Richard Lee Dickson was 28 years old when he died on Monday, June 5, 2000, in Koreatown. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 708 S. New Hampshire Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 28-year-old black male" who "died Monday, June 5, after being stabbed in Koreatown." The entry gave a street address on South New Hampshire Avenue, but it did not say whether that was his home, the home of someone he knew or simply the place where he was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Richard Lee Dickson has been made public.
No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record. Richard Dickson is a very common name in the United States, and searches turn up many other men who share his full name. None of them can be connected to the man who died in Koreatown.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
At 28, he was a young man with most of his adult life still ahead of him. Whatever his circumstances, he would have had friends, relatives, coworkers or neighbors who knew him and who would remember the week in early June 2000 when he was killed.
Koreatown lies west of downtown Los Angeles, centered on the stretch of Wilshire Boulevard lined with office towers, churches and older hotels. Behind the boulevard, its side streets are packed with apartment buildings, making it one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city. It takes its name from the Korean restaurants, markets, banks and businesses that fill its commercial streets, but by 2000 a large share of its residents were Latino families.
Homicides in Los Angeles rose sharply in the early 2000s, climbing past 600 in 2002, and detectives carried heavy caseloads. Many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Richard Lee Dickson could be found in news archives or public records. More than 25 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 28-year-old man named Richard Lee Dickson, who lived near the 700 block of South New Hampshire Avenue in June 2000, may hold information that could help detectives. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
