Freeway Killer's chilling final words before he was executed by lethal injection
Before being executed by lethal injection for the murder of 14 boys and young men in Southern California, the notorious 'Freeway Killer' used his last words to issue a chilling warning to anyone considering following his path.
The identity of the Freeway Killer remained a mystery for over a year as more than 21 young men and boys were sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered between May 1979 and June 1980. The serial killer earned his name from his hunting grounds - the streets of Southern California, where he would find his victims before dumping their bodies along major roads and highways.
While there are at least 21 known victims, many believe there could be countless more. Most of the Freeway Killer's victims were hitchhikers or young gay men, and it's believed he had four accomplices aged between 17 and 21 who helped him commit at least a dozen of the crimes.
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Bonin arriving in court with his defence attorney William Charvet on March 12, 1982 (Getty Images)
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William Bonin was finally identified as the Freeway Killer on June 11, 1980, after police spent over a week observing him, tipped off by Bonin's co-defendant, then 17-year-old William Ray Pugh. In 1982, Bonin was sentenced to death for 10 of the murders committed across Los Angeles County. A year later, he was convicted in Orange County for another four murders, earning him a second death sentence.
He was sentenced to death on February 23, 1996, at San Quentin State Prison, the first in California to face such a fate via lethal injection. At precisely 12.09 am, the order for his execution kickstarted, and by 12.13 am, he was declared dead.
Before dying, Bonin spent his day visiting with friends. Following this, at 6 pm, he was transferred to the death watch cell, where he relished his final meal - two large pizzas filled with pepperoni and sausages, three servings of coffee-flavoured ice cream, and three six-packs of Coca Cola.
Afterwards, the warden and Catholic chaplain dropped in for a visit, and just before midnight, at 11.30 pm, he gave his last words to the warden.
"That I feel the death penalty is not an answer to the problem at hand," he said. "That I feel it sends the wrong message to the youth of the country. Young people act as they see other people acting instead of as people tell them to act.
"And I would suggest that when a person has a thought of doing anything serious against the law, that before they did, that they should go to a quiet place and think about it seriously."
The Freeway Killer's victims
Marcus Grabs, a 17-year-old German student backpacking across the US, was Bonin's first known victim. He was kidnapped in Newport Beach between 6 pm and 10 pm on August 5, 1979, by Bonin along with co-defendant Vernon Robert Butts.
He was sodomised, beaten and stabbed 77 times by the pair in a brutal attack. His naked body was found by a road in Malibu the next day, with an orange nylon cord around his head and a piece of ignition wire around one of his ankles.
On August 27, 1979, Bonin and Butts picked up 15-year-old Donald Hyden near the Gay Community Services Center in LA at 1am. His naked body was found later that morning near Liberty Canyon and the off-ramp of the Ventura Freeway. He had been strangled, stabbed and sexually assaulted, with signs of attempts to slash his throat and cut off his testicles.
Two weeks later on September 9, 17-year-old David Murillo was abducted by Bonin and Butts while cycling to the movies in La Mirada early in the morning. His naked body was found three days later on an off-ramp of the Ventura Highway. He had been sexually assaulted, strangled and his head bashed in with a tire iron.
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William Bonin (left) and Vernon Butts (right) (Bettmann Archive)The next known victim was taken months later on February 3, 1980. Early in the morning, Bonin and accomplice Gregory Matthew Miley were driving a van in West Hollywood when they picked up 15-year-old Charles Miranda. They drove several blocks away, parked up and Bonin sexually assaulted Charles, while Miley attempted to but was unable to sustain an erection. Miley took $6 from Charles, then the two men tied his feet and hands together.
Bonin strangled Charles to death, wrapping his shirt around his neck and using a jack handle to twist the shirt like a corkscrew until Charles was dead. An autopsy revealed that a blunt object had been inserted into Charles' rear. Bonin and Miley then dumped Charles' body in an alley in downtown LA before heading to Huntington Beach in search of more victims.
On the same day, they lured 12-year-old James McCabe into their van after the young boy said he was on his way to Disneyland. Bonin had sex with the child as Miley drove. The pair then assaulted the child, bearing him, strangling him with his shirt, and crushing his neck with a jack handle. After taking money from his wallet, they left his body next to a dumpster in the City of Walnut, where it was found on February 6.
Bonin's next victim was 19-year-old Ronald Gatlin, who he picked up in Van Nuys on March 14, 1980. His naked body was found the next day in Duarte, near the junction of the 210 and 605 freeways. Ronald had been sodomised and strangled with a ligature, and his body showed signs of having been beaten. He also had wounds to his neck and right ear believed to have been made by an ice pick.
In March 1980, Bonin and William Pugh picked up 14-year-old Harry Todd Turner in Hollywood. His body was found on March 25 in an alley behind a business in LA, having been beaten, violated and strangled with a ligature.
The following month, Steven Wood, 16, was accosted by Bonin and Butts in LA. His body was found the next day in an alley behind an industrial complex near the Pacific Coast Highway and Long Beach Freeway, also beaten, violated and strangled with a ligature.
Later in April, Bonin and Butts lured 19-year-old Darin Lee Kendrick into their van in a supermarket car park in Stanton. The teen had been collecting shopping trollies when he was lured into the van on the pretence of being sold drugs.
The following morning, his naked body was found in an industrial park in Carson near the Artesia Freeway. He had not only been sodomised and strangled by ligature but had also seemingly been forced to ingest chloral hydrate, leaving him with caustic chemical burns on his mouth, chin, chest and stomach. He had also suffered an ice pick through his right ear that caused a fatal wound to his upper cervical spinal cord.
On June 2, around 5.40pm, Bonin and his accomplice James Munro picked up a hitchhiker, Steven Jay Wells, 18, in Downey. After agreeing to have sex with Bonin for money, Steven allowed himself to be tied up, expecint to be paid for having sex with a friend of Bonin's.
Bonin and Munro tied Steven up, robbed him, beat him and then strangled him with his T-shirt. His body was dumped in a cardboard box and the pair drove to Butss' home with it in their van. Around 8pm, they were instructed by Butts to "drop it off somewhere". They drove to Huntington Beach where they dumped Steven's nude body near the back of a closed gas station where it was later found on June 3.
There were four more victims in Orange County, all hitchhikers who Bonin picked up in his van and strangled to death. Dennis Frank Fox, 17, was found on December 2, 1979, along the Ortego Highway about five miles east of the San Diego Freeway.
Then on March 22, 1980, the bodies of Russell Rugh, 15, and Glenn Barker, 14, were found just a few miles further east along the same road. On May 18, 1980, the body of Lawrence Sharp, 17, was found in a rubbish bin behind a service station in Westminster.
Vernon Robert Butts committed suicide while at LA County Jail, Gregory Matthew Miley was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. William Ray Pugh was sentenced to voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to six years, while James Michael Munro was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life.
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