William Bonin, The Freeway Killer
William George Bonin, also known as the Freeway Killer, was an American serial killer and rapist. Bonin raped, tortured and murder a minimum of 21 boys and young men betwen 1979 and 1980 in California although he is suspected to have killed many more.
Born to alcoholic parents, Bonin’s father was abusive and a compulsive gambler. Bonin and his siblings were often placed in the care of their grandfather, a convicted child molester. In 1953, Bonin’s mother sent her sons to an orphanage in an attempt to protect them from their father’s physical violence towards them. The orphanage was known for its severe discipline and abusive punishments. At age 10, Bonin was arrested for stealing license plates and sent to a detention centre, he was physically and sexually abused there before moving back home to his parents’ address. While living with them, Bonin is known to have molested his younger brother and other neighbourhood children. After graduating from high school Bonin served as an aerial gunner in the Vietnam war, an experience he claimed led him to believe that human life is overvalued. Bonin was honourably discharged from the Air Force in 1968.
In 1968 Bonin began to sexually assault youths, bounding and restraining them before raping them and torturing them. In 1969, Bonin was arrested and charged with 5 counts of kidnapping four counts of sodomy, one count of oral copulation, and one count of child molestation against the five youths he had abducted and assaulted. He was sent to a mental hospital and then later sent to prison, declared unsuitable for treatment due to raping other inmates. In June 1974 he was released from prison.
In September 1974, Bonin raped and beat and 14-year-old boy, he began to strangle the boy before apologising and driving him home. Bonin was arrested again and released in 1978.
In 1979 Bonin began murdering his victims. Bonin’s usual victims were hitchhikers or schoolboys aged 12 to 19 who he forced into his van and overpowered. The victims would then be bound, raped and beaten before being tortured, and usually, strangled although some victims were stabbed or battered to death. Some victims had their genitals removed. One victim was forced to drink hydrochloric acid and three had ice picks driven into their ears. Victims were brutalised and beaten horrifically, often showing extensive trauma to their faces and genitals. Their bodies were then discarded along various freeways leading to the killer being known as the ‘Freeway Killer.’ Bonin was known to have had four known accomplices.
Detectives became suspicious of Bonin and put him under surveillance. On the same day the surveillance began, Bonin bound, raped, beat and murdered an 18 year old shop worker and discarded the body. 9 days later Bonin was seen attempting to lure victims into his van before successfully picking up one. Police followed the van until it parked in a desolate parking lot close to a freeway, officers approached the van and forced their way in, discovering Bonin in the act of raping the bound and handcuffed teenager. Bonin was charged with rape and held on suspicious of murder. Inspection of his vehicle showed restraining devices and extensive bloodstains. Inside the glovebox investigators found a scrapbook of newspaper clippings related to the murders.
Although initially denying involvement, after reviewing a letter from a victim’s mother Bonin began to confess to abducting, raping and murdering 21 boys and young men. He did not express remorse but did claim to be embarrassed and regret being caught, he later claimed when asked if he would still be doing it if un-apprehended, "I'd still be killing, I couldn't stop killing. It got easier with each one we did." Bonin was linked to many of the murders by semen stains, carpet fibers, hair samples and blood work. Bonin’s method of strangulation was also referred to as unique and a signature.
Bonin was sentenced to death, with the judge commenting that ‘He (Bonin) had a total disregard for the sanctity of human life and a civilised society. Sadistic, unbelievably cruel, senseless and deliberately premeditated. Guilty beyond any possible or imaginary doubt
Bonin spent 14 years on death row before being executed by lethal injection in 1996.
