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Posts Tagged ‘Texas’

Tangential Crime Blotter: Sherry Black, Warren Jeffs, Robert Ben Rhoades

Saturday, March 19th, 2011

As far as I can tell, there’s been no real news in the Sherry Black murder case since it was featured on the America’s Most Wanted website in January. But in poking around, there is some news on some tangents of the story, and tangents of the tangents.

I recently received a couple of comments on a previous post on the Sherry Black murder, including one claiming to be from Warren Jeffs, accused felon and President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know this may come as a shock to some, but people aren’t always who they claim to be on the Internet. (I will now wait a moment for the incredulous outrage to die down.) As far as I can tell, Mr. Jeffs is currently held in lieu of bail at the Reagan County Jail in Big Lake, Texas awaiting trial. The possibility that he might be allowed Internet privileges while under heavy manners, and that he would use such privileges to post random, badly capitalized blog comments, seems…remote. Plus, the ip address of the poster (72.250.219.218) points to Ogden, Utah, not Big Lake, Texas.

Incidentally, Jeffs still seems reveared by the FLDS faithful, with thousands of letters and many visitors (up to the max of ten a day).

Strangely enough, Jeffs isn’t the only famous (or infamous) prisoner currently awaiting trail at Big Lake. Accused serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades, who has been convicted of torturing, killing and raping women, and who has been accused of as many as 50 serial killings, is also held there. For comparison’s sake, 50 victims would put him up in Henry Lee Lucas territory, and more than John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy.

Here’s some background on Rhodes, evidently written by someone who bought a pallet of true crime adjectives at Sam’s and wanted to use them up before the expiration date. There’s even a Utah angle here as well, since charges against Rhoades for the murder of Candace Walsh were dropped in 2006, mainly so Rhoades could be tried in Texas, where he would be subject to the death penalty.

As shown in the Deseret News, he even looks like a serial killer.

Tags:Big Lake, death penalty, Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Murder, Robert Ben Rhoades, serial killers, Sherry Black, Texas, Utah, Warren Jeffs
Posted in crime | 3 Comments »

Texas Doesn’t Lead the Way (Thank God)

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

In arrests of college football players, that is. SI and CBS news listed the arrest records for every team in the preseason top 25, and the two Texas teams in the list did comparatively well. Texas came in third-to-last, with only two players charged, while TCU came in dead last with none at all. Oklahoma came in tied for seventh with nine players arrested, and Pittsburgh ranked first (which is to say last) with a whopping 22 players charged.

The usual caveats (arrest is not conviction, innocent until proven guilty, yada yada yada) apply, but this is one ranking Texas football fans are happy to see their teams rank last in.

(“Texas leads the way” shtick blatantly stolen from Bill Crider.)

Tags:College Football, football, Oklahoma Sooners, TCU, Texas, Texas Longhorns, University of Texas
Posted in Austin, football | 1 Comment »

Sherry Black Murder Tidbits Trickle Out

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

There’s been a tiny bit of news in the case of murdered bookstore owner Sherry Black: police have released pictures of a belt that may belong to her murderer. So if you live in Salt Lake City and know someone with criminal tendencies who has worn a belt with the initials “AX” on the buckle (which evidently stands for “Armani Exchange”; fashion is not my beat), police would like a word with you.

A commenter here has suggested that transient Paul David Vara, who has been arrested on aggravated murder and multiple rape charges in the same area, may be involved. There’s certainly no question that (assuming police statements are true) Vara is (to use a legal term) a violent scumbag:

When police found Gabel’s body, they noted that her breasts had been mutilated, according to court documents. An autopsy by the Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office found most of Gabel’s internal organs had been torn out.

The 6-foot-1 and 260-pound Vara told police that he “pulled her internal organs out of her body,” court documents state.

The cause of death was determined to be “multiple factors, including strangulation and extensive loss of blood,” according to court documents.

Vara told police that he “used green string to strangle the female because she was struggling with him.”

Vara hails from San Antonio, and seems to have quite a record of violent offenses:

His adult charges in Texas date from 2007 back to 1998, when he would have been 18. His charges in Texas include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2004, assault in 2001, two separate incidents of assault causing bodily injury in 2000 and another one in 1999. He had several charges of burglary and vehicle burglary in 1998.

And pace our commentator, his record of gang activity (such as it is) seems to be non-Insane Clown Posse related:

Medina said Vara told him that he had come to Utah to escape the Latin Kings gang in San Antonio. Medina, 40, said he left MS-13, a gang he had joined at age 11 and the two men bonded over their mutual hope to leave gangs behind.

(A little background on the Latin Kings can be found here. )

While Vara certainly seems violent and scummy enough to have killed Black, I’m just not seeing any real link to her (or, that matter, ICP). And sadly, the world suffers from no shortage of violent scumbags…

Tags:Books, crime, Insane Clown Posse, Latin Kings, Murder, Paul David Vara, scumbag, Sherry Black, Texas
Posted in Books, crime | No Comments »