‘Hillside Strangler’ Bianchi Gets Married

Kenneth Bianchi, one of the two Hillside Stranglers who terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s, has married his Louisiana pen pal after meeting her for the first time this week, prison officials said Friday in Walla Walla, Wash.

Bianchi, 38, wore a black tuxedo and Shirlee Joyce Book, 36, of Monterey, La., wore a white wedding dress with a small veil during the 15-minute ceremony in the prison chapel Thursday morning, Washington State Penitentiary spokesman Richard Bauer said.

Bauer said it was the first marriage for Bianchi, who is serving a life term in prison for killing two Bellingham, Wash., women.

Bianchi also pleaded guilty to the murders of five young women in Southern California and was a key witness against his adoptive cousin, Angelo Buono, who was convicted in nine of the 1977 and 1978 sex-and-strangulation slayings.

The killings were attributed to the Hillside Strangler because many of the victims’ bodies were found on hillsides in Los Angeles and Glendale. The killings were the subject of a TV movie this year.

Bianchi, who claims to be a born-again Christian, started corresponding with Book in 1986 and had talked to her by telephone, but met her for the first time Wednesday, Bauer said.