Canadian True Crime - 01 Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka - 1

Starting point is 00:00:00 My name's John Weir. You don't know me, but you're gonna, because I know the people that have been watching you, learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself, that people like you and trust you. Trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you've freely shared with the whole world. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch. Radical starring Kiefer Sutherland. New series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. Hi there. Welcome to Canadian True Crime. This is Christy, the host.

Starting point is 00:00:37 I recently did a survey and found out that many of you start listening from the very first episode when you discover this podcast. So this message is for you guys. I wanted to tell you that the audio quality starts out a bit amateurish in these first couple of episodes. And I do speak way too slowly in this first episode. I do correct it by the second. But if this is the first you hear of me, please know that this podcast is a journey and it does get better, I promise. Thanks for listening. Without further ado, here is the first ever episode of Canadian True Crime for you to cringe over. I hope I see you on the other side. Welcome to the first ever episode of the Canadian True Crime podcast. Paul Bernardo and Carla Hamalka, Part 1.

Starting point is 00:01:40 This podcast contains adult themes and content of a violent nature. Listener discretion is advised. They call them the Ken and Barbie Killers, the perpetrators of one of Canada's most heinous and notorious crime sprees. They were a good looking couple and seemed to have it all, but behind the mask was a cesspool of depravity and evil. Our story begins in Scarborough, a suburb east of Toronto. The year was 1964 and Paul Kenneth Bernardo was born into a dysfunctional but financially successful family. His mother, Marilyn Eastman, had been adopted early in life by a wealthy lawyer and his wife and was raised in a stable and well-mannered environment. After her father had disapproved of an earlier boyfriend due to his lack of education, Marilyn married Paul's father, Kenneth Bernardo, in 1960. Kenneth was the son of an Italian immigrant who founded a highly successful marble and tile business, so Kenneth grew up in considerable wealth as well. But this is where the similarities between the two households end. Paul's grandfather was abusive towards his wife and children, which may have been a reason why Kenneth chose to become an accountant instead of entering the family business.

Starting point is 00:03:23 Kenneth and Marilyn settled into a nice middle-class neighbourhood in Scarborough, Toronto. But the marriage was far from happy. Like his father, Kenneth was also said to be physically abusive. Marilyn gave birth to a son and a daughter and then, presumably tired of the abuse, began having an affair with her former boyfriend. This relationship produced a son, Paul, who was born on August 27, 1964. But surprisingly, Kenneth tolerated the affair and even consented to being listed as the biological father on Paul's birth certificate. In his book, Lethal Marriage, author Nick Pron describes the young Paul as, quote, always happy, a young boy who smiled a lot. And he was so cute with his dimple good looks and sweet smile that many of the mothers just wanted to pinch him on the cheek whenever they saw him. He was the perfect child they all wanted, polite, well-mannered, doing well in school, so sweet in his Boy Scout uniform.

Starting point is 00:04:35 But this happy facade started to come crashing down. In 1975, Paul's father Kenneth's life took an even darker turn when he was charged with child molestation after sexually abusing a young girl. He then started hanging around the neighborhood at night, peeping in the windows of young local women. And then he started to sexually abuse his young daughter, Paul's older sister. Marilyn, Paul's mother, became severely depressed due to the situation with her husband. She withdrew from family life and stopped taking care of her children. She put on so much weight that she became morbidly obese, and then she moved into the basement of their home, essentially becoming a recluse. The three children, particularly Paul, were severely impacted by the psychological and physical turmoil in their family home. At age 16, Paul's parents were having a particularly spiteful argument, and his mother told him who his father really was, the man she had the affair with.

Starting point is 00:05:46 Shocked and devastated, his response after that was to openly mock and taunt her, calling her names such as slob and whore. Given his mother's infidelity, the newfound knowledge of the identity of his biological father and his other father, Kenneth's sexual perversions, it was not surprising that Paul had begun to hate his parents. His attitude in general, and particularly against women, started to take a deep downward spiral. However, to the public, he mostly kept his mask on as a happy-go-lucky, friendly guy. From as early as age 16, Paul was a peeping Tom, hiding in bushes, watching bedroom windows, a hobby that would continue right up until his eventual arrest. He was becoming a pro at having two faces, the public mask and his true self. As a summer day camp counsellor, people remembered him as having long, sandy brown hair and a winning smile.

Starting point is 00:06:55 They all wanted to be in his group. He was patient, never told anyone off when they misbehaved, and would pretty much let them do whatever they wanted. But some said there wasn't a lot to him. Everyone seemed to be friends with him, but no one was truly his friend. People noticed that he bragged a lot. He was the best at this and the best at that, but no one really got to know him. Paul was obsessed with pornography, but after a while, pictures weren't enough to satisfy his sexual desires, which were beginning to dominate his thoughts. Author Nick Prund says it was as if the switch to his libido was jammed in the on position.

Starting point is 00:07:41 He began to see women not as people, but as sexual objects, they're solely for the gratification of men. Bondage movies appealed to him the most, particularly portrayal of the master-slave relationship. His sexual interests were not limited to sadism or voyeurism though. Psychiatrists would later note that he had many other sexual interests outside of the norm, including coprophilia and urophilia, which is arousal while watching someone defecate and urinate. After a while, Paul wanted to explore real-life kinky sex, and he had a number of short-term girlfriends that he tried to coerce to join him, with little success most of the time. Paul was obsessed with his appearance.

Starting point is 00:08:30 He spent a lot of time admiring himself in the mirror, flexing his muscles. He'd been working out and lifting weights and was into fighting techniques. Tall, with chiseled features, he was always fussing with his naturally sandy hair and had taken to tinting at blonde, trying to develop a California Beach Boy image. He became proud of the way his appearance fooled people. The sweetness on the outside, masking the anger on the inside. Something he called deadly innocence. When Paul graduated from high school, he opted to work for Amway.

Starting point is 00:09:10 The organization's well-known and notorious sales culture had a deep effect on him, spurring him to buy the motivational books and tapes of famous wealthy experts. Paul and his friends practiced the techniques on young women they met in bars with a decent amount of success. But by the time Paul had started attending University of Toronto's Scarborough, his dark sexual fantasies had morphed even further. Forceful anal sex was his preferred means of pleasure, and he liked submissive women. He enjoyed humiliating them in public and began to physically abuse women that he dated. He had a terrible temper that exploded with barely a second's notice.

Starting point is 00:09:58 When Paul finally graduated from university, he was pleased to get a job as a junior accountant at the prestigious firm then called Price Waterhouse. May 1987 was when he first started acting out his sexual fantasies by brutally raping women in Scarborough. He was just 23. He followed the two victims home with the first attack on a 21-year-old in the front yard of her parents' house. This attack lasted for about half an hour. The second attack was on a 19-year-old in the backyard of her parents' house and lasted over an hour. Think about it, that's a very long time for a sexual assault.

Starting point is 00:10:44 Two months later, in July 1987, he attempted to rape another young woman. She fought back while he was trying to hold her down, which caused him to abandon the attack. In September 1987, he attempted to rape a 15-year-old girl. He broke into her house in Scarborough and entered her bedroom. He jumped on her back, put his hand over her mouth and threatened her with a knife. The attack was cut short when the victim's mother entered the room and started screaming. Another man was originally convicted of this sexual assault but was exonerated after Bernardo confessed to the crime in 2006. The next month, in October 1987, at age 23, Paul met 17-year-old Carla Hamulka and they became sexually interested in each other almost immediately.

Starting point is 00:11:43 Carla Leanne Hamulka was born on May 4, 1970, to Czech immigrant Karol Hamulka and Dorothy Sega of Ontario. Carla was the eldest of three daughters and the family lived in St. Catherine's, Ontario, a small city about one hour and 20 minutes from downtown Toronto and close to Niagara Falls. Karol Hamulka was a travelling salesman selling velvet paintings and lighting fixtures from the temporary kiosk areas and shopping centres and malls. Carla was frequently hospitalised during her childhood due to her severe asthma. The trigger for her attack seemed to be any type of situation where she felt excited or frightened, such as holidays, birthdays or even the first day of school. This obstacle didn't slow down Carla's development though. According to her mother, Dorothy, she walked and talked at an early age. In the third grade, Carla scored 131 on an IQ test, which put her in the 98th percentile, proving she was a very bright girl. Carla's teachers described her as eager and a good student.

Starting point is 00:13:00 One of Carla's friends from second grade noted that she was constantly drawing houses and seemed almost fanatical about staying within the lines and getting her drawings perfect. She was also extremely dedicated to her schoolwork. She was always the first one seated, the first one back from recess and the first one to start her work. These little details provide us with an early indication of Carla's obsessive nature as a perfectionist hard worker who was focused on pleasing the authority figures in her life. Carla showed a soft spot for animals. A source told a story of some boys on the playground tormenting an insect with a stick, and Carla rushed to the aid of the insect, screaming for them to stop. Carla's young friends remembered her as bossy and wanting things to be done her way. They also remembered her as the ultimate girly girl, striking looking with long blonde hair. A friend says she arrived at the Hamalka residence for a play date and found Carla waiting for her with over a dozen Barbie and Kendall's. Carla insisted that everything about the Barbies had to be perfect, including their clothes and hair. The friend recalled Carla fantasizing that one day she would have the perfect life which would include a handsome husband like Ken.

Starting point is 00:14:22 Looking back, the friend says it wasn't much of a play date because of Carla's rigid control of the game. She decided what the Barbies did, where they went, what they wore and what they said. If the friend suggested new storylines, Carla huffed, stopped the game and put the Barbies away. It's clear that even at such a young age, Carla was bossy, controlling, obsessive and selfish. Another friend told a story of how supposed animal lover Carla decided it would be fun to make a pillowcase parachute and send her friends' hamster out of a second-story bedroom window. Predictably, the hamster hit the ground hard and died two weeks later. After some time had passed, Carla decided to dig up the pet's corpse to see what the decomposing body looked like. Apparently, she stared at it for a long time and then exclaimed, gross.

Starting point is 00:15:21 Other anecdotes provided details of how Carla would be verbally cruel to others and appeared to get satisfaction from making other children cry. The friend from the Barbie story recalls that they met again when they were about 13 and Carla was dressed in black from head to toe with black Doc Martin boots. Her once-long golden hair was replaced by alternative-looking multi-colored hair and she wore dark eye makeup and black nail polish, a goth look. Her friend also recalls that Carla seemed distant, moody and barely smiled. Other friends noted that Carla was loud, stubborn and willful. She was never wrong and never backed down on anything for any reason. Throughout high school, Carla was known as someone who seemed to not care what anyone thought of her. She had intense mood swings, sometimes seeming elated and enthusiastic while talking about her favorite movies, mostly horror flicks. And other times, she would hardly speak at all for weeks at a time.

Starting point is 00:16:34 In grade 12, Carla developed an interest in the occult and a boy she dated said she was consumed with the thought of death and constantly threatened suicide. She also dabbled with drugs. It was evident that Carla was likely clinically depressed, which wasn't helped by her appetite for all things dark. At home, there were problems in her family. Her father, Carell, was an alcoholic, a volatile, abusive drunk. He would often call Carla whore and it instigated frequent arguments with her mother. In October 1987, 17-year-old Carla Hamulka was working as a vet assistant. Along with her boss and some friends from work, they travelled to Scarborough for a couple of days to attend a convention of pet store owners. But Carla told everyone that the real reason she was going was to party. After a night out partying with a friend, Carla was hungry and they went downstairs to the all-night eatery at the Howard Johnson Hotel in Scarborough, where they were staying.

Starting point is 00:17:46 It was after midnight and as she and her friend enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches, Carla with her pajamas on, two men came right up to her table. Paul Bernardo was one of them and had eyes for Carla straight away. She was knocked over by his good looks and charm and the way he teased her about being in a restaurant in her pajamas. That night, Paul went back to Carla's room and they slept together. Friends have said that the chemistry between Carla and Paul was so fierce that they couldn't keep their hands off each other, often making others in the room uncomfortable with their aggressive public displays of affection. Bobby had finally found her kin. Do you have a passion project that you're ready to take to the next level?

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Starting point is 00:20:28 helping me better understand who's visiting the site, where they came from and how they're interacting with it. Do you have a passion project or business idea or something to sell? Go to squarespace.com.ctc for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code CTC to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com.ctc with offer code CTC and get your passion project off the ground today. It wasn't long before Paul began to share his dark, twisted thoughts and fantasies with Carla. To his delight, not only did she not have a problem with them, but she actively encouraged them. Over the next few years, the relationship between Carla and Paul became very intense and they continued to share and encourage each other's sadistic behavior. By the time Paul and Carla met, he had already attacked at least four women in Scarborough.

Starting point is 00:21:33 He was starting to establish what would be his primary MO, stalking bus shelters and attacking single women getting off the bus, threatening them with knives. During the attacks, he would call them degrading names and make them endure violent anal rape and different levels of humiliation. In December of that year, Paul and Carla had been together for just six weeks and Paul attacked a 15-year-old girl in an assault that lasted for over an hour. The next day, the Metro Toronto Police issued a warning to women in Scarborough travelling alone at night, particularly those taking buses. Just a week after that, Paul attacked a 17-year-old girl and sexually assaulted the victim with a knife he had been using to threaten his other victims. At this point, he began to be referred to as the Scarborough Rapist. Four months later, he attacked a 17-year-old girl in an assault that lasted 45 minutes. The next month, in May 1988, he was nearly caught by a uniformed Metro Toronto investigator staking out a bus shelter.

Starting point is 00:22:49 The investigator noticed him hiding under a tree and chased after him, but Paul escaped. Just five days later, he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old woman in Mississauga, another city in the Greater Toronto area. This attack lasted for 30 minutes. Four months after that, he attempted to sexually assault another victim back in Scarborough, but she managed to fight him off. He did stab her twice in the thigh and buttock with wounds deep enough to require stitches. The next month, in November 1988, he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old in the backyard of her parents' house. The following day, Metropolitan Toronto Police formed a special task force dedicated to capturing the Scarborough Rapist. The next month, two days after Christmas 1988, he attempted another sexual assault, but a neighbour was alerted and chased him away.

Starting point is 00:23:54 Six months then went by without a known attack. Then, in June 1989, he attempted to assault a young woman, but she fought against him, screaming. The noise alerted neighbours and Paul ran off with scratches on his face. Two months later, he stalked a 22-year-old woman from outside the window of her apartment and waited for her to arrive home the following night. This was a particularly brutal attack that lasted for two hours. Three months after that, in November 1989, he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl that he again stalked at a bus shelter. This attack lasted for 45 minutes. A month later, he attacked a 19-year-old woman in the stairwell of an underground parking lot.

Starting point is 00:24:48 Just two days later, on December 24, 1989, Carla and Paul became engaged during a romantic trip to Niagara Falls. Paul had been driving from Scarborough to where Carla lived in St. Catherine several times a week, a trip that took nearly an hour and a half each way. The distance was starting to become taxing on their relationship, so the engagement was a positive step towards their union being more solidified. Perhaps being engaged may also have been the impetus for a five-month break from attacks that we know of. But in May 1990, he was back at it again, sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman. Her vivid recollection of her attacker gave police the details they needed to create a computer composite portrait, which was released two days later and published in Toronto and area newspapers. There was a reward of $150,000 offered for any information that would lead to the arrest of the Scarborough rapist.

Starting point is 00:25:59 Toronto police began collecting voluntary DNA samples from a pool of more than 120 suspects fitting the description. It was also during 1990 that Paul lost his job at a counting firm Price Waterhouse. He would later turn to cigarette smuggling to make money. In July 1990, two months after police received tips that Paul fit the Scarborough rapist composite, he was interviewed by two police detectives. The first was from a bank employee, but the second one was actually from the wife of a close friend of Paul's. Although the detective said her way of communicating was awkward and stilted and not overly believable, they brought Paul down to the station to be interviewed. After a 35-minute interview with Paul providing the detectives with samples for forensic testing,

Starting point is 00:26:56 the detectives came to the conclusion that such a well-adjusted, intelligent man couldn't possibly be guilty of such crimes. They were convinced that the caller was just trying to collect the reward. Paul was released the following day, and the DNA samples he provided went into the pool of other samples, all awaiting testing. Back in those days, it took a long time to conduct a DNA test, and as the police had more than 120 samples to test, it would take a while to get through them all. Paul spent a lot of time with Carla's family, who genuinely cherished their new son-in-law to be. Tired of the long distance and the driving, he moved from Scarborough to St. Catherine's to live with his new fiance and her family, until the engaged couple could find a place of their own.

Starting point is 00:27:54 Obviously, the Scarborough attacks stopped abruptly. At the same time, Paul became obsessed with the youngest daughter, Tammy, who was 15. He would regularly peep into Tammy's window and masturbate to her while she was asleep. Meanwhile, Paul's relationship with Carla progressed and intensified. She actively let him indulge in his violent fantasies, which often led to Carla being beaten. He continuously brought up the subject of Carla being, quote, used goods, since he wasn't her first sexual relationship. With the frantic that she would lose him to someone more innocent, Carla offered him something he couldn't refuse, her own little sister's virginity, as a Christmas present.

Starting point is 00:28:46 Thank you for listening to episode one part one of the Canadian True Crime podcast. I'll be back with part two soon. If you enjoyed the podcast, please tell your friends and rate us on iTunes. If you thought it was crappy, I apologize. I'd love to hear that feedback too. As I said in my intro episode, I'm a total amateur at this. You could email me at CanadianTrueCrimePodcast at gmail.com or find me on Facebook or Instagram. Just search for Canadian True Crime. Thanks. I'm John Weir. You don't know me, but you're gonna.

Starting point is 00:29:45 Because I know the people that have been watching you, learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself, that people like you and trust you. Trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you freely shared with the whole world. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch. You

Canadian True Crime - 01 Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka - 1

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