Serial Killer Documentary - The Riverside Prostitute Killer

Serial Killer Documentary - The Riverside Prostitute Killer

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
In the early nineties, Riverside's women became the target of
a sadistic killer.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Where had where were for Creven?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
His victims subjected to a twisted form of brutality.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
He had taken the breast that he had cut off
and tossed it maybe thirty forty feet away.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
As his confidence grew.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
He wanted to be in power. He wanted to be
an authority, He wanted to be in control.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
The body count rose.

Speaker 5 (00:31):
We had to catch it. He wasn't going to stop.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Once you get the taste of blood like that, and
you're a serial murder, you're going to continue doing it.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
But what was the root of his inner fury?

Speaker 6 (00:41):
You had turned around look at me, and I was like,
oh god, you know now I'm going to get it?

Speaker 1 (00:45):
And was he born to kill? Riverside city in southern California.

(01:24):
The community originally built on the rich pickings of a
booming citrus industry. By the nineteen nineties, the farming fortunes
had faded away, but a shift to light industry had
revitalized the local economy, ensuring the sun drenched community was
still firmly on the map.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
Riverside was very much considered a suburb of the Los
Angeles area. We were about fifty miles east of Los
Angeles in a Orange county and it was a very
quiet community. People loved it.

Speaker 7 (01:56):
It was very social, very friendly. It reminded me a
lot of Southern communities.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Although crime figures were generally low, one area did not
live up to the city's clean cut reputation.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
This was quite the boulevard in the day where everybody
hung out.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Former detective Christine Kias recalls Riversides notorious crime hotspot.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
University Avenue was I would say, a cluttered street, disheveled
drug dealers, gang members, prostitutes.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
After dark. You didn't want to drive down there if
you were a normal citizen.

Speaker 8 (02:37):
From the freeway up.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
The girls would hang out and the Johns would pick
them up.

Speaker 8 (02:44):
They were drug users.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
They had families to support, so they would go out
and work the streets, getting money, turning tricks, getting their heroin,
and taking care of their families.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Although detective kids use to the daily challenges thrown up
by the streets, a call to a factory complex in
December nineteen ninety one would reveal a crime of an
altogether different nature.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
The middle section of this trash bin holder.

Speaker 8 (03:16):
Was open and the body was right here.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Twenty seven year old local prostitute Susan Sternfield had been
brutally strangled, but the killers twisted actions had not ended there.
He had elaborately positioned the victim's body after she had died.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
She was what we call posed. She wasn't just laid out,
She wasn't just dump there. Her feet, her hands, her
legs were positioned by the perpetrator.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
The body was posed for us, legs open. Basically saying
here's your trash, it's right here. Brings back those horrible memories.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
But the bizarre nature of the crime had been witnessed
before in Riverside.

Speaker 7 (04:27):
And there was a worker at another industrial complex who
was cleaning and he went to the dumpster and found
a body lying inside.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
As in the case of Susan Sternfield, prostitute Sheryl Cocha
had been brutally strangled. The killer had also spent time
displaying the victim's body after her death.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
She was basically laid there, her legs were apart.

Speaker 5 (05:01):
Rarely does the killer position the body or take the
clothes off the body. It was a very purposeful, specific killing.

Speaker 9 (05:11):
When a killer poses victims. It's a kind of in
your face statement to whoever finds them, so it adds
one more layer to their feeling of power.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Detectives were also shocked to discover that the victim's body
had been grotesquely mutilated.

Speaker 8 (05:30):
On Cheryl, there was a severed breast.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
We found it up the hill where he would have
thrown it. It was probably at least around fifty to
seventy feet from the body, so it was a purposeful heave.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
That he obviously did not like prostitutes or did not
like ladies of this nature. Because of the violence that
had taken place with.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Her, As Detective Keears compared the cases of the two
murdered women, she quickly began to fear the worst.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
I went back and spoke with my superiors and told
them that we've got a pattern going here, So where
this is going to take.

Speaker 8 (06:17):
Us, we'll find out.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
We were beginning to sense that we had a serial
killer in our midst.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
The Riverside community would remain unaware of the danger lurking
amongst them. One such resident was easy going local Bill
suff Twenty three years previously, he had been fresh out
of high school in nearby Lake Elsinore. As an awkward teenager,

(06:48):
he had never managed to land a long term girlfriend,
but one local girl had caught his eye.

Speaker 6 (06:56):
I was about fifteen. Yeah, it was at a football
game in California. I saw him and he seemed like
a pretty nice guy. He was good looking and he
had a nice smile. He was kind of shy. I
gave him my phone number. I said, give me a call,
and I really did not expect to hear from him again.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Although Bill Relo catered to Texas for basic military training,
he exchanged a number of letters with Terrell. However, some
weeks later, a phone call from the new recruit would
be met by some shocking news.

Speaker 6 (07:35):
I did tell him that I wasn't going to be
able to see him anymore because I had been raped
and I got pregnant. And he said, no, let's get married.
I'll take care of your child, and so December thirteenth,
nineteen sixty nine, we were married.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
The newly wedded serviceman was away in Texas when Terrell's
daughter was born.

Speaker 6 (08:01):
He came back and told me that we couldn't take
the baby back with us to Texas because he had
told his superiors that the baby died.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
And thank kind of through me, Bill would arranged for
his mother and stepfather to adopt Terrell's newly born baby
several years earlier. Suff's own childhood in a single parent

(08:34):
family had fallen somewhat short of the all American dream.

Speaker 7 (08:40):
Bilshoff grew up with a very dominant, cold, non loving mother.
He was always trying to acquire his mother's approval and
she denied it to him at every turn.

Speaker 6 (08:52):
His father left when they were young, so conversations about
the past, I think he was trying to As.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
The eldest of five siblings, Suff would take on a
leading role in the household.

Speaker 10 (09:07):
Bill's place in the family was really the substitute patriarch.
The other kids got into trouble, ranging from killing animals
to starting fires, and Bill was always the hero who
got them out of trouble.

Speaker 9 (09:22):
The fact that Steff had to take over a lot
of responsibilities when his father left would have affected him
in some ways, but I think because of this he
probably found a way of controlling others and controlling his environment.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
But despite being a dominant force at home, Suff wouldn't
stand out at school.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
He was involved in the high school marching band. He
didn't have any disciplinary issues or problems. His grades were
pretty average, nothing unusual.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
But the reserved teenager was evidently not happy with his life.

Speaker 7 (10:02):
He was trying to get attention from his different classmates.
You know, he was like a non entity.

Speaker 10 (10:08):
Most of his friends and acquaintances didn't think of him
as certainly the big man on campus.

Speaker 7 (10:15):
He was desperate for approval and recognition and he wasn't
receiving it from anybody, and it just infuriated him. It
created this powerful rage in him to prove his worth,
his value, and his power.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Basically, as self continued his studies, no one could have
ever imagined the extent to which he would go to
make his mark in Riverside County. In December nineteen ninety,

(10:50):
police suspected a link between the brutal murders of two
Riverside prostitutes. Both victims had been strangled and elaborately displayed
in a realistic manner. As police searched for leeds, they
were desperate to catch the perpetrator who was striking directly
at the vulnerable women within the community.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
The women that would work University Avenue were actually pretty
well known. Many of them grew up in the Riverside area.
That's where they went to school. Their families were there
as well.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Having worked in the vice squad, Detective Keears knew the
girls well and was determined to restore safety on the streets.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
I think they've felt like I understood, so they would
share things with me. I would make sure I would
go out and meet the girls and I would give
them advice and tell them, you know, be very careful.

Speaker 8 (11:43):
I'm not here to arrest you.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
I'm just letting you know that we have a crazy
man out here that's killing prostitutes.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Many were left with little choice but to continue working
the streets earlier. One such woman in nearby Lake Elsinore
had been thirty five year old Carol Lynn Miller.

Speaker 11 (12:09):
My mom was this tiny, little pretty thing, but she
was like a force of nature. She was the sweet,
loving mom, and she liked to write poems and draw
and go to church. I have photographs that we would
take during that time, and I can see it in
my face. I could see it in my eyes and
my smile, just how happy I was to be.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
With my mother.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
However, Carol Lynn's life was becoming increasingly troubled, although he
frequently visited her, Shannon would predominantly be brought up by
his grandparents.

Speaker 11 (12:44):
She also had this dark side that was kind of
shrouded by drugs, so I got to see both sides
of her. She was a prostitute and I had to
come to terms with that. But through all those times,
she was always my mom, and as I got older,
I started to understand more or her struggles.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
But in February nineteen ninety, tragedy struck.

Speaker 11 (13:08):
My grandma threw her arms around me and said, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry your mom passed away.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Caroldin's body had been discovered in an isolated spot within
a citrus grove. Her body had been displayed in a
brazen manner after her death, caused by asphyxiation and multiple
stab wounds.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
She had a number of centered stab wounds to her chest.
They weren't random, not slashing, just very deliberate.

Speaker 11 (13:47):
I got hit with a sledgehammer, That's what it felt
like to me, and my body swelled with emotion. I
felt like the world was collapsing and around me, and
I went out to my little trailer that I lived
in behind Grandma's and I just laid on the bird collapsing.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Although Carol Lynn's displayed body bore the marks of a
brutal attack. An object discovered at the scene revealed a
different side to her twisted killer, and there.

Speaker 5 (14:17):
Was a partially eating grapefruit by the body.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
If he felt he could eat a grapefruit while standing
there and looking at the body, looking at and admiring
his work, that would tell one that he is definitely
not worried about the police catching him.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
When an individual goes above and beyond what is necessary
to kill the person, it tells you just how ratifying
it is for him to expose himself to the risk
of apprehension in order to carry out what he's doing.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
The Sheriff's Department had also discovered two other victims bizarrely
displayed on a and ground, their bodies subjected to mutilation
and other grotesque forms of abuse.

Speaker 5 (15:07):
One victim was found with a light bulb that had
been inserted a per vaginal area. We had items stuffed
down people's throats and mouths after they were dead.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
When Detective Keeres linked the method of murder with the
cases in Riverside, there could be no doubt the sadistic
crimes were the work of one man.

Speaker 8 (15:30):
The cause of death in these cases were strangulation.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
The pressure was so much it would break the bone.

Speaker 8 (15:37):
Here, so it's quite violent.

Speaker 9 (15:41):
Strangulation for murder is very personal, but the person very
close to the victim and feeling the life force leaving.
So that is often about domination and a feeling of power.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Despite a lack of witnesses, the brazen killer had left
tire marks and carpetfire at many of the murder sines,
giving investigators an insight into his movements, and so.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
They realized the perpetrator was going back and forth between
the County Sheriff's department area and the city in the
same vehicles, and that they needed to combine resources to
finding this person and stopping him.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
As detectives created a joint task force, Riverside County Warehouse
would be called upon to help with logistics. One of
the regular stock clerks was local man forty year old
Bill suff.

Speaker 5 (16:37):
He would provide us with all the equipment, all the desks,
all the chairs that we needed to create the task
force site.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
As well as carrying out his duties, the diligent employee
would also show an interest in the ongoing investigation.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
He had conversations with our investigators about the homicide victims.
In fact, a homicide victim was found one morning when
two of the investigators were with Bill and their pager
went off, and Bill made the comment to them, oh
did you find another body?

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Twenty years earlier, Bill suff had just relocated to Texas
to pursue a life in the Air Force. However, his
career as an aid in a military hospital hadn't been illustrious.

Speaker 10 (17:28):
His military career was essentially unremarkable, certainly not glorious.

Speaker 6 (17:34):
I do not know what kind of discharge he got.
One day he's in the next day is not.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
And it would soon become apparent that the newly married
SEFs were not headed for wedded bliss.

Speaker 10 (17:47):
Bill's relationship with Tarhot was one of manipulation control.

Speaker 6 (17:54):
He didn't like me going to the laundromatalone. He didn't
like me going to the grocery shopping alone. He was
the one that was supposed to be in charge of everything.
Our sex life was you know you're ready when I am.
I would lay down and do it and be glad.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
And Terrell would soon discover more worrying signs from her
domineering partner.

Speaker 6 (18:23):
We had a kitten and one night he was meow
and and me and me owen, and Bill holding to
shut up, and the catches me on, me on, me on,
and so he had a little baby gun and he
shot him with a baby gun and killed it. And
that scared the Bejesus out of me.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Although the arrival of a baby boy was met with
self's approval, his enthusiasm didn't last.

Speaker 6 (18:51):
He was pleased right after the baby was born, but
then Billy took up an awful out of my time,
so I couldn't pay total attention to Bill.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Terryl would become increasingly disturbed as her husband's behavior towards
their son deteriorated.

Speaker 6 (19:09):
He would smack him on the face. I told him,
you don't do that, and he would kind of turn
around look at me and was like, oh god, you
know now I'm going to get it.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
He had no attachment or no bonding to anybody, including children.
It meant nothing to him to beat a child.

Speaker 9 (19:31):
He doesn't see them as people. He sees them merely
as objects, and very similar to the way he saw
his wife.

Speaker 8 (19:38):
They belonged to him.

Speaker 9 (19:39):
They're his possessions.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Despite Sef's abusive behavior, the couple would have another child,
with Terryll working to make ends meet, stuff would become
the stay at home dad until tragedy struck in nineteen
seventy three.

Speaker 6 (19:57):
He called me and said something's wrong with the baby,
so I said, I gotta go.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
When Terrell arrived back at her flat in Fort Worth,
she headed straight for the couple's bedroom.

Speaker 6 (20:13):
Djona was laying on the bed and Bill was saying,
there's something wrong. She's not breathing. There's something wrong. And
I was like, did you call an ambulance?

Speaker 8 (20:24):
He says no.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
When the emergency services finally arrived on the scene, it
would prove too late for the baby girl.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
They pronounced deje did And then I found out that
my baby, it's so abused.

Speaker 7 (20:55):
The injuries that the doctors were able to diagnose on
dshone were extensive and an indicated chronic physical abuse. Her
liver had actually been ruptured by a fist blow to
her stomach.

Speaker 6 (21:10):
He tried to give the impression that he was upset,
but I never saw tears.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
At Texas court would sentence Bilsuff to seventy years in
prison for the murder of his two month old daughter.
Seventeen years later, in nineteen ninety one, the posed body
of a sixth prostitute, Kathleen Puckett, had been discovered near

(21:43):
Lake Elsino. Police would focus their search on the victims
regular workplace, Riverside City's notorious University Avenue.

Speaker 8 (21:53):
I did feel my victim of the well, I don't
think the girl really don't like the ring here even though.

Speaker 12 (22:05):
They were worn.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Problem of the crown never happened there never happened.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
But despite the focus of their investigation, a break in
the case would eventually come from out of county. A
tip off in Wisconsin established a prime suspect for the
twisted murders that had plagued Riverside for over a year.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
We thought that the suspect might be a truck driver
because they fit a lot of profile type of information
going out there, we felt this is our guy.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
It was published in the newspaper that we were all
back in the Midwest looking at a suspect in this case.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
But as investigators headed out of state, Detective Keyers would
be forced to return to the back alleys of Riverside
City as yet an another murder was unveiled.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
The body was located over here in the dirt outside
the back door here.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
And there was no mistaking whose work it was. Riverside
serial killer had struck again.

Speaker 13 (23:20):
The body was laid out, a nude exposed, Her legs
were spread out, and her arms were not just randomly dumped.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
To expose their genitalian private areas. It would be disgusting
for a woman to know that somebody has done that
to her.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
The body would be identified as another prostitute. Twenty four
year old Cherie Pacer.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Shari Pacer was a deaf girl, young, sweet. This was
a very sad situation.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
As the remainder of the task force returned from the
false lead in Wisconsin, police felt there was little doubt
that the killer was sending them a very personal message.

Speaker 10 (24:13):
He was mad.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
He was responding to the fact that this task force
had gone off and diverted attention from whatever he was doing.

Speaker 8 (24:22):
But I think he thought, oh, I'll show them I'm
right here still.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
In nineteen ninety one, Riverside Police and the Sheriff's Department
had formed a task force to hunt a prolific, ritualistic
killer preying on local prostitutes throughout the county. But as
the body count hit seven, the elusive perpetrator remained one
step ahead of the authorities, did not.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Go one from where we're going to have any body
where the body was going to be. Once we had
a announcement in the newspaper that a body had been found,
it wasn't much longer would have another body.

Speaker 8 (25:21):
So it told me that this guy is just running
a wrong.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Seven years earlier, in nineteen eighty four, local man Bill
suff had been paroled in Texas, having served just ten
years for the murder of his baby daughter. Newly divorced,
the thirty four year old had decided to relocate.

Speaker 10 (25:47):
Despite the fact that he was supposed to not leave
the jurisdiction.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
Bill came back to his old.

Speaker 10 (25:52):
Stomping grounds of Riverside of Lake Elsinore and just started
his life over as if anything wrong that had occurred
to him just a big mistake, and he was an
innocent man.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
He was very mild mannered, He was friendly, he was outgoing,
he was helping people. He was your next door neighbor.

Speaker 10 (26:12):
Bill Souft liked to be known as somebody who was
standing up for truth justice in the American way, and
he was going to be there to protect you, certainly
to the extent of being someone who was out watching
your back when you weren't watching it.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Bill would hold down a variety of jobs in Riverside
City and was always keen to get involved in the community.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
He won the chili cookoff at the County employees picnic
one year, and the county had a ride share program
so employees would get together and environmentally do the right
thing and commute to and from work together. He was
the poster boy with his silver van. He was there

(26:55):
smiling on the cover and the headline said take a
ride with Bill.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
In nineteen ninety, forty year old Suff would marry an
eighteen year old supermarket girl. His second wife would soon
learn there was a very different side to the happy,
go lucky Bill Suff.

Speaker 7 (27:20):
He basically was like a boss to her. He just
dominated her completely.

Speaker 10 (27:26):
She was just pushed around and scared off. He wanted
you in a position where you would never dare investigate
or ask a question or intrude on him in any way.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Despite his prior conviction for the murder of his child
during his first marriage, Bill would father another baby girl.

Speaker 10 (27:51):
The problem with adding a child to any Bill suff
relationship is that he's the narcissist. He's the egoist. It's
all about him when it ceases to be when you
have a child to take care of.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Increasingly absent from home, suff would focus his attentions on
an issue that he insisted was plaguing the area.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
He would go around telling people that there was a
problem with the prostitutes and they needed to clean up
the area and get rid of the prostitutes.

Speaker 7 (28:22):
He would just make braving comments about the prostitutes being
a plague upon the city because they're dirty, they carried disease,
they discourage other business.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
But despite his campaign to have the working girls removed
from the streets, suff was leading a double life that
was at odds with his impassioned rhetoric.

Speaker 5 (28:42):
In fact, he was partaking of the prostitute's services. He
was very much too personas in the same.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Body, and all the time Bill Suff's secret life would
remain hidden.

Speaker 10 (28:58):
It's not like he came home with a load of
excuses as to why he was gone for hours and hours.
He would just simply come home at whatever weird hour
it was and go, hey, honey, I'm home.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
I don't think he wanted to tell anybody about anything
of what he was doing or what he was thinking.

Speaker 5 (29:17):
He had no attachment to adults.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
To women, to children, to animals, to anything.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Just six months later, the ritualistic killer plaguing Riverside County
struck again with the murder of prostitute Kelly Hammond. But
this time the elusive perpetrator had slipped up. The victim's
best friend had witnessed her being picked up in a
silver van.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
She told me that he was a white male, probably
in his late forties, who work glasses. So now we
have a color of vehicle, we have a description of
an individual. Now we need to find the individual. We
need to find the van, and we can tie it
all up.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
As the task force attempted to close the net around
the killer, Bill Suff's nighttime visits to the red light
District would remain under the police radar. However, during the
day he would regularly brush shoulders with the law as
he handed out police equipment in a county warehouse.

Speaker 7 (30:26):
Bill really enjoyed this role because he got to be
seen as the boss of the warehouse. They knew he
was not the boss, but whenever they wanted anything, they
had to go see Bill.

Speaker 10 (30:38):
Bill was simultaneously a popular okay guy and yet for
other people he was that guy who seemed to make
you a little bit uncomfortable, but you didn't know why.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Although Bill wasn't employed by the police force, he would
take a keen interest in law enforcement in his spare time.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
It's apartmercr complex. He always would like to view himself
as the protector, as a security guard type of individual.
He'd have a jacket that almost looks semi official.

Speaker 10 (31:12):
If people saw him in an odd place, they wouldn't
they go, what's he doing there? It was like, Oh,
that's Bill, He's supposed to be in that odd place.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
As self continued to patrol his neighborhood, Riverside police were
desperately chasing up leads following a detailed description of the
suspected serial killer. However, Detective Kiars was about to experience
another unexpected turn to the horrific case.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
I made a comment that this particular individual had a
specific desire for white women. The chief at that point
made a statement indicating that our suspect didn't like Africa
American females, he liked white girls. And it was after

(32:06):
that that we found the body of McDonald.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Catherine McDonald had been a black prostitute. Last scene working
Riversides University Avenue.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
The publication in the paper I think drove our suspect
to say I can get an African American.

Speaker 8 (32:26):
I don't need to just get whites. I'll show you.

Speaker 9 (32:29):
Part of that is disdain they think they're superior to
the investigators, but also it's a feeling of I'm the
one in charge. I'm the dominant person here. I'll make
decisions about what I do or don't do.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Worryingly, the killer's change of mo appeared to be partnered
by an increased level of violence.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Her breast was removed, which was one of his traits,
but she also had additional stab marks. The wounds on
her so severe and so violent that she was almost
a capitated.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
And the killers heenous crimes were becoming more frequent.

Speaker 5 (33:10):
Because of the manner in which these homicides were occurring,
now at an exponential rate, we became more concern.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Once you get the taste of blood like that and
you're a serial murder, you're going to continue doing.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
In nineteen ninety one, a Riverside task force finally had
the description of a man suspected of murdering at least
eleven innocent women, but as police tried to close the
net around the elusive killer. The hunt was becoming increasingly desperate.

Speaker 5 (33:50):
We had to catch it. We had no choice. He
wasn't going to stop obviously. Matter of fact, he was
expediting his rate of kill. We were und morning.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
As they continued to be targeted, Detective Kiers would stay
close to the working girls on the street.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
I would talk to the girls, build up that rapport
with the women that were out there working so that
they would trust me, that they would call me if
something happened. That they knew that it wasn't just about
catching a murder, it was about helping them.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
The detective had built up a particularly close relationship with
thirty nine year old Eleanor Kazares.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Eleanor Cassaris and I got along very well. Eleanor was sweet, soft,
just a gentle person. It was such a difference from
her family background.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
As the festive season approached, Eleanor would continue to work
University Avenue despite the fact that a serial killer was
on the loose. Just two days before Christmas, he would
strike again. As usual. Police would discover a meticulously posed

(35:11):
body when they attended the murder scene in a suburb
of Riverside City.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
An upper class area, so rather interesting. The condition of
her body was displayed. Some of her fingernails were broken,
and her body had been moved from one spot to another.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
The killer's trademark brutality was also plain to see. The
victim had been horrifically mutilated, her breast cut off and
thrown away from the corpse.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
I wanted to move the hair off of her face
so I could see who it was, and that's when
I moved the hair, and it was Eleanor.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
An autopsy would later reveal that Eleanor Cassars had been
murdered and dumped in broad daylight by the increasingly brazen killer.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
When I saw who it was, I was very very upset.
I just felt sick inside that this happened on my watch.
I felt really responsible to get the solved and get
it solved.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Immediately, and Eleanor's death might just provide the key to
unlock the sordid case.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
There was a lot of evidence here. I was able
to determine that the perpetrator had actually backed up into
the place where he stopped. I was able to tell
the investigators exactly what tires that we were looking for.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Unusually, none of the tires on the killer's vehicle were
of the same make.

Speaker 5 (36:51):
How many people drive around four different types of tires
on their vehicle. That's very unique and unusual to begin with.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Police now had detailed information on the van and an
eyewitness description of their prime suspect. The task force was
placed on high alert to catch the prolific killer before
he struck again.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
The plan was that if anybody stopped a vehicle in
the individual driving it matched the description, they were to
call me.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
It would not be long before a traffic officer pulled
over a silver van for an unauthorized U turn in
the red light district of University Avenue.

Speaker 5 (37:33):
He looked inside the man and saw a green blanket
which matched a lot of the fibers, and we saw
her open the van as well.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
When she got the call, Detective Keyars had just one
question for the patrolman.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Look down and tell me what the driver's side front
tire brand was. And when I asked them to go
to the passenger side and give me the brand of that,
that's when I said, okay, I'm en route.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Christine arrived at the scene and was finally confronted with
the man she had been hunting for every year forty
one year old Bill's suff.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I looked at him, and I was rather shocked that
he was so plain, looking, very calm, spoke very softly.
Didn't look like somebody that could commit the atrocious acts.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
At that point in time, he was arrested and brought
to the station.

Speaker 11 (38:42):
My family was contacted by a detective and they said
we got him. And there was a huge ripple o
relief that went through my family and for every family
that was involved in that case.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
But despite his arrest, suff remained unperturbed until detective Is
stayed the questioning to the recent murder of Eleanor Kassaris.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
I leaned forward to him and I said to him,
you were in the orange groves.

Speaker 5 (39:20):
His attitude then did a complete change.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
One He said that when he was out picking oranges,
that he ran across this body and there was a
knife in her, and he pulled the knife out, and
then he made a spontaneous.

Speaker 8 (39:38):
Statement of and I didn't cut her breast off. I
never even asked him about that.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Despite Suff's claims of innocence, a search of his van
and home with unearth damning evidence, we found.

Speaker 5 (39:53):
What we characterized as trophies or souvenirs, personal items belonging
to the victims. A matter of fact, some of the
victims had jewelry that he had taken off the victim's
bodies and given to his girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
Three years later, in nineteen ninety five, Paul Zelebach would
lead the case against Bill Soff.

Speaker 5 (40:14):
Oh I'd charged him with committing thirteen murders of the prostitutes.
We believe he probably murdered twenty to twenty five victims.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
The victims' families would play a significant role in the
ongoing trial, and.

Speaker 5 (40:29):
The mothers and the sisters and the children got to
testify during the penalty phase. I took pride in demonstrating
to the jury that these weren't just prostitutes.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Despite an overwhelming case against him, suff would continue to
plead his innocence.

Speaker 12 (40:47):
Prosecutor Zella back and amused me. You have all painted
a grotesque picture of me as a cold blooded, heartless monster.
They couldn't have been more wrong about me. I am
a caring, life, helpful person. Ask anyone who is close
to me.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
In August nineteen ninety five, Bill suff was found guilty
of twelve.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
Murders the drew returned to a death verdict, and ultimately
he was sentenced to death twelve times.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Although the brutal killer was safely off the streets, many
were left wondering why he had waged his vengeful campaign
against riversides working women.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
He was bitter, very bitter, and a lot of that
was towards women. I had a domineering mother, Your wife
leaves you in prison, divorces you.

Speaker 8 (41:40):
Women are always doing something wrong to you.

Speaker 9 (41:45):
In his mind, deprositus would represent is the lowest of
all possible females. At the same time, because he can
pay them and tell them what to do, they are
also objects to be controlled.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
But were Bilsop's brutal actions the inevitable result of the
troubled path he trod, or was he born to kill?

Speaker 4 (42:10):
It's hard for me to say someone is really a
born killer, but he certainly had a lot of predisposition.

Speaker 7 (42:17):
I think he was born with this tendency to violence
and cruelty, and he actually had that within him. But
so do a lot of people, and they don't act
on it and they never do anything with it.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Something triggered his actions that allowed all the past upbringings
and challenges to surface.

Speaker 6 (42:41):
Maybe our marriage breaking up might have sparked it. Killing
Djana might have sparked a little fire, and then it
had ten years to burn from prison into Texas.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
For many, the memory of Saff's murderous campaign has finally faded,
but some will never forget the vulnerable women who lost
their lives.

Speaker 11 (43:13):
When I reflect on my mom and remember her memories,
I smile. I don't really dwell on a lot of
that negativity my life now. I try to live with honor,
be trustworthy, and set a good example, and that honors
her memory because I'm her son.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
The help, the