William Bonin (January 8, 1947 - February 23, 1996) was an American serial killer, also known as the Freeway Killer, a nickname he shares with two other serial killers. Along with several accomplices, Bonin raped and killed as many as twenty young men and boys, crimes for which Bonin was eventually executed.
Early Life
Born and raised in Connecticut, William Bonin's father was a compulsive gambler and alcoholic, and his mother frequently left William and his brother in the care of their grandfather, a convicted child molester. At the age of eight, Bonin was arrested for stealing license plates, and he soon ended up in a juvenile detention center for other minor crimes, where he was sexually abused by older boys. By his teens, back home with his mother, Bonin soon began molesting younger children.
After High School, Bonin joined the US Air Force and served in the Vietnam War as a gunner, picking up a good conduct medal. After a brief marriage ended in divorce, Bonin moved to California.
In 1969, aged twenty-three, Bonin picked up his first arrest for sexually assaulting young boys. He was imprisoned and released in 1975, but was soon back behind bars for raping a fourteen-year-old boy.
By 1979, William Bonin was back on the streets and reportedly told a friend that he had no intention of going back to prison; not because he was going to give up preying on youngsters but because he had no intention of leaving witnesses.
Murder Spree
The first victim of Bonin's killing spree was a fourteen-year-old hitch-hiker named Thomas Lundgren. The youth was kidnapped, assaulted and killed on May 28, 1979. An autopsy showed that he had been strangled to death. Bonin carried out the crime with his primary accomplice, Vernon Butts, a tall, lanky and rather eccentric twenty-two-year-old factory worker who boasted of being a wizard and who slept in a coffin.
Cruising round in his van, Bonin - sometimes accompanied by Butts - would hunt for victims around Los Angeles, usually selecting young male prostitutes or hitch-hikers as victims.
Before the end of 1979, seven more teenaged boys were found raped and murdered.
On the first day of 1980, sixteen-year-old Michael McDonald was brutalized and killed. A month later, on February 3, in Hollywood, Bonin abducted and killed 15-year-old Charles Miranda, this time assisted by a young man named Gregory Miley. The victim was garroted and his nude corpse dumped in an alleyway. Bonin then suggested to Miley "Let's do another one" and so they went hunting for the second victim of the day. A few hours later, they abducted, raped and killed James McCabe who, at just twelve-years of age, was the youngest victim.
Bonin killed three more boys in March, another three in April and two in May. The final victim was a teenager named Steven Wells, who was killed on June 2, 1980. Bonin was assisted in this final slaying by his room-mate, eighteen-year-old James Munro.
By then William Bonin was under suspicion in the recent spate of murders due to his criminal record. The police put him under surveillance, and on June 11, they arrested him in the act of assaulting a fifteen-year-old boy.
Confession and Execution
In custody, William Bonin confessed to abducting and killing twenty boys. He was eventually charged with twelve of the murders. He expressed no remorse and told one reporter "I couldn't stop killing. It got easier each time."
Convicted on all counts, Bonin was sentenced to death. It wasn't until February 23, 1996, sixteen-years after his arrest, that he was finally executed by lethal injection.
His main accomplice, Vernon Butts, was accused of taking part in six of the murders, but he hanged himself whilst awaiting trial. Gregory Miley and James Munro were given sentences of twenty-five-years-to-life and fifteen-years-to-life respectively after pleading guilty to taking part in one murder each. Both men are still behind bars. Munro has been trying to appeal, claiming that he had been tricked into accepting a plea-bargain. A fourth accomplice, who had been present at one murder, was given a six-year sentence for manslaughter.
Other 'Freeway Killers'
Young men and boys continued to turn up dead along the freeways of Southern California after William Bonin's arrest, leading police to initially believe that he had other accomplices who were still active. However, these later murders turned out to have been committed by Randy Steven Kraft, who acted entirely separately from Bonin but who just happened to have a similar method.
In fact there was a third Freeway Killer, Patrick Kearney, who also happened to select young men as victims from the Freeways of Southern California during the 1970s. All three independent killers collectively claimed around 115 victims.
Also See
William Bonin at the Crime Library
James Munro's 1999 open letter requesting parole
