Long Beach, CA—Vonda Pelto, Ph.D., who has lived in Long Beach for over 60 years, has just released her second book about serial killers. Without Redemption: Creation & Deeds of Freeway Killer Bill Bonin, His Five Accomplices & How One Who Escaped Justice, ten years in making, involves the city of Long Beach in a variety of ways. A resident of nearby Downey, Bill Bonin often cruised through Long Beach in search of hitchhikers and one of his victims was left at PCH and the 710 Freeway. Pelto's first book, Without Remorse: The Story of the Woman Who Kept Los Angeles' Serial Killers Alive, came out n 2007 and covered her entire time having sessions, as a Clinical Psychologist, with serial killers and vicious criminals at LA Men's Central Jail from 1980-83.

 

Without Redemption Book Trailer





In the course of their research, Pelto and co-Author Michael B. Butler were able reconstruct Bonin's whole life and carefully analyze his 32-year psychological descent from innocent child to depraved murderer. So many places along the way may have diverted him, but that was not to be as family, friends, public institutions, mental hospitals, the court system and prisons failed to halt the inevitable fate.

During her sessions with Bonin, chronicled throughout Without Redemption, Pelto continually tries to get to the bottom of Bonin's troubled personality, but she found no evident overriding psychotic disorder aside from him being an aggressive sociopathic predator. He expressed his feelings of powerlessness as an abused child, and this is cited as the reason Bonin enjoyed having the power of life and death over his innocent victims, which were all young teenage boys.    

Using official investigative documents, and Bonin's jailhouse diaries and written confessions, the authors were also able solve two 40-year-old murder mysteries and identity how one day, during the murder spree, changed everything to follow. Unlocking why March 24, 1980 is so important in the Bill Bonin story was a tedious aspect of the complicated task to create an amazingly detailed serial killer historical biography. The events chronicled in a flow chart can be seen at http://bit.ly/3ZDDKPG, it constitutes a road map of a story with an infinite number of twists and turns, what ifs and "can you believe that really happened?"

One startling and tragic fact they uncovered: During the ten-month murder spree Bonin was arrested and in custody THREE TIMES, then let go on legal technicalities and bureaucratic missteps which cost many lives.

Radio Show Video of Vonda Pelto

 

What is Without Redemption:

The book was written on a number of parallel tracks that constantly intersect:

First, it is the most detailed historical biography ever written about Bill Bonin, the notorious Freeway Killer responsible for murdering 22 teenage boys over ten-months in 1979-80.          

Second, it is a psychological roadmap which charts the evolution of Bonin's personality from abused child to sexual predator to serial killer. This is accomplished using documents from his childhood, war service, multiple California government mental health and penal institutions, witness testimony and the expertise of Clinical Psychologist Vonda Pelto, Ph.D., who had many sessions with Bonin and two of his accomplices while working in Los Angeles Men's Central Jail.        

Third, it is a narrative which, using long hidden documents, reveals the inner workings of Bonin's mind, showing how he thought, felt, planned and viewed the world. The narrative displays Bonin, an abused high school dropout, cleverly manipulating lawyers, judges, doctors, social workers, friends, family, probation officers, government bureaucrats, detectives, journalists and, most tragically, the innocent victims of his rage.        

Fourth, Without Redemption reveals the complex story of what happened after Bonin's final arrest, when so much was in flux and so many moving parts were swirling about. Archived investigative documents, collected from a variety of sources, brings to light a number of surprising, shocking, sad and even funny events from those ten tumultuous months from June 1980 to March 1981.

Finally, it is a book which solves two 40-year-old murder mysteries and unlocks how one day of crossroads and coincidences, in the midst of the murder spree, profoundly impacted many lives and future events. 

• The most detailed bio of serial killer Bill Bonin ever written using previously hidden documents.
• How childhood abuse & Vietnam War service helped create what followed.
• How Bonin manipulated California judicial, mental health & prison systems for nine years before the killings.
• Interviews of Bonin, Miley & Munro with Vonda Pelto, Ph.D. before, during & after his Los Angeles trial.
• Bonin's jailhouse writings offer new perspective on his brutality, methods, thoughts and personality.
• How & Why Bonin covered for accomplice Eric Wijnaendts, who helped him with two murders.
• How & Why March 24, 1980 is a key date in the Bill Bonin story.

Without Redemption: Creation & Deeds of Freeway Killer Bill Bonin, His Five Accomplices & How One Escaped Justice, Paperback ISBN: 979-8841931249, Hard Cover ISBN: 979-8844477775. For more info go to www.WithoutRedemption.com and purchase copies at Amazon.

Media Contact: For interviews or to request review copies contact Flotsam PR at 213-534-7292 or flotsampr@pm.me.