THE ALPHABET MURDERS

 THE ALPHABET MURDERS

The Alphabet Murders are an unsolved series of child murders which occurred between 1971 and 1973 in Rochester, New York. The first victim was ten year-old Carmen Colón. Carmen was a Puerto Rican child who was reported missing after running an errand to a pharmacy for her grandmother. She was last seen getting into a car. Two days later her body was found twelve miles away in Churchville. She had been raped and strangled. There was evidence of horrendous injuries on the murdered child - including a fractured skull. 

It transpired that some people had seen a partially clothed Carmen Colón trying to flag down motorists along Interstate 490 the day she vanished. One eyewitness said a man (who was obviously the killer) calmly got out and led her back to his car. When this incident came to light there was a lot of public anger that not a single motorist had stopped and attempted to help the child. Those driving past obviously had no idea that the child had been abducted by a serial killer but, even so, one would have thought that at least one person might have stopped to see what was bothering the girl. 

New York newspapers and local businesses banded together to offer a large reward for anyone who might have information relating to the murder of Carmen Colón but the killer remained elusive and there was no significant breakthrough. About a year and a half later, eleven year-old Wanda Walkowicz vanished after running an errand to a store in Rochester. The next day Wanda's body was found by a police officer near State Route 104 in Webster. She had been raped and strangled. The police believed that Wanda's body was thrown from a moving car after her death. Wanda was found clothed and the police presumed that the killer must have redressed her after the assault and murder. 

An examination of Wanda's clothes and body found white cat hairs. Wanda's family did not own a cat with white fur so this was possibly something to go on for investigators. There were eyewitness reports that Wanda was seen getting into a brown car before she vanished. The police at this time dismissed connections between the murders of Carmen Colón and Wanda Walkowicz but it was obvious they shared a number of similarities. Each girl’s first and last name started with the same letter and they were both left in a place that began with the same letter as their names. 

Despite significant police resources thrown at these harrowing murder investigations, there was no breakthrough in the case. Sadly, this killer would soon strike again. Seven months later eleven year-old Michelle Maenza went missing after failing to come home from school. Michelle Maenza's body was found two days later in a ditch in Macedon (which was about fifteen miles from Rochester). She had been raped and strangled. As with the last murder, white cat hairs were found on the victim and as before the victim had names that began with the same same letter and had been dumped in a town which began with that letter. As a consequence of this, the murders would become known as The Alphabet Murders. 

An eyewitness later reported that he had sighted Michelle Maenza standing with a man by a brown vehicle and that she seemed distressed. The motorist said he had stopped to inquire if there was a problem but the man was so terrifying and unfriendly that he drove off. He had not even been able to get the licence plate. Michelle Maenza was also sighted in a fast food diner with the man before her death. A post-mortem showed that she had eaten some hamburger about an hour before she was killed. The police investigated a possible 800 suspects in these murders but the killer was never found. 

The three victims had a number of obvious similarities besides their names. They were of a similar age, from poor backgrounds, from a Catholic family, and had problems at school. For this reason it is speculated that killer might even have had a social services background and may potentially have known these girls. The theory that the victims knew the killer would explain why they got into a vehicle with him. Of course it could just as well be the case that they were forced into the vehicle and didn't know the killer. The fact that these girls all had names which both began with the same letter was suggestive of them being chosen. This would appear to have been a very strange coincidence if they were not specifically chosen - especially when you factor in that the victims bodies were all left in a town that began with the same letter as their names. 

Suspects in this case included Carmen Colón's uncle Miguel Colón. He had a brown car and was seen driving in the vicinity of Interstate 490 just before Carmen was murdered. He also (suspiciously) had just cleaned the inside of his car with chemicals when the police spoke to him. However, nothing substantial linking Miguel Colón to this or any other murder could be found. Dennis Termini was also a suspect in this case. Termini was a Rochester firefighter who was a prolific rapist and abductor of teenage girls. In 2007, Termini's body was exhumed to see if there was a match with DNA found on Wanda Walkowicz's body. There was not match and so Termini was clearly not The Alphabet Killer. 

The most recurring suspect in this case was Kenneth Bianchi - he of The Hillside Stranglers. The Hillside Strangler (later upgraded to The Hillside Stranglers) was seemingly a serial killer who targeted women in Los Angeles from 1977 to 1978. It turned out though that this was not a solitary killer. The Hillside Stranglers were actually cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr. They are believed to have killed ten people as a duo and brought terror to Hollywood and Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The pair would pretend to be undercover policemen and target vulnerable woman. This was a sadistic and sick duo who would rape, torture, and inject their victims with strange drugs. Around 25% of serial killers murder with a partner or accomplice as opposed to killing alone. Such was the case with these two evil men. 

Kenneth Bianchi was born in New York in 1951. Bianchi was said to be quite intelligent but he was also lazy. His mother described him as a compulsive liar. He dropped out of college and took a number of low-wage jobs. He supplemented his income by theft. Bianchi moved around a lot and eventually relocated to Los Angeles - where he became close to his cousin Angelo Buono Jr. Angelo Buono Jr was born in New York in 1934. He was a pimp and criminal. Angelo Buono Jr persuaded his cousin Kenneth Bianchi to join him in pimping out some women that he held hostage and from there their crimes began to spiral into even more serious and disturbing territory. Serial killers who operate as a duo nearly always have a dominant partner. In the case of The Hillside Stranglers it was the older Angelo Buono Jr. 

This was a very sadistic and depraved duo. Their victims had terrible sexual injuries when their bodies were found. Bianchi and Buono Jr seemed to enjoy experimenting with methods of torture. They used lethal injections and electric shocks on the victims before they strangled them. Their youngest victims were two twelve year-old girls. One victim was put in the boot of her car after she was killed and then had the car pushed over a cliff. The Hillside Stranglers once let the daughter of the actor Peter Lorre go though because they calculated that murdering the relative of a celebrity would bring too much unwelcome attention to their activities. 

After ten murders, Buono Jr decided that they should stop killing before they got caught (as you might imagine, there was now a big police operation underway to find the killers of these women). In 1978, Buono Jr ordered Bianchi to move to Bellingham, Washington, and threatened to kill him in he didn't comply. Bianchi did as his crazy cousin requested. Kenneth Bianchi unsuccessfully applied to join the Bellingham Police Department in Washington after completing the tenth murder of The Hillside Stranglers. He knew a number of police officers. He would chat to them sometimes during The Hillside Strangler case. 

The irony was that these two posed as cops (complete with fake ID badges) to rape and kill women. Bianchi's admission that he had spoken to police officers made Angelo Buono Jr jumpy and nervous. Buono Jr feared that the police were suspicious of Bianchi and might start asking him questions that might implicate him or make him a suspect. He knew that if Bianchi was ever arrested it wouldn't be too long before they came knocking on his door. When Buono Jr decided he didn't want to kill anymore, Kenneth Bianchi felt lost and dismayed. 

After The Hillside Stranglers went their separate ways, Kenneth Bianchi killed two more women alone. Bianchi got a job as a security guard at Western Washington University. Two young women named Diane Wilder and Karen Mandic were lured to a house Bianchi was guarding and both strangled to death. Kenneth Bianchi was an incompetent killer with no one to guide him and left a number of clues. He was apprehended the next day. When he was captured, Bianchi confessed that Buono was involved in the murders and tried to use his former partner in crime to get a less severe sentence. Both of these men escaped a death sentence and got life in prison. Bianchi unsuccessfully tried to defend in court himself by claiming multiple personality disorder but experts deduced he was faking this. 

Angelo Buono Jr died in prison of a heart attack in 2002 at the age of 67. Bianci is still in prison and is next eligible to apply for parole in 2025. The chances of this being successful are fairly close to zero you would imagine. Around the time of the Alphabet murders Bianchi lived in Rochester and had a light brown vehicle. His car was allegedly seen near one of the locations where the girls vanished. For what it's worth, Kenneth Bianchi has always denied that he was The Alphabet Murderer. The police investigation into this case is still open and following up new leads. Hopefully, one day the identity of this awful killer will finally be revealed.