On this day, July 7, in 1977, Yale grad student Richard Herrin bludgeoned Yale college student Bonnie Garland to death with a hammer as she lay sleeping in her wealthy parents’ Scarsdale, N.Y. home. Herrin, an illegitimate child, then stole the family’s car, drove to a church and told a priest, “I just killed my girlfriend.”
He said he did it because Bonnie was going to break up with him.
During the trial, Herrin had the backing of much of the Yale community and the Catholic Church, who portrayed him as a victim of his upbringing in the barrios of Los Angeles.
He was convicted of manslaughter and served 17 years.
-Scott McCabe
