Tool Box Killer Dies in Prison:  Lawrence Bittaker, California's notorious "tool box killer" died of natural causes on death row according to corrections officials.  The San Jose Mercury News reports that Bittaker, who was the ringleader, and an accomplice kidnapped, raped and tortured five teenage girls along the California coast over a span of five months, from June to October 1979. The victims, some of them hitchhikers, ranged from 13 to 18 years old and were from Los Angeles County's South Bay, Long Beach and San Fernando Valley.  Bittaker and the accomplice were tagged as the "tool box killers" because Bittaker would use hand tools such as vice grips, hammers and ice picks to torture the girls before they were killed.  He tape-recorded the torture and murder of 16-year-old Lynette Ledford, which he later called "pillow talk."  Jurors cried during the trial when that tape was played.  It took only 15 minutes for the jury to return a death sentence, yet Bittaker's claims against his sentence for these horrific crimes has been languishing in a federal district court for decades.  Veteran prosecutor Stephen Kay told reporters "I'm upset that he beat the system. He died a natural death, something that his victims didn't have a chance for. They had their whole lives ahead of them; they never got to get married, have children or grandchildren."