Thirty years ago -- a look back

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'Freeway Killer' convictedAT&T breakupFlight 90 crash into the PotomacDavid Letterman's 'Late Night' career beginsTurning 30 and still in high school?John Belushi diesThe Hoyas and the world meet Michael JordanFalkland IslandsLakers win championshipPrince William is born'Twilight Zone: The Movie' crashSports figures turning 30Princess Grace diesTurning 30 this year'Cats' opens on BroadwayTylenol killingsEPCOT Center opensJohn DeLorean arrestedLeonid Brezhnev diesVietnam Veterans Memorial opensThe Play: Berkeley vs. Stanford"Thriller" releasedFirst artificial heart implantedFirst execution by lethal injection

William Bonin, known in Southern California as the Freeway Killer, was convicted of 10 counts of murder on Jan. 5, 1982, in Los Angeles. He was later convicted of four other slayings in an Orange County trial. Bonin raped and killed 14 boys and young men, some of them hitchhikers, during a yearlong rampage that spread fear across Southern California. He was arrested in Hollywood on June 11, 1980, while sodomizing a 17-year-old runaway from Orange County. In Bonin's van, police found gear he had used to rape and strangle his victims: wire, rope and a jack iron with which he twisted victims' T-shirts around their necks. He was executed in 1996.

'Freeway Killer' convicted

( Los Angeles Times )

William Bonin, known in Southern California as the Freeway Killer, was convicted of 10 counts of murder on Jan. 5, 1982, in Los Angeles. He was later convicted of four other slayings in an Orange County trial. Bonin raped and killed 14 boys and young men, some of them hitchhikers, during a yearlong rampage that spread fear across Southern California. He was arrested in Hollywood on June 11, 1980, while sodomizing a 17-year-old runaway from Orange County. In Bonin's van, police found gear he had used to rape and strangle his victims: wire, rope and a jack iron with which he twisted victims' T-shirts around their necks. He was executed in 1996.

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