1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,759 Speaker 1: On the twenty second of March nineteen eighty, the bodies 2 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:12,919 of two teenage boys were discovered dumped together beside a 3 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:18,039 freeway in California. Sadly, they weren't the first, and they 4 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:19,280 wouldn't be the last. 5 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,480 Speaker 2: You've got this killer, and he is almost ghost like. 6 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:25,960 Speaker 3: He is dumping bodies and then he's disappearing into the night. 7 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:31,079 Speaker 1: Bodies of young boys, most of them hitchhikers, had been 8 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:35,880 discarded like trash. The victims had all been tied up 9 00:00:36,079 --> 00:00:39,079 and sexually assaulted before being strangled. 10 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 4: He was incredibly violent. He was evil, and he would 11 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:46,479 hurt you just to hear you scream. 12 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: The killer was a local truck driver called William Bonnet. 13 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:55,439 This sadistic predator, together with a small band of accomplices, 14 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:59,640 spread fear amongst the community. It seemed that no young 15 00:00:59,719 --> 00:01:00,719 man was safe. 16 00:01:01,079 --> 00:01:06,640 Speaker 5: He enjoyed having the boy at his mercy and hearing 17 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:11,439 the boy cry and plead for his life, and Bill 18 00:01:11,519 --> 00:01:14,719 felt powerful when he was in the act of murdering 19 00:01:14,719 --> 00:01:15,280 a kid. 20 00:01:15,879 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: In just thirteen months, the monster, dubbed the Freeway Killer, 21 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:23,319 was responsible for the murders of up to twenty one 22 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:28,120 young boys and teenagers. William Bonnin had been revealed as 23 00:01:28,159 --> 00:01:52,159 one of the world's most evil killers. During the summer 24 00:01:52,239 --> 00:01:56,400 of nineteen seventy nine, the naked bodies of young boys 25 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:00,959 were being discovered beside freeways and other majors votes across 26 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:02,159 southern California. 27 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:04,159 Speaker 6: It started very slowly. 28 00:02:05,079 --> 00:02:07,359 Speaker 7: There would be a dead body found on the side 29 00:02:07,359 --> 00:02:10,280 of a rock. Started out there was maybe one, maybe two, 30 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:12,879 and then when it got to like the fourth body 31 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:17,000 that had been found, then we started saying, wait a minute, 32 00:02:17,039 --> 00:02:18,000 is there a pattern here? 33 00:02:19,039 --> 00:02:23,080 Speaker 1: Victims were being targeted at an alarming rate, and a 34 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,919 wave of fear spread within communities across Los Angeles. 35 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,759 Speaker 3: These murders were very close together. It's almost like a 36 00:02:30,879 --> 00:02:35,039 killing spree at times. And he does it because he can. 37 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:38,280 These people are there for the taking, they are vulnerable, 38 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:41,240 and when he figures out that nobody's coming after him, 39 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:42,479 well he just carries on. 40 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 8: This was a man who premeditated everything. It was all 41 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:53,759 carefully thought out, carefully planned, and then executed meticulously. 42 00:02:54,439 --> 00:02:58,439 Speaker 1: After his arrest in nineteen eighty, William Bonin confessed to 43 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,960 twenty one murders. His youngest victim was just twelve years old. 44 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:07,840 Prison psychologist Von Dea Pelto spent many hours talking to 45 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:08,599 the killer. 46 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 5: I ask him one time about a killing, how did 47 00:03:12,319 --> 00:03:15,400 it feel when you killed him? When he was crying 48 00:03:15,439 --> 00:03:19,319 and pleading for his life and saying, please, please, don't 49 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,560 kill me? Did you feel anything? And Bill said I 50 00:03:23,599 --> 00:03:28,439 didn't feel anything. I couldn't understand that. And I said, well, 51 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:32,800 was it like killing an animal? And Bill said, oh, no, 52 00:03:33,199 --> 00:03:35,240 I have a lot of feeling for an animal. 53 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:40,919 Speaker 1: This killer story begins on the eighth of January nineteen 54 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,639 forty seven. William George Bonnin was born in Willemantic, Connecticut, 55 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,960 to parents Robert and Alice. He was the middle of 56 00:03:49,039 --> 00:03:52,520 three brothers. Their father was an alcoholic and it was 57 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:57,199 an unhappy, abusive upbringing. Neighbors recall the Bonnin boys were 58 00:03:57,240 --> 00:03:59,840 always hungry, dirty, and ill clothed. 59 00:04:00,719 --> 00:04:03,840 Speaker 8: Bonin was then put in the hands of Alice's father, 60 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:07,879 who had abused her as a child, and he went 61 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:10,479 on to abuse her sons. 62 00:04:11,879 --> 00:04:15,439 Speaker 3: Bonin experienced a lot of sexual abuse during his childhood, 63 00:04:15,439 --> 00:04:18,319 and sadly, it was something that he just came to expect, 64 00:04:18,759 --> 00:04:21,079 but he also learned that sexual abuse was a way 65 00:04:21,079 --> 00:04:23,639 of gaining power and control over other people. 66 00:04:24,639 --> 00:04:27,759 Speaker 1: When Bonin was six, he was sent to an orphanage. 67 00:04:27,879 --> 00:04:31,240 His mother, Alice, claimed this was to protect her sons 68 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:34,399 from an abusive home life. 69 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,639 Speaker 5: Bill and his younger brother were put in the Catholic 70 00:04:37,959 --> 00:04:42,519 run orphanage, and the parents never did come to see him. 71 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:46,439 He told me and said that for sure he thought 72 00:04:46,519 --> 00:04:50,000 they had died because they didn't come to see him. 73 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 1: From the orphanage, young William Bonin was sent to a 74 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,639 youth detention center. The reason why is unknown, but what 75 00:04:58,759 --> 00:05:02,000 is certain is that his time there, at the age 76 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,959 of just eight, he was subjected to yet another sexual assault, 77 00:05:06,319 --> 00:05:08,000 this time by an older boy. 78 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 3: Allegedly, he asked for his hands to be tied during this, 79 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,720 and that signifies to me that this is somebody who 80 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:18,560 has been sexually abused. There is a familiarity with that 81 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:23,040 kind of behavior, and that is something that's incredibly disturbing 82 00:05:23,199 --> 00:05:26,959 for me, especially at such a young age. 83 00:05:27,079 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: By nineteen sixty nine, twenty two year old Bonn had 84 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:35,560 reconnected with his mother and was living with her in Downey, California. 85 00:05:36,199 --> 00:05:39,160 After a brief career in the army, he'd turned to 86 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:43,079 a life of crime. He was arrested for sexually assaulting 87 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,879 five boys, and it also later emerged that Bonn had 88 00:05:46,959 --> 00:05:50,839 raped two soldiers at gunpoint during his military service. 89 00:05:51,759 --> 00:05:55,680 Speaker 3: He hasn't just turned into a sexual predator overnight. This 90 00:05:55,759 --> 00:05:58,480 is behavior that will have developed over time, but it's 91 00:05:58,519 --> 00:06:02,639 probably gone undetected up until this point. And to me, 92 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:05,399 this is somebody who is on a very clear trajectory 93 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:09,480 to becoming a very dangerous and a potentially homicidal offender. 94 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:15,040 Speaker 8: It's the oldest question in the book, isn't it what 95 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:19,199 came first? Was it nature or nurture? In this case, 96 00:06:19,519 --> 00:06:25,759 I think it was both. Together they created a formidable combination. 97 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: Bonnin's deviant behavior would inevitably land him in hot water. 98 00:06:32,439 --> 00:06:35,759 Instead of serving time in prison, the young man wound 99 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,000 up in a state hospital where he actually honed his 100 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:40,399 predatory instincts. 101 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:43,680 Speaker 3: Now, during this time, he gets to learn about the 102 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:47,399 institutional environment. He gets to know the kind of things 103 00:06:47,439 --> 00:06:50,319 he needs to say to staff at that facility, the 104 00:06:50,399 --> 00:06:53,079 type of things that they need to hear to secure 105 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:57,000 his release. He's becoming more dangerous now because he's developing 106 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:58,279 that manipulativeness. 107 00:06:59,079 --> 00:07:03,800 Speaker 1: After five years of incarceration, William Bonnin was a free man. 108 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:09,079 Far from rehabilitated. He was ready to strike again. In 109 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:13,959 early September nineteen seventy five, David McVicker was a fourteen 110 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,399 year old schoolboy enjoying the last long, warm days of summer. 111 00:07:18,439 --> 00:07:22,079 Break Life seemed free and easy, and there was no 112 00:07:22,199 --> 00:07:25,319 problem getting around to catch up with his friends. 113 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:28,519 Speaker 4: Everybody had There was no buses or anything like that. 114 00:07:28,839 --> 00:07:30,600 At said the beach. At the end of the day, 115 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,959 it wasn't unusual to see one hundred and fifty kids 116 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:35,959 down and down there with their beachs tower and their thumber. 117 00:07:36,879 --> 00:07:39,959 Speaker 1: Whilst the youth of Los Angeles focused on making the 118 00:07:40,079 --> 00:07:43,600 most out of their time off, they were blissfully unaware 119 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:47,759 of the potential danger they were putting themselves in. At 120 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,959 five thirty pm on September the eighth, a sadistic sexual 121 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:54,920 predator was looking for a boy to pick up. 122 00:07:55,759 --> 00:07:58,639 Speaker 4: I just said goodbye to my friends. I left their 123 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:02,240 house and gone to hitchhike home. And as soon as 124 00:08:02,279 --> 00:08:05,199 I crossed this major street, a car pulled up next 125 00:08:05,199 --> 00:08:08,480 to me, and this guy says, hey, can you tell 126 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:10,920 me where Euclid Street is? I said, it's about a 127 00:08:10,959 --> 00:08:13,160 mile ahead, and he goes, well, where are you going? 128 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:15,560 I said, I'm going to go to Brookhurst and go 129 00:08:15,639 --> 00:08:18,240 towards the beach, and he said, well, why don't you 130 00:08:18,319 --> 00:08:20,519 jump in and I'll give you a ride. And I thought, cool, 131 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:21,319 that's perfect. 132 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:25,800 Speaker 1: But this kind motorist wasn't ast told what he seemed. 133 00:08:26,319 --> 00:08:28,759 Speaker 4: I got in the car and everything was cool. At first. 134 00:08:28,759 --> 00:08:31,040 He was really nice. You would have never thought anything 135 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:34,279 was wrong. And then about maybe five minutes into the ride, 136 00:08:35,279 --> 00:08:38,559 he said something to ask if I had ever tried 137 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:42,080 anything like a gay act or something like that, and 138 00:08:42,159 --> 00:08:44,200 it was kind of a shock. I was like, no, no, 139 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:46,840 I would never do that, you know. And then I 140 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:48,720 immediately tried to get out of the car. I said, 141 00:08:48,799 --> 00:08:50,440 do my favorite. I said pull over to me out 142 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,639 of the car, and he didn't. He started going faster. 143 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:56,759 So I got really scared and I opened up the 144 00:08:56,759 --> 00:08:58,559 door and I went like that and I turned around. 145 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:00,679 There was a gun right here. To get back in 146 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:01,600 the cars suit you. 147 00:09:02,519 --> 00:09:05,879 Speaker 1: The driver was twenty eight year old convicted rapist and 148 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:10,639 pedophile William Bond. He drove around for some time, all 149 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:14,559 the while holding a gun pointed straight at David. As 150 00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:17,519 the light faded, Boning parked up in a field. 151 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:20,120 Speaker 4: I was scared to death. I was petrified. I knew 152 00:09:20,159 --> 00:09:23,240 that I was something really bad was gonna happen. I 153 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:26,159 didn't know if I was gonna ever die. I was 154 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:27,960 fighting for my life to try to get out of 155 00:09:28,039 --> 00:09:30,720 the car. He grabbed me and started to beat me up. 156 00:09:31,519 --> 00:09:33,360 I knew that if I didn't do what he said, 157 00:09:33,399 --> 00:09:36,240 I was gonna die. 158 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:42,399 Speaker 1: David's ordeal that summer evening was the stuff of nightmares. 159 00:09:42,879 --> 00:09:46,559 Speaker 4: Yeah, my t shirt around my neck with the tire iron, 160 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:48,519 you know, that just changed the tire. He had that 161 00:09:48,639 --> 00:09:50,399 going through the sleeves of my shirt and he was 162 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,440 twisting it, strangling me while he was raving me. And then, 163 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:56,240 with what I thought was my last breath, because I 164 00:09:56,279 --> 00:09:58,720 couldn't breathe it anymore, I just kind of went God 165 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:00,879 help and stopt. 166 00:10:01,879 --> 00:10:07,440 Speaker 1: Amazingly, Bonnin let him go. Later that day, fourteen year 167 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:12,320 old David and his mother reported the assault to the police. 168 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:16,080 Several months later, David's school day was interrupted by a 169 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:19,399 visit from the Sheriff's officers. He was taken to the 170 00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:23,039 Orange County Jail, where it arranged a lineup. 171 00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:26,279 Speaker 4: We went into this little dark room and these six 172 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:30,240 guys come streaming out, and before they even started, I 173 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:32,960 saw the guy. I knew it was him, so I 174 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:35,799 said out loud, that's him. Number three. 175 00:10:35,919 --> 00:10:40,120 Speaker 1: In December nineteen seventy five, twenty eight year old William 176 00:10:40,159 --> 00:10:43,879 Bonnin was found guilty of lud and lascivious conduct and 177 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:49,000 sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison for unknown reasons. 178 00:10:49,159 --> 00:10:52,679 He was released on parole after serving less than three 179 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:56,480 The thirty one year old settled back into the community. 180 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:02,000 Speaker 3: He appears to be creating some semblance of a normal life, 181 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,519 but what he's doing is putting in place the structures 182 00:11:04,639 --> 00:11:07,639 that will make him into a more successful offender. So 183 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:11,879 he has this veneer of normality, this veneer of respectability. 184 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:14,919 Speaker 2: And when you look like a normal. 185 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:17,759 Speaker 3: Member of society, you're more likely to go unnoticed. 186 00:11:19,159 --> 00:11:22,600 Speaker 1: Vllin secured a job as a truck driver and rented 187 00:11:22,639 --> 00:11:26,840 an apartment. However, the following year he was arrested yet 188 00:11:26,879 --> 00:11:31,440 again from molesting a teenage boy. He violated his parole 189 00:11:31,799 --> 00:11:33,679 and should have been returned to prison. 190 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:39,200 Speaker 8: There's an administrative error. Bonin is not sent straight back 191 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:45,080 to jail. He's set free. When he's released, Bonin is 192 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:48,960 picked up by a friend and he tells the friend 193 00:11:49,879 --> 00:11:53,879 this is never going to happen to me again. The 194 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:57,000 friend thought that that meant he was never going to 195 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:03,000 commit a crime again. Grotesquely, it meant that he was 196 00:12:03,039 --> 00:12:06,360 never going to leave a victim alive again. 197 00:12:08,279 --> 00:12:12,240 Speaker 1: The string of sexual convictions to his name didn't seem 198 00:12:12,279 --> 00:12:15,720 to affect Bonin's social life. In fact, he was starting 199 00:12:15,759 --> 00:12:17,519 to explore his sexuality. 200 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:21,919 Speaker 3: He's gay, and at this time, the late nineteen seventies, 201 00:12:22,039 --> 00:12:25,639 this is still quite a stigmatized social identity in the 202 00:12:25,799 --> 00:12:28,320 United States. So the fact that he's trying to make 203 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:30,120 connections with people like him. 204 00:12:30,399 --> 00:12:32,679 Speaker 2: Is something that could appear to be quite positive. 205 00:12:35,159 --> 00:12:38,960 Speaker 1: He became a regular at one of his neighbour's parties. 206 00:12:39,919 --> 00:12:43,320 Speaker 8: Bonn's meeting up with people who were after exactly the 207 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:47,919 same as he is, sex, drugs, a great deal of alcohol, 208 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:52,360 and adventures. And it's at the friend's house that he 209 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:55,919 first encounters a twenty one year old young man called 210 00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:00,600 Vernon Batz, who is a part time magician and works 211 00:13:00,639 --> 00:13:02,039 in a porcelain factory. 212 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:07,919 Speaker 3: He's been described as being fascinated by and terrified by 213 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:09,960 bonn In, and that rings an alarm bell for me 214 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,120 in terms of coercive control. When you have a perpetrator 215 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:17,759 who basically tries to take away the identity and the 216 00:13:17,759 --> 00:13:21,879 personhood of the individual they're in a relationship with. And 217 00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:25,440 this sounds incredibly familiar when we look at this description, 218 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:27,240 So that's very concerning for me. 219 00:13:28,519 --> 00:13:31,840 Speaker 1: Bonin was never going to resist the urge to assault 220 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:35,360 a young boy for long. On the fifth of August 221 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:39,720 nineteen seventy nine, Bonin and his new friend Vernon Buds 222 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:45,200 were out cruising in Bonyn's van. Bonin spotted Marcus Grabs, 223 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:49,240 a seventeen year old German tourist who was hitchhiking beside 224 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:53,279 Newport Beach. They pulled over and offered him a ride. 225 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:56,000 Speaker 3: At this point in time, a lot of people traveled 226 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:58,039 around hitching lifts with other people. 227 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:00,200 Speaker 2: It was a cultural norm. 228 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,000 Speaker 3: So I think to realize that this everyday mode of 229 00:14:03,039 --> 00:14:05,960 transport has put you in a situation where you're going 230 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,879 to lose your life, that must have been absolutely horrendous 231 00:14:08,919 --> 00:14:09,720 for him. 232 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 1: Seventeen year old Marcus was subjected to a horrific assault 233 00:14:14,759 --> 00:14:17,639 in which he was tied up and raped by Bonin. 234 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:22,519 Years later, Bonin described the attack in detail to prison 235 00:14:22,639 --> 00:14:25,759 psychologist Von der pelto. 236 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:30,360 Speaker 5: Marcus Grabs was laying there in the back of his van, 237 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:35,080 and Bonnin had a knife, and he said, you know, 238 00:14:35,639 --> 00:14:39,600 I just got to thinking I couldn't kill him, and 239 00:14:39,639 --> 00:14:44,840 then Bonnin said, I just started stabbing him wildly. He said, 240 00:14:44,919 --> 00:14:47,360 I just stabbed and stabbed and stabbed. 241 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:53,360 Speaker 8: He was stabbed seventy seven times in an outburst of 242 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:55,799 violence that's almost unimaginable. 243 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:59,799 Speaker 1: The lifeless body of Marcus Grabs was found the following 244 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:03,919 day in nearby Malibu. The seventeen year old was naked 245 00:15:04,159 --> 00:15:08,120 and had orange cords still wrapped around his head. Marcus 246 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:11,759 had been raped and murdered by William Bonnin, watched on 247 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,399 by his macabre cheerleader, Vernon Butts. 248 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:22,320 Speaker 8: Butts admitted later that he positively enjoyed watching bonin in action, 249 00:15:23,759 --> 00:15:28,720 that he was both terrified of him and yet hypnotized 250 00:15:28,799 --> 00:15:35,639 by him. The perfect accomplice, the Sorcerer's Apprentice. 251 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:38,519 Speaker 1: The Deadly duo had made their first kill. 252 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:42,440 Speaker 3: There's almost a sense in which they're waiting to see 253 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:45,240 what's going to happen. Are the police going to catch 254 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:47,840 up with them? Is anybody going to come looking for them? 255 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,519 And when they realize that that's not going to happen, 256 00:15:50,879 --> 00:15:53,000 they get that sense of power and that sense of 257 00:15:53,039 --> 00:15:55,679 invincibility and think, well, why not do it again. 258 00:15:57,559 --> 00:16:01,000 Speaker 1: Over the next five weeks, two more young men would 259 00:16:01,039 --> 00:16:04,279 die at the hands of Bonin and his sidekick Butts. 260 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,679 Fifteen year old Donald Heyden and seventeen year old David 261 00:16:08,759 --> 00:16:14,720 Marillo were both sodomized, strangled, and discarded along the Ventura Freeway. 262 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:20,559 Speaker 5: He was very clever so that the police were confused. 263 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:23,720 He would just scatter these kids all over the place. 264 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:28,240 They were trash. Once they were dead, they were trash 265 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:29,440 day they were nothing. 266 00:16:30,759 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: The bodies of young male victims were being discovered in 267 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:38,679 various different counties in and around Los Angeles. Noticing a 268 00:16:38,759 --> 00:16:43,919 similarity between the murders, investigators at the LAPD began to 269 00:16:44,039 --> 00:16:49,240 contact other agencies. Larry Marlberg was investigating the murder of 270 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:52,559 seventeen year old Mark Shelton, who had been found beside 271 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:56,600 a freeway in the DeVore area of San Bernardino County. 272 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:00,679 Speaker 9: IPD brought it to met the case in the war 273 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:07,799 fit the cases from La County and Orange County, and 274 00:17:07,839 --> 00:17:11,359 then that's what made me realize that we were dealing. 275 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:12,039 Speaker 4: With a serial killer. 276 00:17:12,279 --> 00:17:16,880 Speaker 9: And we all met together, all the agencies, exchanging information 277 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:20,960 on murder cases, especially any type of murder cases that 278 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:24,119 involved a body being dumped anywhere near a freeway. 279 00:17:25,319 --> 00:17:30,559 Speaker 1: The multi agency investigation identified at least five possible victims, 280 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:34,680 all of them boys under the age of seventeen. News 281 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:37,680 of the man the press were calling the Freeway Killer 282 00:17:38,039 --> 00:17:42,039 soon spread. Over the next three months, four more young 283 00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:46,079 victims were found that matched the killer's m O. Reporter 284 00:17:46,279 --> 00:17:50,440 Dave Lopez remembers that the community was on a knife edge. 285 00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:53,079 Speaker 7: There are a lot of bodies being found. All of 286 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:55,759 southern California was terrified. I mean, here was a guy 287 00:17:56,359 --> 00:18:00,319 running around. They knew it was a van picking up kids, 288 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:03,359 and these kids were found dead. I mean, it was 289 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:04,880 a very, very terrifying time. 290 00:18:05,799 --> 00:18:09,400 Speaker 1: And tragically, there would be many more victims at the 291 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,039 turn of the decade. The Freeway Killer had no intention 292 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:18,039 of stopping, but William Bonnin wasn't working alone. Over the 293 00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:21,440 course of his murderous career, the thirty two year old 294 00:18:21,599 --> 00:18:23,119 had a number of accomplices. 295 00:18:24,279 --> 00:18:28,720 Speaker 3: When you've got a team killing situation, there's a participation 296 00:18:29,039 --> 00:18:32,319 and spectator element to this, and there's a sense of 297 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:36,079 power in watching somebody else kill, and there's also a 298 00:18:36,119 --> 00:18:39,240 sense of power in performing a murder before an audience. 299 00:18:42,319 --> 00:18:46,119 Speaker 5: Growing up, Bonnin didn't have any friends, and so these 300 00:18:46,519 --> 00:18:51,480 young killers were his friends and also his sexual partners. 301 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:57,039 Speaker 1: Another individual who was to become one of Bonnyn's chosen 302 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:01,240 few was an eighteen year old from Texas, old Gregory Miley. 303 00:19:01,759 --> 00:19:05,240 He was illiterate and made money as a casual laborer. 304 00:19:07,079 --> 00:19:12,279 Speaker 8: In February nineteen eighty, Bonin, this time with Miley, who 305 00:19:12,319 --> 00:19:15,559 had met at one of those parties, was out searching 306 00:19:15,799 --> 00:19:17,240 for a victim. 307 00:19:18,039 --> 00:19:23,920 Speaker 1: Later, Miley described that night's events to prison psychologist Vonda Pelto. 308 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:28,319 Speaker 5: Gregory Miley had this pretty long blonde hair, I remember, 309 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:33,359 and he had an IQ of about fifty seven I think, 310 00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,680 and he was definitely led by Bill. 311 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:41,599 Speaker 1: As Miley recounted to Vonder after his arrest, Bonin brought 312 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:47,079 up the subject of murder with. 313 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:52,000 Speaker 4: Your Julia and I see. 314 00:19:54,519 --> 00:19:59,880 Speaker 8: I dragged down shoes. 315 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:06,119 Speaker 1: Their victim was fifteen year old Charles Miranda. 316 00:20:06,599 --> 00:20:09,519 Speaker 4: Bond, the only son still tiring. 317 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:14,519 Speaker 9: Mom oh my, sure around. 318 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:15,359 Speaker 4: There, the. 319 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:22,160 Speaker 1: Bonning goaded Miley, asking can you do it? Let me 320 00:20:22,279 --> 00:20:25,559 show you how to do this. Charles was raped and 321 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:27,519 strangled in the back of the van. 322 00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:32,759 Speaker 5: Ready to stop one's son in. 323 00:20:36,519 --> 00:20:39,319 Speaker 1: But the night was just getting started. 324 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:43,759 Speaker 5: Miley told me that I was ready to go home. 325 00:20:43,799 --> 00:20:47,480 I was tired after we killed the first one, but 326 00:20:47,599 --> 00:20:50,519 Bonn and said, no, I need another one. And that's 327 00:20:50,559 --> 00:20:53,359 when they picked up the twelve year old, the youngest 328 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:53,799 of all. 329 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:59,559 Speaker 1: They found James McCabe waiting at a bus stop. He 330 00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:01,559 wanted to get to Disneyland. 331 00:21:02,599 --> 00:21:05,160 Speaker 3: They lose him into their vehicle under the promise that 332 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:07,920 they were going to take him to Disneyland, but they didn't. 333 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:11,720 Bonin raped him whilst Miley drove the vehicle and he 334 00:21:11,839 --> 00:21:16,319 was beaten and he was strangled. So you now have 335 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:19,400 two murders in one day, and I think Bonin feels 336 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:22,319 a real sense of accomplishment as a serial killer now. 337 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,200 Speaker 1: The police soon discovered the lifeless bodies of both boys, 338 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:31,240 taking the number of the Freeway killers suspected victims to 339 00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:35,559 at least twelve. As the media reported the latest slayings, 340 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,799 David McVicar found it all very familiar. 341 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:41,279 Speaker 4: It's like every time that I read about these kids 342 00:21:41,319 --> 00:21:43,359 in the newspaper, it was like I just felt this 343 00:21:43,519 --> 00:21:46,279 pit in my stomach right and it's like that happened 344 00:21:46,279 --> 00:21:48,119 to me that happened to me. You know, I just 345 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,680 had this feeling it was him, right, But I knew 346 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,519 in my heart it couldn't be him because he's still 347 00:21:53,559 --> 00:21:54,680 in prison, right. 348 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:59,079 Speaker 1: But he wasn't. William Bonin had been free for over 349 00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:01,960 a year, in which time he'd claimed the lives of 350 00:22:02,079 --> 00:22:06,319 many boys, and the sadistic serial killer was only just 351 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:10,720 getting started. On the fifteenth of March, the naked body 352 00:22:10,759 --> 00:22:14,079 of another young man was found beside a freeway in 353 00:22:14,279 --> 00:22:18,359 La County. Thirty three year old Bonin had so far 354 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:22,519 involved several accomplices, and he was about to recruit another. 355 00:22:23,319 --> 00:22:26,680 He'd been introduced to a seventeen year old called Billy 356 00:22:26,799 --> 00:22:31,319 Pew at one of his neighbour's parties, so. 357 00:22:31,279 --> 00:22:34,279 Speaker 3: This individual could just as well have been one of 358 00:22:34,319 --> 00:22:38,079 Bonin's victims as well as an accomplice. So he got 359 00:22:38,079 --> 00:22:41,680 a ride home with him from a party and Bonyn 360 00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:44,960 proposition Pew, and Pugh turned him down. 361 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:45,960 Speaker 2: He was quite. 362 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:50,160 Speaker 3: Shocked at this, and during this encounter, Bonyn tells Pugh 363 00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:54,039 that he likes to abduct and kill young boys. And 364 00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:57,319 what Bonin is essentially saying here is I could kill 365 00:22:57,359 --> 00:23:01,480 you if I wanted to, and Pugh were quite fascinated 366 00:23:01,799 --> 00:23:03,720 but also quite terrified by this. 367 00:23:04,799 --> 00:23:07,839 Speaker 1: On the twentieth of March, less than a week after 368 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:12,079 his last killing, Bonnin, together with young Billy Pew, went 369 00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:15,480 to Hollywood on the hunt for a victim. They lured 370 00:23:15,519 --> 00:23:19,519 fifteen year old runaway Harry Todd Turner into the van. 371 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:24,920 Speaker 8: Harry Todd Turner was pray for the pair of them. 372 00:23:25,519 --> 00:23:30,839 Once again, the boy is forced to strip. He's beaten, sodomized, 373 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:32,440 and strangled with a ligature. 374 00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:39,160 Speaker 1: It wasn't enough to satisfy Bonin's growing desires. The following afternoon, 375 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:42,799 he was yet again cruising the streets. This time he 376 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:43,440 was alone. 377 00:23:44,839 --> 00:23:48,160 Speaker 3: He's been killing with accomplices for quite a long time now, 378 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,079 and I think he wants to mix it up and 379 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:53,759 make things interesting. And he also has that confidence because 380 00:23:53,799 --> 00:23:56,720 he hasn't been caught. So he decides, I'm going to 381 00:23:56,759 --> 00:23:59,400 try killing on my own, and I think he feels 382 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:01,279 quite confident and he's going to get away with it. 383 00:24:01,759 --> 00:24:06,839 Speaker 1: He came across fourteen year old Glen Barker hitchhiking in Westminster. 384 00:24:07,519 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 3: Glenn Barker's mother had been hearing about other boys who 385 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:13,559 had been turning up dead and she was rightly incredibly 386 00:24:13,599 --> 00:24:17,279 worried about this, so in order to encourage Glenn not 387 00:24:17,319 --> 00:24:19,960 to hitch hike, she gave him money so he could 388 00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:23,039 take the bus instead. But like any young lad, he's 389 00:24:23,039 --> 00:24:24,680 not going to spend his money on the bus. 390 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:26,839 Speaker 2: He's going to save it up for other things. 391 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,279 Speaker 1: It was a mistake which cost Glenn his life, but 392 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:34,400 claiming one young victim wasn't enough for Bonin. 393 00:24:34,599 --> 00:24:39,559 Speaker 8: That afternoon, Bonin comes across a young man of fifteen, 394 00:24:39,759 --> 00:24:42,400 Russell Rue, who was on his way to an after 395 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,000 school job, but he'd called his employer to tell him 396 00:24:46,079 --> 00:24:51,680 that he was running late. Tragically, he was hitchhiking and 397 00:24:51,799 --> 00:24:55,240 was offered a lift by none other than William Bonnin. 398 00:24:56,319 --> 00:25:00,359 Speaker 1: Glenn and Russell's bodies were found dumped together in a 399 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:04,960 remote location seventy miles out of the city in Orange County. 400 00:25:05,559 --> 00:25:08,400 Speaker 3: I think the fact that Glen Barker and Russelbury's bodies 401 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:12,279 were dumped together is incredibly significant because what the killer 402 00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:16,680 is doing, in terms of whoever finds those bodies is saying, look, 403 00:25:16,839 --> 00:25:19,599 I've killed two people. I've done this on my own. 404 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,519 I am displaying these bodies for you to see. So 405 00:25:22,599 --> 00:25:24,559 there's a real sense of a performance here. 406 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:30,680 Speaker 1: Forensic investigators discovered distinctive green carpet fibers on both victims' 407 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:34,720 naked bodies. This firmly linked these murders with four of 408 00:25:34,759 --> 00:25:39,519 the freeway Killer's earlier victims. By late April nineteen eighty, 409 00:25:39,839 --> 00:25:43,960 the body countertributed to the mysterious freeway killer had reached 410 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,200 a staggering nineteen and there was no sign of him 411 00:25:47,279 --> 00:25:51,319 slowing down. It was all proving too much for David McVicar, 412 00:25:51,559 --> 00:25:55,400 who'd survived an assault by bonnin in nineteen seventy five. 413 00:25:56,319 --> 00:25:58,599 Speaker 4: I know just something in my stomach that's told me 414 00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:03,200 this is him. And these stories just kept going on 415 00:26:03,279 --> 00:26:05,920 and on, and finally one day on TV, one of 416 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,079 the news reporters said that if you have any idea, 417 00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,480 even if it's a guest, who could be doing this car? 418 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:13,680 And I thought, yeah, I have a guest. I have 419 00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,000 a good guess. I finally got the sheriff's departments said 420 00:26:17,039 --> 00:26:17,759 what happened to me? 421 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:22,440 Speaker 1: The net was closing in on William bonnind His name 422 00:26:22,519 --> 00:26:26,240 had been firmly put on the police's radar, and someone 423 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,359 else was about to name him as a suspect too. 424 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:33,279 One of his accomplices, Billy Pew, had been arrested for 425 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:34,799 vehicle theft. 426 00:26:35,319 --> 00:26:39,000 Speaker 8: While on remand in prison, he tells the authorities that 427 00:26:39,079 --> 00:26:41,279 if you can make some kind of deal with them, 428 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:45,799 he knows who the freeway killer is, and he points 429 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,000 them towards William Bonnin. 430 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:51,559 Speaker 3: Looking at this from the outside, it would appear to 431 00:26:51,599 --> 00:26:55,039 be completely bizarre that he is out of Bonning's clutches. 432 00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:59,319 Now that coercively controlling dynamic has been broken down, He's 433 00:26:59,319 --> 00:27:02,799 getting a sense himself back and he wants to protect himself. 434 00:27:04,759 --> 00:27:07,640 Speaker 1: Unaware that he was about to be under the spotlight, 435 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,240 Bonin was recruiting yet another accomplice, an eighteen year old 436 00:27:12,319 --> 00:27:15,759 named James Munroe, whom he'd taken under his wing. 437 00:27:16,599 --> 00:27:19,319 Speaker 5: Bill picked him up, got him a job, took him 438 00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:23,240 to live with him at his mother's house. And Bonnin 439 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,279 just said to Jim Monroe, what do you think about 440 00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,599 us going out and picking up somebody, having sex with 441 00:27:30,759 --> 00:27:34,400 him and then killing him. What do you think? And 442 00:27:34,799 --> 00:27:36,920 Jim and Rowe told me he thought he was kidding. 443 00:27:38,039 --> 00:27:41,440 And Jim said he didn't want to sound like you know, 444 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:42,559 he was afraid to do that. 445 00:27:43,519 --> 00:27:46,920 Speaker 1: On the second of June, whilst the LAPD began to 446 00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:51,079 organize at twenty four hour surveillance operation on William Bonnin, 447 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,920 their new prime suspect for the freeway killer. Bonin and 448 00:27:55,039 --> 00:27:58,039 James Munroe had picked up another young man. 449 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:01,839 Speaker 3: What stands out about this is that it didn't just 450 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,759 happen in the back of a van down a road somewhere. 451 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:09,200 Stephen Wells was taken to the house where Bonnin's mother lived. Now, 452 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,079 taking a victim to a house where you live is 453 00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:17,519 incredibly risky, so Bonin really does feel completely invincible at 454 00:28:17,559 --> 00:28:18,400 this point in time. 455 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:24,039 Speaker 5: They killed Stephen Wells in Bonnin's house and then took 456 00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:28,400 him over to Vernon Budd's house, and they said to Vernon, hey, Vern, 457 00:28:28,759 --> 00:28:32,599 come on out in the van and look what we've got. 458 00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:36,319 And vern went out there and kind of poked the 459 00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:40,720 kid and said, oh yeah, that's a good one. And 460 00:28:40,839 --> 00:28:43,839 Bill said to vern what do you think we are 461 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,599 to do with him? Vern said, well, you could keep 462 00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:52,759 him as a souvenir or just dump him off and hey, 463 00:28:53,039 --> 00:28:55,240 no big deal, you can always get another one. 464 00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,519 Speaker 1: The surveillance team set up outside Bonnin's house just in 465 00:29:00,559 --> 00:29:03,960 time to witness him and Munro return in the van 466 00:29:04,319 --> 00:29:09,440 after disposing of Stephen's body. As investigators watched the callers 467 00:29:09,519 --> 00:29:13,160 Duo Jobialie enter the house, they had no idea what 468 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:17,680 horrors had happened there. Just hours of all the police 469 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:21,480 could do was watch and wait. Nine days later, on 470 00:29:21,559 --> 00:29:24,759 the eleventh of June, they got their opportunity. 471 00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:28,880 Speaker 3: The police had witnessed him talking to a number of 472 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:31,960 young men on street corners. As they were following him, 473 00:29:32,119 --> 00:29:35,000 a one seventeen year old actually got into his van. 474 00:29:36,359 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 8: The detectives who had been standing watching the van could 475 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:45,000 see it moving. They could also hear sounds, groans, a 476 00:29:45,039 --> 00:29:47,759 physical attack could be about to take place, and at 477 00:29:47,759 --> 00:29:50,400 that point they decide to get into the van. 478 00:29:52,319 --> 00:29:55,279 Speaker 7: They caught him literally right in the act, right smack 479 00:29:55,319 --> 00:29:56,240 in the act. 480 00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:59,000 Speaker 6: They save the kid and the carbond and red handed. 481 00:30:00,319 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: William Bonnin was in police custody. The man who was 482 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,039 believed to be responsible for the murder of twenty one 483 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:11,160 young men and boys was safely behind bars. As the 484 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,559 news broke, the whole of la and one keen viewer 485 00:30:14,599 --> 00:30:17,720 in particular freed a huge sigh of relief. 486 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,279 Speaker 4: We were watching the news and all of a sudden 487 00:30:20,279 --> 00:30:24,400 this flash comes Iron Freeway killer arrested in it. 488 00:30:24,319 --> 00:30:29,200 Speaker 1: Was William Bonin was charged with a sodomy and oral 489 00:30:29,319 --> 00:30:33,160 copulation of the teenage boy who was rescued from his van. 490 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,559 He was due in court for a preliminary hearing, and 491 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,400 unless investigators could prove he was also a murderer, it 492 00:30:40,559 --> 00:30:44,680 was likely he would be released on bail. At the 493 00:30:44,839 --> 00:30:49,920 very last minute, officers searching Vernon Butt's home discovered large 494 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:51,319 amounts of blood. 495 00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:52,240 Speaker 4: In his shower. 496 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,119 Speaker 3: That's had probably been told by Bonny In. Don't worry, 497 00:30:56,319 --> 00:30:58,400 there's no evidence, deny everything. 498 00:30:58,599 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 2: It's fine. 499 00:31:00,079 --> 00:31:03,160 Speaker 3: But then the luminole shows up, this blood, which is 500 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:07,240 completely unexpected. Now, up until this point, everything had been planned, 501 00:31:07,279 --> 00:31:08,440 everything had been predictable. 502 00:31:08,519 --> 00:31:09,720 Speaker 2: It was going fine. 503 00:31:10,119 --> 00:31:12,440 Speaker 3: But this is a real curveball, and this is when 504 00:31:12,559 --> 00:31:13,720 things start to unravel. 505 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: But immediately started talking. He confirmed that he and Bonin 506 00:31:19,559 --> 00:31:23,279 had been responsible for several of the murders. Bonin was 507 00:31:23,359 --> 00:31:28,519 kept in jail. In the meantime, forensic investigators had been 508 00:31:28,599 --> 00:31:32,599 examining every inch of Bonnin's van. They'd had a breakthrough. 509 00:31:33,119 --> 00:31:36,119 The rear had been lined with green carpet, which was 510 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,640 a match for the distinctive fibers that had been found 511 00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:41,160 on eight of the victims. 512 00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:45,359 Speaker 8: They lift up the green carpet in the back of 513 00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:51,160 the van and discover blood. Now there are convincing links 514 00:31:51,279 --> 00:31:52,519 between the killings. 515 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 1: As the case against William Bonnyn mounted, the news that 516 00:31:56,799 --> 00:32:00,359 so many boys and teenagers had been savagely abuse used 517 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:03,559 and killed was difficult for David McVicar to hear. 518 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,960 Speaker 4: I can only imagine what those other kids went through, 519 00:32:07,359 --> 00:32:09,640 because I know that at first they would have seen 520 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:12,279 the same person that I saw. They would have seen 521 00:32:12,279 --> 00:32:15,279 somebody who once have fun and inviting him be your 522 00:32:15,319 --> 00:32:18,640 friend and maybe smoke a joint or something, you know, 523 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,799 and then right after they would have found out that 524 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:27,599 they had messed up really bad and he was incredibly violent. 525 00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:31,319 He was evil, and he would hurt you just to 526 00:32:31,359 --> 00:32:32,960 hear you scream. 527 00:32:33,319 --> 00:32:38,119 Speaker 1: The police finally had their mad investigators worked tirelessly to 528 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:43,599 put the case against the freeway killer together. Six months later, 529 00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:48,039 on the sixteenth of December nineteen eighty, William bonnin tried 530 00:32:48,079 --> 00:32:51,799 to make a deal. He would give them information about 531 00:32:51,839 --> 00:32:56,079 his numerous victims on the understanding that his confessions could 532 00:32:56,119 --> 00:32:59,920 not be used as evidence against him. He was hoping 533 00:33:00,079 --> 00:33:04,039 that if he helped the prosecutors wouldn't seek the death penalty. 534 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:08,880 Detective Larry Malmberg received a call from the LAPD. 535 00:33:09,559 --> 00:33:12,839 Speaker 9: They said, hey, Bonnan is going to talk to us, 536 00:33:13,759 --> 00:33:17,039 and you're invited to come down. And I went down 537 00:33:17,079 --> 00:33:22,359 to the courthouse and there were officers from a tremendous 538 00:33:22,359 --> 00:33:24,680 amount of agencies that all had victims. 539 00:33:25,319 --> 00:33:29,519 Speaker 1: The LAPD had prepared charts with profiles of dozens of 540 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:33,519 victims they had reason to believe may be connected to 541 00:33:33,599 --> 00:33:34,000 the case. 542 00:33:35,599 --> 00:33:39,400 Speaker 9: Kind of went through him by date and name and 543 00:33:39,519 --> 00:33:44,279 photographs and identified the ones that he had murdered. 544 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:47,720 Speaker 1: He even went on to describe where he dumped the 545 00:33:47,759 --> 00:33:50,599 body of a young boy that had never been found. 546 00:33:51,319 --> 00:33:54,079 Speaker 9: He told us that it was out here in Samudadino 547 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:57,599 County off the ten freeway, So arrangements were made to 548 00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:01,160 bring Boning out the next day by la Kenny Shus 549 00:34:01,759 --> 00:34:04,039 pointed out an area where the body had been dumped. 550 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,960 They set up a grid and started doing his search 551 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:08,400 and ultimately found bones. 552 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:13,039 Speaker 1: Bonin identified the victim from a photograph as being missing 553 00:34:13,119 --> 00:34:17,639 teenager Sean King, who was fourteen years old. His mother 554 00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:20,840 had been waiting anxiously for news of her son for 555 00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:25,400 seven months. Larry remembers that Bonn was a wolf in 556 00:34:25,519 --> 00:34:26,440 sheep's clothing. 557 00:34:27,039 --> 00:34:29,280 Speaker 9: If you walked into a bar and sat down and 558 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,760 he was sitting in a chair next to you, he 559 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:36,840 would think it's a nice guy. It hurt emotionally talking 560 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,360 to him and seeing that he is actually the kind 561 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:43,719 of person you could carry on a conversation with and 562 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:47,320 not even realize what an evil, no good, rotten piece 563 00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:48,360 of garbage he is. 564 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:54,079 Speaker 1: Without being able to use Bonin's confessions as evidence in court, 565 00:34:54,559 --> 00:34:57,960 the confirmation that he had indeed been responsible for so 566 00:34:58,119 --> 00:35:02,440 many killings was of limited help to the prosecution. However, 567 00:35:02,639 --> 00:35:05,400 as the year came to an end, several of his 568 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:10,119 accomplices agreed to plead guilty and testify against Bonin in 569 00:35:10,199 --> 00:35:16,440 return for leniency in their sentencing. Meanwhile, journalist Dave Lopez 570 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,559 had been visiting Bonnin in jail. On the ninth of 571 00:35:19,639 --> 00:35:23,880 January nineteen eighty one, he had another opportunity to meet 572 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:24,719 with the killer. 573 00:35:25,199 --> 00:35:27,039 Speaker 7: There had been a lot of speculation about what was 574 00:35:27,039 --> 00:35:29,880 going to happen with a trial and what have you, 575 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:33,760 and I said, you know, there's a rumor that you're 576 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:37,199 going to cop out to all this, and he goes, 577 00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:38,840 I don't know if I'm going to do that or not, 578 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:40,239 but you got a. 579 00:35:40,199 --> 00:35:40,840 Speaker 6: Little bit of time. 580 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:45,119 Speaker 7: I go yeah, and he says, yeah, I did it. 581 00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:48,599 Speaker 6: I said, you did what? He says, I killed them? 582 00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:51,280 And I go how many? And he said twenty one. 583 00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:56,840 Speaker 1: It was a confession that Dave had not been expecting. 584 00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:00,239 Speaker 7: It was just a weird feeling, knowing that he was 585 00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:03,199 telling me all this, and here I'm just sitting right 586 00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:07,960 across from him and saying to myself, you know, he 587 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:13,000 didn't have the look of a wild murderer, but by 588 00:36:13,079 --> 00:36:14,159 he should talk like one. 589 00:36:14,639 --> 00:36:18,760 Speaker 1: Two days later, on the eleventh of January, Vernon Butts, 590 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,440 Bonin's accomplist, who'd admitted his part in the killings and 591 00:36:22,559 --> 00:36:26,639 been charged with six of the murders, committed suicide in jail. 592 00:36:27,159 --> 00:36:29,880 It was a massive blow for the prosecution. 593 00:36:30,639 --> 00:36:35,199 Speaker 8: Now Butts has agreed to testify against Bonin, providing the 594 00:36:35,199 --> 00:36:38,599 death penalty is taken off the table, but the moment 595 00:36:38,679 --> 00:36:44,440 the Butts hangs himself, all those confessions become inadmissible in court. 596 00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:47,960 Speaker 3: Bonin was in jail at the time, but in order 597 00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:51,760 to keep him there, the prosecution needed to prove his guilt. Now, 598 00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:55,239 they couldn't use his confessions against him because that was 599 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:59,119 the agreement. They couldn't use Butts's testimony either. So both 600 00:36:59,159 --> 00:37:02,639 of these murderers have admitted to their crimes, but the 601 00:37:02,679 --> 00:37:05,079 evidence can't be used to prove them guilty. 602 00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:10,199 Speaker 1: Six months later, in June, there was a revelation. Dave 603 00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:14,000 Lopez went public with the news that Bonin had confessed 604 00:37:14,039 --> 00:37:14,480 to him. 605 00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:18,559 Speaker 7: We put together the story and broadcast the fact that 606 00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:22,800 he confessed to me. Twenty one killings went in a 607 00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,880 little bit of detailed, not a whole bunch and man 608 00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,559 then the proverbial you know you know what hit the fan. 609 00:37:29,559 --> 00:37:32,880 Speaker 1: It made the reporter a vital witness and he was 610 00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:35,440 put under pressure to give evidence in court. 611 00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:39,159 Speaker 7: Everybody and their brother was coming after me, and they 612 00:37:39,159 --> 00:37:40,119 were trying. 613 00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:40,599 Speaker 6: To subpoena me. 614 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 7: And now, at the time, California had what they call 615 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:47,440 a shield law, which basically protected reporters from having to 616 00:37:47,519 --> 00:37:49,400 testify in a court of law. 617 00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:50,880 Speaker 6: If you want it, you can. 618 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:54,320 Speaker 7: Subpoena them, but they can only testify to what they 619 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,960 had reported on the air or what they had written. 620 00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:00,599 And the state of California tried like the to try 621 00:38:00,639 --> 00:38:03,000 to get me to testify, and I wasn't going to testify. 622 00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:06,840 Speaker 1: As prosecutors tried every trick in the book to get 623 00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:10,480 Dave on the witness stand, Bonyn seemed happy to spill 624 00:38:10,519 --> 00:38:14,119 the beans on his life of crime to prison psychologist 625 00:38:14,199 --> 00:38:18,440 Von Depelto. Over the coming weeks, he went into detail 626 00:38:18,559 --> 00:38:20,519 about the depraved killings. 627 00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:24,920 Speaker 5: He said that he went out and picked up these 628 00:38:25,039 --> 00:38:28,280 kids because he wanted sex. He wanted to rape them. 629 00:38:29,119 --> 00:38:34,280 And then he said that he had like this epiphany. 630 00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:39,559 I guess where he realized and admitted to himself. It 631 00:38:39,679 --> 00:38:44,039 wasn't the sex at all. He enjoyed the killing. He 632 00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:49,559 enjoyed having the boy at his mercy and hearing the 633 00:38:49,639 --> 00:38:52,920 boy cry and plead for his life. 634 00:38:53,679 --> 00:38:56,760 Speaker 1: On the fourth of November nineteen eighty one, at the 635 00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:01,400 Los Angeles Superior Court, Bonyn's trial be again. He was 636 00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:04,760 indicted for twelve murders in Los Angeles County. 637 00:39:05,519 --> 00:39:09,920 Speaker 8: The trial was a sensation. People cued for hours to 638 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:14,599 get into the public gallery. It was the most extraordinary spectacle. 639 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:19,320 Speaker 1: Without any of Bonin's confessions on the record, there was 640 00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:22,239 a real chance that he could get away with murder. 641 00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:26,920 After six weeks of trial and testimony, the fate of 642 00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,519 the freeway killer hung in the balance. 643 00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:32,320 Speaker 6: Once they started closing arguments, that's it. 644 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:35,360 Speaker 7: The case is over. You know, it's no more testimony, 645 00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:38,239 no more nothing. And I hadn't testified yet, and I 646 00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:43,320 got a phone call saying that the closing arguments were delayed. 647 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,320 I go, why, well, because Bonnin was in the houlding 648 00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:50,599 cell with another inmate. The inmate realized who he was 649 00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:52,920 and he beat the living crap out of him to 650 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:55,599 the point where Bonnin was physically unable to go to court. 651 00:39:56,599 --> 00:40:00,559 Speaker 1: This unexpected news had a profound effect on Dave. 652 00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:04,960 Speaker 7: I do believe that there are sometimes when you get signs, 653 00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:06,639 whether it be subtle or whatever. 654 00:40:06,679 --> 00:40:07,880 Speaker 6: You however you want to believe it. 655 00:40:08,199 --> 00:40:09,679 Speaker 7: But the way I looked at it, I said, it 656 00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:14,119 was so unusual for a guy to be beaten up 657 00:40:14,559 --> 00:40:18,119 the day of the closing arguments and the closing environments 658 00:40:18,119 --> 00:40:18,719 were delayed. 659 00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:21,920 Speaker 6: I said to myself, you know I better adding more 660 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:22,119 of this. 661 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,079 Speaker 7: So I called the prosecutor and I said, hey, look, 662 00:40:25,119 --> 00:40:26,360 you know you still need me. 663 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:27,599 Speaker 6: I'll testify. 664 00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:32,039 Speaker 1: Dave Lopez was on the stand for two days. He 665 00:40:32,159 --> 00:40:36,719 detailed the twenty one murders Bonin had confessed to him. 666 00:40:37,119 --> 00:40:41,000 Speaker 8: In many ways, it was a controversial decision because as 667 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:45,119 a reporter myself and I've covered many trials, you're supposed 668 00:40:45,119 --> 00:40:49,000 to be there as an observer and to remain impartial. 669 00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:53,480 It is extremely rare for someone to leave the press 670 00:40:53,519 --> 00:40:55,360 box for the witness box. 671 00:40:56,679 --> 00:41:00,280 Speaker 1: On the sixth of January nineteen eighty two, thirty three 672 00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,639 year old William Bonin was found guilty of ten murders 673 00:41:03,639 --> 00:41:07,719 in Los Angeles County and given the death penalty. The 674 00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:11,280 following year, Bonin was tried and found guilty of a 675 00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:15,800 further four murders in neighboring Orange County. He received a 676 00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:18,079 second death sentence, and. 677 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:19,719 Speaker 7: You know a lot of people said, well, I was 678 00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:22,360 the main reason that he got convicted. 679 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:24,159 Speaker 6: I don't think that at all. 680 00:41:24,599 --> 00:41:26,719 Speaker 7: I think, if anything, I was just icing on the 681 00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:27,719 cake for the jury. 682 00:41:28,079 --> 00:41:32,440 Speaker 1: All of Bonin's surviving accomplices were also found guilty and 683 00:41:32,559 --> 00:41:36,880 sentenced to time in jail. Despite taking the police directly 684 00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:40,079 to the location of fourteen year old Sean King's body, 685 00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:43,880 Bonin was acquitted of that crime without being able to 686 00:41:44,039 --> 00:41:48,119 use his confession in court. There was insufficient evidence for conviction. 687 00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:51,480 Speaker 4: The sad thing is is that he admitted doing twenty 688 00:41:51,519 --> 00:41:55,119 one murderers, but they only busted him convicted him for 689 00:41:55,199 --> 00:41:59,159 coming fourteen. So there were seven families that didn't get 690 00:41:59,159 --> 00:42:02,119 their case assaw justice even though the guys that he 691 00:42:02,199 --> 00:42:02,840 admitted it. 692 00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,639 Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety six, after fourteen years on death row, 693 00:42:09,079 --> 00:42:13,519 William Bonnin became the first prisoner executed by lethal injection 694 00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:19,480 in California. David mcvico was present during those final moments. 695 00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:22,599 Speaker 4: It was probably like six feet away from him, something 696 00:42:22,639 --> 00:42:27,480 like that, and he just eventually turned purple and he 697 00:42:27,559 --> 00:42:30,559 went like that and that was the end of it. 698 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,679 But it was for me total release. It was like 699 00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:39,159 these demon nightmares were just coming out. 700 00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:44,679 Speaker 1: William George Bonnin was pronounced dead at twelve thirteen am 701 00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:48,599 on the twenty third of February nineteen ninety six. He 702 00:42:48,679 --> 00:42:51,519 never showed any remorse for his crimes. 703 00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:54,119 Speaker 7: He said, there are some guys that were born on 704 00:42:54,159 --> 00:42:55,599 this world to do certain things. 705 00:42:55,639 --> 00:42:58,119 Speaker 9: I was born to be a killer. They were all 706 00:42:58,199 --> 00:43:01,920 kinds out there. Bonin is one of the most evil ones, 707 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,519 in my opinion, certainly the most evil I ever talt with. 708 00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:12,239 Speaker 5: I asked Bill one time, do you have any regrets? 709 00:43:13,559 --> 00:43:17,519 And he said, well, I did kill two in one day, 710 00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:22,639 but he said I always wanted to kill three, and 711 00:43:22,679 --> 00:43:26,280 he said I really regret not having that opportunity. 712 00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:33,639 Speaker 1: Bonin was a sexual predator who killed for sheer pleasure. 713 00:43:34,199 --> 00:43:38,239 He was convicted of murdering fourteen boys, but is believed 714 00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,280 to have been responsible for many more lost lives. He 715 00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:46,199 targeted those who were vulnerable, and by his own admission, 716 00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,639 would have continued to kill if he hadn't been caught, 717 00:43:50,079 --> 00:44:30,199 making William Bonnin one of the world's most evil killers.