Mystery Unsolved Inc True Crime

The Freeway Killer(s)

"On February 23rd, 1996, the people of the state of San Andreas followed through on their decision, the world will be a better place without William B. Hardigan. After fighting for his life for seventeen years, the notorious Freeway Killer became the first person to be executed by lethal injection in San Andreas. For the survivor of the fourteen young men and boys who Hardigan was convicted of killing, and of the nearly thirty others whom this classic sociopath is suspected of slaying, The Freeway Killer's execution probably lacked an element of justice. Sure, Hardigan, the poster boy for capital punishment, paid for his crimes with his life. But his method of death was infinitely more pleasant than that of his victims."

"He was cremated and spread in the Great Ocean. In the end, the remains of one of San Andreas' most notorious murderers was treated with a great deal more respect than he had for his victims. Most of them were dumped, naked and ravaged, along The Great Ocean Highway system. Outside the walls of Aster City Correctional Facility, William B. Hardigan had as many supporters as he had enemies."

"Hardigan's last words delivered to the warden an hour before his execution expressed no remorse for his crimes, and merely pointed out that he thought the death penalty was unfair. Hardigan added some words for potential serial killers, 'That I feel the death penalty is not an answer to the problems at hand. That I feel it sends the wrong message to the youth of the country. Young people act as they see other people acting instead of as people tell them to act. And I would suggest that when a person has a thought of doing anything serious against the law, that before they did, that they should go to a quiet place and think about it seriously.' Hardigan, who spent more time on death row than a majority of his victims spent on Earth, was forty-nine. Seven years old, Hardigan was already on his way to being a lost cause. The red kangaroo child of an abusive, alcoholic father who once gambled away the family home, Hardigan and his brother were often left by their mother in the care of her father. A well-known pedophile. Hardigan's mother spent all of her free time playing bingo, often forgetting to feed her children. Neighbors said the Hardigan brothers were often hungry, dirty, and ill-clothed. During his eighth year, Hardigan served his first stint behind bars, being jailed in juvenile hall for stealing license plates. In that hell-hole of a reformatory, Hardigan became the sexual plaything for older boys. Setting the stage for his twisted understanding of sex. The detention home was a house of horrors where sexual sadism and threats at the point of knife were commonplace. While in detention, Hardigan had been approached for sex by an older boy and although young Willaim was afraid of the attacker, agreed to participate provided that he be restrained. The fact that Hardigan, at age eight, was sexually aware to ask for restraints led the neurologist to believe he was a victim of violent assaults. It is inconceivable that he was not sexually abused and forcibly restrained by adult abusers before the incident. William eventually returned home where he began fondling his brother and other children in the area. William joined the U.S Air Force and logged seven hundred hours in combat or patrol. He was a good soldier, winning a Good Conduct medal. It wasn't until he was honorablly discharged that the military learned Hardigan had violated two men in his outfit at gunpoint. He moved to southern San Andreas where he made his dark descent to savagery that would end in Aster City Correctional Facility twenty-one years later. It didn't take Hardigan long to succumb to his demons. His first known interaction with the law came in 1968, when he was accused of violating five boys in Aster City. In each case, Hardigan picked up the boys while riding around then handcuffed and sodomized them. Convicted of the assaults, Hardigan was deemed a mentally disordered sex offender and rather than being sent to prison, was remanded in the state hospital. He was examined by several neurologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists. Hardigan had no memory of being physically abused. Doctors suspect he repressed the memory. 'There's much data to indicate that Hardigan was severally and recurrently violated as a child,' wrote one psychologist who examined William. Doctors found a variety of other physical and psychological anomalies. Brain damage in the area that is thought to restrain violent impulses, maniac-depressive illness, and several unexplained scars on his head and backside. 'Hardigan,' the doctor said, 'could not explain the scars.' Five years later, Hardigan was released from the state hospital and placed on probation for five years. Clearly, by this point, William was unable to restrain his sick impulses. He was a practicing pedophile but hadn't yet become a killer. On the last day of summer vacation in 1975, a fourteen year old was thumbing for a ride to Verona Beach, San Andreas. Hardigan offered the teen a ride. 'He was totally cool, there was nothing the least bit strange about him,' the teen told the Weazel News shortly before his execution. Hardigan asked the teen for sex and the teen asked him to stop the car. William pulled out a gun, drove to a remote area, and violated the boy. Hardigan began to choke the teen with his T-shirt. The same method Hardigan would use to kill several of his victims. The teen, gagging, thought he was going to die. When the teen cried out, Hardigan released him, and to the teen's astonishment, he apologized. The attack on the teen was especially notable for a couple of events. First, the teen was the last successful attack for Hardigan in which he did not kill and it was the last time he would admit regret for his actions. Like other victims of violating assault, the teen's suffering didn't end when Hardigan freed him. To this day, he told the Weazel News, he suffers for Hardigan's crimes. Feeling dirty and ashamed, he only told his best friend about what had happened. His mother never wanted to hear the details, the teen said. School no longer mattered and he quit school that year."