GUILTY TX - Billy Joe Harris for rapes of elderly women in 6 counties, 2011

[Missizzy]

Let's look at some of the earlier articles again. This one was written on Jan. 18, 2010, the same day this thread started:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100118/ap_on_re_us/us_elderly_rapist_texas

"........Beginning with the rape of a 65-year-old woman in Yoakum last January, authorities have linked eight sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults to the suspect, who has been dubbed the "Twilight Rapist" because most of the attacks occurred around dawn. They also believe he robbed or attempted to rob four other women.

The victims have all been women, ranging in age from 65 to 91. One rape victim played piano at her church on Sundays. An 81-year-old woman scared off an intruder with a gun, firing several rounds for good measure. A 66-year-old woman was attacked twice, despite having moved across town following the first assault.

The attacks occurred in seven rural towns, the largest of which has 6,000 residents.

Two women were attacked — one of them twice — in Yoakum, a quiet town surrounded by wide-open ranches about 100 miles east of San Antonio."



So, a few notes:

The first to be raped was a 65 year old woman in Yoakum last January.

A 66 year old woman was raped twice, despite moving

Only one town has had two rapes.

Two women were attacked in Yoakum. (This does not add up as the article states that the woman in Yoakum, who was the first, was 65. The woman who was raped twice is 66. Only Yoakum has had two rapes...hmm). Help!!

The women range in age from 65-91

The name of a neighbor of a Yoakum victim is included

The towns all have populations under 6,000.

The article refers to the victims in Yoakum.......so does that mean one woman twice or one woman twice and another woman once?

Victims are described as "frail, elderly women. Tiny little things"


I feel like I'm playing the board game Clue. Except that we're playing for a woman's safety. He's gone quite a while since an attack.


I also looked at a photo shown early on of the Jennings Retirement Village in Luling where one rape occurred:

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/physi...lYwN5bl9yX3RvcF9waG90bwRzbGsDamVubmluZ3NyZXRp

I don't think that this development has attached carports or garages (they could be around back, though) but this is the place where the one woman (we know of) who worked, lived. Neat brick houses. Look at how closely this is populated, though. You'd think that even if a victim didn't have a dog, a neighbor would. I also would think that someone would see somebody lurking about or hear something. This is not what I imagined. I think of Luling and Yoakum as having their homes on larger lots. This is where Deepthinker's theory could come in. He went in with precision, knowing just what he was going after.

 

[Missizzy]

Amazing what you notice on the third or fourth go-round. Watch this video, at least a few times. What new info do you notice?

http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/small-texas-town-intensifies-search-for-serial-rapist/308887610

This is also a great view at what these towns look like. For those unfamiliar with Central Texas towns, they can be almost generic. This shows exactly what I was imagining. I would think that the reporter chose his locations carefully, too.

 

[Missizzy]

This video confirms that Yoakum has two victims--a 65 year old who was the first victim (per the article above) and a 66 year old who has been raped twice. Still no mention if these rapes were the first three.

Anyway, I noted that the reporter said that the women are often attacked "as they are preparing to go to church" and that "he unscrews the lightbulbs on the front porch".

If those statements are true, we've been missing something. First, why would they report that the women have been raped between 4-6 am if the women are raped as they are preparing to go to church? The only thing I can think of is an early mass. These Texas towns are heavy on Baptists, Methodists, and Lutherans in some places. Many of the towns mentioned are located in an area where there is a strong German heritage.

When I lived in Central Texas, most Catholic churches were only in the bigger towns. There were often small chapels where the Latino families would worship but you had to travel into the bigger communities for a Catholic Church. And the Catholic church is the only one I know of to offer such an early service/mass.

Almost all Protestant churches in Texas IME, have Sunday school at 10 am followed by service at 11 am. Wednesday and Sunday night prayer meetings are at 7 pm.

Checking back on the dates which Texas Mist helpfully posted, I didn't see many/any Sundays. So what's this all about? What church? What kind of service? Why the early rising? I also thought that many of the women had been attacked while they slept. Although, one was getting out of a shower.

On the lightbulb issue....front porch??? That's pretty blatant. Anybody sitting in their living room having coffee early would see that across the street. So these women were truly getting ready to leave the house in the dark...from January, throughout the summer months, and into November? It gets light at very different times.

Why can't they give out clear, concise, documented facts while still protecting the victims? If all of us are shaking our heads in confusion, imagine what an 85 year old women who's terrified must be thinking.

 

[Missizzy]

No Sundays showing up here, unless the date isn't listed:

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/82263232.html


"The first attack was on Jan. 23 in Yoakum where a 66-year-old woman was raped and robbed of $12,000.

In Central Texas, a woman was raped in July in Leon County.

In August, a woman in her early 90s was attacked and robbed in rural Bell County.

Another attack was reported on Sept. 5 in Leon County.

On Sept. 11, a 90-year-old woman was raped in Bell County.

The next day, a woman in Leon County reported that burglar bars had been removed from her home.

On Oct. 10, an elderly woman was attacked in her home just outside of Marlin in Falls County.

Two weeks later, an elderly woman in Leon County heard an intruder in her home, grabbed a gun and scared off the would-be attacker.

Another attack was reported on Nov. 9 in Yoakum.

And a break-in and attempted sexual assault was reported on Nov. 24 in Luling."



So the first rape did occur in Yoakum and that was the one where the woman had $12,000 stolen. She's noted in this report to be the 66 year old victim--the one who was raped twice. (The video and other article state that a 65 year old was the first victim. Huh?) I don't see the second rape listed, though, unless it's the one on November 9th. Since we know that there were three rapes in Yoakum, it looks as if her second rape is not listed. Why? I previously looked up all the dates provided and compared them with the weather that day in the particular town. With only one exception, an elder woman would most likely have had either an A/C or a heater going.

 

[Missizzy]

Yoakum does have a Catholic church:

http://www.stjcatholicchurch.com/

http://www.stjcatholicchurch.com/ministries.htm

As I said, the Catholic church seem to have the earliest services. The others (I'll start checking) might have ladies breakfast/prayer groups.

 

[Missizzy]

St. Joseph's in Yoakum has an All Soul's Mass in November 2009 at 6:30 am Monday mornings. There was a rape reported Monday, November 9th.

http://www.stjcatholicchurch.com/bulletins/2009/11-08-09.pdf

There are Communion Services listed throughout January 2009 at 6:30 am every weekday morning. The first rape was reported on Jan. 23rd, 2009--a Friday.

http://www.stjcatholicchurch.com/bulletins/bulletin_03_09.pdf

I'm not Catholic (although my husband was raised in this faith) and need a little help in this. I'm assuming that these "services" or communions are more than the church merely being open for prayer. I wonder if the victims were missed or if someone went to check on them. I could see that happening if a woman was very faithful with her attendance and an older person.

I'll check and see if any of the other confirmed dates and towns might also link up to a particular church service. One thing I've noticed, though, is that the rapes are listed as "reported". Does this mean when they occurred or when the actual report came in?

 

[Missizzy]

Bear with me. I'm going to take you on a little sojourn. So, there's a neighbor of the first victim. He's identified in this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100118/ap_on_re_us/us_elderly_rapist_texas

The article says he lives across the street and is 57. His last name is a common one, admittedly. However, his last name is well represented at the St. Joseph's Church. (Note: I also saw that one woman played piano at her church so there's another church connection.)

OK, so I did a search on people with this last name in Yoakum and a woman came up who is in her late 40s who runs a credit card processing company. I don't quite know what sorts of records a company such as this would have. She has a couple of kids who also show up in the newsletters of the church. A man came up who owns a service station (early riser, I would imagine, as would be his employees).

Let's remember a couple of things which we learned about Organized Rapists. We read that they often strike close to home first and that they often either contact LE or the victims to check on their condition. Just sayin'.

 

[eachandevery]

Missizzy, thanks for such great sleuthing!

I wasn't quite sure before, but I am convinced that rape is the actual motive. Why else would he attack the same victim twice?

Raping one woman twice is what really bothers me. I would love to know the reason why he attacked the victim a second time, especially considering she moved. How would he know the exact address of her new location? What kind of person would have access to that information? I could understand if the perp worked in some sort of field whose services that the woman would have required, like if she had cable in her first house and then needed it installed at her new home. I also wonder if this guy has ties with a home security company, because that would give him instant access to any sort of burglar prevention devices, such as bars on the window. I realize that these bars would be visible from the outside; I know the ones we have could be discovered by anyone with the ability to get close to our home, and especially by someone intent on breaking into one's home.

I guess I wonder if the the women being widows - if, in fact they all are - is a connection between all of the cases. I know it's been said that he puts in a lot of hours stalking the victims, but he has to be armed with the knowledge that they live alone somehow. I'm not sure how he could be certain that the women would have absolutely no company at the time of the attacks. How would he know he wouldn't be interrupted by someone randomly checking up on the women? Is it just luck? Does he somehow do something to ensure that they will be alone at the exact moment he attacks?

Ahh, so many questions! I really hope this guy is caught before any more women become his victims.

 

[Missizzy]

eachandevery--ITA, there's got to be something about the woman raped twice. Could it be that she had the most money and he thought he could get some more cash? I really doubt it.

You know, one of the most perplexing facts to me is that LE supposedly (where did that originally come from?...we need a link) moved this woman. That doesn't seem right to me. I know I've said this before but I have a hard time believing the local police or sheriff's deputies moved the woman (unless it was just a volunteer furniture moving thing).

This woman's family or an elder agency would have moved her. And the reports say that LE moved her and then she was raped AGAIN. She certainly wasn't moved into a nursing facility or a secure retirement apt or condo. And remember, this woman was 66...not what I'd call elderly. Not a very smooth move IMO.

 

[Missizzy]

A little bit more info and just posted tonight. This is the first time I've seen a 79 year old victim from Yoakum listed for February. I wonder why that rape was not included anywhere else? I'm confused, this article lists a 65 year old victim as the first victim last January. It is noted that she moved and the rapist located her and raped her again in November. Nobody can get their facts straight!! Was the first victim 65 or 66? Who was raped twice, after moving? And why haven't we heard of the February rape?

http://www.kbtx.com/local/headlines/83779102.html

"Could a South TX Town Lead Investigators to the Twilight Rapist?"

"Investigators know he watches his victims for days even weeks before he breaks in and tries to rob and rape them. A man the Texas Rangers say is behind 12 attacks statewide has been at it a year and hasn't been caught. Could a South Texas town hold the clues investigators need to find the Twilight Rapist?"

and

"However, just as the focus appeared to shift away from Yoakum, the man now being called the Twilight Rapist, returned to target his first victim 10 months later, despite her move across town.

"He came back and crawled in her window in the night," said Nelson. "It was just like once wasn't enough."

 

[Missizzy]

I wonder if the comment about watching for weeks could have anything to do with attending church services. That's the only thing I can think of other than clubs, etc. Didn't he tell one woman that he knew when her son was coming by to check on her?


An interesting article from last October concerning the 8th victim--an 88 year old woman in Centerville....187 miles north of from Yoakum. This is our survivor who was armed.

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/65911292.html

"Leon County Sheriff's Deputies said the shots were rounds fired by an 88-year-old woman who managed to get past her attacker and make it outside before firing into the air and screaming for help.

"She went into defensive mode, survival mode immediately and that's what these elderly people need to be able to do," said Sheriff Jerry Wakefield."

and hadn't seen this comment before:

"In every attack, the suspect disabled phone lines a month before he attacked, as well as the night of the attack."



Also, note the comment by "Watcher" on 12/15th. Very similar to the one I called the Texas Rangers about. That one was by a commenter called Tick Tick and also responding very lucidly about the subject of rape. The Tick Tock comment was from Oct. 24th and on a Texas college fraternity forum. Watches, clocks, tick-tock. hmmmm

Can't one of the lead Texas papers do an investigation on this case and give us a clear timeline which we can trust?

 

[Starry Night]

Hi ya'll-I can't stay away from this case-I am staying away from the others and I thank all of you for your support. I have stayed away for a couple of days however and I have some observations:
Missizz I also have DOGS on my mind-I don't think the ladies have a dog-lately I am thinking the rapist is with a landscaping company who do all kinds of yard work-or a temp mailman-one of those rural type temp Post Office workers or whatever. He is definitely an opportunist and the fact that he got a 'big grip' 12,000 from the first victim speaks volumes. I think that is where he got his start-he got damned lucky on his first foray......And got smarter as he went along. The raping part is weird!I mean-look-he has almost 2 M.O.'s......burglary and rape! What comes first-the chicken or the egg....jeez.....oh! and I was on one weird site where they were talking about him and they were saying that LE was protecting him-like he was the son or relative of some local LE...and also they asked why the generic description-believe me-people all over Texas are VERY frustrated with Law Enforcement over the LACK of a GOOD DESCRIPTION of this terrible criminal,. and the underground word up is not very kind to Texas LE. I am just reporting what I have read.....my own opinion and insight.

 

[Missizzy]

More about the clocks.....several clocks. Help me out if I'm confused. This article states that a woman in Marquez heard a loud clock at three in the morning ( too early for church IMO) on her outside bedroom wall--hours before the pendulum clock shown in photos was known to be stolen. So just like deer heads, he's going for a collection.

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/80637097.html

"........Deputies said the clock was taken from a Marquez home in September, when the man tried to sexually assault the woman who owned it. It's described as a 31 day wall clock with roman numerals on the face and a horse on the top. It was purchased in Japan in 1969.

Investigators want to know if anyone has seen it.

"We're hoping it's either hanging in his house or he has given it to somebody," said Chief Deputy Brent Walter.

Investigators said the man has taken several clocks as trophies.

In Marquez, hours before the Japanese clock was stolen, investigators believe the suspect was at another Marquez woman's home. The woman, who spoke to News 3 on the condition of anonymity, said the man had a clock with him then.

"It probably woke me up with tick tock real loud," said the woman.

In September, she spoke to News 3 after burglar bars had been removed from her window. That's when she said a clock was laid against her outside bedroom wall.

"It was three something in the morning and it was really loud and I thought, 'what is that? That sounds like a time bomb'," said the woman."

 

[DeepThinker]

I wonder if the comment about watching for weeks could have anything to do with attending church services. That's the only thing I can think of other than clubs, etc. Didn't he tell one woman that he knew when her son was coming by to check on her?


An interesting article from last October concerning the 8th victim--an 88 year old woman in Centerville....187 miles north of from Yoakum. This is our survivor who was armed.

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/65911292.html

"Leon County Sheriff's Deputies said the shots were rounds fired by an 88-year-old woman who managed to get past her attacker and make it outside before firing into the air and screaming for help.

"She went into defensive mode, survival mode immediately and that's what these elderly people need to be able to do," said Sheriff Jerry Wakefield."

and hadn't seen this comment before:

"In every attack, the suspect disabled phone lines a month before he attacked, as well as the night of the attack."



Also, note the comment by "Watcher" on 12/15th. Very similar to the one I called the Texas Rangers about. That one was by a commenter called Tick Tick and also responding very lucidly about the subject of rape. The Tick Tock comment was from Oct. 24th and on a Texas college fraternity forum. Watches, clocks, tick-tock. hmmmm

Can't one of the lead Texas papers do an investigation on this case and give us a clear timeline which we can trust?

BBM

When you mentioned college fraternity, I was wondering if it is possible these women are connected with the same college? Either by being alumni, or perhaps they are simply financial donors. With the economy being the way it is, maybe they couldn't donate as much or at all. Perhaps this affected some type of scholarship funding or something and one of the students is angry? Thinking out loud again.

 

[jjenny]

BBM

When you mentioned college fraternity, I was wondering if it is possible these women are connected with the same college? Either by being alumni, or perhaps they are simply financial donors. With the economy being the way it is, maybe they couldn't donate as much or at all. Perhaps this affected some type of scholarship funding or something and one of the students is angry? Thinking out loud again.

Some of them are 80 years old. Sixty years ago many women didn't even go to college.

 

[Missizzy]

DeepThinker--I'm the one who brought up the fraternity. Let me clarify. I did a google search on the words, "tick tock rape" and a site came up which looks like a private forum for a Christian fraternity, Beta Upsilon Chi or Brothers Under Christ (BUX).

They are active at most southern colleges and are primarily white Christian men with the occasional young man of color. This particular forum seemed to originate at University of North Texas in Denton. Their chapter is called the Theta group. Their website:

http://unt.betaupsilonchi.org/

The forum:

http://untbyx.com/black-pub-table/w...ck-women-more-than-black-men-rape-white-women

Here's the thread heading or point of discussion:

".........The point of the question is this, it is an on going problem that black men are raping white women, yet this problem is not being addressed or mentioned in the media or anywhere. It needs be solved and reduced as well as all rape against who ever the victim is. I never really noticed that, maybe you do have a point. But we must remember the media goes after what makes us watch. And apparently a story like that will make us all tune in."

"This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 pm and is filed under black pub table. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site."



Scroll down to:


"tick tock Says:

October 24th, 2009 at 5:34 am

rape is an act of violence.

perhaps there is a clue to the reason behind the violence?

it is wrong to characterize black or white rapists as sexual deviants… to them sex is their weapon in an assault."

This is the single item I've found concerning a fraternity connection. It might be absolutely nothing. Given the commenters' name, the time of post, and subject matter, I decided to call it into the tip-line. I just this evening noticed this:


http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/65911292.html

Investigators believe an 88-year-old Centerville woman is the latest victim of a serial rapist who targets elderly women.
Posted: 5:43 PM Oct 24, 2009
Reporter: Ashlea Sigman
Email Address: [email protected]

"Neighbors of an 88-year-old Centerville woman said she told them she heard footsteps in her home early Saturday morning, and grabbed her gun when she heard the steps coming toward her bed."


Being that this news article was posted on Saturday, Oct. 24th at 5:43 PM and updated at 10:46 PM Oct 25th, I'm going to infer that they are talking about an attack happening earlier that day. So we've got a person posting about rape and race using the name Tick Tock at 5:43 am on Saturday Oct. 24th. Sometime within the next couple of hours, "early Saturday morning", the rapist attacked.

Let's not forget that our rapist is known to have collected at least a couple of clocks by the time of his rapes on Sept. 11th and Oct. 10th.

 

[Missizzy]

jjenny--I think that's far too great of a generalization. Many of the women in my family are from Central Texas and they and many of their friends attended and graduated from college all through the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Many might have chosen traditional careers but there's a lot of retired nurses, doctors, attorneys, politicians, teachers, and other professionals in Texas in their 60s on up. Obviously, they all went to college to receive their licenses and credentials.

That's not saying that I think there's a connection but I don't want to be disrespectful of the women of Texas. I think as a state, education has always been greatly valued. If I'm not mistaken, Texas led the way for many women who crashed through that glass ceiling.

Where oh where are Ann and Molly when we need them so desperately?? I'd like to see the rapist tackle those two. I can just hear them cackling over what they'd do to him.

 

[txsvicki]

I wonder what he is doing if it's true in every case that he disabled the phone line a month before attacking. Is he doing something to the phone lines themselves or loosening windows in advance like with the burglar bar that was removed before he came back with the clock. Or, like someone said, he could be getting inside and rummaging around first.

 

[jjenny]

jjenny--I think that's far too great of a generalization. Many of the women in my family are from Central Texas and they and many of their friends attended and graduated from college all through the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Many might have chosen traditional careers but there's a lot of retired nurses, doctors, attorneys, politicians, teachers, and other professionals in Texas in their 60s on up. Obviously, they all went to college to receive their licenses and credentials.

That's not saying that I think there's a connection but I don't want to be disrespectful of the women of Texas. I think as a state, education has always been greatly valued. If I'm not mistaken, Texas led the way for many women who crashed through that glass ceiling.

Where oh where are Ann and Molly when we need them so desperately?? I'd like to see the rapist tackle those two. I can just hear them cackling over what they'd do to him.

I think it's rather unlikely that somebody is going out and raping elderly women because they didn't donate to some college. By the way, I am not trying to be "disrespectful to the women of Texas." I am simply pointing out that a lot have changed since 60 years ago, and older people are less likely to be using the newer technology, and fewer women attended college back then. For instance, this guy is going out disabling phone lines-most younger people wouldn't even use a land line, they got cell phones.

 

[jjenny]

I wonder what he is doing if it's true in every case that he disabled the phone line a month before attacking. Is he doing something to the phone lines themselves or loosening windows in advance like with the burglar bar that was removed before he came back with the clock. Or, like someone said, he could be getting inside and rummaging around first.

Why would someone even do that? It sounds like he puts a lot of preparation into it, waits around for a long time before he actually goes in and attacks. He is also physically present at the location for some time if he actually disables the phone lines a month before the attack, so it is surprising nobody has noticed him.