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The Devil's Backbone

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Case File: The Devil's Backbone
Location: Texas Hill Country, Texas
Date: 1975—1990
Description: The Devil's Backbone is an area located in Texas Hill Country in northwestern Comal County, about fifty miles south of Austin, Texas. It includes a narrow limestone ridge about twenty miles long, with an elevation of 1,225 feet. It is located along Ranch Roads 12 and 32 between Wimberley and Blanco, Texas. The ridge offers an "unparalleled" view of miles of rolling ranchland. The area contains 4,700 acres of undeveloped property filled with mountains, ravines, woodlands, ranches, and hunting cabins. It is surrounded by canyons and valleys. Its name comes from the term "Diablo Espinoza" or "Spiny Devil."

Case[]

History: When it comes to ghosts per square mile, few places short of purgatory can match the 4,700 acres in central Texas known as "The Devil’s Backbone." It is located northeast of San Antonio and about fifty miles south of Austin. Its gnarled canyons were once home to Comanche and Apache tribes. In the 1700s, Spaniards pushed through on the road to conquest. Among them was a Franciscan monk named Espinoza, infamous for his ruthless ambition.
More than a century later, renegade Confederate soldiers on a doomed quest for gold breathed their last in the area. Today, their spirits live on. Or so says longtime resident and historical writer Bert Wall. He has been researching and documenting the area’s ghost stories for years. He first heard about them when he was a child and has been interested in them ever since.
Bert heard one story from a hunter who was stalked by a goat-type creature in The Devil’s Backbone. It had huge red eyes and appeared to exhale fire from its nostrils. It followed the hunter as he went through the land. When he cornered it in a cave, he shot it in the head, but his bullets did not seem to affect the creature. In the cave were several rattlesnakes that came after him. Fortunately, he was able to escape without injury. When Bert asked him what the creature was, he said, "The Devil. I was hunting the Devil, and he is still out there."
Bert says that on multiple occasions, he has seen mysterious lights while out working cattle. But one of his strangest experiences took place at his ranch house. One cold night, at around midnight, he was finishing typing up a story on his typewriter when he heard his dogs barking and the wind blowing. When he looked through the living room window, he saw a Spanish monk standing outside, illuminated in light. He does not believe the monk was a living person. The monk appeared to be from the 1700s; he was dressed in a habit from that time period and had a cross hanging around his neck.
Bert watched the monk for about fifteen seconds. Then, the monk disappeared into the mist. When Bert went outside to get a closer look, there was no one there. The monk is but one of many spirits that prowl the ranch. Another was witnessed by John Miers, who had come there to hunt deer. But hunting in the Devil’s Backbone is not like anywhere else in the world.
On that day, Miers went to a tree stand near the ranch. Once he got up and situated himself, he made himself very quiet and still, so that he could watch for the deer. As he sat up there waiting, he started to hear footsteps walking around the base of the tree. He leaned over to look, but he could not see much because he was sitting on a platform. The "person" kept walking in a circle around the tree. Miers started getting an eerie feeling, because whoever (or whatever) it was was not moving away from the tree. Finally, the footsteps stopped. He did not hear anyone walk away; the sounds just stopped.
As it started getting darker, Miers decided to get down from the tree and walk back to the house. He looked around the tree but did not see any footprints, broken branches, or any other evidence that someone else had been there. As he started heading back to the house, he got the feeling that someone was watching him. He stopped and turned around to look at the tree. He saw a Native American man crouching next to it. It was a very cold night, in the twenties. Yet, the man did not have a shirt on. He was wearing buckskin breeches and Comanche war paint.
The man looked at Miers rather strangely, as if he was wondering who he was. Immediately, Miers turned around and started walking back to the house. As he was walking, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye and to his right, that the man was walking parallel with him. He did not feel threatened by the man. He just wondered who he was and what he was doing there. When he made about two steps towards the man, the man vanished. He is certain that the man was a ghost.
Other hikers and hunters have reported experiences similar to Miers’, of an unseen presence following them through The Devil’s Backbone. Some ranchers have reported seeing the ghost of another Native American man, Drago. The ranchers have seen him herding cattle in the area. Some ranchers have also reported seeing the ghosts of the widow and child of a miner who was killed. These ghosts are said to wander the area, seeking a proper Christian burial for him.
Some ranchers have experienced "cold spots" on their ranches in the middle of the summer. The ghosts of Native American chiefs and lost travelers have been seen on the roadside, in pastures, and on people’s doorsteps. An apparition is also said to materialize on the hoods of cars as they drive along nearby "Purgatory Road." These ghosts always disappear when confronted.
The bunkhouse at Bert’s ranch was the site of yet another extraordinary vision, according to Lynn Gentry, one-time ranch foreman. One night, Lynn was relaxing in his bed when he heard what he thought was thunder in the distance. As the sound came closer, he realized that it was horse hooves in a very fast run. Items in the house began to shake. He went outside to see what was going on. There were several horses with about fifteen to twenty riders on them. He believes they were Confederate soldiers.
Lynn says the men and their horses looked real to him at the time. But he soon realized that they were ghosts. Other ranchers and hunters have also heard the ghostly horses and seen Confederate troop apparitions as they galloped through The Devil’s Backbone. However, when they check for hoof prints on the ground, there is nothing there.
Perhaps most amazing of all was the experience of John Villarreal. One day in the early 1990s, he was hiking with two friends, Corey Ramseur and B.C. Wall (Bert’s son), in an area known as "the Haunted Valley." He claims he not only saw a supernatural vision of a wolf (an animal prominent in Comanche beliefs), but that the wolf spirit actually possessed him. While walking through a dried-out creek, he became separated from his friends. Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation in his body. When he looked up, he saw the wolf running towards him. Then, it leapt at him.
Villarreal felt the wolf hit and pass through him. He then felt a chilling sensation go through him. His friends, meanwhile, did not see anything mysterious while they were in the valley. When they got back into their truck, they noticed that it was extremely cold inside. Villarreal was sitting between Corey and B.C. Corey was on the passenger side; he remembers that the whole left side of his body got extremely numb and cold. It felt like a big block of ice was sitting next to him.
When the three friends got back to the ranch that night, Corey did not know what was going on with Villarreal. He did not know if he was going to be alright. He was pretty worried about him. According to his friends, Villarreal initially lapsed into a silent trance. When he did speak, his voice was an unearthly baritone. He suddenly seemed obsessed with Indian massacres, ambushes, and other little-known events from the history of The Devil’s Backbone. He also began speaking in a language that sounded like "a mix of Spanish and Apache."
While Corey was standing there and watching this go on, he felt extremely scared. All of a sudden, a big gust of wind opened the side door and went through the kitchen, stopping in the room that Villarreal was in. The wind then went back out the side door, closing it along the way. Corey stood there frozen, unsure of what was going on. He kept asking, "What was that?" Someone said, "I think the spirit left him. I think it’s gone now."
Villarreal returned to normal after that. He is not sure what kind of spirit was inside of him. It appeared that the spirit knew about the ranch and its history. He says his story is hard to believe, but it is the truth. Bert believes that a Native American spirit possessed Villarreal; he believes that the spirits were seeking vengeance for having been forced off their land.
In The Devil’s Backbone, ghosts are as common as spines on a cactus. But why should this particular patch of land prove so irresistible to spirits? Bert says it is because the ghosts love the area. He says he loves it as well. He imagines that when he dies, he will also haunt the area.
If the local accounts are anything close to true, Bert would join a host of other souls who once called this place home. Bold company in which to spend the rest of eternity.
Background: The Devil’s Backbone has been inhabited by many groups of people over the years. Comanche and Apache tribes once resided there; they viewed it as a "spiritual area." They used the ridge to monitor settlers who were moving into their territory. The Comanche were feared in the area. They controlled much of the Texas Hill Country until the 1860s. They were deeply spiritual people who had a connection to the land and its animals. One animal that figured prominently in their beliefs was the wolf. It represented the same stoic fierceness as the Comanche warriors.
In the 1700s, Spaniards settled in the area; one was a Franciscan Monk named Espinoza, infamous for his ruthless ambition. During the 1800s, renegade Confederate soldiers came to the area looking for gold; most of them died there. During the 20th century, there were numerous fatal car accidents along the highway.
Investigations: None
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the December 15, 1995 episode.
  • Bert wrote a book about it called, The Devil's Backbone: Ghost Stories from the Texas Hill Country.

Results: Unsolved - In 2012, a Texas family contacted a Texas-based paranormal group and told them about how their son was talking to "a little girl with a hole in her head." The group believes the ghost is that of a girl who was killed along with the rest of her family by the Comanches on a ranch in The Devil’s Backbone during the 1800s. The group reportedly recorded the voice of the girl saying that she liked playing with the Texas family’s cat.
Sadly, on December 12, 2010, Bert passed away at the age of seventy.
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