Sadistic “Freeway Killer” Left Trail of Over 22 Boy’s Bodies: The Story of William Bonin

Victims of serial killer William Bonin, known as the Freeway Killer in southern California during the late 70s and early 80s.

William Bonin was a twice paroled sex offender and truck driver, who is better known as an American serial killer who abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered at least 22 young boys and men in a series of murders between 1979 and 1980. Bonin is suspected of at least 15 additional murders but never charged.

Bonin’s name became scorched into the nation’s minds decades ago, not only for his gruesome crimes but because he didn’t act alone. At least four men between the ages of 17 and 21, helped commit the heinous crimes.

Bonin was dubbed by media as the “Freeway Killer” because his victims were found discarded alongside freeways and roads in southern California.

Growing Up

William Bonin was born on January 8, 1947, in Willimantic, Connecticut. He was the second of three brothers born to Robert and Alice Bonin. Both parents were alcoholics and his father an abusive and compulsive gambler. It was normal for the couple to often abandon their three children for extended periods of time.

Severely neglected, the three brothers often stayed with Alice’s father who was a convicted child molester and known to have molested his own daughter.

In 1953, Alice placed her sons in an orphanage to try to protect them from their abusive father. The safety was short-lived. The orphanage was known to brutally discipline the children in their care, including beatings, using submission positions, and partial drowning — among other unimaginable punishments.

Bonin would later freely talk to others about his childhood but he always refused to talk about his memories of the orphanage where he stayed until the age of nine. However, Bonin would later reveal that he did consent to sex with older males while in the facility, but “only” if the abuser would tie Bonin’s hands behind his back. He explained having his hands bound would make him feel less afraid.

William Bonin’s parents, Alice and Robert, moved to the city of Downey, California in 1961.

In 1961, due to Robert’s gambling, Robert and Alice were facing foreclosure of their home in Connecticut and…