How Did the Hillside Strangler Hide In Plain Sight For Years_ _ The New Detectives

A badge. A handcuff. A promise of authority. For four months, two cousins posing as police officers terrorized Los Angeles, abducting women from busy streets while witnesses watched. No one suspected the killers were hiding in an upholstery shop.Between October 1977 and February 1978, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono murdered ten young women ranging in age from 12 to 28 [citation:6]. Their victims included prostitutes, honor students, aspiring actresses, and a 12-year-old girl. The killers posed as undercover officers, flashing fake badges to gain trust, then handcuffed their victims and drove them to Buono's Glendale upholstery shop [citation:6]. Inside that unassuming storefront, the women were raped, tortured, and strangled with ligatures. Their cleaned bodies were dumped on hillsides across the city [citation:5]. The killers remained undetected until Bianchi moved to Washington and murdered two more women, where a break in the case finally exposed them [citation:2].Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play because the Hillside Stranglers wore badges, not masks.