A serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper should be sentenced to death for murdering nine women and a teenage girl over more than two decades in south Los Angeles, a jury decided on Monday.

Their bodies were dumped in alleys and rubbish bins in South Los Angeles, some naked, some covered with mattresses and trash. Most had been shot in the chest after sexual contact, others strangled.

A man who authorities believe strangled dozens of women as he moved from place to place around the US has been convicted of three 1980s murders in Los Angeles.

Detectives across the US are scouring cold case files for possible ties to a man arrested on suspicion of killing three women — fearing he may have killed scores of people.