Bozo Confesses

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Police led Basso and O'Malley to the Galena Park ditch so they could confirm that the dead man was their missing friend.

A cop would later say that Basso broke out in fake hysteria on seeing Musso dead, while OMalley was expressionless, as though he saw just what he expected.

The lack of reaction "just gave me that gut feeling that he knew before we got there," Robert Pruett, Galena Parks assistant police chief, would later say.

Cops took OMalley aside and asked whether he had any ideas about what might have happened to Buddy Musso.

Yeah, OMalley replied, we killed him.

We would prove to include Basso; OMalley; Bassos friend Bernice Ahrens Miller, 55; Miller's son, Craig Ahrens, 25; Miller's daughter, Hope Ahrens, 22; and Hope Ahrens' fiancé, Terence Singleton, 28.

Group headshot

OMalley helpfully explained that the fatal beating had taken place at Bernice Millers apartment in Houston. Musso had been forced to kneel on a childs play mat for several days, apparently after accidentally breaking a Disney figurine.

He was beaten, stomped, burned with cigarettes and cleaned with a wire brush. He was dumped into a bathtub filled with bleach and pine-scented kitchen cleaner. His corpse was then redressed and dumped in Galena Park.

OMalley and other eyewitnesses would reveal that Musso lived a life of servitude, not love and romance, with Basso. He carried groceries and took out the trash. Neighbors said he was bloodied and bruised.

James OMalley led police to a trash bin, where they found Mussos bloody clothing, bloodstained towels, the mat and rubber gloves.

The six suspects were arrested and charged with murder.