Naman Shrestha
In ‘Cold Case Files: The Grim Sleeper,’ the focus is on Lonnie Franklin Jr., who earned his nickname, The Grim Sleeper, having killed dozens of women in South Central Los Angeles between the 1980s and 2000s. While Enietra Washington barely survived the attack on her, another woman was lucky enough to survive after encountering the serial killer in the 1980s. That woman was Pamela Brooks, who also features in the show.
Pamela Brooks Convinced Many Women to Come Forward and Share Their Stories About The Grim Sleeper
During her days as a sex worker in South Central Los Angeles, Pamela “Pam” Brooks came face to face with Lonnie Franklin Jr., AKA The Grim Sleeper, while hustling on the streets. Fortunately, she managed to avoid becoming one of his many victims during his reign of terror that spanned over 25 years — from the 1980s to the 2000s. After her encounter with the serial killer, Pamela tried her hands in many professional fields. However, at some point, she was convicted of felony crack possession, due to which she even failed to get a job as a bus driver.
A few years after Lonnie Franklin Jr. was finally arrested for the murders of dozens of women in Los Angeles, Nick and Barney Broomfield reached out to Pamela Brooks to feature in his documentary film about the serial killer — ‘Tales of the Grim Sleeper.’ Being a community member at the time, she was the one who persuaded most of the women whose explicit images were discovered in Lonnie’s garage to agree to an interview for the movie, as she knew them from when she was a sex worker. She was reportedly thrilled to be a part of the documentary and was surprised and amazed to work with “two (English) boys who cared enough about these black people’s lives.” After the filming was complete, the Broomfields even took her to several film festivals along with them.
Pamela Brooks Overcame Addiction and Worked Towards Expunging Her Prior Convictions For a Fresh Start
Pamela Brooks reportedly went to Long Beach City College in 2010 for higher studies. Having lived in Los Angeles for the majority of her life, the Susan Miller Dorsey High School graduate was residing in the city of Compton by the 2010s. For several years, she battled with crack cocaine addiction, but she decided to adopt a healthier lifestyle in 2011 and began working on getting clean. Well, by 2015, the 48-year-old was in the fourth year of her sobriety and worked as a caregiver. Despite being a qualified health worker, Pamela was reportedly struggling to pay the rent each month because the job didn’t pay much. In order to get better job opportunities, she started working on getting her felony convictions related to crack possession removed.
Opening up about it, Nick Broomfield told Entertainment Weekly, “But it’s quite a complicated and time-consuming process to do that. And everybody knows this now, but possession of crack is a felony and possession of the equal amount of cocaine, the white person’s drug, is not a felony. The making of the film really made me see how a lot of drug law legislation has been drafted with very direct racial overtones.” As of 2016, she lived in her Compton residence with her furry little friend and spent time with her daughter, Ebony, and granddaughter, Jayla, every once in a while. In 2021, Pamela reportedly served as a producer for ‘Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac,’ a documentary directed by Nick Broomfield.
Read More: Who Were The Grim Sleeper’s Victims? How Many People Did He Kill?
