Do You Know Anyone Personally Who Was Murdered or a Murderer?

[jetsfan76 718]

From New Braunfels, my dad had a triple bypass in my senior year of HS. He was in ICU at BAMC in SA. Directly across from him was a girl from my class. Her dad went nuts, killed her mom, her sister, shot her, then killed himself. She lived. Also, kid down the street from me is doing life in AZ correctional. Unwanted kid, unfortunately. Ended up kidnapping & murdering his gf.

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

A couple of my aunts (more like my sisters, long story) were big fans of this Houston musician named John Vandiver, who had this kind of blues / folk / rock deal and was pretty big in Houston and Texas. Anyway he and his wife got into selling coke, got into debt with some dangerous trailer trash types, and wound up getting carved up with a sword in their own home.

Rolling Stone did a great story on it but I don't think it's online. 

[GhostRider 169]

My ex-wife's uncle killed a male prostitute in his home back in the 70s.  Enlisted the help of his sister to clean it up.  They dumped the body in the parking lot of the Stallion restaurant on N Lamar.  He was never arrested.

 

[dcar00 14,210]

14 minutes ago, GhostRider said:

My ex-wife's uncle killed a male prostitute in his home back in the 70s.  Enlisted the help of his sister to clean it up.  They dumped the body in the parking lot of the Stallion restaurant on N Lamar.  He was never arrested.

 

wow.  you know there is no statute of limitations on murder, right?

[Dennis Taylor 18,829]

2 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

wow.  you know there is no statute of limitations on murder, right?

If that's how he rolled,  I'm guessing that creepy uncle got whacked himself or something sometime in the last 50 years 

[Armybrat 40,850]

25 minutes ago, GhostRider said:

My ex-wife's uncle killed a male prostitute in his home back in the 70s.  Enlisted the help of his sister to clean it up.  They dumped the body in the parking lot of the Stallion restaurant on N Lamar.  He was never arrested.

 

Matched the ambiance of the place pretty well.

[dcar00 14,210]

6 minutes ago, Dennis Taylor said:

If that's how he rolled,  I'm guessing that creepy uncle got whacked himself or something sometime in the last 50 years 

good point. if the prostitute was a john doe the case is lost I'm sure.

[GhostRider 169]

7 minutes ago, Dennis Taylor said:

If that's how he rolled,  I'm guessing that creepy uncle got whacked himself or something sometime in the last 50 years 

Yeah, I have no idea if the asshole is even still alive.  I refused to allow my kids anywhere near him.  It was even in my divorce decree.

[GhostRider 169]

3 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

good point. if the prostitute was a john doe the case is lost I'm sure.

It's my understanding they did investigate him, knew he did it, but could never prove it.

 

[dcar00 14,210]

Just now, GhostRider said:

It's my understanding they did investigate him, knew he did it, but could never prove it.

 

interesting.

[OneOfTheOutOfFocusGuys 2,078]

9 minutes ago, GhostRider said:

I refused to allow my kids anywhere near him.

just because he's a murderer?

[GhostRider 169]

5 minutes ago, OneOfTheOutOfFocusGuys said:

just because he's a murderer?

Does seem a little obvious, doesn't it?

 

[Wheatsiebat 0]

On 5/23/2020 at 6:21 AM, Jerry Callo said:

I'm surprised that there have been no connections with the murder of Tiffani Ann Bruce:  https://apnews.com/3e12cd4812f3fc388dc400d99ac9f679

I was at Southwest Texas at the time and the guys next door to me in the dorm were friends with Matthew Novanty back in Humble.  After the murder and before fleeing to LA, Novanty went on a spending spree around Austin.  I can't remember everything that was bought, but the one of the next door neighbors ended up with a black leather jacket.  The other was really shaken up because Novanty had told him the story of killing Bruce and that it was solely because he wanted to watch another person die.  

I worked with Matt Novanty at Clean Water Action when this happened. (and was a housemate) I had forgotten about the spending spree but I do remember coming home with my bf one evening to a kitchen full of cakes, meat, etc like a party had just happened. The next day he and Jason disappeared. It turns out they had stolen the company van and tried to go to Mexico. Could not get across the border so they flew to LA. 
I didn’t know he had told anyone that he murdered her. 
I am pretty sure they had planned it out because I had found a weird detailed list of supplies they had written up weeks earlier. I tried to tell people something was wrong but no one listened to me. 
He had previously cut his wrists in front of my bf who took him to the hospital. 
 

[Hate 20,108]

As I recently discovered, I am part of the Old 300. My 8 generations back Grandpa was murdered when man stabbed him in the neck with a knife. My 8 generations Grandpa died from tetanus 2 months later. The killer was convicted and my 7th generation Grandpa dragged the killer out of the jail cell and hung him. It was the first legal execution in Austin’s Colony. William B. Travis was the prosecutor.

[Dennis Taylor 18,829]

10 hours ago, Hate said:

As I recently discovered, I am part of the Old 300. My 8 generations back Grandpa was murdered when man stabbed him in the neck with a knife. My 8 generations Grandpa died from tetanus 2 months later. The killer was convicted and my 7th generation Grandpa dragged the killer out of the jail cell and hung him. It was the first legal execution in Austin’s Colony. William B. Travis was the prosecutor.

 

[Steel Shank 9,426]

11 hours ago, Hate said:

As I recently discovered, I am part of the Old 300. My 8 generations back Grandpa was murdered when man stabbed him in the neck with a knife. My 8 generations Grandpa died from tetanus 2 months later. The killer was convicted and my 7th generation Grandpa dragged the killer out of the jail cell and hung him. It was the first legal execution in Austin’s Colony. William B. Travis was the prosecutor.

THAT is what you call a /csb!

[Hate 20,108]

1 hour ago, Steel Shank said:

THAT is what you call a /csb!

Thanks. It is kind of cool. Here is a brief write up of him. My direct line is with Abner Kuykendall.

 

Quote

Abner Kuykendall

Abner Kuykendall, Capt. Robert H. Kuykendall's older brother, was elected head of all the militia for the Austin Colony. Abner and brother Joseph Kuykendall were granted leagues of land on the west side of the Brazos River south of Richmond in what is now Fort Bend County. Their league joined those of Wiley Martin and Jane Long. By 1834 the Kuykendall brothers had become celebrated as colonists, hunters and Indian fighters. They were among the most popular of the colonists. While drunk,  Joseph Clayton became angry and stabbed Captain Abner Kuykendall in the neck. The knife blade broke off, causing Abner's death from lockjaw. Joseph Clayton soon was put on trial for murder, quickly convicted, and given the death sentence by hanging. This was the only legal execution in Austin colony. Mrs. McCroskey states in her papers: Captains Robert and Abner Kuykendall were both dead in 1836 and brother Joe was a cripple. There was a feud between the Kuykendall's and Houston that must have started in Tennessee. The Kuykendall's were going to the rescue of Goliad and the Alamo. Houston threatened court-martial for them and every man who followed them. After those two massacres, because reinforcements did not arrive, the victory of San Jacinto saved Houston and made a hero of him. Even at the battle of San Jacinto he left all the Kuykendalls and their troops, including Capt. Gibson Kuykendall, Abner's son, at the river guarding the supplies and only one Kuykendall was in the thick of the 30 minute fight. Had Houston and his forces been routed, those further back guarding supplies would have saved the day, so some historians say. It is said that had not Captain Abner Kuykendall been killed that he, and not Sam Houston, would have been the liberator of Texas, for Abner was over all military forces and had been since the colony was first started, and was Austin's close friend.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Hate

[gsoda3 3,262]

you ain't kidding, that was brief.

[Steel Shank 9,426]

There were some Kuykendalls that went to Austin High back in the 80s (and I'm sure other decades). Any relation?

[Hate 20,108]

1 minute ago, Steel Shank said:

There were some Kuykendalls that went to Austin High back in the 80s (and I'm sure other decades). Any relation?

I’m sure but I don’t know them. 

[Steel Shank 9,426]

5 minutes ago, Hate said:

I’m sure but I don’t know them. 

Anyway, that's pretty fucking cool. I'm pouring one out for Abner tonight!

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,907]

14 hours ago, Hate said:

As I recently discovered, I am part of the Old 300. My 8 generations back Grandpa was murdered when man stabbed him in the neck with a knife. My 8 generations Grandpa died from tetanus 2 months later. The killer was convicted and my 7th generation Grandpa dragged the killer out of the jail cell and hung him. It was the first legal execution in Austin’s Colony. William B. Travis was the prosecutor.

Cool story, but you must be Brat's age to have personally known them

[Jkwellborn 6,704]

Cool story, but you must be Brat's age to have personally known them

Dude, Brat saw Cain kill Abel. He’s the same age as some of Brats great grandkids.

[0xdeadbeef 1,651]

Back in the summer of 1980 between middle school years, I had a classmate who was raped and killed. Her naked body was found floating in a river with dozens of stab wounds.   Really Brutal Stuff. I didn't really know her and probably only talked to her maybe one time, but that was the first, and only, time I've known someone who was murdered.  It always bother me that they never caught the killer. 

Once the internet became a thing, every few years I'd google her name for the heck of it.   Nothing ever popped up and I didn't expect that it ever would, but about 6 years ago, almost 35 years after the murder, google returned a hits to a cold case blog. The blog went viral and was picked up in other regional media.  The attention from that blog lead to a cold case unit being formed in the county.  A couple weeks ago I googled her name again, and holy fuck, they charged someone with the murder.  40 damn years.  That's amazing.

 

 

 

[Sandman 3,403]

2 hours ago, Hate said:

I’m sure but I don’t know them. 

There was a Kuykendall that was the DA in Norman, OK for a few years. You must have some sooner blood in you. Shame.

[Chopper 17,236]

In college there was a severely mentally ill imbecile in my dorm who beat his also insane mother to death with a baseball bat while she was in the bathtub, had sex with her dead body, and then called the police to turn himself in. He accepted a NGBI plea and was locked up in an asylum for the criminally insane for the next ~30 years and I presume he is either still there or deceased.

No interviews please. 

[Chopper 17,236]

Oh I had a friend from Beverly Hills who sold weed in college but during summer break he decided to up his game and sell coke. He was shot and robbed in his apartment while transacting business. No idea if they caught the murderer.

[Steel Shank 9,426]

1 hour ago, Sandman said:

There was a Kuykendall that was the DA in Norman, OK for a few years. You must have some sooner blood in you. Shame.

If this is the case @Hate, then no longer /csb.

Sorry. Easy come, easy go.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Steel Shank

[Hate 20,108]

He was probably there on a secret mission to put gooner Sooners in jail.

[pearlandhorn 3,270]

Went to high school with this guy:

https://www.cbs19.tv/article/news/local/smith-co-sheriffs-office-reopens-dexter-mclean-murder-investigation/440602165

Murdered 4th of July, 2008.  I knew his brother Dustin well enough.  They reopened the case in 2017 but recent google searches don't turn up anything.

[Reagan1k 3,024]

2 hours ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Back in the summer of 1980 between middle school years, I had a classmate who was raped and killed. Her naked body was found floating in a river with dozens of stab wounds.   Really Brutal Stuff. I didn't really know her and probably only talked to her maybe one time, but that was the first, and only, time I've known someone who was murdered.  It always bother me that they never caught the killer. 

Once the internet became a thing, every few years I'd google her name for the heck of it.   Nothing ever popped up and I didn't expect that it ever would, but about 6 years ago, almost 35 years after the murder, google returned a hits to a cold case blog. The blog went viral and was picked up in other regional media.  The attention from that blog lead to a cold case unit being formed in the county.  A couple weeks ago I googled her name again, and holy fuck, they charged someone with the murder.  40 damn years.  That's amazing.

 

 

 

Seems to be happening more often now with advances in DNA and all the genealogy kits being sold.  Someone gives kits to family members for Christmas, and then at the next family reunion, creepy uncle Larry is conspicuously absent.  Turns out he's doing life for rape or murder in the 80's because they retested the evidence.

[Samson's Wig 3,192]

19 hours ago, Wheatsiebat said:

I worked with Matt Novanty at Clean Water Action when this happened. (and was a housemate) I had forgotten about the spending spree but I do remember coming home with my bf one evening to a kitchen full of cakes, meat, etc like a party had just happened. The next day he and Jason disappeared. It turns out they had stolen the company van and tried to go to Mexico. Could not get across the border so they flew to LA. 
I didn’t know he had told anyone that he murdered her. 
I am pretty sure they had planned it out because I had found a weird detailed list of supplies they had written up weeks earlier. I tried to tell people something was wrong but no one listened to me. 
He had previously cut his wrists in front of my bf who took him to the hospital. 
 

Thank you for providing yet another reason to run off any Clean Water Action person who shows up skulking around the neighborhood.

[Deej 76,800]

1 hour ago, Reagan1k said:

Seems to be happening more often now with advances in DNA and all the genealogy kits being sold.  Someone gives kits to family members for Christmas, and then at the next family reunion, creepy uncle Larry is conspicuously absent.  Turns out he's doing life for rape or murder in the 80's because they retested the evidence.

Worst Christmas gift ever. 

[Jkwellborn 6,704]

Seems to be happening more often now with advances in DNA and all the genealogy kits being sold.  Someone gives kits to family members for Christmas, and then at the next family reunion, creepy uncle Larry is conspicuously absent.  Turns out he's doing life for rape or murder in the 80's because they retested the evidence.

How often do you think that happens?

[Reagan1k 3,024]

20 minutes ago, Jkwellborn said:

How often do you think that happens?

Often enough.....

Quote

n December 2018, police forces in the United States said that, with the help of DNA testing, GEDmatch and genetic genealogy, they had been able to identify suspects in a total of 28 cold murder and rape cases in the year 2018.^[1]Also in December 2018, Family Tree DNA allowed the law enforcement agencies including the FBI to upload DNA profiles from crime scenes to help solve cold cases. So from then onwards GEDmatch was not the only site that could be used by law enforcement officials to solve crimes using genetic genealogy.^[2] As of April 2019, GEDmatch had been used in at least 59 cold case arrests, most of which were the work of Parabon NanoLabs and their chief genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, as well as 11 Jane and John Doe identifications across the United States, most of which were run and funded by the DNA Doe Project.^[3] 

That’s a lot of cases that otherwise would still be unsolved. 

[0xdeadbeef 1,651]

32 minutes ago, Reagan1k said:

Often enough.....

That’s a lot of cases that otherwise would still be unsolved. 

I think the highest profile one I've heard of was the Golden State Killer.  Patton Oswald's late wife wrote a true-crime book about the serial killer and as a result, they took a fresh look at the case and submitted crime scene DNA to GEDMatch.  They got a match to someone with a common "great-great-great-great grandfather dating back to the 1800s".  Grunt work from there narrowed it to two, and DNA from a trash can nailed the guy.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/08/22/patton-oswalt-honors-late-wife-after-golden-state-killer-sentencing/3418986001/

 

 

[honolulu horn 6,164]

29 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

I think the highest profile one I've heard of was the Golden State Killer.  Patton Oswald's late wife wrote a true-crime book about the serial killer and as a result, they took a fresh look at the case and submitted crime scene DNA to GEDMatch.  They got a match to someone with a common "great-great-great-great grandfather dating back to the 1800s".  Grunt work from there narrowed it to two, and DNA from a trash can nailed the guy.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/08/22/patton-oswalt-honors-late-wife-after-golden-state-killer-sentencing/3418986001/

 

 

Yeah that was a pretty amazing story. 

[conVINCEd 21,469]

31 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

I think the highest profile one I've heard of was the Golden State Killer.  Patton Oswald's late wife wrote a true-crime book about the serial killer and as a result, they took a fresh look at the case and submitted crime scene DNA to GEDMatch.  They got a match to someone with a common "great-great-great-great grandfather dating back to the 1800s".  Grunt work from there narrowed it to two, and DNA from a trash can nailed the guy.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/08/22/patton-oswalt-honors-late-wife-after-golden-state-killer-sentencing/3418986001/

 

 

Undefeated.

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

So, I just noticed this thread and not sure if this counts as knowing a murder but let’s say that when I was a kid my father was “connected” to some people.  His business partner was a little guy who I called “Uncle” Oscar.  I found out when i was older he was one of the most feared hit men for the Gambino and Lucchesi crime families in New York.  I also learned that my “Uncle” Vic from NY was the Don of one of the Five Families in NY.  I did not know all of this as 7-8 year old.  I realized it when I was in college and watching Goodfellas and I realized I knew a lot people with nicknames when I was a kid that were friends or associates of my father just like this movie I was watching.  As far as my “Uncle” Oscar, he was the nicest guy to me as he was close friends to my dad and I still remember him giving me a $100 bill and telling me to spend it all at Toys R Us and my parents needed to let me.  This was in the late 1970’s so that was big money.  I bought a crap ton of Star Wars action figures with that cash.

[Updawg 2,266]

Damn that’s pretty big. I’d be curious about their histories

My dads parents were Irish immigrants and bought a house in the Bronx where he grew up. When we would go there in the 70’s and 80’s their street was pretty nice for a suburban Houston kid. The rest of the area was a war zone. He’d tell us it was because the mob families lived on his street and kept it nice. No idea if true or he was messing with us. But makes sense

[immortal13 4,059]

15 hours ago, pearlandhorn said:

Went to high school with this guy:

https://www.cbs19.tv/article/news/local/smith-co-sheriffs-office-reopens-dexter-mclean-murder-investigation/440602165

Murdered 4th of July, 2008.  I knew his brother Dustin well enough.  They reopened the case in 2017 but recent google searches don't turn up anything.

Didn't the parents own a strip club? I remember seeing that billboard with a picture of their son with a big ass parrot on his shoulder. I remember meeting the brother, Dustin....huge douchebag

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

I will through out another example that isn’t someone I knew but I knew a lot of the people in the case.   Many of you may know the Adam Walsh murder story.  He was a kid abducted at the local Mall in Hollywood, FL and found murdered.  It was a big national story and his dad, John Walsh started the TV show Americas Most Wanted.  I lived in the same neighborhood as them and used to ride my bike to that mall almost daily so I was probably at the mall when he was taken (I think he was left alone at the Atari display in Sears or something like that).  The police detectives that worked the case were good friends with my dad (used to play poker with my dad and go fishing with him).  The dentist that did the dental medical records to prove the body was Adam was also a close friend of our family.  Let’s just say I was told there were rumors that this wasn’t a random abduction and murder but that his dad was in the drug business and this was a retaliation for some drug related stuff.  

[Gourmand 7,774]

19 hours ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Back in the summer of 1980 between middle school years, I had a classmate who was raped and killed. Her naked body was found floating in a river with dozens of stab wounds.   Really Brutal Stuff. I didn't really know her and probably only talked to her maybe one time, but that was the first, and only, time I've known someone who was murdered.  It always bother me that they never caught the killer. 

Once the internet became a thing, every few years I'd google her name for the heck of it.   Nothing ever popped up and I didn't expect that it ever would, but about 6 years ago, almost 35 years after the murder, google returned a hits to a cold case blog. The blog went viral and was picked up in other regional media.  The attention from that blog lead to a cold case unit being formed in the county.  A couple weeks ago I googled her name again, and holy fuck, they charged someone with the murder.  40 damn years.  That's amazing.

 

 

 

 

One of my ex's friends from Norman OK was murdered back in 2003 in the home he shared with his 83-year-old mother. The killer strangled him with some form of garotte, then suffocated his mother to death while she slept in her bed. The double murder has few leads and from what I can tell seems to have slid down the memory hole in Norman. The victim was a popular fixture in the OU music/bar scene and police guess that he probably met the killer(s) at a bar and invited him back to his place to party/drink/fuck/whoknowswhat. I never met the guy but I heard a lot of stories about him from her so that's a cold case I occasionally google to see if there are any updates. I hope that case gets cracked like your classmate's because it boggles the mind that someone could just murder and dude and his mom with his bare hands, walk out the door and never be caught. 

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

Some genealogist put together a book of everybody descended from my immigrant ancestor, a shady dude from (probably) England who changed his last name on arrival here.

One of the stories in the book concerned one of his descendants who was at one time believed to have been killed in "a miner's row" in Utah. The truth was far uglier -- this relative of mine had asked to stay in some miner's cabin while passing through, and that miner graciously took him in, whereupon my relative murdered him in his sleep, stole a bunch of his shit, and headed west. Not fast enough -- a posse caught up with him and strung him up without trial. So...I have a distant cousin who was lynched, Old West style. Can't say he didn't have it coming. 

Disclaimer: Old West lynchings and Deep South lynchings are in separate buckets and deserve different names. One was an instrument of racial terror, the other simply the workings of justice where courts were primitive or non-existent. 

[DonkeyCigars 143]

3 hours ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I will through out another example that isn’t someone I knew but I knew a lot of the people in the case.   Many of you may know the Adam Walsh murder story.  He was a kid abducted at the local Mall in Hollywood, FL and found murdered.  It was a big national story and his dad, John Walsh started the TV show Americas Most Wanted.  I lived in the same neighborhood as them and used to ride my bike to that mall almost daily so I was probably at the mall when he was taken (I think he was left alone at the Atari display in Sears or something like that).  The police detectives that worked the case were good friends with my dad (used to play poker with my dad and go fishing with him).  The dentist that did the dental medical records to prove the body was Adam was also a close friend of our family.  Let’s just say I was told there were rumors that this wasn’t a random abduction and murder but that his dad was in the drug business and this was a retaliation for some drug related stuff.  

John Walsh the AMW guy was a big time drug lord? okay.

[0xdeadbeef 1,651]

20 minutes ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

Some genealogist put together a book of everybody descended from my immigrant ancestor, a shady dude from (probably) England who changed his last name on arrival here.

One of the stories in the book concerned one of his descendants who was at one time believed to have been killed in "a miner's row" in Utah. The truth was far uglier -- this relative of mine had asked to stay in some miner's cabin while passing through, and that miner graciously took him in, whereupon my relative murdered him in his sleep, stole a bunch of his shit, and headed west. Not fast enough -- a posse caught up with him and strung him up without trial. So...I have a distant cousin who was lynched, Old West style. Can't say he didn't have it coming. 

Disclaimer: Old West lynchings and Deep South lynchings are in separate buckets and deserve different names. One was an instrument of racial terror, the other simply the workings of justice where courts were primitive or non-existent. 

Did the Old West Lynch Mobs leave paper trails? 

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,559]

13 minutes ago, DonkeyCigars said:

John Walsh the AMW guy was a big time drug lord? okay.

Did I say he was a drug lord, dumb ass?  I said there were rumors he was involved not in charge.  That means lower level or even maybe he was just a cokehead with a bad habit that owed some people money you don't want to be in debt to.  I know that it would be fucking shocking for someone living in South Florida in the early 1980's to possibly have involvement in the cocaine or marijuana business.  At the time of the murder Walsh was a hotel executive with ties to the casinos in the Bahamas so I guarantee he was around some people in the drug business.  Then again so was everyone in South Florida from 1975 to 1990.

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

24 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Did the Old West Lynch Mobs leave paper trails? 

Maybe. They didn't believe they were doing anything wrong, and in this case, they weren't. 

[Deej 76,800]

11 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

...or even maybe...just a cokehead with a bad habit that owed some people money you don't want to be in debt to. 

This is what got Nicole Brown Simpson killed. When OJ finds those guys, maybe he can pivot to the Walsh kid?

[pearlandhorn 3,270]

8 hours ago, immortal13 said:

Didn't the parents own a strip club? I remember seeing that billboard with a picture of their son with a big ass parrot on his shoulder. I remember meeting the brother, Dustin....huge douchebag

Yes and yes. Pretty large douche.