Ken and Barbie Killers: Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo Part 1

In January of 1993, Karla Homolka went to the police after her husband, Paul Bernardo viciously beat her with a flashlight. She wanted to press charges and told them that her husband was the Scarborough Rapist and responsible for two unsolved murders they had been struggling with. After DNA proved that to be true, Karla got a plea deal and agreed to testify against Paul. After all the evidence was finally discovered though, the battered wife, victim story Karla told police was shattered, but with the plea deal signed, she only served 12 years in prison, outraging the families of the victims, and the entire nation of Canada.

Paul Bernardo

Who was Paul Bernardo? So, to start out this tale of horror, we’re going to take a look at Paul, his early life, and meeting Karla. When you dive into Paul’s past and read what his friends and family said about him, one sentiment always seems to shine through. He was “beautiful.” Handsome, attractive, whatever you want to call it, they all said that he was it. This would kind of come into play later when he would be interviewed in the Scarborough rapist investigation.. A few times. Another thing that kept him off of the police’s radar was that he was a good talker. He was eloquent and articulate. That coupled with his attractiveness, helped keep him hidden in plain sight.

Paul was born in August of 1964. When he was first born he had a huge black mark that covered the left side of his face. When his mother, Marilyn first saw him, she actually screamed out loud out of shock. The black mark turned out to be a blood clot that resolved and faded away within 6 weeks. When he was younger, Paul’s father Kenneth sexually abused his sister. In 1975, Kenneth was charged with child molestation after he was caught “fondling” a girl. Kenneth was also a known peeping Tom. Knowing what Kenneth was doing, Marilyn pretty much withdrew from the family / public life. She knew that Kenneth had ( and was still) molesting their daughter. She chose to move into the family’s basement and separate herself from the situation.

In the book Lethal Marriage, author Nick Pron best describes how every one looked at and felt about Paul when he was a child:

“He was always happy. A young boy who smiled a lot. And he was so cute, with his dimpled 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.”

When Paul was 16, Marilyn told him that Kenneth wasn’t his real father. After Paul’s brother and sister were born, Marilyn had begun to have an affair outside of their marriage and gotten pregnant. Kenneth knew of the affair, and agreed to be listed as Paul’s biological father on his birth certificate. Marilyn told Paul this after a heated argument she had with Kenneth saying, “You’re a bastard and you better get used to it.” It seems like it might have been an “in the heat of the moment” kind of thing, but the result was Paul being repulsed and angry at his mother. He began to call her a “slob” and “whore” daily.

While there was a lot of turmoil at home, Paul was very popular at school and amongst his friends. They called him a silver tongued devil, who was very popular with the girls. He did have a bit of his father in him though, and Paul also became a peeping tom throughout the neighborhood. When he was caught though, he didn’t receive any type of punishment, not even a slap on the wrist.

From there, Paul began to collect newspaper and magazine ads that featured pre-pubescent girls and women in their underwear. He escalated from there to BDSM porn, and from there to urination and defecation.

While he was growing up, Paul lived across the street from the Smirnis brothers, Van, Alex, and Steve. As they grew up together, the brothers became sort of henchmen for Paul. Their father owned a Greek restaurant and the brothers traded free food for stolen gas and the ability to illegally fish on private property.

As Paul got older, he was able to get out of the house and begin working. He took jobs at local restaurants, and his ultimate goal was just to make lots and lots of money. Having come of age in the 80’s, Paul was very fond of the “Greed is Good” lifestyle that was glorified in the film “Wall Street.” In his early 20s, he aspired to be a “finance guy” living the yuppie lifestyle.

In 1986, Paul was attending the University of Toronto Scarborough and dating a young woman named Jennifer, who was still in high school. Jennifer said that Paul would always get sexually aggressive around 11 or midnight, and when he drank, he got extremely violent. She said that almost every time they had sex, Paul would “demand” anal sex, something she wanted nothing to do with. The Smirnis brothers said that Paul told them, “Anal sex is the ultimate way to show domination over a woman, and the only way to make a woman love you.” Paul would also begin to sexually abuse Jennifer by inserting things into her vagina, just to see how far he could get it in; eg: wine bottles.

Over time, Paul would begin to reveal these things to his friend group, particularly the Smirnis brothers. And while the brothers were ok with petty theft, illegal fishing, etc, when Paul talked about violence towards and raping women, they all said that was too much.

In 1987, Paul’s yuppie dreams began to come true when he got hired at Price Waterhouse, an accounting firm. Right around this time, Paul and Van Smirnis were out one night looking for girls in Toronto. They had heard that the local Howard Johnson was a great place to find girls. It was in that Ho Jo that Paul would meet then 17 year old Karla Homolka.

Karla Homolka

Karla Homolka was born in May of 1970 in a small city in Ontario named St. Catherines. Her father Karel was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia and worked as a traveling salesman. Her mother Dorothy stayed at home with the children. After Karla was born, the family welcomed two other girls, Tammy and Lori. Karel was an abusive drunk who would often get in arguments with his wife, and Karla would sit comforting her siblings, trying to keep them safe and calm.

When she was young, Karla loved to draw and had a love for animals. She had a measured IQ of 132, which is said to indicate “superior intelligence.” In school, Karla was regarded as a good student by her teachers, but they could see that she was generally a little bossy with her friends. She enjoyed reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys novels, but as she grew older, she began to show dark tendencies with her friends.

One friend, Renya Hill, said that when she was younger, she was friends with Karla and the girls spent a lot of time together. One day, Karla was at Renya’s house playing and decided that she wanted to see if she could get Renya’s pet hamster, George, to fly. Karla constructed a rudimentary parachute out of a pillowcase and strapped George to it. She then threw it from the 2nd story, and obviously, George didn’t fly. The pillowcase collapsed in on itself, and George plummeted to the ground. It took two weeks for George to die after the incident. After he died, Renya buried him. Renya said that after it happened, Karla showed no remorse and looked like she enjoyed the whole thing. A few weeks after Renya had buried George, Karla made her dig up the hamster corpse so she could mess with it.

Renya told another story that showed Karla’s cruelty towards people. One day they went to a local park and played baseball with the neighborhood children. Karla quickly lost interest in the game however (not enough dead animals or people in that game) and turned her attention to a disabled girl who was there with her brother. She was watching the children play baseball as Karla approached her. The girl’s arms were half the length of a typical child’s arms, so her hands only stretched as far as her chest.

Karla began to mock her and say that she had “seal arms,” and that she belonged in a zoo. The girl began to cry, which only emboldened Karla. Other kids had begun to gather around and laugh at the girl and her brother. Karla began to taunt them more, even getting the other children to join in. Soon, they all began to slap their palms together and imitate the sound of a seal. Renya said that after seeing this and Karla’s reaction, she was very pleased with herself.

When she got a little older and into high school, Karla became more of a non-conformist compared to her sisters and other children in their small town. She would try to do things just to get a rise out of her friends or people around her. She started wearing black clothes and dying her hair in all kinds of different colors. She began to cut small circles into her skin and fill it in with nail polish. Karla’s high school boyfriend Doug said that when Karla didn’t get her way, she would always threaten to kill herself until she did. Many people say that if you look into her past, there are clear signs that she had Borderline Personality Disorder, which went untreated all her life.

Because of her “love of animals,” Karla began to work at a local pet store, just before she graduated high school. It was at this store that she met and befriended a woman named Debbie. Debbie said that Karla was a perfect employee, she even wanted to work with animals later and attend veterinary school. While working there, Karla was such an outstanding employee that they invited her and Debbie to attend a pet expo on behalf of the store. The expo was being held at a Ho Jo in Toronto.

Paul 💓 Karla 4EvA

As Karla and Debbie were eating dinner in the hotel restaurant, they were approached by Paul and Van Smirnis. The two men asked if they could join the women as they ate. According to both Paul and Karla, it was love at first sight. They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. Within an hour, they were in Debbie and Karla’s hotel room. As Van and Debbie awkwardly sat there, Paul and Karla had sex… for 4 hours. Karla would later say that in the beginning, Paul was nice and swept her off her feet, but more importantly, he wasn’t a bore.

At the time, Karla was 17 and Paul was 23. Karla still lived with her family in St. Catherines, while Paul lived in the Scarborough area, about two hours away. Paul began to visit Karla’s family home wherever he could. And Karla’s family fucking loved him. They took to calling him their “Weekend Son.” To them, he was a handsome guy, with a good job, making money and he could take care of their daughter.

When Paul went to the family home, he would wait for everyone to go to sleep for the night, then sneak into Karla’s room and the couple would have sex. After a while though, the “vanilla” sex wasn’t enough for Paul, and he suggested that they spice it up. How you ask? He began to sneak outside to peep into Karla’s younger sister Tammy’s window. Tammy was 12 years old at the time. Karla was fully aware of this and encouraged it.

While all of this is going on and Paul is driving back and forth to visit Karla, he was still in a relationship with Jennifer. That ended on the night he graduated from college though. He had begun to accuse Jennifer of cheating on him, which wasn’t true. She ignored the accusations and gave him a graduation gift, a nice sweater she bought for him. That angered him, and he went out to his car in the parking lot and started doing donuts.

Jennifer came and stopped him, then broke up with him. Paul agreed to the breakup, but insisted on driving Jennifer home. As they were driving, he stopped at a light and grabbed her by the hair and hit her. He did this at every light they stopped at. He then drove to a secluded road and pulled out a knife, with the intention of stabbing her. He fumbled with the knife though and dropped it between the car seats. As he dropped it, Jennifer escaped from the car and ran away.

With Jennifer gone, Karla and Paul’s relationship jumped to hyper BDSM levels. During one session, Paul asked Karla how she would feel about him if he was a rapist, to which she replied that she thought it would be cool. What Karla didn’t know at the time was that Paul was in fact already a rapist.

The Scarborough Rapist

Back before he met Karla, Paul had already begun to assault young women in the Scarborough area. As of now there are at least 14 rapes and 6 attempted rapes attributed to Paul Bernardo. But, one thing that we know about rape and sexual abuse is that the majority of incidents go unreported. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, an estimated 63% of sexual assaults to unreported. Other sources cite lower numbers, including the US Bureau of Justice, at 15.8 to 35% (based on older numbers.) Sexual assaults are most likely to be reported if the offender is a stranger, 46% – 66% reported. With those numbers in mind, it’s not a far leap to say or think that there are probably a number of women out there who Paul raped but was never reported for one reason or another. (fear of retaliation, shame, etc).

Okay, so there’s a few places online that have the timeline below. It’s the most clear and concise source of events, so it was copy / pasted.

May 4, 1987, Bernardo committed his first rape in Scarborough against a 21-year-old woman, in front of her parents’ house, after following her home. The attack lasted more than half an hour.
May 14, 1987, Bernardo committed his second rape. He attacked a 19-year-old woman in the backyard of her parents’ house. This incident lasted over an hour.
July 27, 1987, Bernardo attempted his third rape. Although he beat the young woman, he abandoned the attack after she fought back.
December 16, 1987, Bernardo committed his third rape, against a 15-year-old girl. This rape lasted about one hour. The following day, the Toronto Police Service issued a warning to women in Scarborough travelling alone at night, especially those taking buses.
December 23, 1987, Bernardo committed his fourth rape. During this attack, Bernardo raped the 17-year-old with the knife he used to threaten his victims. It was at this point he began to be referred to as the ‘Scarborough Rapist’.
April 18, 1988, Bernardo attacked a 17-year-old. The fifth assault, this one lasted 45 minutes.
May 25, 1988, Bernardo was nearly caught by a uniformed Metro Toronto investigator staking out a bus shelter. The investigator noticed him hiding under a tree and pursued him on foot, but Bernardo escaped.
May 30, 1988, Bernardo committed his sixth rape, this time in Clarkson, about 25 miles southwest of Scarborough. This attack, against an 18-year-old, lasted 30 minutes.
October 4, 1988, Bernardo attempted a seventh Scarborough rape. His intended victim fought him off but he inflicted two stab wounds to her thigh and buttock which required 12 stitches.
November 16, 1988, Bernardo committed his seventh rape against an 18-year-old in the backyard of her parents’ house.
November 17, 1988, Metro Police formed a special task force dedicated to capturing the Scarborough Rapist.
December 27, 1988, an alerted neighbor chased Bernardo off after he had begun his attempted eighth rape.
June 20, 1989, Bernardo attempted to rape another young woman. She fought against him and her screams alerted neighbors. Bernardo fled with scratches on his face.
August 15, 1989, Bernardo committed his eighth rape, against a 22-year-old woman. He had stalked her the previous night from outside the window of her apartment and waited for her to arrive home. This particularly vicious attack lasted two hours.
November 21, 1989, Bernardo committed his ninth rape, against a 15-year-old whom he saw in a bus shelter. This attack lasted 45 minutes.
December 22, 1989, Bernardo committed his tenth rape, against a 19-year-old. This attack occurred in a stairwell of an underground parking lot and lasted 30 minutes. Two days later, he and Karla got engaged.
May 26, 1990, Bernardo committed his eleventh rape. This rape lasted over an hour. However, his 19-year-old victim’s vivid recollection of her attacker permitted police to make a computer composite photograph, which was released two days later by police and published in Toronto and area newspapers.

One of the attacks resulted in the victim being able to provide the police with a description. They then used that description to come up with a composite sketch. Who do you think that sketch looked like? It bore a pretty striking resemblance to Paul Bernardo.

The police had received two tips about Paul during the investigation as well. One was from a bank teller who had dealt with him. The other was from Tina Smirnis, the wife of one of the Smirnis brothers, Paul’s childhood freinds.

During their investigation, the police questioned Paul twice. When Paul talked to them, he went in wearing a suit, and was generally put together in regards to his appearance. That disarmed the police to an extent. The way he spoke did as well. He was confident, but a little nervous. They said it would have been a red flag if he wasn’t nervous, since talking to the police is nerve wracking for most people. They asked Paul if he minded if they took a DNA sample, and he volunteered it, without questions. They took hair, blood, and saliva samples to test against specimens that were found on one of the victims’ clothing. Boom, they had their man, right?

Not exactly. DNA testing was in its infancy, and at the time the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto only had one qualified scientist and one technician to test samples. And they weren’t just testing samples in the Scarborough Rapist case. They were testing samples from numerous cases throughout Ontario. They had an estimated 50,000 samples to test for the various cases across the province of Ontario.

That is where we will leave off with episode one. In episode 2, we will dive into the deaths of Tammy Homolka, Leslie Mahaffy, and Kristen French, the abduction of “Jane Doe,” and the trial.

FOR PART TWO, CLICK HERE!