Charles Rogers Murders

[sma69]

The 1954 Cadillac in the driveway was Edwina's. The 1953 Oldsmobile was Fred's. Everything we found indicated that Fred rode the bus. Here is a link for our Facebook site for our book and the case: https://www.facebook.com/gardeniericebox This is an easier way to get in touch with us. We spent a lot of time on the family backgrounds of Fred and Edwina. Fred's dad was, until his death, the school superintendent in Comanche, Texas. I came pretty close to getting kicked out of the library by the director when I started asking questions about Fred's family. They have a huge photo of his family in a turn of the century car in the library. Fred isn't in the picture. When Fred's dad died they had a memorial parade in the town. He was very much beloved. Edwina's immediate family was very different from Fred's. Her twin brother, Edwin, was a hard worker and was very successful in the Shiro, Texas area.

 

[sma69]

I stand corrected. Going back to our notes. Both cars belonged to Edwina. Fred never really mastered driving. This was further reinforced by the death of their daughter, Bettie, in an automobile accident coming back from San Antonio in August 1929.

[sma69]

The 1954 Cadillac that belonged to Edwina Rogers was purchased by the Rogers' handyman. He had it towed to his upholstery shop and kept it for years with the intention of getting it running again. He finally gave up on the idea and sold it for junk.

[brucesw]

The name finally came to me, it was William Bodenheimer. I Googled it and found out he disappeared July 20th 1959. here is a link to the story.

http://www.houstonpress.com/2004-03-11/news/the-icebox-revisited/full/

The murder of Billy Bodenheimer was for my generation what the Dean Corll-Elmer Wayne Henley case was for a later generation - a brutal awakening to the horrors of the real world.  Well, it was for me, anyway, if not my whole generation.  There were probably lots of my generation as well as older people who didn't want to hear anything about the case at all.

 

Our next door neighbor's grandson who came to visit in Lake Jackson regularly went to school with Bodenheimer, though he was older and didn't claim to  be his friend.  Earlier in the decade, whenever we came to town and went out to visit relatives in the Heights, we passed right by the spot where the body was found; I have never been able to remember seeing such a yard, though.  I remember thinking that if I had lived in that neighborhood, Billy probably would've been a playmate of mine.

 

I followed the case, mostly in the Chronicle.  I wanted to know who could/would commit such a crime.  The rapidity with which the police announced the arrests was shocking and the story told by the police made no sense to me even as a kid.  In 1950s Houston, a gang of black boys gang rapes and murders a white boy - yeah, sure they did.  They all wanted to die and their knives weren't sharp enough to cut their own throats so they just thought they'd get the state to do it for them.

 

I didn't keep up with the trials, though.  Once they were indicted there was never any question they'd be convicted.

 

I saw the Press article when it first was published and it answered a lot of questions for me.  It was the first time I'd heard anything about the case in decades.  People didn't want to talk about this crime then and never have, much.

 

[Michelle C]

Bill Bodenheimer was few grades behind me in school. I didn't know him but had a friend that did. I remember the murder and all the publicity that surronded it very well. We lived on Sul Ross one block south of W. Alabama about a mile south of where Bill lived.

[FilioScotia]

I was getting ready to start my junior year at Pasadena High School when this happened in July of '59. Remember, this was when Houston had three daily newspapers - the Chronicle, the Post and the old Scripps-Howard Houston Press. (no relation to the Press we know today)

 

All three papers carried this story relentlesly in all its gory and sickening details from day one for weeks and months, while we lily white surbanites in Pasadena were counting our blessings every day. We went to bed at night believing with all our trembling white hearts that things like that only happened in Houston - not in Pasadena.

 

That 2004 Houston Press story really took me back to the summer of '59. It's weird how some small detail sticks in your mind. I remember the case of course, in a very general way, but the one tiny detail that sticks out for me is the word "molesterate", which one of the young black boys supposedly used in the "confession" he signed. Ever since 1959, that word has come back to me every time I think about this horrible story.