LAWRENCE BITTAKER Jail Cell artwork print signed and dated in Blue

Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker (born September 27, 1940) and Roy Lewis Norris (born February 5, 1948), also known as the Tool Box Killers, are American serial killers and rapists who kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed five teenage girls in Southern California over a period of five months in 1979.

Described by FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas as the most disturbing individual for whom he has ever created a criminal profile.  Bittaker was sentenced to death for five murders on March 24, 1981, and died December 13, 2019.

Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 27, 1940, as the unwanted child of a couple who had chosen to not have children. He was placed in an orphanage by his birth mother and was adopted as an infant.  Bittaker's adoptive father worked in the aviation industry, which required the family to frequently move around the United States throughout his childhood.^[11]

Bittaker was first arrested for shoplifting at the age of 12 and obtained a minor criminal record over the next four years after further arrests for the same offense—in addition to petty theft—which brought him to the attention of juvenile authorities. Bittaker would later claim these numerous theft-related offenses committed throughout his adolescence had been attempts to compensate for the lack of love he received from his parents.