Latest / True Crime California / TCC #5 Bill Bonin Part 2

Transcript

TCC #5 Bill Bonin Part 2 · True Crime California

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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. Welcome back everyone. This is
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True Trime California, True Crime California, and this is part
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two of the story of the serial killer William Bill Bonnan.
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This story's fucked up. Been a real, real tough experience
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for me researching. I gotta tell you, it's something that
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I wish I had thought through a little better before
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committing myself to it. But I think I got through
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the majority of the craziness last week, and this week
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is going to be kind of just coasting into the finale,
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kind of the conclusion of this story. We're going to
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get through this together and then we're going to move
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on to probably nothing any easier or more lighthearted, but
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at least it won't be little Boys, which is like
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really a tough thing for me since I have a
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nine year old little boy. Anyway, Welcome everybody. I don't
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know if I've told anybody this, but the intro music
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that you hear is from a band that I was
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in in my twenties. I was the singer. It was
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called boy Beach. It was a really fun experience really
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good band. It was just me and a bunch of friends.
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We never played that many shows, but we recorded a
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lot and we played a few, and we actually got
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paid to play a couple times, which was super crazy.
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But anyway, so now every time I hear it, I
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want to start singing the song, which is I don't know,
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is that narcissistic, I'm not really sure, but in any case,
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that's where the intro music comes from. It's great when
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you're in a band because you don't have to pay
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for intro music or little snippets of music because it's yours.
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Not that I'm making money anyway, so I wouldn't really
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owe anybody royalties. But in any case, I think I'm
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rambling because I don't want to get into this case,
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but I'm I'm going to have to. So let's see
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where we left off. Let's see. Oh boy, okay, Yeah,
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so where we left off was with twelve year old
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James McCabe being tortured, raped and murdered, and then Bill
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Bond in the Piece of Shit being arrested on a
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parole violation and going to jail for I don't know,
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like a month and a half, two months, something like that. Now,
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I do want to note that I believe when he
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picked up James McCabe, he was with Miley, Gregory Miley,
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and so that's important for kind of the next part.
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As we went over last time, Bill Bonn and had
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a number of associates, accomplices, people that he sort of
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controlled and made to do his bidding. At least that's
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what they would tell you if you ask them, like
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how they came to rape and murdered children. But I
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think it's pretty you know, common for people once they're
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caught doing something like this to try and blame somebody else.
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But in any case, the last murder and a few
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of the last murders that we covered were with his
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accomplished Gregory Miley. Prior to that, it was Vernon Butts
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with two teas. I like to call that out because
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he deserves the name he had. And now we're going
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to talk about his release and kind of what happens
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from there. So ten days after Bonnen is released from
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this last little stint in prison for a poorole violation,
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he and Gregory Miley go out again and this time
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they pick up eighteen year old Ronald Gatlin. Now Ronald
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had just dropped his dad off at a restaurant and
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was walking home from a friend's house in North Hollywood
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when he was grabbed. And I just moved out of
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North Hollywood into Burbank, So when I read that, I
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immediately started to try to find where he was. I
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couldn't find it, but still interesting. He was tortured severely.
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He was raped, he was beaten, he was strangled, and
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he had the telltale ligature marks on his wrists, ankles,
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and neck. His next would be victim. Now I don't
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know exactly what happened with Gregory Miley at this point,
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but he seems to have kind of taken a back seat,
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kind of like Vernon Butts did, and so Bonnen's next
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would be victim. For whatever reason, became his next partner,
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which I guess is the better option. I'm I'm not
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really sure this near victim turned associate with seventeen year
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old William Pugh. Bonnan did the same thing with him
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that he did with like all the other boys, but
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for whatever reason, decided not to kill him. And I
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think maybe they had been hanging out at Everett Fraser's
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party house, you know, his like neighbor and friend or whatever,
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So maybe sort of the association saved this kid. It's
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really fucking hard to say, but in any case, Bonnin
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scared the shit out of him, started doing like the
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weird sex talk. He tried to get out of the
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car bond and grabbed him by the collar, brought him
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back in to the car, and then started saying shit
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like you know, if you kill somebody, you need to
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know what to do with the body. Just really creepy shit.
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And he liked to scare his victims, so it really
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sounded like he was kind of going down that way.
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But then he just let him go. He let him
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out of the card, like dropped him off at home.
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In fact, and for whatever reason, this fucking guy just
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decides to keep hanging out with him. He's like, this
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seems like a chill dude, Like this is my new bestie.
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So they keep hanging out and he turns into his
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accomplice and in fact, on March twentieth, nineteen eighty, he
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accompanied Bill on yet another kill. Now this victim was
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fifteen year old Harry Todd Turner. This poor boy. This
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story really sucks. I mean they all suck, right, It's like, oh,
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they're from a good family. Oh they're from no family,
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Like there's no like one victim in the list of
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all these victims. That is not incredibly sad, but this
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I just hate hearing when people have bad lives and
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then this happens. It's like there's just not a moment
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of good for them, Like what could they have possibly
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done to deserve this? Obviously nothing, you know, but it
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just sucks. So anyway, Henry here or Harry, I'm so sorry.
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Harry Todd Turner. He was a runaway who had escaped
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an abusive boys home just before being picked up by Bonnin. Now,
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when Bonnan picked him up, he approached him, he offered
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him twenty dollars for sex, and Harry agreed because he
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was desperate for money. Like I mentioned earlier, a lot
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of these boys were in the sex trade. They cannot
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be sex workers at fifteen years old. That's when I
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refuse to call them that. That's not really a thing.
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But they were kind of selling their bodies for money
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because they didn't have any other way to make money,
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and they didn't have family, they didn't have support. It
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was very much a lot of them were like Bill
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Bonnin when he was their age, which you would think
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he would feel some sort of kinship, but he certainly
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does not. So Harry was tied up, beaten, raped, and
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this time Bonnon added another level of torture to the attack, because,
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as I've noted previously, he likes to escalate every time
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he bit Harry on his genitals to the point where
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it bled. And he did this obviously before he was killed,
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which is absolutely fucking horrific. Once he was murdered, he
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was dumped like he's always dumped, you know, like like
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he always dumps his victims. He just throws them out
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like trash. And two days later, two days, two days later,
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on March twenty second, two bodies were found. So he's
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just like boom boom, boom one two three. So two
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bodies were found on the Ortega Highway, which is outside
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of San Diego. These boys were fourteen year old Glenn
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Norman Barker and fifteen year old Russell Dwayne Rue now
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Russell went by Rusty. Both were hitchhiking. I don't believe
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they were hitchhiking together, which is how I know that
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he was kind of like frenzied at this point. But
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both were met with the same horrific fate. And in
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the case of fourteen year old Glenn, there was yet
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another uptick in the torture. His body was found with
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a ring of cigarette burns around his neck. So we've
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got knives, ice picks, strangling, raping, burning, hydrochloric acid. You know,
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I think I mentioned the ice pick already, Like biting,
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It's just fuck, it's endless what this guy will do.
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He's fucking deranged. He's absolutely fucking evil. Now, Glenn, this
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is again another story that's fucking sad. They're all sad.
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But Glenn had been given money by his mother specifically
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so he wouldn't hitchhike, but he spent the money and
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ended up in Bondin's Van. Glenn's mother, who was battling
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cancer at the time, suffered a really major health setback
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when she found out that her son was murdered and
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murdered so viciously in a he was fourteen. She did
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live to see Bonnin charged and put in prison, but
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she died three years later, so you know, she didn't
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have the piece she was seeking for very long. Now,
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two days after these bodies were found, despite the police
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still saying there was no connection between these murders, which, like,
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what the fuck? Despite that, the Orange County Register came
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out with a story about the quote freeway killer this
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is what they named him, which tied I think at
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least five of the murders to a single killer, with
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many more of these boys being listed as possible connections.
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They had a forensic psychologist create a profile of the killer,
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and his profile was almost one hundred percent correct, Like
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it was real, real close. What he said was white male, smart,
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late twenties or early thirties. He was in his early thirties,
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ashamed of his sexuality, and the only thing that he
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got wrong was why bond and killed This psychologist said
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it was out of shame, when in reality, Bonding killed
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for pleasure. He fucking loved it, and he wouldn't stop
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if he wasn't stopped by someone. And he fucking even
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said that he wouldn't stop if he wasn't stopped by someone.
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He later, when he was captured, straight up admitted this.
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So I mean, it's like it wasn't a secret. Now
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with police pretending there wasn't a serial killer, things weren't
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looking too good. So at least this case came out.
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You know, they broke the story and brought attention to
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the case. His next victim was sixteen year old Stephen Wood.
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His body was found on the Pacific Coast Highway, which
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we call PCH, which is like a coastal highway. It
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runs all up and down the state I believe in Oregon,
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maybe even Washington, and he was found on a portion
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of it in Long Beach. He was killed in the
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same way that all the other victims were killed. With
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all victims, like I just kind of mentioned, you know,
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the families are destroyed. This one was a little specific.
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Stephen got into Bill Bonnon's van because he had already
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met Bill, and he met him through his older brother
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who was friends with Bill, who kind of ran in
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similar circles, so he felt safe being with Bill Bonnon.
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And as a result, he was tortured and murdered. And
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this is significant because one it's a fucked up part
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of the story, and two, his older brother, nine years
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after Stephen's death, waited until Bill Bonnon's birthday, which is
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January eighth, and he did this in nineteen eighty nine.
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He went to a friend's house and shot himself to
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death with a shotgun. So I think It's important to
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note this because you know, again we talk about the
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impact on families, this one was even more of like
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a crazy like the guilt that he must have felt
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for introducing his brother to this fucking murderer and that's
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why his brother ended up dead is just terrible, Like
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what what Bill Bonnan did? It just it stole so
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many people's lives, like emotionally and actually in this case,
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you know, this guy was so guilt ridden that he
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couldn't he couldn't bear to be alive, which is super
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super fucked up. Moving into April of nineteen eighty, the
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next victim was nineteen year old Darren Lee Kendrick, who
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was working like actively doing his job, like on the clock,
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not even like going to work or coming home for work.
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Like he was working collecting shopping carts at a grocery
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store when Bill Bonnon convinced him to get into his van. Now,
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the way he did that was he told him he
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had drugs and that they could do them together, and
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the guy was like, yeah, fuck this fucking job. You know,
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I'm gonna go hang out his nineteen year old kid,
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no no judgment whatsoever. Unfortunately, as soon as he was
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in the van, the torture began, and again, unfortunately, this
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time the torture escalated. Darren was tied up, beaten, brutally raped,
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and when his body was found he had chemical burns
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on his mouth, on his face, and on his chest
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because Bonnen, as I had actually previously mentioned, forced him
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to drink a hydrochloric acid. And in addition to this,
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he also had an ice pick shoved into his ear.
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It wasn't still in his ear, but they could tell
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it had been shoved in, then removed and stabbed into
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his spine, which would have rendered him paralyzed and b
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it would have been extremely fucking painful. So this is
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like a new level of violence. As wild as it
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was that at this point he could even still be
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leveling up, he was now in a crazy turn. His
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next victim was actually his living boyfriend, eighteen year old
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Lawrence Sharp. The two went on dates together like were
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officially like a couple. I think he even like lived
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with him and his mom, like Lawrence lived with with
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Bill and his mom for a while. I read that
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they went to Knotsberry Farm, so like kind of wholesome.
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But after a while Bonnon said he grew tired of him,
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so instead of just being like, let's break up, move out,
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leave me alone, he fucking killed him and stuck his
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body in a dumpster. I just don't even like, I
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don't know. So that was I believe a solo killing,
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as was his next victim. Now, his next victim was
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fourteen year old Sean King, solo. He had asked Vernon
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Butts to join him, but he said no, so Bonnon, undeterred,
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went out on his own. This poor boy's body was
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not actually found until after Bonnon was caught, and the
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reasoning behind it was interesting. So apparently the victim's mother
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begged Bonnin to tell her where the body was. She
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wrote him a letter begging for mercy. And I guess
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the letter kind of did it. But Bonin, if you
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asked him, he said, no, it wasn't the letter. It's
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because I knew when the cops took me to find
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the body that they would get me a hamburger. So
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that was his thing. And I gotta tell you, I
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do think that maybe it appealed to his like, I
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don't know, empathy, the tiny bit of empathy that he
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maybe had somewhere deep down. But he wasn't willing to
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admit that because he's such a fucked up person that
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he had to be like, no, it's because I wanted
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a hamburger. I really believe that. Like everything that I've read,
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people are like, oh, that's how stone cold he is,
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and I'm like, no, that sounds like an immature like
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kid being like, no, you didn't make me do it.
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I did it because I wanted to do it. This
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why I did it, you know, Like it sounds really
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like petulant. So I think that the letter really worked.
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But in any case, Bonnan finally told police where the
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body was because you go to burger stupid. So, you know,
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I don't know if what he says is true. He's
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just another example of him being a trash bag human.
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But at the very least he's just immature and needs
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to make excuses. Right. So, around this time, he had
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not been caught yet, and Bill Bonnon met a drifter
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named James Monroe who he invited to live with him
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and his mom. Now this was after the boyfriend moved out,
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so he invites James Monroe to live with him and
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his mom. Of course, knew nothing right, had no idea,
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so Anyway, they move in together and they're actually like
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sleeping in the same room but in different beds, and
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Bonnan even got this guy James a job at his work.
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James later said his first impression of Bill was that
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he was a good guy and quote really normal, which
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I think your radar is off. You have some judgment
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issues there, clearly, my guy. So anyway, the two somehow
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get to the topic, you know, of raping and murdering
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little boys, and James this is apparently open to the idea,
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which again, like I'm just shocked how many people are like, yeah,
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that sounds that sounds like a great way to spend
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a night, Like, what the fuck? Guys crazy to me,
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what is wrong with y'all? But anyway, he was down,
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and I have to say, I'm actually really excited about
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this because this is going to bring us to our
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last victim. Yay, last murder victim, I should say, because
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shit gets a little weird. And this victim was nineteen
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year old Stephen Wells. So we had Steven Wood and
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now we have Stephen Wells. Steven initially agreed to go
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back to their house and have sex with them for
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some money, and after they were done. You know, they
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offered him any thing like two hundred dollars to tie
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him up, and he said sure. So they tie him
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up and then immediately Bill Bonden starts raping him while
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James is in the other room watching TV. Now, James
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said he didn't participate in this, in the consensual sex
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or the rape, but he was there when this was
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all happening. After a while, Bonding calls for James to
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come in and James He's like, yo, dude, this is crazy,
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Please fucking stop now. That's the weird thing is like
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I know that he was prepped for this through their conversation,
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and then he gets to the point where it's actually
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happening and he's saying, I don't really want to do this,
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but Bill is like, it's too late. This guy's gonna die.
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We gotta just do this. So James beats him with
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Bill Bonnon and this poor kid, you know, he's begging
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for his life, and then they strangle him to death.
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James Monroe later described the murder, saying that Bonnin was
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screaming but like excitedly and telling this poor young man
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that he was gonna die, just basically trying to scare
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him as much as possible before actually ending his life.
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He said Bonnin was extremely excited and animated while strangling
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him to death, which, again like, how could his mom
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not know this? If he's like in their shared home
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screaming and attacking someone, it's like, give me a break,
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you know, there's no way that she didn't fucking know. So, oh,
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I did want to mention. Sorry, I forgot his father
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was dead at this point, so he wasn't around anymore.
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He died, but he still was with mom and she
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had to know. So in any case, they go and
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they dump this young man's body behind a gas station
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in Huntington Beach, and he then threatens James because I
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think he can tell that James is kind of like, whoa,
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this wasn't what I thought it was going to be like,
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and I don't want to do this anymore. So he
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threatens James and he says, you know, if you tell anyone,
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I'll fucking kill you. And during this time, again because
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Bill really likes to ramp up the fear and intimidation,
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he tells him I'm the Freeway killer. I have multiple
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accomplices and they will know where you are. They will
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know who you are, and they'll fucking kill you if
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you tell on me. And then he told him I
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killed forty five people. And now this could be taken
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as him trying to scare James, or it could be
19:54
taken as truth, and we'll talk about that a little
19:57
bit more. But at the time, what was true was that,
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you know, the Orange County Register, despite the police being
20:02
upset about it, really did help bring Bill bonn In
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down and stop his reign of terror. Now this is
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the case for many reasons, some of them obvious and
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some of them not so immediately obvious. The first obvious
20:13
reason is this brought the cases of these murders to
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the public's attention, which is huge in collecting evidence and
20:20
finding witnesses. Second, Bill Bonnan became obsessed with collecting news
20:25
clippings about the murders and would talk about them incessantly
20:29
to anyone who would listen. In fact, he kept a
20:33
scrap book in his fucking van, which makes sense because
20:36
you know, he kept everything else in their weapons fucking
20:39
evidence of murder, this which is you know, very very dumb.
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But it's not like the scrap book was like the
20:44
thing that broke the case. But he did have it
20:47
in his van, which is ridiculous. Everett Fraser, the party neighbor,
20:51
said that they would often talk about the killer and
20:53
that he would often say Fraser that he wished the
20:56
police would catch him beyond bond and creating a piece
20:59
of evidence to tie himself to the crimes via the
21:02
scrap book. There was also a very important witness to
21:04
come forward, and that witness was the previously you know,
21:09
fifteen year old David McVicar, the boy who had been
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raped way before the killing began. And I will remind
21:16
everyone that Bill Bannon went to prison for this attack.
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So David McVicar knew exactly who it was that raped him,
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and he noticed a lot of similarities between his attack
21:29
and the murders. McVicker went to the police pretty much
21:33
as soon as the story broke and said straight up like, hey,
21:35
based on the pattern, this guy's your fucking killer. Police
21:38
were super interested in his story and they did believe him.
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But also they had another eyewitness come forward around that
21:46
same time, which is like the spring of nineteen eighty.
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This witness was William Pugh. So there's some names from
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you know, his past, not so far in the past.
21:56
Kind of coming forward to haunt him. Now, William Pugh
21:59
had been you know, isn't for at least one of
22:00
the murders, and had recently been picked up for grand
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theft auto. Not wanting to get into trouble for car
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theft and also not being very smart, he thought he
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could use his knowledge of the murders to get out
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of the theft charges, which like, bro, you're gonna get
22:15
murder charges instead, as this doesn't seem like a good exchange,
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pardon me, but anyway, he took the chance. You know,
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Bonnon definitely wasn't known for hanging out with geniuses. He
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tried to skirt his own responsibility. William Pugh w and
22:31
he was like who went by Billy by the way
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when he was talking about the murders, he didn't say
22:36
he knew a guy who had a scrapbook about the
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murders in his van, who he thought might be suspicious.
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Later he would testify against bond and for a reduced
22:44
sentence once the police kind of you know, figured out
22:46
what he did. But that name, having now come up
22:50
between two people with some pretty interesting information, got the
22:55
police very interested. And with this information police went and
22:59
talked to Everett Fraser, the neighbor, and they later said
23:03
that they could see the realization come over him while
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they talked. They said, you know, on once they told
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Everett here, you know, your neighbor, your friend, he's the
23:13
fucking freeway killer. They literally watched the arm hairs, his
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arm hairs like raise like they stood on end. Because
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he was just like, oh my god, it all makes sense.
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That was definitely he's definitely the killer. Right. He then
23:28
agreed to give them any information he could to help,
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which is great. The guy sounds not awesome, but at least,
23:35
you know, at least he's doing the right thing. And
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with all of this, police began to focus on meaning
23:40
surveill Bill Bonnan. Sadly, they did not get to him
23:45
in time to save his last victim, but they did
23:47
get to him before he could murder anybody else. The
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really sad thing talking about the timing. Police began surveilling
23:54
Bonnin the night that he killed his last victim, but
23:58
they started right after he dumped the body. So that
24:02
was June second, nineteen eighty, which is fucked up. So Bill,
24:06
I think he kind of knew, you know, that he
24:08
might end up getting getting caught and he obviously you know,
24:12
didn't want to. So for a time he started acting right.
24:18
We'll say he went to work every day on time,
24:21
drove trucks all day, then either went home or went
24:24
to Effett Fraser's house, which had to be super stressful
24:27
Foreverett because you know, now he knows what's going on.
24:32
And but you know, to police during this time, he
24:36
seemed normal, work home or with friends, go to bed,
24:40
and considering how back to back most of the murders
24:43
were like, who knows if police were like, now, this
24:45
isn't the guy. Maybe police were like, oh, you know,
24:48
we can tell he's just trying to throw us off.
24:50
You know. Luckily it took only nine days for Bonding
24:56
to need another kill. So while laying love boh was
25:00
a good idea, he wasn't really able to keep that up.
25:04
He went out cruising on the night of June eleventh,
25:07
nineteen eighty, and police watched as he unsuccessfully tried to
25:12
pick up five different young boys from the street. Finally,
25:17
after a few hours of trying, he picked up a
25:20
fifteen year old and drove him to a secluded beach
25:24
parking lot. Police followed and when they finally busted into
25:29
the van, Bonnan was already simultaneously raping and strangling the boy. Sorry,
25:35
my dog is barking or sneezing. And I think the
25:38
reason that he was being so quick in his murder
25:41
was that he was alone, so he didn't really have
25:44
an audience, so I don't think it was as exciting
25:47
for him to torture these boys. I think when he
25:50
was alone it was maybe more about just the kill,
25:54
the rape and the kill. He didn't go to the
25:57
same lengths that he did when he had an accomplice,
26:00
because again, he likes having that audience. Luckily, like I said,
26:05
you know, police were almost too late, but they did
26:07
make it in time to save this boy, traumatized as
26:10
I'm sure he was. Bill was arrested and booked on
26:14
suspicion of murder as well as multiple sex charges, and
26:18
at first Vonnon refused to talk. But remember how I said,
26:22
that letter from Sean King's mom seemingly worked. Regardless of
26:26
what he said later. That letter was in fact the
26:29
last thing he read before he decided to confess to
26:32
Shawn's murder, as well as twenty others. And I just
26:37
want to say that it later came out that the
26:41
letter was never written by Sean King's mother. It was
26:43
written by a detective, and this detective later told Bill
26:46
Bonn in this and I kind of love that, because
26:48
as much as I am not a fan of cops,
26:50
I love when killers who like think they're fucking smart
26:54
and think they're like, you know, above it all get
26:56
fucking humbled a little bit. So I did really enjoy
26:58
knowing about that. Either way. Uponnin you know, he started
27:02
to confess, and he confessed over several days, horrifying detectives
27:07
in the process, not only with details of the tortures
27:10
and murders, but with sort of the casual nature in
27:12
which he told the stories, coupled with the fact that
27:15
the only time he became anything other than borderline bored
27:18
with the stories was when he became excited about them,
27:21
which was usually when talking about the point at which
27:24
the victims died. So he was either very like matter
27:27
of fact, or enjoying the tale a little too much.
27:30
But there was never a hint of, you know, remorse.
27:34
There was never a hint of regret. He just was
27:38
either bored or kind of turned on, which is absolutely
27:42
fucking insane. In the end, he gave up details about
27:46
twenty one victims and also gave the names of every
27:49
one of his accomplices. In the end, he was only
27:52
charged with fourteen murders, but also robbery, sodomy, and mayhem.
27:57
He would have been charged with more, but the evidence
27:59
apparently just wasn't there, which is a bummer as in reality,
28:03
he is linked to at least twenty other victims, which
28:06
aligns pretty closely with what he said to James when
28:10
he said he killed forty five people. So that's kind
28:13
of where that number comes up again, because it sort
28:16
of makes sense even though we don't know for sure,
28:19
there are definitely a lot of names floating out around
28:21
that they think are tied to him, and in fact,
28:24
even to this day, they're trying to link him to
28:26
other murders using DNA. So far, I haven't heard of
28:29
any success with that, but it's definitely an interesting thing
28:33
that they are still to this day looking for connections
28:37
almost you know, what is it, thirty forty God, I'm old,
28:42
like almost forty something years later, they're still trying to
28:45
tie to solve these cases, which I love that they're
28:48
doing that because everybody, you know, they deserve the closure
28:52
in any case, so he would have been charged with more.
28:54
They couldn't really get the evidence, but they did start
28:58
picking up his accomplices, and on July twenty fifth, they
29:01
picked up Vernon Butts. They found evidence of at least
29:04
one of the murders in his home, and Vernon fully
29:07
admitted to everything, saying that Bondon had a quote hypnotic
29:10
effect on him. He also detailed the use of the
29:13
ice pick, acid and knives on the victims and said
29:16
that bon and quote loved to hear them scream. James
29:20
Monroe was the next to be arrested. He had skipped
29:23
town after Bonnon was arrested, but they caught up with
29:25
him in early August and nabbed his ass. In mid August,
29:31
police nabbed Gregory Miley in Texas, where he had run
29:34
after hearing of the arrests. He also admitted his role,
29:37
giving more details of the murders he took part in,
29:40
which apparently were only two, but it was enough to
29:43
put him away forever now. As the trial was coming,
29:46
police were dependent on Vernon Butts for a lot of
29:48
the testimony. He was, you know, he was the biggest accomplice,
29:51
Like he was there for the more of the murders
29:53
than there was, like nine of them or something, and unfortunately,
29:56
in January of nineteen eighty one, he hung himself in
30:00
his jail cell with a towel. Somehow, some people, including
30:04
his defense lawyers, say that maybe he was actually murdered.
30:08
He received a lot of threats, which people who rape
30:11
children get a lot of threats in prison, and they
30:13
definitely get murdered in prison, as we'll see. But so
30:18
I don't know, but everybody the police seemed to think
30:21
it was a suicide, which I don't really know if
30:22
that counts for much, but in any case, he's dead.
30:25
January nineteen eighty one, he died. And I believe that
30:28
this is a big part of why they weren't able
30:29
to charge Bonding with more murders, because one of their
30:33
main witnesses was gone, and in fact, after all was
30:36
sudden done, in LA, he was only charged with ten murders,
30:40
even though they tied him to twenty one. Now he
30:42
had another trial, but in LA there were ten. During
30:45
the Los Angeles trial, because there was that other one
30:48
in Orange County, which we'll talk about, it became pretty
30:50
clear that he had perpetrated the murders. You know, some
30:53
of the victims had green carpet fibers in their pubic hair,
30:57
which matched the green carpet in his van. We also
31:01
have the witness testimony, We have his own confession, we
31:04
have you know, David McVicker's eye witness of what happened
31:08
to him. So, you know, the case is just building
31:10
up pretty good. It was pretty clear that he did it,
31:14
so it became more about his defense, trying to defend
31:17
his actions or explain his actions get the jury to
31:21
sort of, I don't know, feel bad for him more
31:24
than anything. His mother took the stand and she talked
31:27
about the beatings that he endured as a child. To
31:30
back this up, Actually doctors looked at him and said,
31:32
you know, he has severe scarring around his head, which
31:36
indicated significant, like significant trauma basically to his brain, probably
31:43
potentially at a very young age. Kind Of lending to
31:48
the idea that this was pretty major was the fact
31:51
that when Bonnen was asked about it, he didn't know.
31:53
He didn't know how he caught those scars. He didn't
31:55
remember the beatings. He remembered a lot of trauma, but
31:58
he did not ever remember what exactly led to the
32:02
scarring around his head, So that's that's crazy because that's
32:06
probably just like a trauma block. Doctors also found evidence
32:10
of frontal cortex trauma, which is significant because that's what
32:13
controls your impulses or lack thereof, if it's damaged. So
32:18
between you know, the brain trauma, his horrific childhood, to
32:21
be fair, bilbon and did not stand a chance. You know,
32:24
there's no way that he was going to have a
32:25
good life. That being said, I still don't feel bad
32:29
for him beyond his childhood because you know, you could
32:33
have told somebody that you couldn't control yourself, but his
32:37
lack so okay, here's what I think. The impulse to
32:40
murder was because of what was messed up in his brain.
32:43
The lack of remorse is because of how he was raised.
32:46
So some of it is like, yeah, it's his brain,
32:49
and some of it is just him being like a
32:51
stone cold piece of shit not giving a fuck. You know, regardless,
32:55
he didn't give a fuck. If he didn't have the
32:56
brain damage, would he still have murdered. Maybe. I don't
33:00
think that's off the table when you have a life
33:02
like he had, But the brain damage definitely did not help.
33:07
But in any case, the jury was given the case,
33:09
they presented it to them, and after just a few
33:11
days they came back with the verdict of guilty on
33:15
all ten counts of murder. Bill Bonnen was given multiple
33:20
death sentences, and at the Orange County trial it was
33:23
much the same, four more convictions for more sentences, and
33:27
his accomplices were handed pretty tough sentences as well. Pew
33:31
for his cooperation was given I think sixteen years or
33:34
served around that much. Gregory Miley was given life with parole.
33:39
Now they were gonna put him up for the death penalty,
33:41
but he agreed to testify against Bill, so they said, okay,
33:45
we'll give you life with parole, so at some point
33:48
you can have parole. I know that I mentioned that
33:51
Gregory Miiley was not a very smart man, and I'm
33:55
gonna just kind of circle back to that. He was
33:56
a dumb ass, and basically he just fucked up the
33:59
whole time in prison. He got in trouble for rape,
34:03
he got in trouble for all sorts of shit, so
34:05
he was never ever going to get out. And actually
34:08
some years ago he was beaten to death in prison,
34:11
probably because of the crimes that he perpetrated, but it
34:15
took you know, I think it was like the early
34:17
two thousands when he was killed, so it took some
34:20
time for that to happen. But he died in prison.
34:23
James Monroe, the drifter who was there only for the
34:26
one murder, was given fifteen to life, but so far
34:30
is still in prison, with the family of his victim
34:33
coming to each parole hearing to ensure he is never released.
34:37
And David McVicar also comes because he does not trust
34:41
that this man who made the decision to partake in
34:44
this was told about it beforehand, said yeah, I think
34:47
that's a good idea, and then went through with it.
34:49
He doesn't believe that he's a good fit to be
34:50
in society, and like, I don't really disagree. James Monroe
34:55
is so miserable in prison that he's actually requested the
34:58
death penalty. He can just end it all, which good,
35:03
I guess, you know, if you're that fucking miserable. But
35:06
also you know, he said, I would have never agreed
35:08
to the plea deal of fifteen to life if I
35:10
knew that it actually meant I was gonna get life,
35:13
I would not have agreed. I would not have cooperated.
35:15
I would have pled not guilty, and like tried my luck.
35:18
And I guess that's just what happens, you know, when
35:21
you hang out with this kind of guy. So sorry, dude.
35:24
I did also want to say that while he kind
35:26
of like you know, has written letters to the family
35:29
saying he's so sorry, this, that and the other, every
35:32
single time he comes up for parole, he really paints
35:36
himself as the victim. He basically says, you know, I
35:39
was scared Bonding made me do it, so he's not
35:43
really taking responsibility and that, you know, that could be true.
35:47
He was kind of afraid of Bond and but he
35:49
could he could have just left. He didn't have to
35:51
stay living with him. He didn't have to kill the guy.
35:54
He was told ahead of time what was gonna happen.
35:56
He could have just said no. So in any case,
35:58
you know, I don't feel bad for this guy. Now,
36:01
Bill bonn In for his part, like I said, he
36:03
got a lot of death sentences and he was put
36:06
to death via lethal injection. Now, this is the first
36:10
prisoner in California to die this way. They had outlawed
36:14
the gas chamber as being cruel and unusual and it's
36:17
so fucked up. One of the books that I read
36:19
about Bill Bonn in they actually detail the way the
36:24
last prisoner to die in the gas chamber died, and
36:27
it made me a little sick. Something about it was
36:30
so detailed and fucked up that it made me feel
36:35
like queasy, which not great. Don't recommend. Don't recommend reading that,
36:40
but in any case, it did drive home the idea
36:43
that the gas chamber is cruel and unusual. I'm anti
36:46
death penalty, just to put it out there, just in general,
36:49
I think it's a bad idea. When it's something like
36:52
this and it's an open and shutcase, I still think
36:54
it's a bad idea. And I hate to say that
36:56
because Bill Bonnon sort of agreed with me. He said
37:00
as much like in his last words, which I probably
37:03
won't talk about too much. But in any case, he
37:06
was set to death. His date. The date was, you know,
37:09
February twenty second, but he actually died February twenty third,
37:13
because they started the injection at twelve one am. I
37:16
guess they do it in the middle of the night
37:17
for some reason. I don't really know why. He died
37:20
February twenty third, nineteen ninety six, just after midnight. His
37:23
last words. Really they offered nothing to his victim's family
37:26
families about remorse or anything of any value. He basically
37:29
just said, like, I don't believe in the death penalty.
37:31
I don't think it is a good example. He said, basically,
37:35
you know, the youth of America don't do what they're told.
37:38
They do what they see, and I don't think he's
37:40
entirely wrong. He also said something along the lines of,
37:44
if you're considering breaking the law, you should really think twice,
37:48
because obviously, you know, he didn't want to end up dead,
37:51
and you don't want to end up like him. He
37:54
over multiple interviews, said he was at peace with dying,
37:58
but didn't really know how he'd feel in the moment,
38:00
and he said, you know, I don't think anybody will
38:02
know until they're in that situation. I don't think I'll
38:04
know until I'm in that situation. But however, he felt
38:08
he did get to find out. February twenty second and
38:10
twenty third, his last meal consisted of two large sausage
38:16
and pepperoni pizzas, three gallons of coffee ice cream, and
38:20
either two or three six packs of Coca Cola, he
38:24
ate these alone. I'm not. I don't know how much
38:28
could you possibly eat, Like if I eat more than
38:30
a pint of ice cream, I feel like I'm gonna die.
38:33
But maybe that was the point, Like maybe he wanted
38:35
to feel so gross that it would be like a relief.
38:38
I don't know. I often wonder it's like, what is
38:41
the point of gluttony until the point of like being sick.
38:45
But in any case, Diva always from Twisted listens, she
38:49
always really enjoyed talking about the last meals of inmates
38:52
when they were put to death. So I wanted to
38:54
do this to sort of pay tribute tu Diva, because
38:57
I love her. In any case, after his death, you know,
39:00
the families tried to put their lives back together, to
39:02
varying degrees of success. But in all honesty, I think
39:05
the effects of what he did affected the families and
39:08
you know, the public at large for many, many years.
39:13
It's just really fucked up. And I also wanted to
39:15
note that, like nobody came for his body. They just
39:17
left him. They're like, we don't we don't want that.
39:20
And that's honestly, that's about it. That's the end of
39:23
the story. Is part two. I didn't have a full hour,
39:26
but I didn't want to do like an hour forty
39:28
five and I didn't want to leave anything out, so
39:30
I thought splitting the story made sense. Thanks everybody for listening.
39:34
This is a really fucked up tale. The craziest part
39:38
is that there was another freeway killer operating basically around
39:41
like the same area at the same time. There were
39:44
multiple other serial killers in this area at this time,
39:48
and so it's really crazy to me that the police
39:50
like refused to admit there was one, let alone like
39:53
multiple really says something about the time. I think, you know,
39:58
the time that we're that they were living in back then,
40:00
and how the police operated. So he got away with
40:03
a lot more than he probably should have, and hopefully
40:06
more than he than a serial killer would nowadays. You know,
40:10
we don't really hear that much about serial killers. People say, oh,
40:13
they're operating, there's fifty in the United States. It's really
40:16
not very many. It's crazy, it's terrifying. It's way too many,
40:20
but it's also not that many. And I feel like
40:24
back at this time there were like that many in California.
40:26
So I don't know what was happening back then, but
40:29
is a really fucked up case. I'm glad it's over.
40:32
I hope everybody enjoyed it. I have not chosen my
40:36
next case, but I will do so soon. You all
40:38
will know in about a week what that is. If
40:40
you guys have any requests, feel free to email True
40:43
Crime California Pod at gmail dot com. Please like, rate, review,
40:48
share with friends and family, follow us on Instagram, us
40:52
meaning me on Instagram. I'm really trying to build this up.
40:55
You know, my last podcast had a really good following,
40:58
and I'd love to get there with this one. Well,
41:00
I think it's possible. Hopefully my storytelling is interesting enough
41:04
that you all want to keep coming back. I want
41:06
to listen to more. But if there's anything you want
41:08
me to do, any cases, you want me to cover,
41:10
anything you want to hear in particular, tell me I'll
41:13
do it. I'm stoked. I'm down. And also, I am
41:16
now a part of the dark Cast Network, which I'm
41:18
super proud to be a part of. There's a really
41:22
good and popular podcast on there, so I feel like
41:24
I'm just in the best company. Check out all the
41:27
other podcasts on there, and until next week, everybody, stay safe.
41:32
Ah