Free Couples Who Kill by Carol Anne Davis

murderous plan in motion. He contacted a girl he knew, Karen Mandic, and asked her if she’d like to housesit for him. He told her to bring along her room-mate Diane Wilder. Both young women were highly intelligent students who were glad of the housesitting fee that Bianchi offered, allowing them to study and earn at the same time.
    The trio arrived at the building and Ken suggested Karen accompany him in first to put the lights on. When they reached the basement he pointed his gun at her and ordered her to strip. When she was naked he tied her up and carried her to the nearest bedroom. He immediately went back to the vehicle and fetched the unsuspecting Diane, who he took to the carpeted bathroom, stripped and bound.
    For an unspecified time, Bianchi went back and forward between the two girls, terrorising and raping them. Heused several condoms, planning not to leave a semen trace. Then he ordered the terrified girls to re-dress, made them lie on their stomachs and strangled them with a heavy cord. His lust sated, he put both corpses in Karen’s car, drove it to a nearby cul-de-sac and left the vehicle there. He hadn’t been nearly as careful as his cousin, but was sure that no one would connect him to the crime.
    But he was very wrong. Karen had told her boyfriend that Ken Bianchi had given her the housesitting job – and Diane had left a memo to Karen saying that Ken had phoned. So when the girls were found dead, the police searched Ken’s house and found dozens of items stolen from various employers. They realised that he had previously lived in the area of the Hillside Stranglings – and further checks showed that he’d been questioned about the murders there. He even fitted the description of one of the men seen abducting Lauren Wagner – and his cousin, Angelo Buono, fitted the description of the other man. The police now took Ken Bianchi into custody and mounted a surveillance operation on his unsuspecting cousin, noting his many years of violence against his wives and girlfriends.
    There was also forensic evidence against Bianchi, for, despite using a condom, his semen was found on the girls’ pants. His pubic hair was also found on one victim. Moreover blonde hair from one of the girls was found on him. Diane Wilder was menstruating at the time of the murder and some of her menstrual blood had dripped onto his underwear.
    At first journalists didn’t know that Bianchi had used a condom, so, when it was reported that small traces of his semen had been found on the girls’ clothes, they reportedthat he’d strangled them immediately and masturbated over their bodies. Other sources said that he’d strangled them on the stairs. But by his own account he put one girl in the bathroom and another in a bedroom and raped them before ordering them to re-dress, then strangling them. This is the same logical chain of events that was carried out again and again during the Los Angeles murders – after all, it’s very difficult to dress a corpse.
A bad man did it
    Facing the death penalty for up to twelve murders, Ken Bianchi looked for a surefire solution. As luck would have it, the prison television showed a film about multiple personality, reminding him of his previous reading on the subject whilst dabbling in psychology. Bianchi hinted to his psychiatrist that he was having vague feelings of being taken over. Put under hypnosis, he pretended to have a murderous alter ego called Steve. This strangler had allegedly first appeared when Ken was being abused as a child and desperately needed a friend.
    Some experts on multiple personality bought Ken Bianchi’s act – but another pointed out that alternate personalities had a surname and Ken obligingly provided the surname of Walker. Enquiries showed that Ken had stolen credentials from a bona fide psychology graduate called Steve Walker and had put these certificates up in his office when he was pretending to be a psychologist. The more sceptical of the doctors also