Prime Crime: Solved Murders - The Toolbox Killers

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

Two felons who met in prison decided to stay friends on the outside. They spent the summer and fall of 1979 kidnapping and murdering teenage girls in southern California. Police didn't even have them as suspects. Until an unlikely source came forward with crucial information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this murder case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of the murder, torture, and sexual assault of minors and adults. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On Sunday, June 24, 1979, 16-year-old Lucinda Schaefer, known as Cindy, walked out of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. She tilted her head back, taking in the good weather. It was another glorious day in the Los Angeles coastal city of Redondo Beach. Cindy was staying with her grandparents for the summer, and she thought about calling them for a ride. But the church wasn't that far from their house, and she probably didn't want to inconvenience them.

Cindy figured she could walk home on her own. She headed down a side street, but Cindy wasn't alone. A silver van pulled up alongside her. The two men inside asked if she wanted a ride or maybe to smoke some weed. She politely declined and kept on her way. But the men in the van didn't take kindly to her refusal. They drove down the street and parked on the shoulder and waited. To avoid suspicion to anyone who might drive past,

one of the men got out and pretended he needed to repair the car. A few minutes later, Cindy walked past and the man grabbed her. She screamed and struggled against him, but he was too strong. He dragged her inside the vehicle and slammed the sliding door shut. Then they sped off. Soon, Cindy's family realized she was missing, and as the days passed with no answers, the South Bay of Los Angeles was gripped with fear for their teenage daughters.

They were right to be afraid. Cindy was only the first girl to go missing during a brutal crime spree that summer. and she wouldn't be the last. Welcome to Solved Murders, True Crime Mysteries, a Spotify original from Parcast. I'm your host, Carter Roy. And I'm your host Wendy McKenzie. Every Wednesday we step into the world of true crimes

most fascinating murder cases and tell the tale of how real-life detectives close the case. You can find episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free exclusively on Spotify. This is our only episode on the Toolbox Killers. This week will cover the horrific kidnappings and murders of teenage girls during the summer and fall of 1979. It was only when the killers claimed their fifth victim that the police were finally able to stop these horrifying crimes.

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Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Four months after Cindy's disappearance, her family and friends in the South Bay of Los Angeles were still reeling. But across town in the San Fernando Valley, most people weren't even aware that she was missing. That certainly included 16-year-old Shirley Lynette Ledford. On Halloween night, 1979, Lynette clocked out of her shift at McDonald's. She bubbled with excitement. That night, she and her best friend, Ruth Torres, were headed to a party. But first, Lynette needed a ride from her mom, Dolores, Ledford. Lynette waved goodbye to her co-workers and hopped into her mother's car. Dolores probably thought they were headed straight for Ruth's,

but Lynette felt a little self-conscious in her costume. We're not sure what she dressed up for that year, but whatever it was, she wanted to change. Dolores was happy to oblige. They stopped by the house, and Lynette ran inside to change into Levi's and a dark long-sleeved shirt. It was simple, but Lynette finally felt confident. Then her mom dropped her off at Ruth's.

At some point, the girls made it to the Halloween party. They might have chatted with some friends, danced to some music. After a couple of hours, Lynette and Ruth were ready to head out. But since neither of them had a car, they had to ask for a ride. Two boys were also leaving, and they offered to give the girls a lift. But it didn't come for free. Thanks, guys. huge help. I can give you directions. No problem. We just need to stop for gas first. You have any money?

Oh, um, I don't really have any left. You think you can just bum a ride without pitching in anything? I'm sorry, I didn't realize. Ruth, do you have any? No, no, you both need to pay. Why? Because that's how this works. We give you a ride. You give us something. Ruth quickly handed over some money, but but the guys insisted they needed money from both of them. Lynette argued, saying she didn't have any despair, but they were adamant. Rather than waste more time arguing with the boys, Lynette decided she'd find her own way home, so she got out of the car and told Ruth she'd see her later. Lynette decided to hitchhike home.

She held out her hand, thumb up, and hoped someone would be kind enough to take her back home. It didn't take long before a silver van pulled up beside her. Two men sat in the front seats. They asked if she wanted a lift, and Lynette eagerly accepted. They opened the sliding door for her, and she hopped in. Then the man in the driver's seat hit the gas and sped away. Lynette never made it home that night. The next morning, November 1, 1979, a jogger ran through a quiet Sunland neighborhood.

She wasn't far from where the Ledford's lived. The jogger was minding her own business when all of a sudden... Oh my God, is that a... She had discovered the nude, lacerated body of Lynette Ledford. Soon, detectives swarmed the scene and began to examine the body. From the looks of it, Lynette suffered physical and sexual abuse. Then her killer, her killers, had thrown her into the ivy of a random person's yard. The press went absolutely crazy over the story.

Even in a large city like Los Angeles, it was rare for a body to be found in such a sensational way. Detectives felt the pressure to find answers. They canvassed the neighborhood for leads, but they kept coming up empty. Ma'am, did you see anything suspicious last night? No, officer, it was Halloween. Everyone was out and about.

The kids were trick-or-true. all dressed up in their cute little costumes. But nothing suspicious? Well, nothing I can think of. Usually I'd know if anyone was coming or going, but like I said, there were so many people around. All right. Thank you for your time. Despite their best efforts, the detectives couldn't drum up any leads.

A few weeks went by with no answers. During that time, they identified Lynette's body and informed her family about her death, but they couldn't offer her mother any closure. It seemed like this case was destined to go unsolved. That is, until a few weeks later, when a man named Joe Jackson showed up at the LA Police Department out of the blue, he was about to drop a bomb on the investigation. He knew who killed Lynette. But not just that.

He believed that her death was a piece of a much. bigger puzzle. Coming up, Jackson reveals the killers. The floorboards creak. The walls, they moan. The house seems vacant, but you're not alone.

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Enjoy new episodes of haunted places all month long, free, and only on Spotify. And now, back to our story. In November 1979, Joe Jackson went to the L.A. Police Department with some shocking information. According to him, he knew who was responsible for Lynette Ledford's murder. They had abducted her on Halloween night, sexually assaulted her, and then killed her. He even knew their names. Lawrence Biddecker and Roy Norris. As awful as that was on its own, it's not all Jackson had to share.

He explained that Lynette was just one of several teenage girls who suffered the same fate from Biddecker and Norris. Jackson had come across this information after he got out of prison. In fact, Jackson himself was a convicted serial rapist. While he was locked up, he met Roy Norris, who was also a convicted serial rapist. The two became friends. One can only imagine what they bonded over. Both men finished their prison sentences, but they stayed in touch. They likely talked about life on the outside.

Maybe they shared the same love for the warm, sunny days in Southern California. But then, according to Jackson, Their conversations took a turn. In early November, Norris started bragging about his recent exploits with 39-year-old Bidiger. He claimed that they kidnapped, raped, and murdered multiple teenage girls in the last three months. Even for Jackson, the stories were hard to stomach. Plus, by this point, he had two teenage daughters of his own. Jackson started to worry.

What was stopping Norris and Biddecker from targeting him? him and his girls next. That fear led him to the authorities, but the L.A. police were skeptical of his account, and for a decent reason, after all, Jackson was a convicted rapist. The officers couldn't be sure he was telling the truth. Jackson could have been involved in the crimes himself.

If they were going to believe him, they needed proof. They asked where the bodies were. But Jackson didn't know. So the L.A. Police Department told them they couldn't really do anything. They needed more than just his word. One officer suggested Jackson take his information to the Hermosa Beach Department. If Norris and Biddecker had been kidnapping girls from the South Bay area, maybe that department would have something more to go off of.

Jackson took their suggestion and went to Hermosa, where he relayed all the same information. Luckily, he got a much better reception there. 31-year-old Detective Paul Beinam took the lead on the case. He thought Jackson's story sounded true, but he also agreed with his colleagues in the L.A. proper division. There wasn't enough evidence to warrant an arrest. At least, not yet, but Bynum had a hunch about something. This sounds awfully familiar.

There are a lot of cases like this. sir. No, but this one's different. The silver van and the abductions. Oh, I got it. Where's that far from September? This crime involved a victim referred to as Robin R. She was a young woman who'd been abducted and sexually assaulted in September of 1979. But somehow, she managed to escape her assailants. At the time, Robin reported the assault. However, she wasn't able to ID her attention. attackers. Right. See here? This victim was also abducted in a van. Seems to be a similar M.O. Maybe there's a link. Do we know where Robin is now? Let me see. Ah, she was here visiting her father at the time of the assault. She's back in Oregon now, sir. Right. Get an investigator up

there and show her some mugshots. Let's see if these are our guys. Robin agreed to look through a stack of photos to see if any of them jogged her memory. As she looked through the images, her stomach twisted, terrified of recognizing a familiar face. And suddenly she stopped dead. A shiver went down her spine when she saw Bidiker and Norris's mugshots. Those were her kidnappers. Detective Beinam got the news back in Hermosa. Although he was horrified about the rising victim count, At least now, they had a witness to corroborate Jackson's story. Still, they needed more evidence, or better yet, a confession. Bynum and Deputy District Attorney Steve K.

knew there wouldn't be a ton of evidence to uncover on their own, not unless they could search the men's property. Bynum and Kay got to thinking. Maybe they could nail these men for another crime. That would really get the ball rolling. With an arrest, they'd be able to get a search warrant, and that would hopefully give them the evidence they needed for this case. Bynum ordered surveillance on Norris. He even joined the covert mission himself. On November 20, 1979, Bynum caught Norris in a minor slip-up.

According to the Oxygen documentary, The Toolbox Killers, the officers had trailed Norris to the drugstore and watched from their cruiser as he parked his car and went inside. But Bynum noticed a bag in the front seat, so he checked it out. It was full of marijuana. Bingo. You're under arrest for the possession of marijuana, which is a violation of your parole. You can't do this. You have the right to remain silent.

Do you have a warrant? Come on, we're taking you down to the station. We can talk it out. out over there. Immediately after arresting Norris, Detective Beinam managed to secure a warrant to search the man's apartment. Investigators swarmed the building and uncovered damning evidence. The first discovery was a young girl's bracelet. It didn't take along for the police to confirm who it belonged to, Lynette Ledford. Police also found around 500 photographs of young women, many of which were taken down at the beach.

It was clear to investigators that Norris and Biddecker had been stalking out the South Bay area. Any of the girls in the photos could have been their next victims. In the documentary, the toolbox killers, a prosecutor later explained that this raid was significant for yet another reason. According to his account, officers were in the middle of searching the apartment

when the phone rang. It was Biddicker looking for no. Norris. One of the officers on the scene answered the call. Hello? He's not here right now. He's up on the roof, fixing his antenna. I can take a message. Who is this speaking? As soon as Biddicker hung up, the police knew the clock was ticking. Biddecker surely knew something was up. They had to find him before he skipped town. They were right to worry. The phone call spooked Biddecker. He raced out of his room at the Scott Motel and went straight to his van. He piled up weapons he stored in his toolbox and any other evidence of his crimes.

Then he went to an unknown location and buried it all. When he got back to the motel, he showered off the dirt and grime. And that's when the police arrived. This is the police. Open up. Is someone there? Open up or we're coming in. Wait, wait, wait! The cops kicked open the locked door, stormed Biddicker's motel room, and arrested him.

But there were no false pretenses this time. He was arrested on suspicion of raping and kidnapping Robin R. And brought in for questioning. At the same time, authorities took his van and impounded it. Hopefully the vehicle would hold some shred of evidence that could connect Biddecker to these crimes. But as the detective searched it, they struggled to find. find anything at all. All right, what do we got? Not much, sir. It looks like Biddecker cleaned up. There's nothing? Well, there is this. A cassette tape. Let's play it. Maybe it'll be useful.

But the detective had no idea how right he was, because the tape was a recording of Lynette Ledford's final night. It's so horrific that it's never been released to the public. It's a brutal recording of Biddecker and Norris torturing, sexually assaulting, and eventually murdering Lynette. And it was all right there for the detectives. With the tape in hand, detectives Binderman Kaye decided that all they needed for a slam dunk case was to get one of the men to flip on the other. On November 30, 1979, the detectives teamed up to question Norris together. Between him and Bidiker, they thought he was more likely to crack. First, the detectives questioned him about the Robin R rape. Norris denied any involvement.

Then they pushed harder. We know what you and Biddicker did. I don't know what you're talking about. You kidnapped five girls. And then you tortured and murdered them. We have evidence. I don't know what you're talking about. But as the detectives kept pressing...

Norris couldn't help it. He went into self-defense mode. This case was infinitely worse than anything he'd been involved in before. He had to find a way out. So eventually, he turned to the detective and made a simple statement. I want to plea to second-degree murder.

Kay kept his face neutral, but internally, he was celebrating. Norris' request could mean only one thing, Norris was guilty of murder, and he just wanted to make a deal to avoid the death penalty. Now, the authorities had him right where they wanted him. Coming up, Norris flips on Bidiger. And now, back to our story. In November, 1979, 31-year-old Roy Norris agreed to a plea deal.

The prosecutor took the death penalty off the table. In exchange, Norris confessed to everything. It took three hours for Norris to get through his entire account. Detectives Paul Beinem and Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay listened in horror. Here's how it all began. In 1978, 30-year-old Norris met 38-year-old Lawrence Bidiger. They were both in prison at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo. Norris was behind bars for a rape charge, which was not his first.

Bittaker had been in the San Luis Obispo prison since 1974 for assault with a deadly weapon. He'd shoplifted a slab of meat, and when the store clerk confronted him, Bidiker tried to stab him with a knife. Before that, he'd been in and out of prison since he was 19 for various felonies, burglaries, robberies, assaults, and misdemeanors. Apparently, the two became close after Biddecker saved Norris' life not once but twice while behind bars. In prison, that kind of act bound Norris to Biddecker. The men encouraged each other's worst tendencies.

They both had a fascination with sexually assaulting women and often brainstormed the best way to avoid getting caught. As time went on, these fantasies began to feel much, much. more real. They started making a plan. According to a former cellmate, Biddecker wanted to be, quote, bigger than Manson, and to do that, he was going to enlist Norris's help. Despite the litany of violent charges against them, both men had been released from prison by the start of 1979. Biddecker got a job as a machinist, and Norris worked as an electronics technician. In February of that year, they met up at a Los Angeles hotel. From there, they started stalking the South Bay Area,

which consisted of L.A.'s Hermosa, Manhattan, and Redondo Beach neighborhoods, amongst others. Bidiker and Norris took a particular liking to the beaches. They drive up and down the Pacific Coast Highway, also known as the PCH, and search for bikini-clad girls. They weren't hard to find. Everywhere the pair went, there were beautiful young girls. Sometimes the two men tried to talk to them. But for the most part, Bidiker and Norris just snapped photos of them without their consent.

Soon, that got boring. They wanted to get closer to really make their fantasies a reality. So they agreed if the opportunity arose, they'd kidnap a girl. Biddicker went out and bought a van just to have it at the ready. He found a 1977 silver GMC cargo van with a sliding door and no windows on the side. The perfect inconspicuous vehicle for a kidnapping. From February to June, Norris and Biddecker picked up over 20 women, usually hitchhikers, but the men didn't hurt any of them.

Norris and Biddecker were simply practicing the best ways to get a woman into the call. All the while, they brainstormed the rest of their plan. For Norris and Bidiker, June 24, 1979, started out like any other day. They cruised along the PCH and scoped out girls. But no one caught their eye, so they turned off the PCH and headed down some side streets. That's when they spotted 16-year-old Cindy Schaefer. She was on her way home from church. The two men liked blondes, and they thought Cindy was pretty.

So they picked her as their first victim. They abducted her off the street in broad daylight. Then they drove about 60 miles northeast into the remote San Gabriel Mountains. They'd already scouted the place out and knew exactly where to go. There was a fire road where they could make an easy escape if someone were to spot them. But no one did. With no traffic and no pedestrians around, Biddecker and Norris were left to their own devices. That night, they both took turns torturing and raping Cindy.

Once the men finished assaulting her, they debated whether they could let her go. According to Norris, he wanted to let her live, but Bidiker was adamant. They couldn't leave a witness alive. So Biddecker strangled Cindy with a coat hanger. When she was no longer breathing, he and Norris tossed her over the side of the cliff into some bushes. Perhaps Biddecker figured that the animals would get rid of the body. Sadly, Cindy was only the first of their victims. On July 4th, the men abducted 18-year-old Andrea Hall.

Then on September 2nd, they kidnapped 15-year-old Jackie Gilliam and 13-year-old Leah Lamp. Each girl endured a similar horrifying death. But with every kidnapping and assault, Norris and Biddecker escalated their methods. By the time they got to Jackie and Leah, they were documenting their torture of the girls. They were also getting more sadistic with their weapon choices. By the second murder, the two men were using an ice pick to kill their victims. So when it came time for Biddecker to kill Jackie, he reached for that weapon again, forcing the ice pick through her ear. That would have been unimaginably painful.

It was also an excruciatingly slow process, and quickly, Biddecker got impatient. He pushed Jackie to the ground and strangled her to death. After killing Jackie, Bidiker tried to take the ice pick out of her. her ear, but it got stuck. Biddecker eventually gave up, leaving the weapon where it was. He and Norris tossed her and Leah's bodies over the side of the cliff like they'd done to the others. Then came Halloween night, 1979. Norris and Biddiker were driving around the Sunland Tunga area when they spotted 16-year-old Shirley Lynette Ledford holding out her thumb. They slowed the van and offered her a ride.

She took it. That night, Lynette endured the same torture and assault that the four other girls had undergone. Only this time, Biddecker escalated the violence once again. He pulled out a tape machine and started recording. The entire night was documented on that cassette, all the way up to the moment when Bidiger convinced Norris to kill Lynette this time. And Norris obliged. When he was done, he was ready to throw her off the cliff like the others,

but Biddecker had a different idea. He wanted to see the media's reaction if they dumped Lynette's body in a public area. This is probably because Bidicor wanted notoriety. As he'd said earlier, he wanted to be a bigger name than Charles Manson. But that meant people had to know what they'd done. Up until that point, Bidiker and Norris had been almost too good at getting away with their crimes. So early the next morning, November 1st, the pair dumped Shirley's body into the ivy outside a sunland home, and that's where a jogger found her just a few hours later.

The investigators listened to this grisly tale from Norris during his confession. These were all seasoned professionals. Prosecutor Stephen Kay had even worked on the Charles Manson case. But even for him, this was one of the worst crimes he'd ever heard. Norris' confession gave the detectives and prosecutor enough evidence to move forward with a case. They charged both Norris and Biddecker with murder, kidnapping, and rape. The victim's bodies were the last missing piece of the puzzle. The prosecution went back to Norris and asked.

asked him to bring them to the bodies. As part of his plea deal, he had to cooperate. Otherwise, they could take away the deal and try him in court. In early 1980, Norris led the investigative team up to the San Gabriel Mountains, but he couldn't remember the specific location. They searched for weeks, but didn't find anything. In February, authorities got the Sierra Madre search and rescue team involved. The crew scoured the side of the cliff where Nora said he and Biddiker had thrown the bodies.

The team ended up climbing down 300 feet of a steep ravine, and there, at the bottom, they finally found something. Easy does it. There you go. You think we'll find something here? I don't know. I don't trust that guy. The serial killer?

Yeah, me neither. Don't let the brass hear that sarcasm, or they'll have your head. Oh, wait, hold up. There's something here. Oh, God, that's an ice pick, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Guys, over here! The search and rescue team discovered a skull with no teeth left.

That would have made it hard to ID except for one thing. It had an ice pick stuck through the ear canal. This had to be Jackie Gilliam. A bit more digging, and the team found a second set of bones and another skull. This one still had teeth, which later confirmed a DNA match for Leah Lamp. At that point, they'd found three of the five bodies. As awful as Norris' story had been, it seemed like it was all true. Sadly, no amount of search and rescue ever turned up Cindy Schaefer or Andrea Hall's remains.

but the prosecution had enough to confidently move against the murderous duo. Since Norris took a plea deal, he never went to trial. Biddecker, however, faced a judge and jury who would decide whether he received the death penalty. The trial moved quickly. At first, it was a bit of a he-said-he-said situation with Norris' word against Bidikers, but then prosecutor Stephen Kay addressed the jury. He said, quote, For those of you who do not know what hell is like, he will find out. Then he pressed play on the torture tape. As we've said, that tape was never released to the public.

But we know that the people in the courtroom were deeply affected by it. Some of the jurors openly cried. A few members of the audience had to leave the room. While it played, Bidiker sat there expressionless. it didn't seem to phase him at all. After that, there was no question what the jury would decide. On February 17, 1981, they found Bidiger guilty of all 26 charges. The judge followed suit and sentenced him to death.

Norris got away relatively easy, given his plea deal. He received 45 years to life. He was eligible for parole in 2010. but he was promptly denied. Biddecker tried to appeal his death sentence many times. All his requests were denied, and his execution was scheduled. Then it was rescheduled again and again. He had four different execution dates, but each time his sentence was stayed.

Technically, the death penalty is legal in California. However, the state's lethal injection procedure has been deemed unconstitutional. As a result, no one has been executed since 2006. Once Governor Gavin Newsom took office in 2019, he announced a moratorium. Essentially, he suspended capital punishment. But by then, Bidiker was 79 years old. He had spent nearly 40 years in prison. And the governor's actions didn't extend his life too much longer.

On Friday, December 13th, 2019, Bidiger passed away from natural causes. A few months later, in February 2020, 72-year-old Norris followed in his footsteps. He died from natural causes as well. The two men left a wake of misery. They stole away the lives of five young girls who had their whole futures ahead of them. They fractured five families. who likely never recovered from such horrific loss. Even the prosecutors and detectives involved in the case

were unable to shake the emotional weight of it. The only saving grace is that the families of their victims have answers. They're not the answers anyone would ever want. But perhaps they're better than nothing. Thanks again for tuning into solved murders. We'll be back next Wednesday. with a new episode. For more information on the toolbox killers,

amongst the many sources we used, we found Alone with the Devil by Ronald Markman extremely helpful to our research. However, please be warned that it contains graphic accounts of sexual assault. You can find all episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify.

We'll see you next time. Solve Murders is, a Spotify original from Parcast. It is executive produced by Max Cutler. Sound designed by Michael Langsner with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Nick Johnson, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Freddie Rivera. This episode of Solve Murders is written by Alex Burns, edited by Georgia Hampton and Giles Hofsef, fact-checked by Claire Cronin, researched by Mickey Taylor, and produced by Freddie Beckley. The amazing character. of voice actors includes Tiana Camacho, Drew Lawn, Joe Hernandez, and Charlie Wes.

Solved Murder stars Wendy McKenzie and Carter Roy.