Buzz
Texas, also known as the Lone Star State, is the second-largest state in the U.S. and recognized globally. The typical image of Texas features tough cowboys wearing ten-gallon hats and Levi's jeans. Texas is known for its strong sense of local pride, with many residents considering themselves Texans before Americans, its rugged individualism, and a rich history shaped by various ethnic groups. The state is a melting pot, blending Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-Celtic influences, while also being home to a thriving Czech culture and a unique dialect known as Texas German, spoken by many German speakers.
However, there’s a darker side to Texas. Long before notorious events like the Comanche raids and the 1906 Brownsville Affair, Texas was soaked in violence. It has witnessed some of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, including the 1991 Luby’s Cafeteria shooting that left twenty-three dead, the 2016 shooting of five Dallas police officers, the 2017 massacre at a Sutherland Springs church that killed twenty-six, and the 2019 El Paso attack that took twenty-two lives. Guns are deeply ingrained in Texas, a state that still echoes the spirit of the wild frontier.
Beyond the violence, Texas is also known for its tall tales, often centered around ghosts and eerie happenings. In this list, we’ll explore the blend of reality and the supernatural, where true crimes intersect with chilling ghost stories. A word of caution: the most infamous Texas killers, such as Dean Corll, the Texarkana Phantom, Joe Ball, and Henry Lee Lucas, won’t be featured here. Instead, this list focuses on some of Texas' lesser-known terrors.
10. The Haunting of Yorktown Memorial Hospital
Nestled in Southern Texas, between San Antonio and the Gulf Coast, lies the town of Yorktown. This town owes its existence to the Old Indianola Trail, which once linked the seaport of Indianola to the city of New Braunfels. However, something feels off about Yorktown, as if a dark presence lingers. A major contributor to this eerie atmosphere is the allegedly haunted Yorktown Memorial Hospital.
Before it closed its doors in 1980, Yorktown Memorial Hospital, founded by the Catholic Felician Sisters, served patients recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. It appears that many of the suffering souls who entered the hospital never truly left. For over three decades, the residents of Yorktown have reported unsettling paranormal occurrences within the abandoned hospital. Some of these eerie phenomena include music echoing through the halls, dolls that seem to speak, and dark, shadowy figures with glowing red eyes.
Paranormal experts and ghost hunters alike believe that the sinister energy surrounding Yorktown Memorial Hospital stems from the estimated 2,000 patients who died there between 1950 and 1980. Despite its chilling reputation, Yorktown has embraced the haunted status of the hospital, offering Halloween tours. Nevertheless, with numerous reports of strange lights and inexplicable sounds, it seems that Yorktown Memorial Hospital may indeed be a hotspot for supernatural activity.
9. The Yorktown Wendigo
Sticking with Yorktown, this small town is said to be home to something far more terrifying than ghosts. Eyewitnesses, many of whom have shared their accounts online, claim that Yorktown is the dwelling place of the dreaded wendigo. While the wendigo is often linked to the icy forests of the far north, it originates from Algonquian folklore. Descriptions of the wendigo range from a massive, Bigfoot-like snow beast to a skinwalker capable of driving people to murder. Some legends even tell of wendigos taking over the bodies of those who perished from the cold during isolated hikes in snow-covered mountains. The one consistent feature in all wendigo tales is its insatiable hunger for blood.
Although Texas may not be as cold as places like Minnesota or Manitoba, Texas resident Izel Vargas reports sightings of a bald, black-eyed wendigo wandering the misty nights of Yorktown. What’s even more chilling is that this wendigo is just one of many skinwalkers believed to roam the Texas landscape. If you're curious about the Yorktown wendigo, a Reddit page is dedicated to sharing more eerie stories about the pale terror that haunts the town.
8. The Lake Worth Goatman
It all began in July 1969, across from Greer Island on the northern side of Lake Worth in Texas. A group of shocked onlookers witnessed a creature that seemed neither fully man nor goat. Describing it as a “fishy goat-man,” one observer managed to snap a photo of the creature, capturing a large, furry, hazy white figure standing tall among the weeds.
Now known as the Lake Worth Goatman, this bizarre cryptid isn’t the only half-goat monster in America, but it is certainly the most well-documented. After the creature’s first appearance in the “Star-Telegram” newspaper, it quickly became a local legend, with residents taking to setting traps and buying bullets in hopes of capturing or killing the beast. The number of Goatman hunters grew so large that the Tarrant County Historical Journal felt compelled to post a warning about approaching the infamous resident of Greer Island.
Despite being dismissed as a hoax, the Goatman incident, where eyewitnesses reported the creature jumping on parked cars and allegedly grabbing at least one woman on the night of July 9, 1969, generated several police reports over the next two months. One of the vehicles that was attacked had an 18-inch gash on its side door. Local authorities investigated but found no leads. Decades later, in 2005, a reporter from the “Star-Telegram” received an anonymous letter with no return address. The letter contained a strange confession: the writer claimed to have been a student at North Side High School and confessed to donning a mask on July 9, 1969, and going to Lake Worth just to scare some classmates.
Although the authenticity of the letter remains unverified, it’s likely that the Goatman was just a mischievous teenager in a fur suit. However, if a half-man, half-goat creature really does roam Lake Worth, it might be a good idea to visit with a camera and a well-oiled hunting rifle at the ready.
7. Whispers of the Devil
The 1980s were defined by Reaganomics, Margaret Thatcher, popular excess, cocaine, and heavy metal. But the decade also gave rise to the 'Satanic Panic,' a widespread hysteria that blamed everything from MTV to “Dungeons & Dragons” for a supposed rise in Satanic crimes. The residents of Texas were no exception to this frenzy. In fact, one of the most infamous incidents of the Satanic Panic occurred in the small town of Childress between 1988 and 1991.
One evening, not long after the sun had dipped below the western horizon, a chilling discovery was made. Tate Rowland, a local teenager, was found hanging from a tree. The sheriff’s department questioned every member of the Rowland family, and each one insisted that Tate had no history of suicidal thoughts. However, one witness contradicted this, claiming to have seen Tate hang himself. The death was ruled a suicide. That was the conclusion until May 1991, when 27-year-old Terrie Trosper, Tate’s older sister, was found dead in her own bed. Two deaths in such a small town with only 5,800 residents seemed far from coincidental.
According to the official investigation, the deaths were determined to be a tragic coincidence. Despite the family's objections, authorities concluded that Tate’s death was a suicide, prompted by a recent breakup with his girlfriend. As for Terrie, the autopsy revealed that she had died from choking on her own vomit. Additionally, Terrie's blood was found to contain high levels of Elavil, a drug commonly prescribed for anxiety and major depressive disorder.
These official findings were kept under wraps for a time, but the rumor mill in Childress began spinning long before Tate Rowland was even laid to rest. Reports soon reached the police about strange and unidentified individuals attending Tate’s funeral, including one young man who repeatedly chanted the word “suicide” throughout the ceremony. The rumors were further fueled by police reports filed in November 1988, stating that a truck with mysterious occupants had been seen trying to pick up children from local schools. Some speculated that Tate had been involved in a Satanic cult. Even more bizarre were reports of people in black robes congregating in abandoned buildings, and one account even claimed that a local teenager was spotted eating a Bible.
The situation took an even stranger turn when Darwin Wilks, a friend of Terrie’s, attempted suicide by ingesting between 25 and 30 Elavil tablets. In his suicide note, Wilks wrote: “I know something that the cops don’t know. I know who killed Terrie. I can’t live anymore.” A second autopsy on Tate Rowland’s body revealed that he too had consumed Elavil prior to his death. Even more shocking was the revelation from Terrie’s second autopsy: contusions on her inner thighs and in her mouth indicated that she had been assaulted by at least two men before her death.
In response to these unsettling findings, the legendary Texas Rangers released a pamphlet on what to look for in ritual murder cases. While Tate Rowland’s death is still officially considered a suicide, and no murder charges were ever filed in the case of Terrie Trosper, many in Childress remain convinced that dark forces were at work during that period.
6. The Tragic Birth of the Amber Alert System
When a child is abducted or goes missing in the United States, the Amber Alert system is swiftly activated. This system sends out urgent notifications through local news and cell phones, sharing details about the child and potential suspects. Much like many legislative measures, the Amber Alert system came into existence following a heart-wrenching tragedy.
On January 13, 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman from Arlington, Texas, was enjoying a simple afternoon riding her bike around an abandoned grocery store's parking lot. Her peaceful day took a dark turn when a man in a black pickup truck abducted her, dragging her into the vehicle. The sole witness, Jimmie Kevil, immediately contacted the local authorities, who, along with fifty other officers, initiated a wide-ranging search for the young girl.
Regrettably, despite the extensive search efforts, Amber was not located in time. Five days after her abduction, a passerby discovered her body in a creek, four miles from where she had been taken. The killer had cruelly ended her life by slashing her throat. Amber’s naked and bruised body indicated that the motive behind her murder was one of lust.
As time passed, the FBI and Texas authorities shared their theories with the public. They suggested that the murder was an impulsive act, possibly triggered by personal hardships such as a breakup or job loss. In 1997, the Dallas Amber Plan was introduced, offering a more coordinated response to abductions. This plan would later evolve into the nationwide Amber Alert system, launched in 2000.
While Amber Hagerman’s name remains well-known, her killer continues to evade capture. Her tragic murder stands as one of Texas's most prominent unsolved cases.
5. The Eyeball Killer
In the final months of 1990, Dallas became gripped by a terrifying surge in the murders of prostitutes. It quickly became apparent that these killings were not random; someone was deliberately targeting these women, and the killer’s disturbing signature was the removal of their eyes.
The man who would come to be known as the Eyeball Killer was born Charles Frederick Albright in Amarillo, Texas, during the Great Depression in 1933. After being adopted by the Albright family shortly after his birth, Charles enjoyed a relatively comfortable middle-class upbringing. However, dark tendencies began to show early in his life. His mother, Delle Albright, was a strict disciplinarian, often resorting to extreme measures such as tying him to the bed when he misbehaved. She also took pleasure in making him wear girls' clothing. At age eleven, Charles was enrolled in a taxidermy class, where he quickly excelled, skinning and stuffing dead animals. However, his mother refused to purchase proper glass eyes for the animals, so Charles was forced to use buttons instead.
Charles was a bright but rebellious child. At 15, in 1948, he contracted crabs after engaging with a local prostitute. The following year, he stole $380 from a cash register, leading to his first stint in jail for theft and receiving stolen property. Over the years, Charles would continue his criminal activities. In 1951, he broke into the Arkansas State Teacher’s College and stole nude photographs from a female dormitory, even gluing the eyes he had cut from a photo of a friend’s ex-girlfriend onto one of the images. His behavior escalated through the years, leading to accusations of molesting a 9-year-old girl in 1981, and a later admission of molesting the daughter of a church friend in 1985, for which he received probation.
The first victim of the Eyeball Killer was found on December 13, 1990. The body of 33-year-old prostitute Mary Lou Pratt was discovered partially undressed in a field. She had been sexually assaulted and shot execution-style in the back of the head. The autopsy revealed that her eyes had been carefully removed with surgical precision. Two months later, the body of 27-year-old prostitute Susan Peterson was found just a mile from the scene of Pratt’s murder, with her eyes also removed. A third victim, 45-year-old Shirley Williams, was discovered on March 19, 1991, near an elementary school. Like the others, Williams had been shot in the head, and the cuts on her face indicated that her eyes had been removed with an X-ACTO knife.
Dallas had become the hunting ground of a serial killer, but a major breakthrough came in the form of an eyewitness: Veronica Rodriguez. At 26, Rodriguez was known for her involvement in prostitution and drug addiction, so her testimony about witnessing the murder of Mary Lou Pratt was met with skepticism. However, Rodriguez revealed that she had been part of a threesome with Pratt and the killer on the night of the murder. After being struck in the head by the perpetrator with a gun, Rodriguez managed to flee to the nearby home of a truck driver named Axton Schindler. Though no evidence was discovered in Schindler’s house, investigators uncovered that Schindler’s landlord was a 57-year-old high school science teacher and carpenter named Charles Albright. Albright owned multiple properties, two of which were disturbingly close to the locations of the three murders.
A sheriff’s deputy recalled that Charles Albright’s name had surfaced on a tip line. A caller had claimed that Albright once dated Mary Lou Pratt and that he harbored an unusual obsession with eyes, even maintaining a large collection of X-ACTO knives. On March 22, 1991, Albright was arrested. In his home, investigators discovered not only several X-ACTO blades but also books about serial killers and a copy of Gray’s Anatomy. Though the murder weapons and the missing eyeballs were never found, hair fibers recovered from Albright’s truck connected him to all three murders. Despite the mounting evidence, Albright was convicted only for the murder of Shirley Williams. He remains incarcerated in Lubbock, Texas, serving a life sentence, while time relentlessly drags on.
4. The Servant Girl Annihilator
Austin, Texas, is known for its quirky, eccentric vibe. The city has always been a hub for liberal politics in a conservative state, and home to an eclectic mix of hipsters. However, Austin’s present-day weirdness pales in comparison to the terror that gripped the city from 1884 to 1885. During that time, a ruthless serial killer stalked the streets, targeting servant girls and leaving a trail of fear in his wake.
The first known victim of the Servant Girl Annihilator was Mollie Smith, an African American cook. Her body was discovered on December 30, 1884, in a rare snowfall. She had been brutally stabbed in the stomach, chest, arms, and legs, and had also been struck in the head with an ax. The killer’s next victim was Eliza Shelly, found dead on May 7, 1885. Like Smith, Shelly was a black cook, and similarly, she too had been bludgeoned in the head with an ax.
The violence escalated rapidly following the murder of Eliza Shelly. On May 23rd, Irene Cross was brutally stabbed multiple times and almost scalped. Then, on August 30th, 11-year-old Mary Ramey was raped and stabbed through the ear. The following month, on September 28th, Gracie Vance and Orange Washington were discovered bludgeoned to death, with one witness describing their heads as resembling jelly. But the Servant Girl Annihilator was far from finished. On Christmas Eve of 1885, the killer struck twice in one night, claiming the lives of 17-year-old Eula Phillips and Susan Hancock. These murders broke the previous pattern, as both women were killed in their homes and both were white.
The murders stopped as mysteriously as they had begun. By the close of 1885, the Servant Girl Annihilator had vanished without a trace. In total, he claimed the lives of eight victims—seven women and one man. His preferred targets were working-class black women, and his tools of terror were knives and axes. Initially, Austin law enforcement suspected Jimmy Phillips and Moses Hancock, asserting that the two white men had killed Eula and Susan Hancock, attempting to stage the crimes to look like the work of a black serial killer. Phillips was convicted, but his sentence was overturned after just six months. Hancock’s trial ended in a hung jury.
Over time, various suspects have been proposed. One theory, suggested by author Shirley Harrison, claims that the Servant Girl Annihilator was actually Jack the Ripper from London. This idea was also discussed in the 19th century, but in Harrison’s version, the killer was an Englishman named James Maybrick, not the previously thought Malay ship's cook named Maurice. Another unlikely suspect put forward was O. Henry, the writer who lived in Austin during the murders and who is credited with coining the term 'Servant Girl Annihilator.'
One of the more credible suspects was suggested by Skip Hollandsworth, a writer for *Texas Monthly*. He proposed that Nathan Elgin, a 19-year-old black worker, was the perpetrator. Elgin worked near the majority of the crime scenes, and in 1886, he was shot and killed by Austin police while attempting to attack a woman with a knife.
3. Angel of the Railroad
The era of the hobo may have passed, but America’s railways continue to be frequented by many wandering vagrants. A large number of these freight riders find their way to Texas, among them Angel Resendiz, a Mexican immigrant who used the railroads to seek farm work across Texas and the Midwest. But besides working in agriculture, Resendiz had a far more sinister occupation: he was a serial killer. His reign of terror saw him kill between nine and fifteen victims, earning him the moniker of the Railroad Killer.
Resendiz was born in Puebla, Mexico in 1959. His early years were turbulent as he was raised by a single mother until the age of six, after which he was shuffled between relatives until finally returning to his mother at the age of twelve. Having dropped out of school in seventh grade, Resendiz quickly began to build a criminal record in Mexico. His mother, Augustina Solis de Resendiz, later suggested that her son became violent after being gang-raped by a group of boys at the age of twelve or thirteen, though the truth of this claim remains unclear.
Whether or not his mother’s claims are true is uncertain, but what is known is that Resendiz’s killing spree began in 1986. At that time, he had crossed into the U.S. illegally on multiple occasions, and it was during one of these crossings that he murdered an unnamed homeless woman. Resendiz shot her four times before discarding her body in a farmhouse in Bexar County, Texas. That same year, he was arrested in Laredo, Texas for using a fraudulent U.S. birth certificate, and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Resendiz appeared to learn little from his brush with the law. In May 1991, he was arrested once more, this time for attempting to forge Social Security cards and purchase weapons illegally. After being deported to Mexico, he crossed the border back into Texas and murdered 33-year-old Michael White on July 19, 1991. White’s body, riddled with bullet holes, was found in the front yard of a San Antonio home.
For the next six years, Resendiz lived a nomadic existence, moving back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico. Then, in March 1997, his violent tendencies escalated. On March 23, 1997, he strangled 16-year-old Wendy Von Huben, a runaway from Illinois, and 19-year-old Jesse Howell. Their bodies were discovered near train tracks between Jacksonville and Tampa, Florida. Later that year, in July, Resendiz is believed to have beaten a man to death with a pipe in Colton, California. In August 1997, he struck again, killing 21-year-old Christopher Maier, a student from the University of Kentucky, by smashing him with a 50-pound rock. Maier died from the attack, while his girlfriend was sexually assaulted. The crime occurred after the couple had taken a shortcut along railroad tracks.
The list of victims grew as time went on, with individuals like 87-year-old Leafie Mason in Hughes Springs, Texas; 81-year-old Fannie Whitner Byers in Carl, Georgia; 45-year-old Claudia Benton in Houston; 73-year-old Josephine Konvicka in Fayette County, Texas; 26-year-old teacher Noemi Dominguez in Houston; and 80-year-old George Morber and his 51-year-old daughter Carolyn Frederick in Gorham, Illinois falling prey. The majority of these horrific crimes involved sexual assault and brutal weapons such as axes and pickaxes.
After his final murder in Illinois, Resendiz was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. Despite managing to flee back to Mexico, his family persuaded him to return to El Paso, where he eventually surrendered to Texas Ranger Drew Carter. Resendiz’s fingerprints were found inside the Morber home, and he was seen in Weimar, Texas after the slayings of 46-year-old Norman Sirnic and his 47-year-old wife Karen, whom Resendiz sexually violated after her death. However, the Railroad Killer was only convicted for the murder of Claudia Benton. At his trial, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming he was an angel sent by God to kill the sinful. Resendiz ultimately requested the death penalty and received it. He was executed by lethal injection on June 27, 2006. His last words reportedly were: “I deserve what I am getting.”
2. Headless in Houston
Houston’s oil boom in 1979 brought a surge of new migrants seeking quick fortunes in East Texas. However, some of these individuals found themselves facing something far worse than prosperity. In a span of just two months that year, five people were murdered by a killer with a gruesome preference for decapitation. Forty years later, the killer remains unidentified, and Houston's cold case investigators have no fingerprints to work with.
The first victim was Alys Elaine Rankin. On July 27, 1979, Bob Smith, a coworker of Rankin’s, arrived at the Orchard Apartments in the 5900 block of Glenmont in southwest Houston, to give her a ride to work. When Rankin didn’t appear outside to meet him, Smith went up to her apartment. Inside, he found Rankin lying on her bed, naked and lifeless. Her feet had been tied to the bed, and a pillow covered her upper body. After removing the pillow, Smith discovered that Rankin’s head was missing. Homicide detectives later confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted before her death.
Two weeks following the discovery of Rankin's body, another woman was found dead. This time, it was Mary Michael Calcutta, a 25-year-old who had recently moved to Houston from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her body was discovered in her bathroom. While there were some similarities between her case and Rankin's, there were also key differences. Calcutta’s body was fully clothed and showed signs that she had fought off her attacker, with defensive wounds scattered throughout her body. Her throat had been slit, and she had been sexually assaulted. Notably, Calcutta’s apartment was located just two floors above Rankin's, which added a sinister connection between the two victims.
In an even more bizarre twist, on the very same day Calcutta’s body was found, an exterminator discovered the body of 26-year-old Doris Lynn Threadgill inside a townhouse in northwestern Houston. Threadgill’s throat had been cut so severely that she was almost decapitated. Soon after, the body of 16-year-old Joann Huffman was found in Watonga Park on October 4, 1979. That same day, 18-year-old Robert Spangenberger’s body was discovered in the trunk of a white Dodge car at a used car lot. Like the others, his head had been removed.
Houston investigators are divided in their opinions about these murders. Some believe all of them were committed by a single deranged killer. The proximity between Rankin and Calcutta’s apartments, as well as the discovery of Huffman’s body just four miles away from Threadgill’s, seem to support this theory. Additionally, eyewitnesses reported hearing screams and gunshots near Threadgill’s house the night before Huffman and Spangenberger were found. However, other investigators reject this theory, suggesting that Rankin and Calcutta were killed by the same person, while Huffman and Spangenberger were likely victims of separate attackers. Some even question if Threadgill’s murder is connected to the others at all.
1. Angel of Death
Nurses who turn to murder are especially disturbing. Few things are more repulsive than someone who swears an oath to protect life and then becomes the instrument of death. Genene Jones, a nurse from Texas, is one of the most revolting examples of such betrayal.
Between 1981 and 1982, a series of mysterious deaths took place in the pediatric intensive care unit at the Medical Center Hospital in San Antonio. One of the nurses working in that unit at the time was 33-year-old Genene Jones. The adopted daughter of a nightclub owner and a former beautician, Jones had two children of her own before suddenly quitting her nursing job and relocating to Kerrville, Texas. Colleagues described her as sharp but coarse, often making crude jokes that many found unsettling.
Jones was arrested and charged with the murder of 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan in October 1983. Investigators claimed that Jones had administered a lethal dose of a muscle relaxant, succinylcholine, to the infant. In 1984, she was convicted of McClellan's murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison. Additionally, she received a 60-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rolando Santos. Despite these convictions, many in San Antonio felt a deep sense of betrayal, as over sixty toddlers had died at the hospital between 1981 and 1982, with most suspecting Jones as the responsible party. In an October 1998 jailhouse interview, Jones came close to admitting to the deaths, stating, "I really did kill those babies," but later claimed that the voices in her head were to blame for the fatal overdoses.
Currently, Jones is facing another trial. In September 2019, at the age of 69, the convicted killer was formally accused of murdering five more children between 1981 and 1982: Richard 'Ricky' Nelson on July 3, 1981; Rosemary Vega on September 16, 1981; Paul Villarreal on September 24, 1981; Joshua Sawyer on December 12, 1981; and Patrick Zavala on January 17, 1982. The trial comes as a shock, especially considering Jones was only two years away from being released from prison due to a state initiative aimed at reducing prison overcrowding.
