The most notoriouskillers hide in plain sight,
free to kill, and kill again.
But most are not the criminalmasterminds of fiction.
In their minds, theycommit the perfect murder.
In reality, it's their foolishmistakes that get them caught.
California, 1979.
The Sunshine State looks like heaven on earth.
It's almost tempting to speculate,
but it's rather like the movie Jaws.
This is a place of sunshine, and tourists,
and happiness, and surfing,and the ocean, and stuff.
But a nightmare is unfolding.
Suddenly, there was a bodyturning up on a weekly basis--
almost a daily basis.
Behind this sunnyfacade is a lurking horror.
Throughout the 70s, motorists have
been discovering deadbodies dumped on the side
of California's freeways.
One investigator of theseseemingly unconnected killings
is Bernie Esposito.
This was becoming, you know,a weekly, biweekly thing.
So there was a great deal ofurgency in trying to find out
who was committing these acts.
The police arepuzzled by the sheer number
of dead bodies.
During the 70s, over 100 corpses are found
dumped by the state freeways.
For crime writer Mark Billingham,
the body count should ring alarm bells.
Even though bodies were beingfound every couple of days,
the local law enforcementwere kind of--
they were in denial as well.
But you know--
There were a couple of newspaperjournalists that kind of went,
Hello!
Serial killers on the loose!
And the police were then kindof going, la, la, la, la, la!
You know, let's all go surfing!
No one knows ifit is one killer, or many.
There's no question that Southern
California, at that time,was Serial Killer Central.
I mean, we now know that there were
at least three different serialkillers operating in that area.
Perhaps more.
But the media givethe faceless predator a name--
The Freeway Killer.
In many cases, the victimsare young men or boys.
Tension rises on the streets.
It seems no young male is safe.
Psychologist Vonda Pelto remembers the fear
across the Sunshine State.
Parents were fearful ofletting their kids outside,
particularly young boys.
And there was just a thick layerof horror all over the area.
Whoever The Freeway Killer is,
he's just getting started.
Many more will die.
On March the 22nd, 1979, apattern begins to emerge.
We received a call of twoyoung bodies that were dumped
in the Ronald Casper's park.
Forensic pathologist Jimmy White,
has the gruesome task of examining the bodies.
There were signs of sexualactivity on the victims,
if not necessarily semen.
There might have been, you know, rectal damage.
That sort of thing.
Examination of the two bodies
reveals disturbing facts.
Both were teenagers, and both, it appeared,
had been tortured andmurdered by the same killer.
By Spring 1980, several more young male victims
turn up with similar injuries.
These bodies strike a real similarity.
There are some common denominators here
that we can't ignore.
These were murders that you knew were
committed by a serial killer.
A predator witha taste for teenage boys.
Esposito and his team haveto find the killer fast.
We had felt a real sense of urgency
to try to capture this individual,
because the bodies wereshowing up at an alarming rate.
For Esposito,catching the killer is not
just a professional concern.
It is deeply personal.
At the time, my own son wasapproximately the same age,
same physical descriptionof these particular victims
that were being dumped allover Southern California.
So I had a particular interest in trying
to capture this individual.
Police teams fromtwo different jurisdictions
make the case a priority, but the body
count continues to rise.
There's so many bodies thatquite honestly what happens
is they start to bleed intoone another, so to speak.
Between August 1979 and May 1980,
13 more victims with similar injuries
are found dead on the roadside.
On the 29th of May 1980, theLAPD make a breakthrough--
17-year-old Billy Pugh is in custody.
He's arrested for a minor theft, but he
offers the police information in return
for favorable treatment--
information on The Freeway Killer.
Obviously, there's a degreeof skepticism on behalf
of the police, but it quickly becomes clear
that he's able to give themall sorts of details that would
be unknown to anybody else.
He claims to havebeen recruited as an accomplice
by the killer.
So Billy Pugh is able to say to the police,
if you let me off, I can tellyou who The Freeway Killer is.
Pugh gives them a name--
William Bonin.
Billy Pugh startedtelling his juvenile hall
counselor that he had accepteda ride from William Bonin.
And he opened the glovebox of William Bonin's van,
and he found all of thesearticles that were collected
on The Freeway Killings, that were appearing
in all of the newspapers.
They have a name,but they also have a problem.
Because Pugh is anaccomplice, his talk is cheap.
What we had was just some information
that was uncorroborated.
You need somecorroboration for evidence
that you know is going to be tested in court.
Testimony of an accomplicehas to be corroborated.
The police need hard evidence.
They begin surveillance of Bonin.
We took turns surveilling Bill Bonin.
LAPD took a shift.
LA Sheriff took a shift.
We took a shift.
So it was a continual thing where we had him
under surveillance for days.
After nine dayswith nothing to report,
Bonin suddenly becomesactive on the 11th of June.
The detectives witness what could only
be described as a nightmare.
They watch him cruising around in his van trying
to pick up young men and boys.
And he tries to pick up five different boys.
And the police watch and wait.
And they have to wait.
They can only break cover
when they are sure to catch him in the midst
of committing a crime.
Suddenly, after five failed attempts
to lure young men intohis van, a 15-year-old boy
accepts his invitation.
He picked up a youngkid on one of the streets
in Hollywood.
Got him into the van.
Pulled into a closed service station.
The police are on a knife edge.
If they leap too soon,they jeopardize the case.
If they wait too long, a boy may die.
LAPD crept up on the van, and they can hear
this kid crying inside the van.
They believe Bonincould be The Freeway Killer,
but in trying to get evidence against him,
there is a risk a childmay get hurt or even die.
As the police approach thevan where William Bonin is
attacking a 15-year-old, it isclear that they must act now
or the boy will die.
They couldn't let it go on any further.
You know, it was time to move.
Before he killed the kid,he was in the process
of tying the kid up, when LAPD,you know, knocked on the door.
The scene revealedinside the van is horrific.
The boy who was raped by Boninis lucky to escape his life.
They took the kid to safety.
Arrested Bill Bonin.
So at that point, we hadthe van in police custody.
The van is a mobile torture chamber
fitted out with everything Bonin might
need for a gruesome attack.
So that's when we obtaineda search warrant for the van,
so that we could legitimately examine
that van for forensic evidence.
The forensic team begin their work.
They know that tying Boninto the freeway murders
depends on robust evidence.
We did find some blood evidence in the van.
I'm not sure which victimsthe blood was associated with,
but I do remember there being blood in the van.
As forensics continue, Bonin
is questioned by the police.
He does not react like your average killer.
He appears proud of what he's done.
To the detective's amazement,he wants to share the story
of his revolting crimes.
He very much wanted to tellyou about his escapades--
about his conquests.
Bill Bonin would like youto think how smart he was.
Bonin is also assigned a counselor--
Vonda Pelto.
Over her career at LA County Men's Prison,
she has been an agony aunt to people
like Charles Manson and Ted Bundy.
My main job in the jail was tokeep these high profile killers
from killing themselves.
And so it was not analysis.
It wasn't psychotherapy.
It was like friendly chats.
And they would come, and they would
say, hey Doc, how about a hotcup of coffee and a cookie?
And I'd say, sure, come on in.
In the flesh, Bonin is approachable--
even appealing.
He was very smooth, soft spoken.
He didn't look anythinglike a serial killer would.
A nice, nice fellow to sitand chat about the weather.
Just plumb nice fellow that William Bonin.
But Bonin's tales will take
their toll on Pelto's psyche.
The whole time that he wastelling me of his killing,
I thought I was going to throw up.
I was having a very difficulttime listening to this.
He was telling me this story like you
might read a story to a child.
With relish, Bonin begins
his tale of a fateful encounterwith a man named Vernon Butts.
Vernon Butts was into blackmagic, Dungeons & Dragons,
things of that nature-- and just generally
a pretty deranged individual.
Bonin meetsButts at a party in 1978.
They immediately hit it off.
Allegedly, Bonin and Butts were
lovers, which is, you know, how they
cemented their relationship.
And at one point, again, allegedly,
Bonin watched Butts having sexwith another man in his house.
But there is more totheir relationship than sex.
Bonin makes a dark proposal to Butts.
And Bill said, you know, whatwould you think about picking
up somebody and killing them?
And Butts said, yeah, I could go for that.
So that's how this whole spree got started.
The duo head out in Bonin's van
onto the freeways of California.
They obviously had, you know, some very strange
tastes anyway.
And I think there was a degreeto which they were just pushing
the envelope, and trying to get a bigger thrill,
and a bigger thrill, and a darker thrill.
And it got very out of hand.
August 5th, 1979.
A 17-year-old German holidaymaker
thinks he's in luck.
They picked up their first victim--
who was hitchhiking at anon-ramp to the freeway.
And he said to me, you know Doc,
I got up feeling OK that morning.
And then after a while, mymother really began to bug me.
I began to feel really agitated.
So I thought I'd drive down to Laguna Beach.
And he said, I just happenedto see this kid hitchhiking,
and all of a sudden, I felt really horny.
The boy climbs into the van,
but things take a turnthat he wasn't expecting.
As Butts looks on, Bonin overpowers and rapes
the hitchhiker.
Then Bonin draws a knife.
Bonin said that he's startedrubbing the knife up and down,
marks his smooth skin.
And then he said to the boy,I think I'm going to kill you.
And the boy at first thoughtthat Bill was kidding.
And he said, no, come on,you're not going to do that.
And then he stuck the boy with it.
As he is attacked,the boy puts up a fight.
Bonin goes into a frenzy.
Bill said, I panicked.
He said, I just kept stabbing and stabbing.
The boy is stabbed 77 times.
This murder is the start ofa horrific killing spree.
Six months later, and withmore murders to his name,
he is cruising the streets witha newly recruited accomplice--
19-year-old Gregory Miley.
Bonin said, let's gopick up a kid and kill him.
And Miley was excited about the idea.
James McCabe is only 12 years old,
and is making his way to Disneyland.
He had his money in his pocket,
all excited, and he could easilytake the bus to Disneyland
without a problem.
But Bonin'sfriendly offer of a free ride
is hard to resist.
When Bonin was driving out to a secluded place,
Miley was with the boy.
And the boy started saying, hey,this doesn't look like the way
to Disneyland.
The boy realizessomething is terribly wrong.
The van is not going to Disneyland.
But Miley said, yeah,we're just going to go out
and party a little while, and then
we're going to take you right to Disneyland.
But the child neverreaches the Magic Kingdom.
Despite the 12-year-old'sdesperate pleas,
he is raped and murdered in the back of the van.
Miley said, I knew we weren't going
to take him to Disneyland.
Into the Springof 1980, Bonin partners
up with up to four different accomplices,
who participate in a spree ofincreasingly sadistic murders.
His 13th victim endures a horrific death.
After being raped and beaten, he is forced
to drink a caustic chemical.
Then, he is subjected to unusually cruel abuse
by Bonin and Butts.
They were testing to seeif the victim was dead.
So Vernon Butts hadbrought along an ice pick.
So they took the ice pick,and they stuck it up his nose
and into his brain, to see whether or not
they got any movement.
Another one, they took athey took a wire coat hanger,
and shoved it through his ear, and tried to poke
it out through the other ear.
Bonin's murder rampageis indiscriminate, violent,
and prolific, but at the same time,
he succeeds in remaining under the police radar.
But soon his predilectionfor young, easily
led accomplices will prove tobe the fatal flaw in his plan.
He had this sense of being the boss.
And that was his littlegroup-- his little crime ring,
you know.
And he manipulated thoseindividuals into, you know,
helping him to commit these particular crimes.
March 1980.
Bonin has just committed amurder with his new accomplice
Billy Pugh.
But two months later, Pugh is arrested.
It was all such a good plan,that Bonin would go around
and recruit this series ofmen that would help him,
that would help him kill.
It would help him dispose of the bodies.
But of course long termit is not a good strategy.
And it ended up being his undoing
when Billy Pugh was arrestedfor something very trivial,
like stealing a bike.
He was able to say to thepolice, hang on a minute,
I think I know who might be your Freeway Killer,
because, you know, heknew very well that Bonin
was doing these things.
And so as soon as he was facedwith incarceration himself,
was able to drop the dime on Bonin.
But Bonin is notarrested straight away.
Instead, he's put under policesurveillance in an attempt
to obtain evidence.
The strange thing that Bill knew
that the surveillance was out there,
and that it was like a joke.
But despite this, Bonin's thirst
for sex and death still needs to be quenched.
2nd of June 1980--
10 months after the first murder--
18-year-old Steven Wellsis waiting at a bus stop.
Unfortunately for Wells, heaccepts a ride from Bonin
and another recruit, James Monroe.
Now, clearly this surveillancewas not all-encompassing,
because while still under surveillance,
Bonin, together with James Monroe,
was able to kill Stephen Wells.
In a change to the usual pattern,
Bonin takes Wells back to his parents' house.
There the boy is raped, beaten, and strangled
with his own t-shirt.
They put his body into the back of the van,
and they drive to Butts' house.
Butts-- a fantasist, who loves to dress
up as film characters--
opens the door in costume.
They took Butts out to the van to show
him the boy who is dead inthe back of the van, hog-tied.
And Butts said to them, wow, you guys
really did a good one tonight.
To me this smacks of kind of showing off.
It's like a cat bringing amouse in, you know, to show you.
They want to show Butts what they'd done.
After showing his killto Bonin's closest accomplice
and some-time lover, Bonin and Monroe
manage to evade the police surveillance,
and dump the body.
With $10 looted from Wells' corpse,
they stop off to buy hamburgers.
Bonin feels untouchable, buthis luck is about to run out.
So nine days after the murder of Steven Wells,
the police are still watching Bonin.
And they watch himcruising around in his van.
He tries to pick up five different boys.
Eventually, he does succeed in getting
a boy into the back of the van,and the police watch and wait.
So having listened for a while,they burst in, and caught Bonin
in the act of raping this kid.
In custody, Bonin will shock
hardened policemen with the savage story
of his killing spree.
But this is just talk.
The police need to tie Bonin to the murders
through cold, hard evidence.
William Bonin has been caughtin the act of raping a teenager,
but to nail him for murder, the police
still have a mountain to climb.
Under interrogation, Bonin bragsabout his skill as a killer.
Bill Bonin would like youto think how smart he was,
because he would tell you aboutthe things he did to get rid
of evidence--
how he would get rid of clothing,
how he would get rid of identification,
how he spoke with Butts assuring him
that we couldn't get fingerprints off
of a dead body.
Forensic teams had been
collecting evidence from bodies dumped
over the last nine months.
This evidence is needed toback up the eyewitness accounts
of Bonin's accomplices.
Jimmy White was the forensics expert
for Orange County at the time.
I would get called out to crime scenes
to help the homicide investigation
program in Orange County.
Central to White's analysis
is a search for fibers on the victim's bodies
that might tie them to the killer.
As White analyzes forensicsfrom each crime scene,
he sees the same fiber crop up again and again.
The thing that became readily apparent,
were the presence of these greencarpet fibers on the bodies.
Forensic teams fromother police departments comb
bodies for clues.
They, too, find fibers.
We brought our evidence, andit became apparent they we're
all looking at the same thing.
The fiber size was same, shape was the same.
If, Forensics can findwhere these fibers are from,
they can be used as apowerful piece of evidence.
And eventually, investigatorswere able to trace the whole
history of the carpet-- where it was manufactured,
and all that sort of thing.
Forensics kneweverything about the carpet,
but had no one to link itto until Bonin was arrested.
Jimmy White arrives at the scene of Bonin's arrest.
When he enters the van, the penny drops.
If you want an "a-ha" moment, you know,
you open the back door ofthis van, and there's this
variegated green carpet.
On the floor of Bonin's van,
where so many innocent boyshad been attacked and killed,
is a green carpet.
The fibers are examined in minute detail.
And we got the carpet.
And we determined as much aswe could just through our crime
lab's investigation of thecarpet, that those fibers did,
in fact, come from his van.
The fibers tied Bonin and his van
to a number of victims.
Realizing the game is up, Bonin shops
his lover and some-timesaccomplice Butts to the police.
We went to his home armed with a search warrant,
and we knocked on Vernon's door.
And Vernon came to thedoor, and he was completely
dressed as Darth Vader.
We had a forensic team withus when we searched the house
for evidence, and one of the criminalists
went into the bathing area, andsprayed what we call luminol.
And luminol is a substancethat will fluoresce blood.
The luminol revealsthat Butts' bathroom has
been doubling as an abattoir.
And one of the criminalistscame out, and summoned us,
and said, come here, you guysprobably ought to look at this.
So we went into the bedroom area,
and it had been a bloody homicide scene.
And he tried to clean up the shower,
but blood still remained.
Butts is arrested.
He confesses to being Bonin's accomplice.
Bonin's need to share hissadistic appetites with others
will now work against him.
His accomplices have now becomewitnesses to the murders.
Out of the accomplices thathelped William Bonin, Butts was
probably the most vicious, and probably
had a little bit more sophistication
than the other individuals.
Butts was not easily manipulated.
He was a very, very willing participant.
And he was very, very vicious in participating
in these particular crimes.
Butts is forthcoming, showing
the police the locations of many of the bodies.
The case against Bonin becomes stronger,
with eyewitness statementsfrom former accomplices
like Monroe, Miley, and Pughto back up the forensics.
Billy Pugh actuallyaccompanied him on a homicide.
He's trying to ingratiatehimself to his juvenile hall
counselor and all of that sort of stuff,
so that he could get a gooddeal and get out of there early.
And pretty soon, he got himself into a situation
where he was admitting thathe was part of a homicide.
On the eve of thetrial, the case against Bonin
is coming together.
The prosecution has the greencarpet fibers from the van,
blood in the house, thetestimony of accomplices,
and even a confession from Bonin himself.
But as yet, there was no explanation
as to why a single man couldclaim to kill so many victims.
As William Bonin faces intense scrutiny
for a succession of horrific murders,
his life story is analyzed.
Violence and loneliness forms the backdrop
of Bonin's young life.
The father went off to war.
And when he returned, he was angry.
His mother wasn't really ableto give Bonin or his brothers
the loving and nurturing that they needed.
Bernie Espositois wary of laying
the blame for Bonin's crimesat the feet of others.
He came from a very dysfunctional home.
But on the other hand, I don't happen
to be one of thoseindividuals that believes
that an abusive home necessarilyresults in everybody being, you
know, a killer, a murderer, a monster of some sort,
that preys on others.
As a matter of fact, I feel the opposite.
But according tocriminal psychologist David
Holmes, Bonin's upbringingcould have allowed
his dark side to flourish.
Bonin's childhood was almost feral.
He was almost having to bring himself up.
It's a good atmosphere fordeveloping someone, who perhaps
already has inbred psychopathic tendencies,
to learn to cope with the world by being
aggressive back towards it.
To escape his terrible home life,
the 7-year-old Bonin turns to crime.
He was stealinghubcaps and little items,
and his parents couldn't handle him.
And so the thing they did-- they had him
put in a boy's detention home.
Here, Bonin becomesa victim of sexual abuse,
and a grim pattern begins.
And he was only there a few months,
but while he was there in this detention home,
he was raped by a 13-year-old.
When he returned home, he beganto rape his younger brother.
Eventually, theabuse of the younger child
is revealed.
The parents solution only makes things worse.
They put them into a Catholic orphanage,
where they spent about a year and a half.
During that time, Bill was seduced by a priest
who came to the orphanage.
By almost any standards,Bonin had an extremely dark,
unhappy, and abusive childhood.
So his entire childhood, he's pretty much
defined by violence and abuse.
After a dark and twisted adolescence,
Bonin is caught up in the conflict
that defines his generation--
The Vietnam War.
He serves over 700 hours, andis commended for his actions.
Bonin's 700 hours as a gunner in Vietnam,
will have taught him many lessons.
He could kill in this situation with impunity.
His desensitization to the process of killing
will have been well grounded in this
intense and repeated activity.
For Holmes, Vietnam might have
made him even more dangerous.
They would have trained him in the idea
that you don't get emotionally involved.
It was just simply a learning experience,
and showed him how easy itwas to take a life away.
And he was honorably discharged,
which is interesting, becauseduring his time in the service,
he raped several other men.
The rapes don'tcome to light until many years
later.
On his return to California,he is still an unknown threat.
Within a year of his return, he's
arrested for sexual offensesagainst five young boys.
But instead of prison, he is sent to Atascadero
Psychiatric Hospital.
He was interviewed by two psychiatrists,
and the psychiatrists gavehim the label of mentally
disordered sexual offender.
Five years later,Bonin is considered to be no
longer a threat, and released.
The following year, he attacks again.
The victim-- 15-year-old David McVickers.
David McVickers had beenbrutalized, sodomized,
sexually assaulted, in avery, very violent manner,
by William Bonin.
After Bonin was finished,Bonin released him.
McVickers shopsBonin to the police.
Bonin is charged, convicted,and he is sent to prison,
where he spends a year.
As he walks out of prison,he says to an accomplice,
this is the last time thisis ever going to happen.
It's at that point he makes adecision that he's not going
to leave anybody else alive.
True to hisword, Bonin goes on to rape
and kill at a terrifying rate.
For Holmes, Bonin's compulsive and addictive behavior
could have a genetic origin.
He inherited compulsiveand alcoholic tendencies.
This was evident in his father's alcoholism.
But in him, it was more expressive in this kind
of addicted frenzy of killing,he could not really control.
And he combines this killing
with an unusual exhibitionist streak--
a need for an audience.
He was very proud of what he did.
He expected older people toalmost share in his delight.
And he was very quick to kind of admit
to crimes when he was caught.
Bonin is a killer who wants
to be noticed andrespected, but his audience,
for the most part, are young boys
inferior to him in some way--
younger, less intelligent, gullible.
Apart from Butts.
He was a lover, and an equal.
And that made him dangerous.
It's a strange and twined relationship
between Bonin and Butts.
Either could have beencapable of killing the other.
Therefore, in a way, Bonin and Butts
were bonded in this kind of alliance--
this bizarre alliance--
of almost like two scorpionsbacking off from each other.
But prison woulddrive a wedge between the two,
and one of them would take his own life
rather than face the full force of justice.
When they are both takeninto custody pending trial,
William Bonin proves himself to be tougher
than his accomplice Vernon Butts.
Butts, at the first opportunity,
would actually kill himself in prison,
and escape all consequences.
Butts' suicide leavesBonin to face the music alone.
Bonin would have felt acertain amount of desertion,
but I think, at that point in time,
he was happy to relish in anykind of limelight that he had.
Alone, in custody, Bonin
continues to open up his twistedpsyche to the authorities.
For Holmes, this enables him to piece
together a motivation behind theapparently senseless killings.
He was a hedonistic serial killer,
but with almost frenzied, compulsive,
traits that meant he could notreally stop what he started.
Basically, had no restraints,and required more, and more,
and more.
What began as pedophilia,
morphed into something more stark and deadly.
Bonin admitted to himselfthat the thing he wanted most
was just the power over life and death--
that he liked the ideathat he could see the life
draining out of these kids.
Even in custody, it's an experience
he retells to those around him.
Holmes believes that Boninthought the experience
was something to be shared.
He imagined that otherpeople would also enjoy this,
but just simply daren't do it.
He imagined that other people would share in this joy,
and he was telling peopleendlessly what he'd done.
If his only way of gaining pleasure
was to actually relive these experiences
by telling them to others,then that is what he would do.
In the state of California,
Bonin's repeated confessions,alongside forensics
linking him to the murder scenes,
could only have one conclusion.
Bonin's activities as a sadistic serial killer
were certain to draw the death penalty.
Bonin is sentenced todeath on 14 counts of murder.
He is to be executed by lethal injection.
I asked Bill directly--
do you think that if you hadn't gotten caught,
would you have stopped?
And he said, no, I couldn't.
He said, I would still be killing
if I had not got caught.
And I tried to figureout, could have therapist
done something different?
And I don't believe anything would have changed him.
Not meds, not therapy, not shock treatment.
Nothing.
He was a killer.
Despite the penalty, Bonin
continues to hold out for a stay of execution,
but his appeals are unsuccessful.
On the 23rd of February, 1996, he
becomes the first to beexecuted by lethal injection
in California.
But Bonin's death is not the end.
Bonin accounted for the murdersof 14 young men and boys,
bringing some closure for their families.
But Esposito suspects thatthis is not the full story.
He had literally dumpedbodies all over the place.
And Bill Bonin suggested tous, without giving us any names
or details, that, you know, he was a truck driver,
and he would pick uphitchhikers in various parts
of the country.
Bonin never gave up any more
information on his involvementin further unsolved cases.
So, I'm sure, in my own mind,that there are more victims
that we have no idea wherethey are, who they are,
or how they died, or where they were dumped.
But I'm sure there's others.