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“ | I feel that the death penalty is not an answer to the problems in question. I feel that you send the wrong message to the people of this country. Young people act as they see other people acting instead of how people tell them to act. I would advise that when a person thinks of doing something serious against the law, that before doing so, he must go to a quiet place and think seriously about it. | „ |
~ William Bonin |
William George Bonin (January 8th, 1947 – February 23rd, 1996) was an American serial killer and twice-paroled sex offender,[2] who committed the rape, torture and murder of a minimum of 21 boys and young men in a series of killings between 1979 and 1980 in Southern California.
Bonin usually selected young male hitchhikers, schoolboys or, occasionally, male prostitutes as his victims. The victims, aged 12 to 19, were either enticed or forced into his Ford Econoline van, where they were overpowered and bound hand and foot with a combination of handcuffs and wire or cords. They were then sexually assaulted, extensively beaten about the face, head and genitals, and tortured before typically being killed by strangulation with their own T-shirts, although some victims were stabbed or battered to death. One victim, Darin Kendrick, was forced to drink hydrochloric acid; three victims had ice-picks driven into their ears and another victim, Mark Shelton, died of shock.
In order to minimize the chances of a potential victim escaping from his vehicle, Bonin removed all inner handles from the passenger-side and rear doors of his van, and stowed ligatures, knives, household tools and other instruments in his vehicle to facilitate the restraining and torture of his victims. The victims were usually killed inside his van before their bodies were discarded alongside or close to various freeways in southern California. In a minimum of 12 of the murders, Bonin was assisted by one or more of his four known accomplices. According to one attorney present throughout Bonin's subsequent confession, the escalating levels of brutality he had exhibited towards his victims had been similar to that of a drug addict requiring an ever-greater increase of dosage to attain a satisfactory level of euphoria, and Bonin later emphasized to neurologists he had felt an intense sense of excitement as he searched for his victims.
He is sometimes referred to as "The Freeway Killer", a nickname he shares with two other separate serial killers, Patrick Kearney and Randy Kraft. Bonin is also suspected of committing a further fifteen murders. He was convicted of 14 of these murders and subsequently executed in 1996.