I felt so, and why I felt that my parents didn't love me. I recognize so many of the errors now. There's a difference between an excuse and a reason. I don't try to make excuses for what I did. I try to, but you can't. You can't make an excuse for this, but yeah, there were things that happened that were reasons for it. From what we hear from friends of the family and so on, you seem like you had very loving parents who really gave you a lot. Is there something that you just don't know? Well, even from a very young age, I believe that what my parents loved was an idealized version of me, and that I kept telling myself if I worked really hard and I succeeded that I would be that person.
I knew in my heart that I wasn't that person, and I felt like if they knew who I really was, that affection would dry out. You can only go through that for so long before you start to bear a grudge against the people you think have set that high standard. Did you love your family? Did you love your brother Kevin? Yeah, absolutely. I was envious. He had so many of the qualities that I tried so hard for over the years. People just loved him, always. So you loved them, but you also hated them at the same time? Yeah. We humans are kind of messy like that sometimes. At what point in your life did you realize that you wanted to kill your father, your mother, and Kevin? I don't think my dissatisfaction turned out right. Hatred until high school. There was a point in there, I guess, sophomore year, where...
I was just so tired of being me. I was tired of feeling like a failure all the time, and I started to blame them for the way I felt. It wasn't something that I just decided one day, hey, I want to kill my parents. It was just something to try to ease the pressure a little bit. I wanted my life to be different, and however my thought process got there, I blamed them for me. I blamed them for me being in existence.
Welcome to True Crime Brewery. I'm Jill. And I'm Dick. Good evening. So welcome, Team Tie Graber members, to this special episode, Just Remembers. Number three. That's right. Now, the Whitaker family of Sugarland, Texas, seem to be an ideal, happy family. In December of 2003, Kent and Tricia took their two sons out for a celebratory dinner. Bart, the oldest, was graduating from Sam Houston State University. He'd been a bit of a worry to his parents, and they were really proud that he'd gotten his life together and was finishing his degree. He was becoming a positive role model for his younger brother, Kevin.
Now at dinner, Kent ordered a special celebratory dessert for Bart, his favorite bread pudding. The family ate, they toasted Bart's accomplishment, and they even took pictures. But when the Whitakers got home, they were ambushed. A gunman shot each of them as they entered their home, killing Tricia and Kevin. What investigators would discover over the next several days was more shocking than the crime itself. Within this apparently loving family was the mastermind of the murders, a cold-blooded son who actually wanted his family dead.
So come with us to the quiet end as we discuss Bad Seed, the Whitaker family murders, an unbelievable betrayal by a son who was loved and supported by his parents. What kind of a person plans the murder of his own family to cover up his secrets and lies and inherit money? Now, this crime had occurred in Texas, Dick, so what beer have you got for us? A Texas beer. Well, that's very suiting. So I have a different beer. We haven't sampled any of these yet. This is a Hefeweizen from Live Oak Brewing Company, and they're in DelVal, Texas.
So just so everybody knows what a Hefeweizen is, it's a beer in a South German style that's a wheat beer. There's a particular yeast that produces vague and unique flavors of banana and clove with an often dry and tart edge. There's some spice, some bubblegum-y taste, and notes of apples. There's not much for hot bitterness, a mild to moderate level of alcohol. These are unfiltered beers. They tend to be cloudy. And they're served in a special glass called a Wiesenglass. Yes, and that's what you brought with you. Do you want to describe it a little bit? I brought one with me so we can pour the beer. I only have one, so we're going to have to share the same glass. Okay. But these Wiesenglasses hold a fair amount. It's a big glass. It is. So it's tall, taller than a pint glass. Probably a foot tall, I guess. Looks like. And it's flared at the top. It narrows and then flares again at the base. So it kind of resembles an hourglass. Yes. Sort of.
Sort of a woman with a smaller bottom, but some really voluptuous breasts. That kind of an hourglass. That kind. Exactly. Now, these are very often served with fruit. So you get a slice of orange or a slice of lemon. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. You know where we're going there. I know how you feel about that. No fruit in my beer. That's right. That's the title of my book I'm writing. Don't put fruit in my beer. Don't put fruit in my beer. But some people like it. I don't. Okay. So this particular Hefeweizen is a hazy straw color, which most of them are. There's a small head with not much for lace. There's a banana and wheat aroma.
Tastes banana, some grain, a little bit of earthy hops, and a hint of spice. It's a nice beer. Sounds good. Let's pour it. Okay. All right. Let's go down to the quiet end and drink this sucker. Okay. Good idea.
Okay, let's take that giant glass and head down. I got it. All right. So as we tend to do, I want to go back to the beginning, back to when the Whitaker family began with the relationship of Kent and Tricia, of course, the parents. So Kent and Tricia, they actually met on a blind date. Kent admits that he was taken with Tricia at first sight, and within a few months, he was in love. Now, luckily for him, Tricia did feel the same way about him. Tricia had grown up in Houston. She and her little brother, Beau, were raised as Christians, and she was a really good student. She was athletic as well as pretty popular. So when Tricia graduated from high school...
She moved a bit north to Texas State University in San Marcos. She met Kent the summer after her freshman year, and then to stay near him, she transferred to the University of Houston. So Kent, he got a job at Trisha's father's construction company in 1974. Now, he was pretty religious also, right? Oh, yes. So this is a fairly devout family. Yes. He became the office manager and the accountant for her father's company. Now, he was a smart guy, and he handled the relations with the government, and he oversaw all of their contracts. And in 1975, after they'd dated for a little over a year, Trisha and Kent got married.
Then they had their first child, Thomas, Thomas Bartlett Whittaker, who they ended up calling Bart. And that was in 1979. Now, Trisha was thrilled to be a mom. She'd wanted to be for a while. And they focused their attention and love on Bart for a full four years until they had their second son, Kevin, in 1984. So Kent and Trisha worked hard to be caring and attentive parents to their boys. As they got older, they remained very involved in their lives. Kent played and coached sports. And Trisha, a schoolteacher, worked with them diligently on their homework.
Now, they were very devout Christians, as you said, and they attended church as a family. I would dare say more than once a week. Well, yeah, I think if you're a true believer, you go more than once a week, right? No, plenty of people are true believers that go once a week or even less. Well, these are really true believers. They're super true. So? So they must have been super duper true. So they, and they made sure their children were brought up in that type of environment in the same, same Christian faith. Well, they sure did. Yeah. So it was expected that the whole family led a Christian life and worship together. Yep. Yep. I would say that's accurate.
So the Whitaker House was also, though, a popular hangout for the boys and their friends once they were in school. Neighborhood parents felt safe knowing that their kids were playing at the Whitaker House. By the time Bart and Kevin were teenagers, they were leading a charmed life. They lived in a large, beautiful home. They had nice clothes. And at age 16, each of them was given a car. And there were family trips, of course. Ski vacations and getaways to all the amusement parks. Lots of fun.
Yeah, this was a wealthy family. The father-in-law's business was thriving. Kent was a big deal in it, made a good salary. They lived in a fairly exclusive suburb of Houston, and they lived in a pretty exclusive part of that suburb. They certainly did. And Trisha's brother Beau described that Trisha and Kent's relationship is really something that most couples envied. Beyond the superficial materialistic things, they seem to really be in love and be best friends in life. Great.
So in high school, though, Bart, he spent a lot of his time with his friend Adam Hipp, and two or three times a week, they lifted weights together in the gym, and they talked about women and money, you know, the typical things that teenage boys talk about, I would imagine. Yes, that's true. Okay, you can verify that? As a former teenage boy, that's what we would talk about. Okay.
Now, Adam would remember how they discussed the money their parents had put in their savings for their educations, their different investments, and their valuables. So that's not as normal. No. No. No, that wasn't stuff I brought up as a teen. No. Not even now, really. You don't talk about that stuff. Well, no, but I'm not a teen anymore. Sure. But no, I mean, when I was a kid, the conversations in the gym and the locker room centered mostly around girls. Right. And sports. And sports, of course, yeah. Well, the two came from families with more money than most of their classmates, so I think they kind of thought they were a big deal in that way. Yeah, they were wealthy.
so adam apparently liked bart's family they always welcomed him in their home they treated him like one of their own kids but adam noticed that bart didn't seem happy around his parents he seemed closer to his father than his mother whom he seemed to resent for one thing bart seemed to feel like trisha gave kevin too much of her attention So he's already kind of unhappy that the younger brother is getting more attention than he is. Yeah, if he wanted to be the center. Well, he's the firstborn. He's supposed to be, right? I don't know. I guess. Bart believed that he was intellectually superior to his brother. Sure. And he also said that Kevin was weak. In Bart's opinion, Kevin was feminine and a pushover. Bart's philosophy was that only the healthiest and strongest could really appreciate life to the fullest. He saw himself as well-read, worldly, and bound for success. However, Kevin to him was less than that. Kevin was the jock in the family.
He loved baseball. He was more interested in making friends than in academics. But Kevin got along better with their parents. He happily participated in family events, while Bart often made up excuses to avoid family get-togethers. So, I mean, you know, teenage years are tough years anyway, right? They are, but I'm going to go out on a pretty solid limb here and say Kevin was just a nicer human being. Well, we know that. So it's a solid one, yeah. But those don't sound like any huge red flags or anything. Not at all, no.
Well, Kevin liked to wear blue jeans and cowboy boots, while Bart, he liked to dress like a prep. Now, despite their differences in Bart's complaints, though, Adam liked to be around Kevin. It was obvious to him that Bart believed he was better than most people, but Adam accepted his friend as he was. Now, but most other people described Bart as kind of a cold fish. Now still, Bart was popular with the girls. He was considered handsome in a kind of non-threatening way. Well, he was a good-looking boy with money. Who wouldn't be popular with the girls? Sure. I don't know. Do girls think about money in high school? Yeah. Oh, not me. You're a unique girl. Yeah. So due to a genetic condition known as poliosis, Bart's right eyelashes were discolored white. You've heard of this? Nope, that's a new one. Really? Okay. So he had that white eyelash. You've seen it? Yeah. White eyelashes. So that's, I don't know if I'm saying it right, but I think that's it. Poliosis. Yeah.
So you might want to look that up in one of your journals. You should know that. I should. Maybe you knew it and you forgot it. All that beer kind of washed it away. No, I know there's a syndrome called Wartenberg syndrome where you have a white patch of hair and you can have a white eyebrow and you can have different colored eyes. Oh, okay. But I'm not aware of just the eyelashes themselves being white. Not a big deal. A little mascara would fix that anyway. Sure. Now his long-term girlfriend, Lynn, found the eccentricity very intriguing. She met him in a journalism class and she became his friend before they began dating. Now Lynn believed that Bart was very close with his family.
He often told her that he worried about Kevin because Kevin was struggling in school. And she noticed a few odd traits about Bart, though. One was that she knew he could be very manipulative. Another was that he saw himself as better than most people. So that seems to be a common thread there. We've had a couple of links to that, that he's superior to other people. He feels that he is. Yeah.
Now, during the summer before Bart's senior year in high school, Bart and one of his friends broke into the school to vandalize it. They wanted to steal some audiovisual equipment. So they dressed all in black with gloves and masks, and scaling up the side of the building, they crawled through a skylight. Now, once they were inside, the friend got nervous, but Bart, he was completely calm. Now, they stole two computers, and then they returned a week later and took two televisions, a VCR, and a laser disc player. Now, they broke in a third time that summer, but Bart was getting bored with this. The thrill was gone for Bart.
Well, but not before they broke into, I mean, you said a third time, they broke into other schools. Well, yeah, I haven't gotten to that yet. I'm sorry. That's okay. I jumped ahead. That's all right. You can jump. But yeah, you're right. We just hadn't gotten to that yet. Because he wanted to burglarize the elementary school once he got bored with the other school. And that was where his mother worked. So he was aware of where some things were. And then in late July, Bart and two of his friends went to the school at 1 a.m. And they took a computer and a printer. They loaded them into Bart's Ford Explorer. But unsatisfied, they continued to another elementary school. And they took two more computers. Then Bart rented a storage unit and stored all of their stolen goods there.
And were they planning on selling these things or just keeping them as trophies? I think just as trophies. I mean, Bart didn't need the money. I think it was for the thrill. Right. But then they did end up getting caught for the high school break-ins, at least. So Bart's punishment was pretty quick. He was expelled from high school. Well, that seems fair. And this is top high school in the district. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. So his parents, especially his mother, were very upset about this. Tricia seemed disturbed by Bart's choices. She was embarrassed to be seen in public.
Pretty much went into hiding for a while. She shopped at a different grocery store, even switched the family to a new church. Then, Tricia and Kent found a therapist for Bart. They were referred to a psychologist by a family friend. They hoped the doctor would be able to diagnose Bart, provide therapy, and give him a letter of reinstatement so he could return for his senior year at Clemens High School. Okay. Now, was that a private school or a public school? It was a public school, but it was a top school. Okay. But after meeting with Bart ten times, the doctor's conclusions weren't what the Whitakers had hoped they would be.
My impression the doctor wrote is that the court system will impose adequate consequences to punish Bart and to bring about a self-correction. So the psychologist did not recommend that Bart return to his high school. And he ended up going to a private school, finishing his high school career. Well, she thought he needed some jail time. And she also described Bart as egocentric. She said he was an egocentric man who'd had an inflated sense of self-importance combined with a mistrust of others. Now, his psychological testing revealed that he was easily provoked and that he may express sudden and anticipated brutality, she wrote.
So one ominous result from the testing was that he possessed a narcissistic personality trait that is characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, a need for admiration, and a complete lack of empathy. So there were signs before the crime. Yeah, this is all following the break-ins at the schools. Yes. And the psychological evaluation. Yes. And she pretty much pegged him. She did. Good job, I'd say. Now, because of Bart's family and the fact that he had no criminal history, though, the psychologist diagnosed him with adjustment disorder instead of narcissistic personality disorder.
So she wrote a recommendation letter for Bart to return to the high school after all. Which was to no avail. Right. It didn't matter because the administration of Clements High School rejected his appeal. They upheld his expulsion. So good for them. Well, I mean, he did some crappy stuff. Well, yeah, that's pretty extreme. Yeah. I don't know what happened with the other kids. I assume they were expelled as well. Well, I would hope. I mean, they all participated. Yeah. I think they all should be expelled. Of course. So like you said, he transferred to a private school. He went to Fort Bend Baptist Academy for his senior year of high school.
So in 1998, Bart was a freshman at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Where he didn't want to go. His two best friends were Will Anthony and Justin Peters. And they were intelligent young men, but they preferred playing video games above studying and socializing. And all three had a really bored attitude with life. So they're kind of antisocial, playing video games, kind of snarky, you know, just we're too good for this world type of attitude, which Bart was totally into. Exactly. So they're in the dorm room or the apartment room playing games. Yeah, because they're too good for everybody else. Right. Why bother with class and stuff? Right.
Now, over time, Bart began to confide in Will. He told him about his family back in Sugarland. Is it Sugarland or Sugarland? Sugarland. Sugarland might be a country music band, or is that Sugarland as well? I think that's Sugarland as well. Okay. But that's okay. That's okay. You got all the dolls and consonants in there, so you're okay. Okay. So he was telling Will about his family back in Sugarland and how his parents favored Kevin over him. So he believed it was because Kevin needed extra help with schoolwork, and Bart often felt neglected because in his mind, he was more intelligent and more capable.
so will he commiserated that his older sister was the star in his family she had a successful college career and so bart and will felt that they had really understood each other they were bros so bart often spoke about his family's religious beliefs as well but he didn't consider himself a christian and he complained that it was really difficult for him to be in this christian family So he's got some hardships, poor Bart. He does. So even though he was raised as a good Christian, he's falling out of the church. He doesn't think he's into it. Well, I think he's been faking it. What the impression I got. Well, yeah, for some time. Sure. So I guess the indoctrination into the Christian fellowship didn't work for him. No, it must not have worked out. Nope. So Bart and Will often skip classes and they would play video games. And then one day, quite suddenly, Bart turned to Will and said, I want to kill my parents.
Sure. Don't all boys talk about that to each other? Well, of course. You know, you don't have a good home life or you don't like your folks, so the first thing you're going to think of is, hey, you should kill them. No, we're kidding. We are. Okay. Maybe we should have said that with some laughter or something. I just assumed the laughter would be in the listener's mind, but you can't always assume that, can you? Nope. So Will laughed, see? And he said, yeah, me too. Didn't move his eyes from the TV screen. They continued playing the game until Bart said it again. I want to kill my parents. Will smiled. I'm serious, Bart said. What do you think would be the best way to go about doing it?
So Will said that he, after the fact, that he really thought Bart had to be kidding. You're one sick puppy, he said, grinning. But Bart asked, well, what would be the easiest way to kill them and not get caught? So according to Will, he played along with this. Had them run off a cliff in their car. Everyone would think it was an accident. Bart counted that they might not die from the fall. Well, what about a botched robbery, Will asked. That would be better because you have control of this crime scene, Bart said, thinking how clever he was. Planning evolved from there. So they've gone from...
hypothetical to maybe we're going to do it. Well, at least Bart had. I don't know if Will really was taking it seriously at that point. I don't think he was. Will was just kind of more of a slacker, and he ended up clunking out of Baylor, actually. And he went to Little Rock, Arkansas for a while. But then he did move back to Waco in the spring of 2000. So soon, Bart reminded him of his desire to kill his parents after he'd returned, and he convinced Will that he was serious. Now, Will, he responded with a long list of reasons why he shouldn't do it, trying to talk him out of it, according to Will. But Bart said his mind was made up. So after promising Will a fortune after helping to kill his parents, Will said that he would think about it.
So in his sophomore year at Baylor, Justin and Bart moved into an apartment off campus together. And in November 1999, Bart started to convince Justin to help him kill his parents too. So he's got two accomplices now. Yes. Or maybe two. Right. He promised Justin insurance money. And finally, by the fall, Justin had agreed. So Bart said his parents were worth more than a million dollars and he would share the money with Justin. And he told Justin that he had also recruited Will to help.
So the three young men would gather at Bart and Justin's apartment to plan the murders. And a plan was made where all three of them would travel to Sugar Land, Will and Justin in one car, and Bart in another car. When they arrived, Bart would lure his parents out for dinner. So this is very similar to what eventually ended up happening. Yes, he's got the plan made. Now meanwhile, Justin and Will would be in their car behind the Whitakers' home. And once the Whitakers were gone, Will would sneak into their home through the back window, which Bart will have left unlocked. Now once inside, Will would get a hidden gun that was kept in his brother Kevin's room. Then Will would wait for the Whitakers to return.
Now Justin, with a walkie-talkie, would alert Will when they got there. So to draw attention off of Bart, Will would need to shoot Bart in the arm after he killed Bart's parents. So in this original scenario, Kevin wasn't a target. Just Trisha and Kent were. Right. Just the parents. Yes. But Bart decided just before Christmas 2000 was the best time to do this. So they moved forward with the plan. But just two minutes after leaving Will at the Whitaker house, Will's boys came over the walkie-talkie saying, come get me. So Justin, he drove back to the front of the house and picked up Will. And Will told Justin that the house's security alarm had gone off when he opened the window. Yeah, now this was supposed to have been deactivated. By Bart. By Bart. Yes. So they could gain entrance. Mm-hmm.
So when Will and Justin got back to Waco, Will just packed up his bags and drove back to Arkansas and didn't speak to Bart again. So he was out of this conspiracy. Yes. Now, I don't know if the alarm really went off, but he was spooked enough that he was done with it. Done with the plan. Yeah, I think I read that the alarm did go off. That there was some question about whether Bart was kind of testing them or something. Yeah, because I think, was there a phone call about it or something? Yeah. Yeah, we'll get to that. I think I have that in my notes. Yeah. Because Bart called Justin later that night and said that his father got a call from the security company during dinner. That's what it was. Telling him that the alarm went off.
So Bart was angry with Will, telling Justin that Will had fucked up and he'd better not talk. So after this failed attempt to kill his parents, Bart looked for excitement in smaller crimes for a while. He and Justin went to Hastings Books and Records and shoplifted two movies, Ronin and Way of the Gun. So as Bart walked through the security railings, the alarm went off, and Justin and Bart ran off. They jumped into Bart's car and sped off, but the cashier had run out behind them and wrote down the license plate number. Oops. Yep. So a Waco police officer was able to run a check on the license plate, and he discovered that the vehicle was registered to Kent Whitaker in Sugarland. So the officer called the Whitakers and confirmed that her son Bart attended Baylor, and she would have him call the police officer.
So soon after that, Bart called the police and admitted to stealing the DVDs. He was arrested, he had to go return the DVDs, and then he was released. So that's two strikes against old Bart now. I mean, he's done some thievery in high school. Yes. And now he's shoplifts. Yeah, I mean, I think it's clear to his parents that this kid's trouble. Yeah. Right? I mean, certainly maybe not murder territory, but there's some red flags about his moral character. Definite flags. Yes, definitely. I agree. So the shoplifting charges were eventually dropped. Which is a shame, because he probably should have been made to pay for that. Yeah, I mean...
Two movies, big deal. I know, but with the school things and that, I think maybe he'd serve some jail time. He could have learned some lessons in life. I don't think that was going to happen. He was learning that he could get away with everything. So anyway, the charges were dropped, and we go forward to early 2001, which was about a month after the first attempt to have his parents killed. And Bart was talking to Justin about trying again. He's persevering, isn't he? Very persistent. Now he had recruited his high school friend, Adam Hipp. The three of them took an expensive ocean cruise to the Bahamas during the break between Christmas and New Year's.
by this time justin was very depressed his ex-girlfriend back home had died in a car accident he felt like he had nothing to lose so he was in on this attempt bart adam and justin met to make their murder plans one plan they gave up on was to trap trisha kent and kevin along with cousins aunts uncles and grandparents from trisha's side of the family in his grandmother's lake house and set it on fire. Isn't that alarming that they even discussed that? It is. It's very alarming. I mean, not just the method of doing it, but how did they expect to kill everybody? And to not even care about it. Right. Very, very creepy. And in this scenario, Bart would be the only one to manage to escape. Sure, of course. Jesus. According to Adam, Bart had a specific reason why he wanted to kill his entire immediate family as well as his mother's family. Well, the money, right? It was because they own the construction company. And if he could eliminate them, everything would be his. Sure. So see? It was for the money. It's all for the money.
So they discussed the lake house fire plan several times before deciding against it. There was no guarantee that everyone else would die, and arson was too easy to figure out, they figured. So eventually, Bart decided that the original idea of a botched robbery would be best. But this time, Bart would give Adam a key to the house, as well as the alarm access code. Adam would unlock the door, disable the alarm, and lie in wait for Tricia and Kent. Now, Justin had a friend from high school who also attended Baylor. Her name was Jennifer, Jennifer Jeffette. Now, she knew that Justin was depressed because of his ex-girlfriend's sudden tragic death in a car accident.
She also knew that he was easily led astray by others. She sensed that Justin was being influenced by Bart Whitaker, who was very manipulative, and she felt that Bart had a really negative influence on Justin's life. So Jennifer cared about Justin, and she invited him to a rush party. And when she got him alone away from Bart, he confessed to her his plans to kill Tricia and Kent Whitaker. Jennifer was stunned, as I'm sure you can imagine. I can't even begin to imagine you're with this friend who says, you know, I'm going to go kill my friend's family. Yeah. Jeez. Yeah, so she went to Bart's room and she confronted him. She did not like him. And she said, are you really going to let this happen?
So Bart, he's lying on his bed with a girl who isn't even his girlfriend. It's like a girlfriend of a friend of his. And he sits up slowly and smiles at Jennifer. She said it gave her chills. He stood up and slowly walked toward her. He put his hands on the sides of her shoulders and leaned in toward her right ear. Everything's going to be okay, he whispered. You don't have to worry. And she said that his voice was eerily calm and just frightening. So she wasn't having any of it. She pushed him away and she said, if anything happens to Justin, you're going to be sorry.
She was disgusted by Bart. She went home, she called her boyfriend, and he told her, well, you have to call the police. You know, what are you even thinking? You have to. So on the way to Sugar Land in a car stolen by Bart, Justin actually ran out of gas. And he was honestly relieved because the plan was over and he had some doubts in his head about it. But Bart wasn't giving up so easily. He said, well, just wait there. I'm going to bring you a can of gas so you can get to the next gas station and proceed with the plan. He didn't want anything to stop this. But fortunately, Jennifer went ahead and called 911. She said, I need to report a potential murder. A friend of mine is about to take part in a murder and I want to stop him.
So she gave police the Whitaker's names. Jennifer's boyfriend also had called the police. So after Jennifer got off the phone, she called Justin. She said, where are you? And she told Justin that she called the police, but she hadn't given them his name. So Justin seemed frightened of what Bart would do. He was angry at Jennifer, too, and he hung up on her.
So about 20 minutes later, Justin's cell phone rang again, and he was shocked to hear that Kent Whitaker's voice. I'll bet he was shocked. So Kent Whitaker said, Justin, hello, how are you doing, son? Seemed cheerful and friendly. So this guy has a deep well of denial at his disposal. I think so. And so Justin says, I'm okay, Mr. Whitaker. Kent said that he thought they were being pranked by someone who called 911. So laughing, he said that someone had told him Justin was on his way to murder Tricia and him. Justin said, what, sir? That's ridiculous. Yeah. I can't believe that story. I know. So Kent agreed and told Justin, well, have a good night, son.
I don't know. And this just makes me think of Kent Whitaker later on with his forgiving and all this. I think he seems... I don't know. We'll talk about that later. There's something about him. Obviously, they didn't take he or Kent didn't take it as a serious threat. He thought someone was putting one over on him. Yeah, but that's weird. Your son is sending someone to kill you. That's not a normal prank. I'd want to get to the bottom of what's going on with that. Well, yes. And there's more to it. So minutes later, an officer from the Waco police called Justin Sell. And after he hung up from that call, he saw Bart pull up behind him.
Now Bart walked up to the driver's side window, and he was carrying a red plastic gas can. Here's your gas, Bart said. Now Justin told Bart it wasn't going to happen. Bart's parents could not believe that their son would plot to kill them. They thought it was a prank spun out of control because they knew that their son, Bart, loved them. Absolutely. But Bart didn't dismiss it. He went and took off for Dallas. So he's going off into hiding. He thinks he's caught. Yeah. So he was gone for at least three days before his family found him. And when they got a hold of him, he told them he was scared, confused, and worried that he was going to be blamed for something he had nothing to do with. And they believed that. Yes. His parents reassured him that they knew he could never do anything to harm them or anyone else. So Bart returned to Waco. But then he moved out of Justin's apartment and never spoke to him again.
Now, soon after, Bart decided to leave Waco and transfer to Sam Houston State University. And that is in Huntsville. And Huntsville is near enough to Sugar Land in Houston. It's about 90 miles north. Okay. Bart said he wanted to get a job with the FBI, and he believed he would be a good homicide detective or criminal profiler because he could think like a criminal. Well, yeah. Well, he's shown us some ways of doing that. I guess so. Sam Houston has a renowned criminal justice college.
But Bart failed to tell his parents that he hadn't even completed enough courses at Baylor to have finished his freshman year, even though he'd been in school for two years. Well, that's because he's been fucking off playing video games and plotting to kill his parents all the time. Yes, I think you're right. Maybe if you're going to class. Yeah, that kind of helps. So he's been two years at Baylor, and he hasn't even gotten enough credits to complete the first year. Right, and his parents don't know, which is another thing that makes me think, hmm, they're paying the bills, why don't they know?
Wow, that's a whole other topic, isn't it? Yes. Because I don't see how Perrin could be unaware. But, you know, we talked about the Jennifer Pan story, and it was a similar thing. Yeah, but they didn't speak English, so I kind of gave them a break. Okay. So Perrin's were unaware of his lies, of Bart's lies. They supported Bart in his endeavor to become a FBI agent. They purchased a $90,000 townhome in Willis, Texas for Bart. This is less than 30 miles from Sam Houston State. He also got a job as the manager of the dining room restaurant at the nearby Bentwater Yacht and Country Club.
Very posh place. Yes. Well, anything that's called yacht and country club is better be posh, right? I imagine. I've never been to one. Well, maybe for a wedding or something, but I've never been a member of one. Right. Right. He made friends with neighbors, Chris Breschier and Steve Champagne. Now, Bart ended up getting both of his new friends jobs at the dining room. Bart shared some of his background.
with Steve, but he also told him that he was a graduate student and teacher at Sam Houston State. Another lie. Yes. He's not even a sophomore. Sure, I know. Well, Stephen felt that Bart treated him well at work. Bart had after-work parties, and Stephen, Chris, and Bart became quite close. One thing Stephen noticed about Bart was that, even though he hosted these get-togethers, he never seemed really comfortable around large groups of people. Stephen, though, he began to look up to Bart, who seemed very intelligent, professional in his job, you know, although a bit aloof.
Now, Bart, he began complaining to Stephen about his family. He said he was adopted and he couldn't stand his brother. He started to refer to Stephen as his brother through thick and thin. And then he slowly opened up to Stephen about wanting to kill his parents. So this all seems carefully plotted out to me. Oh, definitely. Okay. I mean, even the after work parties. Sure. He's got them. They're all at his place. He has control of the situation. Yes. People look up to him. Here's this great manager and look what he's doing for us. We really like him.
That kind of softens the blow for when he says, oh, we need to kill my parents. Well, he promised also financial security to Stephen if he helped him. He said that his brother Kevin was worthless and draining the family of their money, and then they began to talk about how they would spend the family inheritance. Now, near Thanksgiving of 2003, Bart came right out and asked Stephen to help him kill his family, and Stephen said, no way. But by this time, Chris Brashear was living with Bart in his townhome, and Chris and Bart approached Stephen, and they told him that he needed to be the driver in their murder plan. So Stephen said, no, I don't want anything to do with it.
But Chris said that he'd agreed to be the shooter. The least Stephen could do was drive. I don't know what kind of logic that is. Well, it's the misinformed logic that if you're the driver, you're not involved. Yeah, we know that's not true. We do. Now, Bart told Stephen he was already a part of it. He'd been in on discussions and was therefore part of the conspiracy, Bart said. So no matter what he would do at this point, he would still be an accomplice.
So, naive, I guess. Not too bright. Stephen agreed. Not too bright. Yeah. Or maybe he did want some of the money. Maybe part of that was there, too. Still not too bright. No, of course not. Well, the plan Bart, Stephen, and Chris discussed was basically unchanged from the plans he'd made with Adam Hipp, Justin Peters, and Will Anthony. Neither Stephen nor Chris was ever offered a specific amount of money for their participation, though. Now, according to Stephen, Bart monitored him closely in the weeks before the crime. On one occasion, he said, I know where your mother lives. I know where she sleeps. Yeah, so that's kind of a threat, right? I think so.
And it's really uncertain how intimidated or threatened Stephen really was, but there's no doubt about the fact that Bart was in charge of this thing, I'd say. No question. Yeah. Well, later, Stephen would tell police that if Bart was willing to kill his own parents, why wouldn't he hesitate to kill my mother? So that's a good point. Maybe he was afraid of Bart to a certain extent. Now, in early December, Bart purchased two disposable cell phones, one for Chris and one for Stephen, and he assured them that they would be untraceable. He also talked to Stephen about making sure that his car was untraceable. So on the day of the murder, he would take license plates from another vehicle to put on Stephen's car. And also on the day of the murders, Bart and Chris...
They packed their stuff and drove off in Bart's Yukon. Stephen, he left 20 minutes later. so that they wouldn't be seen on the camera leaving together. They think they're real smart here with that. Right. Like the police aren't going to watch for 20 minutes. Now the three, they drove more than 70 miles south on Highway 59. Chris and Bart exited to go to Sugar Lakes Drive. Steven drove for an extra 30 minutes and then turned around. And he went to the Papa Deuce Seafood Restaurant's back parking lot, and he waited with the cell phone that Bart had given him. So that was the restaurant that Bart's family was taking him to dinner. Right. We're going to have a big family dinner. Because he's graduating, he said. Right. He's graduating. They gave him a nice Rolex for graduation. Yes, they did. That's kind of silly too, I think.
It's an expensive gift to give a... And it's not a sensible one. If you're going to spend that kind of money, why wouldn't you get him something sensible, like a nice suit to wear to an interview? They already bought this kid a $90,000 townhouse. Yeah, they're very foolish that way. And a Yukon SUV. Not SUV. That's a big car. I just don't believe in giving kids things like that. I mean, give them what they need to succeed, but don't make it that easy. Exactly. It takes away a lot of motivation in life. So, I mean, I don't think the Rolex was out of character for the other stuff they bestowed on him. That's true. Yeah, and I'm not saying it's their fault he was evil, but they did spoil him. No question. Yeah, so he did feel very entitled.
So here we are in Papadou, which is one of a number of chains in the Southwest. Very popular. Yes. Very lucrative business. This particular one is kind of their flagship restaurant. I don't know if you say so. I do. So the Whitakers were having what seemed like a very happy celebratory family dinner.
Yes. Our oldest son is graduating. We're so happy. The pictures that you see from that dinner, they look happy. Bart Whitaker played the role of a loving family member perfectly, and Dad didn't notice anything amiss. Well, Dad's not noticing a lot of things, though, let's be honest. Dad's in denial. No shit. Back at the Whitaker's house, Chris Brashear went inside, pulled out dresser drawers in the master bedroom. He was trying to make it look like a robbery. Yes, yes. One small mistake. Instead of pulling them out haphazardly, he pulled each one out exactly to the same distance.
So they're all lined up. Sure, and that's suspicious, but I think if it had really been a robber and they did that, that's not a deal breaker. There could be a robber who's very neat. If things had been robbed. Yes, exactly. If other things had been different, of course. And as he's finished doing this stuff, he noticed one of his gloves was missing. He had no idea where he lost it. Called Stephen from his cell. Stephen told him to find it. He searched the house, but to no avail. Turns out it was outside. Yeah. But Stephen watched the Whitakers get into the family trailblazer. He followed them in his mother's Camry, parking a block away from their house.
The Whitakers were ambushed and shot as they entered their home. That was the plan, right? Well, yeah, I think the younger boy, Kevin, went in first. Chris was going to be positioned so that as people came through the door, he was going to start firing. Yeah, and Bart made like he left his phone in the car and went back out. So he would be the last one coming in. Right. So they were all ambushed and shot. Chris Prashear left out the back door, walked quickly to Stephen's mother's car.
On the way back to Bart's townhouse, Chris calmly told Stephen about what he had done. Right, so at the townhouse, Chris and Stephen, they vacuumed the car just as Bart had instructed them. They put everything they'd used in the crime into duffel bags. So they put two duffel bags in the back of Chris's red Ford Ranger, and they drove to a bridge on 1097 Road West. So they got out, lifted the hood to make it look like they were broke down on the road. And while Stephen stood over the engine, Chris removed the two duffel bags and tossed them over the bridge. Then they went to a local bar called the Ginger Man, and they drank several beers, and they paid for that with money stolen from the closet of Tricia and Kent Whittaker.
So Stephen and Chris, they slept well that night. They both went about the following day as if it were simply just another ordinary day. And while sitting in another bar the next night, Stephen got a call from a friend. And this friend told Stephen that he had heard that his friend and boss Bart Whittaker had been shot and that at least two of his family members were dead. Then his mother called to tell him the same thing. So the next morning, Stephen went ahead and visited Bart in the hospital, you know, playing the role of the worried friend. Right. I'm concerned about you. I'm glad you're alive. Yeah. The Whittaker's next door neighbor, Cliff Stanley, he was very fond of Trisha and Kent.
and his wife Darlene was friendly with Tricia. They also had two sons, Brandon and Dale, who were off at college. Now, the Stanleys were relaxing and watching television on the night of the murders. They were happy to have their eldest son Brandon home for the holidays, and that's when Brandon, he came into the living room asking if the yelling and shooting that he heard was coming from the television. But Brandon and Cliff went to the front door to see where the noise was actually coming from, and Cliff saw Kent sprawled out on their concrete porch.
And when Kent yelled for help, Cliff headed towards him. Now as he approached Kent, he looked up and he saw that Tricia was just about six feet away from Kent. Brandon was behind his father and Cliff yelled at him to call 911. So Brandon went back home to make the call. Now Tricia was still alive at that point. She was moaning and she was able to speak. And she said to Cliff, someone shot us. I think that's pretty brave of this guy, this next door neighbor to go running over there. What if the shooter was still there? Well, what are you going to do? Your neighbor, I would run over. I mean. Yeah, well, you might call 911 from the safety of your home. And let him suffer? Yeah.
I don't think so. I think he did the right thing. He absolutely did. I guess some people wouldn't have run over, but I think your instinct would be to run over if you care about somebody. Your first instinct would, yeah. Yeah. So Cliff gets there and he's listening to Tricia continue to moan. Yeah. And he heard Kevin taking his last breaths. How horrific. So Kevin stopped breathing as Cliff was holding pressure to Ken's wound with his t-shirt. Wow. Ken told him to leave because the shooter could still be in the house. Well, that was thoughtful.
was Chris ran home to get his shotgun. As he's getting ready to go back, his wife, Cliff's wife, told him, don't do that. What if the police arrive and see you standing here with a shotgun? You might get shot. Smart lady. Good advice. So Cliff knew she was right. He returned to Kent to comfort him. In the 10 minutes since Brandon made the 911 call, Sugar Land police officer Kelly Glass arrived. Then more police and an ambulance showed up. One of the EMTs called for a life flight helicopter for Tricia. Kent and Bart were taken to the same hospital.
When Kent asked about his family, he was told that he and Bart would be undergoing surgery. So Bart's been shot in the arm as he instructed. Yes. And Kent's been shot actually in his other, in the arm opposite. Right, right. Although I think Kent had much more severe injuries. He did. His bone, his humorous upper arm bone was shattered. Nothing was said about Tricia or Kevin and this frightened Kent pretty much, right?
Well, yeah, I mean, that made him think something bad has happened. Yeah, he said, I think Trisha and Kevin are dead. And a local hospital representative nodded. They are, she said. Yeah, so Kent was also told that Bart had been heroic, trying to tackle the shooter and getting himself shot. Both Bart and Kent had the broken arms, but Bart had been shot in the left arm, Kent in the right. Kent decided that he didn't want to live with anger and hurt. Right away that night, I guess. So he prayed and he forgave the shooter who'd killed his wife and his younger son. That's his story. So the night after the murders, Detective Marshall Slott and his partner visited Kent and Bart in the hospital, where they were actually sharing a room.
Kent and Bart recalled the night of the shooting in as much detail as they could remember. Bart talked about his impending college graduation from Sam Houston State University. Well, that was ballsy, to talk to the cops about something that's a huge lie. It's stupid, it's ballsy, whatever you want to say. Why do you do that? Well, it's something that can be checked easily. Of course. And he's going to get fucked. He said he was planning to do an internship with the FBI and become a detective. Now, the next day, though, Detective Slott made a series of phone calls, and that's when he went to find out more about the Whitakers, and he was really surprised by a conversation he had with the bursar's office at Sam Houston State.
So he went back to the hospital to speak to Bart, of course. Bart was in his hospital room watching TV and Kent wasn't there at the time. So Detective Slott told Bart what the bursar's office had told him, that Bart wasn't a student there. In fact, he only had enough credits to still be a freshman. So when Bart left the room and Kent returned, the detective spoke to Kent alone. Kent was shocked. He knew that Bart had lied and committed petty crimes in his youth, but he was basically a good kid, he thought. His concern was not that Bart had done anything or had anything to do with the murders. His concern was that Bart's lies about school might derail the police's investigation into the murders.
If Bart became a suspect, Kent thought, the police won't be out looking for the real killer. So he's angry. He goes and he confronts Bart and complains about what a stupid thing it was to be dishonest like that. Now, Bart had seemed very distraught since the murders, and then Kent started feeling sorry for Bart. Yeah, I mean, that just doesn't ring true to me. What? That he felt sorry for him? That he felt sorry for him. You think he didn't? I think he was pissed. Yeah, he was, but he said he was initially pissed, and then he started to feel sorry for him because he did lose his mother and his brother. Well, for that, but... Right. How can you feel sorry for this kid for deluding you for all those years? No, I think he felt sorry for him because of the incident. Maybe. I think that's the way I interpreted it. So, Bart, everyone to have an excuse, explained that his job at the country club had been so busy.
He'd slacked off on going to school. Several employees had quit the previous summer and Bart had taken on more duties at work. He's a good kid deep down. Yeah. He's just trying to help out. Sure. This wasn't actually a valid reason for pretending to be in college for years. No. And lying to everybody. No. But Kent and Bart made up. I'm sorry. What? I can't make up that quickly. Well, okay. I got this kid who's been arrested twice. Now he's shown to be a total fuck up. He's not in school like you said he was. You're totally right. Yes. And the next day.
Ken's ready to forgive him. Well, and all I can say about that is that they just lost two members of their family, so you might not want to hold a grudge about other things at that point. I mean, really, at this point, whether he was going to school or not, isn't that important, because you're talking about life or death situations. Okay. That's all I can say about that, although I do believe he should have been suspicious about Bart's involvement. That's a whole other story.
For sure. Yes. I totally agree with that. Because he's had this one he blew off. Yeah, right. Purported attempt. Yes. And now he's got the dead people. Well, yeah. And just thinking back to that other attempt, I would have to say, hmm, something's very suspicious here. Yeah, but he's ready to forgive him. Yes, he is. So as they recovered, the detectives took Kent and Bart back to the house to reenact the events of the night of the crime. The two men did separate walkthroughs with detectives.
Bart's story was much vaguer. He had less of a memory for the events than his father did. He was also oddly calm when talking about the most traumatic event of his life. Yes, I think that really left an impression on the detectives. Yeah. I think when you're around someone like that, just their behavior, their demeanor, it doesn't act as any evidence, but you get a feeling for what's really going on. You pick up on that. Especially if you're an experienced detective, I would think. So the service for Tricia and Kevin was on December 16th. At 11 o'clock that evening, Detective Slott was visited by Adam Hipp.
Remember Adam? I do. He was a former friend. He was a friend that was asked to be involved earlier. Adam had been at the funeral that morning. Yeah, so Adam, he told the detective that he knew Bart was responsible for the murders of his brother and mother. He'd driven from Dallas the night before because he felt compelled to tell authorities what he knew about Bart, because Bart had tried to kill his family two years previously. Adam was really pained to have this knowledge and not to share it, and he felt really the need to speak to somebody about it. The plan Adam described from two years ago was nearly identical to what had happened, even the detail of Bart being shot in the arm.
So after the murders, Bart had moved back into the house with his dad, and Kent's gunshot wound was more severe, so he had to have months of physical therapy. Detectives visited Stephen Champagne at Bart's townhouse, where he continued to live, even though Bart was back with his father. Now, he lied to them, telling them that he was out at a bar with a friend on the evening of the murders, so he hadn't even really put together a good alibi. Not the brightest. Nope. Now, they talked to Stephen for about two hours, and Stephen thought, you know, it went well overall, but then one week later, Chris called Stephen. The detectives had interviewed Chris.
So Chris was terrified, and he told Stephen that the police believed he was the shooter, which they were correct, of course. They were. Hearing the fear in Chris's voice made it all more real to Stephen. So Stephen called Bart, and Bart told Stephen, well, I want you to bring Chris to Sugar Land so the three of us can talk in person. So Bart met Chris and Stephen at a movie theater so they could talk during a screening of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King.
Bart was mainly concerned that Chris would crack and confess. But what Bart didn't notice was the man sitting directly behind them in the theater, and that man was an undercover police officer. Uh-huh. Listening to him. Yes. Now Stephen's alibi, that he was at a bar with a friend, hadn't checked out. So two weeks later, police returned to his home to question him. Bart met Stephen for dinner at a TGI Friday's in February 2004, and he complained about Chris failing to kill Kent. So not only are his brother and mother dead, but now he's complaining that his father's still alive. And during this time, he's living with his father, and they're reading the Bible together, and Kent's thinking they're really getting close.
Poor delusional Kent. Yeah. I mean, Bart's unhappy because if his father's alive, there's no inheritance. Right. So there's no money coming in. But he has money, so I don't know if that's totally it. Not enough money. Well, I know, but I think there's more to it than money. Well, yeah. I think there's like a hatred. We know that. Yeah. So he says to Stephen, you know, we need to make a plan to take care of my dad.
And Stephen told him, well, that's crazy. We'd definitely get caught. But Bart thought he was smart enough that he could probably pull that off. Now, Stephen said he wanted no part in killing Bart's dad. And Bart looked at him skeptically and said, we've got more work to do. Yeah, come on. Let's go. Right. So Adam Hipp agreed to help the police catch Bart. And the plan was for Adam to reestablish a friendship with Bart to get him to talk. Now, in the initial recorded call, Adam let Bart know that detectives had contacted him to find out what he knew about Bart.
In future calls, Adam would talk about aspects of the actual murders, and he was trying to relate them to Bart's earlier attempts to try and make that connection for police. Now, Bart didn't admit outright to the murders or the planning of the murders, but he did ask Adam to lie to police to discredit Justin. So at the instruction of Detective Slott, Adam began to ask Bart for money for his compliance. And Bart did agree to pay $20,000, but said it would take him some time to get it for him. But they're recording it at this time. Right. Yeah. So they weren't going to see any money. Who? The accomplices.
Well, no. Well, I mean, he's doing it by the police anyway, so it wasn't money he would keep. I know, but Bart's just stringing them along anyway. Yes, absolutely. You're right about that. I don't think he ever intended on giving them anything. No, he didn't. Although he did let the one live in the townhouse. Big deal. Well, housing can be a big deal. Yeah, I mean, it's not a townhouse that he bought. No. It's a townhouse his parents bought for him. Well, sure. Yes, that's true. He's not got any money on the outflow. Well, no, and I guess he thinks his father needs to be killed before he'll really have the money he wants anyway. Right. Right. So here he is living at home with his dad.
And they spent a lot of time together, as I would expect. I mean, here are the two sole survivors of this massacre in the family. Time to get close to each other, right? I would think you want to support one another, yeah. They read inspirational books together and part became more involved in church.
I'm sure this is a facade. Bart's girlfriend, Lynn, saw a positive change in Bart. He proposed to her. Well, yeah, he had her convinced. Yeah. They set a wedding date for July 24th, 2005. Kent actually looked forward to having Lynn as a daughter-in-law, and he hoped to be a grandfather in the future. He wants the family again, right? He does. Yeah. Bart got a job at the bank downtown restaurant, and while working there, made friends with a busboy named Rudy Rios. Now, here he's working again, right? Right. Working the crowd. For months, he complained to Rudy that the police were out to get him.
Around June 21st, Bart told Rudy that he'd like to go to Mexico to get away. As Rios and a family member drove Bart into Mexico, he noticed that Bart had a large amount of money on him. So he gets to Mexico. He's got a new identity. He became Rudy Rios. That's right. Wow. He did. He made himself comfortable there working at a furniture store and befriending a nice young woman, Cindy Lou Salinas. Yes. I almost said Cindy Lou who. I'm sorry. Well, Cindy Lou isn't a common name. No. So Cindy Lou, she met Bart, or Rudy as he was calling himself, in the church. And she introduced him to her family, and they really liked him too. So he's going to a Catholic church, obviously. We're in Mexico. I would think. How does that jibe with his Christian upbringing? Catholic is Christian.
Yeah, but not his kind of Christian. I don't think he cared. Exactly. Right. That's my point. Okay. Bart claimed to be a soldier who'd gone AWOL after injuring his arm, so that's how he explained his cast on his arm or sling, whatever he had on. But when Cindy complained a few times later on after arguing with her parents, Bart surprised her and kind of shocked her by suggesting that, you know, they could just kill her parents if she couldn't get along with them. Oh, Bart. Yeah. Now, meanwhile, Kent was hurt by Bart's leaving. And finally, he would say this is when he accepted the truth that Bart had probably actually planned the murders of the family.
Well, good for you, Kent. Finally. Now, in 2004, after joining the Marines, Stephen Champagne took a plea bargain and told detectives about Bart's murder plot, but he continued to lie about his participation. But in the end, he testified for the prosecution, and he received a 15-year sentence. Now, Bart had been in Mexico for over a year when he was arrested. He was given a sentence of death for plotting the murders. Chris Brashear got a life sentence in a plea bargain with prosecution. So Kent, as you know, wrote a book about the murders, and he titled it Murder by Family. And it's about his experiences, but mostly about his forgiveness of Bart's actions.
So Bart Whitaker, he contributes to a paper called The Solitary Watch, where he writes about the effects of solitary confinement on himself and on others that are on death row. He was sentenced to death. Yes, he was. Despite pleas from his father and uncle. Yes, they tried to save him. They didn't want him put to death. Now, in 2007, he founded an inmate blog entitled Minutes Before Six. And his father says that he'll be there on the day that Bart is executed. He believes that Bart will go to heaven if he is sincerely sorry for what he did.
Now, Kent Whitaker made appearances on Oprah 48 Hours in 2020 to promote his book, and he also gave speeches to churches across Texas and Arkansas, and continues to do so, I believe. His stories presented to Christians as an inspirational tale about forgiveness. And in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Kent talked about the murders and how they've changed his life. Yeah, Kent said, this is a gift I believe God gave me. I realized that maybe God had allowed me to live so I could display that unconditional love.
If someone only sees the tragic events of the crime, he continued, then they miss the real story. Crime is only the framework upon which the real stories of forgiveness and God's faithfulness are hung. Yeah. I'm sorry. Don't be sorry. I just can't feel that much empathy. For? For Kent or for him feeling sorry for his son. I don't either because you know what? I feel like Tricia and Kevin are being overlooked in some way when I read about this. So you're not the only one. I do kind of feel that way. Good. So Kent maintains a personal website still. Yes, he does. In 2008, he announced that he was getting remarried.
He married Tanya Youngling in May 2009. In 2013, Kent and his new wife, Tanya, were interviewed by Oprah. Kent talked about his improved relationship with Bart. He even bragged that Bart had completed his bachelor's degree. Yeah, I didn't like the way that sounded. He sounded like he was bragging about Bart and really talking about him in such a positive way, like he's overlooking what Bart did. Yeah, and it seemed to bother Oprah during the interview.
Okay, well, you know, I was on YouTube and I found this video. And it's called From If Only to What If. So this is a part of a four-episode series by Big Picture Ministries. And it starts off with a priest talking about forgiveness. I'm pretty sure it's a Catholic priest because he has the black collar with the white. Isn't that just Catholics? Nope. Oh, okay. So it's just a Christian. Yes.
It's not a priest? Well, yeah. A minister would wear that too? Sure. Okay. So it's a minister or somebody. It's a man of God. Okay. That's a good way of putting it. And he's talking about forgiveness and he introduces Tanya and Kent. So I'm like, whoa. You said pay dirt. Yeah. So it seems like this is what Kent and Tanya are doing for a living is the vibe I'm getting. Yeah. Well, we know he no longer works for his father-in-law's company. So where'd the company go? Oh, I think it's still there. He just couldn't work there anymore. Because they don't like him.
I don't know if they don't like him. My sense when I was reading the book was that it was his decision to leave. Well, there have been some difficulties there. Well, I can imagine because I don't think the rest of the family might be as charitable towards Bart as his father is. I don't think they are. But anyway, this whole talk with Ken and Tanya.
It made me uncomfortable. It's like they're talking about forgiveness and it's just like one of these big churches where it looks like they might be making money off of it. And, you know, it just seems like Kent's using the murders of Kevin and Tricia to make money. Like, I can see the point in bringing your experiences forward to share with people. But this seemed like a very commercial type of deal. You know what I mean? I do. Okay. What do you think? But how do you feel about him talking about that? Do you think he's just doing a service to people who have the same beliefs that he does? Or do you think that he's monopolizing or not monopolizing, but monetizing?
I think he's probably doing both. You think he believes this? Some of them does. He probably has gotten to a point where it's more about the money now than it is about the memory of his wife and child. Well, I just feel like he doesn't give the wife and child a lot of his attention or his focus. Right. Now, I'm okay with the forgiveness part. That's good. But the other thing is he seems really happy with Tanya and all this. Like, you know, he almost talks about like in that quote you were reading about this, the crime happening to him, which he's not the one who was the victim. He didn't get killed.
that this experience that happened to him has been a blessing, he's kind of saying. Well, maybe he's a bit on the narcissistic side also. That's another thing I considered is maybe, is it still waters run deep or is it apples don't fall too far from the tree? I think it's apples don't fall far from the tree. Yeah, I think you're right. So that's kind of the thought I had. Also, Bart has supposedly rediscovered God, according to Kent, but he still presents as a very selfish, narcissistic individual. So is Kent a saint for forgiving Bart or is he just in denial? And also, does Kent lack empathy for his late wife and...
His lost son. Well, my cynical belief is that Kent's deluded himself. Okay. So he's just deluded himself to the point where he's clinging to the one that's alive. Yes. Just to try and make his life bearable. Exactly. So that's not cynical. That's actually more charitable toward him than I'm feeling. Oh, okay. Now, another disturbing thing for me is that many of Bart's blog entries on his personal blog, Minutes Before Six, which refers to the minutes up to an execution, were actually written by Kent.
Really? Yeah. He has a ghostwriter? Well, I don't know if it's a ghostwriter, but he's got his father doing it for him. Oh, please. Because he didn't have access to a computer, so Kent actually helped him make these blog entries. So did Bart tell him what he wanted to say, or did Kent say it for Bart? Well, we don't know exactly, because they don't tell us these things. Okay. But in the book Savage Son, it's revealed that members of Trisha's family were angry that Kent was supporting Bart's activities in this way. Well, I can see that. And I don't blame them. No. So much of this blog is about Bart's opposition to the death penalty, his complaints about conditions inside the prison.
His displeasure with the way he's been portrayed by the media, blah, blah, blah, goes on and on. It's all about Bart. Still. I mean, if you were really changed, wouldn't you write about the people you lost and have something to say about them? One would think. It's all about him. And that's kind of my problem with Kent, is it's all about Kent and Bart. What about Kevin and Tricia? Right. That's what irritates me about this. So Bart, he's argued that because he didn't do the actual shooting, that he shouldn't be put to death. Pretty much saying that the people he manipulated into doing it, or at least the one that he did manipulate into being the shooter, should get the death penalty instead of him.
Right. Because he didn't actually do it. He didn't do it. He just planned it and made sure it happened. Well, and I've been on that side of the fence a bit in other cases where I feel like maybe this person wouldn't have gone through with it if they'd actually been there. But with him, I don't think that's the case because of all the manipulating and planning he did. It was extensive. Oh, yes. I mean, he really talked people into it.
It's not like he followed at all. He was the leader. Right. So, like I said, I can see why Trisha's family would feel very betrayed and upset and maybe not want anything to do with Kent either. That could be. That could be. I wouldn't want anything to do with him. Really? Really. And I certainly wouldn't want anything to do with Bart. Oh, no. Not at all. No. I mean, Bart has done interviews since then, and still it's all about him. For instance, at the beginning of this episode is a little segment from his interview by Lisa Lee a few years ago, and it's very Bart-centric, right? Well, everything's about Bart. Yeah. All about Bart.
So he really seems like a narcissist and a psychopath. And this makes his father's forgiveness a questionable thing to me. Me too. Well, you're easy. I'm very easy. Okay. So that's all I have to say about it. Yeah, I wish we could have more empathy for Kent. But what he's been doing the last few years just destroys that. Kind of taints it. Yeah, I agree. All right. Well, I'd just like to say thank you to all of our Teen Pie Grabber members. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And I'm going to work hard to make more for you because I really appreciate your support. That's right. We love hearing from you and having your support. Hope you continue.
Thank you very much. And we'll see you next time at the Quiet Inn. With the Hefeweizen. The beer of the day. Beer of the day. Beer du jour. Bye-bye. Bye.