Hello and welcome to the official companion podcast for the HBO documentary Tales of the Grim Sleeper.

My name is Hugo Lindgren.

And joining me in our New York studio as the director of the documentary, Nick Broomfield.

Welcome.

Hi.

Tales of the Grim Sleeper premieres April 27th at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on HBO and HBO Now.

In 2010, Lonnie Franklin was arrested in charge with murdering 10 women in South Los Angeles. The police

claimed that with Franklin's arrest, they had finally found the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper

after a 25-year search. Lonani Franklin and his family were well liked,

and those close to them were shocked by the accusations. For his documentary, Tales of the Grim Sleeper,

director Nick Broomfield planted himself in the place where these gruesome murders happened,

South Los Angeles, a predominantly black neighborhood that had been crippled by the crack epidemic

throughout the 1980s. From the unprecedented testimonials contained in the film,

we learned that it wasn't just 10 women that Lonnie Franklin killed,

but over 100 women, making Franklin one of the deadliest serial killers in history.

Nick, I want to start by just sort of talking about how you first heard about the grim sleeper

and kind of came to see this as a good subject to make a documentary

about. Well, I've lived in Los Angeles one way or another for a long time. And when I first came,

there was a lot more connection with South Central. In fact, my ex-partner's mother had set up a

medical center in South Central, which then under the Reagan years, the federal

funding got cut off and it closed down. And basically, I became aware that it was like living

in two cities. No white person ever went to South Central, really, unless they got lost.

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