Working as a night-shift taxi driver, he used his occupation to isolate victims in the hours before dawn, targeting women traveling alone after late shifts or social engagements. The case drew particular attention from investigators and the public because of the methodical documentation he created — photographs and self-recorded video — and the preserved remains discovered at his home, which gave rise to the English press designation "The Jars Murderer." He killed four women in Hong Kong across 1982 before his arrest, and the evidence recovered from his residence shaped how the case was understood and prosecuted.

Operating alongside his cousin Angelo Buono Jr., Bianchi was part of a killing partnership that preyed on women and girls across the Los Angeles hillsides in the late 1970s, a case that drew sustained national attention. His conduct after arrest — including an attempt to feign multiple personality disorder to avoid conviction — became nearly as studied as the crimes themselves, offering investigators and psychologists an early case study in calculated criminal deception.

Operating across two countries over roughly two decades, Camargo Barbosa targeted young girls with a methodical persistence that allowed him to evade capture for years. His confirmed victim count places him among the most prolific killers documented in Latin American criminal history. He was ultimately killed in prison by a relative of one of his victims.