Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono's Auto Upholstery Shop

Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono's Auto Upholstery Shop

In the spring of 1977, Angelo Buono, Jr. and his younger cousin Kenneth Bianchi began their murder spree, killing women and dumping their bodies on the hillsides northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the Glendale-Highland Park-Eagle Rock-Mt. Washington area. The media dubbed the murderers, “The Hillside Stranglers.”

By 1975, Angelo had built himself a reasonable reputation as an auto upholsterer. He bought a place at 703 East Colorado Street for his residence and his upholstery shop. He had no use for employees, so the new place gave him the privacy to do any horrible thing he wanted.
-- Crime Library on truTV.com
Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono's Auto Upholstery Shop

An important moment in these interviews came when Salerno asked Kenny what type of material was used to blindfold Judy Miller. Kenny thought it was foam that Angelo used in his auto upholstery business. The little piece of fluff that Salerno had found on the dead girl's eyelids could be just the kind of corroborating evidence they needed to nail Angelo.
-- Crime Library on truTV.com
Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono's Auto Upholstery Shop

In 1986, while in prison, Buono married Christine Kizuka, a mother of three and a supervisor at the California State Department of Employee Development.

On September 21, 2002, Buono died of a heart attack in his cell at Calipatria State Prison.

Curious note: In 2007 Buono’s grandson, Christopher Buono, shot his grandmother, Mary Castillo, the mother of five Angelo Buono children, in the head. He committed suicide shortly thereafter.

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