Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Disappearance of Jimmy Farenthold Part 1: Oil, Power, and Secrets

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The Disappearance of Jimmy Farenthold Part 1: Oil, Power, and Secrets · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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Speaker 1: Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
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Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised.
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Speaker 2: Texas remembers its dynasties, oil barons, ranching empires, political legacies.
1:13
Speaker 2: Their names are etched into libraries, on courthouses, campaign signs,
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Speaker 2: and gravestones. Some built cities and some bought them, But
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Speaker 2: behind the elegance of a South Texas name like Farenthald
1:28
Speaker 2: was something else. They are a family with oil money,
1:33
Speaker 2: European titles, and political clout, stretching from South Texas to
1:38
Speaker 2: the US capital. A family that made speeches, built libraries,
1:44
Speaker 2: changed laws, and buried its darkest chapters in silence. It's
1:49
Speaker 2: a dynasty stitched together by war, ambition, and tragedy. Behind
1:55
Speaker 2: the prestige was a brutal murder, a child's sudden days,
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Speaker 2: and a disappearance. No one reported, no police report, no obituary,
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Speaker 2: no press coverage, just silence, and no one asked why.
2:36
Speaker 2: Before the headlines, scandals and political battles, the Farreentheld name
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Speaker 2: was forged in two very different worlds, the European aristocracy
2:47
Speaker 2: and South Texas oil wealth. Randolph rand Morgan entered the
2:53
Speaker 2: world on March ninth, eighteen seventy nine, in Ellis County, Texas,
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Speaker 2: and died November twenty third, nineteen sixty three, and Corpus Christie.
3:04
Speaker 2: Over the decades, he built an empire in oil, cotton ranching,
3:09
Speaker 2: and land development, becoming a central figure in Corpus Christie's
3:13
Speaker 2: elite circles. His legacy remains etched into the city's geography.
3:19
Speaker 2: Rand Morgan Road and the Rand Morgan subdivision are still
3:23
Speaker 2: there as reminders of his real estate footprint. His daughter,
3:29
Speaker 2: Annie Blake Morgan, born in nineteen fifteen in Grandview, Texas,
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Speaker 2: married into nobility in nineteen thirty six when she wed
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Speaker 2: George Edward Farenthald. This was no ordinary match. It united
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Speaker 2: South Texas oil fortunes with a European baronial title. George
3:49
Speaker 2: was born December sixth, nineteen fifteen, in Brussels, Belgium, the
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Speaker 2: great grandson of a wealthy inventor. His parents were fitz
3:59
Speaker 2: Joseph Fairs and Emily Adeleine Farenthald, who came from a
4:04
Speaker 2: French family steeped in privilege and history. By birth, George
4:09
Speaker 2: held the title of Baron. Raised in Spain and Belgium
4:13
Speaker 2: among royal circles. He had a private tutor from the
4:17
Speaker 2: age of four and grew up fluent in French, Spanish,
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Speaker 2: Italian and German. His education included time at Switzerland's famed
4:26
Speaker 2: Institute Larosi, known for instructing the children of monarchs and tycoons,
4:32
Speaker 2: followed by studies at Les Saubonne in Paris. His stepfather,
4:37
Speaker 2: the civil engineer responsible for constructing the port of Algiers,
4:42
Speaker 2: raised him in Via Jolli, their home in El Moradia, Algeria,
4:46
Speaker 2: which later became the official residence of an Algerian president.
4:51
Speaker 2: George's advanced studies covered physics, chemistry, and biology, plus two
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Speaker 2: years of graduate work at a renowned medical school in Paris.
5:01
Speaker 2: It was during a break from school that George met
5:04
Speaker 2: the Texan Annie Morgan, who was vacationing in the upscale
5:08
Speaker 2: seaside resort of Deville, France. In late nineteen thirty five,
5:14
Speaker 2: George traveled to Texas to meet Annie's family, accompanied by
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Speaker 2: his personal valet, who had served him since he was fourteen.
5:23
Speaker 2: Their April nineteen thirty six wedding was a high society event,
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Speaker 2: widely reported in the press. George initially intended to return
5:32
Speaker 2: to Europe within eighteen months to finish medical school, and
5:36
Speaker 2: the couple honeymooned there, but Annie quickly discovered that in
5:40
Speaker 2: Europe acceptance depended on ancestry, not wealth. She bristled at
5:46
Speaker 2: the lack of social welcome and told George plainly, if
5:50
Speaker 2: you do, I won't be with you. Regarding his plans
5:54
Speaker 2: to stay as Europe's political climate darkened with the rise
5:59
Speaker 2: of fashion. George admitted, I was very much on the
6:03
Speaker 2: fascist side. I was a fascist in those days. Basically,
6:08
Speaker 2: I didn't want to go back to Europe. I just
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Speaker 2: wanted to get away from that whole mess. George returned
6:14
Speaker 2: to Corpus, Christie, joined Rand Morgan's enterprises, and became a
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Speaker 2: US citizen by nineteen forty. That October, Annie gave birth
6:24
Speaker 2: to their only child together, George Randolph Randy Farenthold. During
6:31
Speaker 2: World War II, George served in the US Army Air
6:34
Speaker 2: Corps as an aide to General George Beverly, earning a
6:38
Speaker 2: Bronze Star as a captain in Air Force intelligence in
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Speaker 2: North Africa and Europe. Discharged in nineteen forty five, he
6:48
Speaker 2: chose oil over medicine, embedding himself in South Texas society.
6:53
Speaker 2: By nineteen forty eight, however, George and Annie's marriage ended
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Speaker 2: in divorce. After working for a Texas oil company, George
7:03
Speaker 2: founded the Crispan Company in nineteen forty nine, a steel
7:08
Speaker 2: import business based in Houston. That same year, he began
7:12
Speaker 2: a relationship with Francis Cissy Tarleton, linking the Farreenthald name
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Speaker 2: to another influential Texas lineage. The Tarleton's prominence ran deep
7:24
Speaker 2: in Texas civil and legal history. Cissy's paternal grandfather, the
7:29
Speaker 2: Honorable William Benjamin Dudley Tarleton, Senior, had served as a
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Speaker 2: Chief Justice on the state's highest court before joining the
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Speaker 2: University of Texas School of Law faculty. The UT Law
7:43
Speaker 2: Library now bears his name. Cissy's aunt, Genevieve Tarlton Dougherty,
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Speaker 2: was honored by Pope Pius the twelfth with the title
7:52
Speaker 2: Lady of the Grand Cross of the Holy Sepulcher for
7:56
Speaker 2: her charitable work. On her mother's side, Sissy descended from
8:01
Speaker 2: the Doughertyes, early settlers of San Patricio. Her great grandfather,
8:06
Speaker 2: Robert Doherty, founded the first boys academy in the area,
8:11
Speaker 2: served in the Confederate Army, and later taught school. Her aunt,
8:16
Speaker 2: Lyda Doherty, broke barriers as Texas's first female county school superintendent.
8:23
Speaker 2: Further back, her great great grandfather, Peter Bluntzer led forty
8:27
Speaker 2: families to settle to Wit County in eighteen forty three,
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Speaker 2: and her great grandfather, Nicholas Bluntzer had scouted for Robert E.
8:36
Speaker 2: Lee during pre Civil War campaigns against the Comanches. Sissy's
8:41
Speaker 2: great great aunt was Teresa bluntzer Hasdorf, who at the
8:45
Speaker 2: age of four was kidnapped by Native Americans and returned
8:49
Speaker 2: a year later, decked out in a Native head dress
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Speaker 2: and speaking the tongue of her captors. Her father, Benjamin
8:57
Speaker 2: Dudley Tarlton, Junior, was a progressive an attorney who took
9:00
Speaker 2: on the Ku Klux Klan in court and managed political
9:04
Speaker 2: campaigns like Railroad Commissioner Ernest Thompson's nineteen thirty eight gubernatorial bid.
9:11
Speaker 2: Born October two, nineteen twenty six, in Corpus Christi, Sissy
9:16
Speaker 2: grew up in a devout Catholic household with strong expectations.
9:22
Speaker 2: In nineteen forty six, at age nineteen, she earned a
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Speaker 2: political science degree from Vassar College. Rejecting a debutante coming out,
9:31
Speaker 2: she enrolled in the University of Texas School of Law,
9:35
Speaker 2: one of only three women in a class of eight hundred.
9:39
Speaker 2: There were no women's restrooms in the law school, forcing
9:43
Speaker 2: Sissy to use faculty facilities. Male classmates dubbed her Wolfgirl
9:49
Speaker 2: upon learning she was on the dean's list, and they
9:52
Speaker 2: openly bet on when she would get engaged. She graduated
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Speaker 2: with honors in nineteen forty nine and passed the Texas
10:00
Speaker 2: bar the same year, Yet no firm would interview her.
10:04
Speaker 2: She joined her father's practice instead. In nineteen fifty, Sissy
10:10
Speaker 2: married George Farenthald and Corpus Christi Cathedral, wearing a day
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Speaker 2: length wool dress with black velvet trim. After a honeymoon
10:20
Speaker 2: in Mexico, they settled in Alice Hillcrest Estates, where she
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Speaker 2: became stepmother to ten year old Randy. Soon after came
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Speaker 2: five children in quick succession, Dudley in nineteen fifty one,
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Speaker 2: George Junior in nineteen fifty two, Emily in nineteen fifty four,
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Speaker 2: and twins Vincent and Jimmy in nineteen fifty six. In
10:44
Speaker 2: the late nineteen fifties, the Farenthaled household was busy, boisterous,
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Speaker 2: and bursting at the seams. Five children, a mother juggling diapers, bottles,
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Speaker 2: and dinner, all while married to an oil man turned
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Speaker 2: entrepre newer. It was a life that from the outside
11:03
Speaker 2: looked like South Texas success, oil money, political pedigree, and
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Speaker 2: Catholic charm. But inside those walls, grief would take root
11:14
Speaker 2: early and it would never let Go von Willebrand disease,
11:30
Speaker 2: the most common inherited bleeding disorder, was a quiet, invisible
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Speaker 2: danger in the Farenthald family. Doctors in Belgium had once
11:40
Speaker 2: called it pseudohemophilia, a label that sounds far softer than
11:45
Speaker 2: the reality. It meant the blood couldn't clot properly. It
11:49
Speaker 2: meant that even a small injury could become a race
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Speaker 2: against time. George Farenthald knew the risk first hand. His
11:58
Speaker 2: aunt had bled to death during menstruation. He himself had
12:03
Speaker 2: nearly died after a tonsillectomy. Still, the disease hadn't touched Randy,
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Speaker 2: George's son from his first marriage, so he and Sissy
12:12
Speaker 2: stepped into parenthood with hope. Their first child together, Dudley,
12:17
Speaker 2: was healthy. For a time, it seemed they'd escaped the shadow.
12:22
Speaker 2: But eventually the truth fell over them like a dark shadow.
12:26
Speaker 2: My children bled and bled and bled, Cissy would recall.
12:31
Speaker 2: The Houston. Doctors at Texas Children's Hospital confirmed the family's
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Speaker 2: worst fear. Four of their youngest George Junior, Emily, and
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Speaker 2: twins Jimmy and Vincent, had inherited the disorder. There was
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Speaker 2: no cure, they would learn to live with it and pray.
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Speaker 2: Then Vincent fell. Vincent Bluntser Tarlton Farenthald, the older twin
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Speaker 2: by a minute, was healthy, beautiful, and so close to
13:00
Speaker 2: Jimmy that they moved through life as almost a single entity.
13:05
Speaker 2: One night, Vincent padded quietly out of bed, passed the
13:09
Speaker 2: sleeping Jimmy, and into the dark hallway. His parents were out,
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Speaker 2: his babysitter, His twenty year old half brother Randy, was downstairs,
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Speaker 2: distracted by his girlfriend. The rest of the children slept.
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Speaker 2: No one heard the stool scrape against the bathroom floor
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Speaker 2: as Vincent climbed up to brush his teeth. No one
13:31
Speaker 2: heard it slip out from under him. No one heard
13:33
Speaker 2: the thud as his head struck tile. For most children,
13:38
Speaker 2: it would have been a bump, an ice pack, a
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Speaker 2: kiss good night. For Vincent, it was fatal. By the
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Speaker 2: time anyone found him and rushed him to the hospital,
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Speaker 2: he had bled out at four a m. He was gone.
13:54
Speaker 2: The family was shattered. For Sissy, the funeral reopened and
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Speaker 2: old wound. She'd never fully spoken about the death of
14:02
Speaker 2: her brother Sonny when she was only two. She had
14:06
Speaker 2: acquired the nickname Sissy from her older brother Sonny's attempts
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Speaker 2: to say sister. She remembered standing over his small body
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Speaker 2: in the casket, unable to understand why he wouldn't get up,
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Speaker 2: watching the women around her sob She remembered her mother
14:23
Speaker 2: locking away every photograph of him, her father sinking into
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Speaker 2: silent depression each May. She wasn't going to let Jimmy
14:31
Speaker 2: carry that same image of Vincent to bed at night,
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Speaker 2: so she kept him home from the funeral. Jimmy, though,
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Speaker 2: was adrift. The twins had been inseparable, talking across their
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Speaker 2: cribs in a private language no one else could decipher.
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Speaker 2: They didn't seem to need parents, only each other. Now
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Speaker 2: half of that world was gone. For a year. Afterward,
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Speaker 2: Jimmy would run to the screen door at the sound
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Speaker 2: of bit slamming, expect to see Vincent racing in from outside.
15:03
Speaker 2: Sissy made herself a promise she would not be consumed
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Speaker 2: by grief. She still had four children to raise, and
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Speaker 2: she would not vanish into mourning the way her own
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Speaker 2: mother had. She threw herself into action, challenge after challenge,
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Speaker 2: until the momentum became something else, entirely politics. George encouraged
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Speaker 2: her to focus forward to channel her pain, and so
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Speaker 2: she did, stepping into a path that would transform her
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Speaker 2: into one of Texas's best known liberal politicians and one
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Speaker 2: of the nation's most visible feminists. In nineteen sixty Cissy
15:44
Speaker 2: became involved in national politics by working on John F.
15:47
Speaker 2: Kennedy's presidential campaign and helping organize her cousin Dudley Doherty's
15:52
Speaker 2: unsuccessful bid for Congress. Two years later, in nineteen sixty two,
15:58
Speaker 2: George made his own attempt politics, running for New Ace's
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Speaker 2: County Democratic chairman. The campaign ended in a decisive loss,
16:08
Speaker 2: which he attributed to being perceived as an outsider and
16:12
Speaker 2: to his distinctive French Texan accent. In nineteen sixty three,
16:18
Speaker 2: Sissy served on the Corpus Christie Human Relations Commission. In
16:22
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty five, she was appointed Director of Legal Aid
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Speaker 2: for New Ace's County, where she primarily represented low income
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Speaker 2: Mexican American women. The work exposed her for the first
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Speaker 2: time to the severe realities of poverty and the lack
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Speaker 2: of government concern for those suffering. Those experiences deepened her
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Speaker 2: commitment to justice, while also weighing heavily on her emotionally.
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Speaker 2: During this period, she also led legal efforts to protect
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Speaker 2: Corpus Christie's beaches, establishing the Organization for the Protection of
17:00
Speaker 2: an Unblemished Shoreline. In nineteen sixty eight, a family friend
17:06
Speaker 2: encouraged Sissy to run for the Texas House of Representatives.
17:11
Speaker 2: Although known for her intelligence and progressive values, she was
17:15
Speaker 2: also deeply shy and initially struggled to engage directly with voters.
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Speaker 2: In one early campaign effort, George dropped her at a
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Speaker 2: busy shopping center with fifteen hundred brochures and a dime,
17:28
Speaker 2: telling her to call him when they were all handed out,
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Speaker 2: then drove away. She would later describe the experience of
17:35
Speaker 2: that first campaign as unbelievable torment. That November, Sissy was elected,
17:43
Speaker 2: becoming the first woman to represent Nueces and Kleeberg Counties
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Speaker 2: in the legislature. Her legislative work focused on civil rights,
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Speaker 2: increasing welfare funding, and environmental protection, and she successfully sponsored
17:59
Speaker 2: the Texas eas Equal Rights Amendment. The afl CIO Committee
18:04
Speaker 2: on Political Education awarded her a perfect voting score. By
18:09
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine, Cissy was the sole woman in the
18:13
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty member Texas House, contrasting with her
18:16
Speaker 2: senate counterpart, Barbara Jordan who pursued a cautious approach while
18:21
Speaker 2: preparing for a congressional run, Cissy took a more confrontational stance.
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Speaker 2: She was the only legislator to oppose a nineteen sixty
18:31
Speaker 2: nine resolution praising former President Lyndon B. Johnson, and publicly
18:37
Speaker 2: protested being excluded from Constitutional Amendments Committee meetings held at
18:42
Speaker 2: Austin's men only Citadel Club, ultimately forcing a public apology
18:48
Speaker 2: to her. These slights echoed the systematic inequities she had
18:52
Speaker 2: seen as Legal Aid director. In nineteen seventy one, her
18:57
Speaker 2: push for reform reached new prominence when she joined twenty
19:01
Speaker 2: nine other legislators dubbed the Dirty thirty to challenge corruption
19:06
Speaker 2: in the legislature, targeting House Speaker Gus Mucher over allegations
19:11
Speaker 2: of accepting bribes in the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal. Mucher's
19:17
Speaker 2: conviction ended that chapter of the scandal, but Cissy saw
19:21
Speaker 2: it as just the start of needed reforms. In January
19:25
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two, urged on by supporters and with her
19:29
Speaker 2: family's backing, Cissy entered the governor's race after Senator Ralph
19:34
Speaker 2: Yarborough decided not to run The Sharpstown scandal and her
19:38
Speaker 2: former record became the core of her campaign, which targeted
19:42
Speaker 2: corruption and criticized opponents ties to special interests. She eliminated
19:48
Speaker 2: both Governor Preston Smith and Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes in
19:53
Speaker 2: the primary, trailing only wealthy rancher Dolph Briscoe. Her grassroots campaign,
20:00
Speaker 2: managed by Creek Moore Fath, was run on a tight budget,
20:04
Speaker 2: often traveling in a borrow Douglas DC three named Marylyn
20:09
Speaker 2: and depended heavily on volunteers. Her strongest support came from
20:14
Speaker 2: young voters, women and blacks, aligning with the momentum of
20:18
Speaker 2: the women's movement. Her platform championed ethics reform, open government,
20:25
Speaker 2: civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, student representation on university boards,
20:32
Speaker 2: and reduced penalties for marijuana possession. On June fourth, nineteen
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Speaker 2: seventy two, Sissy lost her first bid for the Democratic
20:41
Speaker 2: gubernatorial nomination to Dolph brisco The campaign had been intense,
20:47
Speaker 2: marking her as one of the few women pushing against
20:50
Speaker 2: the entrenched male political structure of Texas at the time.
20:55
Speaker 2: In addition to her gubernatorial run, Francis Cissy Farrenth was
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Speaker 2: also emerging on the national stage that summer, she became
21:05
Speaker 2: the recognized leader of the McGovern faction of the Texas
21:09
Speaker 2: delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Her presence symbolized reformist
21:15
Speaker 2: energy in Texas politics, even as she faced resistance at home.
21:21
Speaker 2: But while she was stepping into the national spotlight, her
21:25
Speaker 2: family was being pulled into tragedy. Just hours after her
21:29
Speaker 2: defeat to Dolph Briscoe, her step son, Randolph Randy Farenthald,
21:35
Speaker 2: was killed in a brutal gangland style slang. The juxtaposition
21:41
Speaker 2: was stark. While she was giving concession speeches and preparing
21:44
Speaker 2: to rally McGovern delegates, Randy's life was being taken in
21:49
Speaker 2: a Corpus Christie underworld crime that would never be fully resolved.
22:05
Speaker 2: The waters off Mustang Island, across the bay from Corpus
22:09
Speaker 2: Christi are shallow. Surf fishermen waghe far out, sometimes one
22:14
Speaker 2: hundred feet, hoping to catch redfish in the early morning light.
22:19
Speaker 2: That's what cecil Butchart was doing before dawn on June sixth,
22:24
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two, when he spotted something floating in the waves.
22:29
Speaker 2: At first, it looked like driftwood, but as the surf
22:32
Speaker 2: carried it closer, the shape revealed itself as a body,
22:37
Speaker 2: face down. Fully clothed. The corpse was chained at the
22:41
Speaker 2: neck to a heavy block of concrete. The man's hands
22:44
Speaker 2: were bound behind his back, Butchart called the Coastguard, but
22:50
Speaker 2: they quickly turned the grim responsibility over to the county sheriff.
22:54
Speaker 2: The body washed ashore about two miles south of the
22:58
Speaker 2: South Jetty at Port Ouran. It was identified as Randolph
23:03
Speaker 2: Randy Farenthald, just thirty two years old. Investigators later confirmed
23:09
Speaker 2: the violence of the crime. Randy had been struck over
23:13
Speaker 2: the head with a blunt object twice before being chained
23:17
Speaker 2: to a forty eight pound block of concrete and dumped
23:20
Speaker 2: into the Gulf of Mexico. For days, the tide carried
23:24
Speaker 2: him beneath the surface until the water finally gave him back.
23:29
Speaker 2: Forensic reports noted the blows came from a cylindrical object,
23:33
Speaker 2: likely consistent with a pipe or club. For many who
23:38
Speaker 2: knew him, Randy's brutal end seemed impossible to reconcile with
23:42
Speaker 2: the man himself. Friends, family, and those who saw him
23:47
Speaker 2: frequently described him as a big, friendly, generous, and trustful man,
23:53
Speaker 2: someone who worked hard when he worked played hard when
23:56
Speaker 2: he played, and who did a lot of both. He
23:59
Speaker 2: was round regarded as a good hearted guy. Born October first,
24:04
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty nine, at Spawn Hospital in Corpus Christie, Randy
24:09
Speaker 2: was the eldest son of George E. Farenthald and Annie
24:13
Speaker 2: Blake Morgan Farenthald. His parents divorced when he was about eleven,
24:18
Speaker 2: both remarrying his father to Sissy and his mother to
24:22
Speaker 2: prominent Corpus Christi lawyer Hayden w. Head. Randy grew up
24:27
Speaker 2: in an environment of wealth, influence and family power. His
24:32
Speaker 2: maternal grandfather, Randolph Morgan, was a wealthy farmer, rancher, and
24:37
Speaker 2: jinner who had owned several thousand acres in the sacks
24:41
Speaker 2: at oil Field during the boom of the nineteen thirties.
24:45
Speaker 2: Grandfather and grandson were unusually close. At about fourteen, Randy
24:51
Speaker 2: began working at his grandfather's gin near what is now
24:54
Speaker 2: Highway forty four and Padre Island Drive. When child labor
24:59
Speaker 2: laws threatened to limit the boy's time at the gin,
25:02
Speaker 2: his grandfather solved the problem by making Randy the owner.
25:07
Speaker 2: At nineteen, having briefly attended the University of Texas, Randy
25:12
Speaker 2: partnered with his grandfather to build what was considered one
25:15
Speaker 2: of the best cotton gins in South Texas. They pioneered
25:19
Speaker 2: gen marketing in the region, hauling cotton from as far
25:23
Speaker 2: away as Crystal City. Hurricane Celia destroyed the gin two
25:28
Speaker 2: years before Randy's death, but he kept employees on payroll
25:32
Speaker 2: until they found other jobs. In business, Randy showed ambition
25:37
Speaker 2: and creativity. He founded Spade Plow Incorporated, marketing a new
25:44
Speaker 2: land clearing machine that could root, plow, rake, and stack
25:48
Speaker 2: in one operation. He also served as a director for
25:52
Speaker 2: the First National Bank of Flower Bluff. By his early thirties,
25:57
Speaker 2: he had inherited half of a large estacy date of farms, ranches,
26:01
Speaker 2: and oil interests from his grandfather. He farmed several thousand
26:06
Speaker 2: acres of cotton and grain while still making time for
26:10
Speaker 2: his other pursuits. Randy was a sportsman in every sense.
26:15
Speaker 2: He loved hunting and fishing, and at one time was
26:18
Speaker 2: among the top skeet shooters in Texas. Eventually, he turned
26:23
Speaker 2: his interests more fully to fishing, buying a custom built
26:27
Speaker 2: thirty five foot boat named the Lollipop. As often as
26:31
Speaker 2: six times a week, he took it into the Gulf
26:35
Speaker 2: if you wanted to fish, all you had to do
26:37
Speaker 2: was ask and be there when he was ready to go.
26:40
Speaker 2: His boat. Captain Bill Hart recalled Randy made sure guests
26:45
Speaker 2: had food, good liquor, and ample chance to catch fish.
26:50
Speaker 2: He was just as generous in Corpus Christie nightclubs. A
26:54
Speaker 2: large bar tab was nothing unusual. He was, as many said,
26:59
Speaker 2: generous to a fault. His wealth was never flaunted, but
27:03
Speaker 2: it was always felt. Randy's generosity drew people in. Some
27:08
Speaker 2: were true friends, others were only opportunists. He had a
27:13
Speaker 2: reputation for loyalty, often extending second and even third chances
27:18
Speaker 2: to those around him. He lived openly, without secrets, and
27:22
Speaker 2: spoke directly rather than relying on innuendo. Despite his wealth
27:28
Speaker 2: and connections, he never built a reputation for exploiting others.
27:33
Speaker 2: That was the paradox at the center of his story.
27:37
Speaker 2: By all accounts, he lived fairly, even generously, yet somehow
27:42
Speaker 2: ended up the victim of a brutal crime that defied explanation.
27:47
Speaker 2: In his private life, Randy married Mary Sue Ogg shortly
27:51
Speaker 2: after turning twenty one. Together they had two children, Randolph
27:56
Speaker 2: Blake and Sue Cleveland, who were ten and eight years
27:59
Speaker 2: old at the time of their father's death. Although the
28:03
Speaker 2: marriage ended in divorce about two and a half years
28:06
Speaker 2: before his murder, the couple remained on friendly terms. Randy
28:10
Speaker 2: was an active and devoted father, often taking his children fishing, crabbing, bowling,
28:16
Speaker 2: and out to the island, creating memories that underscored how
28:20
Speaker 2: much they adored him. He had homes, businesses, land, and
28:26
Speaker 2: a reputation that stretched across South Texas, from the cotton
28:30
Speaker 2: fields to the fishing docks of Portoransas. He had reaped
28:35
Speaker 2: the benefits of his grandfather's trust fund for about a decade,
28:39
Speaker 2: turning family wealth into ventures of his own. Randy enjoyed
28:44
Speaker 2: the privileges of his family's position, but also pursued his
28:48
Speaker 2: own version of success. He was wealthy, yes, but he
28:52
Speaker 2: was also restless, always chasing the next hunt, the next
28:56
Speaker 2: hand of jin rummy, the next fishing trip, and d
29:00
Speaker 2: the gulf. Cissy Farenthald refused the press request to comment
29:06
Speaker 2: publicly on her stepson's murder. The shock was immediate, and
29:11
Speaker 2: she held her silence in the days following the overwhelming
29:14
Speaker 2: and tragic news. The discovery of Randy's body in the
29:19
Speaker 2: surf off Mustang Island was more than just the brutal
29:23
Speaker 2: end of one man's life, bound chained and weighed down
29:28
Speaker 2: with concrete. It wasn't an accident, It wasn't subtle. It
29:33
Speaker 2: was a message, whether or not it was meant to be.
29:36
Speaker 2: The shock waves rolled through Corpus Christie and far beyond.
29:41
Speaker 2: The Farenthald name, already tied to oil, wealth and politics,
29:46
Speaker 2: was suddenly tethered to violence, mystery, and silence. Two weeks
29:52
Speaker 2: after Randy's body was found, Cissy broke her silence. She
29:56
Speaker 2: described his killing as a gangland slang. She recalled that
30:01
Speaker 2: the night after the election, she had been with Randy's
30:04
Speaker 2: x's wife and their two children. At that time, she
30:08
Speaker 2: said they had no idea he was already dead. The
30:12
Speaker 2: memory left her visibly shaken. While she chose not to
30:16
Speaker 2: speculate further, her statement underscored the sense of coincidence surrounding
30:21
Speaker 2: the timing of his murder, just hours after her own
30:25
Speaker 2: campaign for governor had come to an end. Investigators chased
30:30
Speaker 2: leads in gambling circles, business disputes, and whispers of organized crime.
30:37
Speaker 2: Only one truth was unavoidable. A thirty two year old son,
30:41
Speaker 2: father and brother had been brutally murdered in cold blood,
30:46
Speaker 2: but Randy's story was only one shadow hanging over the Farentholds.
30:51
Speaker 2: In the years ahead, tragedy would strike again. Another son
30:56
Speaker 2: would be lost, not to violence, at least not any
31:00
Speaker 2: known violence, but to something even harder to fathom disappearance,
31:06
Speaker 2: a vanishing so complete that it left behind no body,
31:10
Speaker 2: no obituary, no police report, only silence. Next time, we'll
31:18
Speaker 2: step further into the investigation of Randy's killing, into the suspects,
31:23
Speaker 2: the motives, and the unanswered questions that still linger, will
31:28
Speaker 2: follow the trail of con men, skimmed money, and courtroom
31:32
Speaker 2: deals that unraveled the moment Randy's body washed ashore, and
31:37
Speaker 2: will begin to trace the wider pattern of loss that
31:40
Speaker 2: stalked the Farenthald family, where one son's murder would one
31:44
Speaker 2: day be joined by another son's disappearance. If you have
31:50
Speaker 2: any information about the disappearance of Jimmy Farenthald, please contact
31:54
Speaker 2: the San Antonio Police Department at two to one, zero
31:58
Speaker 2: to zero seven eight nine three nine. If you'd like
32:04
Speaker 2: to join Gon Cold's mission to shine a light on
32:07
Speaker 2: unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the show at
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32:14
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Speaker 2: However you choose to support gon Cold, we appreciate you.
32:32
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