While the world is eagerly waiting for the upcoming film Barbie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, few know about a darker and sinister series titled Ken and Barbie Killers: The Lost Murder Tapes. The series, released in 2021, is based on the murders and atrocities committed by real-life picture-perfect married couple, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka in the 80s. Both Paul and Karla looked like a perfectly normal happy married couple and few could guess the darkness inside them.
Paul Bernardo was a salesperson by trade who attracted his female victims using pickups and pitches he acquired in his day job before being imprisoned for numerous murders, tortures, and rapes. Like he learned how to succeed in business, he studied how to attract women.
When Homolka’s sister Tammy was killed a year before Bernardo and Homolka’s marriage, their murderous rampage officially began. The two had initially met in 1987 and were married in 1991. Homolka asked her 15-year-old sister to join her and Bernardo for supper on Christmas Eve 1990 and put sleeping tablets in her drink.
Homolka covered Tammy’s mouth and nose with a handkerchief soaked in the anaesthetic Halothane as Bernardo sexually assaulted her while filming the act. Tammy was unconscious at the time. Homolka asserted in court that her husband coerced her into having sex with her sister, which was also caught on camera after Bernardo had raped Tammy. Following the assault, Tammy died after choking on her vomit, but her death was ruled an accident.
The couple kidnapped 14-year-old Mahaffy in 1991, and Bernardo raped her before killing her. Homolka asserted in court that Bernardo had strangled the child.
On June 29, 1991—the day Bernardo and Homolka were wed—Mahaffy was dismembered and her body pieces were cast in concrete. The body pieces were found by a father and son duo on a fishing trip. Soon after, the demented couple entered into a sadomasochistic relationship in which Homolka served as the eager slave and Bernardo served as an abusive master. With Homolka’s knowledge and approval, Paul Bernardo raped girls in Scarborough during the duration of their relationship.
Before the trial, Homolka agreed with the prosecution that if she testified against Bernardo, she would receive a predetermined 12-year sentence.
Homolka completed her 12-year term on July 4, 2005, at which point she was freed. She currently resides in Quebec, Canada after remarrying and having three children. Bernardo acknowledged raping 14 women between May 1987 and April 1991, receiving a life sentence without the possibility of release for 25 years.