A Perversion of Justice-Rerelease

True Crime Brewery contains disturbing content related to real-life crimes. Medical information is opinion based on facts of a crime and should not be interpreted as medical advice or treatment. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to True Crime Brewery, tie grabbers. I'm Jill. And I'm Dick. So today we're talking about Cullen Davis, and Davis was a man who believed that money could buy him anything, and he very well may have been right. His life, his loves, and even his crimes show this to be true. In the 1970s, Davis, a wealthy oil tycoon from Texas, was accused of murder. The first incident occurred in August of 1976, when there was a deadly shooting inside his estranged wife's Fort Worth mansion. And then the second incident, he was charged with hiring a hitman for conspiring to kill 15 people. Join us at The Quiet End for A Perversion of Justice.

Colin Davis would become known for getting away with the criminal charges against him, and that's thanks to the best defense that his money could buy. But to many, the evidence against him was really overwhelming. So where and why did the justice system fail so miserably, in my opinion? So the beer for today's episode is actually a local one from Fort Worth. It's Rar and Sons Brewing Company, and I'm drinking an Oktoberfest. You might ask why I drink an Oktoberfest in the middle of a hot summer. But if you look at your local stores, it's already appearing on the shelves. Well, yeah, it seems to come out earlier every year, just like Halloween candy and Christmas decorations. It's always earlier and earlier.

It's like they can't wait. Yeah. So this Oktoberfest is a clear amber color. It has about an inch of head that lingered pretty nicely. And that's where the good stuff stops. It doesn't have much aroma, just some sweet malt. And the only real taste you get is some caramel. So it's sweet, fairly smooth to drink. But to me, it's just an average Oktoberfest. Oh, man. This is like two or three weeks in a row you haven't liked the beer. It makes us sad. Can't have them all good. Okay. But next week, I want a beer that you love. Okay? You got it. All right. Let's open it up.

Okay, Dickie. Well, I'm going to drink it. It smells okay to me. And, you know, hot summer, pretty much any beer is good. Yeah, anything wet and cold. Exactly. So let's head on down together to the quiet end and start talking about T. Cullen Davis. This was recommended to us, right? More than one person. Oh, okay. Tell me about it. Okay. Thomas Cullen Davis was born in 1933 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was the middle child of three boys, born to Kenneth William Davis and Alice Bowne Davis. Cullen was eight years younger than his brother, Kenneth Jr., and two years older than his brother, Bill. Ken Sr. worked in the oil industry.

Upon moving to Fort Worth, Ken bought Mid-Continent Supply Company, which was an oil field supply firm. And through hard work, intelligence, and maybe a little bit of luck, Ken made a fortune for his family. At the time of his death at age 72, Ken Davis Industries had annual sales greater than $1 billion. So financially successful. Millionaires many times over. Now, there was really no question that the Davis boys would follow in their father's business. Cullen said they started working from the ground up and that they deserved all that they got. So a little arrogant there. Cullen attended Texas A&M and met his first serious girlfriend there, Charlotte Kincaid.

And they dated for quite a long time, but never even discussed marriage, according to him. And gradually, the two drifted apart. So when he was 27 years old, Cullen met Sandra Masters, and she would become his first wife. She thought Cullen was different from other men she'd dated because she thought he was charming and well-educated. It seemed to her that he could talk about virtually anything, and it impressed her that he could speak seven languages. So when he asked Sandra to marry him, she readily accepted. And then they were married on August 18, 1962. Sandra wasn't aware, though, of just how wealthy Cullen was. But then she kind of got the point when they went away on their honeymoon, because this honeymoon lasted six weeks.

And they were able to visit 36 countries. So not many of us would enjoy a honeymoon like that. That's for sure. Yep. So Cullen and Sandra had two children together, Cullen Jr. and Brian Davis. But Cullen's primary interest in life was working and making money. He traveled a lot for both work and for some pleasure. And over time, he spent more time away and less time at home. So eventually, Sandra suspected that Cullen was cheating on her. And this would turn out to be true. Cullen met Priscilla Wilburn on the tennis courts of Ridgely Country Club. And they would be married on August 29, 1968. So it was like a six-year marriage, that first marriage. Right.

Cullen had flown to Europe in June of 1967 for the Paris air show. And just about the time this flight took off, Sandra visited her attorney and filed for divorce. She called Cullen when he arrived in Paris to give him the news. But Cullen didn't seem too upset about this because he was already in love with Priscilla. Yeah, it was a very physical relationship too. So it may have been more lust than love from what we can tell. It seems to have been. Yeah. Now, in about the same time that Sandra filed for divorce from Cullen, Priscilla separated from her husband, Jack Wilborn. Wilborn filed for divorce just four days later. He wanted custody of their two children.

Jackie and Andrea, as well as Priscilla's child from a previous marriage. That's Dee. Priscilla said she would fight for custody of her children. Well, Cullen rented an apartment for Priscilla in Dallas when they began seeing one another. And by December, they'd gotten pretty serious. They spent the New Year in Mexico together. And on their return, they stayed at the Green Oaks Inn. So on the night of January 2nd, while they were asleep in bed, their door was broken down and several people entered taking pictures and spraying mace at them.

So it turns out their estranged spouses, Sandra and Jack, had come to Mexico to try and get photos of them together and destroy their reputations to help out in their divorce and custody cases. Yeah, they got some good pictures. I wish I could see them, but they're just not available anymore. No, they aren't. So after that, Cullen met with Jack Wilburn, and they did work out an agreement together, you know, man on man. Wilburn would get custody of all of Priscilla's children, and Priscilla would not get their Cadillac, and Wilburn would not be required to pay her any support. So it was kind of a win for Jack, and in return for these concessions, Jack agreed to sign the divorce papers.

So it seemed to Jack Wilborn that Colin was happy and felt he'd gotten off pretty cheaply in the deal. Of course, he didn't care about her kids or having custody of them. So that was part of it right there. Yes, it was. But Colin, although he's a millionaire many times over, is still a little bit tight with his money. And he wanted to make sure it went to something that he deemed worthy. Well, narcissistic and selfish, I would say. You could. But Priscilla was a tough cookie, and she wasn't always the most likable person either. Priscilla was born in central Texas in 1941, and she was also the middle child of three children. When she was only two years old, her mother divorced her father, and the family lived in poverty.

But it really didn't seem to be a big issue for Priscilla back then. She would claim to have had a happy childhood despite the hardships. When she was 16, Priscilla married for the first time, so very, very young. She married 21-year-old Jesper Baker, and the marriage of Priscilla and Jesper lasted long enough for Priscilla to give birth to one daughter. And they named her Angela D, and they would call her D. But Priscilla and her baby soon moved out and went to live with Priscilla's mother. Then not too long after that, she set off for California with little D in tow. Another California sojourn did not last very long. Still pretty young, at age 17, Priscilla returned to Texas. She lived in Houston, but she had no money.

She ended up taking a job in a department store, but she didn't like working. She just wanted to have fun. Then one evening, she went out with some friends to a club in Houston called Tidelands. She was introduced to a car dealer from Fort Worth who was named Jack Wilborn. Now, despite their huge age difference, Priscilla was 18 and Wilborn was 40. They began dating. Before long, they got married. Well, for some time, the marriage did seem like a happy one. Priscilla had two children with Wilborn, girls they named Jackie and Andrea. But then Priscilla was bored and depressed about her life. She asked Wilborn for a divorce, but he didn't want one, and he encouraged her to stay.

That's when she began playing tennis as an escape from her unhappy marriage, and that's how she met the wealthy and handsome Cullen Davis. But Cullen's father, Ken Sr., really wasn't happy with Cullen's choice of Priscilla for his second wife. Through an intermediary, he contacted Cullen's old girlfriend, Charlotte Kincaid, to see if she could maybe talk Cullen out of marrying this trashy Priscilla. Charlotte did meet up with Cullen, and they dated for a bit, but the old spark just wasn't there anymore, and clearly Cullen was only interested in Priscilla, although unfortunately that wouldn't really last either. It's tough to find true love, you know? Well, it is, and both of them just kind of jump from person to person.

That's correct. Yes. So Cullen's divorce from Sandra was final on August 5th, 1968, and Sandra agreed to take $20,000 in cash, alimony of $2,000 a month, and then child support of $150 a month. She also kept the family home. Then just three weeks later, Cullen and Priscilla were married. Priscilla did sign a prenup, giving up any claim to Ken Davis Industries. The couple then moved into the Davis family home, and this turned out to be a convenient time for that because Ken Sr. just died one day earlier. So did the idea that he was marrying Priscilla, his son was marrying Priscilla, kill him? We don't know. I don't know. A lot of stress, though.

But it was interesting that when he died there, his father quickly. Well, and that they moved in. I don't think they would have been so comfortable moving in if the father was still there. But still, Priscilla was able to settle into her new life with Cullen pretty easily. And she spent much of Cullen's money on things like clothes and jewelry for herself, mostly. She and Cullen traveled extensively, too. And she really loved that. They were on the A-list for all of the important Fort Worth galas. And she was really into that kind of thing. And since her personality and blonde bombshell looks were so much larger than life.

She really did become the subject of Fort Worth gossip in their circle of friends and among Colin's acquaintances. She was an intriguing person. Yeah, tell me more. Obviously, she's intelligent, the way she could work things. But she is this platinum blonde, big-breasted woman. Colin liked his women that way. Yeah, but I mean, the bleached blonde hair was popular in that area during that time. Yeah, it was. But she stood out. Yes. Yeah, Bombshell is a good name for her. That's right. Yeah. So one of Colin's favorite hobbies was shooting pool. And he actually became rather good at it.

So in 1969, he was playing pool at a club called the Pink Elephant. Priscilla came along and she was watching. And they met a couple at the club named David and Judy McCrory. The two couples became good friends, probably Priscilla and Judy more so than David and Cullen. But they did a lot of stuff together. And even though he wasn't as enamored of David as his wife was, Cullen did value his friendship enough to buy the Pink Elephant for David McCrory. I guess, but it wasn't like a huge effort for him, right? It was kind of no skin off his back to do that. Well, it was a petty change to him. Exactly.

But yeah, it did seem like a big deal to the McCrory's for sure. So one day in 1971, Cullen came home from work. He showered and changed. And he told Priscilla he was going out with Roy Rimmer, who was a business friend. So Priscilla said she'd get dressed and go with him. But Cullen told her that she wasn't invited. And this was very unusual. So she would see this as the first sign from Cullen that he was becoming unhappy in their marriage. Yeah, what, two or three years into the marriage? Yeah, it didn't take long. He just seemed like he was no longer interested in having sex with her. And she began to wonder if he was seeing another woman because that's what he did. That was just the kind of guy he was.

Yes, he was. So of course she thought that. And around this time, Cullen had begun to show interest in nude stage shows and other live sex productions. So that was pretty wild. And he also wanted to share these interests with some of his guy friends. So one of his more ambitious ideas would come to fruition while he was attending the PGA Colonial Golf Tournament. And Cullen rented a van for the occasion, filling it up with piles of food and liquor and inviting several of his friends to watch Deep Throat with him. So porno was really cool to him. He hadn't really had much of that in his life earlier. And when that became a little more accessible, he got very into it. He really did.

And in 1972, Davis fulfilled a dream. He spent $6 million, which in today's money would be about $40-plus million, to build Stonegate Mansion. This was a five-bedroom, 11-bath mansion with an indoor pool and a 2,000-square-foot master bedroom. And that's as big as our house. It is, yep. That's a good bedroom. Well, I don't know why you'd need a bedroom that big, but sure. Now, in its prime, the luxurious contemporary home of courtyards, tunnels, and balconies was decorated with more than 100 expensive oil paintings. But many people, including Cullen's niece Kay, thought that Cullen's construction of his dream home

had put a big strain on his new marriage and we'll talk more about this later okay well one incident to me that perfectly portrayed cullen's dark side happened right before the construction of his dream home it was the year before and priscilla's daughter d had come to live with them then one night in 1971 d was awakened by cullen who was drunk and really reeked of alcohol and he took her into the kitchen and asked her what she forgot to do that night so d responded in a sarcastic kind of way that she forgot to lock the back door and cullen got like in a rage and pushed her into the door actually breaking her nose and then priscilla that's not quite a push it's a shove oh yeah he rammed her into it yeah Then Priscilla ran into the kitchen holding their little pet kitten. And I apologize for even saying this, warning for animal abuse.

Cullen grabbed the kitten and threw it to the floor, killing it. So poor Dee was shocked and devastated. And it was just shocking. Priscilla was upset too. What kind of person would do something so violent and then have such cruelty to an innocent animal like that? That's just a very bad sign for who he was as a person. Tells a lot about him. It sure does. And you know, this wasn't his first episode of violence either. Both Priscilla and Dee would say that Cullen physically abused them and that the abuse escalated over time, which it's wont to do. Cullen denied these accusations, though he did admit that he had a temper. In 1973, Dee had come home with an obviously forged report card.

and Cullen spanked the 14-year-old so hard that she had bruises on her buttocks. So this time, Priscilla called Child Protective Services and reported the incident. CPS recommended family counseling, but they didn't follow up, and Priscilla never did seek treatment for any of the family members. So nothing changed. Things just got worse. And less than a year later, the acrimony between Priscilla and Cullen had become intolerable. Finally, Cullen packed his bags and moved out of the house. And the very next day, Priscilla consulted a divorce attorney. So that's where we're heading now. Yeah, well, Cullen's opinion about when his marriage to Priscilla began to fall apart...

was all Priscilla's fault, right? He said it was when Priscilla broke her leg in a skiing accident and that she had become addicted to painkillers and she had behavior changes after that. Priscilla denied that she had abused her pain meds. She blamed Cullen's abusive and negligent behavior for the failure of their marriage. So here's two people not married very long and they're blaming each other because things aren't going well. Yeah, well, you know, it's his side, her side. Somewhere in between there's an agreement. Well, they certainly rushed into the marriage without really even knowing each other. Yeah. Like I said earlier, it was more of a lust than any kind of affection between them.

Apparently, they were married five or six years. Not that long. Not that long. So in March of 1974, Priscilla had visited their friends, the McCrory's in Boston, and they introduced her to an ex-motorcycle racer named W.T. Ruffner. So Priscilla immediately enjoyed Ruffner's attention, and she traveled with him to Baltimore for an all-night party. Then the two flew home to Fort Worth together. Ruffner, though, was soon arrested for narcotics possession, and there was an abrupt pause in his relationship with Priscilla. So we do kind of know at that point that Priscilla was enjoying some illegal substances. She kind of did have a liking for that.

Or a problem with that. Yes, she did. But about a month before Cullen and Priscilla had officially separated, she and Ruffner drove together in a camper to College Station where they went to a Willie Nelson concert together. Then a brief time after Cullen moved out, Ruffner moved into the mansion with Priscilla. Those Willie Nelson concerts are a lot of fun. I did one a couple times. An outdoor concert. Yeah, I went to an outdoor concert too. Yeah, lots of fun. He gave a good concert. It was wild. Yeah, and it wasn't just him. He had a lot of different people coming out. At the concert you went to, did he have any of the other highwaymen? The highwaymen? Yeah. He had Johnny Cash. Oh, I love Johnny Cash. And he had, what's his name?

Billy Joe Shaver, who's not a highwayman, but he's a country singer. Yeah. And I don't remember who else. It was something. Fourth of July picnic. Yeah. So probably a fun concert that they went to. But Ruffner and Priscilla were a wild pair, and there was usually a party going on at the mansion. Priscilla's infatuation with Ruffner, though, wouldn't last. So by the spring of 1975, Priscilla had moved on to a new man, and that was Stan Farr. Priscilla had met Stan Farr in January of 1975 at the annual stock show, and they really hit it off. And they were a pretty arresting couple to look at, because Farr was six feet nine and weighed 270 pounds, while Priscilla...

You know, like you mentioned, a petite platinum blonde with big breasts was petite, you know, tiny compared to him. It was minuscule compared to him. Yeah. So someone said that Priscilla looked like a lady with a high tolerance for bowling alleys. And that was just kind of a back-sided insult. Or maybe not even back-sided. It wasn't back-sided. No. Because bowling alleys have a bad reputation, I guess. Yeah. Although I enjoy some bowling. And they also said that Stan was a good old boy who liked to live on other people's money. Well, that's interesting. That's a good description. Well, hell, Priscilla's still, even though she's getting divorced from Cohen, she's still getting plenty of money from him. Yeah, right.

Yeah, she has access to millions, right? So Stan managed a local nightclub called the Rhinestone Cowboy. And he and Priscilla just fell in love and had a lot of fun together. Stan's sister Karen said the only time she had seen Stan get angry with Priscilla was when she was playing backgammon with a man named Horace Copeland. So where would you play backgammon? Like at their house? Or do you go out somewhere and play backgammon? I'll go to the club. You can usually find a game. Oh, okay. Gin, rummy, backgammon. I've never been a member of any exclusive clubs. Stan didn't approve of Copeland and wanted Priscilla to stay away from him. He just didn't like Copeland, thought he was a bad guy. Well, that's interesting because I don't think Stan was a great guy either.

So I wonder what his beef was with Horace. I guess he's not as bad as the other guys. Stan might be skirting the law on some things, but he wasn't breaking it as much as Copeland did, according to Stan. So what kind of laws was Copeland breaking? Was he a drug guy? Among other things. Well, after he separated from Priscilla, Colin had quickly risen to the top of Houston's eligible bachelor's list. And I guess that was based more on money than behavior, because his behavior was really shitty. Well, it has to be. Here is his head.

What, two marriages? Uh-huh. Well, the marriages aren't the problem. It's the abuse and the kitten killing that really are a problem. Yeah, that's probably not common talk. No, and he was kind of a cutthroat businessman, too. You couldn't trust the guy. Yeah. Yeah. So he met his next wife, Karen Masters, when he was out on a blind date. And he moved into Karen's house.

So these two preferred to stay home rather than go out. So his partying days kind of slowed down. And it was a new Cullen, a guy who was content to stay home and watch movies. So overall, it seems like Karen would be good for Cullen, you know, in some ways. Yeah, they worked well together. Well, they lasted. So two years after their separation, Cullen and Priscilla were called into Judge Joe Itzen's divorce court. Priscilla contested their prenup agreement then, and she asked the court to increase her monthly allowance from Cullen. She also requested a delay in the divorce proceedings. She said her breast implants had lumps and she might need surgery. So she wanted to postpone it. She'd need more time and more support.

And, you know, she felt like she couldn't really be dealing with that at the time. Of course, Cullen opposed the delay. He wanted to be with Karen and get this all finished. He wanted to pretty much remove Priscilla from his life completely. And I think another big, big motivation for him was that he wanted to move back into his mansion. It was kind of his prized possession, and it really bothered him that Priscilla had it. It sure did, as he had been planning to build this mansion well before his marriage to Priscilla. In 1969, he consulted architect Albert Komatsu, who had produced a plan that satisfied Cullen's many requirements. When the building was completed, it was exactly what Cullen wanted, and it was both opulent.

and outlandish. Here's some examples. Priscilla's bathroom walls were glass-mirrored closets. She had a sunken tub with a cut glass chandelier overhead. Bedroom had a huge walk-in closet and an eight-foot walk-in safe that contained full-length furs and an original Stradivarius violin. As I said, the mansion cost Cullen $6 million in old money, $40 million today. It was just completely over the top. Maybe that's why Cullen liked it so much. I know, but what motivates a person to live that way? It's just gross. Think of all the more important things you could do with that money. I know. I don't understand it. So on August 2nd, 1976, Cullen was meeting with his attorneys.

to discuss a lawsuit filed against him by his younger brother, Bill. So Bill was actually suing both of his siblings, Cullen and Ken Jr. And that was for mismanagement of Ken Davis Industries. So do we have any details on what he thought they were mismanaging? Were they just taking too much money out of the company? Yeah. He said that they gave themselves humongous raises in salary. I think it's quadrupling their salaries. And just that they spent money pretty freely. And Bill thought that the money was being spent for them and not for enriching the company. Oh, absolutely.

Well, and they were raking in millions of dollars while people working for them. Many of them were just getting by. Yeah. So it wasn't cool. So anyway, Cullen was anticipating a lengthy and difficult suit. And while he was with his lawyers, he received Judge Eidson's ruling on his divorce case. So Eidson had gone ahead and increased Priscilla's monthly support payments from $3,500 to $5,000 and had also granted her request for postponement. So he was outraged, although it really didn't matter to him if it was $3,500 or $5,000. It wasn't going to affect his lifestyle in any way. It was just anger. That's what it was. Yep. So he was really angry about that.

And at around 5 p.m. that same day, Cullen asked his secretary to call Karen and tell her he wouldn't be home for dinner. So then he left the office briefly and returned and was actually at the office until 8 p.m. And that same evening, Stan Farr was meeting with investors about a new club that he planned to open. His meeting ended around 8 o'clock also. And then afterwards, Stan picked up Priscilla at the mansion. They left 12-year-old Andrea alone in the mansion. This was not particularly unusual. The mansion had an elaborate security system and Andrea had been taught how to activate and maintain it. So to them, it was no big deal to leave a 12-year-old.

alone in this cavernous mansion. Well, I certainly didn't grow up in a cavernous mansion. I grew up in a three bedroom, one bath, working class neighborhood, but I was certainly left alone at age 12. There was no problem with that. And we certainly didn't have any kind of security system. Not even a dog? We did always have dogs. Yes, that's true. But yeah, there was nothing fancy. So Stan and Priscilla had dinner out with friends and they joined other friends for a nightcap or two. The couple left for home around midnight. When they got back to the mansion, Priscilla immediately noticed that the security system wasn't armed. Stan went upstairs while Priscilla went downstairs to activate the security system, just thinking that, you know, her daughter had forgotten.

But then she saw a bloody handprint on the basement doorframe. So that was bad. Yes. Occupants of a house a couple hundred yards away from the mansion woke up at 1245 a.m. Their dog was barking and they heard their doorbell ringing. Without opening the door, they asked who was there. And a woman's voice called out. It's Priscilla Davis. I live in the big white house on the hill. I've been shot. Cullen is up there shooting everybody. You must call the police. So the couple called the police, but they wouldn't let Priscilla in their house. So they just kind of saw Priscilla as white trash, riffraff, that kind of thing.

Well, here's a woman who's kind of incoherent with blood on her body. Yes, yes. So they were a little reluctant to open the door. Well, I'm sure it was that, but also I don't think they really trusted Priscilla either. They saw her as kind of hanging around the wrong kind of people, if nothing else. Yeah, they did. So they didn't know, you know, what was going on. Passer by Robert Sahil was in a business meeting that night, which ended a little past midnight. And as he was driving home, he passed the Davis Mansion. Outside, a young woman was waving her arms at him, and he stopped for her. And she told him that her name was Beverly Bass, and her boyfriend had been shot.

So she wanted to go back to the mansion, but Sahil was not going to do that. He drove her to a nearby convenience store where there was a payphone, and he called the police from there. But just by chance, a security guard pulled into the parking lot just then, and Beverly ran over to him and told him that her boyfriend was shot. Now, she said that the shooter had chased after her from the residence, and she identified the shooter as Cullen Davis. And she knew Cullen, so this was a positive identification. Yeah, so now we have two people that were involved in this shooting that have identified Cullen as the shooter. Right, which you think would be quite damning. It would. By this time, police had arrived at the convenience store.

Beverly got two of them to take her to the mansion. And there they found her boyfriend, Bubba Gavreau, who was critically wounded. He was conscious and he said he didn't know who shot him. Two officers proceeded down the hallway where they found the body of Stan Farr. Yeah, so an ambulance took Priscilla to the hospital. And for someone who'd been shot in the chest, she was in incredibly good condition. So she'd been lucky. She sure had. Her friend Judy McCrory soon arrived at the hospital and Priscilla told her that Cullen was the shooter. Priscilla then asked about Stan and Andrea. She asked the police officers to look for them in the basement. When the police went to the basement, they did find Andrea there. She'd been shot dead.

The little 12-year-old. So we have to believe that Colin killed his stepdaughter. At that point, at least. If Priscilla and Beverly would be believed, yeah. Yeah. Colin's the shooter. Absolutely. And since he had been identified as the shooter, the police did immediately set up protection for other people who might have been on his to-die list. Because he was an angry guy. He had many people he wouldn't mind getting rid of. He had a few people he was looking to end their lives. He just wanted to eliminate anyone who was in his way, basically. Yeah. So the police tracked down Dee Davis, who'd spent the night at her boyfriend's house. Jack Wilborn was told to go to the hospital as soon as possible.

And when he arrived, he learned of his daughter Andrea's death, and he vowed to kill Cullen himself. And when Ken Jr., Cullen's older brother, heard the news of the shooting and deaths, he called Cullen's girlfriend, Karen Masters. Cullen got on the phone and Ken Jr. told him about the shooting. Cullen asked if the police knew who did it. Ken Jr. said he didn't know, but the police were looking for Cullen. And while Cullen did not know it at that time, there was a SWAT team surrounding Karen's house. So he surrendered to them without incident. Cullen was arrested, and the prosecution decided they were going to seek the death penalty. Cullen would be charged with murder committed in the course of a burglary.

Yeah, so a bond hearing was held with Priscilla as the star witness, and she went over the events from the night of August 2nd. She identified Cullen as the shooter again, and she also testified about prior acts of violence committed against her by Cullen. Following Priscilla's testimony, the medical examiner described the bullet wounds and the obvious fact that they were lethal. Bubba Gavral was the next to take the stand, and he described how he and his girlfriend Beverly Bass had met Priscilla and Stan at a club for drinks. Beverly had told Bubba that she would be spending the night at the mansion.

But when they arrived at the mansion, a man who Beverly identified as Cullen came out from the shadows and shot Bubba. Just shot him. Didn't say anything. There was no, you know, tussle or anything. Just came out and shot him like an execution. Right. Cullen had been given a psychiatric evaluation prior to this bond hearing. The psychiatrist testified that Cullen would likely commit future violent acts if he was released on bond. The CFO of Ken Davis Financial testified that Cullen had more than enough money to flee the country. So bond was denied. And the defense appealed this ruling. But at the same time...

They were getting ready to defend Cullen at trial. And one of the first things Cullen did was to hire Richard Haynes, known as Racehorse. He was an eccentric but very successful defense attorney. He was best known at that time for his defense of John Hill. This guy was a Houston plastic surgeon who had been accused of murdering his wife. You know, we've never done an episode on the John Hill case, but that's been recommended to us, and we've been sent books and all kinds of things. Yeah, I read one of the books by him. The interesting thing is that somebody killed John Hill after all this stuff, and it was thought that Hill was killed.

The thought was that the father-in-law orchestrated the murder. Right. The father of his victim. So that's a juicy case. We might want to look at that some more. Oh, absolutely. Yes. So the lead investigator for the defense resigned and he was replaced by attorney Steve Sumner. His primary task was to learn all he could about Priscilla and the goings on at the mansion. Sumner found that Priscilla moved in two different circles. So one was her life of wealthy people and the other was her life of drugs. And these two groups of people did not commingle.

Sandy Myers and W.T. Ruffner, denizens of that second group, did talk with Sumner and shared multiple stories about drug parties and things that had happened at the mansion. And they were kind of wild things, many of them. Then the defense started pushing the theory that the shootings at the mansion had been the result of a drug caper gone wrong. So that's not surprising. Remember, with the O.J. Simpson case, they tried to blame it on Nicole Brown's drug use, that she was killed by some kind of drug dealer. Right. Yeah. We're going to see a similar thing where you try to trash the reputation of the deceased. It's really kind of predictable at this point. Yeah.

So Cullen had nothing to do with that, the story went, and so he wasn't the shooter. But by early 1977, public opinion was turning slightly in Cullen's favor. Because, I don't know, he was good with the public, I guess. Because he had been identified as the shooter by more than just Priscilla. His attorney, Facebook, was good with the public. Yeah, I guess so. The man had the gift. So jury selection began on February 22nd. And this was a very long and arduous process. And after eight weeks, only eight jurors had been seated. Then an anonymous phone call came into the defense attorney's office. And the caller said that one of the jurors had been discussing the case with her co-workers.

So the judge did summon the juror to his chambers and questioned her. And she did end up admitting to discussing the case. So after that, the judge decided that he had no choice but to declare a mistrial, which seems kind of a lot to me. I don't know why he didn't just eliminate her, but that's what he did. And this mistrial really didn't make Colin happy. He pushed his attorney to petition for bail again because he didn't want to be in jail. And to do so, the defense would need to come up with new information supporting his release. So initially, Attorney Hayes didn't want to give any additional information to the prosecution. So he was opposed to that idea.

But then in April, Haynes gave in and formally requested that Cullen be released on bond. But accompanying the bond request was an affidavit that was written by David McCrory. And in this affidavit, McCrory portrayed Priscilla as a drug-abusing party girl who would do anything she could to hurt Cullen. And then McCrory, in this affidavit, also went after the other witness who had identified Cullen, and that's Beverly Bass, as well as Bubba Gavril, claiming that they just couldn't be trusted. But this affidavit was not legit. It wasn't signed. And McCrory later said he refused to sign it because there were untruths in it. So the judge refused to consider the request for bail.

And he also cited Haynes for contempt of court. And that's because it was pretty much a false document. Well, I think it was a pretty much made up document. Yeah. Yeah. So Cullen's trial got moved to Amarillo. But his lawyers were not very happy with that because they thought that an Amarillo jury would be more likely to find Cullen guilty than a Fort Worth jury. Cullen's girlfriend, Karen Masters, was not worried. Her father, Ray Hudson, had extensive ties in the Amarillo area. And old Ray immediately began spreading the word around town that Priscilla was framing Cullen. Ray even became friendly with workers at the hotels where the prosecution insurers were staying.

Yeah, because these jurors were sequestered. That's right. Yeah. He even developed friendships with two other people, Wiley Alexander and Deanne Hill. They were the bailiffs assigned to Cullen's trial. Now, that's just not right. I mean, that is just a conflict of interest right there. One would think. One would think, yeah. I think maybe that's where Clarence Thomas got his ideas. But Steve Sumner flew back to Fort Worth to continue his investigations. And one recurring idea was that maybe Stan was the target and not Priscilla. She'd been shot once and she'd survived, but Stan had been shot four times and Stan died. Sumner reasoned that if the killer wanted Priscilla dead, she would be dead.

He also had heard the name Horace Copeland, remember that guy, several times and thought he should investigate him further. But then before he could do that, Copeland was killed in a domestic incident. All it did was eliminate any testimony that he could give, obviously. But at the same time, the investigators didn't go any further. You know, Copeland dies and that's it. They're not going to question anybody about what he might have had for information about Priscilla and Cullen. Right. Well, and it turned out that Cullen Davis was only tried for the murder of Andrea. Now, I'm not sure why they made that decision. They were just narrowing it down. Maybe they thought they couldn't prove the others, but that makes no sense to me. I think they were looking at...

What did they have the strongest information on? Plus, you're talking about an adult, big adult male who might have had ties to unsavory types versus the killing of an innocent teenager. So you're thinking, if you're a cynic, that the jury would be more likely to convict him of killing the young lady rather than the older man. Yeah, I see that. But it shouldn't really have been either or. I feel like it could have been both. Could have been. Yeah. But they didn't. So that's another weird thing about this. During jury selection, a bailiff reported that the fourth juror was acting strangely. He said this guy was talking to himself and seemed mentally unwell.

So a psychiatrist was called in to evaluate the juror and determined that he was unfit for jury duty. Lawyers found several old cases where judges had dismissed jurors without declaring a mistrial. So it took eight weeks. But finally, this person was eliminated and a jury was seated. Yeah. So people were asking, well, how come the first trial ended in a mistrial because of a juror? Yeah. And the second trial didn't. But nobody really explained that. No, I thought that was weird right from the beginning that you would do a mistrial before the trial really had even begun. Yeah, I know. Why not just take that juror out? I don't know. So the trial began August 20th, 1977. Prosecution gave their opening statement.

And when they finished, the judge excused the jury until Monday. In his chambers, the judge informed the attorneys that he was giving Cullen temporary bail. Cullen's lawyers had a check for $1 million ready. And boom, just like that, Cullen was free for the first time in a year. Now, another judge would decide the question of permanent bail. The decision to give Cullen bail outraged prosecutors, and they wasted no time making a motion to have his bail revoked. Oh, that's understandable. So at noontime on Monday, that original judge denied Cullen's request for permanent bail, and he was back in custody. So that was very short-lived. Yeah, a weekend of sort of freedom. Pretty much, yeah.

The first witness for the prosecution was Judge Joe Ideson. That's the judge who was in Cullen's divorce case. Through him, the prosecution showed that there was an injunction in place, which banned Cullen from being at the mansion. So this was important to the prosecution's contention that the murders had been committed in the course of a burglary. On cross-examination, Haynes wanted to portray Priscilla as a lying gold digger. And the judge actually supported this by saying that Priscilla had lied about having sex with her boyfriend before separating from Cullen. So a little bit of misogyny there, in my opinion. Just a bit.

Priscilla was the second witness. The prosecutors were reluctant to put her on the stand because they were worried that she'd been less than truthful to them and that Haynes would chew her up on cross-examination. Yeah, she was not very good for the prosecution. She was just not a good witness for them. Or for herself. Or for herself, that's correct. So Priscilla took the stand, and she did appear tiny and frail, and she did wear a very modest outfit. The first hour and a half of her testimony was focused on the night of the shooting and also on her divorce proceedings. So she identified Cullen to the police, saying that he had shot her and Stan Farr wearing no disguise except for a wig.

Bubba Gravel said that he was shot after Bass recognized the gunman as Cullen Davis and called him by name. Court was adjourned, and the next day Priscilla appeared again, still dressed conservatively. When the prosecution questioned her, Haynes objected to almost every question. And most of the time, his objections were sustained by the judge. So things weren't going great for the prosecutors. No, they weren't. Again, they didn't really like her as a witness, but they needed her. Well, of course. When Haynes got to cross-examine Priscilla, he really went hard after her, which isn't surprising.

He tried to embarrass her and asked about her background, her love life, her lifestyle, and her friends, which, you know, they weren't what most people would find upstanding. Haynes wanted to get out all of Priscilla's history to the jurors, which, of course, the prosecution didn't want. In the end, the judge allowed this line of questioning, though, and it really ended up being a goldmine for the defense, because Haynes especially wanted to bring up details about Priscilla's relationship with W.T. Ruffner, and that was primarily because it had begun before she was officially separated from Cullen. And then another person that got Haynes' attention was Horace Copeland.

And out of nowhere, he asked Priscilla if Copeland was the shooter that night in the mansion. She said he was not, nor was W.T. Ruffner, nor was it two other men who Haynes brought up. But by the end of questioning, Haynes was very happy with the results of the cross-examination because he'd really kind of taken Priscilla off balance and made her look maybe not super credible. He did a great job at that. And he kept it up. Four days of questioning. Yes, he did. On that fourth day, Haynes was able to get Priscilla to talk about her drug use, too. She did admit that she'd been addicted to Percodan at one point, taking as many as 200 in one week.

So this worked to give the jury the impression that Priscilla might not have known what was going on because she was so high all the time. Haynes then moved on to Priscilla's relationship with Ruffner. So she had maintained the relationship didn't become sexual until after her separation from Cullen, but Haynes was able to easily poke holes in that. Then Priscilla's neighbors, the Joneses, were the next to testify. They gave concise testimony on what had happened after the shooting, something that was very much needed by the prosecution. Haynes did nothing to challenge this story, but he did get them to state that the hayfield between their house and the mansion had recently been mowed, and we'll find out why he asked that. Yeah, why that was significant.

The next witnesses were all medical witnesses, starting with the first responder EMTs. The ER doctor who described the bullet wound to Priscilla's chest said she did not appear intoxicated while she was in his care. When Haynes questioned him, the doctor said there were no cuts or scratches on her legs or feet. Now we find out why he wanted that testimony about mowing the hayfield, because if Priscilla had run through the field barefoot that night, she would have said injuries on her feet and lower legs, and there weren't any. Bubba Gavril testified that on the night of the shooting, he and his girlfriend Beverly Bass were at the mansion when they were approached by a man dressed in black. When they stepped into the light, Beverly screamed, it's Cullen. And that was when the man shot him.

On cross, Bubba seemed to have suddenly suffered a case of amnesia, though, saying, I don't know, or I don't remember, to most of the questions. So he really didn't come across as well as the prosecution had believed that he would. There was certainly some speculation that Cullen or someone representing Cullen had talked with Bill Bubba. Well, yeah, meaning that he threatened him or offered him something. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, the case was definitely tainted. So Beverly Bass took the stand, and the defense was hoping to show that she and Priscilla had the type of relationship where they might conspire to frame Cullen for this shooting. Beverly testified to the same thing that Bubba had, that she clearly saw Cullen was the shooter.

She said she had not seen Priscilla after they had met at the club for drinks that night. And Haynes did get her to admit that she had an abortion a couple of years earlier and that Priscilla had taken her to the clinic. How this was allowed is relevant. I have no idea. That just seems like out of nowhere. Only in the 70s. That's right. So the state's final witness was the director of the Fort Worth Crime Lab, Fred Schiller. He corroborated the testimony of the other witnesses. Haynes then cross-examined him for eight days, but still did not come close to impeaching his testimony. So at least we have one sturdy witness there for the prosecution. Yes, it's a very long trial.

The defense called W.T. Ruffner to the stand. He was Priscilla's boyfriend at the time when she and Colin had first separated. Then when Haynes asked him about when he and Priscilla had become sexually active, he said it actually was before her separation from Colin. So that directly contradicted Priscilla's testimony that she hadn't had sex with W.T. until she and Colin had separated. But again, what's irrelevant for this? Right. They're just trying to trash a woman and make her look slutty. Make her look slutty and drug addicted so her testimony is not to be believed. Right. Exactly. But Haynes did fail in his attempt to paint Ruffner as the murderous man in black.

Still, he did undermine Priscilla's testimony again, and he later described this testimony as a hell of a show. The defense then began what prosecutors called the Parade of Lovelies. Haynes wanted to show Priscilla's lifestyle at the mansion after Colin had left, and he didn't want to paint a good picture at all. Alcohol, drugs, and lots of sex were discussed. The last witness to testify was a local woman named Kimberly Lewis, and she said that she and Stan Farr had a sexual relationship during July of 1976. She also said that the last time they met, one week before Farr was killed, he had seemed edgy and nervous.

So here they're trying to make it look like it was some drug hit. Although he could have also been nervous about Colin, right? Right. That guy would make me nervous. One of the investigators for the prosecution was Jerry Hitson, a private detective in Fort Worth. Hitson said that Colin wanted him to kill his ex-wife, Sandra, as well as Jack Wilburn.

But the prosecution had decided not to use him as a witness. The defense was aware of Hitson, but they weren't overly concerned about this anyway. So that was just kind of a nothing. And then the next witness for the defense was Arthur U. Wayne Polk. Polk was a landscaper who had done work at the mansion for Priscilla. When she refused to pay him for his work, he decided to take his plans back. He chose August 2nd as the night to do so. He was on the property. He sees a man dressed in black, and he claimed that the man was not Cohen Davis. The prosecution then found Polk's estranged wife, Paige, brought her in to testify, and she undermined most of U. Wayne's testimony.

Well, to me, his testimony seems like he didn't like Priscilla if she didn't pay him. So Cullen was probably willing to give him money. Sure. And he was on Cullen's side, whether he thought that he actually was telling the truth, but probably not. But after that, both sides rested. The judge called for final arguments on November 16th. And as might be expected, the prosecution stressed the testimonies depicting Cullen as the shooter. And the defense continued to rely on their theories that some other suspect did the shooting. But the jury deliberated for just four hours and returned with the verdict of not guilty. And this shocked a lot of people. Putting it mildly. Yeah.

So to make things even worse, later that evening, at a celebratory party at a local watering hole, one of the jurors said the first vote was 10-2 in favor of acquittal, and then 12-0 on their next ballot. That juror went on to say that they didn't necessarily feel that Colin was innocent, but they felt the defense had done a good job of raising reasonable doubt. The trial judge was at this party, though, and he even sat next to Colin at dinner. So that certainly raised some eyebrows and did not seem like a legitimate thing to be happening. No kidding. So that night, Racehorse Haynes gave a short speech, and in that speech, he really lit into Priscilla, saying she's a snake, unworthy of belief under oath.

She's a dope fan. She's the most sordid human being in the United States. In fact, the whole world. Someone ought to put a barbed wire fence around her house and not let her out. Oh, sure. So what are you really thinking? I know, right? They just really wanted to trash her. But just the involvement of bailiffs and the judge, it's, I mean, it's really wrong. It sure smells, doesn't it? It's really horrible. I just can't believe that that happened. Then in the aftermath of the trial, Cullen and Karen were treated like something near royalty. People just loved them. Karen even talked about plans for writing a fictionalized version of the trial. And Cullen was thinking of making it into a movie. So they're just all happy. Never mind that he likely murdered people.

Now, months later, three newsmen were having drinks at the press club when they were joined by a fourth. And this person said that Colin had a hit list of 10 to 15 people who he wanted killed. So we're back to that, that he wanted to get some people killed, and that had been going on for years. The newsmen discussed this as nonsense, but the hit list would resurface later. It had a life of its own. It really did, because in August of 1978, David McCrory met with the FBI, and he told them he was working with Colin and that Colin had asked him to arrange for the murders of several people. And this included Priscilla, a divorced judge, Ideson, Beverly Bass, and Bubba Gavril.

So the FBI arranged for McCrory to meet Colin while wearing a wire. And on the tape, you can hear Colin discussing the desired murders and the payments he was willing to make for someone to carry them out. Shockingly, even Colin's brother Bill was on his hit list. And we can only assume that this was related to Bill's lawsuit against Colin and Ken Jr. because Colin didn't want to give up any money. No, he didn't. So law enforcement spoke with Judge Eidson, and they decided to fake the judge's death so McCrory could show Colin pictures of the dead judge. When a wired McCrory again met with Colin, surveillance showed him giving an envelope of cash to McCrory.

McCrory then gave the presumed murder weapon to Cullen, so unfortunately there was no audio available of that because the recording device had malfunctioned. But still, Colin was arrested, and on his person they found $1,122 in bills and 15 cents in change. The grand jury passed down two indictments against Colin for his efforts to have his enemies killed. The first indictment included charges for solicitation of capital murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and attempt to commit murder. And the second was for his possession of a silencer. So Colin was denied bail again, and the trial was moved to Houston, where Judge Horace Pete Moore would preside. And so this trial began October 30th, 1978.

Once the jury had been seated, it was found to consist of seven men and five women, ranging in age from 31 to 59. Four were native Texans, but none were from Houston. Judge Moore denied the defense's request to sequester the jury. So the prosecution's case really relied on the one valid tape-recorded conversation between Davis and David McCrory. He was posing as a potential hitman for hire. And this was recorded in the parking lot of Coco's famous hamburger's restaurant. And in the recording, Davis was alleged to have asked McCrory to murder his wife and the judge. And this trial was one of the first to use forensic discourse analysis on tape-recorded evidence in a legal setting in the United States.

Yeah, a discourse analyst testified that Davis's words in the tape did not constitute solicitation of murder. Haynes defended Davis by attacking the prosecution's physical evidence. Davis's fingerprints were not found on critical pieces of evidence, like the cash he allegedly paid to McCrory. So unlike the first trial, Davis did testify in his own defense, and he stated that he had not solicited McCrory's offer to kill Priscilla and the judge, and he claimed it was a plot that had been orchestrated by Priscilla to frame him. So similar to the first trial when he said Priscilla was trying to frame him for being the killer.

But Cullen Davis claimed he had just played along with the plot in an attempt to eventually convince McCrory to admit to him that Priscilla was to blame for the entire scheme. So he really twisted that around. Yes, he did. And the first week of the trial seemed to result in a draw with neither side gaining a real advantage. But then the second week really started off with a bang. There'd been an article the day before in a Dallas newspaper that alleged several differences of opinion between lead prosecutor Tali Wilson and one of the seconds, Jack Strickland. These apparently got ironed out, but not without getting a lot of attention from the public. Yeah, these two guys didn't like each other.

No, but the prosecution did put David McCrory on the stand, and they played the transcript of the initial conversation between McCrory and Cullen. More damaging to Cullen, though, was the sound-in-film composite of a meeting two days later, which gave the jurors the opportunity to hear the plan for the murders being discussed. In his final question to McCrory, Tally Wilson asked him what Cullen thought of Dee Davis, Priscilla's daughter, and McCrory answered that Cullen had told him more than once that he hated the bitch. So that made him look like an awful person. Still, though, Haynes was able to put McCrory through a withering interrogation, and he really scored some points from McCrory.

Mostly because McCrory's memory failed him several times. So after calling just a few more witnesses, the prosecution surprised just about everyone by resting their case. It had been expected to go much further and have more witnesses. That's for sure. Just like the previous trial. Then the following Monday, Haynes opened the defense's case by calling Priscilla Davis to the stand. His questions to her were designed to show that there was actually a conspiracy involving her to frame Cohen. Under Haynes' questioning, Priscilla perjured herself more than once. Then with the jury out of the room, Haynes brought in a man named David Binion, walked him in front of Priscilla, when asked if she'd ever seen him before.

Priscilla replied, no, not in person, maybe on TV. He had never been to the mansion. We'll find out why he was doing that. Yeah, the next morning, Haynes reported that Priscilla had offered to settle her divorce from Cullen for $20 million, but that Cullen had refused. He offered her $1.2 million, which she refused. And finishing up, Haynes asked Priscilla if she knew a woman named Mary Ramsey. She said no. He asked if she had seen or spoken with McCrory in 1978. And again, she said no.

During her cross-examination, Priscilla said that she had conspired with no one. And determined to show the presence of a conspiracy, Haynes called Pat Burleson to the stand. So Burleson was a karate teacher who was only peripherally involved with McCrory and Priscilla. And he testified that Priscilla and McCrory were both liars. Next, Haynes put David Binion on the stand. So that's the guy who he had strutted in front of Priscilla without the jury there. He's looking to establish that there was a conspiracy. But wouldn't her attorneys know that he was going to be brought to the stand? Didn't they have to give a list of witnesses? Yeah. But Priscilla didn't seem to understand that.

Now Binion said he had spoken to Priscilla on two occasions, but said she had never asked him to kill Cullen. So this was better for the prosecution. Haynes at this point hadn't been successful in showing any evidence for a conspiracy. Well, Haynes called Dorothy Neal to the stand. She was a secretary in a building that also housed a Ken Davis company, Jet Air. So she often spoke with David McCrory on his way in or out. So she testified that one time she saw him pacing and acting nervously. And according to her, a car pulled up then with three people inside.

She said she saw McCrory climb into that car. She then identified two of the car's occupants as Pat Burleson and Priscilla Davis. So this was apparently used as evidence that McCrory and Burleson knew each other, and that was supposed to be another part of putting together a conspiracy against Colin Davis. We're still working the conspiracy. Well, the next day, Larry Jean Lucas took the stand. So this guy had met McCrory at a pool hall, he said, and they'd become friendly. Lucas testified that McCrory first offered him $10,000, then $20,000 to kill Colin Davis. And Lucas testified that he had refused both offers. So to me, this Larry Jean Lucas is a payoff.

Probably. By the defense, yeah. Cullen's fiance, Karen Master, testified that Cullen did not like David McCrory, and he tried to avoid him. She was an excellent witness because she shed light on the relationship between the two men, and she claimed that Cullen would never have tried to hire McCrory because he didn't trust him, and he didn't even like him. And she, again, came across as an excellent witness, attractive and well-spoken. Well, as anticipated, Cullen did take the stand in his own defense, and he really worked hard to repudiate most of the charges against him. He seemed to have an answer for everything. However, it seemed that not everyone was buying into his explanations. The spectators, for the most part, did not find him credible.

But Cullen's friend, Herschel Payne, helped Cullen by corroborating everything that Cullen testified to. So most people viewed his testimony as trying to help an old friend, but apparently the jury had a different view. They were buying this whole thing. When the case went to the jury, their first vote was 8-4 for conviction. Then over the next few days, after taking multiple votes, their vote was still 8-4. Yeah, so now the judge had no choice but to declare a mistrial. So most people considered this to be an even bigger upset than the first trial. He had been expected to be convicted.

And the prosecution, of course, promised that they would try him again. Then in the spring, Cullen and Priscilla finalized their divorce, and people had begun to wonder if that would ever happen. Mostly because Priscilla wanted about $50 million more than Cullen was willing to give her. So, ultimately, Priscilla was awarded $3.475 million, and her attorneys took $1.25 million. Priscilla also got to keep her car and her horse. But Cullen got his mansion back, and Priscilla was ordered to vacate it within 30 days. So neither of them were super happy with the overall results, but there were no further appeals, so I guess it was a successful settlement. Well, it didn't get challenged. Right. Well, I think they were anxious to get it over with. It had been going on for so long. Years, yeah. And then Cullen married Karen on May 14, 1979, and that was just after that 30-day waiting period they had in Texas following his divorce from Priscilla. Then Karen and Cullen moved into the mansion. Meanwhile, the prosecution was getting ready for Cullen's retrial.

Jack Strickland would be the lead attorney. Judge Gordon Gray would preside and the trial would take place in Fort Worth. The prosecution wasn't happy with the change in venue because Cullen was clearly more popular in Fort Worth. He was well known there. Yeah, he was the big fish in that pond. The second trial, with pretty much the same witnesses, went along the same lines as the first one. And Cullen again testified in his own defense. As the jurors began their deliberations, the public consensus was that the prosecution had won the case. So imagine the surprise and the prosecution's disappointment when the jury came back this time with a not guilty verdict. It was really shocking. Totally.

Then after his acquittal, Cullen moved on with his life. He actually would end up staying with Karen until her death. In the 1980s, Cullen lost a lot of his money. Most of it, actually, in that big recession. And he ended up declaring bankruptcy. Well, right. But he still didn't have to live like a normal life like the rest of us. He didn't lose that much. Karen died in 2016. But as far as I know, as far as we know, Cullen is still alive and living in the Fort Worth area. Yeah. So how old would he be now? He's 90. 90. Wow. Those evil bastards just seem to live for fucking ever, I tell you. They can do it. They never fucking leave. I don't know. So quite a case. And...

Just a really damning example of how the justice system worked or didn't work. I just think, wow. So much corruption here. I mean, we're just touching on the very surface of it. The corruption was just crazy in this whole thing. Yeah, we could talk a whole lot about that stuff, but then this little episode would be about seven hours long. Yeah, we can't do that. Anyway, I think we got most of it out there. I'd love to hear our listeners' opinions on this. I know it was recommended by several people, so I know that at least many of our tie grabber members are familiar with this. Oh, absolutely. In this case. Right, exactly.

Okay, we will be back soon with another episode of True Crime Brewery. And we thank you so much for listening and for supporting us. You really have no idea how much we appreciate it. It really does mean an awful lot. Yes, it does. It does. Okay, we'll see you next time at the quiet end. Bye, guys. Bye-bye.