It is said the truest test of a person’s character is the way he or she treats animals. In the autumn of 1988, two southern California fishermen showed they had no character.

Bruno and Bobo were two beloved sea lions in King Harbor, on the piers of Redondo Beach, California, straddling the Pacific Ocean in the South Bay region of greater Los Angeles. They had been in the area for several years and were favorites of the local residents, who gave them their names. The warm and consistent weather at the South Bay beaches provided an ideal home for the sea lions.

The harbor pets were friendly to and trusted humans. Unfortunately, that blind trust in all of humanity proved fatal as Bruno and Bobo were killed in different but by equally awful methods.

Bruno and Bobo 

Bruno was shot twice with a .22 caliber gun in August 1988.

Marine biologists from Sea World attempted to treat his wounds but were unable to catch him as the sea lion would not come near them. One bullet was lodged near Bruno’s brain and he languished in agony before succumbing to his wounds one month later.

Bruno Is Shot

Bobo so loved people that he ate from their hands and, on occasion, even snatched a few fishes from people’s mouths.

Sadly, one of those fishes fed to him led to his brutal death.

Beloved Bobo

On October 27, one month after Bruno’s death, Bobo was fed a mackerel containing a “seal bomb.” Upon ingestion, the explosive device caused him to die from internal bleeding.

Bobo Bleeds to Death

Los Angeles seamen Randolph Mansfield and Steven Mitchell were charged with Bobo’s death after local merchant Travis Kingery told police he had sold Mansfield the explosive device. Kingery said he witnessed the men giving Bobo the laced fish and the resulting explosion. He claimed he had not come forward sooner because the men had threatened him if he did so.

In June 1989, Mansfield pleaded no contest to charges stemming from Bobo’s death. In August, he was sentenced to a year in prison and a $500 fine. Mitchell pleaded no contest to aiding and abetting in the killing, was also fined $500, was sentenced to sixty days in a community treatment center and 1,200 hours of community service. He was also given five years probation.

Mansfield and Mitchell said they killed Bobo because he was interfering with their fishing. Mansfield’s sentence marked the first time the maximum penalty was given under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Travis Kingery was not charged with any criminal act. I could find pictures of any of the men.

It was never determined who killed Bruno. Investigators could find nothing linking Mansfield and Mitchell to Bruno’s death and believe it unlikely they were responsible because of the different method of execution.

Bruno and Bobo Betrayed

SOURCES:

• Los Angeles Times
• Unsolved Mysteries