The Horrors at Camp Lula

It was late night and Samantha, Linda, and Maria had just finished eating dinner in the woods with the rest of the girls at Camp Lula and they set their return to their cabin quarters to call it a night.  Like every other night they pulled out their old classic Victorian dolls to play with them until sleep set in.   All of a sudden a rustle of brushes outside is heard, “Do you guys hear that?”, whispers Maria and points to the only window over looking to the outside brushes.  The strange sound grew louder and the girls looked at each other with fear in their eyes not knowing what was on the outside.  The front door opened forcefully and a shadowy figure emerged, “AAAAARRRRRRGH!!”, screamed the girls at the top of their lungs, “Guys, relax, it’s just me”, said Mr. Hutton the camp counselor, with a sigh of relief the girls answered “You scared us sir!”,  “You guys are fine, I just came in on you and make sure you are ok”, replied Mr. Hutton.    “Say listen, what are you guys playing?”, asked the counselor, “Just here with the dolls before we go to bed,” answered  Linda,   “How about we play a real game?”, asked Mr. Hutton with a smirk on his face while he looked all three girls, “What you mean?”,  replied Linda as she looked at Mr. Hutton’s right hand and noticed a knife, “Why do you have a knife sir?, please don’t hurt us!”.  He gripped the knife and shouted to the girls, “Forgive me, the voices are telling me to end this.”  Menacing screams were heard very loud outside as the counselor started slicing away at the girls and killing them one by one as if they were animals bound to the butcher shop.   Blood was everywhere, and the girls bodies lifeless on the floor like rag dolls.  Frantic knocks on the outside door came from the other girls who were nearby yelling, “Sam, Lin, Maria are you guys okay, please open the door, it sounded like you guys were screaming, let us in !”   The counselor opened the door but stood in front it to make it hard to look inside since it was dark.   “Mr. Hutton what’s going on, we heard screams, are the girls okay?”, asked one of the other girls, to which Mr. Hutton answered “Yes they are, they were turned INTO LITTLE PIECES!!!!” and he took the knife and finished them all.  With no signs of the girls the next day, the park ranger found it suspicious that he didn’t see anybody roaming the woods in the morning and decided to see if everything was okay, but of course things weren’t.  In total they were 12 innocent girls were brutally murdered and mutilated.  Mr. Hutton was later apprehended as he tried hiding in the woods and charged with murder. His lawyer tried to plea the jury his client was clinically insane with long years of mental illness.  The judge didn’t buy the insanity case and ultimately was sentenced to death by lethal injection.  Mr. Hutton died in prison a few months later by contracting pneumonia and the justice for the girls killed never was served.

Since then, the screams of these girls can be heard at night at the camp, at least that’s what the urban legend says, ……

But did such a camp ever exist and is there any facts out there that can claim such events happened?

Turns out Camp Lula did exist, although properly named Camp Lula Sams. It was an all girls camp that was setup by the Sam’s Foundation back in the late 50’s after Lula Sams the mother of Gladys Porter and Camille Lightner passed away. There was a need for a local girls camp as the closest one was north of San Antonio.  In 1977 the events known as the Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders did occur which would later pave the way for the urban legend in Brownsville.   In that actual story that occurred in Oklahoma there was 3 girls murdered instead of 12, they were  raped, beaten, bludgeoned and strangled. Thje full details can be found on wikipedia @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Girl_Scout_murders  the murder was never solved and ultimately the camp was closed.  Somehow the story in Oklahoma traveled to Brownsville and it stuck in folklore with people swearing that it happened.   Camp Lula ceased operations in the early 1990s and the property abandoned.

It had been mentioned that an old man was the caretaker of the property after the girl scouts stopped the camp and that any trespassers attempting to venture inside the property risked death by getting shot.  Many people rumored that the old man was the killer of the girls and the list goes on.  In 2015, Idea Schools purchased the property and spent a couple of million dollars restoring the camp.

Today the camp fully serves as a camp for all kids to venture and look at the different wildlife such as javelinas, deer, rabbit, turtles, alligators and different plant and bird species.  There is also activities such as paddling, archery, slingshot shooting, geocaching, yoga, fishing, and sports.  If you would like to learn more about the current camp, you can visit their website at https://www.ideapublicschools.org/camp-rio

Some people who’ve camped at the new Camp Rio, have mentioned hearing  little girls running around at night, could these be the girls ghosts?