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The Riverside Prostitute Killer · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:02
Speaker 1: In the early nineties, Riverside's women became the target of
0:05
Speaker 1: a sadistic killer.
0:07
Speaker 2: Where where were Creven.
0:12
Speaker 1: His victims subjected to a twisted form of brutality.
0:17
Speaker 3: He had taken the breast that he had cut off
0:19
Speaker 3: and tossed it maybe thirty forty feet away.
0:22
Speaker 1: As his confidence grew, he.
0:24
Speaker 4: Wanted to be in power. He wanted to be an authority,
0:27
Speaker 4: He wanted to be in control.
0:29
Speaker 1: The body count rose.
0:31
Speaker 5: We had to catch him. He wasn't going to stop.
0:33
Speaker 6: Once you get the taste of blood like that and
0:35
Speaker 6: you're a serial murder, you're going to continue doing it.
0:37
Speaker 1: But what was the root of his inner fury?
0:41
Speaker 7: You had turned around look at me, and it was like,
0:42
Speaker 7: oh God, you know now I'm going to get it?
0:45
Speaker 1: And was he born to kill? Riverside city in southern California.
1:24
Speaker 1: The community originally built on the rich pickings of a
1:27
Speaker 1: booming citrus industry. By the nineteen nineties, the farming fortunes
1:32
Speaker 1: had faded away, but a shift to light industry had
1:37
Speaker 1: revitalized the local economy, ensuring the sun drenched community was
1:42
Speaker 1: still firmly on the map.
1:44
Speaker 5: Riverside was very much considered a suburb of the Los
1:47
Speaker 5: Angeles area. We were about fifty miles east of Los
1:50
Speaker 5: Angeles in a Orange county and it was a very
1:53
Speaker 5: quiet community. People loved it.
1:56
Speaker 8: It was very social, very friendly. It reminded me a
1:59
Speaker 8: lot of Southern communities.
2:01
Speaker 1: Although crime figures were generally low, one area did not
2:05
Speaker 1: live up to the city's clean cut reputation.
2:09
Speaker 6: This was quite the boulevard in the day where everybody
2:13
Speaker 6: hung out.
2:15
Speaker 1: Former detective Christine Kias recalls Riversides notorious crime hotspot.
2:22
Speaker 6: University Avenue was I would say, a cluttered street, dishevel
2:27
Speaker 6: drug dealers, gang members, prostitutes.
2:33
Speaker 5: After dark. You didn't want to drive down there if
2:35
Speaker 5: you were a normal citizen.
2:37
Speaker 6: From the freeway up. The girls would hang out and
2:41
Speaker 6: the Johns would pick them up. They were drug users.
2:45
Speaker 6: They had families to support, so they would go out
2:48
Speaker 6: and work the streets, getting money, turning tricks, getting their heroin,
2:53
Speaker 6: and taking care of their families.
2:58
Speaker 1: All their detectives was used to the daily challenges thrown
3:01
Speaker 1: up by the streets. A call to a factory complex
3:05
Speaker 1: in December nineteen ninety one would reveal a crime of
3:08
Speaker 1: an altogether different nature.
3:11
Speaker 6: The middle section of this trash bin holder was open
3:26
Speaker 6: and the body was right here.
3:30
Speaker 1: Twenty seven year old local prostitute Susan Sternfield had been
3:34
Speaker 1: brutally strangled, but the killers twisted actions had not ended there.
3:42
Speaker 1: He had elaborately positioned the victim's body after she had died.
3:48
Speaker 3: She was what we call posed. She wasn't just laid out,
3:52
Speaker 3: She wasn't just dumped there. Her feet, her hands, her
3:55
Speaker 3: legs were positioned by the perpetrator.
4:00
Speaker 6: The body was posed for us, legs open. Basically saying
4:04
Speaker 6: here's your trash, it's right here. Brings back those four
4:12
Speaker 6: of memories.
4:18
Speaker 1: But the bizarre nature of the crime had been witnessed
4:20
Speaker 1: before in Riverside.
4:27
Speaker 8: And there was a worker at another industrial complex who
4:30
Speaker 8: was cleaning and he went to the dumpster and found
4:34
Speaker 8: a body lying inside.
4:40
Speaker 1: As in the case of Susan Sternfield, prostitute Sheryl Cocha
4:44
Speaker 1: had been brutally strangled. The killer had also spent time
4:50
Speaker 1: displaying the victim's body after her death.
4:55
Speaker 3: She was basically laid there, her legs were apart.
5:01
Speaker 5: Rarely does the killer position the body or take the
5:05
Speaker 5: clothes off the body. It was a very purposeful, specific killing.
5:11
Speaker 2: When a killer poses victims. It's a kind of in
5:16
Speaker 2: your face statement to whoever finds them, so it adds
5:19
Speaker 2: one more layer to their feeling of power.
5:24
Speaker 1: Detectives were also shocked to discover that the victim's body
5:28
Speaker 1: had been grotesquely mutilated.
5:30
Speaker 6: On Cheryl, there was a severed breast.
5:36
Speaker 3: We found it up the hill where he would have
5:39
Speaker 3: thrown it. It was probably at least around fifty to
5:42
Speaker 3: seventy feet from the body, so it was a purposeful heave.
5:48
Speaker 6: That he obviously did not like prostitutes, or did not
5:51
Speaker 6: like ladies of this nature because of the violence that
5:55
Speaker 6: had taken place with.
5:56
Speaker 1: Her, As Detective Keears compared the cases of the two
6:06
Speaker 1: murdered women, she quickly began to fear the worst.
6:10
Speaker 6: I went back and spoke with my superiors and told
6:13
Speaker 6: them that we've got a pattern going here, so where
6:16
Speaker 6: this is going to take us and we'll find out.
6:19
Speaker 5: We were beginning to sense that we had a serial
6:21
Speaker 5: killer in our midst.
6:25
Speaker 1: The Riverside community would remain unaware of the danger lurking
6:29
Speaker 1: amongst them. One such resident was easy going local Bill
6:34
Speaker 1: suff Twenty three years previously, he had been fresh out
6:43
Speaker 1: of high school in nearby Lake Elsinore. As an awkward teenager,
6:48
Speaker 1: he had never managed to land a long term girlfriend,
6:52
Speaker 1: but one local girl had caught his eye.
6:56
Speaker 7: I was about fifteen, yeah, and it was at a
7:00
Speaker 7: football game in California. I saw him and he seemed
7:03
Speaker 7: like a pretty nice guy. He was good looking and
7:07
Speaker 7: he had a nice smile. He was kind of shy.
7:11
Speaker 7: I gave him my phone number. I said, give me
7:14
Speaker 7: a call, and I really did not expect to hear
7:19
Speaker 7: from him again.
7:21
Speaker 1: Although Bill Relo catered to Texas for basic military training,
7:25
Speaker 1: he exchanged a number of letters with Terrell. However, some
7:29
Speaker 1: weeks later, a phone call from the new recruit would
7:32
Speaker 1: be met by some shocking news.
7:35
Speaker 7: I did tell him that I wasn't going to be
7:37
Speaker 7: able to see him anymore because I had been raped
7:41
Speaker 7: and I got pregnant. And he said, no, let's get married.
7:45
Speaker 7: I'll take care of your child, and so December thirteenth,
7:51
Speaker 7: nineteen sixty nine, we were married.
7:55
Speaker 1: The newly wedded serviceman was away in Texas when Terrell's
7:59
Speaker 1: daughter was born.
8:01
Speaker 7: He came back and told me that we couldn't take
8:05
Speaker 7: the baby back with us to Texas because he had
8:09
Speaker 7: told his superiors that the baby died, and thank kind of.
8:18
Speaker 1: Through me, Bill would arranged for his mother and stepfather
8:23
Speaker 1: to adopt Terrell's newly born baby. Several years earlier. Suff's
8:32
Speaker 1: own childhood in a single parent family had fallen somewhat
8:36
Speaker 1: short of the all American dream.
8:40
Speaker 8: Bilshoff grew up with a very dominant, cold, non loving mother.
8:45
Speaker 8: He was always trying to acquire his mother's approval and
8:49
Speaker 8: she denied it to him at every turn.
8:52
Speaker 7: His father left when they were young, so conversations about
8:56
Speaker 7: the past, I think he was trying to.
9:01
Speaker 1: As the eldest of five siblings, Suff would take on
9:05
Speaker 1: a leading role in the household.
9:07
Speaker 9: Bill's place in the family was really the substitute patriarch.
9:11
Speaker 9: The other kids got into trouble, ranging from killing animals
9:16
Speaker 9: to starting fires, and Bill was always the hero who
9:20
Speaker 9: got them out of trouble.
9:22
Speaker 2: The fact that Steff had a takeover a lot of
9:25
Speaker 2: responsibilities when his father left would have affected him in
9:28
Speaker 2: some ways, but I think because of this he probably
9:32
Speaker 2: found a way of controlling others and controlling his environment.
9:38
Speaker 1: But despite being a dominant force at home, Suff wouldn't
9:41
Speaker 1: stand out at school.
9:44
Speaker 5: He was involved in the high school marching band, He
9:48
Speaker 5: didn't have any disciplinary issues or problems. His grades were
9:52
Speaker 5: pretty average, nothing unusual.
9:56
Speaker 1: But the reserved teenager was evidently not happy with his life.
10:02
Speaker 8: He was trying to get attention from his different classmates.
10:05
Speaker 8: You know, he was like a non entity.
10:08
Speaker 9: Most of his friends and acquaintances didn't think of him
10:12
Speaker 9: as certainly the big man on campus.
10:15
Speaker 8: He was desperate for approval and recognition and he wasn't
10:19
Speaker 8: receiving it from anybody, and it just infuriated him. It
10:22
Speaker 8: created this powerful rage in him to prove his worth,
10:25
Speaker 8: his value, and his power.
10:27
Speaker 1: Basically, as self continued his studies, no one could have
10:32
Speaker 1: ever imagined the extent to which he would go to
10:36
Speaker 1: make his mark in Riverside County. In December nineteen ninety,
10:50
Speaker 1: police suspected a link between the brutal murders of two
10:54
Speaker 1: Riverside prostitutes. Both victims had been strangled and elaborately displayed
10:59
Speaker 1: in a realistic manner. As police searched for leeds, they
11:04
Speaker 1: were desperate to catch the perpetrator who was striking directly
11:08
Speaker 1: at the vulnerable women within the community.
11:11
Speaker 5: The women that would work University Avenue were actually pretty
11:15
Speaker 5: well known. Many of them grew up in the Riverside area.
11:19
Speaker 5: That's where they went to school. Their families were there
11:22
Speaker 5: as well.
11:23
Speaker 1: Having worked in the vice squad, Detective Keears knew the
11:27
Speaker 1: girl's well and was determined to restore safety on the streets.
11:32
Speaker 6: I think they've felt like I understood, so they would
11:35
Speaker 6: share things with me. I would make sure I would
11:38
Speaker 6: go out and meet the girls in I would give
11:40
Speaker 6: them advice and tell them, you know, be very careful.
11:43
Speaker 6: I'm not here to arrest you. I'm just letting you
11:45
Speaker 6: know that we have a crazy man out here that's
11:49
Speaker 6: killing prostitutes.
11:51
Speaker 1: Many were left with little choice but to continue working
11:54
Speaker 1: the streets earlier. One such woman in nearby Lake Elsinore
12:04
Speaker 1: had been thirty five year old Carole Lynn Miller.
12:09
Speaker 10: My mom was this tiny, little pretty thing, but she
12:12
Speaker 10: was like a force of nature. She was the sweet,
12:14
Speaker 10: loving mom, and she liked to write poems and draw
12:20
Speaker 10: and go to church. I have photographs that we would
12:23
Speaker 10: take during that time, and I can see it in
12:24
Speaker 10: my face. I could see it in my eyes and
12:26
Speaker 10: my smile, just how happy I was to be with
12:28
Speaker 10: my mother.
12:30
Speaker 1: However, Carol Lynn's life was becoming increasingly troubled. Although he
12:36
Speaker 1: frequently visited her, Shannon would predominantly be brought up by
12:40
Speaker 1: his grandparents.
12:44
Speaker 10: She also had this dark side that was kind of
12:46
Speaker 10: shrouded by drugs, so I got to see both.
12:49
Speaker 6: Sides of her.
12:51
Speaker 10: She was a prostitute and I had to come to
12:53
Speaker 10: terms with that. But through all those times, she was
12:56
Speaker 10: always my mom, and as I got older, I started
12:59
Speaker 10: to understand more or her struggles.
13:03
Speaker 1: But in February nineteen ninety, tragedy struck.
13:08
Speaker 10: My grandma threw her arms around me and said, I'm sorry,
13:11
Speaker 10: I'm sorry your mom passed away.
13:19
Speaker 1: Caroldin's body had been discovered in an isolated spot within
13:23
Speaker 1: a citrus grove. Her body had been displayed in a
13:27
Speaker 1: brazen manner after her death, caused by asphyxiation and multiple
13:32
Speaker 1: stab wounds.
13:34
Speaker 3: She had a number of centered stab wounds to her chest.
13:40
Speaker 3: They weren't random, not slashing, just very deliberate.
13:47
Speaker 10: I got hit with a sledgehammer, That's what it felt
13:49
Speaker 10: like to me, and my body swelled with emotion. I
13:53
Speaker 10: felt like the world was collapsing and around me, and
13:57
Speaker 10: I went out to my little trailer that I lived
14:00
Speaker 10: in behind Grandma's and I just laid on the bird collapsing.
14:06
Speaker 1: Although Carol Lynn's displayed body bore the marks of a
14:09
Speaker 1: brutal attack, an object discovered at the scene revealed a
14:13
Speaker 1: different side to her twisted killer.
14:16
Speaker 5: And there was a partially eating grapefruit by the body.
14:21
Speaker 6: If he felt he could eat a grapefruit while standing
14:23
Speaker 6: there and looking at the body, looking at and admiring
14:27
Speaker 6: his work, and that would tell one that he is
14:32
Speaker 6: definitely not worried about the police catching him.
14:37
Speaker 4: When an individual goes above and beyond what is necessary
14:41
Speaker 4: to kill the person, it tells you just how ratifying
14:45
Speaker 4: it is for him to expose himself to the risk
14:48
Speaker 4: of apprehension in order to carry out what he's doing.
14:55
Speaker 1: The Sheriff's Department had also discovered two other victims bizarrely
14:59
Speaker 1: displayed on a and ground, their bodies subjected to mutilation
15:03
Speaker 1: and other grotesque forms of abuse.
15:07
Speaker 5: One victim was found with a light bulb that had
15:10
Speaker 5: been inserted upper vaginal area. We had items stuffed down
15:16
Speaker 5: people's throats and mouths after.
15:18
Speaker 7: They were dead.
15:20
Speaker 1: When Detective Keeres linked the method of murder with the
15:23
Speaker 1: cases in Riverside, there could be no doubt the sadistic
15:27
Speaker 1: crimes were the work of one man.
15:30
Speaker 6: The cause of death in these cases were strangulation. The
15:33
Speaker 6: pressure was so much it would break the bone here,
15:38
Speaker 6: so it's quite violent.
15:41
Speaker 2: Strangulation for murder is very personal, but the person very
15:46
Speaker 2: close to the victim and feeling the life force leaving,
15:50
Speaker 2: so that is often about domination and a feeling of power.
15:55
Speaker 1: Despite a lack of witnesses, the brazen killer had left
15:58
Speaker 1: tire marks and carpetfire at many of the murder sines,
16:02
Speaker 1: giving investigators an insight into his.
16:04
Speaker 3: Movements, and so they realized the perpetrator was going back
16:08
Speaker 3: and forth between the County Sheriff's department area and the
16:12
Speaker 3: city in the same vehicles, and that they needed to
16:17
Speaker 3: combine resources to finding this person and stopping him.
16:22
Speaker 1: As detectives created a joint task force, Riverside County Warehouse
16:26
Speaker 1: would be called upon to help with logistics. One of
16:30
Speaker 1: the regular stock clerks was local man forty year old
16:34
Speaker 1: Bill suff.
16:37
Speaker 5: He would provide us with all the equipment, all the desks,
16:41
Speaker 5: all the chairs that we needed to create the task
16:45
Speaker 5: force site.
16:47
Speaker 1: As well as carrying out his duties, the diligent employee
16:51
Speaker 1: would also show an interest in the ongoing investigation.
16:54
Speaker 5: He had conversations with our investigators about the homicide victims.
17:00
Speaker 5: In fact, a homicide victim was found one morning when
17:03
Speaker 5: two of the investigators were with Bill and their pager
17:06
Speaker 5: went off, and Bill made the comment to them, oh
17:09
Speaker 5: did you find another body?
17:15
Speaker 1: Twenty years earlier, Bill suff had just relocated to Texas
17:19
Speaker 1: to pursue a life in the Air Force. However, his
17:23
Speaker 1: career as an aid in a military hospital hadn't been illustrious.
17:28
Speaker 9: His military career was essentially unremarkable, certainly not glorious.
17:34
Speaker 7: I do not know what kind of discharge he got.
17:37
Speaker 7: One day he's in the next day is not.
17:40
Speaker 1: And it would soon become apparent that the newly married
17:43
Speaker 1: SEFs were not headed for wedded bliss.
17:47
Speaker 9: Bill's relationship with Tarholt was one of manipulation control.
17:54
Speaker 7: He didn't like me going to the laundromatalone. He didn't
17:58
Speaker 7: like me going to the grocery shopping alone. He was
18:03
Speaker 7: the one that was supposed to be in charge of everything.
18:08
Speaker 7: Our sex life was you know you're ready when I am.
18:13
Speaker 7: I would lay down and do it and be glad.
18:18
Speaker 1: And Terrell would soon discover more worrying signs from her
18:21
Speaker 1: domineering partner we.
18:24
Speaker 7: Had a kitten, and one night he was meow and
18:26
Speaker 7: mean and me owen and build holding to shut up,
18:30
Speaker 7: and the catches me on, me on, me on, And
18:31
Speaker 7: so he had a little beaby gun and he shot
18:33
Speaker 7: him with a baby gun and killed it. And that
18:39
Speaker 7: scared the Bejesus out of me.
18:44
Speaker 1: Although the arrival of a baby boy was met with
18:47
Speaker 1: self's approval, his enthusiasm didn't last.
18:51
Speaker 7: He was pleased right after the baby was born, but
18:53
Speaker 7: then Billy took up an awful out of my time,
18:57
Speaker 7: so I couldn't pay total attention to Bill.
19:02
Speaker 1: Terryl would become increasingly disturbed as her husband's behavior towards
19:06
Speaker 1: their son deteriorated.
19:09
Speaker 7: He would smack him on the face. I told him,
19:13
Speaker 7: you don't do that, and he would kind of turn
19:17
Speaker 7: around look at me and was like, oh god, you
19:20
Speaker 7: know now I'm going to get it.
19:23
Speaker 4: He had no attachment or no bonding to anybody, including children.
19:28
Speaker 4: It meant nothing to him to beat a child.
19:31
Speaker 2: He doesn't see them as people. He sees them merely
19:34
Speaker 2: as objects, and very similar to the way he saw
19:37
Speaker 2: his wife. They belonged to him. They're his possessions.
19:43
Speaker 1: Despite Sef's abusive behavior. The couple would have another child,
19:48
Speaker 1: with Terryll working to make ends meet. Stuff would become
19:52
Speaker 1: the stay at home dad until tragedy struck in nineteen
19:55
Speaker 1: seventy three.
19:57
Speaker 7: He called me and said something's wrong with the baby,
20:01
Speaker 7: so I said, I gotta go.
20:05
Speaker 1: When Terrell arrived back at her flat in Fort Worth,
20:08
Speaker 1: she headed straight for the couple's bedroom.
20:13
Speaker 7: Djona was laying on the bed and Bill was saying,
20:17
Speaker 7: there's something wrong. She's not breathing. There's something wrong. And
20:21
Speaker 7: I was like, did you call an ambulance? He says no.
20:27
Speaker 1: When the emergency services finally arrived on the scene, it
20:31
Speaker 1: would prove too late for the baby girl.
20:35
Speaker 7: They pronounced dey did. And then I found out that
20:50
Speaker 7: my baby, it's so abused.
20:55
Speaker 8: The injuries that the doctors were able to diagnose on
20:58
Speaker 8: dshone were extensive and an indicated chronic physical abuse. Her
21:04
Speaker 8: liver had actually been ruptured by a fist blow to
21:07
Speaker 8: her stomach.
21:10
Speaker 7: He tried to give the impression that he was upset,
21:15
Speaker 7: but I never saw tears.
21:20
Speaker 1: At Texas court would sentence Bilsuff to seventy years in
21:23
Speaker 1: prison for the murder of his two month old daughter
21:34
Speaker 1: seventeen years later, in nineteen ninety one, the posed body
21:38
Speaker 1: of a sixth prostitute, Kathleen Puckett, had been discovered near
21:43
Speaker 1: Lake Elsino. Police would focus their search on the victims
21:47
Speaker 1: regular workplace, Riverside City's notorious University Avenue.
21:53
Speaker 6: I did feel like.
21:57
Speaker 1: Victims of the.
22:02
Speaker 2: Well.
22:02
Speaker 6: I don't think the girl really felt like the dre
22:05
Speaker 6: Even though they were war cropping the crown.
22:11
Speaker 11: Never happened there, never happened.
22:18
Speaker 1: But despite the focus of their investigation, a break in
22:21
Speaker 1: the case would eventually come from out of county. A
22:25
Speaker 1: tip off in Wisconsin established a prime suspect for the
22:29
Speaker 1: twisted murders that had plagued Riverside for over a year.
22:33
Speaker 5: We thought that the suspect might be a truck driver
22:37
Speaker 5: because they fit a lot of profile type of information
22:40
Speaker 5: going out there. We felt this is our guy.
22:44
Speaker 6: It was published in the newspaper that we were all
22:47
Speaker 6: back in the Midwest looking at a suspect in this case.
22:51
Speaker 1: But as investigators headed out of state, Detective Kars would
22:55
Speaker 1: be forced to return to the back alleys of Riverside
22:58
Speaker 1: City as yet an another murder was unveiled.
23:05
Speaker 6: The body was located over here in the dirt outside
23:08
Speaker 6: the back door.
23:09
Speaker 1: Here and there was no mistaking whose work it was.
23:15
Speaker 1: Riverside serial killer had struck again.
23:20
Speaker 6: The body was laid out a nude exposed.
23:26
Speaker 3: Her legs were spread out, and her arms were not
23:30
Speaker 3: just randomly dumped to.
23:33
Speaker 6: Expose their genitalian private areas. It would be disgusting for
23:37
Speaker 6: a woman to know that somebody has done that to her.
23:42
Speaker 1: The body would be identified as another prostitute. Twenty four
23:46
Speaker 1: year old Cherie Pacer.
23:49
Speaker 6: Shari Pacer was a deaf girl, young sweet. This was
23:57
Speaker 6: a very sad situation.
24:03
Speaker 1: As the remainder of the task force returned from the
24:05
Speaker 1: false lead in Wisconsin, police felt there was little doubt
24:10
Speaker 1: that the killer was sending them a very personal message.
24:13
Speaker 9: He was mad.
24:15
Speaker 3: He was responding to the fact that this task force
24:18
Speaker 3: had gone off and diverted attention from whatever he was doing.
24:22
Speaker 6: I think he thought, Oh, I'll show them I'm right
24:26
Speaker 6: here still.
24:39
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, Riverside Police and the Sheriff's Department
24:43
Speaker 1: had formed a task force to hunt a prolific, ritualistic
24:47
Speaker 1: killer preying on local prostitutes throughout the county. But as
24:51
Speaker 1: the body count hit seven, the elusive perpetrator remained one
24:56
Speaker 1: step ahead of the authorities, did not.
25:01
Speaker 6: Go one from where we're going to have a body
25:03
Speaker 6: where every body was going to be.
25:06
Speaker 5: I believe.
25:08
Speaker 11: The difficult Well, once we had a announcement in the
25:15
Speaker 11: newspaper that a body had been found, it wasn't much
25:18
Speaker 11: longer would have another body.
25:21
Speaker 6: So it told me that this guy is just running round.
25:31
Speaker 1: Seven years earlier, in nineteen eighty four, local man Bill
25:35
Speaker 1: suff had been paroled in Texas, having served just ten
25:39
Speaker 1: years for the murder of his baby daughter. Newly divorced,
25:43
Speaker 1: the thirty four year old had decided to relocate.
25:47
Speaker 9: Despite the fact that he was supposed to not leave
25:49
Speaker 9: the jurisdiction. Bill came back to his old stomping grounds
25:53
Speaker 9: of Riverside of Lake Elsinore and just started his life
25:57
Speaker 9: over as if anything wrong that had occurred to him
25:59
Speaker 9: just a big mistake, and he was an innocent man.
26:03
Speaker 5: He was very mild mannered, he was friendly, he was outgoing,
26:08
Speaker 5: he was helping people. He was your next door neighbor.
26:12
Speaker 9: Bill Suft liked to be known as somebody who was
26:15
Speaker 9: standing up for truth justice in the American way, and
26:18
Speaker 9: he was going to be there to protect you, certainly
26:21
Speaker 9: to the extent of being someone who was out watching
26:24
Speaker 9: your back when you weren't watching it.
26:28
Speaker 1: Bill would hold down a variety of jobs in Riverside
26:30
Speaker 1: City and was always keen to get involved in the community.
26:34
Speaker 5: He won the chili cookoff at the County employees picnic
26:38
Speaker 5: one year, and the county had a ride share program
26:45
Speaker 5: so employees would get together and environmentally do the right
26:48
Speaker 5: thing and commute to and from work together. He was
26:51
Speaker 5: the poster boy with his silver van. He was there
26:55
Speaker 5: smiling on the cover and the headline said take a
26:59
Speaker 5: ride with Bill.
27:05
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety, forty year old Seff would marry an
27:08
Speaker 1: eighteen year old supermarket girl. His second wife would soon
27:14
Speaker 1: learn there was a very different side to the happy,
27:17
Speaker 1: go lucky Bill Suff.
27:20
Speaker 8: He basically was like a boss to her. He just
27:23
Speaker 8: dominated her completely.
27:26
Speaker 9: She was just pushed around and scared off. He wanted
27:33
Speaker 9: you in a position where you would never dare investigate
27:38
Speaker 9: or ask a question or intrude on him in any way.
27:42
Speaker 1: Despite his prior conviction for the murder of his child
27:46
Speaker 1: during his first marriage, Bill would father another baby girl.
27:51
Speaker 9: The problem with adding a child to any Bill suff
27:54
Speaker 9: relationship is that he's the narcissist. He's the egoist. It's
27:58
Speaker 9: all about him when it ceases to be when you
28:01
Speaker 9: have a child to take care of.
28:07
Speaker 1: Increasingly absent from home, suff would focus his attentions on
28:11
Speaker 1: an issue that he insisted was plaguing the area.
28:15
Speaker 5: He would go around telling people that there was a
28:17
Speaker 5: problem with the prostitutes and they needed to clean up
28:20
Speaker 5: the area and get rid of the prostitutes.
28:22
Speaker 8: He would just make braving comments about the prostitutes being
28:26
Speaker 8: a plague upon the city because they're dirty, they carried disease,
28:29
Speaker 8: they discourage other business.
28:32
Speaker 1: But despite his campaign to have the working girls removed
28:35
Speaker 1: from the streets, suff was leading a double life that
28:39
Speaker 1: was at odds with his impassioned rhetoric.
28:42
Speaker 5: In fact, he was partaking of the prostitute's services. He
28:48
Speaker 5: was very much too personas in the same body.
28:53
Speaker 1: And all the time Bill Suff's secret life would remain hidden.
28:58
Speaker 9: It's not like he came home with a load of
29:01
Speaker 9: excuses as to why he was gone for hours and hours.
29:04
Speaker 9: He would just simply come home at whatever weird hour
29:06
Speaker 9: it was and go, hey, honey, I'm home.
29:10
Speaker 4: I don't think he wanted to tell anybody about anything
29:13
Speaker 4: of what he was doing or what he was thinking.
29:17
Speaker 4: He had no attachment to adults, to women, to children,
29:20
Speaker 4: to animals, to anything.
29:28
Speaker 1: Just six months later, the ritualistic killer plaguing Riverside County
29:33
Speaker 1: struck again with the murder of prostitute Kelly Hammond. But
29:38
Speaker 1: this time the elusive perpetrator had slipped up. The victim's
29:42
Speaker 1: best friend had witnessed her being picked up in a
29:46
Speaker 1: silver van.
29:50
Speaker 6: She told me that he was a white male, probably
29:53
Speaker 6: in his late forties, who work glasses. So now we
29:57
Speaker 6: have a color of vehicle, we have a description of
30:00
Speaker 6: an individual. Now we need to find the individual. We
30:03
Speaker 6: need to find the van, and we can tie it
30:05
Speaker 6: all up.
30:08
Speaker 1: As the task force attempted to close the net around
30:10
Speaker 1: the killer, Bill Suff's nighttime visits to the Red Light
30:14
Speaker 1: District would remain under the police radar. However, during the
30:19
Speaker 1: day he would regularly brush shoulders with the law as
30:22
Speaker 1: he handed out police equipment in a county warehouse.
30:26
Speaker 8: Bill really enjoyed this role because he got to be
30:30
Speaker 8: seen as the boss of the warehouse. They knew he
30:32
Speaker 8: was not the boss, but whenever they wanted anything, they
30:35
Speaker 8: had to go see Bill.
30:38
Speaker 9: Bill was simultaneously a popular okay guy, and yet for
30:44
Speaker 9: other people, he was that guy who seemed to make
30:48
Speaker 9: you a little bit uncomfortable, but you didn't know why.
30:52
Speaker 1: Although Bill wasn't employed by the police force, he would
30:55
Speaker 1: take a keen interest in law enforcement. In his spare time's.
30:59
Speaker 5: Apartmer car complex, he always would like to view himself
31:04
Speaker 5: as the protector, as a security guard type of individual.
31:08
Speaker 5: He'd have a jacket that almost looks semi official.
31:12
Speaker 9: If people saw him in an odd place, they wouldn't go,
31:14
Speaker 9: what's he doing there? It was like, Oh, that's Bill,
31:16
Speaker 9: He's supposed to be in that odd place.
31:27
Speaker 1: As self continued to patrol his neighborhood, Riverside police were
31:31
Speaker 1: desperately chasing up leads following a detailed description of the
31:35
Speaker 1: suspected serial killer. However, Detective Kiars was about to experience
31:41
Speaker 1: another unexpected turn to the horrific case.
31:45
Speaker 6: And I made a comment that this particular individual had
31:50
Speaker 6: a specific desire for white women. The chief at that
31:54
Speaker 6: point made a statement indicating that our suspect didn't like
31:59
Speaker 6: Africa American females, he liked white girls. And it was
32:05
Speaker 6: after that that we found the body of McDonald.
32:11
Speaker 1: Catherine McDonald had been a black prostitute. Last scene working
32:15
Speaker 1: Riversides University Avenue.
32:19
Speaker 6: The publication in the paper I think drove our suspect
32:23
Speaker 6: to say I can get an African American. I don't
32:26
Speaker 6: need to just get whites. I'll show you.
32:29
Speaker 2: Part of that is disdain. They think they're superior to
32:32
Speaker 2: the investigators, but also it's a feeling of I'm the
32:36
Speaker 2: one in charge. I'm the dominant person here. I'll make
32:39
Speaker 2: decisions about what I do or don't do.
32:44
Speaker 1: Worryingly, the killer's change of mo appeared to be partnered
32:47
Speaker 1: by an increased level of violence.
32:50
Speaker 6: Her breast was removed, which was one of his traits,
32:55
Speaker 6: but she also had additional stab marks. The wounds on
32:59
Speaker 6: her so severe and so violent that she was almost
33:03
Speaker 6: a capitated.
33:05
Speaker 1: And the killers heenous crimes were becoming more frequent.
33:10
Speaker 5: Because of the manner in which these homicides were occurring,
33:14
Speaker 5: now at an exponential rate, we became more concern.
33:17
Speaker 6: Once you get the taste of blood like that, and
33:19
Speaker 6: you're a serial murder, you're going to continue doing.
33:33
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, a Riverside Task force finally had
33:37
Speaker 1: the description of a man suspected of murdering at least
33:40
Speaker 1: eleven innocent women. But as police tried to close the
33:44
Speaker 1: net around the elusive killer, the hunt was becoming increasingly desperate.
33:50
Speaker 5: We had to catch it. We had no choice. He
33:53
Speaker 5: wasn't going to stop obviously. Matter of fact, he was
33:56
Speaker 5: expediting his rate of kill.
34:02
Speaker 6: We were on the thin morning forever.
34:05
Speaker 1: As they continued to be targeted, Detective Kiers would stay
34:09
Speaker 1: close to the working girls on the street.
34:13
Speaker 6: I would talk to the girls, build up that rapport
34:16
Speaker 6: with the women that were out there working so that
34:18
Speaker 6: they would trust me, that they would call me if
34:21
Speaker 6: something happened. That they knew that it wasn't just about
34:24
Speaker 6: catching a murder, it was about helping them.
34:29
Speaker 1: The detective had built up a particularly close relationship with
34:32
Speaker 1: thirty nine year old Eleanor Kazares.
34:37
Speaker 6: Eleanor Cassaris and I got along very well. Eleanor was sweet, soft,
34:43
Speaker 6: just a gentle person. It was such a difference from
34:48
Speaker 6: her family background.
34:50
Speaker 1: As the festive season approached, Eleanor would continue to work
34:54
Speaker 1: University Avenue despite the fact that a serial killer was
34:58
Speaker 1: on the loose. Just two days before Christmas, he would
35:05
Speaker 1: strike again. As usual, police would discover a meticulously posed
35:11
Speaker 1: body when they attended the murder scene in a suburb
35:15
Speaker 1: of Riverside City, an.
35:18
Speaker 6: Upper class area. Rather interesting, the condition of her body
35:24
Speaker 6: was displayed. Some of her fingernails were broken, and her
35:31
Speaker 6: body had been moved from one spot to another.
35:34
Speaker 1: The killer's trademark brutality was also plain to see. The
35:38
Speaker 1: victim had been horrifically mutilated, her breast cut off and
35:42
Speaker 1: thrown away from the corpse.
35:45
Speaker 6: I wanted to move the hair off of her face
35:47
Speaker 6: so I could see who it was, and that's when
35:52
Speaker 6: I moved the hair, and it was Eleanor.
35:58
Speaker 1: An autopsy would later reveal that Eleanor Cassars had been
36:02
Speaker 1: murdered and dumped in broad daylight by the increasingly brazen killer.
36:08
Speaker 6: When I saw who it was, I was very very upset.
36:13
Speaker 6: I just felt sick inside that this happened on my watch.
36:19
Speaker 6: I felt really responsible to get the solved and get
36:22
Speaker 6: it solved immediately.
36:24
Speaker 1: And Eleanor's death might just provide the key to unlock
36:28
Speaker 1: the sordid case.
36:30
Speaker 3: There was a lot of evidence here. I was able
36:33
Speaker 3: to determine that the perpetrator had actually backed up into
36:37
Speaker 3: the place where he stopped. I was able to tell
36:41
Speaker 3: the investigators exactly what tires that we were looking for.
36:46
Speaker 1: Unusually, none of the tires on the killer's vehicle were
36:49
Speaker 1: of the same make.
36:51
Speaker 5: How many people drive around four different types of tires
36:54
Speaker 5: on their vehicle. That's very unique and unusual to begin with.
36:58
Speaker 1: Police now had detailed information on the van and an
37:02
Speaker 1: eyewitness description of their prime suspect. The task force was
37:06
Speaker 1: placed on high alert to catch the prolific killer before
37:09
Speaker 1: he struck again.
37:12
Speaker 6: The plan was that if anybody stopped a vehicle in
37:17
Speaker 6: the individual driving it matched the description, they were to
37:21
Speaker 6: call me.
37:23
Speaker 1: It would not be long before a traffic officer pulled
37:26
Speaker 1: over a silver van for an unauthorized U turn in
37:30
Speaker 1: the red light district of University Avenue.
37:33
Speaker 5: He looked inside the van and saw a green blanket
37:37
Speaker 5: which matched a lot of the fibers, and we saw
37:39
Speaker 5: her open the van as well.
37:42
Speaker 1: When she got the call, Detective Keyars had just one
37:46
Speaker 1: question for the patrolman.
37:48
Speaker 6: Look down and tell me what the driver's side front
37:50
Speaker 6: tire brand was. And when I asked them to go
37:55
Speaker 6: to the passenger side and give me the brand of that,
38:01
Speaker 6: that's when I said, okay, I'm en route.
38:07
Speaker 1: Christine arrived at the scene and was finally confronted with
38:10
Speaker 1: the man she had been hunting for every year, forty
38:16
Speaker 1: one year old Bill's suff.
38:20
Speaker 6: I looked at him, and I was rather shocked that
38:23
Speaker 6: he was so plain, looking, very calm, spoke very softly.
38:30
Speaker 6: Didn't look like somebody that could commit the atrocious acts.
38:36
Speaker 5: At that point in time, he was arrested and brought
38:38
Speaker 5: to the station.
38:42
Speaker 10: My family was contacted by a detective and they said
38:45
Speaker 10: we got him, and there was a huge ripple of
38:47
Speaker 10: relief that went through my family and for every family
38:51
Speaker 10: that was involved in that case.
38:54
Speaker 1: But despite his arrest, suff remained unperturbed until detective is
39:00
Speaker 1: stay of the questioning to the recent murder of Eleanor Kassaris.
39:08
Speaker 6: I leaned forward to him and I said to him,
39:14
Speaker 6: you were in the orange groves.
39:20
Speaker 5: His attitude then did a complete change a one.
39:25
Speaker 6: He said that when he was out picking oranges, that
39:29
Speaker 6: he ran across this body and there was a knife
39:33
Speaker 6: in her and he pulled the knife out, and then
39:37
Speaker 6: he made a spontaneous statement of and I didn't cut
39:40
Speaker 6: her breast off. I never even asked him about that.
39:45
Speaker 1: Despite Suff's claims of innocence, a search of his van
39:48
Speaker 1: and home with unearth damning evidence.
39:52
Speaker 5: We found what we characterized as trophies or souvenirs, personal
39:56
Speaker 5: items belonging to the victims. A matter of fact, some
39:59
Speaker 5: of the victims had jewelry that he had taken off
40:02
Speaker 5: the victims' bodies and given to his girlfriend.
40:06
Speaker 1: Three years later, in nineteen ninety five, Paul Zellbach would
40:10
Speaker 1: lead the case against Bill soff.
40:14
Speaker 5: Oh. I chars him with committing thirteen murders of the prostitutes.
40:18
Speaker 5: We believe he probably murdered twenty to twenty five victims.
40:23
Speaker 1: The victims' families would play a significant role in the
40:26
Speaker 1: ongoing trial.
40:28
Speaker 5: And the mothers and the sisters and the children got
40:31
Speaker 5: to testify during the penalty phase. I took pride in
40:36
Speaker 5: demonstrating to the jury that these weren't just prostitutes.
40:41
Speaker 1: Despite an overwhelming case against him, suff would continue to
40:45
Speaker 1: plead his innocence.
40:47
Speaker 12: Prosecutor Zella Back and amused media have all painted a
40:50
Speaker 12: grotesque picture of me as a cold blooded, heartless monster.
40:55
Speaker 12: They couldn't have been more wrong about me. I am
40:59
Speaker 12: a caring, life, helpful person. Ask anyone who is close
41:04
Speaker 12: to me.
41:05
Speaker 1: In August nineteen ninety five, Bill suff was found guilty
41:09
Speaker 1: of twelve murders.
41:10
Speaker 5: The drew returned to a death verdict, and ultimately he
41:13
Speaker 5: was sentenced to death twelve times.
41:18
Speaker 1: Although the brutal killer was safely off the streets, many
41:21
Speaker 1: were left wondering why he had waged his vengeful campaign
41:25
Speaker 1: against riversides working women.
41:28
Speaker 6: He was bitter, very bitter, and a lot of that
41:31
Speaker 6: was towards women. I had a domineering mother, Your wife
41:36
Speaker 6: leaves you in prison, divorces you. Women are always doing
41:41
Speaker 6: something wrong to you.
41:45
Speaker 2: In his mind, the prositus would represent is the lowest
41:49
Speaker 2: of all possible females. At the same time, because he
41:53
Speaker 2: can pay them and tell them what to do, they
41:55
Speaker 2: are also objects to be controlled.
42:01
Speaker 1: But were Bilsop's brutal actions the inevitable result of the
42:04
Speaker 1: troubled path he trod, or was he born to kill?
42:10
Speaker 4: It's hard for me to say someone is really a
42:11
Speaker 4: born killer, but he certainly had a lot of predisposition.
42:17
Speaker 8: I think he was born with this tendency to violence
42:20
Speaker 8: and cruelty, and he actually had that within him. But
42:25
Speaker 8: so do a lot of people, and they don't act
42:27
Speaker 8: on it and they never do anything with it.
42:30
Speaker 3: Something triggered his actions that allowed all the past upbringings
42:37
Speaker 3: and challenges to surface.
42:41
Speaker 7: Maybe our marriage breaking up might have sparked it. Killing
42:46
Speaker 7: DJE might have sparked a little fire, and then it
42:50
Speaker 7: had ten years to burn from prison into Texas.
43:02
Speaker 1: For many, the memory of Saff's murderous campaign has finally faded,
43:07
Speaker 1: but some will never forget the vulnerable women who lost
43:11
Speaker 1: their lives.
43:13
Speaker 10: When I reflect on my mom and remember her memories,
43:16
Speaker 10: I smile. I don't really dwell on a lot of
43:21
Speaker 10: that negativity my life now. I try to live with honor,
43:26
Speaker 10: be trustworthy, and set a good example, and that honors
43:30
Speaker 10: her memory because I'm her son.
44:00
Speaker 12: The hell no, no,