Porn stars might have been victims of the “The Grim Sleeper.”

57-year-old mechanic Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested on July 7, 2010 and charged with raping & murdering 10 women in Los Angeles dating back to 1985.

The murders began in 1985 in South Los Angeles. Franklin took a 14 year hiatus after his last murder in 1988 but began murdering again in 2002. His last confirmed murder was in January 2007. All of his victims were found outdoors, a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, in either alleyways or dumpsters. He was first dubbed “The Southside Slayer.”

All but one of his victims are black women. One of his suspected victims is a black man. It’s believed that Franklin murdered Thomas Steele because either Steele knew about Franklin’s history of murders or was possibly a friend of one of Franklin’s victims.

One woman who survived an attack in 1988 described the suspect as a black man in his 20s, driving an orange Ford Pinto. She said he picked her up, shot her in the chest, raped her, and then pushed her out of his car.

Many of his victims were prostitutes. One neighbor recalls that Franklin would frequently bring prostitutes home with him. Franklin would rape his victims before strangling or shooting them.

During his arrest in July, authorities found in his home over a thousand pictures and hundreds of hours of video of women. The LAPD have now released the pictures on their website lapdonline.org in hopes of identifying the women. Police have said they are sensitive to the embarrassment the release of the pictures could cause the women but had decided that the need to identify the women outweighed the potential harm.

The Los Angeles Times quoted a neighbor who said Franklin was a retired trash collector, and the gap between killings corresponded with a time he was on disability. Neighbors told City News Service that Franklin once worked as a mechanic for the LAPD, and his estranged wife may have also worked for the department. Neighbors say they never saw his wife but his grandchildren often visited.

Prior to releasing the pictures, detectives had asked Franklin’s wife to review the images in order to identify family and friends. She refused to help.

Neighbors who gathered near Franklin’s home after his arrest contended that one of Franklin’s nephews led police to him.

Vanessa Blue called Gene Ross at AdultFYI this weekend. The story hits close to home for Vanessa because she has a half-sister who disappeared. She says while she didn’t find a picture of her sister in the released pictures, she did recognize two porn stars who she had once worked with, Promise and Ms. Paris. A third porn star has been found but she doesn’t want to talk to anyone.

“I had an interesting weekend and was tripping out,“ she says.

“While I didn’t find my sister, I saw pictures of two porn girls. I looked at those shots and I said I know those faces. I’ve worked with them. Then I called a few other people.”

Blue began comparing notes with someone she knows from the adult business and he found a picture of another girl he knew, thus making at least three girls from the adult business that have been identified.

Blue called the police and told them what she knew.

“This has been sitting real heavy on me,” she says.

One of the girls is a performer named Promise who had been with World Modeling. Blue found Promise’s picture. Being “crazy” was Promise’s claim to fame.

“She had a website up but you can see it really hasn’t been touched,” says Blue who got confirmation from several others that it was indeed Promise. Another girl from the business, Ms. Paris has also been identified from a photo. The third girl has been tracked down but she isn’t talking to anyone.

Jim South of World Modeling couldn’t add much more because when he shut down his business in 2006 he got rid of most of his files.

“We practically started from scratch,” South says.

“So if she [Promise] had been with me, I have no number, no address, no way to reach her.” The last time Promise did anything with South was back in 2003.

Lonnie Franklin Jr. has pleaded not guilty and is in custody awaiting trial. In July, he was attacked by another inmate at the Los Angeles County jail in an attorney waiting room. Antonio Rodriguez broke free as he was being handcuffed and punched Franklin several times in the head. Rodriguez has been convicted of raping & murdering a 5-year-old girl.