Ken and Barbie Killers: Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo Part 2

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.

For Part One, click here!

Tammy Homolka

On December 23rd, 1990, the Homolka family was having a Christmas party. The whole gang was there, including “weekend son” Paul Bernardo. By this time, Karla was well aware that Paul was the Scarborough Rapist and encouraged his actions. A few months prior to the Christmas party, Karla told Paul that she was going to give him Tammy’s virginity as a gift.

Paul had grown more and more infatuated with Tammy, going as far as to have Karla pretend to be Tammy when they had sex. At one point in July of 1990, Karla had taken some valium from a veterinary clinic she was working at. The couple took those and put them in a spaghetti dinner they had made for Tammy. After eating, Tammy passed out. Paul wasted no time and moved Tammy and began to videotape her as she was passed out. Within about a minute of him starting to tape though, Tammy began to stir and wake up.

Back to the Christmas party. The Homolka’s had told 15 year old Tammy that she could have some drinks, since she was home and with family. According to Paul and Karla, the three of them all sat around and had drinks together. Then Paul and Karla went to sleep after moving Tammy to her own bed. Later that night, they discovered that after they had laid Tammy down, she vomited and choked on it. They attempted to resuscitate her and called an ambulance. Unfortunately, nothing could be done, and Tammy was pronounced dead at St. Catharines General Hospital.

When Paul told the police that he unsuccessfully tried to revive Tammy. The investigators noticed that there was a burn mark on Tammy’s face, and Paul and Karla said that was a rug burn she got when they helped her to her bed. Tammy’s death was ruled an accident.

Now, here’s what really happened that night. In the months after their first failed attempt to drug Tammy, they decided that they needed something stronger to incapacitate Tammy. That’s when Karla stole some Halothane and Halcion ( at different times ) from the Vet Clinic she worked at. The night of their family Christmas party, when Tammy was allowed to have a few drinks, Karla and Paul had spiked her drinks with the Halcion after everyone else had gone to bed and it was just the three of them. Within a short time, Tammy had completely passed out. The couple used a rag soaked with Halothane to keep her unconscious.

They undressed Tammy. Karla placed the soaked rag on Tammy’s face as they filmed themselves raping her in the basement while the Homolka parents and their sister Lori slept upstairs. As this was happening, Tammy began to vomit and started to choke on it. They tried to revive her and called an ambulance, but not before they hid all the evidence re-dressed Tammy in her clothes. Once the paramedics arrived, they rushed her to the hospital where she was later pronounced dead. The “rug burn” that they found on her face was from the rag soaked in Halothane, which caused a chemical burn.

Three weeks after Tammy’s death, Paul and Karla filmed what they called “The Fireside Chat” in the family home. The filming started in the basement rec-room, but eventually moved upstairs to Tammy’s room. On the tape, at one point, Karla said that she enjoyed watching Paul rape her unconscious sister, and that she would leave her a rose at her grave. When they were in Tammy’s room, Karla dressed up in Tammy’s clothes and began to act like her sister. They couple then had sex on Tammy’s bed.

Some people have speculated that Karla purposefully gave Tammy a lethal amount of the drugs, to cause an overdose. They theorized that she was so jealous of Paul’s attraction and affection towards Tammy that she wanted to remove her from the situation all together.

Tammy was 15 years old when she was murdered. She was known in the community as being excellent at pretty much any sport she tried, from track and field to soccer, with soccer being her favorite. She was in 10th grade at Winston Churchill Secondary School. In 1993, her body was exhumed when the case was reopened. Inside the casket was a wedding invitation to Paul and Karla’s wedding and notes from the couple. When Tammy was re-buried, all of those things were removed at the request of the Homolka family.

“Jane Doe”

Back when Karla worked at the pet store, there was a volunteer who would come in occasionally and help out. She was around 15 years old at the time that she first met Karla, who was 21. Initially, Jane said that it was just like your average friendship, but it escalated. Eventually, Jane grew to look at Karla as “the older sister I never had,” which was exactly when Karla and Paul moved in.

Jane grew so close to Karla and Paul that she was invited to Karla’s wedding shower, the wedding, and the reception. She was thrilled by all the attention she was given by the couple, so when Karla invited her over one day to hang out, she thought nothing of it. While at the Barnardo’s home, they began to drink, and Jane drank enough peach schnapps to make herself sick. When she went back home later that day, she told her mother that she just had the flu and slept it off. From the get go, Jane’s mom didn’t like the relationship that Karla and Pul had with her daughter. She would protest them hanging out, but as teenagers like to do, she found a way.

After the Schnapps incident, Jane became a staple at Karla and Pauls, going over there almost every weekend. In a 1991 letter, Jane described Karla and Paul as the “perfect couple,” and that she hoped she could find a guy like Paul one day; good looking, sweet and caring. As Jane began going to their house more and more though, the relationship between her and the couple turned sexual. Jane said that Paul would “take me to the bedroom and say he wanted me to perform oral sex on him because if i didn’t keep him happy, Karla wound’t be happy, and I wanted to keep Karla happy.” Paul would also try to force Jane to have sex, which Jane refused, because she was a virgin, and she thought it was “weird”, since Paul and Karla were married. Paul then made Jane promise that when she was ready to have sex, he would be the first guy she slept with.

When Paul was put on trial, Jane was called in to testify. She was 19 at the time, and fearing that someone would identify her, they cleared the courtroom of everyone. Jane was then questioned about her relationship with Paul and Karla.

The following event occurred about 3 weeks before Karla and Paul were married.

She said that in June of 1991, Karla invited Jane to go out with her for a girls night. After they spent the night shopping and eating dinner together, Karla brought Jane back to their house, where she gave her some alcoholic drinks laced with Halcion. Jane quickly lost consciousness, and Karla called Paul in to tell him that his “wedding gift” was ready. Paul then videotaped Karla sexually assaulting the passed out teen before he then raped her himself. The next morning, Jane woke up nauseated, and thought it was just from the drinks. She had no idea she had been assaulted.

In August after their wedding, they had Jane Doe come over to spend the night. Again, Jane was drugged. This time though, while Paul was raping the unconscious teen, she stopped breathing. Karla quickly called 911 and an ambulance was dispatched. A few minutes later though, Karla called back and said everything was okay, and the ambulance was called back. They managed to get Jane breathing again.

Jane took horseback riding lessons, and at a certain point must have confided in her instructor about the nature of her relationship with the Bernardos. The instructor told her mom, who then confronted Jane. When asked, Jane told her mom that Paul just touched her breast. Later that day, Paul called Jane upset because her mom had confronted him. He was upset that she didn’t tell her mom that it was her own idea. Around Christmas of 1992, Jane told Paul that she wasn’t interested in having sex with him anymore and, “he got angry and said he didn’t want to see me again. He said I was worthless and that I didn’t deserve to live.” He picked up a picture frame with a picture of Jane in it and threw it across the room and took Karla upstairs to their room. Jane said that she called her mom and waited 45 minutes for her to come get her. The whole time, Paul just stood on the top of the stairs, staring daggers at her.

During the trial, Jane’s mom, identified as Mary Doe, said that she was terrified of what Paul would do when she confronted him about what the instructor said. When she went to talk to him, she clutched her keys between her fingers, ready to hit him if he tried to attack her. As she left, Paul followed her out of the house and kept yelling and screaming at her as she drove away.

Leslie Mahaffy

Leslie Mahaffy was born on July 5th, 1976. When she was murdered, she as 14 years old and in the 9th grade. Her father was an oceanographer for the Canadian Federal Fisheries and Oceans Dept., and would sometimes be away from the family for weeks at a time. Her mother was a school teacher.

Leslie was always close with her family, and for the most part was a pretty easy going child. As we’ve seen time and time again though, when she hit her teenage years, she began to rebel a little. She would spend days away from home, but always called and told her family where she was. She was particularly close with her younger brother, so she made sure to try to talk to him regularly.

In the days before her abduction, a couple of Leslie’s friends were killed in a car accident. The night before she was kidnapped, there was a memorial service for one of these friends, Chris Evans, with an impromptu get together afterwards. As a result of that, she ended up missing her Friday night curfew. Her parents, perhaps just being tired of the coming and going and rebelliousness, locked the door for the night. It was around 2AM, when Leslie got home. Some of her friends who were also at the party walked with her, and they said their goodbyes. They waited for Leslie to go in the side door, but it was locked. She told them that the front door would be unlocked, and sent them on their way. They left, and she discovered the front door was also locked.

Leslie went to a convenience store that was close by and called a friend to see if she could stay the night, but the friend said no. They talked until around 2:30 AM, when Leslie told the friend she would go home and wake her mom up to get in. Unbeknownst to Leslie, Paul was in her neighborhood that night as well, to steal license plates (According to him.)

Paul said that he was in the street when he saw Leslie walking alone. He told her that he was breaking into the house next to hers, and offered her a cigarette, which he said was in his car. They went towards his car, and as Leslie got close, he grabbed a sweatshirt and quickly wrapped it around her head, then forced her into his car. Karla wasn’t present when Leslie was kidnapped, but when she was questioned about it, she said that Paul used a knife to get her in the car, not the sweatshirt around the face.

The next day at Chris Evans funeral, Leslie never showed up. Her mother called the police and told them she was missing. On June 18th, she filed a report to have her daughter arrested as a runaway.

For 24 hours, Paul and Karla both sexually assaulted and raped Leslie, videotaping everything. They kept her blindfolded and listened to Bob Marley and David Bowie as they did it. When they weren’t abusing her, they gave her a teddy bear to hug. Karla kept Leslie drugged up, like she had done with Tammy before. At one point, Paul said, “You’re doing a good job, Leslie, a damned good job. The next two hours are going to determine what I do to you. Right now, you’re scoring perfect.” Later, Leslie told Paul that her blindfold was slipping, which to Paul and Karla indicated that she could identify them.

Karla and Paul each say that the other killed Leslie. Paul said that Karla gave her a lethal dose of Halcion; Karla said that Paul strangled her with an electrical cord. After her death, they moved her body to their basement. They had invited Karla’s family over to celebrate father’s day, and couldn’t just have a body in the middle of the room. During the dinner, Karla had to keep her mother from going to the basement several times.

After the dinner, when the family left, the couple decided that the best way to get rid of the body was to dismember her and put each body part in cement then toss it in the lake. Paul used a circular saw to dismember Leslie and had gone to the local hardware store and bought a dozen bags of cement. He kept the receipts, which were used against him during his trial.

They mixed the cement and placed each body part in it’s own block. They went to transfer the blocks to nearby Lake Gibson. They didn’t know though that at a certain point, that lake is extremely low every year, and the blocks would be easily seen.

On June 29th 1991, (Paul and Karla’s wedding day), Michael Coucette and his son Michael Jr. were out in kayaks fishing when they came upon the blocks. One had been cracked open exposing what was inside. They called authorities, and Leslie’s remains were recovered. Leslie had braces, which were used to identify her body.

Kristen French

Kristen French was born on May 10th, 1976. She was 15 years old when she was murdered by Karla and Paul. She was a member of the precision ice skating team and won several medals. She also was a member of the girls rowing team for Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School, which she attended.

On April 16th, 1992, Kristen was walking home after school. As she was walking by the parking lot of Grace Lutheran Church, she was approached by a vehicle with two people in it. They asked if she could give them directions. When she approached the car, Karla had stepped out with a map in her hand. When Kristen looked down at the map, Paul came up behind her with a knife and forced her into the car. Karla got in the back seat and grabbed handfuls of Kristen’s hair to keep her restrained in the car while Paul drove away. This occurred during the day, and although it wasn’t a busy street and there were few people around, there were witnesses.

Kristen generally took the same route home every day and was usually home about 15 minutes after school let out. When she didn’t arrive, her parents immediately suspected that something was wrong and called the police. The Niagara Regional Police Service (NRP) immediately formed a team and searched her route home. They spoke to several people who witnessed the abduction.

Over Easter weekend, Paul and Karla filmed themselves torturing, raping, and sodomizing Kristen. They never made her wear a blindfold, something the prosecution would say indicated that they planned on killing her from the start. They forced her to drink large amounts of alcohol. They held her for three days before killing her. They were supposed to be at Karla’s family home for Easter dinner, so they decided to kill Kristen before going. Again, Karla said Paul strangled Kristen while she watched. Paul said that Karla beat Kristen with a rubber mallet when she tried to escape.

Kristen’s body was found on April 30th, in a ditch about 45 minutes from St. Catharines. Her body had been washed and her hair cut off. Karla said they cut her hair to slow down the identification process.

Arrest and Trial

In December of 1992, the Centre of Forensic Sciences finally got to the DNA samples that Paul had provided when he was interviewed in the Scarborough Rapist investigation. In late December, Paul and Karla got into a huge fight… Like a knock down drag out fight in which he beat her with a flashlight all over her arms, legs, and body. She told co-workers that she was in a car accident when she returned to work in January of 1993. Not believing her, they called her parents who came and “rescued” her the next day by removing her from their home. When they had gotten her out of the house, it’s said that she frantically went back in and searched around for something, but was never able to find what she was looking for.

Her family took her to the hospital where she was questioned by the NRP and charges were brought against Paul. He was arrested and later released on recognizance. After his release, Paul wrote a suicide note and was going to try to kil himself, but a friend found the note and stopped him. Karla moved in with her aunt and uncle in another town. While living with them, she told them that Paul was the Scarborough Rapist and that they were involved with Leslie and Kristen’s murders.

Twenty Six months after it was given, Paul Bernardo’s DNA came back and matched the Scarborough Rapist. He was immediately placed under 24 hour surveillance. At the same time, Karla spoke with authorities about everything the couple did, implicating Paul every way she could. She said she was a battered wife, who feared for her life and only went along with it because Paul would have killed her. That’s what she focused on when they told her or asked her about anything related to the case, she always found a way to bring it back around to “this was all him, and I am also a victim.”

On Feb 17th, 1993 Paul was arrested on several charges and authorities obtained a search warrant. The police knew of the tape’s existence and wanted to find them, but in this case they were taking Karla’s word that they were in the house. The warrant they got was limited because Paul’s link to the murders was only Karla’s story. Specifically, it said that any tapes found had to be watched on site, in the house before they could be taken in as evidence. They searched the house for 71 days. The only tape they took out was one that had a brief segment of Karla performing oral sex on Jane Doe.

On may 5th, Karla was offered a plea deal. Originally, her lawyer argued that she should receive immunity, but prosecutors said that given her involvement in the crimes, that wasn’t going to happen. They offered her 12 years. 5 years each for Kristen and Leslie’s murders, and only 2 for Tammy’s murder. The NRP had re-opened their investigation into Tammy’s death after Karla told them that Paul was responsible. Karla accepted the deal, and would be eligible for parole in only 2 years. She began to tell them everything she knew about Paul, including that he boasted to her about raping over 30 women.

Leading up to his trial, Paul had hired a defense attorney, and after hiring him, told him that the tapes the police were looking for were in the house, in the bathroom vent. His attorney went to the house and removed the tapes… and held on to them for 17 months without telling prosecutors. After the tapes were eventually turned over to the prosecution, they said that if they had seen them, Karla never would have been offered a plea deal, and she would be right beside Paul in the box on trial. But, as it stands, a legal deal was struck, and they couldn’t go back on it. Paul’s lawyer was removed and replaced, and was charged with obstruction of justice, which he was later acquitted of.

Karla testified in Paul’s trial, again playing up the battered wife angle. Paul testified that Karla was the one responsible.

The tapes that were found in the bathroom were played for the jury. The media attempted to get the tapes released, but a publication ban was placed into effect. Even if they were allowed to have them, nothing on the tapes would have been able to air on tv. The publication ban was only in effect in Canada though, and the close proximity to the US meant that US reporters could report any details, which would be available to anyone on a new fangled invention called “The Internet.”

On Sept 1, 1995, Paul Bernardo was convicted of several offences, including two counts of first degree murder and aggravated sexual assaults in the murders of Leslie and Kristen. He was sentenced to life in prison, eligible for parole in 25 years. He was also designated as a “dangerous offender,” which in Canada, England, and Whales means he’s a huge threat to public safety and will never get out of prison. While in prison, Paul is kept in segregation, but prisoners have still managed to get to him. Once, he was attacked and punched when he returned from the shower. Another time, 5 convicts tried to storm the segregation area and get him, but were subdued with tear gas.

In November of 2005, Paul’s lawyer forwarded information to authorities that Paul had admitted to another 10 sexual assaults.

Paul was eligible for parole in Feb 2018, and was denied both day and full parole in October of 2018. He applied again in June of 2021. After only an hour of deliberation, the judge denied his parole again.

Karla Homolka served her 12 years in prison as part of her plea deal. She was quietly released and attempted to hide from the public. She attempted to change her name to Emily Chiara Tremblay, since Tremblay is an extremely common name in Quebec. The request was rejected. Karla married the brother of her defence attorney, Thierry Bordelais. They have three children and at one point moved from Canada to the Antilles. In 2016, they were said to have been living back in Quebec, where her children attended school, and Homolka has helped out with school functions.

After having seen the tapes, prosecutors said they had made a “Deal with the Devil” when referring to the plea agreement.

Apparently, Paul fancied himself a bit of a rapper.. He was a big fan of Vanilla Ice and went as far as to construct a recording studio in their home. He was going to title his first album, “Deadly Innocence.” It is truly awful

“You think I’m Innocent?

But behind this im packing a lot of deadliness

So come at, come at me

I got a fucking nice face look like a pretty boy

Why don’t you come at me, man?

Take your best shot

See what happens to you, pal

You’re outta here, man

You come at me with your beer belly

And you thin you’re really tough

I come back, looking like a 13 year old

I’ll kick your ass