I’ve been holding this in for almost 50 years, and I finally got to the point where I just needed to say it. I don’t care if people believe me or not. I need to get this off my chest.
Back in 1976, I was about 17 years old. There was this kid I knew, Danny Lynn Stevens. We grew up in the same area in Pasadena, Texas. A few weeks before everything happened, he and I got into it over some money he owed me. He hit me in the face with a Zippo lighter — busted my nose open. I was pissed off. I didn’t let it go.
Not long after that, I got picked up by Pasadena cops. A car had been reported stolen and found wrecked not far from where I was walking. They figured I was involved. Started asking me who was driving it.
Still mad about what happened with Danny, I gave them his name. But it wasn’t him. I knew it wasn’t him. It was another kid I knew who actually took the car — but they never found that guy.
Couple months later, I was in court for a setting on an unrelated case when Out of nowhere, a detective walked up to me with a photo and asked, “Is this the guy who was driving the car?”
It was Danny’s photo
I told the truth. I said no.
And then he goes, “Don’t worry about it. He’s dead anyway.”
I was just shocked I didn’t know what to do. I panicked. So I said, “Yeah, that’s him.”
He said “okay” like that’s all he was looking to hear and walked off like it was nothing.
And that was the last anyone ever said to me about Danny Stevens like they just swept his death under the rug.
I only found a short newspaper clipping saying he hanged himself in a padded cell using a straitjacket strap. He’d been arrested for suspicion of auto burglary. That was it.
No investigation. No real autopsy I could find. No paperwork. Just some tiny newspaper clip saying he died.
I’ve never believed he killed himself. He wasn’t that kind of kid. He wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t in deep trouble or anything. Auto burglary doesn’t equal suicide. I’ve always thought they beat him or choked him trying to get a confession and it went too far.
And yeah — I was the one who gave them his name. That’s been with me every day since.
What really made it worse is that a few years later, in 1981, they did the same kind of thing to me. Picked me up again, took me behind the jail, choked me, tried to force me to give up someone else’s name. I didn’t say a word. Not after what they did to Danny. I didn’t trust them and ironically the person they wanted me to name was the person who actually stole the car in 1976 and i didn’t trust them not to kill him. I Still don’t trust them at all.
And now, after all these years, I finally spoke about it at the Pasadena City Council meeting. I told them everything. I’m filing a Texas Public Information Act request to get any record — anything at all — about Danny’s death. Because I’ve looked. And there’s just nothing.
Until the city shows me a single report, a single piece of paperwork, then I have every reason to believe they killed him. And I don’t think I’m wrong.
I was just a dumb kid who gave them a name out of spite. And someone died. And I’ve lived with that.
It’s time people knew what happened. Or at least started asking.
Comments
Good on you for trying to get answers now
It’s the right thing to do to try and get to the bottom of this.
Get the autopsy report, too. It will list all injuries to his body.
Watch your back. You know what they’re capable of. Please be careful
This sounds like the plot to a movie.
Man this would make a great movie, hopefully with a good ending.
My guts telling me they killed him or drove him to taking his own life.
Did you vote for the president?
Take it the district Atty
Sounds like he shouldn’t of busted the noses of people he owed money to
I’m so sorry you’ve lived with this burden for so long
You’re a novel writer and the best you could come up with was a 67 year old making a Reddit post to confess some dumb shit? Dude… this is laughably bad 🤣
I don’t have anything to add but I live near by so I will be on the look out for updates on this.
Okay thank you, please vote for Anyone but Wagner
Netflix hello
checks out, Pasadena has never been a fun place to be and the cops there have always been absolute assholes. I’m glad I’m further away from there nowadays
Never trust a cop from Texas
Get ahold of Meidas Touch. Ben Meiselas on X. They just passed Joe Rogan for the top podcast spot. They’re our greatest left-leaning media voices. They can help.
This definitely looks and sounds like ChatGPT wrote it
Man, I’m pretty tired of the “crazy” rhetoric being thrown around when someone commits suicide.
I think I cracked it. The person in the mirror you look at everyday is to blame. False accusations drove him to despair.
Damn you literally caused someone to commit suicide.
Partially, but it’s because I positively believe that they murdered him, and I am sick of them running over people and getting away with it!
If you’d like to visit and pay your respects, I believe he’s buried at Forest Park East Cemetery. It may not help with the investigation, but maybe it can help you find some emotional closure
Shit dude my mom used to tell me stories about this. I’m from the same area what the fuck. Her ex’s dad was one of the cops on that force at the time. Never thought I’d see this out in the wild.
From an European point of view, I am shocked cops in the US are doing all of this… for stealing a car !! Not that any crime is an excuse for torturing people but are they not busy with something more serious ?
Be careful with your investigation, if they were able to act like this it’s probably because the whole system was corrupted.
You were old enough to know better. Nowhere during your message or your comments have you shown real remorse for falsely accusing someone else of a crime they did not commit. Good you are trying to get answers now but the real reason this unfortunate friend of yours was in that position was because of you.
You’re doing him and his family good by seeking him justice, it’s never too late to do the right thing. Though you gave the wrong name and live with that guilt, you’re not the one who took his life.
“They… they… they…” they didn’t, you did. Sorry if you don’t want to hear that. But you put him to there and everything that came after is on you chief.
All you’re doing now is trying to assuage your own guilt.
If I was his family the answer to you would be too little too late.
Good God.
Oh my god.
You are not a nice person