So-called 'Westside Rapist' pleads guilty to 7 killings

A 74-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday for murdering seven women in Southern California the 1970s and '80s.

When Los Angeles police arrested John Floyd Thomas, Jr. two years ago, they called him one of the most prolific serial killers in Southland history. They believed Thomas was responsible for more than 25 murders and scores of rapes in south and West L.A. and in Claremont in the 1970s and '80s. Police hunting Thomas at the time of those murders dubbed him the "Westside Rapist."

Most of the victims were elderly women, and most died of strangulation. Police found the last woman they believe he strangled in a Claremont apartment in 1986. A couple years later, John Floyd Thomas Jr. took a job as a state insurance adjuster.

The serial killer case went cold until three years ago, when a new state law required Thomas to provide a DNA sample because he had an old sexual assault conviction from the 1950s. His DNA matched evidence from two unsolved murders.

After pleading guilty, Thomas was sentenced to seven life prison terms, one without the possibility of parole.