When it comes to disposing of human remains, most serial killers prefer to keep it simple: shallow graves, crawl spaces, river bottoms, dumpsters, remote wooded areas — you get the idea…Occasionally, however, an *outstanding* maniac may resort to more exotic means. We start our series with one of the best — Mr. Joe Ball…
In the 1930’s, this hard-drinking reprobate ran a seedy roadhouse called the Sociable Inn on Highway 181 near Elmsdorf, Texas. Behind his fine establishment, Ball installed a cement pond and stocked it with a brood of five fully-grown alligators. To keep his little darlings happy and healthy, Ball fed them a diet of horse meat, live dogs — and the butchered remains of the various female employees he slaughtered and dismembered.
The exact number of his victims remains unknown, since our hero went to his death without confessing. When two sheriffs (investigating the disappearance of a young waitress named Hazel Brown) showed up to question him, he pulled a pistol from beneath the cash register and blew a fist-sized hole in his own chest.
(The A-Z Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers)
