Conviction
Bonin's first trial lasted until January 6, 1982. On this date, the jury convicted Bonin of ten of the murders for which he was tried, although he was found not guilty of the murders of Lundgren and King, of committing sodomy upon Grabs, of committing mayhem upon Lundgren, and of robbing one other victim. As these verdicts were read by the clerk of court, many relatives and friends of Bonin's victims wept openly. The following day, the prosecution and defense made alternate pleas for the actual sentence the jury should decide, with Norris requesting the death penalty and Charvet requesting life imprisonment. On January 20, the jury further found that the special circumstances required within California state law (multiple murders and robbery) had been met in the ten murder cases for which they had found Bonin guilty, and thus unanimously recommended he receive the death penalty.
Bonin was cleared of the sodomy and murder of King because he had led police to the body of the victim in December 1980, with the agreement that his leading police to the body could not be used against him in court, and therefore the prosecutors had discussed King's disappearance at the trial, but not the discovery of his body; he was cleared of the charges of mayhem and murder against Lundgren because, according to López, he had strenuously denied committing this particular killing in the interviews he had granted to him
He had a total disregard for the sanctity of human life and a civilized society. Sadistic, unbelievably cruel, senseless and deliberately premeditated. Guilty beyond any possible or imaginary doubt.
- Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Keene pronouncing the death sentence upon Bonin. March 12, 1982.
Sentencing
In response to the recommendations of the jury, Judge Keene ordered a reconvening of court on February 24. On this date, Charvet argued for a modification of the sentence recommended by the jury. Despite an impassioned appeal by Charvet, on March 12, Keene formally sentenced Bonin to death for the ten murders for which he had been convicted. Describing the murders as "a gross, revolting affront to human dignity", Keene further ordered at this hearing that if Bonin's death sentence were commuted to one of life imprisonment, the sentences should run consecutively. Bonin was then ordered to be remanded to the warden of San Quentin State Prison, to await execution in the gas chamber. He remained unmoved upon receipt of this sentence, having earlier informed his attorney he fully expected to formally receive the death penalty.
Prior to his scheduled second trial in Orange County, Bonin was temporarily removed from death row and held in solitary confinement, where he remained until the conclusion of this trial. This security measure was largely due to the fact he had previously received a severe beating by an incarcerated gang member with whom he had shared a cell. While incarcerated in this capacity, Charvet attempted to secure a change of venue, citing the extensive pretrial publicity surrounding the case in the county minimizing the chances of securing an untainted jury within the jurisdiction; however, this motion was refused by Judge Kenneth Lae, who ruled in November 1982 that there had only been minimal publicity surrounding the Freeway Killer case in Orange County following Bonin's earlier convictions.
Orange County
Bonin was brought to trial in Orange County, charged with the robbery and murder of four further victims who had been found murdered within this jurisdiction between November 1979 and May 1980, on March 21, 1983. He was tried before Superior Court Judge Kenneth Lae.
Initial jury selection began on this date, and saw a total of 204 prospective jurors subjected to the process of voir dire selection until sixteen were picked in June. Upon completion of the jury selection process, Bonin's attorney renewed an earlier filed motion that the trial should be moved to a jurisdiction outside of Orange County due to pretrial publicity tainting the jury pool; this renewed motion was again rejected by Lae, who ruled that the trial would begin on June 14.
The prosecutor at Bonin's Orange County trial, Bryan Brown, contended that all four victims killed within this constituency had been abducted while hitchhiking, then ordered to strip before being bound about the wrists and ankles. Each of the four victims had then endured rape, beatings, torture, and finally ligature strangulation. In each instance, the ligature had left an impression measuring approximately one-half of an inch upon the victim's neck. Brown also hearkened toward the similarities in each of these murders and two of those for which Bonin had earlier been convicted in Los Angeles County: Miranda and Wells. Particular emphasis was placed upon the fiber evidence found upon each of the Orange County victims—in addition to three victims killed in Los Angeles County—being a precise match to the distinctive carpeting in the rear of Bonin's van. As such, Brown stated, the four Orange County victims had been killed by the same individual who had killed Miranda and Wells, and his accomplices in these two murders, Miley and Munro, would testify as to their accompanying Bonin on each of these murders. To further support this contention, the prosecution also presented forensic experts who testified that the fibers discovered upon the bodies of all six victims in question were a precise match with the carpeting in Bonin's van. The interior of the van had also been extensively stained with human blood. In reference to the evidence found within the van itself, Brown stated to the jury: "One can truly say from the evidence found within the van it is a virtual death wagon."
These contentions were refuted by Charvet, who contended that any similarities in modus operandi did not constitute automatic proof of his client's guilt, and that the evidence presented did not support the prosecution's contention beyond a reasonable doubt that Bonin had murdered any of the four Orange County victims, or the two victims killed in Los Angeles County. Specifically, Charvet attacked the credibility of Munro, and further contended Bonin was simply a scapegoat for four unsolved murders. Charvet also argued before the jury that Brown had "spent more time discussing the two Los Angeles cases" for which Bonin had previously been convicted than actually proving Bonin had committed any of the Orange County murders.
During the six-week trial, Bonin's attorneys called two witnesses in his defense—one of whom was Munro, who conceded Bonin had communicated with him prior to his testifying in this second trial, requesting he lie when called to deliver his testimony.
Second conviction
On August 1, both counsels delivered their closing arguments before the jury, who then retired to consider their verdicts. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before announcing on August 2 that they had found Bonin guilty of each of the four murders, in addition to three counts of robbery.
After three days of deliberations as to the actual penalty to be imposed upon Bonin, the jury announced on August 22 their recommendations that he be sentenced to death on each count. Judge Lae postponed formal sentencing until August 26. On this date, Bonin received four further death sentences, with Lae describing Bonin as sadistic and guilty of "monstrous criminal conduct".
Following his Orange County convictions, Bonin was transferred from the Orange County jail to San Quentin State Prison, to await execution in the gas chamber.
Death row
In his years on death row, Bonin undertook painting and writing as hobbies. He wrote a series of short stories called Doing Time: Stories from the Mind of a Death Row Prisoner with 50 copies initially printed and published at $13 a copy. He also held hopes of publishing a science fiction novel. Over the years, Bonin received several minor awards for his artwork, short stories and poems.
Bonin also corresponded with numerous individuals, including the mothers of some of his victims, although he never expressed any regret or remorse over having murdered their sons, purposefully withholding information his victims' families sought and seemingly deriving pleasure from their discontent. On one occasion, Bonin informed the mother of victim Sean King that her son had been his favorite victim as "he was such a screamer".
Shortly after Bonin's arrival at San Quentin State Prison, he became close friends with serial killer Lawrence Bittaker, whom he had previously been incarcerated with at Los Angeles County jail. Bonin also became acquainted with convicted murderers Randy Kraft, Douglas Clark, and Jimmy Lee Smith.
Bonin also contended to both his defense attorneys and to several people with whom he corresponded while upon death row that Butts had been the actual ringleader behind the murders, and that he had simply been Butts' accomplice. These claims would be refuted by the prosecutor at Bonin's Los Angeles County murder trial, Stirling Norris, who recollected shortly before Bonin's execution: "He was the leader, and he chose weak people he could use."
The method of Bonin's execution was superseded by lethal injection by the state of California in 1992, following the execution of Robert Alton Harris (the first inmate California had executed since 1967). Harris had exhibited evident symptoms of discomfort for up to four minutes throughout his fifteen-minute execution in the gas chamber. These symptoms had included convulsions. As such, the state of California opted to use lethal injection as an alternate method of execution to the gas chamber, branding the gas chamber a "cruel and unusual" method of execution.
Appeals
Bonin filed numerous appeals against his convictions and sentencing, citing issues such as jury prejudice, the potential of jury inflammation via listening to numerous victim impact statements (to which his defense counsel had offered to stipulate), and inadequate defense as the bases for each appeal. For these appeals, Bonin hired new lawyers, who initially submitted contentions that his previous defense attorney, Charvet, had provided inadequate defense at his trials by failing to place sufficient emphasis upon Bonin's bipolar disorder and the sexual abuse he had endured as a child. These lawyers contended that had Charvet placed further emphasis on these issues, Bonin would have been "humanized" in the eyes of his juries. Each successive appeal proved unsuccessful, with the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to overturn Bonin's death penalty convictions in August 1988 and January 1989.
Despite upholding Bonin's convictions, the Supreme Court poured scorn upon Judge Keene for failing to fully heed a warning given by the prosecution prior to the Los Angeles County trial that Munro had discussed the possibility of agreeing to legal representation by Charvet prior to his testimony. Despite admonishing Charvet for a potential conflict of interest, Judge Keene had permitted him to act as Bonin's defense attorney at his first trial. In spite of this fact, the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that Charvet had effectively cross-examined Munro at trial, and that Keene's actions, though ruled as "inexplicable", had not effectively harmed Bonin's legal defense. Further merit was given to Bonin's contention that his defense should have been allowed to stipulate to the testimony of the parents of his victims, rather than their being allowed to identify photographs of their sons in both life and death at his trials. Despite this ruling, this finding was also deemed not to have affected the overall verdict.
A final submission to the United States Court of Appeals was submitted in October 1994, with Bonin contending such issues as his being denied the effective assistance of counsel at his trials, that he had been denied due process at his Los Angeles trial due to the judge's refusal to suppress the testimony of Munro and Miley, that Charvet failed to point out Bonin's brain damage and other mitigating circumstances, and that the judge at his Orange County trial had denied his counsel's motion for a change of venue upon the basis that pretrial publicity had effectively minimized any chance of obtaining an unbiased jury within the county. This final appeal was rejected on June 28, 1995, with the appellate judges stating they had found no evidence of legal misconduct, and that no evidence existed that the 13 jurors who served upon Bonin's Orange County trial who had admitted to minimal, indirect pretrial exposure to the Freeway Killer case had, as a result of this pretrial publicity, been incapable of judging Bonin with impartiality. As such, the appellate judges declared their satisfaction with the validity of Bonin's convictions, concluding that Bonin's verdict would not have changed with further mitigating circumstances revealed. The various experts who had examined Bonin would also find conflict with one another's assertions, with Dr. Park Dietz opining that fellow Dr. David Foster largely mischaracterized and exaggerated the evidence relied in proving Bonin was extensively abused as a child, and was mistaken in assuming Bonin's Babinski reflex and other symptoms—which were initially speculated to indicate attention deficit disorder or another minor disorder—were indicative of extensive brain damage that influenced Bonin's crimes. In addition, a neurologist's magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalogram tests conducted on Bonin would reveal that he had minimal, if any, brain anomalies indicative of damage.
On February 20, 1996, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a plea for clemency submitted by Bonin's attorneys on the grounds of inadequate legal representation at both his trials. Scarcely one hour prior to his scheduled execution, the Supreme Court refused to hear Bonin's final plea to overturn his death sentence, with the convened panel in almost unanimous agreement that Bonin's own attorneys had not failed to give their client adequate legal representation by not earlier discovering their submitted claims to have discovered evidence attesting to Bonin's innocence. Furthermore, these appellate judges ruled that Bonin's attorneys should not have waited until the last minute to submit arguments to overturn or postpone the impending death sentence of their client. These convened judges also rejected Bonin's final claim that he had a right to choose between the gas chamber or lethal injection as his actual method of execution.
I think I've accepted the fact that this may come about, and I've made my peace with it and if it happens, it happens. ... As far as how I'm going to feel at that very moment, I can't answer that question. I don't know; I don't think any of us would know until we're there. ... Well, probably I went in the service too soon because I was peaking in my bowling career. ... So I regret that I didn't get to go out and get the instruction, and pursue that. Because I've always had a love for bowling.-Bonin, reflecting on his impending execution and life regrets. February 22, 1996.
Execution
Bonin was executed by lethal injection inside the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison on February 23, 1996. He was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the history of California, and his execution occurred fourteen years after his first death sentence had been imposed.
In a final interview given to a local radio station less than 24 hours before he was executed, Bonin claimed he had "made peace" with the fact he was about to die, adding that his only major regret in life was that he had not pursued his teenage passion of bowling long enough to have turned professional. He expressed his disagreement with the State's decision to execute him, stating: "A lot of people believe I should die for what I [have done]. I don't agree" before further elaborating: "I have no anger towards anybody, but that doesn't mean I don't think the death penalty is wrong."
Bonin denied any responsibility for his actions in this interview, stating "I can say that I feel that these people [believe I am] guilty and [that] they feel when I'm executed, that will put a closure to it. But that is not the case and they're going to find that out."
He opined that he was not the same person he was during his spree of crimes, and would not be able to live a normal life outside of prison as a result. Insisting that he had no control over his actions, Bonin claimed his urge to kill was too strong to resist before expressing his hope the Lord "will understand me, and know that I [could not] help what I did."
At 6 p.m. on the day he was executed, Bonin was moved from his cell to a death watch cell, where he ordered his last meal: two large pizzas, three pints of ice cream and three six-packs of Coke, which he ate while watching an episode of Jeopardy!. His final hours were spent in the company of five individuals whom he had chosen for this occasion. These included his attorney, chaplain, and a prospective biographer. Each later stated that Bonin seemed resigned to his fate; his attorney also added that he had not detected any remorse in his client.
At 11:45 p.m., Bonin was escorted from his holding cell into the execution chamber. In his final statement, given to the prison warden one hour prior to his scheduled execution at midnight, Bonin again expressed no remorse for his crimes and left a note that stated:
I feel the death penalty is not an answer to the problems at hand. I feel it sends the wrong message to the people of this country. Young people act as they see other people acting instead of as people tell them to act. I would advise that when a person has a thought of doing anything serious against the law, that before they did, they should go to a quiet place and think about it seriously.
Bonin was pronounced dead at 12:13 a.m. He was 49 at the time of his execution. None of Bonin's relatives chose to witness his execution, although the event was witnessed by several relatives of his victims, many of whom wept and embraced when his death was officially confirmed. According to several of these witnesses, Bonin's execution passed without complications, and he was heavily sedated throughout the latter stages of the procedure. On this subject, then-Governor Pete Wilson, who had rejected a submitted plea for clemency from Bonin's attorneys three days prior to the execution, referred to Bonin as the "poster boy for capital punishment" before adding that California's method of execution ensured his death was infinitely more pleasant than that endured by his victims.
Freeway Killer victims
1. Thomas Glen Lundgren (13): May 28, 1979
2. Mark Duane Shelton (17): August 4, 1979
3. Markus Alexander Grabs (17): August 5, 1979
4. Donald Ray Hyden (15): August 27, 1979
5. David Louis Murillo (17): September 9, 1979
6. Robert Christopher Wirostek (18): September 17, 1979
7. John Doe (15–27): c. November 1, 1979
8. Frank Dennis Fox (17): November 30, 1979
9. John Fredrick Kilpatrick (15): December 10, 1979
10. Michael Francis McDonald (16): January 1, 1980
11. Charles Dempster Miranda (15): February 3, 1980
12. James Michael Macabe (12): February 3, 1980
13. Ronald Craig Gatlin (18): March 14, 1980
14. Glenn Norman Barker (14): March 21, 1980
15. Russell Duane Rugh (15): March 21, 1980
16. Harry Todd Turner (15): March 24, 1980
17. Steven John Wood (16): April 10, 1980
18. Darin Lee Kendrick (19): April 29, 1980
19. Lawrence Eugene Sharp (17): May 12, 1980
20. Sean Paige King (14): May 19, 1980
21. Steven Jay Wells (18): June 2, 1980
Victims
Bonin and three of his four known accomplices were convicted of fourteen murders committed between August 5, 1979, and June 2, 1980; Bonin was also charged with two additional murders for which he was acquitted at his first trial in Los Angeles County. Of these murders for which Bonin was convicted, ten were committed in Los Angeles County and four in nearby Orange County. Bonin was suspected of committing at least 21 murders, and the killings for which he was convicted are shown in italics in the adjacent table.
In nine murders; those of Lundgren, Shelton, Grabs, Hyden, Murillo, Wirostek, Kendrick, Wells and the John Doe whose skeletal remains had been found in Kern County on November 30, 1979, Bonin was assisted by his primary accomplice, Vernon Butts, a factory worker who had been 21 years old when he committed his first murder with Bonin. According to Bonin, Butts had been an extremely active accomplice.
Bonin was assisted by 19-year-old Gregory Miley in the February 3 murders of Miranda and Macabe. Miley then returned to his native Houston in the spring of 1980 to live with his stepfather. He was arrested on August 22.
James Munro, Bonin's lodger and coworker, assisted Bonin in the murder of Steven Wells. The day after Bonin's arrest, Munro fled to his native Michigan, where he was arrested on July 31.
Through questioning Bonin's neighbor, Everett Fraser, police discovered that 17-year-old William Pugh, who had informed police he suspected Bonin of being the Freeway Killer, actually knew Bonin much better than he had initially divulged. Police later learned Pugh — a juvenile delinquent with a lengthy criminal record—had willingly accompanied Bonin in the murder of Harry Todd Turner. As a direct result of this knowledge, first-degree murder charges against a 20-year-old acquaintance of Bonin's named Eric Marten Wijnaendts—brought in December 1980—were dropped in January 1981, with the county prosecutor citing insufficient evidence as the cause.
Bonin was not brought to trial for the murders of Mark Shelton, Robert Wirostek, John Kilpatrick, Michael McDonald, or the John Doe whose body was found in November 1979 because police did not find sufficient evidence upon any of the victims' bodies which could conclusively link Bonin alone to the crimes. Police did charge Bonin and Butts with the murder of the John Doe, and those of Mark Shelton and Robert Wirostek (alongside that of Darin Kendrick) in October and November 1980. Bonin was formally charged with these murders at a pretrial hearing held on January 2, 1981.
Shelton had been linked to the manhunt for the Freeway Killer upon the discovery of his body in August 1979, as had Darin Kendrick and the unidentified victim whose location was reported to police by Butts. Wirostek, who vanished en route to his job on September 17, 1979, was not confirmed as a Freeway Killer victim until his body was formally identified in July 1980.
Two months after all charges had been filed against each defendant, Butts committed suicide, rendering his recorded testimony in these three cases inadmissible as evidence. The charges against Bonin in relation to Shelton, Wirostek and the John Doe were therefore dropped in accordance with Penal Code section 995 in early 1981. Nonetheless, sufficient physical evidence was still present in the case of Darin Kendrick—a murder for which Bonin was subsequently convicted.
Neither Bonin nor any of his accomplices were ever charged with the murders of John Kilpatrick or Michael McDonald, although Bonin confessed to their killings to David López.
Bonin was charged with, but subsequently cleared of, the murders of Sean King and Thomas Lundgren at his Los Angeles County trial. He is known to have confessed to the murder of King, and did lead police to the teenager's body; he emphatically denied Lundgren's murder in the series of interviews granted to David López between December 1980 and January 1981, although Bonin stated in these interviews he had killed 21 victims.
Other "Freeway Killers"
On July 1, 1977, Patrick Kearney, the prime suspect in a series of killings of young men known as the "Trash Bag Murders", voluntarily surrendered to Riverside police. Prior to his surrender, Kearney had been a fugitive for two months, following his being forensically linked to the murder of a 17-year-old named John LaMay—a confirmed victim of the Trash Bag Murderer. Kearney subsequently confessed to the murders of 28 boys and young men; many of whose bodies he had discarded alongside freeways in southern California. He was sentenced to twenty-one terms of life imprisonment.
In contrast to Bonin, Kearney extensively dismembered the majority of his victims' bodies before typically discarding their remains in trash bags. Although primarily known as the "Trash Bag Murderer", Kearney is also known as the Freeway Killer.
Three years after the arrest of Bonin, two California Highway Patrol officers arrested 38-year-old Randy Kraft as he attempted to discard the body of a 25-year-old Marine from his car in Mission Viejo. The victim had been drugged, bound and garroted in a similar manner to that of numerous other young men whose bodies had been found alongside or close to various California and Oregon freeways since 1972. A search of Kraft's vehicle revealed an envelope containing over fifty Polaroid pictures of young men—either drugged or deceased—in suggestive poses. Several of these images depicted confirmed victims of Kraft. Police also discovered a coded list depicting cryptic references to his victims in the trunk of Kraft's vehicle, leading Kraft to also become known as the "Scorecard Killer."
Although Kraft's disposal method had been similar to that of Bonin, Kraft drugged his victims before he killed them and used differing torture methods upon their bodies, including burning the victims' chests and genitals with an automobile cigarette lighter. In addition, many of his victims had been aged in their early- or mid-twenties, and a small number of his victims had also been dismembered prior to their disposal.
Collectively, Bonin, Kraft and Kearney may have claimed up to 131 victims.
Aftermath
Four months following Bonin's arrest, Bonin's 61-year-old father died of cirrhosis of the liver on October 11, 1980. His condition sourced from his excessive alcohol addiction. Bonin's family refused to claim his remains in the weeks following his 1996 execution. His remains were cremated in a private ceremony with none of his family members present. Bonin's ashes were later scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
Three weeks after Bonin's execution, authorities discovered that his mother had openly exploited an administrative error pertaining to her son's social security disability payments—which Bonin had begun receiving for a mental disability in 1972 and which should have terminated upon his 1982 imprisonment—to maintain payments on her Downey home. This administrative error—totaling approximately $79,424—was only discovered after a funeral director notified the Social Security Administration of Bonin's death. Alice Benton subsequently agreed to pay restitution for receiving these payments in March 1996, claiming neither she or her son were aware of the illegality of their actions.
Throughout Bonin's trials and in the years of his subsequent incarceration on death row, experts devoted much speculation and debate as to whether the root cause of his crimes lay in his extremely abusive and dysfunctional upbringing. One of Bonin's lawyers was quoted as stating it was "virtually impossible for [Bonin] to be a successful human being" given the various extreme childhood abuses he had endured, with a prospective biographer also opining that Bonin was essentially unable to handle minute problems in his day-to-day life due to past trauma. Opponents and advocates of the death penalty alike were in agreement Bonin had endured extensive physical, emotional and sexual abuse throughout his childhood, but much scorn was given to the claims from his attorneys and supporters that his murders had been a direct manifestation of the abuse he had endured, and an attempt to purge his frustration and anger onto his victims. In one article published in the San Francisco Chronicle three days prior to Bonin's execution, editor Robert Morse opined:
Bonin was abused as a child. The abuse seems to have been bad, but not nearly as gruesome as the abuse he dealt out. [This] world is filled with articulate people who can write and paint and were abused as children; very few of them become serial killers. The crime rate among the mentally ill is lower than among so-called 'normal' people. To call Bonin's evil a psychiatric disorder, as the defense has, or an illness, is to slander the mentally ill.
Butts, who was accused of accompanying or otherwise assisting Bonin on at least nine of the murders, hanged himself while awaiting trial on January 11, 1981. He left no suicide note. At the time of his death, he had been scheduled to be tried on July 27 for six of the murders he had accompanied Bonin upon. Correspondence found within his cell indicated Butts had been greatly distressed at the impending release of a transcript of evidence he had given behind closed doors at his preliminary hearing days prior, and the effect it would have on his friends and relatives. Despite claiming in his formal confession to investigators shortly after his arrest that he had basically participated in the murders out of fear of Bonin, Butts also informed investigators he had considered the killing spree "a good little nightmare", adding that Bonin "really loved those sounds of screams. He loved to hear them scream ... he loved every minute of it."
McVicker, the youth who had survived the 1974 assault and partial strangulation at Bonin's hands and who personally witnessed Bonin's execution, was traumatized by his ordeal for several years. He was haunted by nightmares on a nightly basis concerning the incident, dropped out of high school and became dependent on drugs and alcohol. Nonetheless, he described the experience of observing the execution as being symbolic of closure and "the beginning of my life." In the years following Bonin's execution, McVicker has actively campaigned to ensure that his accomplices, Miley and Munro, remain incarcerated. In one interview granted in 2011, McVicker stated the primary reason he had been inspired to campaign against their release were the words one of the victims' mothers had spoken to him after he had testified at Bonin's first trial: "You've got to speak for my kid."
Munro was sentenced to a term of fifteen years to life for the second degree murder of Steven Wells on April 6, 1981. He has repeatedly appealed his sentence, claiming that he had not known Bonin had been the Freeway Killer until after Wells' murder, and that he had been tricked into accepting a plea bargain whereby he pleaded guilty to this second degree murder charge. He has also written to successive governors, requesting he be executed rather than spend the remainder of his life behind bars for what he claims is "a crime I didn't commit". (In the days immediately following the murder of Wells and prior to Bonin's arrest, Munro boasted to several colleagues of his belief the Freeway Killer would never be caught.) Munro has repeatedly been denied parole and is incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison. He is next available for parole in 2029.
Miley was sentenced to a term of 25 years to life for the first-degree murder of Charles Miranda by Superior Court Judge Bonnie Lee Smith on February 5, 1982. On this date, Miley was informed he would need to serve a minimum of sixteen years and eight months before he would be considered for parole. He was later sentenced to a concurrent term of 25 years to life by an Orange County court judge for the abduction and murder of James Macabe. Initially incarcerated at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran in Corcoran, California, Miley was later transferred to Mule Creek State Prison. Throughout the years of his incarceration, Miley was repeatedly reprimanded for violating prison rules. These accrued reprimands had included the possession of contraband drugs, and attempting to engage in non-consensual sodomy with fellow inmates.
On May 25, 2016, Miley died of injuries he had sustained two days previously, when he had been attacked by another inmate in an exercise yard at Mule Creek State Prison. Initially, he was evaluated at the prison medical facility before returning to his cell; he was later airlifted to hospital after falling into unconsciousness two hours after the attack. At the time of Miley's death, his next scheduled parole hearing was to be held in 2019. He had most recently been eligible for parole in October 2014, after previously agreeing to a three-year continuance of his most recent request for parole. This subsequent suitability hearing was held on October 29, 2014; the decision made at this hearing was to deny parole.
Pugh was sentenced to six years in prison for the voluntary manslaughter of Harry Turner on May 17, 1982. Pugh had initially been charged with the first-degree murder of Turner, in addition to companion charges of robbery and sodomy; however, after five days of deliberation, the jury found Pugh guilty of the reduced charge of manslaughter, and innocent of robbery and sodomy. He served less than four years of his sentence, and was released from prison in late 1985.
Media
Film
The film Freeway Killer was released by Image Entertainment in 2010. This film is directly based upon the murders committed by Bonin and his accomplices. The film cast Scott Anthony Leet as William Bonin and Dusty Sorg as Vernon Butts.
Bibliography
Bonin, William (1991). Doing Time: Stories from the Mind of a Death Row Prisoner. Red Bluff, Calif.: Eagle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-879027-04-6. OCLC 84045749.
McDougal, Dennis (1991). Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft and the Most Heinous Murder Spree of the Century. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-708-85342-9.
Rosewood, Jack (2015). William Bonin: The True Story of the Freeway Killer. CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1-5196-3119-0.
Television
The Investigation Discovery channel has broadcast a documentary pertaining to Bonin. This 45-minute episode—entitled The Freeway Killer—was first broadcast in May 2014.
The documentary series World's Most Evil Killers has featured an episode focusing upon the Freeway Killer murders. This episode was first broadcast in January 2021.
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