Veronica Lynn Compton is a woman who attempted to copycat the Hillside Strangler at the request of Kenneth Bianchi, one of the killers, whom she had fallen in love with.
History
Absolutely no specific information has been revealed about Compton's early history, other than she became an actress and playwright and that she developed a drug-induced psychosis along with a fascination for serial killers. At twenty-something years old, she wrote a screenplay titled The Mutilated Cutter, which was about a female serial killer, and sent Kenneth Bianchi, one of the two killers collectively referred to as The Hillside Strangler, a copy of the script, hoping to gain his opinion about it. The two began to talk and eventually discuss about their murderous fantasies, similar to one another's in nature, and Compton fell in love with Bianchi. Bianchi took advantage of the relationship, hoping that he could convince authorities that the real Hillside Strangler was still on the loose. He invited Compton to visit him in prison, and he smuggled to her a plastic glove with a sample of his semen in it, instructing her to copycat a Hillside Strangler murder and plant the semen in the victim. Compton obeyed and went to Bellingham, Washington, with the semen in hand.
Using the alias "Karen", Compton selected her victim, 26-year-old Kim Breed, in a Bellingham tavern at around 10:00 p.m. The two stayed together for a prolonged time, during which Compton accompanied Breed as she did some grocery shopping and she went home to feed her children. Afterwards, they drank, did cocaine, and danced with some of Breed's friends. Compton then invited Breed to take a final drink in her room at the Shangri-La Motel, where she was staying; Breed accepted the offer. Compton then bound and attempted to kill Breed, but after a struggle, her would-be victim escaped and alerted a friend. Compton fled, taking a flight to San Francisco, California. However, upon arriving, she became hysterical and caused a scene in the airport. Compton also sent a letter and a tape to Bellingham authorities, claiming that Bianchi was innocent and pointing to the strangling attempt as proof that the real Hillside Strangler was still on the loose.
Police were soon able to connect the police report of the attempted copycat murder to the scene Compton brought up at the airport. She was arrested, convicted in Washington, and sentenced to prison with no chance of parole until 1994. Though Bianchi continued to write to her, Compton lost interest in him and fell in love with another serial killer, Douglas Daniel Clark, who, along with his wife and partner Carol M. Bundy[1], killed and decapitated seven women, mostly prostitutes, in Los Angeles, California; he was sentenced to death row. Clark sent her a Valentine's Day-style letter with the photo of a headless female corpse, and the two began to write to each other until sometime in 1988. In 2003, Compton was released from prison after completing her sentence and hasn't been heard of since.
Modus Operandi
In the attempt to copycat a Hillside Strangler murder, Compton tied Breed's hands behind her and tried to strangle her with a cord twice. She intended to plant some of Bianchi's semen into the victim after killing her, but she had no chance to do it.
Known Victims
- 1980, Bellingham, Washington: Kim Breed, 26 (bound and attempted to strangle)
On Criminal Minds
Compton was mentioned alongside Bianchi in Doubt, where a female college student of similar age to Compton, Anna Begley, copied spree killer Nathan Tubbs's M.O. and successfully catalyzed his release.
She may have also served as the inspiration for spree killer Chloe Kelcher and serial killer Rachel Lancroft, as well as attempted copycat Shara Carlino. All four were women who established a relationship with notorious, incarcerated serial killers (Chloe and Shara fell in love with Cortland Bryce Ryan, Rachel with Marcus Graham), later copycatting them. Compton and Chloe were also provided with semen from their romantic interests, with Compton's intention to plant her sample on her would-be victim serving as a basis of Chloe doing so with most of her victims. Meanwhile, Rachel, like Compton with Bianchi, was persuaded by Graham to copycat his killings. Also, Shara attempted to kill a victim, presumably using Cortland's M.O., but her attack failed, just as Compton's did.
Sources
- Wikipedia:
- TruTV page about Compton (pg. 16)
- Angelfire page about Compton
- 1980 article about Compton's arrest on the Observer-Reporter
- Team Killers: A comparative study of collaborative criminals (2001)