A 69-year-old serial killer will try in September to convince a Washington County Judge that he should be released from the Mendota Mental Health Institute. Alvin Taylor has been confined to the Mendota facility since the late 1980s, after he killed four men in Wisconsin and Minnesota between 1985 and 1988.

Taylor admitted to killing Robert Williams of Eau Claire in 1985; 42-year-old James Severson of Eau Claire and 33-year-old Daniel Lundgren of West Bend in1986; and 27-year-old Timothy Hayden of Menomonie in 1987.

Taylor was arrested at Hayden’s funeral and subsequently was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the four slayings. He’s been institutionalized at Mendota ever since.

Taylor was a nightclub singer who travelled across the both states. Taylor has been regularly seeking a conditional release from confinement since 2010. Two psychiatrists evaluated Taylor last fall after he filed the latest request. Judge Andrew Gonring set a September 7 trial date. Even if Taylor’s release would be approved in Washington County, he would still need approval from courts in Dunn and Eau Claire Counties as well as Minnesota.

WBKV