One former Galveston DA, Kurt Sistrunk, told the Chronicle, 'I didn't believe we had sufficient evidence that we could proceed to grand jury with, and without getting into specifics, that's the decision that had to be made, no matter the temptations to proceed otherwise. Several investigators said not enough effort was made in 1998 to re-investigate the cases. And Bell refused to cooperate with police. Harris County prosecutors never investigated the claims and subsequently lost the letters. Galveston prosecutors refused to present Bell's written confessions to a grand jury.

Several senior investigators familiar with Bell's letters of confessions told the Chronicle they have long believed he committed multiple murders and found evidence to corroborate his claims. In July and September, in exclusive interviews, Bell, now gaunt and pasty-faced at 72, told a Chronicle reporter the tally of lives was not just seven, but 11, the 'Eleven that went to Heaven.'īell claims a brainwashing 'program' forced him to 'be a flasher,' to 'rape girls' and ultimately to kill. In disturbing letters sent to Harris and Galveston county prosecutors in 1998 - but kept secret for 13 years - Bell claimed to have killed seven girls, including two Galveston 15-year-olds shot as they stood tied up and half naked in the chilly waters of Turner Bayou, according to excerpts and descriptions of Bell's letters obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

Central louisiana serial killer