The Tool Box Killers: Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris

The Toolbox Killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris were the torture team known as the Toolbox Killers. They received the name because they use basic household tools to inflict unimaginable torments on their victims. Young teenage girls in the Los Angeles area. The men would give rides to hitchhiking girls and then take them to remote locations where they would sexually torture, torment and murder them.

The men's fifth and final victim died on Halloween night 1979. Sixteen-year-old Lynette Ledford was hitchhiking home from a party when they picked her up. She was beaten with a sledgehammer and raped and tortured with a pair of pliers and then dumped on a neighbor's lawn where a jogger found her the next morning. Norris bragged about the murder to an ex-convict friend who gave the information to authorities. The men were arrested and the photographic and audio evidence was recovered. Norris confessed to the abductions, but he blamed Bittaker for the murders. Norris cut a plea deal. He testified against his partner in crime in exchange for life in prison. As of today, however, Lawrence Bittaker remains incarcerated on death row at San Quentin.

Overall, police found over 500 photos of teenaged girls, 19 of which were listed as missing. But Norris clammed up and would only tell investigators what happened to five of the 19 missing girls.

Span of crimes: June 24 – October 31, 1979

Listen to the full podcast: https://youtu.be/6GtHHg6-N_0
https://radiowasteland.us/episode/000137/