Edward Harold Bell Recants: The KHOU Prison Interview, 2017

Two decades after writing to prosecutors that he had killed Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, Edward Harold Bell told a KHOU reporter that he made it up because he wanted the state to execute him.

Subject

Edward Harold Bell

Recorded

2017

Runtime

2:44

Content warning: Concerns the 1971 murders of two teenage girls; Bell speaks about exposing himself to girls and makes sexual claims about the murdered girls.

The Interview

In 2017 KHOU 11 reporter Grace White interviewed Edward Harold Bell in a Texas prison for the station's "Missing Pieces" series on the 1971 disappearance and murder of two Galveston teenagers, Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson. In the clip Bell describes himself as a "flasher" and says he wrote confession letters to prosecutors because he "very stupidly" thought the state would execute him. He admits that he had the two girls in his van, but denies killing them.

Historical Context

On November 15, 1971, Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, students at Ball High School in Galveston, were last seen hitchhiking. Their bodies were found in a bayou in Texas City. The case was never solved. Bell, a part owner of a Galveston-area surf shop, was known for exposing himself to girls. In 1978 in Pasadena, Texas, he shot dead Larry Dickens, a 26-year-old Marine who confronted him after he exposed himself. Bell jumped bail and lived abroad under a false name until he was arrested in Panama in 1993 after a television appeal. He was convicted of Dickens's murder and sentenced to 70 years.

Circumstances of the Interview

In 1998 Bell wrote letters to prosecutors in Galveston and Harris counties claiming to have killed several teenage girls, including Ackerman and Johnson. The letters became public in 2011, and he later claimed eleven victims. In 2017 the Galveston County district attorney reopened the case, and an A&E documentary, "The Eleven", revisited it. KHOU's interview was part of that renewed attention.

What the Interview Covers

Bell is asked when he started exposing himself and why; he says he had "a very hyperactive hormone system" and that there were "probably a thousand" girls. He says he has had six wives, only one of them legally. Asked about his letters, he says he confessed to crimes he did not commit because he was suicidal and wanted the state to kill him. He says Ackerman and Johnson flagged him down and got into his van, that he arranged to meet them that Saturday, and that he let them out at the Martini Theater. He denies killing them and denies having sex with them.

What Makes the Recording Significant

Most of what is known of Bell's claims comes from his letters and newspaper interviews. In this on-camera interview he retracts his written confessions while still saying that the two girls rode in his van. The recording sets his denial alongside the letters for anyone weighing his claims.

Archival Importance

Bell died at the Wallace Pack Unit in Navasota, Texas, on April 20, 2019, aged 79, without being charged in the deaths of Ackerman, Johnson or any of the other girls he wrote about. The interview is one of the few known recordings of him speaking about the case.

Important Caveats

Bell's account is his own claim and is not established fact; it conflicts with his own earlier letters. His statements about what the two girls wanted are his claims about murdered 15-year-olds and are reproduced in the transcript only as spoken. The YouTube description quotes his letter ("I was brainwashed into killing Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson"), not what he says in this interview. The clip is an edit of a longer interview.

Interviewer: When did you start flashing girls?

Edward Harold Bell: When I was about 25 years old, I became a flasher.

Interviewer: Where did you meet the girls that you flashed?

Edward Harold Bell: Well, wherever they were. There was probably a thousand of them or so.

Interviewer: What made you do that? What made you flash?

Edward Harold Bell: That's a real good question. I think I had a very hyperactive hormone system. I think my testosterone level was very, very high. I've had six wives. [unclear: "To only one" / "Until only one"] of them have I been legally married. That was a girl down in Panama.

Interviewer: Why did you send letters to the district attorneys in Galveston and Harris County?

Edward Harold Bell: I very stupidly thought they would kill me. I thought I could confess to some crimes that I didn't commit, and the state would kill me. I was suicidal.

Interviewer: In those letters you mentioned two girls, or several girls, Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson.

Edward Harold Bell: Right.

Interviewer: How did you know Debbie and Maria?

Edward Harold Bell: [unclear: "Two girls" / "These girls"] came running up and flagged me down and jumped in my van.

Interviewer: But they knew you. They knew you.

Edward Harold Bell: I don't think they knew me. They knew of me. I told them I'm on my way to work. They let me know almost immediately that they were tired of going to bed with young high school kids. They wanted a guy like me. I told them, great.

Interviewer: Okay.

Edward Harold Bell: And I told them that I was part owner of Doug's Dive and Surf Shop on Stewart Road. And I set up a meeting with them for Saturday morning at 10. I didn't work Saturdays and Sundays, and it was quite obvious we were going to get a motel room and jump in bed together.

Interviewer: Did you kill Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson?

Edward Harold Bell: No, I did not. I had them in my van. I let them out at the Martini Theater, and with the set-up for Saturday morning at 10 o'clock.

Interviewer: Did you have sex with them?

Edward Harold Bell: No, no.

Interviewer: But you confessed to their murders?

Edward Harold Bell: Right, right. But I did not. So that the state would kill me. I was suicidal at that time. ---