Los Angeles, CA—Without Redemption, a historical biography of notorious serial killer Bill Bonin, continues to gain positive reviews and sales in US, UK, Australia, France and other European countries. Co-authored by Vonda Pelto, Ph.D., who dealt with Bonin and two of his accomplices at LA Men's Jail, this book can rightly claim to be one of the most detailed serial killer biographies written by the sheer volume of investigative documents they had to write from.
Vonda Pelto was a newly minted Clinical Psychologist when she was brought in following the jailhouse suicide of Bonin's key accomplice Vernon Butts, who helped with him six killings and knew of three others. Highly embarrassed by the suicide, the LA County Sheriff's Department, who run LA Men's Central Jail, were under intense pressure to prevent other serial killers or high-profile inmates from escaping justice.
This aspect of the Without Redemption is truly fascinating as Bonin and two accomplices, Munro and Miley, describe to Pelto various murders while also shedding light on Bonin's gruesome mindset and methods.
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Here is the Introduction to Without Redemption and below are nine Amazon Kindle E-Gift links for anyone wishing to get the book for FREE.
Introduction: What's a Nice Girl Doing in a Place Like This!
The Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail was a strange, surreal world; a mustard-gray, cement encased ecosystem filled with LA County Sheriff's tan uniforms, multi-colored inmate jumpsuits and pale faces.
It was a world where, on my first Halloween, a gang riot broke out and an inmate was dropped from the second level tier, his brains splattered on the cold concrete floor below.
It was a world where convicts, linked by foot-shackles, shuffled down the sides of the halls, against the walls, because the center of the corridors was forbidden territory to them.
It was a world where trustees stood patiently, like waiters in a high-class restaurant, waiting to take our orders in the officer's dining room.
It was a world where I found myself alone, in my office, having coffee and cookies with rapists and murderers.
More than anything else, it was a world filled with rage, terror and pain. It was here that men, arrested for a multitude of crimes, were incarcerated until the completion of their trials, or awaiting reassignment to San Quentin, Chino, Mule Creek and other prisons.
This was a place for them to quietly meet with me, Vonda Pelto, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, for the express purpose of evaluating them for suicidal ideation. Many of the serial killers and murderers relished in the practice of reliving their crimes, taking pleasure in making me uncomfortable as they recounted the gruesome details, often trying to explain their rationale for torturing, raping and murdering. I learned these men sought me out to calm fears and anxieties about their future punishment, most every of one lacking any guilt or remorse for their behavior.
Here was a world that invaded my life as I struggled to maintain my own sanity and keep the darkness from my two daughters. Divorced and feeling alone, I was forced to compartmentalize various personas in order to survive emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Although much has been written about these men and their crimes, few have experienced their inner minds and thoughts as I did during my time, as it were, at the LA Men's Jail. Many books are written about killers by authors who had a limited number of formal interviews with them, but those types of conversations differed dramatically from the barriers down, tell me what you really think confabs I had with serial killers who were Without Remorse and Without Redemption.
From my first day at the jail, I kept a diary and took copious notes of the meetings conducted with the inmates I was assigned to keep alive. My mandate was to support them through their trials and to not engage in therapy. Even after they were transferred to prison, many continued to communicate with me through letters and calls. Their letters, like the conversations, revealed a need for human contact and a total lack of guilt or remorse. My office was a converted cell located quite close to those of the Hillside Strangler, Freeway Killers, the Sunset Strip Killer, the Trash Bag Murderer and the Wonderland Murderers.
The primary focus of this book is Bill Bonin, the Freeway Killer who recruited five others to help him murder teenage boys. As you will find out in this book, Bonin killed just as many alone as he did with the accomplices. I had direct contact with Bonin, Greg Miley and James Munro, but never got a chance to speak with Vernon Butts, Billy Pugh or Eric Wijnaendts.
My first book, Without Remorse: The Story of the Woman Who Kept Los Angeles' Serial Killers Alive, and this new publication resulted from those meetings and sessions. While Without Remorse covered the entire experience and featured all the killers and criminals I encountered, Without Redemption focuses on the entire evolution of Bonin's personality from young boy in Connecticut to serial killer in Southern California. The region was in fear while the killings went on and enthralled as the details of their crimes emerged after Bonin and company were arrested.
It may be the stuff of nightmares, but it is all frighteningly true and had, as mentioned, a tremendous impact on my life. As far as unusual jobs go, especially for a woman in 1981, working in the jail chatting up serial killers and unrepentant sexual predators is close to the top. Place an attractive, single woman working in an environment comprised of five thousand male inmates, and that makes it even more unique.
In this book, Bill Bonin, Greg Miley and James Munro tell me personally about some of the murders and it often seemed as if they were talking about a ballgame or a vacation trip. In addition, a number of other conversations I had with Bonin, before and during his trial, populate the final sections. Coming from a sheltered and strict religious background, I struggled to differentiate between the troubled and the evil.
During many years working at the jail, I developed relationships of varying types with a number of different men. John Holmes, famed porn star and suspect in the Wonderland Murders, proposed marriage to me; Hillside Strangler spoke of his son and the sadness he felt knowing he would not watch his only child grow up; The Trash Bag Murderer almost cried when he recounted watching the dismemberment of two people and hearing the cries of the mother for her children.
Many are curious about what makes a serial killer tick. How do they think? What are they like personally? What are their lives like while incarcerated? What did they do while involved in their criminal activities and what are their interactions with jail staff and other inmates? How do those tasked with being around serial killers deal with emotional baggage they take home every night?
It is my desire that more research will give us the ability to spot serial killers in waiting and devise ways to change the outcomes. Learning the history and cataloging the danger signs, many seen in this detailed telling of Bonin's story, may provide a roadmap for such work.
In the aftermath of traversing through Bonin's world, and trying to make sense of it, I can only hope that one might come away with renewed appreciation for family, love and life. Bonin was betrayed by his family, the people he depended on for love, protection and guidance failed him.
Years spent overcoming persistent nightmares resulted from what Bonin and others dished out to me during multiple conversations. Finding my way back to an emotional equilibrium involved pain and many sleepless nights. Through it all, I learned that the pain we inflict has tremendous impact beyond our imagining, directly and indirectly.
Vonda Pelto, Ph.D.
The 6x9 Softcover of Without Redemption currently on sale for $11.00.
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Watch a Radio Show Video of Vonda Pelto on the Gary Nolan Show at http://bit.ly/41yfUWc
Watch a Radio Show Video of Vonda Pelto on James Lowe Radio Show at http://bit.ly/3IRx3BE
Watch Radio Show Video of Vonda Pelto on Thunderstruck Radio at https://bit.ly/3EGzK85
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.
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.