This guy was THE boogie man when I was a kid. Parents used to threaten their kids with "if you're not good Johnny Meadows will get you". I actually played in a park not a few blocks where Ms Green's remains were found a short time later. This man was my nightmare man and I hope to GOD he never gets out. My older sister, her best friend, my little brother and I actually went looking for the remains. They would publish Mr. Meadows' confessions in the paper and we would try to "read between the lines" and we drove around lots of weekends. I don't know what the hell we'd have done if we'd have found any of those poor ladies. Maybe spared their families a few extra days of wondering, that's all. I know I am not by myself in my loathing of this man. He took years of my life, of my childhood and killed them just as surely as he sliced them open and bled them dry.
I hope he lives a long time thinking about the families of these women he killed. Especially the children. He took their Mamas away and those poor babies were never the same. I hope they finally found peace and I hope that Meadows doesn't. Oh, BTW...the sheriff's name was A.M. "Slim" GABREL, not Gambrel or Gambrell. As I said, I lived here then. If you need a proof-reader, I'm available.

WOW! and what a horrible thing for a parent to say to a child!

mtcoksqt, interesting comment. I understand completely as BTK was the boogeyman for me when I was a young, single female. We made jokes about him also, i.e., "better check for BTK in your closet when you get home." It is very interesting to me to hear other people say they have been victimized simply by feeling the terror that these monsters can cause an entire city or generation of people.

BTW, this guy is a hell of a lot scarier looking than Dennis Rader.

Oh, I dunno. Dennis has those wierdly tiny eyebrows working for him. For some reason, they really creep me out big time!

LOL, Dark. This guy could probably pluck his down that far. It might actually help his looks as he darn near has a unibrow. In fact, I wish he did have a unibrow that covered up that upside-down V wrinkle in between. That's icky.

Terror is contagious, meant to provoke "caution". When 9/11 hit, my hubby was there, I could not get through to him and it was a true horror. When the D.C. snipers were randomly shooting, I and my hubby were there, we actually went to Salem, Mass. for a spell and when told where we were from, locals there would comment on how terrifying it must have been, it was...even today, I look around while pumping the gas in the car...there always has to be a "first" victim...

mtcoksqt "He took years of my life, of my childhood and killed them just as surely as he sliced them open and bled them dry"
you truly have no idea the depths of this statement, unless you lived my life, I was his daughter.There are crevices of darkness that twist and turn and tangle in the abyss of my childhood memories...that could never possiably see light.

Linda Cougat was my grandmother and i never even heard about about Johnny Meadow. I knew about her murder but my dad, her son, told me a different story about the killer. He was only seven when she was murdered, and he blocked out the murderer by placing a different face on the killer. I was told there were three killers. Meadows ruined my father's life not only did his mother die but he did not get closure on her death. Reading of this made realize why he never did, knowing that they never officially find my grandmother's killer makes me understand my father on a higher plain. I am glad they captured Meadows but if he did not murder grandma then i wish some one will uncover who this "Texas Strangler" is.

I have to agree with Nash, that Johnny Meadows possible had nothing to do with these crimes. My family lived on the next street over from Johnny & his family during the time frame that the crimes were taking place. My mother was also a barmaid going through a divorce and raising five children working till 2:00 am almost everynight and drinking coffee with Johnny Meadows on mutiple occassions after getting off work, And never nothing but total respect came from Johnny.My mother was scheduled to testify on Johnny's behalf during his trial and out of the blue "Slim" Gabrel shows up with welfare department. Real simple testify and lose custody of me and my siblings to foster care. They never got to hear my mothers side that she saw in Johnny Meadows. My Heart go's out to the victims family.....My Thoughts are also with his son and daughter...........Just remember that nobody picture looks good from a mug shot point of view.