concluded. Shortly thereafter, Bonin and his younger brother Paul – who worked as a plumber – relocated to the rural community of Silverado, California, and ran a neighborhood bar called the Alpine Inn. As the establishment was continually under scrutiny for noise violations, Bonin reportedly locked a 16-year-old runaway in one of the rooms, threatening to bury him in the hills at knife-point. Unable to obtain a permanent liquor license as a result of Bonin's criminal record, the business venture was short-lived. On July 19, 1979, Bonin purchased a 1972 Ford E-100 Shorty Van while still living in Silverado with his younger brother, whom he briefly worked for under his new plumbing business. Acquaintance with Vernon Butts Through his frequent attendance at Fraser's parties, Bonin became acquainted with 21-year-old porcelain factory worker, occultist, and part-time magician Vernon Robert Butts and 18-year-old Gregory Matthews Miley. Born and raised in Norwalk, Butts was nine years old when his father died, and reportedly hailed from a broken home. Described by acquaintances as "shy and easily led" by others, Butts attempted suicide on three occasions prior to meeting Bonin and held an obsession with death and witchcraft. At the time of his initial acquaintance with Bonin, Butts – an avid reader of horror fiction who frequently cosplayed as fictional characters such as Darth Vader – had developed a local reputation as an eccentric figure who adorned his apartment with novelty spiders and who kept two coffins in his apartment, one of which was used as a phone booth, and another as a coffee table in which Butts made love to his girlfriend, Pam "Cati" Razook, a self-proclaimed witch with whom he attended Pagan religious ritual events and visited graveyards. Butts also held suspicion that his apartment was haunted by ghosts, and had recently been fired from his employment as a magic store clerk at Knott's Berry Farm due to his unkempt appearance and increasingly strange and unpredictable behavior. Actively bisexual and frequently abusing drugs and alcohol, Butts performed public magic acts at schools, privately for small groups, and for children's parties in which he charged $30 per show to perform for audiences. A drifter who had been in and out of penal institutions, Butts was later speculated by court prosecutors to have developed a fascination with sadistic homosexual activity while in jail. Although Butts held an extensive criminal record for offenses such as burglary