Robert Biehler

Biehler's first recorded criminal offense dates back to February 25, 1956, when he and two accomplices, 22-year-old Louis Evangelisti and 18-year-old Kay G. Mills, broke into the home of Paul and Marguerite Troutner in Pasadena during a robbery. After threatening to kill his wife if Troutner did not reveal where he hid his money, the trio tied them up with electric cords and gagged them with adhesive tape, before stealing money and valuables amounting to $1,500. A few months later, on December 22, Biehler went to the North Hollywood home of a former associate, 38-year-old Julia Cook, who had an extensive criminal record for drug possession. As a result, Biehler was instead jailed for parole violation while Molin was later tried for unrelated offences, and despite the officers best efforts, they were unable to charge him with the killings at the time. After being paroled from prison in the early 1970s, Biehler again resumed with his criminal conduct, mainly centered around burglaries and pimping. On October 14, 1973, he confronted a retired paratrooper from Sunland, 28-year-old Michael Rodney Coveny, after the pair had a scuffle at a lounge in Shadow Hills for the latter missing the deadline for a $800 debt concerning cocaine. After driving him out to supposedly meet another supplier, Biehler threatened Coveny at gunpoint with a shotgun. Despite Coveny's pleas for mercy, he was shot and killed on the spot, and after his death, Biehler drove to the Angeles National Forest, where he buried his body in a shallow grave. Sometime during that month, Biehler, disguised as a plumber, went to the pair's shared apartment in Lake View Terrace, where he shot her four times in the head. Miraculously, Phillips survived, forcing Ellington to pay Biehler even more for a second attempt. He accepted, and Christmas Eve, shortly after leaving a bar in North Hollywood, Biehler confronted Phillips, pressed the gun up to her face and fired two shots into her eye and then her ear. To make sure that she was dead, he fired two additional shots into the body before leaving the crime scene. ==Arrest and trial==

Several months after Phillips' murder, Ellington was arrested under charges of conspiracy to murder. At her trial, Ellington initially claimed that she was innocent and that an unknown person had shot and killed her friend, but evidence suggested that she was indeed the one who had paid for the hit. In the midst of the visitation, Biehler was arrested by officers of the LAPD and charged with fourfold murder, after they had found Coveny's body a few days prior. The motion was granted over the protests of Biehler's attorney, Gerald Cohen, who claimed that this act would prejudice the prospective jury. After accepting a plea bargain in exchange for legal immunity, Biehler's ex-wife Janet testified that she had fabricated an alibi in the 1966 murders, claiming that he had been at home with her at the time. In her testimony, she confirmed suspicions that Biehler had indeed killed Cook because she supposedly threatened to rat him out to the police, and had later convinced her to lie for his benefit. Another attorney, Donald Wager, who later dropped out of the case, was later sentenced to 10 days in jail for contempt of court over his refusal to divulge the details of a conversation he had had with his client prior to his resignation. On his part, Biehler claimed that he was not responsible for the murders, even pinning the Coveny killing on his wife, claiming that she had accompanied the pair to the supposed meeting with the dealer and had accidentally shot their hostage after he had attempted to snatch the shotgun out of her hands. ==Imprisonment and death==

In spite of his various claims, neither judge nor jury were swayed by Biehler's explanations, and he was subsequently convicted on all counts. The ruling came after five days of deliberations. Due to the statute at the time, Justice Harry V. Peetris was forced to sentence Biehler to four consecutive life terms with chance of parole, as the law prohibited him applying either the death penalty or life without parole. He expressed his disappointment with the verdict in court statements, but reiterated that he had to abide by the law. The later rulings did not affect Biehler's sentence, which he served at San Quentin State Prison until his death from cancer in 1993. ==See also==