David Martin Jones, 39, was fatally stabbed near the Los Angeles Central Library on November 9, 1978. His killing was one of a series of sudden, brutal knife attacks across Skid Row in late 1978 and early 1979 attributed to the figure known as the Skid Row Stabber. Victims were mostly homeless or transient men, attacked within a concentrated area of downtown Los Angeles and often stabbed multiple times; in some scenes, messages referencing Satan or Luther were reported.

Witnesses said that shortly before Jones was killed, three friends of his were approached by a man who introduced himself as Luther. That man was described as a Black male, about 30 years old, speaking with a Spanish or Caribbean accent; after a brief conversation the suspect allegedly stabbed Jones and fled. The series of murders eventually led to the arrest of 29-year-old Bobby Joe Maxwell in April 1979, who was charged with multiple counts including Jones’s murder.

Does anyone have more information about Jones’s life, his friends who witnessed the encounter, or other observations from downtown Los Angeles in November 1978?