Interview: Johnny Teague on True Crime, Houston's Cold Cases, and the Families Who Never Forget

Johnny Teague writes about the cases Houston forgot. His two books from Library Tales Publishing — The Lovers' Lane Murders and A Real Estate Nightmare — reconstruct unsolved killings spanning three decades, tied together by a city's appetite for forgetting. We sent Johnny eight questions. His answers are a reminder that behind every cold case file is a family still waiting.

You chose to write about crimes that were never solved. What draws you to the cases that the world has given up on?

The families of the victims is what motivates me to write these. I knew Cheryl Henry's family. I had the privilege to know her friends. The same in the Real Estate Nightmare. I met JoAnn Brown's daughters. I listened to their stories told through tears. The longing to see justice done, so the family can rest means so much. After great progress on the Lovers' Lane Murders because of this book, the family reached out to me to thank me for writing this book. They said Cheryl's dad, Bob Henry, can laugh again. He hasn't laughed since 1990. They said her sister Shane can now move forward in her life. This is my longing and the outcome of my partnership with Library Tales Publishing.

In The Lovers' Lane Murders, you reconstruct the night two college sweethearts were killed in 1990. How did you balance telling their story truthfully without exploiting their memory?

I promised the Henry family they would have full veto power over everything I wrote, and that before it went to publication, I wanted their approval of what was written. They gave that to me. As a result, everything I wrote, I wrote with the families in mind.

The Houston of 1990 you describe feels almost like a different city. What surprised you most about how the city and its law enforcement operated back then?

I think we have become too accustomed to murder and death these days. We think statistics and not people. This is why I seek to tell of the people affected by the crimes rather than focus simply on crimes and the quest to solve them. Finding the killer is not a game or something to keep count of wins and losses. Hearts and lives are at stake.

A Real Estate Nightmare ties a cold case to the chaos of a hurricane. How does a natural disaster bury a murder, and what made you want to dig it back up?

So many were enamored by the hurricane and their own material losses, that the city looked past or ignored the horrific execution of three women. Again, the families of the three women were foremost in my mind. Natural disasters can't be stopped, just mitigated. Human aggression can be thwarted, especially when justice is served.

Both books are set against the backdrop of Houston real estate. What is it about that world that makes it such fertile ground for secrets?

When I wrote about the American Revolution, I visited battlefields throughout our nation. Upon the ground I walked, people fought and died. There is a reverence brought about because of that, truly the ground becomes hallowed. This is no different than the ground on which five lives were brutally taken — Cheryl and Andy, and then Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Shumate, and Mrs. Ivey.

When you're writing true crime, you're working with real victims, real families. How do you handle the responsibility of telling someone else's tragedy?

I do so with at least one family's involvement, input, and approval. This way, I am not some profiteer seeking to benefit from someone's loss, but rather a friend trying to resurrect interest in people who have been forgotten.

Was there a moment in your research, a detail or a document or a conversation, that changed everything you thought you knew about one of these cases?

I think meeting with Bob Henry the first time and watching him weep, grieving over the loss of his daughter, and the times he wept in our subsequent meetings. This was true with the two daughters of JoAnn Brown as well. When lives are taken through violence, the world may forget but not the families. No matter how long ago, the day of their loss is ever fresh and traumatic.

What do you hope readers take away from these stories, beyond the mystery of who did it?

I believe the readers can become friends with the victims named. They become invested in the future of the lives detailed, so that when the evil is done and the last breath is breathed, the reader feels the loss and is resolved too to see the killers caught.

The Lovers' Lane Murders and A Real Estate Nightmare are available now from Library Tales Publishing. Find them here.