“I Had a Brush With a Serial Killer” is a well-respected entry in the short story form; Jay Roberts wrote quite a good one about his afternoon encounter with Randy Kraft back in the early 1980s, Chuck Klosterman wrote a marginally less good one about his friend Sarah’s evening with Michael Braae that is still worth a read if you are interested in hearing about dancing with someone nicknamed “Cowboy Mike” who committed multiple murders in the Pacific Northwest.
(A brief aside: I have little to no patience for long-winded articles asking Why Are We So Interested In Evil Anyhow, What Draws Us Toward Its Murderous Gaze Like Moths To A Flame And What Is It With You Women and Law & Order: SVU Anyhow. Murderers are interesting because most of us do not want to get murdered, and are afraid that we might get murdered anyway. There, I have answered the question. End aside.)
That said, I find myself telling the same anecdote about Peter Lorre’s daughter Catharine at every possible opportunity, because I am endlessly and horrifically fascinated by it: in 1977, she was picked up, but not murdered, by Hillside Stranglers Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, who let her leave their car unharmed when they realized who her father was.
This is not a particularly happy story; Catharine (who was orphaned by the age of seventeen) died in her early thirties due to complications from diabetes. She was not spared from a horrific death to go on to live a long and happy life. But it is an interesting one, which is almost as good, as long as you are not any of the parties involved.
Peter Lorre, one of the greatest character actors to ever say “I intend to search your offices, Mr. Spade,” had only one child and died young; his child had no children of her own and died even younger. His most enduring starring role was as the moon-faced child murderer in 1931′s M. M, by the by, is available to watch in its entirety on YouTube, and it’s not even all cut up into segments like “M 1/9,” which is what passes for a problem in these modern times.
Anyhow. What happened was this:
Catharine nearly fell victim to “Hillside Stranglers” Angelo J. Buono and Kenneth A. Bianchi, who approached her one night in 1977 intending to abduct and murder her as they had and would do to ten women before the law caught up with them. Learning she was Peter Lorre’s daughter, they just let her go. They were movie fans and liked Lorre’s work. Catharine was 25 at the time. After the capture of Bianchi and Buono, and their photographs were made public, Catharine realized who they were. Later in interviews, Catharine stated that she never felt threatened by either man: She believed it to be a casual and friendly encounter. Bianchi and Buono stated that the only reason her life was spared was because Peter Lorre was her father.
And there you are. Bela Lugosi might also have done the trick; ditto either of the Chaneys Lon or Boris Karloff. If you find yourself in a car with a pair of at-large stranglers, try very hard to be the child of a 1930s horror star.
[Image via Find a Grave]
Tags: catharine lorre, peter lorre, serial killers, the hillside strangler
I highly recommend, if you haven’t read it already, Vanessa Veselka’s run-in with a serial killer while she was a teenage runaway. She writes about it at GQ (http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201211/truck-stop-killer-gq-november-2012), then revisits writing about it at the American Reader, discussing female road narratives (http://theamericanreader.com/green-screen-the-lack-of-female-road-narratives-and-why-it-matters/). Both are really great.
Whoops, you got in a plug for that great, great work before I did. I’d say “damn comment moderation” if comment moderation weren’t a wonderful thing.
Ohhh. Thanks for this.
Fascinating reads, thankyou for that.
Toast readers with more than a passing interest in Lorre, Hollywood’s studio era, or the Weimar theater scene would do well to check out “The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre”, by Stephen D. Youngkin, Lorre scholar/obsessive extraordinaire. The book begins with the anecdote about Catherine and the Hillside Stranglers and goes many other fascinating places.
The best near miss with a serial killer I’ve ever read, written by a woman who used to be a truck-stop hitchhiker when she was a teenager. http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201211… . Long, but completely worth the time it takes to read.
So whose kid would one try to be nowadays, in order to escape a serial killer? Heath Ledger’s? a Wachowski Sibling’s?
Liam Neeson’s.
Reese Witherspoon’s?
being Reese Witherspoon’s kid might be an aggravating factor, I’d think :/
Cohen brother?
Johnny Depp’s. (I’m actually sick to death of the man, and can he please go away for a while, but apparently some people love his work?)
Tom Hanks
According to my dad, my aunt may or may not have narrowly missed a run-in with a serial killer who picked up her best friend while hitch hiking when aunt was grounded. As an adult, I question 1) whether it really happened at all or was just a cautionary tale and 2) if they’d been traveling together as planned if allegedly murdered friend would have survived.
Has anyone read the graphic novel “My Friend Dahmer”?
Has anyone read the graphic novel "My Friend Dahmer"?
Cohen brother?
Ohhh. Thanks for this.
When I was a teenager, the dad of a child I babysat for told me that Charles Manson helped his mom get a bee out of the car when he, his mom, and little sister (who was allergic to bee stings) were driving through the hills near Spahn Ranch. A few months later “that nice hippy” was all over the news, but not so nice.
I always kinda wondered if it was really true, but it’s a pretty good story.
So many mentions of Peter Lorre on this site in the past week! M is the scariest movie.
being Reese Witherspoon's kid might be an aggravating factor, I'd think :/