Joe Ball's Life And Accomplishments

"I was literally singing to myself on my way home, after the killing. The tension, the desire to kill a woman had built up in such explosive proportions that when I finally pulled the trigger, all the pressures, all the tensions, all the hatred, had just vanished, dissipated, but only for a short time." - David Berkowitz Joseph D. Ball was born on January 7, 1896 in Elmendorf, Texas. He was the type of man that women feared and never wanted to come in contact with. Joe Ball was a heartless and savage man that hated women. On September 24, 1938 Ball was supposed to be arrested but unfortunately he shot and killed himself on September 24, 1938 to avoid being arrested. Between the years 1936 – 1938 Joe Ball murdered about 20 women in Elmendorf,

In 1937 Ball married Dolores “Buddy” Goodwin. Later, he married again while he was still married to Dolores to Minnie Gotthardt and then Minnie suddenly disappeared. Joe Ball shot and killed Minnie Gotthardt in June 1937; days later he confessed his secret to his wife Dolores. Dolores had a talked a lot so she went to work the next day at the tavern and told her coworker/ friend Hazel who was Ball’s mistress that he shot Minnie in the back of her head after he told her to look up into the sunset at the beach and then buried her 15ft under the sand. September 1938 Dolores and Hazel were missing. Ball enjoyed telling others when he killed someone. So he confided in his friend Clifton; Joe told Clifton that he shot and killed Hazel. Ball was a smooth guy and got almost anybody to do anything for him. So Clifton and Joe dismembered and buried Hazel corpse near the San Antonio River. Later in the week’s police arrived to Joe’s tavern with all the evidence they needed to arrest him. The policemen that arrived ready to take ball into custody was also his friends they all would go hunting together in their spare time and they also enjoyed most of their days at the tavern. The policemen didn’t really want to arrest Ball but they also valued their job and wanted to bring justice to the women Ball murdered. Ball didn’t put up a fight or resist he simply just wanted to go inside the tavern to collect his earnings from the day before he got arrested. The policemen allowed him to do so while they kept their eyes on him closely. When Ball got in front of the register he opened it swiftly turned to the policemen and shot himself in the heart; he died immediately. On September 24, 1938 Joseph D. Ball “The Butcher of Elmendorf” was pronounced