Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris - Tool Box Killers
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker and Roy Lewis Norris, infamously referred to
- 0:04as the Toolbox Killers, were two American serial killers and
- 0:09rapists responsible for the abduction, sexual assault, torture, and murder
- 0:14of five teenage girls in southern California during a five
- 0:19month span in nineteen seventy nine. FBI Special agent John
- 0:24Edward Douglas characterized Bittaker as the most unsettling individual for
- 0:30whom he has ever developed a criminal profile. Bittaca was
- 0:34sentenced to death for his involvement in the five murders
- 0:38on March twenty fourth, nineteen eighty one, but he passed
- 0:42away from natural causes while on death row at San
- 0:45Quentin State Prison. In December twenty nineteen. Norris entered into
- 0:51a plea agreement in which he consented to testify against Bittacer,
- 0:56resulting in a life sentence on May seventh, nineteen eight eighty,
- 1:00with the possibility of parole after serving thirty years. He
- 1:05also died of natural causes at the California Medical Facility
- 1:09in February twenty twenty. The moniker Toolbox Killers was attributed
- 1:14to Bittaker and Norris due to the various tools employed
- 1:19in the torture and murder of their victims, including pliers,
- 1:23ice picks, and sledge hammers, which are typically found in
- 1:27a household toolbox. Bittaca and Norris first became acquainted in
- 1:31nineteen seventy seven, shortly after Norris's arrival at San Luis Obispo.
- 1:38Upon his entry into the California Men's Colony, Bittaca perceived
- 1:42Norris as an astute individual who primarily associated with hardened
- 1:47criminals from motorcycle gangs and was involved in the trafficking
- 1:51of illegal drugs. Over time, their relationship deepened and they
- 1:57began to converse amicably. When Norris instatructed Bitaca in the
- 2:01art of jewelry making. Norris later recounted that Bitaca had
- 2:06intervened to protect him from assaults by other inmates on
- 2:10at least two separate occasions. By nineteen seventy eight, their
- 2:15bond had strengthened, revealing a mutual fascination with sexual violence
- 2:21and misogyny. Norris confided in Bittaca that his greatest source
- 2:25of arousal stemmed from witnessing the fear of young women,
- 2:30which he identified as the main reason for his extensive
- 2:34history of sexual offenses. Bittaca, who had no known history
- 2:39of sexual crimes prior to meeting Norris, disclosed to him
- 2:44that should he ever commit rape, he would insure the
- 2:47victim's death to eliminate any potential witnesses. When isolated, the
- 2:53duo frequently engaged in conversations about their intentions to attack
- 2:58and kill teenage girls upon their release. This mutual fantasy
- 3:03developed into a detailed scheme to murder one girl for
- 3:07each year of adolescence, ranging from thirteen to nineteen. They
- 3:13pledged to reconnect after their release. Between February and June
- 3:18of nineteen seventy nine, Bittacer and Norris encountered more than
- 3:21twenty female hitchhikers during this period. They did not harm
- 3:27these individuals. Rather, these encounters served as practice sessions for
- 3:32them to devise strategies to entice young women into their
- 3:36van willingly and to identify remote locations. In late April,
- 3:43they discovered a secluded fire road in the San Gabriel Mountains.
- 3:48Bittaca forcibly opened the locked gate using a crowbar and
- 3:52subsequently substituted the original lock with one that he possessed.
- 3:58Investigation Detective Paul Bynum of Hermosa Beach was tasked with
- 4:02investigating the allegations made by Jackson regarding Norris's admissions of
- 4:07involvement in murders, attempted abductions, and rapes that he had
- 4:12disclosed to Jackson, which purportedly took place between June and October.
- 4:18Bynum observed that Jackson's accounts of Norris's confessions were consistent
- 4:23with reports concerning several teenage girls who had been reported
- 4:28missing in the preceding five months. Furthermore, the incident that
- 4:33Norris recounted to Jackson, in which he claimed that he
- 4:36and Bittaker had used mace on a woman before forcibly
- 4:39taking her into Bittacer's gmc van and assaulting her, corresponded
- 4:45with a report filed about an event that transpired on
- 4:49September thirtie. This report detailed an incident involving a young
- 4:54woman named Robin Roebeck, who had been sprayed in the
- 4:58face with mace and subsequently abducted and raped by two
- 5:03Caucasian men in their mid thirties before being released. Despite
- 5:08Roebeck's report to the police regarding the abduction and assault,
- 5:13law enforcement had been unable to identify her attackers confession.
- 5:18Detective Paul Bynum of Hermosa Beach was tasked with investigating
- 5:22the allegations made by Jackson regarding Norris's admissions of involvement
- 5:27in murders, attempted abductions, and rapes that he had disclosed
- 5:32to Jackson, which purportedly took place between June and October.
- 5:38Bynum observed that Jackson's accounts of Norris's confessions were consistent
- 5:43with reports concerning several teenage girls who had been reported
- 5:47missing in the preceding five months. Furthermore, the incident that
- 5:52Norris recounted to Jackson, in which he claimed that he
- 5:55and Bittaker had used mace on a woman before forcibly
- 5:59taking her into Bittaca's gmc van and assaulting her, corresponded
- 6:05with a report filed about an event that transpired on
- 6:09September thirtieth. This report detailed an incident involving