Los Angeles, CA—When writing and researching a historical biography about Freeway Killer Bill Bonin, who killed 22 boys in ten months from August 4, 1979 to June 2, 1980, the authors were struck by how many times the California criminal justice system failed. Without Redemption: Creation & Deeds of Freeway Killer Bill Bonin, His Five Accomplices & How One Who Escaped Justice carefully chronicles the nature and manner of those failings, systemic and bureaucratic.
With over 40 boxes of investigative documents, co-authors Vonda Pelto, Ph.D., a Clinical Psychologist who had sessions with Bonin and two of his accomplices, and Michael B. Butler were able show how a clever high school dropout manipulated lawyers, judges, psychiatrists, social workers, parole and probation officers and many others.
Nine years in mental hospitals and prisons, due to multiple arrests for violent sexual assaults, honed Bonin's inherently brilliant manipulative skills. With his homicidal psychotic tendencies still under wraps, new laws and the system's inability to hold him longer unleashed William Bonin on an unsuspecting Southern California.
Then, during the murder spree, he was in custody three times and should have been held on probation violations alone. Bureaucratic muddle, sloppy work and sheer luck allowed him to get out and kill again, again and again.
All of those small little events, which served up wholesale disaster, are revealed in Without Redemption, one of the most detailed serial killer historical biographies ever written.
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Without Redemption Book Trailer
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My LA Sheriff Homicide Detective Husband Would've Loved This Book
My husband was a homicide detective for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's for decades, starting up with the force shortly before Bonin started killing. He knew many of the detectives in this book and would have really liked reading it, so right up his alley I wish he could be here to check it out. Not only that we lived in Downey, a few short miles away from Bill Bonin, when all these murders happened.
He used to tell me about the bureaucratic fights between LA Sheriff and LAPD, and that comes through loud and clear in 'Without Redemption.' And all those scenes at LA Men's Central Jail would have been so familiar because he served in that madhouse for years, pretty wild stuff. Actually, it gave me a small window into the world he existed in for so long, something he always tried to shield me from.
K.G.
Paints the Whole Picture
Not much of Freeway Killer Bill Bonin's life, leading up to his first and most important conviction, is left out of this book.
An interesting section is the one after his arrest, where Bonin's jailhouse diaries are used to tell the inside story. It is fascinating because everyone, I mean everyone, is deceiving and lying to everyone else—homicide detectives from different agencies, prosecutors, witnesses, defense attorneys, press, politicians, district attorneys and, of course, the six Freeway Killer defendants. There are also humorous jailhouse stories that serve to break up the story.
Leading up to the disaster is like descending a slow staircase, and then there is the ten-month murder spree that is chronicled from many different perspectives.
Without Redemption' definitely deserves the moniker 'detailed historical biography.'
C.S.
Co-Author Vonda Pelto is Actually a Player in This Serial Killer Bio
My surprise in this book was how the co-author, Clinical Psychologist Vonda Pelto, Ph.D., actually participated in the story told about the life of Freeway Killer Bill Bonin—she dealt with Bonin and two of his accomplices while working at Los Angeles Central Jail. Pelto had numerous sessions with all three, and other horrible serial killers, and had to listen to their ghastly stories, told in some ways to see her reactions and in other ways to relive their crimes. Her disgust is evident, but she hides it during discussions with Bonin, Miley and Munro, where they all talked about murders in detail.
Aside from that 'Without Redemption' is interesting because it is the story of one person's slow march to becoming an unfeeling monster. It was scary how the killing took over his life, kind of like Gollum in 'Lord of the Rings,' it simply swallowed him up.
The authors really packed in the factual stories of Bonin's life, from birth all the way through months and months of day-to-day events after his arrest, when the system was gearing up and he was trying to make a deal to avoid the death penalty. This part of the book is when very public events are analyzed from inside and outside, and where big surprises pop up.
A thoroughly fascinating and engaging read.
D.R.
They really tell the full story of a serial killer, from beginning to the end!
Serial killer biographers often lack access to many important documents, but that can't be said of Without Redemption, which reveals for the first time how and why someone got away with double murder! In fact, the Freeway Killer Bill Bonin is the one who covered for his accomplice. One also learns that Bonin was in police custody on numerous occasions during the murder rampage.
It's obvious the authors must have had boxes and boxes of material to write from—Bonin's childhood, adult years spent in mental hospitals and prisons, well before Bill Bonin started killing, are ably reconstructed in amazing detail. You can sense the disaster to come as story slowly unfolds.
Then the killing starts and Bonin's own written words and many different interviews, with homicide detectives and the co-author Vonda Pelto, Ph.D., give the reader a front row seat in the mind of the man who murdered 22 teenage boys, with five accomplices, in a short period of time. Taking place in 1979-80 in Los Angeles, the book paints of picture of how Bonin's actions created a firestorm among police, the public and the media.
Part three is a fascinating look at what happened after Bonin's arrest and how detectives rolled up the other killers and built their case against Bonin and his friends. It was a complicated ten-months, but the authors recreate it in fascinating detail, which includes using Bonin's jailhouse diaries and see how he was manipulating events while also being unable to control his fate.
A historical biography worthy of that term.
B.B.
Thoroughly Impressive
Facts, depth and chronologically accurate is a good way to describe this serial killer book, written in a way that moves quickly but always reminds the reader about key events and stays in a constant now with the infamous Freeway Killer Bill Bonin. 'Without Redemption' has many side story lines within the overall story of Bonin's life, which are all carefully placed in their proper historical context. For example, when describing Bonin sentence and time at Atascadero State Hospital, a mental institution, all the laws and treatment norms of 1969 are carefully explained and explored.
His crimes of murdering so many young boys are heinous, but there were many times when the ultimate tragedy might have been averted, which are pointed out by the authors. All through the book the question of nature versus nurture is ever present, quite fairly leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions. Bonin's diaries add layers of complexity to his personality and are full of fantastic info in the months after his arrest, when his five accomplices, in 11 of the 22 murders, were arrested and offered various deals for testimony. That is a great section of the book.
Solid biography that is definitely worth the price.
E.B.
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 319-504-3788 or flotsampr@pm.me.