In keeping with my theme for this round of Alphabe-Thursday I am writing about the Houston area of CLEAR LAKE. CLEAR LAKE is a lake, but it's also part of an area that was annexed by the city of Houston in 1977. It's located about 25 miles from downtown Houston. There really wasn't a whole lot here until NASA came to town in 1963 and the Johnson Space Center was built. The area then grew rapidly.
According to Wikipedia currently the main employers are aerospace, high-tech (software, biotechnology, electronics, etc.) and tourism. Space Center Houston attracts millions of tourists each year.
The actual CLEAR LAKE is a brackish lake fed by Clear Creek and flows into Galveston Bay. Boating, sailing, and water sports are popular activities.
Some of you might remember the CLEAR LAKE area being associated with a couple of horrific incidents that made national news in recent times.
The Nassau Bay Hilton was where dentist Clara Harris caught her dentist husband David Harris with his mistress. In a rage she ran him over with her car three times killing him in the process. Sadly, David's teen age daughter by a previous marriage was in the car at the time. Ironically, it was caught on film by the private eye Clara had hired to follow her husband. She's currently serving 20 years in prison. Because of her actions their toddler twin sons were left without parents to raise them and David's teen age daughter will have to live with the nightmare of witnessing her father's death. Clara Harris was denied parole in 2013.
CLEAR LAKE was also the location of one of the saddest incidents in recent times. It's where a very ill Andrea Yates drowned her 5 children in the bathtub. In her mind she thought she was sending them to heaven before the devil could get them. Harris County chose to charge her with murder and asked for the death penalty. She was convicted, but before sentencing it was determined that one of the state's witnesses gave false testimony, so the state dropped the death penalty request and she was sentenced to life in prison. The verdict was overturned on appeal and she was retried and found not guilty be reason of insanity. She will probably spend the rest of her life in a state mental hospital.
Please go pay Ms. Jenny a visit at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent" for a list of other Alphabe-Thursday participants. Thank you for visiting.
Boy, that area has had a lot of misery. I remember both those cases -- so sad about the children. It seems there was something about the dentist where the wife said it was an accident! (I could be wrong though)
ReplyDeleteYikes....but I suppose if you look closely at any area you could find tragedies...http://lauriekazmierczak.com/celestial-views/
ReplyDeleteNice post, Betty. I worked at NASA JSC from 1964, helping the Control Center Building 30 come into being, to 1980 where I left the program (as an aerospace engineer contractor) as a Flight Controller, still in Building 30. Had I stayed, my assignment would have been the manipulator arm on the Space Station expert in Flight Control Simulations.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fun job.
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Tragic! I remember the Yates story when it was in the news...
ReplyDeleteso so so sad....
How sad! It doesn't exactly make you want to visit Clear Lake!
ReplyDeleteFinding the facts about Clear Lake very interesting, but not the trial for Andrea. Anyone that could even think about killing a child is not what I would call "normal."...:)JP
ReplyDeleteI suppose if you looked hard enough, you'd find a dark side to most places. Fortunately, the human spirit is capable of overlooking those parts.
ReplyDeleteThat's a big lot of sad for one little lake.
ReplyDeleteFascinating story though - thanks for sharing.
Great post for C ~ our country needs to 'wake up' and take care of the land and people ~ glad you posted this.
ReplyDeleteartmusedogs and carol
Happy Weekend to you
WOW! Clara Harris had a terrible temper!!
ReplyDeleteLife is sad isn't it? But I pray and make the best of each day that I possible can! I have had you on my mind and in my heart. I was looking at some Madame Alexander dolls on line and you popped into my head with your Ginny dolls. I am so happy when I stop by and see those girls everywhere. I also remember sharing the first Secret Santa Soiree that Suzanne (ColoradoLady) hosted. I have made two special and wonderful friends who have kept in touch with me thru her! You will always be special because you shared your dolls and I love dolls so much! I am hopeful this warmer weather holds on so I can search my garage for all my dolls who are packed away and bring some of my Ginny's in! I don;t have a large collection like you but I sure love their innocent little faces. It is just good to say hello and be here today. God Bless You Betty. Hugs, Anne
ReplyDeleteThat was sad and scary! Hey do you know you have word verification on? Hope today went well.
ReplyDeleteNot only didn't I turn it on but I don't know how to get rid of it. That's happened before and I have no idea why. I'll try and figure it out.
ReplyDeleteOK...I thought I remembered how I fixed it before. I went in and it's set correctly for NO comment verification. However, it still appears even though I saved the settings again. I hope it goes away. It shouldn't be there.
ReplyDeleteI have mine on no verification either but it's acting weird.
ReplyDeleteI remember the stories of Clear Lake.
Not such a lovely place.
But a clever post for the letter C nonetheless!
Thanks for linking.
A+