"That Little Girl Voice": The Fifth Estate on Karla Homolka's Police Videotapes (CBC, 2015)

Name: "That Little Girl Voice": The Fifth Estate on Karla Homolka's Police Videotapes (CBC, 2015)
Uploaded: 2015-04-20T00:00:00Z
Duration: 5 min 12 s
Description: CBC's the fifth estate journalists recall obtaining Karla Homolka's police videotapes in 1997, with clips of Homolka herself: on Bernardo's violence, on a police tour of the house, and on the champagne glasses.

CBC's the fifth estate journalists recall obtaining Karla Homolka's police videotapes in 1997, with clips of Homolka herself: on Bernardo's violence, on a police tour of the house, and on the champagne glasses.

Subject: Karla Leanne Homolka
Recorded: about 2015
Runtime: 5:12

Content warning: References to the abduction, rape, torture and murder of two teenage girls, and Homolka's description of how Kristen French was bound. No graphic detail.

The Interview

This is not an interview with Karla Homolka. It is a five-minute feature from CBC's the fifth estate, published in 2015, in which the journalists who made the program's 1997 documentary "Karla Homolka" (host Trish Wood and producer Susan Teskey) recall obtaining and watching her police videotapes. Homolka herself is heard in seven short clips from those tapes, about 73 seconds in all.

Historical Context

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka were responsible for the deaths of Homolka's 15-year-old sister, Tammy, in December 1990, and of two teenage girls in Ontario: Leslie Mahaffy, abducted in June 1991, and Kristen French, abducted in April 1992. In May 1993 Homolka agreed to plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter in exchange for a 12-year sentence and her testimony against Bernardo, an agreement later called the "deal with the devil." Bernardo's trial began in Toronto in 1995, with Homolka as the prosecution's main witness; he was convicted on September 1, 1995.

Circumstances

As the journalist describes them, the tapes the fifth estate obtained were of two kinds: Homolka's statements to police, recorded over several days in which she told her story "in her own words with actually relatively little intervention from the police," and a separate police videotape of Homolka taking officers on a tour of the house. Homolka gave her statements to police in May 1993 under her plea agreement. How the fifth estate obtained the tapes is not stated beyond the description's "hidden police evidence tapes."

What the Recording Covers

The video opens with a letter read aloud: "Dear Wendy, I'm letting my bangs grow ... I want him to drool when he sees me." A narrator sets out the 1995 trial and Homolka's deal. In the first clips Homolka says that Bernardo hit her if she did not turn a tap off completely or say the right thing, that he held knives to her throat and told her to "always watch your back," and she describes how Kristen French was bound. The journalist says the public "never believed a word she said," and that the tapes showed Homolka in "that little girl voice." On the house tour tape Homolka asks whether any furniture was damaged in the investigation, asks after her perfume samples, and asks to have a book her sister wants. The journalist then recalls the passage in which Homolka was angry that Bernardo had served Kristen French a drink in their good glasses, and the video plays it: Homolka says she was "really mad" that the two of them had drunk champagne from "really expensive champagne glasses from France."

What Makes the Recording Significant

These clips, chosen by the journalists who first broadcast the tapes, show the contrast they say "exposed who she was": her account of herself as a victim of Bernardo's violence beside her concern for furniture, perfume samples and champagne glasses in the house where the crimes took place.

Archival Importance

The feature preserves part of the fifth estate's 1997 reporting on Homolka and the journalists' own account, 18 years later, of what the tapes showed.

Important Caveats

Homolka's words here are short excerpts, edited by CBC; they are her own claims made to police under a plea agreement, and her description of herself as a victim was disputed then and since. The dates and setting of the tapes are the journalist's recollection ("I think in Oshawa") and are not verified. The letter reader is not identified. Which commentary passages are Trish Wood's and which are Susan Teskey's has not been determined. The YouTube description gives the year of Bernardo's conviction as 1993; it was 1995. Homolka was released from prison on July 4, 2005.

Letter Reader: "Dear Wendy, I'm letting my bangs grow. After all, I want to look my absolute best when I go to court and see Paul. I want him to drool when he sees me."

News Anchor: All eyes are now on accused killer Paul Bernardo in a downtown [inaudible] will hear from Karla Homolka [inaudible] videotapes said to depict chilling [inaudible].

Narrator: In July 1995, Paul Bernardo went on trial in Toronto for the abduction, rape and murder of teenagers Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. The prosecution's star witness: his former wife, Karla Homolka, already in prison for her part in those crimes and in the death of her sister. It's all part of a deal she struck with the Crown in exchange for one thing: her testimony against Paul Bernardo. [music, about 00:52 to 01:01] She describes her role as both victimizer and victim.

Karla Homolka: Um, if I didn't turn the water tap off completely, he'd hit me. Um, if, uh, if I didn't say the right thing, he'd hit me. He held knives to my throat. He told me I'd better watch my back. Um, he said, "Always watch your back with me."

Karla Homolka: Her feet were tied with that electrical, um, electrical cord that he'd used to kill Leslie. And there was electrical cord around her neck.

Journalist: I think that the country, and I think that the women in this country in particular, never believed a word she said. Didn't like the deal that they made, and had a feeling [unclear: "left him" (captions only)] that there was more to Karla Homolka than meets the eye.

Karla Homolka: And I thought for sure he was going to kill me. He was going to kill me that night.

Journalist: We were able to get the tapes, um, of the police interviews with her. And they actually don't take the form very much of the classic police interview, which is, you know, the camera in the corner with, you know, one person in the other corner and the cop asking questions.

Karla Homolka: If I did something [inaudible].

Journalist: This was really, and this, I think, happened over three days. And it was in a hotel, uh, I think in Oshawa. And she told her story, um, in her own words, with actually relatively little intervention from the police. Um, and so for the first time you actually saw Homolka, and heard her, heard her in that voice, that, that little girl voice. And she, I think, completely exposed who she was. I mean, there was another tape that we obtained, which was her, uh, also police tape, which is her taking the police on a tour of the house, talking about what happened here and here and here. And she's dressed as a little schoolgirl, um, and is not the slightest bit concerned about the horrific events that had occurred there and that she'd been party to.

Karla Homolka: Can you answer a question for me? Was any of the furniture damaged as a result of the investigation?

Police Officer: Not that I'm aware of, no.

Karla Homolka: Okay. [unclear: "We're just trying to ask him" (captions) / "Sorry" (Whisper)].

Journalist: Amazing things happen on those tapes. She is dressed like a schoolgirl. At this time, she's a grown woman, right? She's dressed like a schoolgirl. She's speaking in this little schoolgirl voice.

Narrator: And upstairs in the bathroom, where they cleansed Kristen French's body of evidence, Homolka inquired after her perfume samples.

Karla Homolka: [unclear: "Oh, how many of that stuff?" (captions) / "But I don't have any of that stuff" (Whisper)]

Police Officer: So where are all those articles now?

Karla Homolka: Well, [unclear: "Paul Bernardo" (captions) / "Paul's lawyer" (Whisper)] took them.

Police Officer: You're saying [unclear: "Paul Bernardo" (captions) / "Paul's lawyer" (Whisper)] took a number of articles from here?

Karla Homolka: Well, from what I understand, his lawyer took basically everything. Can I ask you a question? Can I have that book? My sister wants it. Um, or does that have to stay here?

Police Officer: I'm afraid I can't answer that.

Police Officer: That has to stay here for now, but we can make those arrangements.

Karla Homolka: Okay, thanks. Can I have these?

Journalist: The thing that stood out for me was the part where she says, uh, he brought, I believe it was Kristen French, home, and he served her a drink. And I was... I'm paraphrasing here, but "and I was so upset because he served her booze in the glasses that we got for our anniversary, and I was really mad about that." So it's sort of like, let me get this straight, Karla: your husband has brought home a girl that he's going to rape, torture and murder, and the thing that bothers you the most is that they're drinking champagne out of a wedding gift?

Karla Homolka: Oh, and I was really mad, too, because, um, when I took Buddy out, there were two champagne glasses on the dining room table. And we had these really expensive champagne glasses from France, which we never used. He had those out. The two of them had been drinking champagne from those glasses. And I was really mad. [unclear: "This is stupid" (Whisper, second machine pass) / "This is a stupid little" (captions)].

Journalist: Like, this says everything you need to know about her. And I think that there was no question that, in terms of a justice story, that that was one of the biggest stories, um, of the '90s. [video ends] ---