Introducing Of Hell: Texas True Crime

This is a preview of Of Hell: Texas True Crime, a narrative investigation into the darkest crimes committed on Texas soil.

From the creators of Gone Cold, each episode dives deep into cases where violence leaves a permanent scar on the land and the people who call it home.

This clip features the haunting case of Nancy, a beloved mother taken from her home and brutally tortured and murdered.

What begins as a tragic disappearance in a quiet Texas neighborhood unravels into a story of fear, grief, and a killer who believed he could erase a life without consequence.

Hear the clip right here, and if it leaves you wanting answers — and needing justice — subscribe to Of Hell: Texas True Crime wherever you listen to podcasts.

Of Hell: Texas True Crime on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ofhellpodcast/

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, y'all, I want to take a moment to introduce
you to a new show of ours. It's called of
Hell Texas True Crime. A podcast about the killers who
leave scorch marks on families, neighborhoods, and anyone who dares
to remember, killers whose crimes leave behind one burning question,

(00:22):
are there more victims? Each episode follows the trail of
a killer who thought they could bury the truth, but
in Texas, secrets have a way of clawing back to
the surface. You're about to hear a clip from of
Hell's second episode about the brutal killing of a working mother,

(00:42):
a neighbor, a woman who was taken from her home
and tortured before ultimately being slain by a madman we
call the Slayer Saint. If what you hear next gets
its hooks into you, subscribe to of Hell Texas True
Crime wherever you're listening right now. Some folks aren't simply
from Hell. Thereof it. Here's the preview of of Hell

(01:07):
Slayer Saint Part two. Nancy. At around twelve forty five
am on September sixteenth, nineteen seventy, Jean Mitchell was on
his way home from work at trans Western Oil pipeline company.

(01:30):
It was quiet, with almost no other vehicles on the road,
nothing out of the ordinary for a sleepy town. On
a work in school night, the man worked a lot
and late an exhausted cog in the big energy machine. Luckily,
his drive home to ten fifty seven Adams Street was short,

(01:50):
just over five miles. When he pulled up to the house,
Jean saw that several lights inside were on. He was
pleasantly surprised. He rarely got to spend time on the
weekdays with his wife and kids. Had Nancy waited up
for him, he wondered. But as he entered the house,
the one thing that caught his attention was the silence Nancy.

(02:14):
Jean said, his voice slightly elevated. There was no answer.
He looked over at the sewing machine. The light was on,
the fabric remained draped between the press or foot and
the throat plate. He could hear the slight buzz of
electricity flowing through the machine as he drew nearer. Nancy's

(02:36):
cigarettes and an ash tray with a partially smoked butt
sat on the sewing table, and underneath, Jean noticed were
his wife's shoes. That was Nancy always barefoot inside Nancy,
he called out again. Still nothing. Jean made his way
around the house, the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom. The

(03:00):
search didn't take long. The working class family lived in
a modest home, nothing fancy. His wife was nowhere to
be seen. After waking the children, who'd been asleep in
their bedroom, Jean asked where their mother was. They didn't know.
Wasn't she home, they asked. Confused, Jean traveled from room

(03:24):
to room one more time and then took a look outside. Nothing.
He called several relatives, none of whom had seen or
heard from Nancy, except her uncle, who told Jean that
everything was fine when they spoke just a few hours before.
The man became frantic. It was late, and the unlit

(03:44):
homes spanning the entirety of this block attested to it.
On any other night, it would be the kind of
darkness that says everyone's asleep and nothing bad ever happens here.
But not tonight. Tonight, it and the silence were foreboding.
Jeane needed to know. If anyone heard anything, their slumber

(04:07):
be damned. Next Door, his groggy neighbor rubbed his eyes
but snapped to attention at the line of questioning, gosh, no,
I wouldn't know where she went. He told Jean he'd
heard a car door shut that night, but hadn't noticed
anything else, the neighbor said. Jean then questioned the man

(04:28):
who lived across the street. He reported hearing a dog barking,
but could tell the distraught man nothing else. Jean went
on to speak with a few other neighbors, but none
offered any answers. He stopped, if only for a second,
trying to remain calm, trying to think, but no one
else came to mind. There was no one else to

(04:51):
talk to. After hours of searching in vain for his wife,
Jean went back home and phoned the Winkler County sheriff
office to report her missing. Two deputies arrived at the
Mitchell's home within minutes. First, they took a look around
the house. The officers noticed Nancy's shoes under the sewing

(05:13):
table and the half smoked cigarette as if she'd been
interrupted by a knock on the door and extinguished it
before answering. They noticed her closet and drawers were full.
She obviously hadn't packed up and moved on. Her purse
anyway had been left behind and the billfold found on
the sewing table contained two twenty dollars bills. It seemed

(05:37):
robbery wasn't in the cards. One deputy jotted down Nancy's description.
She was blonde, with blue eyes, and small. She stood
only five feet two inches tall, weighed about one hundred
and ten pounds, and was last seen wearing a double
knit avocado colored dress. It was one of a kind,

(05:59):
one that she had made herself. It was the only
dress missing from her closet, and folks who saw her
at the drug store filling a prescription earlier in the
night also saw her in that outfit, they'd later report
to police. Before leaving the Mitchells, the patrolman checked the
house once more, paying close attention this time to the windows,

(06:23):
all of which were shut and locked. Just like the
back door. There were no signs of a struggle, let
alone forced entry. After the police left, they too spoke
with the neighbors, but found out little more than Jeane had.
No one had seen or heard much of anything that night,
certainly not the screams of a woman in distress. Police

(06:47):
were already theorizing an abduction scenario and figured out the
assailant either covered Nancy's mouth quickly, or had her held
at gunpoint. Friends and relatives flocked to the Mitchell home.
They did their best to console Jane, but no one
could not really He'd been sweet on Nancy since he

(07:09):
could remember, even before they started dating. In the seventh grade,
they were engaged while in the ninth The pit of
Jean's stomach felt unbearably empty.