Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Murder of Leon Laureles in Brown County, Texas Part 1

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The Murder of Leon Laureles in Brown County, Texas Part 1 · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Hey, y'all. What follows is a partially rewritten and completely
0:05
Speaker 1: re recorded episode about the murder of Leon Lorells in Brownwood,
0:10
Speaker 1: Texas on May tenth, nineteen ninety six. There's plenty of
0:14
Speaker 1: additional and clarified information as well. Before we get started, though,
0:20
Speaker 1: I'd like to invite you to Common Ground's Coffeehouse, located
0:23
Speaker 1: at eight oh nine Main Street in Brownwood, Texas, on
0:27
Speaker 1: May thirty first, twenty twenty five, for Leon Lorellis's memorial party.
0:33
Speaker 1: It's a three hour event that runs from eleven am
0:36
Speaker 1: to two pm. Your presence would be very much appreciated.
0:40
Speaker 1: Thanks y'all. Now onto the episode.
0:44
Speaker 2: Gone Cold.
0:44
Speaker 3: Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:48
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Brown County, Texas is located just
0:54
Speaker 1: west of the center of the state and was formed
0:57
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty six. The first quarter century or so
1:01
Speaker 1: of Brown County's existence was tough, and you'd be hard
1:05
Speaker 1: pressed to find a better place that matched the term
1:08
Speaker 1: wild West. The stagecoach running through the county seat Brownwood
1:13
Speaker 1: from Fort Worth was a favorite robbery target for outlaws.
1:18
Speaker 1: In fact, the infamous gunfighter John Wesley Harden enjoyed the
1:22
Speaker 1: town's gambling dens and was generally fond of committing various
1:26
Speaker 1: crimes in Brown County. On May twenty sixth, eighteen seventy four,
1:32
Speaker 1: after pulling out his cult pistol and shooting to death
1:35
Speaker 1: Brown County Sheriff's deputy Charlie Webb John Wesley Harden on
1:40
Speaker 1: his twenty first birthday, fled Brown County. Many citizens of
1:45
Speaker 1: Brownwood and the surrounding small towns formed a vigilante mob,
1:49
Speaker 1: captured two of Harden's cousins and his brother, and hung
1:53
Speaker 1: them in retaliation for the lawman's death. The folks of
1:57
Speaker 1: Brown County had apparently just about a enough of the
2:00
Speaker 1: seemingly unfettered outlaw activity, and Deputy Webb's murder was the
2:05
Speaker 1: last straw. Things calmed down some, and the continued growth
2:10
Speaker 1: of industry in the area further slowed the lawlessness. With
2:14
Speaker 1: the rise of large farms and ranches, came oil discovery
2:18
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy nine, all of which naturally paved the
2:22
Speaker 1: way for the railroad completed in eighteen ninety two. After that,
2:27
Speaker 1: Brown County came into its own relatively fast. The county,
2:31
Speaker 1: particularly the city of Brownwood, did well and prospered into
2:36
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, especially due to the beginning of commercial
2:40
Speaker 1: oil production there in nineteen seventeen. Then the Great Depression
2:45
Speaker 1: hit smaller communities nearby like Bangs, and Early of course,
2:50
Speaker 1: were hit especially hard. Beef, cotton, and oil demand across
2:55
Speaker 1: the United States was way down, and it wasn't until
2:59
Speaker 1: America became involved in World War II that things started
3:03
Speaker 1: looking up for the west central Texas County. That's when
3:06
Speaker 1: Camp Buoy was built on the outskirts of Brownwood, bringing
3:10
Speaker 1: an ample amount of money back in the army base,
3:14
Speaker 1: helped reinvigorate the oil industry and brought black gold back
3:18
Speaker 1: to the forefront of Brown County's economy. Farming and ranching
3:23
Speaker 1: boomed back too, and continued to diversify through the nineteen eighties. Still,
3:29
Speaker 1: though the population remained modest. By the middle of the
3:33
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, around thirty five hundred folks made up the
3:37
Speaker 1: entire county, most of whom about eighteen and a half
3:40
Speaker 1: thousand resided in the county seat Brownwood. Like most small
3:46
Speaker 1: Texas cities and towns, the residents of Brownwood are friendly
3:50
Speaker 1: and easy to get along with, but there also exists
3:54
Speaker 1: a lack of acceptance and downright hatred of folks who
3:58
Speaker 1: are perceived as different, not just by those who reside
4:02
Speaker 1: in the county, but also the leadership and perhaps law enforcement.
4:07
Speaker 1: And there are receipts. We'll get into that later, as
4:11
Speaker 1: it is an unfortunate reality that is woven into the
4:14
Speaker 1: fabric of the tragic subject of these episodes. Violent crime
4:19
Speaker 1: in Brownwood and Brown County in the nineteen seventies, nineteen eighties,
4:24
Speaker 1: and nineteen nineties happened plenty, and when it did happen,
4:28
Speaker 1: it seems like it was terrible. Crime statistics are difficult
4:32
Speaker 1: to come by for the county and its cities during
4:35
Speaker 1: this time. Data apparently was not well organized, if collected
4:40
Speaker 1: at all. The area's violent crime rate in the nineteen
4:43
Speaker 1: nineties wasn't much different than the rest of Texas, and
4:47
Speaker 1: perhaps not much had changed since Brown County's days of
4:51
Speaker 1: quick drawing outlaws and stagecoach robberies. Late local business owner
4:56
Speaker 1: and activist Steve Harris told The Austin Chronicle, there is
5:00
Speaker 1: a saying that many in our community frequently express. If
5:04
Speaker 1: you want to get away with murder, come to Brownwood.
5:08
Speaker 1: Several unsolved murders there are particularly brutal, senseless, and remain
5:13
Speaker 1: shrouded in mystery. The nineteen ninety six murder of Leon
5:18
Speaker 1: Laurels is one of those cases.
5:41
Speaker 3: My life's being broken. Basically, I want people to know
5:45
Speaker 3: just what a wonderful person he was, that he didn't
5:48
Speaker 3: deserve this, and I'm begging people, if they know anything,
5:52
Speaker 3: to please speak up now. I'm the one that's still here,
5:56
Speaker 3: fighting fighting for justice.
5:58
Speaker 1: Ran One Lorells, who went by his middle name Leon,
6:27
Speaker 1: was born in Mason County, Texas, on January third, nineteen
6:31
Speaker 1: sixty six. He was the seventh and last born child
6:35
Speaker 1: of Frank and Rafella Lorells. The closest sibling in age
6:40
Speaker 1: was his sister Lily, who was twelve years older. So
6:43
Speaker 1: by the time Leon hid his teenage years, his brothers
6:46
Speaker 1: and sisters had all moved away, leaving Leon to care
6:49
Speaker 1: for his folks, who were both ailing. At fourteen years old,
6:54
Speaker 1: he got his drivers permit so he could legally take
6:56
Speaker 1: his folks two hundred and thirty miles northeast to Dallas
7:00
Speaker 1: so they could undergo dialysis as well as to local
7:03
Speaker 1: doctor's appointments. Leon was largely responsible for keeping up the
7:08
Speaker 1: house and cooking meals. Because of this, Leon's adolescence, his
7:13
Speaker 1: formative years weren't what you'd consider normal necessarily. He'd become
7:18
Speaker 1: a full time caretaker by his freshman year in high school.
7:22
Speaker 3: So Leon was very shy, quiet person. He was the last,
7:29
Speaker 3: the youngest child. All his siblings were already adults or teenagers,
7:34
Speaker 3: so he was pretty much, you know, just stuck to himself,
7:39
Speaker 3: and he had to take care of his parents because
7:41
Speaker 3: they were both very ill. So from the time he
7:44
Speaker 3: was very young, he had to take care of his
7:47
Speaker 3: parents by you know, cooking, cleaning, giving them their medication.
7:53
Speaker 3: And then by the time he was fourteen, well he
7:55
Speaker 3: was actually driving floor He got his permanent at fourteen,
7:58
Speaker 3: taking them to doctor's appointments, and so he also missed
8:03
Speaker 3: a lot of school because of that, having to drive
8:06
Speaker 3: them all the way to Dallas for dialysis. So he
8:10
Speaker 3: didn't have a normal childhood. He really missed out on
8:14
Speaker 3: the whole lot, especially for his teenage years. That was
8:17
Speaker 3: the hardest time. That was when his parents were very,
8:21
Speaker 3: very ill, so he did miss out a lot.
8:25
Speaker 1: That was Arlene Leon Lorellis's niece. Because of the significant
8:30
Speaker 1: age difference between Leon and his sister, Arlene's mother. She
8:34
Speaker 1: was only a couple years younger than him. Arlene and
8:38
Speaker 1: Leon's formative years intersected, and their relationship grew not only
8:42
Speaker 1: into a best friendship, but it was also one that
8:45
Speaker 1: closely resembled what you'd expect to see between close siblings.
8:50
Speaker 3: We were in the band together. He played the trumpet,
8:53
Speaker 3: I played the saxophone. So you know, we would at
8:56
Speaker 3: least get to go to out of town game trips
8:59
Speaker 3: together and you know, practice and stuff. We were together
9:03
Speaker 3: since he was a couple of years older than me.
9:05
Speaker 3: We didn't go to school together until high school. That
9:10
Speaker 3: he would often drive me to school and pick me
9:12
Speaker 3: up from school. And he loved music, so we would
9:17
Speaker 3: hang out. He had this like music disco table thing,
9:23
Speaker 3: and so we would just listen to music. His favorite
9:27
Speaker 3: was Madonna. We lived in Brady. It was super super small,
9:31
Speaker 3: but like almost every Saturday night there is a dance,
9:35
Speaker 3: so at least once a month we would go out
9:38
Speaker 3: there and we would dance together. And you know, it
9:42
Speaker 3: was really small and all the other people were older
9:44
Speaker 3: than us, though it was just me and him dancing
9:47
Speaker 3: out there together.
9:49
Speaker 1: Brady, Texas is around forty five miles southwest of Brownwood,
9:54
Speaker 1: the city we talked about at the top of the episode.
9:57
Speaker 1: Brady was and is a significantly smaller town than Brownwood.
10:02
Speaker 1: It's where Leon Loreles grew up. In the late nineteen
10:06
Speaker 1: eighties and nineteen nineties, the population of Brady was somewhere
10:10
Speaker 1: around fifty seven hundred compared to Brownwood's approximately eighteen thousand residents.
10:17
Speaker 1: Even with the huge responsibility of taking care of his parents,
10:21
Speaker 1: which caused him to miss plenty of school, Leon graduated
10:24
Speaker 1: from Brady High in nineteen eighty five, after which he
10:28
Speaker 1: and Darlene's bond continued to strengthen. He also made quite
10:32
Speaker 1: an impression on his fellow high school students, who described
10:36
Speaker 1: him as kind, intelligent, warm, and always willing to lend
10:40
Speaker 1: a helping hand if you needed one. Leon's transition into
10:45
Speaker 1: adulthood did not put an end to his nurturing and
10:48
Speaker 1: selfless character.
10:50
Speaker 3: I had my first child, and he was there by
10:53
Speaker 3: my side the whole thing because it was a really
10:55
Speaker 3: bad merriage. And so when I got divorced, I moved
10:59
Speaker 3: to Sanandel. He moved in with me, and he took
11:02
Speaker 3: care of my son, Jesse. He took care of him
11:06
Speaker 3: for almost two years, and then I moved to Brownwood
11:13
Speaker 3: after I had my other kids. He moved in with
11:16
Speaker 3: us so that he could watch my kids during the
11:20
Speaker 3: day while I worked. And then that's when he started
11:23
Speaker 3: working at Kroger the midnight shift, so he would work
11:26
Speaker 3: all night and then sleep for a couple of hours
11:29
Speaker 3: and then take care of my kids until I got
11:32
Speaker 3: home from work. And we did that for I don't know,
11:35
Speaker 3: two or three years, I guess. And then he moved
11:38
Speaker 3: in with his brother George to Bangs. So always taking
11:43
Speaker 3: care of everyone. He took care of all of his
11:45
Speaker 3: nieces and nephews, played with them, bought them gifts. He
11:49
Speaker 3: was just a very loving, caring, giving person.
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Speaker 1: Bangs, where Leon Lorellis moved to live with his brother George,
11:58
Speaker 1: is about six miles west of Brownwood. It's a tiny town,
12:03
Speaker 1: the population fluctuating back and forth between fifteen hundred and
12:07
Speaker 1: seventeen hundred since the nineteen eighties. Frank Lorellis, Leon's father,
12:13
Speaker 1: died in nineteen eighty five and his mother, Ravella, in
12:16
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. At the Brownwood Kroger grocery store where
12:22
Speaker 1: Leon worked, he had no shortage of friends, though our
12:26
Speaker 1: request to speak with his friends and coworkers failed. Plenty
12:30
Speaker 1: of posts we found on social media by them speak
12:33
Speaker 1: highly of Leon Lorellis, and it's no wonder he was
12:37
Speaker 1: an attentive and thoughtful friend to have.
12:40
Speaker 2: At that time, I was working at a jewelry store
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Speaker 2: and he would often come in there, and he was
12:48
Speaker 2: forever buying gifts for his coworkers and friends for their
12:51
Speaker 2: birthday or Christmas or whatever.
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Speaker 1: Arlene and Leon remained close. He came into the jewelry
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Speaker 1: counter where she worked only to buy gifts for others,
13:02
Speaker 1: but also to take Arlene to lunch or just chat.
13:05
Speaker 1: And Leon always loved visiting with his grand nieces and nephews.
13:10
Speaker 1: He was a really big guy, but he was pretty shy.
13:13
Speaker 1: He was more like a giant teddy bear, Arlene told
13:16
Speaker 1: the Brownwood Bulletin in twenty twenty one. Leon's love and
13:21
Speaker 1: kindness in fact left an impression on many, as you'll
13:24
Speaker 1: hear throughout the episodes. Life, of course, gets busy and
13:30
Speaker 1: between Leon making up for the time he lost as
13:33
Speaker 1: a teenager taking care of his folks and Arlene raising
13:37
Speaker 1: a family. They weren't in contact in nineteen ninety six.
13:40
Speaker 1: As much as they had been in the past. Arlene
13:44
Speaker 1: and Leon hadn't drifted apart. Rather, life as is, life
13:49
Speaker 1: was just hectic for both of them. It wasn't just
13:52
Speaker 1: Leon's newly found social life that kept him busy. Leon
13:56
Speaker 1: at that point had been at Kroger for years. Was
14:00
Speaker 1: the graveyard shift assistant manager at a time when many
14:04
Speaker 1: of the stores were open twenty four hours a day.
14:07
Speaker 1: He had plenty of responsibilities at work, something he took seriously,
14:12
Speaker 1: and as with everything else, Leon did with genuine care
14:17
Speaker 1: and compassion for those around him. In fact, he'd become
14:21
Speaker 1: a staple of the Brownwood grocery store. The customers he
14:24
Speaker 1: helped and his coworkers alike loved him. He would always
14:29
Speaker 1: buy all of his coworker's birthday gifts Christmas gifts, Arlene said.
14:34
Speaker 1: But hate and evil do not discern the characteristics such
14:38
Speaker 1: as those that made the Leon who he was. Sometimes,
14:42
Speaker 1: in fact, they act in spite of good and one
14:46
Speaker 1: unthinkable night, one Leon Laureles was murdered not long after
14:53
Speaker 1: the day turned to Friday, May tenth, nineteen ninety six.
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Speaker 1: A motorist traveling Farmed Market Road twenty five j one,
15:00
Speaker 1: twenty six, A couple miles east of Brownwood, saw a
15:04
Speaker 1: vehicle up in flames just off the main road on
15:07
Speaker 1: the Gravel Access Road at about twelve twenty two. A
15:11
Speaker 1: m nine to one one dispatch received a call from
15:14
Speaker 1: the motorist and sent Brown County Sheriff's deputies and a
15:17
Speaker 1: fire truck to the scene. In the meantime, a nurse
15:21
Speaker 1: on her way home from her shift at a local
15:23
Speaker 1: hospital saw the fire and stopped. She raced to a
15:27
Speaker 1: phone and placed a second nine one one call, notifying
15:31
Speaker 1: the authorities that there was much more than just a
15:33
Speaker 1: fire nearby. She'd also discovered the body of a man,
15:39
Speaker 1: thirty year old Leon Lorells, had been shot execution style
15:43
Speaker 1: in the back of the head while kneeling his nineteen
15:46
Speaker 1: eighty eight black Ford Thunderbird, set on fire, presumably to
15:50
Speaker 1: destroy any evidence the killer might have left behind. Immediately
15:55
Speaker 1: upon their arrival, firefighters began working to extinguish the blaze.
16:11
Speaker 1: Where Lyon's body and burning car were found is on
16:14
Speaker 1: a road that runs directly next to an outdoor gun range,
16:17
Speaker 1: which is a few hundred feet north of the crime scene.
16:21
Speaker 1: The area was and still is rural, since gunfire was
16:26
Speaker 1: a normal sound to be heard there by the sporadic
16:29
Speaker 1: houses that sit behind thickets of winged elm juniper and
16:33
Speaker 1: bastard oak trees close by, it seemed obvious the spot
16:37
Speaker 1: was predetermined by whoever killed Leon as the perfect place
16:42
Speaker 1: to fire off a shot without garnering too much suspicion. Now,
16:46
Speaker 1: we can't go through the details of the investigation into
16:50
Speaker 1: the murder of Leon Lorells like we usually do, but
16:53
Speaker 1: not by choice. It appears there wasn't much to it.
16:57
Speaker 1: But here's what we do know. The Brown County Sheriff's
17:01
Speaker 1: Department apparently had to be on the lookout issued for
17:04
Speaker 1: a pickup truck. To say trucks are common in Texas
17:08
Speaker 1: and particularly rural areas of Texas is an understatement, But
17:13
Speaker 1: the truck that was seen by a witness slowly trailing
17:17
Speaker 1: behind Leon's car on the gravel road was distinct. It
17:21
Speaker 1: was described as a red and white nineteen seventy Ford
17:24
Speaker 1: flatbed pickup with tened windows and chrome mirrors, and a
17:29
Speaker 1: goose neck trailer hitch mounted above the bed surface. The
17:33
Speaker 1: truck let alone the driver has never been found. It seems, however,
17:39
Speaker 1: that zeroing in on such a distinct truck if it
17:42
Speaker 1: were from brown County. Shouldn't have been a difficult task
17:46
Speaker 1: after all, As Brownwood local business owner and activist Steve
17:50
Speaker 1: Harris told us, it's a place where everyone knows or
17:54
Speaker 1: knows of everyone else. Some other known details of the
17:59
Speaker 1: investigation come in the form of photographs taken by the
18:02
Speaker 1: local media. Several show Sheriff Bill Donahu's boys looking around
18:07
Speaker 1: the scene where Leon's body was found. It was near
18:11
Speaker 1: a fence and on the other side stands that property's owner.
18:15
Speaker 1: Presumably the deputies appeared to be walking on top of
18:19
Speaker 1: the spot where Leon's body had laid, none or wearing
18:22
Speaker 1: shoe protection or even rubber gloves. On Thursday May ninth,
18:29
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, Leon Lorells had left he and his
18:32
Speaker 1: brother's home in Bangs to work the midnight shift at
18:35
Speaker 1: Brownwood's Kroger store. At around eleven thirty pm, just an
18:39
Speaker 1: hour before his burning vehicle was reported, a coworker said
18:44
Speaker 1: they saw Leon's car in the Kroger parking lot. He'd
18:48
Speaker 1: parked in the spot next to his usual space. The
18:51
Speaker 1: witness says because another car was parked there at some
18:55
Speaker 1: point shortly thereafter, both cars left. This wasn't like Leon
19:00
Speaker 1: at all.
19:01
Speaker 3: He was never ever, not once late to work. He
19:05
Speaker 3: was always early to work. He did not miss work,
19:09
Speaker 3: and so the fact that he made it to the
19:12
Speaker 3: parking lot at work prior to the time you started,
19:16
Speaker 3: I feel like you would have gone in and told him, Hey,
19:19
Speaker 3: I've got to go do something. You know, I'm going
19:21
Speaker 3: to be late or something like that. He would not
19:23
Speaker 3: have just left. There's no way he would do that.
19:26
Speaker 3: That's not the type of person he was. And the
19:27
Speaker 3: fact that somebody saw a car park next to his
19:30
Speaker 3: makes me feel like he was forced to leave there.
19:34
Speaker 1: Leon's coworker noticed his car was gone, and finding it
19:38
Speaker 1: odd for him to have left when he was supposed
19:40
Speaker 1: to be clocking in, she called his brother, George. The
19:44
Speaker 1: coworker told him that Leon had come and gone. George
19:48
Speaker 1: drove the route his brother usually took to and from work,
19:51
Speaker 1: but there was no sign of him. He paid close
19:54
Speaker 1: attention on the way back home, but still no Leon.
19:59
Speaker 1: George called up to Kroger to let the coworker know.
20:02
Speaker 1: At the very moment she answered, a fire truck blaring
20:06
Speaker 1: its sirens and lights drove by. Beyond the lack of
20:12
Speaker 1: newspaper reports in the case, a medium often used by
20:16
Speaker 1: authorities to gather information via tips. The Brown County Sheriff's
20:20
Speaker 1: Department only spoke to one family member, Leon's brother, George Arlene,
20:26
Speaker 1: who probably knew the victim better than anyone. Was never
20:30
Speaker 1: asked for an interview, but law enforcement did visit a
20:34
Speaker 1: place called Mister Anthony's Holy Grounds, a coffee shop which
20:38
Speaker 1: at the time catered to folks who didn't feel welcome
20:41
Speaker 1: in many Brownwood businesses. We spoke briefly with one of
20:46
Speaker 1: the owners of Mister Anthony's, Johonna Latino, who told us
20:50
Speaker 1: that they made everyone feel welcome there, no matter their race, ethnicity, religion,
20:55
Speaker 1: or sexual orientation. That was a huge deal in am
21:00
Speaker 1: like Brownwood, especially at the time. It was a place
21:04
Speaker 1: where many of the residents were not tolerant, let alone
21:08
Speaker 1: accepting of those they were socialized into considering different or undesirable.
21:14
Speaker 1: That's not to say all Brownwood residents are or were
21:17
Speaker 1: this way, but it is important and relevant to Leon's
21:21
Speaker 1: case to recognize the scope of the bigotry that existed
21:24
Speaker 1: in the community. Leon Lorellis was gay, and he often
21:29
Speaker 1: came into the copy shop. JOHNA told me back in
21:32
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one and police during the initial investigation into
21:36
Speaker 1: Leon's murder that on occasion, Leon met with a man
21:40
Speaker 1: there who she didn't recognize as a Brownwood resident. Rumor
21:44
Speaker 1: had it that Leon was seeing a man from his
21:47
Speaker 1: hometown of Brady, a teacher at the high school there,
21:50
Speaker 1: and there is perhaps reason to believe that. For one,
21:54
Speaker 1: someone wrote in Leon's freshman yearbook derogatory words over two
21:59
Speaker 1: of the teachers fee photographs. I will not repeat them,
22:02
Speaker 1: but they are hate inspired words usually used toward gay
22:06
Speaker 1: men with no other intention but to hurt the recipient.
22:10
Speaker 1: Leon did not write them, and one of his teachers
22:14
Speaker 1: singled out was a known friend of his and his
22:16
Speaker 1: adult life. From what we understand, it wasn't just rumored
22:21
Speaker 1: that Leon had been seeing someone from Brady, at least
22:24
Speaker 1: in one case. Steve Harris, who along with his partner
22:28
Speaker 1: went on to open a deli in Brownwood, remembers speaking
22:31
Speaker 1: with Leon Lorellis about this.
22:34
Speaker 4: But about a week before he was murdered, he visited
22:36
Speaker 4: a coffee shop that I helped out with friends of ours,
22:39
Speaker 4: around the corner from where the Delhi is now. It
22:42
Speaker 4: was called mister Anthony's Holy Grounds, and it was run
22:45
Speaker 4: by Anthony Latino and JOHNA. Latino his wife, and they
22:49
Speaker 4: created a very welcoming environment for everyone. And that's actually
22:53
Speaker 4: where I met Leon in nineteen ninety six. I had
22:57
Speaker 4: seen him at Kroger. It's a small town and my
23:00
Speaker 4: bomb shops at Kroger, and my partner worked at Eckert's
23:03
Speaker 4: next door to Kroger, and so I had seen him
23:06
Speaker 4: and waved at him, and you know, everybody's friendly, but
23:09
Speaker 4: I'd never met him until he actually came into the
23:12
Speaker 4: coffee shop and I was working behind the counter and
23:15
Speaker 4: he was a customer. And you know, when you're a
23:17
Speaker 4: bartender or you're behind the counter, a lot of times
23:19
Speaker 4: people that step up to the counter or sit down
23:21
Speaker 4: at the barstool if they have something they want to
23:24
Speaker 4: tell somebody, they do. And that's that's exactly what happened
23:29
Speaker 4: when I first met Leon. What Leon had told me
23:32
Speaker 4: when I was working behind the counter and he was
23:34
Speaker 4: sitting there, And like I said, the Latinos, they create
23:38
Speaker 4: a very open environment to where free flow of information
23:41
Speaker 4: and people felt comfortable. And he told me that he
23:43
Speaker 4: was gay, and he told me that he was dating
23:45
Speaker 4: a coach down in Brady, Texas, and that it was
23:48
Speaker 4: a closeted relationship, and that he really was in love
23:52
Speaker 4: with this gentleman and he really wanted to be open,
23:55
Speaker 4: and he didn't like being in the closet, and of
23:59
Speaker 4: course the coach didn't want it to be public. And
24:03
Speaker 4: you know, in this region, rural football is very much
24:07
Speaker 4: he is no very macho, and he didn't want it
24:10
Speaker 4: to be public, according to Leon, and Leon said he
24:14
Speaker 4: was going to approach him and say, look, we're gonna
24:17
Speaker 4: either have to be open about our love or I'm
24:19
Speaker 4: going to go ahead and break it off with you,
24:21
Speaker 4: because I don't see this going anywhere and I don't
24:23
Speaker 4: want to live like this. And so I in my
24:26
Speaker 4: mind and I didn't really respond much. I just listened.
24:30
Speaker 4: I just in my mind was going like, well, you know,
24:33
Speaker 4: in due time. It takes it takes a lot of
24:35
Speaker 4: people a long time, especially in rural regions, to actually
24:39
Speaker 4: come to terms with their sexuality and with the religious
24:43
Speaker 4: and the politics of rural this rural region, it's it's
24:47
Speaker 4: a taboo basically at that time, especially back in ninety six.
24:51
Speaker 4: And so when I came back to Brownwood and found
24:57
Speaker 4: out that Leon had been murdered, imediately, thought of that conversation,
25:02
Speaker 4: and I called my friend at Kroger who was a
25:05
Speaker 4: friend of his, and told her what he had told me.
25:09
Speaker 4: And she said, have you gone to the Sheriff's apartment yet?
25:11
Speaker 4: And I said, no, but I'm going to go ahead
25:13
Speaker 4: and go and talk to him. And I told this
25:15
Speaker 4: to the Sheriff's department, and I told this to the
25:18
Speaker 4: private investigator out of Dallas by the name of William Dear.
25:22
Speaker 1: We'll get to William C. Deer a little later. There
25:26
Speaker 1: is no evidence to be clear that Leon's murder was
25:30
Speaker 1: the result of his wish to go public with a
25:32
Speaker 1: relationship he was having, but it is a possibility. If
25:37
Speaker 1: the sexual orientation of a small Texas town teacher or
25:41
Speaker 1: coach were to be publicly announced, the chance that they'd
25:44
Speaker 1: lose their job or worse is definitely high, much higher
25:48
Speaker 1: than today, though it could be argued that not a
25:51
Speaker 1: lot has actually changed in many such areas. Silencing someone
25:56
Speaker 1: who you think might tell is a plausible motive, but
25:59
Speaker 1: again it can only be considered a theory. It certainly
26:03
Speaker 1: is not the only plausible theory. The theory that Leon
26:07
Speaker 1: Laurels was the victim of a hate crime is just
26:10
Speaker 1: as viable, if not more so. He was Hispanic and
26:15
Speaker 1: gay and lived in an area where a culture of
26:17
Speaker 1: hate hate that often led to violence was prevalent. On
26:24
Speaker 1: the next episode of Gone Cold, Texas True Crime will
26:28
Speaker 1: explore that theory and others, including the Brown County Sheriff's Office,
26:32
Speaker 1: go to If you have any information about the murder
26:37
Speaker 1: of one Leon Laureles, please contact the Brown County Sheriff's
26:42
Speaker 1: Office at three two five six four six five point
26:46
Speaker 1: five one zero. We'd like to thank the incredible folks
26:51
Speaker 1: who contributed to this episode, Arlene, Steve Harris, and John O. Latino.
26:58
Speaker 1: Also be sure to check out the popcast box in
27:01
Speaker 1: the basement for Arlen's episodes about Leon. If you'd like
27:07
Speaker 1: to join Gon Cold's mission to shine a light on
27:10
Speaker 1: unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the show at
27:14
Speaker 1: free and have access to bonus content. You can at
27:18
Speaker 1: Patreon dot com slash Gone Cold Podcast. You can also
27:23
Speaker 1: support the show by leaving a five star rating and
27:26
Speaker 1: written review on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen.
27:30
Speaker 1: However you choose to support Gone Cold, we appreciate you.
27:35
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, y'all,