The Hillside Stranglers: The Twisted Cousins Who Terrorized Los Angeles
Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono terrorized Los Angeles for several months in late 1977 and early 1978, raping and killing 10 victims together before Kenneth Bianchi went off on his own, killing two more victims in Seattle before finally being caught.
Kenneth Bianchi:
On May 22, 1951, Kenneth Alessio Bianchi was born to his mother, a 17-year-old prostitute and alcoholic, in Rochester, New York. Only two weeks after Kenneth was born, his mother gave him up.
Just three months later, a couple, Nicholas Bianchi and Frances Scioliono, decided to adopt Kenneth. It wasn't long before problems arose with Kenneth.
Early on, his mother noticed very worrying signs...her son seemed to be a compulsive liar, he had violent temper tantrums, he did poorly in school despite seeming to have an above average intelligence, he wet the bed often as well as having infrequent daytime accidents, and there were times where Kenneth would stare off into space and his eyes would roll back into his head. After bringing her son to the doctor several times, the five-year-old Kenneth was diagnosed with petit mal seizures.
In an attempt to correct her son's behavior, Frances sent Kenneth to a private Catholic school early on where he showed some aptitude for writing, but did not apply himself elsewhere. His time at this school seems to be where he developed his skewed perspective of women. It put it in his head that women should be the perfect example of Catholic purity, and reality disappointed him everywhere he went. Learning the truth about his birth mother would have worsened his views of women even more.
At the age of 10, Kenneth was diagnosed as having a passive-aggressive personality disorder. At 11, it was found that Kenneth had an IQ of 116. Then, when Kenneth was 12, he pulled down a 6-year-old girls underwear, saying that he "liked doing it."
When Kenneth was 13, his father died of pneumonia, and it is said that Kenneth did not show any signs of grief whatsoever. The death of his father forced his mother to go back to work, which meant he was sent back to public school. He continued to underachieve in school, but did manage to graduate in 1970.
Not long after graduating from Gates-Chili High School, Kenneth married his high-school sweetheart, Brenda Beck. However, the marriage only lasted for eight months, and Brenda supposedly left him without warning or reason why.
Enrolling in community college, Bianchi took classes in police science and psychology in the hopes of becoming a police officer later on in life. Unfortunately, his lack of effort in school made him drop out before he could graduate.
He did apply at the sheriff's department after dropping out of college, but his application was rejected. After the rejection, he took a job as a security guard at a jewelry store. Bianchi stole from his job often, taking valuable jewelry to give to his girlfriends or prostitutes he met. Because of the constant petty crimes he committed, Bianchi moved around a lot.
Eventually, however, Bianchi moved all the way to Los Angeles, where he met up with his older cousin, Angelo Buono, who would later become his partner in the horrific crimes he committed.
Angelo Buono:
Not much is known of Angelo Buono's childhood. He was born on October 5, 1934 in Rochester, New York to Italian immigrants. Buono racked up a sheet of multiple crimes, including failure to pay child support, grand theft auto, assault, and rape.
Then, when Buono was 41-years-old, his cousin, Kenneth Bianchi, met up with him in Los Angeles.
Murders:
Bianchi and Buono started off working together as pimps when they first met up. Before long, this turned into more, and they would become known as the Hillside Stranglers.
Their first two victims were two teenagers, Sabra Hannan and Becky Spears. However, these two girls luckily escaped after a few weeks of captivity.
Unfortunately, this escape led them to go looking for more girls to hold prisoner. They began to drive around in Buono's car with fake badges, luring girls into their car and saying they were police officers, explaining the plain car as an undercover vehicle.
Yolanda Washington: Only 19 years old and a mother to a 2-year-old daughter, Tameika, Yolanda was the first victim to be killed by Bianchi and Buono. She was last seen by a music store owner, Ronald LeMieux, who told police he'd seen two men with badges handcuff her and push her into the back seat of their car. Her body was found on October 18, 1977 in Glendale, California near the hills of Griffith Park. She had been raped and had been tied around the neck, wrists, and legs with fabric.
Judith Miller: Just 15 years old, Judith was a runaway trying to survive on the streets. She was last seen outside Carney's Diner on Halloween 1977, talking to Bianchi and Buono. Her body was found naked on a hillside in La Crescenta on November 1, 1977. She had also been raped and sodomized and had ligature marks on her wrists and ankles.
Lissa Kastin: A 21-year-old waitress, Elissa Kastin, was last seen leaving the restaurant where she worked on November 5, 1977. On her way home, Bianchi and Buono pulled her over, presented their fake badges, handcuffed her, and told her they needed to take her in for questioning. Her body was found the next day near the Chevy Chase Glendale Country Club. She had ligature marks on her neck, wrists, and ankles and had been raped before being strangled.
Catharine Lorre Baker: In early November 1977, Bianchi and Buono approached the daughter of famous actor Peter Lorre. Intending to abduct and kill her, they pulled her over, but when she presented her driver's license, they saw a picture of her sitting on her father's lap and let her go, not wanting the attention of killing a celebrity's daughter.
Dolores Cepeda and Sonja Johnson: On November 13, 1977, 12-year-old Dolly Cepeda and 14-year-old Sonja Johnson boarded a bus in front of Eagle Rock Plaza on their way home. They were seen getting off the bus before being approached by two men in a sedan. Seven days later, on November 20, 1977, a 9-year-old boy found their bodies on a hillside near Dodger Stadium. They had both been raped and strangled, and their bodies had already begun decomposing when they were found.
Kristina Weckler: 20 years old, Kristina was an honors student at the Art Center College of Design. Her body was also found on November 20, 1977, a few hours before Dolly Cepeda and Sonja Johnson were found. She had the same ligature marks on her neck, wrists, and ankles and had also been raped and sodomized. However, she also had puncture marks on her arm despite her not being a drug addict. It was later found that she had been tortured by being injected with an ammonia-based window cleaner, Windex.
Evelyn Jane King: A 28-year-old aspiring actress, Evelyn had gone missing on November 9, 1977. Her body was not discovered until November 23, 1977, and while the stage of decomposition made it hard to determine whether she had been raped, she had been strangled like the others.
Lauren Rae Wagner: 18-year-old Lauren Wagner was a business student who lived with her parents in San Fernando Valley. She had been expected home before midnight, but when her father found her car across the street with the door wide open, he talked to the neighbor, who claimed she saw two men grab Lauren, who screamed, "You won't get away with this!" Her body was found on November 29, 1977 on the hills around Mount Washington in Los Angeles. She had the same ligature marks and had burn marks on her hands from being tortured.
Kimberly Martin: 17 years old, Kimberly was a prostitute who recently joined a call girl agency for better protection from the men kidnapping girls off the streets. Bianchi and Buono placed a call through her agency from a library pay phone and she was dispatched. Police found the apartment she had been dispatched to, and it had been broken into and vacated. Her naked body was found on December 14, 1977 on a deserted lot near Los Angeles City Hall. Her body also showed signs of torture.
Cindy Hudspeth: 20-year-old Cindy was a part-time waitress and student who went to Buono's upholstery shop for work on her car. Her body was found in the trunk of her car, an orange Datsun, which had been abandoned on a cliff on the Angeles Crest Highway on February 17, 1978. She had ligature marks and had been raped and tortured.
Arrest and Trials:
Bianchi and Buono were charged with the crimes in January 1979. Bianchi, who had been in a relationship with a woman named Kelli Boyd, gave birth to their son Ryan just days after the last murder. Just a few weeks later, Boyd broke it off with Bianchi and moved to Bellingham, Washington. Bianchi followed her in May of 1978.
Then, on January 12, 1979, Bianchi kidnapped and murdered two Western Washington University students. However, he was clumsy and didn't cover his tracks well, leading to his arrest the next day.
Because he killed the girls the same way he'd killed the girls in Los Angeles and was carrying a California driver's license, police realized he was the Hillside Strangler. Once threatened with capital punishment, Bianchi gave up Buono as his partner.
During the trial, Bianchi attempted to plead insanity and that he had multiple personality disorder, but that was unsuccessful. He then plead guilty to the ten California murders and the two Washington murders and testified against Buono to avoid the death penalty. Bianchi received six life sentences.
Buono pleaded innocent to the ten murders, but was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, as the jury voted against capital punishment.
As the trial ended, Judge Ronald George said to the court, "Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi slowly squeezed out of their victims their last breath of air and their promise for a future life. And all for what? The momentary sadistic thrill of enjoying a brief perverted sexual satisfaction and the venting of their hatred for women. If ever there was a case where the death penalty is appropriate, this is the case. I would not have the slightest reluctance to impose the death penalty in this case were it within my power to do so. Ironically, although these two defendants utilized almost every form of legalized execution against their victims, the defendants have escaped any form of capital punishment."
While in prison, Angelo Buono married Christine Kizuka, who was a supervisor at the California State Employment Development Department and a mother of three. Buono ultimately died in September 2002 of a heart attack while still incarcerated at Calipatria State Prison.
Kenneth Bianchi is still serving out his prison sentence at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. He married a Louisiana pen pal in 1989. His 2010 request for parole was denied, and he will be eligible for parole again in 2025.
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