Accomplice of ‘Freeway Killer’ slain in prison
Officials say he died of injuries sustained during a beating by another inmate.
An accomplice of serial killer William G. Bonin — the so-called Freeway Killer who murdered as many as 21 people along Southern California’s highways — has died after being beaten by another inmate at Mule Creek State Prison, authorities said.
Officials said Gregory M. Miley died Wednesday from injuries sustained at the prison in Ione in Northern California. Miley was attacked about 7:25 p.m. Monday during “the evening yard program,” state corrections officials said.
“He was escorted to the prison medical facility where he was evaluated and medically cleared to return to his housing unit,” California Department of Corrections Lt. Angelo Gonzalez said in a statement. “Miley returned to the prison medical facility and at approximately 9:07 p.m. became unconscious.”
He was airlifted to a hospital and died after being removed from life support. Miley’s death is being investigated as a homicide, Gonzalez said. Authorities have not identified the inmate who attacked Miley.
Miley was serving a life sentence for his role in the murder of two teenage boys. Bonin was believed to be responsible for as many as 21 slayings from 1978 to 1980. The Downey truck driver was convicted of 14 killings, and for that became the first California inmate to die by lethal injection.
Bonin’s rampage during the late 1970s left young men and teenage boys dead along the region’s highways.
Miley, one of Bonin’s helpers in some of the slayings, ended up testifying against him. Miley, who was 19 at the time, was convicted in the killings of Charles Miranda, a 14-year-old from Bell Gardens, and James McCabe, a 12-year-old from Garden Grove. Both boys were abducted the same day in February 1980.
Miley helped strangle Charles after he and Bonin sexually assaulted the boy. James was suffocated to death with a shirt twisted around his neck.
Miley was serving a sentence of 25 years to life with the possibility of parole. Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas had fought efforts by Miley to obtain parole in recent years. In fighting his release, prosecutors noted that Miley was a regular rule breaker in prison and still prone to violence.