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In the last episode, we told you about a guy named Felix Vale. He fancied himself as a very charismatic guy that women loved, and he was kind of a hippie type. In the early 80s, Felix formed a relationship with a much younger woman. Annette Craver. The two got married and settled in Oklahoma. But in 1984, Annette disappeared. Felix told her mother, Mary Rose, that she'd left him and boarded a bus to Mexico. I didn't believe him, so I filed a missing persons request.
And I kept waiting by the phone. Birthdays, holidays, Mother's Day, you name it. Mary Rose spent years trying to bring Felix Vale to justice and to understand what happened to her only child. She also learned that he may have been behind the deaths of at least two other women. But by 2012, with law enforcement unable to make headway, Mary Rose had all but given up. That's when she heard a radio interview with a well-known investigative reporter named Jerry Mitchell. And then of course I said...
Would you be interested in a case where there's a man living in Mississippi that I think is a serial killer and he's living as a free man? Would you be interested? And he said, you bet I would. Jerry Mitchell was impressed by Mary Rose's commitment to catching Felix Vale.
within hours of meeting her for the first time she'd broken into the potential serial killer's trailer in rural mississippi She spent the next few days walking Jerry through her decades-long investigation into Felix, a man whose wives had a habit of dying or vanishing under suspicious circumstances. Of course, Mary Rose wasn't a trained investigator.
She'd followed her instincts and kept meticulous notes, but there were limits to what she could do. Jerry picked up where she left off. He began tracking down relatives, old friends, and anyone who still remembered Felix Vale. With each call, A clearer picture of Felix took shape. Felix Vale grew up on a dairy farm in Montpelier, Mississippi, on the same land where he now appeared to be living. His sister, Kay, told Jerry that he was wired differently than his siblings.
He was highly intelligent, but seemed emotionally detached and was occasionally violent. Once, when his mom told him he couldn't keep their family cat's new kittens, Felix gathered them up and shot them. As a teenager, he took an interest in psychology and the occult. Felix, you know, was this kind of quote-unquote preacher when he was in his teen years and claimed that he had this religious kind of experience where he saw a bright light.
And he could see into people's souls and he knew what all they had done. Felix did a semester or two at McNeese State College in Lake Charles, Louisiana, before dropping out. His uncle got him a job at a nearby chemical plant, but he kept hanging around McNeese, where all the college girls were. He always considered himself, I think, just really above other people. Very kind of narcissistic, I think, really, for sure. He was a very attractive young man, and lots of women came around.
As someone said to me, he already looked like he'd been kissed by heaven. It was at McNeice that he met Mary Horton. Mary was a blonde former homecoming queen from Eunice, Louisiana, a small town in Cajun country. They were married in 1961. Exactly one year later, they had a son, but mary's friends didn't like felix one of her sorority sisters told jerry i remember him being so controlling he seemed to have a thumb on her all the time
Mary got pregnant again soon after. And according to another friend, Felix wasn't happy about it. He started disappearing for days. Mary Horton told her mom she was contemplating divorce. Then, a few months later, she'd supposedly drowned while fishing with Felix in the Calcasieu River. As we said in the last episode, the coroner ruled it an accidental drowning. But then, Jerry saw the autopsy report.
It noted that Mary Horton Vale had bruises on the back of her head, and that a scarf was lodged in her throat. To Jerry, it sounded more like a homicide. In the summer of 2012, Jerry made the five-hour drive from his home in Jackson, Mississippi to Lake Charles, Louisiana. The trip would confirm what Jerry had only started to believe. That Mary Horton Vale's death wasn't an isolated incident. It was part of a pattern. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South.
As an investigative reporter, the first thing Jerry Mitchell does when tackling a new story is to get as many documents as possible. But when he spoke with the sheriff's office in Lake Charles, they told him all the records related to Mary Horton Vale's death were gone. The sheriff's office had zip. There was nothing, there was no paper trail, nothing when I began. This wasn't exactly unusual. The case was 50 years old.
and Felix had not been tried for the crime. All the sheriff's office had left was a set of Felix's fingerprints. In the absence of any records, Jerry read all the news reports he could find. He also talked to people who remembered the drowning, including Mary Horton Vale's younger brother. According to the news articles, Felix claimed that he and his first wife were out fishing in the early evening when they swerved to avoid a stump and fell into the water.
And despite Felix's best efforts to save her, she drowned. But Felix's neighbor, an avid fisherman, told Jerry that Felix never fished. More importantly, his wife had a phobia of deep water. The idea that she would go fishing with Felix at night, without a life jacket, made no sense. Then there was the amount of time it took Felix to report her body missing. What was really weird about it is after he supposedly couldn't recover her, he took his boat six miles downstream to Shelby.
And that's where he reported to authority. which was the weirdest thing to me because it's like, when you stop and try to get help from somebody along the way, you really, you go six miles and there was, I think, an ice house always open there and, you know, different people lived along the river. Authorities found her body two days later. Mary Horton Vale's younger brother said he was devastated. Felix, on the other hand, betrayed almost no emotion.
He told me that Felix Didn't act like it was anything like he didn't act upset and didn't cry And he also there was no emotional Aspect to it which he found even though he was young found very strange And found out too that Felix didn't even pay for his own wife's funeral. He skipped out without paying. Not long after the funeral, Felix left like Charles, and he rarely returned. He spent the next decade roaming the country, occasionally with his young son Bill in tow.
Unfortunately, Jerry couldn't talk with Bill. He died of cancer a few years earlier in his late 40s. But he left something interesting behind that Jerry wanted to get his hands on. Felix Vale's sister, Kay, told me that at the funeral of Bill Vale, the son of Felix Vale, played a recording. And in this recording, he told the whole story of his father and what his father had done, what he knew about, what his father admitted. And so obviously I was desperate to get my hands on that recording.
of the weekly podcast of Grace Church. On August 20th of 2008, less than four months before his death, Bill's pastor invited him to appear on his church's podcast to talk about his unusual life story. I want to thank you, first of all, for being with us this afternoon. Let's just start out, Bill, if you could share a little bit about your childhood. Okay, it started off fairly normal, I guess. Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1962.
And when I was four months old, my mother drowned in Lake Charles. and ended up living with my grandparents until I was about three or four years old and then started bouncing back between my grandparents who lived on a They were a nice Baptist family, lived on a farm in Mississippi. And my father had taken up residence in San Diego, California. So I kind of bounced back and forth between Mississippi and California.
In the late 60s, Bell said, his father rejected his Baptist upbringing and immersed himself in the hippie movement. In 1969, when Bill was seven, he hitchhiked with his dad to San Francisco, where they lived a nomadic existence. We lived anywhere from a nice apartment on Knob Hill, which anybody knows San Francisco, it's kind of an affluent area, to living in soup kitchens and communes and
living out in the vineyards, sleeping out in the Baja desert. We went down there and we're just hitchhiking all over the place. You literally were living in a vineyard and your entire diet consisted of? Yeah, it consisted of whatever type of orchard we were living in at the time. Cashews if we were in a cashew orchard, grapes if we were in a vineyard, and that
all we ate. We basically stayed out of sight of the owners and we slept in the vineyards and maybe some trees along the side or somewhere out of sight and we just ate the fruit of the land.
My only possessions, I guess, at that time were a sleeping bag and a pair of shorts. I had no shirt, no shoes, nothing else. In his podcast interview, Bill said he bounced in and out of school. For much of second grade, Felix left him with a group known as the Holy Order of Mans, which, according to the Cult Education Institute, believed it was their mission to, quote, unite all faith.
Around 1970, Felix began seeing a 21 year old woman named Sharon Hensley. Sharon was a former model from North Dakota and a fellow spiritual seeker. She joined Felix and his son Bill on their wanderings through California. It was through this new girlfriend that Bill would finally learn what really happened to his mother. A discovery that would change the course of his life.
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Bill Vale was only four months old when his mother died. As a child, all he knew about her death was what his father told him. The story my father had told me was that he and my mother were out fishing when I was four months old in Lake Charles. and had left me with a babysitter and that a boat had come by and caused a big wave and knocked my mother out of the boat.
And she didn't know how to swim, had on no flotation, and had immediately sank and drowned. And that my father had almost died trying to rescue her. Well, that's the story that he had told me. When he was eight years old, however, he heard a different version of the story. In fact, Bill was within earshot of a conversation between his father and his new girlfriend, Sharon. I overheard him talking to her, and he didn't know I was even in the house.
and overheard him just sobbing, which caught my attention, and he told her that he had murdered my mother. And I heard the girlfriend saying, I know you must just feel responsible for it. And he confessed to her that he had actually murdered her. He said, no, you don't understand. I really did kill her. And from that point on, I don't remember what else they said. I just was in shock. I was too much for an eight-year-old.
I wanted to hit him. I wanted to run. I wanted to cry. I wanted to go back to my grandparents. I didn't know what I wanted to do or what to do with this information. It just was overwhelming. Bill's shock and confusion was made worse by the fact that Felix was also giving him marijuana and LSD during this time in an effort to, quote, expand his mind.
Not long after overhearing his father's murder confession, Bill befriended a 13 year old migrant worker in one of the vineyards they were camping out in. And he was very curious about my life and, you know, living there in the vineyard with no shirt, no shoes and just living off land. And we kind of got to be friends. And the more he heard of my story, he just one day said offhand, well, why don't you turn him in to the police?
And it was like, ding, the light came on. Yeah, why didn't I think of that? And I started walking right then. Walked two miles to the police station along the interstate. And... basically camped out on the front steps of the police station and told them something like, My father murdered my mother and he does drugs.
At first, they didn't believe me and just kind of shooed me out and said, yeah, yeah, kid, go away. But I was committed. There was no turning back. I was not going to take no for an answer. I just camped out on the front steps until a detective finally... listened to my story. Brought me inside, questioned me enough, and satisfied themselves that there really was something to my story. Bill's story generated enough interest task force surrounded the vineyard where Felix and Sharon were staying.
with possession of LSD and child neglect. Bill was temporarily placed in a foster home while Felix and Sharon awaited trial. In the meantime, the press latched onto the story of the nomadic eight-year-old who'd accused his hippie dad of killing his mom. NBC, CBS, it was in thousands of newspapers across the country and in other countries because we got letters from England, Canada, Mexico...
Bill was the state's key witness. At a pretrial hearing, he took the stand and testified against his father. It was a moment he'd never forget. That was terrible. That was traumatic beyond any description. And I truly believed that if He was acquitted and I was returned to my father that he would kill me. So I really felt like my life was riding on the outcome of this trial. But the trial never happened.
perhaps because the state's case hinged on the testimony of an eight-year-old boy, the DA's office declined to pursue murder charges. Felix pleaded to the drug possession charge and got six months in jail, plus three years probation. Bill was ultimately placed back with his grandparents in Mississippi. After years of roughing it on the West Coast, the return to small-town life in the country was a relief.
Unfortunately that only lasted about two years and I came home from school one day and there is my father and the same girlfriend standing in the driveway. And I... Really thought? that he was going to kill me. And I got off the bus and just remembered this deer in the headlights feeling, where do I run? I just stood there, frozen, trying to think of where I could run. But I'm out in the middle of the country. There's really nowhere to go.
Bill hadn't spoken with his father since he testified against him at the court hearing in California. Bill thought he'd never forgive him for his betrayal. He'd been dreading their next encounter. And yet, to Bill's surprise, his father said he didn't blame him for what happened. He actually blamed the girlfriend, which was strange because she had nothing to do with it. And... maybe I'm jumping ahead but later use that I think as an excuse to murder her
With Felix out of prison, Bill Vale stayed on his grandparents' farm in Mississippi for the next few years. Felix would periodically return from California with Sharon. To Bill, Sharon looked more depleted each time, as if traveling with Felix was draining the life out of her. Then in the fall of 1975, Felix showed up alone. When Bill's grandmother asked where Sharon was, Felix explained that they'd been in Key West.
And Sharon had decided to leave with a couple who planned to sail around the world. She would later tell the same story to Sharon's mother. And not too long after that, We were in the backyard just doing something and he just confided in me that she would never bother anyone ever again. And I knew what that meant. I knew at that point that he had murdered her. And there was nothing I could do with his information.
Bill was 13 by this point. He hadn't forgotten what happened the last time his dad admitted to killing someone. He figured no one would believe him, and he didn't want to go through the trauma of testifying against his father again. I just remember being so angry again that he had told me this, and there was not a soul I could tell about it. This time, Bill told no one what his father said about Sharon. He lived with a secret through his teens and 20s. And yet, despite what he'd gone through
He built a stable life for himself. He'd become an eagle. graduated at the top of his class from Mississippi State and found a good job mechanical engineer. He'd also gotten married and had three kids. Sometime in the 90s, Bill got a phone call from Mary Rose, the mother of Felix's wife Annette. She explained that Annette had been missing for years, and she was now trying to build a case against Felix. And there was an investigation in progress. FBI, several state agencies were involved.
and they were trying to get enough information to bring it to trial. They ask, did I believe that he may have murdered her? And I said yes. I believe it. Based on past experience, it's entirely possible. And I was again faced with the prospect of going to court and testifying against my father.
And it was at that time that the post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders, all kinds of physical stuff, really hit me hard. Bill told Mary Rose that, unfortunately, he was unable to participate in the investigation. Toward the end of the interview Bill's pastor asked what his relationship with his father was like now. A relationship is kind of unusual, I guess, in that You know, part of me loves him. He was my father and he was a good father. I know that's hard to believe.
having heard what he's done but you know he was raised as a christian and he has elements of the truth in him but at the same time he's got this other stuff and I can't reconcile those two things, and I don't believe he can either. I guess I'm in a prayer relationship for him, hoping that God will open his eyes and help him to see the truth.
But I have to keep a distance from him because of the things I know he's capable of doing. For my family's sake, I don't maintain a close relationship at all. When Jerry Mitchell reached the end of Bill Vale's podcast interview, he was close to tears. I have to tell you how I'm moving listening to that podcast was this idea of this kid that all of a sudden hears his
father confessed to killing his own mother. And so just an incredible drama that's unveiled. So I knew this would be incredibly valuable material from a standpoint of telling this narrative. I knew I wasn't going to be able to say in a headline, this guy's a serial killer. You're not going to do that. But I began to realize there's a way I could tell the story. is just narratively and let the reader draw his or her own conclusion.
In the podcast, Bill revealed that his father had not only confessed to killing his first wife, Mary Horton Vale, he'd also strongly implied that he'd killed Sharon Hensley as well. But from a legal perspective, none of that mattered. I mean, the problem with Bill's podcast from an evidentiary standpoint is the fact that none of what he's saying is admissible in court. And why wasn't it admissible?
It's not admissible because you have to, A, it has to be sworn testimony, and then B, there has to be cross-examination. So you have to have both those elements. As an investigative reporter covering cold cases, Jerry wasn't just trying to tell a good story. He was also collecting facts that might be valuable to a lawyer in the event of a prosecution.
It was one thing for Mary Rose and Bill Vale to say they thought Felix was a serial killer. It was another thing to prove it in court, especially since the bodies of Sharon and Annette had never been found. That's really important from a homicide standpoint in terms of proving that a homicide took place. You've got to have a body
Cases have been brought. Prosecutors typically call those no body cases. But they're very difficult to prove because it's very easy for, you know, a defense lawyer to get up and say, we don't have a body, we can't prove this. Of course, Mary Horton Vale's body had been found, and Jerry had the autopsy report, which a forensic pathologist had labeled a homicide, not an accidental drowning.
But with the exception of Felix's fingerprints, the autopsy report was all he had. In other major cold cases Jerry had worked, previous investigations and trials had laid the groundwork for new prosecution. But in this case, we had nothing. Nothing. So what do you do with a case that's 50 years old and you have no investigation, nothing in the sheriff's files? So you're facing an incredible series of hurdles. It's not just one hurdle, it's a whole series of hurdles.
just to be able to even seriously consider this case for possible prosecution, much less to convince a jury. Still, after months of reporting, Jerry felt he had more than enough to write He hoped publishing it would draw out people who might help build a case. Since his first visit to Felix's home with Mary Rose, Jerry had made multiple attempts to interview Felix, both in person and over the phone. But Felix was never home, and he never responded to Jerry's calls.
The Clarion Ledger published Jerry's story in November of 2012. The title was a single word, gone. It came in at 9,000 words and captured the full scope of Felix's life. At no point did Jerry call Felix a serial killer, but he made it clear that Felix was the last person to have seen Mary Horton Vale, Sharon Hensley, and Annette Craver Vale alive.
The response to the story was big and immediate. Comments and tips poured in. At one point, Jerry picked up the phone to hear a woman screaming on the other line. She's just hysterical. There are no words coming out at this point. And so, I mean, I thought this was just somebody crazy. I'm literally getting ready to hang up the phone. And the woman says, I used to be married to Felix Vale.
The woman said she'd been married to Felix for a few months years ago in California. Not long into the marriage, they'd gotten in a drunken argument, and the woman had left to take a shower. While she's taking a shower, she said Felix Vale came in and started strangling her. and fortunately her brother could hear her and so he pull Felix off of her. That was kind of the end of the relationship. Soon after, Jerry got a call from someone in Texas.
The caller told Jerry that Felix was living in a small town in the Texas Hill Country called Canyon Lake. Based on these and other tips, Jerry published a series of news stories about Felix Vale, hoping someone in law enforcement might take an interest. But the first person he heard from wasn't a cop. He was a private investigator. and she offered to go knock on Felix's door.
Next time on Gone South. And I had my recorder down in my bra. It's a comfortable place to have it. And I just said, hey, I was just in the neighborhood. I just thought I'd stop by and say, hey. And he was thrilled! He was thrilled! As I'm writing about Felix, I'm talking to members of his family, other people that knew him. Felix Vale disappears. Just disappears. Where did he go? I don't know.
information story tips or feedback you'd like to share with the gone south team please email us at gone south at gmail.com. That's gone south podcast at dot com. And for bonus content, you can follow us on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram at Gone South Podcast. You can also sign up for our newsletter on Substack, Gone South with Jed Lipinski.
Gone South is an Odyssey original podcast. It's created, written, and narrated by me, Jed Lipinski. Our executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman, Maddie Sprung-Kaiser, Tom Lipinski, Lloyd Lockridge, and me. Our story editors are Maddie Sprunkheiser, and Joel Lovell. Gone South is edited Chris Basil and Perry Crowell. It's mixed and mastered by Chris Basil. Production support from Ian Ma
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