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1:11

Welcome to the Serial Killer

1:13

podcast, the podcast

1:15

dedicated to serial killers. Who

1:17

they were, what they did and

1:20

how. Episode 208. I

1:24

am your humble host, Thomas

1:26

Rosland Weyberg Thun. And tonight

1:29

I bring to you a fresh new serial

1:31

killer superstar,

1:33

Expose. When I started

1:35

doing this podcast seven years

1:37

ago, I had no idea just

1:40

how many serial killers there were.

1:43

This being my second job, as

1:45

well as my greatest hobby,

1:48

I am always aware that

1:50

one day I probably will run

1:52

out of subjects. But

1:54

so far I have a healthy

1:57

list of notorious killers. And

2:00

the most famous of them all, the

2:02

serial killer's superstars, have

2:04

not all been covered either. In

2:07

the golden age of serial murder,

2:10

which most people define as the latter

2:13

part of the 1970s, a pair

2:16

of truly depraved killers roamed

2:19

California, hunting young women

2:21

to rape and kill. In

2:24

total, the pair murdered

2:26

at least ten innocent young

2:28

women, and one of the killers

2:31

murdered an additional two on

2:33

his own. I am of course talking

2:35

about none other than the

2:37

Hillside Stranglers, Kenneth

2:40

Bianchi and Angelo Bruno.

2:43

And this is their saga. Enjoy.

2:49

This episode, like all other sagas told

2:51

by me, would not be possible without

2:54

my loyal Patreons. They

2:56

are Lizbeth, Cassandra,

2:58

Russell, Lisa, Cody, Kathy,

3:01

James, Corbyn, Kylie, Niao,

3:03

Sabina, Val, Madeline, Craig,

3:06

Emily, Missy, Jonathan, Lance,

3:08

Susanna, The Duggaltons, Jennifer,

3:11

Lunavar, DMACC, Cheryl,

3:14

Richard, Robert, Brad, Laurie, and

3:16

Manuel. You are truly

3:19

the backbone of the Serial Killer

3:21

podcast, and without you there

3:23

would be no show.

3:25

Thank you.

3:28

I am forever grateful for my elite

3:31

TSK Producers Club, and

3:33

I want to show you that your patronage

3:36

is not given in vain. All

3:39

TSK episodes will be available 100%

3:41

ad-free to my TSK Producers Club on patreon.com

3:44

slash theserialkillerpodcast.

3:52

No generic ads, no ad reads,

3:54

no jingles. I promise.

3:57

And of course, if you wish to donate...

4:00

$8.15 a month? That's only $7.50 per

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to join the ranks of the TSK

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Producers Club too. So

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don't miss out and join now.

4:48

Murder, Murder

4:51

Most Foul

4:53

Such were the utterance

4:55

in Victorian times when the very

4:58

rare occurrence of murder took place.

5:00

Murders 150 years

5:03

ago in America naturally

5:05

occurred, as it always has,

5:08

up through history, but it

5:10

was rare. During the golden

5:12

age of serial murder, which in my

5:15

view began in the late

5:17

1960s and never really

5:19

stopped, murder has

5:22

become commonplace. Not

5:25

committed by serial killers, but

5:27

drugs and alienation made sure

5:30

that the value of human life

5:32

seemed to drop drastically. But,

5:36

they are listener. Even in a

5:38

society numbed by violence,

5:41

certain murders gained publicity by

5:43

virtue of their sheer brutality

5:46

and depravity. When

5:49

certain human monsters rare

5:51

their heads, the routines of

5:54

daily life are interrupted by

5:56

a mass anxiety in the general

5:59

public. They grow afraid.

6:02

Such was the atmosphere of Los

6:04

Angeles in the 1970s

6:07

when the term Hillside Strangler

6:10

entered the cities and even the whole

6:12

Union's vocabulary. For

6:15

some reason, most people think of this

6:17

case in the singular, i.e.

6:20

one Strangler. But

6:22

there were most definitely two Hillside

6:25

Stranglers. They were cousins,

6:28

aged 44 and 26

6:30

at the time they began

6:32

killing women in Los Angeles

6:34

in

6:36

Between October of that year and

6:39

February 1978, they raped, tortured and

6:41

strangled to death

6:45

ten young women and girls, dumping

6:48

the bruised and slipped bodies mostly

6:51

on hillsides northeast of

6:53

downtown. During

6:56

Thanksgiving Week alone, five

6:58

bodies turned up, the victims

7:01

ranging in age from 12 to 28. Note

7:06

how young the killer's victims were, 12 years old.

7:11

A child.

7:13

As with many serial killer cases, the

7:15

media, for some reason, gloss

7:18

over the fact that pedophilia

7:20

played an important role in the killer's

7:23

perverted sexual hunger. These

7:26

five were linked to at least three

7:28

other killings. In December,

7:31

another body was found nude and

7:33

spread eagled on a hillside facing

7:35

city hall as though the killers

7:38

were making an obscene statement to

7:40

society in general, saying proudly

7:43

and here I paraphrase,

7:45

Look, here is your young and

7:47

beautiful, taken and

7:48

ravaged by us and there

7:51

is nothing you can do to stop us.

7:55

Then, as

7:56

suddenly as the killings had begun,

7:59

they stopped. Then, a year

8:01

later, one of the killers were caught

8:04

after he had murdered two young women on

8:06

his own. It was obvious that

8:09

the killing duo had one sophisticated

8:12

psychopath who knew how to get away

8:14

with murder and one idiot pervert

8:17

who simply did what he was told. When

8:19

the moron acted out his lusts

8:22

on his own, he got caught almost

8:24

immediately, and it did not take

8:26

long for the police to round

8:28

up his accomplice.

8:30

The case

8:31

was front-page news for months, and

8:34

there have been movies and books written

8:36

about it. In 1989,

8:39

the made-for-TV movie The

8:42

Case of the Hillside Stranglers

8:44

came out.

8:45

Then,

8:46

almost fifteen years later, the

8:48

film with the incorrect title The

8:51

Hillside Strangler premiered

8:53

in 2004. It

8:55

did not do well at the

8:57

box office. As

9:00

with so many serial killer

9:02

cases, certain things are mysterious.

9:06

It is clear that Bianchi

9:08

and Buono are serial killer

9:10

superstars, almost in the same

9:12

league as Bungee and Dahmer,

9:15

but their crimes were not particularly

9:18

nefarious by serial killer standards.

9:21

Nor did they rack up the greatest body

9:23

count. But still, there

9:25

is a certain je ne sais quoi about

9:28

the case which makes it stand out.

9:31

Perhaps it is the era and

9:33

location of the crimes.

9:35

It is so

9:37

quintessential American and

9:39

iconic of the golden age of serial

9:41

murder. The bright California

9:44

sun shining down on beautiful

9:46

dead young girls laying naked,

9:49

spread eagle for all the world to see

9:52

as tired, dirty, hairy-looking detectives

9:54

look on in frustration and despair.

9:58

But, before I

9:59

I reveal too much of this

10:02

dark true-crime plot.

10:04

Let us stop

10:05

and take a closer look.

10:11

Imagine, if you will, dear listener,

10:13

a young and beautiful girl,

10:16

nude

10:17

and obviously sexually violated

10:19

and tortured. She lay on her

10:21

back in the flower bed, like

10:24

a discarded doll. Her

10:26

head was turned toward the northern

10:28

hills. Eyes shut, legs

10:31

spread, fingers trapped beneath

10:33

her buttocks.

10:35

The killer, the

10:36

killers, had made

10:38

sure her corpse would appear

10:40

as if she offered herself up for sexual

10:43

sacrifice. Ants

10:46

crawled across her belly, leaving

10:48

red bites. She was murdered,

10:51

and so far, nameless. Large

10:54

and frank Salerno, bending

10:56

one knee to the ground to look, could

10:58

almost feel the squeeze of the rope at

11:01

her neck, which was encircled

11:03

by a line

11:04

of dark purplish bruise.

11:07

Rope or twine or

11:10

cord. She had been strangled.

11:14

Strangulation by a ligature was the phrase that occurred

11:17

to him. He would use it in his

11:19

report. It was now

11:21

just after eight in the morning of Halloween, 1977.

11:26

A gray day, the air about

11:28

fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit, that's

11:31

about thirteen degrees Celsius,

11:34

cold by California standards.

11:37

Salerno, a detective with

11:40

the Homicide Bureau of the Los

11:42

Angeles County Sheriff's Department,

11:45

had been called from his bed to examine

11:47

the body. It had been discovered

11:50

at six o'clock, where it now lay about

11:53

two and a half feet, about one meter,

11:56

from the curb at 2844, Alta, Texas. terrace

12:00

drive in La Cresenta, a

12:02

middle-class town in the foothills just

12:05

north of Glendale. Charles

12:08

Cone, who had the habit of

12:11

leaving his house at four each morning

12:13

to go to work at his electrical

12:16

shop and returning home at six

12:18

to eat breakfast and check on his family, had

12:21

noticed the body as he parked in

12:23

front of his house in the early light. Before

12:26

getting what he had learned from hundreds

12:29

of television cop shows about not

12:31

disturbing evidence, Cone

12:33

had covered the body with a tarp. As

12:36

a family man, his instincts

12:39

for decency had trumped any

12:41

cold reasoning. Other

12:44

detectives who had arrived before

12:47

Salerno were professionals and

12:49

knew not to tamper with a crime scene. As

12:52

lead investigator, Salerno removed

12:55

the tarp carefully, hoping that

12:57

nothing important had been lost. She

13:00

was pale, small

13:03

and thin, maybe forty-one

13:05

kilos. To him, the

13:07

girl did not appear particularly

13:09

pretty, but not ugly either.

13:13

Her straight, reddish-brown hair

13:15

was neither long nor short. She

13:18

could have lived no more

13:21

than fifteen or

13:23

sixteen years. Scrutinizing

13:26

her, Salerno reflected that in a decade

13:29

as a sheriff's deputy and

13:31

in more than two years with homicide,

13:34

he had never seen a body like

13:36

this. He noted ligature

13:38

marks at five points, neck,

13:41

wrists and ankles. The

13:43

wrists and ankle bruises were fainter

13:46

and more irregular than the line

13:48

on her neck. She must have

13:50

been tied or handcuffed or

13:52

both. Her open mouth

13:55

revealed blood along the upper

13:57

gumline. Her body bore

13:59

no other. other signs, but as

14:02

he stared at her face leaning

14:04

in closer, Salerno

14:06

noticed something on the right

14:08

eyelid,

14:09

a speck,

14:11

a white tuft of something,

14:13

a wispy bit of fluff.

14:16

He picked it off and held it up to

14:18

the overcast sky.

14:20

He looked like angel's

14:22

hair, the stuff you put on Christmas

14:25

trees. It would have to be

14:27

analyzed. It might be

14:29

all they had, and it might

14:31

be nothing. He hoped

14:34

it had not come from the tarp. He

14:37

rolled her over, nothing. He

14:40

assumed that she had been raped, but

14:43

the coroner would determine that. He

14:46

stepped back to take in the scene. The

14:49

body, lying so close and

14:51

parallel to the streets, could

14:53

not have been missed, as the people

14:56

of the neighborhood began their Monday. Salerno

14:59

reasoned it must have been placed there deliberately,

15:02

not tossed or dropped randomly. On

15:05

the north side of the streets, a

15:08

chain-link fence covered with

15:10

ollieander bushes bordered

15:12

a big storm basin. The

15:15

killer, or killers, wished

15:17

to conceal the body. He, or they,

15:20

could have forced it up over the fence, where

15:22

it would not have been noticed until

15:24

the smell got bad.

15:27

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now by joining Wandery Plus. The

18:31

more Salerno looked at the position

18:33

of the body, the more it seemed to

18:36

him to have been placed there by two

18:38

men, or more than

18:40

two. They had probably

18:42

removed it from a car, carried

18:45

it over the curb and put it down. There

18:48

were no drag marks, neither

18:50

on the body nor on the ice plants,

18:52

also known as carpet weed, that

18:55

still wet with dew covered

18:57

the curb. One man

18:59

could have carried her, but it was

19:01

unlikely. Salerno knew

19:04

that he had no proof that there had been

19:06

two, nor even that they were

19:08

men, but he assumed it. He

19:11

was confident of his instincts.

19:14

They would not be enough in court, but

19:17

they were enough for him now. It

19:20

was a quiet neighborhood, heavily

19:22

planted high up in the hills above

19:25

Foothill Boulevard, old Route 66,

19:28

remote enough to make Salerno wonder from

19:31

the start why. Having

19:33

traveled this far up, someone

19:36

would pick this street to dump a

19:38

body. Altaterras Drive

19:40

was accessible only from La Crescenta

19:43

Boulevard. At its other end

19:45

it dead-ended, but someone

19:48

this far up could have gone on

19:50

only a little farther and hidden

19:52

the body where it would not have been found

19:54

so quickly. Relatively

19:57

prosperous working people lived

19:59

here. They were not rich, but

20:02

they were well off and respectable.

20:05

They would notify the police immediately

20:08

of anything unusual as Charles

20:11

Cone had. The houses, one

20:13

story ranch style, had

20:16

wonderful views of the city to the south

20:18

at night or when there was enough

20:20

wind to dissipate the smog.

20:23

You could see Forest Lawn from Alta Terrace

20:26

and, to the west, the San Fernando

20:29

Valley. Then Salerno

20:32

noticed something that confirmed, or

20:34

at least supported, his hypotheses

20:37

that there had been two men. A

20:40

portion of the ice plant next

20:42

to the curb, almost directly

20:44

opposite the girl's feet, had

20:46

been pushed out of place, tufted

20:49

up 18 inches or more and

20:52

folded back from the curb. He

20:55

bent down. The

20:58

scene materialized in Salerno's

21:01

imagination.

21:03

Two men

21:04

had removed the body from a car.

21:06

One had carried her by the head

21:09

or had gripped her under the arms. The

21:11

other had held her feet or had

21:14

gripped her under the knees. The

21:16

man carrying the upper part of her body

21:18

had stepped across the curb first and

21:21

his momentum had caused the

21:23

other man to trip on the curb or

21:26

to stumble, catching the toe

21:28

of his shoe under the ice plant.

21:31

Then they had put the body down.

21:34

Perhaps she had been placed face

21:36

down at first, then unhandcuffed

21:40

and untied before being rolled

21:42

over onto her back. Salerno

21:45

speculated, well aware that

21:47

he had no proof of much. Yet

21:51

Salerno went into Charles Cone's

21:53

house to talk to him and his wife. They

21:56

had heard nothing during the

21:58

night. Cone said he had no proof. had slept

22:00

like a log. When he

22:02

had left for work early in the morning

22:05

it was still very dark out, and

22:07

he had not seen anything. When

22:10

asked about the scuffed up ice plants,

22:12

Cone confirmed that it

22:14

had been pristine the day

22:16

before. He would have noticed

22:19

if it had been messed up like it had been during

22:21

the night. He was a man who took

22:24

pride in his lawn and took good

22:26

care of his property. When

22:28

asked about the tarp, Cone

22:31

said that he had taken it from the backyard

22:33

where it had been used to cover some toys. Not

22:37

doubting the family man but eager

22:39

to dot every eye and cross every

22:41

tee, he still checked in

22:43

the backyard. Salerno was

22:46

sorry to see the stuffed animals, some

22:49

of which had fuzz that might indeed

22:51

be the wispy stuff he had plucked

22:53

from the girl's eyelid.

22:56

For the same reason,

22:57

Salerno was not very happy about the Cone

22:59

family white poodle.

23:02

He called in the man from the sheriff's

23:04

crime laboratory and had him cut

23:06

samples from the dog and the toys. Angelo

23:12

Boonow looked like

23:15

a gargoyle, which was

23:17

ironic considering his surname

23:19

meant good in Italian.

23:23

He had huge hands, with

23:25

thumbs on them the size of bikinis.

23:28

They hung down from his long, sinewed

23:31

arms. The hands swung

23:33

backward as he walked. He

23:35

was wiry, about five

23:37

foot ten. He had

23:40

Sicilian coloring, i.e.

23:42

olive skin and black hair. He

23:45

was kind to animals and

23:47

had a way with the ladies. The

23:49

latter probably had something to do

23:51

with his very large penis and

23:54

confident behavior, not

23:56

his physical appearance, which

23:58

was quite hideous.

24:01

In the autumn of his forty-fourth

24:03

year, Bloener was lying on his king-sized

24:06

waterbed, dressed in his customary

24:08

blue work pants

24:10

and short-sleeved shirt, and he

24:12

was bored.

24:14

There was nothing on TV.

24:17

He got up to straighten one of the framed family

24:19

photographs on the wall. His

24:21

son Peter, still in full

24:24

marine dress uniform, posed

24:26

before an American flag. Hello

24:28

Peter, Angelo Bueno Sr.,

24:31

deceased, looked content

24:34

as he was grinning in his dark security guard's

24:36

uniform. Further along

24:38

the wall hung a small Italian

24:40

flag, and next to it a

24:42

print of an anonymous early Italian

24:45

Renaissance Madonna, eternally

24:48

serene, gazed at a room

24:50

with ancient eyes. The

24:53

middle-aged man wandered through

24:55

his house, straightening, checking

24:57

for dust. In the

24:59

den he tidied shelves of

25:02

knick-knacks, his sibbo-lighter

25:04

collection, antique model cars,

25:07

a plastic sphinx, a miniature

25:09

barber's pole, poker chips

25:11

and playing cards against which was

25:14

propped a little wooden sign, reading,

25:16

Candy's dandy, but sex

25:19

won't rot your teeth. He

25:21

made sure his files of penthouse

25:23

and Playboy magazines, two

25:26

neat piles on a bottom shelf, were

25:28

in order. He

25:31

opened the glass door of his gun

25:34

case and dusted his five rifles,

25:37

two .45 caliber pistols and

25:39

Thompson submachine gun. Everything

25:43

was as it was supposed to be. Another

25:46

Bono was proud of his home. He

25:49

had tired of sharing apartments,

25:51

putting up with other people's habits and

25:53

tastes, having others' eyes

25:55

on him. Bono

25:58

trusted no one. He

26:00

had found this place at 703

26:03

East Colorado Street in Glendale

26:05

in 1975, one of a very few

26:08

inhabited one-story-frame residences

26:11

left on a street that was

26:14

now four lanes and dominated

26:17

by franchise restaurants, small

26:19

businesses, and the general

26:21

offices of Bob's Big Boy Hamburgers.

26:25

It was ideal for him because

26:28

he could live in the house and have

26:30

his auto-upholstery shop in

26:32

a converted garage

26:34

at the back.

26:36

His girl friends or children

26:38

could come to stay, but he

26:40

could kick them out when he chose.

26:44

He had worked hard on the house, painting

26:46

the outside a homey yellow with brown

26:49

trim. Inside he

26:51

had selected an eggshell white for the

26:53

walls and put down Mexican

26:55

tile in the kitchen and dining

26:57

area. He covered the spare

27:00

bedroom's floor with wear-resistant

27:03

auto-carpeting. He hung

27:05

his pictures, mingling family

27:07

sentiment with aesthetic preferences,

27:10

a romantic seascape with Italian

27:12

fishermen, for instance, next to a photograph

27:16

of his daughter and another of

27:18

a girl called Peaches. He

27:21

did very little cooking, but other

27:23

than that, Bono was a domestic

27:25

sort of fellow. In

27:28

the living room he lowered himself into

27:30

the brown vinyl easy chair,

27:33

rested his feet on the beanbag hassock,

27:35

and stared at the lighted fish tank, listening

27:38

to the hum of its electric pump. Bono

27:42

liked angelfish. The

27:44

little castle the fish swam through

27:46

had fallen over. Got

27:48

up, put the castle right, and

27:51

sprinkled fish food on the water. The

27:54

fish rose to the food, and

27:56

he remembered the rabbits. walked

28:00

back through the kitchen and out

28:02

the side door around where the

28:04

hutches were, between the house and the

28:06

shop. Across the garage

28:09

door, Angelo Trimshop

28:11

was spray-painted in black graffiti

28:14

script. Out

28:16

back, his yellow mutt, Sparky,

28:19

greeted him and rolled over. Bono

28:22

scratched Sparky's belly. Then

28:24

he opened the hutches and gave food pellets

28:26

to the rabbits, stroking them with

28:28

his big hands, mumbling at them.

28:31

He heard the car pull into the driveway.

28:35

He could tell from the sound of the motor that

28:37

it was Kenneth Bianchi's Cadillac.

28:40

They went into the house together. Kenneth

28:43

Bianchi was twenty-six and

28:46

more fashion-conscious than his cousin.

28:49

This evening, he wore a three-quarter-length

28:52

brown leather coat, jeans and

28:54

leather shoes. His dark

28:57

hair was freshly permed, not

28:59

naturally curly like Bono's.

29:02

Bianchi was just under six feet

29:05

and slim at a hundred and eighty pounds,

29:07

around eighty-two kilos. With

29:10

his smooth starsh, he looked like one

29:12

of many thousands of young men in

29:14

southern California who aspired

29:17

to stardom, but had not landed

29:19

a role. Something

29:21

in his manner suggested that he thought

29:23

he was being photographed. If

29:25

you stretched the imagination,

29:28

he kind of looked a

29:30

bit like Bert Reynolds,

29:33

but not so tan. The

29:35

acne scars on his neck lent some

29:38

character to a bland, though

29:40

not unhandsome face. Lately,

29:43

he had been working for a land title

29:45

company, where he always wore

29:48

a dark three-piece suit and carried

29:51

an attache case, the eager

29:53

young executive look. He

29:56

was called a title

29:58

officer, though he was for a long time.

29:59

all intents and purposes only

30:02

a clerk.

30:03

From time to time he lost conviction

30:06

in his moustache and shaved

30:08

it off. The perm too was a

30:10

matter of whim from month to month.

30:13

He was a man easy not to

30:15

recognize. After some

30:18

conversation and a couple of drinks, the

30:20

pair decided to head out. They

30:23

decided to hunt.

30:27

That night, the 30th

30:30

of October, 1977,

30:32

Bono and Bianchi cruised

30:35

slowly west on Hollywood Boulevard

30:38

in the 72 fort door Cadillac,

30:41

white vinyl top over metallic

30:44

dark blue body. A

30:46

sticker bearing the official seal of the

30:48

county of Los Angeles was

30:50

displayed on the lower left-hand corner

30:53

of the windshield. They were

30:55

enjoying that presumptive arrogance

30:57

peculiar to Los Angeles

31:00

that if you are driving around in a good car

31:03

in LA, you are somehow

31:05

luckier and freer and more privileged

31:08

and more for a lack of a better word,

31:10

cool

31:11

than the poor slobs in the rest

31:14

of the country. Bono

31:16

drove, as he had since high school,

31:19

slumped down his right wrist

31:21

controlling the wheel. Bono,

31:25

as always, talked strategy.

31:28

He reminded the younger and inexperienced

31:31

Bianchi that most of the girls

31:33

had pimps who watched out for

31:35

unmarked police cars. The

31:37

best way to proceed would be

31:40

to not immediately use their trump

31:42

card masquerading as cops.

31:44

Instead, they would lure the girls

31:47

in. Once they had spotted

31:49

the girl they liked, Bianchi would

31:52

get out and wait somewhere while the

31:55

other picked up the girl, acting like

31:57

a regular sex client aka

31:59

John.

32:01

Bona was, again as usual,

32:03

driving, so he would pick up the girl.

32:06

Then he would drive to where Bianchi was waiting.

32:09

Then Bianchi would show the police

32:12

badge and tell her she was under arrest,

32:15

get her into the back seat and handcuff

32:17

her so she wouldn't and

32:19

couldn't

32:20

make any trouble. Bona

32:22

handed Bianchi the wallet

32:24

and handcuffs. It was

32:27

go time. And

32:30

with that, we come to the end of part

32:33

one in this series, which will be several

32:35

episodes covering the saga of the

32:38

Hillside Stranglers. In

32:40

two weeks, I will bring you

32:42

part two, so as they say

32:44

in the land of radio, stay tuned.