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Hillside Strangler

Alternate meaning Hillside Strangler (Illinois)

The Hillside Strangler is the media epithet for two men Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, cousins who were convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing girls and women ranging in age from twelve to twenty-eight during a four-month period from late 1977 to early 1978 in the hills above Los Angeles.

It all began on October 17, 1977. On that day a leggy prostitute named Yolanda Washington disappeared. Her body was discovered several days later near the Warner brothers studio lot. She had been strangled, her body completly nude.

On the morning of November 1, police were called to a neighborhood outside of Los Angeles. The body of a woman had been found at a curb in a small residential area. The body was wrapped in tarp to prevent children getting near or seeing the body. There were insects feeding on her flesh. Bruises on her neck indicated strangulation. The body had been dumped, meaning she was killed somewhere else. The woman was teenager about 16, weighing 90 pounds and had red-brown hair medium length. She was classified Jane Doe. After hours of unsatisfying tips, the woman was finally indentified as Judy Miller a 16 year old destitute whore who dissapeared the night before.

A week later on November 6, the naked body of another woman was found near the Glendale Country Club. She was a new victim because instead of being sodomized, she was raped. There were similarities between her and Judy Miller. 1. Strangled with ligature, 2. Both bodies were dumped. Within minutes, the woman was identified as 21 year old Lissa Kastin, a local waitress. Lissa was last seen leaving work on the night she was killed.

On November 13, 1977, two school girls boarded their bus and headed home. At their bus stop, Dolores Capeda and Sonja Johnson got off. They were never seen again. On November 20, a young boy cleaning up trash found 2 bodies. Both girls had been strangled and raped. They were identified as Capeda and Johnson. On the same day police found the body of 20 year old honors student Kristina Weckler. Like the other 4 cases she too had been raped.Again there was no indication the victims were killed at the places where they were found. There were now six women dead.

On November 20, 1977, hikers found the nude, dead, sexually-assualted body of Kristina Weckler on a hillside near Glendale, California. That same day, two more female bodies were found in the other side of the same hilly area, and over the next four months police discovered ten more victims. The law enforcement task force--LAPD, LA Sherriff's Department and Glendale Police Department --always assumed more than one person was responsible for the slayings, even though the media continued to use the singular, Hillside Strangler.

Just before Thanksgiving there was a 7th murder. On November 23, the badly decomposed body of 28 year old Jane King was found off an exit ramp near the Golden State freeway. The killers would soon be known as the Hillside Stranglers. A 30 police officer task force formed but the killers took the weekend off for the holiday. On November 29, the killings continued. On a hillside outside of Mount Washington, police found the body of 18 year old Lauren Wagner. she too was strangled with a ligature. There were also burn marks on her hands indicating she was also tortured. She was victim number 8.

The killings stopped for 2 weeks. A 9th murder took place. On December 13, 1977 police found the body of 17 year old Kimberly Martin. Her body was pointing toward city hall. There were no more victims in December or in January.

The final killing took place in Los Angeles. On February 16, 1978 a helicopter spotted an orange Datsun off a cliff in the Angeles Crest. In the trunk police found the body of 20 year old Cindy Hudspeth.

After intensive investigation, police charged cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Jr. with the brutal crimes.

Bianchi had fled to Washington State, where he was soon arrested for raping and murdering two women he'd lured to his home there. After first claiming he committed his atrocities in an altered, unconscious state as one of his multiple personalities, Steve, Bianchi eventually agreed to testify against his cousin. Bianchi is serving a life sentence in Washington. Buono died on September 21, 2002 in Calipatria State Prison where he was serving a life sentence.

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Last updated: 11-07-2004 20:52:41