Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Had a Dark Secret

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

In September 1975, 14-year-old David McVicker is abducted while hitchhiking home from a friend's house in Garden Grove, California. His assailant, William Bonin, has an appetite for assaulting young men and boys. David wasn’t his first victim, nor would he be the last.Sponsors:Rosetta Stone: Don’t put off learning that language - there’s no better time than RIGHT NOW to get started! For a very limited time, I Survived listeners can get Rosetta Stone’s Lifetime Membership for 50% off! Visit www.rosettastone.com/survivedProse: Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 50% off your first subscription order today PLUS 15% off and free shipping every subscription order after that! Go to Prose.com/surviveProgressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. 

David McVicker grew up in Orange County, California, and was 14 years old in 1975. Back then it was a lot different than it is now. We used to hitchhike as our mode of transportation. I started doing it when I was about nine years old. It was the way that I got around. There wasn't buses. Everybody did it. Any given day you could see hundreds of kids hitchhiking to the beach. So it was a pretty normal thing. I was never afraid to hitchhiking to the beach. So it was a pretty normal thing. I was never afraid to hitchhike because nothing bad had ever happened. It was always in good fun.

And sometimes we would do it on Saturday afternoons just to go up and down the beach and meet people. It was a way to party and have fun and get to where you were going. I never had a problem until this happened. On September 8th, 1975, David was leaving a friend's house and was making his way home. It was the last day of summer. The next day was going to be my first day at high school. So I spent the day hanging out with my friends in Garden Grove until it came time for me to go home about five o'clock in the evening.

I was going to go hitchhike home. So I walked across the street from his house, there was a McDonald's, and I was just gonna walk up to the next light and go down to Huntington Beach. As soon as I walked across the street, a blue car pulled up next to me, and there was this guy,

and he had a big smile on his face, long brown hair, blue jeans, kind of grunge looking just like everyone else back then, and he asked me for directions, and I gave him his directions, blue jeans, kind of grunge looking just like everyone else back then. And he asked me for directions and I gave him his directions and coincidentally he said he was going the same direction as I was going and offered me a ride. So I jumped in the car gladly and everything was totally normal for me. And pretty soon he started asking me if I had ever tried anything with a guy. And I immediately got really scared.

That had never happened to me in all my years of hitchhiking. And I was scared to death when he said it. I didn't know what to do. So I said, my stop is coming up. And we just happened to be there at Inger Avenue. And he didn't pull over. So he went to go make a left-hand turn and I was thinking maybe he would pull over

and after he made the turn, he didn't. He kept going faster and faster. I knew I was in trouble. So I opened up the door to get to jump out even though the car was going faster and when I turned back to look at, like I was going to push myself out, but when I turned back to look, he like I was going to push myself out, when I turned back to look, he had a gun in my face.

He said, close the door and shut up. So I did. This is I Survived, the podcast where we talk to people who've lived through the worst things imaginable and all the tragic, messy, and wonderful things that happen after survival. I'm Caitlin VanMol. After he pulled the gun on me, everything in his demeanor changed. He went from the happy-go-lucky,

I want to be your friend guy, to, I'm gonna kill you. And everything changed. His eyes, his voice. To me, just this evil person was sitting next to me, and he's gonna kill me. He didn't talk very much to me as we were driving around. I knew that he was looking for something, but I didn't know what he was looking for. He kept pulling in back of shopping centers and all over the place. He pulled in and stopped in a church parking lot. He just kept moving around, going to different places. He drove around for probably about an hour before he pulled into the dirt field. About sunset we were in the city of Tustin by the Tustin Air Station by an intersection called Red Hill and Warner

and he pulled into a dirt field. It was really dark. There was no street lights anywhere. There was like a like an intersection light, a signal, but it was hundreds and hundreds of feet away. So where we were in the car, there was no way anybody could have seen us back there. After they parked, the man reached across David and locked the passenger side door. And he said, okay, take off your clothes. And I thought, no way. And I turned really quick, unlocked the door and opened it, tried to climb out again. And he grabbed me, pulled me back in and just started beating me up. He was a lot bigger than I was. I was 14 years old and every time that I did anything that he didn't like, he would just keep hitting me. He did a lot

of really, really bad things until finally I ended up in a position where he was raping me. He had my t-shirt around my neck with a crowbar through the sleeves and he was twisting it. He kept doing it until I finally with my last breath just kind of went God help like that and he stopped just like that. It was over. He masturbated, wiped himself off on a rag and threw the rag out the window and asked me where I lived to take me home. David believes him saying, God help, stopped his attacker. He just stopped. As soon as I said, God help, something inside him,

he just stopped. He actually apologized at one point for hurting me, which I thought was really weird. But anyway, he asked me where I live and he drove me near my house. I said, just drop me off in this corner right here. We were about a block away from my house. It was probably, I don't know, 10 o'clock at night or something like that. And he I'll see you again and as I was getting out of the car and I said no you won't and I ran off into the dark I ran between apartments and up and down alleys and down the street and in back of houses everywhere I could just to make make him to lose him I was trying to ditch him so when I finally thought that I lost him I went just to make him, to lose him. I was trying to ditch him. So when I finally thought that I lost him,

I went back to my house, put the key in the door. As soon as I put the key in the door, I hear beep beep, and he's like right behind me. I knew that I was in huge trouble. When he came up behind me like that, it was probably one of the worst feelings I've ever had in my life, because I knew that this guy knew where I lived.

And I knew that now he can come back and get me. Now that his attacker knew where he lived, there was no doubt in David's mind that he had to tell someone what happened to him. So I called the Rape Crisis Center, and they told me that I should call my mom. So I called my mom. She made a 30-minute drive in about 10 minutes.

She came home immediately. We called several police stations. Everybody kept saying to go to another city because I was picked up in one city. The gun came out in another city. I was raped in another city and dropped off in another city, so we had to bounce around at different police stations. Finally they figured out I had to go to Fountain Valley Police Station. We went inside, the guy took me in the back, and my mom didn't go in the back, I didn't

want her to know what happened, I was so embarrassed. So the guy didn't believe me until I told him that we can go out to the field where it happened and he can find this rag that the guy threw out the window. So we all got in the police car and went out there and he went off into the dark with his flashlight. He came back and he came back with a whole different attitude. He had the rag in his hand and he knew I was serious then. We left there and went straight to the Fountain Valley Hospital and that's where they did the rape kit and all that stuff. I ended up not getting home until about six o'clock in the morning. I had just enough time to take a shower and go to my very first day of high school.

I never went to sleep. After that day, David continued to go to school and to go about his life without hearing much from police. But three weeks later, there was a break in his case. I was at school, and I got called to the office, and there was a sheriff there, and he told me that they wanted me to go do a lineup. Of course, I said okay. And they put me in a squad car and took me to Santa Ana where they had the lineup.

Apparently what happened was a few weeks after I had been picked up, he tried to get this other kid. And the kid got away from him, and he managed to get this other kid and the kid got away from him and he managed to get his license plate number so because of the similarities in that and the location of it I guess they put two and two together and held them for me to come and make sure that was the guy that got me. When I went to do the lineup they took me into a dark room and all of a sudden the six guys come walking out. As soon as I saw him, he was the third one, his eyes said it all. I just remember the evil eyes and that's what I saw. So as soon as I saw that I didn't need to see anything else, I just started

saying that's him, that's him. And they were telling me, be quiet, he can hear you. And I just kept saying, that's him. The person that I identified was William Bonin. You've probably heard me sing the praises of Proz, and they're truly custom made to order hair care. Switching to a custom routine from Proz was one of the best things I've done for my hair, and the results I'm seeing just keep getting better. Proz knows that there is more to you than just your hair type. They've given over 1 million consultations with their in-depth hair quiz, which is how I got started. And by analyzing over 85 personal factors, Proz handpicks clean, sustainably sourced ingredients that get you closer to your hair goals with every wash. All of their ingredients are sustainably sourced, ethically gathered, and cruelty-free.

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William Bonnen had been convicted in 1969 for sexually assaulting five boys in Los Angeles. He served five years and hadn't been out of prison for even a year before he was charged again for raping David. Soon after, they set a court date, and then I got to hitchhike to court. Actually, I was kind of a stupid kid. Just because I got kidnapped, it didn't stop me from hitchhiking. I still did it every day. Bonham pleaded guilty for what he did to me in court.

I'll never forget that, though. Sitting there and watching him, he just stared at me the whole time. I remember thinking that he was going to jump up and be able to get to me. I was petrified to be there. He was sentenced to 1 to 15 years in prison for what he did to me. For whatever reason, I don't know why, I left there thinking he got 15 years to life, but whatever.

He got 1 to 15. To me, he was just gone. After he went to jail for what he did, he was gone. I never worried about it until I never even thought about it. Wait, I take that back. I thought about it a lot, but nobody in my life knew about it, so it wasn't ever a topic of discussion. It was just something, a deep, dark secret in my head that I didn't

want anybody to know about. Nobody in my life knew about it. With Bonnen behind bars, David tried to move on with his life. Until one day, he read something that sounded eerily familiar. A few years later, I had been trying to teach myself how to read better because I wanted to work in radio. So I started reading the newspaper every day from cover to cover. When I was doing that, I kept reading these stories about kids coming up dead.

Every time I would read them, I would feel it in my stomach. There were so many similarities in the things that I was reading. Every single time, I just knew in my gut it was him. But I knew that he was locked up and I didn't think that we had to worry about him. He was locked up. Between 1979 and 1980, teenaged boys were being found raped and murdered near highways in the Los Angeles area. The press had named the person responsible the freeway killer.

Everyone was up in arms about the freeway killer. It was on every single news broadcast. Everybody was just looking for this guy. Finally, one day, I was watching Channel 7, and somebody said on there, if anybody has any idea at all who could be doing this, call the sheriff's Department. So I thought, I have a guess,

and this guy's supposed to be locked up. So I called Detective Seidenbotham from the Orange County Sheriff's Department, and I told him what happened to me, and I said, you guys need to go find him and find out, make sure that he's still locked up. Two weeks later, they arrested him for the murders. I was sitting at home with my girlfriend, and we were watching TV, and all of a sudden,

here's a news flash, freeway killer arrested. And it was him. And my whole life changed that very second. Nobody in my life knew anything about it. And all of a sudden, I knew that my darkest secret was going to get out. Seeing Bonnen on television was shocking. In David's mind, Bonnen was supposed to be in prison for another 10 years to serve the entirety of his 1 to 15 year sentence. Barnum ended up serving 2 years and 10 months in a Tascadero State Prison for doing what he did to me.

I didn't know that he was out of prison until I saw him on TV when they said that the freeway killer was arrested. Because I knew the first time I read it, I had that feeling in my stomach that it was him. On May 29, 1980, 17-year-old William Ray Pugh was arrested on car theft charges and admitted to police that he had been involved in just one of the freeway murders, that of Harry Todd Turner, in March of that year. But Pugh didn't murder Turner alone. He did it with none other than William Bonnen,

who Pugh claimed killed other boys either with different accomplices or by himself. Police started to follow Bonnen, and on June 11, 1980, caught and arrested him as he was assaulting a 15-year-old boy in a van on Santa Monica Boulevard. Hardly anyone knew what happened to David in 1975, and those that did know, didn't know all the details. Given how high profile the case was, that was about to change. I was really happy to hear that the freeway killer got arrested. I was really afraid of what was going to happen to me now because I had a dark secret

that nobody in my life knew anything about. And I knew that I was all going to be exposed. And I didn't know what to expect. I was scared to death. It was just a huge secret. It was incredibly embarrassing. You know, who wants to say that kind of stuff in public? You know, and so many times I hear people that have been, bad things have happened to them. They don't want to say it on the stand or whatever. And to me, I just, nobody wants to do that. But it's something you have to do. But I just knew that my life was going to change.

I didn't know how bad it was going to get. I had no idea the media attention that was going to come. The story and the victims were all over the news. David couldn't help but look at the boys who didn't escape and see himself. I knew that he would try to come after me again. I already felt like he did after I found out who was doing the murders, because they were all around where I was picked up, where I was dropped off.

A lot of it was way too close to home. And if you look at a lot of the kids, they all looked a lot like me. At the time I had really long blonde hair, just a skinny kid. A lot of the kids had that kind of surfer look and that was, guess what he went after but honestly after I saw the list of victims it was almost like he was trying to find me that's how I felt I think I was the one that triggered Bonin he hadn't murdered anyone yet that I'm aware of before that and I think that I was just the last person that was gonna lock him up after that that's when said, I'll never let anybody tell on me again.

So I've always kind of lived with that guilt of, if I didn't tell, maybe these kids would be alive. Bonnen had two trials, one in L.A. County for 10 counts of murder and one in Orange County for four counts of murder. David testified in the L.A. County trial. The L.A. trial was live on national TV and it's like the whole world was watching it. So when I had to go on the stand and say what I had to say, which was every graphic detail of what happened, I was so nervous. I was kind of in shock. And the first thing that happened, I sat down and I looked over and the judge had a trash can in my face.

And I'm like, what? And he says, your gum, spit your gum out. So I was warned about that. And then after that, I just kept saying, I solemnly swear to tell the whole truth. And he's like, no, read the card. I'm like, I solemnly swear, we had seen on TV so many's like, no, read the card. I'm like, I solemnly swear. I've seen it on TV so many times, I couldn't read the card.

I couldn't even see the card. I was just saying what I remember hearing on TV. So anyway, eventually I finally got through saying the oath and said what happened, which wasn't easy. The courtroom was packed. It was a very difficult day. David stood up to the difficulty of describing what happened and made it through. I was in shock coming off the stand.

Imagine going and having to say all that on national TV. It was really, really hard. I was probably, I was really, really hard. I was probably... I was definitely suicidal that day. I wanted out. But it was a really hard day. And when I got off the stand, I walked out of the courtroom,

and this is why I still talk about it today. I walked out of the courtroom, and Mrs. Wells, one of the courtroom and Mrs. Wells, one of the moms, grabbed my shirt and she was like, gonna rip it. And she was just pleading with me, you have to speak for my son, you have to speak for my son,

don't let them forget my son. So that's why I still do it. But the crowded courtroom wasn't the only source of anxiety for David. Well, whenever I've been in a courtroom with Bonin, he stares at me. That glaring, evil stare. So every time that I've been three different times that I've been in a courtroom with him, the whole time, it's like he's just staring at me. And I don't know if he's trying to get me not to talk, if he's trying to make me feel bad, or what the deal was, but the whole time, he just stares.

It's probably one of the most creepy feelings I've ever had in my life. Also being afraid, I mean, this guy, can he jump across the room and grab me and kill me? I know he would try. I was pet this guy, can he jump across the room and grab me and kill me? I know he would try. I was petrified to be there, but I knew I had to do it. There was no getting out of it. William Bonnen was eventually found guilty for the murders of Dennis Frank Fox, Glenn Barker, Russell Rue, Lawrence Sharp, Marcus Grabs, Donald Hyden, David Murillo, Charles Miranda, James McCabe, Ronald Gatlin, Harry Todd Turner, Stephen Wood, Darren Lee Kendrick, and Stephen J. Wells.

Bonnen claimed to his accomplices and to an L.A. journalist that he killed many more. He was sentenced to death. I was relieved to hear that he got the death penalty because I was hoping just maybe they would actually do it and this would all be over with. I just wanted it to be over. I think the death penalty works in some cases for a lot of people. I think that it's just in most cases.

Anybody that gets that far in the system, obviously they've done some horrific things. You know, people like Bonnen don't deserve to breathe our air, you know? And just the possibility that they can get out and destroy somebody else's life is just not right. And after what Bonnen did to those other kids before me, and then all of a sudden he does that to me, and he gets out and starts killing kids,

it's not fair, it's not right. He deserves to die. I wish they would have let me put the needle in. I said that when they asked, when I was going to the execution, I asked them in writing if I could do it. I didn't know they wouldn't let me do it, but I thought it was worth a shot, you know, literally.

But the man deserves to be dead, and as well as anybody else that touches a kid like that. You know, and at 14 years old, my innocence was stolen in a horrific way. And that happens to kids every day. You know, and in my book, anybody that does something like that to a kid doesn't deserve to be alive.

I think they should execute every one of them. Bonnen was executed on February 23, 1996. He was the first person in California to die by lethal injection. When the time came for the execution, I was asked if I wanted to go. And my first answer was no, I didn't want to see anybody die. I'm not a murderer, I don't want to see that. But then after thinking about it a lot, I started thinking maybe it would end my nightmares. Maybe if I watched it, it would just change what I call my mental videotape.

But the morning of the execution, the media was everywhere. Bonnen did a show that morning, and on there he claimed that we weren't going to get closure for this, that we felt like he was guilty. And I just remember being so offended by that. I don't feel like you're guilty. I know you're guilty. I don't feel like you killed a whole bunch of kids, but you took ice picks and you killed those kids." I was just more mad by his interview than anything else that he didn't apologize to the moms. I hadn't slept in days. Every time I would lay my head down, I would have nightmares,

really horrible nightmares. So I was a mess when I got there. So in fact, I was such a mess when I got to the execution that when I was walking into the prison, they thought I was drunk. And I don't really drink, but they thought I was drunk just because I was so tired. And I felt like that was the day I was going to take control. I was taking control of my own life back on that day, and that's the way I felt.

In an interview the day of his execution, Bonnen said, they feel that my death will bring closure, but that's not the case. They're going to find out. But Bonnen was wrong. For me, it was nothing but, I want to say, closure. When that was happening, the curtains opened up. Bonnen was laying there. All the reporters started shuffling their papers. Bonnen's friends were looking at us like, I don't know, they probably hated us for being on the other side. And then there was a few victims and people like attorneys

and sheriff people that were there on our side. When they first opened up the curtain, I couldn't see his eyes. And I was actually in the second row and I broke their rules because I just wanted to see his eyes. And I just kept saying, I don't see his eyes. I don't see his eyes. Why am I here? I need to see his eyes. And then somebody grabbed me and put me in the front, and we just watched him turn purple, and he went like his lips fluttered,

and that was it. They said he was dead. Watching Bonnen take his last breath helped stop David's nightmares. I think that people get closer to an extent, and for a few years after the execution, I was pretty good to go. I got my power back. I saw him die. My mental videotape was different. He was gone. And I knew it, so I could sleep again, and I did. To speak to someone at the Rape Abuse Incest National Network, call 1-800-656-HOPE or 1-800-656-4673. You can also live chat with someone at RAINN.org.

That's R-A-I-N-N dot O-R-G. I Survived is hosted and produced by Caitlin VanMol and Law & Crime Network. Audio editing by Brad Mabee. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher, and our supervising producer is McKamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Sean Gottlieb, and Shelley Tatro. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series,

I Survived. For more I Survived, visit aetv.com. Copyright 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. Sometime in the early 80s, REO Speedwagon's airplane made an unannounced middle-of-the-night landing. This is my friend Kyle McLaughlin, the star of Twin Peaks. And he's telling me about how he discovered a real life Twin Peaks in rural North Carolina,

not far from where he filmed Blue Velvet. What was on the plane was copious amounts of drugs coming in from South America. Supposedly Pablo Escobar went looking for other spots, quiet, out of the way places to bring in his cocaine. My name is Joshua Davis, and I'm an investigative reporter. Kyle and I talk all the time about the strange things we come across, but nothing was quite as strange as what we found in Varnumtown, North Carolina.

There's crooked cops, brother against brother. Everyone's got a story to tell, but does the truth even exist? Welcome to Varnumtown. Varnumtown is available wherever you listen to podcasts.