Overview
- Bittaker and Norris met at the California Men's Colony, reconnected after parole in 1979, and cruised in a van they called the Murder Mac to target hitchhikers.
- At least five teenagers — Lucinda Lynn “Cindy” Schaefer, 16; Andrea Joy Hall, 18; Jackie Doris Gilliam, 15; Jacqueline Leah Lamp, 13; and Shirley Lynette Ledford, 16 — were abducted, sexually assaulted, tortured with tools, and killed between June and October 1979.
- Investigators believe the pair conducted more than 20 “dry-run” pickups of hitchhikers from February to June 1979 before the murders began.
- Norris was exposed after bragging to a friend, then cooperated and pleaded guilty in 1981 for a 45-years-to-life sentence, while Bittaker received a death sentence.
- Bittaker died of natural causes on death row in 2019 and reports indicate Norris died two months later at 72, with two victims’ remains still unrecovered and experts like Laura Brand and John E. Douglas documenting the case’s brutality.