Satanism in Austin? A few cases in local history
The recent unveiling of a satanic statue in Detroit rankled the religious community while piquing interest in a relatively unknown sect that began in the mid '60s.
The story is unique in that Satan and the occult are not often making headlines in today's world. But there were plenty of stories in the Austin American-Statesman archives that have referred to the Christian embodiment of evil.
The March 26, 1939, issue of the Statesman included the front-page headline "Houston Figures Mount Bonnell Was Place Satan Showed Savior."
An image of the March 26, 1939, American Statesman. The article on Houston and Williamson is below left.
The story goes that General Sam Houston and Williamson County namesake R.M. Williamson viewed the sprawling Hill Country from Mount Bonnell. The alluring landscape led Houston to say "Upon my soul, Williamson, this must be the very spot where Satan took our Savior to show and tempt Him with the riches and beauties of the world!"
Williamson retorted, "Yes, general, and if Jesus Christ had been fallible, he would have accepted his Satanic majesty's proposition."
Another story that ran Jan. 8, 1918, quotes Evangelist J. Gordon "Black Billy" McPherson, who had acquired a sort of local celebrity status for his East Austin revivals. In one sermon, he condemned "… his satanic majesty, 'Kaiser Bill' and the grog shops that are damning our boys and ruining the fair and beautiful girls of many homes."
Following Anton LaVey's establishment of the Official Church of Satan in the late '60s, media attention and curiosity grew on satanism and the occult. In March 1974, LaVey's daughter, Karla LaVey, spoke to a crowd at St. Edward's University about the emerging pseudo-religion, which she called a "law and order institution":
An image of the March 22, 1974 article on Karla LaVey visiting St. Edward's University.
"She said Anton Szandor LaVey, a former police photographer and now an honorary police inspector in San Francisco, found the religion after witnessing repeated tragedy and questioning 'God's ability to care for man.' "
The story concludes with Karla LaVey admitting "that liberal trends in sexuality and religious practices have made the Church of Satan's views similar to the 'do what you want' philosophy of today."
More than a decade later, a Statesman story about a woman's alleged kidnapping by satanists may be a good example of the "Satanic Panic" phenomenon during the '80s.
The Statesman reported in July 1989 that a woman told Austin police she was blindfolded and kidnapped by a man and woman who took her to Austin. For nearly three months, she said she was imprisoned in a windowless room while the couple read her materials related to Satanism.
But a week later police found out the woman had made up the entire story:
"Instead, (the woman) lived in a downtown Austin home for nearly three months and gave birth to a child at Seton Medical Center, said Sgt. Gary Richards, of the Austin Police Department assault unit."
In 1995, Austin had its own episode of a satanic-looking statue that drew its own interest and ire. But, out of all things, this statue inadvertently helped raise funds for a Christian music radio station.
Twenty years ago Statesman humor columnist John Kelso wrote about a carved wooden statue that had the head of a man and legs of a goat. An antique shop on North Lamar Boulevard had the statue on consignment and left it in front of the building. The bizarre statue caught the eye of quite a few passersby.
The fact that people were so interested in it became a blessing for KNLE-FM, a Christian radio station next door to the antique shop. The publicity from the statue helped bring out a good-sized crowd for a radio station fundraiser.
One case of alleged satanism only recently came to a conclusion. After being imprisoned for nearly two decades, former day care operators Fran and Dan Keller were freed after a bizarre child sexual assault case.
Dan and Fran Keller outside of the Travis County courthouse. RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL / AMERICAN- STATESMAN
Several children who were interviewed by a child psychologist said the Kellers sexually abused them "during horrific rituals that included unearthed corpses, dismembered pets and babies, a blood baptism and videotaped sex acts with adults and other children." Though the Kellers' lawyer argued the allegations were part of a national hysteria regarding Satanism and cults, the jury found them guilty.
But in 2013, Travis County prosecutors acknowledged that the doctor who played a key role in the outcome of the trial recanted his testimony due to his inexperience in pediatric exams. After spending more than 22 years in prison, the Kellers were finally free.
Outside of that court case, the only other satanic behavior around Austin seems to be Satan's Cheerleaders. But luckily the group seems more intent on entertaining crowds than summoning evil spirits.
Author Mike ParkerPosted on July 31, 2015 Categories satanismTags AAS_MP, austin, newsLeave a comment on Satanism in Austin? A few cases in local history
The skinny on Hippie Hollow, Austin's one and only nude park
Those more averse to swimwear have been frequenting Hippie Hollow Park off Comanche Trail for at least fifty years. And the roughly one-third mile stretch of shoreline has had its share of publicity — good and bad — throughout that time.
This Statesman archive photo, dated July 1977, included a note that read "Nude sun bathers and dad sunbathe at Hippie Hollow."
Basking in the sun on the shores of Lake Travis is a time-honored summer tradition. Doing it in the nude is a bit of a tradition as well, albeit in one corner of the sprawling lake.
Those more averse to swimwear have been frequenting Hippie Hollow Park off Comanche Trail for at least 50 years. And the roughly one-third-mile stretch of shoreline has had its share of publicity – good and bad – throughout that time.
One of the first times the words "Hippie Hollow" were printed in the Austin American-Statesman was on July 26, 1971, when some nude swimmers got into some trouble with the law:
"Nine persons were fined $50 each by Justice of the Peace J.H. 'Buck' Smith over the weekend after they pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in connection with two nude swimming incidents at "Hippie Hollow" on Lake Travis, off Comanche Trail 12 miles northwest of Austin."
Even then, Smith said nude bathers were old news. "This has been going on two to three years and I've been taking charges all along," he told the Statesman, adding "the public is really raising cain about it."
The nude bathers may have been better off fighting the charge. Just a month later in August 1971, another justice of the peace dismissed charges against an Austin woman for swimming nude. JP Vernon Pfluger said the state had no real statute to prosecute nudity alone:
"The judge ruled that the state had failed to prove that Mrs. Mary Catherine Tingle, 22, … was 'creating or calculating to create' a disturbance when she went bathing at 'hippie hollow' Aug. 1."
Constable Eugene Collier, who testified at the trial, said several people in boats went by to see Tingle in her birthday suit. But because they willingly subjected themselves to the nudity, there was no claim of indecency.
Nudists relax at Hippie Hollow Park in March 1973. AAS archive photo
In 1973, controversy surrounded Hippie Hollow in the form of a tall, barbed-wire fence. The Lower Colorado River Authority erected the fence to keep "scattered paths leading to the site, to prevent erosion, and in general, 'to protect the public safety' ," according to one Statesman story.
The fence was most likely created due to the mass number of people who began visiting the park. In the same story, one unnamed person said there were as many as 400 cars parked at one time near Hippie Hollow. "Figuring an average of four persons per car, you get an idea of what we have to contend with day and night … " the person told the Statesman.
Frederick Romberg, who in 1973 spoke for the Comanche Trail Community Association, told the Statesman she counted "1,586 vehicles carrying 3,629 persons entering Comanche Trail."
That same year a state Senate bill introduced by then-Sen. Charles Herring of Austin would have added public nudity under the disorderly conduct statute. Needless to say, the bill never got passed, and Hippie Hollow's freewheeling days continued.
Another problem – trash and debris from the partying – spurred residents to attend a Travis County Commissioners meeting and demand action. One deputy sheriff had the novel solution of having minimum security prisoners clean up the park after the rowdy weekends.
Residents went as far as filing a lawsuit in 1977 that would have forced the park to close if the hard partying would not be stopped. But the state court threw out the lawsuit, and the residents instead negotiated with several people representing the nudists.
All of the controversy was enough for the Statesman editorial board to add their two cents in an oped piece that ran July 26, 1977:
"Hippies, of course, were boys who had hair over their ears, wore sandals and necklaces and didn't like the Vietnam war, Nixon or work. A frequent complaint was that a person couldn't tell the hippie girls from the hippie boys, or vice versa.
Naturally, a lot of people didn't like hippies. But just as the beatniks faded from the scene, so, too, have the hippies. The people who now go to Hippie Hollow are not really hippies, they are just a cross section of people who, for the most part, enjoy crawling around on rocks naked."
Three skinny dippers find the water colder than they expected and head for shore in this photo dated July 1974. Kit Brooking Photo / Statesman archives
Over the years, the crowd at Hippie Hollow began to calm down, though there were plenty who still held a place in their heart for the park. In July 1993, a couple held their wedding at the park – and everyone who went was as naked as they day they were born. With the title "Hippie Hollow wedding exposes couple's love," then-Statesman writer Scott W. Wright wrote:
"The bride and groom said they didn't get cold feet. The preacher said she had to give her blessing in disguise. And the guests, well, what could they do but grin and bare it – all.
Bill Scales and Karen Loomis threw caution – and their clothing – to the wind, saying their nuptials in the nude as they married Saturday along the shores of Lake Travis.
Some 50 friends, also in the buff, watched the brief double-ring ceremony at Hippie Hollow, Texas' only public nude beach. The minister, who stripped before the ceremony, declined to give her name."
In 1995, a poster contest for children celebrating National Nude Week got county officials debating on child nudity laws, which led to them banning anyone younger than 18 to visit Hippie Hollow. About 30 people attended the Commissioners Court meeting to argue against the ban, but their arguments were not persuasive enough.
One person fighting the ban was 13 at the time, and told the court, "I just think it's ridiculous because I've been going there ever since I've been born."
Today spectators can still find nude sunbathers out on Hippie Hollow, though the numbers have dwindled quite a bit. But each year Hippie Hollow is host to Splash Days, an all-out bacchanalia catering to the LGBT crowd.
The annual event has grown to quite a huge event over the past several years, showing there's just something about that small stretch of shoreline that brings out the wild side in people.
Author Mike ParkerPosted on July 9, 2015 Categories Hippie Hollow, Lake TravisTags AAS_MP, austin, hippie hollow, lake travis, newsLeave a comment on The skinny on Hippie Hollow, Austin's one and only nude park
Throwback Thursday: When the first same-sex couple legally married in Texas
Before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide last week, one same-sex couple in Travis County legally tied the knot anyway. Together for 30 years, Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant became the first legally married same-sex couple in Texas after District Judge David Wahlberg ordered that they be issued a marriage license, citing Goodfriend's poor health.
Suzanne Bryant, left, and Sarah Goodfriend arrive at their party at Highland Lounge on Thursday February 19, 2015, after becoming the first legally married gay couple in Texas. (JAY JANNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN) Click the image for more photos.
The couple had tried to obtain a marriage license in Travis County eight years prior, but were denied. Goodfriend and Bryant decided to try again after Goodfriend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in May 2014.
Their decision to act was also spurred by a ruling from Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman, who found the state's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional in an unrelated case. The Texas Supreme Court blocked Herman's ruling, but it had not ruled on Attorney General Ken Paxton's request to overturn it.
The two native Texans wanted to get married in Texas and, "we didn't want to wait for the (U.S.) Supreme Court to make a decision," Bryant said.
Goodfriend and Bryant were issued their license on February 19. Their whirlwind day included a small ceremony held outside the Travis County Clerk's Office. The couple also sat down for a press conference that afternoon.
The news of their union was inspiring to some, but angered several politicians. State Sen. Charles Perry called the marriage a "direct conflict with the Texas Constitution."
The timeline leading up to Goodfriend and Bryant's marriage was a bumpy one; the Supreme Court ruled the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection in 2013, setting the stage for same-sex rulings to follow.
When the news broke June 26 that the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriages a national right, Goofriend celebrated on Twitter.
So honored to be the first& so so excited to (soon) no longer be the only married same gender loving couple in #TX. #LoveWon #SCOTUS .@TCDP
— Sarah Goodfriend (@SGoodfri) June 26, 2015
For full coverage of same-sex marriage in Texas and nationwide, click here.
Author Catherine AlvaradoPosted on July 2, 2015 July 2, 2015 Categories UncategorizedTags gay marriage, news, Sarah Goodfriend, SSM, Suzanne BryantLeave a comment on Throwback Thursday: When the first same-sex couple legally married in Texas