Paroled Baby Killer Linked To String Of 19 Murders

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A Riverside County employee convicted of beating his baby daughter to death in 1973 was charged yesterday with the stabbing deaths of two prostitutes killed in a five-year string of 19 slayings.

William Lester Suff, 41, is a suspect in the remaining 17 slayings, said sheriff's Lt. Al Hearn, who leads the task force investigating the serial killings.

Suff was initially held on a parole violation for his 1974 murder conviction in Texas. Authorities said he beat his 2 1/2-month-old daughter so severely that her liver burst. Suff served 10 years of a 70-year sentence before he was paroled in 1984. He moved to Riverside County two years before the slayings began in 1986.

(King County police believe a serial killer, labeled the Green River killer, was active in the Seattle area between 1982 and 1984, while Suff was still in prison.)

A Riverside police officer sighted Suff talking to a prostitute Thursday night. Suff was stopped when he made an illegal U-turn and was arrested when officers found evidence in his van linking him to the slayings, Hearn said.

At least half of the slain prostitutes and drug users frequented the area where Suff was arrested, Hearn said. He described the evidence against Suff only as "primarily scientific" and said authorities were considering using DNA testing. Such tests are done on blood, semen, skin and hair samples.

"We're confident on the two charges," Hearn said. "Whether he's a serial killer that's responsible for all 19, I don't know."

He would not comment on TV reports that Suff had confessed, saying only that Suff was "cooperative." He also would not say whether police paraphernalia were found in Suff's van. Relatives of the dead women theorize that a police impostor tricked the victims into his car.

A neighbor said Suff portrayed himself as a police officer.

"Every time I saw him, he always said he was with the sheriff's office," said Peter Hernandez, a resident at Meadow Lane Villas apartment complex in Colton, Calif. "He drove around in a van that was wrecked on one side, and he just made out like he was a security figure."

Investigators have not ruled out the possibility of other suspects, Hearn said, but the arrest encouraged relatives of the slain women.

"An arrest helps the healing process," said Bob Chapman, whose daughter, Julie Angel, was victim No. 7. She was found on a dirt road on Nov. 19, 1989, and had been beaten beyond recognition.

"Sometimes you get doubtful. Two or three years go by, and they don't know anything, and you slip in your faith," Chapman said. "(But) we have never given up hope."

Delliah Zamora, 35, was victim No. 18. Her brother, Jose Zamora Jr., carried her portrait to a news conference about the arrest yesterday. Suff is not charged in that slaying.

Suff was charged with killing Catherine McDonald, 31, of Riverside, whose body was found Sept. 13, and Elenor Ojeda Casares, 39, of Riverside, found dead Dec. 23. McDonald was victim No. 17; Casares was No. 19.

Suff lived in Rialto and Lake Elsinore before moving to Colton less than six months ago. Friends said he was married, and county records indicated he fathered a girl in July.

Texas authorities said Suff violated parole by failing to make annual reports to them since 1988.