During the Great Depression, South Texas had its very own Bluebeard. Like the titular character in the French fairy tale, Joseph Douglas "Joe" Ball hacked up his lovers before disposing of their body parts in the sands and swamps of Bexar County. History has come to know the tall, lanky, and hard-bitten Ball as the "Alligator Man"—a heartless and cruel killer who fed his victims to his pet alligators.
While these rumors are just that, rumors, the other facts of Ball's horrific crimes need no exaggeration. Beginning sometime during the mid-1920s, Ball's life of crime consumed and damaged lives while making Ball rich and infamous.
10. A Dark Heritage
Long before Joe Ball came into this world, a more superstitious mind would say that he had been cursed simply because of his lineage. More to the point, Ball was the great-great-grandson of John Hart Crenshaw, one of the Land of Lincoln's most notorious citizens.
Born on the border between North and South Carolina, Crenshaw came from an old American family that had moved west from their native soil in Dixie. After young John's birth in 1797, the Hart family relocated to New Madrid, Missouri. Following an earthquake in 1811, they finally settled in the wilds of Saline County, Illinois.
At age 18, John was the sole breadwinner in the house and he worked grueling days at a salt refinery in Half Moon Lick, Illinois. In 1829, John struck gold (or rather salt) when the administration of Governor Ninian Edwards decided to sell off the territory's salt lands to private owners and operators.
John Crenshaw was one of those who benefited. While still a young man, Crenshaw owned several acres of salt land plus one sawmill and at least three salt furnaces.
History does remember Crenshaw's industriousness. Rather, Crenshaw is remembered today as one of Illinois's worst slavers. The traditional tales of Southern Illinois say that Crenshaw frequently kidnapped free blacks and escaped slaves and forced them to work at his mines. Crenshaw's supply of illegal labor came courtesy of a private army of "night riders" who roamed the Ohio River looking for slaves.
Although slavery was technically illegal in the Illinois Territory, Crenshaw and others operated a black market whereby slaves and free blacks were bought, sold, and traded with the South. State authorities tried to prosecute Crenshaw for his crimes at least twice, but the owner of the Hickory Hill estate got off both times.
Today, Crenshaw's house, nicknamed the Old Slave House, is reportedly haunted. Ironically, one can find the Old Slave House in the small town of Equality, Illinois.
9. War Veteran And Bootlegger
Before becoming a murderer, Joe Ball was just another young man in the bustling town of Elmendorf, which lies some 24 kilometers (15 mi) southeast of San Antonio. Ball's family was local nobility, with his father Frank X. Ball being the man who had used a cotton gin, a railroad depot, and a factory to turn Elmendorf into something worthwhile. Joe's younger brother Raymond would become the town's first mayor following its incorporation in 1963.
Joe had few of the social graces of his brothers. He didn't have his father's political acumen, either. Rather, Joe was initially just a follower. Before 1917, Joe worked at a mid-level job at his father's cotton mill.
When the US went to war, Joe joined up. Joe Ball saw action on the Western Front in France during World War I. Not too much is known about Ball's two-year service, but most who remember him say that Joe was "different" after coming home to Texas in 1919.
Back in Elmendorf, Joe opened a small saloon that he dubbed the Sociable Inn. Here, Ball sold illegal beer and liquor to thirsty customers trying to evade Prohibition. According to one eyewitness named Lawrence Liedecke, Ball also drove around Bexar County with a 190-liter (50 gal) barrel of whiskey. He was helped in all his endeavors by Clifton Wheeler, a young black man whom others said lived in mortal fear of his employer.
