William Bonin
| William Bonin | |
|---|---|
Mug shot in 1980
|
|
| Born |
William George Bonin January 8, 1947 Willimantic, Connecticut, United States |
| Died | February 23, 1996 (aged 49) San Quentin, California, United States |
| Cause of death | Lethal injection |
| Other names | The Freeway Killer |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Conviction(s) |
First-degree murder Robbery Sodomy Mayhem |
| Killings | |
| Victims | 21–36+ |
|
Span of killings
|
May 28, 1979–June 2, 1980 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | California |
|
Date apprehended
|
June 11, 1980 |
William George Bonin (January 8, 1947 – February 23, 1996) was an American serial killer and twice-paroled sex offender, also known as the Freeway Killer, who committed the rape, torture and murder of a minimum of 21 boys and young men in a series of killings in 1979 and 1980 in southern California. Bonin is also suspected of committing a further fifteen murders.
Described by the prosecutor at his first trial as "the most arch-evil person who ever existed", Bonin was convicted of 14 of the murders linked to the "Freeway Killer" in two separate trials in 1982 and 1983. He spent 14 years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison on February 23, 1996.
Bonin became known as the "Freeway Killer" due to the fact that the majority of his victims' bodies were discovered alongside numerous freeways in southern California. He shares this epithet with two separate and unrelated serial killers: Patrick Kearney and Randy Steven Kraft.
Bonin was born in Connecticut in January 1947, the second of three brothers born to Robert and Alice Bonin. Both of Bonin's parents were alcoholics, and his father was a compulsive gambler who was physically abusive towards both his wife and children. Bonin and his brothers were severely neglected as children, and were often fed and clothed by sympathetic neighbors. In addition, the brothers were often placed in the care of their grandfather, a convicted child molester who had molested Bonin's mother when she had been a child and adolescent, and who is known to have sexually abused his three grandsons.
In 1953, Bonin's mother placed her sons in an orphanage in an effort to protect her children from their father's physical violence. This establishment was known to severely discipline the children it housed for both minor and major breaches of conduct, with the punishments administered including severe beatings, enduring various stress positions, and partial drowning in sinks filled with water. Although Bonin later freely discussed many aspects of his childhood and adolescence, he refused to discuss his memories of being housed within this establishment beyond divulging that he consented to sexual advances from older males only if his abuser would first tie his (Bonin's) hands behind his back. He was to remain at this orphanage until the age of 9, when he returned to live with his parents in the town of Mansfield.
...
Wikipedia