Episode 72 – Originally Released February 2019
Content warning: This episode contains adult subject matter including discussions about missing persons, and murder, which may be upsetting to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
Between the summer of 1985 and fall 1990, eight women were brutally murdered in the Frankford section of Philadelphia. Police already had their hands full between Gary Heidnik and his house of horrors and Marty Graham, whom the press dubbed the Corpse Collector.
Philadelphia had three serial killers operating at almost the same time in this city, but because the locations of the slasher victims seemed unrelated, and inconsistent intervals between killings, these crimes weren’t linked as the work of one sadistic killer for over three years. Eight women lost their lives, but they weren’t the only people whose existence were devastated by the Frankford Slasher. Leonard Christopher, arrested, charged, and convicted for killing one of these women spent his life in jail for a crime he likely didn’t commit, and was surrounded by a cloud of suspicion that he was the Frankford Slasher.
Travel back in time with me 30 years to Frankford Avenue, Goldies Bar, and other spots under the L where darkness prowled the neighborhood and used a blade to leave its mark on the community.
Research sources for this episode include:
- Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News Archives
- Daily Times Archives
- Philadelphia City Paper
- The Associated Press
- NBC 10
- Criminal Records Search
TwistedPhilly is researched, hosted, and produced by me, Deana Marie, and available biweekly wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow me on Tiktok and Instagram at twistedphilly to see many of the locations and histories I discuss in the show.
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