Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Hillside Stranglers” Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr. Pt. 2

Episode Date: October 1, 2020

In the fall of 1977, Los Angeles was on high alert, so 43-year-old Angelo Buono Jr. and 26-year-old Kenny Bianchi knew they had to play it safe. But as their death toll grew even higher, their relatio...nship began to crumble.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Due to the graphic nature of these killers' crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of domestic abuse, torture, murder, pedophilia, and sexual assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On Thanksgiving, 1977, holiday cheer warm Jenny Bono's cozy Los Angeles bungalow. Jenny was battling cancer, and the previous few weeks in an out-of-hospital rooms had been torturous. Tonight, though, she was thankful to be home with her family.
Starting point is 00:00:37 Her recent health troubles made Jenny grateful for the chance to spend time with her loved ones, and she was determined to make the evening special. She prepared a delicious feast for her guests, including her son, 43-year-old Angelo Bono Jr., and her nephew, 26-year-old, Kenny Bianchi. Despite the festive atmosphere, the conversation eventually took a dark turn, Earlier in the week, the naked bodies of four women were found raped and strangled, in various locations, only a few miles from Jenny's home. Everyone in Los Angeles was talking about the serial killer on the loose.
Starting point is 00:01:13 Even Thanksgiving couldn't stop the sense of panic. Jenny was thankful that her granddaughter, 16-year-old Grace, remained safe. As the family discussed the murders, Angelo turned to his daughter to remind her not to stay out too late, otherwise she might be next. Jenny was proud of her son for giving such sound advice to his headstrong teenager. As she let her family's chatter wash over her, Jenny Bono smiled. There was so much to be grateful for. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson. This is serial killers, a podcast original. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we're concluding our two-parts series on Cousins, Angela Bono Jr. and Kenneth Bianchi, the duo better
Starting point is 00:02:10 known as The Hillside Strangler. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other parcast 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. Last time, we examined Angela and Kenny's turbulent childhoods. their toxic attitudes toward women, and their first three murders. Today we'll cover the series of strangulations that had Los Angeles on edge, as well as the fateful falling out that brought the cousins undone.
Starting point is 00:02:48 We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels. But you don't need to break any laws to, find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify. It's the commerce platform that can help you with literally everything,
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Starting point is 00:05:23 cousins, 43-year-old Angelo Bono Jr., and 26-year-old Kenny Bianchi felt invincible. They'd raped and murdered three women and loved it. Their first two victims were sex workers known to frequent the Sunset Strip, and their most recent kill was an aspiring professional dancer and
Starting point is 00:05:42 waitress. But to Angelo and Kenny, they were all the same. The cousins tossed the naked bodies of all three women along the roads and hillsides of Los Angeles. Noticing the similarities between the murders, authorities suspected they had a serial killer on their hands, and they quickly deduced that the killer wasn't working alone. The lack of fingerprints, footings, footprints and tire tracks at each dump site suggested that the killer had help. There was no way one person could carry and dump the bodies alone. But not wanting to tip the killers off, police withheld their theory from the media. Then again, there wasn't much media attention on the murders yet.
Starting point is 00:06:27 And with little coverage in the press, Angelo and Kenny felt free to choose their next victim on the streets of Hollywood. And this time, they wanted to be more disdive. concerning in who they picked. Angelo had a taste for strawberry blondes and firmly believed that younger was always better. If they were going to commit a crime, they figured the woman had to be worth it. She had to be beautiful enough to kill. In Hollywood, it's not hard to find looks to die for.
Starting point is 00:06:57 And on November 9, 1977, Angelo and Kenny noticed a striking blonde waiting at a bus stop along the sunset strip. 28-year-old Jane King was a stunner who looked years younger than her age. She was perfect. Kenny approached the aspiring actress with a friendly smile and took a seat beside her on the bench. Ever the charmer, he engaged Jane in friendly conversation for a few minutes, carefully building a rapport with her. As he listened to Jane chat away, Kenny feigned surprise when Angela pulled up beside them in the Cadillac. Playing the part, Angela offered them both a ride home.
Starting point is 00:07:34 which Kenny readily accepted. Jane hesitated at first, but when Kenny flashed a badge and told her he was in the L.A. police reserves, she happily got into the car. But instead of a ride home, Angelo drove Jane straight to his house in Glendale. The cousins handcuffed Jane and forced her into the spare bedroom, where they tied her up and took turns violently assaulting her.
Starting point is 00:08:00 While Kenny raped her, Angelo placed a plastic bag over Jane's, head, holding it there until she stopped breathing. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. The sadistic act of murdering Jane while she was being raped speaks to Angelo and Kenny's
Starting point is 00:08:26 desire for complete control over their victims. According to criminology professor, Dr. Scott Bonn, power, control. killers enjoy the process of murder. That is, they enjoy stalking, capturing, and torturing their prey. They find it sexually arousing, but the act of murder is normally the most satisfying and final expression of their power and control over their victims. Dr. Bond suggests that such behavior is empowering because the killer gets to decide when, how, and under what circumstances, his victims will die. And once the thrill of the kill was over,
Starting point is 00:09:06 there was nothing left to do but dispose of Jane's corpse. They dumped her body near an off-ramp in the suburb of Svilias, not far from Angelo's home. And with that, Jane was little more than a memory for the cousins, who were already eager for their next hunt. This time, they wanted someone younger. They wanted a virgin. Just three days after they killed Jane,
Starting point is 00:09:30 Angelo and Kenny's prayers were answered when they saw 12-year-old Dolores Sapida and 14-year-old Sonia Johnson board a bus in Eagle Rock. Seeing the schoolgirls, it didn't take them long to make their decision. They followed the bus a few miles southwest until the girls got off at York Boulevard. Then the cousins pulled up beside them, flashed their bogus police patches, and warned the young friends about recent robberies in the neighborhood, believing the men were actually friendly police officers. The girls accepted their offer of an escort home. But Angelo and Kenny ignored the girls' directions to their street. Instead, they brought them to Glendale and dragged them into Angelo's spare bedroom. There, they raped the schoolgirls,
Starting point is 00:10:18 then strangled them to death. Afterwards, the cousin stuffed Dolores and Sonia's naked bodies into their car, then drove to the suburb of Silver Lake, parking on Landa Street. They dumped the girls in a concealed piece of land, Angelo called the cowpatch. While Dolores and Sonia's families desperately sought answers, Angelo and Kenny searched for another victim. So they returned to their favorite Hollywood hunting grounds. But when they arrived, there was a noticeable police presence, cops investigating the Hillside Strangler case. Knowing they had to change their act, Kenny proposed a new plan. He suggested that instead of choosing a
Starting point is 00:10:59 a random woman on the street, they target someone familiar, someone who deserved to be punished. Already, Kenny had the perfect woman in mind. Twenty-year-old art student Christina Weckler was a former neighbor who rejected Kenny's advances, but his fragile ego couldn't shake off the sting of rejection, and for that, he wanted her dead. So on the evening of November 19th, Kenny knocked on Christina's door with a look of concern. He told her that he was passing through the neighborhood and noticed that her Volkswagen had been hit by a car. Pretending once again to be a member of the police reserves, Kenny offered to help her fill out her insurance report.
Starting point is 00:11:41 Christina was cautious by nature, but Kenny's police badge lent him credibility, so she followed him outside. By the time she saw that there was no damage to her car, it was too late. The cousins forced Christina into the Cadillac and drove her straight to Angelo's. Angelo and Kenny took turns raping the young woman before deciding on how to kill her. They usually enjoyed strangling their victims to death, but that night, Angela wanted to try something different, something that would prolong Christina's suffering. Using a syringe, he injected windex into Christina's neck and arms and watched her convulse with agony. When the windex failed to kill her, Angelo covered Christina's head with a plastic bag and sealed it with a accord. She died of asphyxiation and strangulation. Later that night, the cousins dumped Christina's
Starting point is 00:12:37 body on a Highland Park hillside, where it was discovered the very next day. That same day, November 20th, a young boy stumbled across the bodies of Dolores Sapita and Sonia Johnson. With three bodies discovered in quick succession, the city was forced to act. On November 22nd, a 32-member task force convened to quell public concern and bring the culprit to justice. Just one day after the task force was announced, Jane King's body was found in Los Felis, causing panic in the community to rise. The Strangler's early victims were out late at night. But with Christina, Dolores, and Sonia's abductions, it was clear that no one was safe. With the whole city on the lookout, the task force received hundreds of calls,
Starting point is 00:13:25 but even with the combined efforts of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, LAPD, and Glendale Police Department, they made little progress. Their efforts were hampered by the media's relentless coverage of the case. Overzealous journalists caught wind of the undercover operations and reported them to the public, ruining carefully laid plans. So as the cousins paid careful attention to the news, they knew how to avoid the cops. At Thanksgiving dinner that week, the cousins basked in their family's palpable fear of the hillside strangler. Angelo even took the time to warn his teenage daughter about the dangers of staying out late. As they picked up the pace of their brutal killing spree, the men likely felt untouchable. They made a great team.
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Starting point is 00:15:52 Now back to the story. In the fall of 1977, Los Angeles was on high alert. Just before Thanksgiving, the bodies of two women and two schoolgirls were discovered in the span of three days. It was clear to investigators that all four were victims of the Hillside Strangler, spurring on their efforts to apprehend the killer. Amidst the panic, 43-year-old Angelo Bono Jr. and 26-year-old Kenny Bianchi knew they had to play it safe. Their usual Hollywood and Glendale hunting grounds were being patrolled by undercover cops alongside watchful locals who eagerly notified authorities of anything suspicious.
Starting point is 00:16:34 So on the evening of November 28, 1977, the cousins cruised northeast to the San Fernando Valley. As they drove past a donut shop on bustling Sepulveda Boulevard, 18-year-old Lauren Wagner caught Angelo's eye. He had a thing for redheads. and her strawberry locks looked ripe for the picking. As she exited the shop and climbed into her Mustang, the cousins followed closely behind in their Cadillac. Lauren drove home, not realizing she was being followed. When she parked around 9 p.m., Angelo and Kenny pounced on the young woman,
Starting point is 00:17:11 brandishing their badges. Believing the cousins were cops, Lauren asked to let her father know what was happening. In response, Angelo and Kenny dragged Lauren into the back of Kenny's Cadillac. Across the road, Lawrence neighbor, Bula Stouffer, heard the commotion and went to her window to see what was happening. She saw two men pull a woman into the back of a car and drive away. A rape survivor herself, 50-year-old Bula froze, completely paralyzed by what she saw. Had she recognized it was her teenage neighbor being abducted, she might have sounded the alarm. Instead, she watched,
Starting point is 00:17:48 immobilized by her own trauma, as Lauren. Lauren's captors drove off into the night. Quickly realizing she was in the clutches of the hillside stranglers, Lauren cooperated with her captors. According to writer Darcy O'Brien, Lauren told Angelo that he had nothing to worry about. She liked sex, she said. She had spent hours in bed with her boyfriend that evening and was ready for more.
Starting point is 00:18:13 Knowing the fates of the previous Hillside Strangler victims, it's possible Lauren hoped to appease her captors and evade death. As psychologist Dr. James R. Alvarez notes, it's generally safer to be submissive to the captors and to comply with their instructions. But he suggests that overcompliance to the point of losing one's dignity is usually a mistake because it devalues the victim's life in the eyes of the attacker. While Angelo and Kenny thoroughly enjoyed Lauren's enthusiasm in bed, it's possible they saw her compliance as another reason why women are. were worthless. In the end, her cooperation made no difference to them. The next day, Lauren's body was found on a Glendale hillside. As soon as she was identified, authorities searched for witnesses to the abduction. Realizing at last what she had seen,
Starting point is 00:19:07 Bula Stover came forward and told police everything. Bula's story confirmed at last that the hillside strangler was two men, not one. Additionally, her description of the incident helped investigators figure out that the killers were posing as police officers and that they were driving an unmarked sedan with a dark body and a white top. Hoping to prevent more deaths, the authorities released the details of their theory to the media. Realizing that the cops were closer than ever, Angelo and Kenny decided to cool it for a while. But impulsive as they were, they couldn't lay low forever. Two weeks later, on December 13th, Angelo and Kenny were overcome by their urge to kill. But with over 100 investigators working the Hillside Task Force, the cousins knew they had to change
Starting point is 00:19:58 things up again. They didn't want to be seen abducting a woman off the street, so their next victim would have to come to them. Careful not to drive Kenny's now-recognizable Cadillac. They paid a visit to the Hollywood Public Library. There, Kenny used to pay phone to place a call to the Climax Call Girl service. Later that evening, 17-year-old sex worker Kimberly Martin arrived at Kenny's Hollywood apartment complex. With the hillside strangler on the loose, it's likely the blonde sex worker believed in-home calls were the best way to stay safe. Following directions, Kimberly made her way to a vacant unit, where Kenny was waiting. He invited her in, but when Angelo suddenly appeared and they
Starting point is 00:20:44 moved to attack, Kimberly screamed for help. Unfortunately, no one came to her aid. The cousins easily overpowered the teen and forced her into Angelo's car. Kimberly's naked, strangled body was found the next day. She'd been dumped on a hill that faced Los Angeles City Hall, a middle finger to the authorities who were so desperate to stop their killing spree. The investigators heard the message loud and clear, and might have hoped that the killer's obvious arrogance would caused them to trip up somewhere. And it seemed Angelo felt the same way. Kenny was getting reckless, and Angela felt uncomfortable with the increasing attention on the case. In particular, he was frustrated by Kenny's short-sighted plans. Ordering a call girl using a pay phone was a good
Starting point is 00:21:31 idea in theory, but anyone who was at the library when they made the call could easily identify them. On top of that, Kenny gave Kimberly the chance to scream for help in a crowded apartment building, which could have spelled disaster. Angela's anxieties proved prescient when investigators showed up on Kenny's doorstep. The escort service Kimberly worked for had given the police the address she was sent to, making everyone in the building a suspect.
Starting point is 00:21:58 Luckily for him, Kenny had a natural charm and made it through the interview unscathed. He admitted hearing screaming that night but told investigators that domestic disputes were the norm in the building, so he ignored the commotion. While Kenny was proud of his performance, Angelo was less than impressed. It was he who so carefully covered their tracks after each murder,
Starting point is 00:22:23 but Kenny was reckless to a fault. He frequently pocketed their victim's possessions and openly discussed news of the murders with his co-workers and family. And inexplicably, Kenny went on a ride along with the LAPD and asked questions about the Hillside Strangler the whole time. It was clear to Angelo that his cousin was becoming a liar. Kenny's careless behavior might have been a symptom of antisocial personality disorder. Though he wouldn't be officially diagnosed until later, Kenny displayed many traits associated
Starting point is 00:22:55 with APD, including criminal behavior without remorse, an inability to form stable relationships or maintain employment and manipulation for personal gain. Around the time of Kimberly's murder, this manipulative nature got Kenny into trouble at work. He told his employer that he was undergoing cancer treatment and needed time off. But the lie was uncovered and he was fired from yet another job. Unable to afford rent, Kenny was forced to leave his Hollywood apartment. Sick of his cousin's antics, Angelo refused to open his home. But Kenny found a place to crash in the Glendale Hills as well as a job at a nursing home.
Starting point is 00:23:36 Despite the new job, he couldn't make the payments on his Cadillac and it was repossessed. Soft touch that he was. Angelo felt sorry for the kid. After all, they were family. So on the morning of February 16th, 1978, he took Kenny for a spin in his new cream-colored Excalibur. While the two cruised the streets of Burbank in the flashy car, they were taken by the sight of a beautiful woman waiting alone at a bus stop.
Starting point is 00:24:04 Kenny pulled over and Angelo tried to entice her into the car. When the woman declined their offer, Angelo attempted to drag her inside the Excalibur in broad daylight. Luckily, Jan Sims, a middle-aged teacher, was driving by. She rushed to the woman's aid, forcing Angelo and Kenny to speed away. When Jan reported the attack to the North Hollywood police, no one took her seriously. The thought of two men trying to abduct a woman in the middle of the day was preposterous. Foiled but unflustered, Angelo and Kenny went about their day and were delusely.
Starting point is 00:24:40 delighted when 21-year-old Cindy Hudspeth showed up at Angelo's place that evening. Cindy was a waitress at a restaurant Angelo frequented, and he had spoken to her about his trim shop. That night, she arrived in search of floor mats for her new car. While she was there, Cindy and Angelo got to talking, and she shared that she was looking for another income source. Happy to help, Angelo told the strawberry blonde that he had a list of positions just inside his house. When Cindy crossed the threshold, Angelo and Kenny quickly overpowered her. They restrained her and raped her for hours.
Starting point is 00:25:17 When they were done, they strangled the 21-year-old, then stuffed her body into the trunk of her own car. That evening, Kenny drove Cindy's bright orange Dotson all the way to his favorite makeout spot, Angelus Crest in the San Gabriel Mountains. Angelo followed in his client's Mustang. With no one around to see, they pushed the Dotson over the hill, watching it crash down the mountain with Cindy's body inside.
Starting point is 00:25:47 Exactly one week later, on February 23rd, 1978, Kenny's on-again, off-again girlfriend Kelly gave birth. But she decided that Los Angeles was no place for her to raise a baby. It was too expensive for her to manage on her own. So she traveled north to her hometown of Bellingham, Washington, to raise her son with her parents' help. Kelly invited Kenny to join her, but he didn't want to make the move. In fact, things seemed to be looking up for Kenny. He had a new job, an apartment, and his current girlfriend, Cheryl Kellison, helped him get a new car. But his good fortune was about to change.
Starting point is 00:26:25 In February of 1978, Kenny's Glendale Hills roommates discovered his California Highway Patrol badge in their apartment and alerted police. Around the same time, Cheryl's mother contacted the LAPD. to share her suspicions that Kenny was the hillside strangler. Once again, Kenny talked his way out of trouble on both counts, but it was his third time talking to police in as many months, not counting his ride-along, and Angelo had had enough. In May of 1978, he threatened to kill Kenny if he didn't leave Los Angeles. Their partnership was done.
Starting point is 00:27:03 Coming up, Kenny goes it alone. Now back to the story. In May of 1978, Angelo Bono Jr. closed the door on his reckless cousin, Kenny Bianchi. Frustrated by his reckless behavior, Angelo told Kenny he'd kill him if he didn't leave Los Angeles. Left with no other choice, Kenny followed his ex-girlfriend, Kelly Boyd, and their newborn son to Bellingham, Washington. On the surface, Kenny's life in Washington was purported. He found a great job working in private security and did his best to be a dependable boyfriend and doting dad.
Starting point is 00:27:43 But he couldn't resist his devious ways for long. He frequently stole from the homes he was paid to protect, but money and trinkets weren't the only things he coveted. Though they lived together, he soon lost interest in Kelly and looked elsewhere for the satisfaction he craved. He wanted another woman, and there was only one way he wanted that to go. In January 1979, Kenny called 22-year-old Karen Manditch to offer her a job. Karen was someone Kenny met when he first arrived in town, and she was just his type.
Starting point is 00:28:16 He offered her $100 to house sit for one of his wealthy clients, telling her it would be easy money. He told her she could even bring her roommate, 27-year-old Diane Wilder, along for company. When Karen and Diane arrived at the house on January 11, Kenny escorted them into the basement one at a time and strangled them. The murders were over so fast that he didn't have the time or the drive to rape them. Instead, he masturbated over their lifeless bodies. Afterwards, Kenny packed the two women into the back of Karen's car
Starting point is 00:28:49 and left the vehicle on a dead-end street a short distance away. Out in the open, the girls were discovered the following afternoon. While Kenny was proud of his double murder, he didn't bother to cover his tracks in the same way Angela would have. The older cousin was fastidious about tying up loose ends. By comparison, Kenny was sloppy. He did ask the girls to keep the house-sitting job a secret, but Karen told her boyfriend about the gig,
Starting point is 00:29:18 and Diane wrote Kenny's name on a piece of paper. Following the flashing neon breadcrumbs, police arrested Kenny the same day his victim's bodies were discovered. During booking, the Bellingham Police Chief noticed Kenny's California driver license and made a call to the L.A. Sheriff's Department. An officer from the Hillside Strangler Task Force took the call and was quick to connect Kenny to the string of murders in Los Angeles, believing they'd finally found at least one of the killers,
Starting point is 00:29:47 investigators from Los Angeles flew to Washington to search Kenny's home. There, they found belongings owned by victims of the Hillside Strangler. It was as good as a smoking gun. But knowing that there were at least two Hillside Strangler, stranglers. Investigators asked Kelly for information about Kenny's friends in California. She knew of only one, his older cousin, Angelo Bono Jr. Authorities immediately set up surveillance around Angelo's home in Glendale and waited to make their move. Even as they tried to tie Angelo to the murders, the LAPD announced to the
Starting point is 00:30:24 press that they finally had one suspect in custody. And when they released a photo of Kenny Bianchi to the public, stations were flooded with calls. One call came from David Wood, the lawyer who helped 15-year-old Becky Spears escaped the cousin's abuse. With his help, police made contact with Becky and with Sabra Hannan, both victims of forced sex work. Angelo's second wife, Candy, called to tell police about her ex-husband's violent nature. She also divulged that Angelo used to take her to the cow patch on Landa Street for late-night dalliances. It was a little-night dalliances. It was a little-old. the exact location where the bodies of schoolgirls Dolores Sapida and Sonia Johnson were found.
Starting point is 00:31:09 Feeling close to an arrest, investigators called Angelo in for questioning, hoping to elicit a confession. Despite all of the circumstantial evidence they presented, Angelo didn't break. He insisted he was innocent. It was a tactic both cousins were trying. While a mountain of evidence pointed to him as the Bellingham murderer, Kenny told his lawyer that he couldn't recall anything about the night of their deaths. As authorities in Washington and California teamed up to press charges that carried the death penalty, he was getting desperate. Concerned for his client's mental well-being, the lawyer requested a psychiatric evaluation. After hearing a severely dramatized version of his life story, the social worker diagnosed
Starting point is 00:31:53 Kenny with the now defunct condition, multiple personality disorder. Over the next few months, Kenny met with several psychiatrists who were experts in the field of hypnosis and multiple personality disorders. In the meetings, Kenny pretended to be hypnotized and acted as if alternative personalities emerged from his subconscious. According to him, Kenny, the person, wasn't a killer, but his alternative persona, Steve, was vicious. It was Steve who masterminded all of Kenny's crimes. Psychologist Dr. John G. Watkins and psychiatrist Dr. Ralph B. Allison supported Kenny's plan to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, but Dr. Martin T. Orne, then the director of the Institute of Pennsylvania's experimental psychiatry department, believed that Kenny was lying. According to Dr. Orne, psychiatrists and psychologists are not particularly good at telling when people are lying. As a psychiatrist or psychologist, you're talking. treating a patient. You don't create an adversary relationship. You make sure that you and the patient are on the same side. Siding with Dr. Orne, the L.A. District Attorney's Office met with Kenny to offer him a deal.
Starting point is 00:33:09 If he testified against Angelo, they would take the death penalty off the table for his crimes in California and Washington. Instead, he would receive concurrent life sentences and be parole eligible. It was an offer he couldn't refuse. So Kenny was flown back to Los Angeles to help officials. build a case against Angelo. But even as he plotted against his cousin, Kenny sought a way to win his own freedom. In June of 1980, aspiring actress and playwright Veronica Compton began writing letters to Kenny in prison. Their correspondence evolved into a lopsided romance, and the murder-obsessed woman proved only too easy for Kenny to control. Head over heels for Kenny, 24-year-old Veronica admitted she was
Starting point is 00:33:55 die for him. But Kenny suggested she proved her love another way. He asked her to fly to Washington and commit a copycat murder that mimic the deaths of Karen Manditch and Diane Wilder. Kenny gave Veronica a sample of his semen and told her to plant it inside her victim. He hoped it would fool authorities into believing that he couldn't possibly be the killer in any Bellingham slayings. So, Kenny's fate in her hands, Veronica flew to Bellingham on September 16, 1980. With the help of some liquid courage and a line of cocaine, Veronica prowled the town, looking for a young woman to kill.
Starting point is 00:34:36 Hoping to lower her victim's guard, Veronica stuffed her shirt with a pillow and pretended to be pregnant and broken-hearted. Eventually, she found the kind shoulder of an unsuspecting woman to cry on. She lured the woman to her hotel room and attempted to strangle her to death, but the woman fought back and managed to escape. Foyled and foolish, Veronica left a trail of evidence connecting her to the crime, just like Kenny.
Starting point is 00:35:04 On October 3, 1980, she was arrested for attempted murder and was eventually handed a life sentence to match her lovers. Now with no hope of clearing his name, Kenny did his best to thwart the case against his cousin. He changed his story often, constantly contradicting himself, perhaps in an effort at winning Angelo's freedom. Despite this, the estranged cousins and partners in crime barely glanced at each other during Angelo's sensational 1982 trial. The jury saw through his changing stories and were convinced by compelling evidence and cinematic field trips to see the sites where Angelo and Kenny dumped their victims. The jury spent 20 days deliberating, but eventually found Angelo Bono Jr. guilty on nine counts of murder and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
Starting point is 00:36:00 He served just 19 years behind bars before he died of a heart attack in 2002. Kenny was returned to Washington to serve out his life sentences in the notorious Walla Walla Prison. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on the Hillside Stranglers, amongst the many sources we used, we found The Hillside Stranglers by Darcy O'Brien, extremely helpful to our research.
Starting point is 00:36:35 You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other Parcast Originals for free on Spotify. Not only does Spotify already have all of your favorite music, but now Spotify is making it easy for you to enjoy all of your favorite parcast originals, like serial killers, for free, from your phone, desktop, or smart. speaker. To stream serial killers on Spotify, just open the app and type serial killers in the search bar.
Starting point is 00:36:59 We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler and is a podcast studios original. Executive producers 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 Jane O, with writing assistance by Abigail Kelle. Canon and stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Hey listeners, don't forget to follow Blind Dating for a fun twist on a classic setup. YouTuber and host Tara Michelle can't wait to help hopeful singles meet their match. Search Blind Dating and follow free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:37:47 A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Do you want to hear something spooky?
Starting point is 00:38:21 Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves. Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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