Man accused of killing six ran for mayor in Illinois hometown

ALBION, Ill. -- A truck driver who police say has confessed to killing six people once ran for mayor of this Southern Illinois town where he lives and had a family.

Bruce Mendenhall, 56, was charged with criminal homicide in Nashville, Tenn., after police arrested him at the same truck stop along Interstate 24 where a 25-year-old woman was found fatally shot two weeks ago.

Police say Mendenhall later confessed to killing five other people -- another Nashville woman, two in Indiana, one in Georgia and one in Alabama.

A police detective recognized Mendenhall's rig and trailer from a description of a truck that was spotted at the Nashville truck stop shortly before the body of Sara Hulbert was found, according to an affidavit filed Thursday by a Nashville prosecutor.

When Sgt. Pat Postiglione approached Mendenhall he noticed blood inside the driver's door of his cab and what appeared to be blood on Mendenhall's left thumb and inside a trash bag behind the driver's seat.

Word of Mendenhall's arrest swept like wildfire through his tiny Illinois hometown of Albion, where Mayor Ryan Hallam said Friday many of the 2,000 residents "are pretty well taken [aback] that somebody could have done such a thing."

"Everyone's in disbelief that we had an individual living here like this," said Hallam, a 32-year-old insurance agent who described Albion as a "small, quaint little town," best known for its annual pork festival held just last weekend.

In Hallam's opinion, Mendenhall -- married with two grown children -- was "a little different" from other people in town. He had a loud voice but generally kept to himself, aside from an unsuccessful campaign against a preacher for the mayor's seat about a decade ago. Mendenhall apparently ran for office because he was angry at the city for ordering him to clear junked cars from his property, Albion police chief Doyle Judge said.

"He didn't mix well with the others around him, but we never had any problems with him," Hallam said.

Construction worker Gordon Cooper, 43, a former neighbor, said he saw the inside of Mendenhall's house after the family moved out.

"They didn't keep a very good house," he said. "That place was nasty; holes in the floor, food splatters on the wall. It was in pretty bad shape."

Judge said "we've had a few encounters with him, but nothing of any great magnitude," with one of the dustups over a traffic stop involving Mendenhall's daughter.

"Otherwise, you didn't hear from him," Judge said.

Mendenhall has no known criminal record, Sgt. Joe Murphy of the Illinois State Police said Friday.