Angelo Buono, Jr
Angelo Buono, Jr. was an American criminal born in Rochester, New York, who later became infamous as one half of the notorious Hillside Strangler duo. After moving to California during his childhood, Buono faced multiple challenges, including poor academic performance and early encounters with the law. His criminal activities escalated when he became involved in pimping alongside his cousin, Kenneth Bianchi, which ultimately led to a series of brutal murders in the late 1970s. The pair targeted young women, posing as police officers to lure them to Buono's home, where they would commit heinous acts before disposing of the victims' bodies in remote areas.
In 1979, Buono was arrested following Bianchi’s testimony, which implicated him in the murders despite his defense team's attempts to portray Bianchi as the sole perpetrator. Buono was convicted in 1983 of nine counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. His trial, one of the longest in American history, drew significant media attention and created public fear, particularly among women in Los Angeles. Buono passed away in prison in 2002 at the age of 67, leaving behind a disturbing legacy associated with a tragic period in crime history.
Subject Terms
Angelo Buono, Jr.
American serial killer
- Born: October 5, 1934
- Birthplace: Rochester, New York
- Died: September 21, 2002
- Place of death: Calipatria State Prison, Calipatria, California
Major offense: Murder
Active: October 17, 1977-February 16, 1978
Locale: Los Angeles, California
Sentence: Life in prison without the possibility of parole in nine separate sentences
Early Life
Angelo Buono (BOH-noh) was born in Rochester, New York. After his parents’ divorce, Buono, then five years of age, moved with his mother and sister to Glendale, California. In his youth, Buono developed a lifetime preoccupation with sexual violence against women and idolized the high-profile sex offender Caryl Chessman. Buono received poor grades in school and dropped out at the age of sixteen. As a juvenile, he was arrested several times for larceny and auto theft, sent to a reformatory school, escaped from the institution, and was later recaptured in December, 1951. In his early twenties, Buono became a husband and father. During his lifetime, he married four times and had eight children. Buono physically and sexually abused several of his wives and one of his female children. He was again arrested for larceny and auto theft in his thirties. In his forties, Buono, then separated from his latest wife, began an automobile upholstering business out of his home.
Criminal Career
In 1976, Buono’s cousin, Kenneth Bianchi, moved to Los Angeles. In order to supplement their incomes, Buono and Bianchi became pimps to several prostitutes. It was the anger resulting from the escape of two of the prostitutes employed by the cousins that led them to start killing women in the fall of 1977. The team would pose as police officers in order to lure victims back to Buono’s residence. The victims were raped and tortured, and their nude bodies were then dumped on hillsides in the Los Angeles area. Their ten victims were young women ranging in age from twelve to twenty-eight, with such occupations as a prostitute, a student, and an aspiring actress and model. Police attention intensified after the bodies of two schoolgirls, the third and fourth victims, were discovered.
Legal Action and Outcome
In 1978, Bianchi moved to Bellingham, Washington, and the next year, he was arrested for the murders of two local women. Bianchi claimed that he had dissociative identity disorder and implicated Buono in the Los Angeles murders. After admitting to fabricating his defense, Bianchi accepted a plea bargain that spared him the death penalty if he would testify against his cousin. Buono was arrested in October of 1979 for the murders of the young women in the Los Angeles area. In the early stages of the trial, the judge rejected a motion by the district attorney to dismiss the case against Buono based on lack of evidence. Thus two deputy attorneys general were appointed to prosecute the case.
Buono’s defense team argued that Bianchi was the sole perpetrator of the murders; however, eyewitness testimony and circumstantial evidence directly implicated Buono in the murders. He was convicted of nine of the ten first-degree murder charges in October of 1983. The jury opted against a sentence of capital punishment, and Buono was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He died in prison on September 21, 2002, at the age of sixty-seven, of a heart condition.
Impact
With intense media reporting, the Hillside Strangler murders produced widespread panic in the Los Angeles area, especially among young women. The trial of Angelo Buono, Jr., moreover, was one of the longest in American history, beginning on November 16, 1981, and ending on November 18, 1983. Bianchi alone testified for approximately six months. Additionally, the judge and jury visited the different sites where the bodies were found, which is unusual in criminal trials.
Bibliography
Boren, Roger W. “The Hillside Strangler Trial.” Loyola Law Review 33, no. 2 (January, 2000): 705-725. California Court of Appeals justice Roger W. Boren details his experience as the prosecutor in the Buono trial.
O’Brien, Darcy. Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers. New York: New American Library, 1985. Award-winning author O’Brien uses police reports, court transcripts, and interviews with witnesses to provide a detailed account of the murders and Buono’s trial.
Schwartz, Ted. The Hillside Strangler. Sanger, Calif.: Quill Driver Books, 2001. Focusing mostly on Bianchi, New York Times best-selling author Schwartz provides a comprehensive narrative, based on interviews with Bianchi, his psychiatrists, and police officers assigned to the case, of the murders and police efforts to apprehend the Hillside Stranglers.