Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka - "The Ken & Barbie Killers"
- 8 years ago
Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka - "The Ken & Barbie Killers"
Uploader: forthedishwasher ---
Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo met in 1987, when he was 23 and she was 17. They married in 1991, six months after they raped and killed Karla’s sister, Tammy, and two weeks after abducting, raping and killing 14- year-old Leslie Mahaffy. The following year in April of 1992, 15-year-old Kristen French was the next young lady unlucky enough to cross paths with the Bernardos, and her fate would be the same as that of Tammy Homolka, and Ms. Mahaffy.
Tammy Lyn Homolka, Leslie Mahaffy, Kristen French
Three months after Paul and Karla met, a series of brutal rapes began in Scarborough, Toronto, a large suburban area where Paul Bernardo lived. The last assault attributed to the Scarborough Rapist occurred in 1990.
Mention “The Ken and Barbie Killers” to a true crime buff, and you’ll probably hear about two things which make this case significant: one is that Paul and Karla videotaped themselves sexually assaulting Ms. Mahaffy and Ms. French, and Karla’s sister, Tammy. The other is the part those tapes would play—and wouldn’t play—in their prosecution.
Paul Bernardo admitted he was responsible for every sexual assault attributed to him, but he steadfastly maintained Homolka had been the killer; Homolka, of course, pointed the finger at Bernardo, and it isn’t likely we will ever know the truth of the matter. However, to this day Paul Bernardo insists he never killed anyone. And while they are hardly better off, it is worth noting that the 19 victims of the Scarborough Rapist are still alive: not one girl died until Karla Homolka, literally, was in the picture.
Bernardo was never the most stable character in the best of times, and after the death of Kristen French he began to psychologically “disassemble”. In late December, 1992, he beat his wife so badly the ER doctor reported in his 15 years it was the worst case of domestic abuse he’d seen.
1993; Paul Bernardo, being booked by Toronto Metro police
On February 1, 1993, The Toronto Metro police received notification of positive DNA matches to Bernardo for three of the rapes in Scarborough, and Karla was only too happy to lend them her views of her now estranged husband. Everything unraveled after that, and soon both Paul and Karla would find themselves facing the legal consequences of their actions.
After a two year investigation beginning with the death of Leslie Mahaffy, and the addition of a large and costly task force, Inspector Vince Bevan, the man whose job it was to apprehend the perpetrators of the French/Mahaffy murders, had clues he could not decipher and little else. An officer of Bevan’s rank should know that eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable; nevertheless, based on the statements of a few eyewitnesses who reported seeing two men in a cream-colored Camaro near the site of Kristen French’s abduction, the Inspector threw all his efforts, and the bulk of the task force resources, into a futile search for a just such a car.
Ideally, neighboring law enforcement jurisdictions work together in a spirit of cooperation to move toward a common goal. In reality, to say the atmosphere was tense between Inspector Bevan’s task force and the Toronto Metro police would be an understatement. When the Toronto detectives interviewed Karla Homolka regarding her husband’s proclivities, Inspector Bevan was not invited to take part in the discussion.
He was, however, allowed to give the Toronto detectives a list of items they could ask Karla if she had seen. And one of the items on that list was the Mickey Mouse watch Kristen French wore the day she disappeared, missing when her body was discovered.
As it turns out, this interview would prove more informative to Karla than to anyone; it told her the police had made a connection between the Scarborough Rapist and the murdered girls, which, in fact, officially, they had not. The following day, Karla saw her lawyer, and after confessing the bizarre circumstances of her marriage, she asked him to seek full immunity from prosecution on her behalf. As she states in her diary, Karla’s plan for the future was “to get (her) stuff back” from the home she shared with Bernardo, and “go out and have some fun.” That is, until the interview with the Toronto detectives when Bevan’s question tipped her hand, which for all intents and purposes enabled Karla to begin mounting a defense before she even became a suspect.
Uploader: forthedishwasher ---
Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo met in 1987, when he was 23 and she was 17. They married in 1991, six months after they raped and killed Karla’s sister, Tammy, and two weeks after abducting, raping and killing 14- year-old Leslie Mahaffy. The following year in April of 1992, 15-year-old Kristen French was the next young lady unlucky enough to cross paths with the Bernardos, and her fate would be the same as that of Tammy Homolka, and Ms. Mahaffy.
Tammy Lyn Homolka, Leslie Mahaffy, Kristen French
Three months after Paul and Karla met, a series of brutal rapes began in Scarborough, Toronto, a large suburban area where Paul Bernardo lived. The last assault attributed to the Scarborough Rapist occurred in 1990.
Mention “The Ken and Barbie Killers” to a true crime buff, and you’ll probably hear about two things which make this case significant: one is that Paul and Karla videotaped themselves sexually assaulting Ms. Mahaffy and Ms. French, and Karla’s sister, Tammy. The other is the part those tapes would play—and wouldn’t play—in their prosecution.
Paul Bernardo admitted he was responsible for every sexual assault attributed to him, but he steadfastly maintained Homolka had been the killer; Homolka, of course, pointed the finger at Bernardo, and it isn’t likely we will ever know the truth of the matter. However, to this day Paul Bernardo insists he never killed anyone. And while they are hardly better off, it is worth noting that the 19 victims of the Scarborough Rapist are still alive: not one girl died until Karla Homolka, literally, was in the picture.
Bernardo was never the most stable character in the best of times, and after the death of Kristen French he began to psychologically “disassemble”. In late December, 1992, he beat his wife so badly the ER doctor reported in his 15 years it was the worst case of domestic abuse he’d seen.
1993; Paul Bernardo, being booked by Toronto Metro police
On February 1, 1993, The Toronto Metro police received notification of positive DNA matches to Bernardo for three of the rapes in Scarborough, and Karla was only too happy to lend them her views of her now estranged husband. Everything unraveled after that, and soon both Paul and Karla would find themselves facing the legal consequences of their actions.
After a two year investigation beginning with the death of Leslie Mahaffy, and the addition of a large and costly task force, Inspector Vince Bevan, the man whose job it was to apprehend the perpetrators of the French/Mahaffy murders, had clues he could not decipher and little else. An officer of Bevan’s rank should know that eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable; nevertheless, based on the statements of a few eyewitnesses who reported seeing two men in a cream-colored Camaro near the site of Kristen French’s abduction, the Inspector threw all his efforts, and the bulk of the task force resources, into a futile search for a just such a car.
Ideally, neighboring law enforcement jurisdictions work together in a spirit of cooperation to move toward a common goal. In reality, to say the atmosphere was tense between Inspector Bevan’s task force and the Toronto Metro police would be an understatement. When the Toronto detectives interviewed Karla Homolka regarding her husband’s proclivities, Inspector Bevan was not invited to take part in the discussion.
He was, however, allowed to give the Toronto detectives a list of items they could ask Karla if she had seen. And one of the items on that list was the Mickey Mouse watch Kristen French wore the day she disappeared, missing when her body was discovered.
As it turns out, this interview would prove more informative to Karla than to anyone; it told her the police had made a connection between the Scarborough Rapist and the murdered girls, which, in fact, officially, they had not. The following day, Karla saw her lawyer, and after confessing the bizarre circumstances of her marriage, she asked him to seek full immunity from prosecution on her behalf. As she states in her diary, Karla’s plan for the future was “to get (her) stuff back” from the home she shared with Bernardo, and “go out and have some fun.” That is, until the interview with the Toronto detectives when Bevan’s question tipped her hand, which for all intents and purposes enabled Karla to begin mounting a defense before she even became a suspect.