On April 6, 1984, more than 30 federal, state and local lawmen raided a 3,500-acre (14 km2) ranch near the Texas Hill Country town of Mountain Home.
[2] Among the items seized in the search were human bone fragments and audiotapes of torture sessions in which a cattle prod can be heard as it is used to shock the victim.
The 1986 trial lasted three months, made national news, featured the celebrated Texas defense attorney Richard "Racehorse" Haynes and resulted in the conviction of ranchers Walter Wesley Ellebracht, 55, Walter Ellebracht Jr., 33, and ranch foreman Carlton Robert Caldwell, 21, on charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping but acquitted of murder in the death of Anthony Bates, an Alabama man who worked on the ranch in 1984.
In 2006, Glen Stephens directed the film Hoboken Hollow, which is loosely based on the events that occurred at the Texas Slave Ranch.
The film stars Jason Connery, C. Thomas Howell, Dennis Hopper, Greg Evigan, and Michael Madsen.