Free to Kill Again
Free to Kill Again was released in April 2015. It tells the story of 30 convicted murderers who were either given a life sentence or the death penalty but were eventually set free only to turn around and kill again. There are 19 stories from the US, 10 from the UK and one from Canada.
Here is a the chapter list followed by the chapter on Arthur J. Bomar Jr.
US
1.) Arthur Shawcross
2.) James Ealy
3.) Kenneth McDuff
4.) Arthur J. Bomar Jr.
5.) Timothy Buss
6.) David Maust
7.) John McRae
8.) John Miller
9.) Robert Lee Massie
10.) Daniel Joe Hittle
11.) Darryl Kemp
12.) Jimmy Lee Gray
13.) Howard Arthur Allen
14.) Phillip Jablonski
15.) Marlon Ricks
16.) Leroy Schmitz
17.) Danny Smith
18.) Melvin Geary
19.) Jack Ferrell
UK
20.) David Baxendale
21.) Andrew Dawson
22.) Roy Whiting
23.) George Johnson
24.) David Cook
25.) Desmond Lee
26.) Douglas Gary Vinter
27.) Marc Chivers
28.) Royston Jackson
29.) Paul Brumfitt
Canada
30.) Peter Woodcock
Arthur J. Bomar Jr.
As the summer of 1996 got underway, the future looked bright for Aimee Willard. She had just turned 22 and was a senior at George Mason University where she was a two sports star playing lacrosse and soccer. That year she led the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring with 50 goals and 29 assists. She was named to the All-America team in lacrosse. Aimee was a phys.ed. major and was taking summer courses at Delaware County Community College. She was also looking forward to a trip to Puerto Rico to visit her boyfriend. Aimee was living the dream but that dream crashed all around her near an I-476 off ramp just outside of Philadelphia.
The date was June 20, 1996. That night Aimee’s blue Honda Civic was found on the shoulder of I-476. Her body was found 17 miles away in a vacant lot on the north side of Philadelphia. She had been severely beaten. The cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries to the head. Blood had been found near her car which seemed to indicate that Aimee had probably been killed nearby and then taken to and dumped in the vacant lot. A tire iron was also found near Aimee’s car and it was thought to be the murder weapon.
The investigation into Aimee’s murder was stalling when, in March 1997, 25 year old Maria Cabuenos disappeared. The detectives did not connect the two cases until they caught a break in June. Arthur J. Bomar Jr. was arrested for burglary. The homicide detectives became interested in Bomar when it was learned that he was driving Maria’s car at the time of his arrest. Maria’s blood was found in the trunk of the car. Bomar quickly became a person of interest.
Aimee Willard
When Aimee was murdered in June 1996 Bomar was driving a Ford Escort. The police located that car in a junkyard. Strands of Aimee’s hair were found in the car. The detectives believed that Bomar had hit Aimee’s car on purpose in order to get her to pull over. When she got out of her car, Bomar hit her with his and then got out and beat her to death with the tire iron. They suspected that he used the same modus operandi in the Maria Cabuenos case. With Maria’s body still not having been found, the prosecutors felt that they had a stronger case in Aimee’s murder. On December 10, 1997 Bomar was charged with the murder of Aimee Willard. It was soon revealed that Bomar had a history and that history had included an earlier murder that had occurred almost 20 years earlier.
Arthur Jerome Bomar Jr.
It was back in 1978 and the 19 year old Bomar had been living in Nevada. One day he found himself in Las Vegas arguing with another man over a parking spot. Bomar ended the argument by shooting and killing the other man. He was found guilty and given a life sentence. In Bomar’s case life meant 11 years and he was released in 1989. He left Nevada the following year and ended up in Pennsylvania where he was arrested for assaulting a woman that same year. In 1993 he was arrested and convicted of another assault. Either one of those arrests should have resulted in his Nevada parole being revoked. Bomar should have been returned to Nevada to serve out the rest of his life sentence. Detective Bernie Schaffer: “If his parole had been revoked as it should have been, he would have been back in jail at the time Aimee Willard was murdered.”
During the 1998 trial Bomar insisted that he was innocent and was the victim of racism. A former cellmate of his testified that Bomar told him of both murders. He was found guilty and on December 4, 1998 was sentenced to death. There was still the long and winding road through the appeals process. Bomar appealed for a new trial based on ineffective counsel. That appeal was dismissed in 2008. He then appealed saying that the jurors in his trial had inappropriate contact with the Sheriff’s Department. Bomar’s lawyers also said that he had been convicted by “false and misleading” DNA evidence. They also filed an appeal regarding Bomar’s cellmate’s testimony saying that he received consideration for his testimony. These appeals were dismissed in 2012. It appeared that another hurdle had been cleared leading toward the eventual execution of Arthur J. Bomar Jr. He had now been on Death Row for 14 years. Then came a startling announcement from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. On February 13, 2015 the governor announced a moratorium on all executions in the state. Wolf stated that no executions would take place until he has “received and reviewed the forthcoming report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment established under Senate Resolution 6 of 2011 and there is an opportunity to address all concerns satisfactorily.” The governor went on to say that “this moratorium is in no way an expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous crimes. The decision is based on a flawed system that has proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust and expensive.” Governor Wolf joins the governors of Oregon, Washington and Colorado in placing a hold on executions because of concerns about the death penalty system.
Arthur J. Bomar Jr. remains incarcerated at SCI-Greene in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
Free to Kill Again can be seen at...
US - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VVG72W6
UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00VVG72W6
Canada - http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00VVG72W6
Australia - http://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B00VVG72W6
