Randy Farenthold

Farenthold was a well-known man around the Coastal Bend. A wealthy Corpus Christi rancher and farmer, he inherited half of a large estate left by his late grandfather, Randolph Morgan, who owned ranches, farms and oil interests throughout the area. Farenthold also was the stepson of Frances “Sissy” Farenthold, form er gubernatorial candidate and state legislator. And Randy Farenthold was the father of a boy named Blake Farenthold, who eventually would be elected, in 2010, to Congress, representing the 27th District, which stretches from Corpus Christi to Brownsville. A frequent visitor to Port Aransas, Randy Farenthold was well-known to the fishing community here. He enjoyed deep-sea fishing out of his boat, the Lollipop, which was docked in Port Aransas. Farenthold was 32 years old when his body was discovered on June 6, 1972, by a fisherman in the surf on Mustang Island, two miles south of the south jetty. A block of concrete was chained around his neck, and his hands were bound behind him. Farenthold was killed as he was scheduled to testify in a federal fraud case against a man named Bruce Lusk Bass III, a former construction contractor from Banquete. Bass was indicted on a murder charge in 1976. Bass pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 16 years in prison on June 20, 1977.