In 1938 it was discovered that Texas roadhouse proprietor Joe Ball had been murdering women and feeding them to his pet alligators. Although only two bodies were found, it is believed that he may have killed up to 20 women between 1936 and 1938, when he committed suicide during police questioning.

From Wikipedia:

After a while, women in the area were reported missing, including barmaids, former girlfriends and his wife. When two Bexar County sheriff’s deputies went to question him in 1938, Ball pulled a handgun from his cash register and killed himself with a bullet through the heart (some sources report that he shot himself in the head).

A handyman who conspired with Ball, Clifford Wheeler, admitted to helping Ball dispose of the bodies of two of the women he had killed. Wheeler led them to the remains of Hazel Brown and Minnie Gotthard. Wheeler told authorities that Ball murdered at least 20 other women, but the alligators had disposed of any evidence. There has never been any concrete evidence that the alligators actually ate any of his victims.

There were few written sources from the era which could verify Ball’s crimes. Newspaper editor Michael Hall investigated the story in depth in 2002, and wrote on his findings for Texas Monthly.