{{Short description|1977 murder in Scarsdale, New York, US}} {{Lead too short|date=October 2024}} {{Use American English|date=January 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} The '''murder of Bonnie Garland''' at the hands of Richard Herrin took place on July 7, 1977, in Scarsdale, New York. She was 20 years old.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Kornbluth |first=Jesse |date=1978-05-07 |title=A FATAL ROMANCE AT YALE |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/07/archives/a-fatal-romance-at-yale-murder.html |access-date=2025-07-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==Details of the crime== In the early-morning hours of July 7, 1977, around 2 a.m. Yale graduate Richard Herrin bludgeoned his ex-girlfriend, Yale college senior Bonnie Garland, to death with a hammer as she lay sleeping in her parents' Scarsdale, New York, home because she wanted to end their relationship.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The Yale Murder: Richard Herrin Kills Girlfriend Bonnie Garland in Jealous Rage {{!}} Archives & Special Collections |url=https://archives.law.virginia.edu/dengrove/writeup/yale-murder-richard-herrin-kills-girlfriend-bonnie-garland-jealous-rage |access-date=2025-07-12 |website=archives.law.virginia.edu}}</ref> The two college students had been dating for approximately two years at the time that Herrin graduated and moved to Texas to attend a graduate program. Over the next year Garland and Herrin grew apart. Garland wanted to date other people.<ref name=":1" /> Concerned about it, Herrin arranged, with Garland's knowledge, to come to Scarsdale to discuss their relationship. Her parents, not knowing there was trouble in the relationship, allowed him to stay at their home. Garland told Herrin on July 6, 1977, she wanted to break off their relationship. He was to leave the next day. He was staying in a guest room on the opposite end of the home.<ref name=":0" />

During the early morning hours of July 7, 1977, Herrin went to a kitchen cabinet and found a hammer. He wrapped it in a towel to conceal it. He then went up three flights of stairs to Garland's room. As stated in the testimony, he left the hammer outside the door and went in to confirm she was asleep. He then went back out into the hallway, retrieved the hammer and towel, and returned to the room. He used the hammer to smash her skull and larynx. After attacking Garland, Herrin stole the Garland family car and drove around for hours. In the car, he smashed the rearview mirror to use the broken glass to self-harm. He ran out of gas in Coxsackie, 100 miles to the north of Scarsdale, where he found a church and told the priest inside of his murder. In fact, Bonnie was still alive though critically injured. The priest called the Scarsdale police, who knocked on the Garlands' door early in the morning. They entered her bedroom to find her horribly injured; she was declared dead at 10:38 that evening.<ref name=":0" />

==Judicial proceedings== Herrin was arrested. A group led by members of the clergy of Yale's Catholic Church campaigned to have Herrin released on bail. They raised bail money and wrote letters attesting to Herrin's "good character" to the trial judge. Impressed by the campaign, the judge released Herrin into the care of the Christian Brothers in Albany. While he was awaiting trial, he attended classes at the State University of New York under an alias.<ref>Dwyer, Kevin and Fiorillo, Juré. ''True Stories of Law & Order''. 2006: Berkley/Penguin pages 29-30.</ref> Judge Richard J. Daronco presided over the highly publicized trial at the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains. Richard Herrin was convicted of first-degree manslaughter, rather than second degree murder and was sentenced to the maximum penalty under the law. He served 17 years in state prison at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, and was released on January 12, 1995. {{cn|date=September 2024}}

Herrin was born to an Irish father and a Mexican mother in an ethnic minority community in Los Angeles.<ref name="Dwyer Fiorillo 2006 p. 25">{{cite book | last1=Dwyer | first1=K. | last2=Fiorillo | first2=J. | title=True Stories of Law & Order: The Real Crimes Behind the Best Episodes of the Hit TV Show | publisher=Penguin Publishing Group | year=2006 | isbn=978-1-101-21793-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqLjjThs04QC&pg=PA25 | access-date=2024-05-01 | page=25}}</ref><ref name="New York Times 1978 p. 45">{{cite book | title=The New York Times Magazine | publisher=New York Times | year=1978 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzMn0qfST80C | access-date=2024-05-01 | page=45}}</ref> It was assumed that he was admitted to Yale through affirmative action, leading to the media designation of his trial as the "affirmative action murder trial".<ref name="Dershowitz 2004 p. 12-IA25">{{cite book | last=Dershowitz | first=A.M. | title=America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles That Transformed Our Nation | publisher=Grand Central Publishing | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-7595-1103-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNSFdQ61SBMC&pg=PR12-IA25 | access-date=2024-05-01 | page=12-IA25}}</ref>

Critics charged that the sentence was the result of the Yale community and, in particular, the Catholic chaplaincy uniting to support Herrin by portraying him as the victim of his upbringing in a minority neighborhood ''barrio'' in Los Angeles.<ref name="American Bar Association p. 1-PA1628">{{cite book | title=ABA Journal | date=December 1982 | publisher=American Bar Association | issn=0747-0088 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c7u0RkiDZYkC&pg=RA1-PA1628 | access-date=2024-05-01 | page=1-PA1628}}</ref>

==Aftermath== After his release, Herrin moved to Socorro, New Mexico, where he was hired by a mental health foundation.<ref>"[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19971108&id=8ZNGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DvgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2826,1620999 Man Convicted in Yale killing has job running safe community agency]." ''Associated Press'' at ''The Day''. Saturday November 8, 1997. pg. A5. Retrieved from Google Books (3 of 22) on March 3, 2014.</ref>

This was the last murder case in Scarsdale until the murder of 58-year-old pediatric doctor Robin Goldman on January 20, 2016.<ref>[http://scarsdale10583.com/the-goods/5221-police-investigating-the-death-of-a-58-year-old-woman-on-lincoln-road Death of Dr. Robin Goldman], scarsdale10583.com. Accessed September 11, 2024.</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Sources== *''The Yale Murder: The Compelling True Narrative of the Fatal Romance of Bonnie Garland and Richard Herrin'', Peter Meyer *''The Killing of Bonnie Garland: A Question of Justice'', Willard Gaylin *''True Stories of Law & Order'' by Kevin Dwyer and Juré Fiorillo

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050520070850/http://www.epinions.com/content_175942569604 A review of ''The Yale Murder''] {{Scarsdale, New York}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Garland, Bonnie}} Category:People murdered in New York (state) Category:1977 murders in the United States Category:1977 in New York (state) Category:Deaths by beating in the United States Category:July 1977 in the United States Category:1977 crimes Category:July 1977 Category:Murdered American students Category:Violence against women in New York (state) Category:Scarsdale, New York Category:1970s crimes in New York (state) Category:Female murder victims Category:Hammer assaults