On January 7, 1896, Joe Ball, who went on to become known variously as “the Alligator Man,” “the Butcher of Elmendorf,” and “the Bluebeard of South Texas,” was born. A boogeyman of Texas folklore, Joe Ball was a World War I combat veteran and bootlegger who, after Prohibition, opened a watering hole called the Sociable Inn in Elmendorf, Texas, just southeast of San Antonio. Beside it he built a pond where he kept five alligators, charging people to see them, especially during feeding times, when he threw them live dogs and cats. Animals were not the only things he was feeding his reptilian pets, however, and from 1936 to 1938 he is believed to have killed more than 20 women and disposed of the remains of most of them in his pond. His apparent victims included his barmaids, former girlfriends, and even his wife.
Ball is one of the characters covered in "Texas Ser'yall Killers," one of the chapters in the "Murder" section of
Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!
See also "Strange Family Ties: Man Discovers Mother Killed by Joe Ball"!
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