Buono/Bianchi

Angelo Buono
Kenneth Bianchi

Biography
Angelo Buono Jr. was born on October 5, 1934, in Rochester, New York. His parents got divorced in 1939, and he moved with his mother and older sister to Glendale, California. His education and Catholic religion had little effect on him, as he became a juvenile delinquent. He was verbally abusive towards his mother and had absolutely no respect for women, seeing them only as sexual objects. Angelo’s cousin, Kenneth Bianchi, was born on May 22, 1951, to a prostitute. He was adopted by Frances Bianchi and her husband three months later. Kenneth had a bad temper and was known to throw tantrums. He possessed creative talent, but he was also an underachiever and a compulsive liar. Like his older cousin, Kenneth had no respect for women. His religion may have affected his perception of them, leading him to expect the women that he was with to be virgins and to object to revealing clothing. A reason that he committed the crimes that he did might have been revenge against his biological mother, for abandoning him, or his adoptive mother, for revealing his real mother’s identity and profession to him.

Murder
The killings began soon after Kenneth moved in with his older cousin Angelo. Their plan was to start a harem when, after being tricked by a prostitute, they decided that murder was more satisfying. Their first victim was the prostitute’s friend, Yolanda Washington. Kenneth and Angelo raped, beat, and killed Yolanda, and afterward left her body by the entrance of Forest Lawn Cemetery. That was on October 18, 1977. Eleven other women would be killed by the team, ranging from ages twelve to twenty-eight. The murderers were called “The Hillside Strangler” during their reign of terror, and the name stuck even after it became known that two people were behind them.

After the murder of Cindy Lee Hudspeth, who, after being strangled, was stuffed into the trunk of her car and pushed off of a cliff, Kenneth grew weary of living with his cousin. He moved to the state of Washington to live with his girlfriend Kelli Boyd. He became a security guard, which he thought of as an intimidating position of authority. By this time, Kenneth once again felt the need to kill someone, so he used his security guard status to gain the confidence of two female Washington University students. He asked Karen Mandic and her roommate Diane Wilder if they would take care of Kenneth and his wife’s house while they went out. On January 12, 1979, Chief Terry Mangan and the police of Bellingham found the two roommates dead of strangulation in the back of Karen’s car. They noticed a message on a piece of paper that read, “334 Bayside 7 p.m. Ken”. The police then found out that the note referred to Kenneth Alessio Bianchi. He was questioned and soon arrested. Ken agreed later to testify against his cousin in exchange for a California trial, where he would not be subject to the death penalty. While he was in jail, a woman named Veronica Lynn Compton fell in love with Kenneth and agreed to murder someone in the same style as Kenneth and Angelo had. However, her victim escaped and identified her. Kenneth broke up with Veronica, who soon fell in love with “The Sunset Strip Slayer” Douglas Clark.

Trial
Kenneth tried to confuse Judge Ronald George by saying the opposite of what he had said before in hopes that the charges would be dismissed, but his ploy was seen for what it was. Four months later, in November of 1981, Angelo Buono’s trial began. It went on for two years, but finally Kenneth pleaded guilty for five of the murders and Angelo was convicted for nine. Kenneth and Angelo were sentenced to life without parole on October 31, 1983. Angelo Buono died at age 67 of heart failure in Calipatria State Prison in California on September 21, 2002. Kenneth Bianchi is still serving his sentence in Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington.

-page author: Kyle
-left photo courtesy of http://www.lifeinlegacy.com/
-right photo courtesy of http://www.hillside-strangler.com/