Sadistic Southern California Serial Killer Captured Forty Years Later

The Arrest of Billy Ray Richardson Shows Justice Never Forgets

Trina Wilson, photograph provided by her daughter, Latasha Thomas

Richard Ramirez. Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy. Lonnie Franklin. William Bonin. Do these names ring a bell?

Southern California was a "hotbed" of serial killers in the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, the number of active serial killers (captured and not) during those twenty years earned Los Angeles the moniker "serial killer capital of the U.S." Now we can name another one; Billy Ray Richardson. 

On July 15, 2022, Billy Ray Richardson (dob 12/4/46) was charged with four counts of murder and rape. His crimes appear to be sexually motivated. 

Richardson is accused of killing 25-year-old Beverly Cruse and 22-year-old Debra Cruse inside Beverly's west Los Angeles apartment. James had become worried when he couldn't reach his sisters for several days. He was devastated when he found their nude bodies. Beverly was a USC employee and part-time student, while Debra was working as a receptionist at a local radio station. Detectives believe that Debra had been visiting her sister when the attack occurred. 

They had been sexually assaulted and shot in the head three times. There were no viable suspects, and the case quickly went cold.

The Next Kill

Less than four months later, he struck again. On July 26, 1980, fifteen-year-old Palisades High School student Kari Leander (DOB 8/14/1964) was raped and strangled. At the time, investigators had no idea the killer had killed before. But they did have more to go on.

Kari and her best friend, Tina Garfield, were looking forward to their junior year in high school. They were in the middle of planning a sweet sixteen party. Kari was over at Tina's house and thrilled they had it to themselves; Tina's parents were out of town. 

After drinking some tequila at Tina's house, they decided to go dancing in Hollywood and began walking with their thumbs stuck out. 

They were looking for a ride. A man who said he was Ken from Canada picked them up. Maybe they were all going to party together.  

When they stopped to use the bathroom, though, Tina started feeling sick; she told "Ken" and Kari that she was dizzy and wanted to go home. Ken drove both girls back to Brentwood. Kari wasn't ready to call it a night and told Tina that she was going back out with their new friend. 

It was around 10:00 p.m. It was the last time anyone saw the teenager alive. Her body was found at 4:30 a.m. in a street gutter in south Los Angeles. She had been raped and strangled. 

She would have turned sixteen nine days later. 

Police spent years investigating Kari's murder; they could never find "Ken." or identify any other solid suspects. They reexamined the case several times. In 2001, a cold case squad took a crack at it. In 2012, investigators added a $50,000 reward to encourage more tips. 

Several theories emerged. Crime scene investigators had found foliage and white rock dust in Kari's hair and wondered for a time if she had been killed by someone she knew. There were rumors that someone was stalking her although these were never substantiated. "Ken," of course, remained a suspect. 

From a public safety perspective, investigators worried. In 2012, an investigator made this comment; "Lenander's death appears to be a sexual assault/murder, [and these] have a high potential to be committed by a repeat offender." If this were a movie, we'd call that kind of statement "foreshadowing." 

The Link

On December 31, 1995, twenty-eight-year-old Trina Wilson was found murdered in Inglewood. She had been sexually assaulted and her throat slashed. DNA found on her body matched that found on fifteen-year-old Kari's. It was the first clue that the two cases were related. But the perpetrator was a mystery.

Latasha Thomas, the daughter of the final victim, was just seven years old when her mom died. She remembers staying in an Inglewood motel with two siblings and her mother when her mom left the room on New Year's Eve of 1995.

"We were waiting for her to come back, and she never came back," an emotional Thomas remembered. Thomas said their uncles came and got them. Her grandmother told them that police had found her mother in a nearby park with her throat slashed.

DNA eventually linked Billy Ray Richardson linked through DNA to all four murders. He had been on no one's radar.  

This story is breaking news. There is limited information about Richardson's background or criminal record. Public records show he previously lived in Haltom City, Fort Worth, and Los Angeles County. He does not appear to have a criminal record in Fort Worth. We don't yet know if he committed other crimes in other places. However, many sexually motivated homicide offenders have a particularly nasty mix of psychopathy and sadism, making additional crimes appealing.

The Bottom Line 

It took over forty years to track Billy Ray Richardson down, forty years that Beverly, Debra, Kari, and Trina didn't have. It must feel like a slap in the face to see a man who has lived an entire life while your loved ones' were cut brutally short. I wonder if that is how the families of Billy Ray Richardson's four victims felt this week as their daughters' killer was finally arrested. The disabled, seventy-six-year-old serial killer was placed in handcuffs at his nursing home in Keller, Texas, and will be extradited to Los Angeles for trial. 

Still, a hollow victory is a victory. Something is heartening about investigators who keep investigating no matter how much time has passed. It's inspiring to see how new technology is making cold cases solvable.

 We forensic psychologists have our cross to bear. We've got to keep moving forward, looking for more and better ways to spot budding predators while we can still intervene and finding more accurate ways to predict violence risk in those already behind bars. 

Thanks for reading this week’s issue of The Mind Detectives. Please share with your true crime-obsessed friends. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this case so please comment!