Frank Floyd Reed, a 36-year-old Black male, was one of the victims in a chilling series of murders that plagued the Skid Row area of Los Angeles in late 1978. On November 12 of that year, Reed was found stabbed to death in a parking lot, his murder occurring during a particularly violent stretch in which multiple victims were targeted in rapid succession. That same day, another man—49-year-old Augustine E. Luna—was also killed, suggesting a double homicide by the same assailant.
The killings bore the hallmarks of a spree, with victims often being homeless or transient individuals, and the attacks carried out with a knife.
The string of murders, which began in October 1978 and continued into early 1979, was eventually attributed to a suspect dubbed the 'Skid Row Stabber.' The killings were marked by a disturbing pattern: victims were typically found in alleyways or parking lots within a concentrated area of downtown Los Angeles. The brutality and frequency of the attacks created widespread fear among the city's unhoused population.
In April 1979, authorities arrested 29-year-old Bobby Joe Maxwell, a Black male who frequented the Skid Row area. He was charged with multiple counts of murder, including the stabbing deaths of Frank Floyd Reed and others. Maxwell was found with a double-edged knife, which investigators claimed was consistent with the wounds found on several victims. A palm print found near one of the crime scenes was also linked to him. Additionally, a logbook recovered from his sister's home contained an entry that read, “Satan, praise be unto you,” which prosecutors used to support a theory that Maxwell was motivated by occult beliefs.
Despite the charges, Maxwell's conviction was controversial. There was no direct physical evidence tying him to the murders, and much of the prosecution's case relied on circumstantial details and questionable witness testimony. In 2010, his conviction was overturned due to concerns about the reliability of the evidence and the fairness of his trial. Maxwell remained in custody but was never retried. He suffered a heart attack in 2015 and remained in a coma until his death in 2019, never learning that he had been exonerated.
The murder of 36-year-old Black male Frank Floyd Reed remains a haunting chapter in the history of Los Angeles crime, emblematic of a time when vulnerable populations were targeted with impunity and justice proved elusive. The case continues to raise questions about investigative practices and the treatment of marginalized victims.
