What Killer Twosome Provoked a Public's Outrage as One Managed to Beat the System?

She asked for my love, and I gave her a dangerous mind - David Bowie

Who Was Paul Before He Even Met Karla?

Paul Bernardo was born on August 27, 1964, in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Paul also had several aliases that he operated under, one of which is Paul Jason Teale. The media has dubbed him 'The Scarborough Rapist' and 'The School Girl Killer.' His wife, Karla Leanne Homolka, was born May 4, 1970, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. She would also go by an alias, Leanne Teale; however, the media has dubbed this couple 'The Ken and Barbie Killers.' Karla would go by even more pseudonyms later; they were Leanne Bordelais and Emily Bordelais. We'll get into what the significance of those names is a little later on.

When Paul was younger, his father, Kenneth, was convicted of child molestation in 1975 when he touched a little girl inappropriately. He would also sexually abuse Paul's sister when she was little. When these events happened with his father, his mother became quite depressed. As a result of this depression, she wound up withdrawing from the family so much; she practically lived in the basement of their home. In Nick Pron's book, 'Lethal Marriage,' he describes how Paul was a happy boy who smiled a lot. He was so cute with his dimples, good looks, and sweet smile. Some people report that he was what some would call a perfect child since he was always polite, well-mannered, and did well in school. Not to mention people say that he looked rather cute dressed in his Boy Scout uniform.

Beneath that mild-mannered facade, Paul harbored dark sexual fantasies. Reports indicated he took great pleasure in humiliating women in public, and behind closed doors, he abused the women who dated him. This only got worse when he was 16-years old, and his mother informed him that she had engaged in an extramarital affair, and he had been conceived as a result of that encounter. This deepened his disgust for women in general and his mother specifically. He soon began to insult her openly. I believe his abuse of women grew after this event since it would offer him some form of catharsis to deal with the traumatic news his mother told him. Perhaps on some level, in his mind, he was punishing his mother every time he raped and tortured a woman.

Paul began his higher education when he enrolled in Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute, but he would later enroll in the University of Toronto, Scarborough, in 1982. He worked for Amway, and people later said that he was deeply affected by the sales culture. He soon purchased all of the material Amway offered that would help him advance in his chosen field. The materials were developed by motivational speakers who happened to be considered experts on achieving fame and fortune. Paul and his buddies would often practice pick-up techniques on the young women they met at bars. People have said that they were rather skilled at this activity.

Karla Homolka entered Paul's life in October 1987, and from the very beginning, they had a deep sexual attraction. This wasn't anything he had experienced with other women that he dated. Reports indicate that Karla often encouraged his sadistic sexual deviancy. The most significant influence when it came to this side of Paul was the book 'American Psycho' by Bret Easton. It, in essence, was his bible.

A Guilty Man Commits the Crime - An Innocent Man Does the Time

Paul's anger and hatred towards women escalated to the point he began sexually assaulting them. He selected his victims from in or around the Scarborough. When he saw the woman he wanted to target get off the city bus late at night, he stalked them until an opportunity arose for him to attack. One specific incident stands out amongst the rest of these sadistic attacks. On September 29, 1987, Paul targeted a 15-year old girl who was asleep in her bedroom. Once Paul accessed her room, he proceeded to attack her. He jumped on her and silenced her by covering her mouth before he brandished a knife to threaten her. His victim's mom came into the room, saw him there, and screamed, which caused him to flee. The victim and her mother identified the assailant as 19-year old Anthony Hanemaayer. Anthony was arrested for the crime and sentenced to 16 months in prison. He wouldn't get acquitted of those charges until 2006 when Paul finally confessed to committing the crime himself.

In my opinion, his confession was too little, too late. Here is a teenage boy who served time for a crime he didn't commit. The stigma associated with a rape conviction would have negatively impacted his life, even long after Paul confessed to being the perpetrator. Paul committed or attempted to commit 19 rapes at the very least. Other than the sadistic nature of the rapes, the travesty here is that when they occurred, the authorities questioned him about his possible involvement. Officers didn't feel that he was a viable suspect, so they released him.

The 'Scarborough Rapist' Morphs into 'The School-Girl Killer'

According to Karla's testimony, Paul became attracted to her sister Tammy sometime during the summer of 1990. But I say, let's call a spade a spade; he was obsessed with Tammy. He was engaged to Karla at this point, and her family spent a significant amount of time with him because they liked him a lot. Unbeknownst to them, Paul had lost his accounting job, so to supplement his income, he had started smuggling cigarettes across the United States border.

Paul's obsession with Tammy grew to a level where he would watch her through her bedroom window, and on more than one occasion, he snuck in so he could masturbate beside her bed. Karla would help him break a window that he would then use to enter the residence. She claims that she did all of this to minimize the potential risk and maintain control of the situation. Not to mention that if she allowed him to obsess and target her sister, his sick, sadistic nature would be limited to the members of her family and not the unwitting public.

Paul admitted that in July of that year, Karla stole some Valium from her place of employment, and the couple used that to lace the spaghetti they served Tammy for dinner. Once she was unconscious, Paul began to rape her. However, it seems that they miscalculated the dosage needed, and after a brief moment, she began to gain consciousness, so they stopped what they were doing.

It would be later that Karla decided to give Paul the ultimate Christmas present. She chose to provide him with Tammy's virginity like it was her's to give. To deliver his gift to him, Karla stole the anesthetic, Halothane, from Martindale Veterinary Clinic, where she worked. On December 23, 1990, after the family Christmas party, the couple took Tammy to the basement and drugged her using this new medication while Karla's parents slept upstairs. While she was unconscious, they raped her repeatedly as they videotaped the whole brutal ordeal. At some point, Tammy wound up choking on her vomit which caused her death. Before calling 911, Karla and Paul undressed the girl and moved her to the bathroom. Paramedics came and took Tammy to the hospital, where staff pronounced her dead a few short hours later. When the authorities questioned him concerning the events of the evening, Paul told them that he attempted to revive Tammy, so they ruled her death an accident.

It wouldn't even be six months later before he chose another victim. It was early in the morning on June 15, 1991, when Paul was out stealing license plates, and he decided to take a detour through the town of Burlington, which is halfway between Toronto and St. Catherines. It was while on this detour that he spotted 14-year old Leslie Mahaffy. She'd attended a friend's wake when she missed her curfew, and her parents punished her by locking her out of the house. Paul says that he got out of his car and approached the young girl telling her that he wanted to break into her neighbor's place. She didn't seem to be fazed by his statement in the least since her only response seemed to be to ask him if he had a cigarette she could get. Once Paul got her to his car, he put a blindfold on her and drove her to Port Dalhousie before he pulled over to call Karla and tell her that he had another victim.

When Paul and Karla took Leslie to be raped and tortured, they videotaped the whole ordeal once again. There was one point while the couple raped the young girl that Paul was heard telling her that she was doing a good job, a damn good job and that the next few hours would determine what he was going to do with her. There was another part of the tape, which prosecutors played in its entirety at his trial, where Leslie could be seen screaming in pain as she begged him to stop. When people tried to describe the scene later, they talked about how he was sodomizing the girl while her hands were bound with twine.

Towards the end of the tape, Leslie could be heard telling Paul that her blindfold was falling off, which meant she could now identify him and Karla. That's when, if you believe Paul, Karla administered a lethal dose of Halcion. However, if you think Karla is to be believed, that's when Paul strangled Leslie to death. Once she was dead, they took the 14-year old's body to the basement. The next day, Karla's family came over for dinner, so they just left the body in the basement. It wasn't until the day after the family get-together that the couple figured the best way to dispose of the remains would be to dismember her and encase the pieces in cement.

Paul went to a local hardware store to purchase several bags of cement, retaining the receipts, which damaged his case for him. Once they had the girl's remains in cement blocks, Karla made several trips to Lake Gibson to dispose of them. Authorities later determined that at least one of these bricks weighed approximately 200 pounds alone. Since this brick was too heavy for them to get it out far enough to sink it, they left it on the shore. That's where Michael Doucette and his son Michael Jr found it while on a fishing trip on June 19, 1991. Authorities were able to identify the young girl by the braces on her teeth. By the time authorities arrested the couple, there was a total of 3-4 murders, 13 rapes, and six attempted rapes.

Just When You Thought Things Couldn't Get Any More Disgusting

Not long after the authorities arrested Karla Leanne Homolka, she received a plea bargain that reduced her charges from murder to manslaughter. In exchange for her testimony against Paul, she would only have to serve 12 years for her part in the sadistic crimes. On the stand, she maintained that Paul forced her to partake in the actual crimes. However, I should mention that the videotapes depicting her basic participation level hadn't yet been discovered. Authorities wouldn't find the tapes until it was much too late. Due to this disgusting turn of events, Karla Homolka has been released, and she had remarried and given birth to three children.

As for Paul, he received a life sentence with the possibility for parole after he serves 25 years. He was deemed a dangerous offender in 1995 and is currently housed at the Millhaven Institute.

This is What I Feel When it Comes to Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka

As I was researching this killer couple, I found several sources that made it clear that Canada was downright outraged over Karla receiving such a minor sentence. From what I could tell from what I am being told by people who currently live in Canada, the country is still up in arms about the ordeal. Also, I'm pretty sure that despite being eligible for parole after 25 years, I'm pretty sure Paul will never have the chance to see anything outside of the prison walls for the rest of his life.

My final thought when it comes to Karla herself, I believe she played the ultimate game when she played her psychological evaluation like a professional. Nobody suspected her of lying or being a danger until the videotapes surfaced after the fact. In my not so humble opinion, despite Karla convincing everyone that she too was a victim, she is just as cruel, sick, and manipulative as Paul ever could be.

There are pages on Facebook dedicated to following her so that people know where she is living. One such page states that Karla has once again settled in Montreal as early as May 30 of this year. There is video surveillance of her volunteering at the elementary school where her children attend. Maybe she has changed her life; stranger things have happened before. Perhaps, under that married mother of three exterior lies a monster just waiting for the opportunity to be released upon the world once again. I have a question for you: Do you feel Karla Homolka can be trusted around children?

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