Five Reasons Texas is Haunted

I started one thing and it led to a lot of research down a lot of rabbit holes.

The old saying was: Never ask a man if he’s from Texas. If he is, he’ll tell you. If he’s not, don’t embarrass him.” Of course, there are plenty of reasons for an educated person to be embarrassed of Texas.

1. Serial Killers-Texas has endured 984 serial killings since 1960. Dean Corll was a homegrown one who stalked young men and boys in the Houston area.

2. The 1900 Galveston Hurricane - In total, 8,000 people lost their lives. On the second day of the storm, 700 bodies were buried at sea where they eventually washed back up on shore. Black men were forced to cremate a massive number of bodies and threatened with violence if they refused.

   

   H. H. Morris, Galveston, Texas

3. Up to and Including the Red River War- A fifty-year ethnic cleansing of Native Americans in Texas was carried out by military personnel and the Texas Rangers. The Red River Campaign ended with the exile of tribes to reservations. There are so many incidents that I could not do them justice.

4. Segregation and Violence - There are SO many. This list from Texas Public Radio was all I could take.

• Confederate state

• Laws, violence, and intimidation used to limit black suffrage

• 684 documented lynchings

• 1916 Wacor Horror of Jesse Washington’s “trial”

• 1917 Houston Race Riot - 118 black soldiers were tried, 19 executed, and 63 sentenced to life in prison.

• Longview Race Riot of 1919 - black homes and businesses were burned, 21 black men arrested

• Sherman Courthouse Riot of 1930 - George Hughes was arrested for the rape of the wife of a white man who owed him money. He was dragged from the courtroom, hung in the black business are and then most of those businesses were burned to the ground.

• Beaumont Race Riot of 1943 - Unnamed white woman claimed to have been raped by a black man. 4,000 whites marched on the jail where the suspects were held. The woman could not identify her attacker from those suspects. Black homes and businesses were torched. Blacks were banned from liquor stores, parks, and playgrounds. Five days later 206 whites were arrested for assault and battery and arson. No one was charged for the 47 black deaths that occurred.

• Dragging Death of James Byrd Jr 1998 - He accepted a ride from three white men known to him. They beat him, urinated on him and spray-painted his face before dragging him for three miles behind their truck. They left the body in front of an African-American cemetery and went to a backyard barbeque.

5. Dirty Cops, Prosecutors, and Judges - The last time I looked at this for Texas it was 71 pages and only listed problem people from 1990 to 2016. An updated link is below.

   

   Link to the Texas Brady List

So yeah, Texas is haunted - in so many ways.