I SURVIVED A SERIAL KILLER: The Freeway Killer

Summary

Cold Case Files: I Survived a Serial Killer — The Freeway Killer

Podcast: Cold Case Files
Episode: I SURVIVED A SERIAL KILLER: The Freeway Killer
Host: Marisa Pinson / Narrator
Date: May 16, 2026

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Episode Overview

This gripping episode centers on David McVicker, the only known survivor of notorious serial killer William Bonin, infamously known as the "Freeway Killer." Through first-hand testimony, archival clips, expert insights, and survivor perspective, the episode explores McVicker's harrowing encounter, the subsequent investigation, and Bonin’s chilling killing spree across Southern California from 1979 to 1980.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction & Context (01:15–02:18)

• Warning: The episode opens with a strong listener discretion due to the graphic nature of the crimes (01:15).
• Backdrop: Introduces William Bonin’s conviction for killing 14 boys, setting a grim scene of panic in California during the late ‘70s (01:22–01:40).
• David McVicker’s survival: David introduces himself as the survivor of a serial killer (02:32).
  • "I am David McVicker and I survived a serial killer." — David McVicker (02:32)

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David McVicker’s Story: The Day of the Abduction (02:32–06:54)

• Routine Turned Nightmare: McVicker, 14, hitchhikes home in September 1975, accepting a ride from Bonin—then unknown to authorities (02:32–03:23).
• Creeping Danger: The interaction turns sinister as Bonin confronts McVicker with sexual questions, refuses to stop the car, and pulls a gun on him (03:23–04:29).
  • "He said, close the door and shut up. So I did. I didn't know what was about to happen. I just knew that I was in a lot of trouble with a really evil person." — David McVicker (03:45)
• Attack and Survival: Bonin assaults, beats, and attempts to strangle McVicker with a crowbar and shirt; McVicker, desperate, pleads for help (06:02–06:54).
  • "With my last breath, I said, God, help. Soon as I said that, something inside him, he just stopped, just like that." — David McVicker (06:54)
• Release and Threat: After the assault, Bonin oddly decides to drop the boy near home but chillingly warns, "I'll see you again." (06:54–08:29)

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The Early Investigation and System Failure (08:29–10:55)

• Reporting the Crime: McVicker bravely tells his mother; police take his statement but initially take no significant action (08:58).
• Break in the Case: A subsequent attack on another boy leads to a police lineup; McVicker identifies Bonin by his “evil eyes” (09:30–10:24).
• Bonin Convicted — Temporarily: Bonin pleads guilty and is sentenced to up to 15 years for raping McVicker (10:39–10:55).
  • "I was relieved and I didn't think that we had to worry about him." — David McVicker (10:39)
• Ominous Foreshadowing: Bonin tells police, "Next time there won't be any witnesses." (10:55)

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The Freeway Killings Begin (13:09–14:35)

• Bonin’s Release Unknown: Due to lack of notification laws, McVicker (and public) unaware when Bonin is released early in 1978 (15:14).
• A Deadly Pattern Emerges: Bodies of murdered boys appear along freeways, with victims aged 12–19. Bonin’s MO mirrors McVicker's ordeal (13:44–14:25).
• Climate of Fear: Growing media attention and public nervousness as the body count climbs (14:25–14:42).

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The Investigation Intensifies (15:33–18:12)

• Tip-off from an Acquaintance: Billy Pugh, incarcerated for unrelated crimes, tells police what he knows of Bonin, connecting him to the murders (15:33–16:15).
• Surveillance and Arrest: Detectives surveil Bonin and catch him in the act of assaulting a boy in his van, known as the "death van" (16:35–17:48).
  • "It's one of these cases where five more minutes and the kid might have been dead." — Detective (17:28)
• Forensic Breakthrough: Fibers from Bonin’s van match those on victims, cementing his connection to the multiple homicides (17:48).

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Confessions, Impact, and Trial (18:21–21:03)

• Chilling Confessions: Bonin confesses to 21 murders, showing no remorse: "Once I started, I couldn't stop, enjoyed it. He loved to hear the screams." — Detective (18:57)
• The Burden of Survival: McVicker struggles with survivor’s guilt, feeling his own testimony may have triggered Bonin’s escalation by vowing “there won't be any witnesses” (19:15–19:36).
  • "I don't know why he let me live. He hadn't murdered anyone yet. So I think I was the one that triggered Bonin." — David McVicker (19:15)
• Trial and Justice: Bonin faces two trials (LA and Orange counties), receives the death penalty (19:36–21:03).

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Closure and Survivor’s Reflection (21:03–21:44)

• Final Resolution: Bonin is executed by lethal injection in 1996. McVicker describes feeling closure and regaining his sense of safety (21:03–21:44).
  • "Today is the last day of my life that I was damned for being a victim ... For me, it was closure. He was gone and I knew it. So I could sleep again. And I did. I got my power back." — David McVicker (21:03)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Aftermath:
  • “I never got to go back to school. I dropped out.” — David McVicker (13:09)
• On Guilt and Survival:
  • “So I've always kind of lived with that guilt of if I didn't tell, maybe these kids would be alive.” — David McVicker (19:15)
• On Facing the Killer in Court:
  • "I did my very best to stare at his eyes... I didn't want him to know that I testified against him. Who wants to say that kind of stuff in public? Nobody wants to do that, but it's something you have to do..." — David McVicker (19:44)
• On the Aftermath for Families:
  • "The moms were rocked by this... One of the moms grabbed my shirt and she was just pleading with me, you have to speak for my son. Don't let them forget my son." — David McVicker (19:44)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:15 – Content warning; setting up Bonin’s crimes
• 02:32 – McVicker’s introduction and retelling of survival
• 06:54 – McVicker’s desperate prayer and sudden release
• 08:58 – Reporting to police and the initial investigation
• 09:30 – McVicker’s identification of Bonin
• 10:39 – Bonin’s sentencing for raping McVicker
• 13:44 – Start of Freeway Killings; media attention
• 16:35 – Police surveillance and capture of Bonin
• 18:57 – Chilling lack of remorse in Bonin’s confession
• 19:15 – McVicker describes his guilt and survival
• 21:03 – Bonin's execution and McVicker’s sense of closure

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Conclusion

This episode of Cold Case Files offers a powerful narrative blending personal trauma with investigative true crime, underscoring the importance of survivor testimony and the tragic consequences of systemic failures. David McVicker’s story is not only a chronicle of terror and survival, but also a testament to the lasting impact such crimes have on victims and their communities.

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For further listening:
Explore more survivor stories and landmark cold case investigations with Cold Case Files.

Transcript

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[Narrator / Host]

this episode contains stories involving violence against children. Listener discretion is advised.

[News Reporter / Narrator]

William Bonin has been convicted of killing 14 boys in Southern California from 1979 to 1980.

[Detective / Investigator]

There was a killer on the loose and young men were in danger.

[Reporter / Journalist]

The bodies were piling up. The public was frantic.

[David McVicker]

The guy offered me a ride so I jumped inside. He said close the door and shut up. I was scared to death.

[William Bonin (The Freeway Killer)]

I was the best.

[Detective / Investigator]

We enjoyed it. We loved to hear the screams.

[David McVicker]

All I could imagine was him pulling the trigger and me just falling out of the car. With my last breath. I said God help.

[William Bonin (The Freeway Killer)]

I drove down to Long beach and I was looking for somebody to hit charge and I picked them up. Hey, I got news for you. I know who this guy is. A freeway killer.

[Narrator / Host]

Real people who faced death and lived to tell how this is. I survived a serial killer.

[David McVicker]

I am David McVicker and I survived a serial killer. September 8, 1975. I was 14 years old. I lived in Huntington Beach, California, but all my friends lived a 30 minute drive away in Garden Grove. It was the last day of summer. I spent the day hanging out with my friends and about five o' Clock in the evening came time for me to go home. I left my friend's house, crossed the street and a blue car pulled up next to me. The guy offered me a ride so I jumped inside. It was totally normal for me to do that.

[Narrator / Host]

Dave Lopez is a TV journalist.

[Detective / Investigator]

Back in the 70s you always saw somebody hitchhiking and it was never a problem. I mean, so many people did it and they didn't have any fear in it.

[David McVicker]

He looked about 29 years old, a big smile on his face, long brown hair, blue jeans, kind of grunge looking just like everyone else back then. He started driving along, everything was cool. Our conversation was pretty normal until he asked me if I had tried anything with a guy before. I didn't know really what he meant by that. I immediately got really scared. I didn't know what to do. We were really close to where it was time for me to get out. So I said, I gotta get out, here's my stop. And he didn't pull over, he just kept going faster. I knew I was in trouble so I opened up the door to jump out and when I turned back to look at him, he had a gun in my face. All I could imagine was him pulling the trigger and me just falling out of the car. He said, close the door and shut up. So I did. I didn't know what was about to happen. I just knew that I was in a lot of trouble with a really evil person.

[Narrator / Host]

Von de Pelto is a psychologist specializing in serial killers.

[Reporter / Journalist]

Four years after David McVicker was abducted, the body of 17 year old Marcus Grabs was discovered. He was here from Germany, hitchhiking across the us.

[Detective / Investigator]

We just knew that he had been sexually assaulted and his body dumped off the highway.

[Reporter / Journalist]

They discovered an autopsy that he had been stabbed 77 times. One of the detectives said it was like a rabid dog had attacked him.

[Narrator / Host]

This is the voice of William Bonin.

[William Bonin (The Freeway Killer)]

I was stabbed just to stab. Stuck them in different places with the knife. I didn't know where to stab, you know, I don't know where vital organs are.

[Reporter / Journalist]

Only three weeks elapsed before the police discovered 15 year old Donald Hyden. Donald Hyden was discovered relatively close to Marcus Grabs. He was pretty battered. He was also raped, but he was strangled to death.

[Detective / Investigator]

Detectives didn't have any evidence that was obvious at the time so they couldn't tie it together just yet.

[David McVicker]

After he pulled the gun on me, everything in his demeanor changed, his eyes, his voice, just this evil person was sitting next to me. He drove around for probably about an hour. And then he pulled into a field. There was no way anybody could have seen us back there. He parked the car, turned off everything, and he said, okay, take off your clothes. I thought, no way. And I turned really quick, opened up the door and tried to climb out. He grabbed me, pulled me back in, and just started beating me up. I was petrified. I knew that it could be life or death.

[Reporter / Journalist]

David was smart enough that he didn't really challenge him or he may have been shot.

[David McVicker]

At that point, he did a lot of really, really bad things. Finally, I ended up in a position where he was raping me. And at the same time, he had my T shirt around my neck with a crowbar through the sleeves. And he was twisting it, trying to strangle me. I couldn't breathe in. I didn't think I was gonna live. With my last breath, I said, God, help. Soon as I said that, something inside him, he just stopped, just like that. I was just relieved that I could breathe. He told me to put my clothes back on. Then he asked me where I lived, to take me home. I was in shock. I didn't want him to know where I lived. So I told him to drop me off about a block away from my house. It was a 30 minute drive. Not a lot was said. It wasn't easy, but I didn't have a choice, you know, there was no getting out. Eventually, he drove me near my house. I said, just drop me off in this corner right here. And he pulled over to let me out. Soon as I started to open up the door, he said, I'll see you again. And I said, no, you won't. And I ran off. I started running down the street and back of houses trying to lose him. And when I finally thought that I had ditched him, I went to my house and I hear. I turn around, he's right behind me. He drove off. But I was scared to death because I knew that this guy knew where I lived. And I knew that now he can come back and get me.

[Detective / Investigator]

September of 79, there was a young boy named Murillo.

[Reporter / Journalist]

David Murillo was only 17. He was also killed by ligature strangulation. And it started looking like there was a pattern. The police realized the bodies continued to be dropped along the freeways. And so the detectives began to think we may have a serial killer.

[David McVicker]

When I got home, I knew I had to tell somebody. He knew where I lived, and he said he was gonna come back. And I believed him. So I called my mom. She came home immediately and we figured out I had to go to Fountain Valley Police Station. We went inside, the detective took me in the back and I told them everything and they said that they would look into it. And that was it. After I got kidnapped, I did my best to forget it, but I thought about it a lot. It was just something, a deep dark secret in my head that I didn't want anybody to know about. A few weeks later 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. Apparently a few weeks after I had been picked up, a guy tried to get this other kid, but the kid got away and reported the car and the license number. So the police picked him up and because of the similarities to my story, they held him for me to come and do a lineup. They took me into a dark room and all of a sudden the six guys come walking out. Before they even stopped, I was pointing at him saying, that's him right there. His eyes said it all. I just remember the evil eyes. And that's what I saw. The person that I identified was William Bonin.

[Reporter / Journalist]

Bonin was a truck driver and often drove to different parts of Orange County, Louisiana County. His neighbors really liked him and I don't think anybody would have ever suspected how dangerous Bonin was.

[David McVicker]

Bonin pleaded guilty for what he did to me in court and on December 31, 1975 he was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. I was relieved and I didn't think that we had to worry about him.

[News Reporter / Narrator]

After William Bonin was arrested for raping David McVicker, he told a police officer, quote, next time there won't be any witnesses.

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[David McVicker]

When Bonin was convicted of raping me, it was a little bit of relief. But I was still always afraid he was getting out. I never got to go back to school. I dropped out. So a few years later, I'd been trying to teach myself how to read better. So I started reading the newspaper every day from COVID to cover. When I was doing that, I kept reading these stories about kids coming up dead, bad things were happening to them. That sounded a lot like what happened to me. Every time I would read him, I would feel it in my stomach. But I knew that Bonin was locked up.

[News Reporter / Narrator]

Beginning in 1979, numerous boys have been picked up near freeways, raped and then strangled or stabbed to death, their bodies dumped near freeways.

[Detective / Investigator]

From December of 79 until May of 1980, it was almost like every day, somewhere, someplace in Southern California, there was a body that was being dumped.

[Reporter / Journalist]

The media dubbed him the Freeway Killer because they found the bodies strewn along the freeways.

[Detective / Investigator]

It was a big story. There was a killer on the loose, and young men were in danger.

[Reporter / Journalist]

The bodies were piling up. The total of 10 bodies were found. The victims were aged 12 to 19.

[Detective / Investigator]

There was definitely a fear factor, and there was definitely someone out there lurking, looking to kill.

[William Bonin (The Freeway Killer)]

When he got the back of the van, I put a knife to him. I tied him up and killed him.

[David McVicker]

The Freeway Killer was on every single news broadcast. Finally, one day I called the Orange County Sheriff's Department and I said, you guys need to go find Bonin and make sure that he's still locked up. But they didn't get back to me.

[Reporter / Journalist]

David, at that point, had absolutely no idea that Bonin was released.

[Detective / Investigator]

Bonin got out in late 1978.

[David McVicker]

That was before there was something called Megan's Law, where they have to inform you when your perpetrator's going to be getting out of jail. So I wasn't warned that he was getting out at all. I would have made the call to the sheriff that second if I would have known he was out of jail, and for sure there would be a lot more kids alive today.

[Reporter / Journalist]

A couple of months later, after David McVicker had contacted the police, there was William Pugh. Billy Pugh was incarcerated for stealing a car. He went to his supervisor in the hopes that he could make some kind of a deal with. And he told them, I think I know who the Freeway Killer is. I think it's this guy I met through a friend, William Bonin. He said that Bonin would tell him stories about killing.

[Detective / Investigator]

At the time, the Los Angeles police didn't know about Bonin's background.

[Reporter / Journalist]

The police ran the history on Bonin and found he had an extensive record of raping boys. He had picked up many young kids before David and had raped them. And so police were pretty certain that the Freeway Killer was William Bonin, but

[Detective / Investigator]

they didn't have any evidence, so they put the tail out on him right away. June 11, 1980, 9, days after the surveillance had been going around the clock, Bonin was driving his van, trying to pick up men on the boulevard.

[Reporter / Journalist]

And they watched him as he tried unsuccessfully to lure five boys into the van. Finally, on the sixth boy, he was successful. They followed Bonin into a vacant lot, and they surrounded the van and very quietly crept up and they heard the boy screaming.

[Detective / Investigator]

Obviously, there was something going on in the van. That's when they moved in.

[Reporter / Journalist]

And so they broke into the van, and they found that Bonin was in the process of raping this boy.

[Detective / Investigator]

He had a shirt around his neck, and he was being choked. It's one of these cases where five more minutes and the kid might have been dead. Bonin was immediately arrested, and he was charged with rape of a minority. His van. It was the death van. All of the ingredients of what was happening to these young men were right there in the van.

[Reporter / Journalist]

They found nylon rope and the tire iron that Bonin had used for strangling most all of the victims like he had David. And they were able to tie the fibers of the van to the fibers they had collected off many of the victims. And so all of this added up

[News Reporter / Narrator]

the so called Freeway Killer is under arrest today. Police allege he's responsible for the deaths of more than a dozen boys and young men.

[David McVicker]

I was really happy to hear that the Freeway Killer got arrested, but I was absolutely afraid that he was going to get out again.

[Reporter / Journalist]

The detectives spent hours questioning Bonin, and Bonin finally did confess and describe 21 murders.

[William Bonin (The Freeway Killer)]

I had killed him and then I dropped his body off. I can't remember exactly where I dropped his body off.

[Reporter / Journalist]

I think there's a good possibility that Bonin killed more than the 21.

[Detective / Investigator]

When I interviewed Bonin and he said, if I was on the street today, I'd still be killing. He says, once I started, I couldn't stop, enjoyed it. He loved to hear the screams. He never expressed remorse. He never said he was sorry. It was sickening.

[David McVicker]

I don't know why he let me live. He hadn't murdered anyone yet. So I think I was the one that triggered Bonin. I was just the last person that was going to lock him up after that. That's when he 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.

[Detective / Investigator]

Bonnard had two trials. The trial in LA was first 1982 and followed shortly thereafter with the trial in Orange county in 1983.

[David McVicker]

I went to court every time in the courtroom with him. I did my very best to stare at his eyes. Even even though I was scared to death to be in the same room with him, I didn't want him to know that I testified against him. Who wants to say that kind of stuff in public? Nobody wants to do that, but it's something you have to do to make sure that he doesn't come back out and hurt somebody again. But it was really, really hard. The moms were rocked by this. It's tragic. I walked out of the courtroom, one of the moms grabbed my shirt and she was just pleading with me, you have to speak for my son. Don't let them forget my son. So that's why I still talk about it with the media today.

[News Reporter / Narrator]

William Bonin has been convicted of killing 14 boys in Southern California from 1979 to 1980.

[Reporter / Journalist]

Even though Bonin confessed to more killings than the 14 he was convicted of, they did not have enough proof to get him on the other killings because they had no concrete evidence.

[Detective / Investigator]

In Los Angeles and then in Orange county, the jury didn't take very long to come back with the death penalty.

[David McVicker]

On February 23, 1996, Barnum was executed by lethal injection in San Quentin State Prison. He was the poster child for the death penalty, and he deserved it. It's the end of a very long journey. Today is the last day of my life that I was damned for being a victim. I used to have nightmares almost nightly because of this. So when it was over, I felt relief. For me, it was closure. He was gone and I knew it. So I could sleep again. And I did. I got my power back.

[News Reporter / Narrator]

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[David McVicker]

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[News Reporter / Narrator]

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[David McVicker]

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[William Bonin (The Freeway Killer)]

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[David McVicker]

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[David McVicker]

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