The Ken and Barbie Killers

The Ken and Barbie Killers

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Ratings: 6.17/10 from 99 users.

The Ken and Barbie KillersPaul Bernado and Karla Homolka were Canadian serial killers who attracted worldwide media attention when they were convicted of raping and murdering teenage girls, including Karla's own sister, Tammy Homolka.

These two serial killers are part of a fairly exclusive group of killers that killed as a couple. Paul Bernardo also admitted raping numerous other women over a period of years, and he eventually brought Karla into the mix. The question most people have when they hear of these murders, is why did Karla do it?

The answers to those questions are ones that we may never have all the answers to, but we certainly have a few. Karla was an active participant in the murders, and even participated sexually alongside and with the girls, mostly for Paul’s affection and at his urging. This was the basis behind Karla’s defense and her reasoning to strike a plea bargain that allowed for her current release. Karla Homolka served only twelve years in prison for her part in the murders.

One thing that we know for certain is that Karla was abused heavily by Paul Bernardo both physically and mentally in their relationship. The record clearly shows brutal beatings and horrible mental abuse perpetrated by Paul Bernardo. The puzzling part of this, however, is that Karla never attempted to get out. She came from a supportive family that surely would have tried to protect her. Could it be that she was afraid of Paul hurting them or her anyway?

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Marylana Fitzhenry
Marylana Fitzhenry
1 year ago

It is bad enough that she got 12 years. However, Karla should have been deemed a dangerous offender once they found those tapes. They may not have been able to go back on the deal they made with her, but once those tapes were found and clearly showed her role in everything, I believe she should have been labeled a dangerous offender. She should be tracked every move she makes while living free.

Marie
Marie
2 years ago

While I don't excuse or understand why Karla did these things I find it appalling the the majority of the dialogue around this case is focused on her and not Paul. Watching the sheer amount of misogyny by all parties involved is disgusting. Paul may have spent more time in prison but Karla was the one deemed a sociopath and is most hated in hindsight. The people involved in this case repeatedly imply that Karla wasn't "really" a battered woman. I'm sorry what??? The pictures are clearly. She was beaten to within an inch of her life. It's 2021 we know better about these black and white assumptions surrounding domestic abuse. Karla did horrific things in the moment. BUT she also went to the police and turned him and herself in. Knowing she may face consequences. But people believe what Paul says about her being the murderer, the man who was rapping women at least a year before even meeting Karla (at the age of 17 mind you). I mean Paul's lawyers assistant even went as far as saying she was the mastermind, she was "manipulative". Wow... Yeah she "manipulated" him into raping teenage girls before they even met when she was still a teen herself... yeah sure.

Beach
Beach
4 years ago

Karla Bordelais is walking but Tammy can’t. Not only is she walking , she is walking free. That’s not justice, that’s lawlessness at its height .

Hailey
Hailey
7 years ago

Karla was deemed a sociopath. she shows absolutely no remorse. The tapes revealed that Karla wasnt simply doing what Paul told her to do, she had a very active and enthusiastic role in the torture. Do I think that Karla would have killed or raped if Paul hadnèt come along? No, I don't, but I do believe Paul awoke something in her that she already had there. They are both sick people and it's absolutely horrifying to me that Karla gets to live her life free and gets custody of three children after raping and murdering 3 girls who were still kids

Daniel Allen
Daniel Allen
11 years ago

How the hell is it a good thing that inmates, many of whom have committed crimes due to economic necessity or lack of the possibility to advance, can't advance and rehabilitate themselves in jail? That's a disgusting viewpoint to have.

D
D
11 years ago

the tapes were destroyed by the trial judge , however, rumors abound that the defense attorneys made copies before handing them over. they had them first. paul told them where to find them. they were hidden in a light in the ceiling of the bathroom. cops never found them. i have read the transcripts, pretty nasty. karla is out of prison and now lives in the Caribbean. she has two kids and a husband. she married the brother of one of her attorneys. google her, there is lots of info. and she has a new name

ranii02
ranii02
12 years ago

still a scary case for Torontians today. where were the tapes, i don't understand how they couldn't find it for so long!!
i want to get into law or the force, but i sure hope its much more advanced and organized than they were in the 90s.

john kay
john kay
12 years ago

these events occured very close to my home and i am very familiar with the case...I totally disagree when people look for one answer or doctors try to label it as some "? disorder"
Typicall people start out fine / normal until they start something bad on a small scale and usually progress into the unimaginable...because of numerous reasons (circumstance, mindsets, attitudes, environments, society, illness, you name it) over long periods of time

Too try to answer 2 questions above with one main factor: whywas Paulka involved and why she didnt leave ( which i am not sure they mention in this doc as I havent watched it yet- and I am going from memory so may not be 100%) was that , one of the first victims was karlas sister , whom i beliive they got drunk , drugged during the christmas holidays at karlas parents home, and then may or may not have sexually assulted (he or she or both) and if i am not mistaken the girl died from the incident...Karla/Paul where never accussed of any wrongdoing from this incident initially.

From thatpoint i belive their crimes progressed to kidnapping / raping / murder together..This incident was used as blackmail towards Karla if she didnt participate or informned anyone. From there on , i assume it becomnes a "point of no return" for karla

schwarzertod
schwarzertod
12 years ago

they both need to be prison-gang-raped til they die

gramps933
gramps933
12 years ago

Hey, where did my post abot Russ Williams and Paul bernardo being college pals go?

gramps933
gramps933
12 years ago

It is also interesting they mention the Police have devised a communication system between departments throughout Ontario but Russel Williams commited his crimes in Ottawa, Tweed, Brighton and Belleville. None of the municipal or Provincial police agencies shared information until it was too late.

gramps933
gramps933
12 years ago

What about Paul's former college pal Russ Williams? Is it not odd that they were buddies in university and now serving Life for very similar crimes in the same prison?

Greg_Mc
Greg_Mc
13 years ago

Havent seen the doc yet but Lesley Mahoffy was followed home from a store a 2 minute walk from where I live and Kristen French's remains were found about 10 minutes away by car so I followed the case closely as did everyone here. The write up about the doc paints Karla as being a victim of Bernardo's and forced to take part in the torture and murders which is total bullshit. She did her plea deal (because they wanted Bernardo so bad and believed her story that she was forced into helping), got off easy and then her lawyer told the police where to find the video tapes they had hidden in their house. The cops looked like fools for giving her a deal after they watched the tapes and saw she was an active participant in the rapes and tortures. Bernardo was a rapist before they met and it was only after Karla came into the picture did the killings start. Karla literally got away with murder (she even stole the drugs from the veterinarian she worked for to drug her sister so they could rape her, her sister choked on her own vomit because of the drugs and died) and it makes me sick she only served 12 years mostly in minimum security prisons if you could even call them prisons.

Kelly
Kelly
13 years ago

#
Nicole 8

As someone who grew up in the Toronto area, this case was all any parent could talk about. My mother STILL tells me not to go out alone and will always mention the names Kristen French and Lesly Mahoffy to me. I don’t think anyone who lived in southern Ontario during that time will ever forget their face, or ever feel that they have paid for their crimes.

I was around that area too. I remember it like yesterday. It had the whole countries attention. The sick things they did, are still hard to grasp. The prosecutors "deal with the devil" outraged Canadians..especially after they found tapes later and saw just how involved Karla was. Pure evil.

Pep pep
Pep pep
13 years ago

"He had ambitions to be a rap singer" ha ha, incredible!

kate
kate
13 years ago

the reason they keep referring to their attractiveness is probably because of the attractiveness stereotype. people find it hard to attribute any negative traits to attractive looking people (and in opposite, they find it easy to attribute negative traits to unattractive people). people would much more likely picture an unattractive killer, not completely attractive people!

Atte Mede
Atte Mede
13 years ago

Homolka's been out of prison for a few years now. She lived in the province of Quebec for a while and then met someone who had the means to take her out of the country and to a tropical island where visitors don't require a visa or passport.

This monster had ten years to create a plan for the rest of her life--and she got what she wanted. I've driven down the lonely road where they found one of the girls bodies wrapped in a carpet.
She will escape justice on earth it appears but she has an appointment in about 30 years.
150 years ago she would have been lynched and the police would have been powerless to stop it. When enough otherwise law abiding citizens agree to do something the law can and should be temporarily overwhelmed if it cannot provide a suitable punishment for a crime.
This is exactly that kind of situation.

Ramus
Ramus
13 years ago

Couldn't watch it due to the secondary sound that randomly appears in the background.

Steve
Steve
13 years ago

Swizzle His accent is Scottish.

Sparkling
Sparkling
13 years ago

I grew up in Scarborough and even went to the same high school Paul Bernardo had attended (years later). When this Case came out I was only 10 but I remember my mother and her friends talking about, I remember it being on the news. 20 years later, watching this is still shocking.

A 12 year prison sentence is son unjust. I sometimes am happy that the Canadian legal system really does give people a chance to star their lives over...and doesn't hamper people with ridculous 10 year sentences for having small amounts of weed on their persons...but in cases like this, it kinda makes me wish that things like murder carried steeper sentences. I feel sorry for her poor kid.

I also find it funny that media went on to mention how attractive the couple was...carefully avoiding that they were also middle class and white. but whatever. in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't matter. It's just a couple of details I can't help but notice.

Sadie the Celt
Sadie the Celt
13 years ago

Does anyone see the similarities between this debauched couple - and the Moors Murderers? thats Ian Brady & Myrs Hindley? differnce is, that Myra Hindley never got released =- and I dont think that Karla Molkota should have ever been released either. I feel so sorry for her Son - and her poor Mother and Father - what utter devastation for a family

Sadie the Celt
Sadie the Celt
13 years ago

well I am speechless after watching this, I really have too much to think about, and I am going to watch it again to make sure I understood everything. Because as horrowing as it is, its still a comprehensive 'full loaded' documentary - and that in itself deserves my attention.
@Swizzle
the narrator is definately Scottish - probably from Edinburgh rather than Glasgow, as its a purer dialect which is indicative of the Inverness area (in so far as I know)
He is DEFINATELY not Welsh!! Id hate that accent myself - and Im Welsh! grrrr

carrie
carrie
13 years ago

Yeah, Karla is a free woman now, married and with a mother. She's changed her name, and there is no way for us to know where she is. How the hell she kept herself off the sex offender registry is beyond me. The woman raped and killed her own sister. I've read almost every book published on this case, and the graphic details of what they did to those three girls are horrifying. What Karla did, for me, is even more disgusting than what Paul did. As a woman, how could you abuse another woman that way? Forget a life sentence, that woman should have been executed.

josephine
josephine
13 years ago

Crazy bitch karla should have gotten life.

Karen
Karen
13 years ago

True beauty comes from within, these two are ugly freaks.. they should be rotting in a cell together. Ken and Barbie together forever!

steve
steve
13 years ago

what is all the talking in the background? every time it shows a picture of them there is someone talking??

AP
AP
13 years ago

Crazy people always have a "crazy eye". Look at their faces and you can see a very appearant asymmetry in their eyes. Then check out photos of other crazy criminals, Jeffry Dahmer, etc and they all have the crazy eye thing going on!

c2believe
c2believe
13 years ago

As a Canadian,and with family still in Ontario, I remamber the furor well.She is still the most despised woman in Canada and the justice system really needs a kick in the pants for making a deal with her that they could not change when it was found out that she was a willing participant...two psychopath/narcissistic personalities wedded together like that...shudder!
I think it should still be in prison,at least until she dies ;~) There are not enough words to convey my outrage at her destruction of her family,and that of so many others.For those who take a religious view of things,I hope you are praying that there is a special kind of Hell for her!

Eff
Eff
13 years ago

@ GTO
YOU CAN! Karla moved in next door to you yesterday... And Paul is still seeing visitors...

Eff
Eff
13 years ago

@ Swizzle
No of course not! Let me be the paranoid one. The narrator does sound like there's a touch of "plaid-ass" in him... something like Willie on the Simpsons. Now gooo awayyy and have some haggis laddie. LOL

GTO
GTO
13 years ago

man i love to do something horrible to this couple!

O3
O3
13 years ago

Why don't you all go back to watching your porns? Too much talking...Too much talking...Too much talking....Too much talking...Too much talking....too much talking....Cos' we CAN talk! THAT's IT!

Phil Atio
Phil Atio
13 years ago

I never even thought of how they resemble ken and barbie, but they do, LOL.

I don't feel sorry for either of the two murders. Karla was a highly manipulative women, when asked by paul what would she think if he killed and raped people she said she thought it would be cool, so it tells you what kind of sicko she is, she would say or do anything so don't be fooled.

eireannach666
eireannach666
13 years ago

@Randy
Yes, I know all about that, my brother. It seems unimaginable to me, (especially when I saw it up close), that a man’s life could hang on whether a piece of paper was filed at the right time or the right place…I mean, we are not talking real-estate or tax law here… this is a real person’s life!

Dam& Skippy.

Not trying to be all " hard core ", but I have had 5 or 6 people , I know get out or just go back , w/I the last 6 mths.

Its nothing on me but Ive seen them come and go. Some family.

You know what is wrong , even though I hate to say it , but its too easy to fall again. Especially now. I have alot of friends that Ive been tight with, like fam. No shyte.15 yrs or more but I can promise you this , half will go back and 1 out of 3 of the rest will be lucky. Ive been fortunate to see it all before it happpens. We are talking about gooood people. With kids , wives ,etc.Smart people.When you play chess with life, you can not win.

They have all made their bed. Whats bad is I cant tell some , even one ,any different .Wasted talent.

Randy
Randy
13 years ago

I know you are not kidding, my brother! That stuff really happens.

I talked to a guy that broke my heart, (if it was true and I think he was being honest), that went inside for selling.

He said he took it up because his wife and baby were hungry. Obviously he wasn't very good at it, but, I mean... he didn't deserve 25 years for his crime. I went over his jacket... he was a small time guy!

*shaking my head*

eireannach666
eireannach666
13 years ago

@Randy

You might think Im kidding but , I was tinking bout a friend . No joke. I put it on my skin! He got 120yrs for some drugs.First charge. 19yrs old. Now , that was 10 yrs ago . I am not kidding.

When do laws cross the line ?An when does the punishment fi the crime?

answer. When you got the money.

Randy
Randy
13 years ago

Yes, I know all about that, my brother. It seems unimaginable to me, (especially when I saw it up close), that a man's life could hang on whether a piece of paper was filed at the right time or the right place...

I mean, we are not talking real-estate or tax law here... this is a real person's life!

eireannach666
eireannach666
13 years ago

@Randy

You know , one thing that I learned was about a habeus corpus. I had 3 left and did 18mo before . I learned that a judge or jury/ DA / or victum , cannot decide who gets , what they like too call , good time ,It is up to the owner / facility CEO / warden. Nobody wanted me file a writ or anything to that nature. Anything filed against the facility was considered hostile.If they would have practiced what the preached,
5 would of been 2 1/2 .

I had to get my brother to go two states over to file the noterized docs.(which isnt easy )Try getting something signed that will free you while you are making them money. Not easy. As soon as that stuff got out of there and into the hands of a civilian , I was out two weeks later. If that says anything.

Pacha
Pacha
13 years ago

We'd be much better off working with people on their issues than banging them all up.
I don't believe anyone's bad to the core.

Randy
Randy
13 years ago

When I was pre-med, (yes I've dabbled in pretty much everything... never finished my training because, again, my heart can't take having someone's life in my hands... even jury duty is hard sometimes...), I did a research project with men in prisons.

It was a psychological study about the effects on men in an enclosed environment, etc. and blah blah, very boring to you all I'm sure...

But I was stricken by the number of men I interviewed that were just lost in the system and, because they made a few bad calls in their lives were severely punished...

Some may have been just conning me, sure, but I really got a feeling that many of them were really good men that just went wrong because of circumstances.

I would often have sleepless nights, worrying about them...

Anyways, just putting that out there...

eireannach666
eireannach666
13 years ago

@Randy *BUT! That will probably never happen… sigh…

Now here , you see elder man.

" An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dressAn intellectual hatred is the worst.Be secret and exult, Because of all things known That is most difficult"
William Butler Yeats

If one can edure he will be strong.
Me

BTU
BTU
13 years ago

Yeah, the stereotype of what a serial killer should look like is why it took those idiot investigators so long to find these two. In the meantime, countless others suffered.

eireannach666
eireannach666
13 years ago

@Randy
HA HA! No dats EErish talk.I think Randy had too much.
Slainte. Just kidding , brother.

@Pancha

Yes. 24 hrs aday , but you choose as a man what you do. I mean , you cant go get a burger or a pack of smokes but .. wait , you can . Because its easier when the powers that be want your money. Everything is Everywhere .But they all cause trouble . Soon you will be in debt , 100%, no joke.

Or , you can do your time and not someone elses. Mind your buisness and do the time dont let it do you.. READ. People have access to a libray / law library , which is really sweet, weights , college profs , rehab etc. Choose your path , unless you are in for life w/o or something . Then its a waste.

You do deciide , because , only you can prevent forest fires.

Seriously.

Randy
Randy
13 years ago

*BUT! That will probably never happen... sigh...

Randy
Randy
13 years ago

@eireannach666

Thank you for that compliment!

And, you are right. There is a saying in the legal profession, you've probably heard it, "A jury is just 12 people too s****d to get out of jury duty..."

Well, I say, lets try and change that. Lets get those smart people to serve like they should and maybe we will get somewhere!

eireannach666
eireannach666
13 years ago

@Randy
Most important is to always serve jury duty. That is the best way we have as citizens to influence our legal system directly.I don’t only show up dutifully, I actually volunteer… I know, I am a dork…

Ha! Randy. I cant really argue there , ya dork. (I got my bach in IT Net in , well ya know and do you remember what I said I was doing?)But you see the flaw. If there were 12 people like you on a jury , we might actually get some justice. But life is so bitterly opposite .

Your re a good man, though. Rather be one in a milllion than like the million.
Its because yer Eireannach. J/k.

If people that weigh the facts instead of emotion ruled the world , life for us all would be justified . ( and it is getting better.)

Randy
Randy
13 years ago

@Pacha

Indeed.

You know, in the USA in the 30's (and I might have the year wrong, I do all of this from memory), it was actually jurors that made the Repeal of Prohibition happen. The law found that they just couldn't get convictions for the crime of drinking booze!

As an Irishman, I am very grateful... LOL!

But, maybe if we can serve our jury duty and influence enough cases we can over-turn the pot laws in our favor!

Pacha
Pacha
13 years ago

I dont know the ins and outs of it all but having watched a few prison shows including 'Behind Bars' lately I just can't believe people end up in prison for life for smoking a bit of dope and stealing a couple of cars.
Subjecting a petty criminal to 23 hour lockdown with a load of psychos is not going to create a better person in my opinion.

eireannach666
eireannach666
13 years ago

@Pancha

That explains it.

You know , the biggest mules of drugs and looking the "other way" are the guards? Which some people are blind to , but how do you think shyte gets in? Some of them, from experience , make 6 figures and actually get people "offed".

Thin line ,indeed.

Randy
Randy
13 years ago

@Pacha

You are not far off the mark, my friend... unfortunately!

But in our defense, and as I said before, it really is the best system we have right now. We really have to try and make it work better rather than just complaining about it, (although talking about it is the first step!)

Most important is to always serve jury duty. That is the best way we have as citizens to influence our legal system directly.

I don't only show up dutifully, I actually volunteer... I know, I am a dork...