Kenneth Alessio Bianchi
The Hillside Strangler:
Kenneth Alessio Bianchi
Three women were found strangled and dumped naked on hillsides northeast of the city between October and early November of 1977, very few people lost sleep over it. Only a couple sharp homicide detectives got nervous that this was just the beginning. Everything changed Thanksgiving week when five young women and girls were found on hillsides in the Glendale-Highland Park area. These five young women one of which was twelve, another only fourteen were not prostitutes, but "nice girls" who had been abducted from their middle-class neighborhoods. Despite his IQ of 116 and artistic and verbal gifts, he was a chronic underachiever and his grades were erratic. He was prone to temper tantrums and was quick to anger.
The term "Hillside Strangler" was coined by the media, even though police were convinced that there was more than one person involved.
"Bianchi set high standards for his
women, which they repeatedly failed to meet. His Catholic education served
him here in a twisted way. He was able to confuse ordinary women with the
Virgin and could be moved to bitter disappointment, even anger and fury,
at their human frailties. Denying female sexuality even as he was attracted
to it, he objected to V-neck sweaters and tight jeans and asked absolute
fidelity in return for outwardly absolute devotion. Yet he always dated
several girls at once and did not require of himself comparable standards
of purity." (O'Brien)
As a sideline, Kenny had set himself up as a psychologist with a phony degree and set of credentials that he had fraudulently obtained. He rented some office space from an unsuspecting legitimate psychologist. Fortunately, very few people came to see him for help. When Kelli found out about the counseling service, she was angry.
During October and December of 1977, the city of Los Angeles was panicked by news of the Hillside Strangler, but this had little effect on the relationship of Kelli and Kenny. When Kenny started coughing and having difficulty breathing, Kelli insisted that he go to a doctor. He told her that he had lung cancer and was going to have to take radiation and chemotherapy to save his life. It was a lie. Kenny could be called a lot of bad things, but stupid wasn't one of them. Locked up in the Whatcom County Jail in Bellingham, he had lots of time and motivation to use his gray cells. Already an accomplished liar, he convinced Dean Brett, the lawyer appointed by the court to represent him, he was suffering from amnesia. Brett was so concerned about Kenny trying to commit suicide that he had a psychiatric social worker called in to talk to Kenny.
The psychiatric social worker could not comprehend how such a mild-mannered, considerate person could have strangled two women unless he was suffering from a multiple personality disorder. Kenny got the message and crafted a wonderful scam, using his sprinkling of psychology from college and whatever he gleaned from seeing the movie classic, The Three Faces of Eve, years before.
Then Kenny really got lucky. The movie Sybil, another story of multiple personalities, was being shown on television just before Kenny was to be interviewed by Dr. John G. Watkins, an expert on multiple personalities and amnesia. This was the first step in an insanity defense, so Salerno and Finnegan caught a plane to Washington State.
Kenny was very well prepared for his performance. Shortly after Dr. Watkins believed that he had hypnotized Kenny, Kenny went into his evil persona routine. It was Steve Walker -- Kenny's supposed alter ego -- who killed the girls in Los Angeles with his cousin, Angelo. Steve also made Kenny strangle the two women in Bellingham.
Despite Kenny's preparations, he slipped up a number of times when he was pretending to be Steve and referred to Steve as "he" when it should have been "I." Salerno picked up these slips immediately, but Dr. Watkins did not seem to notice.
Dismayed that Dr. Watkins was completely falling for Kenny's act, Salerno
called Grogan to tell him what was going on. Grogan answered, "Okay,
I got a great idea. The judge says to Bianchi, 'Mr. Bianchi, I tell you
what I'm going to do. I am going to let Ken off. Ken is acquitted. But Steve
gets the chair.'"