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Downey truck driver William Bonin, dubbed the Freeway Strangler or the Freeway Killer, murdered at least 21 boys and men between 1979 and 1980. People believe there were many more victims unaccounted for. Bonin was sentenced to death and executed after he confessed to r*ping, torturing, and murdering 21 victims.
A large majority of his victims were hitchhikers and young gay men. Given the lack of modern technology at the time, the case took a great deal of effort from the authorities involved, who labored assiduously to identify the culprit as the victims multiplied. However, this case was different on one count: Unlike other serial killers, the Freeway Killer had accomplices.
Four decades later, ID's The Freeway Killer: Lost Murder Tapes will disclose never-before-heard interviews with the killer. It premieres on Sunday, October 23 at 9 pm ET.
Freeway Killer William Bonin's formative years were extremely challenging
William Bonin grew up in a troubled household, and was reportedly a victim of child abuse. He was born in Connecticut in 1947 and was the middle child of the family. Essentially raised by his grandfather, who himself was a convicted child molester, Bonin grew up around an alcoholic father and a mother who was absent for most of his growing years.
When he was only eight years old, he left his home and was detained for juvenile offenses after he got caught stealing license plates. Bonin is said to have been s*xually molested by older teenage boys while he was being held in a detention facility.
He joined the U.S. Airforce in 1965 and was deployed in the Vietnam War as a helicopter gunner. Sources state that during his time in the military, Bonin assaulted two men who were under his command. Following the war, he got married, divorced, and eventually moved to California.
In 1969, when he was 22 years old, he was detained in a South Bay neighborhood on suspicion of s*xually abusing five minors. As a result, he was imprisoned for more than five years.
After his release, he s*xually assaulted a fourteen-year-old boy named David McVicker in 1975 and was sent to prison for another four years right away. Following his release in 1978, he relocated to Downey and got a job as a truck driver.
The horrific series of killings carried out by the Freeway Killer
In 1979, William Bonin began murdering his teenage victims. He had accomplices who helped him commit these murders, namely Vernon Butts, Gregory Miley, James Munro, and William Pugh, all of whom he met after moving to Downey.
Marcus Grabs, 17, was a German exchange student. On August 5, 1979, Marcus was last spotted hitchhiking along the Pacific Coast Highway and a few days later, his naked, brutally stabbed and strangled body was discovered in Malibu Canyon.
Donald Hyden, 15, was found dead and dismembered in the garbage on August 27, 1979. Reports stated that he was r*ped, strangled, and his neck was sliced open.
David Murillo, 17, who went missing on September 9 that same year, was found murdered in a similar manner. His brutally r*ped and mutilated body was discovered three days later.
Many of Bonin's victims were young boys. Such was the case of 12-year-old James McCabe, who was kidnapped, beaten and strangled in March 1980. His body was then left in a dumpster. Reports state that Bonin used his victims' own T-shirts to strangle them.
The Freeway Killer's murder spree continued until authorities identified one of William Bonin's partners, William Pugh, who admitted to the crime but claimed to have just been a witness to the killings. After acquiring these disconcerting confessions, authorities were compelled to immediately put Bonin under observation.
William Bonin was apprehended in June 1980. Not only was he found in the possession of evidence linking him to every death, he also had a large scrapbook of news articles about the Freeway Killer.
In November 1981, he was pronounced guilty and given the death penalty. He became the first person to be executed by lethal injection in California.
The Freeway Killer: lost Murder Tapes airs on ID this Sunday.
