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The Hillside Strangler 2026 - Season 1 Episode 3 - The Trial Of The Century
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Short filmTranscript
00:00You
00:30This is how you're gonna get a girl from always in the apartment to the garage pieces and might you 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, you know, I knew he approved
01:24You know her and it's local curve
01:26After 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
01:56And you know where she was taken
01:58there there is
02:01With the session of the first girl
02:04Without the use of the Los Angeles
02:07Material the best state of reports. I couldn't really tell you exactly where the bodies were down
02:12Like the fashions
02:18I said under hypnosis
02:20Were not reliable
02:22They did not match up with the facts
02:24My lawyer
02:26Can be materials for the case to rediscovery
02:30And I essentially realized that I had no first-hand information about the crimes or who committed the crimes
02:38That all the information was
02:40The two women strangled were stuffed in the back area of the car
02:46Were stuffed in the back area of the car
02:48The case files or cops
02:50What I read was
02:52was painted in my memory
02:54during hypnosis
02:56subconsciously
02:58And I came out of it believing
03:00and committing crimes
03:02I had literally false memory syndrome
03:04How about down in L.A.
03:10Vangelo
03:11Has he killed anybody?
03:12Yep
03:13How many?
03:14He has
03:16Five girls
03:18Did you watch them fill 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
03:30Markins
03:32Would 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
03:42In the form of a question
03:44And I ended up providing an answer
03:48That was not the truth
03:51But he assumed it was the truth
03:53When these doctors came in
03:57They were fumbling around
03:59And they did have ulterior motives
04:02Dr. Ellison had a book coming out
04:04And he wanted to get the world record for most
04:07Multiple personality cases, you know?
04:09And so he may have been leading with information
04:14Why have you decided to not kill anyone?
04:19Mark, I know
04:20Was that when you decided to move?
04:22I wanted to
04:23I wanted to fucking kill more broads, you know?
04:25When you're under hypnosis
04:28You're susceptible to somebody telling you
04:31That a memory happened when it didn't happen
04:34Creating false memories
04:36So a clinician, if they're hypnotizing you
04:39They 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
04:53In January the 10th
04:5511th
04:56Something like that
04:57Yeah, okay
04:58There was actually a famous study called
05:01Lost 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
05:50With the hypnosis, they led him down a path of, you know, now confess and now he's convinced he did it
06:01If Ken was hypnotized, yes, his argument could be plausible for sure
06:07But chances are, in my opinion, in front of what I've seen, I don't think Ken was ever hypnotized
06:14You wanna play games, I'll play games
06:17I want him out of the way, you don't, wait, no, you don't fucking understand
06:21Just keep looking at one line, just keep thinking over and over in your mind
06:25That you're feeling very tired
06:26We know that people absolutely can be hypnotized
06:27We can see there's plenty of fMRI studies that show, like, what happens to the brain
06:32There are different techniques to get people to be in a state where they're susceptible to things that you are now going to lead them towards
06:39Close your eyes, take some deep breaths
06:44Imagine I have no idea who you are going to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to go
06:49There are different techniques that get people to be in a state where they're susceptible to things that you are now going to lead them towards.
06:57Close your eyes. Take some deep breaths.
07:00Imagine I have no desire to smoke.
07:05But here's a fun fact about hypnosis.
07:08Unless 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.
07:20Your head dropping down, down, down.
07:28And I think that for any kind of serial killer, being in the non-dominant position, it's too risky.
07:36Hold on.
07:36When you've got someone who's hypnotized, it's often really slow and quiet and figuring it out in a haze.
07:48None of this was the behavior of Ken.
07:51It's way too awake.
07:56There's a lot of energy. There's a lot of movement.
07:59I think that Ken saw doctors that seemed kind of excited, and 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, and their job is to be more skeptical about this whole situation.
08:25Hi, Dr. Oren.
08:29Hi. Good to see you.
08:31How are you doing?
08:33One of the experts I have is Dr. Martin Oren.
08:35I was a world expert in hypnosis and looking at people who are simulating being hypnotized.
08:42He seems like a pleasant, cooperative individual, but whenever I see an individual in a forensic situation, somebody accused of premeditated murder facing a death penalty,
08:55I always have to ask myself, is this individual telling me how he really feels, or is he malingering or faking?
09:05When Oren comes in, he does a couple of pretty clever things.
09:08One of them, he's like, all right, what if we suggest that Dean Brett, who is Ken's attorney, we're going to have him show up, but an imaginary Dean Brett.
09:19I asked him to hallucinate Mr. Brett, his attorney.
09:24Shorter, I'm going to ask you to open your eyes.
09:28What do I do?
09:30What?
09:31Mr. Brett will have come in, and he will be sitting in the chair right beside you.
09:39Open your eyes.
09:41Mr. Brett, what's the call?
09:43Hey, Dean.
09:44How are you doing?
09:47I'll leave you to talk to him for a few moments.
09:50I'll get back.
09:51The immediacy at which, you know, Ken jumps up, shakes the hand of Dean Brett, and, you know, right there, it feels like malingering.
10:04Even more striking, though, is what he does when I ask him to describe Dean Brett.
10:10What are we going to talk about, the three of us?
10:12Well, I want you to describe Dean to me in some detail.
10:16What is his, is he shaving?
10:19Oh, no.
10:19He's beard.
10:22God, 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.
10:31I mean, you wouldn't be saying, like, don't you see him?
10:32It'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?
10:57Dean Brett is here.
10:59Dean Brett is here.
11:01How can he be in two places?
11:05Me.
11:05Stay on.
11:06In my opinion, this all feels like a charade.
11:24He's seen Three Faces of Eve, the film, which 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.
11:39We've got the Three Faces of Eve, we've got Sybil.
11:43And I used to think that everybody was like this, that they would just naturally wake up and be someplace else or a whole lot older or wearing another dress.
11:52It exploded to the point where now, in the court systems, this is becoming a question.
11:58Can we use this for the defense?
12:02The judge ruled today that Billy Milligan was not responsible for the crimes of rape, kidnapping, and robbery.
12:08That man was found not guilty by reason of insanity because he had multiple personalities.
12:13It was a huge deal.
12:15A couple months after that, Kenneth Bianchi's case.
12:19So it's possible that Attorney Dean Brett is thinking to himself, maybe we can use this for Kenneth Bianchi.
12:25You haven't come out in jail at all here?
12:30Yeah, I fucking used to.
12:33To do what?
12:35Anything I fucking wanted.
12:37We're watching the videotape.
12:40We reject 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.
12:51It was a joke.
12:52There's a performative nature to this, and I believe Kenneth Bianchi has been performing his whole life.
12:59What's your name?
13:02Steve.
13:02One 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.
13:13What was it?
13:13I can't remember.
13:18What was Steve?
13:19Walker.
13:20Walker.
13:21Oh.
13:21Where did he get that name?
13:23He says, Walker.
13:25Steve Walker.
13:26I said, oh, he forgot this name.
13:29And he jumps.
13:31And he went and found this piece of paper that says Steve Walker written on it.
13:36So I was like, woohoo.
13:37And then there were some transcripts that were found from local schools in L.A. and Bianchi's name.
13:45It didn't make much sense.
13:48So we went to Valley College.
13:50Said, we'll work on this murder case.
13:53And here's a transcript we found.
13:55Could you tell us who it belongs to?
13:57She looks at it and she says, well, I can tell you right now it doesn't belong to that name.
14:05This transcript belongs to an individual by, I think it was Thomas Stephen Walker.
14:11And we looked at each other and we said, bingo, we got you.
14:14They asked me if I recognized the name that was at the top of the paper.
14:19I looked up expecting to see my own name, instead seeing the name of Kenneth A. Bianchi.
14:23He said, how would an individual get these from you?
14:30He 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.
14:39So then we spent four days down in the archives grinding those old tapes of L.A. Times.
14:47The one ad we found was 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.
15:06We wrote it up, sent it up to Bellingham.
15:09He showed it to Bianchi, and he realized that he had been caught in one of his major lies.
15:20That was a massive blow to the defense, because 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, Bianchi decided, hey, I've got a snowball's chance in hell.
15:39You know, I've got to change my plea.
15:45My defense has been destroyed.
15:50Dean Brent, my defense lawyer, told 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, and it scared the hell out of me.
16:01It scared me straight.
16:03So I decided I needed to change the plea agreement and testify against Angelo.
16:12He was attempting to do anything he could to stop the state from killing him,
16:17including making false confessions against himself and others.
16:21He was a broken man who could be manipulated.
16:26The Los Angeles district attorney didn't feel like he had enough to arrest Angelo Bono.
16:33Angelo Bono was still on the streets.
16:35When I'd see him in the restaurant, I would just get really scared,
16:38and I just, you know, I didn't want to be around him.
16:42All of the agencies in Los Angeles, they really needed help.
16:46They needed help from Ken Bianchi to be able to convict Bono.
16:51So we went up to Bellingham to assess Bianchi as a potential witness against Angelo Bono.
17:02I felt if he was a believable witness, and 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
17:18and 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.
17:30The Los Angeles PD, the sheriff's office, they came up to Bellingham.
17:39They wanted to know what our case was like,
17:41and we wanted to know what their case is like.
17:44If their case wasn't very good and they couldn't convict him,
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, it was reasonable to give up.
18:03Once we got up to Bellingham,
18:05all the investigators and the agencies wanted first crack at Bianchi.
18:09There was a lot of politicking going on.
18:14The LAPD got him first,
18:17so we listened to all the interviews that we didn't participate in.
18:22We were sitting there listening
18:24when they were talking to him about Christina Weckler,
18:28and he's telling the detectives
18:30what they did when they got back to Angelo's business.
18:35On Christina Weckler,
18:38after she was dead and nude on the floor,
18:41he leashed up and got the needle, the syringe.
18:47He made a crack about checking if she's dead or not.
18:52And he took the syringe and he poked her pubert 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,
19:09look, injection mark on her hip.
19:13LAPD didn't ask him that.
19:15They didn't say, hey, what about that injection mark?
19:18He brought it up.
19:23Then we finally got to interview Bianchi.
19:26We went in and looked at where he was being interviewed.
19:30We 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,
19:42he just came across as a sleazy con man,
19:46and 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.
19:56We'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.
20:05What I knew then or what I know now.
20:08Ken, we're not going to play that game.
20:10Where's the difference?
20:11Well, wait a minute.
20:12Wait a minute.
20:13Just be quiet.
20:13I'm not going to play that either.
20:14There is a big difference.
20:16Be quiet and listen to me.
20:17All right?
20:18We're not playing that game.
20:20Don't think you're going to try and run it through on us, all right?
20:23We're interested in what you know.
20:24What you did, what Bodo did, and his involvement.
20:27When I say, listen to me, don't talk to me in that tone of voice.
20:31I'm not some kind of animal.
20:32Listen, 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, all right?
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 Hutzman's case.
20:52We set her in the trunk of the car.
20:54He took off, and I followed him to Angelo's crest.
21:04Angelo's behind the car.
21:07Tom's on the trunk of the car.
21:11And he and I both pushed it, and...
21:13You say Angelo pushed from the rear?
21:16That'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.
21:35Is he telling us the truth or not?
21:36Then we went to CHP and had a report written.
21:40They came back, and they said, that car was driven in.
21:46They 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, and put them in one chair in one room.
22:08The three of us walked into the house and said, why don't you have a seat?
22:12They pointed to the mother's chair, and she sat down in it.
22:21And I turned around and got behind her when she was sitting in a chair.
22:32On the Wagner case, the palms of her hands had burn marks, and we were fortunate enough to pull fibers on a chair.
22:40It matched 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.
22:59The thing with the hillside killings was the pretending to be police officers, that sort of thing.
23:10That was one of the more important things he told us, how they were operating.
23:20And it's exactly what they were doing.
23:22Were there people who were considered as victims, but then rejected?
23:34Yes.
23:35Peter Lorre's daughter was going to be a victim.
23:39Somehow, the notoriety, the fact that who she was, you know, Peter Lorre's daughter, somehow stifled whatever was going on.
23:51I can remember her showing the pictures of her sitting on her father's lap.
23:58Peter Lorre was a well-known actor in Hollywood.
24:02Peter Lorre actually played a serial murderer in a film, which was sort of ironic.
24:10With her, if you go up to her and ask, would you show her a badge?
24:18Yes.
24:19And what do you say?
24:20What he said about Kathy Lorre, nobody knew about it.
24:35Kathy Lorre didn't even report it.
24:37It was an unreported attempt, all right?
24:40And he tells us about it.
24:41We found her.
24:44She cooperated.
24:46She says, yeah, I was stopped once.
24:49This car came around the corner and just cut us off.
24:52At which point, two men got out of the car.
24:56One, the one on the driver's side, Bianchi, who started questioning me for ID and age.
25:07The other one, Bono, who was on the other side of the car, standing in the doorway, with his head just showing over the car.
25:16And both of them were just kind of flashing badges.
25:18She identifies Bianchi and Bono as having tried to kidnap her, but they backed off.
25:25On top of that, as luck would have it, we got a phone call from Detective Stan White, who's working in the Homicide Bureau.
25:40He says, Frank, listen to this.
25:43He says, an attorney who's a friend of mine, David Wood, recognized Bianchi when his name was put out in the paper in his picture.
25:52He said, Bianchi, along with his partner, Angelo Bono, their crime partner, is running an out-call service.
26:03David Wood had got a copy of the Los Angeles Free Press, which had a lot of personal ads in it for out-call stuff and massages.
26:12And so he called one, and gal shows up, was a lady by the name of Becky Spears.
26:24She had one of those credit card machines.
26:27He'd put the card in it.
26:28He got a receipt for Angelo's Trim Shop for services rendered.
26:34Becky 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, not as to say, Brehannon, they had worked for Bianchi and Bono as odd-call prostitutes.
26:56So we'd interviewed both young ladies.
26:59After I graduated high school, I did some runway modeling.
27:06I will be honest, I was a very street-savvy kid.
27:13I spent a year going back and forth from Phoenix to California.
27:19I would come and I would visit friends.
27:22One of them asked if I would be interested in meeting this individual that was looking for models.
27:29And I kind of thought, sure.
27:30Because I thought it was a way of getting into the modeling scene in California.
27:41They flew me out to California to meet Ken.
27:43And I thought, okay, well, you know, here's an individual.
27:46They're going to spot my plane fare.
27:50I met him at the airport, picked me up, and I'll never forget.
27:53He said, hey, do you want a drink?
27:55And I said, sure.
27:55He got me an orange juice out of a vending machine.
28:05By the time I got to the car, I knew I had been drugged.
28:10And by then, it was too late.
28:14The next place that I ended up was at Angelo Bono's.
28:18That's when the horror began.
28:26I was forced into prostitution.
28:30They demanded of me to do things that were unimaginable with not only themselves, but with others.
28:37I was being, you know, pursed out to individuals of power.
28:44And I had seen elected officials or law enforcement at Angelo's shop, casually meeting with him.
28:57Do you think that's how they got their badges?
28:59I know that's how they got their badges.
29:02I saw badges being traded.
29:04You know, when you're 17, where do you go?
29:09I'm going to go tell the local police department who I feel are involved.
29:12If I ever decided I wanted to turn them in or run away, they threatened to take me so far out in the country that I would never find my way back or really mess me up so I'd be a vegetable the rest of my life or never look the same.
29:29I was being watched, and every move I made, they knew, and they knew exactly what I purchased, exactly how much was spent, exactly where I even stopped to get a drink.
29:46So I'd always been thinking in my mind, what 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 to go back home.
30:07One night, early to mid-summer of 1977, Angelo and Ken told me that I needed to be there at 2 o'clock, and they were coming, and I better be there.
30:19I knew something bad was about to happen because the night before, my whole place had been completely ransacked.
30:30So I knew it was going to be bad, whatever it was.
30:34You start having the palpitations, and you can feel your heartbeat in your carotid artery.
30:41And that little voice inside of me said, get out, get out now.
30:47That's when I asked the driver if he would please come and get me, get me out of here.
30:56I'll pay for anything you need.
30:57And literally, I was out within, I want to say, 10 minutes.
31:03Both Sabra and Becky laid out the fact that they were living at Bono's house.
31:17He and Bianchi were quite abusive to them.
31:19It was obvious that they were crime partners.
31:21That was a major break in the case.
31:26Now we felt we would be able to convict Bono of these murders.
31:35Our agreement for the plea to avoid the death penalty was that Bianchi would testify against his cousin.
31:44And in doing so, he would give up his right to go to trial.
31:51In 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 who 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.
32:13I 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.
32:26And in no way can I expect forgiveness from anybody.
32:34To even begin to try and live with myself.
32:37I have to take responsibility for what I've done.
32:45And I have to do everything I can to get Angelo Bono.
32:51And to devote my entire life.
32:54To do everything I possibly can to give my life.
32:59So that nobody else will hopefully follow my, will hopefully won't follow my footsteps.
33:04It's taken me years to actually believe anything 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, this was a man who was a liar and a psychopath.
33:24But this man had no presumption of innocence.
33:31Not even from the, the, the defence attorney.
33:35Who did everything he could to get a confession and a guilty verdict.
33:40The job of the prosecutor done by the defence attorney.
33:44I'd like to have my convictions shaken.
33:50Like, I really would.
33:52I more than, as much as anyone would like to see a simple solution.
33:59With a rightful answer.
34:01That the correct and horrific predator has been put behind the bars.
34:05And in my career, I am no bleeding heart for those that, that cry foul of the criminal justice system.
34:16But, my investigation of the case shows that not only was I finding reasonable doubt that Bianchi was the killer.
34:25But, um, there were other candidates, these wide spectrum of, of quite notorious serial killers that, um, were overlooked in the rush to convict Bianchi and Bueno.
34:39The unfortunate truth is that since 1976, in the early part of 1977, Los Angeles was struck with a tsunami of murder.
34:49Law enforcement agencies have 30 detectives on the case, but the murder wave continues.
34:53Police tie one killer to six slings.
34:56The suspect still at large.
34:58I'm just afraid, that's all.
35:00Really afraid.
35:03All these events were overlapping with the Hillside Strangler crowds.
35:08You're talking about maybe two, even possibly three different suspects.
35:12And when I was able to isolate a wider series of strangle dump murders of women in the greater Los Angeles area.
35:22I discovered there were uncaught serial killers on the loose at the time.
35:29There was William Chowas, who had kidnapped and body dumped a woman in Topanga Canyon.
35:35There was the Westside rapist, John Thomas Jr., who'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.
35:50So, one has got to consider that at this time, Los Angeles was riddled with predatory men, more vicious, with even worse backgrounds than Bianchi, who were killing in singular 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.
36:27Please welcome Rodney Alcala.
36:29Rodney Alcala.
36:32Alcala is now linked to at least five and as many as ten murders, mostly through DNA testing of old evidence.
36:40Number one, would you say hello to Cheryl, please?
36:42We're going to have a great time together, Cheryl.
36:44For me, what was crucial is the DNA evidence from 2007 showed that he was the killer of Jill Barkham.
36:5518-year-old Jill Barkham was bludgeoned and strangled in the Hollywood Hills.
37:00Her photograph was prominent of what was 13 victims of a perceived Hillside Strangler in 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.
37:22Come on, come on, over here.
37:26All these other victims, because the crimes was considered sold after the confession of Fen Bianchi,
37:35Rodney Alcala was overlooked
37:38as being connected to any of these crimes.
37:43Seeing these possibilities of these predators
37:47capturing and killing Los Angeles women
37:50gave me faith that the real Hillside Stranger
37:54was potentially still at large.
37:57And Ken Bianchi was telling me the truth of his innocence.
38:04The day Bianchi played guilty, we arrested Bono.
38:18This morning in Glendale, California, Bono was arrested.
38:22Police said he and Bianchi had run a prostitution ring
38:24in Los Angeles and had together murdered
38:2610 of the young women, the principal Hillside Strangler victim.
38:32They will be arraigned Monday.
38:34What's your reaction at all of this?
38:42Surprises us to think 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 he threw his cousin out of the place?
38:57Well, he told me to get out because he was too lazy,
38:59he didn't want to work.
38:59So he says he threw him out.
39:01So 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.
39:10And all this trouble started, I guess.
39:12I remember hearing about the Hillside Strangler case
39:18and that Bona had been arrested.
39:19And I remember thinking, that's the next case of the century.
39:26And when I went in the office that morning,
39:29one of our lawyers ran up to me and said,
39:33I 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.
39:55I saw Angelo walk from the holding area,
39:59being accompanied by an officer,
40:01to this little glass cubicle.
40:04I remember the swagger,
40:08the almost cockiness of, aren't I a big shot?
40:12This guy's just been arrested
40:14for one of the most serious crimes in L.A.
40:16I have talked to a lot of bad guys,
40:19serial killers that did awful things.
40:23And I never felt a feeling of evil
40:26like I felt every time I was in that cubicle
40:29with Angelo Bono.
40:31He signed the retainer
40:34and, you know, I shook hands and left.
40:38It was a real feather in our cap
40:39from a criminal defense business standpoint
40:43to represent Bono.
40:47But did I think that it was possible
40:49that this guy was a psychopath, serial killer?
40:53Yeah, that's what bothered me.
40:55But we're going to have our work cut out for us.
40:56Bono has hired six Orange County attorneys
41:00to represent him.
41:02They refuse to discuss how they're being paid.
41:05Vindicated to us,
41:06they have file cabinets full of police reports,
41:10all that have to be gone through.
41:11It's impossible for one or two
41:14or even three men to do that.
41:15Additional motions will be filed
41:17by Bono's attorneys on December 10th
41:19here at the criminal court's building.
41:21A preliminary hearing is scheduled
41:22for January 21st, 1980.
41:25Kenneth Bianchi flew today by helicopter
41:30to a Los Angeles jail.
41:32As part of a plea bargain,
41:34Bianchi will receive life in prison
41:35instead of the death penalty.
41:37He also agreed to testify
41:39against his cousin, Angelo Buono,
41:41in the Hillside Strangler case.
41:42Once we brought him back,
41:47it had been at least two years
41:50since the crimes had occurred
41:52and a year or so after
41:54he'd been arrested in Bellingham
41:56for the two murders up there.
41:58The lawyers in the district attorney's office,
42:02they were struggling.
42:04It was a very difficult case to build.
42:07And Roger Kelly worked very hard to do it.
42:12The defense is talking about attacking
42:13the credibility or the sanity
42:16of our witness, Kenneth Bianchi.
42:18Do you feel you can establish him
42:21as a credible witness in court?
42:22We wouldn't have filed a case
42:24once we thought we did.
42:25We could.
42:25As someone representing Bianchi,
42:30I took on a role that was very different
42:34from any other defense counsel.
42:36I became part of Angelo Buono's prosecution
42:40because I didn't want to see Bianchi convicted
42:44for the death penalty.
42:46Bianchi would give me information
42:48and I would give it to them.
42:51We worked hard with them
42:53to try to build a case
42:55against Angelo Buono.
43:03The next step in the process
43:05was for there to be a preliminary hearing
43:08of Angelo Buono.
43:10The purpose of the preliminary hearing
43:12is to determine whether or not
43:13there's enough evidence to go to trial.
43:16There was a really significant lack of evidence
43:20that Buono did these killings.
43:22The biggest thing we had going for us
43:25was the fact that Bianchi moves to Washington
43:28and they don't start up again.
43:32And then if Bianchi's confession
43:34turned out to be wobbly or not believed,
43:37they would be left with nothing.
43:42Bianchi testified.
43:42He went through a period there
43:45where he started vacillating on his testimony.
43:51Today, after a pretrial hearing
43:53in which Bianchi described Buono's role
43:55in 10 of the murders,
43:56prosecutors announced Bianchi had recanted
43:57his earlier confession.
43:59When we started to ask him,
44:02well, if you weren't involved in them,
44:03how did you know these specific aspects
44:05of the killings,
44:06burn marks in people's hands,
44:08certain areas of the person's body
44:10that had been shaved, etc.,
44:11that only either the killer
44:12or the police would have awareness of,
44:15he would explain those away
44:17by stating that he had seen some photographs
44:20that had been shown to him by Angelo Buono.
44:23Bianchi's answers were at odds a lot
44:26with the statements he'd previously made
44:28to police and to psychiatrists.
44:31He said one time,
44:33Buono showed him photographs of the victims,
44:35and then he said later,
44:37his own attorneys showed them.
44:40Bianchi went from describing the murderers
44:43and accepting responsibility,
44:44then went to,
44:45I didn't do it,
44:46or maybe I did,
44:48or I don't remember.
44:49Obviously, he did everything
44:51to scuttle the case.
44:56When I was on the stand,
44:58I didn't know what the hell
44:58I was talking about.
45:00I wasn't trying to remember
45:01what I allegedly did,
45:04because I didn't have any first-hand knowledge.
45:07I was trying my best to remember
45:10what I told the doctors
45:14during the evaluations in Bellingham,
45:18because so much I had said was untrue.
45:21That it was just one inconsistency,
45:26one messed-up version after the other,
45:28and I couldn't keep things straight.
45:30My testimony was wholly unreliable.
45:33This may be one of the last times
45:36Hillside Strangler suspect Angelo Buono
45:38makes the ride from county jail
45:40to the criminal court's building.
45:41The case against Bono is falling apart.
45:45Roger Kelly was investigating
45:48the circumstance of the killings
45:51of each of those victims,
45:52comparing them to Ken Bianchi's version of Vance,
45:55and in each and every crime,
45:58he was coming up that these confessions
46:02were bunkum,
46:03that they did not match the circumstances
46:05of the crime.
46:06That resulted in Roger Kelly doing...
46:10..in Kelly doing something extraordinary.
46:13..and that was to write a memo to his own boss,
46:17the district attorney,
46:20describing the failings of Ken Bianchi
46:23as the main witness,
46:25to the extent that it would be dangerous
46:29to cry Angelo Buono for these murders.
46:33Oh, there you go.
46:42Well, you're looking good too, Ken.
46:46The exciting news is the memo.
46:50This is the July 2, 1981 memo
46:54from Roger Kelly,
46:56which I'd been trying to get for nine years.
46:59It's absolutely amazing.
47:01Nobody ever showed it to me.
47:02That's extraordinary in itself,
47:04but I'm going to read out some of the memo to you.
47:09And this is Christine Weckler.
47:13In this case, like in all previous cases,
47:17Bianchi tells of how Buono used handcuffs
47:20to restrain the victims.
47:24He rolled her to the side
47:25and took her handcuffs off.
47:29The LAPD analysed evidence report
47:32shows that none of the doctors' coroners
47:35felt that any of the ligature impressions
47:39of any of the bodies
47:40could be associated with standard adjustable handcuffs.
47:44I mean, what particularly struck me
47:47is the detail that they knew
47:49of the ligatures,
47:51that there was no way
47:53that they could have been handcuffed.
47:55I mean, that's very significant.
47:56I mean, I actually believed what was false
47:59under hypnosis.
48:02Nobody said, wait a minute.
48:04Wait a minute.
48:04That's not true.
48:05I mean, it's not just one false.
48:08It's literally hundreds.
48:10I should have come within 10 miles
48:12of a witness stand in this case.
48:14Jarred by conflicting testimony
48:20of their key witness,
48:21prosecutors in California's
48:23Hillside Strangler case
48:24today asked to judge
48:25to dismiss 10 murder charges
48:27against suspect Angelo Buono.
48:30We're making this motion
48:31on the base of the evidence today,
48:34particularly relating to the credibility
48:35or lack of it thereof
48:37of the witness Kenneth Bianchi
48:39that there is insufficient evidence
48:40to convict Mr. Buono
48:41beyond a reasonable doubt.
48:42I think all of us are disappointed
48:46that we are at this position today.
48:49We're pleased that the district attorney's office
48:51has moved to dismiss this case.
48:54It was a controversial move
48:56by the DA's office,
48:59particularly in a case
49:01with that many murders,
49:03that many complications.
49:06As the first case I was involved in
49:09where the DA made a decision
49:11to dismiss it after we had filed it.
49:15It's just bullshit.
49:18When you put your case together
49:20and you take it to the DA's office
49:21and you have to convince them
49:23that you have a good enough case
49:24for them to file
49:25and get a conviction
49:26and then come out and say,
49:29well, we made a mistake.
49:30It was a real blow.
49:34They kept talking to Ken
49:36and they got close.
49:38And in effect,
49:38they became one of his victims.
49:41That's his M.O.
49:42I mean,
49:42he works everybody all the time.
49:45You just can't pay attention to that.
49:48You pay attention to what he's told you
49:50that you've corroborated.
49:51How they were killed.
49:55The fact that all the girls
49:57were put in that one chair,
50:00the fibers that were used.
50:04And the mark found on Weckler.
50:07Who else would know that?
50:10All this work,
50:11all this effort,
50:13all these resources,
50:14we knew we had the killers.
50:18We had a case.
50:19Oh, we're just going to
50:22flush it down the toilet.
50:23Oh, we're just going to
50:26flush it down the toilet.
50:49We'll see you next time.
51:19We'll see you next time.
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