Brandon Tholmer

Serial Killer

Brandon Tholmer: The Murders of Elderly Women in Los Angeles

Background and Early Sexual Violence

Brandon Tholmer was an American serial killer, rapist and burglar whose crimes terrorized elderly women living alone in Los Angeles during the early 1980s. Although investigators examined him in connection with dozens of similar deaths, he was ultimately convicted of murdering four women. Police believed he was responsible for additional killings for which prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to obtain convictions. Tholmer was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and moved to Los Angeles as a young man. By the mid-1970s, he had already demonstrated a pattern of targeting elderly women. In 1975, he entered the residence of an approximately 80-year-old woman, raped and robbed her, and attempted to strangle her. He was convicted in connection with the assault and classified as a mentally disordered sex offender. He was committed to Patton State Hospital for treatment before being released in 1979. After his release, Tholmer returned to the Los Angeles area. He worked at various jobs, including employment as a shipping clerk, and attempted to establish himself as a musician. Beneath this outwardly ordinary existence, however, prosecutors said he was prowling neighborhoods inhabited by elderly women, entering their homes and subjecting them to sexual assault and extreme violence.

A Pattern of Murders

Between 1981 and 1983, Los Angeles investigators confronted a disturbing series of attacks on older women. Many of the victims lived alone in houses or apartments in Hollywood, East Hollywood, Silver Lake and surrounding communities. They were beaten, strangled or stabbed, and several were sexually assaulted. In some cases, fires were deliberately started inside the victims' homes, apparently in an effort to destroy evidence and disguise the murders as accidental deaths. The similarities among the crimes produced fears that one offender was hunting vulnerable women throughout the area. Tholmer became associated with the name "West Side Rapist," although that description has also been connected to other offenders who attacked women in Los Angeles. At various stages of the investigation, authorities considered him a possible suspect in as many as 34 deaths. Police later eliminated him as a suspect in 22 of those cases, but investigators continued to believe that he had committed approximately a dozen murders. ...

Confirmed Victims: (5)

Rose Lederman Age: (80), Date of Death: 1981-08

Brandon Tholmer - Wikipedia