Vaughn Orrin Greenwood: The Skid Row Slasher
Vaughn Orrin Greenwood was an American serial killer associated with a series of knife murders in Los Angeles that stretched from 1964 to 1975. Born in Pennsylvania on January 19, 1944, Greenwood became known as the “Skid Row Slasher” because most of his victims were vulnerable men living in or around downtown Los Angeles and its Skid Row district. Eleven killings were ultimately attributed to him, although he was convicted of nine murders after jurors were unable to reach verdicts on two of the charges. His crimes were especially disturbing because several scenes contained unusual arrangements involving blood, salt, removed shoes, and markings around the victims.
The First Murders in 1964
The first killings attributed to Greenwood occurred on consecutive days in November 1964. David Russell, described in accounts as an older transient, was killed on November 13 and found on the steps of the Los Angeles Public Library. He had suffered a cut throat and multiple stab wounds. The next day, 67-year-old Benjamin Hornberg was killed in the second-floor restroom of a Los Angeles hotel. Hornberg's throat had been deeply slashed, and he had also suffered numerous stab wounds to his head and upper body.
The attacks then apparently stopped for approximately a decade. Greenwood was involved in another serious knife attack in Chicago in 1966. The victim, 70-year-old Mance Porter, survived after being stabbed and having his throat cut. Greenwood was convicted of aggravated battery and spent more than five years incarcerated in Illinois. After his release and eventual return to California, the Los Angeles killings resumed.
The 1974-1975 Killing Series
On December 1, 1974, 46-year-old Charles Jackson was killed at or near the same location where David Russell had been found ten years earlier. Jackson was a drifter, and investigators recognized similarities between the two crime scenes. Over the following weeks, men living in hotels, alleys, and other locations around downtown Los Angeles were killed in rapid succession. Greenwood generally attacked with knives or similar bladed weapons, with throat wounds becoming the most recognizable feature of the series.
Some crime scenes contained elements that investigators and prosecutors described as ritualistic. Accounts describe cups containing blood beside some victims, salt sprinkled around portions of the bodies, unusual markings near wounds, and shoes removed and deliberately positioned toward the bodies. Prosecutors at Greenwood's trial also alleged blood drinking, although later summaries conflict on whether there was evidence that Greenwood himself actually drank his victims' blood. The unusual arrangements led to speculation about occult or Satanic motives, but that interpretation has never been firmly established.
Victims
Older accounts sometimes record the date a body was discovered rather than a medically established time of death. Where that distinction is important, it is stated below rather than treating a discovery date as a certain death date.
- David Russell — November 13, 1964. Russell was an older transient killed in downtown Los Angeles. His body was found on the steps of the Los Angeles Public Library with a cut throat and multiple stab wounds.
- Benjamin Hornberg, 67 — November 14, 1964. Hornberg was killed in the second-floor restroom of a Los Angeles hotel. His throat was slashed and he suffered numerous additional stab wounds.
- Charles Jackson, 46 — December 1, 1974. Jackson, described as an alcoholic drifter, was killed in downtown Los Angeles at the location associated with the earlier David Russell murder near the Los Angeles Public Library.
- Moses Yakanac, 47 — December 8, 1974. Yakanac, a Native Alaskan man who was homeless, was stabbed to death in an alley in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles.
- Arthur Benedict Dahlstedt, 54 — December 11, 1974. Dahlstedt was killed in Los Angeles and found outside an abandoned building. His December 11 death date is also reflected in surviving burial and genealogical records.
- David Perez, 42 — December 22, 1974 case date. His surname is rendered as “Perea” in some older accounts. He was found in shrubbery adjoining the Los Angeles Public Library. Public crime histories consistently use December 22 as the date associated with his death and discovery.
- Casimir Strawinski, 58 — January 9, 1975. Strawinski was found stabbed to death inside his Los Angeles hotel room. January 9 is consistently reported as the date of the killing or discovery.
- Robert Lee Shannahan, 46 — body discovered January 17, 1975. A hotel maid found Shannahan in a Los Angeles hotel room with a bayonet lodged in his chest. Reports indicate that he had already been dead for several days, so January 17 should be treated as the discovery date rather than a certain date of death.
- Samuel Suarez, 49 — January 1975. Suarez was found in a fifth-floor hotel room in Los Angeles. One account places the discovery on January 30, but surviving sources do not establish a sufficiently consistent exact date of death, so only January 1975 can be stated with confidence.
- George Frias, 45 — January 29, 1975. His surname appears as “Friar” in some older summaries. Frias was stabbed to death inside his own apartment in Hollywood, marking a geographic shift away from Greenwood's earlier concentration on Skid Row.
- Clyde Hay, 34 — January 31, 1975. His name is also recorded as Clyde Hays in some accounts. Hay, a cash-register mechanic, was found dead inside his Hollywood home. His killing was the final homicide in the series attributed to Greenwood before the attack that led to Greenwood's capture.
The Attack That Led to His Capture
On February 2, 1975, Greenwood entered the Hollywood home of William Graham. Greenwood attacked Graham with a hatchet, but Graham's houseguest, Kenneth Richer, intervened. During the violent struggle, the men crashed through a plate-glass window and Greenwood fled. During his escape he left behind an important clue: a letter addressed to Vaughn Greenwood. Police identified him and arrested him on February 3, initially on burglary and assault charges.
The investigation quickly expanded beyond the failed attack. Police searching Greenwood's belongings reportedly recovered property connected with murder victim George Frias, including a pair of cufflinks. Detectives began examining Greenwood in relation to the unsolved Skid Row murders, and he was formally charged with murder in March 1975. A grand jury subsequently indicted him on eleven murder counts in January 1976.
Trial and Conviction
Greenwood's murder trial took place in 1976. The prosecution emphasized the similarities among the killings and the distinctive features found at several scenes. The investigation had been complicated by an early psychological profile that incorrectly suggested the killer was a white man with long blond hair. Greenwood was Black, demonstrating how badly an inaccurate profile could misdirect investigators. The defense also argued that evidence suggested more than one person could have been responsible for the crimes.
The jury ultimately convicted Greenwood of nine counts of first-degree murder. Jurors were unable to reach verdicts in connection with the murders of David Russell and Charles Jackson, resulting in mistrials on those two counts rather than acquittals. Greenwood received life sentences on January 19, 1977. He had also received a lengthy prison sentence for the assault connected with the attack on William Graham and Kenneth Richer.
Later Life and Death
Greenwood remained imprisoned in California for the rest of his life. Although eleven Los Angeles murders were attributed to him, his legal record remained nine murder convictions because the two unresolved counts were never converted into convictions. His crimes became one of the darker chapters in the history of downtown Los Angeles, particularly because many of the victims were homeless, transient, impoverished, or otherwise vulnerable men whose deaths initially received limited public attention.
Vaughn Orrin Greenwood died on December 18, 2020, while incarcerated at California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo. He was 76 years old. His death ended a life spent largely within prisons after a series of crimes that had begun more than half a century earlier. The case remains notable both for the unusual staging associated with several crime scenes and for the investigative difficulties created by the decade-long gap between Greenwood's first two attributed murders and the concentrated series of killings that began in December 1974.
