Man pleads guilty to murdering 7 women in the 1970s and 1980s

LOS ANGELES - A 74-year-old man pleaded guilty today to the killings of seven women in the Southland in the 1970s and 1980s and was immediately sentenced to seven life prison terms, one without the possibility of parole.

John Floyd Thomas Jr. pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree murder. His victims ranged in age from 56 to 80 years old.

Thomas was initially charged April 2, 2009, with murdering Ethel Sokoloff, 68, on Nov. 25, 1972, in her Mid-Wilshire home, and Elizabeth McKeown, 67, in Westchester some time between Feb. 15-18, 1976.

Los Angeles police said then that he had been linked to the two killings through DNA evidence, but were looking into as many as two dozen other murders and rapes that occurred between 1955 and 1978.

Later in 2009, Thomas was charged with five additional killings involving three women who lived in Inglewood, one who lived in the Lennox area and one who resided in Claremont -- killed between September 1975 and June 1986, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Thomas was arrested March 31, 2009.

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