May 26, 2025 • 32 mins
On Thanksgiving Day in 1982, the body of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis was found in a field in rural Travis County. She was last seen leaving her place of employment, Sugar’s adult entertainment, the evening before with a mystery man. The seemingly contradicting two worlds in which she lived, that of a coed and that of a topless dancer, made the Travis County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation unusual...and difficult. Though a serial rapist and a cop were scrutinized for Elizabeth’s slaying, a lack of evidence had prevented movement on the case, and it remains unsolved today.
If you have any information about the murder of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis please call Texas Crime Stoppers at 800 252 8477.
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If you have any information about the murder of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis please call Texas Crime Stoppers at 800 252 8477.
You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast
Find us at https://www.gonecold.com
For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com
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The Austin Chronicle, The Austin American Statesman, The Odessa American, Edible Austin, and UTtexas.edu were used as sources for this episode.
#JusticeForElizabethBettis #Austin #AustinTX #TravisCountyTX #Texas #TX #TexasTrueCrime #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #HateCrime #UnsolvedMysteries #Homicide #CrimeStories #PodcastRecommendations #CrimeJunkie #MysteryPodcast #TrueCrimeObsessed #CrimeDocs #InvestigationDiscovery #PodcastAddict #TrueCrimeFan #CriminalJustice #ForensicFiles
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised. In an article published on January
TEWOD nineteen eighty three, The Austin American Statesman called the
year nineteen eighty two the bloodiest on record. Homicides that
year were up forty six percent above the previous year,
(00:25):
and above the previous record holding year nineteen eighty by
almost as much. Austin police couldn't provide insight as to
why the rates had climbed like they did in eighty two.
There's just no way to tell, Lieutenant Robert Wissien said.
Most murders are crimes of passion at the spur of
the moment. The lieutenant went on to say that of
(00:48):
the fifty seven homicides that year, only five were killed
by strangers. Thirty three of the fifty seven, he said,
involved drugs or alcohol. The end of nineteen eighty two,
the department had solved all but three of those, one
of which, the rape and murder of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis,
(01:08):
remains unsolved today. In twenty twenty five, Ruth Elizabeth Bettis
was born in Travis County, Texas, on September twenty sixth
nineteen sixty three, to parents Dale and Rebecca. She was
(01:32):
known by her middle name, or Liz for short, for
most of her life, though as she sought autonomy in
her teenage years, she would begin to go by the
first name Gibson. Liz's upbringing and the story of her
parents is perhaps vital to reach a full understanding of
her own. The year she was born, Elizabeth's father, doctor
(01:55):
Dale Gaillard Bettis, received a master's degree in Engineering mcaynix
from the University of Texas College of Engineering. Even before
earning his masters, doctor Dale assisted in astronomy research and
taught mathematics at the university. After receiving the degree, he
went on to spend some time in Pasadena, California, at
(02:18):
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where doctor Dale would impress with
his acute understanding of orbital mechanics. From there, he'd go
on to Yale, earning a Master of Science degree in
nineteen sixty seven and in nineteen sixty nine a PhD
in astronomy. Doctor Dale's dissertation on the theory of integration
(02:40):
of the differential equations of celestial and orbital mechanics using
numerical techniques brought him and his family, wife Rebecca and
daughters Catherine and Liz, to Zurich, Switzerland. The family was
in Zurich for about a year during doctor Dale's post
doctoral fellowship there, before returning to Austin in nineteen seventy.
(03:04):
Switzerland was only one of the brief relocations for the
Betis family. Other moves included Maryland, where doctor Dale taught
mathematics at the US Naval Academy as a commissioned officer
in Annapolis, and Connecticut. He and Rebecca's children were already
worldly beyond their ages. Katherine was older than Liz by
(03:26):
about three years and had attended school in Switzerland and England,
among other places. Though the experiences certainly gave the young
girls a unique understanding and education, the geographic instability and
multiple social startovers were hard on them. It was rough
on doctor Dale and Rebecca's marriage, too, and the couple
(03:49):
separated when Liz was only six years old. Much less
is known about Liz's mother, Rebecca, a University of Texas graduate.
After she and da doctor Dale split up, Rebecca was
working as a freelance writer in Philadelphia and struggled to
make ends meet as she supported Liz and Catherine as
a single mother, even with child support payments coming in
(04:12):
from Doctor Dale. Liz's determination and intelligence impressed her teachers
early on. Unlike her father, who was scientifically gifted, her
prowess lied in the arts. She excelled at poetry, writing, dance,
and piano. It wasn't necessarily and always natural talent. When
(04:34):
Liz mastered an art, a teacher later remarked, it was
often her determination. If she wanted and was determined to
do something, there was little doubt she'd do it. Liz
stood out among her peers and was awarded a scholarship
to a prestigious college preparatory school. The campus of Pomfret
(04:55):
Boarding School, located in its namesake town in Connecticut, sits
a midung New England's rolling hills along a picturesque, plush
green countryside. The school was founded in eighteen ninety four
and boasts an alumnus of highly acclaimed and accomplished artists, journalists, athletes, scientists,
(05:16):
and surgeons. Much of the early architecture still stands at Pomfret,
beautiful ivy covered red brick late nineteenth century and early
twentieth century school houses, some with intricate French thirteenth century
stained glass windows. Liz's sister Catherine, who was also said
(05:37):
to be incredibly gifted, already attended the school. Though some
who knew Liz said she was driven to excel by
good old sisterly competition. She did everything she could to
separate herself from her sister so the two could not
be compared. She certainly followed her sister's academic success, but
(05:57):
Liz strongly sought to be her own person. Pomfrett is
said to be difficult and intense, but both Liz and
Catherine did well there. Liz was a piano virtuoso. She
chose a complex piece of music to play at a
chapel service one year. The piece her teacher thought was
(06:17):
something impossible to learn in time, and her jaw hit
the floor when Liz played it beautifully. Liz, however, felt
the unavoidable social separation between someone like her and Katherine
and the students at Pomfret, who were wealthy children of
social elites. She watched her mother's struggle financially to raise
(06:38):
her and Catherine, and resented particularly that the students who
paid the nine four hundred dollars a year to be
there had very little to worry about. She would say,
they don't have to worry about anything. They don't know
what the world is like. A friend of hers later remarked, Liz,
in contradiction to her complaints about the rich kids, had
(07:01):
plenty of friends. By her junior year at Pomfret in
nineteen seventy nine, her push for independence and autonomy from
her family became stronger. She decided that she'd rather go
by the first name Gibson, her grandmother's maiden name, as
Liz was too feminine and Gibson allowed no connotations. She
(07:24):
began rebelling once leaving Pomfret without permission, hitchhiking to see
friends in Massachusetts. It's incredibly stupid to take off in
hitchhike somewhere when you weigh one hundred pounds, are five
foot four and a woman. I think she was crying
out for help. Friend and classmate Lauren Harkness later said,
(07:45):
regardless of her acting out somewhat, Liz was determined to
get out of Pomfret and get to college, though her
mother objected and her family and peers insisted she wouldn't
be accepted to a university without completing her senior year
of high school. Liz applied to several colleges and was
accepted to every single one. Arranging financial aid herself, she
(08:09):
enrolled at the University of South Carolina in Columbia at
only sixteen years old. She began classes there in the
fall of nineteen eighty, attempting to follow the footsteps of
her father by studying mathematics and the sciences. Liz was
interested in becoming an aeronautical engineer. She was most interested
(08:29):
in writing poetry and was really good at it. A
friend later said of her choice of studies, she wasn't
very good at math and science, and she knew it,
but that's what she wanted to do, maybe just to
challenge herself. Challenging herself was certainly true to form for Liz.
(08:58):
After attending the Universe City of South Carolina for a while,
Liz Betis discovered that she could make good money working
as a dancer in a topless bar near campus. Upon
hearing her daughter's plan to do so and her subsequent
plan to work as a nightclub mud wrestler, Rebecca panicked
and began attempting to dissuade her for the time being,
(09:20):
Liz was talked out of it. She said that she
wouldn't because everyone was begging her not to, but insisted
that she could have handled the work just fine. Liz
and her sister sometimes spent summers at their father's historic
nineteenth century limestone home near Austin. Her father, Doctor Dale,
(09:41):
later remarked that the young woman was having trouble growing up.
He and Rebecca's divorce was part of that. It's plausible, too,
perhaps even likely, that Liz's father's affluence while her mother
struggled to make ends meet, contributed to her negative feelings
toward the wealthy students at Pomfret. In the summer of
(10:01):
nineteen eighty one, Liz decided she would move back to
the Austin area and enrolled at Southwestern University in Georgetown.
The divorce was a hard and confusing thing for her,
Liz's sister, Catherine said, continuing, when she came to Texas,
she wanted to start her relationship with her father again.
It was a hard thing for her to sort out.
(10:24):
Doctor Dale, according to Catherine, hadn't been a big part
of their lives. Living in a campus dorm, Liz returned
the focus of her studies to her natural inclination the arts,
and she studied often and hard. She was already a
junior when most students her age were just entering the
university as freshmen. While at Southwestern University, Liz met and
(10:49):
became quick friends with Diane, a fine arts major. In
her senior year, Diane and her boyfriend rented a large
house in North Austin on Pansy Trail, and in May
of nineteen eighty two, she asked Liz to move there.
Though she was broke, Liz agreed to move in, promising
Diane she'd get work quick and pay rent. She kept
(11:12):
her promise and began working at Sugars the second week
it was open in June. One of the owners of
Sugars boasted that his Topless club was unique compared with
the other typical clubs in the area. Sugars, he said,
offered a first class atmosphere that catered to businessmen wooing clients.
(11:33):
The deco styled club served fine foods at low prices,
he said, with the most beautiful women around, we're trying
to make it more acceptable entertainment on a first class basis,
a place where businessmen can bring a customer, have a
good time and not get ripped off. The Sugar's owner
once commented Liz worked days at the club, starting her
(11:58):
shift at eleven am. Fellow dancer Georgia said of Liz,
she seemed like a student who needed extra money and
didn't want to run to her family for it. Liz
did well at the club, making around two hundred dollars
a day, and paid off the remainder of the note
on her baby blue nineteen sixty nine Volkswagen Beetle not
(12:18):
long after she started, and still managed to buy a
Baby Grand piano for one thousand bucks. Everyone at the
club liked Liz, and later noted that she wasn't the
typical topless dancer. Coworker Georgia said she always danced to
really good music, like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and the Beatles.
(12:39):
It was stuff you wouldn't necessarily expect to hear in
a strip joint. A Sugar's DJ called her faith in
man endearing and said that she was trusting of people
to a fault, perhaps naive. Liz's manager commented on her
dependability and her kind disposition. The club's owner late remarked
(13:00):
that she never should have worked there, and guessed that
family dynamics are what led her to become a dancer
in the first place. It would have been different, he
said if she had been a biker's girl. Liz's sister
Catherine said that she didn't intend to keep the job
long and that she probably only decided to take it
(13:21):
to try something different, something brave, and off the beaten
path of normality. Her roommate Diane, however, said that Liz
began thinking of college as something that was expected of her,
and that dancing at Sugars opened her eyes to a
whole new world where she could get along without pursuing
her education. It made sense to those who knew Liz
(13:43):
it was a new experience to be had. She was
confident in difficult situations and welcomed challenges. Liz had also
developed a protectiveness for anyone she thought needed it. At
some point, she'd even become the protective sister. Though she
was three years younger than Catherine. Liz might have had
(14:05):
her own issues to grapple with, but she was incredibly
strong and selfless. She was immensely empathetic and not only
understood others problems, but also felt them. It's likely Liz
immediately developed a protectiveness and sense of empathy toward her
fellow dancers, and perhaps found a secure and lasting bond
(14:25):
of friendship among them. Whatever solidified the decision to put
a hiatus on academics to concentrate on her new work,
it was most likely enhanced by the drug habit she
had developed. Liz's roommate, Diane, worried that her casual cocaine
habit mixed with her trusting nature was a bad thing.
(14:47):
A comment Diane later made suggests that the casual habit
was becoming a little more than that, when she described
an incident at Sugars one evening when she and her
boyfriend were visiting Liz. There, a stranger, she said, walked
up to her and Liz when Diane's boyfriend was in
the restroom. He asked if they wanted to snort some
(15:07):
coke outside in the parking lot. Diane told the stranger yes,
but only if her boyfriend could tag along too. Liz
later told Diane that she should have suggested that her
boyfriend was a relative, so the man thought they were single.
Diane was shocked at Liz's suggestion of leading a stranger
on to secure the cocaine. It was dangerous. She thought
(15:32):
if someone offered her something she wanted, like cocaine, and
she always wanted it, she would have gone with them,
Diane said. By November of nineteen eighty two, nineteen year
old Liz's drug habit was probably best described as an addiction,
but she wasn't in the drug world per se, simply
(15:53):
a user. That month, Liz Bettis was murdered. Liz Bettis,
who danced under the name Gibson, worked her regular hours
at Sugars on Wednesday, November twenty fourth, nineteen eighty two,
from eleven am to seven pm. After her shift ended,
(16:13):
she hung around the club for a while, finally leaving
around seven forty five pm. Carrying her leather European styled satchel,
she made her way to her light blue nineteen sixty
nine Volkswagen Beetle, which was parked in a spot at
the front of Sugars. She climbed into the driver's seat.
(16:34):
As she was preparing to leave the establishment, a bouncer
at the club saw a black Mail leaning over the
driver's side window speaking with Liz. Other witnesses also observed
the two speaking and described the conversation as heated. A
few seconds after the talk began, the man walked around
to the passenger side and entered the Beetle. Liz and
(16:56):
the man drove away at about eight eight pm, just
fifteen minutes after leaving Sugars, a witness saw Liz's nineteen
sixty nine baby blue Volkswagen Beetle pull into a field
on Sprinkle Cutoff Road in northeast Travis County, about seven
miles from the Strip Club. The vehicle was observed near
(17:18):
that same area, which was rural and isolated at the time,
at about nine pm. At two pm the following day, Thursday,
November twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two, Thanksgiving, as Liz's mother, Rebecca,
was exchanging vals in a wedding ceremony eighteen hundred miles
from Austin in Connecticut, the body of her daughter was
(17:41):
being discovered. Liz was left in the cold in a
field near a low water crossing, behind a small thicket
of cedar trees, about fifteen feet from Sprinkle Cutoff Road,
just outside of Austin. She was nude from the waist down,
clothed only in a red Hoganda's ice cream t shirt,
(18:02):
a white and green sweater, a brown corduroy jacket, blue socks,
and a single leather moccasin. A toxicology report later showed
that Liz had used cocaine the night she died. An
autopsy showed that Liz had been manually strangled and shot
once above the right eye with a twenty two caliber pistol.
(18:25):
The time of death, the medical examiner estimated, was between
the hours of ten PM and midnight. The previous night.
Liz had also been sexually assaulted. There is no physical
evidence at the scene. Travis County Sheriff's Office Detective Jerry
Wiggins commented as he explained that investigators were entertaining the
(18:48):
possibility that she was killed elsewhere and subsequently dumped in
the field. Liz's Volkswagen Beetle was parked approximately one hundred
yards from where her body was found. Only hairs from
Liz's dog an abused animals she'd recently adopted, were in
the vehicle. Nothing of evidentiary value, authorities reported. Travis County
(19:13):
homicide investigators removed the seat covers and door panels in
the car and sent them to FBI Labs in Washington,
d c. For testing. Detectives immediately began interviewing friends, acquaintances,
and co workers of Liz's, interrogating more than two hundred
individuals when it was all said and done, But there
was a significant problem to consider. There isn't a common
(19:37):
thread running through this. She had different groups of friends
and none of them knew each other. It's an unusual case,
Detective Wiggins remarked. What Wiggins meant was that it had
only been a few months since Liz began dancing at Sugars,
and the friends she had gained from working there were
far removed from the young woman's college friends. Police were
(20:00):
able to develop a composite sketch of the last known
man Liz had been seen with within days of the
discovery of her body, the man who she was seen
arguing with and who entered the passenger side of her
vehicle just before the two drove away from Sugars. The
suspect was described as black, well dressed, around thirty years old, slender,
(20:23):
with a short afro hairstyle and no facial hair. Still,
police said they didn't have much to go on even
after the composite was released alongside a crimestopper's reward of
one thousand dollars for information leading to the man. Sugars too,
offered a one thousand dollars reward. Frustrated at the lack
(20:45):
of evidence and the investigation's stagnation, Travis County Sheriff Doin
Bailey said, you can't disregard any possibility. Every possibility has
to be checked out. It wouldn't be until nineteen eight
eighty nine that the Travis County Sheriff's Department stumbled onto
what might have been their strongest lead in the case,
(21:07):
but there were other possibilities before then. Twenty nine year
old Leonard Charles Williams was a serial rapist in Austin.
(21:27):
In June of nineteen eighty three, Williams was taken into
custody after being let out of prison on parole for
a nineteen seventy six robbery fourteen months prior. The charge
of aggravated robbery was a plea bargain. Williams was originally
charged with attempted murder, since he stabbed a man and
(21:48):
a woman in the perpetration of that crime. With his
nineteen eighty three arrest, he was charged with the sexual
assault of one woman and suspected of a minimum of
seven others. On Monday, May twenty third, nineteen eighty three,
just after midnight, Williams abducted a twenty two year old
woman from Quick Wash coin laundry on the eighty nine
(22:10):
hundred block of North Lamar Boulevard in Austin. He made
the woman drive to a desolate area off Sprinkle Cutoff Road,
raped and sexually abused her at knife point. Williams then
forced the woman to drive him back to the laundromat.
Police became aware of Williams after an officer witnessed him
(22:31):
ride his bike into a pole in front of the
Quick Wash moments after he abducted and sexually assaulted the woman,
which prompted the officer to ask his name. The rapist
apparently was no liar. After the woman described the man
who raped her, police put two and two together and
obtained a warrant for him. Nine sexual assault survivors were
(22:55):
subsequently brought to the station to view a line up,
resulting in the suspense of Williams for a total of
seven rapes. All were raped at knife point, and one
other besides the Quickwash woman was forced to Sprinkle Cut
Off Road to be assaulted. The road where Liz Bettis's
body was found, though that particular detail was striking, and
(23:19):
Leonard Charles Williams was scrutinized for Liz's rape and murder,
he hadn't shot any of his other victims, and standing
only five feet five inches tall, he was significantly shorter
than the man thought to be responsible. Though it's unlikely
that Mark Allen Norwood or Lewis homer Wan were seriously
(23:40):
considered suspects in Liz Bettis's murder for longer than a
fleeting moment, a peculiarity involves her in the former's twenty
thirteen trial for murder, or rather in advance of the trial.
As a quick side note, the details of Norwood's crimes
are mass and include the long incarceration of an innocent man,
(24:04):
a victim's husband, and it's worth looking into if you
get the chance. A pre trial motion in Norwood's case, anyway,
was filed by the state to prevent evidence in or
the mention of Liz Bettis's case in his trial for
the nineteen eighty eight murder of Deborah Baker. The thought
(24:25):
was that Norwood's attorneys would use Liz's murder in a
strategic attempt to implicate a one time friend of their client,
one who would now testify against him, Lewis Homer Juan
Norwood had sold One a pistol, a weapon stolen from
the home of a woman he had murdered, in order
(24:45):
to both separate himself from it and to implicate his friend.
At the same time, he also attempted to implicate onan
in Liz's murder, and investigators seemed to bite, if only briefly.
In laws owned the property where Liz's body was found,
and the man had a lengthy criminal record. Besides that,
(25:08):
detectives claimed One knew who Liz was. He knew that
her family, her grandfather specifically owned a small chain of
stores Bettis TV and Appliances, and had bought a washer
and dryer set and an ice box there. When interviewed,
One told investigators that he was going out to the
(25:28):
area where Liz's body was found the day it was
found to fire a new gun. He had purchased a
forty four magnum, but changed his mind when it began
to rain. But one, like Leonard Charles Williams, didn't match
the description of the man they were looking for. One
was shorter at five feet eight inches tall and white.
(25:53):
In a twenty eleven interview with police, one told investigators
that he thought it was a police officer who killed
Liz Bettis. There was undoubtedly reason for One to make
the comment he did, because in nineteen eighty nine, Travis
County Sheriff's Office investigators brought in at least two Austin
law enforcement officers for questioning and Liz's slang. Neither of
(26:18):
the Austin Police Department officers questioned in the murder of
Liz Bettis, of course, have been named in the press.
What's known about the investigation into them two leaves much
to be desired, but it's certainly enough to raise an eyebrow.
In nineteen eighty nine, investigators with the Drug Enforcement Agency
(26:40):
were given a tip. The tipster alleged that two officers,
who will call Cop Number one and Cop Number two,
were at Sugars the evening Liz Bettis was last seen alive.
Both men were active police officers at the time by
nineteen eighty nine, though one of them, Cop number one,
(27:01):
was no longer on the force. The source of the
tip alleged that Cop Number one was sitting at a
table with Liz that evening, and Cop number two arrived separately.
Cop number one left Sugars with Liz, and minutes later
Cop number two also left. The description of the man
(27:22):
who was seen in what was called a heated conversation
with Liz and who subsequently left with her met the
general description of Cop number one. Both Cop number one
and Cop number two were brought in for questioning by
Travis County Sheriff's Office investigators and interrogated on January twelfth,
nineteen eighty nine. They both denied being at Sugars that night,
(27:47):
let alone being involved in her murder. Cop number one,
who had resigned after an unrelated internal affairs investigation in
the years after the murder, declined to be polygraphed, while
number two agreed, though it is unclear whether the examination
was ever undergone. The story of Cop number one's resignation
(28:09):
perhaps took place in nineteen eighty seven, unless the department
was infested with widespread corruption at the time. The story
of the following officer is most likely the individual questioned
in Liz's murder. These allegations, investigation, and resignation are consistent
with what is known about Cop number one. The officer's
(28:32):
age too, matches the description, as he'd have been around
thirty years old at the time of Liz's slang. In
nineteen eighty seven, a thirteen year veteran of the Austin
Police Department was accused of sexual misconduct with a three
year old girl by the girl's mother, a former acquaintance
of the officer. The mother provided a written complaint and
(28:55):
her toddler daughter gave a statement of the abuse. Authority
used specially trained child abuse officers to speak with the girl,
which they videotaped, and investigators believed what she said. They
remarked that her statement did not appear to be rehearsed
and that she was convincing. Internal affairs immediately began an investigation.
(29:20):
The accused officer, likely Cop Number one, who performed his
duties from a North Austin substation, was placed on restrictive duty,
but appeared at the station with his lawyer the day
following the opening of the investigation and resigned. A ur
analysis showed positive for the officer's use of cannabis, which
(29:41):
he was given because the mother of the child also
told investigators he used controlled substances regularly. Because Cop Number
one was no longer under internal affairs jurisdiction once he resigned,
that investigation ended, but Austin police continued to investigate, though
(30:01):
a Travis County Sheriff's officer said that he didn't think
Liz was killed where she was discovered because of the
lack of evidence. The timeline severely limits the possibility that
she was taken somewhere else, raped, killed, and then dumped
in the field. There simply was not enough time, according
to the accounts of witnesses at Sugars and who saw
(30:24):
Liz's vehicle near the field. Perhaps the lack of evidence
found in the Volkswagen Beetle and at the scene where
her body was discovered strengthened the possibility that someone familiar
with crime scene procedures was involved, as it surely doesn't
lessen the possibility. Still solid leads pertaining to Liz's murder
(30:46):
eluded detectives. It wasn't until two thousand and seven when
Travis County Sheriff's Office detective Jim Anderson sent in evidence
for DNA testing. That and the fingerprints he was able
to lift with the new advanced methods. Anderson said all
belonged to individuals who were not suspects, whose prints and
(31:08):
DNA were justified being present, presumably meaning they all belonged
to police. Detective Anderson said he could not rule out
Lewis Homer Jan as well as a handful of others.
He said, what the department needs is for someone to
come forward with information. The Texas Rangers began featuring Liz's
(31:29):
case on their cold Case website in October twenty seventeen,
offering a reward for such information. A lot of time
has gone by, Travis County Sheriff's Detective Jim Anderson told
the Austin American Statesman in twenty seventeen, adding we're looking
at thirty five years. People's ties to certain people have changed.
(31:52):
Maybe someone that was afraid to talk back then will
speak now. A reward hopefully will generate some interest. It
appears it did not. If you have any information about
the murder of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis, please call Texas Crime
Stoppers at eight hundred two five two eight four seven seven.
(32:16):
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a light on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get
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(32:38):
else you listen. However you choose to support Gone Cold,
we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all,
Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised. In an article published on January
TEWOD nineteen eighty three, The Austin American Statesman called the
year nineteen eighty two the bloodiest on record. Homicides that
year were up forty six percent above the previous year,
(00:25):
and above the previous record holding year nineteen eighty by
almost as much. Austin police couldn't provide insight as to
why the rates had climbed like they did in eighty two.
There's just no way to tell, Lieutenant Robert Wissien said.
Most murders are crimes of passion at the spur of
the moment. The lieutenant went on to say that of
(00:48):
the fifty seven homicides that year, only five were killed
by strangers. Thirty three of the fifty seven, he said,
involved drugs or alcohol. The end of nineteen eighty two,
the department had solved all but three of those, one
of which, the rape and murder of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis,
(01:08):
remains unsolved today. In twenty twenty five, Ruth Elizabeth Bettis
was born in Travis County, Texas, on September twenty sixth
nineteen sixty three, to parents Dale and Rebecca. She was
(01:32):
known by her middle name, or Liz for short, for
most of her life, though as she sought autonomy in
her teenage years, she would begin to go by the
first name Gibson. Liz's upbringing and the story of her
parents is perhaps vital to reach a full understanding of
her own. The year she was born, Elizabeth's father, doctor
(01:55):
Dale Gaillard Bettis, received a master's degree in Engineering mcaynix
from the University of Texas College of Engineering. Even before
earning his masters, doctor Dale assisted in astronomy research and
taught mathematics at the university. After receiving the degree, he
went on to spend some time in Pasadena, California, at
(02:18):
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where doctor Dale would impress with
his acute understanding of orbital mechanics. From there, he'd go
on to Yale, earning a Master of Science degree in
nineteen sixty seven and in nineteen sixty nine a PhD
in astronomy. Doctor Dale's dissertation on the theory of integration
(02:40):
of the differential equations of celestial and orbital mechanics using
numerical techniques brought him and his family, wife Rebecca and
daughters Catherine and Liz, to Zurich, Switzerland. The family was
in Zurich for about a year during doctor Dale's post
doctoral fellowship there, before returning to Austin in nineteen seventy.
(03:04):
Switzerland was only one of the brief relocations for the
Betis family. Other moves included Maryland, where doctor Dale taught
mathematics at the US Naval Academy as a commissioned officer
in Annapolis, and Connecticut. He and Rebecca's children were already
worldly beyond their ages. Katherine was older than Liz by
(03:26):
about three years and had attended school in Switzerland and England,
among other places. Though the experiences certainly gave the young
girls a unique understanding and education, the geographic instability and
multiple social startovers were hard on them. It was rough
on doctor Dale and Rebecca's marriage, too, and the couple
(03:49):
separated when Liz was only six years old. Much less
is known about Liz's mother, Rebecca, a University of Texas graduate.
After she and da doctor Dale split up, Rebecca was
working as a freelance writer in Philadelphia and struggled to
make ends meet as she supported Liz and Catherine as
a single mother, even with child support payments coming in
(04:12):
from Doctor Dale. Liz's determination and intelligence impressed her teachers
early on. Unlike her father, who was scientifically gifted, her
prowess lied in the arts. She excelled at poetry, writing, dance,
and piano. It wasn't necessarily and always natural talent. When
(04:34):
Liz mastered an art, a teacher later remarked, it was
often her determination. If she wanted and was determined to
do something, there was little doubt she'd do it. Liz
stood out among her peers and was awarded a scholarship
to a prestigious college preparatory school. The campus of Pomfret
(04:55):
Boarding School, located in its namesake town in Connecticut, sits
a midung New England's rolling hills along a picturesque, plush
green countryside. The school was founded in eighteen ninety four
and boasts an alumnus of highly acclaimed and accomplished artists, journalists, athletes, scientists,
(05:16):
and surgeons. Much of the early architecture still stands at Pomfret,
beautiful ivy covered red brick late nineteenth century and early
twentieth century school houses, some with intricate French thirteenth century
stained glass windows. Liz's sister Catherine, who was also said
(05:37):
to be incredibly gifted, already attended the school. Though some
who knew Liz said she was driven to excel by
good old sisterly competition. She did everything she could to
separate herself from her sister so the two could not
be compared. She certainly followed her sister's academic success, but
(05:57):
Liz strongly sought to be her own person. Pomfrett is
said to be difficult and intense, but both Liz and
Catherine did well there. Liz was a piano virtuoso. She
chose a complex piece of music to play at a
chapel service one year. The piece her teacher thought was
(06:17):
something impossible to learn in time, and her jaw hit
the floor when Liz played it beautifully. Liz, however, felt
the unavoidable social separation between someone like her and Katherine
and the students at Pomfret, who were wealthy children of
social elites. She watched her mother's struggle financially to raise
(06:38):
her and Catherine, and resented particularly that the students who
paid the nine four hundred dollars a year to be
there had very little to worry about. She would say,
they don't have to worry about anything. They don't know
what the world is like. A friend of hers later remarked, Liz,
in contradiction to her complaints about the rich kids, had
(07:01):
plenty of friends. By her junior year at Pomfret in
nineteen seventy nine, her push for independence and autonomy from
her family became stronger. She decided that she'd rather go
by the first name Gibson, her grandmother's maiden name, as
Liz was too feminine and Gibson allowed no connotations. She
(07:24):
began rebelling once leaving Pomfret without permission, hitchhiking to see
friends in Massachusetts. It's incredibly stupid to take off in
hitchhike somewhere when you weigh one hundred pounds, are five
foot four and a woman. I think she was crying
out for help. Friend and classmate Lauren Harkness later said,
(07:45):
regardless of her acting out somewhat, Liz was determined to
get out of Pomfret and get to college, though her
mother objected and her family and peers insisted she wouldn't
be accepted to a university without completing her senior year
of high school. Liz applied to several colleges and was
accepted to every single one. Arranging financial aid herself, she
(08:09):
enrolled at the University of South Carolina in Columbia at
only sixteen years old. She began classes there in the
fall of nineteen eighty, attempting to follow the footsteps of
her father by studying mathematics and the sciences. Liz was
interested in becoming an aeronautical engineer. She was most interested
(08:29):
in writing poetry and was really good at it. A
friend later said of her choice of studies, she wasn't
very good at math and science, and she knew it,
but that's what she wanted to do, maybe just to
challenge herself. Challenging herself was certainly true to form for Liz.
(08:58):
After attending the Universe City of South Carolina for a while,
Liz Betis discovered that she could make good money working
as a dancer in a topless bar near campus. Upon
hearing her daughter's plan to do so and her subsequent
plan to work as a nightclub mud wrestler, Rebecca panicked
and began attempting to dissuade her for the time being,
(09:20):
Liz was talked out of it. She said that she
wouldn't because everyone was begging her not to, but insisted
that she could have handled the work just fine. Liz
and her sister sometimes spent summers at their father's historic
nineteenth century limestone home near Austin. Her father, Doctor Dale,
(09:41):
later remarked that the young woman was having trouble growing up.
He and Rebecca's divorce was part of that. It's plausible, too,
perhaps even likely, that Liz's father's affluence while her mother
struggled to make ends meet, contributed to her negative feelings
toward the wealthy students at Pomfret. In the summer of
(10:01):
nineteen eighty one, Liz decided she would move back to
the Austin area and enrolled at Southwestern University in Georgetown.
The divorce was a hard and confusing thing for her,
Liz's sister, Catherine said, continuing, when she came to Texas,
she wanted to start her relationship with her father again.
It was a hard thing for her to sort out.
(10:24):
Doctor Dale, according to Catherine, hadn't been a big part
of their lives. Living in a campus dorm, Liz returned
the focus of her studies to her natural inclination the arts,
and she studied often and hard. She was already a
junior when most students her age were just entering the
university as freshmen. While at Southwestern University, Liz met and
(10:49):
became quick friends with Diane, a fine arts major. In
her senior year, Diane and her boyfriend rented a large
house in North Austin on Pansy Trail, and in May
of nineteen eighty two, she asked Liz to move there.
Though she was broke, Liz agreed to move in, promising
Diane she'd get work quick and pay rent. She kept
(11:12):
her promise and began working at Sugars the second week
it was open in June. One of the owners of
Sugars boasted that his Topless club was unique compared with
the other typical clubs in the area. Sugars, he said,
offered a first class atmosphere that catered to businessmen wooing clients.
(11:33):
The deco styled club served fine foods at low prices,
he said, with the most beautiful women around, we're trying
to make it more acceptable entertainment on a first class basis,
a place where businessmen can bring a customer, have a
good time and not get ripped off. The Sugar's owner
once commented Liz worked days at the club, starting her
(11:58):
shift at eleven am. Fellow dancer Georgia said of Liz,
she seemed like a student who needed extra money and
didn't want to run to her family for it. Liz
did well at the club, making around two hundred dollars
a day, and paid off the remainder of the note
on her baby blue nineteen sixty nine Volkswagen Beetle not
(12:18):
long after she started, and still managed to buy a
Baby Grand piano for one thousand bucks. Everyone at the
club liked Liz, and later noted that she wasn't the
typical topless dancer. Coworker Georgia said she always danced to
really good music, like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and the Beatles.
(12:39):
It was stuff you wouldn't necessarily expect to hear in
a strip joint. A Sugar's DJ called her faith in
man endearing and said that she was trusting of people
to a fault, perhaps naive. Liz's manager commented on her
dependability and her kind disposition. The club's owner late remarked
(13:00):
that she never should have worked there, and guessed that
family dynamics are what led her to become a dancer
in the first place. It would have been different, he
said if she had been a biker's girl. Liz's sister
Catherine said that she didn't intend to keep the job
long and that she probably only decided to take it
(13:21):
to try something different, something brave, and off the beaten
path of normality. Her roommate Diane, however, said that Liz
began thinking of college as something that was expected of her,
and that dancing at Sugars opened her eyes to a
whole new world where she could get along without pursuing
her education. It made sense to those who knew Liz
(13:43):
it was a new experience to be had. She was
confident in difficult situations and welcomed challenges. Liz had also
developed a protectiveness for anyone she thought needed it. At
some point, she'd even become the protective sister. Though she
was three years younger than Catherine. Liz might have had
(14:05):
her own issues to grapple with, but she was incredibly
strong and selfless. She was immensely empathetic and not only
understood others problems, but also felt them. It's likely Liz
immediately developed a protectiveness and sense of empathy toward her
fellow dancers, and perhaps found a secure and lasting bond
(14:25):
of friendship among them. Whatever solidified the decision to put
a hiatus on academics to concentrate on her new work,
it was most likely enhanced by the drug habit she
had developed. Liz's roommate, Diane, worried that her casual cocaine
habit mixed with her trusting nature was a bad thing.
(14:47):
A comment Diane later made suggests that the casual habit
was becoming a little more than that, when she described
an incident at Sugars one evening when she and her
boyfriend were visiting Liz. There, a stranger, she said, walked
up to her and Liz when Diane's boyfriend was in
the restroom. He asked if they wanted to snort some
(15:07):
coke outside in the parking lot. Diane told the stranger yes,
but only if her boyfriend could tag along too. Liz
later told Diane that she should have suggested that her
boyfriend was a relative, so the man thought they were single.
Diane was shocked at Liz's suggestion of leading a stranger
on to secure the cocaine. It was dangerous. She thought
(15:32):
if someone offered her something she wanted, like cocaine, and
she always wanted it, she would have gone with them,
Diane said. By November of nineteen eighty two, nineteen year
old Liz's drug habit was probably best described as an addiction,
but she wasn't in the drug world per se, simply
(15:53):
a user. That month, Liz Bettis was murdered. Liz Bettis,
who danced under the name Gibson, worked her regular hours
at Sugars on Wednesday, November twenty fourth, nineteen eighty two,
from eleven am to seven pm. After her shift ended,
(16:13):
she hung around the club for a while, finally leaving
around seven forty five pm. Carrying her leather European styled satchel,
she made her way to her light blue nineteen sixty
nine Volkswagen Beetle, which was parked in a spot at
the front of Sugars. She climbed into the driver's seat.
(16:34):
As she was preparing to leave the establishment, a bouncer
at the club saw a black Mail leaning over the
driver's side window speaking with Liz. Other witnesses also observed
the two speaking and described the conversation as heated. A
few seconds after the talk began, the man walked around
to the passenger side and entered the Beetle. Liz and
(16:56):
the man drove away at about eight eight pm, just
fifteen minutes after leaving Sugars, a witness saw Liz's nineteen
sixty nine baby blue Volkswagen Beetle pull into a field
on Sprinkle Cutoff Road in northeast Travis County, about seven
miles from the Strip Club. The vehicle was observed near
(17:18):
that same area, which was rural and isolated at the time,
at about nine pm. At two pm the following day, Thursday,
November twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two, Thanksgiving, as Liz's mother, Rebecca,
was exchanging vals in a wedding ceremony eighteen hundred miles
from Austin in Connecticut, the body of her daughter was
(17:41):
being discovered. Liz was left in the cold in a
field near a low water crossing, behind a small thicket
of cedar trees, about fifteen feet from Sprinkle Cutoff Road,
just outside of Austin. She was nude from the waist down,
clothed only in a red Hoganda's ice cream t shirt,
(18:02):
a white and green sweater, a brown corduroy jacket, blue socks,
and a single leather moccasin. A toxicology report later showed
that Liz had used cocaine the night she died. An
autopsy showed that Liz had been manually strangled and shot
once above the right eye with a twenty two caliber pistol.
(18:25):
The time of death, the medical examiner estimated, was between
the hours of ten PM and midnight. The previous night.
Liz had also been sexually assaulted. There is no physical
evidence at the scene. Travis County Sheriff's Office Detective Jerry
Wiggins commented as he explained that investigators were entertaining the
(18:48):
possibility that she was killed elsewhere and subsequently dumped in
the field. Liz's Volkswagen Beetle was parked approximately one hundred
yards from where her body was found. Only hairs from
Liz's dog an abused animals she'd recently adopted, were in
the vehicle. Nothing of evidentiary value, authorities reported. Travis County
(19:13):
homicide investigators removed the seat covers and door panels in
the car and sent them to FBI Labs in Washington,
d c. For testing. Detectives immediately began interviewing friends, acquaintances,
and co workers of Liz's, interrogating more than two hundred
individuals when it was all said and done, But there
was a significant problem to consider. There isn't a common
(19:37):
thread running through this. She had different groups of friends
and none of them knew each other. It's an unusual case,
Detective Wiggins remarked. What Wiggins meant was that it had
only been a few months since Liz began dancing at Sugars,
and the friends she had gained from working there were
far removed from the young woman's college friends. Police were
(20:00):
able to develop a composite sketch of the last known
man Liz had been seen with within days of the
discovery of her body, the man who she was seen
arguing with and who entered the passenger side of her
vehicle just before the two drove away from Sugars. The
suspect was described as black, well dressed, around thirty years old, slender,
(20:23):
with a short afro hairstyle and no facial hair. Still,
police said they didn't have much to go on even
after the composite was released alongside a crimestopper's reward of
one thousand dollars for information leading to the man. Sugars too,
offered a one thousand dollars reward. Frustrated at the lack
(20:45):
of evidence and the investigation's stagnation, Travis County Sheriff Doin
Bailey said, you can't disregard any possibility. Every possibility has
to be checked out. It wouldn't be until nineteen eight
eighty nine that the Travis County Sheriff's Department stumbled onto
what might have been their strongest lead in the case,
(21:07):
but there were other possibilities before then. Twenty nine year
old Leonard Charles Williams was a serial rapist in Austin.
(21:27):
In June of nineteen eighty three, Williams was taken into
custody after being let out of prison on parole for
a nineteen seventy six robbery fourteen months prior. The charge
of aggravated robbery was a plea bargain. Williams was originally
charged with attempted murder, since he stabbed a man and
(21:48):
a woman in the perpetration of that crime. With his
nineteen eighty three arrest, he was charged with the sexual
assault of one woman and suspected of a minimum of
seven others. On Monday, May twenty third, nineteen eighty three,
just after midnight, Williams abducted a twenty two year old
woman from Quick Wash coin laundry on the eighty nine
(22:10):
hundred block of North Lamar Boulevard in Austin. He made
the woman drive to a desolate area off Sprinkle Cutoff Road,
raped and sexually abused her at knife point. Williams then
forced the woman to drive him back to the laundromat.
Police became aware of Williams after an officer witnessed him
(22:31):
ride his bike into a pole in front of the
Quick Wash moments after he abducted and sexually assaulted the woman,
which prompted the officer to ask his name. The rapist
apparently was no liar. After the woman described the man
who raped her, police put two and two together and
obtained a warrant for him. Nine sexual assault survivors were
(22:55):
subsequently brought to the station to view a line up,
resulting in the suspense of Williams for a total of
seven rapes. All were raped at knife point, and one
other besides the Quickwash woman was forced to Sprinkle Cut
Off Road to be assaulted. The road where Liz Bettis's
body was found, though that particular detail was striking, and
(23:19):
Leonard Charles Williams was scrutinized for Liz's rape and murder,
he hadn't shot any of his other victims, and standing
only five feet five inches tall, he was significantly shorter
than the man thought to be responsible. Though it's unlikely
that Mark Allen Norwood or Lewis homer Wan were seriously
(23:40):
considered suspects in Liz Bettis's murder for longer than a
fleeting moment, a peculiarity involves her in the former's twenty
thirteen trial for murder, or rather in advance of the trial.
As a quick side note, the details of Norwood's crimes
are mass and include the long incarceration of an innocent man,
(24:04):
a victim's husband, and it's worth looking into if you
get the chance. A pre trial motion in Norwood's case, anyway,
was filed by the state to prevent evidence in or
the mention of Liz Bettis's case in his trial for
the nineteen eighty eight murder of Deborah Baker. The thought
(24:25):
was that Norwood's attorneys would use Liz's murder in a
strategic attempt to implicate a one time friend of their client,
one who would now testify against him, Lewis Homer Juan
Norwood had sold One a pistol, a weapon stolen from
the home of a woman he had murdered, in order
(24:45):
to both separate himself from it and to implicate his friend.
At the same time, he also attempted to implicate onan
in Liz's murder, and investigators seemed to bite, if only briefly.
In laws owned the property where Liz's body was found,
and the man had a lengthy criminal record. Besides that,
(25:08):
detectives claimed One knew who Liz was. He knew that
her family, her grandfather specifically owned a small chain of
stores Bettis TV and Appliances, and had bought a washer
and dryer set and an ice box there. When interviewed,
One told investigators that he was going out to the
(25:28):
area where Liz's body was found the day it was
found to fire a new gun. He had purchased a
forty four magnum, but changed his mind when it began
to rain. But one, like Leonard Charles Williams, didn't match
the description of the man they were looking for. One
was shorter at five feet eight inches tall and white.
(25:53):
In a twenty eleven interview with police, one told investigators
that he thought it was a police officer who killed
Liz Bettis. There was undoubtedly reason for One to make
the comment he did, because in nineteen eighty nine, Travis
County Sheriff's Office investigators brought in at least two Austin
law enforcement officers for questioning and Liz's slang. Neither of
(26:18):
the Austin Police Department officers questioned in the murder of
Liz Bettis, of course, have been named in the press.
What's known about the investigation into them two leaves much
to be desired, but it's certainly enough to raise an eyebrow.
In nineteen eighty nine, investigators with the Drug Enforcement Agency
(26:40):
were given a tip. The tipster alleged that two officers,
who will call Cop Number one and Cop Number two,
were at Sugars the evening Liz Bettis was last seen alive.
Both men were active police officers at the time by
nineteen eighty nine, though one of them, Cop number one,
(27:01):
was no longer on the force. The source of the
tip alleged that Cop Number one was sitting at a
table with Liz that evening, and Cop number two arrived separately.
Cop number one left Sugars with Liz, and minutes later
Cop number two also left. The description of the man
(27:22):
who was seen in what was called a heated conversation
with Liz and who subsequently left with her met the
general description of Cop number one. Both Cop number one
and Cop number two were brought in for questioning by
Travis County Sheriff's Office investigators and interrogated on January twelfth,
nineteen eighty nine. They both denied being at Sugars that night,
(27:47):
let alone being involved in her murder. Cop number one,
who had resigned after an unrelated internal affairs investigation in
the years after the murder, declined to be polygraphed, while
number two agreed, though it is unclear whether the examination
was ever undergone. The story of Cop number one's resignation
(28:09):
perhaps took place in nineteen eighty seven, unless the department
was infested with widespread corruption at the time. The story
of the following officer is most likely the individual questioned
in Liz's murder. These allegations, investigation, and resignation are consistent
with what is known about Cop number one. The officer's
(28:32):
age too, matches the description, as he'd have been around
thirty years old at the time of Liz's slang. In
nineteen eighty seven, a thirteen year veteran of the Austin
Police Department was accused of sexual misconduct with a three
year old girl by the girl's mother, a former acquaintance
of the officer. The mother provided a written complaint and
(28:55):
her toddler daughter gave a statement of the abuse. Authority
used specially trained child abuse officers to speak with the girl,
which they videotaped, and investigators believed what she said. They
remarked that her statement did not appear to be rehearsed
and that she was convincing. Internal affairs immediately began an investigation.
(29:20):
The accused officer, likely Cop Number one, who performed his
duties from a North Austin substation, was placed on restrictive duty,
but appeared at the station with his lawyer the day
following the opening of the investigation and resigned. A ur
analysis showed positive for the officer's use of cannabis, which
(29:41):
he was given because the mother of the child also
told investigators he used controlled substances regularly. Because Cop Number
one was no longer under internal affairs jurisdiction once he resigned,
that investigation ended, but Austin police continued to investigate, though
(30:01):
a Travis County Sheriff's officer said that he didn't think
Liz was killed where she was discovered because of the
lack of evidence. The timeline severely limits the possibility that
she was taken somewhere else, raped, killed, and then dumped
in the field. There simply was not enough time, according
to the accounts of witnesses at Sugars and who saw
(30:24):
Liz's vehicle near the field. Perhaps the lack of evidence
found in the Volkswagen Beetle and at the scene where
her body was discovered strengthened the possibility that someone familiar
with crime scene procedures was involved, as it surely doesn't
lessen the possibility. Still solid leads pertaining to Liz's murder
(30:46):
eluded detectives. It wasn't until two thousand and seven when
Travis County Sheriff's Office detective Jim Anderson sent in evidence
for DNA testing. That and the fingerprints he was able
to lift with the new advanced methods. Anderson said all
belonged to individuals who were not suspects, whose prints and
(31:08):
DNA were justified being present, presumably meaning they all belonged
to police. Detective Anderson said he could not rule out
Lewis Homer Jan as well as a handful of others.
He said, what the department needs is for someone to
come forward with information. The Texas Rangers began featuring Liz's
(31:29):
case on their cold Case website in October twenty seventeen,
offering a reward for such information. A lot of time
has gone by, Travis County Sheriff's Detective Jim Anderson told
the Austin American Statesman in twenty seventeen, adding we're looking
at thirty five years. People's ties to certain people have changed.
(31:52):
Maybe someone that was afraid to talk back then will
speak now. A reward hopefully will generate some interest. It
appears it did not. If you have any information about
the murder of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis, please call Texas Crime
Stoppers at eight hundred two five two eight four seven seven.
(32:16):
If you'd like 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
(32:38):
else you listen. However you choose to support Gone Cold,
we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all,
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