Photos: California’s most notorious killers

Angelo Anthony Buono Jr., shown in court in 1984, is one of the men known as the “Hillside Strangler.” He and his cousin Kenneth Bianchi were convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing girls and women from late 1977 to early 1978. They committed their crimes in the hills above Los Angeles.  (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)

Wayne Adam Ford: Ford stunned authorities when he walked into the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department on Nov. 3, 1998, and confessed to killing four women. He arrived carrying one victim’s severed breast in his pocket. The Arcata trucker confessed to slaying the women and dumping their body parts across the state.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Cary Stayner: Stayner killed three women who were staying at a motel where he worked as a handyman on the outskirts of Yosemite National Park. He was sentenced to death. Separately, he was convicted of beheading a nature guide.  (Al Golub / Associated Press)

Chester Turner: From 1987 to 1998, Turner raped and strangled his victims, most of them South Los Angeles women who were addicted to crack cocaine. He strangled eight with his bare hands. Four of the killings took place within six blocks of Turner’s home. The last two victims died on skid row, after Turner had moved downtown. Turner is currently on California‘s death row.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

William Bonin: The “Freeway Killer,” an unemployed Downey truck driver, confessed to 21 killings, was convicted of 14 and was executed in 1996.  (Mike Meadows / Los Angeles Times)

Vincent Brothers: The Bakersfield educator was convicted in 2007 of killing his wife, three children and mother-in-law.  (Casey Christie / Associated Press)

Marcus Wesson: He was found guilty in 2005 of killing nine of his children in Fresno.  (Pool / Getty Images)

Charles Ng: Accused with co-defendant Leonard Lake of killing 11 people in a kidnapping and sex-slavery ring in Northern California in 1984 and 1985.  (Reed Saxon / Associated Press)