A convicted murderer has claimed to be the serial killer behind the deaths of 11 adolescent girls who disappeared from the state of Texas in the 1970s.
Edward Harold Bell provided detailed descriptions of his victims, whom he referred to as the “Eleven that went to Heaven,” and the sites where he buried them.
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Bell, 72, is behind bars serving a 70-year sentence for the murder of a former Marine in 1978. His victim, Larry Dickens, confronted Bell after he exposed himself and began masturbating in front of a group of girls in Pasadena — and Bell shot him dead.
In a series of prison interviews with the The Houston Chronicle in 2011, Bell claimed that he had killed 11 girls. Bell’s alleged victims include 15-year-olds Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, who disappeared while hitchhiking on November 15, 1971.
Edward Harold Bell Claims He’s At The Center Of A Vast Government Conspiracy from Houston Matters on Vimeo.
Their abductor tied them up, stripped them from the waist down, and left their bodies in a river.
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At the time, Bell lived in an apartment on a beach and had bought a surf shop that both girls were known to have visited. The other victims include Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Renee Johnson, both 14, 13-year-old Colette Anise Wilson, and Gloria Ann Gonzales, 19.
![Maria Johnson [Handout]Maria Johnson [Handout]](http://crimefeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/1024x1024-1-207x300.jpg)
Maria Johnson [Handout]
According to excerpts from letters Bell wrote confessing the alleged crimes, which were obtained by the Houston Chronicle, Bell stated that a brainwashing program started by his father forced him to “be a flasher,” become a sex offender, and rape and kill girls.
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Bell reportedly first sent prosecutors in Texas letters containing his confession in 1998. Investigators have long suspected that Bell, a well-known sex offender who was caught exposing himself to several young girls in the 1970s, may be involved in more crimes — but prosecutors have so far declined to press charges due to lack of evidence.
After murdering Larry Dickens, Bell was released on bail. For almost 20 years, he was on the lam in Mexico and Central America. During this time he guided dive trips, lived on a boat, and assumed the identity of a dead cousin. He also married, for the third time.
In the early nineties, Matthew McConaughey played Dickens in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.
Bell was finally captured in Panama in 1993.
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Main photo: Edward Harold Bell [Texas Department of Criminal Justice]
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