3 Years Ago Today: High School Discovers Sophomore is 22!

Three years ago today, on April 27, 2009, Permian High School school administrators in Odessa, Texas, received an anonymous email message revealing that the person they had known as 15-year-old sophomore Jerry Joseph was really 22-year-old Haitian immigrant Guerdwich Montimere! Montimere had become famous as a standout basketball player for the high school team where, not surprisingly, he towered over and ran circles around his classmates. As his fame spread nationally, it was learned that he had already played basketball for another high school in Florida, and graduated from it, several years before.

On July 27, 2011, Montimere was convicted on three counts of Tampering with a Government Document and two counts of Sexual Assault on a Child and sentenced to three years in prison. He is currently serving his sentence at the Tulia unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Swisher, Texas, and is eligible for parole in May 2012.

Montimere is the subject of "Friday Night Lies," one of the chapters in the "Scandal" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

180 Years Ago This Month: Houston Beats Congressman!

In April 1832, 180 years ago this month, future "Father of the Texas Revolution" Sam Houston was in Washington, D.C., where he was working to expose frauds being perpetrated by government agents against Cherokee Indians in Arkansas. While he was there, Ohio Congressman William Stanbery gave a speech to Congress in which he accused Houston himself of corruption in the supplying of provisions to the Cherokee. When Stanbery declined to reply to Houston’s correspondence about these slurs, Houston confronted him on Pennsylvania Avenue and, even as the congressman tried to shoot him, proceeded to beat him into submission with a hickory cane.

21 Years Ago Today: Eyeball Killer Strikes Again!

Twenty-one years ago today, on March 18, 1991, Dallas prostitute Shirley Williams was found naked near a school, with facial bruising, a broken nose, gunshot wounds to her head and face, and both her eyes removed.

Four days later, police arrested 47-year-old Charles Frederick Albright -- who would become known as “the Dallas Ripper,” “the Dallas Slasher,” and “the Eyeball Killer” -- and charged him with that and 11 other murders. His trial began on December 13, 1991, and, five days later, he was convicted on a combination of circumstantial and forensic evidence and was given eight life sentences. He is currently confined in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Bill Clements unit in Amarillo.

Albright is one of the monsters covered in "Texas Ser-y'all Killers," one of the chapters in the "Murder" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

Breaking News: Four Shot at Jefferson County Courthouse!

BEAUMONT, TEXAS -- At least one person was killed and three injured when a gunman went on a shooting spree at the Jefferson County Courthouse on Wednesday, March 14.

Police managaged to subdue the shooter and he is reportedly in custody. According to officials, the suspect in the attack is one Nathaniel Bartholomew, who had a hearing at the court later in the day. According to sources, Hawthorne had been charged with sexually assaulting his own mentally impaired daughter and that one of the people he attempted to kill was her mother.

Reportedly, the shooting occured outside of the courthouse near its entrance and all of the victims were visitors to the courthouse. The person killed was reportedly an elderly woman, who was found laying on the sidewalk, and one victim may have been found at a nearby bus station.

More details will be provided as they become available so keep your eye on this space!

176 Years Ago Today: Crockett Searches for Fannin

On March 3, 1836, David Crockett and a handful of companions slipped out of the besieged Alamo in order to search the surrounding area for Col. James W. Fannin and his men, who they hoped were coming to relieve the fort. Crockett and most of his fellow defenders were killed three days later when the Alamo was overrun by Mexican forces under Gen. Santa Anna.

Fannin, who had been unwilling to risk himself in a risky attempt to relieve the San Antonio fort, prolonged his life long enough to surrender his command to the Mexican forces three-and-a-half weeks later and then become one of the victims of the infamous Goliad Massacre.

Read more about Crockett and his companions in "Rogues of the Alamo," one of the chapters in the "Scandal" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

Breaking New: Texas Executes Cop Killer!

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS -- The Texas Department of Criminal Justice executed convicted murderer George Rivas, 41, by lethal injection the evening of Wednesday, February 29. He was declared dead at 6:22 p.m.

Rivas was leader of the fugitive gang known as the "Texas Seven," which escaped on December 13, 2000, from the John Connally prison unit, near the south Texas town of Kenedy, where they had been serving lengthy sentences. Eleven days later, on Christmas Eve, they killed 29-year-old Dallas-area police officer Aubrey Hawkins (shown below) while robbing a sporting goods store in Irving, Texas. Rivas and his companions fled the scene of the killing and were found hiding in Colorado in January 2001.

"For the Hawkins family, I do apologize for everything that happened, not because I'm here, but for closure in your hearts. I really believe you deserve that,” Rivas said during his final statement.

None of Hawkins' family attended the execution but four of the officer's colleagues and the district attorney who prosecuted the case were present on their behalf. A number of Rivas' friends and his Canadian wife, who he married recently while imprisoned, also attended.

"I am grateful for everything in my life," Rivas said. "To my wife, I will be waiting for you."

Rivas, a native of El Paso, is the second member of the "Texas Seven" to be executed. One of the others, Larry James Harper, committed suicide before he was captured by authorities and the other four -- Joseph C. Garcia, Randy Ethan Halprin, Patrick Henry Murphy Jr., and Donald Keith Newbury -- are currently on death row and awaiting execution.

A Year Ago This Month: Lecherous Lawyer Convicted in Scandal w. 12-Year-Old!

On February 7, 2011, a jury in New Braunfels, Texas, sentenced local attorney Mark A. Clark to seven years in prison for trying to induce a 12-year-old girl to pose for him in sexy clothing at his office the previous summer. A search of the office by police revealed a hidden stash of items that included more hard lemonade and some vodka, champagne glasses, a breast pump with hoses, condoms, cell phones, KY Jelly, a sex toy, a box of feminine douches, corsets, fishnet stockings, lacy underwear, and bikinis.

Following his conviction, the Texas State Bar Association also took action against Clark and, on February 23, suspended him and ordered that he contact all of his current clients to inform them of his conviction and return any payments for services not yet rendered. As a result, he will likely never again be allowed to practice law in Texas.

Read more about Clark in "Mark of Shame," one of the chapters in the "Sex" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State! Also, in the "small world" category, Clark was the defense attorney for convicted murderess Janice Vickers, who brutally killed an 83-year-old woman in November 2006.