5 Years Ago Today: Janice Vickers Kills Shirley Lindenbaum

CANYON LAKE, TEXAS -- On the night of November 3, 2006, sheriff’s deputies in Comal County, found the barefoot, mangled body of eighty-three-year-old Shirley Lindenbaum near 500 White Oak Drive in the Oaks subdivision of Startzville on the south side of Canyon Lake, about thirty miles north of San Antonio. A resident of the other side of the lake, forty-six-year-old Janice Marie Vickers, claimed to have run over her and then subsequently called 911 around 9:30 p.m.

The Comal County Sherriff’s Office, in conjunction with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Attorney General’s office, proceeded to conduct a two-year investigation of the incident. That led to the arrest of Vickers in December 2008 and a grand jury in early 2009 that determined she should be charged with intentionally striking Lindenbaum with the intent of killing her. Vickers pleaded not guilty to the charges.

After various delays, Vickers’ murder trial began November 2, 2009, one day short of the three-year anniversary of the killing, in the 207th Judicial District court in New Braunfels, Judge Jack Robison presiding. The entirety of the first day of the trial was devoted to selection of the four-man, eight-woman jury.

Much of the initial proceedings on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, involved personal testimony from witnesses intended to establish the respective characters of both the defendant and the victim. The prosecution also presented crime-scene photos that many of the people present found to be horrific and disturbing. The entire top of Lindenbaum’s head was removed when Vickers ran over it multiple times with her Chevrolet Tahoe, and the victim’s body was so badly contorted that, witnesses testified, her breasts and buttocks were both facing in the same direction.

“I’ll have nightmares for a long time,” Mary Lindenbaum, daughter-in-law of the victim, told me when I spoke with her. Other family members and friends of the slain woman seemed equally shaken by the circumstances of her death.

Events: 'Texas Confidential' Signings

Following are signings and other events involving Texas Confidential Michael O. Varhola. This list will get updated frequently over the coming months, so be sure to keep an eye on it and come out for any events you can make it to!

Nov. 19, 2011 (Saturday), New Braunfels, Texas: Weihnachtsmarkt, Book Signing, 1-4 p.m.
I am excited to be doing a signing at this great annual German-style Christmas fest in historic New Braunfels! In addition to having Texas Confidential on hand, I will also have copies of a number of other books I have written, including Life in Civil War America, Shipwrecks and Lost Treasure: Great Lakes, Ghosthunting Maryland, and Ghosthunting Virginia.

Event Report:Camp Mabry Main Exchange (Austin, Texas)

AUSTIN, TEXAS --

Event Report: Blue Willow Bookshop (Houston, Texas)

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- I would very much like to thank the entire staff of the Blue Willow Bookshop for setting up a great signing event here on Saturday, Oct. 22, for Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State! The wonderful ladies that run Blue Willow set up the signings I did at Comicpalooza earlier this year and I am pleased to know that we will be working together again at the convention in May 2012.

Special thanks are due to owner Valerie Koehler for scheduling the event, manager Alice Meloy (shown here with me at the signing) for setting up and running it, and bookseller Jordan McPhail for chatting with me during lulls in the action (as she graciously did when I met her during my signings at Comicpalooza). I very much enjoyed visiting with her and Alice and very much look forward to seeing them both again next time we do an event together!

Event Report: Tye Preston Memorial Library (Canyon Lake, Texas)

CANYON LAKE, TEXAS --