Jon Dunkle

Jon Scott Dunkle (born October 11, 1960) is an American serial killer who murdered three young boys in Belmont, California, between 1981 and 1985. Dunkle was convicted of two of the murders in 1989 and was sentenced to death early the following year. Dunkle received an additional sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 1994 after pleading guilty to a 1985 murder. In addition to the three boys that were murdered, Dunkle assaulted numerous other boys and was arrested for other crimes, including burglaries and hit-and-run incidents.

On November 5, 1982, Steve Murphy was hit by a car while walking home from a party. He was then placed in the trunk of the car, driven to a remote area of Belmont, and dumped in a ravine. The following month, on December 31, 1982, Dunkle struck Monte Hansen, 15, with a two-by-four board at his San Mateo home. Both Murphy and Hansen survived.

On October 2, 1984, 12-year-old Lance Turner was found dead near Water Dog Lake in Belmont, having been stabbed 23 times. On November 19, Turner's grandmother received a phone call from an unidentified man stating, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry – should I do it again – I'm sorry, really sorry."

On December 7, 1989, Dunkle was found guilty of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbings of John Davies and Lance Turner. He was sentenced to death via the gas chamber on January 10, 1990. Nearly five years later, on December 30, 1994, Dunkle was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of Sean Dannehl.

Imprisonment Dunkle has been diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. In 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported that Dunkle had been described as "gravely disabled", frequently banged his head against the wall, and was "said to believe he is controlled by computer chips and dies at night to become a new being".

On August 4, 2005, the Supreme Court voted unanimously to affirm Dunkle's death sentence.