Sam Bonafiede, 55, also known as Joe Carriveau, is listed among the 25 itinerant or migratory farmworkers murdered in Sutter County, California, during the spring 1971 orchard killings centered near Yuba City and Marysville. Court filings placed his death between April 21 and May 20, 1971; a ledger seized from Juan Corona’s home contained the entry Sam Bonafiede May 6 1971, leading later compilations to identify May 6, 1971, as the most likely date.

The orchard victims shared strikingly similar wounds: chopping or hacking injuries to the head and deep stab wounds to the upper left chest. Bonafiede has been described as having been stabbed and slashed with a knife or machete. His body was recovered with 24 others from shallow graves on the Kagehiro and Sullivan ranches after freshly disturbed ground was noticed in May 1971.

Prosecutors relied on physical and circumstantial evidence tying Juan Corona to the victims and burial sites, including items bearing his name found in graves, witnesses placing him near the orchards, and the green ledger listing Bonafiede. Corona was convicted of 25 counts of first-degree murder in 1973, that verdict later overturned, and again convicted in 1982.

Did anyone know Sam Bonafiede’s movements or places he stayed in the months before May 1971?