In the days leading up to Christmas of 1974, a wave of terror was gripping the downtown core of Los Angeles. A series of brutal murders, seemingly targeting vulnerable and transient men, had left the city on edge. On December 22, this grim tally would include David Perez, a 42-year-old Hispanic man who became another victim in a spree of violence that haunted the city's Skid Row area. His life was cut short by a predator who would come to be known as the "Skid Row Slasher."
Very little has entered the public record about who David Perez was as a person. In the years since his death, no obituaries or family remembrances have surfaced to offer a glimpse into his life, his relationships, or the path that led him to be in Los Angeles at that time. He is remembered primarily as one of 11 men whose lives were violently taken by the same killer, their shared vulnerability making them targets. Like many of the other victims, David was in a precarious situation, which left him exposed to the dangers that lurked in the city's shadows.
The morning David's body was discovered, the city was just three days from Christmas. He was found in some shrubbery on Flower Street, adjacent to the grounds of the Los Angeles Public Library. This location had become a recurring scene in the killer's terrifying pattern; just weeks earlier, on December 1, another victim, Charles Jackson, had been killed at the very same spot where a murder had occurred a decade prior. The library, a place of public knowledge and sanctuary, had become a dumping ground and a landmark in one of Los Angeles's most notorious serial killer cases.
The investigation into the string of murders was one of the largest manhunts in the city's history. The killer, Vaughn Orrin Greenwood, had a distinct and brutal method. His victims were typically stabbed, and their throats were slashed. At several of the crime scenes, investigators found bizarre, ritualistic elements: cups of blood placed near the bodies, rings of salt sprinkled around them, and their shoes removed and pointed toward them. These unsettling details led to widespread public fear and media speculation about occult connections, though this was never definitively proven.
The Los Angeles Police Department's investigation was complicated by an early and inaccurate psychological profile that suggested the killer was a white man. This misdirection hampered the search while Greenwood, a Black man, continued his spree. The killings, which had begun with two murders in 1964 before a ten-year hiatus while Greenwood was imprisoned for another assault in Chicago, resumed with a terrifying frequency in late 1974.
The break in the case came on February 2, 1975, when Greenwood attacked two men in Hollywood. He was fought off and fled, but in his haste, he dropped a letter addressed to himself. This crucial piece of evidence led police directly to him, and he was arrested the following day. A search of his residence uncovered items stolen from one of the victims. In December 1976, a jury convicted Vaughn Greenwood of nine counts of first-degree murder, including that of David Perez. He was sentenced to life in prison in January 1977, with the judge recommending he never be released. Greenwood died in prison on December 18, 2020. The case of David Perez and the other victims of the Skid Row Slasher remains a dark chapter in Los Angeles history, a reminder of a time when a ruthless killer preyed on the city's most defenseless residents.
