Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! The "Hillside Stranglings" remains one of the most infamous crimes to ever strike fear in Los Angeles residents. Within just the span of a few months in the late s, the nude bodies of murdered women were discovered in the hills surrounding the iconic California city. In all, 10 women and girls were murdered during the California spree although Bianchi killed another two on his own in Washington state , and their bodies were found on the hillsides of East Los Angeles.
Many of the victims had signature ligature marks on their wrists and ankles, and all had been strangled to death. While there has been much focus on the odd relationship between the two homicidal cousins, one should not forget the lives lost from their senseless crimes.
As the new docuseries points out, some of their victims were sex workers and because of sexism and societal judgement of sex workers, the public response to the killings was initially muted. Yolanda Washington, 19, was the first murder victim preyed upon by the serial killers. She had been raped and there were ligature marks on her body, which would soon become a signature of the serial killing spree.
Lee had met Washington as a result of her work advocating for sex workers. Her body, which also bore ligature marks, had been dumped by a curb in a residential neighborhood. She was found posed in a sexualized position. On Nov. She too was found naked, with ligature marks on her wrists and ankles. She appeared to have been brutally raped, says retired Glendale homicide detective Joe Chester.
Kastin was a local waitress who was trying to become a professional dancer in the L. The night she had disappeared, her coworkers noticed that she had been talking to two customers who may have been acting suspiciously. She had ligature marks on her wrists, her ankles, and her neck, and no self-defense wounds. There were also two puncture marks on her arm. Later, it was determined that cleaning fluids had been injected into her to torture her. She was attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and was described as a quiet honors student.
