William Bonin

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Family

American homicide; convicted of sex crimes and the rape of young boys from 1969. The son of a drunken, gambling dad and a domineering mom, he was first sent to detention at the age of ten, where he was raped by an adult male. Outside of a short stint in the Army, he spent most of his time in mental hospitals and prison from 1969 on sex charges, including the rape of two young boys. Released in 1978, he met Vernon Butts the following year. In late 7/1979, he and Butts picked up a hitchhiking boy; both of the men sodomized him. In addition, Butts held him down while Bonin strangled him with his undershirt in a tourniquet that was twisted by a tire iron. In their macabre career, they executed various mutilations and tortures upon victims, such as slicing off pieces, pouring acid down a boy's throat, jamming an ice pick into the ear, placing wire into the rectum and multiple stabbings. They threw bodies off freeway ramps in Los Angeles and Orange counties, which caused them to gain the nickname of the "Freeway Killers." Short and strongly built with a pudgy face, Bonin worked as a truck driver. He bragged that he killed 21 people, and he eagerly watched the news for reports of his work. He was picked up on suspicion, and, at one time, shared the same holding cell as Angelo Buono. Bonin was given the death sentence on 3/12/1982 and executed on 2/23/1996. Butts hanged himself in jail. Link to Wikipedia biography