The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 86

LOS ANGELES TIMES "A 12 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1996 GATTIS The Countdown Begins for Bonin COMPUTtR TRADt SHOW SWAP MttT WHOltSAU PRICES TO THt PUBLIC! $3. ADULT ADMISSION A ttff PARKING! ORMGE COUNTY FMCROmS Fair Costa Mesa. At the 55twy i Del Mar Exit afBtfite 852-9267 didn't call or let us know. He was a good boy, and we didn't have any problems with him, and he didn't have any problems with me." Sitting in their airy Newport Beach home of 31 years, Venetia Gatti said that Nick's younger brothers, Michael and Anthony, were also affected. "He was our oldest child and a wonderful child," said Venetia Gatti, who recently retired from her job at an Orange County department store.

"I never had a problem with him growing up." From the scrapbook, a diary of sorts with faded, crunchy pages of handwritten notes, Angelo Gatti pulled out a yellowed edition of the "Nature Boy" newsletter. It is one of the last remnants they have of Nick. "We have contacted almost anybody that would listen," he said. "Life has to go on. We had two other children to take care of.

But when we see pictures of our son, it makes you so sad that it makes you want to cry." The Gattis ask that anyone with information contact the Orange County Sheriff's Department missing persons bureau at (714) 647-7055. ii FACTORY HFIIF RUG SALE PERSIAN TREASURE RUGS ANNUAL SALE upfiftoOFF 7QW TtcureopMcn New, semi-antique, and antique rugs from around the world Oldest and Largest rug store in Orange County, since 1978 PersianTreasur Rugs 3321 Coast Corona Del Mat (at Marguerite across from of (714) 673-6981 Free Delivery in Orange County rice ucvciy vionyjP uumn; fc, a jjl limeuut If for men Whisper Trio Caress Associated Press William G. Bonin is scheduled to receive a lethal injection. The lawyers say that crucial evidence regarding Bonin's mental illness and troubled childhood should have been introduced as evidence. And they contend that the prosecution case against Bonin was tainted because of testimony from a jailhouse informant and because prosecutors called a witness whose memory had been refreshed with hypnosis.

Earlier this week, two federal judges rejected those claims and refused to stay the execution. And Gov. Pete Wilson refused Bonin's request that his death sentence be commuted. State Atty. Gen.

Dan Lungren said in Los Angeles on Wednes- SI iA2r? -tY A Slim I Narrow Medium I Wide W-Wide I Slim iNarrowl Medium Wide W-Wide 612 1 6-12 I 4-12 I 5-12 512 NOW! 8-15 7-15 6-15 6-15 6-15 Continued from A3 forest themselves, hiring an expert on the trails, every Saturday after-' noon for four years. They studied maps and back trails and went into the caves along the mountains but found no sign of their son. The Gattis have kept a scrap-book of letters, phone numbers and dead-end leads since their son vanished. They contacted everyone from the Boy Scouts to the FBI, to no avail. In 1989, when serial killer Randy Kraft was sentenced to death for the sexual torture and murder of 16 men, the Gattis contacted authorities hoping someone had information on their son.

But, Angelo Gatti said, detectives told him that there was little hope of Kraft confessing to any killings. Having exhausted other options, the parents wrote a letter to state Public Defender Emry Allen, who is representing Bonin, but have not received a reply. Angelo Gatti followed up with phone calls on Wednesday but did not get a call back. Bonin confessed to killing 21 victims in 1979 and 1980, all of them young males, ages 12 to 19. Three victims were found along Ortega Highway.

Nick Gatti, who had vanished several years earlier near Ortega Highway, was not on the killer's list of victims. "It is hard to say," said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Pryan Brown, who prosecuted both min and Kraft. "It is worthwhile as.

ing Bonin. But Nick Gatti doesn't fit much of what we know about Bonin and when we know Bonin started killing. From what I know about both cases, this would be more consistent with Kraft than Bonin." The Gattis concede that Bonin is a longshot. "We need to know if he is alive or dead," Angelo Gatti said. "We know that the chances are slim, but we just want to know." When Angelo Gatti drove his son south along Ortega Highway on that morning 22 years ago, they had a spirited conversation, he remembers.

Gatti recalls his son telling him that he did not like his parents' style of life, owning a house, paying a mortgage, raising kids. His parents later noticed that Nick left his wallet, identification, Social Security card and watch at home. They considered that unusual but said it was unlike him to just take off. "We thought about that as a possibility," said Angelo Gatti, who also contacted the U.S. Consulate in Mexico.

"But we never had an experience like that where he SESSION 4 rnr WEIGHTlOSS-FgflOSS'WElGHTGflIM -tT Hllllllllllll Mill III Softie MANY MORE PATTERNS THAN SHOWN; Only At Our Store in ORANGE! COMFORT SHOE STORE to' if I f1 2332 North Orange Mall Orange, CA 92665 (2332 North Tustin Ave.) (714) 283-4950 day that he is prepared to counter any last-minute legal maneuvers by Bonin. "We are prepared to respond to any action," Lungren said. "We're confident we'll prevail in the 9th Circuit. We expect the execution to go forward Friday at 12:01 a.m." Lungren said he is employing a legal. strategy of filing "anticipatory briefs," the same strategy he used in 1992 for Robert Alton Harris, the first California prisoner executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

"We develop the briefs fully and lodge them in the relevant courts," Lungren said. "In response to any legal challenge, we tell the court to activate the brief." It has been more than 13 years since Bonin was sentenced to death for 14 murders in Los Angeles and Orange counties. "The wait for the families has been unimaginable and in some ways unexplainable," Lungren said. "If you do believe there is evil in the world, it's hard to deny it was involved in this case. The families of the victims deserve better from the judicial system." Lungren plans to attend Bonin's execution at San Quentin Prison.

"His job is to be there and to certify to the warden that there is no legal reason why the execution should not go forward," said Steve Telliano, Lun-gren's press secretary. position, I wouldn't be on this trip," says Leitao, who once was friendly with the brother of another Bonin victim. "Dave talks about ending the nightmares. I don't know. It might just change I don't know if you can ever really close something like this." McVicker brushes aside such thoughts.

He considers the day he crossed paths with Bonin Sept. 8, 1975 as the day his childhood ended. From that moment forward, his life was marred by an inability to concentrate in school and a self-loathing that led him to abuse drugs. Co-workers harassed him, while friends often told tasteless jokes about his ordeal. He drifted, he sobbed, he drank, he felt dirty and ashamed and poured his heart out to friends and counselors.

Now all that ends. When Bonin draws his last breath Friday, McVicker will finally breathe easy. "This is going to end it," he says. "End it. Throw me forward.

I'm so ready for this. This is the beginning of my life." tt mn 11 II C3 i E.I' Br tr." mm a iVKa yi JUST OUTSIDE THE MALL OF ORANGE TO THE RIGHT OF THE BROADWAY STORE, BEHIND THE OLIVE GARDEN RESTAURANT I 11 A MITSUBISHI 1 Execution: Serial killer, set to die after midnight, orders a last meal of pizza as lawyers mount a last-ditch effort to spare his life. By DEXTER FILKINS and MILES CORWIN TIMES STAFF WRITERS William G. Bonin, the serial killer set to die just after midnight, ordered his last meal Wednesday. The menu: two medium pizzas with sausage and pepperoni, three pints of coffee ice cream and a six-pack of Coke.

The condemned man will get to eat after 6 p.m., about six hours before he is scheduled to receive a lethal injection. "It will be done he will get his last meal," San Quentin spokeswoman Joy Macfarlane said. Bonin prepared for his execution as his lawyers mounted a last, desperate attempt to keep their client alive, On Wednesday defense attorneys asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block Bonin's execution. The judges will hear arguments at 10 a.m.

today in San Francisco. Bonin's lawyers contend that their client did not get a fair trial because Bonin's original lawyer, William Charvet, was addicted to painkillers during his trials and was negotiating a book deal based on the Bonin murders. McVICKER: Bonin Victim Seeks Closure Continued from A3 yew time." "I think it's closure for all of us," Jays Steve Medeck, who grew up 3vith McVicker and remembers Bo-Jjinwell. 2 Two weeks before Bonin attacked McVicker, he invited Me-deck into his car. Medeck vividly 'recalls refusing Bonin's invitation iand shudders to think what might have happened if he had accepted.

Alex Ratcliff, an engineer who Stakes, the first shift driving the Winnebago, volunteers that "it Jives you a feeling in the pit of our stomach to look at all those victims" in newspaper accounts of Bonin's killings. "And have you Sioticed that two or three look a lot like David?" Medeck; riding shotgun, nods solemnly. 'I hope that dude is crapping his fants," Medeck says. "I think he's getting the easy ay out," says Medeck's wife, Jenny, who used to date McVicker. I think he should feel some pain." Suddenly, up ahead, the lights from a California Highway Patrol car can be seen.

Another accident in a trip littered with bloody car wrecks. Something ly-3ng in the road. "I hope it's not a horse or a cow," I'enny Medeck says. "I hope it's not a body," someone Jnumbles. "Boy, this is a pretty exciting Jrip," Bartholomew says.

"Wait till you get there," McVicker says in a deep, ominous 3oice. Opening another beer, McVicker Jalks about how anxious he is for that moment when a lethal dose of irugs swirls into Bonin's blood. On iue, Ratcliff and the Medecks singing the Broadway tune mm Where in Orange can you catch the MUSIC REVIEW? 1W I 1 year SAME AS CASH 0 1 1 ip WENDY LAMM Los Angeles Times David McVicker, who survived Bonin's attack, steels himself for the emotional journey: "It will change the mental videotape in my head." Msl YOUTH fl The world's only 40-inch piclurc tube is 31 larger than i 35" TV and a remarkable 120 larger than a TV. CS40503 ft ib "Tomorrow." "Tomorrow, tomorrow. I love you, tomorrow.

You're only a day away." McVicker laughs and begins to fiddle with the elaborate video equipment he has brought to record the occasion. Just then, there is an explosion. Something lands atop the Winnebago with a deafening crack. "What was McVicker says. Apparently, someone has thrown something at the Winnebago from an overpass.

Bartholomew, in a bit of paranoia, suspects the anti-death penalty forces. "We're ready for them," McVicker says, chuckling. But one of "them" is sitting quietly in the corner, meditating about this trip and its moral consequences. Mike Leitao, a restaurant manager and 20-year friend of McVicker, stares at the farms and sheep along Interstate 5 and wonders if his pal will find peace once Bonin is dead. "I think if I were in Dave's County PREMIERE FLICKS? tl LALE 24831 DEL DANA Time 240 pngncmg on Approved SPECIAL 23M) all the snails you can find Make Home PRADO EASY! POINT 0555 LET OUR EXPERTS DESIGN THE PERFECT HOME THEATER JUST FOR YOU.

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