Texas man held in 4 California killings

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man has been arrested in Texas in connection with slayings of four women decades ago in Southern California, police said.

Billy Ray Richardson, 76, was arrested Thursday by detectives from the Los Angeles and suburban Inglewood police departments with the assistance of Fort Worth, Texas, police.

A Los Angeles police statement said Richardson was charged by LA County prosecutors with four counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of multiple murder and murder in the commission of rape.

The statement said investigative and forensic work over the decades linked Richardson to the 1980 killings of Beverly Cruse, Debra Cruse and Kari Lenander in Los Angeles and the 1995 slaying of Trina Wilson in Inglewood.

It was not immediately known if Richardson had an attorney to comment on his behalf. He was in custody in Texas on Thursday awaiting extradition to Los Angeles, police said.