Wednesday 18 May 2016

The Ken & Barbie Killers

This is a 45 minute documentary about Canada’s most hated woman and the serial rapist who married her. If there was ever a case of not judging a book by its cover it must surely be that of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. All the major elements of the killer couple are covered, from their first meeting at which sparks flew to Bernardo’s physical abuse of her, their joint rape of Karla’s younger sister Tammy, and the deal with the Devil which understandably outraged the Canadian public. The one thing that is not mentioned is that this was sanctioned by Marion Boyd, the feminist who became Attorney General of Ontario.

Although this was early days in the history of DNA profiling, it is difficult to credit the police felt obliged to offer Karla any kind of deal in order to secure a conviction; the case against Bernardo was surely compelling enough without her testimony. In the UK, the two would most certainly have been charged together, and if Karla ever saw the light of day again it would have been as an old woman rather than as a relatively young one who some miserable wretch not only impregnated but married and whisked off to an island paradise.

Did Karla rather than Bernardo kill the two girls? Bernardo’s lawyer seems to think so; the man himself said so, and as he has since confessed to numerous other crimes that will ensure he is never released, there is no good reason not to believe him.