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Gacy Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker DTK. Every 60 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:00.560 week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking infamous 61 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:04.639 killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host 62 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:08.199 journalist and author Dan Zufanski. 63 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:17.840 Good Evening. 64 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:23.879 Critically acclaimed author Catherine Casey delivers a riveting account of 65 00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:27.639 the brutal murders of young women in the ive forty 66 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:32.439 five Texas killing fields over a three decade span. More 67 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:36.840 than twenty women, many teenagers, died mysteriously in the small 68 00:03:36.879 --> 00:03:41.520 towns bordering Interstate forty five, a fifty mile stretch of 69 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:46.319 highway running from Houston to Galveston. The victim was strangled, 70 00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:51.759 shot or savagely beaten. Six met their demise in pairs. 71 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:55.400 They had one thing in common, being in the wrong 72 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:59.759 place at the wrong time. The day she vanished, Collette 73 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:04.159 will Wilson waited for her mother after ban practice. Best 74 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:07.520 friends Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson loved to surf and 75 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:12.360 were last seen hitchhiking. Laura Kate Smither dreamed of becoming 76 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:16.759 a ballerina and disappeared just weeks before her thirteenth birthday. 77 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:22.199 In this harrowing true crime exposition, Award winning journalist Katherine 78 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:28.399 Casey tracks these tragic cases, investigates the evidence, interviews the suspects, 79 00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:31.920 and pulls back the cloak of secrecy in search of 80 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:35.720 elusive answers. The book that we're featuring this evening is 81 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:40.199 deliver Us, Three Decades of Murder and Redemption in the 82 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:45.240 Infamous I forty five Texas Killing Fields, with my special guest, 83 00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:49.120 journalist and author Katherine Casey. Welcome back to the program, 84 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:50.879 and thank you for agreeing to this interview. 85 00:04:51.399 --> 00:04:54.439 Katherine Casey, thank you for inviting me. 86 00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:55.759 Dan, I'm happy to be here. 87 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:57.480 Thank you very much. 88 00:04:57.480 --> 00:04:59.600 It's always a pleasure to have you on the program 89 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:02.199 and your one of the audience favorites. I've got to say, 90 00:05:02.759 --> 00:05:05.560 but that's just based on some fantastic books over the 91 00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:09.720 last few years since this program has begun. Now, let's 92 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:13.800 get to this infamous Texas Killing Fields and tell us 93 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:17.639 about I forty five and the area that we're talking 94 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:22.800 about encompassing this three decade long story. So tell us 95 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:25.560 about the Texas Killing Fields. Where is this area that 96 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.720 they're referring to. Tell us a little bit about this 97 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:30.480 Interstate I forty five. 98 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:34.519 Well, I forty five runs all the way from Dallas 99 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:39.360 down to Galveston, and the area where I'm looking at 100 00:05:39.399 --> 00:05:42.800 in the book is south of Houston through a suburban 101 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:46.480 area going on to Galveston Island. It's about a fifty 102 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:51.480 mile stretch and over a period of three decades. Actually 103 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:53.439 it extends longer than that. But in the book, I 104 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:57.600 looked at three decades, the seventies, the eighties, and the nineties. 105 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.920 There were twenty girls who disappear heared in and around 106 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:06.720 that area who were murdered, and I back in the 107 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:11.720 nineteen nineties, the Houston Chronicle and the Galveston Daily News 108 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:15.000 started running pictures of the girls. I live in the 109 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:18.879 Houston area, and I started seeing them, and as a journalist, 110 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:21.560 I was just intrigued. I wanted to know what happened 111 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:25.319 with them, so I started doing some investigating. But this 112 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:29.120 area is a transient area Galveston Island. There are a 113 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:32.680 lot of vacationers. There's a lot of partying. There's the beaches, 114 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.560 there's spring break. The area farther up, going a little 115 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:40.120 bit north, there are a lot of small communities. There 116 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:43.360 are about eleven different law enforcement agencies in this area 117 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:47.240 between all the different cities with their police departments, three 118 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:52.680 different county police sheriff's offices, and then DPS and other 119 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:57.240 branches of law enforcement. So it's a kind of a 120 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:02.000 hodgepodge of a small town that over the years, as 121 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:06.079 Houston has grown, they've grown. But back in the seventies 122 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:09.040 when this book began, when the cases in this book began, 123 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:12.800 the first ones, this was rather a quiet area filled 124 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:14.759 with a lot of small towns. 125 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:24.120 Now you basically start this incredible story tragedy April twenty seventh, 126 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:28.839 nineteen seventy one, sixteen year old girl sunbathing on East 127 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:35.199 Beach tell us about this first incident in nineteen seventy one. 128 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:38.639 Well, this was just to mention I found in the 129 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:42.439 Galveston newspaper, and the girl was attacked on the beach 130 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:49.839 that day. She escaped. But after that it seemed as 131 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:52.759 if things started to build, as if there was a momentum, 132 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.360 as if this attack were kind of a foreboding event 133 00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:59.879 in what was to come. It wasn't long after that 134 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:06.600 but Collette Wilson disappeared. That was on June seventeenth, nineteen 135 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:10.879 seventy when she was in Alvin, Texas, on the mainland, 136 00:08:10.920 --> 00:08:14.120 a little farther up, and she was waiting for her 137 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:18.959 mother after band practice. It wasn't wasn't unusual back in 138 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:22.040 the seventies, you know, Dan, Nowadays we don't let our 139 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:24.480 children do many of the things that kids did back 140 00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:28.600 in the seventies. In the eighties and nineties, we're more protective, 141 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:31.240 we know more about these things. But back then, in 142 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:36.240 small town Texas, small town USA, small towns around the world, 143 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:39.159 a lot of parents didn't really understand that there were 144 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:43.159 dangers out there. So when Clara Wilson let Collette stand 145 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:45.879 on the side of the road for five minutes, she 146 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:49.320 didn't foresee that there was any danger involved in them. 147 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:55.120 Now, like I say, it was a different time. They 148 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:58.720 had a big household, she had literally left her. It 149 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:02.159 was a time perodod of six minutes, even back in 150 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:05.600 those days when they were well we consider careless today. 151 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:12.240 Six minutes and their father Tom, So what does Tom 152 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:15.960 do at this time when they they believe that their 153 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:16.840 daughter is missing. 154 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:22.480 Well, they reported Collect missing almost immediately, and the police 155 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:25.840 just didn't respond very well, which would become kind of 156 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:31.879 universal in a lot of these stories. They immediately assumed 157 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:36.240 the police immediately assumed that Collette was a runaway, or 158 00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:38.480 that Collett had wandered off with a friend and would 159 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:43.480 be back. So they did very little. They Claire remembers 160 00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:49.519 them standing out on the highway where collettad disappeared, talking 161 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:52.320 as if they were waiting for the person who had 162 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:55.679 taken Collect to bring her back. So little was done 163 00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:59.960 by law enforcement, so Tom started his own search as well. 164 00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:02.000 Was the neighbors in the area. A lot of them 165 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:05.360 came to the aid of the Wilsons, who were very popular, 166 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:07.919 very well loved in the Alvin area. Tom was a 167 00:10:07.960 --> 00:10:13.120 local dentist. Unfortunately they found they didn't find any clues, 168 00:10:13.159 --> 00:10:16.480 but Tom never stopped looking. He kept looking for collepse. 169 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:23.320 Now a month later, in July nineteen seventy one, talk 170 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:28.519 about a crew on a scaffolding painting near Pelican Island 171 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:32.879 Bridge discovered something. So tell us what they discovered. 172 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:37.720 They saw something bobbing in the water and the waves 173 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:41.360 on the distance, and they watched it float in and 174 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:43.600 when it got closer to the bridge they realized that 175 00:10:43.639 --> 00:10:47.639 it was a body. They called police and the body 176 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:51.879 of Brenda Jones, fourteen was pulled out of the out 177 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:56.279 of the water. She'd been reported missing the evening before 178 00:10:56.320 --> 00:10:59.720 by her family. Brenda had gone up to visit her 179 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:02.840 aunt at the hospital and had not returned home. 180 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:14.320 Now, with the continuing with Claire and Tom, what is 181 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:19.039 the how does to show the incredible grief that Tom 182 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:20.600 and Claire are experiencing. 183 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:25.000 What lengths does Tom go to look for his daughter? 184 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:28.679 Well, he gets to a certain point and he decides 185 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.799 the police aren't looking. So when the Leeds come in 186 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:36.960 in Louisiana in different areas, Tom goes and he at 187 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.840 night the family gathers around the bed and they pray 188 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:42.639 for Collette and they ask Saint Michael to bring her home. 189 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:46.799 And the whole family is just eaten up by what's happening. 190 00:11:46.840 --> 00:11:50.759 But they feel helpless, as most parents would. It seems 191 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:53.480 that there's just so little they can do. They do 192 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:57.399 come up with a reward. There was also a reward 193 00:11:57.399 --> 00:11:59.960 put up for Brenda Jones by people in the galves, 194 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:04.679 but you know, no real leads came in. 195 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:10.360 How is Brenda found? We just passed over that, and 196 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:12.600 I think it's very important. How was Brenda found? In 197 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:18.840 terms of her hands in her and her and her ankles. 198 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:21.240 She had been she was nude from the waist down 199 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:26.240 and her they had taken she had She was wearing 200 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:28.519 what was very popular in those days. They were kind 201 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:33.879 of these Roman sandals with long straps that laced across 202 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:35.720 her up to her knee and then tied in the 203 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:39.840 front right. Someone had torn those off of her shoes 204 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:43.360 and used them to bind her hands and her ankles. 205 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:51.000 So how do police police do admit that there's a 206 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:56.679 kidnapping likely with Collette Wilson, So how do police proceed 207 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:00.879 with this investigation? And the Brenda Jones. Obviously there's no 208 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:03.360 connection made at this earlier point. 209 00:13:03.399 --> 00:13:05.360 But tell us how police proceed. 210 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:08.840 Well, you know, they didn't connect them for a variety 211 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:12.360 of reasons. One was that Collette was white and Brenda 212 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:16.360 was black. Brenda was on Galveston Island, Collette was up 213 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:19.399 in the mainland in Alvin. So No, they didn't tie 214 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:23.639 them together for quite a while, and police tried to, 215 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:27.440 you know, send out flyers. They did start the reward, 216 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:31.159 but the families really felt that there wasn't the effort 217 00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:34.320 made that they wanted to see, especially Brenda's family. They 218 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:39.200 felt that since they were you know, lower income and 219 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:43.440 lived in the projects in Galveston, that Brenda's disappearance didn't 220 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:44.720 get the attention it should. 221 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:49.639 Now you talk about you've introduced. 222 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:52.279 Of course, we have a host of characters that you introduced, 223 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:57.919 and you talk about a character named Johnny Wicks. Tell 224 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:02.480 us about this gentleman and his relation to this case 225 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:02.919 so far. 226 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:07.799 Well, Johnny was actually a woman and she was married 227 00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:13.279 to Sam and they had the ski shop in Galveston 228 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:15.879 where kids would go and they would water ski. They 229 00:14:15.879 --> 00:14:17.759 had an old boat off the back of the house 230 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:20.840 and they would take them skiing. And off it's by you. 231 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:25.000 And the next two girls who disappeared, Sharon Shaw and 232 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:30.279 Ronda Renee Johnson, were last seen at the Wicks' ski 233 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:33.320 shop that day. They had gone in and they had 234 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:36.519 been there, not frequently, but off and on over the 235 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:41.039 over that summer. And they went wanting to water ski 236 00:14:41.159 --> 00:14:44.679 but the water was too rough and and mister Wicks 237 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:48.080 told them to know they couldn't go out, and so 238 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:52.840 the girls took off and they were seen walking towards 239 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:55.639 sixty first Street, which is one of the main streets 240 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:58.879 that goes down to the Gulf. They were they were 241 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.519 talking about going down the beach to meet some friends 242 00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:04.480 and they just disappeared. 243 00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:13.559 Now what have their parents? So what was their response 244 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:16.240 to this? To the two girls missing? 245 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:20.360 The two separate families' responses to the girls missing, Well. 246 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:25.000 Sharon and Ronda had talked off and on about running 247 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:28.799 away to Malibu. The girls were kind of on the 248 00:15:28.919 --> 00:15:30.759 edge a little bit. They had been getting into a 249 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:33.960 lot a little bit of the nineteen seventies counterculture that 250 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:36.879 was going on, and so they were a little bit 251 00:15:36.919 --> 00:15:39.320 on the wild side and they were having a pretty 252 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:43.279 phone summer. They were both fourteen years old, and so 253 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:48.120 when they disappeared, the parents were really concerned, but the 254 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:52.279 friends thought that they had probably that Ronda and Sharon 255 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:54.480 had just gone off to Malibu, as it always said 256 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:57.519 they would, and they were there surfing somewhere. So there 257 00:15:57.639 --> 00:16:04.960 was no really big search mounted, except by Sharon's mom, 258 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:07.240 who spent quite a bit of time driving one of 259 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:10.840 their friends around looking at the places the girls frequented 260 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:14.240 trying to find her daughter. But it was tamia Vail. 261 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:18.480 There were no clues, nothing came up. Again, it was 262 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:20.440 if the girl. It was as if the girl had 263 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:21.360 just disappeared. 264 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:29.919 Now was there a white van spotted at that time 265 00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:35.039 by witnesses or is this the next two girls that 266 00:16:35.240 --> 00:16:38.080 have the witness testify that there was a white van 267 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:39.440 possibly in the area. 268 00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:44.080 That's the next two girls. A girl named Gloria Gonzalez, 269 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:47.000 a nineteen year old grocery store bookkeeper. She worked at 270 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.919 a Kroger store, disappeared in October nineteen seventy one. She 271 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:55.320 was the next to disappear. So at that point, over 272 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:59.320 from June to October, there are five girls that have 273 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:03.000 gone missing in and around the Galveston South Houston area. 274 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:09.599 And then in November Maria Johnson and Debbie Ackerman had 275 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:12.599 left the house that morning. Debbie was staying over at 276 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:17.680 Maria's house, and they went to a basket in Robin's 277 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:22.119 ice cream shop in Galveston Island. Debbie had her little 278 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.680 suitcase with her because she'd been at Maria's house the 279 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:28.880 night before, and they had a brief conversation with a 280 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:31.720 girl they knew worked in the shop, and that girl 281 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:37.279 saw them outside hitchhiking afterward, and the girl saw her, 282 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:41.759 saw the two girls saw Debbie and Maria get into 283 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:44.920 a white van with a peace sign on the back. 284 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:51.200 Interesting, now, what did please do with that information? And 285 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:56.240 was there a composite done for the was a witness 286 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:59.279 being able to make a composite of the driver of 287 00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:00.000 that vand at all? 288 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:05.279 Unfortunately, no, Dan the driver wasn't seen at all by 289 00:18:05.319 --> 00:18:08.640 the witness, just the van. And there were some conflicting 290 00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:12.640 reports immediately. There were some things came in that weren't true. 291 00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:15.720 There'd been a girl a few weeks earlier who'd been 292 00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:22.000 accosted by a driver in a green pickup truck, and 293 00:18:22.119 --> 00:18:24.559 so a report went out for a green pickup truck, 294 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:28.839 and no one really put two and two together. They 295 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:34.640 started looking for Debbie and Maria the following day. Their 296 00:18:34.680 --> 00:18:37.799 parents started that night, actually started making phone calls. But 297 00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:40.960 they were reported missing by both families the next day. 298 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:46.039 And in this instance, police yes said that, you know, 299 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:48.440 it could possibly be that the girls had run away, 300 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:50.240 but they did start to look. 301 00:18:51.720 --> 00:18:51.880 Right. 302 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:55.519 It wasn't then until a few days later, though, that 303 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:58.599 things became pretty serious, and that's when the girl's bodies 304 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:02.640 were found floating in a bi north of the area 305 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:03.640 where they disappeared. 306 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:07.559 Now, tell us who they've found and what was the 307 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:11.680 condition and what was the likely or the evident murder 308 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:15.359 method when with those bodies that were found. 309 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:18.880 The girls were found. Maria and Debbie were found in 310 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:22.920 a place called Turner Bayou and it's a lonely area. 311 00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:25.720 It's kind of oil land. There's a lease out there, 312 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:30.119 there's a well, and they were found in a in 313 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.200 the bayou which had water in it, and they were 314 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:38.680 underneath a bridge. They found Maria's body first, and she 315 00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:41.279 was right at the foot of the bridge. She still 316 00:19:41.319 --> 00:19:44.960 had on her jewelry, she was still wearing the top 317 00:19:45.079 --> 00:19:48.279 that she'd had on the day before, but she was 318 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:51.799 nude from the waist down and her hands and ankles 319 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:55.559 were tied, just as Brenda Jones's had been months earlier 320 00:19:55.599 --> 00:19:58.839 when she was found floating near the Pelican Island Bridge. 321 00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:04.680 They mounted a search. After Maria was identified, they mounted 322 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:08.960 a search and they found Debbie Ackerman's body just a 323 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:12.240 short distance away on the bank of the Vayu and 324 00:20:12.359 --> 00:20:16.319 she was in similar conditions. Her body was also bound 325 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:20.240 at the legs, at the ankles, and at the rest. 326 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:22.200 Both growth had been shot. 327 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:27.880 Now, tell us a little bit about Debbie Ackerman's funeral. 328 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:32.400 Well, Debbie had been born on the island they call 329 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.440 it b o I in Galveston and so, and the 330 00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:40.960 family had a lot of friends, so she had a 331 00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:43.720 very large funeral. A lot of the kids showed up. 332 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:49.200 By then, we've got seven missing kids or girls and 333 00:20:50.359 --> 00:20:54.079 you know, have disappeared and or been murdered in the area. 334 00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:59.880 So people were really on edge. The families, the parents 335 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:03.000 were not letting their kids out. There was a lot 336 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.599 of talk of somebody they called the purple passion killer, 337 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:10.440 because both Maria and Debbie had been wearing kind of 338 00:21:10.519 --> 00:21:14.559 maroon or burgundy sweaters when they disappeared, and Collette Wilson 339 00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:19.359 had on purple shorts. The girls themselves, the teenage girls 340 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:25.079 who showed up kind of took refuge or trick solas 341 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:28.119 in what they saw as the girls being in situations 342 00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:31.200 they shouldn't have been in, like Maria and Debbie, who 343 00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:34.839 are hitchhiking at the time. So, you know, there's an 344 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:37.799 uneasiness when something like this is going on. No one 345 00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:40.960 knows quite what's happening, why it's happening, who's doing it. 346 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:44.759 They don't know who will be next, but you know, 347 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:47.640 they try to tell themselves it won't be them. You 348 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:48.680 know that they're saved. 349 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:56.599 You introduced an interesting character that inadvertently becomes really involved 350 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.400 in the case, in that sheriff Buster Kern, and he's 351 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:03.960 interested in this case. Uh, tell us about what he uncovers. 352 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:10.400 And again before we talk about this relentless search undergone 353 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:11.920 by by Tim Wilson. 354 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:20.279 Well, Uh, the sheriff went out. Uh it was in 355 00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:24.839 January the following year, so it's about two months after 356 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:29.359 the Ackerman and Johnson girls' bodies were found. Another body 357 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:32.480 was found. This time it was remains, it was skeletal remains, 358 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:36.720 and it was in another bayou near Taylor Lake, which 359 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:40.079 is farther north near Seacrest, not far from the shoreline 360 00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:46.240 the beaches going in the Gulf, and it was identified 361 00:22:46.279 --> 00:22:51.359 as the as the remains of Sharon Shaw. And then 362 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:54.400 they were up there looking for the remains of Renee 363 00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:59.480 Johnson and he helped, he helped find those remains. 364 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:08.440 Now these again, it's it's interesting how you the the 365 00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:12.799 police doubt that at first that these girls are runaways. 366 00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:15.079 The families are adamant. 367 00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:18.960 That these girls would not have run away for any 368 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:22.960 reason whatsoever, and they have these relentless searches. Tell us 369 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:29.400 about this ongoing search that where police initially searched, Wilson 370 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:32.240 believes that that they should be searched again and his 371 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:39.200 effort to get that done. 372 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:46.400 Well after after Debbie, after the girls disappeared, Collect's dad, 373 00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:52.920 Tom Wilson, keeps looking for Collect and goes off into 374 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.720 the woods, often with the neighbors in the area looking 375 00:23:56.359 --> 00:24:02.920 but really not you know, finding any evidence until later. 376 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:07.680 Her body is found near the Attics Reservoir outside Houston, 377 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:14.039 along with the body of Gloria and Gonzalez, the Kroger bookkeeper. 378 00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:19.799 Right, and Gonzalez has found strangled, as opposed to the 379 00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:23.759 other girls that have been found shot is that correct. 380 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:30.119 Uh, Collette Wilson is they believe that she was hid 381 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:32.839 in the head they found when they found her skull, 382 00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:35.319 they found that that part of her skull was crushed 383 00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:39.799 with Gloria and Gonzalez. They believe that, yes, she was strangled. 384 00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:44.160 The body was decapitated when they found it, but they 385 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:48.960 believed it was from decomposition, not from anyone doing that, 386 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:53.160 not from the killer, uh, you know, decapitating her after 387 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:57.599 her death. So, yeah, the girls were not all killed 388 00:24:57.640 --> 00:24:59.599 in the same way, but they were killed over a 389 00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:02.400 very brief period of time. I mean, you're looking from 390 00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:06.400 just in nineteen seventy one, there are seven girls in 391 00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:08.920 the area who die. 392 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:14.279 Right now, you talk about the public reaction, and then 393 00:25:14.279 --> 00:25:19.599 you also talk about the media reaction with iconic journalists 394 00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:24.680 like Walter Cronkite interviewing the sheriff Kern. So tell us 395 00:25:24.680 --> 00:25:27.000 a little about the public reaction and the meati reaction 396 00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:30.440 to these missing women being found. 397 00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:35.880 Well, you know, the fear bills throughout the entire area, 398 00:25:35.880 --> 00:25:39.480 and not just in Galveston County or South Houston, but 399 00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:42.759 throughout the Gulf Coast. People started to worry about their daughters. 400 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:45.200 So there was a lot of pressure being put on 401 00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:49.319