Heretofore I’ve been too afraid to take a closer look at ‘The Speed Freak Killers.’ The remains of two of their victims (Kimberly Billy and JoAnn Hobson) have been positively identified through dental records and DNA. My fear of studying this case stems from two sources, which I’ll divulge to you at this very moment.
One, is my knowledge of what speed can do to anyone, psychologically speaking. To put it mildly, it induces aberrant behavior. My second source of apprehension comes from perceiving a harrowing analogy (a pipedream of yours truly) between twin serial killers, Wesley Shermantine/Loren Herzog and the legendary, notorious twosome, Henry Lee Lucas/Ottis Toole.
Those two will send chills down the spine of any normal human being and The Speed Freak Killers have a lot in common with the One-eyed Monster and his sicko psychopathic, retarded tag along. What I find so scary about Henry Lee, is did he merely kill two or three people or did he (and Ottis) kill hundreds of innocent people? We still don’t know, and now we don’t have any idea how many people were killed by Shermantine and Herzog.
Herzog hung himself in January, since he didn’t want to have to return to jail. So it would only be Shermantine who could tell us for sure if these two actually killed 72 people, on their perilous peregrinations of amphetamine-fueled homicidal rampage. The map of the killing fields, or rather a rural well, provided to Leonard Padilla, is panning out as accurate, so maybe we will get more of the story of what these two sickos were up to in the ’80s and ’90s (if we can stand it).
Today is the first time I’ve even looked at any aspects of this case. Easter is only one week away, spring is blooming splendidly here in Central Texas (beautiful bluebonnet crop this year), and I’d kind of like to keep my thoughts happy and positive, contemplating my days of eternity in heaven with angels and good people, who occasionally populate the pages of history. Serial killer pairs are not amongst the throng of the anointed, (I must remind myself).
Yet I find myself staring at the two photos of a youthful Kimberly Billy and JoAnn Hobson and then I wonder how these two sickos could have done it. I return to what amphetamines can do your body and to your mind. Somehow, Wesley and Loren turned into killing machines. I wonder how this came about? I also was curious whether these two read about (and were influenced by) the shocking accounts of Henry Lee and Ottis that hit the newsstands way back in the early 1980s.
Did they learn how to conceal their crimes from the original masters? Henry Lee taught Ottis Toole his skills in the art of killing. To this day, we still don’t know what those two were up to when they hitchhiked all over the south, raping, killing, and robbing people without detection for an untold number of years.
I was reading today, that authorities believe many of the killings of Shermantine and Herzog occurred in the mid-1980s, then stopped, only to resume around a decade later. Or did it happen another way?
That is, maybe they killed many during those years, but were able to conceal what they did, learning from the masters themselves. Well, I’m going to file for now the half dozen articles I printed out this morning on The Speed Freak Killers.
The birds are chirping outside and it’s a beautiful day. Henry Lee is long since dead; I thank God for that. Thank God also, Wesley Shermantine is on Death Row. Just curious though, how did Henry Lee ever end up in Williamson County anyway (the body of Orange Socks was found there)?
The Speed Freak Killers – An Outraged Community – Crime Library on truTV.com