SERIAL KILLER: The Hillside Strangler from Los Angeles
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A high crime junkies break here and if you're amid western water like me, I can guess you're probably craving the sunshine to we are officially getting into chilled territory here and uh, a little john over the california for some quintuhual los Angeles and shine would do me some justice. But not nearly like the type of justice we've seen over the last few decades of prolific cases in california.

Because the seventies and eighties in california were absolutely terrifying. There were just one or even two serial killers, but a handful of them, some which took decades to identify, like the golden state killer, and others, while they were caught within a short window of time from when they started committing their crimes, managed to cause just as much devait. Kind like the case i'm going to reach are with you today.

high crime junkie. I'm your host ashly flowers and i'm bit .

and you guys .

know that on our show we are big into personal safety. And we've given you several rules to follow to help you yourself safe. One of those rules is to remain skeptical of everyone all the time, your coworkers, your neighbors, even figures of authority, because you never really know anyone, ever. This rule has coming to focus throughout several of our episodes, but this rule is perhaps best exemplified in today's story, which is one of the scarious crime sprees ze that maybe you've never heard of. This is the story of the hillside stranger.

Our story begins on october eighteen, one thousand nine seventy seven, when a detective is called out to a crime scene just outside of lossy, Angeles, california. Along the enter a freeway, the body of a Young woman had been abandoned just off the freeway, and he appeared to have been brutal murdered as a detective examine in her body, he quickly spotted the Marks around her neck, her risk and her angles.

IT was clear that he had been bound with a rope before being strangled, and this was later confirmed by a coroner to be her cause of death. The corner also determined that the victim had been reached before her death. More than the ligature Marks or cause of death, there was something that stuck out.

The victim had been thorough cleaned by the killer prior to being dumped along the freeway, indicating to the police that this was a premeditated crime, not an impulsive one. This would later be identified as landa washington, a sex worker that lived in the region. She'd been killed at another location and then dumped along the side of the road.

But with almost no physical evidence, there was little that police could do. They didn't know why elana had been targeted, or even where he was originally killed. And they had no idea that this was just the beginning of the largest and the longest case of their careers. You see you, Linda was the first victim of this killer, but he was not the last, not by a long shot.

Less than two weeks later, on november first, in nineteen seventy seven, police were called out to the rita, a suburb about twelve or so miles north of lossy Angeles, there in the middle of a residential neighborhood, police found the body of a Young woman like face up and completely knowed. Actually, when the police got there, the body had been covered up. But that was only because the body had been found first by the homeowner whose driveway that he was in and he had covered the body of with a tarp, so that children on their way to school and others had IT to work wouldn't have to see that.

But the body of this Young woman had basically been dumped in a driveway naked and showing similar signs of physical violence as the first victim. In fact, the circumstances of the death were so similar that police immediately connected the two crimes. This victim had been bound at her risk and angles, and a similar ligature had been wrapped around her neck, likely in the process of strangulation. And like the first victim, SHE had been raped prior to her death, killed elsewhere, and then dumped in a separate location.

Seems like such a bold move to dump of a body in a super residential area and in a driveway. Like, what are the chances that .

someone would actually see the killer will actually, based on how he was found, police theorized that SHE likely had been tossed out of a moving .

car that seems impossible for someone to be able to do.

not if you have more than one person who might have been involved. Which quickly became the running theory because of this particular case. So we're in a new type of dumping ground. But there was something else that was different about this victim as well. He was much Younger than the first.

In fact, early estimates by police and the corner put her aged around sixteen years old, but he was eventually identified as just a fifteen year old, a girl named Judith len Miller, who had recently attended hollywood high school. But I dropped out and run away from home. Police began reaching out to those that knew her before running away, and discovered that he had been finding work as a sex worker in the week. Dee dtt had last been seen on the night prior to heart discovery, october thirty first, which, of course.

is halloween exactly.

And on that night, at least one witness told police they were calling due to get into a large two tones sedan along the iconic sunset bullard. This would really become the first lead for detectives as they continued their search for the repeat offender who was targeting sex workers in and around the los Angeles area. But this notion that the killer solely targeted sex workers would quickly fade.

Within days, police would find yet another body, and this victim had no prior connection to any kind of sex work. On november six, this is just five days later, another body had been found just outside of the chevy chase country club in glenda, california. This is about ten miles south of where the last victim was found.

Like the first two victims, this Young woman had been bound with what look like a rope. She'd also been strangled with the rope and what investigators referred red to as a five point ligature Marks and SHE, like the other victims, had been raped. This third victim was twenty one year old elisa castine, nicknamed lisa, who was not a sex worker.

Lisa found work as a waitress and was actually a dancer with the L A. Knockers, who was an all female dance troop that was like, some are popular at the time, like throughout the seventies and early eighties, he had no history of drug use and seemingly had no relation or ties to the first two victims. Lisa had been at worked the night before the discovery of her body, and was last scene by coworkers leaving the restaurant that SHE worked dead.

Now just hours later, he was found in an isolated area, having fAllen prae to a killer that police believe was targeting women reboarded less of occupation or social status. At this point, the investigation into the shrine of murder was entering full tilt. Three Young women were now dead, seemingly murdered by the same offender or offenders who had managed to kidnap, bind, rape and strangle all three before jumping their bodies in separate locations.

Police knew the cases were linked, but had no idea who they should be looking for, at least not yet. In the meantime, the public at large didn't really have an idea what was going on. The first two cases had not raised much public awareness. After all, the first two victims wear sex workers, and the public, public apathy towards sex workers has been noted, like since the days of jack the ripper.

I mean, we saw the same thing happened with gary re. The Green river killer. The fact that the media and the really the public don't give these cases attention is what allows men to .

keep killing them exactly. And while police were looking for the killer, IT wasn't until this third victim was found that they even really began to take the cases seriously like they knew they were linked. But IT wasn't getting the notoriety until now.

They now had a killer using the same method to murder women. And whoever he was, he was no longer just targeting sex workers. By all indications, lisa had been abducted by the killer and had not gone along willingly. So the urgency in this case was now amped up significantly.

It's during this time period that some odd encounters were noted not only by friends and family of the three murdered women who reported these findings to police, but by those with no real relation to the case at all. This included a girl in Katherine, lord Baker, who was the daughter of the famous actor Peter Lorry. At some point in early november, Catherine had a chance encounter with two men claiming to be lost Angeles police officers.

Now they even had badgers, which they flashed at her, and then they demanded that SHE go with them for questioning. And he said, like when they came up to her, they seem like they were ready to arrest her. And SHE was just minding her own business and had no idea what to do.

He was totally taken off guard. Now IT wasn't until the two men looked at her wallet, when they saw pictures of her with her father that they seemed to back off a little bit. At this point, Peter li was deceased, but he was still one of the most well known actors in hollywood history. After seeing this photograph, the two men seemed spooked.

Was he just like two high profile for them?

I think that was the problem. They seem to drop interest in Catherine, and they kind of just like wondered off. Catherine assumed that this was just a case like mistake and identity like a good.

This happens when they look at her wallet. They think, oh, maybe, you know, SHE not the person and who they were looking for. And SHE doesn't think anything of IT until months later to keep this encounter in mind, because IT comes up again.

Roughly two weeks would pass until police learned that another body had been found. However, in one day, police would discover that this unknown killer or killers had nearly doubled their victim total. This next discovery took place on a hillside near dodger stadium, where a nine year old boy out treasure hunting with some friends that when he stumbled upon two figures in alesia park, which looked almost like manicheans from a distance.

okay, but I think we all know it's never and never.

The boy did, in fact, discover that these were not meant ican, but rather two girls not much older than him who had been stripped naked and left exposed to the elements. The victims were twelve year old dlorus and septa and four thousand year old Sonia marie Johnson, who had last been seen about a week prior. The two girls had boarded a bus in front of a lazy, and they wrote the bus approximate miles. And there are some witnesses saw them approach a two tones, dan sound familiar. And that was the last time either girl had been seen.

I assume they're been ported missing?

Yes, they had been. These were two typical Young girls who had spent the weekend hanging out. They are coming home from the mall when police believe that they had been abducted again, there was a witness sighting of them getting in the two tones cdn, which they said the girl seem to approach willingly. But other than that, there wasn't much in the way of evidence. The two girls have been missing for about a week, and by the time their bodies were found, they had already started to decompose.

What about their cause of death? Was IT similar to any of the other victims?

IT was, their cause of death was strangulation, just like the other victims of this unknown killer. And the police will learn that the girls had been rape before their deaths as well, even despite their Young age. But due to the fact that the decomposition process had already started, there was really not a lot that they could tell, and IT limited how much they could learn at the time.

I mean, especially isn't there was one thousand nine seventy seven, right? Unfortunately, these were not the only two bodies that police would discover on this same day. Earlier that same day, another body had been found just outside of glen del.

This body had been found by hikers who stumbled upon the nude figure while hiking, and the victim was later identified as a local college student. Cristina welker was a twenty year old honor student at the arts center college of design, who. Like our last few victims had no history of drug use or sex work, he was, by all accounts, a punctual, responsible student who is believed to have been yet another opportunity victim of this savage killer.

Cineas body had the exact same legal Marks as the prior victims at her risk, her angles and her neck, and he'd been strangled to death. However, unlike the other victims, SHE seemed to have been abused pretty violently before her death. In particular, there was some boosting over her torso and what appeared to be signs of some pretty serious sexual trauma. Most peculiar though, IT appeared like Christina had been injected with some unknown substance.

We, what you mean?

OK, this is the strange part. So investigators wondered if there was some kind of drug like they couldn't tell what I was at first. And they thought maybe this could indicate some kind of possible connection to this killer, but cascina had no track Marks on her body that would indicate that he was a regular drug user.

SHE just had two punctual Marks on her arms, which had come from a surrender, the substance, when they were able to take that out and test IT was later determined to be windex like the windex you have under your sink right now. That index what yeah. IT was and still is unknown why Christina had been injected with this, but IT was believed to either be like a misguided attempt to like harm her, just maybe just to see what happened, or an attempt to cover up the crime itself.

So in one day, police had found three bodies, which they now attributed to the same killer. Bring the total victim count up to six at this point. But just three days later, on november twenty, another body was discovered, this time near the low felix frame along the golden state freeway.

Unfortunately, this victim was found too late for any significant testing to take place. Police estimate that she'd been their decomposing for weeks, but they were at least able to identify her. The victim was twenty eight year old evan je king and actors that had gone missing earlier that month.

Sometimes they think are going to be like november nth, just like the others. She'd been strangled to death, but due to decomposition, IT was impossible to know if he had endured any kind of rape or torture prior to her death. So now this killer has murdered at least seven women and girls over a very short period of time.

Yeah, has only been like a month. Yeah, not even. And police finally had to admit that they had a serious problem on their their investigation really had nothing to show for IT.

No suspects, no persons of interest, not even any serious leads other than rumors of a two tone at in which, back in the seventies, like super common yeah. So finally, in an attempt to get ahead of this killer or killers, a task force was assembled to catch the man that the media was calling the hillside stranger. On november twenty nine, police were called to the location of yet another body, which had been found near glen deal amount, washington.

Like we were seeing over and over and over again, this victim had legatine ks neck Angel's rests just the same. And I was telling investigators that SHE belong to the same crime spray that officials had been investigating for around a month at this point, IT wasn't reported at the time whether or not she's been sexually assaulted like the other victims. But the corner noted that he had electric burns on her hands.

Likely some kind of torture inflicted by the now named hillside stranger was laun ray Warner. SHE was eighteen years old and lived in the sand for nano valley with her parents. SHE was a business major in nearby college and was Normally punctual, reliable.

However, the night before her discovery, SHE had returned home as expected, and her car was found parked across the street from her parents home with her door just wide open. A witness that lived in the house across the street said that they saw lorn returned home that night, and they said they saw her be abducted from her car, not by one man, but by two. This person said that one man was older, shorter and had bushy hair, and the other man was Younger and very tall.

And these were the first physical descriptions that they had of their killers. And this give police the first confirmation that more than one man might be involved in this killing spring. There had been rumors beforehand. And I mean, again, because we had that one body who they thought I thrown out IT was assumed. But this is something definitive.

H, okay, that's interesting in all. But can we stop and mention that they saw her get abducted? yeah. Did the witness please report this immediately?

So I believe so, like it's not one hundred percent clear to me. But from what I can tell, the police found Lawrence car um with the door jar before they ever found her body the next day and so I think the two cases are being connected. But I do think there was a separate investigation into why her car was just found abandon.

Okay, that's fine.

So a few more weeks were passed before police learned that the hillside stranger had struck again. At this time, the struggle had been more brazen than ever before, disposing of the body in downtown. Last Angela, oh my god.

On december fourteen, nineteen, nineteen seventy seven, police were called to a deserted lot l city hall, where the body of a seventeen year old sex worker had been abandoned. The victim, canberra ley diane Martin, had endured an extended period of torture prior to her death, which had been exactly like the other victims, but the circumstances of her death gave police even more cause for concern. You see, kimberley, I had heard all of the news about murdered women in the area, especially since the killer had been targeting sex workers.

So SHE decided to stop working on the streets and had signed up for a call girl agency, which he believed would result her client being documented or veit in some kind of way. Unfortunately, IT was this decision that put kimberley in the path of this mysterious offender. On the day after her murder, canberra y had been called out to an apartment in town. However, the address that was given was a vacant apartment, which wasn't being occupied or rented by anyone, just completely empty, and the killer had simply broken in and used that to lure cAmber ley out there. When police checked in on the phone number used to contact her, they found out that, of course, IT was a public payphone from, like the hollywood public library.

SHE tried to do everything to protect her herself and couldn't right, so frustrated.

I know SHE tried to do everything right. SHE had taken steps to keep herself safe. Unfortunately, these killers have been planning on that, and they used cambodia y's paranoia to their advantage.

They were one step ahead of canberra, and they were one step ahead of police, not leaving behind a single usable clue. IT seemed like whoever this was had done a heck of a job covering their tracks. Police believe that kimbery ley had been subdued inside the apartment and then taken to a second location where he was murdered and possibly where the other crimes had taken place.

Because of that, again, there was no way for police attract them or they they wear about, and nothing left in the way of physical evidence over the next couple of months, investigators struggled to find who they now believed were two killers, and they had very few even witness sightings to work with, because often the locations where many of these bodies were left had been a banned in places. These were isolated areas, often inaccessible to even cars. So this kind of added to the fact that police believe that was two people, because police believe that would have taken two men working in tandem to Carry out and deposit these bodies where they were later found. So to take you back to our story earlier, you remember the witness thing I told you about of the woman who said that he was a caused by two men pretending to be officers. Yeah.

that was the actor's daughter. right?

right? Well, police finally start to link her sighting and others like IT to the hillside strangler case. Police believe that the two men had used the authority given to police officers to subdue their eventual victims, and might have pretended to be cops to get these girls to go with them willingly.

And it's a tactic we've heard in other cases like these days. But back then, in the seventies, this wasn't a well known thing, like I almost feels like brand new. I don't know how often that actually happened.

Despite having some general descriptions of these two men, one you know, being stolen Young, the other being older and short, police still had no idea who they were. They also didn't know what their motives might have been, other than, you know, being driven by some kind of sexual motive and wanting to harm women. We'd have this like kind of tentative connection between some of the victims who might have been sex workers, but other than that, there is no relationship whatsoever between any of the girls and women targeted.

After a few weeks with no new body showing up, IT seemed like maybe, just maybe, the crime spray had officially come to an end. Up to this point, police have been unable to go more than a week or two without finding a body lead to the cereal killer, but following the discovery of kimberley y, there will be a several week gap in which no more linked bodies would be found. Of course, there were still missing and murder cases that peaked the interest of investigators.

It's lost adults in the seventies, after all, but there was nothing definitive that they could connect to the hillside. That is until february of the next year, more than two months later, when the body of one more victim would be found in the most bizarre of circumstances. On february seventeen th, nineteen seventy eight, now a helicopter flying overhead near Cliff side spotted an orange data.

What's data is a type of car that was made by ne. So seeing this car, they originally fear that maybe this could have been an action IT over the Cliff. I would happened like not too long ago.

There was like a recent accident. So a rescue effort was launch to check out this car. Now, police quickly found the orange car and discovered that there had been no car accident.

The data had been intentionally driven off of the road, and inside the trunk of the car, police found the body of the vehicles owner, a Young woman, SHE, was twenty year old cindi lee hudspeth, who was a student in the region and who worked as a part time. We tress again. This was another victim that did not have any ties to drug use or sex work, but who had been right, tortured and strangled, just like the other victims.

SHE had the exact same ligature Marks. No one knows exactly when Cindy had gone missing, but he was believed to have been targeted because of her Young age and good looks. Following her murder, SHE had been set in the trunk of her own car and then literally pushed off the Cliff, which is where her body had been found at some time later.

Again, we don't even really know how long I had been in that trunk, off that Cliff. Despite police not knowing the exact circumstances of Candy's abduction, murder. They knew one thing for sure, the hillside strangler had not gone anywhere.

Whoever they were, they were still out there, and they were preparing to kill again. IT would be months before police were confronted with another case that had the similar M. O, this time two victims, and this time in a completely different state. The bodies were found in bellingham, washington.

Okay, guys, i'm one hundred percent series. now. Get out of washington.

I know i'm seriously to make a shirt that says that we should cancel bellingham and we're cancelling people. So on january eleven, nineteen seventy nine, two Young college students, twenty two year old Karen men, dec and twenty seven year old dian, while there were lead to a staircase and strangled from behind when police found them, they had all the signs of the hillside stranger.

But this time there was a ton of evidence, and IT pointed right to one man, a man named Kenneth bianchi, the security guard at the college. He was apprehended by police the very next day after the murders, and when police in belhaven noticed his driver's license was from california, they put two into together. They thought, oh my god, this might be the man that the entire state of california has been looking for.

When they finally look into Kenneth, they realized that he, a told Younger man, had tied to a short, older man, his cousin Angelo bono. And here's what they learn about the two men. Angelo junior was born in one thousand nine hundred thirty four in rod chester, new york, and he was raised primarily by his mother.

But they didn't have a great relationship in his teenage years. Angelo began a lengthy criminal career, which would eventually include crimes like graph dato, assault, rape and failure to pay child's support. As he got older, you see Angelo married a few women in his early adult hood.

But those relationships would always turn sour when Angels, true nature, broke free. He was an incredibly abusive men who didn't seem to respect women at all. In fact, he didn't even seem to like them very much. He used women for what he wanted from them, sex, money in all of his relationships. Angela would end up becoming incredibly val and abusive, but not before popping out a couple of kids with each one of his wives.

Well, and considering he said he raked up some failure to pay child's supports, i'm guessing he was in a great.

great dad. O yeah, he was an absentee father who basically turned into all around scum bag. Eventually, Angela moved out of new york to california, where he Carried on with being a dirt batt.

Basically, he became a self proclaimed ladies man who was able to get Young and impressionable women to do what he want IT. And like, something I read about him that I just like couldn't stand, is people claimed that he know really was able to, quote, put women in their place. IT was right, but it's out here in california that Angela was befriended by his Younger cousin, cannet b.

Oni, who, like Angelo, had grown up in new york now bion. He was born in fifty one to an alcoholic sex worker, and he was actually put up for adoption as an infant and was eventually adopted by his ante and uncle. But he had a bit of a troubled LED childhood.

Unlike Angelo, Kenneth was apparently like very bright. But his parents scolded him a lot for his laziness, and they chastise him for being a compulsive liar from an early age. Like to the poem, he would lie about things that weren't even important, just lying for the sake of lying itself, as if that wasn't bad enough. Kenneth also had a number of personality issues, uncontrollable anger. T had issues with wedding.

the bed, like one of the .

Donald riots. This kid had issues. But those were all exacerbated in one thousand nine hundred and sixty four when Kenneth was just entering his teenage years, and that's when his dad passed away from all accounts.

This seem to mess Kenneth up even more than he already was. From here, he began to withdraw into himself, and his relationship with his mother was even more splinted red beyond repair for the next decade. So Kenneth group, in this weird broken household, eventually marrying his high school sweet heart and working a series of dead and jobs, the marriage fell apart pretty quickly.

And from their cannet, began pursuing relationships with other girls that he liked, even sex workers who felt pity for him, but they won't really interested in dating him. However, he started stealing valuables to give these women flashy things because he thought, that's how you bought women's love. It's during this time period when Kenneth is just kind of a drift, looking for purpose in life, that he comes into contact with his older cousin, Angelo, now Angeles, nearly twenty years older than Kenneth.

And from kenna perspective, he had IT all put together. He had found steady work, as in a poster. He lived in Sunny losy, Angeles, california.

And he always seem to have this group of a Young, attractive women around him, after living a little bit of a doll life in york, can not made the decision to move out california in seventy five. And he and Angelo actually like move in together. Now that they're living together, Angelo seem to provide a lot of guidance for kena. He was almost like this cool older brother that Kenneth never had .

yeah and I could definitely see Angela becoming kind of like a father figure for kenis, especially having he lost his dad. Can is Young and impressionable.

right? But we know that Angela wasn't the best person in the world, so this relationship would eventually begin to sour. In the meantime, Kenneth struggled to adjust, and he really wasn't able to find work in california. He didn't have any skills or knowledge that could make him qualify for any like really good job. And eventually he runs out of money.

At this point of time, Angelo and Kenneth could have like, buckle down, found Better jobs, try to be Better people, but they find the laziest way to make a quick book, and they commit a bunch of crimes in the process. Angela comes up with this plan to make some easy money. He said the two men are going to find a couple of girls to start pimping out, and they would use that money to fuel their california lifestyle.

Within days, they found two potential candidates, two teenage runways, that were simply looking for a place to crash. Once these girls were living in their home, kenney thin Angelo began to force them into their plane. E that these girls never consented to.

They began pimping out these two teenagers and began to express an insane amount of control over these two girls. They acted as their pens. They would take almost all of the money that they earned, and they would never let the two girls out of their sites.

These two men became incredibly possessive and abusive, and soon began harassing, torturing and even raping these two Young girls whenever ver they please and when these two girls try to like leave they were basically locked in the room without food or water until they became playable again the scheme lasted for a while but eventually think the lord, these two girls were able to escape with the two girls now gone, Angelo in cannet t were left high and dry. They didn't have a source of income anymore. So they begin looking for another Young impressible girl to take money off of.

But when they can't find anyone, they kind of come up with this new plan. They begin asking around in illicit circles for a trick list, which if you're like me and you have never heard of a trick list before, it's a list of customers who have like frequented local sex workers. So likely I think they're looking for this list to try and like use IT for blackmail or extortion purposes.

I feel like this is kind of a lot of work for two people who don't want jobs. Like when not be easier.

get to me, just get a regular job IT seems like they're going through a lot of work to network. Just like you said, all of their work to not work pays off. And they seem to find someone willing to put together this trick list for them.

A local sex workers, Debra, one day, debora and another sex worker show at their home and sold them this opposed trick list, which Angelo in canada could use to black meal these men, so, like, get some money. However, they quickly find out that this list was a complete fake, and they began plotting revenge against the sex worker that sold IT to them. Now, movember was Deborah and one other person.

This other person's name was eland's washington, which you might recognize as the name of our first victim of the hillside. Strangler SHE often worked on a stretch of road along sunset, bull of art, and that's how they knew where to find her. Angelo in kennet pretended to be a couple of undercover police officers, and they arrested her as he worked.

A witness told police that they were called yelena getting into the back of an unmarked two tones sedan before her body ended up being discovered. Now you, Linda, was the first victim of the two men, but we know SHE wasn't the last. They would go on to kill ten women over the next few months, conducting all of their crimes in virtually the same manner.

Now they approach most of their victims as undercover police officers. Apparently, they even used fake badgers, and in many of the cases, they would get the women to go with them willingly. And once they had them, they would take them back to Angels, a pull sty shop in lendal.

And this is where they would torture the women and kill the women. Other than the first victim, you, landa, washington, all of the other victims were chosen at ringdove. Angelo and Kenneth had, from what we can tell, no motive other than a general hatred of women, which expresses itself terrible violence. As you heard, this Carried on for several months with police finding bodies quite literally every week.

At one point, most of the victims were abducted and killed between october and december of one thousand and seventy seven, which just so happened to be the period of time, which cannot, and you know, one half of the serial killing deal was wait for IT attempting to become a police officer with the L. A. P.

what's? Yeah, i'm not joking. He had quite literally started participating in numerous ride along gs, and by all accounts, was becoming friendly with local police officers as he was committing these crimes with his cousin.

Now in december of one thousand nine hundred and seventy seven, the murder began to slow down. And there's a reason for that. Police had finally started to pay attention to the crimes.

And we're actually starting to narrow in on Kenneth. He had done something to put himself in investigator sites, and they had pegged him as a person of interest around this time. Kenneth told Angelo about his relationship with the police.

All the de longs like came out with them. And he mentioned that he had even been questioned once or twice by investigators. And as you can imagine, this did not go over well.

And Angelo exploited with anger between the two. Angelo seemed to clear really be the smarter one. And he realized that police were likely on to Kenneth or both of them, and had likely been playing Kenneth for a fool.

So he blew up on kennet and in so many words, basically like, told him you need to get out of california or going to kill you myself. So in may of one thousand nine and seventy eight, this is roughly three months after the last murder. That's when Kenneth moves to belling him washington and gets the job as a security guard.

Kenneth killed those two college students, and that was the last time he struck before his capture. Following Kenneth arrest, police quickly had linked his older cousin to the crime spray as well, and together they were each charged with ten murder and numerous other crimes, including kidnapping, rape, som. And that was not even including Kenneth beyonce, two separate crimes from washington state, which he was charged with a loan.

Prosecutors believed that the case against Kenneth was more air tight because he had done such a poor job of covering up the double murder in washington. So they decided to move against him first. If they could get a conviction on him, then that would be lot easier to take Angelo to trial.

However, as the trial got started, can if try to establish mental illness as the root cause of his crimes. He heavily implied that he had a associative identity disorder, which he basically said he split off into a completely separate persona that he said was the one that Carried out the violent crimes. And he even gave his identity a name.

He called this person, Steve Walker. And police later found out that this was actually a college student that can neth new. And they believe that he probably had just like thought of the name like in court as he's making up the excuse IT was like the first name that popped into his head.

As you can imagine, this like wasn't a very successful legal defense and the court psychologist examining him so right through IT, and they said they knew he was faking IT because most people who have this disorder have like three or more personas. So when Kenneth hears this, of course, he's like trying to play along and he's like, just kidding. I do have a third and his name is Billy.

You do yeah, thankfully, this fool, just about no one. And the mental illness argument that was pretty much dia. So Kenneth had no other option but to turn on his own cousin and begin CoOperating with prosecutors who are planning to pursue capital punishment against him.

Now he agreed to testify in exchange for linens y and pleaded guilty of the crimes that he'd been charged with. The case against Angel O O was a much tougher of fair than knife trial had been. The trial would be delayed for several months as prosecutors tried to figure out the best way to incorporate Kenny's testimony against his cousin, who bio, all accounts, was like the mastermind and the originator of all of this stuff. Angel's legal team tried to lay the groundwork that Kenneth was the corrupting force and Angels life. And this is actually a much more effective defense than you might think during the trial, can not seem to do everything in his power to obstruct the trial, and in general became a terrible, unreliable witness.

Do you think he was trying to defend the intro?

I kind of think so from everything that I read. IT seemed like Kenneth plead guilty because he wanted to escape the death penalty, but he didn't want to turn on his cousin. So he kind of began dragging his heels throughout the trial. A Angel's trial actually eventually became the longest in american history. Do you know how long IT lasted?

I have no idea.

How long do you feel like is the longest in american history?

哦， gosh, like a couple of months.

maybe two years. yeah. IT came to had in nineteen, eight, three. And that year, Angelo was finally found guilty on nine counts of murder and finally convicted during his sentencing, the overseeing judge, who actually went on to become like the cheap justice for california's supreme court, they told Angelo that he wished he could impose the death penalty upon him. But that power was out of his hands.

So what were the same?

Well, because of his plea deal, kennett had accepted a life sense with the possibility of parole. Angelo, on the other hand, who fought the charges, received a stifle sense. He got life without the possibility of parole.

And he's already like fifty at the time. So this is basically a death sense for him. Following their convictions, both of the cousins prepare themselves for lifelong stays in prison. Canada actually sent to a place we've heard of before. He's at the washington state penitentiary in woo wala.

Same place is .

very rich. And Angela was sent to caliph ria state prison in california. He was there for a few years, but actually he died in september of two thousand and two of what newspapers reported as a massive heart attack.

Kenneth is still behind bars today, just outside of water wala. However, he has not been locked up without incident. During the research of this episode, I discovered just a little tidbit about chemist's life that's equal parts amusing and terrifying.

I guess following his arrest, he struck up a relationship with a woman named of veronica. And she's one of these, like we heard them before. There are women who attracted to men in prison.

I don't know. They want to save them. I don't know. They look the bad boy.

whatever IT is. Oh, did did you know that there's .

actually a term for that really?

Yeah and I I have no idea if i'm pronouncing IT quickly, but I learned a little bit, girl, with that. The term for that is hybrid filia, I think. But IT basically is like bony clive syndrome. weird. Yeah.

it's one hundred percent of real thing.

yeah. I mean.

i've heard of IT happening in a lot of big cases. Just is something I will never understand. These two apparently struck up a relationship during kindness incarceration, and they got married months later.

This isn't thing. Months later, after he found guilty, the two came up with this in saying plot with IT. Basically, IT started that Kenneth had to stock pile his own seamon, and, oh.

I don't like where this is going.

Somehow he, like, smuggled IT to her and SHE takes the seen, arranges to meet up with a sex worker at a motel not too far from the original crime scene. And SHE actually attempted to strangle this woman. Of course, this woman survives and turns her in and in custody. Veronica spills the bean SHE basically says the plane was apparently for her to strangle this woman, plant the sea at the crime scene and then make IT seem like the hillside strangler er was still .

out there in the real world OK.

But it's still his DNA, right? The part that I can understand.

I would say, and he had a secret twin or something and nothing.

Their plan was to say that like, oh, katha Angelo, we're just passes and they taken the fault for the real killer but it's your own DNA at the crime scene like, girl t. Kenneth is still the dumb one. Uh, yeah.

So is he ever going to get out?

I hope not. He was denied parole in August of two thousand and ten, but he seems prepared to apply for Pearl again in the near future. I think his next parole days, actually, in twenty twenty five.

And for the sake of his victims and they are surviving loved ones, I really hope he does not get out. I fully believe in rehabilitation. Like you're not mentally ill, you weren't a child and this happen like you raped and strangled a dozen women. You took away daughters and sisters and friends from people and I have no sympathy for you anymore like they don't get another chance and I don't think he should get one either.

I totally agree.

This case has been adapted into all kinds of T, V. Shows, movies, books, documentaries and IT actually remains one of the most well known criminal cases in all of california history. However, it's not really talked about anymore, and it's kind of been overshadowed by a lot of similar cases that unfolded know in the years after, even in the same area like Green river killer, ted bundy, B, T. K.

which is a shame. And they're not saying that because I think we should memorialize these two men, but we don't hear about the victims and their lives when their stories don't get .

told one hundred percent. I mean, the people you should be remembers here are you, landa washington, due, dith Miller, lisa stine, jane king, delta sonna Johnson, Christino wet ler, lorn wager, kibera, y Martin, Cindy hudspeth, carmania c and dian wilders. These were all real people who were meant to have a future that was stolen by these two horrible men.

Know there was nothing good that came out of what these men did. But I do think there is something we can learn from every case to protect ourselves, to not give men like this power over any of us. And it's a prime drinker life that we've said before.

Like if you get pulled over by an unmarked car or someone who was claiming to be an officer, like it's okay to ask questions, it's okay to call in and verify they are who they say they are. You don't need to be aggressive or rude, but you do need to make sure everything is on the up and up because horrible men will take advantage of the fact that we want to comply with police. And I think it's always important that we keep that in the back of their mind. And I feel like i'm hearing more and more stories of stuff like this .

happening and like we say, be weird, be would stay life.

Crime junky is an audio check production. So what do you think, chuck, do you prove?