October 31, 2024 • 28 mins
What connects an exquisite Estate Merlot with the ghostly tales of Texas? Join us as we toast to four glorious years of Texas Wine and True Crime, celebrating with our listeners and supporters who've made our journey unforgettable. We're thrilled to announce our upcoming live show in Fredericksburg at Longhorn Cellars, where you can join us for a unique wine tasting paired with riveting true crime stories. As we sip on this delightful Merlot, we also reminisce about our memorable collaborations and share exciting events lined up for the rest of the year. Our hearts are full of gratitude for the venues and individuals who've been with us every step of the way.
Embark on a spine-chilling exploration of Texas's haunted history, from the Lady of the Lake's chilling whispers at White Rock Lake to the ghostly halls of Yorktown Memorial Hospital. Jefferson, Texas, reveals its haunted secrets, even giving famed horror writer Stephen King a shiver. Discover surprising ties between the Thornton family's legacy in Dallas and the troubling trends in Highland Park's justice system. From judicial roles to unsettling leniency, we unravel how these connections echo through Dallas's political corridors, offering a compelling narrative that intertwines the supernatural with the shadows of history.
They're the crimes that continue to haunt grieving family members and the wider...
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www.texaswineandtruecrime.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome all of you wine and true crime lovers.
I'm Brandi and I am Chris andthis is Texas Wine and True
Crime.
Thank you for being here,friends, for this week's episode
, our anniversary episode.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It is.
It is Four years coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Four years.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Today, on Halloween, we are celebrating four years of
the show.
Yay, we need that like applause, Like the little applause
button.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, yeah, we need that applause Like the little
applause button.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, yeah, we need that Applause drop.
Wow, I don't want to boreeveryone with all the awesome
recaps of the last four years,but I feel very grateful and I
feel very thankful to have hadsome inspiring people on this
show who are living with reallife.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And our listeners, who support us as well.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And our listeners who support us, and the victims
who've come on and the familiesof those that are still seeking
justice.
I can't give a big enough thankyou Because if it wasn't for
all of them, it would just be usand we're married so we can do
that anytime.
But for this show it takes avillage and they are our village
(01:36):
.
So if you've been on this show,listen to our show, have any
part of the show big, big for.
so for your support and andbeing here for us yes, thank you
everybody who's been along withus for the ride yes, um, we've
got lots more food and wine tohave, chris, I'm going into our
new I don't want to say newseason, but our, our year pretty
(01:59):
much starts at our anniversaryyear.
So happy anniversary, chrishappy anniversary, thanks for uh
, our anniversary year.
So happy anniversary Chris,Happy anniversary Brandi.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Thanks for just going on this crazy journey with me.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Certainly.
Thanks for having me All right.
So we've got a fewannouncements before we kind of
tell them what's on tap fortonight.
We've got a special anniversaryepisode for you, so we're going
to mention that in just asecond.
But we are headed toFredericksburg.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
We're headed to Fredericksburg tomorrow Our
little wine country.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
We're headed to wine country and we're going to enjoy
a little bit of wine tasting inMason on Friday.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
First visit there too .
Speaker 1 (02:36):
First visit there.
We're very excited to visit ourfriends at Robert Clay, so
can't wait to see you.
And then, saturday, we're goingto be visiting a couple of
other wineries.
But before we visit them, weare going to be doing a live
show at Longhorn CellarsSaturday morning at 10.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
And tickets are still available.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yes, tickets are still available.
Grab you some tickets, come andsee us.
If you're in Austin.
It's a short drive away.
I think we have a couple ofpeople coming from Austin, but
there's still tickets available.
You can go into our socials oryou can search Longhorn Cellars
or it's on their pages too,chris.
So, yeah, grab some tickets andcome see us this weekend, and I
(03:14):
want to give another big thankyou.
Actually, before I do that,let's talk about the wine we're
having tonight, because it's ourshow anniversary and we are
celebrating with LonghornCellars wine tonight, and we are
sipping on Estate Merlot Nowbecause of all of the very rich
(03:35):
foods that we've been indulgingin this past week, and then
we're going to Fredericksburg toan amazing dinner tomorrow
night.
We decided not to cook withthis one.
We are sipping and enjoying ouranniversary.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, we're just drinking tonight, yes.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So this estate Merlot has rich, smooth tannins and
notes of black cherry and plum.
Pairs well with roastedvegetables, duck, lean red meat
and turkey.
Absolutely delicious, a verybold wine.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes, very easy drinking though.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Very easy drinking and I like a good estate Merlot,
so I'm glad we saved this onefor last.
And a huge thank you toLonghorn Cellars for being the
winery of the month.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh, yes, thank you for all the wine you sent and
for having us for our show aswell.
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, we are our first live show in
Fredericksburg, so this is goingto be very exciting.
So, longhorn Cellars, huge,huge love and thank you to you.
I also want to give today is aI guess this is an episode of
thanks for me before I jump inbut a big, big thank you to
Henry's Majestic.
We I can't believe, chris.
(04:42):
It's been almost a year.
I know coming up Since westarted doing live shows at
Henry's.
I think we started in February.
So the way the rest of the yearschedule is going to go Is
we're going to be at Henry'sthis coming up Thursday,
november 7th, first Thursday ofevery month.
So come see us November 7th.
We're going to have some goinginto the holiday season and then
(05:04):
we've got December 5th, sothese two and then we're going
to have some going into theholiday season and then we've
got December 5th, so these two,and then we're going to take a
little break because it gets alittle chilly.
We're going to take a breakJanuary and February and then we
will be back at Henry's atMarch.
So come see us this monthcoming up in November or
December.
Come and visit us.
But, henry's, thank you forjust letting us come and talk
(05:26):
about true crime and meeting newfriends.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, it's a great venue, Really cool outside area,
great bar, great restaurant.
So, yeah, definitely you caneven bring the family.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
You can, yeah, kids run around and play.
They don't even pay attention.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
The show, maybe not so much when we're talking about
, but just in general.
Yeah, it's really cool, reallycool vibe there.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, so Henry's, thank you, thank you, thank you,
and we'll see you in Novemberand December.
All right, chris.
So in honor of Halloween, inhonor of Henry's, thank you
again for letting us have ourshow there, and also just a huge
thank you to the listeners whosaid you know what?
(06:05):
Let's do something kind ofspooky, something a little
different for our anniversaryshow.
So that's what we're doing.
So, we're going to be sharingwith you two.
It's really one.
Well, yeah, it's one case, buttwo different types.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Lots of spooky Texas legends and creepy things about
Texas where to visit and apretty crazy story out of
Highland Park as well, too.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's right, and so we've been sipping here wine,
kind of talking about when wedid these live.
We like the live recordings somuch that we actually want to
put those out and I think peoplewant to hear us live, so here's
kind of what we sound like whenwe're doing our live show.
So you're going to be listeningto some spooky Texas legends.
So let us know, message us ifyou've ever heard of these.
(06:54):
And then the creepy tale out ofHighland Park, chris, which you
had introduced to me.
I had never heard of this caseand, my goodness, we have a lot
of stuff that's creepy comingout of Highland.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Park.
I was just going to say thesame thing Really really creepy,
but, um, all right.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
well, we want you to enjoy the episode again.
A huge thank you to ourlisteners.
Chris, happy anniversary.
Until next time, friends, staysafe, have fun and cheers to
next time.
Cheers, all right.
So we're going to tell a littlebit of different stories
tonight.
We're going to start off alittle soft I would say a little
(07:33):
soft and we're going to tellyou about some spooky places you
might want to visit here inTexas, and after that we're
going to talk a little bit aboutthe Texas Innocence Project and
a few cases that Chris and Iare pretty familiar with, two of
these that we want to sharewith you, and then we're going
to end with the man that ruinedHalloween.
(07:54):
So that one's a little bit more.
It's a word I'm looking for.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Probably one of the reasons people check their
Halloween candy to this day.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, it's for the late night crowd here, all right
.
So we're going to start withthe Lady of the Lake in White
Rock Lake.
So this is very interestingbecause I actually started these
folklores.
Right, we hear about thesefolklores, and are they true?
Are they not true?
Is it just maybe things havehappened around the lake?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, I think, as a Dallasite growing up here, this
was one story I heard at a veryyoung age, just even going out
and visiting White Rock.
I think my stepmother probablytold us this as children, very
young children.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, and you know, the Hunt family has a house
right off of White Rock Lake.
So I remember as a kid going tothat area because there was a
lot of parties, it was just avery popular area back in the in
the eighties and nineties andthis story was always a story
that they told us.
So, lady of the lake and whiterock, like if you haven't heard
(09:00):
this tale, it's about a girl who, um is seen basically on the
side of the water in the road.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
She's then picked up by a couple usually wet soaking,
wet, soaking, wet, soaking, wet.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
As though she's just exited the lake nearby body of
water and she is wet in the road, so she needs a little help
finding her way back home.
So the last couple.
By the way, chris, there was anarticle and pretty much almost
a book written about this in the1940s, so this is an old
(09:33):
folklore.
And I'll tell you why at theend of this, because I actually
dug up something out of theDallas Morning News, or maybe it
was Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
I think they were around before.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Dallas Morning News.
I never knew until even lookingat this, this was, I guess, a
little bit of True story.
True story, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah.
So the lady of the lake issopping wet, standing in the
road needing a ride.
So this story that this ladynamed Ann Clark wrote, she wrote
about a couple who picked upthis girl and this girl tells
the couple not only did she tumpover in a boat, but she's very
(10:13):
specific and says that hersailboat tumped over.
So this is what the coupleclaims.
By the way, this will be thethird couple to claim that
they've seen this lady and haveactually picked her up and put
her in the car.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I don't, and this.
I think this, um, this taleworked when we were kids, I
don't know.
This day and age, with cellphones and whatnot, people would
probably stamp a photo of thewet lady walking down the street
.
Would she be there in thepicture or not?
I don't know.
That is true.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
All right.
So they pick her up and shegives them the address of where
she needs to go.
So she tells the coupleeveryone in the boat is fine,
everyone got out safe, I justneed to get home.
Well, everyone in the boat isfine, everyone got out safe, I
just need to get home.
Now, I don't know back in the1920s and 30s, because this is
when this actually happened inWhite Rock, I don't know, I
(11:01):
don't know.
I feel like people would go andlook, make sure everyone's okay
.
I don't know how shenecessarily got away, but that's
how the story goes.
So they get her in the car andthen once they're asking her for
directions because you knowthere's no GPS, back in 1920s
and 30s, so they're asking fordirections Go by stars.
Yeah, you go by the stars andthey turn around Hi friends.
And they turn around and she'sgone, but there's still like a
(11:25):
wet spot sitting in the backseat.
Okay, so they decide to go tothe address that this woman
gives and a man answers the doorand they said you know, sir, do
you know a young woman that wasout at White Rock Lake?
She gave us this address, shewas telling us how to get here,
(11:47):
but then when we turned around,she was gone.
So the man is said to havestarted crying and said that
they were the third couple inthe last three weeks to show up
at his house to tell him thisand he had just lost his
daughter in a sailing accidentat White Rock Lake.
Now, what's wild about this isI looked this up and there was
(12:09):
actually a drowning in WhiteRock Lake of a girl 20 years old
around the same age that thesepeople claim to see this woman
and she died.
Her sailboat and her father wasin the sailboat with her and
she drowned.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
I mean it's wild.
For those of you that don'tknow, you can sail a boat on
White Rock.
On the back side there's like ahuge Huge.
Sailing like yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Sailing club.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, sailing club and docks, which is something
most often people don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
So I need to go back and research when was sailing.
So I'm going to assume thatWhite Rock Lake Sailing Club
maybe eventually became a club,but I think people have been
using sailboats on White RockLake a very long time based on
this story.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, they built that lake in late 20s.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Well, it used to run from the Fair Park Municipal
Pool.
If anyone knows about Fair Parkand having some sort of
waterway that people used toswim in that meshed into White
Rock Lake, because that's whatthis article was saying and I'm
like.
A municipal pool at fair parkokay, municipal means city, a
city-run pool, but what doesthat have to do with white rock
(13:20):
lake?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm gonna research that, but that's what the
article in the paper said well,one thing I could not find
either was like what was thelatest account of someone
picking up the lady?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Or even seeing her right.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I can say, when I heard it, it happened a lot in
the 50s and 60s and maybe early70s but you didn't really hear
much more about it no.
We don't cruise White Rock likemuch, so I guess something we
try to go super.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I had no idea it was a true story, so it is whether
it's a folklore and nobody eversaw this girl, but the fact that
she actually died in a sailingaccident and then was told the
people that she fell over in asailboat kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
kind of strange well, and, as we discussed on the way
here, ghosts are usually wheresomeone perished yeah that's
your true indication that adeath did occur, so you can
justify the ghost sighting.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Well, the reason we're not super paranormal
people, by the way.
So yeah, but is every lady inthe lake because of a girl who
died in the lake?
I don't know.
I hear about Lady of the Lakesin different like all the time,
right.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
That's sort of like the folklore Well growing up
here there's lots of people thatprobably died at White Rock
Lake over the years.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, there's some stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
There's probably a lot more than the Lady of the
Lake that people are picking uparound there All right, anybody
ever hear of Yorktown.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Texas Never heard of Yorktown.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Texas.
Okay, well, apparently Goingdown by Austin.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Oh, so you know where it is, okay, impressed.
I did not look it up, so it's a30,000.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Did that impress you.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I was so impressed 30,000 square foot building,
just a building made of graniteand cement and everything else
buildings are made of.
But it actually used to be likean ascent asylum, like that's
the.
You know, I think that was likethe correct word back then.
But this thing was open until1986.
And then it moved to a town 10miles away from it and then they
(15:11):
rebuilt this.
It was very strange and thenthey ended up closing it six
years later.
So the girl who was in chargelike was like the groundskeeper
Between 1986 and 1992, when thisthing closed.
She said you would walk intothis hospital and you would feel
like there's nothing else outthere.
She said it was the weirdestthing.
(15:31):
It was almost like beingenclosed in a complete, separate
universe.
All of a sudden it got reallycold.
There were noises, likecackling noises.
So this woman who still livesin Texas talks about this
Yorktown Memorial Hospital.
So supposedly there werehundreds of people that may have
died in in this place, but itjust sits.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's just the building is still there and just
sits 33,000 square feet.
There's lots of institutionslike this that have closed over
the years, where they would justkind of stash people away, and
they're all quite creepy.
And, mind you, these are allones you could go visit.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's right.
We even covered a story aboutwhat's the one, not the tarot,
remember.
There was another one, and aguy who was in the audience said
he actually did the plumbingfor that building, which is so
wild, and he started talkingabout all the haunted things
there.
All right, so let's move toWichita Falls, texas, where I
was born, and we're going totalk about Dr White Sanatorium.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
This was a combination institution.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
It was a combination institution.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Well, I was going to say more of where people would
go and recuperate fromtuberculosis back in the 20s and
also to, to some degree, amental institution as well,
where they would kind of housepeople.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
So which is kind of the I don't know.
I mean, I think it's efficientand functioning, but then you
have a hospital that hassurgeons who are doing botch
surgeries.
So there was a surgeon who saidhis ghost is actually walking
the halls of the sanatoriumstill, but people again,
hundreds of people died.
No one ever really talked aboutit, but they said you can still
(17:13):
feel the spirits in thesanatorium, which is still.
The building is still inWichita Falls, texas.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, and Yorktown and this place.
I believe both.
Should you feel the urge, youcan go visit.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Hey, why not, and pay your money to go?
experience the ghostly yes, ifyou've never done a ghost tour
in any town in Texas.
You need to.
If you need to know where to go, we can tell you Jefferson,
texas, at the top of the list.
Um, we think there's probablybeen a murder in every building
in downtown jefferson accordingto the records, that you can't
you can't go uh a block withoutbeing in a in some sort of
(17:49):
haunted building in jeffersonyeah, I think that's what makes
that place so interesting aswell, too, that all the so
interesting all the places theysay have ghosts, there is a
confirmed um a lot of murders,because basically a lot of them
happened in the 1800s, wherethere were duels and whatnot,
you know, and if you're reallyinto that, cards.
Yeah, if you're really into likethat paranormal ghost checkout.
(18:09):
So Stephen King actually stayedin Jefferson, texas, in a hotel
and he was so spooked heactually asked to be moved.
He, him and his whole team,left Jefferson and went on the
outskirts of the city and that'sa true crime and paranormal
writer and horror writer.
But he was so scared and heactually wrote about Jefferson,
(18:33):
texas in one of his books.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I wonder if he was there for research or something.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yes, he was there for research, which is so wild, but
he was so spooked that he hadto get out of that hotel.
All right, so let's talk aboutRogan Stadium in San Saba, texas
.
This is a football stadium.
So the Rogan family owned thispiece of land, chris, back in
the 1800s.
Now there was a graveyard.
They call this football fieldstill today the graveyard
(18:58):
because, well, it's built over agraveyard still today the
graveyard because, well, it'sbuilt over a graveyard.
So the Rogan family donated theland to San Saba ISD and they
decided they wanted to build afootball field on this land.
Well, the problem was is thatthere were people buried there.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So they stopped doing burials, what like in 1875?
Well, and the people thatremained were the families that
you know they could not get ahold of to actually move the
bodies, because I mean, thathappens a lot.
They can almost say exhume, butthey can, of course, dig up the
coffin and move them.
However, for the people theycould not locate.
They ended up being theultimate sixth man.
They stuck around underneaththe football field and you hope
(19:38):
they represent Santa.
I don't know underneath thefootball field and you hope they
represent Santa.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I don't know, no well , so in 1935 is when the family
donated it.
So what they did is they triedto find it was like Civil War
people that were buried there,families.
So they couldn't find all thefamilies.
So what they had to do wasbasically just take out the
gravestones and anything andlevel the land out to build the
(20:02):
field.
So the bodies who they had nofamily members to claim them,
stayed.
So they actually don't know howmany bodies are actually still
buried under San Saba footballfields, but I kind of want to go
to a football game there.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I mean, what is Friday Night Lights there?
And if you say people wereburied during the Civil War,
there's probably unmarked gravesas well too.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, it was actually the Sandsawba football coach, I
think 10 years ago said thatthings happen all of the time on
that field.
They hear things.
He said he felt the groundshake, although earthquakes in
Texas seem to be more normalthan usual, but anyways, he was
saying that there were just somany apparitions and he said
(20:43):
some football player ended upgetting like tackled or felt
like somebody grabbed his feetbefore anybody actually ever
touched him.
Just wild, wild stuff.
So I found that I found thestory like super interesting.
But hey, what are you going todo, I mean, if you can't clean
the body?
It's not the first graveyard tohave land donated or broken
down and then somebody doessomething with the, with the
(21:05):
besides, keep it as a graveyardthey made a movie about it where
they built houses on top of aburial ground too yeah, what
movie is that poltergeist?
oh, poltergeist, poltergeist.
Yeah, sorry all right, don't goto the light and then the last
one we want to talk about is thehouse of horrors in Highland
park, Texas.
I found this one so wild.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I was going to say we've done a lot of very unusual
tales, a lot of stuff going onin Highland park here recently.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
The last three shows no, the last three shows we've
done here have been Highlandpark cases and it's I don't know
.
People don't expect this typeof thing out of highland park,
but this is wild I used toalways get pulled over driving
through highland park.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
You did, oh yes oh, all right.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So there was a doctor and his wife who lived in
highland park.
So, chris, this is back in, Iwould say, like the late 1930s,
1940s.
But they built this shiplooking thing outside of their
house, strange.
I mean, I don't know if theyended up tearing all of this
down, they sold the property.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
So I'm sure they did.
Yes, I searched and searchedbecause I was kind of fascinated
with this ship-like structurethat they claim was built in the
yard.
It's almost like the size of alarge yacht, but there were no
images yeah whoever purchasedthe property tore it down, but
it was quite a spectacle from myunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
People would drive and yeah, oh, it was like a
sight to see, so they built somelike random ship looking thing
in the backyard and so this andbut they're, they live in
Highland Park and again we dothese cases in Highland Park and
you know it's like is theresort of this sensitivity,
because it's a small littleplace, you're very confined.
Um, people like to keep hushhush.
Yeah, people don't like to, youknow, ruffle the feathers there,
so they just prefer not to say.
(22:46):
Say anything.
Um, and I'm not just sayingthat, that's literally the cases
we've covered and the peopleinvolved in them will say this
about highland park.
But once the couple sold thehome in 1964, um, they started,
chris, getting everything thatthey left there.
So they ended up leaving a lotof their stuff.
They sell it in auction.
(23:07):
Well, this girl from NorthTexas comes along and decides to
like research and look intothis family.
Well, what she found out wasactually back in 1938, they had
been accused of kidnapping theirown house worker butler or
(23:27):
gardener Gardener, anAfrican-American man?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yes, he had disappeared and nobody could
find him yes, there was noexplanation.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
He didn't live there.
Yeah, you're right, he was thegardener.
He did not live there, he justtended to the house.
So his family, they report himmissing.
Like they can't find him, theyend up finding this guy in their
attic.
They have him stuffed away inthe attic and he the family
accused him of stealing whatlike an emerald and she called
(23:58):
it like an unreplaceable Chinafamily family heirloom, a ring
of some sorts.
Yeah, I thought Jade, I thinkJade.
Yeah, I was.
Yeah, I thought jade, I thinkit, or jade, yeah, I was
thinking j when I but I thinkit's emerald.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
They're both greens, I don't know okay.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
So here's what's wild .
Um, he was not the first personshe accused of this.
She accused multiple houseworkers of stealing her stuff,
but she ends up putting him inthe attic.
They end up finding this guyand then they talk to the maid
who was actually with the womanlike her, you know, not her maid
, but like the caretaker.
So she drives her around, she'swith her, she takes the bags.
(24:33):
She says she was actually withher when she bought this piece
of jewelry from, like, a tarotcard reader in Dallas for $1.48.
So this was not even anheirloom of any sort.
I mean this is just wild.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
It was owned by a Chinese princess.
That was, that's what she said.
Yeah, it was owned by a Chineseprincess.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Um, but she ends up um, they end up getting this guy
right, so he sues them.
He wants $53,800, okay, so thisis what 19.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
38?
Speaker 1 (25:08):
38-ish.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Which that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, that's a lot of money, right?
Well, he only gets $500.
He ends up only getting $500,and he leaves town very quickly,
but this sort of just went likehush-hush.
And then, once the family soldthis crazy looking property and
left some stuff there, peoplestarted to research them a
little bit and, funny enough,they were actually accused of
(25:35):
kidnapping and keeping um somesort of slave type, and
basically that's what he said.
He was treated like.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
He was kind of treated like yeah, I mean he
wasn't made any work.
It just was odd that they whathe said he was treated like.
He was kind of treated like aslave.
Yeah, I mean he wasn't made toany work.
It just was odd that he wasbound.
They fed him, I think, a steadydiet of cheeseburgers was what.
I'd read, which is odd.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
But yeah, just almost , I don't know just a prisoner.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
A prisoner?
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I don't know, okay, so here's what's interesting.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I'm going to read this.
So he ends up getting only $500, and obviously in the court
system.
So the girl who researched thisfamily, so the judge presiding
Chris over his case against thefamily, was WL Thornton, the
brother to four-term Dallasmayor RL Thornton, the brother
(26:25):
to four-term Dallas mayor RLThornton, who also wasa member
and leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
I didn't know that.
I know who RL Thornton is.
I had no idea about any of this, which is sad and wild.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Well, I have no idea who RL Thornton was until I, oh
you didn't you never RL Thornton.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I didn't know who RL Thornton was until I.
Oh, you didn't you never RLThornton.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I still see his name everywhere.
Well, I mean, I'm sorry, notthe brother, rl Thornton.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have aroad, but the whole Crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I guess it's 1938, dallas, I guess it doesn't
surprise me.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
in the issue, nobody was even prosecuted for doing
this.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
No, and why is it that every case in Highland Park
we have covered the last threemonths no one has spent any jail
time for anything they've done?
I mean, it's absolutely wild.
Thank you Bye.
Welcome all of you wine and true crime lovers.
I'm Brandi and I am Chris andthis is Texas Wine and True
Crime.
Thank you for being here,friends, for this week's episode
, our anniversary episode.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It is.
It is Four years coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Four years.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Today, on Halloween, we are celebrating four years of
the show.
Yay, we need that like applause, Like the little applause
button.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, yeah, we need that applause Like the little
applause button.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, yeah, we need that Applause drop.
Wow, I don't want to boreeveryone with all the awesome
recaps of the last four years,but I feel very grateful and I
feel very thankful to have hadsome inspiring people on this
show who are living with reallife.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And our listeners, who support us as well.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And our listeners who support us, and the victims
who've come on and the familiesof those that are still seeking
justice.
I can't give a big enough thankyou Because if it wasn't for
all of them, it would just be usand we're married so we can do
that anytime.
But for this show it takes avillage and they are our village
(01:36):
.
So if you've been on this show,listen to our show, have any
part of the show big, big for.
so for your support and andbeing here for us yes, thank you
everybody who's been along withus for the ride yes, um, we've
got lots more food and wine tohave, chris, I'm going into our
new I don't want to say newseason, but our, our year pretty
(01:59):
much starts at our anniversaryyear.
So happy anniversary, chrishappy anniversary, thanks for uh
, our anniversary year.
So happy anniversary Chris,Happy anniversary Brandi.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Thanks for just going on this crazy journey with me.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Certainly.
Thanks for having me All right.
So we've got a fewannouncements before we kind of
tell them what's on tap fortonight.
We've got a special anniversaryepisode for you, so we're going
to mention that in just asecond.
But we are headed toFredericksburg.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
We're headed to Fredericksburg tomorrow Our
little wine country.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
We're headed to wine country and we're going to enjoy
a little bit of wine tasting inMason on Friday.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
First visit there too .
Speaker 1 (02:36):
First visit there.
We're very excited to visit ourfriends at Robert Clay, so
can't wait to see you.
And then, saturday, we're goingto be visiting a couple of
other wineries.
But before we visit them, weare going to be doing a live
show at Longhorn CellarsSaturday morning at 10.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
And tickets are still available.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yes, tickets are still available.
Grab you some tickets, come andsee us.
If you're in Austin.
It's a short drive away.
I think we have a couple ofpeople coming from Austin, but
there's still tickets available.
You can go into our socials oryou can search Longhorn Cellars
or it's on their pages too,chris.
So, yeah, grab some tickets andcome see us this weekend, and I
(03:14):
want to give another big thankyou.
Actually, before I do that,let's talk about the wine we're
having tonight, because it's ourshow anniversary and we are
celebrating with LonghornCellars wine tonight, and we are
sipping on Estate Merlot Nowbecause of all of the very rich
(03:35):
foods that we've been indulgingin this past week, and then
we're going to Fredericksburg toan amazing dinner tomorrow
night.
We decided not to cook withthis one.
We are sipping and enjoying ouranniversary.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, we're just drinking tonight, yes.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So this estate Merlot has rich, smooth tannins and
notes of black cherry and plum.
Pairs well with roastedvegetables, duck, lean red meat
and turkey.
Absolutely delicious, a verybold wine.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes, very easy drinking though.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Very easy drinking and I like a good estate Merlot,
so I'm glad we saved this onefor last.
And a huge thank you toLonghorn Cellars for being the
winery of the month.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh, yes, thank you for all the wine you sent and
for having us for our show aswell.
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, we are our first live show in
Fredericksburg, so this is goingto be very exciting.
So, longhorn Cellars, huge,huge love and thank you to you.
I also want to give today is aI guess this is an episode of
thanks for me before I jump inbut a big, big thank you to
Henry's Majestic.
We I can't believe, chris.
(04:42):
It's been almost a year.
I know coming up Since westarted doing live shows at
Henry's.
I think we started in February.
So the way the rest of the yearschedule is going to go Is
we're going to be at Henry'sthis coming up Thursday,
november 7th, first Thursday ofevery month.
So come see us November 7th.
We're going to have some goinginto the holiday season and then
(05:04):
we've got December 5th, sothese two and then we're going
to have some going into theholiday season and then we've
got December 5th, so these two,and then we're going to take a
little break because it gets alittle chilly.
We're going to take a breakJanuary and February and then we
will be back at Henry's atMarch.
So come see us this monthcoming up in November or
December.
Come and visit us.
But, henry's, thank you forjust letting us come and talk
(05:26):
about true crime and meeting newfriends.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, it's a great venue, Really cool outside area,
great bar, great restaurant.
So, yeah, definitely you caneven bring the family.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
You can, yeah, kids run around and play.
They don't even pay attention.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
The show, maybe not so much when we're talking about
, but just in general.
Yeah, it's really cool, reallycool vibe there.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, so Henry's, thank you, thank you, thank you,
and we'll see you in Novemberand December.
All right, chris.
So in honor of Halloween, inhonor of Henry's, thank you
again for letting us have ourshow there, and also just a huge
thank you to the listeners whosaid you know what?
(06:05):
Let's do something kind ofspooky, something a little
different for our anniversaryshow.
So that's what we're doing.
So, we're going to be sharingwith you two.
It's really one.
Well, yeah, it's one case, buttwo different types.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Lots of spooky Texas legends and creepy things about
Texas where to visit and apretty crazy story out of
Highland Park as well, too.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's right, and so we've been sipping here wine,
kind of talking about when wedid these live.
We like the live recordings somuch that we actually want to
put those out and I think peoplewant to hear us live, so here's
kind of what we sound like whenwe're doing our live show.
So you're going to be listeningto some spooky Texas legends.
So let us know, message us ifyou've ever heard of these.
(06:54):
And then the creepy tale out ofHighland Park, chris, which you
had introduced to me.
I had never heard of this caseand, my goodness, we have a lot
of stuff that's creepy comingout of Highland.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Park.
I was just going to say thesame thing Really really creepy,
but, um, all right.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
well, we want you to enjoy the episode again.
A huge thank you to ourlisteners.
Chris, happy anniversary.
Until next time, friends, staysafe, have fun and cheers to
next time.
Cheers, all right.
So we're going to tell a littlebit of different stories
tonight.
We're going to start off alittle soft I would say a little
(07:33):
soft and we're going to tellyou about some spooky places you
might want to visit here inTexas, and after that we're
going to talk a little bit aboutthe Texas Innocence Project and
a few cases that Chris and Iare pretty familiar with, two of
these that we want to sharewith you, and then we're going
to end with the man that ruinedHalloween.
(07:54):
So that one's a little bit more.
It's a word I'm looking for.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Probably one of the reasons people check their
Halloween candy to this day.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, it's for the late night crowd here, all right
.
So we're going to start withthe Lady of the Lake in White
Rock Lake.
So this is very interestingbecause I actually started these
folklores.
Right, we hear about thesefolklores, and are they true?
Are they not true?
Is it just maybe things havehappened around the lake?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, I think, as a Dallasite growing up here, this
was one story I heard at a veryyoung age, just even going out
and visiting White Rock.
I think my stepmother probablytold us this as children, very
young children.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, and you know, the Hunt family has a house
right off of White Rock Lake.
So I remember as a kid going tothat area because there was a
lot of parties, it was just avery popular area back in the in
the eighties and nineties andthis story was always a story
that they told us.
So, lady of the lake and whiterock, like if you haven't heard
(09:00):
this tale, it's about a girl who, um is seen basically on the
side of the water in the road.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
She's then picked up by a couple usually wet soaking,
wet, soaking, wet, soaking, wet.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
As though she's just exited the lake nearby body of
water and she is wet in the road, so she needs a little help
finding her way back home.
So the last couple.
By the way, chris, there was anarticle and pretty much almost
a book written about this in the1940s, so this is an old
(09:33):
folklore.
And I'll tell you why at theend of this, because I actually
dug up something out of theDallas Morning News, or maybe it
was Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
I think they were around before.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Dallas Morning News.
I never knew until even lookingat this, this was, I guess, a
little bit of True story.
True story, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah.
So the lady of the lake issopping wet, standing in the
road needing a ride.
So this story that this ladynamed Ann Clark wrote, she wrote
about a couple who picked upthis girl and this girl tells
the couple not only did she tumpover in a boat, but she's very
(10:13):
specific and says that hersailboat tumped over.
So this is what the coupleclaims.
By the way, this will be thethird couple to claim that
they've seen this lady and haveactually picked her up and put
her in the car.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I don't, and this.
I think this, um, this taleworked when we were kids, I
don't know.
This day and age, with cellphones and whatnot, people would
probably stamp a photo of thewet lady walking down the street
.
Would she be there in thepicture or not?
I don't know.
That is true.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
All right.
So they pick her up and shegives them the address of where
she needs to go.
So she tells the coupleeveryone in the boat is fine,
everyone got out safe, I justneed to get home.
Well, everyone in the boat isfine, everyone got out safe, I
just need to get home.
Now, I don't know back in the1920s and 30s, because this is
when this actually happened inWhite Rock, I don't know, I
(11:01):
don't know.
I feel like people would go andlook, make sure everyone's okay
.
I don't know how shenecessarily got away, but that's
how the story goes.
So they get her in the car andthen once they're asking her for
directions because you knowthere's no GPS, back in 1920s
and 30s, so they're asking fordirections Go by stars.
Yeah, you go by the stars andthey turn around Hi friends.
And they turn around and she'sgone, but there's still like a
(11:25):
wet spot sitting in the backseat.
Okay, so they decide to go tothe address that this woman
gives and a man answers the doorand they said you know, sir, do
you know a young woman that wasout at White Rock Lake?
She gave us this address, shewas telling us how to get here,
(11:47):
but then when we turned around,she was gone.
So the man is said to havestarted crying and said that
they were the third couple inthe last three weeks to show up
at his house to tell him thisand he had just lost his
daughter in a sailing accidentat White Rock Lake.
Now, what's wild about this isI looked this up and there was
(12:09):
actually a drowning in WhiteRock Lake of a girl 20 years old
around the same age that thesepeople claim to see this woman
and she died.
Her sailboat and her father wasin the sailboat with her and
she drowned.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
I mean it's wild.
For those of you that don'tknow, you can sail a boat on
White Rock.
On the back side there's like ahuge Huge.
Sailing like yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Sailing club.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, sailing club and docks, which is something
most often people don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
So I need to go back and research when was sailing.
So I'm going to assume thatWhite Rock Lake Sailing Club
maybe eventually became a club,but I think people have been
using sailboats on White RockLake a very long time based on
this story.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, they built that lake in late 20s.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Well, it used to run from the Fair Park Municipal
Pool.
If anyone knows about Fair Parkand having some sort of
waterway that people used toswim in that meshed into White
Rock Lake, because that's whatthis article was saying and I'm
like.
A municipal pool at fair parkokay, municipal means city, a
city-run pool, but what doesthat have to do with white rock
(13:20):
lake?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm gonna research that, but that's what the
article in the paper said well,one thing I could not find
either was like what was thelatest account of someone
picking up the lady?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Or even seeing her right.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I can say, when I heard it, it happened a lot in
the 50s and 60s and maybe early70s but you didn't really hear
much more about it no.
We don't cruise White Rock likemuch, so I guess something we
try to go super.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I had no idea it was a true story, so it is whether
it's a folklore and nobody eversaw this girl, but the fact that
she actually died in a sailingaccident and then was told the
people that she fell over in asailboat kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
kind of strange well, and, as we discussed on the way
here, ghosts are usually wheresomeone perished yeah that's
your true indication that adeath did occur, so you can
justify the ghost sighting.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Well, the reason we're not super paranormal
people, by the way.
So yeah, but is every lady inthe lake because of a girl who
died in the lake?
I don't know.
I hear about Lady of the Lakesin different like all the time,
right.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
That's sort of like the folklore Well growing up
here there's lots of people thatprobably died at White Rock
Lake over the years.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, there's some stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
There's probably a lot more than the Lady of the
Lake that people are picking uparound there All right, anybody
ever hear of Yorktown.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Texas Never heard of Yorktown.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Texas.
Okay, well, apparently Goingdown by Austin.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Oh, so you know where it is, okay, impressed.
I did not look it up, so it's a30,000.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Did that impress you.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I was so impressed 30,000 square foot building,
just a building made of graniteand cement and everything else
buildings are made of.
But it actually used to be likean ascent asylum, like that's
the.
You know, I think that was likethe correct word back then.
But this thing was open until1986.
And then it moved to a town 10miles away from it and then they
(15:11):
rebuilt this.
It was very strange and thenthey ended up closing it six
years later.
So the girl who was in chargelike was like the groundskeeper
Between 1986 and 1992, when thisthing closed.
She said you would walk intothis hospital and you would feel
like there's nothing else outthere.
She said it was the weirdestthing.
(15:31):
It was almost like beingenclosed in a complete, separate
universe.
All of a sudden it got reallycold.
There were noises, likecackling noises.
So this woman who still livesin Texas talks about this
Yorktown Memorial Hospital.
So supposedly there werehundreds of people that may have
died in in this place, but itjust sits.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's just the building is still there and just
sits 33,000 square feet.
There's lots of institutionslike this that have closed over
the years, where they would justkind of stash people away, and
they're all quite creepy.
And, mind you, these are allones you could go visit.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's right.
We even covered a story aboutwhat's the one, not the tarot,
remember.
There was another one, and aguy who was in the audience said
he actually did the plumbingfor that building, which is so
wild, and he started talkingabout all the haunted things
there.
All right, so let's move toWichita Falls, texas, where I
was born, and we're going totalk about Dr White Sanatorium.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
This was a combination institution.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
It was a combination institution.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Well, I was going to say more of where people would
go and recuperate fromtuberculosis back in the 20s and
also to, to some degree, amental institution as well,
where they would kind of housepeople.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
So which is kind of the I don't know.
I mean, I think it's efficientand functioning, but then you
have a hospital that hassurgeons who are doing botch
surgeries.
So there was a surgeon who saidhis ghost is actually walking
the halls of the sanatoriumstill, but people again,
hundreds of people died.
No one ever really talked aboutit, but they said you can still
(17:13):
feel the spirits in thesanatorium, which is still.
The building is still inWichita Falls, texas.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, and Yorktown and this place.
I believe both.
Should you feel the urge, youcan go visit.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Hey, why not, and pay your money to go?
experience the ghostly yes, ifyou've never done a ghost tour
in any town in Texas.
You need to.
If you need to know where to go, we can tell you Jefferson,
texas, at the top of the list.
Um, we think there's probablybeen a murder in every building
in downtown jefferson accordingto the records, that you can't
you can't go uh a block withoutbeing in a in some sort of
(17:49):
haunted building in jeffersonyeah, I think that's what makes
that place so interesting aswell, too, that all the so
interesting all the places theysay have ghosts, there is a
confirmed um a lot of murders,because basically a lot of them
happened in the 1800s, wherethere were duels and whatnot,
you know, and if you're reallyinto that, cards.
Yeah, if you're really into likethat paranormal ghost checkout.
(18:09):
So Stephen King actually stayedin Jefferson, texas, in a hotel
and he was so spooked heactually asked to be moved.
He, him and his whole team,left Jefferson and went on the
outskirts of the city and that'sa true crime and paranormal
writer and horror writer.
But he was so scared and heactually wrote about Jefferson,
(18:33):
texas in one of his books.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I wonder if he was there for research or something.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yes, he was there for research, which is so wild, but
he was so spooked that he hadto get out of that hotel.
All right, so let's talk aboutRogan Stadium in San Saba, texas
.
This is a football stadium.
So the Rogan family owned thispiece of land, chris, back in
the 1800s.
Now there was a graveyard.
They call this football fieldstill today the graveyard
(18:58):
because, well, it's built over agraveyard still today the
graveyard because, well, it'sbuilt over a graveyard.
So the Rogan family donated theland to San Saba ISD and they
decided they wanted to build afootball field on this land.
Well, the problem was is thatthere were people buried there.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So they stopped doing burials, what like in 1875?
Well, and the people thatremained were the families that
you know they could not get ahold of to actually move the
bodies, because I mean, thathappens a lot.
They can almost say exhume, butthey can, of course, dig up the
coffin and move them.
However, for the people theycould not locate.
They ended up being theultimate sixth man.
They stuck around underneaththe football field and you hope
(19:38):
they represent Santa.
I don't know underneath thefootball field and you hope they
represent Santa.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I don't know, no well , so in 1935 is when the family
donated it.
So what they did is they triedto find it was like Civil War
people that were buried there,families.
So they couldn't find all thefamilies.
So what they had to do wasbasically just take out the
gravestones and anything andlevel the land out to build the
(20:02):
field.
So the bodies who they had nofamily members to claim them,
stayed.
So they actually don't know howmany bodies are actually still
buried under San Saba footballfields, but I kind of want to go
to a football game there.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I mean, what is Friday Night Lights there?
And if you say people wereburied during the Civil War,
there's probably unmarked gravesas well too.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, it was actually the Sandsawba football coach, I
think 10 years ago said thatthings happen all of the time on
that field.
They hear things.
He said he felt the groundshake, although earthquakes in
Texas seem to be more normalthan usual, but anyways, he was
saying that there were just somany apparitions and he said
(20:43):
some football player ended upgetting like tackled or felt
like somebody grabbed his feetbefore anybody actually ever
touched him.
Just wild, wild stuff.
So I found that I found thestory like super interesting.
But hey, what are you going todo, I mean, if you can't clean
the body?
It's not the first graveyard tohave land donated or broken
down and then somebody doessomething with the, with the
(21:05):
besides, keep it as a graveyardthey made a movie about it where
they built houses on top of aburial ground too yeah, what
movie is that poltergeist?
oh, poltergeist, poltergeist.
Yeah, sorry all right, don't goto the light and then the last
one we want to talk about is thehouse of horrors in Highland
park, Texas.
I found this one so wild.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I was going to say we've done a lot of very unusual
tales, a lot of stuff going onin Highland park here recently.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
The last three shows no, the last three shows we've
done here have been Highlandpark cases and it's I don't know
.
People don't expect this typeof thing out of highland park,
but this is wild I used toalways get pulled over driving
through highland park.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
You did, oh yes oh, all right.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So there was a doctor and his wife who lived in
highland park.
So, chris, this is back in, Iwould say, like the late 1930s,
1940s.
But they built this shiplooking thing outside of their
house, strange.
I mean, I don't know if theyended up tearing all of this
down, they sold the property.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
So I'm sure they did.
Yes, I searched and searchedbecause I was kind of fascinated
with this ship-like structurethat they claim was built in the
yard.
It's almost like the size of alarge yacht, but there were no
images yeah whoever purchasedthe property tore it down, but
it was quite a spectacle from myunderstanding.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
People would drive and yeah, oh, it was like a
sight to see, so they built somelike random ship looking thing
in the backyard and so this andbut they're, they live in
Highland Park and again we dothese cases in Highland Park and
you know it's like is theresort of this sensitivity,
because it's a small littleplace, you're very confined.
Um, people like to keep hushhush.
Yeah, people don't like to, youknow, ruffle the feathers there,
so they just prefer not to say.
(22:46):
Say anything.
Um, and I'm not just sayingthat, that's literally the cases
we've covered and the peopleinvolved in them will say this
about highland park.
But once the couple sold thehome in 1964, um, they started,
chris, getting everything thatthey left there.
So they ended up leaving a lotof their stuff.
They sell it in auction.
(23:07):
Well, this girl from NorthTexas comes along and decides to
like research and look intothis family.
Well, what she found out wasactually back in 1938, they had
been accused of kidnapping theirown house worker butler or
(23:27):
gardener Gardener, anAfrican-American man?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yes, he had disappeared and nobody could
find him yes, there was noexplanation.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
He didn't live there.
Yeah, you're right, he was thegardener.
He did not live there, he justtended to the house.
So his family, they report himmissing.
Like they can't find him, theyend up finding this guy in their
attic.
They have him stuffed away inthe attic and he the family
accused him of stealing whatlike an emerald and she called
(23:58):
it like an unreplaceable Chinafamily family heirloom, a ring
of some sorts.
Yeah, I thought Jade, I thinkJade.
Yeah, I was.
Yeah, I thought jade, I thinkit, or jade, yeah, I was
thinking j when I but I thinkit's emerald.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
They're both greens, I don't know okay.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
So here's what's wild .
Um, he was not the first personshe accused of this.
She accused multiple houseworkers of stealing her stuff,
but she ends up putting him inthe attic.
They end up finding this guyand then they talk to the maid
who was actually with the womanlike her, you know, not her maid
, but like the caretaker.
So she drives her around, she'swith her, she takes the bags.
(24:33):
She says she was actually withher when she bought this piece
of jewelry from, like, a tarotcard reader in Dallas for $1.48.
So this was not even anheirloom of any sort.
I mean this is just wild.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
It was owned by a Chinese princess.
That was, that's what she said.
Yeah, it was owned by a Chineseprincess.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Um, but she ends up um, they end up getting this guy
right, so he sues them.
He wants $53,800, okay, so thisis what 19.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
38?
Speaker 1 (25:08):
38-ish.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Which that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, that's a lot of money, right?
Well, he only gets $500.
He ends up only getting $500,and he leaves town very quickly,
but this sort of just went likehush-hush.
And then, once the family soldthis crazy looking property and
left some stuff there, peoplestarted to research them a
little bit and, funny enough,they were actually accused of
(25:35):
kidnapping and keeping um somesort of slave type, and
basically that's what he said.
He was treated like.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
He was kind of treated like yeah, I mean he
wasn't made any work.
It just was odd that they whathe said he was treated like.
He was kind of treated like aslave.
Yeah, I mean he wasn't made toany work.
It just was odd that he wasbound.
They fed him, I think, a steadydiet of cheeseburgers was what.
I'd read, which is odd.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
But yeah, just almost , I don't know just a prisoner.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
A prisoner?
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I don't know, okay, so here's what's interesting.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I'm going to read this.
So he ends up getting only $500, and obviously in the court
system.
So the girl who researched thisfamily, so the judge presiding
Chris over his case against thefamily, was WL Thornton, the
brother to four-term Dallasmayor RL Thornton, the brother
(26:25):
to four-term Dallas mayor RLThornton, who also wasa member
and leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
I didn't know that.
I know who RL Thornton is.
I had no idea about any of this, which is sad and wild.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Well, I have no idea who RL Thornton was until I, oh
you didn't you never RL Thornton.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I didn't know who RL Thornton was until I.
Oh, you didn't you never RLThornton.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I still see his name everywhere.
Well, I mean, I'm sorry, notthe brother, rl Thornton.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have aroad, but the whole Crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I guess it's 1938, dallas, I guess it doesn't
surprise me.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
in the issue, nobody was even prosecuted for doing
this.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
No, and why is it that every case in Highland Park
we have covered the last threemonths no one has spent any jail
time for anything they've done?
I mean, it's absolutely wild.
Thank you Bye.
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