On this crossover episode, I join Debby on her podcast, True Crime University, to provide some voiceover work in the role of William Bonin as Debby schools us on the Freeway Killer!!
Executive Producers for this episode are Christine Rivera, Beth Davis, Dusty Jay Hicks, and Terri Burke-Wolin.
Associate Producers are Paul Hodge, Tara Mazur, Shantal Daggett, Jay from Fright Flick FMK, Cherise Webb, Kori Cribbs, Donny Blake and Jared Rhodes.
Producers are JD, Trent Gobble, Devin Dean, Ashlee OâConnor, Lissa Porrello, Alicia Knight, Maria Selene, Kris Owen, NOT That Chad, Emily White, Iain Turner, Dom Cicchitto, Emily Dickendasher, Debby from True Crime University, Jeanette LeBlanc and Renee Prata.
Intro and Outro Music by David Mercurio
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On this crossover episode. I joined Debbie on her podcast True Crime University to provide some voiceover work in the role of William Bonin for this episode on the Freeway Killer.
Speaker 2:This is your professor, debbie. Welcome to True Crime University, where we have intellectual discussions about crime. This is a class for mature audiences with mature language and subject matter. I have a PhD in criminal justice and 17 years experience in the law enforcement field, and I am happy to share my knowledge with you. Hello, class, how is everybody? Hopefully everybody is ready to get into this part three of the William Bonin case.
Speaker 2:Started out, it was going to be a summer blockbuster and then it became kind of a Halloween October blockbuster and it's November 3rd and we're nowhere near the end. So this is going to be just like a end of 2023 blockbuster. Just an item of business. Before we get into this horrific tale here, I may or may not have Patreon up and running by the time you hear this, but please consider.
Speaker 2:I hate to beg. I hate to sound like somebody's mother. You know how moms are always like. Or mine was what do you mean? You want this or that? Do you think money grows on trees? Everything costs money. Well, podcasting costs a lot of money, unfortunately. So just to help pay the bills around the classroom, please consider joining Patreon. You get shit. It's just not like you're giving me money. You actually get stuff in return. And today we're going to be talking about the murders. There's quite a bit of them. I don't know if we're going to get through all of them, but major trigger warning. Of course these are murderers. No, murders are like clean and polite, I don't think. But these ones are especially graphic and they involve torture, all that kind of nasty stuff. So you know how I get into details.
Speaker 1:And the victims are?
Speaker 2:well, they were between 12 and 19. So basically kids. And if you don't think you can handle that, don't listen, because this is going to be disturbing. And about the victims. Unfortunately, since this happened so long ago, I don't know very much about them. But I'll tell you everything I do know about them. I found, as it always is, more information on some than others, so I do know enough to create kind of a. I always like to when I'm listening to a podcast and they talk about the victim, I like to picture them in my head and hopefully I have enough here and information on them plus their pictures that you can relate to them and kind of imagine in your head what they're doing or what they went through. And as usual, I'm going to tell everything in chronological order. Remember last episode I had you write down how many months do you think Bonin can be out of prison before he attacks somebody? And we left off in 1978.
Speaker 2:Bonin got out of prison in October 1978. He moved into the apartment complex. So an other dude that lived in this complex is going to be kind of a pivotal character here Now. This dude lived in the same apartment complex as Bonnen did and he was 43 at the time. His name was Everett, but he went by Scott Frazier. He was 12 years older than Bonnen, who at this time was 31. There's not a whole bunch of information on him, but what he did was he lived in this apartment complex and it seems like every night he would have I don't know if I want to use the word party. He would have guests, let's put it that way and most of these guests were younger than himself and of the male variety, if you can see where this is going, and there were always people there. He got beer and other alcohol for the underage people, and drugs were part of this scene also, were part of this scene also.
Speaker 2:And this reminds me of when I was okay, I don't know, 20, whatever. There was somebody in my neighborhood. He was a dude. He was like I don't know, maybe in his 30s. He lived in my neighborhood. It was him and his wife, and very often they would have guests that were underage, and I don't mean like 13, 14., I mean like 20, like below the drinking age, and this guy would supply booze for everybody, and I think there were probably some drugs there too, and I went there once. It was this dude and his wife.
Speaker 2:There wasn't anything like creepy or untoward going on, but well, other than the fact that he's supplying minors with alcohol, which probably is not a very good idea. And I asked my mom, like do you remember you know this dude? And she's like yeah. And I said he obviously wasn't like a pedophile or you know he's married. He wasn't like hitting on any of the young people. Like why do you think he did this? And she said I don't know, maybe he, maybe it made him feel young again. I was like, hmm, that's that's interesting. Maybe if you surround yourself with younger people, you do feel young. Maybe that's what this Scott Frazier was doing.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but it seems that there was a little more of a sexual motive because he was, I guess, openly gay and he liked having the younger men or youth there. He also at one time worked as a bank officer and that's kind of all I know about him. And I do want to make this clear. He never partook in any of Bonin's crimes. He was, I think, vaguely aware that he might have been into some shit. But when Bonin got arrested he came to the police and told them everything that he knew about him. Scott described Bonin as polite and placid and they would share stories of sex with teenage boys and teenage I don't know if that means above the age of consent or not.
Speaker 2:So in November 1978, I honestly don't know how Bonin gets these girlfriends or where he meets them but he met a married mother. Yeah, he, his girlfriend, was married and they used to go roller skating in Anaheim on Sundays. Then they would go to church, which you got to get your church in. You know if you're going to be raping and killing, got to get that church day in there something sarcastic. And they also went bowling and her kids would go too.
Speaker 2:So, needless to say, it wasn't long before Bonnen found out that these parties or gatherings occurred at Scott Frazier's apartment and they were full of his favorite kind of people young dudes and it was here that he would meet two of his accomplices in his murder spree. That's right, two, if you can believe. There are a total of four accomplices that he will have, and I mentioned earlier that that's what fascinates me the most about this case, not bonin himself, because really he's just a garden variety, sadistic sexual predator, but the fact that he had managed to get four other young men to help him torture, kill and dump off victims is very amazing. Like, how does this happen? How do all these people come together? And I'm going to try my best to tell the story in chronological order, introduce these characters as they come in and then, in psychology, I will try and put it all together. Like, how did this happen? How did all these people get involved in this activity?
Speaker 2:And the first of these characters I do mean character was Vernon Robert Butts. He went by Vern. At this time he was 21. And the newspaper described him as this is the perfect quote, and it's so funny because it's a newspaper, but they called him a quote low-life drifter and there's not really a better way to describe him. He reminds if there's any fellow Scooby-Doo fans out there, this is like the come-to-life version of Shaggy, remember, he's skinny, he's got like long hair, he's like you know, hey man, and the joke is that he was always high. Well, he reminds me an awful lot of Shaggy, only he's not really laid back and cool and harmless.
Speaker 2:As we're going to see, he came from a quote-unquote broken home, as do many people. He was raised in the towns of Linwood and then later he lived in Norwalk. He was nine when his dad died and this supposedly had a very bad effect on him. He was described as shy and easily led. So write that down or remember that easily led, because it's going to become important.
Speaker 2:The way that he was described as a kid sounds a lot like the descriptions of one, a loner bullied by other people, odd, just kind of. Was into weird things. You know, was known as that weird kid and he apparently had mental health issues exactly what I don't know, but he had attempted suicide three times before he met Bonin. He was also in and out of mental institutions psychiatric hospitals, whatever you want to call them and jail, and one of the prosecutors would later kind of say jokingly that he was doing life in prison on the installment plan, and I think that's a perfect way of putting it. Like you know, he would go to jail, come out of jail for a while, go back, come out, you know, like a revolving door. I've known many people like that. And if you're wondering why he was described as eccentric, like what made him so eccentric? Well, he was into some things that a lot of people think is odd or strange Witchcraft, the occult dork things.
Speaker 2:I hate to mention this game because it always comes up and it's so harmless. It's just a fucking game Dungeons and Dragons you probably know what that is and he would have weekly D&D parties at his house. He also got Bonin involved in the game and he also did this thing. That, I think, sounds like a lot of fun. I would really like to participate in such a thing. He called them mystery parties and I wish I knew more about how they worked or what went on. But supposedly he would hide shit around the Downey Like he called them murder artifacts and he would leave clues. It was like a scavenger hunt Clues to go to one location and find this clue, and one of the things was a hairpin, the other was an ice pick and we're going to see later on that he has this thing about ice picks. About ice picks, verne actually had two jobs. He worked at a porcelain manufacturing company and George Sattler, who was the owner of this factory, is called Santa Fe Springs. He gave Verne a job as a laborer there as a favor to Verne's stepdad.
Speaker 2:He described him as thin, pale and anemic looking and said that during his breaks he would sit in his beat-up Pinto smoking long-stemmed pipes. And in case you don't know what a Pinto is, you know who drove one of them? Lonnie fucking Franklin. It's like the serial killer car. And my mom's friend when I was a little kid had one and it was the ugliest Google one, just for fun, the ugliest fucking car I have ever seen. And it's just funny because it said that he had a beat up Pinto and I don't know if there were any Pintos that weren't beat up or pieces of shit, because well, if there were any pintos that weren't beat up or pieces of shit, because well.
Speaker 2:So his co-workers there described him as a loner and a weirdo and he would supposedly say strange things. Like you know, he had coffins. He slept in a coffin. I'm pretty sure that this was like attention seeking behavior, like I'm weird, look at or listen to my stories of the bizarre things that I do. He was kind of trying to stand out and wanted to be seen as somebody dark and eccentric and weird, and he definitely did a good job at it.
Speaker 2:He also had another job. This was at Knott's Berry Farm. That's an amusement park in Wayna Park. He worked as a clerk in the magic store there. He told people that he was a magician, like he actually did shows at Knott's Berry Farm but in actuality he was just a clerk in the store. After all this came out, a spokesman for Knott's Berry Farm said they hired him as a salesperson in December of 78 and fired him in July of 79. They said he quote did not come up to Knott's standards and had quote increasingly strange and unpredictable behavior. Also, it was mentioned that he had a problem with hygiene. So I guess he stunk.
Speaker 2:He's like Bonin, like he. Well, I guess you would call him bisexual. He has a girl. He called her his girlfriend and her nickname was Katie. Supposedly the two of them belong to a satanic cult, or so they called it. They would go to pagan festivals and graveyards and he allegedly participated in black magic rituals.
Speaker 2:He liked to wear fiction, which many other people do, and was into cosplay, like he used to. He liked to wear costumes. He would often randomly appear dressed as Darth Vader. That was, I could think, a favorite costume of his. He had two coffins in his house. One was a coffee table and the other he used for a phone booth.
Speaker 2:And I mentioned he was in and out of jail. He had a long record of things like arson, burglary, and later a prosecutor would say that he thought Verne developed a fascination with sadistic homosexuality while in jail. And I mean, that's an interesting thought, who knows. And this is a little bit disturbing, kind of like John Wayne Gacy. But he supposedly performed as a magician at small groups like kids' birthday parties and stuff like that, and one time he was doing a magic show at Warren High School in Downey and I mean, okay, it's 1979, but why this dude was in a school like today, that would not go over, I don't think. But at the school he met Scott Frazier. And why is Frazier at the high school too? That's a little bit concerning, because he's like 41 years old.
Speaker 2:Anyway, those two become friendly and Frazier introduces Vern and Bonnet and they had this instant click like friends, but they also had a sexual relationship. So each one of them has a quote-unquote girlfriend, but they also have a sexual relationship with each other. So Butts at first lived in an apartment on East Imperial Highway, which is a really, really long road. I looked at it Close to the apartments where Bonnen and Frazier lived, but he was kicked out of it in 1979 for making a mess out of it. Then he moved into a converted garage on Dinwiddie Avenue in Downey and I'm spending so much time talking about Butts because he plays a very integral, very important part in these murders.
Speaker 2:So in April of 1979, scott Frazier met a dude named Blaine. Frazier Turns out he was into selling drugs too, so they would sell drugs together at Scott's apartment and these two ended up being arrested on drug charges. Blaine started hanging around Bonnen. They would drive around Hollywood looking at boys and once they saw a boy and Bonnen asked Frazier if he was interested in picking him up. This boy. Frazier said quote, as long as you drop me off before doing anything, unquote. So this makes me curious as to why did he want to be dropped off? Did he have a suspicion of what Bonin was up to or did he just kind of generally sense that whatever it was, it couldn't be any good? And fortunately for him, he said let me out Around.
Speaker 2:This time Alice Bonin's mother gave him and Paul $30,000 to buy a restaurant bar called the Alpine Inn in Silverado, which was like 40 miles from Downing. I don't think it's there anymore, but this place was already known as what you call a nuisance bar. I think you know what that is. We have some around here and supposedly they played their music so loud that the neighbors couldn't hear their own TVs. I'm like, oh my god, I could not stand living somewhere that made so much noise. Well, the bar deal ended up falling through. They didn't buy the bar and in the meantime Bonnen and Paul moved into a house on Cactus Way. Paul bought a plumbing business in Costa Mesa and Bonnen started working with him, so now the brothers are plumbers.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're going to talk about the first murder that Bonin is suspected of committing. He was charged with it but he was acquitted of it, and we'll talk about that after. You're going to see why. The victim was 13-year-old Thomas Glenn Longren, or Tommy. He was born on May 24th 1966. He lived in the Los Angeles suburb of Resedo. He had a sister, brenda, who was two years older, and a younger brother named Michael Real cute kid. I have a picture of him on my Instagram. It's a picture of him sitting in his bedroom. He has all these like rock posters around and I was curious because I like to learn as much as I can about victims. I had my boyfriend look at the picture. He's into like that kind of music and I said do you recognize any of those bands or singers. He said that one is Ted Nugent. So in case you're curious, that's the kind of music he liked.
Speaker 2:He was in the Boy Scouts and later a friend came forward. This is ridiculous. He went to Boy Scout camp with Tommy. Apparently. Tommy liked to get into shit. He was described as a quote very hyper kid. This was 1976 or 1977. So the Scoutmaster tied a rope around Tommy's waist like a leash and made his friends hold on to him and I'm like I don't know. I've never been any kind of scout or scout leader, or even had a child, but that just doesn't sound right to me. Like here I'm going to tie up your friend and lead him around like a dog, so he'll behave.
Speaker 2:So Tommy's favorite hobby was skateboarding and he broke his arm doing skateboarding and painted a rainbow on the cast. Friends said he was silly, but I think it's creative and cute. One of his friend's parents owned a store that sold pinball and video games and it was called Pachinko Palace. Tommy really wanted a pinball machine and he would go there often to play them. And, just as an interesting fact, guess what serial killer also went to this shop Angelo Buono of the infamous pair known as the Hillside Stranglers. So one day Tommy told his friend that some dude had approached him, he was skateboarding, and said he would pay him to pose with his skateboard for a skateboard magazine and he'd made plans to meet said dude on May 28th at the skate park. He told his friend that his mom knew about this and said okay. But later his mom was like no, the fuck, I did not.
Speaker 2:He was last seen in front of his house with his skateboard by a neighbor, and it was like 11 am on May 28th 1979. Unfortunately, tommy disappeared. Unfortunately, tommy disappeared. His body was found by a sightseer later that day, caught in bushes on a hillside, and this person would later say, quote All I could see was the blood. It was bright red, it was fresh. Then, oh my God, I saw the boy's crotch. I thought I would be sick. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. End quote. So he calls the police, what ended up being the LA County Sheriff's Department, and Sergeant Dave Kushner came to the crime scene and he will play a big role on this whole freeway killer investigation.
Speaker 2:The sheriff testified in court. This is going to be graphic, by the way. Quote when I first arrived, the first thing I observed was that the body had been emasculated. The penis and scrotum appeared to have been removed from the body and there was a large pool of blood under the victim's head. I walked on up to the boy and saw a complete slashing through the throat. There was a ligature mark too, too, I unquote he found his penis and scrotum about two feet away lying in the dirt. His tennis shoes were up in a tree about 10 feet away, along with his underwear and his short cut-off pants. Said that he, quote died of severe slash wounds to the throat that severed his carotid arteries and larynx, which extended nearly to the back of the neck. He also had bruises that could have been bite marks and, quote, his chest and skull have been fractured by a blow from an object like a tire jack handle. End quote.
Speaker 2:A friend later said that they went to Tommy's funeral and I just cannot picture this. It doesn't make any sense to me. Apparently, tommy wasn't in a coffin. He was laying on a table with like a sheet over him and maybe the friend like misremembered or something, because it's just, I can't imagine this. And the friend like misremembered or something, because it's just, I can't imagine this. And the friend said they did a shitty job of covering up the stab wounds, like you could see this gaping wound on his throat and I'm like, oh my God, it's bad enough if you're a kid and somebody your age dies, but to have to see that that is really, really awful. And somebody played Stairway to Heaven on a guitar during the service. So the friend said that she thinks of him anytime she hears that song.
Speaker 2:Tommy's dad went to all of the trials, all of Bonin's trials, and his mom was the opposite. She's like I don't want to see and hear about that. Interestingly, bonin always denied killing Tommy and he said, quote I don't cut the dicks off, little boys. End quote. Now, if we're going to look at the specifics of Tommy's murder, I have my doubts. Also, the jury did acquit him on this and I can see why. No other victim of Bonnen's was emasculated like that. And whoever killed him used the ruse about hey, do you want to pose for a skateboarding magazine? I'll meet you on such and such a date. Bonin never did anything like that, he just spurred the moment hey, that looks like a good one. So in my own opinion which of course it doesn't mean anything Tommy's killing sounds more to me like the work of Randy Kraft, who was known to cut off the genitals of his victims.
Speaker 2:19th Bonnen goes to Downey Ford and buys an ugly puke green 1972 Ford E100 shorty van. I have a picture of it. It's ugly as fuck. So go ahead and start with the serial killer and their van jokes, because this is exactly what it's going to be used for. He would eventually nickname it the. He would eventually nickname it the Death Van, and really that's very creative. It had new carpet, fake wood paneling and curtains between the front and the back.
Speaker 2:So there was some discussion on whether or not he planned to kill people and bought the van for this purpose, or that he bought the van first and the killing started afterward. I think, in my opinion, that the reason he bought the van was to pick up people and do not necessarily kill, because I don't know if this was in his mind yet, but knowing him, he did have some nefarious purpose. He intended, I think, to abduct and rape boys in the back of the van and if we believe that he didn't kill Tommy, there's no way to know if killing was on his mind yet or not. He set about customizing his new van by removing all the inner handles from the passenger side and back so that nobody could get out and put some tools in the van Ligatures, knives, pliers, wire, coat, hangers which kind of shows some premeditation that he's going to be up to something. Remember the guessing game we were playing about how long would he be out of prison before he abducted and killed? If we don't include Tommy, it's going to be 10 months.
Speaker 2:So, according to what Bonin said later, this is how the subject of killing boys came up. I'll just tell you what he said and you can decide for yourself if you believe it or not. What he said, and you can decide for yourself if you believe it or not. Supposedly, according to Bonnen, he had discussed killing people with Vern before, like casually and this is usually the way that killer couples get started Like one will mention something like murder and the other reacts and the person who brought it up weighs the other person's response, like if they think they have a favorable response. Like if they say something like oh, that'd be fun, I've always wanted to do that too. Or if they say, oh, my God, get the fuck out of here, are you crazy? That will be an unfavorable response. So we know for a fact that their first killing we know for a fact that their first killing I'm not counting Tommy occurred on August 4th 1979.
Speaker 2:This was Bonin and Verne. Bonin picked up Verne in the ugly van and they went to the drive-in theater on Highway 39 in the town of Westminster in Orange County. And the defendant later said to the police, quote during the break between movies we got around to talking about murder and picking up a guy and having sex with him and then killing him. I was sort of joking at the time. Vern thought the idea was real neat. He told me I always wanted to see what it was like to kill someone. One of my fantasies is to kill someone using an ice pick and put it into his ear. We continued to talk and then I thought I noticed he was very serious. I was surprised. So I asked him are you serious? He said yeah. I then said if you can handle it, so can I. Okay, then why don't we leave right now? Vern said okay, let's go. And we left. You know, I was kind of testing him. Really, I didn't think he would go for it, but he did. I don't like doing stuff by myself. End quote. Notice how, in Bonin's version of events. He said that he was joking but Vern was serious, thus putting the blame on Verne for coming up with the idea. And this is just your typical serial killer bullshit. You know, nothing is my fault thinking pattern.
Speaker 2:They left the drive-in and drove down Beach Boulevard where Bonin had seen hitchhikers before. Again, he emphasized that he had no intention of killing the person they picked up, that he was gonna quote have the sex ie rape and then let him out. The boy they picked up wasn't hitchhiking, he was just walking home to his home in Westminster. This was 17-year-old Mark Dwayne Shelton. He was born on December 19, 1961, in Garden Grove and was one of five kids. Sadly, that's about all the biological information I have on him.
Speaker 2:According to Bonin, he pulled up and asked Mark for directions, then offered him a ride. Mark got in the van and Bonin. He pulled up and asked Mark for directions but then offered him a ride. Mark got in the van and Bonin asked him if he had ever quote gotten head from a guy before unquote, to which Mark replied no, according to Bonin. I'm stressing that he offered Mark $400 for four or five hours of his time. That's a lot of money, supposedly. Mark agreed and Bonnet started driving to a cabin in the mountains of the Cajun Pass. I don't even know if this cabin really existed, but this is what he told Mark. He's like well, we'll go to my cabin. Supposedly. He asked Mark how late he could stay out and Mark said quote, all night, it doesn't matter really. End quote. Then, according to Bonnen, he told Mark that he wanted to quote see what he got and proceeded to unzip his shorts and rub his penis. Trigger warning this is going to get graphic. Then he said that he said quote nice package, vern, check it out, I can't wait to get to the cabin. End quote. Supposedly. Vern then squeezed Mark's penis and hurt him and Mark cried out and went to the back of the van.
Speaker 2:Then, according to Bonin, the story gets even more ridiculous as he goes on. While Bonin is driving, vern is in the back with Mark entertaining him with magic and card tricks. And during the hour-long drive, bonin said that he could hear Mark laughing and having a good time. He said quote, he was happy, he was going to earn $400, end quote. So Bonin pulled into a boarded-up gas station and went in the back with Mark. He told Vern to sit up front and act as a lookout. He then said that he and Mark started to make out and he undressed him. This quote is just like wow. He said, quote. I could tell that the kid was real relaxed and sexually excited, making little groans of contentment end quote excited, making little groans of contentment, end quote. I can't tell if this is just an out and out lie or did he somehow imagine this or wish that this was happening? Like this was just wishful thinking on his part.
Speaker 2:Then Vern supposedly filleted Mark and Bonin ordered Mark to fillet him. He said that he did, although he was quote nervous and shivering. Then Bonin ordered Mark to lay on his stomach, to quote let me fuck him. And Mark supposedly nodded yes, it's this, okay, bullshit, I don't believe this. Then Bonin said that when he started to insert his penis into Mark, that Mark quote screamed out in pain and reared up which duh. Of course this sent Bonin into a rage and he supposedly yelled quote man, you scared the shit out of me, you little bastard unquote. Then he said he punched Mark in the chest abdomen and grabbed him by the balls and squeezed and then kneed him in the face several times until Mark was unconscious. Then supposedly, he told Vern quote we can't let him go, we'd better just go ahead and finish him off right now, End quote. So Vern supposedly readily agreed. And now, in his own words, let's hear what Bonnen said during his tape confession.
Speaker 1:We flipped the kid back over on his stomach. He had a long sleeve shirt so I tied the sleeves and wrapped it around his neck, then slipped a tire iron through the loop and started twisting. Vern was on top of him holding his hands behind his back. I twisted and twisted the shirt around his neck real tight. Then the kid woke up and started wiggling around and Vern couldn't hold him. So I used my right hand to keep his hands from getting free and kept a strong grip on the tire iron with my left. Vern eventually got a better grip and after three or four minutes the kid stopped moving and we let him go. We thought he was dead, so we relaxed.
Speaker 1:I untied the shirt and within about ten seconds we heard this long inhaling of air coming from Mark. Vern panicked and screamed he's not dead. That put me into panic also. I jumped up and put the shirt around his neck again and began twisting. I screamed at Vern to get back on top of him and hold it tight while I drove. Then Vern starts talking about the ice pick thing. I look around for something to use. I knew there wasn't anything like that in the van. I found a rusty wire in the bushes and pushed the wire into his ear as hard as I could. I didn't get any reactions, but I was actually still not sure if he was dead. I didn't get any reactions, but I was actually still not sure if he was dead. As we walked back to the van, I saw a short dried-out tree branch and picked it up and walked back to Mark's dead body and I shoved it up his ass. He didn't move. Now I could relax. He was definitely dead. We left there and headed home.
Speaker 2:We were laughing as we felt we got away with it. Mark's nude body was found on August 11th off I-15 in the Cajun Pass area. Reportedly he was so eaten by animals that he was barely recognizable. His cause of death was determined to be shock due to the shoving of a stick into his rectum. Sadly, he was considered a John Doe until March 1980. His parents, dawn and Ramona, never stopped looking for him, hiking miles through the canyons of Orange County. Finally, dawn got Mark's dental records and took them to the Westminster police, himself proving the fact that sometimes, if you want something done, you just have to do it yourself. Finally, mark had been identified. His dad told the newspaper quote the police have always been nice to me, but they gave us the impression they just didn't give a damn. It seems like I've done all the work since this started. End quote. Mark's parents actually sued the city of Westminster for what they believed was negligence in trying to identify Mark, but they lost, if the dates on this are right born and killed again the next day.
Speaker 2:This one he did alone. The victim was 17-year-old Marcus Grabs, an exchange student from Germany, and I don't have very much information about him. He was born in Germany on March 4th 1962, and he planned to hitchhike around the United States of 1979. And on August 2nd a couple who was driving along saw him. They noticed the British flag on his backpack and stopped to talk to him. And Marcus told them that he was going south and planned to sleep on the beach. And they said well, you know that's illegal, you can't sleep on the beach. Why don't you stay at our place? So he did for three nights and on Sunday, august 5th, they dropped him off on the Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach. Unfortunately, he was picked up by Bonnen who was, I've said before, was alone. He got in the van on the PCH Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach somewhere between 6 and 10 pm on August 5th and here is Bonin's version of what happened.
Speaker 1:It felt really strange that morning. After all, vern and I had just killed a kid the night before. That would make anyone feel jumpy. But man, I really felt a new kind of power from killing that first one. I'd never done that before and it was a real high Still kind of can't believe that we actually killed him. I needed to get out. I was so jumpy and driving always makes me feel peaceful. Guess that's why I like driving trucks. Hell, I would just go out and start driving anywhere just to gear down.
Speaker 1:Thinking back to that day, I didn't really go out to kill anyone. Really I can truthfully say killing wasn't on my mind. When I left that morning I spotted a kid hitchhiking and you know I started getting horny, figured I'd just pull up and feel him out about gays. I found out he was a student from Germany and was backpacking around during summer vacation. I think he was going to Mexico, I can't remember, but I'll tell you his looks turned me on Tall, lean, nice, tight body, with light colored eyes and hair. I started talking about sex and asked him if he was gay. He smiled and crawled in the front seat with me. I started feeling a little better, thinking about fucking him.
Speaker 1:There were a lot of cars parked along the highway, so I pulled in between a couple of campers. Most of the people were out walking along the water, but I still closed the windows. I didn't want anybody to disturb us. We got in the back of the van and took our clothes off. Then we started giving each other a head. It was so good. We did that for a little while and then I had it in my mind somewhere about trying out bondage. I'd never done it before. So I got out some electrician-type wire out of my toolkit and hooked him up. I guess he thought it wouldn't hold him if he really wanted to get free.
Speaker 1:When I finished hooking him up, I looked down at him lying there on his stomach with his hands tied behind his back. It felt good. I felt like I was really something. I felt strong. You know, growing up I always felt helpless. I started caressing his body by running my buck knife blade up and down his skin. His body was almost hairless, nice and smooth. All the while I kept telling him how easy it would be to kill him. Guess, I kind of wanted him to be afraid of me.
Speaker 1:I still didn't plan to kill him. I wanted to play with him, show him who's boss. I held the knife up to his throat, told him I should cut him. He looked at me like he was starting to feel scared, all of a sudden realizing he was helpless. The kid couldn't tell if I was serious or not. I didn't know if I was or not either. I backed off because I wanted to enjoy him some more.
Speaker 1:We were getting excited, so I reached down between his legs and checked out his dick. It was hard, like mine was too. I got him up on his knees and pushed inside of him, stroking back and forth until I exploded. Then I grabbed all of his nuts and squeezed him real hard. He screamed, broke loose and I fell back. Then the kid twisted around and faced me with his fist raised in the air, ready to punch me.
Speaker 1:I had to defend myself. I didn't have any choice. He was strong and he might overpower me, maybe even kill me. I just wanted him to be afraid of me, to look up at me. Know I could kill him at any second. I wanted him to show me respect.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I'm afraid of knives and didn't have any intention of using it as a weapon. I didn't want blood all over my new van. But I had to defend myself. I had no choice. He was strong, maybe even stronger than me. What could I do? What if he had gotten the knife away from me? He might have even killed me.
Speaker 1:The kid landed a hard one right across my jaw and I fell back and hit my head against the van. I was shocked. He nailed me good. The knife was in my hand. I didn't know what to do, so I raised it up and dug it hard into his upper arm. The kid screamed in horror really loud. His eyes were wide open. He couldn't believe it. Fuck. I couldn't believe I'd done it.
Speaker 1:Then something inside me clicked and I was on automatic pilot. I had to survive. So I got a better grip on the knife and I started stabbing him wildly over and over. But he was twisting and turning. I hit him in the back, in the butt, I don't know where else. I was just stabbing blindly. His blood squirted all over the place, on the walls, the curtains, on me. He tried to grab the knife, but I wouldn't let him get it. I couldn't let him live. He'd tell the police and I'd be in prison again. I'd been in too many times, raped and beaten by other inmates, and no one helped me out. I just kept stabbing him frantically until he stopped fighting.
Speaker 1:The kid was asking me to take him to the hospital. I said, sure, I mean, what else could I say? But he was getting on my nerves with all the whining. Finally I told him to shut up. I said I was going to take him to a place, drop him off and then call a doctor to come and help him. He quieted it down.
Speaker 1:I drove down Malibu Canyon and found a lonely side road. I started dragging him out. He was screaming all over again. He was weak and I had to hide him real good. So I wrapped him up in a blanket, but then I was all covered in blood again. So I got him on his stomach and started strangling him.
Speaker 1:That wasn't working because I wasn't getting enough leverage, but I had to kill him. I wrapped an orange cord around his neck and tried to strangle him, but I couldn't manage it. I didn't like using the knife, I didn't like that blood going everywhere, but there was no other way. I got the buck knife out of the van and put my mind in a sort of zen state in order to bring myself to the point of being able to stab him again. I stabbed him I don't know how many times, but I just kept stabbing him like I was in a frenzy. I had to make sure he was finished off, so I ran my fist up his ass and he didn't flinch. I started thinking about how it was when I got beaten as a kid. I used to beg my old man to stop Shit. He wouldn't.
Speaker 2:Notice that all of Bonin's statements are self-serving, stressing that these victims willingly got in the van and most agreed to sex. That these victims willingly got in the van and most agreed to sex. I find it hard to believe that all of these kids said to this dirty old man because at this time Bonin was 32, okay, sure, I'll have sex with you. It's just not believable. Note a couple of things he says besides his story of consensual sex. He claimed that he was just defending himself from Marcus, who supposedly became aggressive. This is important to note. He said he got a thrill from Marcus's fear and that he was enjoying the power that he had over him. And this, right here, is the key. And you know what somebody who gets enjoyment from having fear and power over others is A sadist, of course.
Speaker 2:The next morning at about 630, a man named Harold was driving on Las Vergenes Canyon Road and saw what looked like a body. He stopped and, sure enough, it was the body of a nude male. The LA County Sheriff's Department, particularly Sergeant Kushner, arrived and found what was Marcus, with bruises on his face, multiple stab wounds, an orange cord still around his neck and blue ignition wires binding his ankles. He also had ligature burn marks indicating that he'd been strangled from behind. His shoes were across the road and he had nothing of value in his backpack, like no identifying things. An autopsy revealed quote severe injuries to the anal region, consistent with the defendant Bonin saying that he put his fist into Mark's anus. And this next part. You're just not going to believe this. It's so ridiculous. Bonin got arrested again. This information is from the Orange County Sheriff's Crime Report.
Speaker 2:On August 9th 1979, at about midnight, bonin had picked up a 17-year-old boy and was parked in a school parking lot. An officer, duncan, observed that the van was quote moving slightly due to movement inside end, quote so he decided to investigate. Inside were, of course, bonnen and a 17-year-old boy who said that Bonnen had picked him up hitchhiking. According to the police report, shortly after the ride started, bonin reached over and fondled his genital area, saying does this feel good? He replied I don't get into this and pushed his hand away. Bonin said that he was bisexual and he should try it. Bonin again touched his genital area while driving the defendant parked in the school parking lot, then again fondled the boy, saying quote, can't you get it hard for me? Bonnen then pulled the boy into the back of the van saying, quote don't you want a good blowjob? The defendant pulled his pants down and tried to kiss the boy, who again said hey, I'm not into this.
Speaker 2:As we know by now, bonin doesn't take no for an answer. He unzipped the boy's pants and had just started fellating him when the cop happened upon the scene. Thankfully for the kid upon the scene, thankfully for the kid, bonnen was arrested for sexual perversion and jailed from August 9th to August 13th. Thanks to his attorney, who filed a writ of habeas corpus, he was released and scheduled to appear for a hearing on August 24th. A parole revocation hearing was scheduled for September 18th. So as a former probation officer, I have absolutely no idea how he was able to get out of jail while on parole for a serious sex offense. Lucky or slips through the cracks, like this time.
Speaker 2:Bonin thinks he's even more invincible, which is common with serial killers or any career criminals. He called Scott Frazier for a ride home from jail and again declared this is never going to happen again. Nobody's ever going to testify against me again. Unfortunately, scott, like everybody who'd heard this previously, thought nothing of it or took to mean that Bonin planned to stop abducting, raping and killing. So then Bonin gets the genius idea of establishing a sort of alibi for the murder of Marcus, and for this he enrolls the help of his shady friend Scott Frazier. On August 17th, 12 days after he killed Marcus, bonin took Frazier to lunch at a restaurant where he told Frazier that he had killed a dude in self-defense. In a half-assed tale, he claimed that he and Vern had picked up a hitchhiker for sex. Remember, vern wasn't even there for this one. Things had gotten out of hand and he had been forced to stab the kid to death in an act of self-defense. Apparently, frazier bought this load of bullshit. Bonnen also said that he'd been shaken up over the incident. Apparently he wasn't too shaken up over the incident. Apparently he wasn't too shaken up because three days later, on August 20th, he and Vern were at it again.
Speaker 2:This victim was 18-year-old Robert Wurostek, who had been born in Flint, michigan, on October 30th 1960. He was one of six kids born to Robert and Joan and was described as very athletic. He played football and graduated from high school in Michigan in 1978, then moved to California with his family. He was riding his bicycle to work at a grocery store called Ralph's Market that day when he ran into Bonin. Bonin actually gave two versions of the events of Bob's murder the version he told the detectives and the written one. I'm going with the written one, since it's slightly less self-serving and more graphic, and I think it's closer to the truth. He starts off by saying that he was taking a drive along the shore because it was a sunny day, which is bullshit, when he happened upon Bob hitchhiking near Newport Beach. He never mentions a bicycle, so we know this isn't accurate. It starts out like all the other confessions he saw a good-looking dude, picked him up politely, asked if he was interested in homosexual activities, etc.
Speaker 1:Then, according to Bonin, this is what happened next we got back in a van, I started sucking on him and rubbing his chest. Oh yeah, that feels great, he said. I had him hooked. He was laying on his back and really enjoying it. I went in the back to get tissue and came back with an 8-inch steak knife. I held it to his throat. I said if you move, I'll stick you with this knife. He was petrified and said I'll do anything. I tied him up and told him one false move and I'll stick you. I could see sweat on his tan skin and it was really turning me on. I pulled down my pants and I butt fucked him. He started complaining and I told him if you make any noise, you're a dead motherfucker. I drove my dick into him and fucked him real hard. I then found a photo booth and called Vern. All the way to Vern's place he asked me to loosen his hands because they were hurting. I told him to shut up.
Speaker 1:After I got Vern in the van, I headed out towards the I-10 freeway. During the time I was driving, vern learned his name was Bob Weirstick. Vern gave him head and slapped him around a little bit. Then Vern drove and I got back there and rolled him onto his stomach. I asked Vern, would you like to hear him scream? And Vern said sure, why don't you do that finger trick? That was a thing we discussed the night before, where we'd break the guy's fingers. I said okay, and I grabbed Bob's little finger and bent it back until he screamed in pain. After I finished, I went for the little finger on the other hand, and he begged me not to. I pushed it back for a while but didn't break it. I then grabbed his nuts and squeezed.
Speaker 1:Then I took the tire iron and rolled him over on his back and hit him as hard as I could on both knees and ankles. I hit him on his shoulders and elbows. Then I told him we're going to let you out, but you will be unconscious. I gave him the choice of either choking him out or hitting him over the head. He said he didn't know. I hit him across the head with the tire iron and I thought he was out.
Speaker 1:I hit him again and he raised up, saying you fucking bastard. He had momentarily scared me. I said I'll choke you instead. Just let yourself go and it won't be as bad. Don't struggle, as it'll only make it worse and don't try to pretend you're out, I can tell. I started choking him with his t-shirt and twisting the tire iron. After I got it tight, I saw he was fully conscious. He was trying to stay that way. He started to struggle and I said struggle, baby, it'll only make your death come faster. In 15 seconds he was out. I relaxed and held the shirt and tire iron tight for about five minutes. We dumped him in the desert around Palm Springs and went home.
Speaker 2:Bob's badly decomposed body was found on September 27th but wasn't identified until July of 1980. An autopsy concluded that his cause of death was strangulation. I'm going to leave off for here. Remember, Patreon is up and running, so check that out. It's patreoncom and it's True Crime Uni, or just search for Patreon, True Crime University and you'll find it. The voice of Bonnen was done by the one and only Dave Jory, voice actor extraordinaire and host of Criminal AF. So if you want to hear more of that awesome voice, check out Criminal AF.
Speaker 1:Are you a true crime fanatic? Do you want to know all the morbid details? Do you think talking about serial killers is fun? If you answered yes, then you're in the right place and have finally found your crew. Join hosts Dave Jari and Garrett Corder from Criminal AF every Monday to discuss some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, while having fun doing it. Dave and Garrett bring a unique and unfiltered approach to their storytelling that will have you shocked beyond belief one minute and laughing out of your seat the next. This is not your grandma's true crime podcast. While we understand that Criminal AF is not for everyone, we ask that you at least give it a listen. And if it's not for you, hey, thanks for checking it out. See ya, but if it is, welcome to the debauchery.