Can a newspaper save a life? At the The Baytown Sun Plaque, we uncover a story that suggests just that. The Baytown Sun, a local newspaper founded in 1919 as the Goose Creek Gasser, became an unlikely hero in a chilling Christmas mystery. The Baytown Sun Plaque commemorates the paper’s pivotal role in the strange case of the “Madman” letters. In December 1985, a dark cloud hung over Baytown following the Halloween murder of an 11-year-old girl. The Baytown Police Department received a series of disturbing letters from someone claiming to be the killer, calling themselves “Madman.” These letters contained riddles. The sender claimed that if the police solved them correctly, the killer’s identity would be revealed. But a wrong answer, the letters warned, would result in another child’s death on Christmas. The chilling demand? The answers to the riddles had to be published on the front page of The Baytown Sun. Faced with this extraordinary request, then-publisher Leon Brown and his editors made a courageous decision. Believing it a “life-or-death situation,” they agreed to publish the answers on The Baytown Sun’s front page. The Baytown Sun became a central part of this desperate attempt to save a child’s life. While the riddles and their publication remain a fascinating and unsettling chapter in Baytown’s history, The Baytown Sun’s willingness to cooperate with the police under such unique circumstances underscores the paper’s commitment to its community. The The Baytown Sun Plaque stands as a testament to the paper’s courage and its role in this gripping real-life Christmas mystery.
Greenwood Church
How about a story of faith spanning generations? This is the story of Greenwood Church. Greenwood Church has a rich