Texas Couple Sues Angel the Psychic, Belo, the Times and CNN Over False Claims Of a Mass Grave at Their House

Texas Couple Sues Angel the Psychic, Belo, the Times and CNN Over False Claims Of a Mass Grave at Their House

By Anna Merlan Fri., Jun. 8 2012 at 10:17 AM

Last June, things got pretty busy around Joe Bankson and Gena Charlton's farmhouse in Hardin, what with the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, the FBI, DPS and a half-dozen media outlets stopping by, as you see in the AP video above.

What were they looking for? A mass grave containing 25 to 30 dismembered bodies, of course, which they had on good authority was somewhere on the remote Bankson/Charlton property. Their tipster was a 48-year-old self-proclaimed psychic grandmother who went by the name of "Angel."

As Angel later told Houston TV station KHOU, she informed the police from the outset that her information was divinely inspired. "I am a reverend," she said. "I am a prophet and I get my information from Jesus and the angels. I told them that I had 32 angels with me and they were giving me the information and then it went from there."

But when the cops went out to check on Angel's tip, no bodies were found. Who could have predicted that? (Besides Angel. Clearly.)

Now the couple's suing the psychic, whose real name they still don't know, along with the Liberty County Sheriff's Office. Banks and Charlton filed suit on Tuesday in Dallas County District Court, accusing Angel of defamation, and the Liberty County Sheriff's Office of unreasonable search and seizure. They say that cops invited members of the media to "accompany, observe and videotape" the officers while they were executing their search warrant. They threw in Belo, the New York Times, CNN, Thomson Reuters and ABC News for publishing "false statements in national and international headlines" about all those dead people they didn't actually have lying around the farmhouse.

The couple say they suffered lost wages, "mental anguish," and "substantial damages" to their reputations. We imagine business has been a little slow for Angel too.

Next: the Fake Mass Grave Complaint doc.

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You lose

I wish they would raid me, I could use a few hundred grand in my bank.

Wow your a crazy person.

Robaz Mokutz

This is the direct result of people giving credulity to superstitious belief.

Paul Logan

O I hope they ( Joe Bankson and Gena Charlton ) win and bankrupts these imbeciles.

Thetideofwoe

Just so you all know, there is no such thing as a psychic, K? USA uses drones to monitor people, we are finding more and more of these stories as the "surveillance" bs comes to a head, there never were psychics, but I bet ya in another fifty or so years there will be some heavy lawsuits, because all of this supposed psychic information was gathered by someone in the spy business and a relative got to play the part of the "psychic" and poof guess what????? Who's spying on who. Crap in Liberty County they have a nasty habit of over loving their neighbors, they invite in strangers, make them the head of some department, then can't understand why things went to crap. It used to be friendly about eighty years ago, and was tolerable about thirty five years ago, then all the Englanders started moving in......

John Treat

why can't the story address what the " blood" tested out to be? and did they find what was rotting? these little details would have made the story more satisfying. This is of course one of those really dumb acts showing just how stupid even cops can be. I hope they get everything they deserve for this muck up of constitutional principles. Have they never heard of google earth? Anyone can fly over any place and give a complete description of anyones property. duhee

ladytographer

The blood was from a cut arm. The smell was from the unplugged freezer on the porch. And yes, we had to move.

tiptoe39

See, if you'd just asked the Winchesters instead, none of this would have happened...

Ggarth

Read a little about Zoroastrianism, which predates Christianity btw, and see how much in the Christian Bible is borrowed, and by this I mean stole, copied, etc.

MattL1

Wow, where'd all the crazy come from? Did they fix the internet connection at the asylum?

Endless History

I've been trying to find info on that name, and I keep finding some references to him, but I can't find anything specific.

Steve

Pretty big mistake if you ask me.

Timetomoveon

The fact that this can occur today is a fucking embarrassment. Someone needs to put all these superstitious religious fanatics on a cross and get them the hell out of public service.