On a muggy, Texas summer night in 1982, tragedy struck. Three Waxahachie teenagers—Raylene Rice, Jill Montgomery, and Kenneth Franks—were murdered in Speegleville Park, near Lake Waco, on July thirteenth. In the following months, a complex criminal case unfolded, one that sparked local and national attention.

The murders put the city of Waco on edge. Local newspapers reported that Wacoans were fearful, taking extra protective measures and even advocating for park curfews. People wondered how such a violent crime could happen in the small, quaint city of Waco, Texas. Tensions were high, and the Waco Police Department began to search diligently for those responsible and for those who had any knowledge of what happened near the lake that night. Soon, the Waco Police Department, with Officer Truman Simons at the forefront of the case, had four suspects: Muneer Mohammed Deeb, David Wayne Spence, Gilbert Melendez, and Gilbert’s brother Anthony Melendez. Officers questioned and subsequently arrested the suspects. Simons, along with Officers Ramon Salinas and Dennis Baier, believed that Deeb had hired Spence and the Melendez brothers to kill Gayle Kelley, who looked like Jill Montgomery, the Waxahachie teenager visiting Waco with her friends. Investigators suspected that Deeb wanted to collect on an insurance policy he had recently taken out on Kelley and that the killers mistook Montgomery for Kelley, murdered her, and then murdered her friends to cover their tracks. To the relief of the department and those in the community, it seemed that the case had been solved.

District Attorney Vic Feazell prosecuted the case, and while wary of Simons’ questioning tactics, placed him, Salinas, and Baier on the task force. But the case did not seem firmly in their grasp. Discrepancies in suspect testimony called conclusions into question, and the story of what happened that night was anything but clear. In April 1983, the DA’ s office got the evidence they had been searching for. Homer Campbell, a forensic odontologist—someone who studies bite marks—insisted that the marks on the girls’ bodies matched the teeth of David Wayne Spence. With this evidence and the incriminating testimonies of the Melendez brothers, local law enforcement officials believed the case was closed.

Over the next few years, trials ensued. The court found all suspects guilty and sentenced them to prison, with Spence and Deeb receiving the death penalty. While the case certainly captivated the attention of Wacoans and Texans, the story also appeared on national news. In 1986, award-winning author Carlton Sowers published Careless Whispers, creatively recounting the case. Discussions of Spence’s death row sentence appeared in The New York Times and in an HBO documentary. Prior to his execution, young attorneys with the Texas Resource Center, a nonprofit that represented death row inmates, endeavored to stave off the death penalty. Rob Owen and Raoul Schonemann sought to highlight the inadequacies in the investigation. Though their efforts remained unsuccessful and the State of Texas still executed Spence, their defense called previous judgments into question. Following Spence’s execution on April 3, 1997, Dateline featured the case—questioning Spence’s guilt.

In Spence’s appeals, his defenders argued that the state mishandled the case. They contended that the verdict hinged on a questionable, likely false, odontology report. Later, Deeb and Gilbert Melendez also recanted their confessions, insisting that they had been pressured by local law enforcement. Eventually, the state exonerated Deeb. Indeed, as the years passed, it seemed that what was once a closed case was now a cold case.

The 1982 Lake Waco murders continued to pique interest, as journalists and reporters expressed interest in the handling, and likely mishandling, of the case. In the end, only questions remain. While some might continue to insist on the involvement of Deeb, Spence, and the Melendez brothers, others would contend their confessions and convictions were misguided and unfounded. Perhaps in the end, all might agree that a grave tragedy occurred in Waco on July 13, 1982, and that tragedy continued in a complex case that left many Wacoans, Texans, and Americans pondering questions about life, death, and justice.

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Two years after Texas became a republic in 1836, Israel Washington Speegle formed a wagon train in Tennessee with several of his brothers and his wife’s family members and moved to Texas. When Texas was admitted to the union in 1845, McLennan County became a much more inviting place to settle.

In 1849, Speegle, a blacksmith and farmer known by many as “Wash,” became the fifth settler west of the Brazos River in McLennan County. He purchased 320 acres from Lee R. Davis for a dollar per acre on land located near Davis Creek, originally called Duck Creek.

Speegle held church services in his home made of logs. In 1850, he donated land for the construction of a church building, a small log structure that was also used as a school. A cemetery plot in which the first person buried was an African American slave who belonged to Speegle was also on site. When the mail routes were established, the community—now named for the man who first settled the area—appointed Speegle to serve as the first postmaster for Speegleville on May 27, 1879.

A two-room frame structure replaced the log cabin used for church and school in 1860. A Baptist congregation constructed a new church building in the area in 1891 after Louannah Speegle—Wash’s wife—and their son sold an acre of land for one hundred dollars. In 1918, the Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Greenwood Methodist Episcopal Church South arrived in the area and combined to form the Speegleville Methodist Church. A tabernacle constructed by the men of the church near the east bank of Speegleville Branch served as their first church structure. Church members completed construction of a frame building around 1920. The construction of Lake Waco in 1930 caused the church to be relocated and a new structure was built.

By 1938, the Speegleville community consisted of about thirty-nine homes, three grocery stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, a Methodist church and a Baptist church, and possessed its own primary physician to serve the community—Dr. A. L. Armstrong. The community constructed a two-story school in 1912 and replaced it in 1948.

Frequent flooding of the Bosque River besought the city of Waco, prompting the construction of a new earthen dam structure on the river. In 1962, the dam enlarged Lake Waco, displacing several communities, including Speegleville. The original village now lies beneath the lake’s waters. The Methodist church was moved to its present location on Willow Grove Road. A new, relocated structure replaced the Baptist church, and Speegleville cemetery is now located on Interstate Highway 35 south of Waco. A new brick structure with a gymnasium replaced the old Speegleville School.

Many community members felt the village closeness and intimacy seemed to be lost in the move. However, in recent years, Speegleville has again regained some of its former sense of community and today boasts approximately two thousand homes.

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The Brazos River proved to be both a blessing and a curse for Waco, providing a constant water supply, means of transportation, and fertile farming ground, but also serving as a site of frequent flooding and destruction. This tension shaped the history of the communities which developed upon the banks of the Brazos.

The longest river in Texas, the Brazos is 840 miles long and drains an area of 41,700 square miles. Spanning from its headwater source in New Mexico to where it drains into the Gulf of Mexico, the river flows through varying terrain, from canyons to the rolling plains of West Texas to its meandering course through the relatively flat Coastal Plain.

Efforts to improve the Brazos and to make it navigable were begun as early as 1870. McLennan County cotton planters began looking for a water route to ship their produce at lower prices than railroads could offer. Barges and steamboats, notably the Kate Ross captained by early Wacoan Shapley Prince Ross, plied the river for a while until the channel shifted and more railroads came into the county. A bridge constructed in 1870 spanning the banks of the Brazos increased the amount of commercial activity within the city.

Notable attempts to build a series of locks and dams on the Brazos were made under the terms of the River and Harbor Act of 1905 and later under a New Deal project in the 1930s. However, the river shifted its course multiple times and floods wrecked construction sites.

Frequent flooding made life near the Brazos River a struggle for many Wacoans. On May 27, 1885, a tornado and flood resulted in the deaths of eleven people and $300,000 in property damage. In 1913, tumultuous flood waters inundated much of East Waco and took the lives of two people. The flood which occurred in September of 1936 resulted in $1.5 million in property damage in the county, especially in East Waco, although no lives were lost.

A United States Army Corps of Engineers study in 1937 recommended a series of dams on tributary streams of the Brazos and a major dam at Whitney on the main stream as the best means of controlling floods. World War II intervened, but in 1946, the first tributary dam was begun in Belton, and soon thereafter the Whitney Dam began to rise on the Brazos. The Flood Control Act of 1954 authorized a dam on the Bosque River at Waco, and as well as several others in different cities in line with the 1937 study.

When Waco Dam was finished in 1965, it completed, with the Whitney Dam, the major flood control instruments to protect Waco and the lower Brazos Valley. The floodplain at Waco became available for development. In 1967 Waco voters approved a $1.5 million bond issue to build a channel dam to create a bank-level lake through the heart of the city for recreation and beautification purposes. Lake Brazos was filled in 1972.

The Brazos River Authority, an independent organization established by legislation in 1929, continues to develop and manage the waters of the entire Brazos River basin. Today, the river continues to serve as an important water source for power, irrigation, and other resources for Waco and McLennan County, as well as other regions throughout Texas.

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Throughout its history, Waco has been affected by a constant cycle of drought and flooding due to its prime location near several major rivers. The construction of Lake Waco Dam was one of the most successful efforts to address these issues, providing the city with flood protection and a stable water supply.

Many Wacoans, including Mayor H. F. Connally, opposed the construction of the original dam in the 1920s, preferring to rely upon the city’s artesian wells as a water supply. Though some saw the dam as a foolhardy and risky luxury, the city put the issue up to a vote in 1926 after the wells began to run dry. Voters approved the construction of the dam by a slim margin of just over one hundred votes. In 1929, Callahan Construction Company completed work on the dam on the Bosque River.

The small dam, though beneficial to Waco, proved to be insufficient to protect the city from severe flooding. After a record flood in 1936 submerged East Waco and displaced two thousand people, Congressman Bob Poage received authorization for a US Army Corps Engineering flood control study of Lake Waco. The results of the study in 1938 recommended an enlarged Lake Waco with a bigger, more modern dam.

However, the onset of World War II put the Lake Waco project on hold for some time. The construction of dams on Lake Whitney and Belton Lake took precedence in 1946, though the need for a larger water supply was becoming more apparent each year. Several Wacoans appealed to the federal government for funding, and in 1954, Congress authorized the construction of a new dam in order to lessen the flood threat to the city of Waco and provide more efficient water storage.

As the US Army Corps of Engineers began to design the new dam, Central Texas conditions worsened. The most severe drought of the twentieth century struck Texas in the 1950s. The period saw all but ten of Texas’ counties declared federal disaster areas, and in Waco, despite efforts to ration and conserve water, taps ran dry and factories slowed production. Additionally, the water supply in Lake Waco was hampered by the buildup of silt from farming up river.

A second disastrous flood hit the city in April 1957, reenergizing efforts to complete the dam. The Brazos River Authority and the city offered to provide a loan to the federal government in order to begin construction on the dam quickly. After some negotiations, President Eisenhower included one million dollars in his proposed budget for the construction of the new dam.

In the weeks following the dam’s completion in the fall of 1961, engineers detected a problem with disastrous implications. Cracks appeared in the eastern face of the dam and slowly began to spread. Soon, a portion of the east side fell sixteen feet, sliding downstream. The US Corps of Army Engineers quickly discovered the problem was a layer of compressed shale in the ground which the weight of the dam had pushed out. They modified and stabilized the dam, completely finishing construction in the spring of 1965.

Army engineers and the city of Waco agreed to raise the level of the lake seven feet in 2003 in order to provide a more secure source of water for Waco and surrounding municipalities. Waco civic leader Jack Kultgen described the dam as the “single biggest factor in the progress of Waco” in the twentieth century because it gave Waco an advantage over many other Central Texas cities. The Lake Waco Dam provides the city with a constant source of water, ensuring the city’s ability to grow in spite of weather conditions. 

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Lake Waco is a reservoir and artificial lake which serves a variety of functions for the city of Waco. The dam was built in 1929 in order to control flooding of the Bosque River and to provide the city with a reliable water source. In 1961, a modern earthen dam replaced the original structure, increasing the surface area of the lake considerably from approximately two thousand seven hundred acres to around nineteen thousand four hundred acres. Today, lake is maintained by the US Army Engineering Corps and the Brazos River Authority.

The creation and subsequent enlargement of Lake Waco displaced several communities in the surrounding area. Many citizens were forced to move or abandon their homes or businesses, and the enlargement of the lake in the 1950s destroyed entire town sites such as the Speegleville community, a small farming town west of Waco. Many people felt that the lake distanced communities and destroyed the once tight-knit community atmosphere.

Though the lake’s primary purpose is to provide a reliable water source for Waco, it has also served as a center of recreational activity for many years. In the 1930s, the Waco Tribune-Herald described Lake Waco as a “mecca for hundreds daily in the summer,” providing more than just a beautiful sight but also a spot for social gatherings. Through the years, boating became a highly popular pastime on the lake. By the 1950s, it was typical to see the lake covered in boats and the shoreline dotted with swimmers and sunbathers.

The construction of the new dam opened up conversation among the Waco community concerning the development of community centers around Lake Waco. Many citizens saw the lake as a matter of civic pride and desired to develop the services the park could offer the community. The US Army Engineering Corps encouraged the creation of features such as wildlife habitats and parks alongside the dam.

Four parks maintained by the corps surround Lake Waco: Airport Park, Midway Park, Reynolds Creek Park, and Speegleville Park. These parks offer facilities for camping and picnics and contain several boat ramps and two marinas. They also provide areas for activities such as water sports, hunting and fishing, boating, and hiking. The Lacy Point Nature Trail in Reynolds Creek Park is recognized in the National Trails System. During the summer, educational programs are offered for the public on topics such as wildlife, lake history, and water safety.

The upper end of Lake Waco houses the Waco Wetlands, an environmental project established in 2001 to lessen habitat loss when the city raised the reservoir seven feet. This site, managed through cooperation between the city and Baylor University, serves as a living laboratory for research, education, and recreation.

At first a civic project, Lake Waco has become an important gathering point for the city through the educational and recreational benefits it offers the city.  

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