Olga Harper, a 75-year-old female resident of Los Angeles, California, was found dead in her apartment on April 23, 1975, three days after she was last seen entering her home on April 20. The victim, identified as a white woman, had been beaten, raped, and murdered. Her death was part of a disturbing pattern of violent crimes targeting elderly women in the Los Angeles area during the 1970s.
Harper's murder was one of several suspected to be committed by a serial offender known as the
“Westside Rapist,” later identified as John Floyd Thomas Jr. Thomas, a Black male born in Los Angeles in 1936, was eventually linked to a series of brutal attacks and murders spanning from 1972 to 1986. His victims were predominantly elderly white women, often living alone. The killer's modus operandi typically involved gaining access to the victim's residence, sexually assaulting them, and then strangling or suffocating them. In many cases, he left pillows or blankets over their faces.
Although Thomas was not formally charged with Olga Harper's murder, her death was included among the suspected victims attributed to him. Investigators noted similarities in the circumstances surrounding her death and those of other women killed during the same period. Thomas was arrested in 2009 after DNA evidence linked him to multiple cold cases. He later pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The murder of 75-year-old white female Olga Harper remains officially unsolved, but law enforcement strongly suspects she was one of the many victims of John Floyd Thomas Jr., whose crimes terrorized the elderly community in Los Angeles for over a decade. Her case stands as a tragic example of the vulnerability faced by older individuals and the long shadow cast by one of the city's most prolific serial killers.
