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American serial killer William Bonin was active between May 1979 and June 1980. Popularly known as the Freeway Killer, he left his victims on major highways and roads. His primary victims included male prostitutes, schoolboys, and hitchhikers whom he invited into a 1972 Ford Van and held hostage. Oxygen reported that he was assisted by four other accomplices who helped him execute his crimes.
The bodies of all his victims and the people he was additionally accused of killing were found dumped on roads and freeways. He was also assisted by four young men aged between 17 and 21. The cause of death in a majority of the victims was strangulation, which led William Bonin to be called the Freeway Strangler.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Bonin was a victim of neglect and physical abuse, which his alcoholic father perpetrated, as his parents abandoned him and his two brothers for long periods. They were allegedly taken care of by their maternal grandfather, who was a convicted pedophile and is believed to have molested Bonin. However, when he turned six, William Bonin was sent to a Catholic school, where he stayed for three years.
In 1961, after Bonin’s family moved to Downey, California, he began to commit his first crimes by allegedly molesting his younger brother. Much later, William Bonin began serving as an aerial gunner in the Vietnam War. He was widely commended for his service and for risking his life to protect fellow soldiers. An investigation that was held years later proved that he had assaulted his subordinates during his service, according to Oxygen.
What was William Bonin convicted of?
In 1969, William Bonin was convicted for the first time. He was arrested for assaulting five boys between the ages of 12 and 18. Bonin pleaded guilty to several offenses, including kidnapping and molestation. He was found to have multiple mental disorders. Bonin was sentenced to prison but was released in 1978 when he found a job as a truck driver. In the two years that followed, Bonin would lure in young teenage boys and commit kidnaps, rapes, and murders. As of now, many of his victims remain undetermined.
William Bonin was convicted of sexually assaulting, torturing, and murdering 14 teenage boys in 1979 and 1980, as per the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was additionally accused of at least 15 more murders but was never prosecuted for them. In 1982, William Bonin was sentenced to death for 10 murders in Los Angeles. While on death row, he was once again convicted of four murders in Orange County.
He was executed on February 23, 1996, at the San Quentin State Prison in an execution chamber. Bonin reportedly had a last meal comprising two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three six-packs of Coca-Cola, and three pints of coffee ice cream, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was 49 when he was executed.
The Freeway Killer: Lost Murder Tapes is a 2022 ID special about the crimes of the deadly Freeway Killer who haunted the streets of California during 1979 and 1980. It premiered on Investigative Discovery on October 23, 2022.
