Toolbox Killers' raped and tortured teen victims before brutal deaths

Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris rank amongst the most infamous serial killer partnerships in criminal history. The two offenders, who formed a friendship whilst behind bars, combined forces as they prowled for female victims in a sinister van they dubbed the 'Murder Mac'.

The pair would target young women before abducting, raping, and torturing them through acts of "astonishing cruelty" prior to killing them.

The duo initially met whilst both were detained at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo for separate crimes. Bittaker had been jailed for stabbing a shop assistant who challenged him over shoplifting in 1974, whilst Norris was serving a sentence for rape.

After they bonded and discovered they both harboured similar sadistic desires, the pair devised a scheme to begin raping and torturing girls together, ending in their deaths to avoid detection.

Bittaker secured parole first, and obtained employment in Los Angeles as a machinist. Two months afterwards, Norris also received parole and relocated to his mother's home in LA where he started work as an electrician.

The duo then re-established contact in February 1979, and launched their horrific murder campaign as they put their terrifying scheme into action.

Between February and June that year, the sadistic partnership picked up more than 20 female hitchhikers - "dry runs" for their forthcoming killing spree, investigators suspected. Bittaker and Norris, a pair of monstrous individuals, abducted at least five teenagers aged between 13 to 18, subjecting them to unimaginable torture before ending their lives.

The duo earned the terrifying nickname 'The Toolbox Killers' due to their use of everyday tools such as screwdrivers, icepicks, and pliers in their brutal killings.

Their reign of terror, which took place in southern California's San Gabriel mountains from June to October in 1979, has been etched into history. Their victims were identified as: Lucinda Lynn "Cindy" Schaefer, 16; Andrea Joy Hall, 18; Jackie Doris Gilliam, 15; Jacqueline Leah Lamp, 13; and Shirley Lynette Ledford, 16.

Heartbreakingly, the bodies of Schaefer and Hall were never recovered.

Their first victim was 16-year-old Lucinda Lynn Schaefer, who they murdered on June 24. Bittaker and Norris alternated in raping the teenager before Bittaker strangled her to death.

Andrea Joy Hall became their next prey. After picking her up while she was hitchhiking, they transported her to the same secluded location where they had previously killed Lucinda Schaefer.

Once again, they sexually assaulted their victim, forcing her to walk naked along the road before compelling her to perform oral sex on Bittaker. They took photographs of Andrea, capturing an expression of "sheer terror".

A month later, the brutal killers claimed the lives of two women on the same day. Jacqueline Leah Lamp and Jackie Doris Gilliam were hitchhiking together along California's Pacific Coast Highway when Bittaker and Norris offered them a ride.

The girls, aged just 13 and 15, were attacked, held captive for two days and subjected to horrifying torture.

Among their victims, 16-year-old Shirley Lennette Ledford was the fifth and final young woman to die at their hands. Ledford was leaving a Halloween party on October 31, 1979, and while hitchhiking, was picked up in the notorious Murder Mac by Bittaker and Norris.

Ledford was held captive by the Toolbox Killers for nearly two hours as she was subjected to brutal and unspeakable torture, severe physical beatings, verbal abuse, and sexual assault. The teenager's cause of death was strangulation by a wire coat hanger and her lifeless body was left on someone's front lawn, discovered by a jogger the following morning.

The killers were finally apprehended after Norris boasted about their heinous acts to a friend of the two men, who immediately alerted the authorities. In a desperate bid to avoid the death penalty, Norris cooperated with the investigation and chose to plead guilty as he turned against Bittaker. He received a sentence of 45 years to life behind bars in April 1981, reports the Mirror US.

Bittaker was sentenced to death on March 22 1981. However, he died of natural causes while on death row in 2019, having suffered multiple heart attacks that left him feeling "vulnerable".

"It's kind of a taste of maybe what my victims were going through," Bittaker admitted to criminologist Laura Brand during an interview for her documentary.

Norris also reportedly died of natural causes two months later at the age of 72.

"So many people call them soulmates, and you've got to wonder," Brand commented. "They died like an old married couple, like they couldn't live without each other."

The Toolbox Killers have been labelled as "beyond barbaric", with FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas describing Bittaker as "the most disturbing individual" he had ever profiled.