5 Spine-Chilling Crimes of the Ken and Barbie Killers
By: Bertilla Niveda
Tags: Crime, Psychology, Relationships, Sexual Assault, Murder

1. The Scarborough Rapes (1987–1990)

Paul Bernardo was a suave, intelligent, good-looking man who was well-aware of his popularity and boyish charm. Paul found it easy to converse with and get into relationships with gorgeous women. There was just one problem.

He found simple, sweet relationships way too boring. Conventional, “vanilla” intercourse just didn't do it for him. In order for him to find pleasure, he needed his girlfriends to do things they didn't like. He wanted to hurt, demean, and humiliate them. Their fear was the only thing that truly excited him.

Paul soon realized that it was too risky to continue having his violent outbursts with his girlfriends. The only way he could satiate his need for control was by violating strangers — unfortunate women who would never know his identity.

In May 1987, Paul began sexually assaulting women in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto. His M.O was waiting at bus shelters around night time, following women home, and raping them while intimidating them with a knife.

One thing that stood out in his execution of these awful crimes, was that Paul Bernardo didn't hurry. He took his time.

He was confident and vicious in his attacks and didn't stop until he had had enough. By May 1990, he had committed 17 sexual assaults that we know of, and came to be called ‘The Scarborough Rapist’.

While these assaults began months before he met Karla, meeting her changed things. Paul had opened up to his new lover and shared his disturbing fantasies with her. Contrary to fearing him or retreating, Karla Homolka found these fantasies invigorating.

To her, this was a welcome change from all the “boring” men she met. She had finally found a man who challenged her and matched her own level of dominance and desire. Karla gave Paul her unconditional support, which just amped up the degree of violence his crimes involved.

Together they would not only rape but also brutally murder three unsuspecting young women, one of whom was Karla’s own sister, Tammy.

2. The Murder of Tammy Homolka (December 1990)

On an ill-fated Christmas Eve, Paul and Karla gleefully recorded their family members having a cheery time — Karla’s mother Dorothy cooking, her dad Karl watching the news, while all of them drank eggnog and a few “harmless” alcoholic drinks.

In 15-year-old Tammy’s case, however, it was not so harmless. For her, Karla and Paul mixed a Daiquiri laced with Halcion, which is a tranquilizer drug. Once Karla’s parents and other younger sister, Laurie went to bed, they were left alone with Tammy, who passed out on the couch.

To be extra sure that Tammy wouldn't stir, Karla used Halothane, an anesthetic chemical that helps put animals to sleep. Karla had easy access to these substances since she was working as a vet technician in an animal clinic.

Together, they undressed and took turns violating Tammy as they videotaped it all. I do not wish to get into the sordid details that would be nauseating for any decent human being, let alone those with sisters. What makes it all the more sickening is the reason they did this horrendous act.

Paul had been angered by the fact that Karla wasn't a virgin when they met. He demanded that she serve Tammy to him as a sacrifice to make up for this “grievance”, which Karla promptly did. Sadly, Tammy began vomiting, and although they called an ambulance shortly after, she could not be revived.

When asked about the chemical burn on her face, Karla and Paul lied saying it was a mark from dragging her across the rug, when they tried to resuscitate her.

Despite their story being suspicious, Tammy’s death was ruled as an accident and the official cause of death was that she had choked on her own vomit.

3. The Murder of Leslie Mahaffy (June 1991)

Leslie Mahaffy was a 14-year-old girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After returning from the wake of a good friend at 2 A.M, Leslie was dismayed to find that she had been locked out of her house, for missing curfew.

Although Leslie’s parents couldn't have intended this as something more than a way to discipline their “rebellious” daughter, this lead to her dreadfully tragic murder.

Paul Bernardo lured the girl into his car and forcefully took her back to his house that he shared with Karla. He woke a sleeping Karla to excitedly inform her of his new quest, and then went back down to torture Leslie.

Karla inquisitively watched Leslie from the top of the stairway. And being the ever-supportive “cool girl” that she was, she merely went back to sleep. In the morning, when she woke up to walk their dog, she was annoyed to see two of their finest champagne glasses from France.

It is important to note that she was not agitated by the fact that poor Leslie was still being tortured. No. Karla Homolka was more infuriated and jealous that Paul had whipped out their best champagne flutes.

The pair violated Leslie in unspeakable ways as they got it all on tape. Her exact cause of death is unclear, but it was later revealed that Paul and Karla thought that she should be killed because her blindfold had allegedly slipped.

Leslie was murdered, dismembered with a circular saw, and her body parts were thrown into Lake Gibson after being sealed in cement blocks. The day Leslie’s remains were discovered by fishers was the day that Karla and Paul tied the knot.

Leslie’s body was recovered and sent for autopsy, while not too far away, Karla and Paul had a lavish wedding ceremony — blissfully basking in attention and delight, celebrating without a shred of remorse.

4. The Murder of Kristin French (April 1992)

Kristin French was a 15-year-old girl walking home briskly from Holy Cross Secondary School. She was a bright, efficient teen who usually went about her routine like clockwork.

Perhaps the brazen couple’s ploy wouldn't have worked if not for the calculating way they went about it. In the parking lot of a nearby church, Karla pretended to be a friendly, confused tourist, with a map in her hands, seeking assistance.

Kristin jogged over to offer her help, which ended in her abduction. Paul attacked her from behind and forced her into the car. Karla held her down in the passenger seat as they took her to their house.

Over the Easter weekend, the couple tortured and sodomized Kristin, while recording their acts. Karla casually got to know her, chatting with her about makeup and boyfriends. Kristin played along, hoping that they would eventually let her go, but her fate had been sealed a long time ago.

This time, Paul and Karla did not blindfold or drug their victim, as Crown prosecutor Ray Houlahan pointed out at Paul’s trial years later. They were not going to just let her go, that was for sure.

They killed Kristin and left her body naked in a ditch, with her long hair chopped off. And then they coolly headed over to the Homolkas’ for Easter dinner.

5. Karla Homolka’s Act of Innocence

The worst part of this entire horror is that justice was not fully served in the case of this cold, manipulative woman. Once Karla realized that the police were onto them in 1993, she did what she knew would get her out of this as unscathed as possible.

She perfectly played the part of a “battered wife”. There is no denying that Karla had really been physically and emotionally abused by Paul. But, she shrewdly painted a picture of herself as just another one of Paul’s victims — a “good” girl who had unknowingly fallen prey to a deadly killer.

Karla struck a deal with the Canadian government stating that she would get maximum immunity in exchange for her help in nailing Paul. In the end, she served a 12-year-sentence, which ended on July 5, 2005.

She is now married to her lawyer’s brother, Thierry Bordelais, and has 3 children. In 2017, she even volunteered at her kids’ elementary school in Montreal.

Paul Bernardo is clearly no saint. He was a monster — a truly wicked man who inflicted unimaginable pain on several girls. But Karla Homolka was no better. Anyone who gets to know the details of this case would see that Karla was equally responsible for these crimes.

The fact that Karla Homolka is now completely free enjoying a life of normalcy, is gravely disrespectful to those three young lives that should never have been taken. To me, this in itself is an outrageous crime.

It is a slap in the face of all that is fair— a devastating pain that cannot be ignored by the girls they groomed, assaulted, and abused together.