Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Hillside Stranglers” Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr. Pt. 1
Episode Date: September 28, 2020These killer cousins terrorized Los Angeles in the late ‘70s. Despite very different upbringings, Angelo Buono Jr. and Kenny Bianchi both formed sadistic attitudes toward women that led to them crui...sing the streets of Hollywood, posing as undercover cops, patrolling for victims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Due to the graphic nature of these killers' crimes, listener discretion is advised.
This episode includes discussions of domestic abuse, torture, murder, and sexual assault
that some people may find offensive.
We advise extreme caution for children under 13.
People always called Los Angeles the City of Dreams, and Lissa Kasten was determined to make hers a reality.
The 21-year-old, a member of the professional troop, the L.A. Knockers, had had had
aspirations of being a well-known dancer.
But on the night of November 5, 1977,
Lissa's thoughts weren't on her dreams.
Lately, all she could think about was money.
Waitressing was her main source of income,
and it wasn't nearly enough.
She'd been thinking that maybe it was time to try something else.
As she pulled up to her apartment building,
Lissa ruminated on what she should do.
She was so distracted,
she didn't even notice the Cadillac stop right behind her.
Two men exited the vehicle, and the driver, the much younger, taller one, flashed a police badge and asked for ID.
Confused, but sure, there had been a mistake. Lissa handed her license to him.
As his older partner looked it over, the driver informed Lissa that a car matching the description of her Volkswagen convertible was involved in a robbery.
They wanted her to come in for questioning.
Lisa knew this was ridiculous. She was no criminal, but her beetle was a unique color.
And the men did appear to be officers.
Sliding into the Cadillac's back seat,
Lissa had no idea that her dreams of dancing were about to be snuffed out.
Hi, I'm Greg Poulson.
This is Serial Killers, a parcast original.
Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers.
Today we're taking a look at Cousins, Kenny Bianchi, and Angelo Bono Jr.,
who were collectively known as The Hillside's Trimpsons.
Wrangler, before their horrific crimes were revealed to be the acts of two individuals.
I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson.
Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other podcast originals for free
on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To stream serial killers for free on Spotify,
just open the app and type serial killers in the search bar.
Today, we'll take a look at how, despite very different upbringings, Kenny and Angelo formed
similarly sadistic attitudes towards women. We'll also see how this shared sadism led to murder.
Next time, we'll examine how Los Angeles was brought to a state of panic, as the two cousins
enjoyed their reign as seemingly untouchable killers. We've got all that and more coming up.
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Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official podcast.
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From an early age, Angelo Bono Jr. disliked his mother.
She was promiscuous and he didn't trust her.
It's possible this opinion was a side effect of his...
parents' divorce, which happened before Angelo was in school. Born in Rochester, New York,
young Angelo moved west with his mother, Jenny, after the divorce, eventually landing in Los Angeles
sometime around 1940. While Jenny worked diligently to support her two children, being a single mother
was tough for her and her kids, and without the presence of a father figure, Angelo Jr. never got
to experience a traditional sense of familial stability. Over time, Angelo's resentment of his mother
grew. He told friends that Jenny frequently made him wait outside unfamiliar buildings while she
had sex with various men. First, she gave up on her marriage to his father. Now Jenny showed her
true nature. At least, that's what Angelo thought. And there's little doubt that this warped
perspective, brought on by early trauma, impacted how he viewed all the women,
in his life. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode.
Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of
research for this show. Thanks, Greg. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network,
potentially traumatic events for children include witnessing domestic abuse, sexual abuse,
assault, or simply experiencing neglect. While different for everyone, the effects of childhood trauma
can manifest themselves in difficult behavior as a child gets older.
In a 2015 joint release with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
the NCTSN stated that trauma is a risk factor for nearly all behavioral health and substance use disorders.
Untreated, it can result in increased involvement with juvenile justice systems.
Middle and high school-aged students might also engage in risky sexual behavior.
If, as he claimed, Angela was dragged along at his mother's sexual dalliances, it would have been undoubtedly traumatic.
That trauma manifested itself as Angelo got older.
By the time he was 14, he regularly called his mother derogatory names to her face.
In front of horrified friends, he described violent rape fantasies.
And at 16, he dropped out of high school and spent his time engaged in various criminal acts.
activities. Eventually, a conviction for Grand Theft Auto earned him a stint at a juvenile detention
center. During this time, Angelo heard stories about Carol Chesman, also known as the Red Light
Bandit. Under cover of darkness, Chessman used a fake police siren to startle unsuspecting
couples in parked cars. Armed with a gun, he then sexually assaulted the women in the cars.
Chessman was convicted of kidnapping and rape in 1948.
and sentenced to death, but Angelo didn't care. The criminal was his newest hero, but he thought
Chesman made one glaring mistake. According to author Darcy O'Brien in his book, The Hillside
Stranglers, Angelo believed Chesman's biggest failing was that he didn't kill his victims,
which left witnesses to testify against him. Learning from Chessman's mistake,
Angelo was determined to leave behind no traces of his transgressions. One,
turn behind bars was more than enough for him, and he'd do whatever it took to avoid a repeat visit.
But the system wasn't the only thing Angelo knew how to play. He was also a ladies' man,
who always got his way. Angelou called himself the Italian stallion, an homage to a Sicilian
heritage, and it was a moniker he lived up to. In 1956, he fathered two sons to two different
women. He also married both of them without ever going through a divorce. A Catholic, Angelo claimed
that the first marriage was illegitimate, as it was officiated by a Protestant minister.
That wife might well have breathed a sigh of relief had she known what kind of husband Angelo was.
He was controlling, abusive, and violent. His second wife, Mary Catherine, who went by Candy,
had the misfortune of bearing five of Angelo's children, as well as the brunt of his abuse.
use. Perhaps his most shocking display of violence was when he reportedly raped Candy in the living
room in front of their children. In 1964, soon after the brutal attack, Candy filed for divorce.
Angelo was ordered to pay $150 a month in child support for their five kids, about $1,250 in today's
money. However, Angelo avoided payment by tweaking the spelling of his last name.
desperate for financial support, Candy attempted to reconcile with her ex. In response,
Angelo drove her to a secluded spot in the Los Angeles Hills, told her to get out of the car
and pointed a gun at her. Fortunately for Candy, he never fired his weapon, and the two
managed to coexist and co-parent in the same city. By the next year, in 1965, 31-year-old
Angelo was in the arms of 25-year-old Nanette Campina, who already had a daughter and son from a
previous marriage. Despite a new woman in his life, Angela's propensity for domestic violence remained.
He abused Nanette just as violently as he had candy. But this time, his lover wasn't the only one
being abused. Nanette was terrified that Angela would rape her teenage daughter, who he said needed,
quote, breaking in. It's unclear if he ever
carried out this threat, but it haunted Nanette. After six unbearable years under Angelou's
thumb, she gathered the courage to take her children and flee the relationship. By 1975,
41-year-old Angelo was living on his own. From his home, he ran a car upholstery business
and was happy to be free of the annoyances of lovers, family, and roommates. But in January of
In 1976, a knock on the door changed Angelo's life forever.
Angelo's cousin, 24-year-old Kenny Bianchi, showed up, looking for a place to crash.
The pair barely knew each other.
The last time they were together, Angela was still married to Candy, and Kenny was a rambunctious child.
Like Angelo, Kenny was born in Rochester, New York.
But unlike his cousin, Kenny's birth mother was a sex worker who gave him up for adoption,
a fact he never forgot.
Kenny's adoptive father, Nicholas, was a gambler,
and his adoptive mother, Francis, was extremely overbearing.
The doting mother was proud, as Kenny proved to have an above-average IQ.
But as Darcy O'Brien writes,
Francis knew she was coping with a compulsive liar,
and his childhood unfolded as one of idleness.
By Kenny's fifth birthday, Francis noticed her son experiencing strange fits,
which a doctor diagnosed as petty mal seizures.
According to Harvard Health Publishing,
petty mal seizures are seizures of up to 30 seconds or less.
Children experiencing them become unaware of what is happening,
but they're so short that 50 to 100 seizures can happen in a single day
without anyone noticing.
Generally, these episodes aren't a cause for a great concern,
as most children grow out of them,
but they can lead to a difficulty concentrating,
which might have interfered with Kenny's ability to succeed in school.
Concerned for her son, Francis told Kenny to see a child psychologist.
The doctor didn't seem to think that the seizures were a big issue,
and while we can't speculate on what exactly was said during their meeting,
we do know that Francis turned down the psychologist's suggestion
that both she and Kenny should seek therapy.
It seemed apparent to the doctor that Francis loomed too large in Kenny's life.
A 2015 study out of University College London
showed that people who felt their parents were over-present in their lives
tended to have lower rates of happiness and well-being.
One expert said,
psychological control can limit a child's independence
and leave them less able to regulate their own behavior.
While we obviously can't blame Kenny's adulthood violence on an overbearing parent,
it's possible that Francis's behavior had a negative impact on her son.
development. She certainly expressed her high expectations for him in unhealthy ways.
When Kenny was just 14, his adoptive father passed away. Rather than allowing the vulnerable
adolescent to grieve at his own pace, Francis forced Kenny to wear Nicholas's shoes to the
funeral. To Francis, it was time for Kenny to become a man and, quite literally, step into his
father's shoes. Unsurprisingly, with his domineering mother as his lone theme,
female influence. Kenny's opinion of women was less than stellar. That said, he found young love,
and at 18, married his sweetheart, Brenda Beck. But it wasn't a happy marriage. Kenny questioned Brenda's
virginity and loyalty, and was extremely jealous. He couldn't stand the fact that Brenda was a nurse
who worked closely with other men. Under the strain of Kenny's issues, the marriage collapsed
a few months after it began.
Just like his cousin, Kenny had issues trusting women
and also displayed a troubling fascination with violence.
When he was 21, Kenny admitted to his girlfriend
that he had taken a life, but he didn't say whose.
The boast might have just been an odd way of showing off,
but there was a series of murders in his hometown,
and it seems Kenny was a suspect.
Between 1971 and 1973, three young girls were sexually assaulted, strangled, and dumped on the side of the road.
Still unsolved, their deaths were known as the Alphabet Murders or the Double Initial Murders.
Despite his disturbing claims, his girlfriend figured Kenny was all talk and thought nothing more of it.
She knew him as a sweet, romantic sort of guy and didn't believe he could really kill anyone.
Still, Kenny's penchant for romance notwithstanding, the relationship fizzled out, and before long, he was on to the next.
Both Kenny and Angelo were incredibly popular with women, though they employed different tactics to draw them in.
While Kenny was overly romantic, Angelo was cruel and demeaning, which sometimes worked, but they both held equally low opinions of women, particularly of their ability to remain faithful.
The only thing worse than an unfaithful woman, they felt, was one who had the gall to leave on her own terms.
So when Kenny's latest girlfriend, Susan Moore, rejected his marriage proposal, the 24-year-old was destroyed.
Sure, he'd been juggling girls on the side, but he thought he was more than enough for Susan to handle.
But Susan was frustrated with his constant lives and aimless career path, so she ended things.
Wounded, Kenny decided to make the move.
to sunny California, determined to make something of himself one way or another.
Up next, Angelo and Kenny discover their shared dark impulses.
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Now back to the story.
In January of 1976,
24-year-old Kenny Bianchi arrived on the doorstep of his cousin,
41-year-old Angelo Bono Jr.
It was Kenny's first visit to California as an adult,
and he was completely enthralled by his cousin's bachelor's lifestyle.
Angelo seemed to always have much younger girls at his beck and call.
Even more amazing was that Angela could be so abusive and still have women fawning all over him.
It made the romance and care Kenny put into wooing his girlfriends seem like a waste of time.
Kenny was determined to learn from the sagacious Italian stallion,
and soon enough the cousins were sleeping with the same string of women.
Within a month of Kenny's arrival, they had their first shared experience with a sex worker.
However, after the two took turns with the woman, Angela stole money from her purse.
When she objected, he flashed a stolen police badge at the woman and ordered her to get out.
The two men found the whole experience thrilling.
They degraded a woman and made money.
But despite their shared interest in devious thrills, Angelo was keen to get Kenny out of the house.
He wanted to return to life as an independent bachelor, so it was time for Kenny to strike
out on his own. In search of a job that could pay for rent, Kenny tried his hand at being a
marriage counselor, a sex therapist, and a psychologist, as well as a photographer, before finally
landing a role researching state property records at the California Land Title Company. Finally, after
seven months in Angelo's spare bedroom, Kenny got a place of his own. Proud of her son's success
in a new city, Francis sent Kenny money for a car down payment. Delighted, he bought a 19-7
Catalac sedan with a white top and dark blue body.
At last, Kenny was moving up in the world.
He had a stable job, an apartment, and his own car.
Young girls paid him more attention,
and soon enough, Kenny was juggling relationships just like Angelo.
While Kenny was learning the ways of a Lothario from his cousin,
he felt there was something missing from his life, something real.
Sure, Los Angeles ladies were sun-kissed and beautiful, but they didn't hold a candle to his ex-girlfriend, Susan Moore.
To Kenny, Susan was a woman of virtue and values, unlike the promiscuous girls he could easily bed.
So he pressed her to visit. Kenny promised that he was changed. He was ready to be the reliable family man she could probably call her husband.
But when she arrived, it didn't take long for Susan to see through Kenny's veneer of respectability.
he hadn't changed at all, and she went home to New York, leaving Kenny heartbroken once more.
By January of 1977, however, Kenny's heart was on the mend.
While at the California Title Company, Kenny wooed co-worker Kelly Boyd.
She moved in with him and was soon pregnant.
When she told in the news, Kenny proposed to Kelly, but she turned him down.
Just like Susan, Kelly loved the imaginative romantic side of him,
But she knew that Kenny Bianchi wasn't husband material.
Kelly had a point.
At home, Kenny constantly picked fights, and at work, he was hardly professional.
In fact, he was fired for bringing marijuana to the office.
Although Kenny managed to find another position at the Stewart West Coast Title Company,
he was eager for an additional income source.
When he mentioned this to Angelo, his cousin suggested that they recruit girls for sex work.
immediately, Kenny had the perfect girl in mind.
16-year-old Sabra Hannan met Kenny at a party.
She was blonde, beautiful, and had just moved to L.A. to pursue modeling.
Eager to impress, Kenny lied about having contacts in the industry and gave her his number.
A few weeks later, his phone rang, and the cousins set their trap.
Wanting to make Sabra feel special, they offered to pay for a motel room for the teenager.
but before she went to bed, they gave her a drink laced with sedative.
When Sabra passed out, Kenny started sexually assaulting her,
but backed off when she stirred and objected.
The men were sure that doing so would earn the girl's trust.
From the motel, Angelo and Kenny insisted that Sabra move into Angelo's spare bedroom.
They gave her money for new clothes and took her out for meals,
but forbade her from leaving the apartment or seeing anybody without their permission.
Up until this point, it seems Sabra didn't fear the pair.
So one afternoon, she decided to take a harmless shopping trip to the mall.
But when she returned home, Angelo ordered Kenny to beat her as punishment.
Then they took turns raping her.
Fearing for her life, Sabra acquiesced to their demands that she forget modeling and become a sex worker.
At first, Angelo used nude Polaroids of Sabra to entice his car upholstery customers into trying her out.
But as word about Sabra got around, it attracted new customers for his legitimate business.
For Angelo, it was a win-win situation, and he was determined to maintain this new status quo.
To make sure she wouldn't try to escape, Angelo told Sabra that he had connections in the mafia who would hunt her down.
Additionally, to encourage her compliance, the men promised to let her go if she worked for a year.
But one girl under his roof wasn't enough to satisfy Angelo.
and he enjoyed the particular attention of a high school student named Antoinette Lombardo.
Antoinette remained steadfast in her devotion to Angelo, convinced he would marry her.
As for Angelo, he was certain that he and Kenny needed to expand their business beyond Sabra.
So he told Antoinette that she needed to have sex with other men to prove her love.
If she didn't enjoy it, then Angela would know she was faithful enough to marry.
They arranged for the two girls to work an orgy, where the guests included a police chief and a city councilman.
When the event was over, Angelo accused Antoinette of enjoying the sex and made it clear he wouldn't marry her.
Though it wasn't the outcome Antoinette wanted, the orgy proved Angelo and Kenny that they needed more girls.
According to Darcy O'Brien in The Hillside Stranglers, they told Sabra that if she could recruit another girl, she could.
go free. Otherwise, she had another 10 months to go on her contract. So Sabra flew to Phoenix, Arizona
to recruit a friend. Believing that Angelo and Kenny had connections to the mafia as well as law
enforcement, she was too terrified to run away and returned to Los Angeles with 15-year-old
Becky Spears. With that, 16-year-old Sabra went from victim to victim recruiter. While it might be difficult
to imagine bringing a friend into such an abusive and violent situation, victims have been known
to recruit others out of fear, desperation, and manipulation. Forensic psychologist Dr. Daryl Turner
argues that a recruiter rationalizes bringing in new victims because it feels like more of a
legitimate job and makes them feel less alone. Looking for a life raft, Sabra gave in to
were abusers and found someone weaker and more vulnerable to take her place.
Despite their promise, the men refused to let Sopper go. She was their most experienced girl,
and they needed her. However, they did reward her by moving her from the spare bedroom into
an apartment away from Angelo's daily abuse and violence. That treatment now fell to their new
prisoner, Becky. Around this time, Angelo and Kenny started to liaise with a call girl service
to act as an intermediary.
It lent their outfit an air of professionalism
and gave them access to an extensive client list.
In August of 1977, early in the new partnership,
Becky was sent to the Bel Air home of David Wood.
Desperate for help, the young girl summoned the courage
to tell the successful lawyer about the abuse she suffered
and that she wasn't there by choice.
Appalled by the tale, David sprang into action.
He drove Becky to his office and arranged
arranged a flight home for the teen.
He also assured the young girl not to worry about any repercussions.
He was confident that the two cousins had no real connections to the mafia, knowing the
crime family wouldn't operate out of an upholstery shop in a Los Angeles suburb.
When Angela and Kenny realized that Becky was gone, they were furious.
Angela harassed David at his home and office.
But he stopped when David sent one of his most intimidating clients, a large bouncer with
Hell's Angels connections.
to scare Angelo off.
Meanwhile, Sabra realized that escape was possible.
Though her captors tried to intimidate her into staying,
she saw through their flimsy ruse.
Two months after Becky ran,
Sabra made her own successful bid for freedom.
Incensed that their scheme was crumbling.
Angelo and Kenny sought an outlet for their anger.
It was around then that they started talking seriously about killing someone.
It was something they discussed before.
as they shared a fascination with murder.
But now, fueled by their rage, they felt ready to take the plunge.
Discussing their potential first victim,
Angelo and Kenny agreed that it would be a woman
and that she should be a sex worker.
That way, a disappearance would cost less of a stir.
As they ruminated, they were determined to get their old scheme running again.
So they found a girl named Jennifer Snyder to replace Becky and Sabra
and purchased a trick list of potential clients from a local sex worker Deborah Noble.
When Debra arrived at his Glendale home, Angelo stressed that he only wanted an out-call list,
where customers requested that the girls go to them.
He didn't want random Johns coming to his home.
Debra promised that her black book was just that and took his money.
But when Angelo and Kenny realized that Debra had sold them a list of in-call clients, they were apoplectic.
To them, Deborah's con was yet another example of why women were not to be trusted.
They didn't deserve their respect.
They didn't even deserve to live.
The camel's back was well and truly broken.
Angelo and Kenny were ready to kill.
Coming up, Angelo and Kenny take their revenge.
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extra. Seeful terms at mintmobile.com. Now back to the story. On October 17th, 1977,
47, 43-year-old Angelo Bono Jr. and 26-year-old Kenny Bianchi were filled with rage.
A local sex worker hoodwinked them into buying a list of Johns that was useless to their fledgling operation.
After years of dealing with promiscuous women who had the gall to defy them, they were determined to even the score.
Kenny stormed into Angelo's spare bedroom and took his anger out on Jennifer Snyder, their very new and only sex worker.
When Jennifer resisted his sexual assault, Kenny was angry enough to kill right there and then.
He suggested to his cousin that Jennifer should be their first victim.
Angela wanted nothing more than to take a woman's life, but he knew better than to kill Jennifer.
Her murder would be too easily traced back to them.
Besides, he had a more deserving victim in mind.
He wanted to kill Deborah Noble, the woman who sold them the bogus list.
He just didn't know where to find her.
However, he did know where to find Deborah's friend, 19-year-old Yolanda Washington.
Yolanda was a black sex worker who tagged along when Deborah delivered her list to the cousins.
During the brief visit, Yolanda mentioned that she worked the north side of Sunset Boulevard.
Maybe Deborah worked in the same area.
So, in October of 1977, the hot-headed cousins cruised down Sunset Boulevard in Kenny's 1972 Cadillac
on a quest for payback.
Deborah was nowhere in sight,
but the men spotted Yolanda right where she said she'd be.
With Angelo behind the wheel,
the Cadillac pulled up beside Yolanda.
Posing as an undercover police officer,
Kenny jumped out and handcuffed Yolanda,
then forced her into the back seat of the car.
He slid in beside her and Angelo sped away.
Witnesses saw the whole scene unfold in seconds,
but no one thought twice about what happened.
In 1977, Sunset Boulevard was infamous for its bevy of sex workers,
so vice arrests were the norm.
It's possible that even Yolanda was fooled at first,
but before long, Kenny and Angelo's true intentions were clear.
While the Cadillac sped down a Los Angeles freeway,
Kenny attacked the 19-year-old.
Even handcuffed Yolanda fought back,
but Kenny overpowered her.
Angelo didn't even slow down as Kenny raped Yolanda right there in the back seat.
Once he finished, it was time to carry out their ultimate plan.
In the flickering light of passing street lamps, Kenny strangled Yolanda to death with a rag.
When the Cadillac rolled to a halt near the Ventura Freeway,
Kenny and Angelo carried Yolanda's naked body from the car
and left her on a sprawling hillside near the Forest Lawn Memorial Point.
park. She lay there, a stones throw away from the graves of Hollywood royalty, until she was found
the next morning. Tragically, predictably, Yolanda's murder merited little attention in the press.
She was just another sex worker who met an unfortunate end, and no one seemed to care about her
life or the investigation into her death. It was exactly what the cousins wanted. With no one on their
tale, Angelo and Kenny spent the next two weeks euphoric. They were delighted to have finally killed a woman,
but after the initial excitement wore off, Angelo was somewhat frustrated. Having been behind the
wheel, he couldn't get in on the action. Kenny was the one who had all the fun, so they decided
it was time to try again, and Angelo refined the scheme. The next time, he was determined that
both he and Kenny enjoyed the spoils.
On Halloween night, 1977, less than two weeks after Yolanda's murder,
Angelo and Kenny were ready for their next victim.
They cruised down the sunset strip, looking for a sex worker who sparked their interest.
When they drove past 15-year-old Judith Lynn Miller standing in front of Carney's diner,
Angelo knew she was the one.
He liked girls who were young, and Tiny Judy was a little.
was just his type. Judy was a runaway who ran from a broken home, only to find herself sleeping
rough on the streets of Hollywood. Forced to make a living, it's believed that Judy dabbled in
sex work. That night, the Hollywood strip was bustling with witnesses. Wanting to avoid making a scene,
Angelo ordered Kenny out of the car, then pulled up at Carney's diner and sparked a conversation
with Judy. After a few minutes, the young girl got into the passenger seat, and they sped off.
When Angelo turned on to a side street and rolled to a stop, Kenny approached.
The stolen police badge held aloft.
The men told Judy they were undercover cops and that she was under arrest.
They cuffed the frightened teen and put her in the back seat.
Then they sped back towards Glendale.
When they parked beneath an awning that connected Angelo's home and upholstery business,
Judy might have realized something was very wrong.
This place looked nothing like a police station, but it was only.
already too late.
The two men forced Judy inside and proceeded to bound, gag, and undress her.
Completely vulnerable, Judy was forced to comply as they led her into the spare bedroom.
A coin toss decided who got to go first, and though Kenny lost, he couldn't help but watch
on aroused as Angelo raped Judy.
After Kenny had his turn, Judy's time was up.
Kenny held her legs as Angelo covered her head with a plastic bag and wrapped a white cord around her neck.
They held her down as she suffocated to death.
After disposing of Judy's belongings, they placed her naked body into the trunk of the Cadillac and drove a few miles north to La Crescenta.
Angelo knew the perfect place to dump her body.
Just a few hours later, in the early hours of November 1st, Judy was discovered on a quiet residential street.
close to the family home of Angelo's ex-girlfriend.
When police officers arrived, it was apparent that Judy was purposely left out in the open for
people to see.
It was also clear how Judy died and that she was raped before her death.
But investigators couldn't identify the teenage girl.
With her belongings disposed of elsewhere and no family to look for her, she remained just
another Jane Doe.
Watching for news of their second murder, Angelou and,
Kenny were delighted to see it barely made a splash. They knew then that they were untouchable.
With two more murders under their belts, they were excited for more.
Four days later, on November 5th, Kenny returned to Angelo's shop, eager for another
boy's night. Fresh from a fight with his pregnant girlfriend, Kelly, he needed a release,
and Angelo was only too happy to comply. But as they cruised the streets for their next victim,
Angelo realized they were being short-sighted.
They didn't have to target only sex workers.
With their police badge, they could pull over just about any young girl and get her to believe their scam.
When they saw Lisa Castan's lime green Volkswagen,
cruising north towards the Hollywood Hills, they decided to try out, Angelo's theory.
21-year-old Lisa parked her beetle in front of her apartment complex
and was surprised when Kenny and Angelo double-parked beside her.
telling her that her lime green convertible matched the description of a vehicle involved in a robbery,
the men told Lissa she had to come in for questioning.
Just like Yolanda and Judy, Lissa was handcuffed and got into the car.
When they arrived at Angelo's home, the cousins forced Lissa inside.
They blindfolded and gagged her, cut off her clothes, and raped her.
This time around, Angelo sat on Lissa's legs as Kenny wrapped a cord around her neck
and strangled the life from her.
On November 6, 1977,
Lissa's body was discovered
near the Chevy Chase Country Club in Glendale,
near one of Angelo's old apartments.
Just like Yolanda Washington and Judy Miller,
Lissa was naked
and showed clear signs of rape and strangulation.
With the bodies of strangled
and sexually assaulted girls
piling up around Los Angeles,
investigators realized they had a serial killer on their hand.
someone who had a propensity for strangulation, rape, and thrill murder.
Dr. Peter Vronsky, an expert in criminal justice history, writes,
thrill murders often involve three distinct crime scenes,
where the victim is captured,
a highly controlled environment where the victim is tortured and killed,
and finally, a site where the victim is quickly dumped.
Thrill killers are often attractive, intelligent, charismatic, psychopathic personality,
relying on their charm to seduce and lure their victims to their deaths.
That description eerily matches everything we now know about Angelo Bono Jr. and Kenny Bianchi.
Unfortunately, at the time, investigators were only just starting to piece things together,
and the killer cousins were hitting their stride.
Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers.
We'll be back soon with part two of the Hillside Strangler.
As Los Angeles lived in fear, they had no idea that the killer terrorizing the city was actually two.
For more information on the Hillside Stranglers, amongst the many sources we used, we found The Hillside Stranglers by Darcy O'Brien,
and Serial Killers, The Method and Madness of Monsters by Peter Vronsky, extremely helpful to our research.
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Have a killer week.
Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler
and is a Parcast Studios original.
Executive producer,
include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Nick Johnson, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro,
Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of serial killers was written by Melissa Powers,
with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon, and stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson.
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