William George Bonin (January 8, 1947 – February 23, 1996), also known as the Freeway Killer, was an American serial killer, pederast and twice-paroled sex offender who committed the rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of twenty-one young men and boys in a series of killings in southern California from May 1979 to June 1980. On at least twelve occasions, Bonin was assisted by one of his four known accomplices; he is also suspected of committing a further fifteen murders.
Described by the prosecutor at his first trial as "the most arch-evil person who ever existed", Bonin was convicted of fourteen of the murders linked to the "Freeway Killer" in two separate trials in 1982 and 1983. He spent fourteen years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison in 1996. Bonin was the first inmate in California to die by this method.
Bonin became known as the "Freeway Killer", as well as the Freeway Strangler, due to the fact that the majority of his victims' bodies were discovered alongside numerous freeways in southern California. He shares this epithet with two separate and unrelated serial killers active in and around southern California in the 1970s: Patrick Kearney and Randy Kraft.
Early life
Childhood
William George "Bill" Bonin was born in Willimantic, Connecticut, on January 8, 1947, the second of three sons—each of whom were three years apart—born to Robert Leonard Bonin Sr. (1919–1980) and Alice Dorothy Bonin (née Cote, 1920–2004). Bonin's parents were both alcoholics; his father was an ill-tempered war veteran and gambling addict who was frequently physically abusive toward his wife in the presence of his children, and who is known to have occasionally beaten his sons during his wife's absence. In contrast, his mother was an overbearing, co-dependent and passive woman who suffered from wild mood swings and who spent much of her free time at a bingo parlor—often as her sons remained unattended at the family home. Consequently, the siblings were severely neglected as children, with their parents seldom present in the household. In spite of this dysfunctional environment, Bonin and his brothers were actively raised Catholic by their parents and baptized according to church doctrine.
In 1953, Bonin's mother placed Bonin and his younger brother in a Catholic convent in an apparent effort to protect her children from the ongoing domestic violence within the family home. This convent was known to severely discipline the children it housed for major and minor breaches of conduct, with punishments administered including harsh beatings, enduring various stress positions, repeatedly pacing staircases until exhausted, and partial drowning in sinks filled with ice water. In more extreme cases, orphans are alleged to have faced assaults which included having their heads dunked in toilets, being beaten until bloodied, and being threatened with knives. Despite these forms of mistreatment, contemporary records indicate Bonin—a typically troublesome child—was observed by officials to function well under the controlled environment of this convent.
Although Bonin later freely discussed many aspects of his childhood, he largely refused to discuss his memories of the three years he spent at this convent beyond divulging on one occasion that by 1955, he had become fearful of an older boy and had consented to his sexual advances only by allowing him to first tie his (Bonin's) hands behind his back. He also denied any other memories of the alleged abuse he and other orphans may have been subjected to. As neither parent visited Bonin or his brother at the convent, he gradually began to believe his parents were dead. Bonin was to remain at the convent until 1956, when he returned to live with his parents in the town of Mansfield, Connecticut.
In my life, I never had nobody to help me. My father used to beat the shit out of me. My mother never stopped him. She put me in one of those boy's homes, and I got raped by these older guys.- Bonin recollecting his childhood to psychologist Dr Vonda Pelto.
Neighbors in Mansfield later failed to recollect either parent spending any significant time with their sons and—observing their unkempt, dirty and hungry condition—occasionally provided meals and clean clothes to Bonin and his younger brother out of sympathy. These signs of neglect were also noted by Bonin's fifth and sixth grade classmates, whom he related poorly to as a friendless[ and problematic student. Furthermore, from their early childhood to 1957, Bonin and his brothers were frequently placed in the care of their maternal grandfather, a convicted child molester who had sexually abused Bonin's mother until her adulthood, and whom Bonin's mother began suspecting of sexually assaulting his grandsons during the prolonged instances they were under his care. In addition, Bonin's parents would occasionally leave Bonin and his younger brother Paul under the care of the eldest brother, Robert Jr., who often beat and belittled his siblings.
In 1957, Bonin was arrested for stealing tags from vehicle license plates; he was placed in a juvenile detention center for these offenses and various other minor crimes. While housed at this juvenile detention center, he was molested by an adult counselor who had been assigned to control and monitor the juvenile offenders. Following Bonin's release from the detention home, he began sexually fondling his younger brother.
Adolescence
Due to the gambling addiction of Bonin's father which resulted in the prospect of the foreclosure of the family home, Bonin's parents opted to relocate from Connecticut to California in 1960, when Bonin was in the eighth grade. The family rented a modest white stucco tract home located at 10802 Angell Street in Downey, California. Although both parents were generally neglectful of their children, Bonin and his brothers were primarily raised by their mother, who often displayed inordinately domineering and emasculating behavior toward Bonin.
Bonin attended North High School in Torrance, where he was regarded as a social outcast who scarcely interacted with his peers, although his younger brother later recollected Bonin as an outwardly well-behaved teenager with an apparently caring personality, whom he nicknamed "Goody-Two Shoes" for his temperament. "He'd give the clothes off his back," Paul later remarked of his brother's generosity. "If he had a bag of candy, he gave it away," Bonin's mother also later recalled of her middle son. His primary hobby as a teen was bowling, something at which he performed adequately; this hobby would last throughout the course of his teenage years. According to Bonin, he was something of an awkward, shy loner who generally felt uncomfortable in the presence of his peers. Consequently, Bonin is not known to have formed any long-standing or close friendships throughout his adolescence. He was also self-conscious of his facial features, and refused to smile in public due to his misaligned teeth.
By his teenage years, Bonin had developed an unrelenting and obsessive interest in pedophilia, also discovering he was homosexual upon reaching puberty. His sexuality later became the basis of a long-standing conflict with his mother, who believed his sexual inclinations toward young boys to be a curable social disorder. As such, the two frequently argued about his homosexual attraction. Very seldom, Bonin attempted to publicly court and/or interact with females as an adolescent. On one occasion, he was humiliated and rejected by a girl whom he had worked up his courage to approach and ask for a date. This incident wounded his self-esteem and increased Bonin's belief that he "just couldn't make it with girls" as romantic partners; he resolved to never allow a female to hurt him this deeply again.
Following these events, Bonin was reported to have molested several neighborhood children while the family lived on Angell Street. Bonin's mother—allegedly extremely emotionally controlling and protective of her son—is known to have refused to acknowledge these acts of molestation, as well as the general escalating antisocial behavior exhibited by Bonin throughout his adolescence. Nonetheless, Bonin's mother, noted to have displayed extreme disappointment and contempt for her middle son's sexuality and actions, is known to have evicted her son from the household on at least one occasion for undisclosed reasons.
Engagement and U.S. Air Force
Shortly after graduating from North High School in 1965, Bonin became engaged to marry. This engagement had largely been at the behest of his mother, with whom Bonin held a recurrent source of conflict pertaining to his evident homosexuality and who—insisting he lead a heterosexual lifestyle—believed the prospect of marriage would quell her son's sexual preferences. Later the same year, his mother persuaded him to join the United States Air Force; he served five months of active duty in the 205th Assault Support Helicopter Unit during the Vietnam War as an aerial gunner, logging over 700 hours of combat and patrol time.
Bonin was to later claim that his experiences in Vietnam instilled a belief within him that human life is overvalued and that humans generally overestimate their value in society, stating, "You learn that life is cheap over there." Despite this, he is known to have risked his own life on one occasion while under enemy fire to save the life of a wounded fellow airman. For this act, Bonin received a medal in recognition of his gallantry, among other medals. According to Bonin, he engaged in sexual relations with both males and females in Vietnam, although he also confessed to sexually assaulting two soldiers under his command at gunpoint during the period of the Tet Offensive.
Bonin served three years in the Air Force before receiving an honorable discharge in October 1968 at age 21. Upon returning home, Bonin discovered that his fiancée—who by this stage had given birth to their son—had left him to marry another man. During Bonin's engagement, he repeatedly informed his fiancée he suffered from recurring nightmares in which he would sexually assault a young woman before discarding her body. According to Bonin's fiancée, he frequently woke up in tears and physically trembling from this nightmare. As a result of these concerning behaviors, the relationship was short-lived. He would later summarize his relationship with this young woman as a "big mistake" and a personal failure of his, primarily fueled by his mother's pressuring of him.
Following the separation, Bonin returned to Downey to live with his mother. Several family members noted a marked difference in his behavior following his military service, although Bonin refused to elaborate as to the changes in his demeanor.
First convictions
On November 17, 1968, Bonin confronted a 14-year-old youth before handcuffing, stripping and beating the teenager into semi-consciousness while threatening to sodomize and murder him; the youth was then sodomized before being released. On November 24, Bonin abducted and handcuffed a 17-year-old youth whom he then sodomized. During this assault, Bonin also bludgeoned the boy with a tire iron, in addition to traumatizing his testicles by squeezing.
Five weeks later, on January 1, 1969, Bonin forced a 12-year-old boy whom he had abducted to orally copulate him before further molesting the child; he then threatened to kill this victim if he ever reported the incident. On January 12, Bonin abducted and handcuffed an 18-year-old youth, who was extensively beaten before being forced to orally copulate Bonin. This victim was also sodomized.
In January 1969, Bonin was arrested as he attempted to restrain an intended fifth victim, a 16-year-old whom he had lured into his vehicle before handcuffing. He was indicted on five counts of kidnapping, four counts of sodomy, one count of oral copulation, and one count of child molestation against the five individuals he had abducted and assaulted or—in the case of the final youth he had abducted—attempted to assault since the previous November. In each instance, Bonin had handcuffed or otherwise restrained his victim before forcibly engaging in sodomy, oral copulation, and methods of torture which included bludgeoning about the head with a tire iron, choking one victim until he had neared unconsciousness, and the squeezing of two of his victims' testicles.
Bonin pleaded guilty to molestation and forced oral copulation and was sentenced to the Atascadero State Hospital as a mentally disordered sex offender considered amenable to treatment in January 1971.
While detained at Atascadero hospital, Bonin was subjected to various psychiatric examinations which revealed that he possessed a higher than average IQ of 121 and displayed traits of manic depression, sexual sadism disorder, and antisocial personality disorder, though no other significant brain anomalies were present. Bonin's physical examinations also revealed extensive scars on his head and buttocks. Bonin claimed to have no memory of how he obtained these scars, likely sustained in the various institutions he previously resided in, leading many experts to conclude Bonin repressed memories of the more extreme aspects of his childhood abuse. These professionals also noted the psychological and emotional implications of Bonin's unhealthy relationship with his domineering mother, upon whom he remained emotionally dependent in spite of her low opinion of him, and who maintained her son was essentially "worthless as a human being".
Bonin regularly attended therapy groups and volunteered to partake in experimental programs conducted at the Atascadero hospital; he was considered a non-violent, helpful and conscientious patient. One psychiatrist wrote of Bonin that he "wanted to straighten himself out, but doesn't know how to go about it." Despite this, Bonin soon began reciting what he believed psychiatrists desired to hear from him, believing he could manipulate psychiatrists into granting him an early release. In the presence of several patients, Bonin is also known to have stated his intentions to eliminate future victims of his sexual assaults if necessary. Two years after his arrival at Atascadero State Hospital, Bonin was sent to prison, having been declared unsuitable for further treatment largely due to his repeated sexual engagement with two mentally challenged inmates. While in prison, Bonin sought to raise money for the family of another prisoner, and reportedly applied willingly for at least one treatment program. Bonin was released from prison on June 11, 1974, after doctors concluded he was "no longer a danger to the health and safety of others".
Further offenses and imprisonment
Three months after Bonin's release from prison, on September 8, 1974, he encountered a 14-year-old named David Allen McVicker hitchhiking in the city of Garden Grove. McVicker accepted Bonin's offer to drive him to his parents' home in Huntington Beach. Shortly after McVicker entered Bonin's Opel Kadett, he asked the teenager whether he had engaged in homosexuality or was homosexual. McVicker replied that he had not, asking to leave the vehicle, prompting Bonin to accelerate the vehicle.
When McVicker attempted to leave the car, Bonin produced a gun and drove McVicker to a deserted field, ordering the teenager to undress before proceeding to beat him. Bonin then forced oral copulation on McVicker before raping him as he simultaneously strangled him with his T-shirt and a tire iron in the front seat of his car. With little breath left, McVicker pleaded for his life stating, "God, help!" Bonin immediately ceased his assault and apologized before reverting to casual conversation. He then drove McVicker to his home, stating on the way, "You know what? You're an alright guy. I was going to kill you but I want to come back for you and use you again." As McVicker was leaving Bonin's vehicle, Bonin further remarked, "We'll meet again.”
McVicker cried for several hours before calling a child abuse hotline. He then phoned his mother, who immediately drove home from work and informed Garden Grove police of the incident. Months later, Bonin was arrested for the two assaults on October 11, 1975. When arrested, he informed law enforcement that "next time there won't be any more witnesses." He was subsequently charged with the rape and forcible oral copulation of a minor, and the attempted abduction of a 15-year-old boy which had occurred two days after Bonin's assault on McVicker. In this second instance, Bonin had sexually propositioned the teenager, who had rejected Bonin's offer of $35 for sex before abruptly exiting his van. The boy had told Bonin to "get out of here". In response, Bonin drove the van onto the sidewalk in an attempt to strike the youth with his vehicle.
Bonin pleaded guilty to both charges and on December 31, 1975, he was sentenced to serve between one and fifteen years' imprisonment at the California Men's Facility in San Luis Obispo. In 1977, Bonin was subject to further psychiatric examination; the results of this evaluation indicated his sexual involvement with young boys related to his mother's micromanagement of his life. Although Bonin denied any culpability of this conviction to fellow inmates, as a convicted child molester, he was beaten on several occasions while incarcerated for this offense. Bonin was released from detention on October 11, 1978, albeit with eighteen months' supervised probation.
Release
Upon his release, Bonin moved to an apartment complex at the Kingswood Village complex in Downey, located approximately one mile from his parents' house. He soon established a reputation among teenage boys in his neighborhood as a gregarious individual who bought alcohol for minors and allowed them to socialize in his apartment. In late 1978, Bonin became acquainted with a 43-year-old neighbor and ex-bank officer named Everett Scott Fraser. Bonin became a regular attendee at Fraser's parties—held almost every night of the week for the next several months—where young men, drugs, and alcohol were rife. Fraser considered Bonin a respectful, polite and placid individual to whom he frequently introduced his young male acquaintances, with the two also exchanging stories of their homosexual exploits and penchant for sex with teenage boys.
During this period, Bonin and his younger brother Paul—who had been working as a plumber—ran a neighborhood bar called the Alpine Inn in the rural community of Silverado, California. Unable to obtain a permanent liquor license as a result of Bonin's criminal record, however, the business venture was short-lived. Throughout his adult life, Bonin worked in a series of menial professions such as the aforementioned bartendering profession and taxi driving. None of these jobs had lasted a significant length of time, and he was frequently unemployed. In 1979, he obtained more secure employment as a truck driver at a Montebello delivery firm named Dependable Drive-Away, earning $5 an hour. The same year, he also began dating a young woman whom, he informed acquaintances, he regularly accompanied to Anaheim on Sundays to participate in her hobby of roller skating. In April 1979, Bonin's parole supervision concluded.
Bonin later returned to his parents' house, where he gradually developed a reputation as a child molester among local residents due to his habit of inviting young boys into the household—occasionally as his mother, younger brother, and others were present—under the guise of providing free alcohol and viewing pornography with them. Some neighbors later recollected frequently observing young boys accompany Bonin into the residence, some of whom they would later hear screaming and crying once inside the residence. In spite of this, his mother and younger brother claimed to have never witnessed Bonin abuse any youths. By this period, Bonin's father was admitted to a veterans hospital where he would spend much of his time for various issues pertaining to his health, presumably induced by his long-standing alcohol addiction.
Acquaintance with Vernon Butts
I met Vernon Butts [and] I admired him. He had it all together. Everybody liked him; it was cool having him like me ... made me feel real important. I never had no friends.- Bonin, describing his acquaintance with Vernon Butts to psychologist Dr Vonda Pelto.
Through his frequent attendance at Fraser's parties, Bonin became acquainted with a 21-year-old porcelain-factory worker, occultist, and part-time magician named Vernon Robert Butts and an 18-year-old named Gregory Matthews Miley.
At the time of his initial acquaintance with Bonin, Butts—an avid reader of horror fiction who frequently cosplayed as fictional characters such as Darth Vader—had developed a local reputation as an incredibly eccentric figure who adorned his apartment with novelty spiders and who kept two coffins in his apartment, one which was used as a phone booth, and another as a coffee table in which Butts made love to his girlfriend, Cati Razook: a self-proclaimed witch. He had recently been fired from his employment as a magic store clerk at Knott's Berry Farm due to his unkempt appearance and increasingly strange and unpredictable behavior. Butts supplemented his income by charging $30 to appear as a magician at children's parties, a personal hobby he enjoyed.
A drifter who had been in and out of penal institutions, Butts was later speculated by court prosecutors to have developed a fascination with sadistic homosexual activity while in jail. Although Butts held an extensive criminal record for offenses such as burglary and arson, he claimed to have been both fascinated with and terrified of Bonin, whom he claimed held a "kind of hypnotic" control over him. In contrast, Bonin held Butts in high regard for his social popularity, claiming their friendship raised his own poor self-esteem and helped overcome his difficulty socializing with others. Although both lived externally heterosexual lifestyles, the two soon became lovers, with Butts also introducing Bonin to the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons And Dragons, in which Butts organized and advertised weekly gaming events at his residence.
Shortly after their acquaintance, Bonin suggested the two should rape and murder a teenage hitchhiker. Butts was amenable to this suggestion, and later freely admitted to taking great delight in watching Bonin abuse and torture his victims in the rear of his van as he (Butts) drove the vehicle. Nonetheless, Butts insisted he had primarily participated in the murders out of fear of Bonin, who on one occasion had arrived at his residence unannounced after he had discreetly changed his address without informing him.
Miley—an illiterate Texas native with an IQ of 56 who supported himself with casual work—also actively participated in two murders he accompanied Bonin upon. Bonin himself later confessed to a psychologist his feeling a sense of social belonging with his accomplices in murder that he had never previously experienced with any other individuals.
Murders
Bonin usually selected young male hitchhikers, schoolboys or, occasionally, male prostitutes as his victims. The victims, aged 12 to 19, were predominantly slender, pale, long-haired youths whom he either enticed or forced into his Ford Econoline van, where they were overpowered and bound hand and foot with a combination of handcuffs and wire or cords. They were then sexually assaulted, extensively beaten about the face, torso, head and genitals, and tortured before typically being killed by strangulation with their own T-shirts and a tire iron while letting them fade in and out of consciousness, although some victims were stabbed or battered to death. One victim, Darin Kendrick, was forced to drink hydrochloric acid; three victims had ice-picks driven into their ears and another victim, Mark Shelton, died of shock from impaling.
According to one attorney present throughout Bonin's subsequent confessions, the escalating levels of brutality he had exhibited toward his victims had been similar to that of a drug addict requiring an ever-greater increase of dosage to attain a satisfactory level of euphoria. Bonin himself later likened his homicidal urges to that of an addiction, emphasizing to neurologists his scarcely being able to wait for the onset of dusk to begin his cruising and referencing his feelings of extreme restlessness and sexual frustration in the hours prior to his murders, emphasizing that he had felt an intense sense of excitement as he drove in search of his victims. Reserving Sundays for his girlfriend, he typically cruised the freeways on Fridays and Saturdays. Bonin also later described his feeling pleasure at hearing his victims scream, as well as sodomizing his victims—particularly in an upright position—without lubricant, causing them to rectally bleed and tear.
In order to minimize the chances of a potential victim escaping from his vehicle, Bonin removed all inner handles from the passenger-side and rear doors of his van. He also stowed ligatures, knives, pliers, wire coat hangers, and other such instruments in his vehicle to facilitate the restraining and torture of his victims. The victims were usually killed inside his van before their bodies were discarded alongside or close to various freeways in southern California. In an apparent effort to avoid investigators connecting his crimes, Bonin often drove to various counties to discard his victims' bodies far from the site of their abduction. Dr. Albert Rosenstein, a forensic psychologist, predicted their killer was an intelligent sex offender in his late twenties or early thirties, had spent time in a psychiatric facility, was abused as a child, and that while bisexual, the killer "has [never] become comfortable with the homosexual side of his personality" and is repulsed by his actions, as is evidenced by the gruesome mutilation of his victims.
In a minimum of twelve of the murders, Bonin—who considered murder a "group sport"—was assisted by one or more of his four known accomplices. Scrapbooking newspaper clippings of his murders, Bonin would later hold up newspapers to accomplice Vernon Butts and acquaintance Everett Fraser and boast of which murders he had committed. In discussion of the killings with acquaintances, Bonin remarked "this guy is giving good gays like us a bad name." Following media coverage of his murders, Bonin also enthusiastically mentioned his killings to fellow co-workers at Dependable Drive-Away, stating, "He did it again. ... They found another one, a strangler victim." To those unaware of his crimes, Bonin—who made daily trips to Orange County to buy newspapers—reportedly "seemed obsessed" with the case.
First murder
The first murder for which Bonin was charged was that of a 13-year-old named Thomas Glen Lundgren. Lundgren was last seen leaving his parents' house in Reseda at 10:50 a.m. on May 28, 1979. Shortly before his abduction, Lundgren had reportedly told friends a man had offered to meet him at a skate-park to take photos of him for a skateboarding magazine.
His body, clad only in a T-shirt, shoes and socks, was found the same afternoon in Agoura. An autopsy revealed that Lundgren had suffered emasculation and extensive bludgeoning to his face and head, with his skull sustaining multiple fractures. In addition, the youth had been slashed across the throat, extensively stabbed about the chest and stomach, and strangled to death. His underwear, jeans, and severed genitals—bearing several bite marks—were discovered strewn in a field close to his body.
An expert later postulated that Bonin's brutality was likely an attempt to "kill" his homosexual attraction to Lundgren, further "silencing" his desire with each subsequent stabbing. In the abduction and murder of Lundgren, Bonin was assisted by Butts, who is suspected of accompanying or assisting Bonin on at least eight further murders attributed to the "Freeway Killer".
Initial arrest
In August 1979, Bonin was again detained for molesting a 17-year-old boy in the coastal community of Dana Point. This violation of the conditions of his parole should have resulted in Bonin being returned to prison; however, an administrative error committed prior to Bonin's scheduled court date resulted in his release. Fraser drove to collect Bonin from the Orange County Jail where he had been incarcerated. He later recollected that as he drove Bonin home, Bonin made a statement which Fraser had interpreted at the time as an expression of remorse: "No one's going to testify again. This is never going to happen to me again." Resuming his murder spree, Bonin did not bother to appear for his court appointment.
Subsequent killings
Two months after the murder of Lundgren, on August 4, 1979, Bonin and Butts abducted a 17-year-old named Mark Shelton shortly after the youth left his Westminster home to walk to a movie theater near Beach Boulevard. Screams were heard from the vicinity of the Shelton household by neighbors, leaving a strong possibility Shelton was abducted by force. The youth was violated with foreign objects including a stick, causing his body to enter a state of shock which proved fatal. His body was then discarded in San Bernardino County.
The following day, Bonin and Butts encountered a 17-year-old West German student named Markus Grabs between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. attempting to hitchhike from the Pacific Coast Highway. Grabs was bound with lengths of cord and ignition wire, then beaten and sodomized as Butts drove toward Bonin's home, where the youth was again sodomized and beaten. Grabs was subsequently partially strangled, then stabbed a total of 77 times—again postulated by various experts to be an attempt to "kill" his homosexuality—before his nude body was discarded in Malibu Creek, close to Las Virgenes Canyon Road. His body was found at approximately 6:30 a.m. the following morning, with one investigator likening the network of injuries inflicted upon the victim to that of a rabid dog unable to determine when to cease biting. On August 20, 1979, Bonin left the corpse of a John Doe to be found in Los Angeles.
On August 27, Bonin and Butts abducted a 15-year-old Hollywood youth named Donald Ray Hyden. Hyden was last seen alive walking along Santa Monica Boulevard at 1 a.m.; his body was found by construction workers later that same morning in a dumpster located near the off ramp of the Ventura Freeway. Prior to his death by ligature strangulation, Hyden had been bound, beaten about the face, sodomized, then stabbed in the neck and genitalia and bludgeoned about the skull. Evident attempts had also been made to remove his testicles and slash his throat, and his rectum was found bleeding and extensively distended, leading a coroner to opine he had been impaled by a large object.
Two weeks after the murder of Hyden, on September 9, Bonin and Butts encountered a 17-year-old La Mirada youth named David Louis Murillo cycling to a movie theater. Luring the youth into Bonin's van, they parked the vehicle at a secluded spot where he was bound, repeatedly raped by Bonin and Butts, extensively bludgeoned about the skull with a tire iron, then strangled with a ligature before his nude body was thrown out of the van and over an embankment into a bed of ivy alongside Highway 101. Eight days after the murder of Murillo, an 18-year-old Newport Beach youth named Robert Christopher Wirostek was abducted as he cycled to his job at a grocery store; his body was found on September 27 alongside Interstate 10.
Bonin is not known to have killed again until on or about November 1, 1979, when he and Butts abducted and murdered an unidentified young man with brown hair, between 5 ft 1 in and 5 ft 6 in in height, and estimated to be between 15 and 27 years old. This victim was savagely beaten, then strangled to death before his fully clothed body was discarded in an irrigation ditch alongside State Route 99, south of Bakersfield. During the ordeal, Bonin allegedly asked the victim whether he knew why he "had to die." He then further explained why, stating, "Your folks paid us to find you and kill you." Bonin proceeded to strangle the youth before inserting an ice pick into his nostrils and right ear.
Approximately four weeks later, on November 30, Bonin—operating alone—abducted a 17-year-old Bellflower youth named Frank Dennis Fox; during the process of ligature strangulation, Bonin had killed the youth while still sodomizing him. His body was found two days later alongside the Ortega Highway, five miles east of San Juan Capistrano. The body itself bore signs of extensive blunt force trauma to the face and head, with ligature marks on the wrists and ankles indicating Fox had been bound throughout his ordeal. No clothing or other identifying evidence was discovered at the scene.
Ten days after the murder of Fox, a 15-year-old Long Beach youth named John Fredrick Kilpatrick disappeared after leaving his parents' home to socialize with friends. Kilpatrick was strangled to death before his body was discarded in a remote area of Rialto. His body was found on December 13; Kilpatrick remained known as a John Doe until August 5, 1980. Because Kilpatrick—a troubled youth whose parents had recently divorced—was known to disappear for days at a time, his mother hesitated to report the disappearance. His friends also mistakenly reported seeing him at the mall. As a result, he was not reported missing until February.
On January 1, 1980, Bonin brutalized and strangled a 16-year-old Ontario youth named Michael Francis McDonald; his fully clothed body was found alongside Highway 71 in western San Bernardino County two days after his murder, although his body was not identified until March 24.
Participation of Gregory Miley
Murders of Miranda and Macabe
On the morning of February 3, 1980, Bonin invited a 16-year-old boy into his parents' house to drink and engage in intercourse with. When Bonin briefly departed to urinate, he allegedly caught the youth stealing $100 from his billfold. Furious at the teenager's denial, Bonin resolved to commit a murder. Later that evening, Bonin drove from Downey to Hollywood in the company of Gregory Miley with the specific intention of committing a murder with Miley's assistance. The pair encountered a 15-year-old named Charles Miranda standing close to the Starwood nightclub, hitchhiking along Santa Monica Boulevard.
According to Miley, Bonin and Miranda engaged in consensual intercourse in the rear of the van as he drove, before Bonin privily stammered to him, "Kid's going to die. Kid's going to—this kid's going to die." Miley replied, stating, "Why don't you just let the kid go?" Bonin rejected this proposition, stating, "No, because he'll know us and know the van." Miranda was then overpowered by Bonin, who asked the teenager how much money he had in his possession. When Miranda responded he had "about six dollars", Bonin ordered Miley to take his wallet before proceeding to beat, then bind and gag Miranda. He then informed Miranda of his being robbed earlier that day, and that though it "wasn't fair," the youth was to be killed. Initially doubting Bonin, Miranda began crying before proceeding to beg for his life. Bonin then began sexually assaulting Miranda; Miley also attempted to rape Miranda, but was unable to sustain an erection. In frustration, Miley assaulted the youth with various sharp objects before assisting Bonin in beating him. Bonin then strangled Miranda to death with a T-shirt and a tire iron as Miley repeatedly jumped on Miranda's chest. His nude corpse was dumped shortly thereafter, in an alleyway alongside East Second Street in Los Angeles.
Five minutes after the pair had discarded Miranda's body, Bonin suggested to Miley: "I'm horny again, let's go and do another one." Miley initially protested and stated he wanted to go home, but eventually complied with Bonin's insistence. A few hours later, in Huntington Beach, the pair encountered 12-year-old James Macabe standing at a bus stop on the corner of Beach Boulevard and Slater Avenue. Temporarily left alone, Macabe had been dropped off there by his older brother, who had given Macabe money and whom he stayed with for the weekend. Macabe was lured into Bonin's van on the promise he would be driven to his intended destination of Disneyland with the additional incentive of marijuana. According to Miley, the boy entered the rear of the van voluntarily, after which Bonin drove to a grocery store parking lot, parking the van and entering the rear of the vehicle, where he began hugging and kissing the child. He then proceeded to bind the resisting Macabe, informing the boy he was being kidnapped for ransom.
To subdue the child, Bonin began repeatedly punching him in the stomach, mouth, and leg. Miley then drove in an aimless manner for what he later described as being a "very, very long distance" as he repeatedly heard Macabe crying as Bonin raped the boy and bludgeoned him about the head with a tire iron. Bonin then forced Macabe to sleep in his arms. Upon Macabe's waking, Miley joined Bonin in beating the child into unconsciousness simply because he "felt like" doing so before Bonin proceeded to crush Macabe's neck with a tire iron. Bonin then strangled Macabe to death with his own T-shirt before the pair discarded his corpse alongside a dumpster at a construction site in Walnut City. Macabe's body was discovered three days later, fully clothed, bearing several skull fractures and a bruised penis. Following the murder of Macabe, Bonin and Miley spent the $6 retrieved from his wallet for lunch.
One day after Miranda and Macabe's murder, Bonin was arrested for violating the conditions of his parole; he was remanded in custody at the Orange County Jail until March 4.
No comments:
Post a Comment