Brandon Tholmer

Case identification

Brandon Tholmer was prosecuted for the slayings and related offences involving four elderly women in the Los Angeles area.

Timeline

• October 22, 1975 — Fingerprints were matched to those recovered from the apartment where a 79-year-old woman was attacked; a charge of rape was added and Tholmer later pled guilty, blaming his actions on an LSD “high.”
• August 13, 1981 — Rose Lederman, 80, was strangled in her Silver Lake home; her body was discovered in her Silver Lake home.
• August 1982 — Wolloomooloo Woodcock, 69, was strangled and beaten in her East Hollywood home.
• August 1983 — Dorothy Fain, 70, was stabbed in her Hollywood home.
• May 1983 — Lorraine H. Wells, 76, was smothered in her Hollywood bungalow apartment.
• September 1983 — Mary Pauquette, 72, was beaten in her Monroe Street apartment.
• November 6, 1984 — Surveillance was initiated.
• November 7, 1984 — Tholmer was arrested, poised outside the bedroom window of an 85-year-old paraplegic.
• November 8, 1983 — Tholmer was arrested in connection with murders of two older women killed in the prior two years in Hollywood.
• 1986 — A jury convicted Tholmer on all counts on July 25, 1986.
• July 25, 1986 — The jury convicted Tholmer of slaying four elderly women and found that, during the course of the murders, he also committed rape, sodomy, arson and burglary.
• 1986 — Tholmer was sentenced to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment.

Background

Brandon Tholmer was a native of Los Angeles and was born in 1949. He was 26 years old at the time of his arrest for assaulting a police officer. He later served three years in Patton State Hospital undergoing treatment as a mentally disordered sex offender. He was released in October 1979 and continued treatment as an out-patient at a rehabilitation center in suburban Silver Lake.

Memories of the “West Side Rapist” were revived from 1981 to 1984, as homicide investigators probed violent deaths of 32 elderly women around Los Angeles.

The offence

Tholmer was found guilty of slaying four elderly women who lived within a two-mile radius in the East Hollywood–Silver Lake area.

The victims were:

• Rose Lederman (80) — Her body was discovered in her Silver Lake home in August 1981; she was strangled in her Silver Lake home.
• Wolloomooloo Woodcock (69) — She was strangled and beaten in her East Hollywood home in August 1982.
• Dorothy Fain (70) — She was stabbed in her Hollywood home in August 1983.
• Mary Pauquette (72) — She was beaten in her Monroe Street apartment in September 1983.

During the course of the murders, the jury found that Tholmer also committed rape, sodomy, arson and burglary, and these special circumstances made him eligible for the death penalty.

Investigation

Authorities collected evidence linking Tholmer to merchandise stolen from Rose Lederman in 1981, and one of his shoes matched a footprint found at the home of Wolloomooloo Woodcock (69), murdered in August 1982. Investigators probed violent deaths of 32 elderly women around Los Angeles during the period when the “West Side Rapist” memories were revived from 1981 to 1984.

Tholmer was suspected, but never charged, in a series of ten murders committed by the “West Side Rapist.” He was strongly connected with 12 slayings through circumstantial evidence, though he was ultimately charged with only four.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said after Tholmer’s arrest that Tholmer was a suspect in some of the 34 unsolved slayings of elderly Los Angeles women between 1981 and 1983. Since then, police closed the book on investigations of 12 homicides they believed were linked to Tholmer.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lance Ito said would-stake-out victim murder charges were filed only in the cases where there was the most evidence. Authorities theorized that Tholmer staked out his victims while hanging out at two supermarkets where his girlfriend worked. Authorities theorized he then broke into the women’s homes late at night to attack them.

Arrest

In November 1984, task force officers examined Tholmer’s file and noted similarities between his old M.O. and the procedures of their latest maniac-at-large. Surveillance was initiated on November 6, and Tholmer was arrested one day later, poised outside the bedroom window of an 85-year-old paraplegic.

Another account described Tholmer’s arrest in November 1983 as occurring after detectives identified him as a potential suspect because of his conviction in a 1975 rape of an elderly woman. That account stated Tholmer was held without bail and was under 24-hour surveillance since Nov. 2.

In that November 1983 account, Tholmer was charged with the murders of Lucille Pyle (82) and Mary Pauquette (73), and both women had been raped.

Trial

A jury convicted Tholmer on all counts on July 25, 1986, including charges of rape, sodomy, arson and burglary.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Clarence A. Stromwall declared a mistrial on two other counts on which the jury deadlocked: an attempted burglary and the murder of Lorraine H. Wells (76), who was smothered in her Hollywood bungalow apartment in May 1983.

The jury that convicted Tholmer was to hear evidence in the penalty phase beginning Aug. 5.

Sentencing

Tholmer was sentenced to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment in 1986. The sentencing terms followed his conviction on four counts.

Outcome

Tholmer was found guilty of slaying four elderly women and had special circumstances found that made him eligible for the death penalty.

The record also stated that he was unlikely to be prosecuted for numerous other suspected murders.

Other details

Tholmer had previously pled guilty to the rape charge related to the 1975 attack on a 79-year-old woman and blamed his actions on an LSD “high.”

Authorities described the victims as elderly women living within a localized area in the East Hollywood–Silver Lake region.

Michael Newton, Paul Feldman, and the Los Angeles Times were included in the case summary text, as were references to the New York Times and an item titled “Suspect Is Arrested In Hollywood Slayings.”