LOS ANGELES — One of the so-called “Hillside Strangler” defendants who terrorized the Los Angeles area with a string of killings in the 1970s lost his latest bid for parole Thursday.
Kenneth Bianchi, now 74, was denied parole for 10 years, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Bianchi has repeatedly been denied parole, most recently in 2010.
Bianchi and his adoptive cousin, Angelo Buono Jr., carried out the crime spree that sparked terror in the city in late 1977 and early 1978. They had at least nine confirmed victims.
Bianchi, a former security guard, was arrested in 1979 in Washington, where his arrest in connection with the killing of two college students led to evidence connecting him to the Hillside Strangler slayings.
He eventually pleaded guilty to five of the killings in California and the slayings of two co-eds in Bellingham, Washington, under an agreement with prosecutors in both states. He testified in the trial of Buono, who was convicted after a two-year trial of the murders of nine young women and girls.
“I could not remember in detail my participation in the crimes,” Bianchi testified during Buono’s trial. “But Angelo Buono has stuck in my mind as a participant.”
Jurors also heard grisly testimony about how the young women were murdered. Most had been raped or otherwise sexually assaulted before being strangled, and nearly all of the victims were found nude on or near hillsides.
Both men were sentenced to life in prison, with Bianchi serving his time in a Washington state prison. Buono died in prison in September 2002.
In Washington state, Bianchi is now known as Anthony D’Amato, and is similarly seeking parole.
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