Hunting The Ultimate Kill

by Jack Rosewood

  Because there are still many loose ends in the Speed Freak Killers case, expect it to keep popping up in the news from time to time over the coming years.

  Many would think that Shermantine’s revelations of his dump sites would be the end of the case for the Speed Freak Killers, but there are two more aspects to the case that will not go away. The first involves Shermantine’s status, and the other concerns problems within the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department that are related, both directly and indirectly, to the Speed Freak Killer’s Case.

  Life on Death Row

  No matter the quality of the institution, life in prison is never easy. The list of reasons why prison is not a desirable place to live are legion, but at the top is the lack of freedom. Daily life is heavily controlled and few luxury items are allowed.

  It also should go without saying that prison is an extremely stressful environment.

  Inmates are faced with the prospect of watching the lives they once lived on the outside move on without them—jobs and careers evaporate and spouses and significant others often move on.

  There is also the stress of navigating through the politics of a prison environment.

  Needless to say, life on death row is often thought of as the most stressful of all.

  Despite the stress of an impending death sentence, Wesley Shermantine seems to be dealing with the situation well, and some might say that he is even enjoying it.

  No doubt he knows that the last execution that took place in California in 2006—Clarence Ray Allen, who was convicted for his part in a 1980 triple murder—and that there are currently hundreds of others before him waiting execution.

  Despite the cloud of doom hovering over his head, Wesley Shermantine seems to be coping with the situation. According to one letter, he has even made plans for the future.

  “I wanted some money to live on and for my own burial, some personal things, typewriter new CD player, CD’s, T.V, clothing, food. Inmates are allowed #220.00 store each month. They have food drives for fund raisers. Yes like I could order a pizza from outside the prison. They do things to raise money for different groups.”

  Needless to say, many of the families of Shermantine’s victims were not happy to learn that not only was he getting paid to locate bodies, but that he could use that money for death row pizza parties.

  Since Shermantine is only in his early fifties it may happen that one day the State of California will put the needle in his arm. Chances are, though, that like most men on California’s death row, he will die before that date. Shermantine is overweight, believed to be in poor health, and has hundreds of other people in line to be executed before him.

  In all likelihood, Wesley Shermantine will die of natural causes on California’s condemned row.

  Questions of Improprieties in the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department

  In recent years, the issue of police conduct/misconduct has been at the forefront in many jurisdictions across the United States. Police departments, like other bureaucratic organizations, are bound to have problems from time to time, but those problems are often magnified because of the immense power that police departments have.

  Often, it takes a major case to shed light upon problems within a police department.

  The final chapter in the Speed Freak Killers case concerns a number of problems in the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department relating to procedural problems, during and after the actual investigation. An outline of the problems shows that the investigations began in 1998 and have continued until today. They are yet to be resolved.

  While Herzog and Shermantine were claiming random victims in communities across the Central Valley during the 1980s and ‘90s, there was little that law enforcement could do at the time. As mentioned earlier in this book, since the Speed Freak Killers were not connected to most of their victims, they were never suspects in the murders.

  The exception, of course, was the murder of Chevy Wheeler.

  Neither the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department nor the San Joaquin District Attorney’s Office can be blamed for not arresting Wesley Shermantine in 1985 for Chevy Wheeler’s murder. At that time, the technology did not exist that would allow a conviction.

  But this was no longer true in 1998.

  When Thomas Testa received the initial DNA results from the blood drops in Wesley Shermantine’s family’s cabin, he could have arrested Wesley Shermantine, but he decided to wait for a more complete test before bringing charges. In the meantime, Cyndi Vanderheiden was murdered.

  Testa is not the reason Cyndi Vanderheiden died, and therefore he cannot be held directly responsible for her death. The men responsible for her death are now either dead or on death row, but Testa did take a gamble, one that unfortunately did not pay off and instead, led to the loss of another life.

  For that, Thomas Test shares responsibility for Cyndi Vanderheiden’s death.

  The San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department made the next mistake during the questioning of Loren Herzog. An Appellate Court ruled that Herzog was not properly read his rights, which ultimately led to his release from prison in 2010. It is true that the State of California has its fair share of “activist” judges who take the side of defendants over the police in many, if not most, occasions. The San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department would have known this and should have crossed every “t” and dotted every “i” during the interrogation of Herzog.

  As mentioned earlier, they knew that they were interrogating a potential serial killer and that immense media scrutiny would soon be on the case.

  Perhaps the most damning accusations of improprieties committed by the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department have come out more recently.

  The recent charges focus on two accusations: that the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department stonewalled other police agencies and private detectives investigating murders committed by Herzog and Shermantine, and that they mishandled evidence and the remains of victims during recovery.

  The stonewalling accusation is complicated and it is now the subject of a legal challenge making its way through the California State Court system. The motion, which seeks to unseal evidence relating to missing persons records, was brought by high-profile California Attorney Mark Geragos, who is perhaps best known for defending wife-killer Scott Peterson.

  At the heart of the issue is the allegation that members of the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department conspired to take many of the victims’ names from a database, accessible to other law enforcement agencies.

  A number of specific incidences are alleged.

  One of the earliest accusations of impropriety involved the Michaela Garecht case. The motion alleges that the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department, under Sherriff Steve Moore, refused to cooperate with the Hayward Police Department when that agency learned that Herzog may have been Michaela’s killer.

  Hayward detective Kevin Atkins said that Chanda Bassett, who is currently an investigator with the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department, refused to cooperate with him when he called in regards to the Michaela Garecht case.

  Atkins said that Bassett “expressed no interest with my investigation, nor offered any assistance whatsoever.” He added that Bassett also “refused to give me access to the shoes, nor would she provide me with copies or photographs of recovered shoes.”

  The shoes Atkins referred to were a pair recovered at the first burial location Shermantine gave to the authorities. Since the size of the shoes was so small and the style was from the late 1980s, Hayward investigators believed that they may have belonged to Michaela Garecht. Although the shoes were later determined not to belong to Michaela, the accusation of stonewalling persisted.

  The Hayward Police Department is not the only law enforcement agency that has accused the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department of being uncooperative regarding potential victims of the Speed Freak Killers.

  When Reno Police Department Detective Allan Fox first learned of the Speed Freak Killers case after the pair was arrested for the murder of Cy
ndi Vanderheiden in 1999, he followed the case with interest. Reno is often nicknamed the “The Biggest Little City in the World” for its modest size and its casinos that line its main drag. It is also has its fair share of crime, which includes a number of unsolved homicides and missing persons cases.

  When Fox learned that Herzog and Shermantine made several visits to his city on gambling and hunting trips, he decided to contact Sherriff Moore in San Joaquin County. There was one missing persons case in particular, that he thought could be solved by making a trip to rural San Joaquin County and one of the dump sites that Shermantine mentioned in his letters.

  Fox described his conversation with Moore as terse. He claimed Moore was, for the most part, uncooperative. Fox brought his own K-9 unit to a dump site, but it was not long before deputies from the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department took over and excluded Fox from the dump site. In his affidavit, Fox claims that Moore became irate over what he believed was jurisdiction creep on Fox’s part.

  “The meeting ended with rigid cordiality,” Fox said. “And I left with no confidence in the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.”

  Interdepartmental rivalries are often common during investigations, but most in law enforcement are quick to point out, that this one is an extreme example.

  Perhaps the most serious accusation leveled against the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Department is that they deleted entries in the missing person’s database.

  “The ability to identify victims was removed from state and federal databases, making it impossible for families of missing loved ones to ever have answers,” said State Senator Cathleen Galgiani. “I have serious questions about why the records were deleted.”

  In his own defense, Sheriff Moore has denied that the records were deleted and stated that they were merely “transferred.”

  “A number of cold case files, including those presumed to be associated with the Speed Freak Killer cases, were transferred to the (California) Department of Justice for a period of time for the purpose of management and oversight only,” said Moore.

  The final accusation of impropriety leveled against the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department involves their use of a back hoe to excavate the first cache of victims’ remains.

  As Shermantine related in his letter, the excavation proved to be mishandled when the victims’ remains were all mixed together. After the debacle, the FBI took over all subsequent digging operations relating to the Speed Freak Killer’s case.

  Since the request to unseal the files relating to the Speed Freak Killer’s case is still working its way through the courts, it is difficult to say exactly what will turn up next. It is safe to say, though, that the San Joaquin Sherriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s Office suffered a loss of public confidence due to the haphazardr handling of this case. Because of their decisions, the sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office have also become victims of the Speed Freak killers.

  Conclusion

  Among all the known serial killers in history, the Speed Freak Killers may go down as one of the worst of all time. The duo brought their own unique brand of sociopathic brand to the Central Valley of California for nearly twenty years, leaving scores of people dead in their wake.

  There are several factors that place the Speed Freak Killers near the top of the serial killer pecking order.

  One of the most noticeable aspects of the Speed Freak Killers case, that sets them apart from most other serial killers, was that they killed in tandem. Serial killers hunting in pairs or groups are not unheard of, and in fact, are actually more common than most people think. However, when killers team up, their carnage is multiplied.

  Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog grew up together and were close as children. They went camping, hunting, and fishing together, and if one got in trouble, the other quickly arrived to lend a helping hand.

  Many who are familiar with the Speed Freak Killers case say that by the time the two men became adults, they had developed a symbiotic relationship with each other. Shermantine and Herzog had many of the same interests, but they clearly had different personalities.

  Shermantine was a bruiser who had a short temper and the ability to physically intimidate people. On the other hand, Herzog was better looking, more articulate, and he was more socially adaptive.

  Together, the two proved to be murderous for the people of California’s Central Valley.

  As the two men fed on each other’s strengths and weaknesses, they amassed a murder count that rivals the worst of any known serial killers. Their ability to work in tandem, and their ability to know what the other was thinking, allowed them to not only kill so many people, but more importantly, it allowed them evade capture for a long time.

  When one views the methods of killing employed by the Speed Freak Killers, it is astounding that they were able to continue as long as they did.

  Many of the Speed Freak Killers murders were disorganized, unplanned, and sloppy. They often killed on whims, but at other times, they were well-prepared and they made sure to eliminate any evidence of their victims, by tossing their bodies into decommissioned mine shafts and wells.

  Due to their ever changing M.O., the crimes of the Speed Freak Killers were not linked to them until they were captured in 1999. In fact, many homicide investigators in California’s Central Valley—actually anywhere that Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog visited—are now taking fresh new looks at a plethora of missing persons and cold homicide cases, with the Speed Freak Killers in mind.

  But possibly the most disturbing aspects of the Speed Freak Killers case, other than the despicable crimes they committed on their victims, were the factors that drove these two men to kill.

  It will never be known if either Shermantine or Herzog were born to be serial killers, but like all serial killers, this duo showed a lack of empathy towards other human beings. In fact, to the Speed Freak Killers, other people existed only for their sadistic pleasure and amusement.

  The driving motivation behind the the Speed Freak Killers’ murderous sprees was pleasure. The two men derived great enjoyment from killing, because to them, killing people were just like any other animal they hunted for sport. Killing people was another thrill for the Speed Freaks, more so when they were under the influence of crystal meth.

  The lack of empathy that Shermantine and Herzog had for their fellow humans was magnified when they were under the influence of meth. As the two men became more addicted to meth, the amounts of their murders increased tremendously. Meth gave Herzog and Shermantine the drive, and possibly at times, the physical ability to carry out their murders.

  Meth also warped their minds.

  While the Speed Freak Killers were at the height of their meth use, they also became more diabolical. They abducted more and more victims, and they did meth and tortured their victims for hours on end.

  For a while, it seemed as though the Speed Freak Killers thought they would never be caught.

  But it was their arrogant attitude that finally got them arrested. Herzog is now silenced forever and Shermantine awaits his fate on California’s death row.

  Since their case is recent, only time will tell how many more secrets of the Speed Freak Killers will be discovered in the hills of Calaveras County, California.

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  More books by Jack Rosewood

  There is little more terrifying than those who hunt, stalk and snatch their prey under the cloak of darkness. These hunters search not for animals, but for the touch, taste, and empowerment of human flesh. They are cannibals, vampires and monsters, and they walk among us.

  These serial killers are not mythical beasts with horns and shaggy hair. They are people living among society, going about their day to day activities until nightfall. They are the Dennis Rader’s, the fathers, husbands
, church going members of the community.

  This A-Z encyclopedia of 150 serial killers is the ideal reference book. Included are the most famous true crime serial killers, like Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and Richard Ramirez, and not to mention the women who kill, such as Aileen Wuornos and Martha Rendell. There are also lesser known serial killers, covering many countries around the world, so the range is broad.

  Each of the serial killer files includes information on when and how they killed the victims, the background of each killer, or the suspects in some cases such as the Zodiac killer, their trials and punishments. For some there are chilling quotes by the killers themselves. The Big Book of Serial Killers is an easy to follow collection of information on the world’s most heinous murderers.

  GET IT HERE

  Open the pages of this true crime anthology to learn about twelve more true crime stories that shocked communities and grabbed headlines around the world. You will learn about tragic cases of family annihilation and relationships gone horribly wrong. Among the most shocking of these cases is the murder of the Westerhuis family in South Dakota, who on the outside appeared to by an all-American family, but inside they harbored a felonious secret.

  A trio of politically motivated murder stories will also keep you intrigued and glued to the pages of this book. Two of the cases involve hate crimes committed in the United States, while the other was the first major act of Islamic terrorism in the U.S. The three cases were also examples of organized crime, much like the murder of Australian biker Wayne Rodney Schneider. You may be shocked when you learn that the criminal investigation of Schneider’s murder has uncovered suspects from two different continents and that the actual crime took place on a third continent.