The hillside strangler biography book

Technology created the serial killer and (fingers crossed) it’s looking like technology has uncreated him too. There were no serial murders before there were cities and plentiful urban transport. When you stay within a 30 mile radius of your village you won’t find many victims. But when you have a nice car and all of LA at your disposal, then the sky is the limit. However, now we have DNA science, so you only get to do one, maybe two murders now before they’re knocking on your door at 5 am. And plus the chilly effect of the internet, which takes victims off the streets, to a great degree. Streetwalking is now done with an app. And who has seen a hitchhiker in 15 years? So let’s hope there will be no more of these ghastly men. And you know that Emily Dickinson says that hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. I’ll second that emotion.

THE OLD ONE ABOUT MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER

Two of a Kind is the tangled story of Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi. They killed 10 women and children between the ages of 12 and 27 in a short space of time, October 1977 to February 1978, in and around Glendale, Los Angeles. The whole thing was exceptionally gruesome. It’s hard to think that there are guys who could pick up a young woman so they could watch her die just for fun. But there are. Before World war Two, you might have thought that there wouldn’t be many guys who could machine-gun a whole lot of people one day, then the next day another whole lot of people. But it turned out there were plenty of guys who could do this without feeling ill or fainting, it was all okay with them.

Well, I’m drifting away from the subject here.

Eventually there was a falling out between the cousins, and Kenny decamped for Bellingham, Washington, where, flying solo, he killed two other women in one evening (11 January 1979). But without the street smarts of his older cousin to guide him Kenny made real bad mistakes, you would ha

This book was published before Angelo Buono's trial had concluded. Buono was Kenneth Bianchi's co-perpetrator in a series of murders that occurred in the L.A. area in the late 1970s. Most of the evidence against Buono was Bianchi's own testimony. As a teenager living an hour north of L.A. during this time it seemed incredulous such horrors were taking place such a short drive away.

Most of the book is focused on Bianchi--who was caught in Bellingham, Washington after murdering two young women on his own. During numerous psychiatric examinations there were indications that Bianchi might have developed a multiple personality order at a young age, and that one of these 'personalities' was responsible for the killings. Bianchi may have also been responsible for the 'Double Alphabet' murders of children in the Rochester, New York area before he moved to Southern California.

My conclusion having read other books on multiple personality disorders, such as 'Sybil', and 'The Minds of Billy Milligan', Bianchi probably developed this as a coping mechanism and a way to 'explain' his villainous behavior. Bianchi had some knowledge of psychology, owned several pysch text books, and attempted to work as an unlicensed therapist for a time. Unless you're into a deep dive on the case, I suggest other resources.