Shirley Ledford was only 18 years old when she was brutally assaulted, tortured and murdered by Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, known as “The Toolbox Killers”, on Halloween Night of October 31, 1979. You can read more about her murder or the Toolbox Killers here.
Detective Paul Bynum, 39, a retired officer in the Hermosa Beach Police Department and the chief investigator of the murders committed by Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, committed suicide with a .38 caliber pistol in December 1987. In his suicide note, Bynum specifically referred to the murders committed by Bittaker and Norris as haunting him, and of his fear they may be released from prison.
In the Netflix series “Mindhunter” there’s a reference to the audiotape. As a new member of the team, Agent Gregg Smith, is forced to listen to the audiotape by Agent Ford Holden, in order to make him ready for the evilness he’ll witness during his career.
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[accordion title=”Transcript of Shirley Ledford’s Tape (WARNING: DISTURBING)” load=”hide”]
Bittaker: (Slapping Shirley) Say something girl, huh? Huh?
Ledford: What do you want me to say?
Bittaker: Huh, huh? Say something, girl! Don’t you hit me? Huh, huh?
Bittaker: Say something girl. Huh?
Ledford: Ouch! (Shirley begins to scream)
Bittaker: Say something! C’mon! You can scream louder than that, can’t you? Huh? What’s the matter, don’t you like to scream? (Slapping sounds can be heard).
Ledford: (Screams) Oh no!
Bittaker: What’s the matter, huh? You want to try again?
Ledford: (Screams) Oh no! Don’t touch me! No!
Bittaker: Huh? You want to try again?
Ledford: On no, don’t touch me! No don’t touch me. No! No! No! No! No!
Bittaker: Want to try again?
Ledford: No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
At this point, Shirley begins to cry profusely. She begs Bittaker to stop hitting her, saying again, “No, don’t touch me!” Given what Bittaker next says, it is likely Shirley curls into a ball and turns away from him as she weeps.
Bittaker: Roll over girl.
Ledford: No don’t touch me!
Bittaker: Roll over!
Ledford: (Pleading tone in voice) Don’t touch me.
Bittaker: (Slapping Shirley) Start getting to work, girl!
Ledford: Don’t touch me!
Bittaker: Start getting to work girl!
Ledford: (Crying) Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!
Bittaker: Get to work, girl!
Ledford: Don’t touch me.
Bittaker: Roll over. I’m not asking you; I’m telling you!
Bittaker: Roll over.
Ledford: (Crying sounds can be heard).
Bittaker: C’mon, C’mon, C’mon!
Bittaker: What are you doing? What are you doing?
Ledford: Huh?
Bittaker: What are you doing?
Ledford: I’m not doing anything; I’m trying to do what you wanted me to do.
Bittaker: What did I want you to do?
Ledford: Suck on it.
Bittaker: Suck on what?
Ledford: This.
Bittaker: What’s this?
Ledford: Your dick.
Bittaker: Yeah? Say it.
Ledford: Your dick.
Bittaker: You’re sucking on my dick?
Ledford: That’s what you wanted me to do?
Bittaker: Is that what you’re doing?
Ledford: Yes, I was.
Bittaker: Tell me.
Ledford: Yes.
Bittaker: Tell me what are you doing?
Ledford: I’m sucking on your dick.
Bittaker: Do you want to do it?
Ledford: You want me to?
Bittaker: You want to, girl? Do you want to suck my dick baby? Huh, huh, hey? Start answering me! (Beating sounds can be heard).
Ledford: Yes.
Bittaker: Tell me.
Ledford: Yes.
Bittaker: Beg me.
Ledford: Yes.
Bittaker: What, hey what do you want girl?
Ledford: I want to suck on your dick.
Bittaker: You don’t sound like you really mean it. (Slapping sounds)
Ledford: I do.
Bittaker: (Laughing) Suck on it then! C’mon start sucking on it. No matter what you can do, squeeze hard you understand and if it hurts any time you want to scream, go ahead and scream.
Ledford: Oh no! (Screams)
Bittaker: Scream, baby! Go ahead and scream! Scream, baby!
At this point, after Bittaker had forced Shirley to fellate him, repeated sounds of an administered beating, interspersed with loud screams can be heard as Bittaker savagely beat Shirley about the breasts. Bittaker then extracted his pliers from the tool box. Shirley then emits several high-pitched, prolonged screams and cries of agony as Bittaker alternately squeezes and twists her labia, nipples and breasts with the pliers. Bittaker then returns the pliers to the tool box. Banging sounds can also be heard throughout, which are believed to have been made as Shirley came into contact with the walls and inner contents of the van as she writhed and flailed.
Ledford: My God! Please stop it! (Screams)
Bittaker: Is the recorder going?
Norris: Yeah!
Bittaker: Scream baby! Scream some, baby.
Ledford: I can’t!
Bittaker: Scream some more baby. Come baby. Come on. Nobody is going to hurt you. Turn over and talk to me nice. Love me. You want nothing more in the world than to make me cum. Huh?
Ledford: (Still crying, says something unintelligible which ends with her saying “that’s right.”)
Bittaker: Say it again baby. What do you want huh? What do you want?
Ledford: Your cock.
Bittaker: Where do you want it baby, huh?
Ledford: I want to hold it and squeeze it.
Bittaker: Why?
Ledford: It feels good, cause you like it and I like it.
Bittaker: You want me to cum baby.
Ledford: Oh yeah.
Bittaker: You want me to cum, yeah? Want me to come, tell me baby. (Beating and slapping sounds)
Ledford: Yeah.
Bittaker: Tell me!
Ledford: Yeah.
Bittaker: Huh?
Ledford: Oh yeah.
Bittaker: Hey girl, you want me to put a pair of pliers up your cunt?
Ledford: What?
Bittaker: You want to make me cum huh? You want to make me cum huh?
Bittaker: Huh? Want to make me cum girl, huh?
Ledford: Oh yes (Scream)
Bittaker: Yes what?
Ledford: I want you to cum. Cum. (Scream). Come on.
Shirley Ledford then screams in agony as Bittaker inserts the pliers inside her vagina and twists them, tearing her.
Bittaker: Stop screaming at me, come on talk to me!
Ledford: Cum, cum, cum. Please cum, cum, cum, cum.
Bittaker: Where do you want me to cum, baby?
Ledford: I want you to cum.
Bittaker: Where do you want me to cum?
Ledford: I want you to cum.
Bittaker: Where do you want me to cum?
Ledford: Your cock. I want you to cum.
Bittaker: Cum where?
Ledford: Cum.
Bittaker: Cum where? Where do you want me to cum?
Ledford: In me.
Bittaker: Where?
Ledford: Cum.
Bittaker: Where?
Ledford: All over. All over.
Ledford: (Scream). No, no, no, no, no, no. (Scream)
Bittaker: Is the recorder going?
Norris: What?
Bittaker: Is the recorder going?
Norris: (Emphasis) Yeah!
Ledford: Oh no, no, no! Oh no! (Sobbing sounds)
A sharp, shrill scream, followed by wailing sounds follow. It is believed to be at this point when Bittaker, having already sodomized Shirley, inserted the pliers into her rectum and twisted them, tearing her. Banging sounds can again be heard as Shirley came into contact with the walls and inner contents of the van as she again writhed and flailed.
Ledford: (Screaming). No! No! No! Oh, oh! (Screaming)
At this point, Norris traded places with Bittaker as Shirley lay crying and moaning in the back of the van. Three of the four victims previously killed had all been vaginally raped by Norris, but as Bittaker had viciously torn Shirley’s genitals and rectum with his pliers, causing her to bleed, Norris did not vaginally or anally rape her. Instead, Norris forced the already agonized girl to fellate him, then switched on the tape recorder himself:
Norris: Make noise there, girl. Go ahead and scream or I’ll make you scream!
Ledford: (Pleading tone) I’ll scream if you stop hitting me.
Norris: (Enthusiastic tone in voice) Oh yeah?
Ledford: (Screaming)
Norris: Keep it up girl!
Ledford: (Screaming)
Norris: More!
Ledford: (Screaming)
Norris: ‘Till I say stop!
Ledford: (Screaming)
Unintelligible sounds are heard, interspersed with sounds of Shirley Ledford crying and moaning.
Sounds of Norris extracting the sledgehammer from the tool box can then be heard as Shirley, seeing him do this, again begins crying and shouts, “Oh no! No! Oh!” She then screams in fear, again shouts “Oh, no, no!” before again screaming.
Norris strikes Shirley on the elbow.
Ledford: You broke it!
Norris: I barely hit it.
Ledford: (Pleading and sobbing) Don’t hit me again!
Norris: Oh yeah?
Norris can be heard lifting the sledgehammer from either the floor of the van or, possibly, the wooden frame of the bed the two had constructed in the rear of the van.
Ledford: (Screaming) No! No! No! No! No! (Bludgeoning sounds can be heard, interspersed with repeated high-pitched screams)
Ledford: No! No! No! No! No! (Scream) Oh no! No! No! No!
Shirley is struck 25 times in succession on the left elbow by Norris, who repeatedly fractures her left elbow. Each time the hammer strikes her, a piercing scream can be heard. At one point, she may have tried to say something, but her voice had become an unintelligible mass of pain.
Norris: How’s that?
Bittaker: (Driving) What’s going on?
Norris: I was just beating on her elbows with this hammer.
Bittaker: Ah!
Ledford: Oh! (Screams as Norris again repeatedly strikes her elbow with the hammer).
Norris: What are you sniveling about?
Ledford: (Scream). No! Oh. Owww! I, (Repeated screams).
Ledford: (Screams).
The tape recorder is then switched off before Norris strangles Shirley. The last words Shirley Lynette Ledford spoke at the end of her short life were, “Do it. Just kill me!”
[/accordion]
[/accordions]
Where’s the video that was mentioned?? Or any audio too…
Watch it at our Youtube Channerl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7BAX8T8dCM
That does not take you to the audio recording. Its a short documentary.
THE audio recording is at the 40 second mark of the video.
Wtf they dont show the actual audio anywhere ? did you manage to find it anywhEre?
Why the hell would anyone want to actually hear the audio? The transcript alone is horrible enough! What kind of sick mind wants to listen to this poor child’s torture?
Why do you need to hear it sicko?
let the man be curious, spooks.
Why in hell would you want to listen to it? I got goosebumps just reading the transcript.
This is only one reason why the bible affirms the death PENALTY for murder,but the real judgement begins when these evil people dIe.Genesis 9:5-6: Romans13
“It is appointed for people to die once then after that the JUDGMENT. “Hebrews 9:27 with Revelation 20:11-15
What an idiotic thing to write. if your god does exist, then according to your evil, immoral and vile bible, he’s omnipresent and omnipotent and whilst this poor little girl was tortured beyond measure, your vile god sat there watching, doing nothing, probably enjoying the show. Disgusting!
You’re Fired.
God is indeed omnipresent, omnipotent and all good, but he is not responsible for our personal karma. Just like there is a law system, the system of karma is based on reward and punishment, and we get all the reactions for our past deeds, be it in this life or the next. the law system is set up and controlled by the state, but does that make the state accountable or responsible for the suffering of criminals?
How is that being omnipotent you idiot
Willingly not doing something though you have the power to doesn’t preclude omnipotence. Not doesn’t equal can’t, “idiot.”
That is, “won’t” or “doesn’t” doesn’t equal “can’t.”
“Willingly not doing something though you have the power to doesn’t preclude omnipotence.”
but it does preclude omni-benevolence, moron.
are you fucking kidding me man. just because a angle or god himself DIDN’T come down and smite those two guys DOESN’T mean he WASN’T there with her. you think there going to have a fun time in hell you know what ever ADULTERY you commit here on earth is done to you in hell so don’t think that they got off scott free. shes in a place with no pain and suffering. for you to say something like that is completley insensitive.
Get off your butts and find who killed Hailey Dunn, haileigh Cummings and Kyle hormon. Just innocent children who have not had justice. Go to work.
First of all if this girl did not believe ik God then when you deny God there is nothing he can do for you even thiugh he wants to so badly aecond if she did believe in God then God was there but it was not God who harned her it was the devil and the thing is he did not intervene because this is what we brought upon ourselves we have to take the good with the bad and while anyone might have traded spots to make sure this little girl did not have to suffer (i know i would have no one deserves this) but iF he did just jump in then it would no longer be faith plus we as a whOle have failed and so while this girl took a lot of pain it does not chnage the fact that God loves her it is Something we can all learn from that man is evil and we need a higher authority than OURSELVES to know how to live and the only one who has ever been perfect is God
This is essentially what you just said: Shirley Ledford deserved her vicious rape, torture and murder because either she didn’t believe in your God to begin with, or she did and saving her would have been a violation of your God’s command to blindly follow an invisible sky wizard’s 2,000 year old rules. I don’t like to call people “stupid” because that immediately shuts down the conversation in any argument, but I’m sorry, your comment was STUPID.
I was raised in a very strict Evangelical household and even my holy-roller mother would not have blamed Shirley Ledford for the terrible things that happened to her. And maybe 300 years ago people had no reasonable explanation for evil, psychopathic behavior so they resorted to blaming it on a wicked ground wizard, but we have things called neuroscience and psychology now. We don’t have to do that anymore.
You’re fucking disgusting, blaming faith for this. Fuck you and your false god!
God gives free will for one. He didn’t “watch” and also they quoted the old testament which was washed when Jesus was born. It’s literally the WHOLE REASON Jesus was born!
there is no god.
hanging or the electric chair is way too damn merciful for these two devils. they will be judged for eternity. god knows they deserve it!
GOD DOESNT EXIST. IT IS A FAIRYTALE CREATED BY MAN TO SOOTHE THE FRIGHTENED MASSES WHO CANNOT COMPREHEND THAT THERE IS NOTHING BUT CHAOS AND DEATH AND WHEN YOU DIE YOU NO LONGER EXIST. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SOUL OR AN OMNIPRESENT, OMNIPOTENT BEING THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSES.
FActs !!!
We’ll See about that when you’ll be in hell ?
SaBrina is a stupid, brainwashed twat.
ARE YOU AWARE THAT jesus christ IS ALMOST A CARBON COPY of horus,an egyptian god that predates jesus by 200 hundred years. if you’re going to say things about people going to hell you obviously don’t even know your chosen religion. christianity states that no man or woman can judge anyone or condemn them to hell. doing so is considered a serious sin. so,in fact you are the one going to “hell”. i guess i shouldn’t expect someone who can’t get simple sentence structure correct to know these things or be aware of how silly their own mental slavery is.
Are you aware that the egyptians had copies of the bible in this time that Spoke of who Jesus is and therefor while they may have been speaking about “hoRus” they Were using things they learned from the bible while he may have been written about 200 hundred years before jesus it does not chnage tHe fact the the book itself came many years before that even
Tre Convenient!
God planted dinosaur bones, obviously, in order to grow dinosaurs.
God told the pagans about every precise detail of the coming of christ and they still worshipped… NOT God…? Makes sense.
God told all these precise details to these people and yet when “prophesy” was fullfilled, the jews still denied the divinity of Jesus, and Muslims still just say Jesus was a prophet.
I’m currently rereading the bible in order to academically make sense of this mess in multiple translations and including the non-cannon books, and I’m sorry… But if the Bible is to be taken literally as a complete historical documentation of God’s relationship with us, then that means that as late as 96 CE (or “AD” for your overly sensitive christian feelings) cannonically, that was the year the book of revelations was written. IDK if you’re familiar with that book, but basically “john” write a bunch of letters to himself from Jesus and spread them across Asia, and then had a psychedelic trip he perceived as a prophesy of what the end of the world will look like both in heaven and on earth. Complete with the descriptions of a woman giving birth in heaven while a dragon waits at her vaginal opening to EAT HER BABY. he “got so high that he saw Jesus” and christians act like it is somehow more valid than my sister hallucinating that a tiny Jesus appeared in her hand and claimed that the bible grossly misquoted him. Which is it? Either he actually spoke to God, face to face, or he was high and wrote everything that came to his mind down. God was directly interfering in human matters at this time, why stop now? Why don’t we see actual physical evidence that can’t be explained away by psychology, science, etc. that shows the power and intervention of God.
People claim its to ensure that we truly love and have faith in him, but why now when he never held back before? Jesus is supposed to have literally ascended to heaven, that seems like some big news that should have traveled so far and so high that Jesus’s divinity couldn’t be questioned. So why is it that we question it?
You could argue that it’s because people wanted to cover it up in order to take back control over everyone, but the fact that the Roman Empire took this story, and ran with it because they saw the benefit of using this cult to unify the empire, implies that it should have had no reason to have had any push back ever. We live with the aftermath of the gross mistreatment of all people as a direct result of this christian imperialism to this fucking day. That’s a long arm of influence. And yet we still question it? Why?
The bible has several red flags in it, the largest of them being “beware of getting too much knowledge”. Any religion that says you shouldn’t learn anything about anything but what its text says is trying to sell you something. Most likely control. The sociological benefits of combating ignorance with knowledge are tried and tested. Because of this, other cultures aren’t “scary” and racism isn’t as prevalent in communities that embrace knowledge as it is in remote communities that aren’t exposed to as much. That’s just a fact.
Don’t tell people that these assholes are being punished in the afterlife, because there is literally no proof that that is the case. Don’t tell people that this girl and all the others experienced this torment because eve ate an apple once. That’s bullshit. A truly loving, compassionate, interactive, omnipotent God would see the bigger picture. He wouldn’t test us knowing we’ll fail and then punish us for failing. Sometimes shit just fucking happens. Sometimes victims grow up to become abusers. Sometimes justice fails because we wrongly believe that Karma, or God, or anything else will cosmically make it right. we are like this because we do it to ourselves, true. But it is not to prepare us for an afterlife of neverending worship of a deity as an alternative to pain and suffering for all eternity until eternity ends.
The bible says that when its all over that those in hell will be flung into the pit of nonexistence, and that the people we, the damned, knew and loved in heaven won’t have to cry because they will forget us. God will wipe us from existence. Which is far crueler than anything I could do to another person in order to deserve that fate. The only thing that comforts the dying is that they will be remembered by those they love. We’re terrified to die alone. It’s our legacy of life that makes death bearable. And that REMEMBRANCE is the only way to really ACHIEVE eternal life. it is household names like Hitler, and Stalin, and Queen Elizabeth Tudor, and Vlad the impaler, and Lincoln, and Washington, and Cleopatra, and Nero, and Gandhi, and Martin Luther, AND Martin Luther King Jr., and many more who have ACHIEVED eternal life in the pantheon of Saints and Villains.
Those are our gods and devils. mere mortals who are “flawed” inherently. that flaw being lack of empathy for our fellow man.
But no one wants to believe this because it’s depressing. Its not comfortable. It’s harsh. But it’s reality, so grow up. If you love God and JEsus that’s fine for you to live in denial, but don’t hold everyone else toa standard they don’t believe in.
I will be kind to my fellow man because it costs me nothing to do so. Because to not do so would cost me me self respect. Don’t look for God to love you, he won’t love you until you love yourself. Don’t look outside yourself for meaning. Accept the things you cannot change and take the courage to affect the things you can. There is lots of wisdom in the bible, but there is lots of wisdom in Confucianism, and Buddhism, and Islam, and Paganism, and Judaism, and plenty of other religions. And it has fuck all to do with any one god, and more to do with the fact that though we are inclined to self-serve, we still know it’s wrong. Be it because you can’t love yourself when you’ve done horrible things to others, or be it because society calls for consequences of actions.
I’m not saying don’t look for meaning, and don’t offer it to those who ask. I’m saying that your “meaning” isn’t meaningful to everyone. And it’s a cop out to say its the devils fault and our fault, but never God’s. In your meaning, God came into being, God created the earth and heavens, God created life on earth and in heaven, God created the devil, he created us, and he created it all knowing how it would end. He’s playing chess with himself and he created the board, and the pieces, and no matter what all things good or bad were done by him. I can buy that. But I can’t buy that it was for any good reason other than God is a bored man playing with ants and an hourglass.
I will end with the biggest cop-out of all “my ways are not your ways” but he created our ways, why hold us to his standard when there is no way to attain it? “thou shalt not question the lord your god” “The lord works in mysterious ways”
Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
So you are saying the bible is around 4000 years old? Horus wasnt “invented” 200 B.C. my friend. Horus predates jesus, by millenia, literally.
well isnt that ironic “god”
I am so sorry for you that the life you choose to live is one of meaninglessness and terror i wish that you could realize that there is no way this could have been created by chance and that after this life comes an eternal beautiful one in its place should you trust him im not saying this in anger or spite but in hopes that you can see there Is so much more there is reason to live and yes there are bad things in this world but we brought this on ourselves when the first people sinned against God because we broke the rules we become No longer perfeCt and now we are paying the price for our own actIons thAnk God he came back and diEd a horrible death and got ridIculed so that i can live with him For eternity and be happy with him there is so much good that even though there is bad God is there and helps in ways that we do not understand we have to have faith and know that he is powerful and trust me they will suffer a worse fait then death when they come face To face with God either eay though i just feel bad for you that this life seems so empty and voide to you that you focus on the Bad
Don’t feel bad for people. You aren’t in some elite group that just “gets it”. As hard as it is for you to grasp, Having faith (knowing)that there will be nothing when I die and that my experiences are a direct result of my actions and not because some dumb monkeys ate an apple once, makes the life I’m living now so much more meaningful. spending this time with those I love, losing them, hurting over them, hurting over me, FEELING, it means everything. Because all too soon, there will be nothing. And if it were possible to have consiousness whilst not existing, I would crave to feel these pains all over again.
It is precisely because of, what appears to you as a grim outlook on life, that I hold those dear to me closer than you ever will. Because I can’t brush away my guilt by saying “i’ll see them again when I die” or “in my next life” or “they’re watching over me”. I know that this time is all I have. And I can’t afford not to live it well and thoroughly.
I’m sorry for you and your loved, but damned, ones. Because according to your cult scripture god will wipe your tears and make you forget them. To want to do that is what I call deplorable. How sad to never be mourned.
Who did then ? It didn’t just appear out of nowhere. You can’t see god…..you can’t see oxygen either, but it’s there.
have ANY OF you people taken basic lessons in grammar?
Bwaaahahaha 🙂
Urgh, we dont want to read your jibber jabber stupid debates, we just want to actuaLly hear the audio. No one is interested in any of your arguments on religeon or Atheistic views. Find the appropriate forum, this is not it!
First of all: WHy would anyone wanna hear these TApes if YOu Already have THe transcript?
Second: why are YOu guys debating over religious BUllcrap WEHN We Can All agree that these murdering fucks deserve Every bad THINg in This World? As ed kemper said: the rightful PUNISHMENt WOULd Be death by torture!
Everybody who wants to hear audio is just as disgusting as the murderS. There is nothing to gain by Listening to a woman being killed unless you too desire to do similar. Sickos, all of you.
Yet here you are with us sick fuc***s.
read conversations with god, it will change your perspective
I did. It didn’t. LOL same argument as “well if you actually took the time to read the Bible…” There are no magic texts that convert us upon reading them. Sorry you will never understand that.
Somehow we got off subject.
Save the turtles
Wow, way to turn this tragedy into a religious debate. And btw, anyone who read the entire transcripts has no business calling anyone else a psycho. Criminal justice and law students have to review cases like this all the time. God rest the souls of these young women. I was 16 the year this happened. Chilling…..