{"id":470479,"date":"2026-09-21T02:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T02:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/470479\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T02:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T02:00:18","slug":"last-of-speed-freak-killers-notorious-duo-of-80s-and-90s-dies-in-california-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/470479\/","title":{"rendered":"Last of \u2018Speed Freak Killers,’ notorious duo of ’80s and ’90s, dies in California prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Condemned inmate Wesley Shermantine, who was part of a murderous duo known as the “Speed Freak Killers,”<\/a> has died in a California prison. He was 60.<\/p>\n

Shermantine and Loren Herzog, his childhood friend and accomplice, were suspected of killing more than a dozen people in methamphetamine-fueled crimes of opportunity in the 1980s and 1990s near their childhood homes in San Joaquin County, throughout the Sierra foothills and beyond.<\/p>\n

Juries delivered convictions against both men, although the bodies of their victims had not been found at the time of the trials.<\/p>\n

Sharmantine was sentenced to death in 2001 after he was convicted in the killings of 25-year-old Cyndi Vanderheiden, who disappeared in 1998, and 16-year-old Chevelle “Chevy” Wheeler, who disappeared in 1985, as well as the 1984 robbery-murders of Paul Cavanaugh, 31, and Howard King, 35.<\/p>\n

\"Loren<\/p>\n

Loren Herzog, one of the “Speed Freak Killers,” killed himself in 2012 after learning his crime partner was providing information about victims’ graves.<\/p>\n

Herzog was convicted in the murders of Vanderheiden, Cavanaugh and King in a separate 2001 trial, but the convictions were overturned on appeal. He later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and furnishing amphetamine in the Vanderheiden case and to being an accessory in the killings of Cavanaugh and King, as well as in the 1984 robbery-murder of Henry Howell, 41, in the Eastern Sierra.<\/p>\n

But in 2010, after more than a decade of silence, Shermantine began revealing locations<\/a> where authorities might find the remains of victims. Those tips led authorities to find the remains of Vanderheiden and Wheeler in Calaveras County.<\/p>\n

Herzog killed himself in 2012 shortly after learning that Shermantine was providing information about victims’ graves. Herzog had been paroled that year and was forced to live in a state-issued trailer on the grounds of the High Desert State Prison near Susanville (Lassen County) because no California community would accept him. He was 46.<\/p>\n

Both men had accused the other of being the primary killer. Herzog testified that Shermantine had claimed to have killed 24 people. Shermatine blamed Herzog for the slayings and claimed in a 2012 letter to a Sacramento television station that Herzog had killed 72 people.<\/p>\n

\"Wesley<\/p>\n

Wesley Shermantine was convicted of killing four people in crimes dating back to 1984 and suspected in additional killings. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)<\/p>\n

That year, he directed authorities to an abandoned well near their San Joaquin County hometown of Linden, where law enforcement recovered more than 1,000 bits of human bone.<\/p>\n

Authorities said that DNA evidence identified partial remains of four separate people: Kimberly Ann Billy, 19, and Joann Hobson, 16, two Stockton residents missing since the mid-1980s, as well as an unidentified victim and an unidentified fetus.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced that Shermantine had died the day before at the building’s central health building. No cause of death was released pending a report from the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office.<\/p>\n

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There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25\u00a2.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Last of ‘Speed Freak Killers,’ notorious duo of ’80s and ’90s, dies in California prison<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Condemned inmate Wesley Shermantine, who was part of a murderous duo known as the “Speed Freak Killers,” has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,25089,185090,185011,185089,185088,13722,184596],"class_list":["post-470479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-state-prison","tag-chevelle-quotchevyquot-wheeler","tag-cyndi-vanderheiden","tag-howard-king","tag-paul-cavanaugh","tag-san-joaquin-county","tag-wesley-shermantine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}