Pelto also knew the massive number of investigative documents on hand, given to her by a former public official, would fill in many details not contained in other books or boiler plate articles about Bonin. In early 2019 Michael B. Butler, author and former PR agent, was brought in to assist and ended up spending four years on the project, becoming co-author and now actively promoting the book. One of his tasks was organizing, chronologically and by subject matter, the over 40 boxes of investigative documents Pelto had obtained.
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Huge Discovery: Beyond fixing factual errors from documents never seen by previous biographers, such as Bonin’s California government mental health and prison records, the big difference was discovering photocopies from segments of Bonin’s handwritten jailhouse diaries and confession murder stories. Within those pages Bonin showed a keen memory for detail and a knack for analyzing complex situations from different angles.
Hidden for 40-Years & Never Used Before: Written a few months after Bonin’s final arrest, June 1980, and before his first trial, November 1981, the diaries give the reader an inside the storm view of all that was swirling around the biggest mass murder trial in Southern California history. In the murder section of Without Redemptionuntold stories are revealed in full brutality as compared to what Bonin said in the December 1980 detective interviews. The reasons Bonin did those interviews was only partially understood, but now, four decades later, they are uncovered to be a complex set of conflicting motivations driven by outside circumstances.
Homicide Cover Up & March 24, 1980: One of the fascinating aspects is how Bonin went to great lengths to cover for a double-murder accomplice, Eric Wijanendts. This conundrum involves many moving parts, and all of it relates back to what happened on one day during the murder spree, March 24, 1980. Only when the book was done, after five years of intense work, was the true importance of March 24 fully realized. Never before known or properly deciphered, this was a major 40-year-old Freeway Killer mystery solved by Pelto and Butler. And this one saw the authors place clever signposts, at various points in the book, to remind the reader to pay attention and remember key events.
Peering Into Bonin’s Mind Thru His Writing: Much of what Bonin writes about in the diaries is mundane, however, within those observations the reader will find many aspects of the man, the son, the friend and, yes, the cold-blooded murderer. There is also humor, irony, storytelling, criticism, despair, hope, sadness, regret, confusion, resilience and intellect.
This is truly a unique serial killer historical biography. For more info go to www.WithoutRedemption.com.
Without Redemption is currently a best seller on Amazon in three True Crime categories: Forensics Biographies & Memoirs, Biographies of Serial Killers and Biographies & Memoirs of Criminals. It has sold copies throughout Europe and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and all over the United States.
In 2017, when Vonda Pelto, Ph.D. began writing a historical biography about Freeway Killer Bill Bonin, she had no idea Without Redemption: Creation & Deeds of Freeway Killer Bill Bonin, His Five Accomplices & How One Who Escaped Justice would alter the Bonin story so dramatically. Having had numerous sessions with Bonin, as a Clinical Psychologist at LA Men’s Central Jail, she hoped those observations would shed new light on his personality and modes of thinking.
Hidden for 40-Years & Never Used Before:
Peering Into Bonin’s Mind Thru His Writing: