The Case of the Hillside Strangler

hey you and welcome my name is Mike and in this old video we're gonna crack open our time machines and travel back and to Los Angeles late 1970s so he can expect lots of baggy clothes bell-bottoms disco music and to meet Angelo Buono who was no bueno and Kenneth Bianchi who was full of pee they were the original gruesome twosome on the hillsides surrounding Los Angeles many people were found and it turned out that one oh and Bianchi were you know they were up to no good they're bad lads so let's take a look Kenneth Alessio Bianchi was born on May 22nd 1951 in Rochester New York a few months later he was adopted by Nicholas and Frances Bianchi and was their only child his birth mother wasn't really in a position to look after him being a 17-year old alcoholic sex worker so no there were early indications that Kenneth had a few a few screws loose he was a quick to lie he would often had a violent temper would throw tantrums and seem to enjoy manipulating students at school to basically do whatever he wanted he was um I think he'd probably called a psycho and although he was above average intelligence he was a poor student in 1970 he graduated high school in Rochester in 1971 he married his high school sweetheart but that didn't last he enjoyed having power and control over people and so wanted to be a police officer I mean what else would you be obviously he actually enrolled at a community college I began taking police type courses but did poorly and soon dropped out and so after an unsuccessful attempt at getting a job with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department in New York Kenneth found work as a private security guards but he stole from his employers causing him to change jobs frequently in January 1976 Kenneth left Rochester and moved to Los Angeles to live with his adoptive cousin Angelo Anthony Bruno Jr who had a history of up to no good Ari now a bit of a backstory about ol Angelo who was no angel oh let me tell you he was 17 years older than Kenneth Bianchi born on the 5th of August 1934 in Rochester also moving to Glendale California at age five with his mother and sister now he had some sick thoughts as a young man idolizing Caryl Chessman who was a notorious piece of [ __ ] at one point he was married abused the children moved in with another woman did the same rinse and repeat a couple of times so much sick [ __ ] I don't want to get into it I don't want to talk about it anyway he was getting away you were doing sick [ __ ] like all the time scot free in 1975 Angelo Buono moved into his own place and opened up an upholstery shop in the back and so then Kent Bianchi moved in with him in 1976 now Angelo Buono is believed to have acted as a sort of role model for the younger cousin Kenneth and subsequently was able to sway him obviously though with like all the [ __ ] he was up to he was not a not a role model I think even like Sarah Ron would want he's not the kind of guy should be looking up to Angelo Buono his first million dollar idea was for them to become hips getting teenage runaways to work for them their first two victims extremely unwilling in this venture were Sabra Hannon and Becky Spears they would eventually escape and the first hillside body would follow shortly afterward so after the first two girls escaped Kenneth and Angelo determined to keep their pimp and business alive paid a sex worker named Deborah noble for a trick list with the names and numbers of customers in LA Deborah showed up to their house with another sex worker Yolanda Washington unsold them a phony list the gruesome twosome quickly realized this unwanted vengeance they knew where to find Yolanda who had told them where she often worked at a particular stretch on Sunset Boulevard and so their brutal rampage started on the 17th of August 1977 a music store owner saw Yolanda be taken away two men flashing police badges had pulled her off the street handcuffed her and pushed her into the back seat of an unmarked car the two then assaulted and murdered her there her body was found in the next day they casually on the open grass of a hill on the edge of Forest Lawn Cemetery a massive Cemetery in the Hollywood area she still had the fabric around her neck that was used to strangle her her body had been washed clean to remove evidence within about a month whoa no an Bianchi had developed a like trademark patent-pending method of doing what they would do and assaulted I murdered a lot more women they picked up the women posing as police officers drove them back to Bruno's house where they were sexually assaulted tortured and strangled to death the geo then thoroughly cleaned the bodies before taking them imposing them on hillsides in the Los Angeles area often near police stations thus they earned the name the hillside strangler as the press assumed it was the work of one man on Halloween 1977 15-year old runaway Judas Miller's body was found in a neighborhood 12 miles north of downtown Los Angeles five days later Alyssa Caston a 21 year old waitress on dancer with the LA knockers was murdered she had been last seen leaving the restaurant just after 9 o'clock on the night she was murdered her naked strangled body was found the next day in Glendale near a Country Club there was a sizable guardrail between the road and the spot where the victim lay it would have taken two men to lift the Stuckey victim over the guardrail police estimated again five days later 28 year old aspiring actress Jane King disappeared she was found two weeks later in response authorities created a task force initially composed of turdy officers from the LAPD the Sheriff's Department on the Glendale Police Department to catch the predator dubbed the hillside strangler four days after Alissa Caston disappeared 14 year old Sonya Johnson and 12 year old Dolly Sepideh vanished the two girls were last spotted while getting off a bus and approaching a two-tone sedan which reportedly had two men inside their bodies were found a week later by a nine-year-old boy who had been treasure hunting in a trash heap on a hillside near Dodger Stadium on the 20th of November 1977 the body of twenty-year-old college student Christina wet ler was found this was the same day as Sonia Dali investigators found that the Stranglers had experimented with injecting her with household surface cleaners ooh the hillside Stranglers were becoming like darker and more depraved in their methods of doing nasty [ __ ] and killing on the 29th of November the body of 18-year old student Lauren Wagner was found her parents had found her car parked across the street from their home with the door open they had gone to bed the previous night expecting her home before midnight when her father questioned the neighbors he found that the woman who lived at the house where Lauren's Karen had parked saw her abduction the neighbors said that she had seen Lauren pulled over to the curb around 9 o'clock in the evening two men had pulled the car up beside hers there was some kind of disagreement and Lauren ended up in the car with these two men on the 14th of December 1977 18-year old call girl Kimberly Martin was found Kimberly had previously joined a call-girl agency because she feared exposing herself on the streets with the strangler on the loose it was the killers who placed the call to her agency from a Hollywood public library payphone and she was the call girl who's dispatched when the police investigated the apartment she had been dispatched to they found it broken into and vacant on the 17th of February 1978 the body of 20-year old college student Cindy Hudspeth was found she last been seen in her apartment building she had probably been headed towards Glendale Community College where she worked nights answering the phone between her apartment building on the community college Cindy had been kidnapped in the late afternoon she was found the next day Cindy actually lived across the street from another victim Christina wacker though they didn't know each other it was in an isolated spot three miles north of Los Angeles in the Angeles National Forest the nude body of 20 year old Cindy huh speck was discovered about 12 hours after a missing-persons report had been filed with police investigators are greatly interested in the fact that this victim lived just across the street from victim number seven 20 year old Christina Wexler how long does a case like this remain open and Henderson says forever how about yourself how long will you be on it well I won't be here forever I know that but I'll be on the case until I mean it's solved or I retire and then the murders suddenly stopped see Angela Bono and Kenneth Bianchi were no longer getting along my friendship with Bianchi is ended this was thanks to Kenneth himself see as it turns out while all these murders were still ongoing Bianchi he had not given up his dream of becoming a police officer if you're wondering why I'm so enthusiastic about following my career in Los Angeles perhaps I should tell you that I'm the kind of a person who like variety in his work he would go on patrol and ride in the cars with the LAPD while they patrolled the city and searched for the hillside strangler the officers would discuss the crimes the murders and the general gritty details of the case with Kenneth Bianchi and will become close with him over the weeks and one night Kenneth revealed to Angelo he had participated in a LAPD police ride-along and that he was currently being questioned about the strangler case Angela was uh pissed about this he flew into a rage and treinta well kill Kenneth if he didn't get the [ __ ] out of town and go all the way to Bellingham Washington which he did in May 1978 now why would he force Kenneth to move to Bellingham all the way up in Washington well back in LA about a year or two previously Kenneth had been dating a woman named Kelly Boyd she became pregnant in June 1977 and Kenneth proposed marriage Kelly was skeptical and declined the offer but continued to live with him in early March 1978 she decided to return to her parents home in Bellingham to raise Ryan their son and so Kenneth joined them up there found work as a security guard with the wacom security agency early Friday morning on the 12th of January 1979 the Belgium Police Department received information from the Security office at Western Washington University that two students were missing 27 year-old Diane Wilder on 22 year old Karen Mandic now although it was supposed to be a secret Karen Mon deqin told co-workers and friends that she and Diane Wilder had been offered $100 each by Kenneth Bianchi from walk home security to house-sit a residence so after hearing the story the Bellingham police contacted the wacom security agency and be like one of your employees offered to give them money to house it is that a normal part of how you run your operation will happen to them what do you know police contacted the owner of walk home security who in turn called Kenneth he claimed he had been at the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office reserve unit meeting when they went missing and to know I'd knowing Karen Mandic at all police then followed up on this uncontacted the commander of the reserve unit you said yet no Kenneth he wasn't at that meeting Kenneth said he had to teach a class for his employer Kenneth was just full of stories oh yeah I was there no I wasn't Derek maybe hmm I don't know police then finally spoke with Kenneth himself who admitted he hadn't attended a meeting but instead had gone driving alone in the county the girls bodies were found inside Karen's vehicle that was left at a heavily wooded underdeveloped cold sake during questioning Kenneth's alibis were so contradictory that they were like wow this is pretty straightforward he's guilty but without an eyewitness a confession more evidence it was kind of well circumstantial kind of maybe acting on a tip they searched the area around the guard shack Kenneth worked out and discovered Diane's coat stuffed behind some pipes only 20 feet from where Kenneth had parked his company pickup truck yes he without Angelo Buono helping him cover his tracks Bianchi was a pretty [ __ ] that you know the old murder business a friend of the two girls would tell police yep yeah he just moved here from LA and in the car the women were fed and they found a note saying yeah we're gonna meet up with him police noted Bianchi's California driver's license and contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to get nailed background check you know yourself by chance randomly by chance the call ended up on the desk of one of the members of the hillside Stranglers task force who you know they'd been investigating the case since October 77 and he thought the call was pretty interesting and some connections began to form Bellingham police served a search warrant at Bianca's house and seized his clothing as well as property stolen from places he had been assigned to guard what [ __ ] police in Bellingham Washington are holding a man whom Los Angeles authorities think may be connected with the so called hillside strangler murderers the strangler is blamed for at least 13 recent killings in Southern California ere is Warren Wilson 27 year old Kenneth Bianchi was taken into police custody last week in Bellingham Washington where he was questioned in connection with the murder of two coeds whose bodies were found stuffed in the trunk of their car police have not charged Bianca with the murders but they say they believe they have evidence linking him to the killings the clues attracted the attention of the Los Angeles hillside strangler task force two members of the task force went to Bellingham to questioned Bianchi and to examine telephone equipment including cords found in his possession eventually enough evidence was collected to formally charge Kenneth with two counts of first-degree murder Bianchi first pled not guilty but later changed it to Nikhil T by reason of insanity he claimed to have amnesia that the murders of Karen and Diane are Jay Z's nods rocked out that night sorry tree psychiatrists examined him and concluded he suffered from severe multiple personality disorder under hypnosis Bianchi I created an alter Oh Steve Walker who confessed to killing Mandic and Wilder I gave a detailed account of the crime this Steve weirdly made of character also began then to freely talk about all the murders that had been committed back in LA and he was happy to talk about Angela Bono's participation in this and so Kathy Anki was offered a deal if he pled guilty to the two bellingham murders unto five murders in LA he would receive life sentences avoid the death penalty and be allowed to serve his time in California he also had to agree to testify truthfully and completely against Bono his accomplice in the hillside strangler slayings today in a Bellingham Washington courtroom Kenneth Bianchi in the hope of avoiding a death sentence confessed to two murders in Bellingham then confessed to participation in the Los Angeles hillside strangling and went on to accuse his cousin Angelo Buono of being an accomplice to even begin to try and live with myself I have to take responsibility for what I've done and I have to do everything I can to get Angela Bono and to devote my entire life to do everything I possibly can to give my life it's that nobody else will hopefully follow hopefully won't follow my footsteps Angelo Buono was arrested October 22nd 1979 and was indicted for 10 counts of first degree murder however in giving his testimony Kenneth Bianchi made just just every effort he possibly could to be his own cooperative on self contradictory as possible and because of that him just being a [ __ ] it became the longest preliminary hearing in the history of Los Angeles County 10 months long he attempted to influence judicial proceedings by making contradictory statements to destroy his credibility and have the case against his cousin dismissed however prosecutors believed that the evidence linking whoa - the murders was well overwhelming even without Bianchi's testimony and began vigorously preparing her trial on November 18 to 1983 the jury found Angelo Buono guilty of nine of the ten murders unloaded to impose life sentences without the possibility of parole rather than the death penalty Bianchi did everything possible to sabotage the case so the judge Hey remember I said you could go to California I lied Barca Washington we're now at this point after mention I wanna be accomplice Veronica Compton see chairing the prolonged preliminary hearing Kenneth Bianchi met Veronica Lynne Compton aged 24 a self-proclaimed actress poet and playwright in June 1980 she sent Bianchi a letter of the Los Angeles County Jail here's the letter you don't know me but I would like to visit you my name is Vera Lynn I am a playwright and I'm currently writing a fictional play entitled the mutilated cutter this is about a female mass murderer I have never met a serial killer in person though the immediate coverage of these Stranglers has kept me captain I want to be sure to get things right in my play from the moment I saw you on television I felt a deep connection with you if you would be so kind as to look over my manuscript I would be forever grateful I have never been so moved in my life I look forward to your reply sincerely Marilyn yours truly passionately Marilyn once Bianchi got this letter his uh-oh here's gears or grindin and he came up with a brilliant idea the hillside strangler still on the loose maybe in Los Angeles he persuaded Veronica Compton who he had known before to go out and actually murder someone she tried to murder someone in the style of the hillside strangler so as to make it appear that Bianchi wasn't the right person Veronica Compton visited Kenneth Bianchi in jail on numerous occasions between June and September 1980 while he was waiting to testify against Angela guano and they concocted an elaborate scheme to prove his innocence see Veronica was going to fly to Bellingham Washington strangle a woman make it look like the Diane Wilder and Karen Mandic murders the two women who were killed by Bianchi up there and so you know Balala killers still loose a copy Bianchi [ __ ] Lots we after all so what she did was she sent letters and cassette tapes to places in LA and in Bellingham basically saying the hillside strangler is still on the loose he got the wrong man and he's gonna strike again you're in the [ __ ] now boys so on Thursday September 16 their last meeting Kenneth provided Veronica with a final touch semen yeah semen that was uh on the fingertip of a latex glove and she was to smear it on the victim's body he concealed the specimen in the spine of a book she had loaned him I hope she didn't loan that book to anybody else Veronica then flew to Bellingham and befriended Kim breed a Bellingham Parks and Rec employee while drinking out of tavern after spending several hours together she lured him to her motel room with the promise of some cocaine once there Veronica managed to tie Kim's hands and twice strangled her almost to the point of unconsciousness although intoxicated Kim was bigger and unusually strong and managed to struggle free and escape Veronica then leg dit as you would out of Bellingham but was uh easily traced on October 2nd at 1980 she was arrested at her home in Carson California on first-degree attempted murder Veronica was dubbed the copycat strangler during the trial Kim breed testified that veronica had set her up and tried to kill her while Veronica claimed the incident had been a charade to gain publicity for her screenplay the mutilated cutter Kim was in at the whole time she's part of this yeah she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 1988 she escaped prison but was recaptured after nine days this added two more years to her parole eligibility she was released on parole in 2000 entry' after being incarcerated for 22 years so cough cough strangler whose [ __ ] at it is that what about on Saturday September 21st 2002 Angelo Buono aged 67 died from a massive heart attack in his cell Kenneth Bianchi is currently incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla on Thursday September 21st 1989 he married Shirley Joyce book age 36 in a 15-minute ceremony in the prison chapel the day before the wedding was the first time they had ever met but they had corresponded since 1986 exchanged taped messages unenjoyable had tried to correspond to it Ted Bundy you know what his big ol trial was going on ah I think he basically just rejected her or never wrote her back so I guess Kenneth Bianchi was like her sloppy seconds she was like the fallback guy for Bianchi she just wanted to be fresh meat for murder in July 1990 the State Board said Kenneth Bianchi's prison term at a hundred and 16 and a half years for the murder convictions in Bellingham he will not be eligible for parole until 2025 however should he be paroled Bianchi will be remanded to the state of California to serve life sentences for five counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the last 40 years Bianchi has kept himself busy in prison by filing multiple lawsuits and more than a dozen personal restraint petitions professing his innocence Bianchi has taken issue with various points on his Washington Bellingham case such as Wilder and Maddox time of death that there were illegal searches and seizures that his defense attorney failed to investigate his case that the prosecutor withheld evidence that his confessions were coerced and that Bellingham detectives lied about forensic details I really have no memory of having murdered anybody even to satisfy other persons allegations at one time I attempted to think about what it might feel like and I have never been able to do that able to talk about any conversations you might have had with mr. bono that would give us some understanding of these murders in California I've never really had any substantial recollections of any conversations regarding mr. bono here I had access to all the police reports and photos as a matter of discovery prior weeks prior to the hypnosis sessions based upon my extensive reading of these reports my literally absorbing these reports to find out what was happening I feel that the motive the motivation may have been for whoever committed these crimes may have been simply to remove evidence simply to - yes I plea-bargained - primarily and basically in pretty much sole they escaped the death penalty the death penalty was very much a reality how many murders were involved in those charges that you plea-bargain seven I don't believe as a Christian now that it's right for even society to take another person's life although society hires people to do push the button or pull the cord or whatever it's still murder still killing so basically he has problems with the entire Bellingham case I'm not um you know they use death penalty to coerce him into giving a full full false confession all of Bianchi's petitions have been denied those he's appealed to these state supreme courts were also denied Bianchi's been saying he's innocent an attempt to overcome his confession for nearly four decades the sexual psychopath is someone who gives in to this impulse which many people might be attractive but they don't act on it and the sexual psychopath not only acts on it but once it has gone to the point where he kills he will kill repeatedly and doesn't tend to stop this behavior if you catch him and incarcerate him when he'll be a model prisoner when he gets out guillotine this is what Bianchi said quote the most frustrating part about all of this for me is the real killers were never charged and I spent 40 years in jail prison for crimes I did not commit I can't point to just one thing as the gravest error in my case there are so many egregious errors yeah right buddy you know byung-ki could have even been up to more a nasty stuff the alphabet murders are an unsolved series of child murders which occurred between 1971 and 1973 in Rochester New York sound familiar Carmen : Wanda Wahl quits Michele Lanza now at the time Bianchi lived in Rochester and he was actually an ice-cream vendor selling popsicles like right near where two of the murders took place Bianchi was never charged with the alphabet murders and he has repeatedly tried to have investigators officially clear him of suspicion however there is circumstantial evidence and that his car was seen at two murder scenes the turd girl had told her father she was going out to buy ice cream she disappeared between Bianchi's store and another one close to the station where Bianchi vended ice cream may be he has nothing to do with those murders or maybe he is like everything to do with them but he did have a shitload to do with a buttload of nasty stuff thankfully he won't anymore and so ends the story of the hillside Stranglers I mean if they load strangling so much maybe they could have just done everybody a favor and strangled each other so we wouldn't have any of this [ __ ] on these really two disturbed depraved sends [ __ ] you had to live your life over again what things would you change I really wouldn't change anything thank you so so much for watching I really really appreciate it I will see you as always real soon in the next video take care of yourselves Mike you

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 1,815,385

Rating: 4.8973417 out of 5

Keywords: that chapter, the hillside stranglers, the hillside strangler, angelo buono, kenneth bianchi, hillside strangler los angeles, hillside strangler victims, hillside strangler

Id: poacBhdBtVM

Length: 31min 10sec (1870 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 23 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Notdat]

I know what I am going to watch tonight !

[u/timbllnghm]

Big fan of your work. I live in Bellingham Washington where I was born and raised. When I was in middle school one my friends mom told us that a friend of ours from elementary school and in our Boy Scout troop was the son of Ken Bianchi. Also that the kid didn’t know who his dad was. Crazy info to have as a kid and pretty irresponsible of the mom to tell a couple of his friends. Side note. This was a kid who gave me a friendship bracelet covered in itching powder.

[u/gnine2018]

Great episode! I lived in CA when all this was going down. I was happy when they caught them. If only the could catch the Zodiac killer although they are probably dead.