The Hillside Strangler: The California Serial Killer Who Was Really Two Murderers
Bettmann/Getty ImagesKenneth Bianchi, one of the two men behind the Hillside Strangler’s gruesome murders.
Between October 1977 and February 1978, the bodies of 10 women and girls between the ages of 12 and 28 were found in the Los Angeles hills. Investigators dubbed the unknown killer as the “Hillside Strangler” but eventually determined that this California serial killer wasn’t one man — but two cousins working together.
California serial killers Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr. had a system. Often posing as police officers, they’d approach girls and women, “arrest” them, and bring them back to Buono’s auto upholstery shop. There, they’d rape and sometimes torture their victims before strangling them.
But though Bianchi and Buono were methodical in their method, they were indiscriminate while choosing their victims. They targeted sex workers, college students, waitresses, and even two young girls, ages 12 and 14.
Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagesThe other half of the Hillside Strangler, Bianchi’s cousin Angelo Buono.
For months, the so-called Hillside Strangler spread fear throughout California. But it took an arrest in Washington state for Bianchi and Buono to get caught. After Bianchi murdered two students in Bellingham, Washington, investigators in the two states started working together.
“There was never any doubt in my mind that there were at least two suspects,” retired homicide detective Pete Finnegan said, according to E! Online. After Bianchi’s arrest he started to think, “I wonder where the other guy is.”
It wasn’t hard for investigators to connect Bianchi to Buono, his only-known associate. With his back against the wall — and after failing to convince investigators he was insane — Bianchi agreed to plead guilty to the Washington murders and five of the California murders. Significantly, he also agreed to testify against his cousin.
Both Buono and Bianchi were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Buono has since died; Bianchi continues to serve his sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary.
