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1:09

Welcome to the Serial Killer

1:11

Podcast, the podcast

1:13

dedicated to serial killers. Who

1:15

they were, what they did,

1:18

and how. Episode 210. I

1:22

am your humble host, Thomas

1:24

Rosland Weiburg Thule, and

1:27

tonight we continue the tale of the

1:29

Hillside Stranglers, Kenneth

1:31

Bianchi and Angelo Buono.

1:34

We left off last episode

1:36

with the gristly details

1:38

of the Stranglers' first torture

1:41

murder done as a pair.

1:43

Tonight, we continue where we left

1:45

off and head out on the highway

1:47

of Mayhem, the cousins

1:49

created. Enjoy. This

1:54

episode, like all other sagas told

1:56

by me, would not be possible

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without my...

1:59

loyal Patreonies.

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They are… Lizbeth,

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ya boi Frank, Jeff, and

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So don't miss out and join now.

3:46

Thank you. Bianchi

4:02

took her under the knees. Bruno

4:05

under the arms. They carried

4:07

the dead young woman through the kitchen.

4:11

Her dangling arms flopped about,

4:13

hit the floor hard. One

4:15

hand clunked against the washing machine.

4:18

They shuffled hurriedly through the door over

4:21

to the car, her skin glowing

4:23

dully in the night. The

4:25

trunk was plenty big enough

4:27

for her. Bruno got in the

4:29

driver's seat and headed the Cadillac

4:32

northward

4:33

through the night.

4:35

Glendale Avenue to Verdugo

4:38

Road, La Cagnada Boulevard

4:40

and up La Cresenta Avenue

4:43

straight up into the hills. Far

4:46

up into the hills, Bruno

4:48

turned left onto Alta Terrace

4:50

Drive. He cut the headlights

4:53

and rolled slowly along the street.

4:56

In the darkness, Bruno pointed

4:58

to a two-story White House

5:00

halfway down the street. Bianchi

5:03

was confused and asked Bruno

5:05

where they were. His cousin replied

5:08

and I quote, That's where

5:10

that cunt Melinda Hooper

5:12

lives. I picked her up there a couple

5:15

of times, had dinner there. Wait

5:18

till she wakes up tomorrow. She'll

5:20

get some surprise.

5:25

Quietly and quickly they picked

5:27

up the girl, Bruno carrying

5:29

her under the arms, Bianchi under

5:32

the knees. Bruno stepped

5:34

first over the curb and as Bianchi

5:37

followed, his foot caught under the

5:39

ice-plant. He stumbled, almost

5:41

fell, got his foot loose and

5:43

they dropped the body parallel to the curb,

5:46

heaving her slightly, as one

5:48

would throwing someone into a swimming

5:50

pool. Under

5:54

the press, nor television paid

5:56

much attention to Bruno and Bianchi's

5:59

gruesome

5:59

hacked,

6:01

and on radio there was not a word

6:03

of it. Murder was so

6:05

common in Los Angeles, there

6:07

was one committed every three or

6:09

four hours in the county, not counting

6:12

the prostitutes, routinely

6:14

overdosed by their pimps. It

6:17

took something special to titillate

6:19

the media, an eviscerated

6:21

actress, or a child stuffed

6:23

down a sewer,

6:24

but the girl

6:26

remained unidentified for two

6:28

days, and so, at the

6:30

request of Sergeant Salerno,

6:32

the Times ran this bulletin on

6:35

the fourth page of the metro

6:37

section and I quote, Publix

6:41

Aids Sought Los Angeles

6:43

County Sheriff's Homicide Detectives

6:45

were seeking public assistance Tuesday

6:48

in trying to identify a

6:50

young woman whose nude body was

6:52

found in the bushes in front of La Crescenta

6:55

residence. Investigators

6:57

said the victim, described as between 16

7:00

and 22, 5'2' tall, weighing 90

7:04

pounds, with reddish-brown hair,

7:06

appeared to have been sexually molested

7:09

before she was strangled. Her

7:11

body was found Monday in front

7:13

of a home at 2844, Alta Terrace Drive, La

7:17

Crescenta.

7:19

End quote.

7:21

The article was illustrated with

7:24

two vivid drawings of the girl's face,

7:26

as it might have looked in life, one

7:29

in profile. The Herald

7:31

Examiner also ran the story, and

7:34

local television news programs gave

7:36

it a few seconds. When

7:40

her parents or relatives or friends

7:42

still failed to appear

7:44

to identify her, Frank Salerno

7:47

started haunting Hollywood Boulevard

7:50

every night until three or four

7:52

in the morning.

7:54

Salerno

7:55

was acting on an educated hunch,

7:57

since no one had come forth To

8:00

identify the girl, the chances

8:02

were that she had been living for

8:04

some time as a runaway. Either

8:07

her parents did not know that

8:09

she was missing, or they did

8:11

not care, or she had no parents,

8:15

all equal possibilities. Although

8:18

her body had been found quite a distance

8:20

from Hollywood, runaways in southern

8:22

California gravitated towards

8:26

the boulevard. Some of the

8:28

street people might recognize her

8:30

from the drawings, might have noticed

8:32

her missing, might even have

8:34

seen her on the night of the murder.

8:37

It was not much, but Salerno

8:40

had nothing else.

8:42

The coroner

8:43

had concluded only that she

8:45

had been vaginally and anally

8:47

raped, and that she had been strangled

8:50

to death by a ligature within

8:52

two hours of midnight before

8:55

or after. The time

8:57

frame had been established by the

8:59

temperature of her liver, which

9:02

had cooled off quickly in the brisk

9:04

air. It had been 45 degrees,

9:07

that's around 7 degrees Celsius, or

9:10

lower that night in the hills.

9:13

Not knowing the murder scene, Salerno

9:16

was at a great disadvantage.

9:19

Ordinarily, he would take an investigation

9:22

outward from there, but Alta

9:24

Terrace had not been the murder

9:26

scene. None of the residents aroused

9:29

the least suspicion, nor had any

9:31

of them heard anything unusual during

9:34

the night. Charles Cone's

9:36

peculiar work schedule checked

9:38

out. One man, a truck

9:40

driver, had gone to a party with his

9:43

wife, but had returned home

9:45

before midnight, noticing nothing.

9:49

The others had been home all night

9:51

and asleep early. Tests

9:54

on the fiber Salerno had taken from the

9:56

girl's eyelid had been inconclusive,

9:59

that it had not come from

10:02

the cones' toys or from their

10:04

poodle. And

10:07

so it was that Salerno began

10:09

walking Hollywood Boulevard through

10:12

the nights, questioning its transient

10:15

citizens, showing them the drawings

10:18

and asking whether they knew the girl. These

10:21

were the dropouts, addicts

10:23

and pushers, bikers, prostitutes,

10:26

socially and sexually displaced persons,

10:28

entrepreneurs of the transitory,

10:31

a new American class. They

10:34

had the drive of the legendary 49ers

10:37

of old but were not prospecting

10:39

for gold. Most of them

10:42

had given over their lives to the next

10:44

place.

10:46

They often knew one another or

10:48

were aware of one another by

10:50

sight or by name and they

10:52

knew vaguely when somebody

10:55

overdosed or simply disappeared.

10:58

Outwardly, they resembled refugees

11:01

from the hate Ashbury culture of the sixties,

11:04

favoring leather and denim and

11:06

lots of hair and acid-rock

11:08

paleolithic look, except for

11:10

the male prostitutes who

11:13

were typecast for an Andy

11:15

Warhol movie. They

11:17

had street names like Stinkyfoot, Sunshine

11:20

Sally, Eggnog, Youngblood,

11:23

Cowboy Dave, Pig Valve,

11:27

Flaky Skateboard,

11:28

Lobo, Green Irene,

11:31

Funny Bunny and since they

11:33

were all either selling or taking drugs

11:35

or both, Salerno could

11:38

not trust their answers to his questions.

11:42

At night after night he

11:44

kept asking. Through them

11:46

all, Miss Miller, an old lady

11:48

carrying a tote bag and wearing

11:51

a lampshade hat decorated

11:53

with paper leaves, threaded her

11:55

way. The street people

11:57

depressed Frank Salerno. Sometimes

12:00

made him indignant. He

12:03

could not be a homicide detective and have

12:05

a weak stomach, but these nights tested

12:07

him. He was a conservative man.

12:10

He liked evenings at home with his wife

12:12

and two teenage sons in their San

12:14

Fernando Valley house. His

12:16

pleasures were fishing trips, or

12:19

reading in silence, or, after

12:21

math, Sunday dinner with the

12:23

relatives, cooked by his grandmothers,

12:26

both of whom had been born in Italy. Moving

12:30

among the street people made him feel contaminated.

12:33

It was like bathing in raw sewage.

12:38

He moved among the street people like

12:40

an anthropologist, questioning, hypothesizing,

12:43

inwardly calculating, outwardly

12:46

impassive. "'Excuse me,' he

12:48

would say to a knot of bikers, preparing

12:50

to grant them, for the moment, membership

12:53

in civilization, showing his badge.

12:56

"'Do you recognize this girl?' "'Sure,'

13:00

one would say. "'I know the chick. She

13:02

was here last week.' "'Or, she's

13:05

from Denver, name of Debbie,

13:07

maybe Donna.' When he got

13:09

what he could out of them, he would

13:12

thank them and go on. They

13:14

were his antithesis. But

13:17

he disguised his moral indignation.

13:20

That, he saved for quiet talks

13:22

with his wife and sons, were

13:24

more animated talks over many drinks

13:26

with friends. Then he

13:28

would use words like scumbag

13:31

and evil. Salerno

13:33

made notes of everything the street people told

13:35

him, but he filtered everything

13:38

through his experience with liars. It

13:41

was only when two of the street

13:43

people independently gave

13:45

the girl in the drawing the same

13:48

name, Judy Miller,

13:51

that Salerno knew he was

13:53

getting closer. They both

13:56

claimed to know her, and both described

13:58

her as a teenage run away. A

14:01

green kid who sometimes turned

14:03

a trick for a bed or a hot dog. If

14:07

a witness knew something, you

14:09

never got it all on the first interview. Sometimes

14:12

you didn't get it until the tenth. He

14:15

gave them his card and asked them

14:17

to phone him if they remembered anything else

14:20

or heard anything.

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including one resident who says

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Uncommon Goods. We are all out of the

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ordinary. And

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then everything changed.

19:00

On Sunday morning, the 6th of

19:02

November, a woman jogging

19:05

near the Chevy Chase Country Club in

19:07

Glendale came upon the

19:09

nude body of another strangled girl,

19:12

crumpled up beside a road that ran

19:14

past the golf course. The

19:16

case was being handled by the Glendale

19:18

police, but when Salerno talked

19:21

to them, he immediately saw

19:23

connections with the girl he was

19:25

beginning to believe was called Judy Miller.

19:29

Like the first girl, this one had been found

19:31

nude and, the Glendale police

19:33

said, had been strangled by ligature.

19:37

Checking a map, Salerno calculated

19:39

the distance between the sites

19:41

of the two bodies as six or

19:44

seven miles.

19:46

That's

19:47

almost 10 kilometers.

19:50

In Los Angeles, that was close.

19:53

More links established themselves the next day

19:55

when the girl's mother identified

19:58

her as Lisa Castell.

20:00

A twenty-one-year-old waitress

20:03

at the Health Fair restaurant

20:05

near Hollywood and Vine, who

20:08

had been living in an apartment on Argyle,

20:10

just off Hollywood Boulevard. Her

20:13

parents were divorced, and

20:16

the night previous to her disappearance she

20:18

had spent with her mother complaining

20:21

of how little money she was making and

20:23

saying that she was considering becoming

20:25

a prostitute. But

20:27

she was a hardworking, ambitious girl,

20:30

her mother said, and very health-conscious.

20:34

She did not like red meat and

20:36

had her heart set on show business.

20:39

She had performed with the L.A. knockers

20:42

and all-girl

20:43

rock-dance group.

20:45

It was the association with Hollywood,

20:48

not the girls' dreams or

20:51

dietary preferences that struck

20:53

Salerno. Lisa Kastin

20:55

had last been seen leaving the Health Fair

20:58

at about nine-fifteen the night she had

21:00

been murdered. If she had

21:02

told her mother about considering becoming

21:05

a prostitute, she might already

21:07

have been one. It was

21:09

possible that both girls

21:11

had been picked up in Hollywood by

21:14

the same customer or customers and

21:16

had then been killed and dumped in the same

21:18

general area. Her car,

21:21

a Volkswagen convertible, was

21:24

found unlocked, half a block

21:26

from her apartment. In her

21:28

apartment, Glendale officers

21:31

found a key to the car's locking hood,

21:33

but not the ignition key, and

21:36

the apartment had been locked. Salerno

21:39

reasoned that she had been either walking

21:42

the street or walking from her

21:44

car to her apartment when

21:46

she had been picked up. And it was

21:49

odd for a girl living in Hollywood

21:51

not to have locked her car. Salerno

21:54

decided to have a look at Lisa Kastin's

21:57

body. He wanted to compare it

21:59

with that of the family. first girl. He

22:01

called the coroner's office and asked

22:03

to have the two bodies displayed side

22:05

by side at the morgue. The

22:08

first had been kept on ice for nine

22:10

days. One

22:13

glance at the two bodies, lying

22:16

next to each other on the gurney's face-up,

22:19

made Salerno think, zerox

22:21

copy. Their necks,

22:23

wrists and ankles were encircled

22:26

with nearly identical lines of bruises.

22:29

Five-point ligature, Salerno wrote

22:31

in his notebook. Physically, they

22:34

were very different, about the

22:36

same height, but the new girl

22:38

was heavier, stocky with large

22:40

breasts and thick, unshaven

22:43

legs. It was the bruised

22:45

lines that made Salerno think

22:47

of a zerox copy. And

22:49

Lisa, casting like the first girl,

22:52

had been raped, although with Lisa

22:54

there was no evidence of sodomy. Her

22:57

vagina was severely bruised. There

23:00

was now no question in Salerno's mind

23:02

that the girls had been killed by the same

23:05

men. And he was more

23:07

certain than ever that there had

23:09

been two men. Neither

23:12

body showed any signs of having been

23:15

dragged. They seemed certain

23:17

to have been lifted cleanly from a car

23:19

and placed or dropped where they were found.

23:22

Of course,

23:23

more than two men could have been involved,

23:26

but that seemed less likely

23:28

to Salerno. He conferred

23:30

with the Glendale police, and they

23:33

agreed with him. He also examined

23:35

the place near the golf course where Lisa,

23:37

casting, had been found and

23:40

noticed a three-foot guard rail

23:42

between the road and the body sites.

23:45

Surely it had taken two men to

23:47

get the body over that rail cleanly. Salerno

23:52

became sure that the two murders

23:54

were linked and had been committed by

23:56

the same two perpetrators. And

23:59

if he was right he was sure

24:01

there will be more bodies showing up

24:03

soon. He had

24:06

a serial killer case on his hands.

24:11

The wind from the east was whipping

24:13

Bono's Italian flag Saturday night,

24:16

the 5th of November, when

24:18

Bianchi arrived at Bono's house.

24:22

He had been telephoning all week, anxious

24:24

to make thorough preparations.

24:27

But Bono had been secretive, as

24:29

usual, saying he would take care

24:31

of everything. All Bianchi had

24:33

to do was follow orders. Bono

24:37

had suggested, however, that it would

24:39

be a good idea for Bianchi to

24:41

obtain a police badge too, and

24:43

had tipped him off to a swap meet where

24:46

you could get anything you wanted – badges,

24:49

guns, uniforms. Bianchi

24:52

found Bono watching television in

24:54

the den, and proudly showed him

24:56

the new badge. It was

24:58

the star of the California Highway

25:00

Patrol. Bono told

25:03

him he was a moron. He had been

25:05

supposed to get a proper LAPD

25:07

shield. But, after

25:10

a short reprimand, he calmed down

25:12

and simply said that the bitches they were after

25:15

would not be able to spot the difference. Suddenly

25:20

Bianchi had had plans that Saturday

25:23

with his girlfriend, Kelly. When

25:25

Bono had called upon him to join

25:27

in on a new project, he had

25:29

told Kelly he had changed his mind and

25:32

that he needed some sorely needed alone

25:34

time. She had been furious,

25:37

and a big fight had started. As

25:40

he left, he had said all manner of terrible

25:42

things to his pregnant girlfriend, for

25:45

example that he wished she had taken an abortion

25:47

and that no one likes a whiny pregnant

25:50

woman. When he was with

25:52

Bono, all thoughts of his girlfriend

25:54

went out the window. Bianchi

25:57

followed Bono into the kitchen. On

26:00

the counter he had laid everything out,

26:03

tape, foam, rag, cord, so

26:06

prudent he had already cut everything

26:08

into the right lengths. He

26:10

had even stuck the foam onto

26:12

a long piece of tape, so that all

26:15

they would have to do was apply it

26:17

to their future victim's eyes and

26:19

wrap her head. Outside

26:21

at the car, the wind blowing, the

26:24

night smogless and starry, Bono

26:27

had another idea and stepped

26:29

into his shop. He produced

26:32

a flashlight, bright metal

26:34

with a red plastic rim around

26:37

the glass. It would serve

26:39

them well in pretending to be investigating

26:41

police officers. Bianchi

26:45

drove this time. At a corner

26:47

of San Fernando and Los Feliz,

26:50

just a couple of blocks from Forest

26:52

Lawn, Bono pointed through

26:54

a Mexican fast food restaurant and

26:57

told his cousin to pull in there as

26:59

he was hungry. As they were

27:01

eating, suddenly Bono called

27:03

out and pointed across the street. He

27:06

had spotted one of his ex-wives, Candy,

27:08

and their daughter, Grace. Bianchi

27:12

beeped, everyone waved and smiled,

27:15

and Bianchi headed the Cadillac

27:17

for Hollywood. They

27:20

turned down Western and out sunset

27:22

to the strip, passing carneys, the

27:25

railroad diner clowning at each

27:27

other to acknowledge a now hallowed

27:30

spot. The strip was

27:32

alive, the traffic thick,

27:35

the sidewalks crowded, too

27:37

crowded for a pickup. At

27:40

La Tienaga Boulevard, Bono

27:42

told Bianchi to head back toward

27:45

Hollywood. They would try the

27:47

side streets, the dimly lit ones.

27:52

Once again, Bono had an idea.

27:55

To him, a really great idea.

27:59

He outlined the street. the possibilities.

28:01

Simply put,

28:02

he told his cousin that they shouldn't

28:04

limit themselves to prostitutes.

28:07

They

28:08

could stop a girl, any girl.

28:11

Once she's in the car, it's all

28:13

over. It could be a nun.

28:15

It

28:16

could be a lawyer. It could be a student.

28:20

It didn't matter.

28:21

They were in control.

28:24

The future victim didn't have to be

28:26

walking, either. They could spot some

28:29

girl driving alone and just follow her.

28:31

She would stop somewhere. She would be

28:34

driving home. She would then lead

28:36

them to some side street with

28:39

nobody on it, and they could make

28:41

their move. Bianchi

28:43

agreed that it could work. It

28:46

was worth a try. With

28:48

this scam, there was no telling

28:50

what they could do. Then

28:54

they spotted her. A dark-headed

28:57

girl driving a lime-green beetle

28:59

convertible. The beetle

29:01

turned right onto Franklin with

29:04

the Cadillac in pursuit,

29:06

crossed Cahuenga and Vine,

29:09

passed under the Hollywood Freeway, and

29:11

turned left on Argyle Avenue,

29:14

a street of apartment houses.

29:16

Near the corner of Argyle and Dick

29:18

Street, the girl stopped against

29:21

the curb and switched off her lights.

29:24

As the girl got out of her car and

29:26

started to lock the door, Bono

29:28

and Bianchi were on her. Bono

29:31

had his flashlight. Police

29:34

officers, Bianchi said, quickly

29:36

showing her his new badge, which

29:38

he had pinned to his wallet,

29:40

and just as quickly slipping it back

29:42

into the pocket of his leather coat.

29:45

Then he asked for I.D.

29:48

The girl fumbled in her purse

29:50

and brought out her driver's license. She

29:53

glanced at the license and handed it

29:55

to Bono, who had shown his flashlight

29:58

on it. Unlike

30:01

prostitutes, this woman was

30:03

not used to being harassed by police

30:05

officers, and she instinctively

30:07

knew something was very wrong.

30:11

When Bono talked about how she was a

30:13

suspect in a robbery, due to

30:15

her car being similar to one scene

30:17

at the crime scene, she protested.

30:20

There were thousands of cars like hers, and

30:23

the two men had no right to detain

30:25

her. But Bianchi was

30:28

nothing if not charming and convincing

30:30

when he needed to, especially to women.

30:33

He said, and I quote, You

30:36

don't want to make a huge scene right

30:38

here in the street, do you? So

30:40

you'd better just come with us, and

30:43

if everything checks out, we'll bring

30:45

you back again. If you haven't done

30:47

anything, everything will

30:49

check out. That's what we have

30:52

our systems for. You'd

30:54

better step over to our car now. End

30:57

quote. Lisa Kastin

30:59

hesitated, then walked slowly

31:01

over to the Cadillac. Bono

31:04

opened the rear door and

31:06

ushered her in. As

31:08

they started up, Bianchi clicked

31:11

the automatic door locks. He

31:13

made a U-turn, headed east

31:16

on Franklin, and passed Tamarind

31:18

Avenue, his own street. At

31:21

west turn, he turned left, and Bono

31:24

said, I'm going to

31:26

have to put handcuffs on you.

31:30

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And with that, we come to

32:26

the end of part three in

32:29

this series, which will be several

32:31

episodes covering the saga of the Hillside

32:34

Stranglers. In two

32:36

weeks, I will bring you

32:38

part four. So

32:41

as they say in the land of radio, stay

32:44

tuned.