The Hillside Stranglers: Life and Case

Kenneth Bianchi was arrested on January 13, 1979, in Washington and admitted to being involved in killing many girls. On October 22nd, 1979, Kenneth made a plea bargain, which included him testifying about the involvement of his cousin, Angelo Buono. Kenneth’s trial lasted from November 16th, 1981 to November 18th, 1983, in which he had initially pleaded not guilty with insanity. Firstly, Kenneth had managed to convince the professionals that he had a split personality, in which his alter ego, Steve Walker, had committed these crimes. The detectives found out that Steve Walker is a student whose identity was attempted to be stolen, inducing Bianchi to create another alias by the name of Billy to convince the psychiatrists. One psychiatrist noticed his mess up when he was relaying what he remembered which led to his house being searched and books on modern psychology that helped him fake this disorder to be found. Once his secret was out he pleaded guilty and signed a plea bargain, where he would have to attest against his cousin for a lenient punishment. During his trial he convinced his defence lawyer that he was suffering from amnesia and did not think he nor his cousin committed the crimes. Secondly, evidence that condemned Bianchi included DNA results that showed that the pubic hairs on one of the victim’s bodies as well as the steps at the Bayside home. Also, fibres from the carpet in the Bayside home were found on one of the victim’s shoes. When Bianchi’s house was searched, jewellery was found that matched the descriptions of jewellery that two of his victims had worn; displaying that he stole it from them at some point. The case had many people testify against Bianchi. Kathleen Martin and Marlene Katz Booth were extra’s i...

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...y got what they deserved.
Simran’s Opinion:
Based on the evidence and trial proceedings, I believe that Kenneth should not have been given the opportunity for a plea bargain. Both men had tortured their victims a lot, so it does not make sense to allow one to have the slightest chance of gaining freedom in the future. Kenneth did help with the torturing, raping, kidnapping and killing of women, but he has the chance of getting out of jail. The jury ruling seemed to have fallen for what has been written as Kenneth’s charm because they did not condemn either man to death. Certain states in America have the punishment of death for perpetrators such as this duo but they wrote it off. In my honest opinion, this sentence seems to be too lenient because what Judge George said about them living a life of comfort is true. They should feel pain and regret for what they did.