Roy Norris, one of two South Bay men who tortured, raped and killed five teenage girls in 1979, died of natural causes in state prison Monday evening, about two months after his accomplice died on death row. He was 72.
Norris, who had lived in Redondo Beach, pleaded guilty to murdering the teens and agreed to testify against Lawrence Bittaker in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty against him. Norris and Bittaker, over a span of five months, kidnapped the teens — some of whom were walking home or hitchhiking at the time — and drove them to local mountains, where they would torture, rape and kill them.
The victims, who ranged from 13 to 18 years old, were from the South Bay, Long Beach and San Fernando Valley. Most of them were strangled, but the pair were dubbed the Tool Box Killers because they used vice grips, wire hangers and a sledgehammer to torture the girls.
In exchange for his guilty plea, Norris was sentenced to serve 45 years to life in April 1981. He was an inmate at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville when he died.
Norris confessed
Former veteran prosecutor Stephen Kay, who assisted in prosecuting Charles Manson, calls the Norris and Bittaker case the most brutal in his 37-year career. He was in the room when Norris confessed to the killings.
It wasn’t the first time they met.
Kay had prosecuted Norris in 1976, when he raped a Torrance housewife.
“He followed her home from Old Tony’s on the Pier and dragged her into some bushes and raped her,” Kay said in a Tuesday interview.
Killers met in prison
Norris met Bittaker when he was in prison for that rape conviction. There, the pair planned their escapades, Kay said.
Norris was released from prison in January 1979.
Six months later, 16-year-old Lucinda Schaefer of Torrance was abducted and killed by the two men.
“They would target hitchhikers, go to women’s gyms and park in the parking lot and follow women home,” Kay said.
Norris and Bittaker drove in a van, searching the coastal areas for their next target. Most of them were taken from South Bay streets.
In the following months, four others were killed: Jacqueline Lamp, 13, of Redondo Beach; Jackie Gilliam, 15, of Long Beach; Andrea Hall, 18, of Tujunga; and Shirley Ledford, 16, of Sun Valley.
The two men took their victims to isolated mountain areas, usually in the San Gabriel Mountains. There, they would torment and kill the girls.
‘Sadistic torture’
“The sadistic torture of the victims was just beyond the pale,” Kay said.
When Hermosa Beach detectives informed Kay that Norris was a suspect in the killings, the prosecutor was surprised he had committed murder.
“He said he was afraid of me,” Kay said of Norris. “He definitely was concerned about the fact that I may be prosecuting him again.”
Within three hours, Norris confessed to all five of the killings. He then became Kay’s main witness at Bittaker’s trial.
“I told the jurors in my opening statement, ‘You’re not going to like him — but he’s going to tell you the truth. You have to remember that when a murder is committed in hell, you don’t have angels for witnesses,’” Kay recalled.
Jurors were shocked by the gruesome details in Norris’ testimony.
Murder recorded
At one point during the trial, many in the courtroom began sobbing up when a recording was played of Ledford’s last moments, crying and begging for her life. The tape was so raw, everyone who has listened to it has suffered some psychological problems at some point, Kay said.
Bittaker was found guilty by the jury on all 26 counts, including five counts each of murder and kidnapping, in addition to criminal conspiracy, rape, oral copulation and sodomy. Jurors decided within 15 minutes to sentence Bittaker to death.
Bittaker died of natural causes on San Quentin’s death row on Dec. 13. He was 79.
“I’m sure (Norris) wasn’t happy about losing his friend Bittaker,” Kay said. “Although I don’t think Bittaker considered him a friend after the trial.”
Norris pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, two counts of rape and one count of robbery.
Twice denied parole
He had two parole hearings in 2009 and 2019, but was denied release. His next hearing was scheduled for 2029.
Both killers outlived more than half of the mothers of the victims, half of the jurors in Bittaker’s case, the lead detective and many others involved in the trial.
Kay, 76, is now a grandfather to five.
It’s been decades since he’s prosecuted the men he calls monsters. But he still remembers all of the gruesome details. The terror in the region. A mother’s grief.
“I’ve had a run of good luck,” he said. “Manson died, Bittaker and now Norris have died.”
