The Missing Texas Forty

So, keeping in mind that I am NOT a writer, I ask for your patience in advance.
Another member, friend of mine , encouraged me to make a thread on this topic so…here we go…
I searched ATS AND I did the google search “thingy” with the topic then forward slash ATS and nada, rien, zip so if I missed it, my apologies!

I stumbled upon this (IMO) odd (disproportionate) number of cases of missing people, from two counties in Texas, while researching a thread about missing 411 theories AND having become nearly obsessed with the Noah Chamberlin, missing toddler, case, here, in Tennessee. These cases are very close to the Sam Houston National Forest.
Link to FB Group on The Missing Forty
Link to Missing Persons of America/The Forty
Link to KHOU News Story on the Forty

Link to Interactive Map of The Forty

Now, according to the map, a lot of disappearances have occurred near the interstate system. Those, in particular, could certainly be attributed to a serial killer (human). As a matter of fact there was a killer, Henry Lee Lucas, operating in and around the area of the Sam Houston National Forest. He confessed, wildly, to many murders (600!) and was attributed to having committed over 200 of them (He was convicted of 11). However, the press wasn’t convinced of his guilt to ALL OF THEM and even the Attorney General had doubts:

“Attorney General Jim Mattox wrote that "when Lucas was confessing to hundreds of murders, those with custody of Lucas did nothing to bring an end to this hoax" and "We have found information that would lead us to believe that some officials 'cleared cases' just to get them off the books".[13] “

Henry Lucas Wikipedia
Serial killing can lead to some interesting bedfellows...Lucas had made a friend/lover in Ottis Toole. You may recall him as being the person convicted of having killed Adam Walsh in Florida in 1981.
Ottis Toole Wikipedia

From the Missing Person's Link:
“In the whole state of Texas with a population of over 25.5 million people, there are 708 missing persons listed with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse. Texas has the most counties in the U.S. at 254. So if you average it out, that would mean there would be about 2 and ¾ people missing in each county of Texas. If I reduced the counties in half to 137, then the number would rise to about 5 people per county. Still not close enough to what Montgomery and Liberty Counties were showing with 40 missing people, 7 from Liberty and 33 from Montgomery. “

"According to the Texas Dept. of Public Safety Clearing House, they show 14 people missing in Montgomery County and 4 in Liberty on their website, which is about half of what Helen found."
It is said that there is a "public" website but, I was unable to research the numbers/data as it (may be public) is NOT user friendly or I am unable (haven't found the magic combination yet) to navigate it properly!


From The link:

Note: 2/4/13 - Contrary to what I believed when I wrote this story, there has been no more reported missing people in those two counties since early 2012. I do not know if this is because someone who may be responsible is now in jail or what. POSTSCRIPT: In late 2014 another missing and in 2015 two more missing have been added to the list.

Compare this list with the numbers on the map above, and you have a real understanding of how many missing people that are clustered around one area. Also, each name has several links from where information was obtained. The most recent missing people are at the end of the list, so when you look at the map, numbers 40 and descending will show you the most recent cases.Also, a reader brought this information to my attention regarding Spring, Texas: " Spring is an UN-incorporated area of both Montgomery and Harris counties. It is a very large area that includes any and everything between the cites of Houston, Tomball, Conroe and Humble." Allie Lowitzer from Spring is actually Harris county, but she is included in the Missing Texas Forty list.

Were these people offered a ride and picked up by someone and were "spirited away?" And if we are to assume that all of these people or even half of them are dead, where are they buried? Could they all be in the same place, like Sam Houston National Park?

I don't really have any theories but, I did research UFO sightings and BF encounters in the area...there have been some.
Link to One Encounter (Recent)
Link to UFO "sighting" Houston

Sam Houston National Forest

Like I said, above, just thought I'd throw it out there and see what anyone else thinks...?

Have a good Sunday and stay warm everyone!

a reply to: TNMockingbird
Lucas also claimed to be a member of a much larger group. If I'm not mistaken he called it the Red Hand. Son of Sam also claimed to be a member of a much larger group. I'm not sure but I think that Manson did as well. So what if there is this large group of killers out there?

a reply to: TNMockingbird

I've always been interested in this topic. You gave some good, new info.

a reply to: Skid Mark

Could be! For sure!

You know what I found odd when I was searching?
Jeffrey Dahmer confessed to the Adam Walsh murder (the high profile one that Toole reportedly did)...
He (Dahmer) was not believed.
I believe his statement was something to the effect of..."I've told you who I killed, how I cooked them, and what I ate of them, why would I make this up?"

Texas (some parts) had been accused of just "getting cases off of the books" by accepting unbelievable confessions as truth...
The Chief of Police at the time of the Walsh murder, in Hollywood FL, was a police officer who had been part of the Dallas PD...

That's not far from my neck of the woods. About an hour drive. It does seem a bit strange.

a reply to: skunkape23

YOU could be the "person on the ground"!

Have you been to Sam Houston National Forest?
Have you heard of "The Missing Forty" before?
In your circles?
YOU could be a invaluable resource!

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Jeffrey Dahmer confessed to the Adam Walsh murder (the high profile one that Toole reportedly did)...

I've heard that. I'm not sure what to make of it.

By Toole, are you talking about Lucas's kill buddy, Otis?

originally posted by: TNMockingbird
a reply to: skunkape23

YOU could be the "person on the ground"!

Have you been to Sam Houston National Forest?
Have you heard of "The Missing Forty" before?
In your circles?
YOU could be a invaluable resource!

I haven't been to the park, but I know a guy that has about 1500 acres in Splendora. I have spent a considerable amount of time camping and hiking in the area.
Some of the locals struck me as a little shady. I found a small abandoned trailer that had obviously been used as a meth lab.

a reply to: Skid Mark

Yes, exactly...sick and twisted SOBs...

Though he married in 1977, Toole??s bride complained about the homosexual relationship he shared with Lucas, and the couple soon separated.

Toole backed up Lucas??s game of confessions with police officers, admitting to helping Lucas in another 108 homicides. A practicing cannibal, Toole provided gruesome details to the crimes, but in the end, it remains unclear how many killings he and Lucas actually committed.

a reply to: Skid Mark

It was the 'Hand of Death' and there are some really weird stories about it. How much is true, I have no idea but in true conspiracy style:

According to the book Hand of Death by Max Call:

Henry tells of his indoctrination into a nationwide Satanic cult, and says that he was trained by the cult in a mobile paramilitary camp in the Florida Everglades in the fine art of killing. Other training involved abduction and arson techniques.

The first task he was given was the murder of one of the "students," a young black homosexual who had betrayed his oath to the Devil. He slit the man's throat and later that same evening, a Satanic ritual was performed in which the dead man's heart was cut out, his blood drained, and his body dismembered. All of the initiated members of the Hand drank the dead man's blood and ate pieces of his flesh. The remains of the body were then burned at an altar.

There were several hundred students at the Hand of Death training camp, coming from six different countries; over half of them were women. The camp provided unlimited access to all kinds of drug taking, which was encouraged recreational activity.


This would sound like absolute pure-D-baloney if not for the fact that both men told the same story separately, in different prisons to different interrogators. They claimed to have met a man calling himself Don Meteric who invited them to come to Miami and do "contract killings" for the Hand of Death. Meteric and Toole eventually admitted to Lucas that Toole had already been working for Meteric for years. According to Court TV, Lucas later said that at the time, he’d felt betrayed by Ottis and manipulated by him into joining the cult. Be that as it may, Lucas happily stayed a member and committed many more murders at their behest. The group allegedly operated on remote swamp islands deep in the Everglades, accessible only by airboat. Police helicopters surveyed the Everglades and reported no sign of the encampments. Lucas told interviewers that the Hand of Death has connections to elements within the U.S. Government, so they were no doubt tipped off in advance to hide.

From David McGowan's Programmed to Kill:
Lucas claimed that he was trained by a nationwide satanic cult in a mobile paramilitary training camp in the Florida Everglades.... Henry further claimed the leaders of the camp were so impressed with his handling of a knife that he was allowed to serve as an instructor. Following his training, Henry claimed that he served the cult in various ways, including as a contract killer and as an abductor of children , whom he delivered to a ranch in Mexico near Juarez.

Three days before Lucas was scheduled to be executed, then-Governor George W. Bush (infamous for refusing to grant stays of execution to any Death Row inmate) did something he had never done before or since: he saved Henry Lee Lucas from the electric chair and commuted his sentence to life in prison instead. Of all the inmates he sent to death, many far more deserving of leniency than Lucas (he even sent to death a great-grandmother who killed her abusive husband in self defense) Bush chose to spare the life of one of America's most notorious serial killers.

floridazone.blogspot.co.uk...

I've never seen that blog before so it could be complete rubbish, but interesting nonetheless.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

So, keeping in mind that I am NOT a writer, I ask for your patience in advance. Another member, friend of mine , encouraged me to make a thread on this topic so…here we go…

ps - You wrote it, you wrote it well ergo...you're a writer.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

I'm guessing a religious cannibal cult.

I used to live in some super sketchy inner-city areas and I was never as scared as I am when I have to drive through rural backwaters like those loooooong highways.

I hope you are right about the UFOs. I'd rather deal with them than religious zealots stalking helpless motorists.

These two counties have a combined population of roughly 530,000 people and are comprised of mostly suburbs of the 4th largest city in the U.S. I'm surprised there are not a lot more missing than that.

a reply to: Abysha

Yes!
Once, here in Tennessee, we got stuck on an old back road.
We walked, seemed like miles, to a trailer house. There were about 25 people in there!

We asked for help and they invited us in...well, it was raining and cold so we went in.

They were "mennonite" looking folks, women with bonnets the whole nine yards, and it turned out they WERE a religious sect, of some sort, having a prayer gathering...

They got us unstuck and off we went but, to tell the truth, I was nervous...
We were young, drunk, and certainly NOT dressed for a prayer gathering!

a reply to: beansidhe

Thank you as you are too kind!

I have trouble, often, keeping my thoughts "inline" and worry about me not being able to convey my thoughts...

Glad that you "got it"!

They are currently opening up housing areas that are surrounded by the forest. May be some builders start turning up some missing people.

a reply to: TXTriker

Thank you!

It must be torture for these families to "just not know"!

It could be something quite ordinary (as odd as THAT sounds) like a serial killer or accidents.

Just an odd number AND it IS near a national forest...

missing 411
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: beansidhe
That's it. Thank you! It's weird for sure. Serial killers are known to lie but who knows? Maybe they weren't lying about it.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Very interesting reading, thank you.

I just scanned through what was written about each case. Just roughly guessing, about half have either been found (dead or alive) or have medical conditions and wandered away from caregivers (dementia, downs, schizophrenia, meds required). So while it is a large number of people in two counties I don't think it is all that unusual. Montgomery and Liberty counties are bedroom to Houston and a lot of people that work in Houston live in outlying areas. A lot of people commute from Montgomery county - a lot. Check the traffic reports on a weekday morning. I think this may contribute more to the numbers than anything sinister.