William Ray Bonner – Chaotic 55-Minute Rampage
Introduction
On April 22, 1973, William Ray Bonner embarked on a near one‑hour shooting rampage through the South Side of Los Angeles, targeting family acquaintances, former coworkers, and clerks at gas stations and liquor stores. Armed with a handgun and a 20‑gauge shotgun, he killed seven people (including a 13‑year‑old girl) and wounded at least nine more before a running gun battle with a security guard and responding officers ended in his arrest.
Early life and background
William Ray Bonner was born March 28, 1948, and lived in South Los Angeles, where he worked intermittently as a service station attendant and mechanic. Neighbors and acquaintances later described him as a quiet, polite young man who mostly kept to himself and did not stand out as threatening or aggressive in day‑to‑day interactions.
A former gas‑station coworker told reporters that Bonner never caused trouble on the job and in some ways was “one of the best” employees. His long‑time acquaintance Herman English – who would later become his defense attorney – said he had known Bonner for about a decade as a submissive, kind, easy‑going person, and emphasized that, after the shootings, Bonner appeared “completely different mentally.”
Criminal history
Police files show that Bonner had been arrested six times between 1966 and 1973 for offenses including narcotics, assault, and grand theft auto. In the most serious case prior to the spree, he received a three‑year sentence though he was back in the community after serving roughly one-third of the sentence.
These prior contacts painted a picture of a man with an emerging pattern of lawbreaking but not yet known as a homicidal offender. There is no indication that, before the spree, he had been formally diagnosed with a major mental illness, though later commentary from those who knew him focused heavily on a perceived drastic personality change after the shootings.
Spree killings
Bonner’s spree unfolded rapidly on the afternoon of Sunday, April 22, 1973, with a series of escalating attacks linked by personal grudges and perceived slights.
Initial shootings at home
Around 2:35 p.m., an argument erupted at Bonner’s home with Otha (often reported as Otha/Otha Leavitt or Levitt), a family friend of his mother who had come by to use the telephone. Enraged, Bonner left the house with a handgun and shot two teenagers outside: 16‑year‑old Anthony Thomas and 17‑year‑old Carolyn Cleveland, who had accompanied the visitor. He then went back inside and fatally shot Otha, killing her and turning a domestic argument into the starting point of a mass casualty event.
Former workplace: gas station attack
Armed now with both his handgun and a 20‑gauge shotgun, Bonner drove about 1.5 miles to a gas station where he had previously worked as a service station attendant. At approximately 2:43 p.m., he approached a Chevrolet Impala occupied by 18‑year‑old Vicky Wells and her 13‑year‑old sister Aileen, whom he had known since childhood.
He shot Vicky in the back with the shotgun, critically wounding her, and killed 13‑year‑old Aileen with another shotgun blast in the back as she ran toward the service area. Inside the station, he asked attendant James Morrow, “Do you know if anyone wants some of that?” while pointing to Aileen’s body on the floor – a chilling, taunting remark that underscored the emotional and symbolic charge of his violence.
Personal grudge: Thompson family
Next, Bonner drove to the home of Jevie D. Thompson, with whose son Vernon he had argued the previous night. Arriving about five minutes after leaving the station, he shot Jevie Thompson in the stomach with the shotgun, killing him, and critically wounded Thompson’s wife Eddie Mae and their 15‑year‑old son Alfred.
This stop continued the pattern of turning recent interpersonal conflicts into lethal vengeance, extending the fallout to family members who were not directly involved in the original argument.
Liquor stores: perceived slight and opportunism
At about 3:14 p.m., Bonner arrived at Smitty’s Drive‑In Liquors, a store where he believed he had once been short‑changed. He shot the owner, Smitty Sneed, in the stomach, killing him, and wounded a customer, 58‑year‑old Duly Oscar Bennett, in the shoulder.
He then drove to Liquorama Liquors, where he shot 23‑year‑old employee Robert L. Smith in the stomach (critically wounding him) and hit 28‑year‑old employee Roosevelt D. Jenkins in the leg, apparently in another act of rage and possibly robbery. Across these scenes he combined targeted vengeance (against Sneed) with indiscriminate or opportunistic violence toward whoever else was present.
Car commandeering and final shootout
Near the end of the spree, Bonner commandeered a car – ordering the driver and passengers out at gunpoint – and fled, still armed. Security guard Versell Bennett witnessed the carjacking, pursued Bonner in his own vehicle, and eventually forced Bonner’s car to stop by swerving in front of it.
Bennett exited with his shotgun and opened fire; Bonner returned fire from the back seat. As police arrived on scene, a chaotic gunfight followed: Bennett was shot twice in the head (possibly by crossfire from police rounds), and officers hit Bonner five times in his legs and lower body with handgun and shotgun fire.
Badly wounded but alive, Bonner was taken into custody; police recovered his weapons and tied him to the afternoon’s string of shootings that had left six to seven people dead and at least nine wounded.
System failure
Bonner’s trajectory illustrates several missed or under‑addressed warning signs:
- Prior arrests for violence and theft: Six arrests for narcotics, assault, and grand theft auto over seven years signaled chronic instability and antisocial behavior, but did not translate into sustained supervision or intensive treatment.
- Community awareness but no structured intervention: People who knew him saw him as quiet and non‑threatening; any underlying frustration or mental‑health issues were either hidden or not recognized as dangerous.
- Access to firearms despite record and volatility: He was able to obtain and carry both a handgun and shotgun, demonstrating that his prior record did not effectively block access to lethal weapons.
At the time, structured threat assessment, domestic violence risk tools, and integrated cross‑agency information systems were far less developed; a person like Bonner – known to the police but not high‑profile – could move from argument to mass shooting in minutes with little systemic friction. The police response itself, while ultimately stopping him, also highlighted the dangers of ad‑hoc engagements and crossfire risks in fast‑moving spree scenarios.
Psychological profile
Bonner’s psychological picture is pieced together from neighbor accounts, his criminal record, and post‑offense observations rather than formal pre‑crime evaluations. Before the spree he was widely described as quiet, polite, “submissive,” and easy‑going – traits that may indicate a conflict‑avoidant, compliant external posture rather than an absence of inner anger.
His rampage shows several notable features:
- Explosion of accumulated grievances: Many of his targets were connected to recent disputes or perceived wrongs – an argument at home, a prior conflict with Vernon Thompson, and a belief he had been short‑changed by Smitty’s Drive‑In Liquors. The spree reads as a cascading chain of revenge acts rather than random selection.
- Low frustration tolerance and rage: The initial trigger appears to have been a relatively minor domestic disagreement that rapidly escalated to attempted murder and then full homicide when he re‑entered the house to shoot Otha Leavitt.
- Instrumental cruelty and taunting: His comment to James Morrow – “Do you know if anyone wants some of that?” while gesturing toward a dead 13‑year‑old – suggests a sadistic, mocking component once the violence was underway.
- Generalized aggression toward bystanders: Although many victims were connected to conflicts, he also shot teenagers, customers, and clerks incidentally, indicating that once activated, his aggression generalized beyond specific grudges.
His attorney’s remark that Bonner was “completely different mentally” after the shootings implies dissociation, shock, or a psychotic‑like decompensation, but public records do not document a clear psychosis diagnosis. Overall, his profile fits an impulsive, grievance‑driven spree killer with significant antisocial traits and poor emotion regulation, rather than a highly planned, ideologically motivated offender.
Aftermath and legacy
Following his hospitalization, preliminary hearings began in July 1973. On August 21 he was formally charged with seven counts of murder, eight counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and three counts of kidnapping; he initially entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.
On November 13, 1973, Bonner changed his plea to guilty on one count each of first‑degree murder, second‑degree murder, and assault with a deadly weapon, and on December 17 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He served his sentence in California (reporting indicates Vacaville), and later records note that he died on January 4, 2022, at the age of 73.
Criminologically, Bonner is classified as a spree killer whose violence was rooted in personal grievances and immediate rage, not ideology. His case is often referenced in historical lists of American spree shootings as an early example of a rapid, multi‑site attack inside a major city, showing how quickly domestic conflict can escalate into broader community violence when firearms, untreated anger, and unresolved grudges intersect.
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