On January 17, 1975, the body of 46-year-old white male Robert Lee Shannahan was discovered in a Los Angeles hotel room. A hotel maid found him with a bayonet protruding from his chest, and evidence suggested he had been dead for several days. Shannahan was a U.S. Army veteran, born on August 10, 1928, in Florida. He was later buried in Weeks Chapel Cemetery in Newton County, Texas.
Shannahan's death was part of a series of murders attributed to a serial killer known as the 'Skid Row Slasher.' The perpetrator, Vaughn Orrin Greenwood, was a 31-year-old African American man who targeted down-and-out individuals in Los Angeles. Between 1964 and 1975, Greenwood murdered eleven people, often leaving ritualistic signs at the crime scenes, such as cups of blood and salt rings around the bodies. His victims were typically found with their throats slashed or stabbed, and their shoes removed and placed pointing toward their bodies.
Greenwood's killing spree was interrupted in 1966 when he was imprisoned in Illinois for the attempted murder of a man in Chicago. After serving over five years, he resumed his murders in December 1974. Following Shannahan's death, Greenwood continued his attacks until his arrest on February 2, 1975. He was apprehended after invading the Hollywood home of William Graham and assaulting him with a hatchet. A houseguest intervened, and during Greenwood's escape, he dropped a letter addressed to himself in the driveway of actor Burt Reynolds' home, leading to his identification and arrest.
In January 1976, Greenwood was indicted on eleven counts of murder. He was convicted on nine counts in December 1976, with a mistrial declared on the remaining two. On January 19, 1977, he was sentenced to life in prison. Greenwood died on December 18, 2020, at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo, California, at the age of 76.
