Christine Kizuka And Angelo Buono Jr.
Los Angeles Public LibraryBuono during his conviction of the Hillside Strangler murders on November 19, 1983.
As the hills of Los Angeles were littered with women’s bodies in the late 1970s, people knew there was a murderer on the loose. Little did they know that there were actually two of them. The press and the public had wrongly dubbed the unidentified “Hillside Strangler” as a single individual.
Together with his cousin Kenneth Bianchi, Angelo Buono Jr. raped, tortured, and killed at least 10 women in a matter of four months between 1977 and 1978. Even after being found guilty of multiple vicious crimes, Buono somehow managed to get married after the fact.
Christine Kizuka was a mother of three and a supervisor at the Los Angeles office of the state Employment Development Department. Then 35 years old, Kizuka seemed like the last person who would want to be with somebody like Buono.
As you can probably guess by now, she acted against her better judgment — and did so anyway.
Incarcerated at Folsom Prison, Buono married Kizuka in 1986. It was the fourth time he’d vowed to stay true to a woman until death did they part. While Buono appeared to be happy while getting married again, he wasn’t eligible for conjugal visits with his new bride.
“I want to emphasize that Buono has never had a conjugal visit,” said state Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Gore. “He is not recommended to ever have a conjugal visit… due to the nature of his crimes against women.”
As for the couple’s wedding ceremony, it was a rather mundane affair. Officiated by corrections official Richard Wipf on March 24, 1986, it lasted all of five minutes — and took place at Folsom’s visiting area.
“It was just a routine marriage,” said Wipf. “They were both happy.”
According to acquaintances of the bride, she deliberately kept this union a secret from her family. She had initially met Buono through her first husband, who had spent five months in jail with Buono while serving a term for assault with a deadly weapon in 1983.
In the end, Buono died of a “massive heart attack” in 2002 when he was 67 years old. In a cell at Calipatria State Prison, this unspeakably violent man had a rather peaceful death. As for Kizuka, her whereabouts or perspective on this part of her life remain a mystery. Like other women on this list, she committed her life to a man who was known to take life from others.
Whether it was a psychological desire to help these men become better versions of themselves, sheer ignorance of their guilt, or callous indifference to their crimes, every woman on this list was largely aware of who they were building a life with. But their true motives might forever be a mystery.
After learning about women who loved serial killers, read about 11 prolific serial killers most people have never heard of. Then, learn about six serial killers who were never caught and their chilling unsolved murders.
