Overview
- A prosecutor described Bonin as “the most arch-evil person who ever existed,” according to the reports.
- Bonin admitted to killing at least 21 boys, while courts secured 14 murder convictions and investigators suspected a higher total.
- His crimes unfolded across Southern California in 1979–80, with victims generally teenage boys targeted after being lured into his van.
- He operated with at least four accomplices and left bodies near freeways in distant counties to mislead investigators.
- He was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin on February 23, 1996, and used his final statement to oppose the death penalty.