.
32:48It would take five years to collate all their findings,
32:52and a trial date was set for the spring of 2007.
32:55But Chester Turner wasn't going to go down without a fight.
33:10In April 2007, 40-year-old Chester Turner
33:14was on trial for the murder of 10 women
33:17across Los Angeles, California.
33:19DNA had linked the convicted sex offender
33:22to all 10 victims.
33:24It would be the job of prosecutor Bobby Grace
33:27to convince a jury that Turner was undoubtedly a killer
33:31in spite of his egotistical demeanor.
33:39Chester Turner was a fairly smug individual.
33:42He would sit in court and kind of sneer and laugh,
33:48act as if he would be incredulous
33:50at some of the evidence that was presented.
33:53But he very definitely very cold,
33:56very callous individual throughout the proceedings,
34:01and he did not take the witness stand.
34:04Five years had passed since Turner's original interrogation
34:08by detectives,
34:09but his story hadn't changed one bit.
34:12He continued to deny that he was responsible
34:15for any of the 10 murders.
34:18Turner's defense in court was that,
34:20yes, he'd had sex with all these women.
34:22Well, he couldn't really argue that he hadn't
34:24because his DNA was all over the bodies,
34:26but he'd left them before they died.
34:28They were alive when he left.
34:30I mean, beyond belief by way of a defense.
34:34But put yourself in the seat of the defense attorney,
34:37he's got nothing else.
34:38There's nothing else to possibly explain
34:40these dreadful series of killings.
34:48As well as the undisputable scientific evidence,
34:52Bobby Grace relied heavily on the CCTV evidence
34:55that captured Turner murdering 41-year-old Paula Vance
34:59in February 1998.
35:02There are absolutely no witnesses to any of these murders,
35:06and that's why the Paula Vance case was so important,
35:09because that allowed me to argue to the jury
35:13that Chester Turner would kill his victims
35:15in the manner that was depicted in the closed-circuit video,
35:19but also was important to counter any argument
35:23that the women wanted to have sex with Chester Turner.
35:28His gratification seems to come from violence,
35:32and so sex and violence are synonymous for him.
35:39If the science alone wasn't evidence enough of Turner's guilt,
35:44Bobby wanted to make sure the jury could picture
35:47the terrifying ordeal that each and every woman was put through.
35:51I tried to get the jurors to imagine
35:54how long Chester Turner's hands were on the throats of these women
35:59and what they went through to see kind of the reflection
36:03of their eyes and his eyes as he's choking the life out of them.
36:08There's a horrible, horrible way to die,
36:12and probably the most personable way
36:14that you could kill somebody is to strangle them to death
36:17and looking them in the face as you strangle them.
36:20It's just horrifying,
36:22but something that we had to convey to the jury
36:25for them to understand the manner in which he killed these women.
36:33On the 30th of April, 2007,
36:37after three days of deliberations,
36:39the jury had reached a unanimous verdict.
36:42As a juror, you just have to believe in science,
36:45and if you believe in the science,
36:47then there wasn't really much of a conclusion to draw
36:50but that he was the person that was guilty.
36:54Chester Turner was found guilty on ten counts of murder
36:58and sentenced to death.
37:00An 11th guilty verdict for the murder of the unborn baby
37:04of Regina Washington was overturned in 2020.
37:08It's sort of sobering when you're listening to the verdicts
37:11and then to the sentence.
37:14That's what you hear is,
37:15we find him guilty, we sentence him to death.
37:18We find him guilty, we sentence him to death.
37:20It's impressive when you have that many victims.
37:26For a man who'd refused to talk about the murders
37:29and had remained silent for years,
37:32Turner still wanted to have the final word.
37:35Chester Turner, after he was convicted and was being led away,
37:38he turned around and mouthed something.
37:42Some people have said that he said, I'll be back.
37:45It was in reference to me, I'm not sure.
37:49I tend not to worry about stuff like that.
37:53By saying that, he is suggesting that he knows more,
37:56that there is more to come, that there is a next chapter.
37:59And I think he enjoys having that control over people.
38:03He enjoys having that kind of suspense.
38:05And he's created this drama in the courtroom by saying that.
38:11With Turner safely behind bars for the rest of his life,
38:15the cold case unit continued to try and uncover
38:18more potential victims of the serial killer.
38:21When I was doing my research,
38:23I'm looking at the unsolved murders
38:25that Chester could be responsible for.
38:28So I'm looking for females who were found strangled
38:33in South Los Angeles,
38:35in abandoned locations, out-of-the-butte locations.
38:38I came across some murders where an arrest had been made.
38:44And the person was convicted.
38:48David Allen Jones, an intellectually disabled janitor,
38:53had been questioned without an attorney
38:55and jailed for nine years for the murder of three women
38:58who'd now been linked by DNA to Chester Turner.
39:03Fortunately for David Allen Jones,
39:05the DNA evidence connecting Chester Turner exonerated him,
39:09and he was released for being wrongfully convicted
39:13of a murder that he didn't commit.
39:20Chester Turner had once claimed,
39:23I'll be back, and his prophecy proved to be correct.
39:26In June 2014, the 47-year-old killer
39:30was found guilty of a further four murders
39:33and was once again sentenced to death.
39:36Chester Turner never took the stand.
39:38He never put himself in a position
39:40where he could be questioned,
39:42either in the first trial or the second trial,
39:44which strategically would have been a big mistake
39:47because then we could have asked him point-blank,
39:51how is it that you were able to have sex
39:54with all these women, and they ended up dead.
39:57Turner is somebody who is never going to talk
39:59about his motive, I think.
40:02I think that's always something
40:03that he will keep to himself.
40:04But to me, it is quite obvious.
40:06He killed these women because he felt entitled to do so.
40:10He felt that he had the right to end their lives
40:13because he saw them as people who had no value.
40:17He saw them as people who would not be missed,
40:20and he thought that this was something he could get away with.
40:28Chester Turner's never given an explanation
40:31as to why he killed 14 women.
40:33The grieving loved ones of his victims
40:36may never get the closure they so desperately need.
40:39Many of these women had daughters,
40:42and by the time this case went to trial,
40:45some of those daughters had children of their own,
40:48so these women who were killed,
40:49they actually had grandchildren who they had never met.
40:53A murder destroys a lot of people,
40:56not just the victim.
40:57Their families and just leaves,
41:00I keep saying it leaves a big hole in their life
41:03that they can't fill.
41:04They'll never be able to talk with that person again,
41:07have celebrations with them.
41:10That person will never be able to have a family of their own.
41:14So, a lot of destruction that's done.
41:18There wasn't a massive amount of media attention on these cases,
41:23and I think, to understand this,
41:25we need to look at the concept of ideal victimhood.
41:28So sometimes when people become the victims of murder,
41:31we're very quick to empathise and to sympathise with them
41:34and to say, isn't that terrible that it happened to them.
41:36They are completely innocent.
41:38They really didn't see this coming.
41:40This is an awful thing.
41:41But when other people become the victims of murder,
41:44we're not quite as sympathetic.
41:46And very often when people are involved in sex work,
41:49when people have drug dependency issues,
41:51we have a tendency to victim blame.
41:53And to say, well, if you wouldn't have been doing that,
41:56you wouldn't have become a victim.
41:57And I think that is very much the case here.
41:59And I think there's also a sense in which there is some racism
42:02around this case, because many of the victims were black.
42:06I think that this whole George Floyd moment
42:09has kind of really crystallised kind of what I thought about the case
42:14way back then,
42:16and that black lives aren't mattered,
42:19particularly black women.
42:20The circumstances surrounding that still exist here in America,
42:27and that we haven't really had the progress
42:31that many of us would have hoped for,
42:34and that there's so much more work to do.
42:38There are still scores of unsolved murders
42:41in and around the Figueroa Corridor.
42:43There may be many more victims of Chester Turner,
42:46but the evidence to prove it no longer exists.
42:52Many of the sexual assault kits
42:55that were taken from some of these 80-plus women,
42:57they were inadvertently destroyed by LAPD.
43:01And so we know for a fact that there were several women
43:05who were part of these 80 women
43:07who were strangled to death and sexually assaulted,
43:10and that fits the M.O. of Chester Turner,
43:13but we'll never be able to prove
43:16whether or not he was the perpetrator
43:18because we no longer have the sexual assault kits.
43:26California haven't executed anyone since 2006,
43:30but Chester Turner remains on death row.
43:33There's no doubt the killer will remain locked up
43:36for the rest of his life,
43:38whenever or however that comes.
43:41He was remorseless.
43:43That's what is hard to understand.
43:45He was a killing machine.
43:47He didn't stop.
43:48He was driven by lust.
43:50He was driven by the desire to kill,
43:52and that's what makes him incredibly difficult to understand.
43:56And for most ordinary, civilized human beings,
43:59he doesn't fit in.
44:02Look at the body count
44:03and the number of years he operated.
44:05He has no compassion for anyone else.
44:09It's him.
44:10It's all, you know, narcissism.
44:11This is about him.
44:17Chester Turner was a ruthless and brutal murderer.
44:21He took the lives of 14 women
44:23and has never explained what drove him to do it.
44:26The fear in his victims' eyes
44:28as his hands squeeze their lives away
44:31will hopefully forever haunt him.
44:33He is undoubtedly one of the world's most evil killers.
44:38The fear of 14 women
44:39o
44:40o
44:49loved
44:50i
45:06o