The Butcher of Elmendorf
Joseph D. Ball spent his post-World War I life as a bootlegger, providing illegal liquor to folks who had the funds. After Prohibition, he opened a saloon called the Sociable Inn in Elmendorf. The saloon featured a pond that was home to six alligators. Not long after the saloon opened, women in the area began going missing – more specifically, women in Ball’s life were disappearing, including barmaids, old girlfriends and his wife. Nicknamed the “Alligator Man,” the “Butcher of Elmendorf” and the “Bluebeard of South Texas,” Ball was reportedly responsible for the death of as many as 20 women in the 1930s, using the alligators to dispose of the bodies if he chose not to bury them in the sand. When Bexar County sheriff’s deputies questioned him about the murders, it’s said that Ball pulled a handgun from the cash register and killed himself.
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