The legend of Joe Ball, the murderer who fed crocodiles with the bodies of his lovers

the faces of evil

Known as 'Alligator Man' or 'Elmendorf Butcher' built a pool with five reptiles and killed two women

Monica G. Alvarez

Nothing bad could happen that summer day: Minnie was happy, very much in love with her and, furthermore, her lover seemed to be happy with her when she told him that she was expecting a child. However, her reaction hid a premeditated plan to kill her: Joe already had another. To do this, the man invited her to spend a day at the beach in an area away from her and, shortly before sunset, she took out her revolver and shot him in the head. The young woman died instantly. Then, she was helped by an accomplice to get rid of her body. Minnie's murder was not the only one because a year later she killed another of her lovers, Hazel.

The legend of Joe Ball, baptized as the 'Alligator Man' for keeping five crocodiles in his pool bar, increased after his death. This smuggler from Elmendorf, who had put on a grotesque show with his reptiles to which he fed cats, dogs or opossums, was believed to do the same with his disappearing waitresses (and mistresses).

a good shooter

Joseph (Joe) Douglas Ball was born on January 7, 1896, in Elmendorf, a rural town in south Texas founded by his father Frank X. Ball, a visionary who built the first cotton gin, invested in farms, and opened all kinds of establishments, from shoe stores to funeral homes, which generated significant profits for the town. Elmendorf went from being abandoned to progress and become a town with about 1,500 inhabitants. And all thanks to the Ball family.

Although little else is known about Joe's childhood: he was the second of eight brothers and his relatives portrayed him as a very lonely boy, a lover of weapons and an excellent shooter. He was able to shoot "a bird from a phone line with a gun from the bumper of the Ford Model A," his nephew Bucky Ball told reporters in 2002.

Of course, the time he dedicated to improving his aim was never used in his studies. In fact, he dropped out of school in his teens to work with his father in the family business until he enlisted in the Army in April 1917. The United States had just entered World War I, and Joe wanted to serve on the front lines and defend America. his country, though two years later, he was honorably discharged and returned home.

His return was not as good as expected. Something in the young man changed after the fight. "He was different," Bucky assured, based on the story that his father, Joe's uncle, told him years ago. This happened to many veterans during the Depression: they did not receive any psychological counseling despite the trauma suffered and dragged him to his death.

The bar and the gators

Despite the aftermath (his own family pointed to the murders as a trigger for what he experienced on the battlefield), Joe continued to work for his father, had a fleeting marriage to Clara Christina Wahne and, during Prohibition, began his particular criminal career operating as a bootlegger and distributor of whiskey and beer for all of Elmendorf and much of southeastern Bexar County. The young man carried on his prosperous business while riding in his truck, from where he sold 50-gallon barrels (about 190 liters).

Once prohibition ended at the end of 1933, Joe invested the money he had earned fraudulently in building a piano bar, the Sociable Inn, run by an infamous clientele (criminals, bikers, prostitutes, alcoholics...) and whose bad reputation scared away the own locals.

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The residents of Elmendorf avoided entering this place, which offered a most insane spectacle: in the back there was a pool with five alligators, which Joe fed with dogs, cats and possums, while the crowd applauded and cheered the feat of the reptiles. Whoever went to the Sociable Inn had three objectives: "Get drunk, throw an animal and watch the alligators."

This ghastly entertainment gave rise to all kinds of gossip. For example, that the waitresses who had disappeared in recent months had actually been killed and eaten by these crocodiles. Hence the nickname for him, the 'Alligator Man'. "We were afraid of him," recalled Pollie Merian, one of the villagers. "He would get mad and kill you," she said.

The victims

Minnie Mae Gotthardt, 25, was one of the first waitresses at the Sociable Inn. The young woman came to Elmendorf and immediately fell in love with her boss, with whom she would maintain a romantic relationship for the next three years. However, as soon as Dolores Goodwin entered the scene, Joe began to play three cushion.

Everything got complicated when Minnie got pregnant and she threatened to go to the police and reveal her secrets if he continued with Dolores. That was the last warning that the young woman made: she had just signed her death sentence.

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After a few days, customers started asking about the waitress's whereabouts, and Joe made up a sordid story: Minnie had gotten pregnant by an African American and moved in with him in Corpus Christie. The alleged betrayal of the young woman made everyone empathize with her cuckold boyfriend and quickly forget about her.

A few months after the crime, Joe and Dolores were married. But in January 1938, a very serious traffic accident almost cost the woman her life by amputating her left arm. From there, the locals circulated rumors of an even more gruesome event: that one of the alligators in the bar had ripped it off. This story became tragic when Dolores disappeared in April of that same year, something that was not true either.

The woman, fed up with her husband's infidelities, had left him and moved to another city. It seems that days after the wedding, Joe went back to his old ways and took another lover, Hazel Brown. This 21-year-old divorcee with a child arrived at the Sociable Inn to start a new life, but she found herself immersed in a dangerous love triangle.

During that time, Hazel acted as her lover, but as soon as Dolores disappeared, the girl discovered Minnie's fatal outcome: Joe had confessed everything to her in one of her drunken sprees and had threatened to kill her if she left him. . Even so, the girl, believing that she would not be capable of committing a new murder, put him on the ropes and warned him of her departure. Hours later, Joe murdered her in her sister's barn.

Once again, the smuggler called his buddy to eliminate any trace of the young woman and he arrived with a saw and an axe. As Joe dismembered Hazel, the handyman held her body parts as he dissected them, then placed them in a huge iron barrel.

Weeks later, they moved the barrel to a cliff near the San Antonio River and emptied its contents into a tomb. Joe built a fire and burned Hazel's head and belongings. Before returning to the bar, the men got drunk in front of the fire.

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Investigators on the case arrived at the Sociable Inn to take Joe to the police station for further questioning. The murderer did not resist, but before he made a request: that they allow him to close the bar and have a beer. The agents agreed without imagining what would happen moments later. Joe pulled a gun out of the cash register and shot himself in the heart. Those present could not stop him.

Following the suicide, police thoroughly searched the property for the victims and seized the weapons of the crimes. However, despite the rumors that spread through the town, there was no trace of women in the pool of alligators. It had to be Clifton Wheeler who cleared up all the unknowns: the handyman told the authorities the exact places where Minnie and Hazel, the mistresses of his boss, had been buried. When the time came, a crowd of onlookers gathered to witness the rugged rescue.

During the investigation of the case, the rest of the allegedly disappeared personnel were located safe and sound, as was Dolores, the smuggler's wife, who decided to flee from her husband, put land in between and settle in San Diego to take care of her sister. pregnant.

The five alligators were sent to the San Antonio Zoo and Clifton Wheeler was sentenced to only two years in prison for complicity in the crimes. His attorney claimed the exculpatory circumstance of insurmountable fear to reduce the sentence. In other words, the handyman saw his elective ability (say no) notably affected when he felt that his life was in danger.

The legend

The case of Joe Ball and his alligators became legend. A popularity to which the press of the time contributed and which increased thanks to Hollywood. The story went from having two fatalities to a total of twenty, according to Eaten Alive, a film by Rober Englund.

Not even Dolores' statements in an interview in 1957 served to quell the rumors. “Joe never put anyone in that crocodile tank. Joe wouldn't do something like that. He was not a hideous monster. Joe was a sweet, kind, good man, and he never hurt anyone unless he felt compelled to do so,” he said.

Nor the words of his nephew Bucky, in 1988: "I don't think those alligators ate a human body of any kind." But in Emeldorf they are sure that Joe Ball murdered more people and they have a theory as to why they never found any more bodies. “He fed them to alligators. I don't know how many, but I heard it”, explains one of the locals.