Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
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the PTA. We're making gear for folks who swap Ufo
stories over lone stars, argue bigfoot sightings like gospel, and
treat dive bars like second homes, our designs, cryptids, conspiracies,
(00:25):
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(00:47):
Armadillo dot d A s h e r Y dot com.
Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Texas remembers its dynasties, oil barons, ranching empires, political legacies.
Their names are etched into libraries, on courthouses, campaign signs,
and gravestones. Some built cities and some bought them, But
behind the elegance of a South Texas name like Farenthald
(01:28):
was something else. They are a family with oil money,
European titles, and political clout, stretching from South Texas to
the US capital. A family that made speeches, built libraries,
changed laws, and buried its darkest chapters in silence. It's
(01:49):
a dynasty stitched together by war, ambition, and tragedy. Behind
the prestige was a brutal murder, a child's sudden days,
and a disappearance. No one reported, no police report, no obituary,
no press coverage, just silence, and no one asked why.
(02:36):
Before the headlines, scandals and political battles, the Farreentheld name
was forged in two very different worlds, the European aristocracy
and South Texas oil wealth. Randolph rand Morgan entered the
world on March ninth, eighteen seventy nine, in Ellis County, Texas,
(02:58):
and died November twenty third, nineteen sixty three, and Corpus Christie.
Over the decades, he built an empire in oil, cotton ranching,
and land development, becoming a central figure in Corpus Christie's
elite circles. His legacy remains etched into the city's geography.
(03:19):
Rand Morgan Road and the Rand Morgan subdivision are still
there as reminders of his real estate footprint. His daughter,
Annie Blake Morgan, born in nineteen fifteen in Grandview, Texas,
married into nobility in nineteen thirty six when she wed
George Edward Farenthald. This was no ordinary match. It united
(03:43):
South Texas oil fortunes with a European baronial title. George
was born December sixth, nineteen fifteen, in Brussels, Belgium, the
great grandson of a wealthy inventor. His parents were fitz
Joseph Fairs and Emily Adeleine Farenthald, who came from a
(04:04):
French family steeped in privilege and history. By birth, George
held the title of Baron. Raised in Spain and Belgium
among royal circles. He had a private tutor from the
age of four and grew up fluent in French, Spanish,
Italian and German. His education included time at Switzerland's famed
(04:26):
Institute Larosi, known for instructing the children of monarchs and tycoons,
followed by studies at Les Saubonne in Paris. His stepfather,
the civil engineer responsible for constructing the port of Algiers,
raised him in Via Jolli, their home in El Moradia, Algeria,
which later became the official residence of an Algerian president.
(04:51):
George's advanced studies covered physics, chemistry, and biology, plus two
years of graduate work at a renowned medical school in Paris.
It was during a break from school that George met
the Texan Annie Morgan, who was vacationing in the upscale
seaside resort of Deville, France. In late nineteen thirty five,
(05:14):
George traveled to Texas to meet Annie's family, accompanied by
his personal valet, who had served him since he was fourteen.
Their April nineteen thirty six wedding was a high society event,
widely reported in the press. George initially intended to return
to Europe within eighteen months to finish medical school, and
(05:36):
the couple honeymooned there, but Annie quickly discovered that in
Europe acceptance depended on ancestry, not wealth. She bristled at
the lack of social welcome and told George plainly, if
you do, I won't be with you. Regarding his plans
to stay as Europe's political climate darkened with the rise
(05:59):
of fashion. George admitted, I was very much on the
fascist side. I was a fascist in those days. Basically,
I didn't want to go back to Europe. I just
wanted to get away from that whole mess. George returned
to Corpus, Christie, joined Rand Morgan's enterprises, and became a
(06:19):
US citizen by nineteen forty. That October, Annie gave birth
to their only child together, George Randolph Randy Farenthold. During
World War II, George served in the US Army Air
Corps as an aide to General George Beverly, earning a
Bronze Star as a captain in Air Force intelligence in
(06:42):
North Africa and Europe. Discharged in nineteen forty five, he
chose oil over medicine, embedding himself in South Texas society.
By nineteen forty eight, however, George and Annie's marriage ended
in divorce. After working for a Texas oil company, George
(07:03):
founded the Crispan Company in nineteen forty nine, a steel
import business based in Houston. That same year, he began
a relationship with Francis Cissy Tarleton, linking the Farreenthald name
to another influential Texas lineage. The Tarleton's prominence ran deep
(07:24):
in Texas civil and legal history. Cissy's paternal grandfather, the
Honorable William Benjamin Dudley Tarleton, Senior, had served as a
Chief Justice on the state's highest court before joining the
University of Texas School of Law faculty. The UT Law
Library now bears his name. Cissy's aunt, Genevieve Tarlton Dougherty,
(07:49):
was honored by Pope Pius the twelfth with the title
Lady of the Grand Cross of the Holy Sepulcher for
her charitable work. On her mother's side, Sissy descended from
the Doughertyes, early settlers of San Patricio. Her great grandfather,
Robert Doherty, founded the first boys academy in the area,
(08:11):
served in the Confederate Army, and later taught school. Her aunt,
Lyda Doherty, broke barriers as Texas's first female county school superintendent.
Further back, her great great grandfather, Peter Bluntzer led forty
families to settle to Wit County in eighteen forty three,
(08:31):
and her great grandfather, Nicholas Bluntzer had scouted for Robert E.
Lee during pre Civil War campaigns against the Comanches. Sissy's
great great aunt was Teresa bluntzer Hasdorf, who at the
age of four was kidnapped by Native Americans and returned
a year later, decked out in a Native head dress
(08:53):
and speaking the tongue of her captors. Her father, Benjamin
Dudley Tarlton, Junior, was a progressive an attorney who took
on the Ku Klux Klan in court and managed political
campaigns like Railroad Commissioner Ernest Thompson's nineteen thirty eight gubernatorial bid.
Born October two, nineteen twenty six, in Corpus Christi, Sissy
(09:16):
grew up in a devout Catholic household with strong expectations.
In nineteen forty six, at age nineteen, she earned a
political science degree from Vassar College. Rejecting a debutante coming out,
she enrolled in the University of Texas School of Law,
one of only three women in a class of eight hundred.
(09:39):
There were no women's restrooms in the law school, forcing
Sissy to use faculty facilities. Male classmates dubbed her Wolfgirl
upon learning she was on the dean's list, and they
openly bet on when she would get engaged. She graduated
with honors in nineteen forty nine and passed the Texas
(10:00):
bar the same year, Yet no firm would interview her.
She joined her father's practice instead. In nineteen fifty, Sissy
married George Farenthald and Corpus Christi Cathedral, wearing a day
length wool dress with black velvet trim. After a honeymoon
(10:20):
in Mexico, they settled in Alice Hillcrest Estates, where she
became stepmother to ten year old Randy. Soon after came
five children in quick succession, Dudley in nineteen fifty one,
George Junior in nineteen fifty two, Emily in nineteen fifty four,
and twins Vincent and Jimmy in nineteen fifty six. In
(10:44):
the late nineteen fifties, the Farenthaled household was busy, boisterous,
and bursting at the seams. Five children, a mother juggling diapers, bottles,
and dinner, all while married to an oil man turned
entrepre newer. It was a life that from the outside
looked like South Texas success, oil money, political pedigree, and
(11:09):
Catholic charm. But inside those walls, grief would take root
early and it would never let Go von Willebrand disease,
(11:30):
the most common inherited bleeding disorder, was a quiet, invisible
danger in the Farenthald family. Doctors in Belgium had once
called it pseudohemophilia, a label that sounds far softer than
the reality. It meant the blood couldn't clot properly. It
meant that even a small injury could become a race
(11:52):
against time. George Farenthald knew the risk first hand. His
aunt had bled to death during menstruation. He himself had
nearly died after a tonsillectomy. Still, the disease hadn't touched Randy,
George's son from his first marriage, so he and Sissy
stepped into parenthood with hope. Their first child together, Dudley,
(12:17):
was healthy. For a time, it seemed they'd escaped the shadow.
But eventually the truth fell over them like a dark shadow.
My children bled and bled and bled, Cissy would recall.
The Houston. Doctors at Texas Children's Hospital confirmed the family's
worst fear. Four of their youngest George Junior, Emily, and
(12:40):
twins Jimmy and Vincent, had inherited the disorder. There was
no cure, they would learn to live with it and pray.
Then Vincent fell. Vincent Bluntser Tarlton Farenthald, the older twin
by a minute, was healthy, beautiful, and so close to
Jimmy that they moved through life as almost a single entity.
(13:05):
One night, Vincent padded quietly out of bed, passed the
sleeping Jimmy, and into the dark hallway. His parents were out,
his babysitter, His twenty year old half brother Randy, was downstairs,
distracted by his girlfriend. The rest of the children slept.
No one heard the stool scrape against the bathroom floor
(13:27):
as Vincent climbed up to brush his teeth. No one
heard it slip out from under him. No one heard
the thud as his head struck tile. For most children,
it would have been a bump, an ice pack, a
kiss good night. For Vincent, it was fatal. By the
time anyone found him and rushed him to the hospital,
(13:49):
he had bled out at four a m. He was gone.
The family was shattered. For Sissy, the funeral reopened and
old wound. She'd never fully spoken about the death of
her brother Sonny when she was only two. She had
acquired the nickname Sissy from her older brother Sonny's attempts
(14:10):
to say sister. She remembered standing over his small body
in the casket, unable to understand why he wouldn't get up,
watching the women around her sob She remembered her mother
locking away every photograph of him, her father sinking into
silent depression each May. She wasn't going to let Jimmy
(14:31):
carry that same image of Vincent to bed at night,
so she kept him home from the funeral. Jimmy, though,
was adrift. The twins had been inseparable, talking across their
cribs in a private language no one else could decipher.
They didn't seem to need parents, only each other. Now
(14:52):
half of that world was gone. For a year. Afterward,
Jimmy would run to the screen door at the sound
of bit slamming, expect to see Vincent racing in from outside.
Sissy made herself a promise she would not be consumed
by grief. She still had four children to raise, and
she would not vanish into mourning the way her own
(15:14):
mother had. She threw herself into action, challenge after challenge,
until the momentum became something else, entirely politics. George encouraged
her to focus forward to channel her pain, and so
she did, stepping into a path that would transform her
(15:34):
into one of Texas's best known liberal politicians and one
of the nation's most visible feminists. In nineteen sixty Cissy
became involved in national politics by working on John F.
Kennedy's presidential campaign and helping organize her cousin Dudley Doherty's
unsuccessful bid for Congress. Two years later, in nineteen sixty two,
(15:58):
George made his own attempt politics, running for New Ace's
County Democratic chairman. The campaign ended in a decisive loss,
which he attributed to being perceived as an outsider and
to his distinctive French Texan accent. In nineteen sixty three,
Sissy served on the Corpus Christie Human Relations Commission. In
(16:22):
nineteen sixty five, she was appointed Director of Legal Aid
for New Ace's County, where she primarily represented low income
Mexican American women. The work exposed her for the first
time to the severe realities of poverty and the lack
of government concern for those suffering. Those experiences deepened her
(16:46):
commitment to justice, while also weighing heavily on her emotionally.
During this period, she also led legal efforts to protect
Corpus Christie's beaches, establishing the Organization for the Protection of
an Unblemished Shoreline. In nineteen sixty eight, a family friend
(17:06):
encouraged Sissy to run for the Texas House of Representatives.
Although known for her intelligence and progressive values, she was
also deeply shy and initially struggled to engage directly with voters.
In one early campaign effort, George dropped her at a
busy shopping center with fifteen hundred brochures and a dime,
(17:28):
telling her to call him when they were all handed out,
then drove away. She would later describe the experience of
that first campaign as unbelievable torment. That November, Sissy was elected,
becoming the first woman to represent Nueces and Kleeberg Counties
in the legislature. Her legislative work focused on civil rights,
(17:53):
increasing welfare funding, and environmental protection, and she successfully sponsored
the Texas eas Equal Rights Amendment. The afl CIO Committee
on Political Education awarded her a perfect voting score. By
nineteen sixty nine, Cissy was the sole woman in the
one hundred and fifty member Texas House, contrasting with her
(18:16):
senate counterpart, Barbara Jordan who pursued a cautious approach while
preparing for a congressional run, Cissy took a more confrontational stance.
She was the only legislator to oppose a nineteen sixty
nine resolution praising former President Lyndon B. Johnson, and publicly
(18:37):
protested being excluded from Constitutional Amendments Committee meetings held at
Austin's men only Citadel Club, ultimately forcing a public apology
to her. These slights echoed the systematic inequities she had
seen as Legal Aid director. In nineteen seventy one, her
(18:57):
push for reform reached new prominence when she joined twenty
nine other legislators dubbed the Dirty thirty to challenge corruption
in the legislature, targeting House Speaker Gus Mucher over allegations
of accepting bribes in the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal. Mucher's
conviction ended that chapter of the scandal, but Cissy saw
(19:21):
it as just the start of needed reforms. In January
nineteen seventy two, urged on by supporters and with her
family's backing, Cissy entered the governor's race after Senator Ralph
Yarborough decided not to run The Sharpstown scandal and her
former record became the core of her campaign, which targeted
(19:42):
corruption and criticized opponents ties to special interests. She eliminated
both Governor Preston Smith and Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes in
the primary, trailing only wealthy rancher Dolph Briscoe. Her grassroots campaign,
managed by Creek Moore Fath, was run on a tight budget,
(20:04):
often traveling in a borrow Douglas DC three named Marylyn
and depended heavily on volunteers. Her strongest support came from
young voters, women and blacks, aligning with the momentum of
the women's movement. Her platform championed ethics reform, open government,
(20:25):
civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, student representation on university boards,
and reduced penalties for marijuana possession. On June fourth, nineteen
seventy two, Sissy lost her first bid for the Democratic
gubernatorial nomination to Dolph brisco The campaign had been intense,
(20:47):
marking her as one of the few women pushing against
the entrenched male political structure of Texas at the time.
In addition to her gubernatorial run, Francis Cissy Farrenth was
also emerging on the national stage that summer, she became
the recognized leader of the McGovern faction of the Texas
(21:09):
delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Her presence symbolized reformist
energy in Texas politics, even as she faced resistance at home.
But while she was stepping into the national spotlight, her
family was being pulled into tragedy. Just hours after her
defeat to Dolph Briscoe, her step son, Randolph Randy Farenthald,
(21:35):
was killed in a brutal gangland style slang. The juxtaposition
was stark. While she was giving concession speeches and preparing
to rally McGovern delegates, Randy's life was being taken in
a Corpus Christie underworld crime that would never be fully resolved.
(22:05):
The waters off Mustang Island, across the bay from Corpus
Christi are shallow. Surf fishermen waghe far out, sometimes one
hundred feet, hoping to catch redfish in the early morning light.
That's what cecil Butchart was doing before dawn on June sixth,
nineteen seventy two, when he spotted something floating in the waves.
(22:29):
At first, it looked like driftwood, but as the surf
carried it closer, the shape revealed itself as a body,
face down. Fully clothed. The corpse was chained at the
neck to a heavy block of concrete. The man's hands
were bound behind his back, Butchart called the Coastguard, but
(22:50):
they quickly turned the grim responsibility over to the county sheriff.
The body washed ashore about two miles south of the
South Jetty at Port Ouran. It was identified as Randolph
Randy Farenthald, just thirty two years old. Investigators later confirmed
the violence of the crime. Randy had been struck over
(23:13):
the head with a blunt object twice before being chained
to a forty eight pound block of concrete and dumped
into the Gulf of Mexico. For days, the tide carried
him beneath the surface until the water finally gave him back.
Forensic reports noted the blows came from a cylindrical object,
(23:33):
likely consistent with a pipe or club. For many who
knew him, Randy's brutal end seemed impossible to reconcile with
the man himself. Friends, family, and those who saw him
frequently described him as a big, friendly, generous, and trustful man,
someone who worked hard when he worked played hard when
(23:56):
he played, and who did a lot of both. He
was round regarded as a good hearted guy. Born October first,
nineteen thirty nine, at Spawn Hospital in Corpus Christie, Randy
was the eldest son of George E. Farenthald and Annie
Blake Morgan Farenthald. His parents divorced when he was about eleven,
(24:18):
both remarrying his father to Sissy and his mother to
prominent Corpus Christi lawyer Hayden w. Head. Randy grew up
in an environment of wealth, influence and family power. His
maternal grandfather, Randolph Morgan, was a wealthy farmer, rancher, and
jinner who had owned several thousand acres in the sacks
(24:41):
at oil Field during the boom of the nineteen thirties.
Grandfather and grandson were unusually close. At about fourteen, Randy
began working at his grandfather's gin near what is now
Highway forty four and Padre Island Drive. When child labor
laws threatened to limit the boy's time at the gin,
(25:02):
his grandfather solved the problem by making Randy the owner.
At nineteen, having briefly attended the University of Texas, Randy
partnered with his grandfather to build what was considered one
of the best cotton gins in South Texas. They pioneered
gen marketing in the region, hauling cotton from as far
(25:23):
away as Crystal City. Hurricane Celia destroyed the gin two
years before Randy's death, but he kept employees on payroll
until they found other jobs. In business, Randy showed ambition
and creativity. He founded Spade Plow Incorporated, marketing a new
(25:44):
land clearing machine that could root, plow, rake, and stack
in one operation. He also served as a director for
the First National Bank of Flower Bluff. By his early thirties,
he had inherited half of a large estacy date of farms, ranches,
and oil interests from his grandfather. He farmed several thousand
(26:06):
acres of cotton and grain while still making time for
his other pursuits. Randy was a sportsman in every sense.
He loved hunting and fishing, and at one time was
among the top skeet shooters in Texas. Eventually, he turned
his interests more fully to fishing, buying a custom built
(26:27):
thirty five foot boat named the Lollipop. As often as
six times a week, he took it into the Gulf
if you wanted to fish, all you had to do
was ask and be there when he was ready to go.
His boat. Captain Bill Hart recalled Randy made sure guests
had food, good liquor, and ample chance to catch fish.
(26:50):
He was just as generous in Corpus Christie nightclubs. A
large bar tab was nothing unusual. He was, as many said,
generous to a fault. His wealth was never flaunted, but
it was always felt. Randy's generosity drew people in. Some
were true friends, others were only opportunists. He had a
(27:13):
reputation for loyalty, often extending second and even third chances
to those around him. He lived openly, without secrets, and
spoke directly rather than relying on innuendo. Despite his wealth
and connections, he never built a reputation for exploiting others.
(27:33):
That was the paradox at the center of his story.
By all accounts, he lived fairly, even generously, yet somehow
ended up the victim of a brutal crime that defied explanation.
In his private life, Randy married Mary Sue Ogg shortly
after turning twenty one. Together they had two children, Randolph
(27:56):
Blake and Sue Cleveland, who were ten and eight years
old at the time of their father's death. Although the
marriage ended in divorce about two and a half years
before his murder, the couple remained on friendly terms. Randy
was an active and devoted father, often taking his children fishing, crabbing, bowling,
(28:16):
and out to the island, creating memories that underscored how
much they adored him. He had homes, businesses, land, and
a reputation that stretched across South Texas, from the cotton
fields to the fishing docks of Portoransas. He had reaped
the benefits of his grandfather's trust fund for about a decade,
(28:39):
turning family wealth into ventures of his own. Randy enjoyed
the privileges of his family's position, but also pursued his
own version of success. He was wealthy, yes, but he
was also restless, always chasing the next hunt, the next
hand of jin rummy, the next fishing trip, and d
(29:00):
the gulf. Cissy Farenthald refused the press request to comment
publicly on her stepson's murder. The shock was immediate, and
she held her silence in the days following the overwhelming
and tragic news. The discovery of Randy's body in the
surf off Mustang Island was more than just the brutal
(29:23):
end of one man's life, bound chained and weighed down
with concrete. It wasn't an accident, It wasn't subtle. It
was a message, whether or not it was meant to be.
The shock waves rolled through Corpus Christie and far beyond.
The Farenthald name, already tied to oil, wealth and politics,
(29:46):
was suddenly tethered to violence, mystery, and silence. Two weeks
after Randy's body was found, Cissy broke her silence. She
described his killing as a gangland slang. She recalled that
the night after the election, she had been with Randy's
x's wife and their two children. At that time, she
(30:08):
said they had no idea he was already dead. The
memory left her visibly shaken. While she chose not to
speculate further, her statement underscored the sense of coincidence surrounding
the timing of his murder, just hours after her own
campaign for governor had come to an end. Investigators chased
(30:30):
leads in gambling circles, business disputes, and whispers of organized crime.
Only one truth was unavoidable. A thirty two year old son,
father and brother had been brutally murdered in cold blood,
but Randy's story was only one shadow hanging over the Farentholds.
(30:51):
In the years ahead, tragedy would strike again. Another son
would be lost, not to violence, at least not any
known violence, but to something even harder to fathom disappearance,
a vanishing so complete that it left behind no body,
no obituary, no police report, only silence. Next time, we'll
(31:18):
step further into the investigation of Randy's killing, into the suspects,
the motives, and the unanswered questions that still linger, will
follow the trail of con men, skimmed money, and courtroom
deals that unraveled the moment Randy's body washed ashore, and
will begin to trace the wider pattern of loss that
(31:40):
stalked the Farenthald family, where one son's murder would one
day be joined by another son's disappearance. If you have
any information about the disappearance of Jimmy Farenthald, please contact
the San Antonio Police Department at two to one, zero
to zero seven eight nine three nine. If you'd like
(32:04):
to join Gon Cold's mission to shine a light on
unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the show at
free and have access to bonus content. You can at
Patreon dot com slash Gone Cold podcast. You can also
support the show by leaving a five star rating and
written review on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen.
(32:27):
However you choose to support gon Cold, we appreciate you.
Thanks for listening, y'all. You've got two choices in life.
Blend in or where something that makes strangers wonder if
you're part of a secret society. At Longhorn Armadillo, we're
not making shirts for the PTA. We're making gear for
(32:49):
folks who swap UFO stories over lone stars, argue bigfoot
sightings like gospel, and treat dive bars like second homes,
our designs, cryptids, conspiracies, tattoo flash, a little outlawbird here,
a jackalope there. So, whether you're chasing Mothman, getting abducted
in Roswell, or just looking to outcool your cousin's cover
(33:11):
band T shirt, we've got you covered literally. Longhorn Armadillo
Strange Looks Guaranteed. Shop now at Longhorn Armadillo dot Dashery
dot com. That's Longhorn Armadillo dot d A s h
E r y dot com,