Sabra Patterson, who survived beatings, rape and an apparent attempted gas asphyxiation in 1977, appears in Episode 4 of MGM+’s The Hillside Strangler to recount her ordeal. She says she was forced into prostitution in Angelo Buono’s Glendale home and believes she would have been the cousins’ first murder victim had she not escaped. Patterson fled, went into hiding, then returned to testify after Kenneth Bianchi’s arrest. The episode also covers Veronica Compton’s 1980 copycat attack and the legal outcomes for Buono and Bianchi.
Hillside Strangler Survivor Sabra Patterson Says She Would've Been Their First Victim — ‘I Don’t Fear You Anymore’
Bettmann; Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty
More than four decades after surviving sustained abuse at the hands of cousins Angelo Buono Jr. and Kenneth Bianchi, Sabra Patterson has gone on record about the violence she endured and the moment she confronted the men who nearly killed her.
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Patterson appears in Episode 4 of MGM+’s documentary series The Hillside Strangler, which revisits the 1977–1978 killing spree in Los Angeles that claimed the lives of at least 10 women and girls. In archival courtroom footage and a present-day interview, Patterson — who testified under her maiden name Sabra Hannan — recounts being forced into prostitution, beaten, raped and subjected to what she believes was an attempted killing.
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Surviving Forced Prostitution and Violence
Patterson testified that while living in Buono’s Glendale home in 1977 she was repeatedly abused. In courtroom footage included in the series she described one beating, saying Buono warned, “I’m gonna slap you around until you realize I mean business,” and struck her with a wet towel wrapped around his fist.
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An Apparent Attempted Asphyxiation
She told filmmakers the abuse escalated to an apparent attempt at lethal asphyxiation. Patterson recalled a stove being moved to expose a gas line, a bag being placed over her head and gas introduced into the bag to see how long she would be asphyxiated and then revive. Archival court material in the series shows similar methods were used against other victims, and a judge later described lethal gas, electrocution, rope strangulation and fatal injection as tactics linked to several murders.
AP
“I had been beaten, raped and tortured,” Patterson says in the documentary. “If I hadn’t escaped, I truly believe in my heart of hearts I would’ve been their first victim.”
Fear, Flight and Testimony
After escaping, Patterson said she fled California and went into hiding for nearly two years out of fear Buono would find her. She returned to testify only after learning that Bianchi had been arrested and Buono was under police surveillance. Facing Buono in court, she recalled feeling nervous but resolute: “I wanted to make sure I had eye contact and didn’t waver. Seeing him in the courtroom, I thought, ‘I don’t fear you anymore.’”
Related Figures and Legal Outcomes
The series also examines other people connected to the case, including Veronica Compton, who formed a relationship with Bianchi while he was incarcerated and later attempted a copycat attack in 1980. The victim, Kim Breed, survived and testified against Compton, who received a life sentence for premeditated attempted murder and was released in 2003.
Kenneth Bianchi was arrested in Washington State in 1979, later pleaded guilty to multiple murders and testified against his cousin to avoid the death penalty. Angelo Buono Jr. was convicted on multiple counts, sentenced to life in prison and died in custody in 2002; Bianchi remains incarcerated after repeated parole denials.
Episode 4 of The Hillside Strangler premiered Feb. 8 on MGM+. Patterson’s account—combining archival testimony and contemporary reflection—adds a personal, harrowing perspective to the case and underlines the lengths she went to help bring her attackers to justice.
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