To outsiders, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka were seemingly the perfect couple, portrayed as the real life “Ken and Barbie" due to the couples strikingly good looks and popularity among peers. Do not let a masquerade of good looks and fake smiles get the best of you. Together, Bernardo and Homolka were the masterminds behind, “The most sensational and probably one of the most sinister cases in Canadian history." These Canadian serial killers attracted worldwide media attention in the 1990's when they were convicted of sadistically raping and murdering three teenage girls, one of them being Karla Homolka's own sister, Tammy. Here is their story:
****VERY IMPORTANT**** When reading, start at (1), then (2), then (3), and so on...
****VERY IMPORTANT**** When reading, start at (1), then (2), then (3), and so on...
The Scarborough Rapist (2)
When Karla met Paul, he was studying to be an accountant at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. The university, for the most part, had a positive reputation of being a great school. But in 1988, there were a series of sexual assaults that occurred in the community that left students and residents in fear. As the sexual assaults continued, the media began portraying this habitual perpetrator as the “Scarborough Rapist." The rapist was described as a night stalker that patiently waited for young females to get off public transportation buses. After they exited the bus, the offender followed the girls into dark areas and make his move. Crime reports stated that victims were severely beaten, and were also forced into having vaginal, oral, and anal sex. When the victims were interviewed, it was hard for police to get an accurate description of the “Scarborough Rapist" because the perpetrator always attacked from behind. The only consistent information that Toronto police got was that the offender was tall, handsome, had blonde hair and that during the rapes, the offender forced the victims to call themselves degrading names such as “slut" and “whore." FBI criminal profiler, Gregg McCrary, believed that the offender fit the description of a sadistic rapist. It did not take long for media headlines to broadcast the serial rapes that were occurring in the Toronto-land area. In an effort to catch the offender and calm the nationwide panic, the Toronto police took hundreds of DNA samples from potential suspects. Unfortunately, no offender was found. |
The Perfect Match (1) Karla Homolka was born May 4th, 1970 to a loving middle class family living in St. Catharines, a suburb just outside of Toronto. In high school, Karla was a likable student, described by teachers and friends as intelligent, beautiful, and popular. In her teenage years, she was employed at a veterinarian clinic where she cared for different types of domestic animals. When she was just a junior in high school (17 years old), Karla met the “love of her life," Paul Bernardo (23 years old), while she was attending a pet convention in Toronto. Karla was in a hotel lobby eating a snack, when a tall-handsome man entered through the automatic door. The two locked eyes almost instantaneously, and from that point on, the making of a dynamic serial killer duo was in the making. Within hours of getting to know each other, Karla was drawn into Paul's charm. He was a sweet talker that was tall, handsome, blonde, and carried an appeal that had Karla up in Paul's hotel room having sex with him that very night. Karla quickly entered what many saw as a close-knit and lovable relationship with the “perfect man," a man who surprised her with flowers, gifts, and drove 80 miles every weekend to visit her in St. Catharines. What Karla and others did not know, was that Paul had a dark secret that would soon plague the entire Toronto-land province with panic and fear. |
Paul's Sadistic Acts Return, but This Time He No Longer Acts Alone (4)
As months passed, Paul's dark history was still anonymous. To Karla's parents, Paul was no rape suspect. They viewed him as part of the family, and Karla's younger sister, Tammy Homolka, looked up to Paul as an older brother. However, as time went on, Karla and Paul's relationship began to change. Paul started being aggressive and verbally abusive towards Karla; but what people did not know was that Karla was very insecure, so insecure that she would turn to drastic measures to please Paul's sexual fantasies. Eventually Karla was so caught up in this “drunken" love that she began showing Paul that she would do anything for him. The First Victim - Tammy Homolka (Karla's Little Sister) (5) In the month of December, Paul began to make continual remarks about wanting to have sex with Karla's younger sister, Tammy. Paul was infatuated by the fact that Tammy was a young teenage virgin, a preference Paul had for his victims. On December 23, 1990 Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka committed their first “duo" offense together, which marked the beginning of the “Ken and Barbie" murders. The premeditated sexual assault began when Karla Homolka stole an anesthetic called Halothane, as well as a series of other animal tranquilizers from the veterinarian clinic she worked at. On the evening of December 23rd, after Karla and Tammy's parents went to bed, Paul and Karla convinced Tammy to stay up late and have alcoholic beverages with them. In an effort to carry out Paul's sexual impulse, Karla Homolka acted as Paul's personal assistant by placing the animal tranquilizers, she had earlier stolen, into Tammy's drink. Without knowing it, Tammy was drugged by her own sister... and what happened next is almost unfathomable. As Tammy lay unconscious from the sedatives, Paul began having sex with Tammy. While Karla held a Halothane soaked rag to her sisters mouth in an effort to numb any induced pain, Paul Bernardo beat and brutally raped Tammy's body. The situation took a turn for the worst when Paul ordered Karla to take part in the sexual assault. While videotaping the entire scene, Paul recorded Karla sexually assaulting her younger sister. Due to an excess combination of alcohol and drugs, Tammy unexpectedly threw up and began asphyxiating on her own vomit. Out of panic, Paul and Karla dialed 911, however, after the ambulance arrived, Tammy Homolka was pronounced dead. When questioned by the police, Paul and Karla explained that Tammy had been consuming alcohol and must of had too much to drink. The police also asked the couple about the softball size burn mark that was located on Tammy's left cheek. Intelligently, Paul misled the police to believe that the Halothane induced burn mark was instead a carpet burn that was acquired when Paul was trying to save Tammy from choking. Within the next few days, the death of 15 year old Tammy Homolka was labeled as a tragic accident. The Horrors Continue (7)
After Tammy's death, Paul and Karla moved out of Karla's parents home into a two-story house in Port Dalhousie. As soon as Paul and Karla lived together as independents, the prevalence of Paul's abusive behaviors escalated. Frequently, Paul would tease Karla by saying that he was the “Scarborough Rapist." It was also at this time when the verbal abuse against Karla, heightened to habitual physical abuse. According to Karla, Paul often times made her kneel down on the floor, so that he could strike her with vicious body shots. Sometimes, Paul even blind folded Karla or made her shut her eyes so that she could not anticipate when the striking was going to occur. On top of the beatings, Karla was also told to entice some of Tammy's former friends, so that he could rape them. For a series of days, Karla convinced two of Tammy's friends to come to their home to watch movies and eat popcorn. Just as Karla did to her own sister, she drugged Tammy's friends so that Paul could have sex with them and videotape the entire rape. According to the videotapes, Paul forced the victims to refer to themselves as “sluts." He also made the girls call him “king." The Third Victim - Kristen French (9) The next notable sexual incident occurred on April 16th, 1992 in St. Catharines. Kristen French is notoriously known as the third murdered victim of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Early in the afternoon of April 16th, Paul and Karla went on a drive with the intent to pick up a new “sex slave." As they were passing a church, they noticed 16 year old Kristen French walking home from school. Appearing as a lost driver, Karla called Kristen over to the car and asked for directions to a local town. As Kristen was explaining directions, Paul knocked the teenager out and dragged her into his gold Nissan. Paul and Karla kept Kristen French for several days. The two conducted their typical routine, until they decided to strangle her. On April 30th, 1992, a man who was searching for scrap metal discovered Kristen French's body in a ditch near a cemetery. The Demise of Paul Bernardo (11)
As already stated, Karla Homolka ended up testifying against her husband, Paul Bernardo, but Bernardo denied all charges brought against him. Paul pleaded "Not Guilty" to the 9 charges in connection to the murder of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, including kidnapping, unlawful confinement, aggravated sexual assault, and murder. The trial lasted 4 months, and was a long/grueling process due to the fact that the police and FBI did not have direct evidence of any of the sexual assaults/murders until the VHS tapes were found. On September 1, 1995... Paul Bernardo, also known as the "Scarborough Rapist," was found guilty of 2 counts of first degree murder and all 9 charges (kidnapping, unlawful confinement, aggravated sexual assault, and murder). He received a life sentence with the possibility of parole in 25 years. After he was convicted, Bernardo admitted to being associated with Tammy Hamolka's death. He also admitted to raping over a dozen girls in the Scarborough area. With Bernardo confessing to the manslaughter of Tammy Homolka and raping over a dozen teenage girls, Bernardo's eligibility of parole was revoked. He is now serving a life sentence and will remain locked up until he dies. |
The Scarborough Rapist and Paul Bernardo (3)
On May 29th, 1990, two years after the “Scarborough Rapist" came into the media's attention, a composite sketch was revealed. When the drawing of the alleged “Scarborough Rapist" was released to the public, Toronto police began receiving calls from citizens stating that the composite drawing looked almost identical to Paul Bernardo. Eventually, Paul's own friends even contacted the police and said that the drawing looked exactly like him. With no further questions, Paul was called in to give a DNA sample. Shortly after the DNA was extracted, Paul moved to St. Catharines to live with his girlfriend, Karla Homolka and her family. After Paul left to go live with Karla, the rapes in Scarborough came to a sudden end. The Evil Comes Out (6)
At this point, it should be clear to whoever is reading this that Paul Bernardo is the “Scarborough Rapist," and that he clearly is not this tall and charming man that the public deems him as, but instead he is a psychopathic monster. From a young age, Paul Bernardo was far from normal, but he portrayed himself to be your average, everyday kid. When he was a teenager, Paul would take part in voyeurism, in which he impulsively watched his neighbors undress. As he got older, he began to act on his sexual fantasies. In high school and college, Paul had many girlfriends; but the relationships never lasted long because they were described as domineering and abusive. When Paul reached college, he began attending bars on the weekends. He would buy likable girls many drinks until they were severely intoxicated, and then he would take these girls home to have sex with them. He was fixated on being in control of his female sex partners, described by FBI Profiler, Gregg McCrary, as “conquering." When having intoxicated sex was not enough, Paul began brutally raping girls in the Scarborough area. When Paul was eventually arrested and convicted, he admitted to raping over a dozen girls in the Scarborough area. The Second Victim - Leslie Mahaffy (8)
With Karla being an accomplice to a series of sexual assaults and one murder, she was now trapped in a violent relationship. Without any choice, Karla agreed to get married to Paul on June 29th, 1991, after Paul proposed to her at Niagara Falls. Two weeks before the wedding, on the evening of June 16th, 1991, Paul surprised Karla when he showed up at the home with 14 year old Leslie Mahaffy. Paul had abducted the 14 year old in her own backyard by enticing her with a cigarette. Together, Paul and Karla held Leslie as their personal sex slave for multiple days. The couple videotaped themselves having sex with Leslie as they beat her in the process, which eventually led to Leslie being strangled with an electrical cord. Together, Paul and Karla dismembered the teenager's body and encased the pieces in 8 cinder blocks, which they eventually dumped in Lake Gibson. This case in particular was different than all the other sexual assaults Paul had done in the past because it was the first time he purposefully killed his victim with Karla as his accomplice. Two weeks later, on June 29th, 1991, the day of Paul and Karla's wedding, a fishermen in St. Catharines discovered Leslie Mahaffy's dismembered body on the banks of Lake Gibson. "The Deal with the Devil" (10)
In January of 1993, Paul's sadistic rein as a serial rapist was finally unraveling. With police and FBI investigators closing in on the recent murders, Paul and Karla's relationship was worsening. The couple got into a heated argument, which resulted in Paul severely beating Karla to the point where she needed to go to the emergency room. Paul beat Karla so bad that she suffered two black eyes, broken ribs, and severe bruising. Within the same month, the results of the DNA sample that Paul Bernardo had given to the Toronto Police department two years earlier were finally processed. The DNA results confirmed that Paul Bernardo was the “Scarborough Rapist." After the severe domestic beating, Karla Homolka decided that it was in her best interest to move out of the home. She ended up confessing to her parents that she was involved in the death of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. When the police got involved with Karla's confession, she made a plea agreement with prosecutors to testify against her husband, as long as she received a reduced prison sentence. In her testimony, Karla misled the police by stating that Paul forced her to take part in the rapes of all the teenage girls. However, during the 4 month trial, police received a warrant to search Paul and Karla's home...where they found six VHS videotapes. The videotapes served as direct evidence showing that not only, Paul Bernardo, but also Karla Homolka were the “gun and smoke" of the sexual assaults and murders of three teenage girls. One of the VHS tapes vividly showed Karla raping her younger sister, Tammy, which revealed that Karla was fully committed and involved in the crime. This evidence showed that Karla had misled and deceived police. Even though the VHS tapes served as direct evidence that Karla was involved with the crimes, the court ruled that she only had to serve 12 years in prison. In 2005, Karla was released from prison at 35 years old. She currently has changed her identity and is believed to be living in Montreal, Canada. She has since remarried and has a baby boy. A lot of people were angered at the fact that Karla did not receive a harsher punishment. It was clear that Karla voluntarily committed sadistic acts and that she was the accomplice of multiple murders alongside her husband Paul Bernardo. However, people that argue for Karla's light sentence say that she was merely a victim of Battered Spouse Syndrome, and committed the crimes out of fear of her own life. Regardless of what people believe, even though Karla spent 12 years behind bars, many feel she got let off the hook, which is why the media coins the plea agreement that the police made with her as, “The Deal with the Devil." |
Karla Homolka gave an interview in 2012 discussing her dark past. She continues to deny that she wanted to kill the victims. She also discusses the death of her little sister, but seems to show little remorse.
|
Above are the pictures of the three girls that Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka raped and murdered.
|
As stated in the above paragraphs, Paul Bernardo was abusive towards Karla. This is a picture of a time Paul beat Karla so severely that she was forced to go to the emergency room. Many people believe that Karla committed the murders with Paul due to Battered Woman Syndrome, a mental disease that is caused by extreme physical and sexual abuse, and that if she did not comply to Bernardo's wishes, he would kill her.
|
Page By:
Steven Camporese
Steven Camporese