Bell became a silent partner at Doug's Dive and Surf Shop. Extra Notes: Results: Captured. Sue went into the bathroom in the master bedroom to finish getting dressed. All four girls hung out close to Bell's apartment. With Edward Harold Bell as their number one suspect, investigators Lise Olsen and Fred Paige are determined to find . He asserted that he had made up his admissions in order to receive the death penalty when he was interviewed for the documentary The Eleven in 2017. Missing Since: October 1978. Possible serial killer Edward Harold Bell is due to be released from parole in the fall of 2017. As she pulled closer, they made eye contact. He identified two of the 1971 victims as Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, fifteen-year-old Galveston "surfer girls" who disappeared after hitchhiking. [2] After graduation, he found work as a licensed diver and married his first wife in San Marcos, with the newlyweds then moving to western Texas, where they had three children. However, in neither theirs nor any other case were any charges ever brought against him. The victims were young girls from the Texas counties of Houston, Galveston, Webster and Dickinson. Dawna screamed and cried. This photo provided Sept. 28, 2011, by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Edward Harold Bell. After the incident, the police came out and took a report from Sue. He identified another of his victims as a reddish-blonde girl named "Pitchford," kidnapped near Glufgate Mall in Houston. Her body was found in January 1973. Dawna said that the wounds will never heal and the hurt of losing Larry will always be there. According to Special Agent Rolando Moss of the Houston FBI, Bell was prospecting for gold on land he owned near Panama City. Russian Roulette. Her bones were found in a reservoir mingled with those of a missing Houston girl, Gloria Ann Gonzales, 19. When asked about the letters he wrote in 1998, Bell said he was suicidal and wanted the state to execute him; he supposedly made it all up. Bell admitted that Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson got into his van outside the Baskin-Robbins the day they went missing, but said he didnt kill them. Show 6 article text (OCR) THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW 6 Fri., April 27, 1945. Trial Court # 284,590 . Edward Harold Bell, a convicted killer who in 2011 admitted to killing two Galveston teenagers in the 1970s, died Saturday. While his wife Allison . After completing a Houston driver's education course, she disappeared. The Subject Of This Netflix True Crime Doc Is Now Guilty Of Murdering His Wife & Son, Morgan Doughty Filed A Lawsuit Against The Murdaugh Family, Heres How To Watch The Alex Murdaugh Trial Live, Sophie Turners Joan Charts The Rise Of A Famous British Jewel Thief, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. Bell contends in three points that the evidence was legally insufficient to support . His arrest happened eleven days after the episode aired. Bell had been on the run for 14 years after shooting Dickens, and was eventually found living at a Panama yacht club in 1993 with a teenage girl. For reasons unknown, the letters were "kept secret" until 2011, when they were discovered by retired Galveston homicide detective Fred Paige. Six of them were murdered in pairs. An ex-Marine, youth counselor, and oil field roughneck, he had a three-year-old daughter. Adams ordered him to stop, and he did. Edward Harold Bell. Edward Harold Bell. Lena Madge Crain crossed the divide to her Heavenly Home on Saturday, February 25th after several months of home health care. He was only convicted of one murder from 1978. v. A jury found Edward Harold Bell guilty of murder and assessed punishment at seventy years confinement. After living on a ranch in Terlingua for some time, Bell, who worked as an itinerant pharmaceutical salesman, sold the ranch for an office in downtown Houston. He could have gone on to kill many more young women and continued to flash his junk at innocent children. Check out our guides to the best free shows on YouTube and the best sites for watching free movies online. He claimed to the reporter to have actually committed eleven murders, referring to them as the "eleven that went to Heaven." The two head wounds and the back wound were all fatal. Prosecutors in Galveston reopened Debbie and Maria's cases after learning new information through their investigation, and Bell was identified as the "primary suspect." By the time of his release, now divorced and forbidden contact with his children, Bell married a 17-year-old female patient and the pair moved a beach house in Galveston. He then shot the gun in the air and told Larry that he would kill him if he did not return his keys. Edward Harold Bell (May 26, 1939 - April 20, 2019) was an American sex offender, murderer and the first fugitive to be featured in the Texan rendition of America's Most Wanted.Following his capture in Panama City, Panama in 1993, he was extradited, convicted and sentenced to a 70-year term for the murder of a Marine in 1978, and later confessed to killing eleven girls during the 1970s. Due to a lack of evidence, neither were charged for their confessions, and . He said he was "brainwashed" into killing Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson in the letters. Tags artists in Galveston artwork in Galveston galveston Galveston cultural arts commission. r . Other articles where Harold Bell Wright is discussed: Ozark Mountains: industries, was given impetus by Harold Bell Wright's novel The Shepherd of the Hills (1907), which romanticized the Missouri Ozarks. She then tried to block his exit with her car. After graduation, he worked as a traveling pharmaceutical salesman and married his first wife in San Marcos. In the A&E series, Bell denied having "killed anybody," including Dickens. Suzie Bowers, who disappeared from Galveston in 1977, is thought to be a further victim. [5], For the next fourteen years, Bell travelled around various locations in Mexico and Central America using a sailboat, posing as a dead cousin named Cecil Boyd. However the killings he lays claim to started a long time before that. Edward Harold Bell was married with three children and secretly following young girls, exposing himself to them for many years before he murdered 26-year-old Larry Dickens on 24 August 1978 in Pasadena, Texas. degree at Texas A&M University, where he played in the Aggie Band. At the time, Bell was serving a seventy-year sentence for the 1978 murder of a 26-year-old Pasadena resident who had attempted to stop him from publicly masturbating in front of a group of . He was eighty-two years old at the time of his death. Especially since, as seen in the A&E series, he later denied everything he wrote years ago. If you have any information, please get in touch with the tip line of the Galveston County District Attorney's Office at 1(800) 566-2209. https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/tenth-court-of-appeals/1994/1036.html, https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Confessions-of-a-cold-blooded-killer-2187501.php, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Harold_Bell, https://unsolved.com/gallery/edward-harold-bell/, https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/convicted-killer-edward-bell-dies-in-navasota-prison/285-a63d52bf-60a7-4b5d-a5b2-cb15f4ab7132, https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-eleven-on-the-trail-of-a-serial-killer/, https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/houston-matters/2019/04/22/330217/possible-serial-killer-dies-in-texas-prison/. At that same time, his mother, Dorothy Lang, was standing at the kitchen window. Dickens ran outside and grabbed the keys from Bell's . Crime News is your destination for true crime stories from around the world, breaking crime news, and information about Oxygen's original true crime shows and documentaries. He then began to flee on foot. After his death was announced, Galveston Police Officer Michelle Sollenberger wrote on Facebook, Today these girls may finally rest in peace because their killer has gone to hell, the Chronicle reports. Oddly enough, in 1993, Edward Harold Bell was convicted of the murder of Larry Dickens. Mr Dickens' mother watched from her house as Bell shot her son four times with a pistol and then shot him again with a rifle. Michael Hagerty is the senior producer for Houston Matters. Tips that finally led to his arrest poured in after Bell became the subject of a 1992 "Unsolved Mysteries" episode. Mary Livingston Ludlow. Additionally, he resisted cooperating with the authorities. However, two are believed to be Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw, who vanished from Galveston a few months before Debbie and Maria. Wanted For: Murder, Indecency with a Child He was previously married to Esther Williams. Edward Harold Bell, admitted sex offender, convicted murderer and self-described serial killer, has given multiple chilling confessions from his locked prison cell of abducting and slaying teenage . He owned a meadow not far from the shop where they had been last seen. On August 24, 1978, Dorothy Lang looked out her kitchen window while washing dishes and saw a man park his red and white GMC truck across from her house. Years after their deaths, the series reports that a man named Edward Harold Bell penned a letter to authorities claiming that he had allegedly been brainwashed into killing two of the girls. The identity of the remaining three victims are unknown. He allegedly shot them, then dumped their remains close to a deserted bridge. She was discovered in January 1973. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel says 79-year-old inmate Edward Harold Bell died Saturday at the Wallace Pack Unit in Navasota. 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As she pulled up to a stop sign near their house, she saw Bell cross the street to the edge of their driveway. On June 26, 1978, he exposed himself to two girls riding bikes, aged 11 and 12. However, the events of September 6 would test her character in ways she never imagined. Edward Harold Bell, 82, was being investigated over his . She pleaded with him to not shoot Larry, but he did so anyway. One, nevertheless, is thought to be Brenda Jones, who went missing in Galveston in 1971. When she returned to the phone, the dispatcher was still on the line. Despite these claims, Bell was not investigated until 2011. After his sentencing, Bell claimed he had quit being a "flasher" while in Panama, but expressed regret that he had not done earlier so Dickens' life could be spared.[11]. His father was an oil field worker who frequently moved his family to various towns surrounding the Houston area. The Great Gatsby. One girl was the thirteen-year-old daughter of a Lubbock police officer. He claimed that he shot them and disposed of their bodies near a remote bridge. Bell also claimed that a "brainwashing program" forced him to be a flasher, to rape girls, and to kill. At just that moment, Larry's seventeen-year-old sister, Dawna, was returning home from cheerleading practice. Apr 20, 2019. [2] His claims were never conclusively verified, and he died behind bars in 2019, having recanted his previous claims. Another six young girls were killed in the area in the mid-to-late Seventies. 11:17 GMT 27 Sep 2011. Genealogy for Edward Harold Stibbs (1876 - 1944) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Dawna feels that Larry's murder has broken up their whole family. He was arrested again in the rape of a Jennie Sealy mental patient he met outside the hospital. However, she was happy to know that Bell would be facing justice. He crashed his truck into a fence. Despite the fact that some thought he was a publicity-seeking "kook," others were certain he was the murderer. She says that he was strong and very special to all of them. He gave the remaining victims their initials, hair color, and the year they were murdered. He fired a shot in the air, then shot Larry several times in the chest. She told him that the police were coming and pleaded with him to leave. As The Houston Chronicle reported, "Bell blamed the crimes and carnage in his life on a systemic program of abuse, lies and brainwashing [allegedly] begun by his father. They claimed that they were unable to verify his confessions. He was stopped by police at least a dozen times for masturbating and flashing AT girls. He believes that Bell has changed his name and is living somewhere where the people around him do not know how dangerous he is. In 1972, two middle school students, Georgia Greer and Brooks Bracewell were last seen at the Dickinson store. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! Bell continued to demand his keys. Details: Bryan, Texas, is the type of place that people have in mind when they dream of escaping the big city. The cases of all eleven girls remain open and unsolved. He declared the murder was pinned on him, and the police were responsible for shooting Dickens. Bell sent prosecutors in Texas letters containing his confession in 1998 but they have remained secret until now. Bell, a convicted killer serving 70 years for a 1978 slaying near Houston and who was under investigation in the unsolved deaths of several missing girls has died after collapsing at a Texas prison. Status; Detected Status Living Status; Identified: Deceased . He died a suspect in . Bell went on the run for 14 years before being caught in Panama in 1993 and jailed the following year. Adams testified that Bell was very calm and had no marks on his face. In fact, he said, there were seven others, all . As Newsweek points out, Edward Harold Bell confessed to 11 girls, but like Hedrick, he was never charged due to a lack of evidence. Actor: Gymkata. Harold Wilmerding Bell. After the airing of the episode a man recognized Bell as someone he had recently conducted business with in Panama City. Bell, Harold 12/4/1946 - 2/15/2022 Holland, MI Harold Bell, age 75, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, February 15, 2022. He also invested in a surf shop that they were known to visit. Along with Panama, he also had lived in Mexico and other parts of Central America. A convicted murderer suspected of killing 11 girls in Texas died Saturday morning in prison, taking any information he may have had about the young girls' deaths with him. He was an avid hunter and a champion horseshoe player. The Good, Bad, and Ugly of the week, Rumors abound about HISD takeover (March 2, 2023), The Full Menu: Houston's best places for chicken. Bell was a well-known sex offender in the 1970s. In 1998, he sent letters to Harris and Galveston County prosecutors in which he confessed to killing seven young girls. She first thought that he was one of Larry's friends looking for their address. Bell, who is up for . [2] After spending some time in treatment, he was released, only be rearrested for a similar charge in 1969 after he exposed himself to the 13-year-old daughter of a Lubbock policeman. The murders are believed to be the work of multiple serial killers using the location as their dumping ground. She had been an investigator on the case in recent years. As he walked toward Larry, Larry backed up toward the house. BELL Edward Harold View source History Talk (0) Stub. Five weeks later, he shot Larry Dickens while masturbating in front of five Pasadena girls. Senior investigators in Galveston have believed for a long time that Bell was behind more crimes but prosecutors have not pressed charges because they do not believe they have enough evidence. (According to Blum House, the episode also starred Matthew McConaughey in his first-ever role, playing Dickens). Bell died after collapsing at the Wallace Pack Unit, a prison in Grimes County, according to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman. According to records and Bell's own admissions, he was stopped by police at least a dozen times for masturbating and flashing girls between 1966 and 1978. That summer, twenty-six-year-old Larry Dickens was visiting his mother and sister in Pasadena, a suburb of Houston. [2], In 1966, Bell was arrested for exposing himself to a pair of little girls in Sudan, for which he was interned at the Big Spring State Psychiatric Hospital. In the letters, he also told the paper that he had admitted to some of the same murders to prosecutors in Galveston and Harris counties in 1998, but he was never charged after prosecutors were unable to find any direct evidence to link him to the crimes. father. They were last seen accepting a ride from a man driving a white van; he happened to own one at that time. Birth of Harold Wilmerding Bell. Nearly 20 years ago, in letters he wrote to local prosecutors, Texas murderer Edward Harold Bell claimed the Marine he'd shot and killed in 1978 was not his only victim. Bell, a convicted killer serving 70 years for a 1978 slaying near Houston and who was . He got out and pointed his rifle at one of the officers. Harold Bell. Another victim from 1971 was thirteen-year-old Colette Wilson, who vanished after leaving a band camp. Named Texas' most wanted fugitive in the 1980s, Bell was featured on the T.V. Although some believed that he was a publicity-seeking "kook", others are convinced that he was responsible for the murders. According to reports, Harris County prosecutors never looked into the allegations and misplaced the letters from him. Bell also owned a field near where two middle school students, Georgia Geer, 14, and Brooks Bracewell, 12, were last seen in Dickinson in 1974. . As she got closer, she saw that Larry was lying in the driveway. Despite being shot multiple times, Larry tried to go after Bell and stop him again. Desel added that there was no foul . Bell contends in three points that the evidence was legally insufficient to support the verdict, that he was denied effective assistance of counsel, and that the court erred by failing to instruct the jury on voluntary conduct. Throughout this time, he made a living through giving dive trips to American tourists and gold panning. Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson disappeared from Galveston on November 15, 1971. [Marriage Licenses - The Dispatch (Moline, Illinois)12 Jan 1927, Wed Page 10] survivors; wife, father Louis, sons Harold T, and James E., daughters Mrs. Betty Jane Weathers and Miss Darlene Feus, sisters Mrs. Harry Talbot and Mrs.. Police reports showed that in February of 1972, Bell was arrested after flashing a fifteen-year-old and he was driving a 1971 white Ford van. The man's name was Edward Bell. [7], On December 2, 1992, the television show Unsolved Mysteries aired an episode about the murder of Dickens. Two other victims are believed to be fourteen-year-old Georgia Geer and twelve-year-old Brooks Bracewell; they were last seen in 1974 and found in 1976. Officer Curtis Adams was responding to the scene when he saw a suspect in a red truck matching the description he was given over his radio. Kimberly Rae Pitchford, 16, disappeared after taking a driving class before her body was found in 1973. [7], Despite several investigations into his claims, Bell was never charged with any other murder besides Dickens'. She noticed that there were several children playing in the intersection of Moore and Apple, next to their house. Parent (s) Elizabeth A. Two 14-year-olds, Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Renee Johnson, also disappeared from the area at the same time. On August 24, he went out to cut the lawn. When they opened up the back door of the police car, she immediately knew that he was Larry's killer. My father tried to brainwash me into killing myself.". She ran to him as Bell turned around and drove off. Aliases: Butch However, Dawna agreed to do so. Holding many offices in the Masons, teaching country western dancing, participating. EDWARD HAROLD BELL, Appellant. 2-min read. Deed records showed that Bell owned a pasture just a few minutes drive from the store. From the 208th District Court. Edward was born in 1805, in Thrandeston Suffolk England. Referring to them as the "eleven who went to heaven." Edward Harold Bell speaks to Houston Matters producer Michael Hagerty from prison in 2017. One said he had recently met Bell during a business trip to Panama City, Panama. wife. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Larry replied that the man would not kill anyone and took a few steps toward him. Nearly 20 years ago, in letters he wrote to local prosecutors, Texas murderer Edward Harold Bell claimed the Marine he'd shot and killed in 1978 was not his only victim. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed to ABC13 Eyewitness News Edward Howard Bell died Saturday while in their custody. Bell v. State. The case was featured on a 1992 episode of Unsolved Mysteries that also earned Matthew McConaughey his first TV acting credit for playing Dickens in the re-enactment of the crime. The man ran back to his truck and left. At Bell's trial, the prosecution's chief witnesses were Dorothy and Dawna. The dispatcher told her that police units and an ambulance were on the way. His confession matched details of the crime scene. Yet another is speculated to be Suzie Bowers, who vanished from Galveston in 1977. Bell, 72, is serving 70 years for the 1978 murder of Larry Dickens, a Marine who confronted Bell after he exposed himself and began masturbating in front of a group of girls in Pasadena. He also invested in a surf shop that they were known to visit. [5] Suddenly, Bell pulled out a pistol and shot Dickens, who staggered into his mother's garage and collapsed onto the floor in front of his horrified mother, who had watched the whole ordeal go by from inside the house. This case first aired on the December 2, 1992 episode; it was updated on the April 21, 1993 episode. In 2017, A&E released a documentary series called. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Edward Harold Bell, who was serving time for the 1978 killing of an ex-Marine, collapsed and died in the Wallace Pack Unit in Navasota at the age of 82. She told him to stay still because they did not know where the bullets were in him. Jeremy Desel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said that inmate Edward Harold Bell, 79, collapsed Saturday at the Wallace Pack Unit in Navasota. This photo provided Sept. 28, 2011, by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Edward Harold Bell. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. Recently added to YouTube. Now in excerpts from the letters obtained by the Houston Chronicle, it has emerged that Bell claims a brainwashing 'programme' begun by his father forced him to 'be a flasher', to 'rape girls' and to kill. He is a formidable fugitive. His numerous accomplishments include the founding of Modular . He pulled out a gun and demanded his keys, threatening to shoot him if he did not hand them over. Then, a few months after his release, he married her, Bell was thirty-one. [3], "Deaths in Custody | Texas Justice Initiative", "Texas killer's death leaves unanswered questions in girls' slayings", "Relatives unsure of killer's claim in Texas deaths", "Brutal asesino en serie viol a 15 nias", "Investigators Think They Know Who Killed Eleven Girls Around Galveston In The 1970s", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Harold_Bell&oldid=1131805328, This page was last edited on 5 January 2023, at 21:17. Houston Public Media is supported with your gifts to the Houston Public Media Foundation and is licensed to the University of Houston, . They turned around and began to follow him. Bell is currently considered a suspect in the murders of several young women near Galveston in the 1970s. Lang was still watching from the window and witnessed the man shoot her son five times; Larry staggered back towards the garage. He is likely to respond violently to any confrontation. Columbia GSAPP sadly shares the loss of Professor Emeritus Harold "Hank" Bell, who passed away on May 26, 2021, at the age of 94. Death of Edward . She also went to the police station and looked through a book of mugshots. Maria was born on March 29 1805, in Eye, Suffolk, England. Edward Harold Bell . Bell claimed in a 1998 letter to police that he had murdered 11 girls in Galveston County. Edward "Ned" Bell. Edward was born in Corinth, WV on July 17, 1941, a son of the late Edward Harold and Mary Virginia "Ginny" (Martin) Koontz. He was living under the name of his deceased cousin, "Cecil Boyd". Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. He claimed that he was unaware of the other victims' names. A Houston Chronicle reporter spoke with Bell in July and September of that year. Bell's admission of two murders eventually grew to describe "the eleven who went to heaven," meaning that these 11 1970s unsolved murders could have found an answer. A jury found Edward Harold Bell guilty of murder and assessed punishment at seventy years confinement. Pruns considered Bell a creepy weirdo but knew little of his life. She turned toward him, saw that he was holding a large hunting knife and he slashed her with it. They were last seen accepting a ride from a man driving a white van; he happened to own one at that time. Together with his wife, Judy Bell, they taught over 6000 students collectively. GALVESTON. He might have claimed a second victim that afternoon, but the rifle suddenly jammed. A graduate of Texas A&M University and once a successful businessman, he has eluded capture of almost sixteen years. And he claims he was brainwashed to do it. Their bodies were found in a river in 1976. Bell referred to another victim as "Pitchford," who was later revealed to be Kimberly Rae Pitchford, 16. Robert Edwin "Bay" Tomlinson, 97, of Victoria, Va. went to be with the Lord on February 26, 2023. People Projects . Search in titles only Search in Other Serial Killers only. In fact, he said, there . Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Despite his rough upbringing, he graduated from Columbus High School and went on to earn a P.E. Since the early 1970s, 30 bodies have been uncovered within the area. Advanced Search [13] According to him, some of the case details found in the letters had not been released to the public. As Dorothy continued talking to the police, Larry went out and took the keys out of Bell's truck in an attempt to keep him there until the police arrived. Dawna looked at their driveway and saw Larry laying there. Edward Harold Bell says he has killed as many as 11 girls. He quietly liquidated his assets, and with more than $140,000 in his pocket, disappeared. Prisoner Edward Harold Bell has retracted his confession. How many people did convicted murderer Edward Bell really kill? series Unsolved Mysteries. Two viewers recognized Edward Bell and called in with tips when this story aired. She then saw him fire at something on the ground. Just three months after Ackerman and Johnson disappeared from Galveston, so did two fourteen-year-old Webster girls named Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Johnson. Why did you kill my brother?!" Colette Anise Wilson, 13, never arrived home near Alvin after attending a summer band camp. In a prison interview with Houston Matters in 2017, Bell claimed he had admitted to the murders because he had been suicidal. The Australian soap is set to make a comeback on Amazon Freevee, with . These unverifiable claims and allegations introduced doubt into these alleged confessions, but many investigators and detectives involved reportedly believe that Bell is responsible for what he claims to be.