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"!

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.

Breaking News: Texas 'Arab Slayer' Executed

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS -- At 8:53 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice executed convicted murderer Mark Anthony Stroman in the state execution chamber.

Stroman had been on death row at the TDCJ's Polunsky since April 2002, when he was convicted of killing a Dallas-area convenience store clerk from India during a shooting spree that he said was in retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Even though I lay on this gurney, seconds away from my death, I am at total peace," Stroman said a few miniute before his death, adding that he was "still a proud American, Texas loud, Texas proud." The former day laborer said hate in the world needed to end, said he loved his friends, and asked for God's grace shortly before receiving a lethal injection less than an hour after his final court appeal had been rejected.

"God bless America. God bless everyone," Stroman said. "Let's do this damn thing ... One, two, there it goes." Eleven minutes later he was pronounced dead.

In October 2001, Stroman went on a shooting spree throughout the Dallas area, killing two men, 49-year-old Vasudev Patel, an immigrant from India, and Waqar Hasan, an immigrant from Pakistan, and severely wounding Rais Bhuiyan, a native of Bangladesh. It was for the murder of Patel that Stroman was put to death.

Stroman claimed that he was motivated to kill people from the Middle East because of the September 11 terrorist attacks. None of his victims, however, were Arabs or from the Middle East.

Witnesses to the execution included five of Stroman's friends and a police officer who attended on behalf of Patel's family.

Bhuiyan had unsuccessfully attempted to have the execution halted, asserting that his Muslim religious beliefs required him to forgive Stroman. Bhuiyan had also requested to spend time with Stroman so as to learn more about why he had launched his rampage. Stroman shot Bhuiyan in the face with a shotgun, blinding him in one eye.

"Killing him is not the solution," Bhuiyan said. "He's learning from his mistake. If he's given a chance, he's able to reach out to others and spread that message to others." Unmoved by appeals to Muslim mercy, the courts denied his requests.

Stroman's execution was delayed for almost three hours while a state judge in Austin considered Bhuiyan's lawsuit to block it, until the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals barred him from doing so (see the chapter "Cruel Justice" in Texas Confidential for the Texas high courts hard line on death penalty cases). Earlier in the day the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected appeals in the case.

Stroman's claims of patriotism notwithstanding, he was a career criminal who commmitted his first armed robbery at age 12. He had previous convictions for burglary, robbery, theft, and credit card abuse, had served two terms in prison, and was free on bond for a gun possession arrest when he murdered Patel and Bhuiyan.

Stroman's execution was thus far the eighth in Texas in 2011 and at least another eight more are scheduled to meet their fates in the state's death chamber this year.

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.