Rape Victim Helps Catch Alleged Serial Killer

'I'm blessed to have been able to stop him'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 2, 2015 4:02 PM CDT
Rape Victim Helps Catch Alleged Serial Killer
   (Shutterstock)

Candice Franklin, a former drug addict and prostitute, turned her life around after helping police catch the man who allegedly raped her and killed four other prostitutes in a poor Chicago neighborhood, the Chicago Tribune reports in a lengthy piece about Franklin and her alleged attacker. "I'm blessed to have been able to stop him because he could've had more (victims) than what he did," she says. In March 2010, Franklin says she agreed to have sex with Michael Johnson Jr. for $20. That's when he allegedly choked her unconscious, raped her, and left her for dead. She didn't go to the police. A few weeks later she was back on the street, where she saw Johnson again. "He looked at me like I was a ghost because he couldn't believe I was still here," she says.

Franklin eventually called 911 and had her boyfriend corner Johnson until officers arrived, the Tribune reports. A DNA swab was the break needed to charge Johnson with multiple rapes and murders. That incident restored some of Franklin's trust in authorities. Two years later when she was arrested for prostitution, she admitted she needed help. "They helped me instead of sending me to prison," she says. "From that day on, I haven't looked back." Franklin, now clean and off the street, has testified against Johnson in two trials so far. He's currently serving 190 years for two of the attacks. "I figure God wasn't ready to take me," Franklin says. "He brought me back to help him. To be the mouthpiece for the other girls that didn't make it." Read the full story here. (More rape stories.)

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