William George Bonin

Randy Steven Kraft, the "score-card killer" who was convicted in Santa Ana last year of murdering 16 men, had someone waiting for him when he reached Death Row at San Quentin State Prison. The acolyte was William Bonin, a fellow serial killer who anticipated Kraft's arrival last fall "like the student awaiting his master," according to one inmate.

The killer's taped voice speaks horrors that sicken even many years later. His tone is as casual as a call home. "I tied him up with nylon--this electrician type of wire. I pulled a knife on him and he got scared. . . . I stabbed him in the left arm. It surprised me that I did it. "I stabbed him again and then again, and again and again until he was helpless." The voice belongs to William G.

William G. Bonin, the notorious "Freeway Killer" who seared his way into the nation's consciousness with a string of sadistic murders 16 years ago, awaited execution late Thursday as his lawyers fought to save his life. Bonin, a former Downey truck driver who confessed to raping, torturing and killing 21 boys and young men, was scheduled to be put to death at 12:01 a.m. today in the converted gas chamber at San Quentin Prison. In quick succession Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S.

Serial killer William G. Bonin, condemned more than 12 years ago to die, has managed to outlast some of the key players in the case that sent him to death row. "Jigsaw John" St. John, the storied Los Angeles detective who chased down Bonin in 1980, died last year. Kenneth E. Lae, the Orange County judge who imposed one of two death sentences, died in 1987. Bonin, convicted of killing 14 people in 1979 and 1980, is scheduled to be executed just after midnight Friday morning.

William G. Bonin, the notorious "Freeway Killer" who seared his way into the nation's consciousness with a string of sadistic murders 16 years ago, was executed at San Quentin Prison early today, becoming the first person in California to die by lethal injection. Bonin, a former Downey truck driver who confessed to raping, torturing and killing 21 boys and young men, was put to death in the prison's converted gas chamber. He was declared dead at 12:13 a.m. At 10:47 p.m., the U.S.

All of William G. Bonin--the serial killer and the man--lives on in his old neighborhood. Neighbors remember the screams from his house, and when he tried to coax their children indoors. Old-timers recall Bonin's offerings of X-rated movies and free beer to the boys on Angell Street. And a few people who live in this graying grid of 1950s tract homes even caught a glimpse of Bonin as something other than a hollow-eyed killer.

Ben Aronoff's mountain cabin is a gallery of mass-murderer art. On the walls hang a signed self-portrait of Charles Manson, a greeting card designed by serial murderer Lawrence Bittaker, water colors by child killer Theodore Frank and smiling snapshots of William G. Bonin, who was executed Friday. Aronoff, a former San Quentin guard turned prison reformer, has befriended notorious prisoners over the past decade and coaxed them through their bleakest days on death row.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday refused a bid to block the Feb. 23 lethal-injection execution of serial killer William G. Bonin. In a brief order, the court rejected as "without merit" arguments that Bonin did not receive a fair trial on grounds that his attorney was inept and that prosecutors hypnotized one witness and used the perjured testimony of a jailhouse informant.

Saying "justice delayed is indeed justice denied," Gov. Pete Wilson rejected a clemency plea Tuesday for William Bonin, the notorious "Freeway Killer" who faces execution this week by lethal injection for a brutal murder spree in Southern California 16 years ago. In a short statement at the Capitol, Wilson said claims by Bonin's attorneys that he was not given adequate legal representation during two trials failed to compel the governor to halt the execution set for 12:01 a.m. Friday.