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

[ajax 2636]

This is a couple degrees of separation and I kind of blocked it out of my mind, but another family friend is the daughter of bestselling lesbian feminist fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley. Apparently she had a rough upbringing because her mother was a monster, which is saying something because her father was a convicted child molester. As bad as he was, her mother was far worse. It sounds like both her parents were devoted to molesting children.

Anyway, her parents were founders of this group that was dedicated to reenacting medieval culture called the Society of Creative Anachronism. Basically, a bunch of nerds who run around dressed up like knights and maidens.

And at one time, the Berkeley chapter of this group included in their membership Leonard Lake and Charles Ng.

 

What a collection of truly horrific people.

[Doc Reeves 6434]

Oh yeah, my hairstylist was murdered in her driveway by her 16 y/o daughters price of shit boyfriend.

When we first moved to Killeen my mom asked her colleague what the town was like. He told her about when he first arrived he started working at Woods Psychiatric. On his first day he was backing out of the parking lot, was rear ended at pretty high speed and a dead body flew out of the other cars trunk onto the road.
 

[BabaYaga 15400]

In terms of crazy stories - my BIL's father is the warden at a super-max in San Diego (or something similar, it's a federal prison for some of the worst offenders).  Get a few drinks in him and the shit that people were/are in for is mind bottling.  The work with the US Marshal's receiving and transporting HVT's (often cartel related due to the proximity to Mexico) is sobering.  Some Sicario-type shit.  

 

[elfenix 34387]

an uncle was murdered in guatemala back in the early 00s

[Pokoloco 1282]

My Brother in Law was murdered in Arlington,  my wife will never get over this. Her only brother, they were only 11 mos apart.  I also had a fraternity brother was murdered in the West End. Both cold cases still.

My BIL:

Report Number: 000041939

Victim: Joseph Todd Quinton, 32 years old
Location: 202 W. Pioneer Parkway (Pioneer Point Apartments)

Synopsis: On July 18, 2000 the body of Joseph Quinton was discovered in his vehicle at Pioneer Point Apartments at 202 W. Pioneer Parkway. It was later determined that Quinton died from a gunshot wound.

[Underdog 28880]

MIL was killed by a drunk driver 2/93.  He was a repeat offender. 

[Continental Op 3934]

Acquaintance of mine in high school got killed when the store he worked at got robbed.  A redneck second cousin of mine that I only met a couple of times killed some gal in a drug-related dustup.  

[4th and 5 4926]

2 hours ago, BonzoMontreaux said:

Not sure if many people get who you are talking about, but I do. 

 

Bryant Westbrook, the Herald of Demise

 

52 minutes ago, Stella Link said:

Sure. Need to touch on the backstory.

My uncle was the ex-husband of my mom's sister.  I'll call him "Uncle Mike".  When I was in elementary school, Uncle Mike would sometimes drop by the house unannounced.  He was divorced from my aunt at that time (I don't remember him when he was married to my aunt, so the divorce probably happened before I was born or soon after).  As a kid, I always thought he was a cool guy.  He literally looked, acted and talked like George Raft (1940s era).  Had jet-black hair that was parted and slicked straight back.  Wore dark suits.  Every time he would drop by, he would give me, my brother and sister a (real) silver dollar.  As a kid, I never knew what he did for a living or even where he lived.  I did know he didn't live in the town where I grew up.  That's probably why he would show up at the house from time to time unannounced because he happened to be in town.  

Uncle Mike seemed mysterious to me, my brother and sister because we didn't know what he did for a living, we didn't know where he lived, we didn't know why he and my aunt divorced, and we didn't know any background about him. Uncle Mike and my aunt didn't have any kids.  Both of my parents seemed tight-lipped about him, and they were open and honest to us about EVERYTHING gowning up.  Didn't know if they wanted to protect us from something or didn't want us to know.

Fast-forward to when I was about 25 years old.  I hadn't heard from or about Uncle Mike since the last time I saw him when I was a kid.  I had a job and was working in my hometown.  I was reading the morning paper and happened to see an article about an apartment manager and his girlfriend that were gunned down inside their apartment.  Reading the article, it named my Uncle Mike as the apartment manager that was killed!  WTF!!!  

Apparently, Uncle Mike lived in an apartment on the property where he managed it.  He and his girlfriend were in the living room watching TV together on the couch.  A gunman burst down the front door and sprayed my Uncle and his girlfriend with bullets, like with a machine gun.  The couch and wall were filled with bullets.  Apparently, it was a nasty, bloody scene.  The bodies were almost unrecognizable.  

I took the newspaper and drove over to my mom's house (my father and my aunt (Uncle Mike's ex-wife) had passed away by that time).  I showed the article to my mom and she read it.  I told her, "ok mom...now you need to explain what's the deal with Uncle Mike".  She read the article and had a cold look in her eye.  She wouldn't say a word.  She just had a blank stare.  I could tell she didn't want to talk about it, so I let it alone.  But I also showed my brother and sister the article.  They also tried to find out more from my mom, but couldn't.  

To this day, my Uncle Mike, his life and his death are still a mystery.  The police never found out who killed him or why.

 

I think Uncle Mike painted houses

 

 

[markstanco 12672]

1 hour ago, EE2B said:

Insane that it’s been 28 years now. Still remember seeing the photos in the Citizen’s Journal and thinking how the fuck could someone kill a 3 year old. Crazy fucking world we live in.

IIR the 11 year old was raped as well.  

[4th&Five 41710]

i grew up going to school with this guy in westlake.  we were pretty good friends in elementary and middle school.  he raped and murdered a girl in south carolina.  him ending up behind bars didn't surprise me but the reason did.

[clapclapclap 9000]

42 minutes ago, ajax said:

This is a couple degrees of separation and I kind of blocked it out of my mind, but another family friend is the daughter of bestselling lesbian feminist fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley. Apparently she had a rough upbringing because her mother was a monster, which is saying something because her father was a convicted child molester. As bad as he was, her mother was far worse. It sounds like both her parents were devoted to molesting children.

Anyway, her parents were founders of this group that was dedicated to reenacting medieval culture called the Society of Creative Anachronism. Basically, a bunch of nerds who run around dressed up like knights and maidens.

And at one time, the Berkeley chapter of this group included in their membership Leonard Lake and Charles Ng.

 

What a collection of truly horrific people.

I always suspected the Renaissance Fest was a Comet Pizza cover.  Todd Mission up to no good.

[MaybeACoordinator 8350]

Slightly askew of the topic but wife, best friend, a bunch of other school friends and me were stalked by the dudes who took Mark Kilroy off the street in Matamoros. I mean we were all, right there, right then, and my buddy told me that some dudes tried to shove him off the street and towards a truck THAT NIGHT, before the news broke of Kilroy's disappearance.

It was such a terrifying and eerie night. We all could feel the presence of evil around us in real time -- more so than usual in Mexican border towns.  I remember us hearing that Kilroy was missing and we were kinda joking about him meeting some senorita and running off into the interior to have the time of his life but we knew that was almost certainly not the case, as it proved not to be, because the senorita he did meet was the co-leader of a human sacrificing Santeria drug gang who craved Gringo blood for their altars. 

So I guess I almost knew someone who was murdered that night and hell, I guess I came pretty close too. They might have come after me but my wife and I were practically rolling around on the ground making out as we were leaving Mexico that night and it would have been harder to take two of us than one...

[SHOOTER12 8853]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

I don't have any personal connection to these events, but this article on the 1970s murder-kidnappings in The Heights is one of the most haunting I've ever read in Texas Monthly.

The Lost Boys

I remember that, it was absolutely bone chilling.

[Leeroy Jenkins 2431]

Murdered his wife in front of his son

 

This guy was probably one of the smartest guys I knew but was just off.  He is a USNA grad that went USAF (that should tell you something right there).  He was one of my roommates for a part of plebe summer and was in my company for all 4 years.  

If you read the article above I would say he killed her because he thought she was going to take away his ability to go to school.  He fucking loved to learn and study.  That was his life.  

[Orange&White 5557]

I remember the thread from TOS as well and I am remembering some of these stories being posted there. I am nearly certain I posted mine as well.

My cousin was brutally murdered in South Texas a few years back. The shithead that took the blame is serving life w/o parole, but his piece of shit brother helped and is still free.

I was also on a Cap Murder jury here in Austin and we gave the guy the death penalty. He' still in prison right now.

[hullabelew 3724]

Serial killer Faryion Wardrip killed 2 friends of mine in Wichita Falls.  As far as I know, the two girls didn't know each other.  

I know two other guys who murdered someone.  One was fucked up on drugs and stabbed his wife.  Told police his TV dinner was cold.  He was about the nicest, calmest dude I knew.  Just fucked up and lost it.  Other dude was convicted of killer a cop in Tarrant Co.  I left his house about an hour before the cops/sheriff/Texas Rangers/Hwy Patrol and FBI raided his house.  

Also grew up with a guy who was murdered.  Drugs fucked him up.  In jail and got released as an informant.   Dead two days later.  Shotgun blast in a Ft. Worth hotel.  

Another good friend of mine killed his dad.  Was never arrested or prosecuted.  Old man came home drunk.  Shot the dog, pointed the gun at his wife and said, "You're next".  My buddy shot him on the spot.  

Edited May 22, 2020 by hullabelew

[BonzoMontreaux 1116]

23 minutes ago, 4th and 5 said:

 

Bryant Westbrook, the Herald of Demise

 

 

 

 

 

Damn, I don't know what the hell I was thinking and now that you bring it up... Randy Kinder was a dude in Waco that you didn't want to come across in any setting.  Eventually, HE ended up actually murdering someone.  I was there for the killing of the other Randy Kinder, though.

[Jerry Callo 8836]

I saw a fight down on 6th Street in the late '80s.  One guy took a broken bottle to the neck and later died.  I didn't know the killer or the victim but saw it happen.

[Fudge Nuggets 19283]

2 hours ago, Hate said:

Unfortunately, I’ve known a few.

 

A family we were close to when I was a young kid had a son who was murdered. I’m not sure if the case was ever solved or not. He was shot in the head by someone driving by right outside his house.

 

A guy I worked with at Tom’s Ribs in SA. I worked there around 1988-1989 and Chris was a cook. He was the #2 for the kitchen. A few years after I left he was murdered by his girlfriend. She blamed it on a cat jumping on a gun.

 

And just a couple of years ago, a girl that had been the receptionist at our office was murdered. Her grandparents and 1 year old child were also murdered along with her by her estranged ex. He took himself out too.

http://polkenterprise.com/index.php/news/2378-five-dead-in-blanchard-ranch-murders

 

Almost forgot, another lady I had worked with at Cafe in the Square in San Marcos was murdered a few years after I had quit there. Amy was murdered by an estranged boyfriend, IIRC. He choked her to death from what I was told.

We ever work for the same company, I’m gettin’ strapped.

[Alvin89 108]

Didn't know Laura Smithers at all but she lived and was abducted just down the street from us and on the same county road my parents currently live on.

https://abc13.com/missing-laura-smither-jessica/1272189/

[Southland 35]

When I was in high school an assistant principal came into my English class and pulled our teacher out of the room. He came back a few minutes later and said she wouldn't be returning to class that day, but didn't tell us anything else. We found out later in the day that her husband, who was a DPS officer, was shot and killed while he was conducting a traffic stop.

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-troopers-shooter-previously-threatened-to-kill-police/

[Orange&White 5557]

I have a mission for the surly sleuths and legal professionals.

I graduated from Lake Travis in 1991. Years later, I was told by a fellow '91 grad that there was a '92 grad named Mike Little who murdered his wife and then called a buddy to come help bury the body. The buddy called the cops and when they showed up, Mike was busy digging a hole, his dead wife in the trunk and his toddler child in the back seat.

I've never been able to find any details of this and would be super interested in knowing more.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Orange&White
'92 grad

[gmr548 16645]

I didn't know them personally but a pair of sisters that were my high school contemporaries were murdered by their father. The community was pretty shaken.

 

Guy is still on the FBI's ten most wanted list. Believed to have fled the country.

 

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/yaser-abdel-said

 

 

[gmr548 16645]

I saw this thread title and saw 97 posts and said, there’s no way I’m gonna get my mom’s pussy comment off. But post 2?  Well done, Wanker Bob. 

I think you'd be the first to say you destroyed your own mom's pussy...

[hayden_horn 11373]

i have told this story a couple of times over the years...

didn't know the victims, but found some very recently killed girls behind the grand theater in dallas with some friends.

i called 911 (from a payphone! it was 1997), and was detained for statements by police with my friends. we didn't know it at the time, but there had been some trouble at that theater, so they had a plainclothes on patrol in the parking lot. this cop heard a car peel out, started tailing it, then my 911 call came across the dispatch, and he lights up the car he was tailing. two dudes in the car, and a girlfriend; they had the gun and the girls' purses and jewelry and some other stuff in the car. 

i was later called to testify in the death penalty case. dallas county DA flew me up, put me up in a hotel, and prepped me for testimony. i was there to set the scene since i got closest to the victims, and since i was the person who called 911. the public defender dozed through my testimony, and had no questions for me. shooter got death, was killed in 2006. male accomplice got 40 years. girlfriend got some reduced plea because she testified against the dudes.

sticks with me to this day, there was just so much blood, and just so tragically senseless.

odd new twist to that story - my testimony in that trial resulted in my being struck from the jury for this trial:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20181002/onyeri-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-judge-kocurek-shooting

 

[baboso 6057]

This piece of shit and his girlfriend killed my high school friend Carl Rinkle.  Carl was 26 years old and had just sold his little country store to IGA for about a half million dollars:

Quote

In March 1987 Ricky Don Blackmon and his girlfriend Donna Mae Rogers were unemployed, impoverished, and living outside Dallas, Texas. Rogers told Blackmon she knew people in Joaquin, Texas who would be good targets for a robbery. She drove Blackmon there, telling him she would lure an old acquaintance, Carl J. Rinkle, to the Rinkle house where she would knock him unconscious and steal his cash. Blackmon was to wait outside the house. Rogers entered the residence but returned to tell Blackmon she could not knock Rinkle out. After Rogers went back inside Blackmon looked through a bedroom window and saw a nearly naked Rogers with a completely naked Rinkle on the bed. Blackmon contends that when he saw this he became so enraged that it caused him to break into the house and murder Rinkle. Blackmon took a large sword, which he had made from a sawmill blade, out of the trunk of his car and knocked on the front door. Rinkle answered the door unarmed. Blackmon killed Rinkle, brutally slashing his body. Blackmon and Rogers then looted the residence of various items, including approximately $700 in cash.

 

[huge 3802]

pretty sure a girl that used to wait on me at Jacksons Watering Hole shot and killed her boyfriend last week

[Marfa Low Crown 2555]

Sam Gallamore was a guy that ran in the same social circle when I was in high school. He was a few years older and I didn't know him
very well but I saw him at a couple of parties and got a very bad vibe off the guy. He was executed in 2003 for a triple murder he committed my senior year.


Bad dude.


Had a high school friend that dropped out of school and became a drug dealer in Houston. He got shot in the head. We used to trade books about
ninjas in middle school, I still have one of them with his name written in cursive on the inside cover. 

 

[SHOOTER12 8853]

19 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

i have told this story a couple of times over the years...

didn't know the victims, but found some very recently killed girls behind the grand theater in dallas with some friends.

i called 911 (from a payphone! it was 1997), and was detained for statements by police with my friends. we didn't know it at the time, but there had been some trouble at that theater, so they had a plainclothes on patrol in the parking lot. this cop heard a car peel out, started tailing it, then my 911 call came across the dispatch, and he lights up the car he was tailing. two dudes in the car, and a girlfriend; they had the gun and the girls' purses and jewelry and some other stuff in the car. 

i was later called to testify in the death penalty case. dallas county DA flew me up, put me up in a hotel, and prepped me for testimony. i was there to set the scene since i got closest to the victims, and since i was the person who called 911. the public defender dozed through my testimony, and had no questions for me. shooter got death, was killed in 2006. male accomplice got 40 years. girlfriend got some reduced plea because she testified against the dudes.

sticks with me to this day, there was just so much blood, and just so tragically senseless.

odd new twist to that story - my testimony in that trial resulted in my being struck from the jury for this trial:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20181002/onyeri-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-judge-kocurek-shooting

 

Damn, I know back in around 84 it seemed I was finding dead people all the time...well actually only three.

The first one was at a Shop and Go on Lauder Rd.  My laborer and I pulled in for coffee before daylight and I noticed a guy sitting down on the ground and leaning against a cyclone fence.  Even in the dark something seemed off. I went over and spoke to him several times with no response.  I shook him no response.

Called the police and it turned out that he had been shot in the stomach just above his cowboy belt buckle.  With him slouching over, you couldn't see it just by looking without moving him.

[South Austin 52746]

24 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

i have told this story a couple of times over the years...

didn't know the victims, but found some very recently killed girls behind the grand theater in dallas with some friends.

i called 911 (from a payphone! it was 1997), and was detained for statements by police with my friends. we didn't know it at the time, but there had been some trouble at that theater, so they had a plainclothes on patrol in the parking lot. this cop heard a car peel out, started tailing it, then my 911 call came across the dispatch, and he lights up the car he was tailing. two dudes in the car, and a girlfriend; they had the gun and the girls' purses and jewelry and some other stuff in the car. 

i was later called to testify in the death penalty case. dallas county DA flew me up, put me up in a hotel, and prepped me for testimony. i was there to set the scene since i got closest to the victims, and since i was the person who called 911. the public defender dozed through my testimony, and had no questions for me. shooter got death, was killed in 2006. male accomplice got 40 years. girlfriend got some reduced plea because she testified against the dudes.

sticks with me to this day, there was just so much blood, and just so tragically senseless.

odd new twist to that story - my testimony in that trial resulted in my being struck from the jury for this trial:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20181002/onyeri-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-judge-kocurek-shooting

 

Cool/not-so-cool story, bro.

[Lone Star Horn 2026]

wow, I didn't realize until I sat here and thought about it. 4 people that i knew.

In the 70's my uncle was shot and killed in a bar fight. He was a big man and had a rep of not losing fights. I got the story from the uncle who was there. He (the younger uncle) was with him in the bar when it happened. The older uncle pushed the younger one under the pool table when he realized what was going to happen. I think he saw the killer coming in with a gun. It's been a long time, so that's about all that I know about it, I'm not sure if the killer was caught. I think he was, otherwise other uncles and/or my dad would have either also been killed or would have killed him.

Diane Holik, killed in 2001. She was a friend that I knew in the 90's. Murdered in her home, NBC Dateline had a story about it, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6055364/  (since this is Surly, pic below)

Killed by a man who claimed to be looking at houses, in the Arboretum area. Her house was for sale at the time. Per the story, he had creeped out several women in the area. I found out when I saw the story in the newspaper.

My wife has a friend, who's daughter (who we knew) was killed by her estranged husband in 2007 (murder/suicide). The friend has been raising her two grandkids since.

2011, Man who worked at same company that I did, was shot and killed, along with his wife and daughter by the daughter's estranged husband. Two other adults and the couple's 1 year old child, got away.   

https://www.news-journal.com/news/local/suspect-in-triple-homicide-killed-during-police-chase/article_cf9246d4-138f-581c-b3a6-8d27b3a5c15f.html

Edited May 22, 2020 by Lone Star Horn

[Wally Pryor 5315]

12 hours ago, ajax said:

Chandra Levy was a family friend.

Wondering how many Thank You's Condit sent to Al Qaida?

[Grandioso 2592]

My dad hung out a couple times with Charles Harrelson and a bag man for the Chagras cartel / New Orleans mafia. I think he would see him as a regular at some local bar. Details are hazy, but my dad has never been in any trouble whatsoever. Says he was hands down the creepiest dude he's ever met. This was post-assassination of Judge Wood when he was laying low before being caught/arrested. 

[BurdineBandit 816]

A family friend from the church I grew up going to (his family and my family were both very active, so our families were friends) wound up shooting a kid (probably younger than 21) after the kid showed up in their backyard one night after the family's teenage daughter broke up with him. Likely some semi-innocent teenage feelings that the kid couldn't process, but the dad took him for an intruder and shot before realizing who it was. Would see him at church after the incident, apparently he got off. 

A kid I played little league with in the valley, who lived down the street from me in rural RGV, was working Corpus some years ago (we were maybe mid-20s) and apparently got into an argument after dinging some assholes car while trying to park in a fuckin whataburger. The cholo/gangster/Corpus local was in the car with another dude or two, they came out, argued about a fucking dented car, cold-cocked the dude I knew, and he died at the hospital. Senseless.

Edited May 22, 2020 by BurdineBandit

[South Austin 52746]

This thread reinforces the fact that this world is full of heartless, soulless pieces of shit.

[Cajun 11766]

Cecile Ham was my ex-wife's cousin.  It was weird because of my father's connection to ZZTop and Bill Ham, their producer and we didn't even realize how the dots lined up until the SA Rodeo hit town and my ex said, "Hey, I can get us tickets and backstage to Clint Black!"  Black's "Killing Time" album was still pretty fresh and was a favorite of mine.  So, I asked the ex, "How?".  She explained her relationship to the Hams.  I was like, "Small fucking world" and then gave her shit about not mentioning this to me before since she was well aware of my pop, ZZ, and all that stuff.  Anyway, we went, we hung out with Black after the show, and I got about 10 seconds to say a personal "thank you" to Bill Ham and his wife.  

Not long after that we hear that Ham's wife, Cecile had gone missing.  This is what followed...

Quote

Ham’s wife Cecile, 48, left her Houston residence on July 2, 1991, and never returned. Five weeks later, her red Cadillac led Eagle County, Colo. deputies on a 32-mile high-speed chase until it plunged over a cliff. The driver survived: he was Spencer Goodman, a repeat felon who had just been paroled.

According to the statement he gave in custody — a statement that helpfully ticks every box a state’s attorney would need for a capital conviction — he’d been very busy during his brief liberty.

On July 1, 1991, I was released from the old Bexar County Jail … I was given a bus ride back to Houston, Texas by Wackenhut [a private prison company -ed.] and dropped off on the east side of town at 9:30 a.m. I was given my papers to report to Texas House at 5:30 p.m. that night. Instead of going to the halfway house I started walking west. I walked most of the night. … During the day on Tuesday, July 2, 1991, I started walking out Memorial Drive. During the mid-afternoon it started raining. I walked up into a Walgreens parking lot maybe about 4:00 p.m. and just hung around the parking lot for about 20 to 30 minutes. I saw a white female drive up in a 1991 red Cadillac. She pulled up in the firelane along the blind side of the parking lot and then went into the Walgreens store. At that time I was not really watching her, but I don’t think that she stayed inside the drug store very long. When the lady came out of the store she opened the driver’s door and started getting into the car. I decided at that point that I wanted to take her car from her. I had been walking for a long time and my feet hurt and I wanted some transportation. I ran up behind her while the driver’s door was still open. She was sitting behind the wheel, and I shoved her over with one hand and punched her just under the left ear, to knock her out. She fell over to the passenger’s side and was knocked unconscious. I got into the driver’s seat. I think that I may have hit her in the back of the neck to make sure that she was unconscious. I think that the keys to the car were in her hand because they fell to the floor. I picked them up and started the car and then looked around to see if anyone had seen what happened. It was raining, and there was nobody around the parking lot. I first pulled out of the parking lot and turned right on Memorial going west, but there was a subdivision down that way, so I turned around and went to the Dairy Ashford for a ways and then turned off towards the west. I know that I was near a high school off of Dairy Ashford. I pulled off the main road and parked on a side road off behind this little building. I then used martial arts and broke the lady’s neck. I don’t know why I did it, but I know that I was lost. I then put her in the trunk of the car. I did not have on a shirt because my shirt was wet from the rain. I was also wearing jogging pants. After I put her in the trunk, I drove down this road. I was right by this high school when I saw this guy in a truck. I then asked him how to get to I-10. . . . I followed the guy’s direction. As I was driving I went through the lady’s purse and got out her wallet. I found about $20.00 and some change in her purse and some credit cards. I saw an Exxon gas station at HWY 6 and Westheimer so I stopped and filled up with gas. I used the Exxon gas card and signed the name on the card. I then got on I-10 and headed west. . . . . . . I knew that she was dead when I put her in the trunk because I felt on her pulse.

I only knew her for a few moments, but watching what it did to my in-laws was chilling.

Anyway, they juiced the dude up real good.  

Edited May 22, 2020 by Cajun

[HenryJames 66295]

https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2017/04/28/convicted-killers-parole-denied-for-slaying-in-santa-cruz-county/
 

Knew the murderers and the victim.

[Gooby 640]

56 minutes ago, Cajun said:

Cecile Ham was my ex-wife's cousin.  It was weird because of my father's connection to ZZTop and Bill Ham, their producer and we didn't even realize how the dots lined up until the SA Rodeo hit town and my ex said, "Hey, I can get us tickets and backstage to Clint Black!"  Black's "Killing Time" album was still pretty fresh and was a favorite of mine.  So, I asked the ex, "How?".  She explained her relationship to the Hams.  I was like, "Small fucking world" and then gave her shit about not mentioning this to me before since she was well aware of my pop, ZZ, and all that stuff.  Anyway, we went, we hung out with Black after the show, and I got about 10 seconds to say a personal "thank you" to Bill Ham and his wife.  

Not long after that we hear that Ham's wife, Cecile had gone missing.  This is what followed...

I only knew her for a few moments, but watching what it did to my in-laws was chilling.

Anyway, they juiced the dude up real good.  

The abduction happened at the Walgreen's at Dairy Ashford and Memorial in Houston.  You can literally throw a rock from my mom's house and hit that store.  I remember being at the neighborhood pool the day she was kidnapped and there were a fuckton of police on the scene

[Rip76 4987]

2 hours ago, Alvin89 said:

Didn't know Laura Smithers at all but she lived and was abducted just down the street from us and on the same county road my parents currently live on.

https://abc13.com/missing-laura-smither-jessica/1272189/

Remember this like yesterday.

[Cajun 11766]

@Gooby-

I'll bet there were a fuckton of police, especially with the amount of water that her husband drew in that town.

That murder devastated Ham and probably is what completely ruined Clint Black's career trajectory.  Went from this Bill being his manager/producer to this disaster...

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Cajun

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11669]

I played baseball with Ryan Grady.  He killed a dude in 2003 in an apartment off Riverside.  Seemed to be just some run of the mill college fight over something stupid like one guy standing in a parking space and wouldn't move to let the car in.  He ended up getting 4 years.  

Weird thing.  He was a very good dude and very likable.  But just was a hot head.  Several games involved almost fights because [chris rock] someone smudged his pumas [/chris rock].  I assume that's what happened the night of the fight.  He just got amped up like any other college male at some small slight, but his vicious swing killed a dude.

Edited May 22, 2020 by BehoId, The Underminer!

[Armybrat 41016]

6 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

It's getting a little dusty in here just thinking back on all of it, especially with my own 12yr old daughter.  I kept it in at the time, and was pretty stoic.  Whole city mourned them.  Boys2Men "So hard to say goodbye" was dedicated to them.  Year later I was @ Mo Ranch and the song came on.  I BROKE DOWN.  Had to extricate myself and go off in the woods.  I balled, and balled, and balled.  It was just so random.  So horrible.  So senseless.  The parents.  God help them to this day.  

Amy’s grandpa owned the jewelry store down the street from Lanier High School. We had done some business with the old gentleman and his wife. IIRC, he died within a year of her murder.

shockingly sad all around and still depressing to think about it.

[BabaYaga 15400]

I feel like this thread and all it's cold cases need Bosch to come out of retirement....

[atomheartbevo 90110]

2 hours ago, Lone Star Horn said:

Diane Holik, killed in 2001. She was a friend that I knew in the 90's. Murdered in her home, NBC Dateline had a story about it, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6055364/  (since this is Surly, pic below)

Killed by a man who claimed to be looking at houses, in the Arboretum area. Her house was for sale at the time. Per the story, he had creeped out several women in the area. I found out when I saw the story in the newspaper.

I worked in the same division as she did at one point - did not work for her, but knew of her.  I worked with a bunch of folks that had worked with her in Boca Raton, and it was pretty traumatic for everybody.

[TexasEd 8149]

4 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

Slightly askew of the topic but wife, best friend, a bunch of other school friends and me were stalked by the dudes who took Mark Kilroy off the street in Matamoros. I mean we were all, right there, right then, and my buddy told me that some dudes tried to shove him off the street and towards a truck THAT NIGHT, before the news broke of Kilroy's disappearance.

It was such a terrifying and eerie night. We all could feel the presence of evil around us in real time -- more so than usual in Mexican border towns.  I remember us hearing that Kilroy was missing and we were kinda joking about him meeting some senorita and running off into the interior to have the time of his life but we knew that was almost certainly not the case, as it proved not to be, because the senorita he did meet was the co-leader of a human sacrificing Santeria drug gang who craved Gringo blood for their altars. 

So I guess I almost knew someone who was murdered that night and hell, I guess I came pretty close too. They might have come after me but my wife and I were practically rolling around on the ground making out as we were leaving Mexico that night and it would have been harder to take two of us than one...

Me too, I was there that night and a group of guys attacked me walking back to the border and one grabbed my by my jeans pocket and ripped the pocket off trying to drag me.  I was on the Rugby team and 3 guys on the team were 20 yards behind me and came up and chased them off.

[RPM 26431]

6 hours ago, Gooby said:

Woman who used to cut my hair when I was a kid murdered her husband at a night club in Missouri City.  She thought he was cheating on her, and one day, on her drive home, she passed this bar and saw his car there.  She walked in and saw him in a booth next to some chick, they exchanged words and he basically told her that yes, he was boning the girl he was there at the bar with.  She left and went to the house, got his .38, drove back to the bar and shot him in the head on the dance floor, dropped the gun and waited outside for the police to show.

My dad explained to me that it was ruled a crime of passion.  I don't remember exactly what her sentence was, but she was back to cutting hair within 2 years.  She's still working at that place to this day.

I know a similar story about one of my Dad's friends who was my barber growing up. Sometime back in the 50's Barber found out his wife was screwing some guy from the next town. The guy always had coffee every morning in the same cafe. Barber went there one morning when they opened and when the guy walked in the door Barber pulled out a gun and shot him in the head. Put the gun on the table and waited for the sheriff. Crime of passion, he walked.

Edited May 22, 2020 by RPM

[TexasEd 8149]

My uncle (Mom's brother) was murdered when I was 18 or 19.  We actually lived in his house for a year when I was in 5th grade after my parents divorced and my mom was saving for a new house.  He paid me for mowing the lawn with silver dollars and $2 bills, I still have a Liberty Head silver dollar belt buckle that was his.

He was a bookie and had just come back from Vegas and went out to bowling league, he had a few 300 games under his belt.  The theory is he bragged about how much he won in Vegas or something and two guys heard about it and staked out his house.  When he got home and turned off his alarm they forced him inside and made him open his safe.  There wasn't as much money as they thought he should have being a bookie and all but apparently he kept a bunch of it at another guys house that did the collections and payouts for him.  Since they weren't happy they started stabbing him and eventually shot him and he bled out in his house.  The killers stole his wallet and Cadillac and took off South out of San Antonio. 

A few days later one of his friends called my grandmother who was visiting us in Virginia to tell her he didn't show up at bowling so grandma asked him to check his house.  The guy found my uncle and my mom and grandma flew back to San Antonio.

The police were useless and my grandmother and mom solved the case by checking phone records and credit card charges.  They found 3 people that had his credit cards and those people ratted out the killers.

[SHOOTER12 8853]

2 hours ago, Cajun said:

Cecile Ham was my ex-wife's cousin.  It was weird because of my father's connection to ZZTop and Bill Ham, their producer and we didn't even realize how the dots lined up until the SA Rodeo hit town and my ex said, "Hey, I can get us tickets and backstage to Clint Black!"  Black's "Killing Time" album was still pretty fresh and was a favorite of mine.  So, I asked the ex, "How?".  She explained her relationship to the Hams.  I was like, "Small fucking world" and then gave her shit about not mentioning this to me before since she was well aware of my pop, ZZ, and all that stuff.  Anyway, we went, we hung out with Black after the show, and I got about 10 seconds to say a personal "thank you" to Bill Ham and his wife.  

Not long after that we hear that Ham's wife, Cecile had gone missing.  This is what followed...

I only knew her for a few moments, but watching what it did to my in-laws was chilling.

Anyway, they juiced the dude up real good.  

Inquiring minds something, something.. what was your dads connection to ZZ?

[Degenerate Gardner 4104]

This Frenchman was my wife's college prof. He taught fencing but apparently was handy with blades of all sizes. I believe they were having an affair (with the victim, not my wife - or so she says) and the vic wanted to break it off.

Drama Professor Charged in Stabbing Death of Actress

HOUSTON (AP) _ A university drama professor stabbed an actress to death in a park, then turned the knife on himself, police said.

Claude Caux, 57, a drama professor at the University of Houston, was in poor condition today at Ben Taub Hospital, suffering from several self- inflicted stab wounds to the abdomen. He was charged late Monday with murder.

Police said Caux stabbed 45-year-old Mary Avey Chovanetz several times Monday afternoon at Memorial Park in west Houston.

As passers-by ran to help the dying woman, Caux ″was walking around hollering and acting crazy. People were trying to stay away from him,″ Homicide Sgt. A.J. Toepoel said.

At one point, Caux told the crowd to ″please let us die,″ Toepoel said.

Ms. Chovanetz had performed at several area theaters. Caux, in addition to teaching, has assisted in staging at the Houston Ballet, in operas and at a local Shakespeare Festival.

Toepoel said police don’t know what the motive was. He said the two had known each other for several years.

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Degenerate Gardner

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2687]

This guy didn't succeed but not for lack of trying when he set fire to a home where his targets were sleeping

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Law-student-charged-with-arson-attempted-murder-5704818.php

He was my intern to whom I was teaching criminal law when he did this and was arrested, lol