True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

 (Cynthia Coffman & James Marlow. Picture credits: Wikipedia & Murderpedia)

 (Lawrence Bittaker & Roy Norris. Picture credit: newsweek)

Is there a word that is beyond 'evil'?, I find it hard to describe the two individuals that you see in the picture above. I've written about so many cases over the years and I have to say that some of the details that I've come across these past few weeks whilst writing this series, has been quite hard to take. No case is easy to write about, your heart always goes out to the victims, the survivors and their families. I found myself getting emotional at certain points in my research of this case. The last time I struggled with the details was with Jane King's horrendous sexual assault and murder at the hands of The Hillside Stranglers, which I wrote about in my first instalment in this Partners In Crime series. 

The Tool Box Killers otherwise known as Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, are two of the sickest, most evil and sadistic individuals you will ever read about, Chances are, if you have never heard of this case before, after reading my post you will never forget it or some of the horrible details. This case haunts people and for good reason, it's just too horrendous for words. John Douglas (former FBI Special Agent and pioneering criminal profiler) described Lawrence Bittaker as one of the most disturbing criminals he has ever had the unfortunate opportunity of meeting. These two were monsters and the crimes they were responsible for were so evil and devastating that even the chief investigator on the case ended up taking his own life because the evidence (especially the sickening audiotapes that the evil pair recorded of their crimes) was just too much. The poor man detailed in his suicide note his reasons for his decision and this case was a huge factor.

So as hard as this is, I'm going to delve into it and bring you what has been the result of my studying of this case for the past week and as always, I have to warn you that it is going to be difficult so you're welcome to skip through until the next post which will probably be just as awful as this one (unfortunately, in my true crime posts, the details are always quite hard hitting and disturbing). Hopefully you will be able to stick through with me on this one. So let's grit our teeth and get into it. 

Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris were responsible for five known (I always say known in my posts because with these types of serial murderers, you can never really know for sure how many victims they actually have. Some of these monsters can't even remember themselves how many lives they have cruelly taken) murders of teenage girls in California in the late 1970s. This duo were the stuff of nightmares, one being a convicted rapist and the other being a petty thief who was on his way to becoming a full blown murderer. After chaotic childhoods and a portfolio of crimes under each of their belts, they ended up in the same prison where they formed a deadly bond, sharing their sickening fantasies and plans of getting together and making those sick fantasies come true once they were released. Their plan was to abduct teenage girls (one of each teenage year from thirteen to nineteen) and rape and murder them. Roy, being the sadistic pervert and convicted rapist that he was, was more focused on the idea of the sexual attacks. Lawrence on the other hand didn't have a background in sexual violence but told Roy that if he ever did rape a girl, he would have to murder her afterwards to ensure no witnesses could identify him and so the plan to rape and murder was put in place. 

To give you an idea of how these monsters started off from the beginning, their backgrounds and childhood. I'm going to delve briefly into their pasts. Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker was born on the 27th of September 1940 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) and it may come as no surprise that there was problems from the start. The minute he was born he was rejected by his own parents and ended up being adopted by a couple who did the best they could for him. There was a lot of upheaval because his adoptive father, having worked in the aviation industry, was constantly moving the family from one place to the other. Lawrence was a very unsettled child and one can imagine, quite confused with the constant moving around but despite all of this he was quite intelligent and did well at school but something wasn't quite right with him. Lawrence always sensed that he didn't belong, he felt different and rejected, he started going of the rails and began shoplifting when he was twelve years old. 

The stealing became like an addiction for him, he claimed to have done it because it garnered attention for him and gave him a buzz. He would later claim that he didn't get enough love from his adoptive parents either and that was his excuse for his behaviour. Things just went from bad to worse. Instead of this being a passing phase it just grew and grew and soon it escalated into car theft, other types of petty crime and a hit & run. He'd quit school at this point despite having great academic potential and an IQ of 138. He just decided to throw all of that away for a life of crime and his adoptive parents were growing tired of his antics and would eventually just disown him completely. In the years that rolled on towards his fateful meeting with Roy Norris, Lawrence was on a constant merry dance in and out of prison, he'd been diagnosed as being manipulative and a sociopath. More petty crime followed but things were taking a more extreme and deadly turn when he tried to steal a packet of steak from a supermarket and stabbed an employee who confronted him. He ended up back in jail yet again only this time it was the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo and this is where he and Roy Norris began their evil friendship. 

Roy Norris had a rocky start to life too having been born on the 5th of February 1948 (in Greeley, Colorado, USA) out of wedlock which was a big deal back in those days and was frowned upon. His mother had issues with substance misuse and his father was often busy at his job in the scrapyard. Roy felt out of place and unwanted just as Lawrence had felt in his childhood and a period of constant back and forth between his parents house and foster homes followed. Roy often complained about the foster families that he was placed with and went as far as to claim that a Hispanic family that he stayed with had sexually abused him, whether this was a fact or not, nobody can confirm but he claimed it to be the truth and said that this was the reason for some of his racist views later on. 

When he turned sixteen, his behaviour was becoming quite strange, instead of the normal teenage boy going through changes and having crushes on girls and hormones all over the place. Roy was like a rabid dog on heat and seemed to be a ticking timebomb when it came to members of the opposite sex. He fantasied about women but in a very extreme, perverse and violent way. He was beginning to lose control of his urges and when visiting a female relative he appalled her by blurting out a lot of disgusting, sexual remarks. The woman told his father and all hell broke loose. Roy felt ashamed as his father was furious and he felt embarrassed and exposed. The whole incident had such an effect on him that he drove to the rocky mountains and tried to take his own life by attempting to inject air into one of his arteries. The suicide attempt failed and the authorities got involved and classed him as a runaway and swiftly returned him to his parents who decided to tell him and his sister to their faces that they were unwanted children and that they planned to get a divorce once they had gotten to a certain age. Not feeling wanted at home, Roy had a stint in the Navy where he discovered marijuana but didn't actively take part in combat. He was later discharged after one tour due to psychological problems having been diagnosed by a military psychologist as suffering from Schizoid Personality Disorder 

Roy had a horrible string of sexual assaults behind him and his violence towards women was a regular occurrence. He was a predator who could not control himself and after committing yet another horrendous sexual assault, he found himself behind bars and under the same roof as his soon to be accomplice, Lawrence Bittaker.

So these two had similar backgrounds in terms of home lives but not in terms of crimes. Both felt unwanted by their parents and were ultimately abandoned by their parents. Nobody looking into their pasts could say that they were from stable environments. Both constantly moved around and were not able to set down some solid roots but this was no excuse for the evil and sadistic crimes they carried out. It was a recipe for disaster when this pair became acquainted. What started off as a simple friendship was further cemented when Roy had two attempts on his life whilst in prison. On both occasions, Lawrence stepped in and protected him. This created a bond between the pair and they would spend hours talking to each other about their childhoods and realised that they both had quite a few things in common. They became so comfortable with each other to the point where the conversation switched to what their sexual fantasies were. 

Roy, who was forever thinking about sex, rape and torture had no qualms about blurting out what he would like to do and a lot of it he had done previously but his focus was now on teenage girls and the idea of abducting and sexually assaulting as many as possible. He told Lawrence that it was their fear that gave him kicks, he enjoyed making his victims scared and the suffering turned him on. Lawrence who got his kicks from stealing began to come around to Roy's way of thinking. As sick as it was, they thought they could get out of prison and have their fun, do what they wanted and they'd get away with it. 

It's terrifying to think that these two monsters were sitting in a prison cell planning out all of the evil things they were going to do as soon as they were released. Sometimes, in situations like these, you wish that walls could talk and that this pair would be exposed and kept behind bars and off the streets never to see the light of day again but unfortunately Lawrence found himself walking out of those prison gates keeping the promise he made to Roy firmly in the front of his mind. 

On his release, Lawrence was able to find a job as a machinist and was able to earn quite a decent wage. Believe it or not, he was able to paint himself as a pillar of the community. He would involve himself in charity works and donated money to The Salvation Army. He would also give money and food to the homeless. This was quite a turn around in behaviour for a man who enjoyed stealing from others. He was popular with the youth around his local community but that was because he would give them candy, beer and cigarettes. This nice guy routine didn't last thought because just three months after his release, Roy Norris was back on the streets and it was time for their sick plan to be put into action. 

They bought a van with a sliding door which they nicknamed 'Murder Mac'. They appreciated the sliding door because they said that would enable them to get closer to their victims and drag them into the van easily. They kitted out the back of the van with a bed with a cooler underneath full of drinks. They also kept a stash of weapons and items such as pliers, sledgehammers, ice picks, duct tape, wire hangers, cassette tapes, a tape recorder and a Polaroid camera. They planned to record their crimes and in order for their plans to be successful they later claimed that they decided to pick up some female hitchhikers (they claimed that they did this 20 times) as a practice to see if they could easily entice a girl into the van and how they would carry things out. They claimed that none of these girls were harmed but later when their van was searched after they were arrested, 100s of photographs of unidentified girls were found, the majority were eventually identified and were, thankfully still alive, but 19 girls were never traced and to this day, nobody knows who they were or what happened to them. Some people believe that they were victims of the evil duo. 

So now that they had their 'Murder Mac' all set up and felt confident, they went in search of their first victim which was reported to have been 16 year old Lucinda Lynn Schaefer. Lucinda was a petite and pretty blonde girl who had just attended a church meeting, as she walked along the sidewalk on her way home, Lawrence and Roy spotted her. At first they tried to talk to her, offering her marijuana and a lift home but to no avail. They were determined and came up with another plan to abduct Lucinda. They decided to drive further along the street and Roy got out of the van and opened the back door, trying to make out that he was busy looking for something, as Lucinda walked by he distracted her and quick as a flash, he pulled her into the van and shut the door. Lawrence put the volume up on the radio as Roy bound and gagged Lucinda and proceeded to drive to the San Gabriel mountains to a fire road where they had broken into and changed the locks previously whilst putting their plans together. 

Lawrence had written his memoirs before his trial and claimed that Lucinda was screaming a lot when they first abducted her but then there seemed to be this calmness that came over her, like an acceptance of what was happening to her. The pair sexually assaulted Lucinda and the terrified girl tried her best to get through the ordeal and do what they wanted but she knew they were going to kill her, as devastating as that was, and she begged them to let her pray before they took her life. They denied her that moment to pray and after the pair argued over who was going to kill her, Roy grabbed Lucinda and tried to strangle her with his bare hands. Seeing the reaction as Lucinda was choking and her eyes rolling backwards scared Roy and he stopped what he was doing and ran to the front of the van to throw up. Lawrence then took over and after a failed attempt at taking her life with his hands, he used a wire coat hanger which he twisted tightly with pliers.

They disposed of Lucinda's body by wrapping it up in a shower curtain and throwing her off of a cliff. Norris became paranoid that somebody might find Lucinda's remains to which Lawrence reassured him that there would be nothing left of Lucinda's remains after the animals had found her. 

The next reported victim was said to be 18 year old Andrea Joy Hall who was abducted on the 8th of July 1979. Andrea had been hitchhiking when the evil pair spotted her. They attempted to give her a ride but she ended up getting into another vehicle which they followed. When Andrea stopped at her chosen destination, which was Redondo Beach, Norris decided to hide in the back of the van to make it look like Lawrence was on his own. Lawrence managed to get Andrea's attention and had a brief chat with her before offering her a drink. She accepted his offer and he told her just to go and grab a soda from the cooler in the back of the van. 

When Andrea went to take a drink from the cooler she was pounced on by Roy who had been hiding behind a bedsheet. She tried to wrestle herself free but he pushed her arm behind her back and then forcefully taped her mouth, wrists and ankles before the same routine of turning up the radio loud and driving off to the San Gabriel mountains where the terrifying ordeal continued.

Andrea was raped several times by both of them and forced to pose for pornographic style pictures before Lawrence decided to play another sick game on the poor girl by making her beg for her life. He told her to give him examples of why he should let her life. He told Roy that it didn't matter what her answers were going to be because he planned to kill her anyway and did so in such a horrific manner. The heartless monster grabbed an ice pick and forcefully shoved it into Andrea's ear as far as it would go and then pulled it out with force and plunged it into the other ear to which he stomped on the end of it with his foot causing it to break off. As poor Andrea was still alive during all of this hell, he became frustrated and strangled her. Once she was deceased, they threw her body off of a cliff. 

They decided to abduct two girls together that they had spotted on the 3rd of September 1979. Jackie Gilliam and her friend Jacqueline Lamp had been hitchhiking and decided to have a rest at a bus stop, this is where Lawrence and Roy spotted the pair and approached them. 

Jackie was 15 and Jacqueline was 13 and when the evil pair offered them a lift and some marijuana, the young girls accepted the ride. Once inside the van, all seemed well until the girls noticed that Lawrence and Roy were driving in a completely different direction to where they promised they would take them. Panic set in and Jacqueline made an attempt to open the van door to which Roy grabbed a bag full of led weights and violently struck Jacqueline over the head knocking her out cold for a few minutes. Jackie tried her best too to get out of the situation and struggled with Roy. Roy was trying to keep control of both of the girls in the back of the van whilst Lawrence drove. Lawrence could see that Roy was struggling with the girls so he stopped the van and went to help him. Jacqueline woke up and tried to make an escape again but Roy grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back whilst Lawrence punched Jackie in the face. 

Eventually they managed to get both of the girls tied up and gagged before continuing to drive towards the San Gabriel Mountains. 

Once they arrived the girls were subjected to repeated rapes, tortures and beatings over a two day period. They were forced to pose for photographs and their attacks were recorded on tape. On one occasion, Lawrence ordered Jackie to pretend that she was his cousin as he recorded himself sexually assaulting her. They wanted the girls to scream as much as possible and to cause them horrendous pain, the more pain the girls endured, the more Lawrence and Roy got their kicks. Jackie was also put through the excruciating pain of having her breasts stabbed constantly with an ice pick and pliers were used to tear off part of her nipple. It was beyond horrendous what these girls went through and the nightmarish pain they suffered. With Lawrence and Roy there was no mercy, their hearts were black and cold. 

After the two days of constant hell, Lawrence and Roy had decided that they'd had enough of the girls and wanted to get rid of them, again inflicting the most evil and horrendous pain imaginable, Lawrence grabbed Jackie and forced an ice pick into each of her ears before strangling her to death. Jacqueline was bludgeoned to death as an attempt to strangle her failed. Both these young girls were treated as disposable and thrown off of a cliff. 

Their last known victim was reportedly Shirley Lynette Ledford who was only 16 years old and travelling back home from a Halloween party on the 31st of October, 1979. Just like the other girls, she was offered a ride home and some marijuana which she politely refused. Shirley worked as a waitress in a restaurant that Lawrence had frequented so investigators believe that she may have thought it was safe to get into the van as she'd seen him quite a few times before at her work. 

Once in the van, everything seemed pleasant at first until Lawrence decided to pull down a side street and suddenly stopped the van to which Roy grabbed Shirley and threatened her with a knife. Shirley then had her mouth, wrists and ankles taped and was dragged into the back of the van. Lawrence told Roy that he wanted him to drive so the pair switched places and Roy drove about for about an hour. As Roy drove the van, Lawrence was in the back with Shirley, torturing her and attacking her. There was constant screaming, begging, pleading and crying with Lawrence demanding that she scream louder. The whole thing was being recorded on audiotape. Shirley's hell at the back of that van is the stuff of nightmares and this tape of these horrendous moments still exists to this day, the FBI use it as part of their training. Anyone who has heard this tape or the other tapes that were found, struggled deeply because of them. As I mentioned earlier, a chief investigator on the case couldn't cope after hearing it and having to deal with all of the other evidence and knowing everything that happened to those poor girls, it was just too much to have in his mind and he took his own life. 

Lawrence began attacking Shirley with a sledgehammer before Roy took over and he then proceeded to sexually assault and torture her whilst the tape continued to record. She was attacked again with the sledgehammer, the constant nightmare was said to have lasted two hours before Roy strangled Shirley with a wire hanger which was tightened with a pair of pliers. Instead of their usual routine of disposing of remains by throwing them from cliffs, they decided this time they wanted to leave Shirley's body on someone's lawn in an attempt to shock the community and have the press involved. When an autopsy was conducted on Shirley's body, some of her ordeal was evidenced from the horrific tears to her vagina and rectum to the trauma to the other parts of her body. There was also evidence that a pair of pliers had been forced inside of her which contributed to the vaginal trauma. 

What these girls went through is just too unbelievable. In regards to the tape of Shirley's horrific ordeal and murder it's been known for quite a while now that when the actor Scott Glenn was doing some research for his role in The Silence of The Lambs as Special Agent Jack Crawford, he visited the Behavioural Science Unit of the FBI and met with the famous John Douglas whom his character was based on. John showed him some crime scene photographs as well as had him listen to some audiotapes, the tape of Shirley's murder was amongst those tapes.

As Scott Glenn listened, he got emotional and was very disturbed by it. He couldn't believe that such evil existed in the world, that some people could be capable of such evil things. Apparently he was opposed to the death penalty before he stepped foot in John's office but after hearing that tape he believed that individuals such as Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris should face the chair or the injection for what they did. 

The pair were caught the same year of their crimes as a duo, 1979, both were arrested on the 20th of November and this was due to Roy's big mouth. He'd become acquainted with an old friend and couldn't resist bragging about what he and Lawrence had done. The man was so horrified that he told his lawyer who then passed the information on to the police. A previous victim of Roy and Lawrence's who'd been sexually assaulted but managed to escape was questioned by the police again was able to identify that these were the guys who attacked her. Both of them blamed each other for the crimes and Roy agreed to testify against Lawrence in exchange for being let off of the death penalty. He pleaded guilty to four counts of first degree murder as well as two counts of rape and one of robbery. He was sentenced to 45 years behind bars with the possibility of parole but luckily he never saw the light of day in that regard. He passed away of natural causes on the 24th of February 2020. 

Strangely enough, Lawrence Bittaker, who was sentenced to death after being held to account for everything, passed away on the 13th of December 2019. So even when it came to death, these two monsters were always quite close to each other in the way their lives panned out. 

Also, when investigators were searching the van, their homes as well as a motel room where acid was found. Apparently they had planned to use acid on their next victim, horrendous thought. Items such as necklaces that had belonged to the victims were found along with numerous photographs and some of the murder weapons. 500 photographs were said to have been found, with some unidentified girls who have never been named, pictured. Other girls were identified and there was the pictures of the victims which were devastating. When the search on the San Gabriel Mountains was conducted, Lucinda and Andrea's remains couldn't be located. Jackie and Jacqueline's skeletal remains were found and horrifically the ice pick was still lodged in Jackie's skull. 

As you can imagine, the trial was very difficult, the evidence was just too much to bare. Members of the jury often broke down in tears as did members of the public who had to walk out at various points because they could not bare to hear any more. The judge himself got emotional on two occasions. It really was one of the worst cases anyone had ever seen or heard about and people still feel that way about it today. It was absolute hell on earth and it's really hard to try and find the words to describe it. I know they were both put behind bars and Lawrence got the death penalty but they both died and neither of them faced capital punishment. They never showed remorse and this was further demonstrated by Lawrence who insisted that people call him 'Pliers' as a nickname. He was popular in prison and would sign autographs for fellow convicts with the signature 'Pliers'. Lawrence would try and cause trouble during his sentence and tried to get compensation because one of his cookies was broken in half, it was just ridiculous. 

In the late 1980s, Lawrence was part of a bridge club called ''The San Quentin Bridge Club'', he along with fellow murderers, Randy Kraft, William Bonin, and Douglas Clark would all get together and play bridge on a regular basis, They cancelled the club when William was executed. 

So, as I said at the beginning of this post, it was going to be a really tough one and if you've made it through to this part, then I thank you and I appreciate you getting through it. I know it's not an easy read but I do hope that you come away from this post with more knowledge about the case than you had before. As always I'm open to further discussion about it anywhere on my platforms if you don't feel comfortable commenting here in the section below. I'm also happy to respond to any emails (jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com).

Let us take a moment to remember the beautiful young girls who had their lives taken in such a horrendous way. I also want to think of the unidentified victims there may be out there, the survivors and the families of all who were affected by these evil people. 

Lucinda Lynn Schaefer

Andrea Joy Hall

Jackie Doris Gilliam

Jacqueline Leah Lamp

Shirley Lynette Ledford

May they rest in peace.

Further Reading & Resources

- Journey Into Darkness | Book by John Douglas & Mark Olshaker

- The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers | Book by Michael Newton

- Lawrence Bittaker & Roy Morris | Wikipedia

- Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Crime Unit | Book by John Douglas & Mark Olshaker

- Lawrence Bittaker | Murderpedia

- The Killer Book of Serial Killers | Book by Tom & Michael Philbin

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- Tool Box Killers: Article | The Independent

- Lawrence Bittaker | NBC News Footage Clip

- Lawrence Bittaker | Court Footage

Thank you for joining me in this fifth instalment. I will be back with my sixth instalment of my Partners In Crime series and hope you will join me for that. 

Thank you x

 (Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka. Picture credit: The Star)

I always like getting feedback and messages from my readers whether it be about a particular case that they have some thoughts on or they have a case that they would like me to write about. In the past I tried to stay away from writing about infamous cases but over time I have come to realise that some people want to hear it from my perspective and tell it in my way so in this series you will have noticed that the cases are well known but it is interesting to really look into them, research them deeply and find out details that I didn't know or maybe you didn't know before. 

Speaking of infamous cases, it was only a matter of time before I wrote about this couple that you see in the picture above. I've lost count of how many times I have been asked to cover this case but for my fourth instalment of my Partners In Crime series, we will be delving into the shocking story of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka (otherwise known as 'The Ken & Barbie Killers' amongst other names). 

As stated in the title of this post, graphic details will be shared as we move through the story so please be aware of this. 

I guess I will begin with Paul Bernardo because there is a lot to unpack with him. Paul was born Paul Kenneth Bernardo on the 7th of August 1964 in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. As with a lot of these types of individuals who go on to commit sexual crimes, the red flags were clearly there from day one. He didn't have a particularly close relationship with his mother who wasn't really maternal and his father was bad news. As well as being a violent man, Paul's father had a habit of spying on women in the neighbourhood, sneaking creepy glances as they undressed in their bedrooms. He was what is known as a 'Peeping Tom', standing in someone's back yard as he pleasured himself whilst watching them through their windows without their knowledge. His parents didn't sleep in the same bed so this added to further confusion for Paul who was trying to cope with living under an emotionally cold and strict household as it was. 

Despite the issues at home, Paul was seen as a bright child at school, a well behaved, good looking child who other parents often thought very fondly of because of his polite manner. He was a smart kid, sharp as a tack and could pick things up quite easily. Trouble is, the nice little boy act was just a performance, a sign of his ability to use his cutesy, manipulate ways to charm people and get around them. As he got older he gained more confidence, maybe too much confidence because he started to think that he was better than everyone else and would take delight in bullying other children. He enjoyed making fun of other children's clothes or looks. As he got into his teenage years this attitude towards people only got worse and he became very arrogant and cocky. He was clever though on who he would choose as his target to tease and bully whilst keeping up the sweet boy act in front of other people. 

When he got to 16 things at home continued to be a nightmare only this time the arguments were mostly between himself and his mother who delighted in telling him one day out of the blue that he wasn't his father's biological son. This enraged him despite the fact he didn't have the closest of relationships with his father. It made him question who he was, it confused him, made him feel like his whole life had been a lie and he held his mother fully responsible for this. He hated her and would refer to her as a 'whore'. So Paul already had this background of bullying children and enjoying making people's lives hell at school and now this had developed into being abusive towards his own mother and a hatred for women. 

There was no rational reason for him to have such hatred towards his mother and females in general, he was quite popular with girls, it wasn't like he had been rejected and couldn't find a girlfriend. In fact, he had that many girlfriends and that many dates that he became even more unbearable with his narcissism and self adoration. He realised that he got sexually aroused by hurting the girls that he dated. He would be Mr Prince charming at first but this would quickly change and he'd be physically and verbally abusive, needless to say, these relationships never lasted for very long. 

Because he had done so well academically at school and had such confidence in himself, it was no surprise that he ended up at University to study Accountancy and he did really well, passing with flying colours. This would have been enough for some people, a chance at a real go at life in a well paid job but for Paul it was not enough. 

He had the job, the money, the car, the house and the attention from women but he wasn't satisfied. When it came to having sexual intercourse, there would be a lot of times where he would have difficulties maintaining an erection. The only way he could achieve orgasm and be able to perform would be if his partner would say certain things to him whilst they had sex such as ''You're incredible.'', Your co** is amazing.'', ''You're the best lover I've ever had.'' etc whilst he would say the complete opposite to them, whilst forcefully holding them down or handcuffing them and calling them all kinds of disrespectful things. Basically, the only way he could get himself off was to pretend that he was raping his girlfriends. 

None of his partners enjoyed what he tried to pass off as 'role play'. The sex seemed to be all about him, he didn't care about their pleasure and he caused them a great deal of pain. He still wasn't happy and his urges were not being fulfilled, he fantasied about abducting a woman off of the street, preferably a beautiful young woman who he could overpower and have under his complete control. He enjoyed the idea of her being terrified of him and doing whatever he said. The fantasies were not enough, he wanted to do it for real, he felt an urge and couldn't stop himself. 

Instead of being horrified at these fantasies and constant urge to rape women and seeking professional help, Paul became a predator who stalked the streets of Scarborough, Ontario and would pounce on any unsuspecting female who took his fancy. In my research the police originally thought that Paul had started carrying out his sickening sexual crimes around 1987 but he later confessed (in 2006) to a string of rapes that took place in 1986 that were not originally attributed to him. There's even a suspicion that he could be connected to a sexual assault that took place in 1984. It would be sickening to know that Paul had raped one woman let alone the numerous women and girls that he actually did attack. It's impossible to know exactly how many young women were attacked by him, there's the ones we know about, the ones that he further confessed to in 2006 and then there's the ones who've never been identified. He was a serial rapist and the more he attacked women and girls, the more violent he got. Experts working on the case at the time warned the police that they would have to hurry up and catch this guy because there was only one way this was going to go and that was murder. 

Paul would stalk and attack young girls in front of their houses at night if he saw one walking home from a night out. He would rape girls in the backyard of their houses and would threaten to kill them if they dare make a sound. On another occasion he broke into a girl's bedroom and tried to attack a girl but luckily her mother heard the commotion and came to her daughter's aid causing Paul to flee the scene. On this particular incident due to an error, a young man by the name of Anthony Hanemaayer was falsely accused of the attempted attack and had actually spent time in prison. The man spent years trying to clear his name, even after he was released. Paul finally admitted in 2006 that this man was completely innocent of this crime and that it was him that was there that night. 

The more attacks that occurred, the more violent Paul became, it seemed to be that the more he had managed to get away without being caught, the more bolder he became. The police now had a huge investigation on their hands looking for a serial rapist and the public and media were on tenterhooks wondering when this monster was going to strike next. He was called 'The Scarborough Rapist' and the name stuck. With the attacks becoming more violent, Paul enjoyed further torturing his victims by forcing objects and materials inside them after he raped them. He would insert stones, leaves, sticks, anything he could find to just cause as much pain and discomfort to his victims as much as possible. One girl even suffered stab wounds to her thighs and buttocks and needed stitches. Paul started to become careless in his attacks, he would always come up behind his victims and it would be very dark so it was difficult to make any proper identification. One of the girls did see his face clearly though and was able to work with an artist to complete a sketch which was the complete double of Paul Bernardo. 

Another frustrating detail about this case which will drive you mad as it drove me mad, was that quite a number of men had DNA samples taken and Paul Bernardo was one of those men. The cops commented how much he looked like The Scarborough Rapist but because Paul came across as such a nice, friendly and cooperative guy who was a well dressed accountant, they didn't look deeper into it. In fact, Paul's DNA sample sat on a shelf for two years and wasn't even examined. This was a huge error, a catastrophic error on the part of the investigators. I couldn't believe it when I first read about all of the mistakes that were made during the investigation and in particular, this one. If that DNA sample had been tested, they would have had Paul Bernardo behind bars and the streets of Scarborough would have been a bit safer and it would have prevented the further nightmare that was to come. 

Paul must have felt invincible at this point, he always had a high opinion of himself and here he was, walking around free without a care in the world after causing so much devastation to so many lives and getting away with it. To have sat there in the police station with what looks like a portrait drawing of himself, his DNA on a shelf and nobody is bothering to chase any of it up just because he is such a good actor and able to fool people. It's utterly shocking!

So fast forward on to more hell, so Paul is at a convention in a hotel and he spots a pretty young blonde girl sitting having a coffee. He was 23 and she was 17 and they both later claimed that it was love at first sight. There was an instant attraction between the pair of them. The girl's name was Karla Homolka and she had a job at a local veterinarian. Apparently within two hours of meeting, they were in one of the rooms having sex. Karla was just Paul's type, young, pretty and naive and Paul was Karla's ideal man because he was handsome, had a great job and a car. The pair were inseparable from that day on. 

Karla Leanne Homolka was born on the 4th of May 1970 to quite an ordinary background. There were no traumatic events or anything that stood out in her childhood other than her fascination with the paranormal, Ouija boards and death. She went through a goth phase of wearing black clothes and lipstick, for a small town this was seen as a big deal (I know what that's like) and quite odd. One disturbing detail about Karla's fascination with death was her strange behaviour surrounding the death of a friends' pet. The animal had been buried in the back yard and Karla begged her friend to dig up the grave so that she could look at how decomposed the animal was. Very strange behaviour but could also be just a high case of morbid curiosity. She was the eldest of three girls and her younger sisters pretty much looked up to her. All three girls had been blessed with lovely blonde hair and pretty features so they were known as the all Canadian type of girls. Karla did well at school and was very popular with boys. She always described herself as an animal lover and had her heart fixated on becoming a veterinarian and was over the moon when she landed a role at her local animal clinic. She had a great relationship with her parents and sisters and she was obsessed with all things Disney. 

When Karla met Paul she believed him to be her Prince Charming. Even though she was only 17 she was brought up with the belief that she would marry a professional type of man who had money, a house, a car etc and that she would be a stay at home wife and mother taking care of the children. She was very much into old fashioned traditions. On the whole, despite the odd curiosity with death, Karla seemed to be a pretty straight forward person on the surface but when she met Paul Bernardo, he awakened something in her. 

Paul showered her with expensive gifts and fancy dinners at restaurants, she couldn't believe her luck but like all things with Paul Bernardo, there was a price to be paid and that was the sexual side of the relationship becoming more daring, more violent and more perverse. 

Not satisfied with just having some rough sex involving some handcuffs, some whips and maybe some ice cubes, these were low-key for Paul Bernardo, he wanted everything to the extreme and beyond. He was never concerned about Karla's pleasure, he would pretend to rape her and say all of the horrible things that he had previously said to his victims. Karla claimed to have enjoyed this and actively participated in all of it, she wanted to do anything that she could to make him happy and she would do anything for him, no matter what is was. 

Away from the sexual side of things, Karla's family worshipped Paul too, they'd have him around at the house all of the time for dinner, he could do no wrong in their eyes. Karla's sister Tammy was the double of her and only 15 years old but she looked up to her big sister and her boyfriend. The disturbing thing is, whilst Tammy looked at Paul as a brother, he had other ideas. 

Paul continued to shower Karla with gifts and telling her how beautiful she was, romancing her at every turn to the point that she couldn't get enough of it and then he told her that he wanted something. He told her that he wanted to sleep with her 15 year old sister and take her virginity. A normal person would have slapped his face and thrown him out of the house but not Karla Homolka who was only concerned that her Mr money bags would do a disappearing act if she didn't let him get his way. Karla didn't want the gifts, the dates at the restaurants, the attention and the status of dating a handsome accountant to stop. It's hard for any of us with brain cells and human decency to imagine someone being so materialistic, so self-centred and so callous as to basically offer their baby sister up to a sadistic pervert like she was a piece of meat, but that's exactly what she did and she didn't care an ounce about it. 

Creepy Paul Bernardo would sneak into Tammy's bedroom at night and masturbate as he watched her sleep, all with Karla's blessing. She even helped loosen some of the screws on the window in Tammy's bedroom to make it easier for him to sneak in and carry out his disgusting acts whilst the child slept. Then the Peeping Tom act wasn't enough, he wanted to go further and he expressed this clearly to Karla. He told her that he wanted to drug Tammy so that he could do whatever he wanted to her, sexually. Shockingly, Karla agreed and the pair hatched a plan to lace Tammy's dinner with a sedative Karla had taken from the veterinary. On this occasion they waited until Tammy had passed out and when Paul was in the middle of molesting the girl, she suddenly woke up. They both realised that they needed something stronger. 

It was the Christmas holidays and on the 23rd of December 1990 the Homolko family were celebrating some time together and Paul was there, being treated as part of the family. What nobody knew or could even think of, was that Karla and Paul had put together another horrible plan for Tammy and it was going to take place that very night when everyone else went to bed. Drinks were flowing and everyone was feeling merry, when nobody was looking, Karla slipped some ground up sleeping pills into Tammy's drink and the evil pair waited for it to take effect. When everyone else went to bed, the pair stayed downstairs with Tammy and when she was completely passed out they took her to the basement and Paul had set up a video camera. Paul had been recording his and Karla's sex sessions and wanted to record this sick rape fantasy, come to life. It is believed that Paul had started recording Karla and their future sickening acts because he wanted to, not only relive the horrible events but to have something to hold over Karla as blackmail later on if she ever tried to leave him or go to the police. 

As the camera recorded, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka removed Tammy's clothes and proceeded to molest her. It's utterly horrendous to write but Karla actively did things to her own sister. It was monstrous. In the middle of everything, Tammy suddenly began convulsing and vomit began to pour out of her mouth. The evil pair began to panic, scrambling about the place trying to put their clothes on and put Tammy's clothes on. There was vomit everywhere and they tried to clean everything up and hid the tape before finally calling for help. Tammy sadly passed away and both of them lied through their teeth and told everyone that Tammy just had a bit too much to drink and had tragically choked on her own vomit. This version of events was believed and nothing else was said on the matter, they'd gotten away with it. 

Instead of grieving for her sister (although they did put an act on in front of family members) Karla would dress up in Tammy's clothes during one of their sick sex sessions and try an reenact the scene to the way that Paul originally wanted it to go. 

Despite the horrific death of Tammy, this didn't seem to phase Karla or give her the motivation to confess all to her family and get away from him. She was so wrapped up in him even after all of that, that when her pet Iguana accidentally bit him, he cruelly decapitated the poor creature and forced her to cook and eat it in front of him to prove her loyalty to him. She did as he asked with no question or protest. 

A few months went by after Tammy's death and everyone but those two monsters, were still devastated and struggling to come to terms with things. When they had the funeral, the pair gave the performance of a lifetime as the grieving duo, they had no shame. But because a few months had gone past, they had this heartless attitude that everyone should stop crying and talking about Tammy now and move on to more important things....like their wedding. That's all Karla was interested in, her big, fake fairytale wedding to dirty, paedophile and murdering pervert, Paul Bernardo. 

I don't think that Paul cared about the wedding to be quite honest, he didn't care about anything but he had to keep Karla sweet, she was his perfect slave and he wanted to keep it that way. In her, he had found his partner in crime and she would do anything for him and he enjoyed that. They managed to manipulate the family to going along with this wedding and just six months after they raped and killed Tammy, they smiled for the cameras as they posed in front of the church. 

The death of Tammy at their hands didn't stop there, leading up to the wedding day and afterwards, they abducted and murdered two girls plus the rape of another girl who managed to survive but was classed as a ''Jane Doe'' was later discovered on one of the videotapes. Before they were married, Paul abducted a 14 year old girl, Leslie Mahaffy, who he'd discovered had been locked out of her family home late at night after attending the wake of a friend who had recently died. Leslie had been having a difficult time with her parents and she also was a bit of a rebel. For some strange reason (and it's scary to even think about or understand) her parents were not happy about her being out so late at this friend's wake and so decided that because she had missed the curfew they locked the front door and refused to let her back into the house to teach her a lesson apparently. Absolute madness to leave a 14 year old child locked out of the house at that time of night.

The unimaginable happened and because of Leslie's parents ridiculous actions (sorry, I have to speak my mind here) Leslie was basically a sitting duck for evil Paul Bernardo. Paul abducted Leslie in front of her own house and blindfolded her. When he took her back to Karla the sick pair tortured and molested the poor girl whilst videotaping the whole ordeal. They had music on the whole time this was taking place, songs by David Bowie and Bob Marley were blaring out of the speakers whilst Leslie was spending the last moments of her young life going through hell. Once they were finished with Leslie they murdered her. Both of them later blamed each other for the killing with Karla claiming that Paul strangled Leslie, and him claiming that Karla had given her some sort of medication that caused her death. Leslie's body was placed in the basement and they talked about what they were going to do next with her remains. They come up with the idea of dismembering her and placing the remains in cement so that they would be weighted down when they dumped them in the lake. Paul went to a hardware store and bought sacks of cement and other products, he kept all of the receipts and these receipts were used against him later at his trial. 

He used his grandfather's circular saw and dismembered Leslie's body. Once he was finished he took the remains to a place called Lake Gibson where he disposed of them. 

In between the murders Paul carried out some sexual attacks but the victims survived. They had abducted a girl shortly after Tammy's funeral and took her back to the house where they raped and videotaped the poor girl before driving her to the middle of nowhere and dropping her off. She was known as 'January Girl'. On another occasion, one morning, Paul had dragged a woman into some bushes and was in the middle of assaulting her when she had managed to get away. 

Their last known victim was 15 year old Kristen French who they abducted on the 16th of April 1992. Karla pretended that she needed help with some directions and they managed to get her into the car before driving off. They grabbed her so quickly that her shoe came off and this was discovered when her family and the police came looking for her. Kristen was held by the evil pair for much longer than the other victims, they raped, tortured and videotaped her all of the Easter weekend before finally murdering her and leaving her body in the house before going off to Easter Sunday dinner with Karla's family. Again, the pair accused one another of the murder with Paul claiming that Karla had beaten Kristen with a mallet and Karla claiming that Paul had strangled her. 

Kristen's nude body was dumped in a ditch in Burlington where she was discovered on the 30th of April 1992. 

As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of serious mistakes made in the investigation of this case, both with The Scarborough Rapist case and this one which, at the time was called 'The Schoolgirl Killer' case. In December of 1992 investigators finally took the sample of Paul Bernardo's DNA (which had been sat on the shelf for two years) and tested it, the truth was revealed and he was finally identified as The Scarborough Rapist. Things between Karla and Paul were getting really toxic at this time and they began to turn on each other. Maybe Paul had a suspicion that the net was closing in on him and he began to panic? who knows but for whatever reason, the pair got into a very violent fight and Paul physically beat Karla with a flashlight. She was all swollen and her eyes were all blackened. When she went into work, her colleagues were shocked and concerned, she told them that her injuries were the result of a car accident but they didn't believe her and contacted Karla's parents. 

Karla's parent's went over to the house the next day and staged an intervention believing Karla to be a victim of Domestic Abuse and in danger. Paul wasn't there at the time but the police were looking for him. Karla was acting very strange and seemed to be in a panic looking for something but whatever it was, she wasn't able to find it and basically left with her parents. What Karla was actually looking for was those videotapes that Paul had recorded of her and the victims, she knew that those would be her downfall but he had hidden them somewhere. 

Paul had actually hidden the tapes in a light fixture in the bathroom ceiling and nobody thought to look there. Paul was finally arrested and confessed and Karla was later arrested. Both tried to blame the other and at that point, nobody but them knew about the tapes. The police had partially searched the house, it was only later that Paul told his lawyer at that time (Ken Murray) about the existence of the tapes and where he had hidden them. Committing a crime himself, Ken went to the house and got the tapes and hid them for 17 months. Whilst Karla and Paul were in custody, Karla and her lawyer were trying to make a deal for immunity if she testified against Paul, because of a piece of footage that they did manage to find in the house, which showed Karla performing oral sex on an unknown victim, they wouldn't make that deal. Instead they agreed to a deal of 12 years imprisonment for her full cooperation in their case against Paul who they were looking to get for the murders and the series of rapes. Later on when the videotapes were finally turned over to investigators showing Karla's full involvement in the crimes, it was too late to break the deal and there was public outcry. They said if they had known about the tapes they would never have agreed to that deal. 

So Karla was given 12 years and Paul was given a life sentence with the chance of parole after 25 years but he has been turned down twice for that. He is deemed as a dangerous individual who should never be released and he has spent the majority of his sentence in solitary confinement for his own safety after he had had various attempted attacks on him in prison. He confessed to 10 more sexual attacks that took place in 1986 that he wasn't suspected of which meant that he had started his sickening spree much earlier than the police had originally thought. 

Surprisingly, he wrote a book and self published it on Amazon called 'AMAD: World Order' which was a violent 631 page book. It actually sold quite a few copies but Amazon removed it from sale. 

Paul's dodgy lawyer, Ken Murray was later acquitted and basically let off with hiding those videotapes for 17 months which helped secure Karla getting that deal. If those tapes had been handed in to evidence, Karla Homolka would still be behind bars today.

Paul Bernardo is still in prison and deservedly so, I agree that he should never be released. As for Karla Homolka or whatever she is calling herself these days, she walked out of the prison gates in 2005 and having divorced Paul previously whilst she was in prison, she walked into a cosy new life with her lawyer's brother and promptly married him and had two children.

What I find quite interesting is that a Judge in Canada ruled that Karla was not to have any protection when she left prison, meaning that she had to keep her name and identity, the state were not going to give her any protection against the press or the public. In this country (England, UK) infamous murderers have been given new names, houses, employment, money, security and practically everything to start a new life when they leave prison. None of us are happy about it and if it was up to the British public, I think they would make the same rule as the Canadian Judge did in this case. 

Karla still lives in Canada, Quebec to be exact and has been spotted many times out and about in public. She did some voluntary work at her daughters school and the press and public found out about it and all hell broke loose. People don't want her near their children and the sad thing about it is, her own daughters are going to suffer from this because everyone knows who their mother is. 

Canada has it's good stories and bad stories, there's horrible crimes committed there as there is anywhere else in the world but in this case, these two people, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka are two individuals that shocked Canada to it's core and nobody has forgotten what they did and they believe (and I agree with them) that justice was not served in the situation with Karla Homolka.

Paul Bernardo was and is a monster but Karla Homolka is just as evil and what she did to her own sister who she was supposed to love and protect....I just can't understand that and I never will. 

On a side note: Paul Bernardo scored 35 out of 40 in the Psychopathy Checklist which is a psychological assessment tool which is used to measure the extent of psychopathy in an individual. It's not surprising that Paul scored high. Karla underwent the same assessment and scored 5 out of 40

Further Reading & Sources:

- Lethal Marriage | Book by Nick Pron

- The Anatomy of Evil | Book by Michael H. Stone

- Paul Bernardo | Murderpedia

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- Paul Bernardo | Wikipedia

- The Ken & Barbie Killers: Documentary | Born To Kill

- Karla Homolka | Crime Museum

- Karla Homolka: Article | Daily Mail

- Karla Homolka: Article | The Sun

- The Ken & Barbie Killers: Article | The Independent

RIP to the known victims of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka:

Tammy Homolka

Leslie Mahaffy

Kristen French 

Thinking also of the possible unknown victims and the countless survivors of the horrendous attacks that they endured, I hope the survivors have somehow been able to move on with their lives. 

I know this was another difficult case to get through but as always, I appreciate that you have taken the time to read my work. 

I hope you will join me again next week for my fifth instalment in my Partners In Crime series. 

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Hopefully I will see you on my Socials in the meantime.

Stay safe x