Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Find detailed statistics by year for murder rates, robbery, motor vehicle theft, aggravated assault and more. The Esensees' home is in foreclosure. Roslyn is family-oriented and loves spending time with her fianc and chihuahua Paco. Sports First day in Harper Fredericksburg Standard / 10 months ago. Texas Slave Ranch refers to a ranch near Mountain Home, Texas where workers were abducted and forced to work without pay. Sometimes, the smallest towns hide the biggest secrets. Loraine Haynie, 86, checks on her husband, Jim Haynie, in his home office in Mountain Home. He is believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than thirteen people across Missouri, New York, Illinois, and Texas. I knew what I was doing; I had options. William Lesley Rushing. day! Mountain Murders | iHeart Mountain Murders Play Newest Follow Not your typical Appalachian True Crime Podcast hosted by marrieds Heather & Dylan. And even if the man died there, there was no direct evidence he was tortured to death. And the victims were unsavory types whose testimony was suspect. Authorities believed him, and they mobilized to rescue five men and one woman from the ranch, strewn with 55-gallon drums and trash. A Millionaire Murdered Matt & Pam Walker Greg Williams died in the early morning hours of Oct. 13, 2011, in his mansion in Keller, Texas, a wealthy suburb of Fort Worth. Caldwell went on to report in a 20-page confession to the FBI that after Bates died, weakened by weeks of regular torture sessions, he and another worker burned his body in a homemade funeral pyre while playing theJohnny Cashhit Ring of Fire. They deposited the few bones that didnt burn, along with the ashes, into two 55-gallon drums. Walter Wesley Ellebracht III, was killed in an automobile accident Jan. 20 on Highway 290 just out side Fredericksburg. Crimes measuring greater than 100% indicate higher than average crime rate for that offense. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness. Victims reported they werent allowed to leave, and violence was a normal course of everyday life. When asked to help pay for his son's burial, Ellebracht Jr. reportedly told relatives to let the county worry about it, his ex-wife said. The land isn't suitable because topsoil is shallow, as the area is laced with karst and rock just under the surface. The 15 best items in Disney's Valentine's Day collection, Disney made up a new color for their latest Starbucks cup, Grab a Peloton for even less than on Black Friday, Amazon has 4K digital TV antennas on sale today, The Moto G 5G smartphone is under $200 on Amazon right now, The best vegan and vegetarian meal kits for a meat-free 2023. Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app. His son, Junior, received 15 years in prison, but served less than 10 years. On April 6, 1984, more than 30 federal, state and local lawmen raided a 3,500-acre (14 km 2) ranch near the Texas Hill Country town of Mountain Home. of all manners. The rate of crime in Mountain Home is 35.03 per 1,000 residents during a standard year. My son was a very caring person, and he did whatever he could to help anyone in need, said his mother, Joyce Esensee, 59, who was among those initially indicted for the crimes at the ranch. Walter Wesley EllebrachtSr. and his extended family had lived in Mountain Home, TX,for generations, and they were known as decent folk. Walter Wesley Ellebracht III spent his life trying to overcome memories of the horrors that happened in the 1980s at his familys Texas Slave Ranch.. Tommy Lynn Sells was born January 28, 1964, and was executed March 3, 2014. For years before the raid, Ellebracht Jr., his then-wife Joyce and Ellebracht Sr. peddled carved, wooden key chains to dozens of stores near their 3,500-acre ranch in Mountain Home, about 20 miles northwest of Kerrville. But the Ellebrachts didnt produce cattle or, like many ranchers, offer their land for deer hunting. A family had a 3,500-acre ranch where they manufactured wooden key chains, and they needed help for chores and whatever else they directed Bates to do. Gary Wayne Mitchell. Some unsolved central Texas murders also found within these lists and databases, as well as on Uncovered.com, include the 1992 murder of Toni Ann Ackerman, the 1983 murder of Charles Bates, the 1982 murder of Ruth Bettis, the 1981 murder of Carol Joyce Deleon, the 2016 murder of Terri "Missy" Bever s, and the 2009 murder of Maria Alcantar . I love to see the sparks fly.". Frank Andrew Wilson (5/16/22) Frank Andrew Wilson, 61, of Mountain Home passed away suddenly on Sunday, May 8, 2022 at St. Luke's in Meridian. : On April 6, 1984, more than 30 federal, state and local lawmen raided a 3,500-acre (14 km 2) ranch near the Texas Hill Country town of Mountain Home. He was born March 31, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Bruno and Sophie Burde. : Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club thats right for you for free. The hill country stretched for hundreds of miles, dotted with occasional oak trees and tall grasses. A Mountain Home man who was charged with failing to report his wife's death last month has now been charged with her murder and extradited to Idaho from Texas, where Key chains made at the Texas Slave Ranch still hang in a frame on a wall at Bills BBQ. During their court appearances Thursday, 38-year-old Skylar Brazil of Mountain Home and 35-year-old Ashley Nicole Hendricks of Siloam Springs entered not guilty pleas to the charges against them. Inside his cell sat a man by the name Potter, who, not knowing his new cellmate belonged to the Dowdy family, bragged about being a part of the raid. He later was indicted, along with the Ellebrachts, for his role in Bates' torture and death. Mountain Home, Texas, is nearly as isolated today as it was in 1984. In addition to the cattle prod, they found various guns, machetes, and axe, knives, chains and padlocks. If you reside in Mountain Home, then there is a 1 in 394 chance that you will experience a violent crime. Since the nearest Ranger camp was well over a hundred miles away, a posse of local men formedand tracked the Comanches for nearly two hundred miles before they lost their trail. FREDERICKSBURG He was only 9 when the law raided his family's Kerr County homestead in 1984 and their surname, Ellebracht, became synonymous with kidnapping and torture, and their sprawling. Read More Rebecca Lynn Henley, 44, of Mountain Home, was identified as a suspect in her son's death. Would you wear Dyson's new air-purifying headphones? He said that he saw so much bad in the world that he wanted to look for the good. Bob Walls, speaking of Ellebracht III, his best friend. Sutton prosecuted Ellebracht Sr. and Jr. and Caldwell, and the workers became state witnesses in exchange for immunity from prosecution. There is still debate over whether Potter really had a hand in the raid or not. . The sparks came from an electric cattle prod used by the torturer. Everyone knew the Ellebrachts drove a blue van and picked up hitchhikers to staff the key chain factory and do other work at the ranch. , Sticky notes Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, In a faded photo on the wall of Bill's BBQ in Ingram, TX, Walter Wesley Ellebracht Sr, center, poses with his son Walter Wesley Ellebracht Jr., left, and Jr's wife Joyce Ellebracht, right. : Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web. He takes the reader on a journey to 1980s Texas in the small town of Mountain Home, where the Ellebracht family are abducting hitchhikers to be forced laborers making keychains to be sold to businesses. Page 1 of 2 1 2. Brazil is accused of first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, second-degree battery, violating parole and kidnapping. In 1987, the year after his father, grandfather and the ranch foreman, Carlton Robert Caldwell, were convicted and sentenced, Ellebracht III met Bob Walls, who would become his best friend. The actual prod was discovered when police entered and searched the Ellebrachts' ranch in 1984. READ MORE 5. Year over year crime in Mountain Home has decreased by 50%. theYear=theYear+1900 Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested early Friday morning by the Pennsylvania State Police at a home in Chestnuthill PA. . , Language You have a 1 in 393.2 chance of being the victim of a violent crime in Mountain Home each year. 2775 East 8th North St. The officers were responding to reports that workers on . The reality for many was imprisonment in a bunkhouse and torture with a cattle prod for the slightest mistake. Matthew Tamkin, of Pasadena, California . The atrocities reported by survivors of the slave ranch were numerous, yet Haynes pulled off another brilliant victory. Bates did not survive, and his body was doused in gasoline and set aflame - apparently while his captors listened to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire.". The Haynies were neighbors of the Ellebrachts. 259 BROKEN SPUR DRIVE , TX 78058. In 1986 the Texas slave ranch trial took place and lasted for three months. Restaurateur Joe Marino Jr. said his parents bought the Ellebrachts' key chains for a quarter and sold them for 35 cents at their former business, Big Joe's Country Store, for years. Mountain Home has a higher overall crime rate than the vast majority of U.S. cities. They were nowhere to be found. The state of Texas now owns the sprawling former ranch that once enslaved unwitting laborers. William Miller was taken into custody over the weekend and charged with killing 22 . : The town of Hawkins was shaken during the first week of May when 18-year-old Suzanne Harrison, Bryan Boone, 19, and Gina Turner, 20, went missing during a routine trip to the lake and later were. The Ellebracht family and their foreman,Carl Robert Caldwell, went to trial in 1984 accused of running a sadistic ranch where drifters met their end. Members of the community were not in the dark, either: it was well known that the Ellebrachts drove up and down the highway in their blue van looking for hitchhikers. They werent slaves. Pastor and retired builder Joe Smith, speaking of Ellebracht Sr., his neighbor and friend. document.write(theYear) There are several day-hunting services in the aera. if (theYear < 1900) Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Gail Abbott Zimmerman. Hall was sentenced to death by electrocution in May 1945 and executed on January 4, 1946. yesmagazine.org. It was higher than in 86.1% U.S. cities. Mountain Home, at the intersection of State Highway 27 (which runs here along the Old Spanish Trail) and State Highway 41 in north central Kerr County, was settled about 1856. Ellebracht and a few others went to trial in 1986and were ultimately convicted oncharges of conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping. Allison Cunningham of Mountain Home who was arrested in Hidalgo County, Texas with another person accused in connection with . But the guy was dead, and there was no bringing him back. Mountain House For Sale. The Mountain Home time zone is Central Daylight Time which is 6 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). To donate, send a check to: PO Box 471, Fredericksburg 78624. (The US average is 22.7) Mountain Home (zip 78058) property crime is 31.1. In the case of Bates, who couldnt work, Hamilton witnessed the man being electrocuted up to 30 times, including strikes to his tongue and genitals. We dig up lesser known and often obscure regional cases spanning from Georgia to Maine. The voice of Bates was heard on two tapes recovered from the ranch during the raid. 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