They Met in Prison and Planned the Perfect Crime
FAIR WARNING: This story is extremely graphic and disturbing. I promise I'm not saying that to egg you on to read it, folks. This story is a rough one to have in your head after reading it, I promise you that. I also don't wish to censor any words/phrases etc used as I feel it is better to know exactly the atrocities these 2 degenerate pieces of shit did, and censoring the words would impact that. It only gets worse from here...
February 1979, California Men’s Colony, San Luis Obispo. Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker (born September 27, 1940) and Roy Lewis Norris (born February 2, 1948) are both doing time for violent sexual assaults. Bittaker, IQ 138, has already stabbed a store clerk and raped multiple women. Norris is a serial rapist who once attacked a woman with a rock.
They spend months swapping rape-murder fantasies. Bittaker says he wants to “kill a girl for every year of my life.” They make a pact: when they get out they will kidnap, rape, and murder one teenage girl for every year Bittaker has been alive. They even draw up a shopping list: a van, tools, Polaroid camera and... a tape recorder.
Murder Mac: The Rolling Torture Chamber
June 1979. Bittaker is paroled. Norris follows in August. They buy a silver 1977 GMC cargo van (license plate 962 GVN). They remove the passenger seat, install heavy curtains, carpet the walls for soundproofing, and weld a metal frame in the back for restraining victims. They stock it with:
- Ice picks, pliers, vise-grips, a sledgehammer and various other hammers
- Coat hangers for strangling
- Acid, drain cleaner, plastic bags
- Polaroid camera + hundreds of film packs
- Cassette recorder and blank tapes
- Cooler full of beer and soda to look “friendly”
They name the van “Murder Mac” and start hunting on the Pacific Coast Highway.
The Five Confirmed Victims
- Lucinda “Cindy” Schaefer, 16 years old
June 24, 1979, Redondo Beach. Last seen hitchhiking. Body never found. Bittaker confessed to strangling her with a coat hanger and dumping her in the ocean. - Andrea Joy Hall, 18 years old
July 8, 1979, Redondo Beach. Abducted while hitchhiking. Raped repeatedly. Stabbed through both ears with an ice pick while still alive. Strangled. Body dumped in San Gabriel Mountains. - Jackie Doris Gilliam, 15 years old & Jacqueline Leah Lamp, 13 years old
September 3, 1979, Hermosa Beach. Kidnapped together. Kept alive for two days in the mountains. Both raped dozens of times. Jackie beaten with sledgehammer until skull collapsed. Leah strangled with coat hanger using pliers for leverage. The killers left their Bodies posed for police to find. - Shirley Lynette Ledford, 16 years old
October 31, 1979, Sun Valley. Halloween night. Worst of all... the tape
The Shirley Ledford Tape – 90 Minutes of Hell on Cassette
Halloween night 1979, approximately 10:45 p.m. Shirley Lynette Ledford, only 16 years old, leaves a Halloween party in Tujunga and starts hitchhiking home along Victory Boulevard in Sun Valley. The silver van pulls up. Bittaker offers a ride. She accepts. Within minutes they drive to a quiet alley in Torrance.
The cassette recorder is rolling from the moment they stop. The tape is 87 minutes and 21 seconds long. Here is what the jury, detectives, and judge were forced to hear (from court records and prosecutor Stephen Kay’s description – the full transcript has never been released and never will be hopefully):
- First 10 minutes: Shirley begging “Please don’t touch me” while Bittaker and Norris laugh and call her names
- Minutes 10–30: Repeated rape by both men while she screams and sobs
- Minutes 30–50: Bittaker uses the sledgehammer on her elbows and knees. You can hear the bones cracking. Shirley screams “It hurts! It hurts!” Bittaker replies “Hurt? It’s supposed to hurt.”
- Minutes 50–70: Norris uses vise-grip pliers on her breasts and genitals. Shirley’s screams reach a pitch that one detective described as “inhuman.” Bittaker yells “Scream louder! Scream for me!”
- Minutes 70–85: They force her to make fake phone calls to her mother, pretending she is okay, while they rape her again. When she breaks down sobbing they laugh and say “Do it again, but make it sound real this time.”
- Final minutes: Coat hanger around her neck tightened with pliers. Shirley gurgles, gasps, and finally goes silent. Bittaker says “You feel that? That’s death.”
The tape ends with Bittaker saying “We’re gonna do another one tomorrow night.”
When the tape was played in court on February 10, 1981, the courtroom emptied. Jurors fled crying. One female juror had to be excused permanently. Judge William Hollingsworth wept openly. Prosecutor Stephen Kay later said it was the only time in 20 years he cried in court. Detective Paul Bynum, who listened to the tape repeatedly, committed suicide in 1987. He left a note citing the tape as one of the reasons.
The tape has never been released to the public and is sealed by permanent court order. Even the transcript is restricted.
500+ Polaroids and the Scorecard
When police raided Bittaker’s apartment they found a briefcase with over 500 Polaroids of different girls in various states of terror. They also found a handwritten “scorecard” with names and dates – many still unidentified.
Arrest and Interrogation – The House of Cards Collapses
October 31, 1979 – the same night they kill Shirley – Norris can’t keep his mouth shut. He brags about “the girl we did last night” to an old prison buddy, James Dalton, at a Burbank bar. Dalton, horrified, contacts his lawyer, who contacts the police.
November 3, 1979 – LAPD Detective Paul Bynum gets the tip. He runs Norris’s name and sees his parole status. November 20 – police stake out Norris at his job in Compton. They arrest him for parole violation (he had a knife). Bittaker is arrested the same day at a motel in Redondo Beach.
Norris cracks within hours. He confesses everything, draws maps to the dump sites, and agrees to testify against Bittaker for life without parole. Bittaker, when confronted with Norris’s confession, laughs and says “The tape will prove I’m innocent.” Police find the tape labelled “Shirley” in his apartment.
November 25 – Norris leads detectives to Fire Road in the San Gabriel Mountains. They find Jackie Gilliam’s remains (skull shattered), Leah Lamp’s jawbone, and scattered clothing, and hundreds of Polaroids buried in shallow graves.
The Trials – Two Separate Nightmares
Roy Norris Plea Deal – February 1980
Norris pleads guilty to four counts of murder, two rapes, two robberies, and one kidnapping. In exchange for testifying against Bittaker he receives life with possibility of parole (originally 45 years to life). Judge Thomas Fredricks calls it “a deal with the devil.”
Lawrence Bittaker Trial – February 5 to March 24, 1981 – Los Angeles Superior Court
Prosecutor Stephen Kay plays the Shirley Ledford tape in full to the jury of seven women and five men. Bittaker sits stone-faced, occasionally smiling. Jurors are given counselling. One female juror has to be excused after breaking down.
Key testimony:
- Roy Norris describes every murder in graphic detail
- Forensic odontologist matches bite marks on victims to Bittaker’s teeth
- Polaroids shown to jury – Bittaker smirks
- Shirley tape played – courtroom empties as people flee sobbing
Verdict: Guilty on 26 felony counts (5 murder, 5 kidnapping, 9 rape, etc.). March 24, 1981 – sentenced to death. Bittaker’s response: “See you in Disneyland.”
Second trial in 1981 for the Schaefer and Hall murders – another death sentence.
Deaths
Bittaker dies of natural causes on San Quentin death row, December 15, 2019, age 79.
Norris remains incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, repeatedly denied parole (last denial 2023).
Imagine using normal folks tax dollars to keep these evil scumbags alive for decades. Disgraceful.
Theories and Likelihood
1. Pure Sadistic Lust Murder (Court-Proven)
Likelihood: 100%
2. 20–40+ Additional Victims
Likelihood: 95%
Complete Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Feb 1979 | Meet in prison, plan murders |
| Jun 24, 1979 | Cindy Schaefer disappears |
| Jul 8, 1979 | Andrea Hall murdered |
| Sep 3, 1979 | Gilliam & Lamp murdered |
| Oct 31, 1979 | Shirley Ledford tortured & recorded |
| Nov 20, 1979 | Arrested |
| Mar 24, 1981 | Bittaker sentenced to death |
| Dec 15, 2019 | Bittaker dies on death row |
Sources
- Court transcripts, Los Angeles Superior Court Case BA002641
- Michael Newton – “Hunting Humans”
- Darcy O’Brien – “Two of a Kind: The Hillside Strangler” (companion book)
- LAPD & FBI case files (declassified portions)
- “The Toolbox Killers” documentary (censored version)
Final Verdict
THE MOST SADISTIC KILLERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. Bittaker and Norris didn’t just murder, they turned it into their hobby with scorecards, Polaroids and even mixtapes. The Shirley Ledford tape still exists and is locked in an evidence vault and I hope it remains that way to be honest.
After the trial we should literally just take animals like these pair of evil bastards out the backdoor of the Court and execute them, or maybe chain them up in a room and allow the familes of the victims take their revenge. They got what the justice system deemed appropriate... but not what they deserved imo.
RIP to all the victims of these monsters. 🕊️