2002 Susan McFarland’s Murder in Terrell Hills / San Antonio
Introduction On January 14, 2003, Texas Ranger Shawn Palmer and Detective Boyd Wedding from the Terrell Hills Police Department made a horrible discovery at an abandoned farm. An old Datsun truck bed that had been made into a utility trailer sat with half-burned refuse in it. Ranger Palmer walked up to…
Brad Simpson Update 1/21/2026 – Trial Delayed
Brad Simpson was charged with his wife’s murder at their Olmos Park home (in San Antonio) in the fall of 2024. At a hearing yesterday, Simpson’s February trial date was been pushed back another 60 days. We are probably looking at April now for a trial date. The San Antonio Express…
Update: Brad Simpson Murder Trial Delayed as Prosecutors Review New Evidence (01/20/2026)
The murder trial of Brad Simpson, originally scheduled for next month, has been delayed as prosecutors continue reviewing newly submitted evidence. During a court hearing on Tuesday, lead prosecutor Casey Sandoval told the court that law enforcement was required to submit all evidence by September 1, 2025—but additional materials have continued…
1987 – Katy – The Murder of Ester Collins, a Cold Case Going Back to November 6, 1987
Link to Vlog on YouTube It has been almost 40 years since the murder of Ester Darlene Collins. It happened on a Friday afternoon in Katy, Texas. Ester was working in a model home. It was a pretty house in the $80,000 range in 1987 (which would be about $300,000…
1991 – The Murder of Edwina Prosen (Sweeny)
The little town wasn’t stirring yet. It was a Sunday morning, the last one of September 1991, and a man was sitting on a bench. The bench was in Sweeny, Texas, a town with a population of 3,921 in 1991. If the term “bedroom community” needed a model, Sweeny could be…
1997 Beaumont – Meet the Winner of the Dumb Criminal and Dumber Attorney Award ’97
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In October 1993, Beaumont attorney Michael Mooney behaved badly … like the word meaning “donkey,” but it starts with an “a.” Mooney represented 30-year-old Troy Lincoln in a parole revocation hearing, and they lost. His client had been on parole for a drug trafficking conviction, and he was on his…
Free Texas History Websites Every Researcher Should Know About
I was scurrying around the Internet today trying to make a list of history websites I use regularly for finding and researching old Texas crimes when I thought “Hey, my followers love Texas history sites, too!” So I decided to make a blog post and share them with you. If you…
1972—Murders over Money in San Antonio, Indiana, and Ingram, Texas (Free Book Download)
In the summer of 1972, a respected banker left her home in Washington, Indiana, to meet a client from San Antonio, Texas after hours. She never came back.. Six months later, nearly a thousand miles away, three people were executed in their homes in the Texas Hill Country (Ingram,…
1965 – Three Fishermen Slaughtered by 17-year-old in the Laguna Madre (Near Corpus Christi)
It was the week before South Padre Island would be covered with college and high school students on spring break. Three Corpus Christi men decided it was time to go to the camp house and fish before the crowd of hormonal teens hit. On Monday, April 12, 1965, the trio…
Part 8 – Paul Taylor’s Day in Court and Two Big Fat Lies
First, an Announcement Hi all — if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a private Facebook group run by Ashleigh Turczyn. It’s called Finding Becky Beard: Community Discussion, Ashleigh has been publishing new information and digging into areas I haven’t explored. She’s a masterful storyteller, and her posts have been deeply…