Bruce Mendenhall (born April 14, 1951) is a convicted American murderer and accused serial killer. He was arrested in Tennessee in July 2007 – and found guilty in 2010^[2] – for the June 26, 2007 murder of Sara Hulbert. The body was found by the security guard on duty that night. A long haul trucker, his truck was found to contain the blood of numerous other murdered or missing women.^[2] He has been charged with the murders of three other women at truck stops in Alabama, Indiana and Tennessee.^[3] He is still under investigation for murders in Georgia, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas—some of which carry the death penalty.

Biography[edit]

Mendenhall grew up in Crawford County, Illinois.

He was married to Linda, and they had two daughters. Linda, who has since died, had reportedly gone blind from diabetes. Mendenhall never had problems with the law, though his wife and friends knew he kept a gun illegally in his truck.

Arrest[edit]

A resident of Albion, Illinois, Mendenhall was arrested at the TA truck stop on Interstate 24 in Nashville, Tennessee on July 12, 2007^[4] after Detective Sgt. Pat Postiglione spotted a truck that matched surveillance footage from the night Sara Nicole Hulbert was murdered at the same truck stop.^[5] Upon inspection of the vehicle, a large quantity of bloody clothing and identification and personal effects of an Indianapolis woman, who went missing the day before, was found in a plastic sack along with blood spots scattered around the inside of his cab to include the steering wheel and even on his hands when arrested ^[6] and Mendenhall was taken into custody.^[3] Police catalogued 300 items from the truck including a rifle, knives, handcuffs, latex gloves, several weapons cartridges, black tape, a nightstick, and sex toys.^[7] Sampling of these items turned up the DNA of five different women. On August 2, 2007, Mendenhall waived his right to a preliminary hearing.^[6]

Victims[edit]

Mendenhall's victims were primarily young prostitutes, usually found shot, though detectives have determined that his method of killing may have changed over the years.^[8] During questioning, he implicated himself in the shooting death of Hulbert, whose body was found on June 26, 2007.

He has also implicated himself in the shooting death of Symantha Winters, whose body was found June 6, 2007 in a trash can at a truck stop in Lebanon, Tennessee. She had a criminal record showing at least one previous charge of prostitution.^[5] On August 17, 2007, a Wilson Countygrand juryindicted Mendenhall for the murder of Winters. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life. ^[9]

Another victim killed on July 11, 2007 at a Flying J truck stop on Interstate 465 in Indianapolis, Indiana was recently found. Carma Purpura, a 31-year-old mother of two, was last seen at the far-southside Indianapolis truck stop. On April 10, 2008, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi charged Mendenhall with murder in the case. DNA tests link a large quantity of the blood from Mendenhall's truck cab to the woman's parents. Investigators also found her cell phone, ATM card and clothing she wore on the day she disappeared. Four years later her remains were discovered just off I-65 in Kentucky.^[10]

On July 28, police in Birmingham, Alabama charged Mendenhall with the murder of Lucille 'Gretna' Carter, who was found nude in a trash bin with a plastic bag taped around her head on July 1. She was shot with a .22 caliber weapon.^[11]

Investigators said Mendenhall was initially cooperative, but subsequently ceased to implicate himself in other murders.^[12] Police are investigating the possibility that Mendenhall is responsible for other murders in the region including:

• Deborah Ann Glover, an Atlanta prostitute whose body was found near a Motel 6 in Suwanee, Georgia on January 29, 2007. Police are certain that Mendenhall was in Georgia on the day Glover was shot.^[8]
• Sherry Drinkard, a prostitute from Gary, Indiana whose body was found naked in a snow embankment
• Tammy Zywicki, a student who was found stabbed to death on September 2, 1992. She vanished from Interstate 80 near LaSalle, Illinois nine days before, after dropping off her brother at Northwestern University.^[13]
• Robin Bishop, a prostitute who was run over at a Flying J truck stop on Interstate 40 in Fairview, Tennessee on July 1, 2007.^[14]
• Belinda Cartwright, a hitchhiker who was run over at a truck stop in Georgia in 2001. A composite police sketch made of the suspect based on information from witnesses bears a striking resemblance to Mendenhall.^[7][15]

Until August 2009, Mendenhall was considered in the murder of Jennifer Smith, a prostitute found nude at a truck stop in Bucksnort, Tennessee in April 2005.^[8] DNA evidence in 2009 proved that she was the second victim of killer John Wayne Boyer.^[16]

Related Crimes[edit]

While he was in jail, Mendenhall's wife died of natural causes and he came upon some insurance money. He separately approached two inmates with offers to pay them $15,000 to murder the three associates that Mendenhall had implicated in his original statement to police. One of the murders was to be performed in a 'copycat' fashion to lead police to believe the killer was still at large.

For the crime of conspiracy to commit murder he was convicted and sentenced to an additional 30 years.

Mendenhall was also initially accused of solicitation of the murders of the two detectives involved in his arrest and questioning. Those charges were later dropped.

References[edit]

1. ^'Police Try To Link 'Prosti-Shooter' With Indy Slaying'. WRTV. 2007-10-10.
2. ^ ^abWells, Len (2017-02-15). 'Court denies appeal from convicted killer Mendenhall'. Evansville Courier & Press. Gannett Company. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
3. ^ ^abGreg Giuffrida (2007-07-12). 'Police: Man arrested in truck stop death'. San Jose Mercury News.
4. ^'Homicide detectives arrest suspected serial killer'. Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. 2007-07-12.
5. ^ ^ab'Police: Truck driver spoke of 6 killings'. USA Today. 2007-07-13.
6. ^ ^ab'Suspected Serial Killer Waives Right To Hearing'. www.newschannel5.com. 2007-08-02. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
7. ^ ^abJeremy Finley (2007-07-31). 'Group Suspected Accused Trucker Years Ago'. WSMV. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
8. ^ ^abc'Mendenhall Suspected In Bucksnort Murder Case'. www.newschannel5.com. 2007-07-27. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
9. ^'Mendenhall gets guilty verdict'. Lebanon Democrat.
10. ^'Remains found in Kentucky identified as Indy woman'. Indianapolis Star.
11. ^'Truck driver charged in Alabama woman's death'. Chicago Tribune. 2007-07-28.
12. ^'Was Silver City woman victim of serial killer?'. www.kob.com. 2007-07-24.
13. ^Dana Kozlov (2007-07-13). 'Confessed Killer May Be Linked To Zywicki Murder'. www.cbs2chicago.com. Archived from the original on 2007-07-14.
14. ^Christian Botorff (2007-07-18). 'Trucker gets look in other killings'. The Tennessean.^{[permanent dead link]}
15. ^Len Wells (2007-07-31). 'Cold cases thawing'. Evansville Courier & Press.
16. ^'Man serving time for killing New Hanover woman indicted on murder charges in Tenn'. Star-News. 2007-08-07.

External links[edit]

• Tennessee Department of Correction; Felony Offender Information Tennessee Offender Management Information System Identification (TOMIS ID): 00465896

William 'Billy' Gohl (February 6, 1873 – March 3, 1927) was an American serial killer who, while working as a union official, murderedsailors passing through Aberdeen, Washington.^[2] He murdered for an unknown period of time and was a suspect in dozens of murders until his capture in 1910. Spared from the death penalty by a request for leniency by the jury, he was sentenced to life in prison at Walla Walla State Penitentiary where he died in 1927 from lobar pneumonia and erysipelas complicated by dementia paralytic caused by syphilis.^[1]

Occupation and murders[edit]

Gohl was employed as a union official at the Sailor's Union of the Pacific. Before this he had been employed as a bartender after returning broke from the Yukon.^[3] Already an accomplished criminal,^[3] Gohl was suspected of being responsible for many of the large numbers of deceased migrant workers that were found washed up on shore during his tenure as a bartender, as well as a number of other crimes.^[3] In 1905 during the great waterfront strike Gohl was charged with 'assembling men under arms' and is also alleged to have forcibly abducted non-union crewmen from the schooner Fearless for which he was fined $1,250 in the Superior Court.^[4][5] As a union official, Gohl used his reputation and intimidating size to discourage strikes and 'recruit' new union members.^[3]

The Union building proved to be a location that was ideal for his crimes, both in providing victims, and in concealing the evidence of their murders.^[2] Sailors arriving in the port of Aberdeen would usually visit the Sailor's Union building soon after disembarking. There they could collect their mail and, if they wished, set some money aside in savings.^[2] Gohl would usually be on duty, alone. Typically, Gohl would ask if the sailors had any family or friends in the area. Then he would turn the conversation to the topic of money and valuables. If the sailor was just passing through, and would not be missed by anyone in the area, and had more than a trivial amount of cash or valuables on hand, Gohl would choose him as his next victim.^[2]

Gohl would kill most of his victims in the union building by shooting them. Then after relieving them of their money and valuables, he would dispose of them in the Wishkah River, which ran behind the building and into Grays Harbor.^[2] According to some reports, there was a chute which descended from a trapdoor in the building directly into the river.^[2] Other reports state that Gohl would use a small launch to murder his victims^{[clarification needed]} and dump the bodies directly in the harbor.^[3] Though suspected of being responsible for the large number of sailors who would disembark in Aberdeen and disappear,^[6] nothing was done to stop him until an accomplice, John Klingenberg, was brought back to Aberdeen after trying to jump ship in Mexico to escape prosecution, or possibly to escape Gohl.^[2][3]

Arrest[edit]

Klingenberg was able to testify to seeing Gohl alone with a sailor, Charles Hatberg/Hatteberg, whose body had recently been found in the harbor at Indian Creek February 2, 1910,^[7] soon after his disappearance ^[2][3] on December 21, 1909. Hatberg had been shot with a .38 Automatic pistol which had been found in the salt flats by his body; the ownership was traced to Gohl.^[8] The motive according to Klingburg's confession was that Gohl claimed Hatberg had told a detective Miller that Gohl had shot a cow the previous summer.^[9] Gohl had already been arrested in February 1910^[4] for the Hatberg murder and was convicted of two counts of murder, though suspected of 41 or more,^{note A[2][10]} found guilty May 12, 1910^[11] and sentenced to life imprisonment^[3] and taken to the State Prison June 13, 1910.^[12] Besides Hatberg, the second count was for the murder of John Hoffman,^[13] a witness to the Hatberg murder who was shot and injured by Gohl on the night of the murder, and killed the next day by Klingenberg, for which he was sentenced to 20 years.^[3][14](Hoffman had been killed December 23, 1909 after the Hatberg killing and had been robbed of $400.00^[13][15] and also disposed of in the Harbor near Indian Creek. In July 1910 a human skeleton was found in Indian Creek; however, it is not known whether these were the remains of Hoffman.^[16][17]) Gohl was later transferred to an asylum for the criminally insane, where he died in 1927.^[2][3] He is buried in an open field above West Medical Lake, Eastern State Hospital^[18]

Notes[edit]

^note A – Little is known about Gohl's early life though at one point as an adult, he went to the Yukon chasing gold. He was unsuccessful, and on his return to Aberdeen he took on work as a bartender. During this time it's believed he may have been responsible for numerous murders.The bodies of migrant workers were found after washing up the shores, robbed of any valuable or money they were known to have. Allegedly from 1905 to 1910, 40 bodies were found floating near Aberdeen.^[19] It is alleged Gohl started a fire that burned an Alaskan saloon and that a man and woman who lived in a cabin owned by Gohl 'vanished'.^[20] In March 1912 a human skull was found buried near a cabin owned by Gohl; another skull had previously been found near the same spot on a beach and was thought to have been of 'Red' Miller who had 'disappeared' and was believed to have been a victim of Gohl.^[21] Other corpses found in the Grays Harbor area were suggested to be victims of Gohl, including the body of Carl O. Carlson found on April 27, 1910 floating in the harbor.^[22]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abHughes, John; Beckwith Ryan. On the Harbor: From Black Friday to Nirvana. Stephens Press. p. 209. ISBN1-932173-50-1.
2. ^ ^abcdefghijLane, Brian; Wilfred Gregg. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Berkley Books. p. 179. ISBN0-425-15213-8.
3. ^ ^abcdefghijMorgan, Murray C. The Last Wilderness. University of Washington Press. pp. 122–128. ISBN978-0-670-41936-4.
4. ^ ^ab'Sailors' agent is held for murder'. The Colfax Gazette. February 11, 1910. p. 6.
5. ^San Francisco Call August 23, 1906 reports that on a man from the Fearless was found drowned and that Gohl had led a armed party which taken two sailors from the Watson A West
6. ^Los Angeles Herald May 3, 1910-Mayor Benn of Aberdeen in 1908 had heard of Gohl being responsible for the 'Floater Fleet'; Benn had Police Chief Dean begin an investigation although it took over a year because of the scarcity of evidence for a prosecution
7. ^'Murder by Wholesale' The Spokane Press February 3, 1910 .p.1
8. ^'Slayer of Hadberg tells story of deed' The Newport Miner May 12, 1912 .p.3
9. ^'Confession of Klingenberg' Aberdeen Herald April 27, 1910 .p.2
10. ^San Francisco Call April 7, 1910 attributes the number of victims as 50 to 60
11. ^'Mrs. Gohl Will Stick To Husband Who Has Been Found Murderer'. The Tacoma Times. May 12, 1910. p. 6.
12. ^'Slayer Taken To Prison'. The San Francisco Call. June 14, 1910. p. 9.
13. ^ ^abLos Angeles Herald February 6, 1910 reports Hoffman had withdrawn $450.00 prior to his disappearance; Gohl was also reported to have taken Hatberg personal belongings from the Indian Creek Shack where the victim had lived
14. ^San Francisco Call October 16, 1910 Klingenberg was found guilty of manslaughter in Hatberg murder; the jury recommended leniency
15. ^San Francisco Call April 7, 1910 reports it was Gohl who killed Hoffman
16. ^'Sixty Murders traced to Gohl'. The San Francisco Call, April 7, 1910.
17. ^'Another Dead Body Found Near Aberdeen'. The San Francisco Call. July 25, 1910. p. 2, at foot.
18. ^[The Spokesman-Review - Mar 6, 2004]
19. ^'May Lynch Suspect'. The Tacoma Times: p. 1 and p. 8. February 4, 1910.
20. ^'Weaving a Web About Gohl'. The Tacoma Times. February 5, 1910. p. 6.
21. ^'Skull found may be victium of Gohl'Aberdeen Herald March 7, 1912
22. ^'Items of Interest to Mariners in the Pacific'. The San Francisco Call. April 28, 1910. p. 17. Retrieved April 24, 2013. At the Library of Congress.

Further reading[edit]

• Osborn, Andrew (December 2013). Face Down in the Wishkah. Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences History (Bachelor of Arts in History). University of Washington Tacoma.