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.
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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.
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Speaker 1: On this crossover episode.
00:00:01
I joined Debbie on her podcast True Crime University to provide
00:00:05
some voiceover work in the role of William Bonin for this
00:00:08
episode on the Freeway Killer.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: This is your professor, debbie.
00:00:12
Welcome to True Crime University, where we have
00:00:15
intellectual discussions about crime.
00:00:18
This is a class for mature audiences with mature language
00:00:22
and subject matter.
00:00:23
I have a PhD in criminal justice and 17 years experience
00:00:29
in the law enforcement field, and I am happy to share my
00:00:33
knowledge with you.
00:00:34
Hello, class, how is everybody?
00:00:38
Hopefully everybody is ready to get into this part three of the
00:00:45
William Bonin case.
00:00:49
Started out, it was going to be a summer blockbuster and then it
00:00:53
became kind of a Halloween October blockbuster and it's
00:00:57
November 3rd and we're nowhere near the end.
00:01:00
So this is going to be just like a end of 2023 blockbuster.
00:01:06
Just an item of business.
00:01:08
Before we get into this horrific tale here, I may or may
00:01:15
not have Patreon up and running by the time you hear this, but
00:01:19
please consider.
00:01:21
I hate to beg.
00:01:21
I hate to sound like somebody's mother.
00:01:24
You know how moms are always like.
00:01:27
Or mine was what do you mean?
00:01:29
You want this or that?
00:01:30
Do you think money grows on trees?
00:01:31
Everything costs money.
00:01:34
Well, podcasting costs a lot of money, unfortunately.
00:01:37
So just to help pay the bills around the classroom, please
00:01:48
consider joining Patreon.
00:01:49
You get shit.
00:01:49
It's just not like you're giving me money.
00:01:51
You actually get stuff in return.
00:01:52
And today we're going to be talking about the murders.
00:01:56
There's quite a bit of them.
00:01:58
I don't know if we're going to get through all of them, but
00:02:01
major trigger warning.
00:02:02
Of course these are murderers.
00:02:04
No, murders are like clean and polite, I don't think.
00:02:08
But these ones are especially graphic and they involve torture
00:02:13
, all that kind of nasty stuff.
00:02:15
So you know how I get into details.
00:02:19
Speaker 1: And the victims are?
00:02:21
Speaker 2: well, they were between 12 and 19.
00:02:24
So basically kids.
00:02:25
And if you don't think you can handle that, don't listen,
00:02:29
because this is going to be disturbing.
00:02:31
And about the victims.
00:02:34
Unfortunately, since this happened so long ago, I don't
00:02:38
know very much about them.
00:02:40
But I'll tell you everything I do know about them.
00:02:44
I found, as it always is, more information on some than others,
00:02:50
so I do know enough to create kind of a.
00:02:54
I always like to when I'm listening to a podcast and they
00:02:58
talk about the victim, I like to picture them in my head and
00:03:02
hopefully I have enough here and information on them plus their
00:03:06
pictures that you can relate to them and kind of imagine in your
00:03:12
head what they're doing or what they went through.
00:03:15
And as usual, I'm going to tell everything in chronological
00:03:20
order.
00:03:20
Remember last episode I had you write down how many months do
00:03:25
you think Bonin can be out of prison before he attacks
00:03:30
somebody?
00:03:31
And we left off in 1978.
00:03:35
Bonin got out of prison in October 1978.
00:03:38
He moved into the apartment complex.
00:03:40
So an other dude that lived in this complex is going to be kind
00:03:45
of a pivotal character here Now .
00:03:47
This dude lived in the same apartment complex as Bonnen did
00:03:53
and he was 43 at the time.
00:03:55
His name was Everett, but he went by Scott Frazier.
00:03:59
He was 12 years older than Bonnen, who at this time was 31.
00:04:04
There's not a whole bunch of information on him, but what he
00:04:09
did was he lived in this apartment complex and it seems
00:04:13
like every night he would have I don't know if I want to use the
00:04:16
word party.
00:04:17
He would have guests, let's put it that way and most of these
00:04:23
guests were younger than himself and of the male variety, if you
00:04:28
can see where this is going, and there were always people
00:04:34
there.
00:04:34
He got beer and other alcohol for the underage people, and
00:04:38
drugs were part of this scene also, were part of this scene
00:04:42
also.
00:04:44
And this reminds me of when I was okay, I don't know, 20,
00:04:49
whatever.
00:04:49
There was somebody in my neighborhood.
00:04:58
He was a dude.
00:04:58
He was like I don't know, maybe in his 30s.
00:05:00
He lived in my neighborhood.
00:05:01
It was him and his wife, and very often they would have
00:05:04
guests that were underage, and I don't mean like 13, 14.
00:05:07
, I mean like 20, like below the drinking age, and this guy
00:05:12
would supply booze for everybody , and I think there were
00:05:15
probably some drugs there too, and I went there once.
00:05:19
It was this dude and his wife.
00:05:21
There wasn't anything like creepy or untoward going on, but
00:05:27
well, other than the fact that he's supplying minors with
00:05:31
alcohol, which probably is not a very good idea.
00:05:34
And I asked my mom, like do you remember you know this dude?
00:05:38
And she's like yeah.
00:05:39
And I said he obviously wasn't like a pedophile or you know
00:05:44
he's married.
00:05:44
He wasn't like hitting on any of the young people.
00:05:47
Like why do you think he did this?
00:05:50
And she said I don't know, maybe he, maybe it made him feel
00:05:55
young again.
00:05:56
I was like, hmm, that's that's interesting.
00:05:59
Maybe if you surround yourself with younger people, you do feel
00:06:03
young.
00:06:03
Maybe that's what this Scott Frazier was doing.
00:06:07
I don't know, but it seems that there was a little more of a
00:06:13
sexual motive because he was, I guess, openly gay and he liked
00:06:19
having the younger men or youth there.
00:06:24
He also at one time worked as a bank officer and that's kind of
00:06:29
all I know about him.
00:06:30
And I do want to make this clear.
00:06:32
He never partook in any of Bonin's crimes.
00:06:37
He was, I think, vaguely aware that he might have been into
00:06:42
some shit.
00:06:43
But when Bonin got arrested he came to the police and told them
00:06:48
everything that he knew about him.
00:06:51
Scott described Bonin as polite and placid and they would share
00:06:57
stories of sex with teenage boys and teenage I don't know if
00:07:02
that means above the age of consent or not.
00:07:05
So in November 1978, I honestly don't know how Bonin gets these
00:07:11
girlfriends or where he meets them but he met a married mother
00:07:15
.
00:07:15
Yeah, he, his girlfriend, was married and they used to go
00:07:20
roller skating in Anaheim on Sundays.
00:07:22
Then they would go to church, which you got to get your church
00:07:26
in.
00:07:26
You know if you're going to be raping and killing, got to get
00:07:30
that church day in there something sarcastic.
00:07:34
And they also went bowling and her kids would go too.
00:07:38
So, needless to say, it wasn't long before Bonnen found out
00:07:43
that these parties or gatherings occurred at Scott Frazier's
00:07:47
apartment and they were full of his favorite kind of people
00:07:52
young dudes and it was here that he would meet two of his
00:07:58
accomplices in his murder spree.
00:08:00
That's right, two, if you can believe.
00:08:03
There are a total of four accomplices that he will have,
00:08:08
and I mentioned earlier that that's what fascinates me the
00:08:11
most about this case, not bonin himself, because really he's
00:08:15
just a garden variety, sadistic sexual predator, but the fact
00:08:20
that he had managed to get four other young men to help him
00:08:24
torture, kill and dump off victims is very amazing.
00:08:29
Like, how does this happen?
00:08:31
How do all these people come together?
00:08:33
And I'm going to try my best to tell the story in chronological
00:08:39
order, introduce these characters as they come in and
00:08:43
then, in psychology, I will try and put it all together.
00:08:46
Like, how did this happen?
00:08:48
How did all these people get involved in this activity?
00:08:52
And the first of these characters I do mean character
00:08:56
was Vernon Robert Butts.
00:08:58
He went by Vern.
00:09:00
At this time he was 21.
00:09:02
And the newspaper described him as this is the perfect quote,
00:09:07
and it's so funny because it's a newspaper, but they called him
00:09:11
a quote low-life drifter and there's not really a better way
00:09:17
to describe him.
00:09:18
He reminds if there's any fellow Scooby-Doo fans out there
00:09:22
, this is like the come-to-life version of Shaggy, remember,
00:09:28
he's skinny, he's got like long hair, he's like you know, hey
00:09:32
man, and the joke is that he was always high.
00:09:36
Well, he reminds me an awful lot of Shaggy, only he's not
00:09:40
really laid back and cool and harmless.
00:09:43
As we're going to see, he came from a quote-unquote broken home
00:09:48
, as do many people.
00:09:49
He was raised in the towns of Linwood and then later he lived
00:09:54
in Norwalk.
00:09:55
He was nine when his dad died and this supposedly had a very
00:09:59
bad effect on him.
00:10:01
He was described as shy and easily led.
00:10:05
So write that down or remember that easily led, because it's
00:10:10
going to become important.
00:10:12
The way that he was described as a kid sounds a lot like the
00:10:16
descriptions of one, a loner bullied by other people, odd,
00:10:21
just kind of.
00:10:22
Was into weird things.
00:10:24
You know, was known as that weird kid and he apparently had
00:10:29
mental health issues exactly what I don't know, but he had
00:10:33
attempted suicide three times before he met Bonin.
00:10:36
He was also in and out of mental institutions psychiatric
00:10:41
hospitals, whatever you want to call them and jail, and one of
00:10:46
the prosecutors would later kind of say jokingly that he was
00:10:51
doing life in prison on the installment plan, and I think
00:10:54
that's a perfect way of putting it.
00:10:56
Like you know, he would go to jail, come out of jail for a
00:11:00
while, go back, come out, you know, like a revolving door.
00:11:03
I've known many people like that.
00:11:05
And if you're wondering why he was described as eccentric, like
00:11:09
what made him so eccentric?
00:11:11
Well, he was into some things that a lot of people think is
00:11:16
odd or strange Witchcraft, the occult dork things.
00:11:22
I hate to mention this game because it always comes up and
00:11:25
it's so harmless.
00:11:26
It's just a fucking game Dungeons and Dragons you
00:11:29
probably know what that is and he would have weekly D&D parties
00:11:35
at his house.
00:11:37
He also got Bonin involved in the game and he also did this
00:11:43
thing.
00:11:43
That, I think, sounds like a lot of fun.
00:11:46
I would really like to participate in such a thing.
00:11:49
He called them mystery parties and I wish I knew more about how
00:11:54
they worked or what went on.
00:11:57
But supposedly he would hide shit around the Downey Like he
00:12:03
called them murder artifacts and he would leave clues.
00:12:06
It was like a scavenger hunt Clues to go to one location and
00:12:10
find this clue, and one of the things was a hairpin, the other
00:12:16
was an ice pick and we're going to see later on that he has this
00:12:20
thing about ice picks.
00:12:21
About ice picks, verne actually had two jobs.
00:12:25
He worked at a porcelain manufacturing company and George
00:12:37
Sattler, who was the owner of this factory, is called Santa Fe
00:12:38
Springs.
00:12:39
He gave Verne a job as a laborer there as a favor to
00:12:40
Verne's stepdad.
00:12:41
He described him as thin, pale and anemic looking and said that
00:12:46
during his breaks he would sit in his beat-up Pinto smoking
00:12:52
long-stemmed pipes.
00:12:54
And in case you don't know what a Pinto is, you know who drove
00:12:58
one of them?
00:12:58
Lonnie fucking Franklin.
00:13:01
It's like the serial killer car .
00:13:03
And my mom's friend when I was a little kid had one and it was
00:13:08
the ugliest Google one, just for fun, the ugliest fucking car I
00:13:12
have ever seen.
00:13:13
And it's just funny because it said that he had a beat up Pinto
00:13:19
and I don't know if there were any Pintos that weren't beat up
00:13:23
or pieces of shit, because well, if there were any pintos that
00:13:26
weren't beat up or pieces of shit, because well.
00:13:27
So his co-workers there described him as a loner and a
00:13:31
weirdo and he would supposedly say strange things.
00:13:35
Like you know, he had coffins.
00:13:37
He slept in a coffin.
00:13:38
I'm pretty sure that this was like attention seeking behavior,
00:13:44
like I'm weird, look at or listen to my stories of the
00:13:47
bizarre things that I do.
00:13:49
He was kind of trying to stand out and wanted to be seen as
00:13:56
somebody dark and eccentric and weird, and he definitely did a
00:14:00
good job at it.
00:14:02
He also had another job.
00:14:03
This was at Knott's Berry Farm.
00:14:05
That's an amusement park in Wayna Park.
00:14:09
He worked as a clerk in the magic store there.
00:14:12
He told people that he was a magician, like he actually did
00:14:16
shows at Knott's Berry Farm but in actuality he was just a clerk
00:14:20
in the store.
00:14:21
After all this came out, a spokesman for Knott's Berry Farm
00:14:24
said they hired him as a salesperson in December of 78
00:14:29
and fired him in July of 79.
00:14:32
They said he quote did not come up to Knott's standards and had
00:14:38
quote increasingly strange and unpredictable behavior.
00:14:42
Also, it was mentioned that he had a problem with hygiene.
00:14:46
So I guess he stunk.
00:14:49
He's like Bonin, like he.
00:14:50
Well, I guess you would call him bisexual.
00:14:52
He has a girl.
00:14:53
He called her his girlfriend and her nickname was Katie.
00:14:57
Supposedly the two of them belong to a satanic cult, or so
00:15:01
they called it.
00:15:02
They would go to pagan festivals and graveyards and he
00:15:08
allegedly participated in black magic rituals.
00:15:13
He liked to wear fiction, which many other people do, and was
00:15:18
into cosplay, like he used to.
00:15:20
He liked to wear costumes.
00:15:21
He would often randomly appear dressed as Darth Vader.
00:15:25
That was, I could think, a favorite costume of his.
00:15:34
He had two coffins in his house .
00:15:35
One was a coffee table and the other he used for a phone booth.
00:15:37
And I mentioned he was in and out of jail.
00:15:38
He had a long record of things like arson, burglary, and later
00:15:43
a prosecutor would say that he thought Verne developed a
00:15:47
fascination with sadistic homosexuality while in jail.
00:15:51
And I mean, that's an interesting thought, who knows.
00:15:55
And this is a little bit disturbing, kind of like John
00:15:58
Wayne Gacy.
00:15:59
But he supposedly performed as a magician at small groups like
00:16:04
kids' birthday parties and stuff like that, and one time he was
00:16:09
doing a magic show at Warren High School in Downey and I mean
00:16:15
, okay, it's 1979, but why this dude was in a school like today,
00:16:20
that would not go over, I don't think.
00:16:22
But at the school he met Scott Frazier.
00:16:26
And why is Frazier at the high school too?
00:16:30
That's a little bit concerning, because he's like 41 years old.
00:16:34
Anyway, those two become friendly and Frazier introduces
00:16:39
Vern and Bonnet and they had this instant click like friends,
00:16:45
but they also had a sexual relationship.
00:16:49
So each one of them has a quote-unquote girlfriend, but
00:16:53
they also have a sexual relationship with each other.
00:16:56
So Butts at first lived in an apartment on East Imperial
00:17:01
Highway, which is a really, really long road.
00:17:03
I looked at it Close to the apartments where Bonnen and
00:17:06
Frazier lived, but he was kicked out of it in 1979 for making a
00:17:11
mess out of it.
00:17:11
Then he moved into a converted garage on Dinwiddie Avenue in
00:17:16
Downey and I'm spending so much time talking about Butts because
00:17:21
he plays a very integral, very important part in these murders.
00:17:29
So in April of 1979, scott Frazier met a dude named Blaine.
00:17:35
Frazier Turns out he was into selling drugs too, so they would
00:17:40
sell drugs together at Scott's apartment and these two ended up
00:17:45
being arrested on drug charges.
00:17:47
Blaine started hanging around Bonnen.
00:17:50
They would drive around Hollywood looking at boys and
00:17:55
once they saw a boy and Bonnen asked Frazier if he was
00:18:00
interested in picking him up.
00:18:02
This boy.
00:18:03
Frazier said quote, as long as you drop me off before doing
00:18:08
anything, unquote.
00:18:10
So this makes me curious as to why did he want to be dropped
00:18:14
off?
00:18:15
Did he have a suspicion of what Bonin was up to or did he just
00:18:21
kind of generally sense that whatever it was, it couldn't be
00:18:25
any good?
00:18:25
And fortunately for him, he said let me out Around.
00:18:30
This time Alice Bonin's mother gave him and Paul $30 to buy
00:18:36
a restaurant bar called the Alpine Inn in Silverado, which
00:18:42
was like 40 miles from Downing.
00:18:44
I don't think it's there anymore, but this place was
00:18:47
already known as what you call a nuisance bar.
00:18:50
I think you know what that is.
00:18:51
We have some around here and supposedly they played their
00:18:56
music so loud that the neighbors couldn't hear their own TVs.
00:19:00
I'm like, oh my god, I could not stand living somewhere that
00:19:06
made so much noise.
00:19:07
Well, the bar deal ended up falling through.
00:19:10
They didn't buy the bar and in the meantime Bonnen and Paul
00:19:15
moved into a house on Cactus Way .
00:19:18
Paul bought a plumbing business in Costa Mesa and Bonnen
00:19:22
started working with him, so now the brothers are plumbers.
00:19:26
Okay, we're going to talk about the first murder that Bonin is
00:19:31
suspected of committing.
00:19:33
He was charged with it but he was acquitted of it, and we'll
00:19:37
talk about that after.
00:19:38
You're going to see why.
00:19:40
The victim was 13-year-old Thomas Glenn Longren, or Tommy.
00:19:45
He was born on May 24th 1966.
00:19:48
He lived in the Los Angeles suburb of Resedo.
00:19:53
He had a sister, brenda, who was two years older, and a
00:19:56
younger brother named Michael Real cute kid.
00:19:59
I have a picture of him on my Instagram.
00:20:02
It's a picture of him sitting in his bedroom.
00:20:04
He has all these like rock posters around and I was curious
00:20:09
because I like to learn as much as I can about victims.
00:20:13
I had my boyfriend look at the picture.
00:20:15
He's into like that kind of music and I said do you
00:20:18
recognize any of those bands or singers.
00:20:20
He said that one is Ted Nugent.
00:20:22
So in case you're curious, that's the kind of music he
00:20:25
liked.
00:20:33
He was in the Boy Scouts and later a friend came forward.
00:20:34
This is ridiculous.
00:20:35
He went to Boy Scout camp with Tommy.
00:20:36
Apparently.
00:20:36
Tommy liked to get into shit.
00:20:37
He was described as a quote very hyper kid.
00:20:40
This was 1976 or 1977.
00:20:43
So the Scoutmaster tied a rope around Tommy's waist like a
00:20:48
leash and made his friends hold on to him and I'm like I don't
00:20:53
know.
00:20:54
I've never been any kind of scout or scout leader, or even
00:20:58
had a child, but that just doesn't sound right to me.
00:21:01
Like here I'm going to tie up your friend and lead him around
00:21:04
like a dog, so he'll behave.
00:21:06
So Tommy's favorite hobby was skateboarding and he broke his
00:21:10
arm doing skateboarding and painted a rainbow on the cast.
00:21:14
Friends said he was silly, but I think it's creative and cute.
00:21:18
One of his friend's parents owned a store that sold pinball
00:21:22
and video games and it was called Pachinko Palace.
00:21:26
Tommy really wanted a pinball machine and he would go there
00:21:30
often to play them.
00:21:31
And, just as an interesting fact, guess what serial killer
00:21:35
also went to this shop Angelo Buono of the infamous pair known
00:21:42
as the Hillside Stranglers.
00:21:43
So one day Tommy told his friend that some dude had
00:21:47
approached him, he was skateboarding, and said he would
00:21:51
pay him to pose with his skateboard for a skateboard
00:21:55
magazine and he'd made plans to meet said dude on May 28th at
00:22:01
the skate park.
00:22:02
He told his friend that his mom knew about this and said okay.
00:22:07
But later his mom was like no, the fuck, I did not.
00:22:11
He was last seen in front of his house with his skateboard by a
00:22:15
neighbor, and it was like 11 am on May 28th 1979.
00:22:20
Unfortunately, tommy disappeared.
00:22:22
Unfortunately, tommy disappeared.
00:22:24
His body was found by a sightseer later that day, caught
00:22:28
in bushes on a hillside, and this person would later say,
00:22:33
quote All I could see was the blood.
00:22:35
It was bright red, it was fresh .
00:22:37
Then, oh my God, I saw the boy's crotch.
00:22:40
I thought I would be sick.
00:22:42
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
00:22:44
End quote.
00:22:44
So he calls the police, what ended up being the LA County
00:22:48
Sheriff's Department, and Sergeant Dave Kushner came to
00:22:54
the crime scene and he will play a big role on this whole
00:22:56
freeway killer investigation.
00:22:58
The sheriff testified in court.
00:23:00
This is going to be graphic, by the way.
00:23:02
Quote when I first arrived, the first thing I observed was that
00:23:06
the body had been emasculated.
00:23:08
The penis and scrotum appeared to have been removed from the
00:23:12
body and there was a large pool of blood under the victim's head
00:23:16
.
00:23:16
I walked on up to the boy and saw a complete slashing through
00:23:20
the throat.
00:23:21
There was a ligature mark too, too, I unquote he found his
00:23:26
penis and scrotum about two feet away lying in the dirt.
00:23:30
His tennis shoes were up in a tree about 10 feet away, along
00:23:34
with his underwear and his short cut-off pants.
00:23:41
Said that he, quote died of severe slash wounds to the
00:23:45
throat that severed his carotid arteries and larynx, which
00:23:49
extended nearly to the back of the neck.
00:23:52
He also had bruises that could have been bite marks and, quote,
00:23:58
his chest and skull have been fractured by a blow from an
00:24:02
object like a tire jack handle.
00:24:04
End quote.
00:24:06
A friend later said that they went to Tommy's funeral and I
00:24:11
just cannot picture this.
00:24:13
It doesn't make any sense to me .
00:24:14
Apparently, tommy wasn't in a coffin.
00:24:17
He was laying on a table with like a sheet over him and maybe
00:24:21
the friend like misremembered or something, because it's just, I
00:24:24
can't imagine this.
00:24:24
And the friend like misremembered or something,
00:24:25
because it's just, I can't imagine this.
00:24:27
And the friend said they did a shitty job of covering up the
00:24:31
stab wounds, like you could see this gaping wound on his throat
00:24:36
and I'm like, oh my God, it's bad enough if you're a kid and
00:24:39
somebody your age dies, but to have to see that that is really,
00:24:44
really awful.
00:24:45
And somebody played Stairway to Heaven on a guitar during the
00:24:50
service.
00:24:51
So the friend said that she thinks of him anytime she hears
00:24:54
that song.
00:24:55
Tommy's dad went to all of the trials, all of Bonin's trials,
00:24:59
and his mom was the opposite.
00:25:01
She's like I don't want to see and hear about that.
00:25:02
Interestingly, bonin always denied killing Tommy and he said
00:25:09
, quote I don't cut the dicks off, little boys.
00:25:12
End quote.
00:25:13
Now, if we're going to look at the specifics of Tommy's murder,
00:25:17
I have my doubts.
00:25:18
Also, the jury did acquit him on this and I can see why.
00:25:23
No other victim of Bonnen's was emasculated like that.
00:25:28
And whoever killed him used the ruse about hey, do you want to
00:25:34
pose for a skateboarding magazine?
00:25:36
I'll meet you on such and such a date.
00:25:39
Bonin never did anything like that, he just spurred the moment
00:25:42
hey, that looks like a good one .
00:25:44
So in my own opinion which of course it doesn't mean anything
00:25:48
Tommy's killing sounds more to me like the work of Randy Kraft,
00:25:54
who was known to cut off the genitals of his victims.
00:26:11
19th Bonnen goes to Downey Ford and buys an ugly puke green 1972
00:26:13
Ford E100 shorty van.
00:26:14
I have a picture of it.
00:26:15
It's ugly as fuck.
00:26:15
So go ahead and start with the serial killer and their van
00:26:17
jokes, because this is exactly what it's going to be used for.
00:26:20
He would eventually nickname it the.
00:26:23
He would eventually nickname it the Death Van, and really
00:26:26
that's very creative.
00:26:27
It had new carpet, fake wood paneling and curtains between
00:26:35
the front and the back.
00:26:35
So there was some discussion on whether or not he planned to
00:26:38
kill people and bought the van for this purpose, or that he
00:26:44
bought the van first and the killing started afterward.
00:26:49
I think, in my opinion, that the reason he bought the van was
00:26:55
to pick up people and do not necessarily kill, because I
00:27:00
don't know if this was in his mind yet, but knowing him, he
00:27:04
did have some nefarious purpose.
00:27:06
He intended, I think, to abduct and rape boys in the back of
00:27:11
the van and if we believe that he didn't kill Tommy, there's no
00:27:15
way to know if killing was on his mind yet or not.
00:27:19
He set about customizing his new van by removing all the
00:27:23
inner handles from the passenger side and back so that nobody
00:27:27
could get out and put some tools in the van Ligatures, knives,
00:27:33
pliers, wire, coat, hangers which kind of shows some
00:27:37
premeditation that he's going to be up to something.
00:27:41
Remember the guessing game we were playing about how long
00:27:45
would he be out of prison before he abducted and killed?
00:27:48
If we don't include Tommy, it's going to be 10 months.
00:27:53
So, according to what Bonin said later, this is how the subject
00:27:58
of killing boys came up.
00:27:59
I'll just tell you what he said and you can decide for yourself
00:28:03
if you believe it or not.
00:28:04
What he said, and you can decide for yourself if you
00:28:09
believe it or not.
00:28:09
Supposedly, according to Bonnen , he had discussed killing
00:28:11
people with Vern before, like casually and this is usually the
00:28:14
way that killer couples get started Like one will mention
00:28:18
something like murder and the other reacts and the person who
00:28:23
brought it up weighs the other person's response, like if they
00:28:27
think they have a favorable response.
00:28:28
Like if they say something like oh, that'd be fun, I've always
00:28:31
wanted to do that too.
00:28:32
Or if they say, oh, my God, get the fuck out of here, are you
00:28:36
crazy?
00:28:36
That will be an unfavorable response.
00:28:39
So we know for a fact that their first killing we know for
00:28:42
a fact that their first killing I'm not counting Tommy occurred
00:28:46
on August 4th 1979.
00:28:49
This was Bonin and Verne.
00:28:51
Bonin picked up Verne in the ugly van and they went to the
00:28:56
drive-in theater on Highway 39 in the town of Westminster in
00:29:00
Orange County.
00:29:01
And the defendant later said to the police, quote during the
00:29:07
break between movies we got around to talking about murder
00:29:11
and picking up a guy and having sex with him and then killing
00:29:14
him.
00:29:14
I was sort of joking at the time.
00:29:16
Vern thought the idea was real neat.
00:29:19
He told me I always wanted to see what it was like to kill
00:29:23
someone.
00:29:23
One of my fantasies is to kill someone using an ice pick and
00:29:27
put it into his ear.
00:29:28
We continued to talk and then I thought I noticed he was very
00:29:34
serious.
00:29:34
I was surprised.
00:29:36
So I asked him are you serious?
00:29:38
He said yeah.
00:29:39
I then said if you can handle it, so can I.
00:29:43
Okay, then why don't we leave right now?
00:29:46
Vern said okay, let's go.
00:29:48
And we left.
00:29:49
You know, I was kind of testing him.
00:29:52
Really, I didn't think he would go for it, but he did.
00:29:55
I don't like doing stuff by myself.
00:29:57
End quote.
00:29:58
Notice how, in Bonin's version of events.
00:30:01
He said that he was joking but Vern was serious, thus putting
00:30:08
the blame on Verne for coming up with the idea.
00:30:10
And this is just your typical serial killer bullshit.
00:30:14
You know, nothing is my fault thinking pattern.
00:30:18
They left the drive-in and drove down Beach Boulevard where
00:30:23
Bonin had seen hitchhikers before.
00:30:25
Again, he emphasized that he had no intention of killing the
00:30:30
person they picked up, that he was gonna quote have the sex ie
00:30:36
rape and then let him out.
00:30:38
The boy they picked up wasn't hitchhiking, he was just walking
00:30:42
home to his home in Westminster .
00:30:45
This was 17-year-old Mark Dwayne Shelton.
00:30:48
He was born on December 19, 1961, in Garden Grove and was
00:30:54
one of five kids.
00:30:55
Sadly, that's about all the biological information I have on
00:30:59
him.
00:31:00
According to Bonin, he pulled up and asked Mark for directions,
00:31:03
then offered him a ride.
00:31:04
Mark got in the van and Bonin.
00:31:04
He pulled up and asked Mark for directions but then offered him
00:31:06
a ride.
00:31:06
Mark got in the van and Bonin asked him if he had ever quote
00:31:11
gotten head from a guy before unquote, to which Mark replied
00:31:16
no, according to Bonin.
00:31:18
I'm stressing that he offered Mark $400 for four or five hours
00:31:26
of his time.
00:31:27
That's a lot of money, supposedly.
00:31:31
Mark agreed and Bonnet started driving to a cabin in the
00:31:36
mountains of the Cajun Pass.
00:31:39
I don't even know if this cabin really existed, but this is
00:31:43
what he told Mark.
00:31:45
He's like well, we'll go to my cabin.
00:31:46
Supposedly.
00:31:48
He asked Mark how late he could stay out and Mark said quote,
00:31:52
all night, it doesn't matter really.
00:31:54
End quote.
00:31:55
Then, according to Bonnen, he told Mark that he wanted to
00:32:01
quote see what he got and proceeded to unzip his shorts
00:32:06
and rub his penis.
00:32:07
Trigger warning this is going to get graphic.
00:32:09
Then he said that he said quote nice package, vern, check it
00:32:15
out, I can't wait to get to the cabin.
00:32:18
End quote.
00:32:19
Supposedly.
00:32:20
Vern then squeezed Mark's penis and hurt him and Mark cried out
00:32:26
and went to the back of the van .
00:32:29
Then, according to Bonin, the story gets even more ridiculous
00:32:34
as he goes on.
00:32:34
While Bonin is driving, vern is in the back with Mark
00:32:40
entertaining him with magic and card tricks.
00:32:43
And during the hour-long drive, bonin said that he could hear
00:32:47
Mark laughing and having a good time.
00:32:49
He said quote, he was happy, he was going to earn $400, end
00:32:55
quote.
00:32:55
So Bonin pulled into a boarded-up gas station and went
00:32:59
in the back with Mark.
00:33:01
He told Vern to sit up front and act as a lookout.
00:33:05
He then said that he and Mark started to make out and he
00:33:10
undressed him.
00:33:11
This quote is just like wow.
00:33:15
He said, quote.
00:33:16
I could tell that the kid was real relaxed and sexually
00:33:21
excited, making little groans of contentment end quote excited,
00:33:28
making little groans of contentment, end quote.
00:33:29
I can't tell if this is just an out and out lie or did he
00:33:31
somehow imagine this or wish that this was happening?
00:33:35
Like this was just wishful thinking on his part.
00:33:38
Then Vern supposedly filleted Mark and Bonin ordered Mark to
00:33:44
fillet him.
00:33:45
He said that he did, although he was quote nervous and
00:33:48
shivering.
00:33:49
Then Bonin ordered Mark to lay on his stomach, to quote let me
00:33:55
fuck him.
00:33:55
And Mark supposedly nodded yes, it's this, okay, bullshit, I
00:34:01
don't believe this.
00:34:02
Then Bonin said that when he started to insert his penis into
00:34:08
Mark, that Mark quote screamed out in pain and reared up which
00:34:13
duh.
00:34:14
Of course this sent Bonin into a rage and he supposedly yelled
00:34:19
quote man, you scared the shit out of me, you little bastard
00:34:23
unquote.
00:34:24
Then he said he punched Mark in the chest abdomen and grabbed
00:34:28
him by the balls and squeezed and then kneed him in the face
00:34:33
several times until Mark was unconscious.
00:34:35
Then supposedly, he told Vern quote we can't let him go, we'd
00:34:41
better just go ahead and finish him off right now, End quote.
00:34:44
So Vern supposedly readily agreed.
00:34:48
And now, in his own words, let's hear what Bonnen said
00:34:55
during his tape confession.
00:34:57
Speaker 1: We flipped the kid back over on his stomach.
00:34:59
He had a long sleeve shirt so I tied the sleeves and wrapped it
00:35:02
around his neck, then slipped a tire iron through the loop and
00:35:05
started twisting.
00:35:06
Vern was on top of him holding his hands behind his back.
00:35:09
I twisted and twisted the shirt around his neck real tight.
00:35:13
Then the kid woke up and started wiggling around and Vern
00:35:17
couldn't hold him.
00:35:17
So I used my right hand to keep his hands from getting free and
00:35:21
kept a strong grip on the tire iron with my left.
00:35:23
Vern eventually got a better grip and after three or four
00:35:28
minutes the kid stopped moving and we let him go.
00:35:29
We thought he was dead, so we relaxed.
00:35:34
I untied the shirt and within about ten seconds we heard this
00:35:36
long inhaling of air coming from Mark.
00:35:38
Vern panicked and screamed he's not dead.
00:35:42
That put me into panic also.
00:35:44
I jumped up and put the shirt around his neck again and began
00:35:48
twisting.
00:35:48
I screamed at Vern to get back on top of him and hold it tight
00:35:52
while I drove.
00:35:52
Then Vern starts talking about the ice pick thing.
00:35:56
I look around for something to use.
00:35:58
I knew there wasn't anything like that in the van.
00:36:00
I found a rusty wire in the bushes and pushed the wire into
00:36:03
his ear as hard as I could.
00:36:04
I didn't get any reactions, but I was actually still not sure
00:36:08
if he was dead.
00:36:09
I didn't get any reactions, but I was actually still not sure
00:36:10
if he was dead.
00:36:10
As we walked back to the van, I saw a short dried-out tree
00:36:13
branch and picked it up and walked back to Mark's dead body
00:36:16
and I shoved it up his ass.
00:36:17
He didn't move.
00:36:19
Now I could relax.
00:36:21
He was definitely dead.
00:36:23
We left there and headed home.
00:36:28
Speaker 2: We were laughing as we felt we got away with it.
00:36:29
Mark's nude body was found on August 11th off I-15 in the
00:36:35
Cajun Pass area.
00:36:36
Reportedly he was so eaten by animals that he was barely
00:36:41
recognizable.
00:36:42
His cause of death was determined to be shock due to
00:36:46
the shoving of a stick into his rectum.
00:36:48
Sadly, he was considered a John Doe until March 1980.
00:36:52
His parents, dawn and Ramona, never stopped looking for him,
00:36:57
hiking miles through the canyons of Orange County.
00:36:59
Finally, dawn got Mark's dental records and took them to the
00:37:04
Westminster police, himself proving the fact that sometimes,
00:37:07
if you want something done, you just have to do it yourself.
00:37:10
Finally, mark had been identified.
00:37:12
His dad told the newspaper quote the police have always
00:37:17
been nice to me, but they gave us the impression they just
00:37:21
didn't give a damn.
00:37:22
It seems like I've done all the work since this started.
00:37:25
End quote.
00:37:26
Mark's parents actually sued the city of Westminster for what
00:37:31
they believed was negligence in trying to identify Mark, but
00:37:35
they lost, if the dates on this are right born and killed again
00:37:41
the next day.
00:37:43
This one he did alone.
00:37:44
The victim was 17-year-old Marcus Grabs, an exchange
00:37:48
student from Germany, and I don't have very much information
00:37:52
about him.
00:37:53
He was born in Germany on March 4th 1962, and he planned to
00:37:59
hitchhike around the United States of 1979.
00:38:15
And on August 2nd a couple who was driving along saw him.
00:38:17
They noticed the British flag on his backpack and stopped to
00:38:19
talk to him.
00:38:19
And Marcus told them that he was going south and planned to
00:38:22
sleep on the beach.
00:38:22
And they said well, you know that's illegal, you can't sleep
00:38:26
on the beach.
00:38:26
Why don't you stay at our place ?
00:38:28
So he did for three nights and on Sunday, august 5th, they
00:38:33
dropped him off on the Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach.
00:38:36
Unfortunately, he was picked up by Bonnen who was, I've said
00:38:41
before, was alone.
00:38:42
He got in the van on the PCH Pacific Coast Highway in Newport
00:38:48
Beach somewhere between 6 and 10 pm on August 5th and here is
00:38:54
Bonin's version of what happened .
00:38:56
Speaker 1: It felt really strange that morning.
00:38:57
After all, vern and I had just killed a kid the night before.
00:39:01
That would make anyone feel jumpy.
00:39:03
But man, I really felt a new kind of power from killing that
00:39:07
first one.
00:39:07
I'd never done that before and it was a real high Still kind of
00:39:11
can't believe that we actually killed him.
00:39:13
I needed to get out.
00:39:15
I was so jumpy and driving always makes me feel peaceful.
00:39:18
Guess that's why I like driving trucks.
00:39:20
Hell, I would just go out and start driving anywhere just to
00:39:24
gear down.
00:39:26
Thinking back to that day, I didn't really go out to kill
00:39:28
anyone.
00:39:28
Really I can truthfully say killing wasn't on my mind.
00:39:31
When I left that morning I spotted a kid hitchhiking and
00:39:34
you know I started getting horny , figured I'd just pull up and
00:39:38
feel him out about gays.
00:39:39
I found out he was a student from Germany and was backpacking
00:39:42
around during summer vacation.
00:39:44
I think he was going to Mexico, I can't remember, but I'll tell
00:39:48
you his looks turned me on Tall , lean, nice, tight body, with
00:39:53
light colored eyes and hair.
00:39:54
I started talking about sex and asked him if he was gay.
00:39:58
He smiled and crawled in the front seat with me.
00:40:00
I started feeling a little better, thinking about fucking
00:40:03
him.
00:40:05
There were a lot of cars parked along the highway, so I pulled
00:40:07
in between a couple of campers.
00:40:08
Most of the people were out walking along the water, but I
00:40:12
still closed the windows.
00:40:13
I didn't want anybody to disturb us.
00:40:15
We got in the back of the van and took our clothes off.
00:40:18
Then we started giving each other a head.
00:40:19
It was so good.
00:40:21
We did that for a little while and then I had it in my mind
00:40:24
somewhere about trying out bondage.
00:40:26
I'd never done it before.
00:40:30
So I got out some electrician-type wire out of my
00:40:31
toolkit and hooked him up.
00:40:33
I guess he thought it wouldn't hold him if he really wanted to
00:40:35
get free.
00:40:37
When I finished hooking him up, I looked down at him lying there
00:40:39
on his stomach with his hands tied behind his back.
00:40:41
It felt good.
00:40:43
I felt like I was really something.
00:40:46
I felt strong.
00:40:47
You know, growing up I always felt helpless.
00:40:49
I started caressing his body by running my buck knife blade up
00:40:53
and down his skin.
00:40:54
His body was almost hairless, nice and smooth.
00:41:01
All the while I kept telling him how easy it would be to kill
00:41:03
him.
00:41:03
Guess, I kind of wanted him to be afraid of me.
00:41:04
I still didn't plan to kill him.
00:41:05
I wanted to play with him, show him who's boss.
00:41:08
I held the knife up to his throat, told him I should cut
00:41:12
him.
00:41:12
He looked at me like he was starting to feel scared, all of
00:41:16
a sudden realizing he was helpless.
00:41:18
The kid couldn't tell if I was serious or not.
00:41:21
I didn't know if I was or not either.
00:41:23
I backed off because I wanted to enjoy him some more.
00:41:27
We were getting excited, so I reached down between his legs
00:41:30
and checked out his dick.
00:41:31
It was hard, like mine was too.
00:41:37
I got him up on his knees and pushed inside of him, stroking
00:41:40
back and forth until I exploded.
00:41:41
Then I grabbed all of his nuts and squeezed him real hard.
00:41:44
He screamed, broke loose and I fell back.
00:41:47
Then the kid twisted around and faced me with his fist raised
00:41:49
in the air, ready to punch me.
00:41:52
I had to defend myself.
00:41:53
I didn't have any choice.
00:41:54
He was strong and he might overpower me, maybe even kill me
00:41:58
.
00:41:58
I just wanted him to be afraid of me, to look up at me.
00:42:01
Know I could kill him at any second.
00:42:03
I wanted him to show me respect .
00:42:07
Anyway, I'm afraid of knives and didn't have any intention of
00:42:10
using it as a weapon.
00:42:11
I didn't want blood all over my new van.
00:42:13
But I had to defend myself.
00:42:15
I had no choice.
00:42:15
He was strong, maybe even stronger than me.
00:42:18
What could I do?
00:42:19
What if he had gotten the knife away from me?
00:42:22
He might have even killed me.
00:42:25
The kid landed a hard one right across my jaw and I fell back
00:42:28
and hit my head against the van.
00:42:29
I was shocked.
00:42:31
He nailed me good.
00:42:32
The knife was in my hand.
00:42:38
I didn't know what to do, so I raised it up and dug it hard
00:42:40
into his upper arm.
00:42:40
The kid screamed in horror really loud.
00:42:42
His eyes were wide open.
00:42:43
He couldn't believe it.
00:42:44
Fuck.
00:42:45
I couldn't believe I'd done it.
00:42:49
Then something inside me clicked and I was on automatic pilot.
00:42:51
I had to survive.
00:42:52
So I got a better grip on the knife and I started stabbing him
00:42:54
wildly over and over.
00:42:56
But he was twisting and turning .
00:42:58
I hit him in the back, in the butt, I don't know where else.
00:43:02
I was just stabbing blindly.
00:43:03
His blood squirted all over the place, on the walls, the
00:43:09
curtains, on me.
00:43:10
He tried to grab the knife, but I wouldn't let him get it.
00:43:11
I couldn't let him live.
00:43:13
He'd tell the police and I'd be in prison again.
00:43:15
I'd been in too many times, raped and beaten by other
00:43:19
inmates, and no one helped me out.
00:43:20
I just kept stabbing him frantically until he stopped
00:43:24
fighting.
00:43:26
The kid was asking me to take him to the hospital.
00:43:27
I said, sure, I mean, what else could I say?
00:43:30
But he was getting on my nerves with all the whining.
00:43:34
Finally I told him to shut up.
00:43:36
I said I was going to take him to a place, drop him off and
00:43:38
then call a doctor to come and help him.
00:43:40
He quieted it down.
00:43:42
I drove down Malibu Canyon and found a lonely side road.
00:43:45
I started dragging him out.
00:43:47
He was screaming all over again .
00:43:48
He was weak and I had to hide him real good.
00:43:56
So I wrapped him up in a blanket, but then I was all
00:43:58
covered in blood again.
00:43:58
So I got him on his stomach and started strangling him.
00:44:00
That wasn't working because I wasn't getting enough leverage,
00:44:02
but I had to kill him.
00:44:03
I wrapped an orange cord around his neck and tried to strangle
00:44:06
him, but I couldn't manage it.
00:44:08
I didn't like using the knife, I didn't like that blood going
00:44:12
everywhere, but there was no other way.
00:44:14
I got the buck knife out of the van and put my mind in a sort
00:44:17
of zen state in order to bring myself to the point of being
00:44:19
able to stab him again.
00:44:20
I stabbed him I don't know how many times, but I just kept
00:44:23
stabbing him like I was in a frenzy.
00:44:25
I had to make sure he was finished off, so I ran my fist
00:44:28
up his ass and he didn't flinch.
00:44:29
I started thinking about how it was when I got beaten as a kid.
00:44:33
I used to beg my old man to stop Shit.
00:44:36
He wouldn't.
00:44:38
Speaker 2: Notice that all of Bonin's statements are
00:44:42
self-serving, stressing that these victims willingly got in
00:44:47
the van and most agreed to sex.
00:44:49
That these victims willingly got in the van and most agreed
00:44:53
to sex.
00:44:53
I find it hard to believe that all of these kids said to this
00:44:54
dirty old man because at this time Bonin was 32, okay, sure,
00:45:00
I'll have sex with you.
00:45:01
It's just not believable.
00:45:03
Note a couple of things he says besides his story of consensual
00:45:09
sex.
00:45:09
He claimed that he was just defending himself from Marcus,
00:45:16
who supposedly became aggressive .
00:45:18
This is important to note.
00:45:21
He said he got a thrill from Marcus's fear and that he was
00:45:27
enjoying the power that he had over him.
00:45:29
And this, right here, is the key.
00:45:32
And you know what somebody who gets enjoyment from having fear
00:45:37
and power over others is A sadist, of course.
00:45:41
The next morning at about 630, a man named Harold was driving on
00:45:47
Las Vergenes Canyon Road and saw what looked like a body.
00:45:51
He stopped and, sure enough, it was the body of a nude male.
00:45:55
The LA County Sheriff's Department, particularly
00:45:59
Sergeant Kushner, arrived and found what was Marcus, with
00:46:04
bruises on his face, multiple stab wounds, an orange cord
00:46:08
still around his neck and blue ignition wires binding his
00:46:13
ankles.
00:46:13
He also had ligature burn marks indicating that he'd been
00:46:17
strangled from behind.
00:46:18
His shoes were across the road and he had nothing of value in
00:46:23
his backpack, like no identifying things.
00:46:26
An autopsy revealed quote severe injuries to the anal
00:46:31
region, consistent with the defendant Bonin saying that he
00:46:37
put his fist into Mark's anus.
00:46:41
And this next part.
00:46:43
You're just not going to believe this.
00:46:44
It's so ridiculous.
00:46:46
Bonin got arrested again.
00:46:49
This information is from the Orange County Sheriff's Crime
00:46:54
Report.
00:46:55
On August 9th 1979, at about midnight, bonin had picked up a
00:47:01
17-year-old boy and was parked in a school parking lot.
00:47:05
An officer, duncan, observed that the van was quote moving
00:47:11
slightly due to movement inside end, quote so he decided to
00:47:16
investigate.
00:47:17
Inside were, of course, bonnen and a 17-year-old boy who said
00:47:22
that Bonnen had picked him up hitchhiking.
00:47:24
According to the police report, shortly after the ride started,
00:47:30
bonin reached over and fondled his genital area, saying does
00:47:35
this feel good?
00:47:36
He replied I don't get into this and pushed his hand away.
00:47:41
Bonin said that he was bisexual and he should try it.
00:47:45
Bonin again touched his genital area while driving the
00:47:51
defendant parked in the school parking lot, then again fondled
00:47:55
the boy, saying quote, can't you get it hard for me?
00:47:59
Bonnen then pulled the boy into the back of the van saying,
00:48:04
quote don't you want a good blowjob?
00:48:06
The defendant pulled his pants down and tried to kiss the boy,
00:48:10
who again said hey, I'm not into this.
00:48:14
As we know by now, bonin doesn't take no for an answer.
00:48:18
He unzipped the boy's pants and had just started fellating him
00:48:23
when the cop happened upon the scene.
00:48:25
Thankfully for the kid upon the scene, thankfully for the kid,
00:48:33
bonnen was arrested for sexual perversion and jailed from
00:48:34
August 9th to August 13th.
00:48:35
Thanks to his attorney, who filed a writ of habeas corpus,
00:48:39
he was released and scheduled to appear for a hearing on August
00:48:43
24th.
00:48:44
A parole revocation hearing was scheduled for September 18th.
00:48:50
So as a former probation officer, I have absolutely no
00:48:55
idea how he was able to get out of jail while on parole for a
00:49:01
serious sex offense.
00:49:04
Lucky or slips through the cracks, like this time.
00:49:08
Bonin thinks he's even more invincible, which is common with
00:49:12
serial killers or any career criminals.
00:49:14
He called Scott Frazier for a ride home from jail and again
00:49:19
declared this is never going to happen again.
00:49:22
Nobody's ever going to testify against me again.
00:49:25
Unfortunately, scott, like everybody who'd heard this
00:49:29
previously, thought nothing of it or took to mean that Bonin
00:49:33
planned to stop abducting, raping and killing.
00:49:36
So then Bonin gets the genius idea of establishing a sort of
00:49:42
alibi for the murder of Marcus, and for this he enrolls the help
00:49:47
of his shady friend Scott Frazier.
00:49:49
On August 17th, 12 days after he killed Marcus, bonin took
00:49:54
Frazier to lunch at a restaurant where he told Frazier that he
00:49:59
had killed a dude in self-defense.
00:50:01
In a half-assed tale, he claimed that he and Vern had
00:50:06
picked up a hitchhiker for sex.
00:50:08
Remember, vern wasn't even there for this one.
00:50:11
Things had gotten out of hand and he had been forced to stab
00:50:15
the kid to death in an act of self-defense.
00:50:18
Apparently, frazier bought this load of bullshit.
00:50:21
Bonnen also said that he'd been shaken up over the incident.
00:50:27
Apparently he wasn't too shaken up over the incident.
00:50:29
Apparently he wasn't too shaken up because three days later, on
00:50:33
August 20th, he and Vern were at it again.
00:50:37
This victim was 18-year-old Robert Wurostek, who had been
00:50:42
born in Flint, michigan, on October 30th 1960.
00:50:46
He was one of six kids born to Robert and Joan and was
00:50:51
described as very athletic.
00:50:53
He played football and graduated from high school in
00:50:56
Michigan in 1978, then moved to California with his family.
00:51:01
He was riding his bicycle to work at a grocery store called
00:51:06
Ralph's Market that day when he ran into Bonin.
00:51:10
Bonin actually gave two versions of the events of Bob's
00:51:15
murder the version he told the detectives and the written one.
00:51:18
I'm going with the written one, since it's slightly less
00:51:23
self-serving and more graphic, and I think it's closer to the
00:51:27
truth.
00:51:27
He starts off by saying that he was taking a drive along the
00:51:33
shore because it was a sunny day , which is bullshit, when he
00:51:37
happened upon Bob hitchhiking near Newport Beach.
00:51:41
He never mentions a bicycle, so we know this isn't accurate.
00:51:45
It starts out like all the other confessions he saw a
00:51:48
good-looking dude, picked him up politely, asked if he was
00:51:53
interested in homosexual activities, etc.
00:51:56
Speaker 1: Then, according to Bonin, this is what happened
00:51:59
next we got back in a van, I started sucking on him and
00:52:02
rubbing his chest.
00:52:03
Oh yeah, that feels great, he said.
00:52:05
I had him hooked.
00:52:07
He was laying on his back and really enjoying it.
00:52:10
I went in the back to get tissue and came back with an
00:52:13
8-inch steak knife.
00:52:14
I held it to his throat.
00:52:16
I said if you move, I'll stick you with this knife.
00:52:19
He was petrified and said I'll do anything.
00:52:22
I tied him up and told him one false move and I'll stick you.
00:52:27
I could see sweat on his tan skin and it was really turning
00:52:29
me on.
00:52:29
I pulled down my pants and I butt fucked him.
00:52:32
He started complaining and I told him if you make any noise,
00:52:36
you're a dead motherfucker.
00:52:37
I drove my dick into him and fucked him real hard.
00:52:40
I then found a photo booth and called Vern.
00:52:43
All the way to Vern's place he asked me to loosen his hands
00:52:46
because they were hurting.
00:52:47
I told him to shut up.
00:52:50
After I got Vern in the van, I headed out towards the I-10
00:52:52
freeway.
00:52:53
During the time I was driving, vern learned his name was Bob
00:52:57
Weirstick.
00:52:57
Vern gave him head and slapped him around a little bit.
00:53:00
Then Vern drove and I got back there and rolled him onto his
00:53:04
stomach.
00:53:04
I asked Vern, would you like to hear him scream?
00:53:07
And Vern said sure, why don't you do that finger trick?
00:53:10
That was a thing we discussed the night before, where we'd
00:53:16
break the guy's fingers.
00:53:16
I said okay, and I grabbed Bob's little finger and bent it
00:53:18
back until he screamed in pain.
00:53:19
After I finished, I went for the little finger on the other
00:53:23
hand, and he begged me not to.
00:53:24
I pushed it back for a while but didn't break it.
00:53:28
I then grabbed his nuts and squeezed.
00:53:30
Then I took the tire iron and rolled him over on his back and
00:53:33
hit him as hard as I could on both knees and ankles.
00:53:35
I hit him on his shoulders and elbows.
00:53:38
Then I told him we're going to let you out, but you will be
00:53:41
unconscious.
00:53:42
I gave him the choice of either choking him out or hitting him
00:53:46
over the head.
00:53:46
He said he didn't know.
00:53:48
I hit him across the head with the tire iron and I thought he
00:53:51
was out.
00:53:52
I hit him again and he raised up , saying you fucking bastard.
00:53:56
He had momentarily scared me.
00:53:58
I said I'll choke you instead.
00:54:00
Just let yourself go and it won't be as bad.
00:54:02
Don't struggle, as it'll only make it worse and don't try to
00:54:06
pretend you're out, I can tell.
00:54:08
I started choking him with his t-shirt and twisting the tire
00:54:11
iron.
00:54:11
After I got it tight, I saw he was fully conscious.
00:54:14
He was trying to stay that way.
00:54:16
He started to struggle and I said struggle, baby, it'll only
00:54:20
make your death come faster.
00:54:21
In 15 seconds he was out.
00:54:24
I relaxed and held the shirt and tire iron tight for about
00:54:27
five minutes.
00:54:28
We dumped him in the desert around Palm Springs and went
00:54:31
home.
00:54:32
Speaker 2: Bob's badly decomposed body was found on
00:54:36
September 27th but wasn't identified until July of 1980.
00:54:41
An autopsy concluded that his cause of death was strangulation
00:54:46
.
00:54:46
I'm going to leave off for here .
00:54:48
Remember, Patreon is up and running, so check that out.
00:55:05
It's patreoncom and it's True Crime Uni, or just search for
00:55:07
Patreon, True Crime University and you'll find it.
00:55:09
The voice of Bonnen was done by the one and only Dave Jory,
00:55:14
voice actor extraordinaire and host of Criminal AF.
00:55:18
So if you want to hear more of that awesome voice, check out
00:55:25
Criminal AF.
00:55:28
Speaker 1: Are you a true crime fanatic?
00:55:29
Do you want to know all the morbid details?
00:55:32
Do you think talking about serial killers is fun?
00:55:35
If you answered yes, then you're in the right place and
00:55:39
have finally found your crew.
00:55:40
Join hosts Dave Jari and Garrett Corder from Criminal AF
00:55:44
every Monday to discuss some of the most heinous crimes
00:55:47
imaginable, while having fun doing it.
00:55:49
Dave and Garrett bring a unique and unfiltered approach to
00:55:53
their storytelling that will have you shocked beyond belief
00:55:55
one minute and laughing out of your seat the next.
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This is not your grandma's true crime podcast.
00:56:01
While we understand that Criminal AF is not for everyone,
00:56:05
we ask that you at least give it a listen.
00:56:07
And if it's not for you, hey, thanks for checking it out.
00:56:16
See ya, but if it is, welcome to the debauchery.