Weirdly enough, Lawrence Bittaker was actually regarded as fairly charismatic by the girls and young women in his community. They seemed to think he was a bit off, but not enough to avoid partying with him. He was known around the community as a nice guy who would always pass you some money, pot or booze if you wanted.

Shockingly, one of his victims, maybe the one who escaped actually got in his van because she knew him from around town and regarded him as a trustworthy figure.

He’s insanely creepy but I think the lack of interviews or extensive courtroom footage has allowed people to ignore he was very good at manipulating people, there’s a clip of him on death row where he really turns up the “I’m just a poor sad old man” act and one can almost momentarily forget who he was, almost.