Police Quote: “Killing people doesn’t seem to affect him.”
Investigators thought Jose Martinez may have had something to do with the shooting of an Alabama man, found dead by hunters on a forest’s edge.
Little did they know.
The 52-year-old Californian confessed to pulling the trigger in that March killing, the Lawrence County, Alabama, Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday. He didn’t stop there: Martinez also admitted killing more than 30 men in all, much like he did Jose Ruiz.
“Killing people doesn’t seem to affect him,” sheriff’s Capt. Tim McWhorder said.
As of Thursday, authorities had identified 13 violent deaths linked to Martinez since his admission. At least 10 of those occurred in California, according to McWhorder.
He’s also been tied — by a DNA match to a cigarette butt found inside a victims’ truck — to a 2006 double homicide in Ocala, Florida, the Marion County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.
Martinez explained that his record of violence has to do with his job as an enforcer for Mexican drug cartels. A U.S. citizen, he’d be called when someone hadn’t lived up to their obligations.
As he told investigators, “I’m the guy that pays you a visit if you don’t pay.”
