Editing Hillside Strangler (section)

{{short description|Media epithet for American serial killers}}
{{For|the interchange in the Chicago suburbs|Interstate 290 (Illinois)}}
{{Infobox serial killer
| name        = The Hillside Stranglers 
| image       =
| image_size  = 250px
| caption     = Bianchi <small>(left)</small> and Buono <small>(right)</small> in court
| birth_name  = [[Kenneth Bianchi|Kenneth Alessio Bianchi]]<br />[[Angelo Buono Jr.]] 
| birth_date  = '''Bianchi:''' {{Birth date and age|1951|5|22}}<br />'''Buono:''' {{Birth date|1934|10|5}}
| death_date  = '''Buono:'''<br />{{Death date and age|2002|9|21|1934|10|5}}
| victims     = 10 killed as a duo, 2 by Bianchi alone
| country     = United States
| beginyear   = October 16, 1977
| endyear     = <br>February 16, 1978
| apprehended = '''Bianchi:''' {{start date and age|1979|01|12}}<br />'''Buono:''' {{start date and age|1979|10|22}}
| conviction  = Murder
| sentence    = [[Life imprisonment]] (without parole) (Buono)<br />[[Life imprisonment]] (Bianchi)
| nocat_wdimage = yes
}}
The '''Hillside Strangler''', later the '''Hillside Stranglers''', is the media epithet for one, later discovered to be two, American [[serial killers]] who terrorized [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], between October 1977 and February 1978, with the nicknames originating from the fact that many of the victims' bodies were discovered in the hills surrounding the city.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-03 |title=How the Hillside Strangler case helped make L.A. 'serial killer capital of America' |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-08-02/hillside-strangler-devil-in-disguise-peacock |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

One unusual twist to the investigation was the arrival in L.A. of a psychic from [[Berlin]]. Detective Bob Grogan was polite, but unenthusiastic, when the psychic wrote in [[German language|German]] that they should be looking for {{em|(a)}}{{nbs}}two [[Italians]], who were {{em|(b)}}{{nbs}}brothers, and {{em|(c)}}{{nbs}}aged about thirty-five. Yet this assessment proved to be a very good, if imperfect, guess.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bardsley |first=Marilyn |title=Buono and Bianchi, the Hillside Stranglers - A Co-Operative Effort |url=https://www.crimelibrary.org/serial_killers/predators/stranglers/7.html |access-date=2024-05-02 |website=www.crimelibrary.org}}</ref> It was initially believed that only one person was responsible for the killings. The police, however, determined from the positions of the bodies that two criminals were working together, but withheld that information from the press. The perpetrators were eventually discovered to be cousins [[Kenneth Bianchi]] and [[Angelo Buono Jr.]], who were later convicted of [[kidnap]]ping, [[rape|raping]], [[torture|torturing]] and [[murder]]ing 10 women and girls ranging in age from 12 to 28.<ref>{{cite web |date=22 September 2002 |title='Hillside Strangler' dies in prison |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/West/09/22/strangler.death.ap |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070116004300/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/West/09/22/strangler.death.ap |archive-date=January 16, 2007 |website=CNN Archives |publisher=CNN}}</ref><ref name="vronsky187">{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Vronsky|title=Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters|url=https://archive.org/details/serialkillersmet00vron_582|url-access=limited|isbn=0-425-19640-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/serialkillersmet00vron_582/page/n208 187]|year=2004|publisher=Penguin }}</ref>

The Hillside Strangler murders began with the deaths of two [[prostitutes]] who were found strangled and dumped naked on hillsides northeast of Los Angeles in October and early November 1977. It was not until the deaths of five young women who were not prostitutes, but girls who had been abducted from middle-class neighborhoods, that the media attention and subsequent "Hillside Strangler" [[moniker]] came to prominence.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bardsley |first=Marilyn |title=The Rampage Begins |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/stranglers/rampage_1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209235058/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/stranglers/rampage_1.html |archive-date=February 9, 2015 |publisher=[[Crime Library]]}}</ref>

There were two more deaths in December and February before the murders abruptly stopped. An extensive investigation proved fruitless until the arrest of Bianchi in January 1979 for the murder of two more young women in [[Washington (state)|Washington]] and the subsequent linking of his past to the Strangler case.

The most expensive trial in the history of the [[California]] legal system at that time followed, with Bianchi and Buono eventually being found guilty of those crimes and sentenced to [[life imprisonment]].