In the early 1970s, teenage boys began disappearing across Houston, Texas. One by one, they vanished, leaving behind empty bedrooms, unanswered questions, and a city that chose not to look too closely.
Police called them runaways while parents were told to be patient. Lack of concern caused a pattern to go unnoticed, until a single phone call changed everything.
On August 8, 1973, a teenage boy confessed to killing a man and exposed a horror hidden in plain sight. What followed was one of the most disturbing discoveries in American criminal history: a network of abduction, torture, and murder that had operated undetected for years.
In The "Candy Man" Murders, Jen Schaffer delivers a haunting, deeply researched account of the Houston Mass Murders. Through meticulous investigation and gripping narrative, she reveals not only the crimes themselves but the systemic failures, cultural blind spots, and quiet complicity that allowed them to continue.
Because the most terrifying truth isn’t just what happened—it’s how long no one stopped it.
Jen Schaffer is a Houston-based author, podcaster, and historical crime researcher exploring Texas crime history and the communities it shaped. She hosts Crude Acts: A Texas True Crime Podcast, now in its fourth season, and has appeared on Texas True Crime (ABC), Bloodline Detectives, Green Eyed Killers, and Stalked.
Jen writes using her Lens Method: each book opens with the case, steps back to examine the world around the crime (its history, money, politics, and documented events), then brings that lens back to the case for another look.
Book
Crude Acts Podcast
