Bruce Mendenhall
56-year-old Bruce Mendenhall once ran for mayor of Albion, Illinois.
He didn’t win.
Was it because the people of that town thought he was “loud, hot-tempered and a little peculiar?”
Was it because he looked like this?
With his failed political aspirations, there was only one place Bruce Mendenhall could turn: the road.
Bruce Mendenhall, drivin’ the big rigs but not keepin’ them clean.
Police looked into Mendenhall’s mustard-yellow truck in Nashville, Tennessee, at a truck stop that happened to be where 25-year-old Sara Hulbert was found after being fatally shot two weeks before, on June 26th.
Surveillance cameras had caught his distinctive yellow truck that night, and police were on the lookout for it.
When the inside of your truck is splattered with blood, you’re going to tip off the cops. You learn this in Serial Killer 101. Bruce Mendenhall obviously didn’t do his homework.
Immediately arrested by police detective Pat Postiglione, Bruce Mendenhall admitted his involvement in other murders – another Tennessee woman, a woman in Alabama, Georgia, and two in Indiana.
There are probably more. Remember, Bruce Mendenhall is 56. Serial killers usually start sometime in their mid-20′s.
Mendenhall’s signature killing style has been connected to several other unsolved murders in Indiana and other states, where the victim was shot and then positioned after the killing on their back with legs straight out.
Police are investigating the possibility that Bruce 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 the 29th of January, 2007. Police are certain that Mendenhall was in Georgia on the day Glover was shot.
- Sherry Drinkard, a prostitute from Gary, Indiana whose body was found naked in the snow.
- Tammy Zywicki, a student who was found stabbed to death on the 2nd of September, 1992. She vanished from Interstate 80 near LaSalle, Illinois nine days after dropping off her brother at Northwestern University.
- Jennifer Smith, a prostitute found nude at a truck stop in Bucksnort, Tennessee in April of 2005.
- Robin Bishop, a prostitute who was run over at a truck stop on Interstate 40 in Fairview, Tennessee on the 1st of July, 2007.
- 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.
- Carma Purpura, a 31-year old mother of two, who was last seen July 11, 2007 at a Far-Southside Indianapolis truck stop. Purpura’s identification was found in Mendenhall’s truck upon his arrest and police are awaiting a blood match on clothing also found in his truck.
On the 10th of April, 2008, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi says he has charged 56-year-old Bruce Mendenhall with murder in the July 2007 slaying of 31-year-old Carma Purpora of Indianapolis. Carma Purpora’s body has never been recovered, but Brizzi says DNA tests link some 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.
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26 Comments »
[...] I’d agree. Recidivism rates are too high to consider our current system a real success. The same people are doing the same crimes time and time [...]
He looks very weird and completely untrustworthy. I’m so sorry these women were addicted to drugs and in the wrong place at the wrong time, putting themselves in harm’s way. Thankfully he was caught. The families of these women have my deepest condolences.
Looks like he’d be right at home w/ a pack of smokes and some Jack D.
Geesh…he looks like my Aunty Rose…scary resemblance!!!
Ohh , man I thought it was a halloween mask of some kind. Gees , trick or treat or what.
Janice, I am not trying to call you out but it doesn’t say that all of these women were hooked on drugs. One was a student, one was a mother and a hitchhiker. I don’t think their murders should be classified as druggies.
Okay first of all, he does’t really look like that in person. I grew up in Albion IL and the Mendenhall’s lived across the street from me. He was never around much and I dont care what you’ve heard in the media his daughters and wife were sweet and they were victims in this too. I know first hand how this small town can be and everyone turned on the whole family after this happened. Its sad actually. And you should really do your homework, he ran for mayor because of a refuse issue over used cars.
I am no doubt not trying to down play the horrificness of Bruce’s actions, but I lived across the street from him for some time, his daughters and wife babysat my oldest child for a time. The olny thing that Bruce was was quiet. I consider myself a cautious person and aware of foul behavior; Im getting a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice with a minor in Forensic Science to be a cop, my dad’s a cop, so don’t just think that you know someone just by looking at thier picture. At this time he no doubt had some instabilities and had also been in jail for quite sometime. Everyone looks like a criminal in thier mugshot. I’ve said my peace, just remember it’s like a scarry movie; if you already know who the killer is, then it’s easy to assess and make judgement calls. And no matter what those girls did for a living and what they did recreationally, i hope that their souls may find peace…..
I don’t get what you are trying to tell us here, Stephanie. Um, most of us are aware that a mug shot is not the same as a glamour shot… Most of us here don’t “think they know someone from looking at their picture” as you say. We are mostly forming our opinions on this gentleman’s ACTIONS… I’m sorry, I just don’t think I get the point you’re trying to make. Yes, he was a serial killer, but his wife and kids are nice? Okay… And?
That looks like a really older version of my friends boyfriend. Creepy as shit.
ok first off i am this mans neice and none of u people know this man..i would appreicate it if u could stop the drama shit and get the facts first…u people dont know everything about this dame case..yeah he is my uncle and i love him..but i know he has done wrong…stop running the man in the ground…we have rapist out on the streets and i bet u aint sayin shit about them now are u…keep ur opinoins to yourselves…his family does look at the things u guys say..and his wife cant say nothing cuz she is DEAD!!!! So she cant stand up for herslef or her family…
Are you kidding me? We tear rapists to shreds on this site (verbally that is, I don’t think any of us have yet to have the pleasure of actually doing so). Just look at some of the posts filed under “lust”.
Darling, your beloved uncle is an admitted serial killer. In our hall of evil it doesn’t get much worse than that. So if people want to bash the guy to the second coming, there’s not a whole lot you or anyone else can say about it.
Stop embarrassing yourself. Like Nicole says, we’re extremely tough on rapists, or anyone else who commits evil acts against innocent victims. I suggest to you that your anger is being misdirected at us, and should really be focused on the true cause, Bruce Mendenhall.
but nobodys talkin bout his family just him and people do talk about rapists like that as it seems though he is a rapist serial killer and maybe the family shouldnt get on here to read this then i mean come on if he killed someone without it being self defense so doesnt that automatically make him a pretty bad person so why do you even care if my uncle would have killed someone i think i would
disown him
Reading through these comments shows how much a killer affects all the people around him, not just his victims… even those he loves…
Nobody’s asking his dead wife to defend him. Nobody’s asking you to defend him, in fact, I’m sure his attorney receives enough money to do exactly that. And if you don’t want to read about how people are outraged at the heinous acts your darling uncle committed, don’t read about him on “People You’ll See In Hell” and expect everyone to be nice and talk about what a lovely family he had and what how you guys all sang songs around the piano at Christmas and toasted S’mores or whatever.
And yes. we all have plenty to say about the rapists and murderers and paedophiles and baby- killers and dog- starvers and intentional HIV spreaders and hitmen and child abusers that roam the streets. Having plenty to say is all we are legally capable of, because lynch mobs are illegal.
“Having plenty to say is all we are legally capable of, because lynch mobs are illegal.” Great post, but this was my favorite part! ;)
Lauren, that was a perfect reply to a person who needs a serious reality readjustment. Tiffany has all the symptoms of a family member in denial:
1. None of you know him a) like we do b) the real him.
2. “the family sees what you people are saying.”
This one is a good example of not thinking an idea through. I’m sure there are innocent family members who are upset by the thing we say. But who is responsible for our anger and outrage – come on, you know this one. That’s right, it’s Bruce Mendenhall, the serial murderer.
3. “we have rapist out on the streets and i bet u aint sayin shit about them now are u”
This is especially galling, for obvious reasons
Well! I would say I know him very well. I was locked up with him, and I had the tape recorder on me when we talked in our small cell. I know what he told me and what will send him to hell. He may have been your uncle, but he is also a cold killer.
R.L.M.
um, psycho (and not mentally insane) just cold-blooded, heartless and ruthless. if the guy had a nice family, whoop de doo. alot of criminals and assholes have great families, then you have the ones whose family members come on here and exclaim “oh my gawd, they couldnt do this, they were a good kid and blah blah blah” point is, hope the man fries for his crimes
He will fry. He will pay. His life in prison will not be one filled with rainbows and unicorns. He will be buttfucked, he will be beaten and he will not know a fast end to it all.
I love when family member and friends come here and bitch and moan about scum. It entertains me to no end.
Tiffy yer uncle is a piece of snot. He killed innocnt women. He murdered them. Does that mean we cna’t have an opinion? does that mean I should be quiet aout my disgust and anger? No it does not.
He will get a fair trial. When he is convicted he will go to jail. His life will not be happy. He will suffer. thats more than he gave his victims now aint it?
Even if they were druggies, they didnt deserve to die and they surely didnt deserve to have something this ugly touch them… he is the kind of man if I see walking up the street my way I will cross the street… the epitome of Creep…
i agree that his wife and kids were good people but as for bruce he did it and it scares me cause him and his would go to my aunts and and play cards i would be there and he was allways wanting to take me to town he was always tring to get me in his car alone just think if i went i could of been one of his vics.
@Do little….just Thank God you didn’t go.
Is it just me or does he look like that guy from Tales From the Crypt?
@Tiffany(the nieve niece) He’s your uncle? I would never tell anyone else that. Oh well if he had good family so did Jeffery Dahmer, Andrea Yates, Casey Anthony I could go on and on, but that don’t excuse the fact that your dear ol’ uncle is as worthless as pond scum. Blame the keeper of your stars, Uncle Daddy or whatever you call him for disgracing your family and causing hell on them. Pysih.com didn’t kill those people and I’m sure that we are not the only website that has featured this inbred fuck!!
I don’t recall anyone talking about his family either so why bring them into it? Have a nice day/night everyone.
I see mendenhall everyday.. Hes very quiet. one of the most respectful guys in there.. And I just want all of Bruce’s family that reads this.. He loves you guys very much and he always talks about all of you.. It’s a shame the poor choices he made.. May those girls rest in peace. One day he will have to awnser to god.. But I can not judge him I’m not in that position.
I see mendenhall everyday.. Hes very quiet. one of the most respectful guys in there.. And I just want all of Bruce’s family that reads this.. He loves you guys very much and he always talks about all of you.. It’s a shame the poor choices he made.. May those girls rest in peace. One day he will have to awnser to god.. But I can not judge him I’m not in that position.
I see mendenhall everyday.. Hes very quiet. one of the most respectful guys in there.. And I just want all of Bruce’s family that reads this.. He loves you guys very much and he always talks about all of you.. It’s a shame the poor choices he made.. May those girls rest in peace. One day he will have to awnser to god.. But I can not judge him I’m not in that position.