Every Town - Paul Kenneth Bernardo: The Scarborough Serial Rapist - Ontario, Canada

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

This is the story of Paul Kenneth Bernardo, one of Canada's most notorious serial killers. Between 1991 and 1992, he raped and murdered three young women in Scarborough, Ontario. This video includes graphic content and may not be suitable for all viewers.💥 Watch On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries🎧 Our Other Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579💀 Follow Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 💀 Follow Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg👁 Follow Our TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald💥 Follow Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial🗣 Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Every town has a dark side. Paul Kenneth Bernardo was a young, good-looking, and well-educated man. And from the looks of him, you wouldn't expect him to also ultimately become known as the Scarborough rapist, as well as Canada's schoolgirl killer. But he was. And from 1987 to 1991, Paul, and later on his wife, accomplice, and likewise victim, Carla, will go on to commit almost 20 rapes and three murders, including one of a family member. Their terrifying tandem acts at one point had them being referred to as the Ken and Barbie killers.

In the end, it was Paul's insatiable sexual desires that destroyed the lives of so many. I'm Maida Fitzgerald, and welcome to another episode of Everytown. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Today, we're going to learn about a series of crimes that completely rocked the Scarborough area of Ontario, Canada in the 80s and 90s. Paul Bernardo was born on August 27, 1964 in Toronto, Canada, from a wealthy family whose mother Marilyn and father Kenneth raised him and his sister in a financially stable household. But not without stories of them being a dysfunctional family, which may have had a strong impact on Paul's psyche much later on. Marilyn went on to marry Kenneth in 1960 when her father had disapproved of an earlier boyfriend. But Kenneth was abusive to his wife and his children.

Marilyn thus began seeing her former boyfriend. She became pregnant and gave birth to Paul Kenneth, initially keeping from him as biological father. Kenneth Bernardo tolerated his wife's affair and agreed to be listed as the biological father on Paul's birth certificate. But the family faced an even bigger dilemma when in 1975 Kenneth was charged with molesting a girl. He also sexually abused his own daughter, and these traumatic incidents led Maryland to depression and obesity.

She stopped taking care of the home and the children and then withdrew into her own world in the house's basement. Despite the mental and emotional upheaval the family went through, people observed that Paul was unperturbed. They described him as always happy, a young boy who smiled a lot, and he was so cute with his dimple good looks and sweet smile. and many of the mothers just wanted to pinch him in the cheeks whenever they saw him. He was the perfect child they all wanted. Polite, well-mannered, doing well in school, so sweet in his Boy Scout uniform. Later as he grew up, Paul spent summers working as a counselor and became the most popular one with the children and the teenage girls who adored him because his angelic looks and shy, pleasant demeanor.

The high school girls he dated, considered him thoughtful and considerate. He was intelligent, very hardworking, and held a series of after-school jobs that molded him into a good future businessman. However, Paul's vulnerability was revealed, following an argument between his parents when he was just 16. Maryland divulged that Paul was conceived illegitimately during an extramarital affair. The disgust he felt had Paul calling his mother a whore and a slob, considering his mother's infidelity and his father's six sexual perversion. Paul began to hate his parents. Paul attended Sir Wilfrid Lawyer Collegiate Institute in Scarborough

and studied at the University of Toronto Scarborough in 1982. Afterwards, he went on to work for Amway, whose sales culture deeply influenced him, so much so that he bought the books and tapes of famous motivational, get-rich and famous experts to learn from. He also hung around with neighborhood boys that affected his behavior negatively. Paul's attitude in general and towards women in particular, then changed dramatically for the worse.

He and his friends practiced pick-up techniques on young women they met at bars with success. Paul had developed dark sexual fantasies and found satisfaction in humiliating women in public. And he beat up the women that he dated. Forcible anal sex with submissive women was his preferred means of pleasure. Together, with his friend Van Smurness, Paul got into a scam trafficking stolen goods that provided money that he needed. And then, in October of 1987, he met Carla Hamolka, and there was instant sexual combustion between them. See, unlike the other women he knew, Carla encouraged Paul's sadistic sexual behavior. That's when the younger Bernardo's dark and evil persona surfaced.

wrote one author Carla handcuffed on her knees and begging for him was scratching an itch Paul asked her what she would think if he was a rapist

and she would think it was cool their love deepened he started raping women in earnest Paul wanted to build a virgin farm and he would bring virgin girls

there to rape them Carla was obsessed with Paul's happiness when he would become bored or distracted she would find ways or someone that would make him excited. So, with the encouragement and tolerance of Carla, Paul unwittingly carved his niche as the Scarborough serial rapist.

Scarborough's Barbie and Ken committed a number of sexual assaults in and around Scarborough, starting in 1987. The pattern usually involved Paul watching out for the victims as they got off the bus. Then he would grab them from behind their backs and pull them to the ground. Overcome by his strength, the victim would be subjected to anal sex and fallatio on her, as Paul talked to her while performing the sexual acts before she was let go. In some cases, Paul's sexual attempt didn't materialize as the women managed to flee or actually fight back. On November 17, 1988, Metro Police formed a task force to capture the Scarborough rapist, but it never came as close as to catching a culprit.

As continued until 1990, with a dozen rape cases and some attempted rapes and attacks investigated Paul's discredit. Police had collected a lot of physical evidence from the victims hoping that they would help identify the suspect. On May 26, 1990, one of Paul's rape victims disclosed a vivid recollection of the rapist that enabled police to come up with a composite drawing of the criminal, which was then publicized in Toronto area newspapers. By July, police had received tips of Paul's resemblance to the serial rapists, so detectives interviewed him on November 20, 1990 for 35 minutes, where he voluntarily provided samples for forensic testing. You would think he would want to lay low, but he vowed to himself to never get caught again. So he became more vicious, and he took his crimes up a notch by murdering his

victims after sexually abusing them. Helping Paul fulfill his diabolical schemes was his slave girlfriend Carla. And all throughout, she knew the criminal activities of Paul, but totally condone them. In 1990, Paul had increasingly become closer to Carla's family, especially to Tammy, Carla's 15-year-old sister. The two flirted a lot despite the fact that by this time Paul was engaged to Carla. and his obsession with Tammy had become weird, but his fiancé took it blindly because she'd do anything to make him happy. She'd break open windows in her sister's room to allow Paul to enter, and he would then masturbate as the girl slept while his fiancee watched. At one time, Carla had laced Tammy's spaghetti sauce with crushed Valium she had stolen from her employer at the animal clinic, causing Tammy to lose consciousness. Paul then tried to rape Tammy, but the girl woke up after about a minute, and so he was left

unsatisfied. As a result, the lovers then devised another plan that would please them both. On December 23, 1990, Carla expressed her desire to give Paul his Christmas wish. Tammy's virginity. The two gave sleeping pills and a rum and eggnog cocktail to Tammy, who, after becoming unconscious, was undressed by the couple. and her sister applied a halifin soaked clothed to her nose and mouth. Then they took a video of Tammy while she was being raped. When she began to vomit, the two called 911, but Tammy remained unconscious and was then declared dead on arrival at the hospital. Tammy had an apparent chemical burn on her face.

Yet the regional municipality of Niagara Corner and the Hamolka family accepted Paul and Carlos' side of the story. The official cause of Tammy Hamulka's death was accidental, choking on vomit after consumption of alcohol. Paul and Carla subsequently videotaped themselves with Carla wearing Tammy's clothing and pretending to be her. When Tammy died, Carla searched for someone to replace her, and she found a Jane Doe in June of 1991. She looked much like Tammy, and Carla thought Jane would be her wedding gift to Paul. on Jane's first night, Carla talked to her. Then she offered her alcoholic drinks with halcyon tablets that made her pass out. Then Paul undressed Jane and videotaped Carla as she had sex with the girl.

And Paul divergenized her and performed anal sex to the drug girl. When she woke up the next day, Jane didn't have any idea what had happened, and it was the first time she met Paul. In August, Jane was then invited back to the couple of the couple of times. people's residence and was again drug. Carla called 911 for help after the girl vomited and stopped breathing while being raped, but the ambulance was recalled after the hideous couple resuscitated Jane Doe. Carla proved her blind devotion and loyalty to Paul, and despite his doubts of marrying her because she was getting old and no longer a virgin. He married her in a lavish wedding ceremony in June of 1991. Then on June 15th, 1991, Paul chanced upon 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffey, who was locked out of her house after going to a friend's wake.

Paul approached Leslie and was unfazed when the rapist told her he wanted to break into a neighbor's house. Then Paul blindfolded her, forced her into his car, and drove her to Port Dalhousie and told Carla he found to pray for their sexual perversions. Leslie was tortured and sexually abused while being videotaped. Such was Paul's satisfaction that he told her, You're doing a good job, Leslie, a damn good job. The next two hours are going to determine what I do to you. Right now, you're scoring perfect. Leslie's assault reached a climax when Paul sodomized the poor girl

while her hands were bound with twine. The next day, Carla gave Leslie a lethal dose, of Halcyon while Paul strangled her. The two criminals decided to dispose of the evidence by dismembering Leslie and encasing each part of her remains in cement. Then they dumped those cement blocks in Lake Gibson. Two weeks later, a father and son found Leslie's remains, including her torso, floating in the waters. Leslie was identified through her distinctive braces, but her attackers were not identified at that point. Paul was growing weary of his relationship with his wife, so much so that Carla had to do something to put some new romance back into their union. So the compliant wife was on

the lookout for their next victim, and she found 15-year-old Kristen French. It was after school on a mundane Thursday, April 16th of 1992 when Paul and Carla spotted Kristen while they were cruising around St. Catherine City. The teenager was walking briskly to her home nearby when the sinister couple pulled into a parking lot. Holding a map, Carla pretended being unfamiliar with the area. And as Kristen was looking at the map, Paul attacked her from behind. Held a knife and forced her into the front seat of their car, where Carla controlled Kristen by pulling down her hair.

Kristen didn't come home, to her parents were convinced of foul play and reported her missing. Authorities immediately searched the area and found several. Several witnesses would seem the abduction from different aspects, thus giving police a fairly clear picture of the kidnapping seriousness. Then for the next three days, Paul and Carlett tortured, raped and sodomized Kristen while filming their brutality. They also forced her to get intoxicated and follow Paul's wishes. A couple feared that Kristen might identify them as she was never blindfolded. So the following day, they decided to kill her. Paul strangled Kristen for seven minutes while Carla watched her die.

When she tried to escape, Carla beat her with a rubber mallet and then strangled her as well with a noose around her neck. Two weeks after, on April 30th, Kristen's remains were found in a ditch in Burlington, about 45 minutes away from St. Catharines. Paul and Carla at this point have been questioned many times by authorities about the Scarborough rapist investigation, Tammy's death, and Paul's stalking of other women. In May of 1992, one of Paul's acquaintances, John Model, reported him as a possible murder suspect. In December, the Center of Forensic Sciences finally began testing the DNA samples provided by Paul back in 1990. And when Carlo was severely beaten by Paul in mid-192, she finally decided to give a statement to the police and filed charges against her husband. He was arrested and later released on his own reconnaissance. After more than two years, the DNA sample Paul had submitted matched that of the Scarborough

rapist, which immediately placed Paul under 24-hour surveillance. On February 9, 1993, Carla finally confessed to her aunt and uncle that Paul was the Scarborough rapist, and they were involved in the heinous rapes and murders of Tammy, Leslie, and Kristen. Carlo was able to seek legal immunity from the Crown Prosecutor in exchange for a cooperation, but due to her involvement in the crimes, only a partial immunity was possible. Four days later, Paul was arrested on several charges and a search warrant was served. Paul's link to the actual murders was weak, so the warrant was limited. No evidence, which wasn't expected and documented in the warrant, could be removed from the premises.

And all videotapes had to be viewed in the house. damage had to be kept to a minimum. The police could not tear down walls looking for the videotapes. The search of the house lasted 71 days. The only tape found by police had a brief segment of Carla performing oral sex on Jane Doe. After three months, Carla received an offer of a 12-year plea bargain in exchange of not being charged on two counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, and other crimes. On May 14, 1993, Carla's plea bargain was finalized

and she started giving information about Paul's crimes. She boasted that her husband had raped as many as 30 women, twice as many as the police had suspected, mockingly naming him the happy rapist. In 1995, Paul's trial for the murders of Leslie and Kristen started and were bolstered by Carla's detailed testimonies and the videotapes. As more of those videotapes were shown, the jury was provided with undeniable and powerful evidence of Paul's sexual depravity, backed up by Carla's testimony. So on September 1st, 1995, Paul was convicted of the two first-degree murders and two aggravated sexual assaults and sentenced to 25 years in jail without parole.

He was designated, a dangerous offender, slimming his chance to ever be released. Meanwhile, Carla's plea deal was severely criticized, especially after the tapes depicting the couple's rapes were shown at Paul's trial. Prosecutors said Carla was a cold-blooded participant in the killings and would have been tried for murder had the tapes been provided before she cut a deal. The prosecutor told the courts, Miss Hamolka implicated herself in first-degree murder and was definitely not a victim. Carla was released from prison in 2005, having been denied the possibility of parole for 12 years. She said, What I did was terrible. I was in a situation where I couldn't see clearly and where I couldn't get help.

I was completely bowled over by Paul. I regretted enormously because now I know I had the power to stop it. On February 21st, 2006, Toronto Star reported that, Paul admitted sexually assaulting at least 10 more women after 1986 during the height of the Scarborough rapist reign. While incarcerated, Paul claimed that he had reformed and deserved to apply parole petition in 2008, but he didn't. In September of 2013, he was moved from Kingston Penitentiary to Millhaven Institution in Bath, where he was reportedly segregated from the other inmates. In 2015, he applied for a day parole in Toronto, but a victim's lawyer believed it was

unlikely that Mr. Bernardo will ever be released from prison because of his dangerous offender status. Paul became parole eligible again in February of 2018, but in October, he was denied day and full parole by the Parole Board of Canada. His next hearing took place in June 22nd, 2021, but Mr. Bernardo received another blow when the president of the president of deciding judge gave a thumbs down to his parole application. If you ask me, someone so callous and vicious, says Paul, does not deserve a second chance. A lawyer, on behalf of the victim's family, reported that there's never been an apology by Paul Bernardo. There's been never any indication whatsoever of remorse. Indeed, the serial Scarborough rapist admitted to the court,

but he hadn't felt anything for his victims of the time of his crimes. Society then is justified not to give Paul and his kind a second chance at all. So that's going to do it, guys, for this week's episode of Everytown. That one was a heavy one. Please tune in next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. Because who knows? Maybe your town will be next.