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Convicted Killer Shermantine Writes A Second Letter To CBS13

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Convicted killer Wesley Shermantine has sent another letter to CBS13 from death row and this time he's saying even more.

Once again, the letter was addressed to CBS13's Koula Gianulias. In it, Shermantine talks about a range topics including his childhood and family, how he gets on with the other inmates in San Quentin, and what he wants his legacy to be.

He also names a third possible killer.

Shermantine, one of the so-called "Speed Freak Killers," is currently on death row in San Quentin for killing four people in a spree that lasted from 1984 to 1999. However, officials believe he and Loren Herzog are responsible for many more deaths.

In his new letter, Shermantine says Herzog and the third man, which CBS13 is not naming, commited more than 70 murders. "Multiple 24x3. This is what I was told by Herzog. Take your top three serial killers. Herzog will top that," Shermantine writes.

Shermantine mentions Joann Hopson, who went missing from Stockton in 1985, and says her remains can be found in a second well investigators have yet to find. He writes that he met with Hopson's mother recently and that she "knows I did not kill her daughter."

The letter was also very critical of local bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, who had promised to Shermantine $33,000 for information on the victims. As in his first letter, Shermantine says he hasn't received a dime and doesn't expect to be paid.

Padilla says he tried to mail Shermantine a check and it was sent back. He said he then tried to use the prison currency system to pay Shermantine and doesn't know why he hasn't received it.

Retired FBI Agent Jeff Rinek, who has spoken with Shermantine in prison, says he's sure Shermantine is motivated by money from Padilla but that he also may be coming to terms with his life.

"Everything he says in my opinion is his attempt to get us to take him seriously and he wants to be talked to," Rinek said.

Shermantine writes in the letter that he wants to get everything in his life down on paper and that he's famous "for all the wrong reasons."

Rinek, for one, says he's willing to listen again to whatever Shermantine has to say.

"I also think it was an attempt to get attention to say 'I'm here, I'm willing, you guys have wanted to get this for 20 years," Rinek said of the latest letter. "'I'm ready to give it to you. Let's go.'"

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