Latest / True Crime California / TCC #5: Bill Bonin Part 1

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TCC #5: Bill Bonin Part 1 · True Crime California

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to True Crime California. I'm your host, Cindy,
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and I'm glad you're here. Hey, everybody, welcome back to
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episode five of True Crime California. I am your host, Cindy,
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and I just want to give a shout out to
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everybody who has liked, rated, reviewed, followed the podcast. This
0:31
has been a much better start than when we did
0:33
Twisted Listers. Obviously, you know we have listeners coming over
0:36
from there, but I've also realized that some of you
0:39
just are not going to listen if I don't post
0:41
it on Twisted Listers. So for some of you, for now,
0:44
I will intermittently post these episodes there. But please, if
0:49
you hear this on the Twisted Listers podcast, come over, follow, like, rate, review,
0:55
True Crime California. That is the new podcast. It's just
0:59
me fly. Diva is too busy. Maybe someday we'll start again,
1:03
but for now, she's doing her thing, being a mom
1:05
and working a lot. So I'm just taking this on
1:09
by myself, and I'm coming at you with another California case.
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And I hate to say it, but this again is
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nineteen seventy nine and nineteen eighty The case obviously, starts
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way earlier than that. And you know, this actually might
1:24
be a two parter. I know I said that about
1:25
a previous case, but this one actually has about twice
1:28
as much research, so I do think this might be
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a two parter. So for those of you who hate
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two parters, I'm sorry. For those of you who love
1:35
two parters, you're welcome. But yeah, let's just get into it.
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The case that I chose to cover this week and
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next is the Freeway Killer. One of the many men
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known as the Freeway Killer, the one that I chose
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to cover is William Bill Bonman. Now, I am going
1:55
to cover this case for better or worse, because I
1:56
started the research and I got into it. But I
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can tell you, as the mother of a young boy,
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this was not the case to cover. This shit is
2:05
fucked up and rough and really really gnarly, and I
2:11
think if I hadn't got so deep into research, I
2:14
probably would have not covered this because it is tough.
2:18
It's tough to hear, it's tough to read about. I'm
2:21
definitely gonna leave some of the crazier shit out, but
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just so everybody knows, this is this whole case is
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like one giant trigger warning. I mean, it's just gnarly,
2:29
gnarly trauma to young boys, including Bill Bonnan, kind of
2:34
from start to finish. So if that's not your thing,
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totally fair. It's also not my thing. But it is
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a case worth covering for sure. But it's crazy, so
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just be warned. So let's just get into it. William
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Bill Bonnan was born January eighth, nineteen forty seven, in Connecticut.
2:52
I did want to call out that he was born
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the same day as David Bowie, so I feel like
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that was the gods or whatever, like making sure that
2:58
things remained equal allowed a piece of shit like Bill
3:02
Bonnan to be born. But David Bowie was also born, so,
3:06
you know, kind of trying to even it out. He
3:08
had two brothers, older brother Robert Junior who went by Bobby,
3:11
and younger brother Paul, so he was the middle brother
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here Bobby, Bill and Paul. His mother was raised by
3:19
there's no other way to put it, a child rapist
3:21
who would assault her and her siblings almost nightly, and
3:26
her mother did nothing to help her, you know, which
3:29
is often the case in these homes where there's abuse
3:32
like this. The other parent is either also a victim
3:36
or is just not equipped emotionally, physically, financially to help
3:40
the children, so it just sort of continues this really
3:43
horrific abuse throughout their lives. Alice dealt with this by
3:48
getting herself sent to a nunnery somehow. Like it wasn't
3:51
like she was in trouble, but she like asked to go.
3:54
She obviously didn't become a nun but she did get
3:57
married as soon as she was old enough so that
3:59
she could get out of her father's home and escape him. Unfortunately,
4:05
she chose a man who was very much like him,
4:07
not in that he sexually assaulted her, but that he
4:10
beat the shit out of her, to the point where
4:12
when she was pregnant with Bill, she thought that she
4:15
would either miscarry or that he might end up having
4:18
brain damage. And this is important for later and also
4:22
I think she was right. His father, Bill's father, Robert,
4:27
went to the war and came back a completely different man. Now,
4:29
he'd already been kind of a piece of shit, but
4:32
at this point he became a serious alcoholic and was
4:36
even more violent with Alice and with the children. As
4:41
a way of coping, Alice began drinking heavily as well, Now,
4:46
Robert also had a really terrible gambling problem and would
4:50
you know, repeatedly lose what little money the family had,
4:53
including grocery money. At one point, he lost the family
4:59
home in a back and they all had to move
5:02
in with Alice's parents. Now, this was obviously a terrible
5:06
situation considering her father, and at this point both Alice
5:09
and Robert Senior would leave for hours on end to
5:12
go gambling, go drinking. Alice was really into bingo, and
5:15
they would leave the boys alone with this pedophile. Now,
5:20
Bill was Grandpa's favorite, which is, as we know, very
5:25
not a good thing. He would pay him to help
5:28
with work quote unquote, but this was before Bill was
5:31
even five years old, so I don't really know how
5:33
helpful he would be, and I think in reality we
5:35
all know what was actually going on. Eventually the family
5:39
ended up getting another house, but by that time both
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Bobby and Bill were serious troublemakers, and at one point
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Bill ended up in a month long reformatory school of sorts.
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This school was very militaristic in its approach to children,
5:51
and Bill was harmed by the quote teachers there. In
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the short time that he stayed. He was also picked
5:56
on by older boys, but had one boy who was
5:59
thirteen to help him out and keep him safe. Now, unfortunately,
6:03
this boy ended up asking Bill to have oral sex
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with him. Bill was like, okay, probably because he'd already
6:10
had sexual encounters with his grandfather another man, so this
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is already kind of setting things weird in his brain.
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He doesn't really know any other way, so he's like, yeah,
6:20
I guess I can do that now. He's eight years
6:22
old at this time, this other kid is thirteen, and
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what he said to the kid was, if I can
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tie your hands behind your back so I feel safe,
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I'll do this with you. So the older boy agreed
6:32
to do this, but broke free very easily and then
6:35
tied Bill up and raped him violently, both orally and anally.
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So after one month of this insanity, he's back home,
6:45
being beaten by his father and left with his grandfather. Intermittently,
6:49
and in his spare time, he would skip school, pick
6:52
fights with other kids, and steal which like, yeah, I
6:55
mean he's acting out. Nobody is caring for him, nobody
6:58
loves him. He is only being hurt by all of
7:01
the adults that he's supposed to trust, every single one
7:04
of them is hurting him. So his parents again wanted
7:09
to be rid of their two oldest sons, the troublemakers.
7:11
They kept Paul, but they sent Bobby and Bill to
7:14
a Catholic orphanage, the Franco American School. And you can
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read about this school. It's crazy and things there got
7:22
really violent. The nuns working here would regularly beat the children,
7:26
but would also do humiliating things like push their heads
7:29
into toilets, hold their heads underwater, and make them punch
7:33
a wood fence until their knuckles bled. There was also
7:37
on site a Catholic priest who I bet you can
7:40
guess sexually assaulted Bill and probably many other children during
7:44
this time. So overall, just a truly horrific experience, and
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yet another situation where Bill has no love, no support,
7:54
no safety, only abuse. He's just surrounded by a horrible
7:59
people who hurt him endlessly. Now what's really weird in
8:04
this situation is that the nun said Bill did really
8:07
well with this amount of structure. Everything was timed out,
8:10
there was a routine, he couldn't really get into trouble
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and it seemed to work for him. But still, like,
8:15
what the fuck? So finally, his parents who he thought
8:19
had died, because after they dropped him at the orphanage,
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they never once came to see him, picked him up,
8:24
and moved him into a new home. He was only
8:27
about nine years old at this time and had already
8:29
had a lifetime of abuse, and also he was in
8:31
this orphanage for a little over a year. At this point,
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his family moved closer to Alice's dad, and from fourth
8:38
to sixth grade, Bill attended a new school. His fellow
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students noted he was weird, not like other kids, often dirty,
8:45
acted strange. There's no real specifics about what the kids
8:48
said about him at this time, mostly just that they
8:51
had a feeling that he was off now. Also around
8:55
this time, he met a forty year old florist named
8:57
Bert who began raping Bill. But at least to Bill,
9:02
this relationship was consensual and changed the way he viewed
9:06
his sexuality. Now. Obviously, a forty year old and a
9:10
not even ten year old cannot be having a consensual relationship,
9:14
but it was the first time that Bill had interactions
9:16
with an adult who wasn't openly harming him in a
9:20
way that was against his will, Which is so fucked
9:23
up that this is like the positive moment in his
9:26
life comparatively, you know, so fucked. Also, around this time,
9:32
Bill had become extremely codependent and refused to do anything
9:36
without his younger brother Paul with him, even though it
9:40
turns out Bill was sexually abusing Paul and also like
9:45
beating up on him like an older brother would. But
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he was sexually abusing him. But he was also very
9:51
violent and hateful towards his brother, but also always wanted
9:55
him around. So it's a really weird sort of relationship.
10:00
We're in nineteen sixty two. He's I think Bill's about
10:03
thirteen fourteen years old, and his father got a job
10:05
as a machinist in Downey, California, so the family moved
10:09
to that area. Here, the boys continued to get in trouble,
10:13
with Bill being arrested for petty theft and burglary, but
10:15
somehow missing a trip to Juvie. It's noted in many
10:19
articles that he spent time in Juviu when he was ten,
10:21
but I think it may have been the orphanage that
10:23
they were referring to. But we'll just say his young life, obviously,
10:27
he was in and out of very abusive institutions pretty
10:30
much the whole time. Also during this time when he's
10:33
in like the Downy area, there were some adult neighbors
10:37
who sort of like befriended the boys and this was
10:39
actually a positive interaction. They would give the two younger kids,
10:44
Bill and Paul food and they would you know, try
10:48
to like help them out. And they said every time
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they fed the brothers they ate like ravenously, like they
10:54
hadn't eaten in days. So this is just on top
10:57
of everything else. There's just straight up neglect going on,
11:00
you know, like they're not the parents do not give
11:03
a shit about these fucking kids. So it's just this
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horrible trifecta physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. That's all
11:11
they're getting. Now. At this point, Bobby was like old
11:13
enough to kind of fend for himself, but we still
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have this kind of thing. They're all still living at home,
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so Bobby's beating the shit out of Bill, Bill is
11:22
raping Paul, and finally his mother, their mother, Alice, catches
11:26
them in the act and forces them to sleep in
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separate rooms and thinks that like that's going to fix
11:31
the problem, and like maybe it did, I don't know,
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but you know, that's that's the that's as much as
11:37
this woman can do, Like, that's the depth of her
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ability to help her children. Bill dropped out of high
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school in nineteen sixty five and started working with his
11:53
dad in Downey. He also started bringing young boys back
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to his house, giving them beer and showing them pornograph
12:00
And he was nineteen at the time, and these kids
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were all like, not adults, like teenagers or preteens only
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His mother later said she started having nightmares about him
12:09
being arrested for this, and they would often fight about
12:12
it as she was afraid that he was gay. It
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wasn't even necessarily that he was like potentially raping children,
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it was just that he was gay. She was not
12:21
happy about that, which is, you know, just it aligns
12:25
perfectly with everything we know about her parenting. In nineteen
12:29
sixty six, at his mother's urging, and I think as
12:32
an act of just kind of not knowing what to
12:34
do with himself, Bill signed up for the army. And
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he did this only after he could convince his friend
12:42
to sign up with him, because he hated doing anything alone.
12:45
And now Bill didn't have a lot of friends. But
12:47
whoever this friend was was down to get into the
12:49
Army with him, so I guess it was kind of
12:51
a good friend. He went to Vietnam in November nineteen
12:54
sixty seven, and he did see combat. He was a
12:58
gunner on a head helicopter, and at one point he
13:02
was given a commendation for saving another soldier's life by
13:06
pulling him into the helicopter while it was under fire.
13:09
So he actually saved someone at great risk to himself,
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which I will say is the only time we're gonna
13:16
hear anything like that about this man. Also, at this
13:19
time in Vietnam, he spent a lot of time with
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both male and female sex workers, and it is it
13:26
was later found out that he violently raped at least
13:29
two fellow soldiers repeatedly during their time over there, while
13:33
holding them at gunpoint. He came home from Vietnam and
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found that his girlfriend, who he had started dating to
13:40
make his mother happy, had married another man. He was
13:44
very angry, but more at being rejected than anything, because
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he probably wasn't actually interested in women. Now. I did
13:50
hear that at some point he was married, and he
13:52
did even like father a child, but this marriage was
13:56
not enough to even really be mentioned most places. Was
14:00
honestly like you know, a couple of months, and then
14:03
they never talked again. So I don't know. What I
14:06
do know is that being single allowed him the freedom
14:09
to be his full true self, and he began the
14:13
first leg of his long and horrific career as a
14:15
rapist and eventually a murderer. Now, his first attack was
14:19
on November seventeenth, nineteen sixty eight, when he picked up
14:23
a kid in the Arcadia area, which is directly north
14:26
from Downey by about I don't know, like twenty miles
14:28
or so. This boy, fourteen year old Billy Jones, was
14:32
either waiting for a bus or walking home, and Bill
14:34
stopped him for directions. He convinced this boy to get
14:37
into his car to give him a ride home, but
14:40
then he started asking him about sex and blowjobs, and
14:43
when Billy said he wanted to get out, Bill locked
14:46
the car doors and became violent. Billy begged him not
14:50
to hurt him, and Bill beat him unconscious after telling
14:53
him he would kill him and then sodomize his dead body.
14:56
When Billy woke up, he was dropped at a bus
14:58
stop and threatened. Bill then went on his way back
15:01
to the South Bay area. Now, while he was unconscious,
15:04
Billy was raped by Bill, and he went home and
15:08
told his mother, and he and his mother reported the
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attack that same night, but Bill was already miles away
15:15
back home near Downey. Over the next few months, four
15:19
more attacks just like this took place. All of the
15:22
victims were under eighteen, and thankfully every single victim reported
15:27
the attack, which is like awesome because he creates a
15:30
paper trail, although we'll see later that doesn't really matter. Also,
15:33
I should note that at this time Bill was riding
15:35
around on a motorcycle, so he was only able to
15:38
perpetrate these attacks when he could borrow his mother's car,
15:42
because he was attacking these people in his own mother's car,
15:45
which is like gross. Now, ultimately using his mother's car
15:48
is what got him caught. I mean, any car would have,
15:51
but multiple witnesses saw the car and even a few
15:54
got the license plate number or part of it. So
15:56
while driving one night, he picked up a sixteen year
15:59
old hitchhiker and began his little pattern of horrificness, but
16:02
was promptly pulled over by police who saw his mother's
16:05
car and noted it matched the description given by multiple
16:09
victims and witnesses. He was arrested, I think at the
16:13
end of nineteen sixty eight, and charged with multiple counts
16:17
of kidnapping, crimes against nature, crimes against children, and sex perversion.
16:22
So the fact that he started this in November and
16:25
was caught that same year and had attacked five people,
16:29
you can see that this is this is like a frenzy.
16:31
This is like a very crazy just like boom boom boom.
16:35
And we'll see this later as well. It's noted in
16:38
many places that when he was arrested, he told police
16:41
that had they not pulled him over, he would have
16:43
killed the boy in the car with him, which is
16:45
just fucking great because, as you can guess, he was
16:48
not in prison long enough to keep him from becoming
16:50
a fucking serial killer. So good job cops, right, So
16:56
he goes to court, he chooses to plead guilty because
16:58
there were all these living victims who were going to
16:59
testify against him, and he immediately begins trying to manipulate
17:03
the situation by asking for leniency and to be sent
17:05
to a mental hospital instead of prison. His mother also
17:09
wrote a letter asking that he'd be released to her.
17:12
But like, yeah, right, he's doing this in your car,
17:14
like clearly, you do not have control of this person. However,
17:18
he was evaluated and he was sent to a Tascadero
17:21
State Mental Hospital, which is kind of between the Bay
17:24
Area and Los Angeles, but like along the coast, where
17:28
he was taken for treatment. Now, this is a prison
17:31
hospital for sexual psychopaths. Nowadays it's actually I think for
17:34
all mentally ill criminals, and it's one of the most
17:36
dangerous maximum security prison hospitals in the country. But at
17:40
that time I think it was just for like sexual psychopaths.
17:44
And anyway, at this time he was there for treatment,
17:46
but it really did not go well. While doctors said
17:49
that Bill verbalized wanting to get better, when it came
17:52
time to do the work, he simply could not or
17:55
would not do it. He was noted as being defensive
17:59
and aggressive with people, and many inmates described him as
18:03
irritating because he had a braggadocious manner. He was labeled
18:07
as immature and unable to come to terms with who
18:10
he was, and in fact, in one therapy session this
18:14
is crazy. When fully confronted with the reality of who
18:16
he was and what he had done, Bill lost consciousness
18:21
for a number of minutes. It was as though his
18:24
brain refused to admit who he was to the point
18:27
of literally shutting down rather than processing the cold, hard
18:32
truth about himself, which is fucking crazy, like I've never
18:37
heard of that before, and it's just so wild that
18:40
that's how hard his denial was that it actually became
18:43
like a physical denial. It was also later noted by
18:48
doctors that he was most comfortable when making others feel scared, unsure,
18:53
or anxious, which also comes into play later. So he
18:57
was kind of doing like a preemptive strike against an
19:00
anybody and everybody as a way of protecting himself because
19:03
one he was never able to protect himself as a child,
19:06
and two all he knows is abuse and attacks and
19:10
like bad, everything is bad, so he's trying to do
19:13
it first before somebody does it to him. Again. This
19:17
also kind of plays into his needing someone around for
19:19
everything he did in his life. So first it was
19:21
his brother, and later we'll see he has a number
19:23
of criminal associates of various involvement in his murders and rapes,
19:28
so it's just a very interesting psychology. He spent a
19:32
total of nine months in the hospital, which was where
19:35
he wanted to be because prison you know, is not
19:37
good for people who rape little boys, you know. So
19:41
this was a very self serving thing where he continued
19:44
to say, you know, I want to change, I know
19:48
what I'm doing is wrong. He was sort of just
19:51
saying the things that he needed to say. And the
19:53
interesting thing was that the doctors all knew this. They
19:56
noted it, but they kind of continued to let it
19:59
play out to see if finally maybe his actions would
20:02
align with what he was saying. Unfortunately, this was not
20:06
the case. During this time, these nine months, he was
20:11
caught three times for having sex with other inmates, all
20:17
of which were people who were not mentally capable of
20:22
making these decisions. So he was preying on people who
20:26
could not say no, who could not really process what
20:30
was going on, so really really crazy predatory behavior. Finally,
20:35
after being caught a third time Forsopdomy, he was just
20:37
straight up transferred to prison. They were like, we don't
20:39
want to deal with you anymore. You know, you're not
20:42
amenable to treatment, and according to doctors, like he was
20:45
barely on the line of maybe being treated from the start,
20:49
so he had a lot of chances. They give him
20:51
nine months to turn his shit around and he obviously
20:54
did not do it now for whatever reason, because he's
20:57
really good at manipulating the system. He ended up in
20:59
Vaca at another prison treatment type space, and again was
21:03
found to make little or no progress there either. Finally,
21:07
after only five years in these prison hospitals and prison,
21:11
he was released despite showing no signs of improvement. Why
21:17
you ask, well, because of a paperworker. Of course. Somehow
21:21
he was marked as no longer being a threat to others,
21:23
despite doctors saying otherwise up to the month before he
21:26
was released. And that should really tell you how broken
21:29
the system is, because nobody noticed or questioned this mistake.
21:35
He was released in nineteen seventy four and briefly got
21:37
an apartment in Hollywood and tried to become a part
21:40
of the gay community there. However, he had little to
21:42
no social skills and quickly ended up back at his
21:45
parents' house, just living with them and being kind of
21:47
a loner. He got a job first as a bartender,
21:50
then as a delivery driver, and he used this delivery
21:54
driver position to start trolling the streets for boys again.
21:58
September eighth, nineteen seventy five is his first post prison
22:02
attack that we know of. Now he finds fourteen year
22:06
old David mcvickers and picks him up while he's hitch hiking.
22:10
Now in the seventies and eighties, so much of this,
22:17
it's all the same kind of pattern in all of
22:19
these stories. Hitch Hiking is totally normal. Young kids running
22:22
around all night on their own is totally normal. And
22:25
this is like a really good story about it's kind
22:29
of a scary tale as to why we don't fucking
22:32
do this shit anymore, why we don't let our kids
22:34
run around faral all night anymore. So he picks up
22:38
fourteen year old David mcvickers and he starts asking him
22:42
sexual questions, and when David tried to get out of
22:45
the car, he pulled a gun on him. Bill then
22:49
drove to a secluded area and pulled over, then made
22:52
David touch him. He touched David. He then forced him
22:56
into oral sex and then raped him while David cried
23:00
and begged for his life. He said it hurt so
23:04
much he thought he might die, And for some reason,
23:07
this begging actually made Bill stop. He even apologized for
23:12
hurting David, but then decided to keep him in the
23:15
car while he masturbated. But then eventually drove David home.
23:19
When he dropped him off outside of his house, he
23:22
said something along the lines of I'll see you again,
23:25
which is absolutely terrifying. David and his mother reported this
23:29
to the police immediately, and meanwhile, the next day, Bill
23:32
propositioned another young boy who told him no. Bill got
23:37
so angry at the rejection he attempted to run the
23:41
boy over. Both boys reported these attacks, and this boy
23:45
had Bonnin's license plate. October tenth, he was arrested and
23:50
in December he was sent back to prison for one
23:53
to fifteen years for these horrific attacks. However, because he
23:58
was a good prisoner and took some math classes, he
24:01
was released after serving less than two years. So I
24:10
just want to call out that at this point we're
24:11
noticing a pattern not only of Bill Bonnan here where
24:15
he picks up young kids, hitchhikers, kids out on the
24:19
street by themselves like teenage boys, and then asks them
24:24
scary questions and then attacks them. But we're also noticing
24:27
a little bit of a pattern with the justice system
24:29
where they continually release this man, they continually underestimate him,
24:34
even when their own doctors are saying he's incurable. He
24:38
is a problem. They are continuing to just let him
24:42
out and let him go back into the world and
24:44
escalate his behavior. And they did it again here. So
24:49
in nineteen seventy eight, November nineteen seventy eight, he moved
24:52
into an apartment about a mile from his parents' house.
24:55
He had a neighbor there, forty three year old Everett Frasier.
24:59
He was a gay man who at frequent parties at
25:01
his house that were filled with young men. And it
25:04
was here that Bill met either all of his accomplices
25:07
or all but one of his accomplices, which is interesting
25:10
to me, like, how do all these people hang out together?
25:13
All these people who are willing to like rape and
25:15
kill children are all just hanging out at the same party.
25:18
Very very strange. One of these men was twenty one
25:21
year old Vernon Butts. Yes with two teas and it's
25:25
a name he deserves. Bonnin was in his early thirties
25:28
at this point, so definitely hanging out with younger guys
25:31
for sure, which really makes sense for kind of his
25:34
mo And he also around this time met seventeen year
25:38
old Gregory Miley, who it was later found had an
25:41
IQ of around fifty six now for reference, this is
25:45
classified as a mental delay, which means he's likely very
25:49
easily influenced and controlled, which is perfect for Bill Bonnen.
25:54
He loves a weak follower. Gregory, for his part, saw
25:59
Bonden as a figure, but they also had a consensual
26:03
sexual relationship as well, so that's really fucking twisted. But
26:06
right on par Vernon, Buttz was a drifter who had
26:10
had a lot of family trauma early on. His father
26:13
died when he was only nine years old, and from
26:15
there he just had a pretty rough life. He had
26:18
an extensive criminal record and also identified as bisexual. He
26:23
also had an extensive record of mental illness, and people
26:27
who knew him noted he was quote easily led. So again,
26:31
there you go, two guys that are perfect for Bonnan.
26:33
He's going to control them, he's going to show off
26:35
for them. He's got all the power, he's got his audience.
26:39
Now we are going to get into the murders, which
26:42
are extremely violent and graphic. So if that's not for you,
26:46
it's time to come back in a week or two,
26:47
because I think this is going to be two episodes.
26:50
Here we go. Now, at the time the murders started,
26:53
he was either a plumber or a delivery driver at
26:56
this time, and then Bonnan later became a truck driver.
27:00
Case Around this time, he bought a green Ford Conoline
27:03
van and modified it to be a straight up murder mobile.
27:08
He removed the handles from all of the back doors.
27:11
He had a number of horrific tools and weapons in
27:13
his van, so basically nobody could get out, and anytime
27:16
he wanted to torture or murder someone, he would have
27:19
things at the ready. As far as his mos concerned,
27:23
his victims were all or almost all teenaged, and he
27:27
mainly went for people who were hitchhiking, who were sex workers,
27:30
and sometimes he would even just go for random people
27:32
on the streets, which is a much bigger risk, but
27:35
I think in those instances he just really liked the rush.
27:39
So now we're in early or mid I guess nineteen
27:41
seventy nine. He's released from prison at the end of
27:44
nineteen seventy eight, and by May of nineteen seventy nine
27:47
were getting into it. At this point, I think he
27:50
should have been in prison for life. I mean, he
27:52
has a fucking laundry list of like similar sexual assaults,
27:56
each one escalating from the last. But police only care
28:00
about property crime, so there you go. His first victim
28:03
was Thomas Glenn Lundgren, who was only thirteen years old
28:08
when he was abducted on May twenty eighth, nineteen seventy five.
28:12
Oh I'm sorry, nineteen seventy nine. He actually intentionally chose
28:17
to hitch a ride with Bonnin in the green van,
28:19
and Vernon Butts was present during this this murder, Thomas
28:24
told a friend he was going to meet a guy
28:26
at a skate park to take photos of him for
28:28
a skate magazine, but obviously never made it because instead
28:32
he met Bonnin. This one, I mean, all of the
28:34
murders are rough, but this one feels really rough to
28:37
me because I found pictures of him, and I just
28:40
he looks like somebody that I would hang out with,
28:43
So it just feels a little more personal. I don't know.
28:45
I'm sure that's silly. All of these murders are terrible,
28:48
but he honestly looks like a kid that I was
28:50
friends with or would have like had a crush on.
28:52
And I was like, my brother was a skater, So
28:54
when I read this about it, it made me really sad.
28:58
So he gets in the van with bon In and
29:01
you know, I think basically it's kind of the same
29:04
thing that's going to happen every single time they ask
29:07
him the leading and scary questions, because you know, Bonnin
29:10
liked to strike fear into his victims, and then he
29:13
attacked him. When he attacked him, he raped him brutally,
29:17
then stabbed him multiple times, but not in a way
29:19
that would kill him, just in a way to hurt him,
29:21
to torture him. And the most insane part of this
29:24
story in particular is that they cut off his genitals,
29:28
possibly while he was still alive. They then strangled this
29:33
poor thirteen year old boy to death while Vernon Butts
29:36
hit him over the head with a heavy object, likely
29:39
attire iron. Thomas was found later that day, his body
29:43
dumped in a field, with his clothing and genitals nearby,
29:47
thrown away like garbage. His next victim, we're just going
29:51
to get right into it was seventeen year old Mark Shelton,
29:55
who agreed to exchange sex for money with Bill and Vernon. Now,
30:00
this last one was May twenty eighth. It was his
30:02
first murder, so I think there was a bit of
30:03
a cooling off period. But Mark Shelton was killed on
30:08
August fourth, It said that Mark consentually engaged in oral
30:13
sex with Bill, but was then attacked and tortured so
30:16
extensively that he actually died of shock. He was raped
30:21
by at least Bonnin, maybe also Vernon Butts, and was
30:24
also raped with objects, including a stick. Now, this absolute
30:29
trauma to his body sent him into a state of
30:31
shock from which he died. So that's how extensive and
30:35
horrible the torture is. And this is only the second murder.
30:39
And as I've mentioned, he escalates, and he continues to escalate,
30:44
so we are all in for a pretty rough ride here.
30:48
The very next oh, I'm so sorry, they threw his
30:51
body out of the car. They just chucked it out
30:53
of the car on the side of the road after
30:55
he died because they were upset that they didn't get
30:57
to kill him the way they wanted to. They also
31:01
decided that they were not satiated, so the very next day,
31:05
August fifth, they picked up seventeen year old Marcus Grabs
31:09
or Grabes. I'm not sure I should note that between
31:12
the first murder of Thomas Langren and these two murders,
31:16
Bonnon was arrested for rape yet again, but due to
31:19
a paperwork error, was released before his court date and
31:24
just never showed up, so he was released from jail
31:27
before he had to face the judge, and he just
31:29
chose not to and they just left it at that,
31:32
So that's awesome. Anyway. Marcus was a seventeen year old
31:35
German boy who was visiting California backpacking, kind of just
31:40
having one last hurrah before going into adulthood, which is
31:44
super fucking sad. He had allegedly agreed to being tied
31:50
up by Bonnin and Butts when he got into the car.
31:54
I mean, this is what Bill Bonnen says, so who
31:56
fucking knows, But the fact that he was tied up
32:00
just shows that Bonnin has this need to do that
32:03
stemming from childhood, as we had talked about before. So
32:06
once again, it's supposedly a consensual encounter or starts as such,
32:11
but he's tied up and Bonnin then starts threatening him
32:14
with a knife. He's then raped and tortured in the van,
32:17
then taken to Bill's mother's home because of course, you know,
32:22
Bill lives with his mom. Again, with his parents, he
32:24
can't hack it on his own for more than a
32:27
month or so, so they take him back to the
32:30
house and they torture him more, and at one point
32:33
Marcus was able to break free and he actually punched
32:36
Bill in the face and this sent him into a frenzy.
32:41
He ended up stabbing Marcus seventy seven times before strangling
32:44
him to death. And I did want to note the
32:48
way that Bill Bonnon liked to strangle his victims was
32:51
by using their own T shirts and like tying them
32:54
around their neck and then using a tire iron to
32:56
twist the T shirt until it was so tight that
32:59
his victims died. So it was really horrific, and it
33:02
kind of adds to he's a very much like an
33:05
insult to injury kind of killer, where he really wants
33:07
the people to suffer because he's just a horrible piece
33:10
of shit. And I feel like this way of using
33:12
their own clothing to kill them is very on par
33:16
It's very on brand for this motherfucker. After he was dead,
33:22
his body was dumped in Malibu just along the side
33:25
of the road, which is again very insulting and very
33:29
on brand. Now, during this time, Bill Bonnon wasn't just
33:33
murdering people, as I noted, he was also actively molesting
33:36
and raping local boys. Neighbors said they would see the
33:39
young boys accompany him to his home, which he again
33:42
shared with his parents, and then neighbors would hear screaming
33:45
and crying, and we all know what that means. And also, like,
33:48
if the neighbors are hearing this, what are his parents hearing,
33:50
especially since his dad was disabled and at home all
33:54
the time, like didn't work, didn't leave the house. Really,
33:57
obviously he was doing this with the least one parent's knowledge,
34:01
which is beyond twisted, but again kind of makes sense
34:05
and that's just me guessing, but it's it just makes
34:09
sense if if dad's home all the time and neighbors
34:11
know this is happening, they know, they've got to know anyway,
34:16
So there could be a lot more victims than we
34:19
know about. One of the reasons that this is thought
34:22
because it is like widely suggested that he may be
34:25
killed more than we think, is because after he was
34:29
arrested for raping that young boy where the paperwork mishappened,
34:33
he got out before his court date. He told his
34:37
neighbor Frasier, that he was going to make sure there
34:40
would never be a witness to testify him against him again.
34:43
Which is interesting because later when they're talking about this guy,
34:46
this neighbor, he was saying, Oh, I had no idea
34:49
that he was doing this, and it's like he made
34:51
it pretty fucking clear, like he told you, I'm going
34:54
to keep raping boys, and I'm gonna make sure they're
34:56
not around to testify against me. So I feel like
34:58
there was a lot of opportunity for this guy to
34:59
be stopped or caught, and it was just the inaction
35:02
of literally everybody around him that kept him able to
35:06
keep murdering and being a piece of shit. His next
35:09
victim was eighteen year old Robert Wirosteck, who was picked
35:13
up in Huntington Beach on August twentieth, so like barely
35:16
two weeks, almost three weeks, I guess after the last murder,
35:20
or just over two weeks, yeah, fifteen days, and he
35:22
was picked up while riding his bike to his job
35:25
at a grocery store. It's unclear if he went into
35:28
the van of his own volition or if he was
35:30
forced with a gun or other threat, but once inside
35:32
the van, it was much the same thing as it
35:35
was with Marcus. Rape torture that was mental, physical, and sexual,
35:41
and then being strangled to death and dumped. Now very sadly,
35:45
Robert had another sibling, a brother, who died only five
35:48
years later at age twenty one. I do not know
35:53
what his cause of death was. I do believe he
35:55
was in trouble a little bit, and I would go
35:58
out on a limb and say that it definitely could
35:59
have had something to do with his brother's murder anyway.
36:03
Seven days later, August twenty seventh, Bonnen and Butts picked
36:07
up fifteen year old Donald Ray Hayden. Now Donald had
36:12
lived in the La area for only around two years
36:14
after his parents had divorced and his mother, brother, and
36:17
sister moved to California from Cincinnati, Ohio. Donald to that
36:22
point had had a pretty decent childhood, but after the
36:26
divorce he just took it really hard. He had a
36:28
really hard time dealing with his parents divorce, and he
36:30
would run away from his mother's home from time to
36:33
time and sometimes was even sent to live with his grandparents. However,
36:38
more recently, he had finally realized how much he missed
36:42
his mom and siblings, so he decided to move back
36:44
in with them full time, and so they all lived
36:47
in the Santa Monica area down near the beach in
36:49
Los Angeles. He was last seen in Hollywood the night
36:53
of his abduction and thought he was hitchhiking home when
36:56
he was picked up by Bonnen and Butts. He was
36:59
ray tortured, beaten, and strangled with a ligature that had
37:04
also been tied around his ankles and wrists. So this
37:06
time it wasn't the T shirt. It was like a
37:09
cord that strangled him. He was then dumped at a
37:13
construction site on the one on one freeway. And this
37:17
is this is super rough, so trigger warning if you
37:21
haven't already been feeling that. The coroner, after seeing his body,
37:27
said that his rectum was so distended that it looked
37:31
as though he had been impaled with something. It was
37:35
later noted that he had likely been assaulted with a fist,
37:40
so the torture of this fifteen year old boy was
37:44
very much next level. Bonnan's accomplices would later all say
37:49
that the more pain his victims were in and the
37:51
more they screamed and the more scared they were, the
37:54
happier Bill became, which makes sense, you know, it seemed
37:58
obviously par for the course. Again, he fed off their
38:01
pain and fear and misery, which is just truly fucking psychotic.
38:05
His next victim was seventeen year old David Lewis Murrill
38:09
or Marillo. He was writing his bike to a movie,
38:12
somehow ended up in the van and unfortunately met with
38:15
a similar fate to the other boys to that point.
38:19
His head, in addition to all of the beatings, had
38:21
been bashed in with a tire iron and he was
38:25
strangled to death, so again similar but a little worse
38:28
on the beatings. The next victim, who was killed Honor
38:31
around November one, nineteen seventy nine, is to this day unidentified,
38:37
which makes me very sad that no one ever claimed
38:39
his body, but it aligns with the type of people
38:42
that Bonnin would target. It is believed he's between the
38:45
ages of eighteen and twenty four, so maybe a little
38:48
bit older than some of the other victims, but also
38:52
that's just a guess since they don't know, so he
38:54
could definitely still be a teenager. On top of all
38:57
the other torture. Bonnin, who must have talked with him
39:00
a bit and found out he was a runaway during
39:02
the murder, told this unidentified boy that his parents had
39:06
paid Bonnen and Butts to find him and kill him.
39:09
So on top of raping, torturing and killing him, they
39:13
were also like mentally torturing him, really trying to like
39:17
fuck with him and just make him you know, as
39:20
scared and as sad and miserable as possible, which is disgusting.
39:25
After he was dead, Luckily, after Bonnin tried a new
39:29
weapon on him, he stuck an ice pick into his head.
39:33
This will come into play later and maybe not always
39:36
when the victims are dead. Unfortunately. November thirtieth, they killed
39:40
seventeen year old Frank Dennis Fox, who had a checkered
39:44
past but wasn't like everybody who knew him was like,
39:47
he wasn't a bad kid at all. He was just
39:49
really smart and really bored, so he would get into
39:52
trouble because he just didn't know what else to do
39:55
with himself. Dennis, as he was called, was reading and
39:58
writing by four years old. I never had to study
40:00
a day of his life to get good grades. He
40:03
also had some behavioral issues, including getting kicked out of
40:06
Catholic school at only five years old for sneaking out
40:09
and ringing the bell in the bell tower. Like I said,
40:12
his younger brother said, you know, he's just bored. He
40:14
just needed something to stay busy. At the time of
40:17
his death, he was already living on his own, using
40:19
money from his father's untimely death the year prior to
40:22
pay for an apartment for himself while he figured out
40:24
what he wanted to do. People who knew him said
40:28
he could talk his way out of almost anything. He
40:30
was very charming, but very sadly, he could not talk
40:33
his way out of Bill bon In's van. I read
40:36
too much about him, and now I really don't want
40:37
to get into his death because he just seems like
40:39
such a great kid. But I will say that the
40:41
torture was being ramped up at this time, with more
40:43
use of the ice pick and burning of the skin
40:47
with cigarettes, which is horrible. Dennis's body was found on
40:53
the Ortega Highway just two days after he was murdered.
40:58
The next victim killed on December twelfth night, teen seventy nine,
41:01
was fifteen year old John Kilpatrick. He, according to Bonnan,
41:05
took money for sex, and I did read that he
41:09
was kind of like a runaway and doing what he
41:11
had to to kind of, you know, make ends meet.
41:16
I find it interesting how many of these victims bond
41:19
and said, like, got into the car willingly, engaged in
41:22
sex willingly, but at the same time, he has no remorse,
41:26
so he never seems to like lie about what happened,
41:29
because I don't think he gives a shit when he
41:30
gets caught, he's kind of like, yeah, I did it,
41:32
here's the details. Couldn't care less. So I don't know,
41:36
but I just want to call out, like I hate
41:39
that so much of this about these children is being
41:41
presented like, oh, they were willing sex workers, and it's
41:44
like children cannot be willing sex workers, Like that's not
41:47
that's not a thing. They were desperate victims of violence
41:50
in the world of bad homes. You know, I just
41:53
want to call that out. Anyway, he was violently raped again,
42:00
and you know, John agreed to having sex with him
42:04
John Kilpatrick, but only oral. And then when Bill tried
42:09
to not rape him, tried to have sex with him,
42:12
he said something along the lines of I don't get fucked.
42:15
So you can imagine that Bonnan would love to overpower
42:18
this kid who said that because he's such a sadistic
42:20
piece of shit. So definitely raped him again, very much
42:24
against his will, and then murdered him his body was
42:28
dumped near Rialto and because he had a history of
42:31
running away, he was not reported missing until February so
42:34
a couple of months later, and was a John Doe
42:37
when he was found. It took two tattoos on his
42:40
body for his family to identify him. His next victim
42:44
was sixteen year old Michael Francis McDonald, another troubled teen
42:47
who he learned into his van with the promise of drugs,
42:50
telling him you can sell these drugs for money. Weirdly,
42:54
his body was found fully clothed, and it took until
42:58
March twenty fourth to identify his body. Also weirdly and
43:01
maybe connected to the fully closed thing. This was one
43:05
of Bonnen's only solo murders, so he did this without
43:09
any of his little cronies there to watch, which is
43:12
why maybe it wasn't necessarily less brutal, but definitely a
43:15
very different type of killing. And I think the reason
43:18
he didn't have anybody there is because Vernon Butts was
43:20
kind of trying to get away from him, Like Vernon
43:22
was like, I don't really like this, so he was
43:24
trying to kind of distance himself. But I think he
43:26
was always also afraid of Bonnen, so he was trying
43:29
to be careful about it. Now, I want to say,
43:32
at this point, police have not put together that there
43:34
is a serial killer out there, which is absolutely fucking bonkers,
43:39
considering there were more than one in this area at
43:42
this time. There was literally another freeway killer, Randy Kraft
43:48
killing at this time as well as Bonnen. So not
43:51
only are there multiple serial killers, there are multiple serial
43:54
killers called the freeway killer, and cops are just like, nope, nope,
43:58
no serial killer. These are not linked, and they're so
44:01
obviously linked. The T shirt strangulation, the same type of
44:04
ligature is being used, the rape, the torture. I mean,
44:08
it's obvious that these are linked. But cops, I think
44:11
and many agree, that they ignored the obvious in order
44:14
to not have the pressure of having to solve a
44:15
serial killer case, which like I don't know, too fucking bad,
44:19
you know, like sorry, there's more pressure for you to
44:21
do your job. Fucking do your job. But they didn't
44:24
want the public in a panic, was their excuse, but
44:26
I don't really buy it. It's really disappointing also that
44:29
they didn't come out with this information because it could
44:31
have saved some lives. As could have keeping bondin in
44:35
prison when he was supposed to be in there. But
44:37
you know, multiple paperwork errors, miscommunications, all of this. I mean,
44:41
it's just the way things went. I guess I don't know.
44:44
All that said, he was free and did continue his spree.
44:47
On February third, nineteen eighty. He wants to kill again
44:51
and Butts is not around, so this time he takes
44:54
seventeen year old Gregory Miiley with him. The two went
44:57
out cruising for a murder victim and found fifteen year
45:00
old Charles Miranda. Charles Miranda, I can't say that name.
45:04
Hitchhiking outside of the Starwood Club. Now, if you've listened
45:08
to my previous episodes, of which there are whopping four,
45:11
you might remember the name Starwood Club as it was
45:14
the punk club owned by Eddie Nash, who, in about
45:18
a year's time from when this takes place, would mass
45:20
murder four people in a revenge killing over a robbery
45:23
in his home. If you want to know more, it's
45:25
the Wonderland Murders episode. You can go listen to it
45:27
when you're done here. Anyway, this poor kid, Charles was
45:31
outside the club and was of course picked up by
45:33
Bonnin and Miley. At first, they only robbed him of
45:36
the six dollars he had, but then they started with
45:38
the rape and torture. Miley attempted to rape Charles as well,
45:42
but was not able to stay erect, and because this
45:45
embarrassed him, he instead raped him with sharp objects in
45:48
the van while the poor boy screamed and cried in
45:51
pain and fear. Eventually, Charles was so injured that Bonnin
45:56
said to Miley, the kid's gonna die. He's gonna diele
46:00
He said they should just let him go, but Bonnin
46:01
already knew that wasn't going to happen. He told Miley
46:04
no because the kid could identify them, But in reality,
46:07
it's more likely because he enjoyed killing children and had
46:10
no intention of ever letting him go. But I think
46:12
he was maybe trying to sort of ease Miley into
46:16
the murders and not scare him off. Obviously, that didn't
46:19
end up being an issue, as Miley got so into
46:21
it that while Bonnin showed him how to strangle Charles
46:25
using the t shirt entire iron method, Miley took to
46:28
jumping up and down on his chest until he died
46:31
from strangulation. And also trauma again. He was fifteen years old.
46:37
They dumped his body in an alleyway in downtown Los
46:39
Angeles and immediately, like not even five minutes later, went
46:44
looking for another victim. This is another especially horrific one,
46:48
as this poor child was only twelve years old and
46:51
was picked up while waiting at a bus stop to
46:53
go to Disneyland for the day. So they started looking
46:57
for this guy, this new victim, at like two in
46:59
the morning. They didn't find him till the next morning,
47:02
kind of early. Now, this victim was staying with his
47:06
older brother while his parents were out of town, and
47:10
it wasn't uncommon for kids his age to ride the
47:13
bus to places like Disneyland and go to Disneyland on
47:16
their own. Hence, I dare say, the age of serial killers,
47:19
it was easier to find a victim back then. This
47:22
boy's name was James McCabe, and he went willingly into
47:24
the van thinking he was getting a ride instead of
47:27
having to wait for the bus. He was raped repeatedly
47:30
over several hours while also being beaten, and after Bonnin
47:34
was done with him, Miley joined in and they strangled
47:37
him to death with his T shirt and the tire iron.
47:40
They then dumped his nude body next to a dumpster.
47:46
Bonnin later said he was quote the easiest one to
47:50
kill of all his victims, which, fuck you, fuck you,
47:55
you disgusting maggot. I just hate this man so much.
48:01
Very Luckily, right after this time, Bonnin was arrested on
48:06
a parole violation and spent some time in jail, about
48:11
like a month or two. Not a long time, but
48:13
with how quickly he was killing, this time away likely
48:16
saved some lives. He was released in March, and his
48:20
reign of terror continued. But I'm going to save that
48:25
for next week because we have to stop somewhere, and
48:27
I felt like this was a good breaking point. He's
48:30
back in prison, even if for a short while, and
48:34
this will be a good time to take a little
48:37
mental break from the insanity of this case, and we
48:40
can come back to it next week and finish it up.
48:46
I hope you guys were able to hang in there.
48:47
This was real, rough, real gnarly, and there's more to come.
48:51
I hate to say it, but he's got some time left,
48:54
and with the rate at which he's going, we've got
48:57
some more people to talk about. So thanks everybody, thank
49:00
for listening, for hanging in there my first two parter.
49:03
I'm pretty excited. Hopefully you guys are enjoying, for lack
49:07
of a better word, and please like, rate review, share
49:11
with your friends, share with everybody. I'm still posting on
49:14
my old podcast platform, just so that people get an
49:17
opportunity to listen, but really trying to grow this one.
49:20
So if you guys can follow me, listen, like, rate review,
49:23
share with your friends, share on your social media, whatever
49:26
it is, it's all very appreciated. Thanks again for tuning in.
49:31
I'll be back next week and until then, everybody stay safe.
49:34
God damn