Prosecutors says L.A. Serial Killer may be 4 or 5

Four or more men may be responsible for the murders of dozens of women in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s, in what became known as the "Southside Slayer" killings, police and prosecutors say.

Prosecutors have charged a convicted murderer already serving life in prison, Michael Hughes, with four new killings that took place in South Los Angeles between 1986 and 1993. Hughes, 52, pleaded not guilty Wednesday. His attorney, Michael Kallen, declined to comment on the case.

The killings occurred during a crime wave linked to the crack cocaine epidemic that swept through the city. Police initially believed many of the victims, often poor, drug-addicted women, were targets of a serial killer known as the Southside Slayer.

Using DNA evidence, detectives reinvestigating unsolved cases from that era now believe that many of the killings attributed to the Southside Slayer were in fact the work of several men who were stalking the same area during the same time. more