Three Years Ago Today: Zombie Alert!

Early on the morning of Monday, January 19, 2009, commuters in the state capital of Austin were surprised the see the dire warnings “ZOMBIES AHEAD” and “ZOMBIES AHEAD! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” on two large electronic signs. The messages had been posted sometime the night before.

Read more about this apparent prank in "Zombies Ahead!," a chapter in the the "Mayhem" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

41 Years Ago Today: Sharpstown Stock Scandal Starts

On January 18, 1971, attorneys for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in federal court in Dallas alleging stock fraud against a number of influential Texans, including Houston banker and real estate developer Frank W. Sharp, former Democratic state attorney general Waggoner Carr, and former state insurance commissioner John Osorio. The suit also named Sharp’s corporations, including the National Bankers Life Insurance Corporation and the Sharpstown State Bank. By the time the events these actions were initiating had played out, the state government would be shaken to its core and a number of promising political careers would be destroyed.

Read more about the Sharpstown Stock Scandal in the "Scandal" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

10 Years Ago This Month: Lay Resigns as Head of Enron

Ten years ago this month, in January 2002, Kenneth Lay resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of Enron, posts he had held since 1985 following the collapse of the corporation. Lay was ultimately convicted of 10 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, and making false and misleading statements and was facing decades in prison when he mysteriously died and was buried in a secret location, prompting speculation that he faked his own death and thereby escaped justice.

Lay's exploits are described in "The Enron Scandal," one of the chapters in the "Scandal" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

11 Years Ago This Month: Clinton Pardons Cisneros

Eleven years ago this month, in January 2001, as one of his last official acts as president, Bill Clinton pardoned U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros. After a four-year federal investigation, the former mayor of San Antonio had been indicted on 18 charges and convicted of lying to the FBI about how much money he had paid his mistress, gold-digging whore Linda Medlar.

Cisneros is one of the characters covered in "Paying for It, Lying About It — And Getting Away With It," one of the chapters in the "Sex" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

106 Years Ago Today: Birthday of 'Alligator Man' Joe Ball

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"!

Getting Back to Texas Confidential Online

Anyone who visits this site regularly knows that I generally post original content to it a couple times a week and might have wondered why nothing new has appeared in nearly two months! Ironically, the main reason is that throughout much of October and November I was driving around Texas doing signings and other promotional events for Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State.

Another drain on my resources was "National Novel Writing Month," an annual creative writing project that challenges participants to write a 50,000 word story between November 1 and November 30 that I decided to participate in this year. So, right in the middle of the book tour for Texas Confidential, I spent a month striving to complete a readable fantasy novel -- and am pleased to report that I succeeded in doing so.

Although I am the author or co-author of 10 non-fiction books, I have never really been keen on events like NaNoWriMo for a variety of reasons, but a number of things prompted me to accept the challenge this year. A major incentive for me was that one of the eleven New Year's resolutions I made for 2011 was to finish a novel by the end of the year and, not being on track to do that, I figured that if I was not going to get one done by the end of November that I sure as hell was not going to get one done in December.

Another incentive was the encouragement of my friend Robert Gruver, who also participated in the NaNoWriMo program this year, and I am proud to say that he also met the challenge and completed a 50,000 word novel during the 30-day writing period.

Swords of Kos: Necropolis is a swords-and-sorcery novel and, in that it does not really tie in with the subjects covered on this site I will not say any more about it other than it is on track for publication and that the first 10,000-or-so words of it appear on my NaNoWriMo page, for anyone who might be interested in reading it. Its imagery, however, does draw heavily on my own travels, particularly throughout the Mediterranean and Texas.

But, now that these latest demanding projects are largely done and out of the way, I am back, and will strive to provide useful and entertaining information and observations on this site throughout 2012!

Breaking News: 'Jerry Joseph' Jaws with GQ!

In May 2010, residents of Odessa, Texas, were stunned to learn that the standout sophomore Permian High School basketball player they knew as Jerry Joseph was really a 22-year old man.

Joseph -- aka Guerdwich Montimere, a naturalized immigrant from Haiti who played high school basketball in Florida (shown here hulking over a genuine high-school student) -- was arrested and has been jailed in Ector County, Texas, for the past 14 months and is awaiting trial on a half-dozen charges that include presenting false identification to a peace officer and statutory rape. Joseph/Montimere recently gave his first interview in more than a year to GQ magazine.

"Odessa is still dumbstruck," writes author Michael J. Mooney in the article. "Principal Garcia wonders if maybe the kid picked Permian because it's the school from Friday Night Lights. 'Maybe he thought we were all a bunch of dumb hillbillies?'"

Go to "Blindsided: The Jerry Joseph Basketball Scandal" to read the full text of the story in the July 2011 issue of GQ magazine. Joseph/Montimere is all the subject of the chapter "Friday Night Lies" in Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State. See also "Jerry Joseph Sentenced to 3 Years!"

Breaking News: 'Strange Family Ties: Man Discovers Mother Killed by Joe Ball'

One of the villains of the chapter "Texas Ser-y'all Killers," in the "Murder" section of Texas Confidential, is legendary murderer Joe Ball. Known as the "Butcher of Elmendorff," Ball kept a pit full of alligators behind the tavern he ran outside of San Antonio and is reputed to have fed the remains of his victims to these gristly pets.

On May 23, 2011, NBC affiliate WOAI News 4 ran a segment titled "Strange Family Ties: Man Discovers Mother Killed by Joe Ball," which is available online for readers to watch.

This was a followup to a report WOAI did on May 10 titled "Serial Killer Fed His Victims to Alligators" that included an interview with the current resident of the property where Ball committed his crimes.