Bounty Hunter Gets Serial Killer's Mayoral Endorsement

“This man can't ask for anything in return," candidate says

A Sacramento mayoral candidate is touting a new killer endorsement.

Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla told a local TV news station he was “proud” of his thumbs up from convicted serial killer and San Quentin inmate Wesley Shermantine.

"When you have a guy on death row endorsing you, you have to be somewhat proud of that," Padilla told FOX40.

Shermantine was convicted of four murders and sentenced to death as one half of the infamous northern California “Speed Freak Killers.” He and late partner Loren Herzog have been implicated in the murders of as many as two dozen people in the 1980s and ‘90s, according to reports.

While Shermantine sat on death row, Herzog’s convictions for three murders were overturned in 2010. An appeals court ruled that investigators coerced his confession. Herzog hanged himself in January within hours of receiving a phone call from Padilla, the bounty hunter told The New York Times. Padilla said he told him Shermantine planned to reveal where the pair hid their victims.

Padilla paid Shermantine thousands of dollars for information on where victims' bodies were buried, and investigators went on to find thousands of bone fragments.

Padilla has not sought the endorsement of traditional groups like city and firefighter unions in his race to unseat Mayor Kevin Johnson, The Sacramento Bee reported.

The five-time mayoral candidate told Fox40 he didn’t think a serial killer’s endorsement would hurt his chances.

“If I go out here to the unions; if I go to the fireman and ask for their endorsement, they are going to want something in return,” Padilla said. “This man can't ask for anything in return."
 

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