My mind

the toolbox killers

They have been on my mind lately so I thought I'd write about them during my test. This story is not for the faint of hearted. It's very gruesome and graphic... You've been warned.

The toolbox killers are my favorite murderers to talk about and their crimes are by far some of the most gruesome murders I've ever heard about.

These crimes were committed by two people by the names of Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris. The two men met in prison at the respective ages of 38 and 30. Norris was labelled as a mentally disordered sex offender and prior to their meeting had spent 4 years in a mental hospital. After being released from this hospital he raped again and was sent to prison. When they met (1978)(California) they began fantasizing together about murdering and raping teenage girls. The two promised to act on their fantasies once being released.

After being released from prison, they turned Bittaker's van into what they called "the murder Mack". This would be the car they kidnapped, raped, and tortured their victims in.

They kidnapped the first of their victims on June 24th, 1979. This was a young girl (age 16) by the name of Cindy Schaeffer. Cindy was on her way to her grandmother's house after attending a church function. The duo tried to entice her into getting in to the van by offering her a ride. She denied their attempts but was eventually forced into the van. They took her to a preselected location in the mountains and raped her and tortured her. She pleaded to them to let her pray before she was killed, but they refused and strangled her to death with a wire coat hanger.

Their next victim was 18 year old, Andrea Hall. She was hitch hiking when they picked her up. Bittaker was hidden in the back while Norris offered her a ride and moments after getting in the car, Andrea was attacked. She was raped and tortured. Then Bittaker asked her why she should be allowed to live and when he didn't like her answer, he speared Andrea's head with an ice pick and strangled her.

They then picked up their youngest victims, Jackie Gilliam(15) and Jacqueline Lamp (13). This tortured lasted two days and then they were eventually murdered with ice picks and wire hangers that were tightened around their necks with pliers. They were also attacked with vice grips.

Their final victim was picked up on Halloween of 1979. Her name was Lynette Ledford. She was 16. She was kidnapped and stabbed many times. She was ripped at with pliers. Her screams and pleas were recorded (I've listened to the tapes) as her elbows were smashed with a sledgehammer. Then she was strangled with a hanger. They decided to leave Lynette's mutilated body on a lawn so that someone could "admire their work" though that is not how they were caught.

They finally got caught when Norris bragged to someone about the final murder. Both killers rotted in prison and one passed away in December of 2019 while the other passed away in early 2020.

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Thank you guys for reading! I hope you found this as intriguing as I did! This was written during a test so if any info is incorrect, please feel free to leave a comment because I couldn't fact check while writing! I have a free bell today that hopefully I will write something else in! Until then, thank you for taking time to visit my mind! See you next chapter (hopefully)!
-xoxo cadi :)