Barbie's Dreamhouse
Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network
Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds
Episode Title: Barbie's Dreamhouse
You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi
In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast, we discuss: Season 2 Episode 3 titled “The Perfect Storm” and how it is based on the real-life serial killers known as the Ken and Barbie Killers, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.
Segment 1: The Perfect Storm
This episode starts in Jacksonville, Florida. A couple gets mail from their daughter in college, thinking it is going to be pictures of her, but it was a DVD of their daughter getting tortured. The victim’s name is Laura Clemensen. She is 20 years old, blonde, a sophomore at the University of Jacksonville, Florida, and she is assumed to be the 5th in a series of rapes and murders over the past 2 years. Jacksonville PD has been looking for this killer for years. The team flies to Jacksonville, Florida. While on the plane, they start talking about the second offender, saying that these 2 are clearly deranged and acting out their worst sadistic fantasies. They learn from Garcia that the Jacksonville PD just found Laura Clemensen’s body under a bridge.. Gideon and Morgan go to the crime scene. They learn the victim has deep lacerations on her neck, chest, and thighs. The color of her bruising indicated torture had been going on for multiple days, and CSI believes that because the cause of death was strangulation, it is consistent with the other victims. Garcia sends over a list of all the unsolved rapes and murders in the past 2 years. There were 2 that stuck out to Reid. The victims share similar physical traits, and they were also posed after being killed in an interesting manner. The only difference is that they were manually strangled. While going over evidence, JJ finds that the Unsubs are targeting the mothers. All of the DVDs were only addressed to the mothers of the victims, so sending the videos only to the mothers is a message itself. The team has up to 7 victims now. They give a profile for the 2 UnSubs to the police. One is submissive, and one is dominant. If the criminal desire wasn’t present, their partnership wouldn’t work. In the middle of giving the profile, they find out there is another girl missing named Tiffany. The night before, she had gone for a run and didn’t come back home. Tiffany Spears was abducted from Middleberg, which is almost an hour away. While searching for how the unsub is traveling from place to place they learn that the Unsubs would take the cars of the victims and sell their parts across state lines, so no one in Jacksonville would be able to find them. Those sales were traced to Joseph Davin, who lives in Jacksonville. He’s been in and out of jail since he was 17. He is 27 years old and has a number of charges, including car theft with a partner, making him a prime suspect. When the team finds an address, they go to his house. His dad answers the door, and Joey appears in the living room with a gun, telling Agents Morgan and Gideon, and the main detective to get out of his way. They tell him to drop the weapon, and he doesn’t, forcing the detective to shoot him. Joey was their only link to finding where Tiffany could be. They talk to his father and learn that Joey works at a garage with a bunch of ex-cons. They find out that when he was in jail, he shared a cell with Tony Canardo, and they were both released 3 years ago. They went to Joey’s workplace and learned that he had been fired because he wasn’t good at his job. His ex-con friends would come around his workplace, and Tony Canardo was part of the crew Joey would hang with. They arrive at Tony’s house, and his wife answers, telling them he will be home soon. Morgan waits for him outside. Back at the station, a police officer tells Gideon that someone wants to speak with him. It’s Tony’s wife, and she looks like she’s been beaten up. She explains that after they left her house, she went to find Tony because she was nervous. They notice a shiny ring on her finger, and realize that it is Laura Clemson's ring, which was missing from her body when they found her.. Agent Morgan goes to Tony’s house to stake it out. Tony arrives, and when Morgan tries to find him, Tony sneaks up behind Morgan and strikes him with a baseball bat. After they fight, Morgan handcuffs Tony on the ground. The rest of the team arrives, and the police take Tony into custody. While searching Tony’s house, Agent Hotch finds videotapes in front of the TV. It’s Tony torturing Tiffany Spears. They bring him back for questioning. When interviewing him, Hotch tries to boost his ego so he feels in control. Tony denies responsibility but then asks for a lawyer. They ask his wife if she can talk to him because they think she is the only person who can get through to Tony right now.. She agrees and asks him where Tiffany Spears is. He eventually tells her about a storage unit that Joey’s dad has the key to, but there is nothing there but old boxes. While looking at footage of her interview, Gideon realizes she wasn’t as scared as she claimed. She looked calm while looking at pictures of dead females. JJ gets a call from Garcia, revealing that Amber’s voice was on the tapes. They realize Amber is a better suspect than her husband, and when they go and comfort her, they realize she has fled the police station. Gideon interrogates Tony again, saying they know Amber is his partner. While interviewing him, Garcie calls Agent Reid and JJ and tells them that she learned that Amber was abused by her brother and father, and they would keep her in the woods. Now back to Agent Gideon and Tony, he explains to him how Amber walked into the police station after beating herself up, making it look like Tony, her husband, beat her up. She handed the team Laura Clemson's ring and told them that Tony gave it to her as a gift. He uses the information they just got from Garcia in order for Tony to reveal where Amber was keeping Tiffany. Tony eventually tells him that Amber was keeping Tiffany in a cabin in the Duval County Woods. The team, accompanied by law enforcement, arrives at the cabin and catches Amber torturing Tiffany. This episode shows how you can never trust anyone, even people you can share sadistic fantasies with.
Segment 2: Ken and Barbie Killers
The Ken and Barbie Killers is the notorious media nickname for Canadian serial killers and former married couple Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. They were called this because of their attractive, blond, and seemingly normal appearance, which contrasted with the brutality of their crimes. Between 1990 and 1992, Paul and Karla were responsible for the torture, rap, and murder of 3 young girls in Ontario, Canada. Both had seemingly normal childhoods, but their families were dysfunctional and brought trauma upon the households, which may have contributed to their later violent behavior. Paul Kenneth Bernardo was born August 27th, 1964, in Scabrous, Ontario Canada. From an early age, he was showing violence and antisocial tendencies. As a teenager, he developed dark sexual fantasies and pyromaniac tendencies. He attended the University of Toronto Scabrous and was known among his peers for practicing pick-up techniques in bars and humiliating his dates. His relationships became increasingly violent, and he had multiple restraining orders filed against him by former girlfriends for abuse. Karla Homolka was born in Port Credit, Ontario, in 1970. During her high school years, she experienced a depressive episode, engaging in self-harm and false suicide attempts to get attention. She developed sadistic and masochistic sexual fantasies. After graduating high school in 1988, she worked as a full-time vet technician, a job that later allowed her access to the animal tranquilizer and anesthetic agent (halothane) used in murders later on. She met Paul Bernardo in October 1987 when she was 17, and he was 23. The 2 shared an immediate attraction, and Karla permitted and encouraged Paul’s dark sexual fantasies. Their connection was intense, but their relationship quickly became unhealthy. Early in the relationship, Bernardo became controlling and physically abusive. He began to beat her, but she remained, hoping he would change and become more dependent on him. At the same time, a series of violent assaults were happening around Toronto, committed by Paul Bernardo, known publicly as the “Scarborough Rapist.” Between 1986 and 1990, he committed at least 14 sexual assaults in the Scarborough district of Toronto. He would target women walking alone, often near bus stops at night. His method involved approaching victims, threatening them with a knife, and sexually assaulting them from behind. He focused on control and humiliation. In 1992, Investigators linked Paul Bernardo to the Scarborough rapes. Police had very little to go on, but a composite sketch of the rapist was created based on a survivor's description. The survivor was named as Jane Doe. She was attacked in May 1988 while she was out jogging. She was abducted, assaulted, and then released. She gave a detailed description of the rapist to the police, describing him as a young man, around 5’10”, with a lean build and blond hair. This description was a match for Paul Bernardo. His crimes escalated when he met and married his wife. Together, they abducted, tortured, and murdered three young women between 1990 and 1992. Despite knowing about his disturbing behavior, Karla stayed with him and began to participate. Their first crime together took place in 1990 and involved Karla’s younger sister, 15-year-old Tammy Homolka. Karla stole Valium and the anesthetic agent olethane from the veterinary clinic she worked at. On the night of the crime, the couple gave Tammy a drink laced with sleeping pills and tranquilizers. When Tammy was unconscious, the couple took her to her basement, where Paul sexually assaulted her while Karla watched. During the assault, Karla placed a halothane-soaked cloth over her sister’s face. Tammy started to vomit and, due to being heavily sedated, she was unable to breathe. The couple tried to cover up the crime before calling an ambulance. She was pronounced dead at the hospital a few hours later. Her death was initially ruled an accidental overdose. The truth was only revealed years later after the couple’s arrest. A year later, they killed their youngest victim, 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy. She was kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered in June 1991. Bernardo kidnapped Mahaff at knifepoint from outside her home in Burlington, Ontario. She was held captive in the couple’s Port Dalhousie home for about 24 hours. Both Karla and Paul participated and recorded it on video. Leslie was strangled to death with an electrical cord. After the murder, Paul used his grandfather’s circular saw to dismember Leslie’s body. He encased the body parts in concrete and, with Karla’s help, dumped them into Lake Gibson. On June 29th, 2 fishermen discovered her remains, the same day Paul and Karla got married. The next year they abducted and murdered their last known victim, Kristen French. On April 16th 1992, when Kristen was walking home from school, Karla approached her pretending to need directions. As Kristen was helping, Paul forced her into their car at knifepoint. The abduction was witnessed. Kristen was held captive in the couple’s home over Easter weekend. She was videotaped as she was subjected to torture, sexual assault by both individuals, and forced to consume large amounts of alcohol. After the murder, the couple washed the body and cut off her hair before dumping her body in a ditch near where Leslie Mahaffs's remains were found. The trials of Paul Bernard and Karla Romolka were among the most publicized and controversial in Canadian history. Karla was tried in 1993, separate from Bernardo, after reaching a plea bargain. In exchange for her guilty plea, she agreed to testify against Paul. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison for manslaughter. Her plea bargain was controversial. Evidence from the videotapes surfaced, showing Karla’s active participation. Paul’s trial began in May 1995 and lasted four months. The prosecution used DNA evidence, forensic analysis, and the tapes. His defense was to deny responsibility and claim that Karla had a bigger role. The delayed introduction of 6 videotapes became a major development. The jury found Paul guilty on all 9 counts, including 2 counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 25 years. The case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, better known as the Ken and Barbie killers, remains one of the most chilling and controversial in Canadian criminal history.
Segment 3: Compare and Contrast
When you compare the case of Tony and Amber to the real Ken and Barbie killers, you can see that both couples worked together, shared violent fantasies, and targeted young girls, but the way they operated was very different. Tony and Amber acted out of sadistic fantasies, recorded their crimes, and tried to send a message to the mothers by ailing the DVDs, while Paul and Karla hid behind their “perfect couple” image and carried out their crimes in secret. Paul had a long history of violence; he was a Scarborough Rapist, and escalated after meeting Karla, and Amber also had a long history of violence; she was killed a couple of years before she met her husband, Tony. Both couples had one dominant partner and one submissive partner who enabled the crimes; for Ken and Barbie, it was Paul but for Amber and Tony, it was Amber. Paul and Karla's case lasted for years, involved more planning, and became one of the biggest criminal in Canada, while Tony and Amber's case ended much faster once the BAU uncovered the truth.
Sign Off: Some killers hide in fiction, others walk among us… until next time on Real Cases Fictional Minds
Music Credits:
- Intro/Outro: Deep Breath by KonovalocMusic
- Transition: From the Underworld by KonovalocMusic
