Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris
Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker (September 27, 1940 – December 13, 2019) and Roy Lewis Norris (February 5, 1948 – February 24, 2020), also known as the Tool Box Killers, were American serial killers and rapists who kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed five teenage girls in Southern California over a period of five months in 1979.
Bittaker was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Norris was born in Greeley, Colorado.
Norris accepted a plea bargain whereby he agreed to testify against Bittaker and was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 7, 1980, with possibility of parole after serving 30 years. He was incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California.[1] He died there on February 24, 2020 at the age of 72.[2]
Bittaker was sentenced to death and was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California. He died in prison on December 13, 2019 at the age of 79.[3]
Bittaker and Norris became known as the "Tool Box Killers" due to the fact the majority of instruments used to torture and murder their victims, such as pliers, ice picks, and sledgehammers, were items normally stored inside a household toolbox.[4]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ California, State of. "State of California Inmate Locator". Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
- ↑ Second of the Tool Box Killers dies in California prison
- ↑ "'Toolbox Killer' Lawrence Bittaker, Serial Rapist Who Preyed on Teen Girls in Southern California, Dies in Prison at 79'". Associated Press. December 16, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ The Murder Almanac ISBN 978-1-897-78404-4 p. 19