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00:00You
00:30He said how you gonna get a girl from always in the apartment to the garage? He says I'm gonna knock her out or something
00:48And Angela went behind her and he grabbed her one arm. I grabbed her other arm
01:00There's a smile at me, and I knew he approved
01:23You're her and look younger
01:25After watching 17 hours of videotapes of Ken Bianchi under hypnosis claiming he was guilty
01:37What I was seeing was a man broken down
01:44put through psychiatric excesses
01:48To confess against himself to the point in which he believed his own false confession
01:55And you remember where she was taken
01:58there there is
02:01With the exception of the first girl without the use of the Los Angeles
02:07Material the vestiated reports. I couldn't really tell you exactly where the bodies were dumped
02:12Confession was I said under hypnosis were not reliable
02:22They did not match up with the facts
02:25My lawyer can be materials for the case to rediscovery
02:29And I essentially realized that I had no first-hand information about the crimes or who committed the crimes
02:38That all the information was second-hand information from Newsridge reports
02:43The two women strangled were stuffed in the back area of the car
02:48The police files or cops
02:50The police files or co-ops
02:51What I read was prompted in my memory during hypnosis subconsciously
02:56And I came out of it believing and committing crimes
03:00I had literally false memory syndrome
03:04I had literally false memory syndrome
03:09How much guy in L.A. is Angelo? Has he killed anybody?
03:12Yep
03:13How many?
03:14He has
03:15Five girls
03:17Did you watch him kill them all?
03:20You bet I did
03:21You can be sure that he killed those five?
03:23Positively, without a doubt
03:25Did you kill any down there?
03:27Yep I did
03:28How many?
03:29Four of them
03:31Markins would ask one leading question after the other
03:35And he wasn't the only one to ask leading questions
03:38Ellison did the same thing too
03:40He would make a statement in the form of a question
03:45And I ended up providing an answer that was not the truth
03:52But he assumed it was the truth
03:56When these doctors came in, they were fumbling around
03:59And they did have ulterior motives
04:01Dr. Ellison had a book coming out
04:04And he wanted to get the world record for most multiple personality cases
04:09You know?
04:10And so he may have been leading with information
04:14Why have you decided not to kill anyone?
04:19What do I know?
04:20Is that when you decided to move?
04:22I wanted to
04:23I wanted to fucking kill more broads, you know?
04:27When you're under hypnosis, you're susceptible to somebody telling you that a memory happened when it didn't happen
04:35Creating false memories
04:37So a clinician, if they're hypnotizing you, they could tell them what their memory is
04:42When it was actually not what happened at all
04:46You remember being at the office, you say?
04:49Yes, I know
04:50Okay
04:51And that was that particular night in January the 10th
04:5511th
04:5611th
04:57Something like that
04:58Yeah, okay
04:59There was actually a famous study called Lost in the Mall
05:02Basically, you could implant the memory of being lost in a mall with hypnosis
05:13And that 25% of the people had apparently never been lost in a mall as a child
05:19But under hypnosis, they became convinced that they had been lost in the mall as a child
05:25Believe it or not, it's pretty easy to implant a lot of things into a person's mind
05:31Yeah
05:32No one bothered to warn me that there were real dangers to using hypnosis to retrieve or refresh memories
05:42And once hypnotized, there would be a tendency to recall those memories that never existed
05:47Yet be convinced those memories are real and more
05:50And more
05:54With the hypnosis, they led him down a path of, you know, now confess
06:00And now he's convinced he did it
06:02If Ken was hypnotized
06:05Yes, his argument could be plausible for sure
06:09But chances are, in my opinion, in front of what I've seen
06:13I don't think Ken was ever hypnotized
06:15You want to play games? I'll play games
06:21I want him out of the way
06:23You don't, wait, no
06:24You don't fucking understand
06:34Just keep looking at one
06:36Just keep thinking over and over in your mind
06:39That you're feeling very tired
06:41We know that people absolutely can be hypnotized
06:43We can see there's plenty of fMRI studies that show, like, what happens to the brain
06:48There are different techniques that get people to be in a state where they're susceptible
06:53To things that you are now going to lead them towards
06:56Close your eyes
06:58Take some deep breaths
07:00Imagine I have no desire to smoke
07:04But here's a fun fact about hypnosis
07:06Unless you want to be hypnotized, you can't be hypnotized
07:12So for someone like Kenneth Bianchi, I don't know if he would allow himself to be that vulnerable
07:19Your hand dropping down, down, down
07:26And I think that, for any kind of serial killer, being in the non-dominant position, it's too risky
07:36Hold on, thank you
07:38When you've got someone who's hypnotized, it's often really slow and quiet
07:45And figuring it out in a haze
07:48None of this was the behavior of Ken
07:50It's way too, too awake
07:56There's a lot of energy, there's a lot of movement
08:02I think that Ken saw doctors that seemed kind of excited
08:07And I really think he was thinking, I am smarter than all these people
08:10But after Dr. Watkins and Dr. Allison assessed Ken, the prosecution brings in their guys
08:21And their job is to be more skeptical about this whole situation
08:29Hi, Dr. Orne
08:31Hi, good to see you
08:33One of the experts I have is Dr. Martin Orne
08:35He was a world expert in hypnosis
08:38And looking at people who are simulating being hypnotized
08:42He seems like a pleasant, cooperative individual
08:46But whenever I see an individual in a forensic situation
08:50Somebody accused of premeditated murder facing a death penalty
08:55I always have to ask myself, is this individual telling me how he really feels
09:01Or is he malingering or faking?
09:03When Orne comes in, he does a couple of pretty clever things
09:09One of them, he's like, alright, what if we suggest that Dean Brett, who is Ken's attorney
09:16We're gonna have him show up, but an imaginary Dean Brett
09:19I asked him to hallucinate Mr. Brett, his attorney
09:23Shortly I'm going to ask you to open your eyes
09:28What do I do?
09:30The one evening is Brett
09:32Mr. Brett will have come in
09:34And he will be sitting in the chair
09:37Right beside you
09:39Open your eyes
09:41So Mr. Brett wants to talk
09:43Hey Dean, how you doing?
09:46I'll leave you to talk to him for a few moments
09:49I'll leave you back
09:54Do you want to hear the media?
09:56The immediacy at which Ken jumps up, shakes the hand of Dean Brett
10:01And right there it feels like malingering
10:04Even more striking though, is what he does when I ask him to describe Dean Brett
10:09What are we gonna talk about, the three of us?
10:12Well, I want you to describe Dean to me in some detail
10:15What is his, is he shaven?
10:19Oh no, his beard
10:21God, you can see him
10:23You must be able to see him
10:25His hair isn't cold as usual
10:28You wouldn't say that, in my opinion
10:31You wouldn't be saying like, don't you see him?
10:33It's like you assume a person sees him
10:35You would just say, yeah, I see him
10:36You wouldn't be like, don't you?
10:38It's again, that part right there feels malingery
10:41And then you've got him having the real Dean Brett showing up
10:45Tell me, who is this over here?
10:52Dean Brett?
10:54Who is this?
10:57And Dean Brett is here, and Dean Brett is here
11:01How can he be in this place?
11:02Do you have anything in this place?
11:05Dean, hang on
11:08Wait for him, it's real
11:15He's real? I didn't know
11:17Because he's not there anymore
11:20In my opinion, this all feels like a charade
11:24He's seen three faces of Eve, the film
11:26Which is like an education on how to fake a multiple personality
11:30Have you ever heard of multiple personality?
11:34In the 70s, Hollywood was really interested in this whole idea
11:38We've got the three faces of Eve, we've got Sybil
11:42And I used to think that everybody was like this
11:45That they would just naturally wake up and be someplace else
11:48Or a whole lot older, or wearing another dress
11:49It exploded to the point where now, in the court systems, this is becoming a question
11:59Can we use this for the defense?
12:01The judge ruled today that Billy Milligan was not responsible for the crimes of rape, kidnapping, and robbery
12:07That man was found not guilty by reason of insanity because he had multiple personalities
12:12It was a huge deal
12:14A couple months after that, Kenneth Bianchi's case
12:18So it's possible that Attorney Dean Brett is thinking to himself, maybe we can use this for Kenneth Bianchi
12:26You haven't come out in jail at all here?
12:29Yeah, I fucking used to
12:32To do what?
12:34Anything I fucking wanted
12:37We're watching the videotape
12:39We eject the tape out
12:42I said, what do you think?
12:43He said, well, look what I wrote
12:45His notebook said total bullshit, and mine said bullshit
12:49It was a joke, it was a joke
12:52There's a performative nature to this
12:55And I believe Kenneth Bianchi has been performing his whole life
12:59What's your name?
13:01Steve?
13:02Steve?
13:03One of the psychologists said, who is that now?
13:06He says, that's Steve
13:08Steve got a last name?
13:10He did have a last name
13:12What was it?
13:17I can't remember
13:19What's Steve?
13:20Walker
13:21Walker
13:22Oh, where did he get that name?
13:24He says, Walker, Steve Walker
13:27I said, oh, he forgot this name
13:28Yeah
13:29Yeah
13:30And he jumps
13:31And he went and found this piece of paper
13:32That said, Steve Walker written on it
13:35So I was like, whoa
13:37And then there were some transcripts that were found
13:42From local schools in LA
13:44And Bianchi's name
13:45Which didn't make much sense
13:47So we went to Valley College
13:50Said, we'll work on this murder case
13:52And here's a transcript we found
13:54Could you tell us who it belongs to?
14:00She looks at it
14:01And she's like, I can tell you right now
14:02It doesn't belong to that name
14:05This transcript belongs to an individual by
14:08I think it was Thomas Stephen Walker
14:11And we looked at each other
14:12We said, bingo
14:13We got you
14:14They asked me if I recognized the name
14:16That was at the top of the paper
14:19I looked up expecting to see my own name
14:21Instead seeing the name of Kenneth A. Bianchi
14:24I said, how would an individual get these from you?
14:29He said, well, I applied for a lot of jobs when I graduated
14:33I had answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times classified for a job
14:37So then we spent four days down in the archives
14:43Grinding those old tapes of LA Times
14:49The one ad we found
14:51Was a one ad for a counselor or psychologist
14:54Send your resume and transcripts
14:58610 Verdugo, Glendale
15:01Well, that had been an address Bianchi had lived at
15:04We knew we were onto something there
15:05We wrote it up
15:08Sent it up to Bellingham
15:11Showed it to Bianchi
15:13And he realized that he had been caught in one of his major lies
15:20That was a massive blow to the defense
15:23Because now they realize we're screwed
15:26Our insanity defense is crumbling
15:29This person is some dude that he conned
15:31Once they got this report
15:34Bianchi decided, hey, I got a snowball's chance in hell
15:38You know, I've got to change my plea
15:40My defense gets destroyed
15:45My defense gets destroyed
15:50Dean Brant, my defense lawyer
15:52Told me in no uncertain terms
15:55You're going to get the death penalty in both states
15:58You're going to be put to death
16:00And it scared the hell out of me
16:01It scared me straight
16:03So I decided I needed to change the plea agreement
16:07And testify against Angelo
16:09Angelo
16:12He was attempting to do anything he could
16:15To stop the state from killing him
16:17Including making false confessions against himself and others
16:22He was a broken man who could be manipulated
16:26The Los Angeles District Attorney
16:27His attorney didn't feel like he had enough to arrest Angelo Bono
16:32Angelo Bono was still on the streets
16:35When I'd see him in the restaurant
16:37I would just get really scared
16:39And I just, you know, I didn't want to be around him
16:41All of the agencies in Los Angeles
16:44They really needed help
16:46They needed help from Ken Bianchi
16:48To be able to convict Bono
16:49So we went up to Bellingham to assess Bianchi as a potential witness against Angelo Bono
17:01I felt if he was a believable witness
17:05And we could cooperate, we could convict Bono
17:09There had been unconfirmed reports of plea bargaining efforts in the case
17:14Including reports of Bianchi waiving extradition to Los Angeles
17:17And changing his not guilty plea to the Bellingham charges
17:21In exchange for Whatcom County not asking for the death penalty
17:26Bellingham authorities will not comment on those unconfirmed reports
17:34The Los Angeles PD, the Sheriff's Office
17:37They came up to Bellingham
17:39They wanted to know what our case was like
17:41And we wanted to know what their case was like
17:43If their case wasn't very good and they couldn't convey it
17:47I didn't want to give up the death penalty here in Washington
17:51So I wanted to make sure they had a reasonable case
17:54So that if I was going to give something up
17:57It was reasonable to give up
18:03Once we got up to Bellingham
18:05All the investigators and the agencies
18:07Who wanted first crack at Bianchi
18:10There was a lot of politicking going on
18:11The LAPD got him first
18:13So we listened to all the interviews that we didn't participate in
18:22We're sitting there listening when they were talking to him about Christina Weckler
18:27And he's telling the detectives what they did when they got back to Angela's business
18:33I'm Christina Weckler
18:37After she was dead and nude on the floor
18:41He leashed up and got the needle, the syringe
18:45He made a crack about checking the teeth if she's dead or not
18:50Is she dead or not
18:53And he took the syringe and he poked her pubic area a couple of times
19:02We've got a series of murder photos when we're listening
19:06And Pete grabs the photo and he brings it over and he says look
19:10An injection mark on her hip
19:12The LAPD didn't ask him that
19:15They didn't say hey what about that injection mark
19:18He brought it up
19:22Then we finally got to interview Bianchi
19:26We went in and looked at where he was being interviewed
19:29We took the table and put him so he was looking straight into a wall
19:33So he had no room to move
19:35We were smoking cigars, closed all the doors
19:39When we first sat down to talk to him, he just came across as a sleazy con man
19:45And he was of the opinion he was going to be on the team
19:49He had all this paperwork
19:51Frank stood up and he just swept all that stuff onto the floor
19:55He said you're not going to need that shit
19:57We're going to talk about real stuff
19:59We're interested in doing one thing
20:02That's interviewing you, knowing what you know, what you did
20:04What I knew then or what I know now
20:07Ken, we're not going to play that game
20:09Well, there's a difference
20:11Wait a minute, just be quiet
20:13I'm not going to play that either
20:15There is a big difference
20:16Be quiet and listen to me, alright?
20:18We're not playing that game
20:20Don't think you're going to try and run it through on us, alright?
20:23We're interested in what you know, what you did, what Bodo did and his involvement
20:27When I say...
20:29Don't talk to me in that tone of voice, I'm not some kind of animal
20:31Listen, you can listen to us, and you can be interviewed by us, but you're not going to interview us
20:36I'm cooperating
20:37We're trying to determine your worth as a witness, alright?
20:40That's all we want, and it's not going to work any other way
20:45Why?
20:48We want to talk to you about Cindy Hudson's case
20:52We set her in the trunk of the car
20:54He took off and I followed him to Angelus Crest
20:57Angelo's Crest
21:04Angelo's behind the car
21:06Tom's on the trunk of the car
21:10And he and I both pushed it and...
21:12You say Angelo pushed from the rear?
21:15That's correct
21:16I thought he was lying, because the car landed, put it up
21:30We thought the car had been pushed over backwards
21:33We're saying, wait a minute, is he telling us the truth or not?
21:37Then we went to CHP and had a report written
21:40They came back and they said, that car was driven in, they pushed it over, front first
21:48It auto-rotated because it hit big boulders that turned it around and it landed facing up the hill
21:55The other thing they told us, they put every girl they took to the shop ligatured
22:03And put them in one chair in one room
22:07The three of us walked into the house and said, why don't you have a seat?
22:11He pointed to the leather chair and she sat down in it
22:17And I turned around and got behind her when she was sitting in a chair
22:25On the Wagner case, the palms of her hands had burn marks
22:35And we were fortunate enough to pull fibers out of the chair
22:40And match fibers that were on Wagner's hands
22:44There were so many things he told us that only the killer would know
22:51Another thing that we were able to corroborate was from one of the various interviews by the psychologists and psychiatrists
22:58The thing with the hillside killings was the pretending to be police officers, that sort of thing
23:14That was one of the more important things he told us
23:17How they were operating
23:20And it's exactly what they were doing
23:22Were there people who were considered as victims but then rejected?
23:33Yes, Peter Lorrie's daughter was going to be a victim
23:40Somehow the notoriety, the fact that who she was, you know, Peter Lorrie's daughter
23:46Somehow stifled whatever was going on
23:50I can remember her showing, showing the pictures of her sitting on her father's lap
23:58Peter Lorrie was a well-known actor in Hollywood
24:02Actually played a serial murderer in a film, which was sort of ironic
24:10With her, can you go up to her and ask, would you show her a badge?
24:16Yes
24:19And what do you say?
24:21Um...
24:25Hi, we're, uh, police out of service
24:27Um, you should step over to the car, please
24:30What he said about Kathy Lorrie, nobody knew about
24:35Kathy Lorrie didn't even report it
24:37It was an unreported attempt, alright
24:39And he tells us about it
24:42We found her, she cooperated, she says, yeah, I was stopped once
24:48This car came around the corner and just cut us off
24:52At which point, two men got out of the car
24:56One, uh, the one on the driver's side, Bianchi, uh, who
25:02Started questioning me for ID and age
25:07The other one, Bono, who was on the other side of the car standing in the
25:12Doorway
25:14With his head just showing over the car
25:16And both of them were just kind of flashing badges
25:18And she identifies Bianchi and Bono as having tried to kidnap her
25:24But they backed off
25:32On top of that, as luck would have it
25:35We got a phone call from Detective Stan White, who's working in Homicide Bureau
25:39He says, Frank, listen to this
25:42He says, an attorney who's a friend of mine
25:45David Wood recognized Bianchi
25:48When his name was put out in the paper in his picture
25:52He said, Bianchi, along with his partner, Angelo Bono
25:57Their crime partner is running an out-call service
26:02David Wood had got a copy of the Los Angeles Free Press
26:06Which had a lot of personal ads in it for out-call stuff and massages
26:12And so he'd called one
26:15And a gal shows up
26:17There was a lady by the name of Becky Spears
26:23She had one of those credit card machine
26:26He'd put the card in
26:28He got a receipt for Angelo's Trim Shop
26:31For services rendered
26:33Becky was a runaway from Arizona
26:36It became obvious to him that she wasn't being treated very well
26:40Did they work together?
26:41Yes, they did
26:43How closely?
26:45Very closely
26:47Becky Spears led us to say Brehannon
26:51They had worked for Bianchi and Bono as odd-call prostitutes
26:56So we'd interviewed both young ladies
26:58After I graduated high school, I did some runway modeling
27:05I will be honest, I was a very street-savvy kid
27:10I spent a year going back and forth from Phoenix to California
27:17I would come and I would visit friends
27:21One of them asked if I would be interested in meeting this individual
27:24that was looking for models
27:28And I kind of thought, sure
27:30Because I thought it was a way of getting into the modeling scene
27:34In California
27:40They flew me out to California to meet Ken
27:43And I thought, okay, well, you know, here's an individual
27:46They're gonna spot my plane fare
27:49I met him at the airport, picked me up
27:51And I'll never forget
27:53He said, hey, do you want a drink?
27:54And I said, sure
27:56Got me an orange juice out of a vending machine
28:05By the time I got to the car, I knew I had been drugged
28:08And by then, it was too late
28:11The next place that I ended up was at Angelo Bono's
28:18That's when the horror began
28:22I was forced into prostitution
28:28And they demanded of me to do things that were unimaginable
28:33With not only themselves, but with others
28:36I was being, you know, pursed out to individuals of power
28:46And I had seen elected officials or law enforcement at Angelo's shop
28:54Casually meeting with him
28:57Do you think that's how they got their badges?
28:58I know that's how they got their badges
29:00I know that's how they got their badges
29:02I saw badges being traded
29:06You know, when you're 17, where do you go?
29:09I'm gonna go tell the local police department
29:11Who I feel are involved
29:13If I ever decided I wanted to turn them in or run away
29:19They threatened to take me so far out in the country
29:22That I would never find my way back
29:24Or really mess me up so I'd be a vegetable the rest of my life
29:28Or never look the same
29:34I was being watched
29:36And every move I made, they knew
29:38And they knew exactly what I purchased
29:40Exactly how much was spent
29:42Exactly where I even stopped to get a drink
29:46So I had always been thinking in my mind
29:47What do I do?
29:48How do I get out of this without being followed?
29:51You don't have a vehicle
29:52You don't have any means of transportation
29:55So you are driven to different locales
29:59I knew one of the drivers was planning on leaving Los Angeles
30:03To go back home
30:07One night, early to mid-summer of 1977
30:11Angelo and Ken told me that I needed to be there at 2 o'clock
30:17And they were coming and I'd better be there
30:22I knew something bad was about to happen
30:25Because the night before my whole place had been completely ransacked
30:31So I knew it was going to be bad, whatever it was
30:35You start having the palpitations and you can feel your heart beating your carotid artery
30:41And that little voice inside of me said, get out, get out now
30:48That's when I asked the driver if he would please come and get me
30:54Get me out of here, I'll pay for anything you need
30:58And literally I was out within, I want to say, 10 minutes
31:03And this is just a small part of the story
31:08Both Sabra and Becky laid out the fact that they were living at Bono's house
31:16He and Bianchi were quite abusive to them
31:19It was obvious that they were crime partners
31:22That was a major break in the case
31:24Now we felt we would be able to convict Bono of these murders
31:35Our agreement for the plea to avoid the death penalty
31:39Was that Bianchi would testify against his cousin
31:44And in doing so, he would give up his right to go to trial
31:47In Bellingham, Washington today, Kenneth Bianchi pleaded guilty to murdering two college co-eds
31:59And he confessed to killing at least five of the women
32:02Who were victims of the Hillside Strangler in Los Angeles
32:05Police say Bianchi agreed to confess in exchange for escaping the death penalty in both states
32:10I can't find the words to express the sorrow I feel for what I've done
32:18In no way can I take away the pain that I've given to others
32:25And in no way can I expect forgiveness from anybody
32:29To even begin to try and live with myself
32:37I have to take responsibility for what I've done
32:42And I have to do everything I can
32:47To get Angelo Bono
32:49And to devote my entire life
32:53To do everything I possibly can
32:57To give my life
32:59So that nobody else will hopefully
33:01Follow my, will hopefully won't follow my footsteps
33:07It's taken me years to actually believe
33:11Anything that Ken Bianchi says
33:14Because I've been influenced by what I've read
33:17By the professionals in this case
33:19I trusted their word that this was a
33:22This was a man who was a liar and a psychopath
33:27But this man had no presumption of innocence
33:31Not even from the defence attorney
33:35Who did everything he could
33:38To get a confession and a guilty verdict
33:41The job of the prosecutor done by the defence attorney
33:43You know, I'd like to have my convictions shaken
33:46Like, I really would
33:48I, I, I really would
33:50I, I, I, I more than
33:52As much as anyone
33:54Would like to see a simple solution
33:57Um, uh, with a rightful answer
33:59That, that the correct and horrific predator
34:02Has been put behind the bars
34:05And in my career I am no bleeding heart
34:09Um, for, um, those that, that cry foul of the criminal justice system
34:15But, my investigation of the case
34:20Shows that not only was I finding reasonable doubt
34:23That, um, Bianchi was the killer
34:26Um, there were other candidates
34:28These wide spectrum of, of quite notorious serial killers
34:31That, um, were overlooked in the rush to convict Bianchi and Bueno
34:37The unfortunate truth is that since 1976
34:43In the early part of 1977
34:45Los Angeles was struck with a tsunami of murder
34:49Law enforcement agencies have 30 detectives on the case
34:52But the murder wave continues
34:54Police tie one killer to six legs
34:56The suspect still at large
34:58I'm just afraid, that's all
35:00Really afraid
35:02All these events were overlapping
35:05With the hillside strangler crimes
35:07You're talking about maybe two, even possibly three different suspects
35:12And when I was able to isolate
35:16A wider series of strangled dump murders of women
35:20In the greater Los Angeles area
35:21I discovered there were uncaught serial killers on the loose at the time
35:28There was William Chowas, who had kidnapped and body dumped a woman in Topanga Canyon
35:35There was the Westside rapist, John Thomas Jr.
35:39Who'd committed nearly a dozen crimes at the beginning of the spree
35:43Robert Honenberg escaped to Louisiana after strangling two women in Los Angeles
35:49So one has got to consider that at this time Los Angeles was riddled with predatory men
36:03More vicious with even worse backgrounds than Bianchi
36:07Who were killing in similar ways to the hillside strangler crimes
36:13And the key amongst those was Rodney Alcala
36:16And here they are
36:20An appearance on the classic 70s TV show, The Dating Game
36:24This is what led to the capture of a suspected serial killer
36:28Please welcome Rodney Alcala
36:32And Alcala is now linked to at least five and as many as ten murders
36:37Mostly through DNA testing of old evidence
36:39Number one, would you say hello to Cheryl please?
36:43We're gonna have a great time together Cheryl
36:45For me, what was crucial is the DNA evidence from 2007 showed that he was the killer of Jill Barkham
36:5418 year old Jill Barkham
36:5618 year old Jill Barkham was bludgeoned and strangled in the Hollywood Hills
37:00Her photograph was prominent of what was 13 victims of perceived hillside strangler
37:08In a conference headed by Ed Henderson, the then head of the hillside strangler task force
37:15Bachelor number one
37:18You're a dirty old man
37:21Take it
37:23Come on over here
37:27All these other victims
37:29The course that crimes was considered sold after the confession of Ken Bianchi
37:35Rodney Alcala was overlooked as being connected to any of these crimes
37:42Seeing these possibilities of these predators capturing and killing Los Angeles women
37:49Gave me faith that the real hillside strangler was potentially still at large
37:56And Ken Bianchi was telling me the truth of his innocence
38:10The day Bianchi pled guilty, we arrested Bodo
38:14This morning in Glendale, California, Bono was arrested
38:18Police said he and Bianchi had run a prostitution ring in Los Angeles
38:21And had together murdered 10 of the young women
38:24The principal hillside strangler victim
38:26They will be arraigned Monday
38:29What's your reaction at all of this?
38:31Surprises us to, um,
38:33What's your reaction at all of this?
38:36Surprises us to, um,
38:39What's your reaction at all of this?
38:41Surprises us to, um,
38:44Think that he would be implicated in this thing
38:47Because I know he's just nice anything you want
38:51Like these little rabbits he has running around
38:53He gives them to kids
38:55Did you say that, uh, he threw his cousin out of the place?
38:57Well he told him to get out because he was too lazy
38:58He didn't want to work
39:00So he says he threw him out
39:02So he came over here and he said he didn't have a place to live
39:04He came from back east someplace, I don't know where
39:07And then he got tired of him and he threw him out and
39:10And all this trouble started, I guess
39:14I remember hearing about the hillside strangler case
39:17And that Bona had been arrested
39:20And I remember thinking that's the next case of the century
39:26And when I went in the office that morning
39:28One of our lawyers ran up to me and said,
39:32I think we're going to get the strangler case
39:35But you've got to be the one to go down and go in to see it
39:39I had a high success rate in signing up clients
39:47The next thing I know I'm driving down to L.A. County Jail
39:51And going in to see Bono
39:53I saw Angelo walk from the holding area
39:59Being accompanied by an officer to this little glass cubicle
40:04I remember the swagger, the almost cockiness of
40:10Aren't I a big shot?
40:12This guy's just been arrested for one of the most serious crimes in L.A.
40:16I have talked to a lot of bad guys, serial killers
40:20That did awful things
40:22And I never felt a feeling of evil
40:26Like I felt every time I was in that cubicle
40:30With Angelo Bono
40:32He signed the retainer
40:34And, you know, I shook hands and left
40:38It was a real feather in our cap
40:40From a criminal defense business standpoint
40:42To represent Bono
40:46But did I think that it was possible that this guy was a psychopath, serial killer?
40:52Yeah, that's what bothered me
40:54But we're going to have our work cut out for us
40:57Bono has hired six Orange County attorneys to represent him
41:02They refuse to discuss how they're being paid
41:04Vindicated to us they have file cabinets full of police reports
41:10All that have to be gone through
41:12It's impossible for one or two or even three men to do that
41:16Additional motions will be filed by Bono's attorneys on December 10th here at the criminal court's building
41:21A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 21st, 1980
41:25Kenneth Bianchi flew today by helicopter to a Los Angeles jail
41:31As part of a plea bargain, Bianchi will receive life in prison instead of the death penalty
41:37He also agreed to testify against his cousin, Angelo Buono, in the Hillside Strangler case
41:42Once we brought him back, it had been at least two years since the crimes had occurred
41:52And a year or so after he'd been arrested in Bellingham for the two murders up there
41:58The lawyers in the district attorney's office, they were struggling
42:03It was a very difficult case to build
42:07And Roger Kelly worked very hard to do it
42:11The defense is talking about attacking the credibility or the sanctity of our witness Kenneth Bianchi
42:18Do you feel you can establish him as a credible witness in court?
42:23We wouldn't have filed the case unless we thought we did
42:25We could
42:27Someone representing Bianchi
42:28I took on a role that was very different from any other defense counsel
42:36I became part of Angelo Buono's prosecution
42:40Because I didn't want to see Bianchi convicted for the death penalty
42:46Bianchi would give me information and I would give it to them
42:51We worked hard with them to try to build a case against Angelo Buono
42:56The next step in the process was for there to be a preliminary hearing of Angelo Buono
43:10The purpose of the preliminary hearing is to determine whether or not there's enough evidence to go to trial
43:16There was a really significant lack of evidence that Buono did these killings
43:22The biggest thing we had going for us was the fact that Bianchi moves to Washington in the killing stop
43:29And they don't start up again
43:31And then if Bianchi's confession turned out to be wobbly or not believed
43:37They would be left with nothing
43:41Bianchi testified
43:44He went through a period there where he started vacillating on his testimony
43:48Today after a pretrial hearing in which Bianchi described Buono's role in 10 of the murders
43:55Prosecutors announced Bianchi had recanted his earlier confession
43:59When we started to ask him, well if you weren't involved in them
44:03How did you know these specific aspects of the killings?
44:07Burn marks on people's hands, certain areas of the person's body that have been shaved, etc.
44:10That only either the killer or the police would have awareness of
44:15He would explain those away by stating that he had seen some photographs that had been shown to him by Angelo Buono
44:23Bianchi's answers were at odds a lot with statements he'd previously made to police and to psychiatrists
44:31He said one time Buono showed him photographs of the victims
44:35And then he said later his own attorneys showed them
44:38Bianchi went from describing the murders and accepting responsibility
44:44Then went to I didn't do it or maybe I did or I don't remember
44:49Obviously he did everything to scuttle the case
44:56When I was on the stand I didn't know what the hell I was talking about
44:58I wasn't trying to remember what I allegedly did because I didn't have any first hand knowledge
45:07I was trying my best to remember what I told the doctors during the evaluations in Bellingham
45:17Because so much I had said was untrue
45:20That it was just one inconsistency, one messed up version after the other and I couldn't keep things straight
45:30My testimony was wholly unreliable
45:33This may be one of the last times Hillside Strangler suspect Angelo Buono makes the ride
45:38From County Jail to the Criminal Courts Building
45:41The case against Bono is falling apart
45:45Roger Kelly was investigating the circumstance of the killings of each of those victims
45:52Comparing them to Ken Bianchi's version of Vance
45:55And in each and every crime he was coming up that these confessions were bunkum
46:03That they did not match the circumstances of the crime
46:06That resulted in Roger Kelly doing something extraordinary
46:14And that was to write a memo to his own boss
46:18The district attorney describing the failings of Ken Bianchi as the main witness
46:25To the extent that it would be dangerous to cry Angelo Bueno for these murders
46:36Ken?
46:38David?
46:40Yes, you look very dapper
46:42Oh there you go, well you're looking good too Ken
46:45The exciting news is the memo
46:48This is the July 2, 1981 memo from Roger Kelly
46:56Which I'd been trying to get for nine years
46:59It's absolutely amazing
47:01Somebody ever showed it to me
47:03That's extraordinary in itself
47:05But I'm going to read out some of the memo to you
47:09And this is Christine Weckler
47:11In this case, like in all previous cases, Bianchi tells of how Bueno used handcuffs to restrain the victims
47:23He rolled her to the side
47:26And took her handcuffs off
47:28The LAPD analysed evidence report shows that none of the doctors' coroners felt that any of the ligature impressions of any of the bodies could be associated with standard adjustable handcuffs
47:45I mean, what particularly struck me is the detail that they knew of the ligatures that there was no way that they could have been handcuffed
47:55I mean, that's very significant
47:57I actually believed what was false
48:00Under hypnosis
48:02Nobody said, wait a minute
48:04Wait a minute, that's not true
48:06I mean, it's not just one false incident
48:08It's literally hundreds
48:09I should have come within 10 miles of a witness stand in this case
48:18Jarred by conflicting testimony of their key witness, prosecutors in California's Hillside Strangler case today asked the judge to dismiss 10 murder charges against suspect Angelo Buono
48:29We are making this motion on the base of the evidence today, particularly relating to the credibility or lack of it thereof of the witness, Kenneth Bianchi, that there is insufficient evidence to convict Mr. Buono beyond a reasonable doubt
48:43I think all of us are disappointed that we are at this position today
48:48We're pleased that the district attorney's office has moved to dismiss this case
48:53It was a controversial move by the DA's office
48:58Particularly in a case with that many murders, that many complications
49:04That was the first case I was involved in
49:09Where the DA had made a decision to dismiss it after we had filed it
49:14It's just bullshit
49:17When you put your case together and you take it to the DA's office
49:21And you have to convince them that you have a good enough case for them to file and get a conviction
49:26And then come out and say, well, we made a mistake
49:30It was a real blow
49:33They kept talking to Ken and they got close
49:37And in effect they became one of his victims
49:39That's his MO, I mean, he works everybody all the time
49:44You just can't pay attention to that
49:48You pay attention to what he's told you that you've corroborated
49:52How they were killed
49:54The fact that all the girls were put in that one chair
50:00The fibers that were used
50:01And the mark found on Weckler
50:07Who else would know that?
50:10All this work, all this effort, all these resources
50:14We knew we had the killers
50:17We had a case
50:19Now we're just gonna flush it down the toilet
50:23We're just gonna flush it down the toilet
50:24We're just gonna flush it down the toilet
50:53We'll check that out
50:56After this week, all this
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