Bartender Helps Catch Suspected Mass Murderer

CHICAGO -- Police and FBI agents captured an ex-convict suspected of killing eight people in two states as he smoked a cigarette outside of a southwestern Illinois bar Tuesday night, a bar employee said.

Nicholas T. Sheley, who was the subject of a multistate manhunt after authorities linked him to the deaths of eight people in Illinois and Missouri, was arrested around 7 p.m. outside of Bindy's, a Granite City bar, said bartender Katie Ronk.

Sheley ordered a glass of water and went to the bathroom before another bartender and customer recognized him, Ronk said. They notified police, who arrived minutes later with FBI agents and took Sheley into custody while he smoked a cigarette outside the bar.

FBI spokeswoman Kelly Brennan confirmed Sheley, 28, was caught in Granite City, about 10 miles north of St. Louis. She didn't elaborate on the arrest.

Tim Lewis, the police chief in the St. Louis suburb of Festus, Mo., said publicity from news reports paid off after 6 p.m. when a number of Granite City residents reported seeing Sheley.

A spokeswoman with the Granite City police department said Sheley was in custody there.

The FBI on Tuesday launched a manhunt for Sheley, who they warned should be considered armed and dangerous. Among those authorities believe Sheley killed were a 93-year-old man, a child and a couple whose blood-soaked dogs were found roaming a motel parking lot.

Sheley has only been charged in the death of one of the eight. He faces charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery and vehicular hijacking in the death of Ronald Randall, whose body was found Monday behind a grocery store in Galesburg, in northwestern Illinois, police said. An autopsy showed the 65-year-old died from blunt force trauma to the head, likely on Saturday.

Investigators said the other victims all appeared to have died in the same manner and that evidence linked to Sheley was recovered at each scene. The FBI and Illinois State Police declined to elaborate.

Authorities said the killings began with the beating death of 93-year-old Russell Reed, a Sterling man whose body was found stuffed in the trunk of a car Thursday. Sheley also is from Sterling, a town of 15,000 about 100 miles west of Chicago.