On January 14, 1987, John Charles Coble, a 55-year-old Caucasian male, was fatally stabbed in Los Angeles, California. Coble was one of several homeless individuals targeted during a series of attacks in the Koreatown neighborhood. On that same day, 58-year-old Isaac Davis, also a homeless man, was similarly murdered. The perpetrator, Joseph Martin Danks, a 25-year-old drifter, confessed to these killings, among others.
Danks began his spree on December 24, 1986, by stabbing Edwin Trujillo. He continued his attacks into January 1987, targeting multiple homeless individuals, including Christopher Forsblade, aged 40, on January 6; Isaac Davis, aged 58, and John C. Coble, aged 55, both on January 14; and two unidentified men on January 16 and January 20. Danks was apprehended shortly after the January 20 slaying when a companion of the victim pursued him and alerted a passing vehicle, whose occupants then notified a police patrol.
Upon his arrest, Danks confessed to the series of attacks, stating that he believed killing homeless individuals was "the Lord's work." He was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. In 1988, Danks was sentenced to 156 years to life in prison.
