The Toolbox Killers

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We explore the harrowing story of Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, an evil duo whose reign of terror in the late 1970s sent shockwaves through Southern California and beyond. Step back in time to examine the background and motivations of these killers, the horrifying details of their crimes, and how their trials made true crime history.

Our story takes place in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, California including the towns of Torrance, Hermosa Beach, and Tujunga located close to the San Gabriel Mountains. Los Angeles is the second biggest city in terms of population in the United States.  It is located in southern California surrounded by beaches along the Pacific Coastline to vast mountain ranges, valleys, and deserts.  

Of course, Los Angeles is known for its connection to the entertainment industry.  The iconic Hollywood sign was originally erected in 1923 (Hollywoodland) as an advertisement for a real estate development but due to its popularity, it remained but with a shortened version of Hollywood that we know today.   

This episode focuses on the late 70’s precisely four months from June 24th to October 31st of 1979.  During this time the hippie-free love disco movement was on its way out of American culture to be replaced by a new wave of pop music with the introduction of MTV and the rise of the yuppie and popped collars.  This was a time of change, a time when young girls who were entering their teen years and early adulthood had their whole lives ahead of them.  What should have been a beginning for the victims in this episode was a horrifying end no one could have imagined.  

Documentaries

There are two documentaries I watched to research this story and will reference it throughout the episode.  One, The Devil and the Death Penalty, and the other, The Toolbox Killer.  You can view The Devil and the Death Penalty on YouTube which is linked in the show notes.  The Toolbox Killer documentary was released in 2021, I found on the Peacock Streaming Service it might also be on AppleTV. 

Devil Number One

We are going to start by looking at the background history of Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, how their paths converged, and how their dreadful pairing resulted in the deaths of five innocent girls.  We’ll start with Lawrence Bittaker born on September 27, 1940, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to a teenage mother and violent father.  Family members convinced Lawrence’s mother to give him and his brother up for adoption.  Lawrence was adopted as an infant by George and Thelma Bittaker who were his great uncle and aunt and at some point during his childhood, the family relocated to California. The Bittaker Family doesn’t appear to have been a close one.  According to Bittaker in the 2021 documentary, there was no communication in his home, no one to tell him it was not right to do something bad.  To get attention he would play with fire.  His punishment when caught involved his mother putting out cigarettes over his back and buttocks.  

Bittaker is reported to have had an IQ of 138 when he dropped out of high school in 1956.  He soon ran foul of the law racking up convictions for auto theft, hit and run, and evading police.  He also started to develop his predatory habits by sneaking out of the house at midnight and walking around his neighborhood looking into their homes.  He also began to break into their houses and according to Mary Ellen O’Toole, retired FBI agent with the BSU, this is an early sign of sadism especially when he started moving belongings around in the home. Bittaker was eventually sent to the California Youth Authority until age 18 after stealing a car and driving across state lines.  

Prison Life

Between the ages of 18 and 24 Bittaker was in and out of prison never having to complete his full sentences.  It was reported that Bittaker went to Louisiana with a girl he had met from a psychiatric hospital.  Once caught and convicted he was transferred to a prison in Oklahoma where it is said that he befriended the Birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud.  

In May 1960, Bittaker was back in California and soon convicted of robbery and sentenced to fifteen years in prison only serving three until he received parole.  He wasn’t out long when in October 1964, Bittaker was picked up on a parole violation and sent back to prison for two years eight months of additional time.  He was released in July 1967, and that same month he was arrested for theft and fleeing the scene of a crime.  This time he served a two-year nine-month sentence until April 1970.  

Less than a year after his latest release Bittaker was arrested for burglary in March 1971, and held for seven months until he was sentenced to a six-month to fifteen-year sentence.  He would serve only three. In 1974, after his release, Bittaker stabbed a grocery store employee at Ralph’s Market with a knife because he didn’t want to be arrested for shoplifting. While awaiting sentencing Bittaker was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder with an antisocial personality, severe.  He was remanded to the California Men’s Colony at San Obispo in 1976, and that is where he met Roy Norris.

Devil Number Two

Roy Norris was born on February 5, 1948.  According to Norris, he was in and out of foster care suffering abuse and neglect until he dropped out of high school in 1965 and joined the Navy. Before the Navy at 16, Norris’s deviant sexual behavior began to emerge. In one incident Norris made a sexual suggestion to a female family member.  He was ordered out of his house and ended up stealing a police car.  While in the Navy he was deployed to Vietnam where he served four months. I’ve read two versions of what led to Norris’s discharge in 1969.  One version was he received an honorable discharged and another was he was kicked out after committing a series of violent rapes while in Vietnam. At one point he was diagnosed with a severe schizoid personality by a military psychologist.

In November 1969, Norris had several failed attempts at abducting women to rape them.  Once, he attempted to snatch a woman from her vehicle that she had been sitting alone in.  She successfully got away.  In February 1970, Norris attempted to break into another woman’s home.  While doing so the woman called the police and Norris was arrested.  

It was while he was out on bail in May 1970, that he stalked and attacked a student on the San Diego State University campus.  He had snuck up behind her and struck her in the head with a rock.  After she fell Norris grabbed her by the hair and continually bashed her head into the sidewalk.  She thankfully survived her attack.  Once apprehended Norris pleaded his sentence down to assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to five years in the state mental health hospital.  

Cured

Although Norris was classified as a mentally disordered sex offender, doctors felt in 1975 that he was no longer a danger to society and he was released on five years probation.  Three months after his release Norris grabbed a woman off the street, drug her behind some bushes, and raped her.  The woman was able to identify her attacker and give a description including the make and model of his motorcycle including the license plate that he had fled on.   

In 1977, Roy Norris was sent to the California Men’s Colony at San Obispo where he met Lawrence Norris.  This time he was sentenced to three years to life.  

Deadly Connection

It was during their incarcerations that Bittaker and Norris began to talk about their dark fantasies involving young teenage girls while making jewelry. They made an agreement that once they both were released they would meet up and put their nefarious fantasies into action.  It was during this most recent incarceration that Bittaker met with two prison psychiatrists who diagnosed him as a classic sociopath.  One who was highly dangerous lacks internal control over their impulses but can learn to play by the rules and could kill without hesitation or remorse.

On October 15, 1978, Bittaker was released from prison.  Due to the skills he had obtained through his various incarcerations and his high intelligence he landed a good-paying job as a machinist making the equivalent of $1,000 a week in today’s money.  Even though he could afford a nice apartment he chose to live in the seedy Scott Motel in Burbank.  He would keep a steady supply of beer and marijuana on hand to share with local teenagers that hung around the Scott Motel.  Agent O’Toole believes that living there allowed Bittaker to easily manipulate and at the same time impress the young and lost residence.   

Three months later, Roy Norris was released.  It’s been reported by author and criminologist Laura Brand that within a month of his release while traveling back from visiting family he raped a girl who was stopped along the road due to a flat tire in Greeley Colorado.  I could find no information if Norris was ever tied to this crime but given in February 1979, he met up with Bittaker and the two began to put their plans into action I suspect not.

Preparation

Bittaker took on the role of leader the pair’s dynamic and Norris that of the follower.  Now, one of the first tasks that the pair focused on was to purchase a vehicle to transport their victims.  They purchased a silver 1977 GMC Ventura Van with a sliding passenger side door.  The pair then outfitted the van by tearing everything out and soundproofing the inside, placing woodside paneling on the walls and shag green carpet on the floor.  They built a makeshift bed in the back and hid a toolbox underneath the bed with instruments they would use in their torture.  

They then went on practice runs picking up approximately twenty women offering them rides.  This was to work on luring unsuspecting women into the van.  None of these women were assaulted.  In April 1979, Bittaker and Norris went in search of a secluded area where they could continue to carry out their horrific acts and not be disturbed. 

According to Laura Brand, Bittaker had known about fire roads in the San Gabriel Mountains from when he was sent out to battle fires while in the Youth Authority program.  On one such fire road, Bittaker broke the lock on the gate and replaced it with one of his own.  Now they had their means of transportation, game plan for picking up victims, and an isolated location where they wouldn’t be disturbed.  Soon it would be time to turn their twisted fantasies into reality.

On an interesting note, Bittaker denied that he ever planned anything out.  Laura Brand who had talked to him almost daily for five years until his death called him out on this reminding him that he bought the van and chose the fire road which he downplayed.  According to O’Toole, this was Bittaker’s way of minimizing his criminality in the murders.  

Lucinda Lynn Schaefer

On July 24, 1979, Bittaker and Norris had been driving around Los Angeles for fifteen hours smoking weed and taking Polaroid pictures of unsuspecting girls when they spotted a blonde teenage girl walking alone along the Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach when she turned onto a residential street.  Lucinda Schaefer, who went by Cindy, was 16 years old and lived with her grandparents in  Rondano Beach. Cindy is described as a warm loving spiritual girl who at the time of her disappearance was learning how to play guitar. She had dreams of becoming a foreign language teacher like her mother.  That day Cindy’s grandmother drove her to St. Andrews Presbyterian Church to attend a senior high fellowship meeting dropping her off around 7:25 pm.  After the meeting finished Cindy walked home to her grandparents along a home-lined frequently traveled street.  

Cindy was walking up Avenue D when Bittaker pulled up beside her and asked her if she wanted a ride.  She politely declined and continued walking.  Cindy was within two blocks of her home when Bittaker pulled up ahead of her.  Norris opened the passenger side door and hid inside the van.  When Cindy passed Norris jumped out and grabbed her from behind placing his hand over her mouth and dragged her into the back of the van pulling the door shut.  Once inside Bittaker turned up the music to drown out her screams. Norris then taped Cindy’s wrists to her ankles, laying her face down on her stomach.  They headed into the San Gabriel Mountains.  

Night of Terror

According to a memoir Bittaker wrote he stated that Cindy didn’t cry or even resist  them and appeared to “show no great concern for her safety.”  It appears even then Bittaker was trying to minimize his actions.  Cindy might have thought compliance would help her survive.  Once they arrived at an isolated area Norris told Bittaker to take a walk for an hour.  Norris proceeds to rape Cindy several times.  Bittaker then took his turn multiple times.  Afterward, Bittaker and Norris talked about what they were going to do next with Bittaker convincing Norris they had to kill her. There could be no witnesses.    Cindy asked if she could pray with Bittaker responding, “God isn’t here only devils.”   

Norris began to strangle Cindy but not realizing how difficult it is to strangle someone soon gave up when Cindy started gasping for breath.  Bittaker took over stepping up behind Cindy and lifting her off the ground with a wire coat hanger around her neck.  He began twisting the wire with a pair of pliers until she stopped breathing.  Afterward, they wrapped her in a plastic shower curtain and threw her body over one of the cliffs into the steep canyon down below. Bittaker believed that the animals would cover up their crimes.  

The only mention of Cindy Shaffer’s disappearance was in a few articles in the local newspapers.  

Andrea Joy Hall

It would be two weeks later that the pair would strike again in the Manhattan Beach area.  Bittaker spotted eighteen-year-old Andrea Joy Hall hitchhiking. She was headed to her boyfriend’s house in Wilmington which was approximately 14 miles away. In the 70s hitchhiking was part of the culture and a very common mode of transport. Andrea had been picked up by another driver and the pair followed hoping that she would be let out along the way.  Their assumption was correct and Andrea got out in Redondo Beach.   

Bittaker then pulled up beside Andrea offering her a ride while Norris hid under the bedspread in the back.  Once inside the van Bittaker drove for a while and then offered Andrea to go in the back and get a drink from the cooler.  When she stepped into the back Norris grabbed her and Andrea started fighting for her life.  At one point Andrea seemed to gain the upper hand until Bittaker slammed on the breaks and Norris was able to bound and gag her.  Bittaker then drove off to the San Gabriel Mountains to the Upper Monroe Truck Trail.  

New Destination

Once there Bittaker violated Andrea two times and also photographed her in various pornographic poses using the Polaroid camera.  Norris raped her once.  It was during Bittaker’s second violation that he thought he saw some headlights coming up the road.  He dragged Andrea into some bushes while Norris went to check it out.  When Norris returned they drove deeper into the mountains.  Bittaker then ordered Andrea to walk up a nearby hill where he forced her to perform an oral sex act and then further humiliated her by making her pose for pictures. 

After returning to the van the pair once again drove further up the mountain road.  Bittaker once again ordered Andrea out of the van and to walk in front of him. Norris took off in the van and when he returned Andrea was nowhere to be seen.  Bittaker showed Norris more photos he had taken and in one Norris could see Andrea looked terrified and had a gag in her mouth.  Bittaker told him that he had just told her he was going to kill her and she needed to give him a reason not to (talk about playing mind games).  It was then that he drove an ice pick into her ear and into her brain.  He then completed the same heinous act on the other side stepping on the handle until it broke off.  The ice pick to the ear was something the pair had seen in a movie they had watched while incarcerated.  After strangling Andrea they dumped her body off the side of the cliff.

Police had no leads as to Andrea Hall’s disappearance.    

Jacqueline Gilliam & Leah Lamp

A little less than two months later on September 2, 1979, over the Labor Day Weekend the devilish duo was back on the prowl.  Jacqueline Doris Gilliam, age 15, who went by Jackie, and Jacqueline Leah Lamp, age 13, who went by Leah were waiting at a bus stop on Pier Avenue to take them to the beach.  Jackie had been staying with a family friend, the Dichtls who were living in Redondo Beach and had given her permission.  Bittaker and Norris spotted the girls and both were more interested in Jackie than Leah’s but decided to take them both.  The pair pulled up to the stop offering the girls a ride which they accepted.  Once inside the van, they were offered some marijuana which they also accepted.  

 When Leah noticed that the van was not headed towards the beach she tried to escape.  That is when Norris hit her over the head with a bag of lead weighted pellets knocking her unconscious.  He then bound and gagged Jackie.  Leah awoke and tried a second time to escape the van when it had come to a stop.  Leah ran from the van towards some tennis courts.  Bittaker jumped out and was able to grab Leah, punching her and throwing her back into the van.  He noticed he was being watched by some tennis players.  He told them not to worry she was on a bad acid trip.  No one bothered to call the police.  Once back in the van Leah was bound and gagged.

The pair drove into the San Gabriel Mountains but due to the hot weather opted to back into a turn-off with a shaded tree.  Bittaker proceeded to rape Jackie for over two hours and made her pose for photos. If you watch The Devil and the Death Penalty the documentary you can see two of those poses. Jackie is smiling but if you look into her eyes you can see fear.  Bittaker also tape-recorded his assaults on Jackie.  Leah was witness to her friend’s assaults.  Over a two-day period, Jackie was repeatedly raped by the pair and made to pose in pornographic photos.  Leah was not touched.  

Indecision

Norris suggested to Bittaker that Jackie’s death be quick as she had been a cooperative captive.  Bittaker said no as “they only die once anyways.”  Several hours after the girls were taken the Dichtle’s daughter went to the beach looking for her friends.  She quickly returned when she couldn’t find them.  So the Dichtles went down to look when they couldn’t find any trace of the girls they called the police who sadly weren’t interested as not enough time had passed since the girls were last seen.  They would call again at midnight but again would be denied in filing a report.  

On the morning of September 3rd, Bittaker drove up and down the Glendora Mountain Road and at one point stopped at a convenience store.  They drove back into the San Gabriel Mountains where they tied Leah to a tree and proceeded to take turns raping Jackie for several hours all the while taking pictures of each other assaulting her.  They then retrieved Leah and told them they would be taken home soon.  However, Bittaker stabbed Jackie with an ice pick in the side of her head and strangled her to death.  Leah who had been unconscious due to being drugged was hit on the back of the head with a sledgehammer.  Norris then hit her seven more times in the head.  Bittaker then strangled her.  At one point, Leah, the fighter, opened her eyes.  Norris hit her one final time while Bittaker strangled her.  Once dead they threw both girls off of a nearby cliff.  

Bittaker and Norris returned to work the next day.  

The One That Got Away

There was one victim who would escape the horrific fate of Cindy, Andrea, Jackie, and Leah.  Her name was Jan.  Jan had been in town to visit her father on September 30, 1979.  She was snatched off the sidewalk and maced.  A man attempted to drag her into the back of a van.  Jan’s screams drew attention with people coming out of their houses to see what was going on.  Norris took off in the van and Bittaker on foot. Jan was left behind.   Afraid that the police may soon track them down, however, didn’t stop their plans to carry on.

Shirley Lynette Ledford

On October 31, 1979, Shirley Lynette Ledford, age 16,  who went by Lynette had gone to a Halloween party with her friend, Ruth around 8 pm.  After about two hours the girls left the party with two boys stopping at a gas station along the way.  The boys wanted money from the girls.  Ruth had some but Lynette did not.  An argument ensued with Lynette leaving the car and deciding to hitchhike home.  

Bittaker spotted Lynette walking along Sunland Boulevard and pulled over to offer her a ride.  Lynette may have recognized Bittaker as he was a frequent customer at the McDonald’s she had worked at.  At first, Bittaker followed Lynette’s directions to her home but soon turned into a secluded side street.  Norris then bound and gagged her.  Bittaker then had Norris drive for about an hour around Burbank while he tortured and raped Lynette.  He audio recorded his assaults continually beating her with his fists.  

Norris took over and wanting her to scream louder he hit her on the elbow with the  sledgehammer and tortured her with pliers.  She begged him to stop which only spurred him on.  He continued to hit her elbow, eventually shattering it.  In all, he would hit her twenty-five times in the same spot.  Lynette’s torture would last two hours with Norris finally strangling her with a write coat hanger.

Exposed

Now unlike their other victims Bittaker and Norris didn’t drive into the San Gabriel Mountains to dispose of Lynette’s body.  Bittaker wanted to see how the media and in turn society would view what they had done to Lynette.  So they left her nude and battered body in a bed of ivy in someone’s front yard in Tujunga.  The next morning she was found by a jogger. Now, there is also a version that she was discovered by the homeowner who thought it being the morning after Halloween that what she was seeing was a discarded mannequin.  

Lynette’s autopsy would later show that she had been sexually violated along with receiving blunt-force trauma to the face, breasts, and elbow.  She had a puncture wound to her left hand and a finger sliced on her right hand. This was from Lynette grabbing the knife blade Bittaker had used in one of his attacks on her.  She had significant injuries to her genital area from the pliers Bittaker had used.  The wire coat hanger that Norris used to end her life had been tightened so tight its circumference was the size of a silver dollar.  

Two Can Keep a Secret if One of Them is Dead

If you think that their brazen display of disposing of Lynette’s body out in the open would lead to their quick arrest you would be wrong. You may have heard of the saying that two can keep a secret if one of them is dead, and had Bittaker known that Norris was bragging to a fellow parolee about their murderous exploits he may have wanted to silence him. You see Norris was talking to Joseph Jackson who also knew Bittaker.  Norris had met Jackson while both were in the Tuscadero State Mental Hospital while serving time due to their serial rape convictions.  

Norris showed Jackson all of the photos that they forced their young victims to pose for.  He also told him about what they explicitly did to them and even shared the audio tapes.  Jackson became concerned for not only knowing this information but also for his own safety and that of his teenage daughters.  Jackson contacted his attorney asking him what he should do.  He was advised to immediately contact the authorities.  

Unfortunately, Jackson was passed between various departments until he contacted the Hermosa Beach Police Department and he talked to Detective Paul Bynum who took with what he was saying seriously.  Detective Bynum was aware that various reports of missing girls had come in over the last five months.  Could Bittaker and Norris be responsible for some of the disappearances?  What really convinced Detective Bynum of their involvement was Jackson telling him about one victim being sprayed with mace during her attack and that she got away.  

Surveillance was set up on Norris at his Redondo Beach apartment and within a few days on November 20th Norris was picked up on a parole violation for dealing drugs. He had stopped into a store and while inside police looked into his vehicle and saw an open bag on the front seat filled with marijuana.  Bittaker would be arrested at the Scott Motel in Burbank for possession of drugs, another parole violation but not before he got spooked and disposed of some of the evidence linking the pair to the missing girls.  

Search Warrants

Search warrants were obtained for both men’s residences and the murder van which Bittaker had nicknamed Murder Mac.  Investigators found a treasure trove of evidence from their search warrants including over 500 photos of the victims and even some young girls who may not have even known their picture was being taken. Inside the van, the sledgehammer, lead weights, and a jar of Vaseline.  Two of the victim’s necklaces and the tape recording of Lynette were discovered still in the cassette player.  The pair liked to listen to it while they drove around hunting for their next victim.  Lynette’s mother would later identify her daughter’s voice on that tape.   

Something else was discovered in Bittaker’s motel room: seven vials of acidic acid.  It looks as if they were planning on using the acid on their next victims.  According to Brand, Bittaker was planning on pouring the acid into the eardrums and eye sockets of their next victims.  The pair also planned on building an underground bunker to torture their victims in. In the early 80’s Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, another pair of sexual sadists in California would do just that.    According to FBI Agent O’Toole, the pair had already picked out two more victims.  One, a thirteen-year-old girl, and the other an airline stewardess.  

Detective Bydum knew he needed more help and reached out to Assistant District Attorney Stephen Kay on November 28, 1979.  When Kay was updated he recognized Norris’s name.  He had convicted Norris of rapping a Torrance housewife in January of 1976.  Norris had been given a three-year to life sentence.  He was released after serving just three years.  Kay was incredulous as to the fact that the rape he convicted Norris of was just three months after he was released from the state mental hospital after five years due to the attack on a San Diego State student.  A psychiatrist had approved Norris’s release saying that he was no longer a danger to society and had minimal chance to reoffend.  

Preliminary Hearing

On November 30, 1979, Norris’s preliminary hearing was held.  Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay questioned him.  At first, Norris denied everything but soon caved due to the mounting evidence.  Norris may not have had Bittaker’s IQ but he knew with the evidence found he only had a limited window to make a deal.  Norris blamed Bittake for the murders claiming it was all his idea not to leave any witnesses behind.  Norris claimed he just violated the girls.  He even blamed the increasing violence shown to the victims on Bittaker.  

It’s interesting that Norris had a background as a violent sexual offender whereas Bittaker’s criminal history although violent wasn’t marred in sexual violence.  Norris grabbing the proverbial brass ring got his deal and avoided the death penalty.  Norris led police into the San Gabriel Mountains to show them where they disposed of the bodies.  Investigators were able to recover some of Jackie and Leah’s skeletal remains over a two-day period on February 8th & 9th, 1980.  Their remains had been scattered over the canyon down a 300-foot cliff.   Jackie’s skull still had the ice pick lodged in one side. Leah showed signs of blunt-force trauma.  The animals had done just what Bittaker thought they would do.  To this day Cindy and Andrea’s remains have never been found.  

Charged

In March 1980, Norris received his plea deal avoiding the death penalty.  He pled guilty to one count of robbery, two counts of rape, four counts of first-degree murder, and, one count of second-degree murder associated with the death of Andrea Hall.  In exchange for a forty-five-year to life sentence, in which he would be eligible for parole beginning in the year 2010, he agreed to testify against his partner in crime and all things sadistic, Lawrence Bittaker.  

On April 24, 1980, Lawrence Bittaker’s arraignment hearing took place.  He refused to enter a plea on his own behalf so the judge entered a non-guilty plea for him.  Bittaker was charged with twenty-nine counts of kidnapping, rape, sodomy and murder.  One count of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, criminal conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit murder.  The prosecution gave notice that they would be seeking the death penalty.  

Trial Begins

On January 19, 1981, Bittaker’s trial began with a jury of seven women and five men.  Stephen Kay, the prosecutor, gave his opening statement to the jury.  He told them that they would be hearing the audio tape the defendant made of the rape and torture of Lynnette Ledford.  The reason was to give them some idea of what hell was like for the victims.  Only Lynette’s audio recording would be played as Jackie’s tape was never recovered.  Bittaker claimed that he buried Jackie’s tape along with other photographs in the Forest Lawn Cemetery.  Forest Lawn is over 300 acres.  This trial also made true crime history as it was the first time cameras were allowed in a courtroom in California.  

Roy Norris took that stand and shared all the details of the duo’s crimes placing more of the blame on Bittaker for the violence inflicted on the victims.  Seventeen-year-old Tracey (Christina from an appeal), a neighbor of Bittaker, also testified.  She told the jury about Bittaker showing her pictures of a young girl who turned out to be Jackie Gilliam.  He told his neighbor “the girls I get don’t talk anymore.”  Other residents of the Scott Motel also testified to seeing photographs of some of the victims and two the audio tape of Jackie Gillam.    

The most impactful testimony came from Lynette Ledford herself.  Her cries and begging could be heard on the audio recording played in court.  The courtroom heard Lynette begging not to be hit again and both Bittaker and Norris telling her to scream louder as they physically assaulted her with their fists and sledgehammers.  Several spectators fled the courtroom crying including the courtroom artist.  The only person not affected by Lynette’s cries was Bittaker who sat at the defense table looking down and reading the tape’s transcript while it played.  

On a court break, Prosecutor Kay was questioned by the media.  He broke down briefly in front of the camera only saying “I picture those girls alone when they died, I’m sorry” as he walked away.  Stephen Kay, who also assisted on the Manson Family murder trials in later interviews, would state that Bittaker and Norris were more horrific than those of Mason.  

Own Defense

Lawrence Bittaker took the stand in his own defense denying any knowledge of Cindy Schaefer.  He claimed that he had paid Andrea Hall $200 and Jackie Gilliam $600 to pose for pictures and have sex with him and it was Norris who had walked off with Andrea only to return alone.  He put all the blame on Norris.  His most audacious statements were claiming that the audio tape was just a theatrical performance.  

During cross-examination Prosecutor Kay asked what would make Lynette scream like that; Bittaker’s reply “Oh that’s just pillow talk.”  For all of his high intelligence, Bittaker didn’t have much common sense and clearly could not read a room. Bittaker was then asked about both the audio tape and photos of Jackie Gilliam.  His response was, “I’m going to take the 5th.”  With that reply, the judge told Bittaker that he would be forced to strike all of his testimony.  Bittaker changed his response to “I don’t remember.”

On February 17, 1981, after deliberating for three days the jury found Lawrence Bittaker guilty on all charges.  Seven days later at his sentencing hearing after the prosecutor showed the jury photos of all the victims, he asked them to sentence Bittaker to death. If there was ever a case for the death penalty this was it.  Ninety minutes later the jury agreed and came back with a unanimous vote of death.  

San Quentin

On March 30, 1981, Bittaker was transferred to San Quentin State Penitentiary’s death row.  While on death row Bittaker apparently stayed busy by filing frivolous lawsuits starting in 1983. All of these suites were against his jailers for such things as a seizure of 250 push pins used to hang up photographs he received from women, exposing him to nicotine getting him addicted then prohibiting access to it, failure to deliver a copy of Hustler magazine, refusing to allow him to communicate with Roy Norris and, serving him broken cookies and soggy sandwiches in his lunch.   

In 1993, Bittaker received the status of vexatious litigant, “which is an individual who reportedly files numerous frivolous lawsuits that are without merit.  Such an individual cannot file additional litigations without a presiding judge of the trial court determining that new lawsuits have merit.”  Bittaker appealed and in 1997, the California State Court ruled that the vexatious litigant status only replied to civil suits, not criminal ones.  

By November 29, 2000, Lawrence Bittaker had exhausted all of his appeals.  He had been scheduled for executions on three occasions but each time they were stayed.  On December 13, 2019, Bittaker died at the age of seventy-nine of natural causes after serving forty years behind bars for Cindy, Andrea, Jackie, Leah, and Lynette’s murders.  

Natural Causes

As for Roy Norris, during his sentencing hearing in May 1980, the court was told by a probation/parole officer that Norris “can realistically be regarded as an extreme sociopath whose proven pattern of behavior is beyond rehabilitation.”  He did come up for parole two times after he became eligible in 2009 and 2019, both denied.  Roy Norris would also die of natural causes on February 24, 2020, a little over two months after Bittaker passed away.  He was seventy-two years old.  

Ripple Effect

We’ve talked about the ripple effect of murder before and these horrific crimes are no different.  Detective Paul Bynum, whose work and dedication to investigating and arresting Bittaker and Norris was critical in ending their murderous escapades.  However, what Detective Bynum was exposed to left him psychologically wounded.  In 1987, at the age of 39, Detective Paul Bynum took his own life.  He left a ten-page suicide note writing that this case haunted him and he was afraid for society and his family if Bittaker and Norris were ever to be released. 

Final Thoughts

This case probably more than any other that we have covered shows that monsters do exist in the real world.  Laura Brand, the criminologist, seen in the Toolbox Killer documentary spent five years forming a relationship with Bittaker,  What started out as a research project turned into an attempt to discover the location of Cindy and Andrea’s remains.  Prior to his death, Bittaker did circle on a map some locations but to this day their remains have never been recovered.  

Additional Resources