August 4, 1971. Galveston, Texas. After spending the day at the beach, 14-year old Rhonda Renee Johnson and 13-year old Sharon Shaw fail to return home and their skeletal remains are found in a bayou months later. A suspect named Michael Lloyd Self is eventually taken into custody and confesses to the murders, but even though he maintains his confession was coerced and that he is innocent, Self is still convicted of the crime. Decades later, another convicted murderer named Edward Harold Bell becomes an alternate suspect after he sends confession letters to the authorities. Bell claims he was responsible for the murders of eleven female victims which took place in Texas during the 1970s and refers to them as “The Eleven Who Went to Heaven”. His confessions also hint that two of these victims may have been Rhonda Renee Johnson and Sharon Shaw. To commemorate the seven-year anniversary of “The Trail Went Cold”, we are releasing a special two-part episode on “The Eleven Who Went to Heaven” and exploring a number of unsolved murders which may have been committed by the same perpetrator. This week, Part 1 will cover the murders of Rhonda Renee Johnson and Sharon Shaw and the controversial conviction of Michael Lloyd Self. Special thanks to listener Amy Harber for narrating the opening of this episode.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Rhonda_Johnson_and_Sharon_Shaw
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Rhonda_Johnson_and_Sharon_Shaw
https://www.leagle.com/decision/19741345513sw2d83211258
http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/973/1198/386343/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/465038454/
https://abc13.com/archive/8269239/
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Some-suspect-serial-killer-in-1971-Galveston-2078025.php
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Confessions-of-a-cold-blooded-killer-2187501.php
“Deliver Us: Three Decades of Murder and Redemption of the Infamous I-45/Texas Killing Fields” by Kathryn Casey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Harold_Bell
https://unsolved.com/gallery/edward-harold-bell/
Join us on Saturday, February 25 at 8:00pm ET for an online streaming marathon where we will be watching classic segments from “Unsolved Mysteries”. You can enter our screening room by clicking on this link.
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon. Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
“The Trail Went Cold” is doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
“The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Tower Bridge, Leonardo Royal Hotel & Spa in London on June 10-11, 2023, as well as “Crimecon” at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida on September 22-24, 2023. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to either event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD23”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk or https://www.crimecon.com.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 288 – Dorothy Forstein
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 287 – Danny Casolaro
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 286 – Tracey Ann Patient
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 285 – Dana Bradley
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 284 – Earlene Barksdale
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 283 – Gordon Page Jr. & Kristi Krebs
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 282 – Mark Himebaugh
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 281 – Byron Carr
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 280 – Peter Watts
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 279 – Colonel Philip Shue
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 278 – Alexis Patterson
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 277 – Wil Hendrick
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 276 – Paul Armstrong, Steven Lombard & Karen Wright
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 275 – Leonard Dirickson
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 274 – Cary Sayegh
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 273 – Laurie Murninghan
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 272 – Kimberly McAndrew
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 271 – The Feeney Family Murders
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 270 – Andre Jones
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 269 – Theodore Kampf & Patrick Rosner
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