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00:03I don't know.
00:07I don't know.
00:38There was no trial for the murders in Bellingham.
00:41Kent Bianchi pled guilty to those two crimes.
00:44The deal was if he would testify against his cousin Angelo, the death penalty would be off the table.
00:50In the lead-up to Angelo Buono's trial, Roger Kelly wrote a memo saying that he didn't believe that he
00:59could convict Buono on Bianchi's testimony alone.
01:02Because Ken Bianchi changed his story up constantly.
01:05And because that's all they had, Roger Kelly was expressing doubt about whether or not to move forward with the
01:11prosecution of Angelo Buono.
01:13I would feel it would be ethically improper and I would not do it to put somebody on the stand
01:17that I felt was not credible, not a believable witness.
01:20Yeah, we were pissed off.
01:22When we were given the motion to dismiss, it was very disappointing.
01:26The case against Buono is falling apart.
01:40Judge Ron George had the case at that point for trial.
01:44And he didn't like the idea of dismissing the case.
01:50The judge reviewed the memo from the DA and read the preliminary hearing transcript, which is some 10,000 pages
01:59in length.
01:59We knew we had a strong case.
02:02We had no idea what Ron George was going to do.
02:05And he's giving this big talk and he's going through it.
02:08Pretty soon, we look at each other and we say, he ain't going to kick this case.
02:16In Los Angeles, a key suspect in the Hillside Strangler murders is back in his cell.
02:21The judge in the case stunned the courtroom today when he refused to dismiss 10 murder counts against Angelo Buono.
02:29I've been practicing for 15 years.
02:31I've never heard of a case where the district attorney moved to dismiss a portion of a case or an
02:34entire case that wasn't part of a plea bargain.
02:37And the judge said no.
02:38I was shocked when the judge didn't accept.
02:42I'm just guessing.
02:44But if Angelo's been in the courtroom a few times, Judge George doesn't like him.
02:49He doesn't like his attitude and he thought he could be good for it.
02:53And this case needed to be tried one way or the other.
03:00I knew Roger Kelly and Jim didn't know that if they were trying to drop the case, they had very
03:08good reason.
03:10And the judge looked at those reasons and said, oh, well, I'm going to go ahead anyways.
03:19What does it say about the judge that he went ahead anyways?
03:22This case should have been dismissed on the basis of what Roger Kelly said.
03:28There is no campaign of supporters that cheer for Ken Bianchi to be freed.
03:34I've been alone in this, more or less.
03:37But I didn't do this to join a team.
03:40I came here to examine the evidence and come to my own honest conclusions about what the facts said.
03:48I feel driven to dig into Ken Bianchi's claims of innocence because of what happened to me as a young
03:55journalist in Australia.
03:57The parents of a baby girl who vanished in the deserts of Australia over two years ago have appeared in
04:03court on charges related to her murder.
04:06Early in my career, I was a reporter on the Sydney Morning Herald.
04:19Police and legal authorities took the Chamberlains back to Ayers Rock and the campsite where they said the dingo had
04:25taken their baby.
04:27A mother, her baby went missing.
04:30She was accused and put on trial for cutting the throat of her own baby.
04:34The Australian mother in the so-called dingo baby case has been pardoned.
04:39Lindy Chamberlain subsequently was completely exonerated of the murder of her daughter.
04:45And I felt a taint and a guilt as a reporter who had, in pact-like mentality, pursued a suspect
04:54who the police simply told us was guilty and we reported it as so without the critical factors.
05:03When I started to look into Ken Bianchi, the case of Lindy Chamberlain kept coming to mind.
05:10It was great to be pardoned for something you haven't done.
05:14I sort of made a vow that I wasn't going to make the same mistake.
05:18I was going to question the police version of events and I was going to get to the bottom of
05:24who really committed the hillside stranglings.
05:31Judge George was friends with the attorney general's office because that's where he came from.
05:37He called them up and convinced them to take over the case and it happened very quickly.
05:44The attorney general's office told the judge it would assume the responsibility of prosecuting accused strangler Angelo Bono.
05:51If we did not believe we could try the case and be successful in it, we wouldn't prosecute.
05:56We still feel that Mr. Bianchi can't offer credible testimony at trial.
06:02When Roger and I were assigned to the case, I didn't have a lot of trial experience.
06:09Of the trials that I did, there was one murder case in there.
06:13I was very nervous when we accepted the case because I realized I did not have the background many of
06:22the deputy DAs in Los Angeles had.
06:25We just jumped right in.
06:27You know, we're in a position of examining it from the start.
06:30We haven't been involved and sometimes there's a situation where somebody might be too close to something.
06:37I just didn't like Angelo Bono.
06:39His whole cocky attitude is getting to me more and more and more.
06:44Angelo Bono was really a nasty person in a lot of ways.
06:49He liked to brag about things he knew and about his street smarts.
06:56Our relationship was nails on a chalkboard.
07:00And I wouldn't have dropped off the case because I thought he did it.
07:04I handled a lot of cases.
07:06And one of my clients were guilty.
07:09It's the only time that I just decided I can't take this guy.
07:16Life's too short and I just decided we were going to withdraw from the case.
07:22They don't have a smoking gun in this case.
07:24They're trying to prove their case by little teeny bits and pieces of evidence.
07:27And it takes a long time.
07:30After I got appointed Chief Defense Lawyer for Angelo Bono, I knew this was going to be tough
07:35because once you arrest somebody for something like this, everybody just assumes that he did it.
07:41But when everything started, somebody referred Kathy Mader to me.
07:45And when you're trying a case like this, where you have women victims, you don't need a courtroom of all
07:52men.
07:53When Kathy came along, she was perfect.
07:56We're not saying Mr. Bono is a saint.
07:57But what we're saying is that there's nothing in Mr. Bono's past that connects him to murder.
08:05I met with his attorney one day at a coffee shop in Glendale.
08:10And I looked at her and I said to her, I said, I don't believe this.
08:14And she said, what?
08:15I said, I don't believe that you are representing this man.
08:21He hates women.
08:23And I sat there and I looked at her and I said, I can't understand why he would have you
08:28as an attorney.
08:29And she says, because he hates women.
08:32It was like a trick to make, you know, make it look like he had nothing against women.
08:37And I said, I'll tell you what, I don't think there's enough money in the world that somebody could pay
08:41me for to be his attorney.
08:50The trial began in November of 1981.
08:55The news coverage was extensive.
08:58Accused of being the so-called Hillside Strangler in a series of murders.
09:02People versus Angela Bono finally got underway today.
09:05Prosecution and defense together are expected to call some 450 witnesses.
09:09He may face the death penalty in the gas chamber.
09:12The media of attention around the trial was enormous.
09:16The coverage just goes into full media frenzy.
09:22All the major news outlets were there.
09:24NBC, CBS, ABC, The Times and AP Wire Services.
09:29What's Bono's mood right now?
09:31He's been anxious to go to trial.
09:33So, you know, he's, I think, happy that the trial's finally started and he'll have a chance to show that
09:38he really didn't do this and finally get out of jail after all this time.
09:41My expectation going in when I was offered the case was, how long could it take?
09:46Six months?
09:48Nine months?
09:49Took us three months just to pick a jury.
09:53You know, once people's heard about the case, they don't want to be involved.
09:58I had just gone through a divorce, and I think because I was then a single parent, you know, I
10:04didn't want my daughter to be scared about what was going on outside.
10:09So we never watched the news.
10:11I think that's why I was chosen for the trial, because I really didn't know anything about it.
10:19I just was really excited to be on the jury.
10:22The whole thing was new to me.
10:23That was my first trial.
10:25I thought it was going to be fun.
10:27I wouldn't say it was fun, but it was an experience of a lifetime.
10:32I just remember going in the first day, and as soon as we sat down and, you know, they do
10:36all the opening, whatever they're going to say, and then they brought out all the pictures of all the victims.
10:44Reality hit.
10:45This is real.
10:47And I wasn't ready for that.
10:48I don't know what I was ready for, but I was not ready to see that.
11:00I think we have a reasonable jury, and I think when they hear all of the facts in the case
11:04and all of the circumstances surrounding the crimes in this case and the relationship between Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Bono,
11:11they're going to be able to know that both Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Bono committed these murders.
11:16So here we are, somewhere around March, where we begin the evidence.
11:22Our job is to convince the jury that despite the issues with Bianchi's testimony, there's enough to achieve a conviction.
11:39Both sides in a courtroom, they're taking the bits and pieces of evidence they have to try to create a
11:45story that supports what they want, and that's what we were trying to do.
11:49The strategy was to try to create reasonable doubt and prove that Bianchi was just lying.
11:56The evidence suggested, in a lot of different ways, that there were two individuals involved in the murders.
12:03If there were two persons, Bianchi was one of them, who could the second one be?
12:08And based upon all the evidence that we had, there's no one else that could be other than Angelo Bono.
12:17When the investigators focused on Bono, there was lots of physical evidence.
12:24So, for example, the second victim was named Judy Miller.
12:31An important piece of evidence was a speck of upholstery foam found on Judy Miller's eyelid.
12:38Similar foam was found in Angelo Bono's upholstery shop.
12:45She was blindfolded and gagged and handcuffed behind the back.
12:49The tape refused to wrap her eyes and her mouth.
12:53Wrap her eyes into the foam was but not.
13:02Where'd he get the tape from?
13:05From the shop.
13:07He used kind of a loose fiber, so it's kind of a loose material.
13:11There's the foam that's like a sponge.
13:13The white kind.
13:14It's the white cotton candy.
13:16That's the stuff.
13:17That's what he used.
13:21And that material on her eyelid was something that was found in Angelo's fabric supply.
13:28And it was kind of like that, uh-huh, moment.
13:33That was, I think, really important evidence in this particular case.
13:38Yeah, every piece of evidence is damning.
13:41But, um, it's not as anywhere near sophisticated as it is today.
13:46It wasn't like DNA shows there was, you know, the defendant.
13:50No.
13:50We didn't have that.
13:52They found fibers.
13:54But there are a lot of cars.
13:56Same type.
13:57So you could have a lot of the same fibers.
14:01None of the physical evidence was as good as the prosecution would like to think.
14:09This 14-month trial that has hurt, I think, some 200 witnesses with about 300 more to go continues.
14:15In fact, it's continuing inside this building right now.
14:17It is quickly on its way to becoming the longest and the most expensive trial in U.S. history.
14:22It's not expected to be over for another six months.
14:26During the remainder of the trial, Bianchi was on the witness stand for six months.
14:32My initial direct examination of Bianchi took about six weeks.
14:37And then Jerry cross-examined him for four months.
14:41I had a choice.
14:43Either not ask him anything or just go through and point out every inconsistency.
14:49And I thought the best approach was to point out the inconsistencies.
14:53And if you could poke holes in Ken Bianchi's testimony, then it could help poke holes in everything else.
15:02Jerry Chayda made chart after chart of different ways that Bianchi lied.
15:08But we conceded that in the way that we'd conducted in the trial.
15:14Mr. Bianchi is not the only witness in the case.
15:17There have been 199 witnesses before Mr. Bianchi.
15:20There will be some 50 to 60 witnesses after Mr. Bianchi.
15:26Every day that Kenneth came in, his story changed.
15:30And the jurors all sat there and looked at each other and said,
15:35that's not what he said yesterday.
15:36He just was cutting his own throat.
15:40At his trial, I didn't know what the hell I was talking about.
15:43There were days when I wanted to just go out there and I wanted to say,
15:47listen, I really don't know.
15:48I don't know if he did anything.
15:50I can do anything.
15:51As a material witness, I literally lied for the prosecution.
15:57And if it seemed like I was wavering, they would take me into an empty jury room
16:02and they would give me a talking to, reminding me about the death penalty,
16:06reminding me that I had an agreement, reminding me that I needed to do what I promised to do.
16:13He was put on the stand and he performed appallingly.
16:20During the trial, which wasn't recorded,
16:23Ken's testimony didn't always match up to what he'd said previously.
16:26For example, while Ken testified that he and Bueno had pulled over Lauren Wagner in a Mustang,
16:33Ken had previously said all the girls had been picked up while they'd been walking.
16:38So she was actually driving, you mean?
16:40No, she was walking.
16:41She was walking, okay.
16:42You stopped.
16:43All the girls were walking.
16:46That's something I never thought of.
16:48That I just, that all the girls were walking.
16:51None of the girls were ever driving.
16:55Wow, that's really strange.
16:59Another inconsistency in Ken's testimony was about Yolanda Washington's murder.
17:05As Steve, Ken claimed he'd walked in on Angelo, killing her.
17:09I was with him one night.
17:11Ken walked in in the middle of Angelo killing this girl.
17:15Walked in in the middle of a fight.
17:17Angelo killing this girl.
17:18Angelo killing the girl.
17:20Oh, yeah.
17:22Later, Ken said that he'd killed Washington by ligature in the back of a Chevy Monte Carlo.
17:34He was struggling to imagine these crimes and create scenarios.
17:41It was making up because he didn't do it.
17:43It is the only conclusion that you can make.
17:46I think deep inside, he didn't want to convict his cousin.
17:51He really struggled with that.
17:54Early on, he had told stories about how he really respected him and how he was a father figure to
18:03him here in L.A.
18:04And so I think that there was a lot of emotional turmoil.
18:09And who the heck knows, you know?
18:11It just, he was all over the place.
18:16I think that this was Ken's way of muddying the waters of evidence so that it would be difficult to
18:22ascertain the truth.
18:24Ken was willing to try to find a way to enter information to the jury that would be confusing.
18:31However, all of these answers and some testimony that seemed inconsistent, it doesn't make Angelo Bono any less guilty of
18:40these murders.
18:41The prosecution in this trial has been trying to show a close and conspiratorial relationship between Angelo Bono and confessed
18:49hillside strangler Kenneth Bianchi.
18:51And the most effective testimony so far has come from a young woman who says she was forced to commit
18:57acts of prostitution on their behalf.
19:06I was escorted in by Frank, and I remember going into a courtroom waiting on Angelo Bono.
19:18I wanted to make sure I had eye contact and didn't waver.
19:26Seeing Angelo Bono entering the courtroom, I thought, I don't fear you anymore.
19:32They needed to be prosecuted to the full extent.
19:34And if there was any way that I could assist in helping bring them to justice, then I was ready.
19:45My recollection of going to testify was I remember talking about how horrific these two men were.
19:54They both initiated violence, but Ken got more satisfaction from the violence.
20:00His temper flared up very easily, and if he didn't get his way on things that he wanted, then it
20:08was like, I'm going to slap you around a couple times until you realize that I mean business.
20:13And he did slap you around.
20:16Yes, he did.
20:18But when someone takes a wet towel and wraps it around their fist and starts hitting you with it, that's
20:23pretty severe, I guess.
20:25I had been beaten, raped, and tortured.
20:30Similar things that happened to the young girls and young ladies and women that were murdered.
20:38I had the same thing happen to me.
20:46There was a stove in Angelo's kitchen.
20:53And I remember the stove being removed, and the gas line being there.
21:02And I remember a bag put over my head.
21:13And the gas put into the bag.
21:19Just to see how long it would take for me to feel asphyxiated.
21:36And then come back, too.
21:43And if I hadn't escaped, I truly believe in my heart of hearts, I would have been their first victim.
21:58Okay, next I have here is Weckler.
22:01Christina Weckler.
22:03Yeah, okay.
22:04She died of gas asphyxiation.
22:09Oh, so...
22:10Yeah.
22:10Oh, God, do I have to...
22:16She was brought out to the kitchen and put on the floor, and her head was covered with a bag,
22:21and the pipe from the newly installed stove, which wasn't fully installed yet,
22:26was disconnected, put into the bag, and then turned on.
22:30I don't know how long.
22:31About two, I think.
22:32I know.
22:33Hours?
22:34Quite a while.
22:35Probably about an hour or a half.
22:38Clearly, that incident alone with Bono and Bianchi showed them engaging in criminal activity.
22:47Ken's not an innocent man.
22:49He got up to stuff.
22:51Absolutely.
22:52But he didn't kill.
22:54He didn't kill anyone in Bellingham, and he didn't kill anyone in California.
23:00The prosecution presented this young woman who was victimized by Bono and Bianchi,
23:07according to the testimony, and that Bono and Bianchi were the kind of guys who would do that.
23:12So they're the kind of guys who would pick people up off the street and kill them.
23:17Except Bono and Bianchi didn't kill that young lady.
23:21She was alive.
23:24They've the right to kill me multiple times.
23:27When you're asphyxiated and you're suffocated and you play Russian roulette and you're raped,
23:32those are all pretty good signs of, you know, attempted murder.
23:38I was crying.
23:39I was, I, it was hard to listen to what happened to these girls and stuff.
23:44And, you know, you just, your mind just goes to your child.
23:47And you don't want that to happen to anyone you ever know.
23:52I think the jury connected with it entirely from that point on.
23:56It was really very compelling testimony that would indicate Bono's guilt.
24:04For the jurors, attorneys, and judge, this case has been a full-time job for nearly two years.
24:11With over 450 witnesses and 2,000 pieces of evidence,
24:15including this model of the house where the women were allegedly killed,
24:18the trial has now produced 56,000 pages of transcripts in all.
24:25The trial at the time was the longest and most expensive in California history.
24:30The case has been in court for nearly two years, and tonight it finally goes to the jury.
24:36Well, I thought the verdict would take Meb to a month before they would come back.
24:42But the first verdict came in after less than two weeks.
24:46In Los Angeles today, one verdict was finally reached in the longest criminal trial in California history.
24:52The seven-woman, five-man jury convicted Bono of first-degree murder in the death of Lauren Wagner.
24:58They read the first verdict, which was guilty.
25:02I even remember seeing the prosecutor and the defense saying,
25:06OK, I think that was kind of one that they figured was kind of the easiest for us.
25:14Obviously, we're very delighted, and we think that after the long term of this trial,
25:18that justice is being served.
25:20We're, of course, disappointed because we thought there wasn't really sufficient evidence
25:23to give Mr. Bono us to any counts.
25:26But we're encouraged by the fact that the jury's deliberating, obviously,
25:29as to each count and trying to analyze each count separately.
25:34Obviously, we were relieved that we've got a murder count now.
25:38What's next?
25:41Yolanda Washington.
25:43This afternoon, the jury found Angela Bono not guilty
25:47in the death of 20-year-old Yolanda Washington.
25:54The first one was a guilty.
25:56The second one was a not guilty.
25:58In the Yolanda Washington case,
26:00I assume we had pointed out enough inconsistencies.
26:04I think they followed the evidence,
26:05and there really was no evidence on this count other than Mr. Bianchi,
26:08and they obviously didn't believe Mr. Bianchi.
26:10Yolanda Washington.
26:12There was no evidence to connect the murder with Angelo or Kenneth.
26:16It could have been anyone that picked her up.
26:22The Hillside Strangler case, when prostitutes were killed,
26:25everybody kind of turned a blind eye.
26:27At the time she died,
26:28I don't even know if there was an investigation.
26:30So they didn't have evidence and victims and witnesses.
26:35Maybe this is why they were not able to get a successful prosecution on her.
26:39Nobody really cared.
26:43Shortly afterwards, they came back with a verdict of guilty on Judy Miller.
26:48Angelo Bono has been convicted of a second murder in the 10 Hillside Strangler killings.
26:53Today's conviction makes the former auto upholsterer eligible for the death penalty.
26:57And then the rest of them kind of flew from there.
27:00He was found guilty of murdering 12-year-old Dolly Cepetta,
27:0314-year-old Sonia Johnson,
27:0520-year-old Christina Weckler,
27:0721-year-old Elisa Caston,
27:09and Jane King.
27:11Bono is convicted of killing Cindy Lee Hudspeth.
27:13It was the ninth and final conviction.
27:18The jury came back with guilty verdicts on nine of the counts.
27:22Nine to one.
27:24Which is not bad.
27:26You know.
27:27It's been a long six years.
27:29Probably been a lot longer for the parents of the victims.
27:34So it's satisfying.
27:38I'm very confident of our decisions.
27:40Yeah.
27:40Yeah.
27:41I think everything went the way it should.
27:43Yeah.
27:45Tomorrow, the same panel will begin to deliberate
27:47whether Bono will go to prison for life
27:49without the possibility of parole
27:51or to the gas chamber.
27:55You have to understand,
27:56when you try a case
27:57with this many victims
27:59and this much publicity,
28:01a lot of times you're fighting over
28:02what the penalty is going to be.
28:04And in this case,
28:05was it going to be death?
28:16When we went back for sentencing,
28:19I think we only sat down
28:20and talked about it afterwards
28:21for a couple of hours.
28:23We had probably had thought about it
28:25ourselves on our own.
28:28Angelo Bono and Kenneth Bianchi
28:30subjected various of their murder victims
28:32to the administration of lethal gas,
28:36electrocution,
28:38strangulation by rope,
28:40and lethal hypodermic injection.
28:43I would not have the slightest reluctance
28:46to impose the death penalty in this case
28:48were it within my power to do so.
28:50If ever there was a case
28:52where the death penalty is appropriate,
28:55this is that case.
28:58Life in prison,
28:59no chance of parole.
29:00That's the recommendation of the jury
29:02in the Hillside Strangler case in California.
29:04I was surprised, you know,
29:06Bianchi got life as part of a plea bargain
29:08and I don't know why Bono got life
29:11without parole.
29:12I think it had to do with the feeling of equity
29:14with regard to Kenneth Bianchi
29:16who was equally responsible
29:19for these heinous murders
29:20and that they felt
29:21that it was necessary
29:23to treat them equally.
29:24I agree 100%
29:26with what the judge said.
29:27If there was any case
29:29where they should have received
29:31the death penalty,
29:32this was the case.
29:33I was disappointed
29:34that he didn't get the death sentence.
29:36We had figured
29:37he would suffer more
29:38spending his life in jail
29:40than being killed.
29:42And the only good part
29:44about all that
29:44was that Angelo Bono died in 2002.
30:01After the trial
30:03of Bono,
30:04Bianchi was sentenced
30:05to Washington State Penitentiary
30:09in Walla Walla, Washington.
30:12what did he say?
30:12Wait a moment.
30:16That was a last hour of time
30:17when the police
30:17began to have an accident
30:17to put forth
30:30I don't know what the hell
30:37is driving
30:38a white hole
30:38is driving
30:38to river
30:38to park
30:39areas
30:39its
30:40bunch of
30:43It's been a long time since the actual trial, but the hurt, it still exists after all these
30:50years.
30:51The only injustice in this case was that Bianchi has the ability to go before a parole
30:58board.
30:59When he comes up for any kind of parole hearing, it's just an insult to everyone.
31:09So, you know, I have a parole hearing coming up.
31:14And I intend to tell the truth that I had nothing to do with the crimes.
31:22Investigators and law enforcement aren't automatically invited to parole hearings.
31:28But we're going to come out.
31:29He does not deserve to be paroled.
31:32You deserve to die in prison.
31:35And hopefully that's what will happen.
31:38I can't imagine anybody letting him out.
31:42PHONE RINGS
31:45You have a prepaid call from...
31:48Ken.
31:50...an inmate at Washington State Penitentiary.
31:53To accept this call, press 5 now.
31:55Can you talk?
31:58Can you talk?
31:58Yeah, that's...
31:59You can hear me.
32:00Your parole hearing is coming up?
32:02Yes.
32:03That's great.
32:04My goal in this is for the Hillside Stranglings and the Bellingham murders to be reopened.
32:10To end what is a real achy agony.
32:14Who really did commit the Hillside Stranglings in 1977-78.
32:20And that's one of the reasons I want to visit the former Los Angeles Hillside Strangler Task Force officers in
32:27Los Angeles.
32:29Because to believe that Ken Bianchi is the Hillside Strangler means you must close your mind to new evidence.
32:37Nice to meet you, Ken.
32:39Pete Trinigan.
32:40Pete, nice to meet you.
32:41First name?
32:42David.
32:43Frank Salerno.
32:45Well, I wanted to meet you because we have something in common.
32:49We'd both become, for a time, obsessed by this case.
32:53And so there are some notes I'd like to compare with you about what you found from the direct knowledge.
32:59And as much as you get your advice, you were there at the time.
33:05Well, Ken Bianchi, as you know, he was a liar.
33:08Oh, yeah.
33:09He was lying about being a Hillside Strangler.
33:15Ken Bianchi had made a false confession.
33:18In fact, when...
33:20What have you got to convince yourself that he didn't commit any of the Los Angeles murders?
33:24I've got seven years of investigation in them.
33:27I have gone through every statement he's made to the psychiatrist and compared them to the physical state.
33:36And they just don't match.
33:39And what I'm seeing is that I believe under the terrible pressure that all you detectives were operating, mistakes were
33:46made.
33:50David, let me ask you something.
33:53How does Bianchi explain his fingerprints being at the phone booth where the Martin girl was called to in the
34:02out-call service?
34:03They had fingerprints at the phone booth where the phone call was made to have Martin respond to the Tamron
34:10apartment.
34:11He used that public phone box.
34:14Oh, it's a public phone, but why did he use it?
34:18Bianchi had made a phone call, said he wanted a young girl.
34:21And he got her to that apartment complex.
34:26The prints were later identified as Bianchi's.
34:31And fingerprints are individual. There's no two people alike.
34:35So how did the fingerprint get in there?
34:38He gave us information that only a killer would have known, which we corroborated.
34:46Which only killer would know information?
34:49When we first interviewed him, he points out to us things that we observed but didn't know what caused them.
34:58Okay?
34:59He says, Weckler, we tried to inject her with Windex.
35:05And there was an injection mark.
35:07And this chemical was found in the...
35:09There were no chemicals.
35:11There was no chemicals found in the autopsy report.
35:14So they've injected with Windex, but there's no evidence of Windex in the autopsy report.
35:19Windex wouldn't show up in a standard toxicology test.
35:23He said they tried to gas her by using a gas flex pipe, which explained the serration marks on her
35:31neck.
35:31He said each girl was placed in the chair.
35:34And in the Wagner case, she's got fibers and burn marks.
35:39So we take the chair, and what do we find in the chair?
35:42The same cluster of fibers that are on Wagner's hands.
35:47How does he know that?
35:49How does he tell us those things unless he was there?
35:52This case is not built on one fact.
35:55It's built on a series of facts.
35:58We follow the facts.
35:59The trail led us to where we are.
36:02You are believing a pathological liar who's a sociopath, and you've swallowed his lying lines, and you're just trying to
36:12justify him.
36:13I hear what you say, but what I'm having a conversation with you about is that you may have been
36:18led to tunnel vision to focus on...
36:21Well, we didn't have...
36:22I'll tell you right now, we did not have tunnel vision.
36:27You obviously believe Ken Bianchi's not guilty of any of these murders. Is that right?
36:32I believe that the evidence shows that Ken Bianchi should have a trial. He was denied the right of trial
36:39because he signed a play bargain.
36:41He gave up his right to a trial.
36:43That's right.
36:43And he pled guilty.
36:45So you're saying that he should find an attorney that can reverse all of that and give him a trial.
36:52This is a matter for the American justice system.
36:55Have you brought any of this stuff up with the Attorney General's Office of the State of Washington?
37:00I think it's powerful enough to.
37:02Well, have you?
37:03No. I'd be happy to, and if I could use your recommendation that you felt it was powerful enough to
37:09bring...
37:10No, I wouldn't make a recommendation like that. I think you're hanging your head on something totally ridiculous.
37:17You think he's a pathological liar?
37:19No.
37:20Okay.
37:21So, let me summarize.
37:22Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
37:24Let me summarize.
37:24What is a pathological liar?
37:25We can sit here all night, and you can go on with what you're saying, but we seek the truth,
37:32we seek the facts.
37:34You talk about narrow-mindedness, that you lock onto something and you go that way.
37:39I think that is what's happening.
37:48I'm very much aware, I may be the only person who thinks Ken Bianchi is innocent of murders in Washington
37:55State or California.
37:58But I made a decision, it wasn't going to stop me.
38:01I didn't go into this hoping to make friends.
38:07It can be a lonely road when you decide to take the side of someone who's been made society as
38:14a monster.
38:26If anybody thinks that Ken's innocent, I think they're not looking at the facts, they don't know the facts.
38:32And if they are, they're disregarding the facts.
38:34And they perhaps are trying to get attention for themselves.
38:39Bianchi is one of the most manipulative persons I have ever dealt with in my 32 years of law enforcement.
38:46And handling Bianchi, it opens your mind up of what human beings are capable of doing.
38:53A Washington State woman who was fascinated with a notorious hillside strangler, and who even padded a crime after him,
38:59is back behind bars tonight.
39:01Get out of the truck!
39:02I need a truck!
39:03Out of the truck!
39:04Spread your legs!
39:05Do you have any weapons on you?
39:07Veronica Compton escaped from prison last week.
39:09That situation first started when one day, Bianchi called us from the jail, and he just asked,
39:17I know you're in charge of who can come and see me on a visit.
39:20And he said, I've received a couple of letters from this gal, her name's Veronica Compton.
39:25He gave us the letters, and he wanted her added to her, put her on the list to be able
39:30to visit.
39:31So we ran record check and everything on her, and it was kind of like,
39:36if this is something that's going to settle him down and keep him on an even keel, why not go
39:41for it, right?
39:43Yeah.
39:45Veronica visited Bianchi in jail and came under his spell.
39:48I remember he pulled out this ban that he had made.
39:52He had torn his shirt, and he had made this rope, and then he proceeded to show me this news.
39:59He is showing you how to kill someone?
40:01Yeah.
40:01He ordered her to commit a copycat murder to convince cops the hillside strangler was still on the loose.
40:09He says, I'm going to be dead in two weeks if you don't go out and kill somebody.
40:12And you know, and look at Veronica, it won't be you. It'll be me. It'll be my hands. Just say
40:16my name.
40:17I'll be there. I'll be doing it.
40:20And so he somehow convinced her to come up to Bellingham, and she met a young woman at a local
40:29bar here.
40:29The victim, Kim Breed, met a woman at a bar who introduced herself as Karen and was later identified as
40:36Compton.
40:37They went to a motel later that night to buy drugs.
40:40So the woman was sitting on her bed, and Veronica Compton went in the bathroom, came out with a ligature
40:45and started strangling her.
40:47I took this news out of the drawer and put it around her neck and started pulling.
40:58I straddled her, and I pulled.
41:10Fortunately, she picked the wrong gallop. She was physically strong and fought her off.
41:15My head was dizzy. I just, I knew I had to do something really fast. I knew I was going
41:21to die.
41:23According to the state, Compton committed the copycat crime out of love for convicted killer Kenneth Bianchi.
41:31Of course he killed those people. He knows he killed them. I know he killed them. A lot of people
41:38know he killed them.
41:43Bianchi was, for lack of a better term, just a con man. He talked people into doing just about anything.
41:49But in this case, Ken denied it. He denied talking to her about trying to commit a murder.
41:57So, what does that tell you?
42:03Bianchi wanted to have control over people. He wanted to manipulate people.
42:08He was doing it in his ruse that they were cops. He had to have been very convincing.
42:13These victims were kicking and screaming. They were going willingly.
42:16So, I don't think that that behavior, that sort of default to manipulate and double down would dissipate once you're
42:26behind bars.
42:29You know, Veronica Compton, up until this point, had been a normal functioning member of society.
42:34Yet, she was convinced to do the unthinkable by Ken Bianchi.
42:38So, I think she really showed, not just the courtroom, but the public, that anyone is susceptible to the advances
42:46of the right sociopath if you cross paths with them.
43:00Ken has the ability to get people to believe him, to fall for him, to feel sympathy for him, and
43:07to be on his side.
43:10Ken's very manipulative.
43:11Ken's very manipulative.
43:11And if you just talk to him, and you don't know who he is, he seems normal.
43:18These victims, they were put in a position of trust.
43:23They never fought back.
43:27The way he handles people, the way he's able to dupe people, I think is all he knows.
43:32Whether it's Veronica Compton, his doctors, or young girls that are winding up dead.
43:39Relationships are about one person pulling one over on another person.
43:44That's the dynamic that he is expecting no matter who he encounters.
43:51We're on.
43:53We hope so.
43:55Let's hope Ken's waiting at the other end.
43:59Right start session.
44:01I absolutely don't feel I've been manipulated by Ken Bianchi.
44:05The accusation that Ken Bianchi is a manipulator is an attempt to change the conversation
44:13from the very real evidence of the failure of his claims of how these crimes were committed,
44:21to chime with the reality of the evidence in the case.
44:26Once I realised and saw him as a victim of wrongful conviction,
44:31I came to a point in my relationship with him where I would call him a friend.
44:37And I do so.
44:38This is wonderful.
44:39We meet again.
44:41This is brilliant.
44:42It's great to catch up this way.
44:46Your parole hearing is coming up.
44:49What would you dream of doing should you get out if these parole...
44:56Well, listen, I have a family now.
44:58I have six grandchildren, my stepdaughter.
45:01They love me.
45:03And that's where I would go to live my life with my wife and my family for the rest of
45:07my life.
45:08Oh, that's a lovely ambition, Ken.
45:10I can see the smile on your face just thinking of the vision.
45:16Oh, absolutely.
45:18Absolutely.
45:19When is the parole hearing?
45:22It's ten o'clock tomorrow morning.
45:24Listen, I'm ready.
45:25I just want to get this over with.
45:29I think that David has been seduced by Kenneth Bianchi.
45:34But I also think you can't really be seduced unless you kind of want to be seduced.
45:41David is Bianchi's latest victim.
45:44Convincing him that none of this is true.
45:48Now listen, we only have 30 seconds left.
45:51You take care, my friend.
45:53I'll talk to you again.
45:54Best of luck tomorrow.
45:55And I'll be there in spirit.
45:57Well, you'll be there in spirit.
45:58Yeah, yeah.
45:59Wishing you well.
46:01Kenneth Bianchi has not displayed any signs that he has learned anything from his crimes.
46:08After almost 50 years, you know, still saying the same things.
46:13I didn't do it.
46:14I don't remember.
46:15Whatever.
46:16You know, I was framed.
46:18This is not an individual that should be out and about.
46:21This person should be away for the rest of his life.
46:34Good morning.
46:35We're on the record in the matter of Anthony Diomato.
46:38We're two counts of murder in the first degree.
46:41And for voice recognition, can we have everybody introduce themselves starting with you?
46:46Mr. Diomato.
46:47Hi, Anthony Diomato.
46:49DOC number 266961.
46:54Is your stance still the same, Mr. Diomato, that you are innocent of the murders here in
47:01Washington State and also the murders in California?
47:09I have knowledge, but I don't have any firsthand knowledge of the crimes.
47:22What is the secondhand knowledge that you have of the crimes?
47:25Can you talk about that?
47:27If I were to talk about the unworn statements, I would literally be giving up my 5th and 14th
47:34amendment rights.
47:35So let me get this straight, Mr. Diomato.
47:37In essence, you're saying that you are unable to talk about the crimes in which you're convicted
47:42of.
47:43It would take a matter of relitigating the case.
47:47Okay.
47:48You're denying the crimes.
48:06I wrote this letter at the request of the district attorney's office.
48:14My name is Frank Salerno.
48:16I'm a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department detective sergeant.
48:21I've partnered retired detective Peter Finnegan and I were the primary investigators for the
48:26Los Angeles Sheriff's Department regarding the series of kidnappings, rapes, torture and
48:33murders in Los Angeles County in 1977, 1978.
48:44The killers terrorized the citizens of Ork County over a seven month period.
48:51This series ended when Bianchi moved to Bellingham, Washington in February 1978.
49:06These photos, that's all we had.
49:14Just this.
49:24I think of Cindy a lot, wondering what she would have been and if she was ever going to
49:30be your mother and have children and all those things, you know.
49:38In January 1979, two young women were murdered by Bianchi in Bellingham, Washington.
49:49That December, Karen and I exchanged Christmas gifts and she bought me this beautiful three-piece
49:58wool suit.
50:04Unfortunately, the first time I got to wear this suit was at her funeral.
50:16We determined that Bianchi and Bono had been crime partners in an out-call prostitution
50:22service using two girls that were 15 years old and 16 years old.
50:30It's a memory that you almost wish that it would go away, but it's never going to go away.
50:36Bianchi.
50:48Bianchi is responsible for the killing of 12 young females.
50:56Yolanda Washington, Judy Miller, Lisa Kasten, Jane King, Dolly Cepeda, Sonya Johnson, Christina Weckler, Lauren Wagner, Kimberly Martin, Cindy Hudson,
51:19Karen Mandick, and Diane Wilder.
51:36Ken Bianchi has never shown any remorse.
51:40He should die in prison.
51:47Bianchi.
51:48Bianchi.
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