Kenneth Bianchi

Case record: Kenneth Bianchi

Overview

Kenneth Alessio Bianchi (born May 22, 1951) was an American serial killer. He and his cousin Angelo Buono, Jr. were known as the Hillside Stranglers. Bianchi was serving life imprisonment in Washington.

Bianchi was also a suspect in the Alphabet murders, three unsolved murders in his home city of Rochester.

Early life and background

Bianchi was born in Rochester, New York, to a prostitute who gave him up for adoption two weeks after he was born. He was adopted at three months by Frances Scioliono and her husband Nicholas Bianchi in Rochester.

Bianchi was described as being deeply troubled from a young age. His adoptive mother described him as being "a compulsive liar who had risen from the cradle dissembling". She said he often worried her with his penchant for trance-like daydreams. He had above-average intelligence but was an underachiever who was quick to lose his temper. He was diagnosed with petit mal seizures when he was five years old and passive-aggressive disorder when he was 10.

After Nicholas Bianchi died of pneumonia in 1964, Frances had to work while her son attended high school. Shortly after Bianchi graduated from Gates-Chili High School in 1971, he married his high school sweetheart; the union ended after eight months.

Bianchi dropped out of college after one semester and drifted through a series of menial jobs. He ended up as a security guard at a jewelry store, which gave him an opportunity to steal valuables. He often gave stolen valuables to girlfriends or prostitutes to buy their loyalty. Because of many petty thefts, Bianchi was constantly on the move.

Bianchi moved to Los Angeles in 1977. He started spending time with his older cousin Angelo Buono. Buono was impressed with Bianchi's fancy clothes, jewelry, and stories of getting any women he wanted and "putting them in their place".

Hillside Stranglers crimes

Victim selection and method

Bianchi and Buono worked together as pimps. By late 1977, they had escalated to murder.

They would usually cruise around Los Angeles in Buono's car and use fake badges to persuade girls that they were undercover cops. Their victims were women and girls aged 12 to 28 from various walks of life. They would then order the girls into Buono's "unmarked police car" and drive them home to torture and murder them.

Bianchi and Buono would sexually abuse their victims before strangling them. They experimented with other methods of killing, including lethal injection, electric shock, and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Even while committing the murders, Bianchi applied for a job with the Los Angeles Police Department and had been taken for several rides with police officers while they were searching for the Hillside Strangler.

Timeline of victim killings (dated)

October 17, 1977 — Yolanda Washington, age 19, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. October 31, 1977 — Judith Ann Miller, age 15, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. November 6, 1977 — Lissa Kastin, age 21, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. November 10, 1977 — Jane King, age 28, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. November 13, 1977 — Delores Cepeda, age 12, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. November 13, 1977 — Sonja Johnson, age 14, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. November 20, 1977 — Kristin Weckler, age 20, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. November 29, 1977 — Lauren Wagner, age 18, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. December 9, 1977 — Kimberely Martin, age 17, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered. February 16, 1978 — Cindy Lee Hudspeth, age 20, was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered.

Further victim details described

Yolanda Washington’s body was found near the Forest Lawn Cemetery on October 18, 1977. The corpse was cleaned and faint marks were visible around the neck, wrists, and ankles where a rope had been used. It was discovered that the victim had been raped.

On November 1, 1977, police were called to a La Crescenta, Los Angeles, California neighborhood, where the body of a teenage girl was found naked, face up on a parkway in a residential area. The homeowner covered her with a tarp to protect neighborhood children. Bruises on her neck indicated strangulation, and the body had been dumped, indicating she was killed elsewhere. The girl was identified as Judith Lynn Miller, a runaway prostitute barely 15 years old. This event caused the homeowner to relocate his family out of state for their protection. The coroner's report stated she had been bound much like the first victim, Yolanda Washington.

On November 6, 1977, the nude body of another woman was discovered near the Chevy Chase Country Club. Similar to Judith Lynn Miller, she had been strangled with a ligature. The woman was identified as 21-year-old Lissa Teresa Kastin, a waitress.

Delores Cepeda, age 12, and Sonja Johnson, age 14, boarded a school bus and headed home on November 13, 1977. The last time they were seen was getting off this bus and approaching a car. Inside the car were reportedly two men. A young boy cleaning up a trash-strewn hillside near Dodger Stadium found two bodies six days later, on November 20. Both girls had been strangled and raped, and were identified as Cepeda and Johnson.

On November 20, 1977, hikers found the nude, sexually assaulted body of Kristina Weckler, age 20, on a hillside near Glendale. Unlike previous victims, there were signs of torture, indicated by oozing injection marks.

On November 23, 1977, the badly decomposed body of Jane King, age 28, an actress, was found near an off ramp of the Golden State freeway. She had gone missing around November 9.

On November 29, 1977, police found the body of Lauren Wagner, age 18. She had been strangled with a ligature. There were also burn marks on her hands indicating she was tortured.

On December 13, 1977, police found the body of 17-year-old prostitute Kimberly Martin on a hillside.

The final victim in Los Angeles was discovered on February 16, 1978, when a helicopter spotted an orange Datsun abandoned off a cliff in the Angeles Crest area. Police responded and found the body of the car’s owner in the trunk. She was identified as 20-year-old Cindy Hudspeth.

In one described incident in 1977, Bianchi and Buono gave a ride to Catharine Lorre with the intent of killing her, but after discovering she was the daughter of Hungarian actor Peter Lorre, they let her go. She did not realize who the men were until they were arrested.

Events leading to Bellingham arrest

Argument and flight to Bellingham

Bianchi revealed to Buono that he had attended LAPD police ride alongs and that he was being questioned about the strangler case. Buono erupted in a fit of rage. An argument ensued. During the argument, Buono threatened to kill Bianchi if Bianchi did not flee to Bellingham, Washington. In May 1978, Bianchi fled to Bellingham, joining his girlfriend and son living there.

January 11, 1979: deaths in Washington

On January 11, 1979, Bianchi lured two female students into a house he was guarding. The women were 22-year-old Karen Mandic and 27-year-old Diane Wilder, and were students at Western Washington University.

Bianchi forced the first student down the stairs in front of him and then strangled her. He murdered the second young girl in a similar fashion. Without help from his partner, he left many clues and police apprehended him the next day.

A California driver's license and a routine background check linked him to the addresses of two Hillside Strangler victims.

Post-arrest admissions

After his arrest, Bianchi admitted that he and Buono had, in 1977, posed as police officers and stopped a young female named Catharine Lorre with intentions of abducting and killing her. After learning she was the daughter of actor Peter Lorre, they let her go. Only after he was arrested did Catharine learn the men’s true identity.

Alphabet murders (Rochester)

The Alphabet murders took place in the early 1970s in the Rochester, New York area. Three young girls were raped and strangled. The case got its name from the fact that each of the three girls’ first and last names started with the same letters (Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz, and Michelle Maenza), and that the bodies were found in a town that started with the same letter as the girls’ names (Colon in Churchville, Walkowicz in Webster, and Maenza in Macedon).

Carmen Colon, 11, disappeared November 16, 1971 and was found two days later 12 miles from where she was last seen. Wanda Walkowicz, 11, disappeared April 2, 1973 and was found the next day at a rest area off State Route 104 in Webster, seven miles from Rochester. Michelle Maenza, 11, disappeared November 26, 1973 and was found two days later in Macedon, 15 miles from Rochester.

While hundreds of people were questioned, the killer was never caught. One man who committed suicide six weeks after the last of the murders was cleared in 2007 by DNA testing. In the case of Carmen Colon, the victim’s uncle was also considered a suspect until his suicide in 1991.

Kenneth Bianchi was another suspect in the Alphabet murders. At the time, he was an ice-cream vendor in Rochester, vending from sites close to the first two murder scenes. He had been a Rochester native who later moved to Los Angeles, and with his cousin Angelo Buono committed the Hillside Strangler murders between 1977 and 1978. Bianchi was never charged with the Alphabet murders.

Bianchi repeatedly tried to have investigators officially clear him from suspicion, but there was circumstantial evidence including that his car was seen at two murder scenes. Bianchi denied committing the Alphabet murders and attempted to get his name removed from police investigators’ lists in Rochester. He remained under suspicion.

Trial

Plea and insanity defense

At trial, Bianchi pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that another personality, one "Steve Walker", had committed the crimes.

Bianchi convinced some expert psychiatrists that he suffered from multiple personality disorder. Investigators brought in their own psychiatrists, mainly the psychiatrist Martin Orne. When Orne mentioned that in genuine cases of the disorder there tend to be three or more personalities, Bianchi promptly created another alias, "Billy".

Investigators discovered that the name "Steven Walker" came from a student whose identity Bianchi had previously attempted to steal for the purpose of fraudulently practicing psychology. Police also found a small library of books in Bianchi's home on topics of modern psychology, indicating his ability to fake the disorder. Once Bianchi’s claims were subjected to scrutiny, he admitted that he had been faking the disorder.

To acquire leniency, he agreed to testify against Buono. During his testimony, Bianchi attempted to be uncooperative and self-contradictory. His efforts were unsuccessful, and Buono was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sentencing and incarceration

Bianchi was sentenced to life imprisonment. The description states he was serving a term of life imprisonment in Washington.

Bianchi was serving his sentence at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.

Bianchi was denied parole on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 by a state board in Sacramento (according to Los Angeles County district attorney's office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons). He was eligible to apply for parole again in 2025.

Relationship with Veronica Compton

In 1980, Bianchi began a relationship with Veronica Compton, a woman he met while in prison. During his trial, she testified for the defense, telling the jury a false, vague tale about the crimes in an attempt to exculpate Bianchi. She also admitted wanting to buy a mortuary with another convicted murderer for the purpose of necrophilia.

Compton was later convicted and imprisoned for attempting to strangle a woman she lured to a motel, in an attempt to have authorities believe that the Hillside Strangler was still on the loose and the wrong man was imprisoned. Bianchi had given her some smuggled semen to use to make it look like a rape/murder committed by the Hillside Strangler. Compton was released in 2003.

Other details: Hillside Stranglers context described

The Hillside Stranglers were convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing girls and women aged 12 to 28 during a four-month period from late 1977 to early 1978. Their crimes were committed in the hills above Los Angeles, California.

Outcome

Bianchi was sentenced to life in prison in California and Washington.