'Speed Freak Killer' Got $33K to Tell Where Bodies Were

A serial killer on Death Row is giving up the locations of the bodies of up to 20 people he killed—for the tidy sum of $33,000, reports the LA Times. Convicted murderer Wesley Shermantine drew maps of two dumping grounds after he was paid by a Sacramento bounty hunter to reveal where he and his partner hid their victims' bodies from a drug-fueled murder spree that began in the mid-1980s and lasted more than a decade. "We have information that we may have 10 to 20 bodies in that well," said an investigator yesterday, referring to a farmland site identified by Shermantine.

Shermantine's partner, who was on parole after being released from prison in 2010, killed himself last month after learning Shermantine intended to reveal the locations of the additional bodies. On Thursday, the apparent remains were found of a 25-year-old woman who went missing from her home in 1998, and a 16-year-old missing since 1985 was thought to have been discovered on Friday. "He said this could be very incriminating for him to do, but I told him he's already on Death Row and they're not going to kill you more than once," said the bounty hunter. (More California stories.)