Killers: Behind the Myth

The most notoriouskillers hide in plain sight,

free to kill, and kill again.

But most are not the criminalmasterminds of fiction.

In their minds, theycommit the perfect murder.

In reality, it's their foolishmistakes that get them caught.

California, 1979.

The Sunshine State looks like heaven on earth.

It's almost tempting to speculate,

but it's rather like the movie Jaws.

This is a place of sunshine, and tourists,

and happiness, and surfing,and the ocean, and stuff.

But a nightmare is unfolding.

Suddenly, there was a bodyturning up on a weekly basis--

almost a daily basis.

Behind this sunnyfacade is a lurking horror.

Throughout the 70s, motorists have

been discovering deadbodies dumped on the side

of California's freeways.

One investigator of theseseemingly unconnected killings

is Bernie Esposito.

This was becoming, you know,a weekly, biweekly thing.

So there was a great deal ofurgency in trying to find out

who was committing these acts.

The police arepuzzled by the sheer number

of dead bodies.

During the 70s, over 100 corpses are found

dumped by the state freeways.

For crime writer Mark Billingham,

the body count should ring alarm bells.

Even though bodies were beingfound every couple of days,

the local law enforcementwere kind of--

they were in denial as well.

But you know--

There were a couple of newspaperjournalists that kind of went,

Hello!

Serial killers on the loose!

And the police were then kindof going, la, la, la, la, la!

You know, let's all go surfing!

No one knows ifit is one killer, or many.

There's no question that Southern

California, at that time,was Serial Killer Central.

I mean, we now know that there were

at least three different serialkillers operating in that area.

Perhaps more.

But the media givethe faceless predator a name--

The Freeway Killer.

In many cases, the victimsare young men or boys.

Tension rises on the streets.

It seems no young male is safe.

Psychologist Vonda Pelto remembers the fear

across the Sunshine State.

Parents were fearful ofletting their kids outside,

particularly young boys.

And there was just a thick layerof horror all over the area.

Whoever The Freeway Killer is,

he's just getting started.

Many more will die.

On March the 22nd, 1979, apattern begins to emerge.

We received a call of twoyoung bodies that were dumped

in the Ronald Casper's park.

Forensic pathologist Jimmy White,

has the gruesome task of examining the bodies.

There were signs of sexualactivity on the victims,

if not necessarily semen.

There might have been, you know, rectal damage.

That sort of thing.

Examination of the two bodies

reveals disturbing facts.

Both were teenagers, and both, it appeared,

had been tortured andmurdered by the same killer.

By Spring 1980, several more young male victims

turn up with similar injuries.

These bodies strike a real similarity.

There are some common denominators here

that we can't ignore.

These were murders that you knew were

committed by a serial killer.

A predator witha taste for teenage boys.

Esposito and his team haveto find the killer fast.

We had felt a real sense of urgency

to try to capture this individual,

because the bodies wereshowing up at an alarming rate.

For Esposito,catching the killer is not

just a professional concern.

It is deeply personal.

At the time, my own son wasapproximately the same age,

same physical descriptionof these particular victims

that were being dumped allover Southern California.

So I had a particular interest in trying

to capture this individual.

Police teams fromtwo different jurisdictions

make the case a priority, but the body

count continues to rise.

There's so many bodies thatquite honestly what happens

is they start to bleed intoone another, so to speak.

Between August 1979 and May 1980,

13 more victims with similar injuries

are found dead on the roadside.

On the 29th of May 1980, theLAPD make a breakthrough--

17-year-old Billy Pugh is in custody.

He's arrested for a minor theft, but he

offers the police information in return

for favorable treatment--

information on The Freeway Killer.

Obviously, there's a degreeof skepticism on behalf

of the police, but it quickly becomes clear

that he's able to give themall sorts of details that would

be unknown to anybody else.

He claims to havebeen recruited as an accomplice

by the killer.

So Billy Pugh is able to say to the police,

if you let me off, I can tellyou who The Freeway Killer is.

Pugh gives them a name--

William Bonin.

Billy Pugh startedtelling his juvenile hall

counselor that he had accepteda ride from William Bonin.

And he opened the glovebox of William Bonin's van,

and he found all of thesearticles that were collected

on The Freeway Killings, that were appearing

in all of the newspapers.

They have a name,but they also have a problem.

Because Pugh is anaccomplice, his talk is cheap.

What we had was just some information

that was uncorroborated.

You need somecorroboration for evidence

that you know is going to be tested in court.

Testimony of an accomplicehas to be corroborated.

The police need hard evidence.

They begin surveillance of Bonin.

We took turns surveilling Bill Bonin.

LAPD took a shift.

LA Sheriff took a shift.

We took a shift.

So it was a continual thing where we had him

under surveillance for days.

After nine dayswith nothing to report,

Bonin suddenly becomesactive on the 11th of June.

The detectives witness what could only

be described as a nightmare.

They watch him cruising around in his van trying

to pick up young men and boys.

And he tries to pick up five different boys.

And the police watch and wait.

And they have to wait.

They can only break cover

when they are sure to catch him in the midst

of committing a crime.

Suddenly, after five failed attempts

to lure young men intohis van, a 15-year-old boy

accepts his invitation.

He picked up a youngkid on one of the streets

in Hollywood.

Got him into the van.

Pulled into a closed service station.

The police are on a knife edge.

If they leap too soon,they jeopardize the case.

If they wait too long, a boy may die.

LAPD crept up on the van, and they can hear

this kid crying inside the van.

They believe Bonincould be The Freeway Killer,

but in trying to get evidence against him,

there is a risk a childmay get hurt or even die.

As the police approach thevan where William Bonin is

attacking a 15-year-old, it isclear that they must act now

or the boy will die.

They couldn't let it go on any further.

You know, it was time to move.

Before he killed the kid,he was in the process

of tying the kid up, when LAPD,you know, knocked on the door.

The scene revealedinside the van is horrific.

The boy who was raped by Boninis lucky to escape his life.

They took the kid to safety.

Arrested Bill Bonin.

So at that point, we hadthe van in police custody.

The van is a mobile torture chamber

fitted out with everything Bonin might

need for a gruesome attack.

So that's when we obtaineda search warrant for the van,

so that we could legitimately examine

that van for forensic evidence.

The forensic team begin their work.

They know that tying Boninto the freeway murders

depends on robust evidence.

We did find some blood evidence in the van.

I'm not sure which victimsthe blood was associated with,

but I do remember there being blood in the van.

As forensics continue, Bonin

is questioned by the police.

He does not react like your average killer.

He appears proud of what he's done.

To the detective's amazement,he wants to share the story

of his revolting crimes.

He very much wanted to tellyou about his escapades--

about his conquests.

Bill Bonin would like youto think how smart he was.

Bonin is also assigned a counselor--

Vonda Pelto.

Over her career at LA County Men's Prison,

she has been an agony aunt to people

like Charles Manson and Ted Bundy.