SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A California inmate serving two life terms as an accomplice of so-called "Freeway Killer" William Bonin has died after an attack by another prisoner, corrections officials said Thursday.
Gregory Miley, 54, who helped Bonin abduct, rape and kill two Southern California boys during a 1979-80 killing spree, died Wednesday at Mule Creek State Prison near Sacramento, said Lieutenant Angelo Gonzalez said.
Miley's immediately cause of death is not known, Gonzalez told Reuters by telephone.
Miley was assaulted by another inmate while on the prison yard Monday night and was treated at the prison's medical facility, prison officials said in a statement.
He was sent back to his housing unit but later returned to the prison clinic, where he lost consciousness. Miley was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he died on Wednesday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
His death is being investigated as a homicide.
Bonin, who was executed in 1996, kidnapped, robbed, raped and murdered 14 teen boys during a crime spree that terrorized Southern California communities, the state said.
He became known as the "Freeway Killer" because the victims' bodies were found along area highways.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Dan Grebler)