March 1980
Ten days after Bonin's release from custody, on March 14, he abducted an 18-year-old Van Nuys youth named Ronald Gatlin; after assaulting the youth, Bonin began hacking at Gatlin's face with an ice pick. Gatlin was beaten and sodomized, suffering several deep, perforating ice pick wounds to the ear and neck before being strangled with a ligature. He also bore signs of extensive beating. The following day, his bound body was found behind an industrial building in the city of Duarte.
One week later, on March 21, Bonin lured a 14-year-old named Glenn Norman Barker into his van as the teenager hitchhiked from school to visit a friend. Barker was warned by family to not hitchhike, but accepted Bonin's ride as he had spent the bus money his mother gave him. Barker was also raped, beaten, violated with foreign objects, then strangled to death with a ligature, with his body also bearing evidence of numerous burns around the neck in a looping pattern which had been inflicted with a lit cigarette and an extensively distended rectum.
At approximately 4:07 p.m. the same day, a 15-year-old named Russell Duane Rugh was abducted from a bus stop in Garden Grove. Rugh intended on hitching a ride to his job at a fast food restaurant before encountering Bonin. He was bound, beaten and strangled to death after an estimated eight hours of captivity before his body was discarded alongside that of Barker in Cleveland National Forest, close to the Ortega Highway. The teenagers' nude bodies were found on March 23, both bearing evidence of extensive beating and ligature marks on their wrists, ankles, and neck.
Encounter with William Pugh
One Friday evening in March 1980, Bonin offered a 17-year-old named William Ray Pugh a ride home as the pair left Fraser's residence. Within minutes of accepting the ride, Bonin asked Pugh whether he would like to engage in sex with him. Pugh later stated he panicked and stuttered upon hearing this question and, after sitting in silence for several minutes, attempted to leave the vehicle once Bonin had slowed the van at a stoplight. In response, Bonin seized Pugh by the collar, dragging him back into the passenger seat.
According to Pugh, Bonin entered an irritable state before confiding in him that he enjoyed abducting young male hitchhikers on Friday and Saturday nights so he had time to take his girlfriend roller-skating on Sundays, adding that he restrained and abused youths before strangling them to death with their own T-shirts. In a matter-of-fact tone, Bonin then informed Pugh: "If you want to kill somebody, you should make a plan and find a place to dump the body before you even pick a victim." Bonin further explained that he had not chosen to refrain from sexually assaulting and murdering Pugh out of sentiment; he had been spared because the pair had been seen leaving Fraser's party together. Pugh was driven to a home he claimed was his, before fearfully sprinting to his residence upon the van's departing.
Murder of Harry Turner
On March 25, 1980, Bonin and Pugh abducted a 15-year-old runaway named Harry Todd Turner from a Los Angeles street. Turner had absconded from a boys' home in the desert community of Lancaster four days prior to his meeting Bonin and Pugh. Pugh was to later testify that he and Bonin lured Turner into Bonin's van with an offer of $20 for sex. After binding and sodomizing the youth, Bonin bit into Turner's penis until it tore and bled.
Bonin then ordered Pugh to "beat him (Turner) up." After Pugh had bludgeoned and beat Turner about the head and body for several minutes, Bonin strangled the teenager to death with his own T-shirt and a tire iron before discarding his body at the rear delivery door to a Los Angeles business. Turner's autopsy subsequently revealed his genitals had been mutilated, and he had received a total of eight fractures to the skull inflicted by a blunt instrument before he had been strangled.
Further murders
On April 10, Bonin was discharged from parole following his March 4, 1980 release; he encountered a 16-year-old Bellflower youth named Steven John Wood walking to school. Wood had previously been introduced to Bonin by his older brother; as such, the teenager willingly entered Bonin's van. His nude, hogtied and extensively beaten body was discarded in a Long Beach alleyway beside a dumpster, with his head resting against a nearby bench close to the Pacific Coast Highway. Wood's autopsy revealed the youth had been killed by ligature strangulation. Prior to disposing of Wood's body, Bonin allegedly drove to a scheduled job interview before eating pizza as he awaited the onset of dusk to safely discard the corpse.
Four weeks later, on April 29, Bonin encountered a 19-year-old supermarket employee named Darin Kendrick while parked in the grounds of the Stanton supermarket where Kendrick worked. Bonin lured Kendrick into his van on the pretext of selling the youth drugs. Bonin then drove to Butts' apartment in Lakewood, where the trio began listening to music as they sat on the couch. Bonin soon asked Kendrick whether he was gay, prompting the teenager to attempt to flee from the apartment. Kendrick was then overpowered and bound by both men before being sodomized by Butts as Bonin raised the volume of Butts' sound system to silence Kendrick's screams. Butts then held Kendrick's mouth open while Bonin poured chloral hydrate down his throat, causing Kendrick to sustain caustic chemical burns to his mouth, chin, stomach and chest.
The kid started [fading] out, just kind of [whimpering]. I don't like [raping] some limp piece of meat. It's no fun if they don't let me know how it feels. Guess we gave him too much of the stuff. Next time, I figured I wouldn't use as much. Anyways, I'd gotten my rocks off and the kid was [getting boring], no fun anymore, so I strangled him.- Bonin, describing the murder of Darin Lee Kendrick.
Kendrick—who had fiercely fought his attackers, including biting the two men—then halted his resistance as he vomited onto the apartment floor before complaining of dizziness. Noting that Kendrick was losing consciousness and whimpering, Bonin achieved orgasm; he then strangled Kendrick as Butts drove an ice pick into Kendrick's ear, causing a fatal wound to the youth's cervical spinal cord. His body was discarded behind a warehouse close to the Artesia Freeway, with the ice pick still protruding from his ear.
On May 12, 1980 Bonin abducted and murdered a 17-year-old acquaintance whom he later stated he had decided to kill when he had awoken that morning because he was "tired of having him around". The body of this acquaintance, 17-year-old Lawrence Sharp, was discarded behind a Westminster gas station. His body was found on May 18, and his autopsy revealed that in addition to being bound and sodomized, Sharp had been extensively beaten about the face and body, then strangled with a ligature.
One week after the murder of Sharp, on the afternoon of May 19, Bonin asked Butts to accompany him on a killing; on this occasion, however, Butts reportedly refused to accompany him. Operating alone, Bonin abducted a 14-year-old South Gate youth named Sean King from a bus stop in Downey. King was strangled to death before his body was discarded in Live Oak Canyon, Yucaipa. Bonin then visited Butts' residence and bragged of the killing to his accomplice.
Surveillance
By early 1980, the murders committed by Bonin and his accomplices were receiving considerable media attention, and a reward totaling $50,000 for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrator or perpetrators had been offered by leading gay rights activists. Bonin avidly followed news media reports pertaining to his crimes, and collected newspaper clippings documenting his own manhunt, often tuning in on radio and television coverage of the murders along with his accomplices.
Having by this stage determined a definitive link between many of the murders committed within the previous year, investigators from the various jurisdictions where victims had been abducted or discovered had themselves begun sharing information in their collective hunt for the perpetrator. Six officers from three of the jurisdictions in which the "Freeway Killer" had most regularly either abducted or deposited the bodies of his victims formed a task force dedicated to the apprehension of the suspect or suspects who, as one of the officers upon this assembled task force later recalled, was striking at an average rate of once every two weeks in the spring of 1980.
By May 1980, Pugh had been arrested for auto theft and was housed at the Los Padrinos Juvenile Courthouse. On May 28, he overheard the details of the ongoing murders on a local radio broadcast and confided to a counselor his recognition of the perpetrator's modus operandi as being that described to him by Bonin two months previous. This counselor reported Pugh's suspicions to the police, who in turn relayed the information to a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) homicide sergeant named John St. John. Upon hearing the confidential tip from the counselor, St. John conducted an extensive interview with Pugh the following day. Although Pugh withheld the fact that he had actually accompanied Bonin on one of his murders, the information he provided led St. John to deduce that Bonin may indeed be the Freeway Killer.
Acquaintance with James Munro
The same day Pugh had informed police of Bonin's involvement, Bonin invited an 18-year-old homeless drifter named James Michael Munro—whom he had encountered while cruising for young male prostitutes—to move into the Angell Street home he shared with his mother and older brother, but only in exchange for sex. Munro was a runaway from St. Clair, Michigan who had been evicted from his family's home in early 1980. Munro had planned on meeting a friend in California, but "ended up living on the streets" following an incident in which he had been robbed of money he had saved from working as a male prostitute in Hollywood.
While at the Angell Street residence, Munro—a bisexual who preferred sexual relations with females—began a consensual sexual relationship with Bonin. He also accepted a subsequent offer of employment at the Montebello delivery firm where Bonin worked, and was allowed by Bonin to drive his van on occasion. Munro later described his initial impression of Bonin as being "a good guy; really normal". On June 1, Bonin took Munro roller-skating with his girlfriend before abruptly informing Munro that night that he wanted them both to abduct, sexually assault, and murder a teenage hitchhiker.
A police investigation into Bonin's background revealed his extensive history of convictions for sexually assaulting teenage boys. St. John assigned a surveillance team to monitor Bonin's movements. The surveillance of Bonin began on the evening of June 2—one hour prior to Bonin and Munro discarding the body of the final "Freeway Killer" victim.
Murder of Steven Wells
Hours prior to the implementation of police surveillance of Bonin on the evening of June 2, he, accompanied by Munro, encountered an 18-year-old print shop worker named Steven Jay Wells standing at a bus stop on El Segundo Boulevard. Bonin and Munro enticed the youth into the van. According to Bonin and Munro, upon learning Wells was bisexual, Bonin engaged in consensual relations with Wells in the rear of his van before persuading the youth to accompany him to his parents' house, where the two engaged in further sexual relations on Bonin's parents' bed. Bonin then sent Munro to purchase burgers. Upon Munro's return, Bonin convinced Wells to allow himself to be bound with clothesline upon the incentive of being given $200. He then called Munro to enter the room. Suspicious of their intentions, Wells became frantic.
Bonin then retreated to the kitchen for water, informing Munro they were to both kill Wells before proceeding to gag and beat his captive in the hallway, stating, "You're going to do what I tell you to do" as Wells began pleading for his life. Bonin smiled as he stole $10 from Wells' wallet, stating his intention to leave his body "on a park bench somewhere". He then strangled Wells to death with a T-shirt and tire iron; Munro asked whether Wells was dead, prompting Bonin to laugh as he replied, "Yeah, stupid" before adding: "Haven't you ever seen a dead body before?" Bonin then threw Wells's T-shirt across the hallway before ordering Munro—who had retreated to the driveway to breathe—to retrieve a cardboard box from his older brother's room; the two placed Wells' body inside this cardboard box, which they then carried to Bonin's van.
At approximately 9 p.m., the two drove to Butts' Lakewood apartment as Bonin informed Munro that he, Butts, and others had committed many of the "Freeway Killer" murders. At Butts' apartment, the trio engaged in brief conversation before Bonin invited Butts to view Wells' body with the enticement: "We got it in the van; it's a good one. Come on out and see it." According to Munro, Butts—who had been dressed in a Darth Vader costume—prodded the body before replying, "Oh, you got another one!" He then complimented Bonin, stating: "Good job, Billy, you really did a good one.”
Bonin subsequently asked for advice as to where to dispose of the corpse. At Bonin's subsequent trial, Munro recalled Butts recommending they discard Wells near a gas station. Munro also later testified that Butts had actively dissuaded Bonin from discarding Wells' body in the nearby canyons due to the late hour, and general police presence caused by recent media coverage. As they drove to find a spot to dump the body, they encountered a police car, causing Bonin to privately mock the officers. The two drove to a disused Mobil gas station in Huntington Beach, where they wedged Wells' nude corpse between a chain-link fence and a truck. The body was discovered five hours later by two brothers who had parked nearby to fix a flat tire.
Upon returning to his parents' home, Bonin and Munro proceeded to watch television in search of news coverage of Wells' discovery. As he bit into his Big Mac burger, Bonin reportedly looked up to the ceiling and stated, "Thanks, Steve," before repeating the statement as he looked down to the floor, adding, "Wherever you are." The pair then proceeded to laugh. Later that night, Bonin hinted to Munro—already fearful for his life—that he stay quiet regarding Wells' murder or else face potential death.
Arrest
After nine days of uneventful surveillance in which Bonin worked at Dependable Drive-Away, visited friends, and returned to his residence, on June 11, 1980, police observed Bonin driving in a seemingly random manner throughout Hollywood, unsuccessfully attempting to lure five separate teenage boys into his van before succeeding in luring a youth into his vehicle. The police followed Bonin until his van parked in a service station parking lot close to the Hollywood Freeway, then discreetly approached the vehicle. Upon hearing muffled screams and banging sounds emanating from inside the van, these plainclothes officers forced their way into the vehicle; discovering Bonin in the act of raping a 17-year-old Orange County runaway named Harold Eugene Tate, whom he had handcuffed and bound.
Initially charged with the rape of a minor and held on suspicion of the murder of Miranda, Bonin was detained in lieu of $250,000 bond. Shortly thereafter, Bonin's girlfriend notified his boss of his arrest, adding that the arrest was in connection to the Freeway Killer case and causing Munro—already apprehensive at Bonin's absence from work that day—to become frantic. The following day, Munro stole Bonin's car and fled to his native Michigan, where he resided temporarily with a friend before his arrest.
Inside Bonin's van, investigators discovered numerous artifacts attesting to his culpability in the Freeway Killer murders. These items included various restraining devices including lengths of nylon cord, an assortment of knives, a tire iron, and household implements such as pliers and wire coat hangers. Furthermore, a forensic examination of the interior of Bonin's van and, later, sections of his home revealed extensive traces of bloodstains. Moreover, the inner handles from the passenger-side and rear doors of his vehicle had been removed in an obvious effort to prevent victims from escaping the vehicle. Inside the glove box, investigators also discovered a scrapbook of newspaper clippings related to the murders.
Confession
I tied him up with nylon - this electrician type of wire. I pulled a knife on him and he got scared. I stabbed him in the left arm, it surprised me that I did it. I stabbed him again and then again, and again and again until he was helpless. ... They would try to stop me from stabbing them and I would stab just to stab. I stuck them with the knife in different places because I didn't know where to stab, you know, I didn't know where the vital organs [were] or anything like that.--Excerpts of Bonin's taped confession in 1980 concerning Markus Grabs and other victims
Although initially alleging his innocence in the murders, Bonin confessed his guilt to St. John after reading an impassioned letter from the mother of victim Sean King, imploring him to reveal the location of her son's body. Bonin made sure to clarify, however, that it was not to ease the mother's pain, but the knowledge that because King was buried in San Benardino County, police would likely buy him a hamburger for lunch on the extensive trip, stating, "I was dying for a hamburger and I knew [that] if I went out with the cops, they would get me a hamburger."
Over the course of several evenings, Bonin confessed to abducting, raping, and killing twenty-one young men and boys in increasingly graphic detail. He expressed no remorse for his actions, but he did demonstrate extreme embarrassment and regret over having been caught. An Orange County investigator later recalled that there "was not a policeman in that room that did not want to kill Bonin" for his confession. Bonin stated to authorities that his primary accomplice in the murders had been Butts, with Miley and Munro being active accomplices in other murders.
Bonin was physically linked to many of the murders by blood and semen stains, and numerous, distinctive green triskelion-shaped carpet fibers found upon seven of the victims' bodies which were forensically proven to be a precise match with the carpeting in the rear of Bonin's van. Furthermore, upon three victims' bodies, investigators had discovered hair samples which were proven to be a precise match with Bonin. Medical evidence also revealed that six of the murders for which Bonin was charged were committed by a unique windlass strangulation method, which was later referred to by the prosecutor at Bonin's Los Angeles County trial as "a signature, a trademark".
Initially formally arraigned for the murder of Grabs on July 25, by July 29, Bonin had been charged with an additional fifteen murders to which he had confessed and upon which the prosecution believed they had sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction. In addition to the sixteen murder indictments, Bonin was also charged with eleven counts of robbery, one count of sodomy, and one count of mayhem. He was held without bond.
On August 8, all charges were formally submitted against Bonin. Three days later, in accordance with Penal Code section 987, Bonin–at this stage without legal representation–was appointed an attorney named Earl Hanson to act as his legal representative. Hanson remained Bonin's attorney until October 1981 when, at Bonin's request, he was replaced by William Charvet and Tracy Stewart.
Accomplices' arrest
Based on Bonin's confession, police obtained a warrant authorizing a search of Butts' Lakewood property on the same date as Bonin's initial arraignment; this July 25 search uncovered evidence linking Butts to several of the murders to which Bonin had already confessed, and Butts was brought before a Municipal Court on July 29, charged with accompanying Bonin on six murders committed between August 1979 and April 1980. He was also charged with three counts of robbery. In a press statement relating to the police investigation into the murders issued on this date, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department stated: "Bonin and Butts are believed to be responsible for the kidnapping, torture and murder of at least 21 young males between May 1979 and June 1980", fourteen of which had been committed in their jurisdiction. This spokesperson added that five further murder charges would likely be filed against the men in Orange County in due course.
Despite initially proclaiming his innocence, Butts soon confessed to having accompanied Bonin upon each of the murder forays listed in each of the charges against him, and to have actively participated in the sexual abuse of several victims. In his confession, Butts claimed to have participated in the murders primarily out of fear, claiming, "It was either go, or become the next victim", adding he only found the courage to confess upon learning Bonin was in custody. Butts was adamant he had had only a limited role in the actual torture of the victims, but confessed to actively participating in the torture of one victim.
Discussing the actual murder forays, Butts claimed that, upon their successfully luring a victim into the van, he would typically drive a short distance before stopping the vehicle in order to assist Bonin in restraining their victim before driving in an aimless manner as Bonin abused and tortured their captive in the rear of the van. Butts claimed his participation in the murders was typically limited to restraining the victims, although he admitted to mutilating one victim with a wire coat hanger. When asked why some victims had been subjected to more extensive blunt force trauma than others, Butts stated that, in many instances, Bonin would escalate the level of beatings to which he subjected his victim if the youth resisted his sexual advances.
Butts was brought before Orange County Municipal Court Judge Richard Orozco on November 14, 1980. On this date, he was formally charged with participating in three further murders committed in this county. His trial was scheduled for July 27, 1981.
On July 31, Munro was arrested in his hometown of Port Huron, Michigan; he was extradited to California and charged with the murder of Wells. Munro pleaded innocent to all charges against him on August 14. On August 22, Miley—by this stage 19 years old—was arrested in Texas and subsequently charged by California authorities with the murders of Miranda and Macabe. Miley was arrested after having confessed to his culpability in the Miranda and Macabe murders in a recorded phone conversation with a friend (thus substantiating Bonin's earlier confession). He initially pleaded innocent to two charges of first-degree murder on December 18, but pleaded guilty at two separate pretrial hearings in May 1981.
Preliminary hearings
At a preliminary hearing held in Los Angeles County before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Julius Leetham on January 2, 1981, Bonin formally pleaded innocent to fourteen first-degree murder charges and numerous counts of sodomy, robbery and mayhem. In eleven of these indictments, a felony-murder-robbery special circumstance was also alleged. Bonin was ordered to return to court on January 7 for pretrial motions and the formal setting of a trial date. On the same date (January 2), Butts was arraigned on five counts of murder, in addition to three counts of robbery. The date of Butts' formal plea was delayed by Judge Leetham until January 7.
Four days after his formal plea before Judge Leetham, Butts committed suicide by hanging himself with a towel in his cell. A subsequent coroner's investigation revealed Butts had unsuccessfully attempted to take his own life on at least four occasions prior to his arrest. His attorney, Joe Ingber, theorized that Butts' depressive state had been magnified by the impending release of transcripts of his client's testimony at the preliminary hearing, in which Butts had graphically described the torture the victims had endured prior to their murder.
Three months prior to Butts' suicide, he had rejected an offer to plead guilty to all charges filed against him in exchange for a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years before the possibility of parole. At the time of Butts' suicide, he had not agreed to accept any form of plea bargain, or to testify against Bonin.
Both Miley and Munro agreed to testify against Bonin at his impending trials in exchange for being spared the death penalty, with Deputy District Attorney Stirling Norris also agreeing to seek the dismissal of additional charges of sodomy and robbery filed against Munro if he honored his agreement to testify. In the case of Miley, Norris agreed to accept two separate pleas of guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for two concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, with a possibility of parole after 25 years, if Miley agreed to testify against Bonin at both upcoming trials. William Pugh also agreed to testify, having agreed to plead guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter for which he later received six years in prison.
Murder trials
Los Angeles County
Bonin was brought to trial in Los Angeles County, charged with the murder of twelve of his victims whose bodies had been found within this constituency, on October 19, 1981. He was tried before Superior Court Judge William Keene. The trial commenced on November 5, 1981.
Norris, acting as prosecutor, sought the death penalty for each count of murder for which Bonin was tried, stating in his opening speech to the jury: "We will prove he is the Freeway Killer, as he has bragged to a number of witnesses. We will show you that he enjoyed the killings. Not only did he enjoy it, and plan to enjoy it, he had an insatiable demand, an insatiable appetite – not only for sodomy, but for killing." Norris further elaborated that Bonin had followed a depressingly familiar routine in his murders of luring or forcing his victim into his van before overpowering and binding his victim. He would then repeatedly rape his captive between and throughout instances of torture, before finally reaching the "climax of the orgy" by killing his victim. Norris further asserted that Bonin considered murder a group sport, and would typically groom people of a low mentality to participate in many of his murders.
Miley and Munro testified against Bonin at his Los Angeles County trial, describing in graphic detail the murders in which they had accompanied Bonin. In his testimony, delivered on November 17, Munro stated that shortly after the murder of Wells, he and Bonin drove to a McDonald's restaurant and purchased hamburgers with $10 taken from Wells' wallet. As they had eaten the burgers at Bonin's home, Bonin laughed and mused: "Thanks, Steve, wherever you are" before Munro had also joined in the laughter. Miley testified to his participation in the murders of Miranda and Macabe, describing in graphic detail how the two victims were beaten and tortured with various instruments before their murders, and how he had heard a "bunch of bones cracking" as Bonin had pressed a tire iron against Miranda's neck. Miley continued his testimony with the words: "The kid vomited. I jumped down on him the same way, killing the guy." Several members of the audience hastily left the courtroom as Bonin's accomplices delivered their testimony, later stating to reporters gathered outside the courtroom they had found the recited details too nauseating.
The strategy of Bonin's defense attorneys, Charvet and Stewart, was to challenge the credibility of numerous prosecution witnesses, and to suggest that extremely significant mitigating factors as to the root causes of Bonin's behavior lay in the extensive physical, sexual, and emotional abuse he had endured throughout his early life. To support this contention, Bonin's defense attorneys summoned Dr. David Foster, an expert on the developmental effects of violence and abuse on children, to testify as to the conclusions of the psychological examinations he had conducted on Bonin. Foster opined that as a result of repeated abandonment as a child, Bonin had not received the nurturing, protection, and behavioral feedback necessary for sufficient psychological development. Foster also stated the pervasive physical, sexual and emotional abuse had been so consistent and prevalent that Bonin held a confusion as to the differences between violence and love.
In a direct rebuttal, the prosecution summoned forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz, a noted expert in impulse control disorder and sexual sadism disorder, who testified that the overall pattern of Bonin's behavior was inconsistent with an inability to control his impulses. Dietz further testified as to Bonin's actions being reflective of planning as opposed to impulsive behavior. In summary, Dietz concluded that Bonin was a sexual sadist, and that although he suffered from an antisocial personality disorder, neither of these conditions had impaired his ability to control his actions.
On November 24, a prison inmate named Lloyd Douglas testified that Bonin had bragged to him of his culpability in the Freeway Killer murders while both were incarcerated in the Los Angeles County Jail in the summer of 1980. According to Douglas, Bonin had held a newspaper article aloft before saying to him: "These are the little boys I got a hold of". Douglas then proceeded to outline a number of salacious allegations regarding Bonin's torture of victims that were otherwise not supported with valid evidence. In cross-examination, Douglas conceded he had only related these claims to authorities after pleading guilty to the filing of charges of voluntary manslaughter and second-degree burglary against him and that he had been released from custody the previous month. Douglas also testified to being the cousin of victim Lawrence Sharp.
Against overruled objections from Bonin's defense attorney, a Fresno-based reporter named David López waived his previously sought immunity under California's shield law and agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution as to the details of seven interviews Bonin had granted him between December 1980 and April 1981. In his testimony, delivered on December 14 and 15, López stated Bonin had first informed him he would refuse to talk with any other reporter if López would agree not to broadcast the precise details of the interview. López had agreed to these conditions, and Bonin had confessed to him on January 9 that he was indeed the Freeway Killer and that he had killed 21 victims. The victims' ages, Bonin had confided, had ranged between 12 and 19, with his youngest victim, Macabe, being the easiest victim to kill. According to López, Bonin had confided that although he resented the prospect of being executed, he had opted to kill repeatedly simply because he had enjoyed the "sound of kids dying". López also testified Bonin had informed him he had killed one victim by repeatedly punching him in the throat, and that the primary incentive for his revealing the location of King's body to authorities had actually been his knowledge police would purchase a hamburger for him as they searched San Bernardino County for the remains. López further stated that when he asked Bonin what he would be doing if he were still at large, Bonin had replied: "I'd still be killing, I couldn't stop killing. It got easier with each one we did."
Upon cross-examination, Bonin's defense attorney ensured that López conceded that his testimony was based upon what he had recalled from the interviews as opposed to any handwritten notes, although he strenuously denied he had received any form of payment to testify.
Closing arguments lasted from December 16 to 22, 1981. In his closing argument on behalf of the prosecution, Norris described Bonin as an insatiable, callous individual who acted with malice aforethought, and who derived extreme pleasure from the suffering he inflicted upon his victims. Norris outlined the torture Bonin's victims had endured before concluding his closing arguments by urging the jury to "give him [Bonin] what he has earned".
Defense attorney Charvet began his closing argument on December 21. Although Charvet did not specifically ask the jurors to find Bonin not guilty, he did request they only return the "reasonable verdict you can bring", indicating a likelihood of not guilty verdicts on at least some counts upon which Bonin stood charged. Charvet then hearkened towards the credibility of some of the delivered testimony, pouring particular scorn upon Miley and Munro, whom he emphasized had turned state's evidence and thus, he alleged, had tailored their testimony to the desires of the police. As such, Charvet called their testimony unbelievable.
Charvet repeatedly reminded the jury he had exposed myriad inconsistencies in the testimony of Munro's account of the murder of Wells in the various statements he had given, and had compelled him to admit that he lied on numerous occasions. He also reminded the jury of the extensive abuse Bonin had endured as a child, of the testimony of Dr. Foster, and of the diagnoses doctors at the Atascadero hospital had reached between 1969 and 1971. Contending the prosecution's case was "full of holes", he then alleged the prosecution had resorted to what amounted to little more than "revulsion tactics" in the hope Bonin would be convicted upon that basis.
Following these closing arguments, Judge Keene ordered the trial recessed until December 28, when he delivered his final instructions to the jury, who then formally began their deliberations.
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