Hillside Strangler

Hillside Strangler, name coined by media for the serial killer believed to be responsible for the rape and murder of 10 girls and women in the Los Angeles area between October 1977 and February 1978. Cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Jr., were eventually arrested for the crimes. The two men posed as undercover police officers, using fake badges to lure their targets into a vehicle. They then bound, sexually assaulted, and strangled their victims. Afterward the cousins left the bodies, which had been meticulously cleaned, on local hillsides. Bianchi pleaded guilty to five of the murders, and in October 1979 he received six life sentences, with the possibility of parole. In addition, he had earlier been given two life sentences for killing two college students in Washington state. Bianchi testified against Buono, who was found guilty in 1983. Buono was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. He died while incarcerated in 2002.

Background

In 1976 after two failed marriages and various employment setbacks, Bianchi moved from Rochester, New York, to Los Angeles to live with Buono, who owned an automotive upholstery business. Bianchi had long wanted to become a police officer, and he applied several times to different departments in the Los Angeles area but was rejected. He attempted to make quick money by setting up a psychology practice with falsified degrees and credentials, but that failed. The two cousins then decided to become pimps, and several young women reportedly began working for them. One woman later testified that the men had forced her into sex work.

Los Angeles murders

In October 1977 Bianchi and Buono met sex workers Deborah Noble and Yolanda Washington. The cousins purchased a list of client names from the two women but soon learned that it was fabricated. Enraged, Bianchi and Buono picked up the 19-year-old Washington on October 17, 1977, and bound, raped, and strangled her in the back of Bianchi’s car. Her nude body was found the next day, lying on a hill near the Ventura Freeway.

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Bianchi and Buono then embarked on a series of murders. Two weeks later, they killed their second victim, 15-year-old Judith Miller, a runaway. They took her to Buono’s upholstery shop, as they would with all their future victims.

The killings escalated in November, when the cousins murdered six girls and women: Lissa Kastin, a 21-year-old waitress; 28-year-old aspiring actress Jane King; school friends Sonja Johnson (age 14) and Delores (or Dolores) Cepeda (age 12); 20-year-old college student Kristina Weckler; and Lauren Wagner, an 18-year-old college student. In December 1977 Bianchi and Buono killed 17-year-old Kimberly Martin, a sex worker. Their final victim was 20-year-old waitress Cindy Lee Hudspeth, whom they killed on February 16, 1978.

Washington murders

In May 1978 Bianchi moved to Bellingham, Washington, where his former girlfriend Kelli Boyd lived. Some three months earlier, she had given birth to their son. Bianchi began working as a security guard at a Fred Meyer shopping center, and one of his coworkers was Karen Mandic, a Western Washington University student.

Bianchi offered to pay Mandic and her roommate, Diane Wilder, to stay at a house he was guarding while the security system was being repaired. After the women arrived on January 11, 1979, Bianchi strangled them to death. The next day, their bodies were found in Mandic’s car, which was parked on a hillside. Bianchi was quickly identified as a suspect, and during a search of his home, police discovered jewelry linking him to the Los Angeles murders.

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Legal proceedings

Bianchi initially pleaded not guilty to the Washington murders, but he later changed his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, citing multiple personality disorder (now called dissociative identity disorder). Some psychiatrists, however, believed that he was feigning the disorder. Meanwhile, Los Angeles investigators continued gathering evidence to charge him with the 10 murders in their jurisdiction. Ultimately, the question of Bianchi’s sanity became moot when he accepted a plea deal from Los Angeles and Washington prosecutors.

Bianchi agreed to plead guilty to the two Bellingham murders and five of the Los Angeles murders. As part of the deal, he was required to testify against Buono. In exchange Bianchi avoided the death penalty, and in October 1979 he received six life sentences, with the possibility of parole. Bianchi became eligible for parole in 1985 but has repeatedly been denied release. He is imprisoned at the Washington State Penitentiary. In 2023 he changed his name to Anthony D’Amato.

Buono pleaded not guilty. At one point prosecutors sought to dismiss the charges, since the case largely rested on Bianchi, who they deemed unreliable because of his inconsistent statements. The judge, however, refused to drop the case, and the attorney general of California took over. Buono’s trial began in 1981 and lasted two years, making it one of the longest murder trials in U.S. history. After some 400 witnesses—Bianchi testified for some six months—Buono was found guilty of nine murders in November 1983. He was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. In 2002 the 67-year-old Buono died of a heart attack while at Calipatria State Prison.

Documentaries

Several documentaries were made about the cousins and their crimes. These include The Hillside Strangler (2021–22), The Hillside Strangler: Devil in Disguise (2022), and The Hillside Strangler (2026). In addition, the 2004 film The Hillside Stranger is a dramatization of the murders, starring C. Thomas Howell and Nicholas Turturro as Bianchi and Buono, respectively.