Death Penalty Qualms or No, It’s Time for Bonin to Pay

For nine years my assignment here was to cover criminal courts. Before then, I’d never sympathized much with the bad guys trotted off to prison. But the death penalty? Never. It always seemed incongruous that a lesson for would-be murderers was for the state to go into the murder business.

But nine years of watching pukes go through the court system was a long time. And now one of them, William Bonin, is facing execution at San Quentin on Friday morning. It’s hard to muster up any strong feelings for keeping him around.

Some whose trials I covered murdered to satisfy sadistic sexual appetites. Some killed for little more than pocket change, others out of uncontrolled anger. Two brothers hunted down their victim after a stupid argument over a hot dog. But every murder trial had a common thread: excruciating, gut-wrenching, unbearable pain for families of the victims.

Bonin was convicted of 10 sexual murders of young boys in Los Angeles County, another four in Orange County. At his trial here, I was always amazed that this pudgy, pale-faced little guy sitting at the defense table could come up with such torturous ways to kill. But this was no whodunit; Bonin had confessed his crimes in detail.

Thinking back to that trial 13 years ago, what comes to mind most is Bonin’s indifference when victims’ parents would testify. As they told the jury when was the last time they saw their sons alive, Bonin would yawn or doodle or shake his leg out of boredom. It was all a waste of his time.

I still contend the death penalty is meaningless as a deterrent. But Bonin destroyed so many people’s lives. . . .

Sorry, Bill. You asked for it.

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I’ve Got You, Babe: Despite Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar nomination for Oliver Stone’s “Nixon,” I can’t help thinking Jack Nicholson would have been perfect for the part. . . .

Looks like Stone just can’t get away from Orange County for his movies. The director is now shooting “The People vs. Larry Flynt” (the Hustler magazine publisher). The real-life parts include one for Charles Keating, now doing prison time for swindling investors of millions of dollars in the debacle involving Irvine-based Lincoln Savings & Loan. Keating had been a foe of Flynt’s. The actor playing Keating: James Cromwell. He’s also an Oscar nominee this year--he played Farmer Hoggett in “Babe.”

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Waterworld: History quiz: Which Orange County city was once called Waterville, then incorporated as Dairy City? (Lots of artesian wells, lots of dairies.) It wasn’t that long ago either--Disneyland was already around. Don’t fret if you missed it; I asked 10 people I know and only one--Chris Foster in our sports department--got it right. Hint: No fair playing if you live in Cypress.

Actually, Cypress didn’t remain Dairy City very long. Just a few months after incorporation in 1956, the residents voted 208 to 41 to change it to Cypress, which coincided with the name of the existing school district.

It’s 40 years later, of course. So this month the city has started pushing T-shirts, coffee mugs and sweatshirts celebrating the anniversary--check with the Finance Department at City Hall. (If you answered La Palma, you get points for trying. It was once called Dairyland.)

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Namedrops: Willie Nelson and Leon Russell will set up shop for three days, starting Friday, at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, then move on to the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana on Monday night. You can’t help but wonder who’s doing Willie’s taxes this year. . . .

Cherie Kerr is crazy and proud of it. But besides being artistic director for the “Orange County Crazies” comedy troupe in Santa Ana, she’s also a writer and accomplished public speaker. She’ll sign copies of her new book, “I’ve Asked Miller to Say a Few Words,” at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Barranca Parkway in Irvine on Friday at 7:30 p.m. It’s aimed at business folk who suffer from dullness. . . .

You thought the year of the rat was county bankruptcy-related? It’s the lunar new year, and you’ve got your choice of dueling Tet festivals this weekend--Garden Grove or Westminster.

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Wrap-Up: Death Row’s Fred B. Douglas of Garden Grove once put one over on me, I sheepishly admit. A woman who said she was writing a college term paper on his 1985 trial for the murder of two young women questioned me at length about it. She turned out to be Douglas’ not-so-college girlfriend, who then misquoted me in a publication to say I thought Douglas didn’t get a fair trial. (Oh yes, he did.)

Douglas now faces two dilemmas. Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren has taken a special interest in getting him executed, because his appeal has been sitting untouched for nearly five years on the desk of a federal judge in Los Angeles. But Douglas may not live long enough for the state to kill him. He’s 67 years old and reportedly in poor health after more than 10 years on Death Row.

Douglas comes to mind because of the recent slaying of Linda Sobek in Los Angeles County. Prosecutors say she was killed by a photographer who lured her to a rural site on the pretense of a photo shoot. Douglas was a hack porno filmmaker who lured his two model victims to the desert on the pretense of making a movie. Their bodies have never been found.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.