'Speed Freak Killer' Wesley Shermantine's letter reveals frustration with FBI
(CBS/KOVR) Lindin, Calif. - A new letter written by convicted "Speed Freak" killer Wesley Shermantine expresses the death row inmate's frustration that the FBI is moving too slowly looking for bodies he has pointed them to.
According CBS Sacramento, the letter was recently delivered to bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, who previously offered Shermantine $33,000 for information on victims, resulting in the crudely drawn maps that directed authorities to burial sites containing hundreds of bone fragments.
Authorities say Shermantine and Loren Herzog, childhood friends, went on a methamphetamine-fueled killing spree in the 1980s and 90s. Shermantine is now on death row for four murders. Herzog hanged himself in January after Padilla told him Shermantine was disclosing locations of victims.
Authorities launched a massive search after Shermantine agreed to disclose burial locations, but there has been no new digging since February, CBS Sacramento reports.
"He's getting disenchanted with people not moving as quick as he'd like them to move, which is basically my feeling," Padilla told the station.
Shermantine reportedly writes in the letter, "I'm writing the FBI this weekend to tell them to take a hike. I don't want them to visit me."
But Padilla says there may be an ulterior motive for threatening to cut off contact with authorities.
"He's upset with the FBI, because they told him the victim count wasn't high enough for a book deal," Padilla told the CBS Sacramento.
In the letter, Shermantine reportedly makes a case for how many victims there are and lists them by name or description.
"He says there are two Mexican women on Jack Tone Road. That's new to me," Padilla told CBS Sacramento.
"That's 16 people right there, and I know he has more. Every place Herzog said was a victim, it's all been true." Shermantine reportedly writes.
Although Shermantine says he knows the location and, in some cases, the identities of the victims, he cannot reveal a motive.
"I can't tell you why all these people died, their [sic] was no motive," Shermantine reportedly writes.