The Frankford Avenue area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the scene of a dreadful series of murders from 1985 until 1990. Before this saga was finished eight women would be brutally slain and despite a conviction in one case, the man that became known in the press as the "Frankford Slasher" would escape justice and disappear.

The slayings began when 52-year-old Helen Parent was found murdered along Frankford Avenue on August 28, 1985. Parent had been stabbed nineteen times and her abdomen sliced wide open. When her body was discovered she was nude except for her blouse, which was pushed up to reveal her breasts.

All was quiet until January 3, 1986, when Anna Carroll, 68, was killed inside her home. Carroll was stabbed six times and slashed Ripper-styple from her genital area to her breastbone. The killer emerged again to kill on Christmas night, stabbing 74-year-old Susan Olzef to death in her Philly apartment.

Victim number four was found stuffed underneath a Frankford Avenue fruit stand on January 8, 1987. Her name was Jeanne Durkin, 28, and she was found naked from the waist down, her body punctured by 74 seperate stab wounds. At this point a task force was formed but was no closer to a solution in the homicides when yet another woman was mutilated on November 11, 1988. Marge Waughn, 66, was found in an apartment building entryway and had been stabbed to 29 times. A bartender reported that she had seen Vaughn the previous night with a white male, middle-aged, with glasses and a obvious limp.

On the evening of January 19, 1989, 30-year-old Theresa Sciortino was slain in her apartment. She was nude except for socks and had been stabbed 25 times. Sciortino had also been seen with amiddle-aged white male just before her death. On April 28, 1990 a police officer happened upon the body of Carol Dowd, 45, along Frankford Avenue. Dowd had died form 26 stab wounds and a vicious slash of her abdomen. On the day of her murder she had been in the company of an unknown middle-aged white man.

Sketches of the man seen with the last three victims were remarkably similar to one another. It seemed as if the investigators had the face of the killer, they only had to put a name to that face and they would have their man. Which made it seem odd that when an arrest was made in Dowd's murder it turned out to be a 39-year-old black man named Leonard Christopher. Christopher worked nearby where Dowd's body had been discovered and when routinely questioned offered up an alibi for the night of the killing that later proved to be false. Two witnesses subsequently placed him with Dowd on that night.

No solid evidence ever linked Christopher with Dowd's killing but he was convicted anyway and sentenced in December of 1990 to life in prison. Meanwhile, after Christopher had been safely incarcerated, the Frankford Slasher had apparently struck again, killing Michelle Martin, 30. She was found in her apartment, nude except for a blouse pushed up over her breasts and had been stabbed 23 times. She was last seen with a middle-aged white male in a Frankford Avenue bar.

After the Martin homicide the Frankford Slasher seems to have moved on. Leonard Christopher continues to proclaim his innocence but remains jailed for the murder of Carol Dowd and remains a suspect in at least some of the other seven slayings. No matter if Christopher is truly guilty of killing Dowd or not, it seems obvious that Philadelphia's Frankford Slasher has to this point eluded justice.