Veronica Compton Fell in Love with One of the Hillside Stranglers — Then Attempted to Stage a Murder for Him. Inside Her Life After the Failed Killing By Jessica Sager

The Hillside Stranglers terrorized the Los Angeles County area for over a year — and convinced one woman to stage a copycat murder to help them go free.

Kenneth Bianchi and his cousin, Angelo Buono, kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered at least 10 women and young girls between 1977 and early 1978, leaving their bodies on hillsides after their crimes were done. Their cases are the subject of the MGM+ docuseries The Hillside Strangler, which premiered on Jan. 18.

After Bianchi was arrested for two murders in January 1979, he agreed to plead guilty and testify against Buono. Bianchi was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in prison, while Buono was sentenced to life in prison after a lengthy trial.

While behind bars, Bianchi began a relationship with a woman named Veronica Compton. In an effort to help free Bianchi, Compton attempted to strangle a woman to death to make it appear that the real Hillside Strangler was still on the loose. Compton failed in her mission, however, and ended up in prison — just like her then-boyfriend.

So, where is Kenneth Bianchi’s girlfriend now? Here’s everything to know about Veronica Compton’s life after she was imprisoned.

The Hillside Strangers killed at least 10 women

Bianchi and Buono raped and killed at least 10 women and girls between October 1977 and February 1978. They often posed as police officers to lure their victims — including sex workers, college students and aspiring actresses — into their vehicles. They then took their targets to Buono’s auto upholstery shop, where they bound, sexually assaulted and strangled them. They earned the nickname “Hillside Strangler” because of their pattern of leaving their victims’ bodies, usually nude, on hillsides in the L.A. area.

Bianchi’s former girlfriend, Sheryl Kellison, has alleged that Buono was the “mastermind” behind the murders.

“[Bianchi] just followed him around and did whatever he wanted him to do,” Kellison told PEOPLE in August 2022. “And I felt like Ken was just his little sheep.”

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Bianchi pleaded guilty to five murders and received two consecutive life sentences in prison, per The New York Times. He is serving his time in Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Wash.

Buono pleaded not guilty, ultimately facing a trial that was one of the longest in California history. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, per the Los Angeles Times. He died behind bars at age 67 in 2002.

Compton grew up in Los Angeles

Compton, who would one day become Bianchi’s girlfriend, was born Sept. 28, 1956. She and her two brothers were raised in L.A. by her single mother, per The Seattle Times. Her father was an artist named Armando Campero.

Compton alleged to The Seattle Times that she had a traumatic upbringing, claiming that she was molested by relatives and sexually assaulted by a stranger who broke into her mother’s home. Compton was once diagnosed with a “severe” antisocial personality disorder, according to the outlet.

She was often ill from an unspecified kidney condition. In an August 2016 interview with Pelican Bomb, Compton claimed to have undergone several treatments for cancer while growing up and was told she’d need a mastectomy and hysterectomy. However, she got pregnant and welcomed a son when she was just 17 years old, per The Seattle Times. She told Pelican Bomb that her son’s father was abusive and that she was hospitalized frequently as a result.

As an adult, Compton studied art and drama and was especially interested in screenwriting, acting and music, with her father helping enroll her in the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, she told Pelican Bomb.

Compton recalled that once she began working regularly in Hollywood as a model, writer and actress, she began using drugs, including cocaine, which impacted her judgment.

She also alleged that her father coerced her into an “arranged” first marriage, which ultimately did not work out.

Her father “was a local celebrity of sorts and a well-collected artist and he attended many society events and emceed them as well,” she told the outlet. “I enjoyed the lifestyle, but it came at a high price. I had to either remedy my illegitimate son’s status or remove myself from public events. That was why I agreed to the arranged marriage even though I was not in love with the man. We ultimately separated.”

Compton met Bianchi in prison

According to The Seattle Times, Compton began corresponding with Bianchi when he was in prison as part of her research into a screenplay she was writing about murder.

“It all started when one day, Bianchi called us from the jail,” L.A. County detective Pete Finnigan said in The Hillside Strangler. “He just asked, ‘I know you’re in charge of who can come and see me … I’ve received a couple of letters from this gal Veronica Compton.’ He gave us the letters and he wanted her added to the list to be able to visit. We ran a record check and everything on her, and it was kind of like, ‘If this is something that’s gonna settle him down and keep him on an even keel, why not go for it, right?’ ”

Compton visited Bianchi in prison to interview him and quickly fell in love with him. However, she has said that her interest in him was likely impacted by her drug use.

“My relationship with Bianchi began just as my near deadly use of drugs escalated,” she told Pelican Bomb.

She attempted to stage a copycat murder in September 1980

Compton claimed that Bianchi convinced her to commit a copycat murder to make it seem like the real Hillside Strangler was still at large.

In a TV news interview shown in The Hillside Strangler, Compton alleged, “I remember he pulled out this band that he had made. He had torn me [a piece of] his shirt and he had made this rope, and then he proceeded to show me this noose.” Compton claimed Bianchi showed her how to strangle someone to death and told her she’d never actually be a suspect in the case.

However, Bianchi denied talking to Compton about staging a copycat murder, strangulation or anything related to the slayings, retired L.A. County Sheriff’s Department detective Frank Salerno said in The Hillside Strangler.

The attempted murder took place in September 1980, when Compton went to a local bar in Bellingham, Wash., and befriended Kim Breed. After drinking at the bar, they went to a motel later that night to buy drugs.

“The woman was sitting on her bed, and Veronica Compton went into the bathroom and came out with a ligature and started strangling her,” Finnigan said in the docuseries.

However, Compton “picked the wrong gal,” retired Whatcom County prosecutor David McEachran added. “She was physically strong and fought her off.”

Breed escaped and called police, who arrested Compton at her home in Carson, Wash., UPI reported.

In court, Breed testified, “My head was dizzy. I knew I had to do something really fast. I knew I was gonna die.”

She was charged with premeditated attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison

Compton was charged with first degree premeditated attempted murder, per UPI.

In her defense, Compton alleged that the attack on Breed was all an act and that Breed was in on the “game.”

“Since I am an unknown writer, I embraced an idea for publicity,” she testified. “In that idea, I grasped the most sensationalistic murder case I could because I had just completed a murder play, which I believe is very explosive, very dynamic. And I want it sold.”

After just three hours of deliberations, a jury convicted Compton. The Spokesman-Review reported that she was sentenced to life in prison.

Where is Veronica Compton now?

Compton escaped from prison on July 26, 1988, when she and another inmate cut through four fences using pruning shears, per the Los Angeles Times. They both were caught and sent back behind bars on Aug. 5, 1988. The Seattle Times reported that she had tried escaping to be with her then-preteen son, but was instead sentenced to an additional two years in prison.

In August 1989, Compton married James Wallace, a professor at Eastern Washington University whom she met at a prison talk. At the time, he told the outlet that Compton had found religion, became a tutor for her fellow inmates and was not the same person who tried to murder Breed almost a decade earlier.

“Veronica is one of the most moral people I’ve ever known,” Wallace told The Seattle Times.

After a conjugal visit, Compton became pregnant and gave birth to her and Wallace’s daughter in 1993, going back to prison just hours after the delivery, per the outlet.

In February 1996, Compton was released from prison on parole, but was sent back to prison after just two weeks for violations of the terms: She stopped seeing a mental health counselor and allegedly answered the door to a social worker nude, according to the Spokesman-Review. The social worker also claimed to have seen pornographic art in the home where Compton and Wallace were raising their then-3-year-old daughter.

Compton was released from prison in 2003 and came out with a book the same year. In 2013, Compton debuted an album called Home, she told Pelican Bomb.

She co-hosted a podcast called Jax Corner and lived in Arleta, Calif., and created more than 200 pieces of art during her life.

She died on Oct. 4, 2023, at age 67, from internal bleeding and cardiac arrest, her co-host Jackie Contreras said on their show. She is survived by her daughter, Juliet Wallace, and son, Steve Compton.