4 More Houston Bodies Identified
by Houston (AP)
Police sought more evidence Wednesday in the sex-torture slayings while a grand jury studying the case took a one-day recess. With 27 youthful victims of the homosexual murders already counted, the case is regarded as the largest incident of mass murder in America in recent times. Police have become quite guarded in their statements on the case but did say Wednesday they are checking deeply into the background of Rhonda Louise Williams, a 15-year-old Houston runaway who police say narrowly escaped rape and death at the hands of the alleged homosexual ring’s mastermind. “It’s (her background) being gone into pretty thoroughly,” said a police detective who refused to be identified. “All we can say is that we are continuing our investigation.” The slender brunette is being held by Houston juvenile authorities.
The grand jury indicted Elmer Wayne Henley, 17, and David Owen Brooks, 18, on murder charges Tuesday, and a ‘spokesman for the district attorney’s office said more indictments against the pair are likely. “We have no other suspects in the case at this time,” said Dist. Atty. Carol Vance. Pathologists identified four more bodies Tuesday, bringing to nine the number of young victims identified so far. Investigators have had difficulty in identifying many of the corpses dug up around Southeast Texas because they were extremely decomposed. Those identified Tuesday by county medical examiners were James Dreymala, 14, James E. Glass, 15, Danny Michael Yates, 15, and Ruben W. Watson, 19. Investigators suspended digging for bodies late Monday when the 27th victim was exhumed on a narrow strip of beach near High Island, about 70 miles east of here on the Texas Gulf Coast. Officers said they felt they have recovered all of the bodies that exist.
They said that any new information might lead to renewed digging. The killing of 25 migrant farmworkers in California two years ago was regarded previously as the largest mass murder case in U.S. history. Juan Corona is serving a life sentence in that case. At the turn of the century, Herman W. Mudgett was reported to have killer 200 woman in a so-called “murder house where he lived. Mudgett was only convicted of one murder and historians say there is conclusive evidence he killed 12 persons.
National Homosexual Ring Reported
Dallas police said Wednesday they believed they had uncovered a nationwide mail-order homosexual procurement ring with the discovery of catalogued files containing as many as 100,000 names and booklets showing pictures and names of young “fellows” who were available to “sponsors.” Police Capt. Bennie Newman, who heads the department’s youth division, said, “at this point, I don’t think it has anything to do with what has been happening in Houston,” where authorities have found the bodies of 27 victims of an alleged homosexual murder team. However, among the items found in a raid on an apartment here where four photographs with the word “kill” printed in orange lettering on the tape binding the young men’s pictures.
Newman said the meaning of the word would be thoroughly investigated,” but it was pointed out that it merely could mean that the four no longer were “available.” He said an attempt would be made to find the four to confirm their state of health. Six persons, including the ring’s alleged leader, were arrested in a raid on the apartment after a tip by a “panicky” 24-year-old member who feared police were closing in on the operation. They were booked for investigation of felony conspiracy to commit sodomy and possession of narcotics after a quantity of marijuana was found in the apartment. Literature “seized in the apartment listed the Dallas address and name of “Epic International,” and “The Odyssey Foundation,” the latter with a San Diego, California post office box mail address.
The raiders said they almost filled a pickup truck with files, pornographic literature, a camera, photoengraving equipment, stationery, an electric typewriter and hundreds of booklets with names and addresses. Police estimated the files might contain as many as 100,000 names. They said it appeared membership in the operation cost $15 per year with a $3 charge for the booklets. The “sponsors,” police said, filled out forms showing how long they wanted a “fellow” companion.
Newman said the “fellows” traveled the country with expenses paid by sponsors plus pocket money.
