The Eleven Who Went to Heaven: The Case Against Ed Bell Pt. 1
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What prompted Lise Olson to investigate Ed Bell?
This episode includes discussions of violence and murder. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. In 2011, investigative reporter Lisa Olson receives a handwritten letter in the mail. There, at the top of the page, is her name, scribbled out in mostly capital letters. But it's not from an old friend or a member of her family. It's been sent to her by a convicted murderer named Edward Harold Bell. And in it, on lined notebook paper, he includes a poem he wrote.
And what of the innocent ones who fell by the way? Will the henchmen of Uncle Sam ever pay? All of those who fell were as brave as brave can be. The only coward who was there was me.
What does Ed Bell's poem reveal about his victims?
When he sends this letter to Lisa, Bell is already in prison for murdering a man in broad daylight in front of the man's family. Now, he's claiming responsibility for more murders. The victims, all teenage girls who disappeared from in and around Houston and Galveston, Texas throughout the 70s. They later turned up dead, but their killer or killers were never caught. Bell lists some of these girls in his letter. He names three of them. Others he only refers to by their initials or hair color. Sometimes he includes years or locations that are meaningful to their cases. He calls his poem about his alleged victims, The Eleven Who Went to Heaven. Welcome to Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. I'm Janice Morgan.
You might recognize me as the voice behind the investigative docuseries Broken and the true crime podcast Fear Thy Neighbor. I'll be your host for the next few weeks, and I am thrilled to be here. We'd love to hear from you. Follow us on Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast and share your thoughts on this week's episode. Or if you're tuning in on the Spotify app, swipe up and leave a comment. To help us tell today's story, we interviewed Lisa Olson, the investigative reporter and author whose work on this case is featured in the docuseries The Eleven. We're so grateful she could share her expertise. Stay with us.
True tales of horror, bizarre happenings, unexplainable events. On our podcast, Disturbed, terror takes center stage. Kidnappings, serial killers, hauntings, and the very essence of your worst nightmares coming to life on this weekly true horror show. Enter at your own risk.
So, Mickey, you're a producer here and you brought us this story because you have a connection to the case, right?
Yes. So I've been on this show for a while now, and it's been sort of a passion project to research the story, not just because it's one of the most unforgettable and bizarre true crime cases that I've read, but also because it all took place kind of close to my hometown. And where is that? I grew up in one of the communities between Houston and Galveston along Interstate 45 in Texas. And so when I read this story, I know all the roads they talk about. I can picture all of the landmarks. I've even walked along one of the waterways where two of the victims were found. But I had never heard about these victims or these crimes when I was growing up. I'd never heard of Ed Bell until a few years ago when I came across the work of a now-retired Galveston police detective named Fred Page and a Houston-area investigative reporter and author named Lisa Olson. The investigation they did is incredible. And for today's episode, I had the privilege of getting to talk to Lisa about her work on these cases.
It was 2011 when Lisa Olson first became aware of a suspected serial killer named Ed Bell.
Who were the teenage girls connected to Ed Bell?
I was working on a story for the Houston Chronicle about the unidentified dead, which is something that's kind of obsessed me for a long time.
That's Lisa talking about an unrelated or maybe not so unrelated article she was working on at the time.
I was interested in the case specifically of a torso of a teenager in a purple surf shirt. that was found floating in a bayou near Houston in the 70s. And I was looking for cases where there was enough identifying information linked to the body that I thought maybe I could write about it and help solve a case.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What prompted Lise Olson to investigate Ed Bell?
0:02–0:51
2
What does Ed Bell's poem reveal about his victims?
0:51–4:17
3
Who were the teenage girls connected to Ed Bell?
4:17–5:57
4
How did Fred Page become involved with Ed Bell's case?
5:57–11:31
5
What evidence links Ed Bell to the murders?
11:31–18:09
6
What similarities exist between the victims?
18:09–22:17
7
How did Lisa Olson conduct her investigation?
22:17
8
What significant details did Bell provide in his letters?
14:39–29:11