Real Life Halloween Horror - Lynette Ledford

Lynette Ledford was hitchhiking on Halloween in 1979 when she got a ride from two of the most sadistic killers in American history, the Toolbox Killers, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris. 

Transcript

Podcast Announcement and Halloween Murder Story

Speaker 1 0:00

Tell me a true crime story . Hey there , welcome to Tell Me a True Crime Story . I'm your host , holly . Thank you so much for being here . I hope that you and your family are happy , healthy and together forever . If you don't know the story behind my little slogan happy , healthy and together forever please go listen to episode 15 , condemned Rose Stories Women Condemned to Die . In the beginning of that episode I explained why I started using that as my little tag line or catchphrase .

Speaker 1 0:49

I have a big , exciting announcement to make . My podcast is growing a lot . One of the ways is from TikTok . My handle on there is at tell me a true crime story , so one of my videos blew up on there and has almost 10 million views , so it brought a lot of new listeners to the podcast . So if you're not following me on TikTok , please go do that . I post podcast related content and other true crime stuff too . I also have an Instagram and Facebook and I'm at tell me a true crime story on those as well .

Speaker 1 1:27

And the other reason the podcast has grown so much is because of you all rating and reviewing it . I've been asking you guys to help me out by rating and reviewing the podcast on Apple and Spotify , and you guys have been showing up big time . I now have 25 ratings on Apple and I would like to thank Jen for the win , janelle ski 05 , travel girl 22 and Eddie stoned . Six for the review and five stars . Your guys , kind words touched my heart so much . It really means a ton to me . I thank you guys so much , and I also received nice words from it's either Seuss living or Sus living . He or she said I stumbled upon this podcast and boy am I glad I did , with exclamation points , but she , he or she only gave me one star , so I think the one star was a mistake . So if you're listening , seuss living or Sus living , please edit your rating on Apple and change the stars from one to five . But yeah , I thank you guys so much and big , big hugs to you guys for taking the time out of your day to review my podcast , and for those of you that gave me five stars without writing a review , I thank you guys so much too . I'm sorry that I can't thank you by name because it won't let me see the names of the users that give the stars only without , like , a written review . But thank you so much , whoever you are , and big hugs to you guys too . And I told you all last week that I was still holding steady at seven five star ratings on Spotify . Well , I now have 13 five star ratings on Spotify . That's six more in just one week . So , wow , thank you all so much for rating the podcast . Spotify users and Apple users I am giving you all big hugs right now . So for those of you who haven't done so yet , you guys can help me out a ton by leaving me a five star review on Apple podcast or a five star rating on Spotify . So to leave me a rating and review on Apple , you just go to my show page and you scroll down till you see ratings and reviews . Then you select a star rating and below that you click on writer review . So thank you so much again . I can't say that enough .

Speaker 1 3:57

Are any of you guys going to Crimecon this weekend in Orlando ? I have a really quick , funny story for you . So a while back , I had applied to be on podcast row . Well , I didn't think that there was a chance in hell that you know I'd get accepted because I'm new and you know , I just didn't think I would . So , and I was right . I didn't get accepted . However , I was still determined to go . So I asked my two daughters they're in their 20s if they'd like to go with me and they were like oh yeah .

Speaker 1 4:26

So about a month ago I went online to buy the tickets . Well , I don't know why , but I didn't think the tickets would be like that much . I thought they'd be like a hundred or maybe a 150 per person . But so I went on there to get the tickets and they were like 300 something per person to like well over 1000 something per person for like some VIP thing or whatever . So I don't know why . I assumed they were cheaper , but I don't . That's just me being dumb . I've never really been to like a convention , so I didn't really know . I guess I just assumed . So well , I couldn't afford to buy those tickets for like all three of us . So we signed up to go as volunteers , me and my daughters .

Speaker 1 5:12

So I'll be volunteering at CrimeCon on Friday evening , this Friday which will be , let's see , today's the 20th , so it'll be the 22nd in the evening . So if any of you guys like have seen me before on TikTok and you know what I look like and you're going to CrimeCon and you see me there , like volunteering , come say hi to me and say you know , I've heard your podcast and introduce yourself so I can meet some of you guys in person . And so now you know , if you want to go to CrimeCon next time and you don't really have the money or don't want to spend that money on a ticket , you can sign up to go as a volunteer and you can go for free , because they let you hang out on the day that you volunteer Like . So I'm volunteering in the evening , so I'll be able to hang out like during the day , like late morning and early afternoon before my shift . So that's how they do it . So , yeah , if you guys go , come say hi . If you've seen me on social media and you know , like , what I look like , then pop up and please say hi .

Speaker 1 6:19

Since it's getting closer to Halloween , I wanted to start telling you guys about cases that happened on Halloween . I actually did this episode like last year when I first started doing my podcast , but I've updated it a little and rerecorded it . I'm in the midst of working on a new case , but I couldn't get it ready in time because we had company at our house this week and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging , because you guys have been so faithful to me and I have so many new listeners that I really need to stay consistent and I don't want to let anybody down . So let's get into this episode . This is episode 27 . It's called Halloween Horrors Lynette Ledford . This story actually starts well before Halloween in the year 1979 , but events leading up to the murder of Shirley Lynette Ledford , who went by Lynette , actually started in early 1979 . Her murderers were convicted of raping and killing five young women , but Shirley Lynette was their last victim and she was killed on Halloween . I will probably cover this case of these two murderers in more depth like sometime in the future . This was a really , really tough one to research and write . I mean when I did the initial research and writing it was last year , but it's definitely stuck with me because it's awful . The horrendous , shocking , appalling details surrounding this murder and the other murders committed by these two men made me feel so anxious , sick , disgusted , pissed and heartbroken . Definitely do not listen to this episode in the presence of children . Now let me tell you a true crime story .

The Toolbox Killers

Speaker 1 8:04

Lawrence Sigmund Bittiker was born on September 27 , 1940 in Pittsburgh , pennsylvania . His mom was just a teenager when he was born and his father was abusive . His mom placed him in an orphanage and he was adopted by distant relatives . He was very smart and had a well above average IQ of 138 , but he was unmotivated as a child . He had no friends and was socially awkward . Bittiker hated his birth mother and would fantasize about finding her and killing her . He liked playing with fire and burnt two sheds . His adoptive parents had pet rabbits and one time he ripped out one of the rabbit's teeth with a pair of pliers .

Speaker 1 8:45

As a teenager , he'd set his alarm clock for midnight when he'd get up and prowl around his neighborhood . He eventually started to break into homes and move the furniture around . He did this because he enjoyed making people feel unsafe in their own homes . It was part of his sadistic nature . He got arrested at the age of 17 and was sent to the California Youth Authority until the age of 19 . He went on to commit many more crimes , such as car theft , burglary and robbery , and was sent to prison . Each time he was released he would get re-arrested for a parole violation . In 1974 , while out on parole , bittiker was stealing a pack of meat from Ralph's supermarket in Hollywood , california . When a supermarket clerk stopped Bittiker in the parking lot and asked him if he'd forgotten to pay for something . Bittiker stabbed him in the chest without any warning . He didn't say anything to him before stabbing him . Fortunately , the victim survived the stabbing . Bittiker was sent to the East Facility of the California Men's Colony , known as CMCEAST .

Speaker 1 9:55

Roy Lewis Norris was born on February 2 , 1948 in Greeley , colorado . He dropped out of school and joined the Navy at the age of 17 . He was stationed in San Diego but did go to Vietnam for a short time , for about four months . Reportedly , he saw no combat while in Vietnam . He was eventually discharged from the Navy for psychological problems . Norris attacked women in attempted rapes , one in 1969 and another in 1970 . He brutally attacked another woman who was a student on the San Diego State University campus . He hit her on the head with a rock , then slammed her head into the concrete . She survived and Norris was charged with assault with a deadly weapon . He spent five years in Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County , california . Atascadero State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital with a secure perimeter . Only three months after his release from Atascadero , he raped a woman . He was convicted of rape and was sent to CMCEAST , the same prison as Lawrence Bittiker . Cmceast is located along the Central California coast about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco .

Speaker 1 11:07

At CMCEAST , a deadly duo was formed when Lawrence Bittiker and Roy Norris became associated . They hung out , they made jewelry together . They began to share violent sexual fantasies with one another . They also shared these fantasies with another inmate named Richard Shupman . Shupman would write up their fantasies and they'd sell them to other inmates . Bittiker and Norris wanted to kill one teen girl for every year of the teen years , thirteen through nineteen . For instance , they wanted to kill one thirteen-year-old , one fourteen-year-old , one fifteen-year-old and so on . When they were released from prison they planned to reunite with one another and make their sick fantasies a reality . Bittiker was released from prison in late 1978 and Norris was released in early 1979 . They reunited with one another soon after Norris released and began to put the plans they'd made in prison into action . Norris contributed financially .

Speaker 1 12:08

Bittiker purchased a silver 1977 GMC cargo van with a large passenger-side sliding door . He and Norris nicknamed the van Murder Mac . They outfitted the inside of the van with everything they'd need to carry out their sadistic , murderous ideas . They installed green shag carpet and a makeshift bed . They kept a toolbox and a cooler under the bed . They even soundproofed the van . They kept walkie-talkies , police scanners , a Polaroid camera and a cassette tape recorder in the van .

Speaker 1 12:43

From February to June 1979 , bittaker and Norris made many dry runs prior to their first murder . They used different ruses to get girls who were hitchhiking to accept rides from them . On Sunday , june 24 , 1979 , they were smoking pot and taking pictures of teens and young women in Redondo Beach , california . They had been driving around doing this for about 15 hours when they spotted a 16-year-old blonde , lucinda Schaefer , walking along the highway . She went by the name Cindy . She'd just left a church meeting and was headed back to her grandparents' home where she was staying . When she turned to walk down a residential street , bittaker and Norris followed her . They pulled up beside her in the van and asked her if she wanted a ride and to smoke some grass with them . She said no and kept walking . Bittaker drove down the street , made a U-turn , came back and parked on the same side of the street she was walking down . Norris got out and pretended to be working on the van . Norris grabbed Cindy off of the sidewalk as she walked by and threw her into the van .

Speaker 1 13:50

According to Bittaker's own words in Oxygen's 2021 documentary , the Toolbox Killer , cindy , made it quote-unquote easy for them because she wasn't very aware of her surroundings . Cindy had just gotten abducted by two of the most sadistic killers ever in American history , killers who would later become known as the Toolbox Killers . They were given this moniker because they used everyday common tools from the toolbox they kept hidden under the makeshift bed in the van to torture their victims . Bittaker and Norris drove an hour taking Cindy into the San Gabriel Mountains where they took turns raping her . They strangled her with a coat hanger , wrapped her body in a shower curtain and threw her body down a steep ravine .

Speaker 1 14:39

Two weeks later , on July 8 , 1979 , searching for another victim , they happened upon 18-year-old Andrea Hall , who was hitchhiking in Manhattan Beach , california . She was trying to go visit her boyfriend in Wilmington , california , about 15 miles away , but before Bittaker and Norris could offer her a ride , another car pulled up and offered her a ride . She accepted the ride from the other driver . However , bittaker and Norris followed that car , thinking that they might not take her as far as she'd wanted to go . They were right . She got out of the car in Redondo Beach and started hitchhiking again . Norris hid under the bed and Bittaker pulled up and offered her a ride . She got in . Then Norris jumped out of hiding to subdue her . She fought him hard , but he eventually got her bound and gagged . She was taken into the same mountains as their first victim , cindy Schaefer , and she met a very similar fate . Her body was then dumped over a steep cliff .

Speaker 1 15:40

On Sunday , september 2 , 1979 , bittaker and Norris picked up two hitchhiking teens in Redondo Beach Jacqueline Gilliam , who went by Jackie , who was 15 , and Leah Lamp , who was only 13 . When they entered the van , norris hit Leah Lamp over the head with a homemade sap filled with BBs . A sap is a long bag or even a tube sock filled with something that gives it great weight . After knocking 13-year-old Leah Lamp unconscious with the sap , norris tied up Jackie Gilliam . At some point Leah Lamp regained consciousness and tried to escape , but she was caught and dragged back into the van . They were taken into the San Gabriel Mountains . After Bittaker learned that Jackie Gilliam was a virgin , he decided to record her screams on his tape recorder . Neither Bittaker nor Norris was sexually interested in Leah Lamp . Bittaker and Norris kept Leah Lamp and Jackie Gilliam for about 48 hours before killing them . They ended up killing the girls in very horrific ways and then threw their bodies over an embankment .

Speaker 1 16:45

On September 27 , 1979 , bittaker and Norris attempted to kidnap a woman , but she went behind the van and escaped . Three days later , on September 30 , 1979 , they attempted to kidnap a 20-year-old named Jan . Norris was driving and Bittaker got out and sprayed Jan with mace and tried to drag her into the van . Jan began screaming loudly and thankfully people came out of nearby homes to see what was going on . Norris drove away in the van and Bittaker fled the scene on foot .

Speaker 1 17:16

Shirley Lynette Ledford , who went by Lynette , was born on March 4 , 1963 , in Los Angeles County , california . She lived in Burbank , california . On Halloween October 31 , 1979 , 16-year-old Lynette was hitchhiking after leaving a Halloween party where she'd had a great time . Bittaker and Norris pulled up in the van and she got right in . She could not have known that four other girls had come before her , that their tortured screams had filled this van . This time Bittaker and Norris did not drive to the San Gabriel Mountains . Bittaker drove to an isolated gravel dirt path in Burbank , california . Bittaker got in the back with Lynette and Norris got into the driver's seat . Bittaker produced a knife and Lynette grabbed the blade which cut her finger deeply .

Speaker 1 18:06

The cassette tape recorder was turned on so that these sadistic , twisted murderers could relive Lynette's screams of agony over and over again whenever they wished . The pain and suffering inflicted upon and experienced by a non-consenting person is what stimulates and arouses a sexual sadist . They love to see the fear in someone's eyes . In order to elicit the reactions from Lynette that these merciless , pityless , savage , inhuman killers craved , they used pliers and a sledgehammer to torture her . An audio tape transcript of Lynette's final moments on earth tells the most gruesome and nightmarish tale of the pure living hell that she was put through .

Speaker 1 18:52

On Oxygen's documentary the Toolbox Killer , mary Ellen O'Toole , retired FBI agent of the Behavioral Analysis Unit , said of the tape recording , quote the tape was one of the worst things I've ever heard in my entire professional career . It should never see the light of day . It is very , very , very upsetting and , frankly , it involves the torture of an innocent young woman and so , at her expense , it should never , ever be played for an audience . End quote . Lynette begged for her life . On the tape she screamed and screamed and screamed Toward the end , right before Norris strangled her to death . The tape was turned off Reportedly . The last words she spoke before her young life was snuffed out were Do it Just kill me ? 16-year-old Lynette could take no more of the excruciating pain . She could bear no more of the agony . She wanted the misery and suffering to end . She begged to be killed by her captors . Norris took a wire coat hanger and twisted it with pliers to strangle her to death . The toolbox killers dumped her body on an ivy bed in a residential neighborhood . There's conflicting reports as to whether her body was discovered by a jogger that morning or whether she was found by the woman whose property she was left on . The oxygen documentary said that she was found by the woman who owned the property . When the woman saw Lynette's body she initially thought it was a mannequin because Halloween had been the night before . At Lynette's autopsy , when the wire coat hanger was removed from her neck , it was about as big a round as a silver dollar as how much it had been tightened down on her neck with the pliers .

Norris and Bittaker's Murder and Trial

Speaker 1 20:40

Roy Norris ended up telling or bragging to an acquaintance , joe Jackson , who was also a rapist , about raping and killing the young teens that summer . Joe Jackson was not okay with what Norris had told him and he went to his attorney with the information . Joe Jackson and his attorney went to the police . This led to police surveilling Norris , who was on parole . When he stopped at a drugstore and went in , police approached his vehicle and looked in the window . In a wide open grocery bag they were able to see a bag of marijuana . They arrested him for violation of his parole . In a subsequent search of his duplex located at 313 Garnett Street in Redondo Beach , the police located about 500 pictures of young women and teens . These pictures were taken of women and girls walking , roller skating and at gyms and parking lots and at the beach . They located pictures of victim Jackie Gilliam naked from the waist up .

Speaker 1 21:40

While the police were searching Norris' place , bittaker called him on the phone . The police answered and said Norris was unable to get to the phone because he was fixing the antenna on the roof . Bittaker didn't buy this and became suspicious . He quickly cleaned everything out of their silver murder van , put it in a bag and buried it . Police searching Norris' home soon found a small card with Scott Motel on it with Bittaker's name . Scott Motel is where Bittaker was living . The Burbank Police Department headed to his room at the motel and busted in the door and window . He was in the shower when he was arrested .

Speaker 1 22:16

Norris ended up confessing to police and agreed to testify against Bittaker in exchange for a sentence of 45 years to life with a possibility of parole after 30 years . He also agreed to lead investigators to the location of the bodies of Cindy Schaefer , andrea Hall , leah Lamp and Jackie Gilliam . They were able to locate some partial skeletal remains of Leah Lamp and Jackie Gilliam . The skull of Jackie Gilliam still had an ice pick protruding from it . The bodies of Cindy Schaefer and Andrea Hall were not found .

Speaker 1 22:49

Bittaker went to trial in early 1981 . For the first time in California history , cameras were allowed in the courtroom . Bittaker took the stand in his own defense . He claimed that Norris was the real perpetrator . He also claimed that the teen girls were paid to pose for pictures , to perform sexual acts or to deliver quote-unquote pillow talk . He said that some of the girls were drug-crazed .

Speaker 1 23:13

But one major piece of damning evidence presented by the prosecution against Bittaker told the real , undeniable truth . This piece of evidence was discovered during the search of the murder . Van Bittaker had overlooked one thing when he'd collected and buried everything from the van . He'd left the audio tape of Lynette Ledford's torture and rape in the cassette player . This tape was played in open court at his trial and , per the prosecuting attorney , the members of the jury looked to be in shock at what they'd heard . People sitting in the audience got up and walked out of the courtroom , some of them weeping loudly . The courtroom artist also ran out in tears . The jury of seven women and five men found Bittaker guilty on all 26 counts against him .

Speaker 1 24:00

The prosecutor sought the death penalty against Bittaker In court . The prosecutor asked quote if the death penalty isn't proper in this case , when would it ever be proper ? The jury unanimously agreed that Bittaker be put to death by lethal gas . They made their decision within 60 seconds of deliberating . Because of all of Bittaker's appeals and legal shenanigans throughout the years , he was never executed by the state of California . He resided in San Quentin as California Department of Corrections inmate number C28400 until the end of his days . He died in prison of cancer on Friday December 13 , 2019 . He was 79 years old .

Speaker 1 24:47

Norris served time at Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County , california , as California Department of Corrections inmate number C30231 . He died less than two months after Bittaker of natural causes , on Monday February 24 , 2020 , at the age of 72 . Lynette Ledford is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills , california . On her grave marker it reads quote beloved daughter and sister . End quote . I'm sure this case has sickened and angered you as it did me , and I didn't even detail all of the vile , evil , unbelievably cruel things that these sadistic murderers did to their innocent young victims .

Speaker 1 25:36

Thank you , guys , so much for being here and for listening to another episode of Tell Me a True Crime Story . Please tell your friends , coworkers and family about the podcast and share a link to the podcast with someone who's interested in true crime . Let them know that they can listen to the podcast on Apple , google , spotify or wherever . So please stop what you're doing and go follow the podcast too on social media . Facebook , instagram and TikTok are at Tell Me a True Crime Story . So I have two ways you can support my podcast . You can buy me a coffee by going to buymeacoffeecom slash truecrimestorypod , and the other way is totally free . You can write a short but sweet review for the podcast on Apple Podcast or give it a five-star rating on Spotify . Thank you again for being here . You know that I truly , truly appreciate each and every one of you , and please join me in episode 28 when I'll tell you another True Crime Story . Big , big hugs to all of you . Bye-bye , yes .