The Hillside Stranglers Part 1

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During a hurricane. We didn't speed it up. We were just talking fast. We were. Because it's a hurricane. They move fast, right? Yeah. Sure. Remember that game? Like, hurricane? Nope. Okay. It's actually not hurricane. I think it's another game. As I was saying it, I slowly trailed off and I was like, actually, that's not the game that I was thinking of. I was like, I...

Genuinely do not. Yeah, I know. That's because it's not a game. Okay, cool. Because I was like, am I just old? Is that another youth old thing? Well, you are old. Yeah, but not because of this. Not because of that. Okay, cool. Well, we don't get hurricanes much, as you can see. It's been 30 years. It's been 30 years since we really got one. I don't know if it's actually going to turn into a hurricane. Right now, it's just a tropical storm. Which I'll take. I don't want the power to go out. Of which we have seen before, so I think we're feeling okay about that. Hell yeah. It turns into a hurricane. A horror cane. A horror cane. That sounds like... I like that.

I'll take that over a hurricane. Yeah. Because hurricane sounds like hurricane. I want like hurricane. Horror. I think that would be like a fun movie night. Like you could call it like a movie convention like in Scream 4. Yeah. The horror game. Instead of stab-a-thon, they can call it the horror game. And you could do it during a hurricane. I love it. I think we're onto something here. Plays on words. I think we need to TM this because someone's going to steal it. TM, TM, TM.

But yeah, we're just a little loopy because things are weird here. True. But again, I don't think there's like a ton of true crime news this week. I didn't see anybody tag me in anything. I'm really, I'm constantly looking up Summerwell's stuff. I can't stop. But it's been like eight weeks and we're not getting much. They keep saying that they're still actively searching and that everybody's still a suspect and there's been a little movement in like certain things, but not really. Yeah. It's just, it's killing me. I need movement in that case. I just need to know.

I really do. I need it. But yeah, is there anything you want to chat about before we dive into this? I did just finish White Lotus the other night, and that's about the only news I have for you. A lot of people have been watching White Lotus, and I'm intrigued. Yeah, me and Spencer Henry were watching it at the same time, my good old pal. Spencer Henry. Yeah, it was really good. A lot of people were like, you're going to be so mad at the end. I have a hot take. I'm not that mad at the end, and I'm not going to spoil it for you because I know it's still happening. I was like, aw, but I was also like, yeah.

So if you've watched it, maybe that will make sense to you. Maybe the aw. Yeah. Will like resonate with it. I was like, aw, like that happened. But I was like, kind of saw that coming. Oh, I'm intrigued. But a lot of people were like really pissed. I was pissed at something else at the end that I'm just not going to talk about. Yeah, because I'm already saying too much. Because I want to watch this. It'll take me like three years. Like I'll be, it'll be totally over when I finally get to watch it. Drew and I watched the first episode on Friday night. And then actually we were supposed to go to Alina's last night, but I ate spicy soup. So I didn't go anywhere.

So we just watched literally every episode and stayed up until midnight last night. I love that. Drew got home from work. We closed all the curtains, made it super dark in the apartment and then just watched White Lotus until midnight. I love that. The other night I watched like half of Hellraiser. Okay. Is that why you had a dream about? Yeah. I had a weird dream about Pinhead and I tweeted about it. I was like, I don't want to talk about it. And everybody was like, well, now you have to talk about it. And I was like, I'm not going to talk about it. Did you like do some weird stuff with Pinhead? It was weird. It was a weird dream. I woke up and I said, whoa.

It was one of those things I was like, whoa. And then I was like, ah, I have to yell about this for a minute. Did you tell anybody? No. You're just going to keep it to yourself? Yeah, it was a very... Do you want to tell me off there? It was distressing. I think you should let it out. But you know what? Hopefully you all get to have dreams about Pinhead now because I put that in your brain. You know, I've actually never seen that movie, so. I know, that's wild. We need to get you on that train. I'm sure we will on screen because you guys love to show me crazy movies. On screen, we will definitely get you on that train because it's a classic. Scream, scream. I feel like that's one that will... It's going to test you a little bit.

Okay. It's going to test you. That's what you thought about House of a Thousand Corpses and then I fucking loved it. This is very different from House of a Thousand Corpses. Like very different. I can handle anything. I hate it. She said it first. I'm a hairdresser. You heard it here first. I'm supposed to be able to handle anything. Well, you know, then Hellraiser it is. But this is not Scream. This is Morbid. And I am going to take you to hell with this episode. So it was a good little segue. Yeah, there you go. We are going to be talking about the Hillside Stranglers.

Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, which is really, for some reason, my mouth does not want to say Buono. It wants to say Buono. It's like, oh, no, but it's not Buono. It's Buono. Yeah. Yeah. So they're disgusting. They're horrific. They're nightmarish. They are a horror movie, but they are real life. And this is going to be a two-pada because I felt it was very, very...

very necessary to talk about how fucked up and awful these people are even before the murders happen. Yeah, you got it. You got to set the scene. We got to set. So we're going to talk about a couple of the murders in this episode. And then part two, we'll finish off all the rest of like, because there's like 12 murders and all. Jesus Christ. We'll finish off those and we'll talk about the aftermath and everything. But I really want to like, make you understand how terrible these guys are. And let me tell you, it's gonna get rough. There's trigger warning right here. There's a lot of rape in this case, a lot. That was kind of their thing.

Part two is where we're really going to see like the torture methods that they used. But this one's going to get pretty rough. And again, like I said, lots of rape. So, you know, if that's something that's going to bum you out, I understand. But yeah, I think we should just dive right into this. Okay. Now that you've given us the TV warnings. Exactly. Now, this is one that I have been wanting. It's kind of one of those that a lot of people know of. It's one of those like.

you know, ones that we space out, the bigger ones. And I've been wanting to cover it forever, but I knew it was such a gnarly one that I was like, you have to be in the right state of mind to really bring yourself into this. So before I begin, I just want to say that there is a book about this that I used, that I got a ton of information from. It's called The Hillside Stranglers and it's by Darcy O'Brien. He does a great job going into like both of their lives, finding out like all the background of everything. It's like fascinating and horrifying. There's also a ton of old newspaper articles that I look through that are like really interesting because seeing how this was reported at the time.

In the beginning, they thought this was one. So it was called the Hillside Strangler. Okay. And they only thought this was one person. You are staring at me so blankly right now. I can't. Oh, no. I was just like looking. You just had to pause because Elena was like, don't look at me. I stopped recording.

Because Ash literally was staring at me, like, looking through my soul. It's like her eyes glazed over and she went into a different world. Do you think it's because I have my glasses on? Like, my eyes just hit different? I definitely hit different. That's for sure. My mouth was a little open. Maybe I just looked like a little cray-cray. No, you know what? I actually, I thought I knew a lot about this case and I really don't. So I'm just, like, actually very eager to hear the story. Yeah. So I think I'm just looking at you. That was just, like, that really threw me. Should I look not at you? That hit different. No, you can look at me. I think it's the glasses. My eyes hit different. Sorry.

Woo. All right. Well, I'm glad we got that fun out of the way because this is going to get real. I'm just going to start you like this. Our eyes are just bugging out of her head. So Kenneth Bianchi was only 26 years old at the time of these murders, which blew my mind. Yeah, that's like a year older than me. For some reason, I was like thinking he was in his 30s at least or something. But it's always wild when you're like mid 20s and murdering. Yeah. It's wild when like a murderer is like a good decade younger than you. You're like, wow. Yeah. That's a lot. I don't know why it's weird. It's just weird. It is. Because Angelo Buono was 43 at the time. Okay. And he looked.

He looked like a hard 43. Like he'd seen some shit. He had. But it's just, it makes sense now when I look at them, but I thought they were both older. But they were collectively known in the media and forevermore as the Hillside Stranglers together. Yeah. They terrorized the city of Los Angeles between October 1977 and February 1978. Oh, wow. I didn't realize that. Well, actually, I guess it's very long for like the things that they were doing, but for some reason I thought it went on longer. Well, that's the thing. It was pretty quick. Yeah. But it obviously felt like a million years because of what was going on. But it was only about four months. Yeah. And it turned into like four months of terror.

People were terrified. And there was also other murderers going on at this time, too. Yeah, especially in that area. Yeah, so it was just, like, wild at that moment. But then in 1979, one of them actually kept going and took it into his own hands and took two more lives alone. Oh. So they had ten together. Two, one of them did by themselves. Okay. And all these two killed 12 women and girls between the ages of 12 and 28. Jesus. Also, these two weren't friends.

They were cousins. Were they cousins by like blood or were they like... They were so... And we'll get into it with Kenneth. Kenneth was adopted. So they were technically cousins. He was just... They refer to them as adopted cousins a lot, but they were cousins. They're family. He was adopted at like three months old. I didn't know if it was one of those situations where it was like, like, oh, like that's my mom's best friend. Yeah, like that's my cousin. You know, like he's my cousin. No, they were like actual cousins.

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Earn up to 15% cash back at stores like Sephora, Old Navy, Walmart, and Expedia. It's the smartest way to shop, plain and simple. Start your shopping at Rakuten.ca or get the Rakuten app. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N.ca. Morbid is brought to you by Audible. He lurks in the shadow. He slips into dreams. He casts no reflection. Audible presents Bram Stoker's Dracula, a new full-cast audio thriller starring Jonathan Bailey as Dracula, Ella Purnell as Mina Harker, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Van Helsing, and more. When Mina's fiancé vanishes in Transylvania, she pieces together letters, diary entries, and chilling testimony to hunt the predator stalking those she loves, only to discover Dracula is already hunting her. Joined by the enigmatic Van Helsing, Mina and a fearless band race against time to stop an ancient terror. Her intellect and resolve may hold the key to bringing down the count if he hasn't already found his way inside her mind.

Featuring a haunting original score and spatial Dobie Atmos sound design, Bram Stoker's Dracula invites you to feel the terror of being hunted and the thrill of the hunt. Now on Audible, listen to the darkness. Go to audible.ca slash listen to Dracula. And this is one of those cases that people know the media name, like the Hillside Stranglers. But I've run into a lot of people who have never heard of it at all. So I've heard of it, obviously, but I don't know all the nitty gritty. Yeah, I feel like this is one that definitely needs to keep being told because of just how horrific it is. And these victims went through hell and they definitely don't deserve to be forgotten. But like I said, fair warning, this is a bad one. It goes without saying that all of ours are bad, but this one definitely ranks above the rest as far as like staying power in your mind. It's going to be up there with the other real.

Real gnarly ones. Basically, anyone that I've done, it's going to rank them. And also, to be honest with you, it's going to be a morbid, morbid week for you guys. It certainly is. I've got a doozy for you. Yeah, you do. So it's going to be a rough one this week. We'll do something haunted next week. The hurricane brought us to a place. I don't know. It's dark. So let's talk about Angelo Buono. He is the older of the two, obviously. He was born in Rochester, New York, on October 5th, 1934. He was raised primarily by his mother, Jenny. And he moved with his mother and his 10-year-old sister, Cecilia, when he was five years old to Los Angeles. Okay.

His parents got divorced very early on. And his mother, Jenny, got a job in a shoe factory working as a peace worker. And she bought them like this little bungalow where they lived. It was like a nice little house. And it was in a section called Highland Park in Los Angeles. His father really wasn't in his life after they got divorced. What's worse is his father moved from New York to Los Angeles, too, but stayed away from his original family.

That's bizarre. Like, didn't move there to see them. He remarried and had children and spent all his time with his new family. That always infuriates me. That's, like, really fucked up. Like, you don't get, like, a practice family. Like, that's your family. You know what? There's so many people, and, like, they do look at it as a practice family. I love the way you just said that. Like, it's so fucked up. But people do that. Like, they look at it as like, oh, I fucked that one up. But look, I got another chance. And it's like, no, that's it. And it's sad because then it's like you're just, like, recreating a cycle of trauma. Exactly. So he was raised by Jenny, his mother. And according to...

Only Buono, of course. We only have him to go off of for this account. No one else has said it. He said that she was very promiscuous, would sleep with men for favors, like repair men, delivery men, things that she could get something, you know, for the family. Well, I was going to say, it's hard times, girl. She was, they struggled financially. That could have been something that happened. It's like she was trying to keep things going. And she's trying to give you the best, dude. Well, and he also claimed, though, that she would take him as a child on her meetings with these men and he would have to wait outside. Okay, well, that's wrong. Which would be absurdly dramatic. Yeah, that's wrong. Now, Jenny always denied this was the case, but Angelo insisted it was true.

Of course, who knows? You know, like, let's remember who this guy is before we believe this bullshit sob story. Right. But no matter what happened, he really hated his mother. Yeah. So there was some kind of trauma there or something was going on there. Maybe it was just like one of those things where like she felt like this or he was exaggerated. She was like, that's not true. Yeah. But it was like maybe a little bit of that was true, but she didn't want to admit it. It was the way he looked at women his whole life. Like it tells me that something is awry here. I just don't know what. That sounds like it could be a true story. Who knows? Yeah. He referred to her pretty primarily like only as that cunt.

Oh, he would only call her that. All right. Not his mother. He would refer to her as that to her face in front of people. Like that was what and he then he would often call like that's what he referred to other women as as well. Awesome. Yeah. But his mom was literally called that. Yeah. He loathed women, but he simultaneously referred to himself as a ladies man and thought he was like a real Romeo, which you look at him and you're like, no, but he was. He had women.

I mean, bursting out of the walls when he was growing up. Well, listen, there's someone for everyone. And by the time he was 14, though, he had developed these very like intense, very aggressive and very violent fantasies involving rape in women. Yikes. So things are starting. Again, we're seeing like sex is being tied into violence. Right. There's all this fucked up stuff. It's just and he had this like weird thing with his mom where he hated her. But he also like had this weird. It's just it's really fucked up.

toxic relationship. So by 14, he was literally bragging to his friends that his dream was to pick up a hitchhiking girl and rape her. Oh, that's not what we're usually talking about at lunch with our friends at that age. And he also constantly talked about, and he was very obsessed with wanting to sodomize a girl. And even his friends were like, and this is 14 years old. And so even his friends are like, what is that? Like a freshman in high school? Well, most of them are like, I don't even know what that is. Right. I don't even think I knew what that was. And his friends were literally like, what the fuck, dude? Like all of them were like, this is weird. Like this is so much 14 year olds talk about. You should talk to someone. He was terrible in school. He was constantly in fights. He would just leave and take off for no reason. And then he started committing petty crimes.

And then not so petty crimes like stealing cars. By the age of 16, he had dropped out of high school altogether. In fact, that same year, he was finally arrested for the first time for grand theft auto at 16. Whoa. And was sentenced to the California Youth Authority.

He escaped. No. He escaped. Wow. 16 years old. Like, wow. Yeah. But they got him and they put him in a reform school after they got him because they were like, you need lots of help. And at that time they were like, neighbor also. No, no, no, no. And this was the Paso Robles School for Boys. It doesn't exist anymore. It did nothing. Yeah. It did not help. Rarely does. In fact, it might have made it worse because he got out and immediately did the same thing. It reminds me of Carl.

Carl Pan's rim. Yeah. It's just like these. It makes it worse. It's not working. And he would literally like beat the shit out of people and steal jackets off their backs. Like he would just like whatever he wanted, he was going to take it. And he was so angry. He would pull knives on people who tried to come for him. He was just an angry, violent, like really like his brain was just.

really focused on hurting people and especially hurting women head trauma question mark i never i didn't find anything about head trauma interesting yeah i didn't find anything but by this time his ideas of sex and rape were so fucked up that i really do have to wonder what the hell happened something he might have witnessed his maturity at this point experience something yeah like they just i don't know he was just so obsessed with like rape and control at this point that i'm like what made that happen like something something it's like of course his father left early so well that's trauma and he was five he's aware But I mean, I don't know how rape comes into that. You wonder if, and maybe the reason why Jenny didn't want to admit that like this happened and this is just speculation, but maybe he saw something happen and took it as like, oh, she did that so we could like get this. Exactly. But maybe it wasn't that situation. Maybe she was raped. Yeah. Who knows? Like who really knows? And that's the thing. Like she could have thought she was doing this for the family to like she's doing what she has to do. Right. But then he's becoming involved in it in some way by even being present. Even if it's like not, you know, it's, it's all very, if this is, if that's the truth, that's very traumatic and very psychologically. We'll fuck your kid up. Oh, absolutely. But of course.

who could have thought that it would turn out the way it did. Like, no, it's just very, it's crazy how like intense he got so quickly, but he, and it's like, he hated women, but he dated a ton at the same time. So of course he was awful. Like he's an awful person. And he didn't get into like a ton of long-term relationships until later. I wonder why. I know it's crazy, but he somehow got a lot of women, a ton of women. Interesting. He was a literal goblin. So I'm confused, but it was a different time. And I also think maybe he just aged really badly. Like I was going to say, there is like a one picture of him when he's younger that is not, it doesn't float my boat, but like, but like, you can see he's not a goblin in it. Like I'm like, okay. Cause to me, he's like,

literally repulsive. Yeah. Even if I didn't know all the horrible things he did, I would think he was a repulsive person, but that's just my type. It's not him. Yeah. I mean, like this one, I'm like, okay. That's Kenneth Bianchi. Oh, there you go. So that'd be Kenneth Bianchi. We'll get into him. Don't worry. But like, I can kind of get how like in that era. Yeah. Again, not my cup of tea. It's hard to find pictures of Angela. That's the thing. You can't really find young Angelo. So goblin, goblin older.

Yeah, he's definitely a goblin when he's older. But he also became, around this time when he was a teenager, he became obsessed with a man named Carl Chessman, who was a convicted rapist. That was who he looked up to. He literally admired him. And Chessman had been arrested and convicted way back in 1948 of doing some, like, town that dreaded sundown, like, Zodiac shit. Jesus. He would use a red siren that went on his car and he would pretend to be a cop. That scares the shit out of me. Oh, yeah, and that was their thing. I know, I knew that. He would then walk up to couples in lovers' lanes in L.A. and he would get the girl out of the car. Then he would bring her to a secluded area and he would rape her.

buono thought he was a genius oh of course you pretend to be a cop like people are gonna trust you but what he always said was like yeah he did great he did awesome things i want to be just like him but he didn't take it further he never killed anybody i want to do that oh so he was like oh cool i'll just take how he did it and i'll like fine tune it i just don't understand and obviously it's a good thing that we don't understand but like How do you, you just, you just want to kill someone. Like it's just like a feeling in you that you just feel and you have to carry out. It's anger. It is. It's anger. So much anger he has. It's unreal. And he worked a lot of odd jobs, but he was like, okay at a lot of things, but it was working on cars that really stuck with him. He became really good at it. And he particularly became interested and really good at auto upholstering, like upholstering autos. Yeah. This made him really good money. I was going to say, absolutely. And so he was also able to flash that to ladies as well. Like, right. Apparently people thought he was good looking back then. He dressed well. He was also apparently very neat and clean. Even his house was very clean and neat. And then he has money.

He has this business and he's doing well. So like, I get it. You see that you could like from the outside looking and you're like, oh, I could have a nice life for myself. Exactly. And he started referring to himself as the Italian stallion. You know, see, that's the thing. It's like when we nickname ourselves, guys, it just never works out. You know, see, that's where I'm out. Yeah, that's where I actually have dinner plans with everybody else. Yeah, but you know, I can't even, I'm like, you know what? Someone else I might be like, come on, dude. But him, I'm like, you know what? You kind of were. He was. Okay. He was dating women literally constantly. I mean, the dude had, it's unreal. You read anything about him and everybody's like, Angela was a legend. Like. Okay.

Which I'm like, why didn't you just like live your life that way? Right. Just live your life dating people. It clearly didn't bring him what he needed. It did not. And it's like, that's the thing. It's like, man, you could have just lived that way. It's like, that should have fulfilled you. Like love. But no, it did not. So at 20 years old, he actually got a 17 year old girl pregnant. They'd only dated a couple of weeks when it happened. Her name was Geraldine Yvonne Vanal. And he asked her to marry him immediately because he thought that's what you do. You know, like he was raised in, you know, by like Italian parents. They like taught him like this is what, even though he hated women and he wasn't, he was taught like those values of like, you got a girl pregnant, you marry that girl. Well, that was also just very.

Of the time back then. Yeah, of course. So he asked her to marry him in June of the same year, which was in 1955. He abandoned her and their unborn child within a week of marrying her. Recreating that cycle of trauma. She filed for divorce when their son Michael was born in January 1956. And the divorce was granted and the court awarded her child support. Good. I'm sure she didn't get it. He didn't pay anything. Nope. And wouldn't allow Michael to ever refer to him as father.

Don't call me your dad. That's terrible. Interestingly enough, according to the book that I mentioned, The Hillside Stranglers by Darcy O'Brien, she stayed close to the Buono family and they called her Aunt Jerry. Okay. She actually stayed close to his mother and his sister and all that. So hopefully Michael got something that he needed. I think he got some part of the family.

At the time of his first child, Michael's birth, Buono was actually in jail for two months for auto theft. So he wasn't there when he was born. When he got out of jail at the end of the two months, he got another girl pregnant the same year. So he got two girls pregnant within like a year and a half of each other. That'll happen. By the end of 1956, his second son, Angelo Buono III, because his father's name was Angelo, was born. And he married the mother, who was 17-year-old Mary Catherine Castillo, in April 1957. And I believe she went by Candy. The same year, she had his third son, Peter Buono, and then a fourth son, Danny, the following year, his fifth in 19...

1960, and a daughter, Grace, in 1962. So how many children is that? Is that five children or four? So he has six children now. And five of them are with Candy. Five boys and one girl. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Yep. That's a lot of kids in a short period of time. Five of them are with Candy, and one is with Aunt Jerry. Okay, so obviously Candy stayed with him for a while. Yes. Now, this is where we're going to get really... It's going to be tough, guys. So just hang tight. I'm going to try to blow through it a little bit, but I got to give you the details because you got to know how bad this guy is. And she went through it. Yeah, so she deserves our story told. During their marriage, he was...

abusive and horrific. He raped her constantly. He sodomized her against her will. He called her a cunt in front of the kids. He would hit her, kick her, beat her in front of the children. In fact, there's an instance so horrific, it has given me chills since I read it. Great. There was a time when their children were ages ranging from one to seven years old. She refused sex, so he dragged her out in the living room and raped her in front of them. Oh my god. Yeah. So this is who he is. Yeah.

Just before he's murdered. Like a straight up monster. So she filed for divorce and had to raise the children on her own. It was like after that instance, she was like, no, no, I'm happy that she was able to take care of her kids. She's like, no, this is obviously horrific. So but she had to raise her kids like five kids on her own. Yeah, I mean, he got out of paying even a dime for those kids, because even though she was granted child support, she was granted like $150 a month, which now would be like.

Over a thousand. Okay. Which obviously is not a lot when you're raising five fucking kids. And he then started spelling his name B-O-N-O, Bono, so that they couldn't come after him for child support. Wow. He just tweaked his name so that they couldn't find him and get it. Wow. What a fucking loser. So he literally abandoned five children or six children and just was like, fuck it. Whatever. After absolutely doing horrific things to their-

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What the fuck? He didn't, but she was like, wow. She's like, hey, I guess we're not going to reconcile. So in 1965, he started dating another woman named Nanette Campina. She was 25, and she already had two children of her own. They were Danny and Annette. They never married, but they stayed together for a while, and the two of them ended up having two sons together. Jesus. Now he has two more. So that's eight. Yeah, Tony and Sam. And he has a lot of boys. I was thinking that. A lot of boys. And he was just as abusive and awful, and he was also said to be sexually assaulting Nanette's daughter, who told her this at 14. Jesus.

Now, the problem here is that the entire time they were together, she always told or he always told her, if you ever try to leave me or if you ever try to tell anybody that I have all these mafia contacts and I have connects and I will not only kill you, but I'll have your kids killed. OK. So she always was terrified and felt like she couldn't get out. Right. But when the daughter told her she was being assaulted to him, she was like, fuck it. Well, yeah, I don't care what happens. I don't care what I have to do. So in 1971, she literally packed the kids up, all four kids, and brought them all to Florida.

Like she moved to Florida to get away from him. Wow. Like literally across the country. Yeah. Just bye, bitch. Good. Good for her. Yeah. Right. Like, get it. She said she started, and this is horrific. She said before she left and what really pushed her to go was he started telling her that her daughter needed to be, quote, broken in. And that he said he would break her in. No. And she was like, I'm leaving. Also, like, what does that even mean? Like, get the fuck out of my face.

monster. Is he alive still? No, he died. Oh, good. Uh, Kenneth Bianchi is still alive in prison, but terrible. Yeah, he died. Now, at one point, he was roommates, like, after he, you know, left, Nanette left him and all that. He was roommates with a guy who was actually working in Hollywood. Oh, shit. They just, like, became roommates. He, this guy was, like, a Z-list actor named Artie Ford. That was his, uh, that was his, like, stage name. He did know some people, though, in the Hollywood scene. So, like, this is how Angelo kind of got connected to some, like, pretty high-ranking, you know.

Actors at the time. And like people just in the business. So now he's being known as this guy who can really, really fuck with auto upholstering. And all these stars are like, I want my fancy car done. So he got some high end clients this way. He redid a car for Frank Sinatra. Holy fuck. What the hell? Can you imagine Frank Sinatra later finding out that Angelo Buono?

Frank Sinatra also like wasn't the best guy. No, but it's like a serial killer. But Angela, he was no Angela Buono. I just said Blono. Blono is probably a better word for him. But yeah, it's like, even though Frank Sinatra was not like, you know, like a fire boy. I mean, he's no Angela Buono. A serial killer, like the hillside strangler. Yeah, that would be wild. It would just be wild. But also in Hollywood, you're probably just like, yeah, it makes sense. You're probably like, yeah, that was Angela Buono in my car. But Artie, the guy who like connected him with all this was also disgusting because he literally sat by and watched as Angela would literally masturbate while watching schools let out through binoculars. And he also bragged to him about raping his stepdaughter.

Oh, that's just... And said he turned her over to his sons as well for them to assault. Oh, no. He then also said... Do you think that's true? I don't know, because he's a lying sack of shit and he's also just... I hope that's not true. But he's so disgusting, I wouldn't be surprised. He then also said he once got in a fight with his ex-wife and turned on the gas when he left because he was hoping she would light a cigarette and blow up. And when Artie said, what about the kids being in the house when this happened? He responded, fuck the kids. And Artie was like...

Oh, weird. I'd be like, I don't want you to live with me anymore. Well, and the way Artie described it later was just like, yeah, it was like weird, but like we were bros. So like, I don't know. Like, fuck you, Artie. Like, are you kidding me? Like, I'd be like, get the fuck out of my house. You're disgusting. Well, I'd also be like, that's obviously terrible. And I'd also be like, are you going to turn the gas on in my house? You're obviously a psychopath. Like, you just said fuck your own kids. Like, you would blow them up. Right. What? Whatever. So in 1975, he opened up his own auto, like, reupholstering shop at 705 East Colorado Street. And this was behind his home. So he could work there. He could play there. He could do all those things there. He basically used it as his bachelor pad.

constantly having women over and girls to this place because he liked young teenagers. Yeah. He would have customers, waitresses at the local coffee shop he went to every day. But like I said, he liked younger girls. So he would have girls from the high school come over. Gross. He was raping girls as young as 13. He was a predator in every sense of the word. Yeah. He also raped his son's teenage girlfriends and got them to introduce him to their friends who he would also rape. What the fuck? He had all of their school photos in his wallet and they were found when police later put it into evidence. Ew. And most of them had inscriptions on the back from the girls because, again, these girls are young. Yeah, they don't know.

assaulted by him and like lured in. Yeah. And so they're all writing these things like, Angelo, you're a stud. Like, I love you. Like, some of them are like, we're gonna get married someday. Like, he was full on just grooming all of these. Narcissist city. Yeah. It was like these girls. Literal girls. Really sad. Yeah. It was truly wild. Now, this was in the beginning of 1976. And this, when all this was going on, is when his cousin Kenny came into town. Okay. Now, Kenneth Bianchi was born May 22nd, 1951, also in Rochester, New York. His mother was a sex worker and gave him up at birth. He never met her.

This is important because he always held that against her and against other women. And this is also very important because it's who he chooses to hurt later in life. It's also like, hey, she made a really responsible decision because she probably realized that she couldn't take care of you properly. And she gave you a better life. Yeah. I mean, well, maybe not. But she tried to. That was probably her intention. That's the thing. It's, you know, she didn't abandon him on a street corner. You know what I mean? Like he was adopted. So he had a terrible life. So this is how he, now this is how he's cousins with Angelo. He's adopted by Angelo's mom's sister. So Angelo's aunt. It's like so crazy to me because there's no like technical genetic link.

between the two of them, but it's even crazier to me that they got into this together. Right. You know, it's like just, it makes it weird. It's scarier. Now, he was a liar from a young age. He was also lazy and would literally go into like trance-like states where he would just like stare off for like hours at a time. Like I did to you in the beginning of the episode. Yes. Is that why you were so freaked out? I was like, all right, Kenny. All right, Bianchi, get out of here. So at five years old, he was actually diagnosed with petty mal seizures. Oh. But it was told to his mother that he would just grow out of them. And this is actually true. It sounds like that would be like, what? I've heard of that before. But these seizures are usually short and can happen many times a day, upwards of like...

50 times a day. Is that why he would be staring into space? Yeah, because they said, like, sometimes when he was in this trance, his eyes would roll back in his head, and that's a penal seizure. But sometimes kids don't even notice that they're happening. Like, they can happen. Usually they don't cause super intense damage or, like, lasting effects, but they can lead to a little bit of trouble focusing later and things like that, which he did have at one point. So as he grew, he was also having rages, though, and just random episodes of losing his temper completely. He was just like...

lashing out uh he was also not doing well in school because he just wouldn't do anything and he wouldn't focus even though he had a he had a high IQ like he was smart they had him IQ tested and he was like uh either like like he was like a little above average but they said even that wasn't a good indicator because they said he wasn't focusing on the IQ test right so they were like he got that just by not focusing like he probably would have been very high if he wasn't but he was just lazy as fuck wow now he was in catholic school waste of talent it really it always is but he was in catholic school for a lot of his schooling and was introduced to like a very strict religious education um he saw several psychologists during this time like elementary and middle school because the rages and the lying and the laziness were concerning his mother especially. Now, all these psychologists agreed that he was definitely too dependent on his mother. Okay. They said the relationship is...

Way too intense. But then it's like she probably feels like she needs to give him more because he's adopted. Exactly. I think it's like she's doing what she thinks is right. Right. But they also said he was very hostile and very manipulative. As a child, too. But they even pointed to his mother in this whole thing and said, you're too big of a force in his life and that's going to damage him. Like, you need to let go a little bit. Okay. And so they actually told her, you should go to therapy, too. Both of you should. Right. To learn how to, like, have a better normal relationship that won't affect him later in life. But she said no.

And so I wonder if it had anything to do with like being super duper religious. Like, oh, yeah, I think it all it all ties in together. It's like I think it was just a lot of forces that were really heavy handed in such a different time. But again, he was from a young age. He was like this. So I think it's also just he was like this. And it was just being, I think, kind of fed by all the really intense forces. Right. That might not feed someone else. But at 13 years old, his father died, his adoptive father. That's terrible. His mother literally made him wear his father's shoes to his father's funeral. Like not not like you're going to walk in it like you're literally going to wear his shoes.

Okay. Which is a very strange thing to do to a 13-year-old who, like, probably doesn't know how to handle their father dying. Like, forcing them to wear something from their... Like, I feel like that's just, like, let him be. Yeah. Like, you don't... And also, she was telling him, you're the man of the house now. Oh. You have to walk in these shoes. Like, you have to wear your father's shoes, literally and figuratively, which is just a lot. Yeah. And what did you say, 13? 13 years old. Yeah, you're not the man of the house. You're a boy. And he was already having all these issues. It's like, I don't know if that's what we want to do is, like, now make him feel like he needs to, like, take over for his father. Probably not. And it's also putting a weird, like...

thingy in there because it's like you're taking his place you know he's already i don't know it's just weird so he entered high school Weirdly enough, he was pretty normal in high school with friends and stuff. He was popular. Ladies really liked him. They always said he was very neat and clean and tidy. Weird. I know. That they have that in common. Some people are clean. But it's weird. Just interesting that they both share that. Yeah. And you don't think of two disgusting serial killers as being two very neat and clean people. But he ended up getting married to his high school sweetheart at 18 years old. She was a girl named Brenda Beck. He had known her forever. But it only lasted like seven months, I think it was. Oh, wow. Because he became obsessed with the idea that she was not a virgin.

What? Because remember, he had a Catholic school upbringing. Okay. Which, and I think, like, there was a lot from mom happening that could have been, like, feeding this, like, purity of women kind of thing that he was, like, forcing upon women. Do you know if she wasn't a virgin because they had slept together or if she had slept with somebody else? No, he was obsessed with the fact, and I'm not, and who knows if it's true or not, he was just accusing her of sleeping with someone before him. Okay. And he was not okay with that. And then she also wanted to become a nurse, and she was, like, working her way through, like, nursing school and stuff, and he was obsessed with the idea that nurses work around male doctors, and so they're obviously, like...

promiscuous and sleeping with them. Yeah, totally. That makes sense. Not just like working really hard on dying people. No, of course not. Not being kind to people. So his idea about women was that they needed to be chaste and pure. And he had this like unattainable thing that women.

He was holding women too. He wanted like the Virgin Mary. He literally wanted them. It was like that idea of Catholic purity. That was like too hard. Way too much. Yeah. That's just not humanity. Yeah. Obviously, he wasn't going to find a woman who was going to live up to his impossible standards because no one's going to be the Virgin Mary. It's just not going to happen. Exactly. Presumably. No. It's just. Yeah. It's so. And he also didn't like women having like lots of opinions. And yeah. He was just starting to go into that whole thing. How did you go fuck yourself, Kenneth Bianchi? Exactly. And yeah, he's alive. Continue fucking yourself, Kenneth Bianchi. He also stole shit all the time. Like he was like a klepto. And he would give those stolen items to his girlfriends as gifts. Gross.

tailoring. He began to date several women at a time and Like they would all get pissed and find out about the other one. Wow, literally. Literally. One of them actually called the police on him but dropped charges. But she called the police on him because he got angry at her for something and ended up throwing something through her window in her apartment and trying to enter in there and like grab her. Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no. And then later he was like, oh, no, I just wanted to come up to talk to you. But I like accidentally made the window fall in. Yeah. It's always a bummer when that happens when I just want to talk to someone, but I break their window by accident. That is all the time. You know, whenever I just like accidentally outside of my own volition launch something through someone's window just so I could talk to them.

I feel bad about it. It's like I have glass fitters on speed dial. Yeah, I feel really bad. But he was very charming. And that was one of the things that all of his girlfriends said. They said he was very, and this is going to sound weird considering how he is about women. He was very doting and very like, he loved like romance. Yeah, because he probably knows what it takes. Yeah, he was very like Romeo with them. And he tried really hard. But he also had those really hard, fast opinions on like purity and all that. So it was a very weird dichotomy. And later, like, like, we'll see.

when he meets angelo buono and he like or he had met him when he was younger but like when they get together again he sees how angelo is just an asshole to women but they just flocked him right he treats them like dishrags and they somehow are everywhere and he sees this and he said i immediately was like what the fuck am i doing bending over backwards being romantic and like treating women right right none of them stay with me right so this must be the way you do it and it's like what a fucked up toxic like it's just so crazy that they're like teaching each other these horrible things right because it's like no that's not what's happening angelo is literally grooming children who don't know any better like these aren't like it's just so wild so Kenneth, or I'm going to call him Kenny because who the fuck calls him Kenneth? Not me. He wanted to be a police officer, actually. Even after this whole thing where he literally tried to grab someone out of their apartment and almost got arrested. He's like, you know what I should do? Police office. He always wanted to be a police officer. And so he went to Monroe Community College and he started taking classes in criminal justice and psychology. That's terrifying. He barely went. He did like really shitty. But he applied at the sheriff's department and didn't get the job. Because they were like, hey, you have to. They're like, no. And so he did get the next best thing. He got a security guard job. So he did get fired from a ton of those jobs, though, because he would steal the things that he was supposed to be guarding.

Just like couldn't stop. Good, good, good. For a minute. This is so creepy. He worked as an ice cream man. No. He also worked as an ambulance attendant, which please think about Kenneth fucking Bianchi being your ambulance attendant in your moment of need. Like an EMT? Please think of that. Like an EMT. Like an attendant, like helping like transport and stuff. But what? In an emergency. My God. Yeah, that's your time of need. Your ambulance attendant is Kenny Bianchi. Morbid is brought to you by Audible. Did you know Audible has a massive selection of ad-free true crime podcasts, plus thrilling crime fiction and nonfiction.

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New members can start listening with a 30-day free trial at audible.ca. Fucking Bianchi. That's bananas to me. Like someone out there is like, yeah, Kenny Bianchi drove me in an ambulance to the hospital. That's fucked. No, thank you. No, between 1971 and 1973, this is when like what we're up to now, there was also a series of child murders happening in Rochester, New York. They were called the alphabet murders. We are going to cover them because I think they're important. I don't usually cover child murders. I actually have that research done. But I was going to say that's one of the ones we are going to cover. I'll just give you a quick little overview just so you know. Three little girls were brutally assaulted and murdered. They were dumped on the side of the road. Their names were alliterative, hence the alphabet moniker.

And Bianchi was in Rochester at the time of the murders and worked in jobs that would allow him to be close to kids and to gain their trust. Ice cream man. Ambulance attendant, security guard. He was looked at as a suspect. Wow. And some people still think he may have been the guy because they never solved those murders. Interesting. He even told his girlfriend at the time that he was being looked into for those murders. Imagine being his girlfriend at the time. Well, he adamantly denied it. He denies it till this day. And I think, who knows, really. I need to look a little more into it. Because he feels, who knows if he has some weird code where he feels fine bragging about like teenagers and women that he killed, but kids he doesn't feel as.

open to bragging about. Right. Some of them are like that. They find some weird line. He's in prison. You don't want to be a child. Well, that's the other thing. So it's like, I mean, because everyone's always like, well, he confessed to the other ones like so readily. And it's like different. It's different. It's equally as terrible, but it's different for the fact that, like you said, in prison, he's going to be treated way worse if that comes out. And then two, some of them have this weird moral code that they make up in their own mind. Yeah. Where they'll kill a kid, but they don't want to brag about it. Right. Like they don't want to be known for it. They just won't do it. Yeah. When he told his girlfriend this, she said.

He was like, I didn't do it, but they're looking into me. But he was almost bragging that they were looking into him. He's so dangerous. I'm so dangerous. I might have killed a kid or three. Like a child. Literally three little girls. Like, wow, so dangerous. Did she leave him? No, I guess she was like, she said, because she knew him. And she was like, he was so romantic and sweet. And he would never do that. She was like, never in a million years would I think he would ever do something like that. Never in a million years do you think anyone would kill a child? She just wasn't. She was like, no, I wasn't concerned. I was like, that's weird. Maybe it's just you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wonder looking back now if she's changed her mind. I'm sure she has. So in 1976, after he had proposed to a couple of girls he was dating,

Just a few. I mean, he's a fucking loser. So they all said no. And they all literally said no because they were like, you're a loser. Like, you're not going anywhere. And so he was like, I got to get out of New York because this is not working for me. And it was especially the rejection of a girlfriend named Susan Moore that really broke him. He like...

thought she was the one. And so he was really hung up on her for a long time, actually. And so he said he was going to up and move to California. And his mother and his aunt Jenny hooked him up with his cousin, Angelo. So he ended up staying with Angelo for a little while. And he was just in awe of Angelo. Just all these ladies everywhere. He's got this great job. He's got this great house. He's just living the life. Yikes. Like, I want to live this life. He couldn't believe how many women were around there all the time. And he also saw, like I said, that Angelo was treating them like garbage. And they were everywhere. He's like, shit, that's all I should do this. So he basically was like, teach me your ways. Right. And Angela's place. No, Angela's place was.

clean and neat because he was very clean and neat. But it was disgusting in the sense that now Kenny is staying there and Angela's older sons would also come and stay there too. And they would all pass women around to each other. Yikes. They would just do tons of drugs. They would like all sleep with the same women, like sleep with each other, you know, the son's girlfriends and shit. It was just this like den of just yucky. Den of nastiness. Yeah. And they especially talked about this thing that they did. I've never heard of it, but I'm sure everybody's going to yell at me for not knowing what this is. It's called Sherman. It's like a drug, Sherman's. And it's dark cigarettes dipped in PCP. Oh.

That's what they were doing. I was like, I've never heard of it. I don't even know what a dark cigarette is. I don't either. And I was like, this is wild. Like, that sounds intense. I've never done PCP, so I couldn't tell you. No, but I mean, it sounds crazy. PCP will fuck you up. I would imagine. I've seen it on Intervention. Yeah, and sometimes they would do these Shermans, and then they would all just watch porn together.

watching porn on PCP. Doesn't that sound like the most disgusting scene you've ever thought of? It sounds absolutely filthy, but also very, very ridiculously chaotic. So chaotic. It's scary to think about. I just picture a bunch of sweaty, mustachioed 70s dudes sitting there on PCP watching porn together, and some of them are father and son. This is too much, and they're all family, like cousins. Yeah.

There's too much bonding here that I don't like. I don't even, I wouldn't even call it bonding. I'm just hearing like, you know the, you know the sound when like someone was on the phone and you were on the computer. Yeah. When you try to go on the online. That's just what my brain is doing right now. Like that's the chaos. The entire time that I've been researching this, my brain has been doing that. Yeah. So. Cannot compute. Yeah. So soon after he gets there, you know, they're, they're trying to figure out ways that they can now scam together. Cause they're like, we can scam things together. We're like liars and manipulators. Let's use our talents together. Let's throw out in every way. So they had this scam where they would call a sex worker to come. Like literally you could go into the paper at that point and just like have a girl come to your house from like.

you know, call girl agencies. Sure. But they would have to go into the newspaper for it. And they would all have sex with her when she got there, but then they would not pay her. So they'd show her a fake police badge and tell her to get the fuck out or she'd be arrested. So they would just order this woman to come to the house, all have sex with her, and then refuse to pay her for the services. That's really disgusting. Isn't that like... So they would rape her. Literally, because it's like, and it's like, no, that's her job. Like, fuck you. Right. And they're just like stealing, essentially. Yeah. And then they're scaring the shit out of them by showing a police badge and saying you're arrested now.

Yeah. Like, it's just really fucked up. No, I hate that. So after, you know, they're doing this scam, you know, they're just being assholes. And then finally, Angela was like, you know what? I've been a bachelor in this place for a long time. Yeah. Kind of sick of you being here, Kenny. You got to pay your way or you got to get out.

Because he's freeloading. I mean, in a way, I hate to say that I don't blame Angelo Blono there, but. I feel like I always blame Angelo, but in this sense, I don't know. Yeah, we don't love as a freeloader. Yeah, so you know what? He was like, Kenny, you got to get a job. So Kenny applied to the Glendale Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department and was turned down. I'm honestly surprised that the LAPD didn't take him in as one of their own. I got to say that was a moment for me as well. Good job. But yeah, they turned him down. So he also tried becoming a psychologist, but like a self-taught psychologist as a thing. Like he would just take out books from the library and he was like.

I read them and I understood them. I'd like to see more credentials than that. And he was like, I took a psychology class at the community college. So like, obviously, I'm like, yeah, but you didn't go. I don't have the certificate, but I go like four times. I did go to a couple of classes. Like, no, thank you. Me too, actually. Yeah. And then he tried to be a sex therapist, which I don't know if you want old Kenny Bianchi.

Being your sex therapist, I don't know if he's going to be really good for that. Sure don't need that in life. He did not become one, so that's good. I mean, I don't know how he thought he was going to become one of those anyways. I don't know how he, like, I'm going to be an asshole because he's Kenny Bianchi. I don't know how he thought he was going to become anything by not doing anything. Yeah. He's definitely one of those people that wants all the accolades without any of the work in the world. He's like, yeah, I want to be a police officer, but I don't want to do anything to become a police officer. And you can teach yourself to do a lot of things, obviously. For sure. Like, you could be a self-taught, like, upholsterer. Like, for sure. I hate that I'm giving him his credit again. I know. What the fuck? What the hell's going on? But it's like, you

You've got to climb the ladder a little bit, my dude. But he was not into that. He just wanted it all, but he didn't want any of the work. Because again, he was lazy. His whole life, he was lazy. He had all the potential to do actually good things, but he was too evil and too lazy. So two things that are not good. So he did end up getting a job, though. And it was actually a pretty decent job. He was a title officer at the California Land Title Company. And finally, he got his own car with that money. It was a 72 four-door blue Cadillac. Stylin'. Yep. And trust me, they use it. He also finally got his own apartment.

And it was only, yeah, it was only six blocks away from Angelo's in Glendale. So they could still hang. Bad. Still do their thing. Bad. So then, of course, he starts dating all the girls in the apartment complex. Right. And he's just being a dick. He's dating them all at once. He's like not telling the other one about the other one, lying and cheating and just being awful. And so they're all finding out. Yeah, he's being messy. Most of them, he's so, he's the messiest bitch I've ever seen. Messy but neat. Yeah, he's messy. Neat in life or like messy in his behind the scenes life. Right. But he, so they're all like dropping him like a hot potato because they're finding out and they're like, you're not worth this. No. Like you are not worth this. You don't drop her much. So they're all just like, fuck off. And one woman named Angie.

When she found out, she was like, OK, well, like, fuck you. I'm just going to date someone else. So she went and found a new boyfriend because he was cheating on her. So he got so angry that she got a new boyfriend and like dumped him that he broke into her apartment, cut a hole in her like contraceptive device, like her diaphragm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stole her boyfriend's TV and then left a semen filled condom on her doorknob. Ew, what the fuck? Because this girl broke up with him and got a new boyfriend because he was cheating on her. I love that. That's what he does. That's his response. Like what?

So that tells you, like, he's very unfortunate. Also, like, the psychology behind, like, cutting a hole in her concierge. Like, here, now get pregnant. Like, what the fuck? Like, that's sick. It's so weird. And then it just, ew. Ew. The condom on the doorknob is, like, really gross. That's just fucking nasty. So in 1977, he did finally meet a girl that he really liked. Great. Poor Kelly Boyd. Her name was Kelly Boyd, and they dated quickly, and she moved in with him within months. And in the same year, she was pregnant. No, Kelly, no. He told her he had cancer.

He did not. Why? Just for sympathy. Just because lies. Just lies and sympathy. And he even had her drive, he had her drive him to the hospital for what he said was chemo treatments. What the fuck? But he was lying about the whole thing. He also constantly had affairs and cheated on her while she was pregnant and after. That's so terrible. At one point, he got fired from the title company because he had like marijuana in his desk at work.

Like put that elsewhere. Well, that's it. I'm like, come on, dude. Like just what are you doing? And Angelo was like, all right, well, what can we do for extra money? Because you still got to make money. You're not moving back in here. So they decided that they were going to start by kidnapping some sex workers and like basically becoming their pimps. And they were like, we'll just take all their money. Yeah. And we'll just force them. Because fuck a job. Yeah. No. And Kenny was the one that was going to find the girls to do this with because he was like, you're young.

You're better looking than me. Even though it's just wild. So Kenny did end up meeting a 16-year-old girl named Sabra Hannon. And this was at a party that he was at. He convinced her. She was beautiful and blonde and from out of town. I think she was from Phoenix. And he convinced her that he had a modeling agency and she could become a real model. No. She had moved to LA to break into the modeling world. That's what she wanted to do. So she was eager. She was like, this is my big break. I met him at a party. This is the tale you tell. That's the saddest part about these things that happen in LA. Because I feel like it is probably so easy to trick people out there. Because it happens that you meet someone at a party and they know someone. Rarely it happens.

It's like, this is not one of those things. So once they had her at Angela's home, they forced her into sex work and they raped her themselves. They would show customers at the shop nude Polaroids that they had taken of her to basically advertise her. They gave her a sum of money to buy clothing to wear. And they would like when she would like go to clients and then they would use that money against her saying she had to work off her debt because now that she owed them. What? So they told her you have a year contract with us that you have to stay here as our prisoner and do this work and then we'll let you go. What? Yep.

And they would force her to strip naked and then ruthlessly beat her, sometimes with a wet towel when she misbehaved. Oh my god. Yeah. And when she misbehaved in their eyes. And this is when Kenny realized, he said this later, that this was the first time he'd ever hit a woman. And he said he immediately was like, I love this. Oh god, that's so fucking dark. Yep. It's really wild. But through this girl, they forcibly recruited another 15-year-old girl named Becky Spears. Now, this was through Sabra because they forced her to recruit another girl. And this happens a lot. Of course. People in these positions will be forced to recruit someone else. And it's usually like...

It can be like a safety thing. Like there's someone else here. Even though you're bringing someone else into a really bad situation, it's like survival mode. Unfortunately, what's going to happen to you? What are you going to do if they don't kill you? That's the thing. And they had scared her so much that they actually sent her on a plane, Sabra, back to Phoenix to get this girl. And they sent her alone. Wow. But they told her that they had mafia ties and that she would be watched the entire time. And if she tried to escape, they would kill her. The psychological torture. Yeah.

Yep. And so they recruited Becky. They brought her back. They did the exact same thing to Becky. They kept them there by saying that if they tried to run or tell anyone that their friends in the mafia would cut off their arms and legs and bury them in the desert. Jesus Christ. They wouldn't feed them as punishment. Like they would take them out to dinner sometimes, the two of them, and then order food and eat in front of them and just be like, you look really hungry. Yeah. Or they would just lock them in their rooms for like hours or days and wouldn't let them out until they wanted to. It was like Ariel Castro. And remember, Kenny is still with Kelly, who is pregnant with their child while this is all going on. And he's constantly trying to get Kelly to marry him.

No. And Kelly keeps saying no, even though she's pregnant with his child. Yeah, what does that tell you? Because she's like, you're not husband material. Wow. And she thinks he has cancer. Exactly. And again, they are literally raping these girls violently, this 15 and 16-year-old that they have as prisoners in their home. Now, their operation that they were running, where they were pimping these girls out against their will, came to an abrupt halt. Because the 15-year-old, Becky, was actually freed.

But not by them, but by a client named David Woods, who had initially paid for a girl using a legitimate call girl service that Angelo and Kenny had hooked up with on the side. Right. So they were hooking up with this call girl service and kind of using it. They like worked out some kind of deal with them, but they were using Sober and Becky for part of it and they were getting a cut of it. And so David Woods, I guess, had called this service asking for a girl. Yeah.

Becky was sent to him, this 15 year old, and he was kind of horrified. And so he ended up talking to her all night and she spilled the beans completely about the monsters that she was being kept with. Thank God for this guy. Saying that they raped her, that they beat her. And he, you know, she was like, I don't know what to do. They said they have connects and I don't know what the mafia is going to be after me. I can't get out of this. So he actually sent her on a plane home to Phoenix that night. Oh my God. That night. Or the next morning, excuse me.

gave her his own number to keep her safe and then he and he told her like no mafia is dealing with a fucking auto upholsterer in Glendale like that's not it's not a thing so don't worry like you're fine get out of here don't look back if you need something here's my number yeah so he sent her on his way and actually when they found out like when she was gone they were pissed obviously so they've tried to like have um like they tried to intimidate David Woods like basically like I think they They, like, sent a bunch of weird... Oh, they sent flowers to, like, all his employees saying, like, rest in peace, David Woods. Like, basically being, like, grieving him and trying to scare everybody. He was probably just like, you're an idiot. Well, he had better connects than they did. So he sent this giant fucking bodyguard to Angelo's home. And the dude, like, held him up by his neck and was like, you ever fuck with David Woods again and I'll fucking kill you. Wow. And they never fucked with David Woods again. What happened to Kelly, though? Well, so that was Becky that got away. And Sabra is the 16-year-old that's still there. Oh, yeah. Well, Sabra is the white... Yeah. Is Kelly Boyd is the girlfriend of Kenny. So...

And now Becky, or excuse me, Sabra is now seeing that Becky escaped. Right. She's like, wait, she can't escape? Right. Like nothing happened. And I'm pretty sure she heard the whole like bodyguard coming being like, fuck you. Like, and they weren't coming back at him with any mafia shit. Right. So she was like, they don't have these connects. Right. So she escaped. Good. She got out of there. Good. So she went back home too. And she remained in hiding for two years out of state because she was so scared that Angela would find her. Of course she was. And she wouldn't even come back to testify later until her lawyers promised and assured her that Angela was specifically had been arrested and couldn't get her. This poor girl. And she did testify later. Good. Like photos of her in court and stuff. How brave.

Badass. Now she went through hell. Now they were pissed because these girls outsmarted them and they were wiser than them. And this is when they decided that they were going to kidnap a sex worker, rape her and murder her as a message to the world that they were not to be fucked with by women. Okay. Except that they were losers and they should have just gone into hiding as losers. Yes, correct. So one night they went driving to find some girls to literally murder. They saw two what they thought were teen girls walking. And so they like swung around their car and literally blocked them in a crosswalk. And one of the girls ran away because that's fucking terrifying. She was like, peace. But they kept the other girl there by flashing a fake police badge.

And they asked her for ID. So I think she was like, oh, I don't have like a license, but I have these like, there was like documentation papers. And so she hands them over. And her name is Catherine Laurie, who is the daughter of Peter Laurie. Peter Laurie was a Hungarian actor who is best known for playing a child murderer in the movie M in the 30s. Talk about fucking meta, dude. Yes. He was also in Casablanca, by the way. Like he was a very well-known actor. The most meta.

Like he played an iconic child murderer. That is crazy, dude. Yes. And he was very known, very recognizable. And they initially thought they were grabbing a teen on the street, but she was 25 years old. Oh, shit. And she was the daughter of Hollywood Elite. When she handed over the ID, like the documentation, she also dropped a few photos on the ground that showed her with her famous father. Right. And luckily she had those photos. Yeah. Because they didn't immediately think of Peter Lorre. And so they were stunned. Like they had almost kidnapped, raped and murdered Peter Lorre's daughter. Imagine. They let her go and took off. And she said later when she was shown the photos of them and told who they were, that she said they didn't feel she didn't get a.

threatening vibe from them. Weird. She thought they were like being nice. Well, I think that's like shows how like convincing they were. And I think they probably got more and more evil and people started getting more feelings over time. Exactly. And I think this was like once they figured out who she was, they were like, oh, yeah, they probably let their shit down. And later they said, Kenny especially said that the only reason she wasn't murdered was because she was who her father was. And they said they were movie fans, especially big fans of his serial killer role. I'm sure they were. Yeah.

That's bleak. So that's wild. Now, they ended up getting a girl named Jennifer Snyder to take the place of the two girls that they lost. And they weren't going to murder her. They decided they were going to use her in the same way they used Sabra and Becky. Because they were like, OK, I think the Catherine Laurie thing freaked them out for a minute. They were like, whoa, that was close. Yeah. So let's just go back to our original plan. OK. And we'll just be really awful to Jennifer. Oh, no. So Kenny also got, he.

purchased what he called a trick list from a sex worker named Deborah Noble. Oh, yeah. The list was 175 names of men and they paid 175 bucks for this list. And these men were ones that had like frequently had meetings with sex workers in the area. Sure. So Deborah dropped it off with her friend and her friend that was with her was a woman named Yolanda Washington, who was also a sex worker. They told Kenny and Angelo that this list was for men who wanted sex workers to come to them.

But they found out after buying the list that it was for clients to come to the sex workers. Oh. So there were now dudes coming to the house to see Jennifer. Which is not awesome. Which is not what Angelo wanted. He did not want dudes coming to the house. And he had been told that that wasn't the case. So now he's pissed. Because Debra and her friend, as far as he was concerned, lied to him. Now, initially, Kenny took it out on Jennifer. Oh. And he beat her and raped her ruthlessly. And then told Angelo that she should be the first that they murder. No. But Angelo said, no, that could be traced back to us too easily. So he was like, no.

And Jennifer later said like she in that moment, she was like, they're going to kill me. Like it was ruthless. So because Yolanda had mentioned where she worked, like what corner she was frequently on during the conversation with them when they dropped off the list, they decided to teach Deborah a lesson. They would kill Yolanda, her friend. Oh, no. Because they were like, well, we know where to find her. And she literally just like came along. Now, on October 17th, 1977, they kidnapped Yolanda off the street using the fake badge. They pretended to be police officers, handcuffed her, threw her in the backseat with Kenny.

Kenny raped her while Angelo drove. And then Kenny strangled her with his forearms against her throat. And when she wouldn't die, he used a rag to strangle her. Oh, my God. Yeah. Now, they dumped her naked body handcuffed on Forest Lawn Drive near a graveyard. And it's actually a graveyard that has, like, Hollywood royalty in it.

which is just like a very weird dichotomy, like this horrible thing, like right outside of this Hollywood royalty cemetery. It just gives you the creeps. She was 19 years old. And she was found the next day, October 18th. A music store owner named Ronald actually later told police he saw the whole thing go down. Jesus. But he thought they were cops. Right. And what is interesting is they cleaned her body before dumping her. There wasn't a trace left of anything. And it was intentional. Of course. It was also clear that they'd left her.

as like a message. Yeah, she was right out of the open pretty much. Unfortunately, at the time, especially at that time, sex workers were not looked at in the way that they should have been as humans. So the murder was not big news. It just kind of got fluffed over. Oh, and they were probably pissed. So they, well, no, they felt great at this point. They were like, cool, we can keep doing this. Like, awesome. But Angelo wasn't really as part of this one as he would have liked to have been. He was just driving. So within a couple weeks, he was like, I want part of this. So we have to bring one back to our house so that I can be a part of it. So Halloween night, they went out and they looked for their next victim.

They drove past a 15-year-old girl named Judith Miller. She was on Sunset Strip and she was in front of like a diner. She was a young runaway. She had been living on the streets for a long time. She was like really struggling. She had possibly started doing sex work just to put food in her mouth, basically. But she was just in a really bad place. Angelo saw her and immediately knew. That's the one.

So he had Kenny get out of the car a little ways up and then he pulled back and chatted with Judith like through the door. He told her he would pay her and he was sweet and kind with her and made her trust him. She got into the passenger seat and he pulled up but quickly was flagged down by Kenny who flashed a police badge and told Judith she was under arrest. He handcuffed her and threw her in the back seat and then got in. They told her that she was going to be brought to the police station. They turned down some like weird side streets and she was like, what is going on? We're not going to the police station. And when she questioned this, they told her they were going to a special police division. They were like, oh, we have satellite offices. So she was like, okay.

Now they brought her into Angelo's home and they kept telling her it was a satellite police station. With like a couch and a fridge and a TV and rooms. Literally in like an aquarium. Like what is going on? And she was like, this is not a police station. What is going on? Yeah, of course. Now they still had her handcuffed. And then they forcibly stuffed car upholstery stuffing into her mouth. Oh my God. And then taped around her head. Then they put it over both her eyes and taped around her head as well. Dude, what the actual fuck? They then stripped her and threw her into a spare bedroom before flipping a coin to see who got to rape her first. Nope. Nope. They both brutally raped her and then forced her onto the ground where Bianchi kneeled on her legs and Angelo kneeled on her shoulders. Angelo.

put a plastic bag over her head and sealed it with a cord and strangled like asphyxiated her. What the fuck? Dude, that is brutal. Awful. Oh my God. That's a person. She's 15. She's a baby. Like a 15 year old who's been struggling on the streets. What the fuck? They then threw all of her belongings and her clothing and everything into a landfill and put her body in the trunk of the Cadillac. They then drove her to the residence of a woman named Melinda Hooper, who Angelo hated because she rejected him. It was in the La Crescenta Avenue.

area. And they initially, they intentionally dumped Judith's naked, battered body in the bushes in front of this woman's home. Oh, my God. And Angelo literally was like, I hope she sees it. What the fuck? That is just a different, like that entire murder and how they dumped her is just a different kind of evil. Oh, yeah. And it gets...

Even worse. But she was found November 1st, 1997. She was found and unidentified for a while because no one came forward to claim her. This is when Frank Salerno, whose name becomes synonymous with this case, started going ham. I was going to say I've heard that. And we're going to hear about Frank Salerno a lot in the next part. And that is where I'm going to leave you. All right. Wow. Way to end that like that. Those are only the first two murders. There are 10 more. They get more and more brutal. This case is fucked. These two monsters are terrible. I mean, like.

I don't even know. Yeah. They're terrible. In every way you can be terrible. That's the thing. They have zero redeeming qualities. Yeah. No. Like it's not even like they were like good husbands, good parents or anything like that. They're literally horrible in every way that you can be horrible. Yeah. Every way. Correct. Every way. So that's part one of the Hillside Stranglers. Well, we hope you are ready for part two. Hope you are. We hope you keep listening. We hope you keep it weird. And this one absolutely goes without saying, don't keep it that weird. Yeah. We don't even need to go into that. Oh, gross.