Joe Ball

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This article is about the serial killer. For the English footballer see Joe Ball (footballer). For the article about a Minnesota senator, see Joseph Hurst Ball.

Joseph D. (Joe) Ball (January 7, 1896 - September 23, 1938) was an American serial killer, sometimes referred to as The Alligator Man, the Butcher of Elmendorf and the Bluebeard of South Texas. He is said to have killed at least twenty women in the 1930s. His existence was long believed to be apocryphal, but he is a familiar figure in Texas folklore.

After serving on the front lines in Europe during World War I, Ball started his career as a bootlegger, providing illegal liquor to those who could pay. After the end of the Prohibition ban on alcohol, he opened a saloon called the Sociable Inn in Elmendorf, Texas. He built a pond that contained five alligators and charged people to view them, especially during feeding time; the food consisting mostly of live cats and dogs.

After a while women in the area were reported missing, including barmaids, former girlfriends and his wife. When two Texas Rangers came to question him in 1938, Ball pulled a handgun from his cash register and killed himself with a bullet through the heart (some sources report that he shot himself in the head instead).

A handyman that conspired with Ball, named Clifford Wheeler, admitted to helping Ball get rid of the bodies of two of the women he had killed. Wheeler led them to the remains of Hazel Brown and Minnie Gotthard. Wheeler told authorities that Ball murdered at least twenty other women, but the alligators had disposed of any evidence. There has never been any firm evidence that the alligators actually ate any of his victims.

There were few written sources from the era which could verify Ball's crimes. Newspaper editor Michael Hall investigated the story in depth in 2002, and wrote up his findings for Texas Monthly magazine.

The film Eaten Alive by Tobe Hooper was inspired by Joe Ball.