Colin Davis Strikes Again: Fake Crack, a Doorbell & Fifty Years of Chaos | Brian Kendall | Case 13

This is the signal 51 chronicles. I'm John Henry. My compadre on the other side over there is Jake White, cohost extraordinaire, retired sergeant of the fourth police department. Narcotics. Narcotics. In between us is our special guest, Brian Kendall, the executive editor of fourth Inc pardon me, fourth Magazine. We're here discussing our August cover story. Fifty years since the double homicide that led to the salacious, scandalous, sensational trials of Colin Davis. Brian, welcome to your second show, the Signal 51 Chronicles. Do you feel like a you feel like a changed man? Have you have have you felt any type of celebrity status since since you joined us the first time? Well, John, I'm glad you asked. Yeah. People started recognizing me on the streets. Yeah. Yeah. And, I I my my ego, I didn't think it could get much bigger than it already was. Yeah, I hear you, man. Hear I was wrong, John. Yeah. Yeah, my head is the size of a hot air balloon. We did it, Jake. Well. Brought him over brought him over to the to the dark side. Yes. And thank you for having me on by the way. Yeah. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. So Brian and I were credited with writing this story in FORTH Magazine. Brian did most of the work. I did some research and helped out with an interview that we'll talk about here briefly, shortly anyway. Yeah. Not briefly, but we we yeah. Right. I know what you meant. Apologies. Take that part out. Or leave it in. I don't care. Are we, before we get there, we are creeping into football season. Jake is part of this fantasy football league that well, we were supposed to do. Sunset Lounge DFW is sponsoring. That we are we are here, thanks to the Sunset Lounge DFW, plus our wonderful producer over there, Ashley. But So so yeah. We were supposed to do it. I could not do it because I had a conflict. Speaking of other stories in Ford Magazine, we'll talk about that later, but I couldn't do it because I had a work conflict. Brian here, I think he told me it's the first time ever last year was I played fantasy football. I did. K. Yeah. I I was I was a newbie at it. Yeah. Are you are you coming back this year? I didn't get invited. Nice, Jen. No, I came in second. Yeah, I It's a little hurtful. It was my cousins. Hi, cousins. It's okay. It's alright. Like second cousins? No. Like Oh, first cousins. Like people who supposedly love me. Maybe they're not having it this year. No. They've been doing it for like years or problems or something. Can't they can't can't make it happen this year. Kids going to school. I don't know. But John, I appreciate you trying to make excuses for them. I would like to go on record that we, me, in this case, the signal 51 chronic show Look out. Yes. Will come in first place. Wow. Look at that. I see that for one reason and one reason only. Yeah. I pretty much always come in first place in fantasy football. Small disclaimer. We're going up against people who are icons in this sports world as far as the likes of Reiner, Norm Hitskas, great. I mean, that's who's in this league. I'm taking them all down. Yeah. You can tell them that. Okay. What? And he'll get pissed off over my strategy, which I'm not going to reveal. Did did did you win last did you win your fancy league last year? I've won it for the last two years. Wow. What's your secret? Yeah. What's your secret sauce? No. No. No. You oh, you draft only Dallas Cowboys. She he drafts only Kansas he cheats. Nope. Nope. No. That's interesting. Not bad either. I've known girls who do that. I have Oh, yeah. I have two things that I do that pisses the diehards off. They think I'm an idiot for doing that. What is And I'm like, well, just let's wait and see, boys. Let's wait and see. So Alright. I'm not gonna give it away. Okay. Because even you will You told me last year, I can't remember what you Yeah. It's I mean, it's just it's a draft strategy that I have. You pick a kicker first? Yeah. First round. I go high, very high on the kicker. All right, now it's time for the last meal segment. Our favorite segment. And we picked, being that our special guest is the executive editor of Ford Magazine, We picked a condemned gentleman who we wrote about. Yes. Who is that, Brian? That is his name is Charlie Brooks. Charlie Brooks. Charlie Brooks. Mhmm. Want me to say a little something about it? Yeah. Tell us about Charlie Charlie Brooks. So he was Do remember what when we wrote about this about 2024? A while ago. Yeah. Because it was the fortieth anniversary. You know, we like to choose whole number. Like, yeah. Yeah. I mean Forty, fifty. Whole numbers. Yeah. Forty, fifty. Within tens. Right? If it's divisible by 10 We we that's an important thing to write about. Did do a Billy Bob story at forty five, but whatever. Yeah. We make exceptions at five. Right. And so he was the first person ever executed by the state via lethal injection. And it happened right here in Texas. Charlie Brooks was a Fort Worthian. A little background on this crime. He was a heroin addict. Actually had a normal upbringing and committed a murder at Rosedale when he was high on heroin. Claimed that he actually didn't do it. But he had an accomplice who, of course, said, well, he did do it. Yeah. For the story, the crux of the story was me interviewing a man named Dick Rivas, who wrote a large piece in Texas Monthly, an award winning piece called Charlie Brooks' Final Words. A fantastic piece. Check it out. And had a day long conversation with him. And he spoke about Charlie Brooks' last meal because he was there when Charlie Brooks actually ordered his last meal. He was the one journalist who actually interviewed Charlie Brooks when he was on death row in Huntsville. And he mentioned that Charlie Brooks had wanted fried shrimp and oysters for his last meal. Fried shrimp and oysters. But they didn't have it. Hard to get oysters in Huntsville. Well, and actually, let me backtrack. Dick Rivas actually thought that he wanted fish when I when I spoke with him. And in my research, I said, why? I had read that it was oysters and fried shrimp. And Dick Revis said, well, I I don't remember that. I thought it was fish. But Dick Revis went out and ate what he thought that Charlie Brooks would have wanted the night that he was executed. And I said, so was it shrimp and oysters? He says, no. It was fish. He's like, regardless, I had fish. Okay. Well, I guess that didn't work out if it actually was fried shrimp and oysters. But what Charlie Brooks wound up getting instead, because they didn't have fried shrimp and oysters, was a t bone steak and french fries. Okay. So So that's what we got here. That's what we got here. T bone steak and and french fries. I think he also had apple cobbler, but we did we did Peach. Peach. Peach. Peach cobbler. We They didn't have it. They didn't they didn't have it. No. Much like Huntsville with shrimp and oysters. Now, Brian, I don't know if you noticed or not, there's a piece of steak missing there. It looks like our our pal over there. I got a a It's head been sitting there. Do do shall I plate your food as well, sir? Oh, no. We're good. You you have that? We're good with that. Jake Jake was kind enough to cut it up for us. So let's dig in. All right. Let's rate this meal. Well, haven't had it yet. Let's see where he's at. Take the big one. I'll take the smaller one. So I'm not gonna eat my I'm not much of a steak eater. And we're not doing ASMR and, like, eating right in the microphone. Right? That's a big no no. Please do. Yeah. Now we this segment for some people is triggering. They absolutely lose their mind. Is it y'all's eating habits? Maybe. I think it is. Are we making you all hungry? Is that Maybe that's it. Yeah. The big? That's it. Okay. What do we got here? What is steak? It's it's medium medium rare, think we do. Rare? Mhmm. Granted, we do not know how Charlie Brooks ordered it. If it was medium rare, medium well done. I hope he wasn't a well done guy. You know? That would be disappointing. That's very disappointing. It's like why would you do that as a last meal, man? And and you just douse it in ketchup? That that was my go to for a long time. I don't know you anymore. Who who hurt you? He, he murdered. Sorry. He he murdered a man. So in into that story just a little bit. I won't take too long out of it because I I I know that we have other things that No. No? Go ahead. No. No. No. Okay. So he was strung out on heroin. He was with a couple other people, and, they needed transportation. So the idea was they were gonna go to this, auto dealership and test drive a car. So he went and test drove this car and somebody had to go with him to test drive the car. The plan was to steal the car when they test drove it, but somebody had to come with them. So he wound up kidnapping this man, taking him to a motel that they had on Rosedale, and they wound up basically shooting him in the head execution style. And and Dick Rivas did such an incredible job reporting. He knows a lot about guns because he's a Texan. And the kind of revolver that he found out that Charlie Brooks owned, it's the kind where they just they don't just go off by accident. You have to, like, beat it against the table. You you could do anything to it, like like and it just will not go off. You have to pull that trigger. And Charlie Brooks had made the claim in a previous interview with Dick that sometimes guns just go off by accident. And Dick immediately said, well, it was this sort of revolver. There's no way that could have happened. There's no way that you could have not pulled that trigger and pulled it hard to shoot that man. And Charlie Brooks just became very silent. And so it it it proved to him, I guess, that he did, in fact do it. It. Yeah. Right. This was He he he was executed, I believe, in '82. It was it was it was '82 because I did the article in 2022, and it was the forty year again, we do it by tens. So was '82 that he committed the crime or '82? No. No. '82 that he was executed. Yeah. Because of the what's his name? Gary Gary Gilmore. Gary Gilmore. So Gary Gilmore was actually the first person ever executed since the Supreme Court That's right. Released Reimposed. Right. Reimposed capital punishment. And Charlie Brooks was the second man to be executed. Oh, I forgot about that fact. And first by lethal injection. And the first by lethal injection. Anywhere. Right. Could Gary Gilman Incredible story. Firing squad. Right. Which which he chose. Right. Right. Executioner's Song. Great book. Y'all should check it out. It really is. Didn't they just do a firing squad execution there in recent times too, I think? I think that, I I don't I don't recall, but I think that what they did was, reimpose firing squad in Utah. I'm not sure if they maybe you might be right about that. Maybe they did do. Was it because they found it the most, a more humane way to do it? So, the Utah Supreme Court blocked the scheduled 09/05/2025 firing squad execution of death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies. The high court unanimously paused the execution to allow lower court evaluations regarding whether his severe vascular dementia renders him mentally incompetent to be executed. So that apparently is still going on. So what do you all think of the stake? Yeah. How are we rate how are we rating this? Do we rate them one I mean, I'll rate the meal high, the contents of the meal. So you're a fries guy with your steak? Ordinarily, no. Not a bad combo. Mhmm. Not a bad combo. However, I mean, there's better out there. When we're not gonna say where we got this from. No. Well, but if pressed on a side, are you are you a baked potato, mashed potato, french fries guy? I'm probably going baked potato. Me too. Baked potato all the way. Yep. Fully loaded. Yeah. Yeah. Likewise? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Alright. No disagreement here. Asparagus, if it's in season. What's the asparagus season? Mushrooms? I didn't know there wasn't asparagus season. You can get it better. It's better different times of the year. Okay. Did not know that. I just thought it was gross year round. I don't know. Overall, I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna give his combination a pretty high score. I'm probably gonna go I'm yeah. I'm giving this a seven. I wanna assume that whatever they make at Huntsville I I hope they give them some prime stuff, but maybe they don't. Maybe it's just I'm thinking not. Yeah. You're probably right. It it's probably a clearance at Kroger. Yes. Yes. Very thin cut. They don't even ask you seasoning. How No. They dab a little salt. A little salt If on if that, yeah. And they say, and even then maybe you need some A1 sauce. They're like, no. That ain't happening either. It's a strip club steak. Right. You forget. That's what it is. Yeah. Exactly. I knew I knew I knew guys who hey. Let's go eat lunch at at the place on the West Side where that place is called. I'm not going down there to eat lunch. They go, it's so good. I'm like Is it? Hell no. Your case of amnesia is amazing how quickly that hat kicks in. Mean, I know what it's called. I heard they were bad. Wait, better or worse than the generic T bone at Waffle House? Oh, would say it's worse. Because the yeah. Okay. Because the T Bone in Waffle House, I think, is I've never had it. Pretty good. Okay. Well, there you go. Yeah. But I'm a Waffle House gag. Well, but it's also probably the times you're eating that. I mean, you there at a 6PM on a Wednesday night? I go there for lunch from work. Stone sober. Do do you really? I've done it a few times. Alright. Yeah. Maddie behind the counter. Shout out. Some brawls in the parking lot on a Wednesday night. That's the one thing I like about the the the Waffle House videos online. Like just these insane like I know fights it. Well, I guess they go even late later deep. You ever had any any calls at Waffle House after after hours? Well, actually yes. Or late at night, I guess. Yeah. This was not a call. Early in the morning. This an undercover drug deal in the parking lot of a Waffle House that went awry. A guy we're gonna order one pound of crack cocaine. One pound? The mother load back then. You could get no, I mean, is a huge deal. And we're circa, I don't know, probably thousand and eight or so. So we got an informant. He's like, Oh yeah, man, I got a I got a dude. I'm like, Okay. So we get two of the best undercovers that I ever worked with. And they called this dope dealer, and he said, hey. Meet me at the Waffle House over in West Fort Worth. Perhaps the one you used to There's no use to this. Well, there there was one off 30 out on Las Vegas It's closed now. Correct. Is this the one you're talking about? Yes. Okay. Oh, okay. I'm thinking of the one on, like, Altamare. So they meet this guy. Yes. I've been to that one. In the parking lot. And it's 10PM on a Wednesday or whatever day it is. It was late. And there's three guys that show up to deliver this mother load of crack cocaine. And they get in the car with the undercover carrying a cookie sheet. Like a baking Man, I suck at cooking stuff, so I don't know exactly. Some sort of baking sheet or something. Yeah. Like it had edges on it and it was pretty big. And they get in, and this thing looks like Is it a is it a cookie sheet or a cooking sheet? Cookie or cooking? I don't know the answer. I don't I don't have a clue. Are they one and the same? Yeah. They're one and the same. What do do? Do cookie sheets not cook? What I'm saying is Are you trying to trip me up and make me look like an idiot here? You're talking about, like, the flats, like like, no. Is it called a cookie sheet or a cooking sheet? It's cookie. I thought it was cookie. Right? I thought it was I eat. I do too. Alright. Anyway, so anyway, comes out with a So he comes up and this thing is looks like it's fresh out of the oven. A nice crack cocaine tray or tray of crack cocaine. And so they give the undercover signal. And our SWAT team, I mean this would have been relatively high risk or is relatively high risk. The stakes were high and this is a little bit different at the time. And so they get there and the SWAT team runs up and these guys panic and they throw this cookie or cookie sheet. We're gonna go with a cookie sheet in the air in the car. And it lands and nothing happens. They get out of the car and they take off running. They catch all three of them, like right as they're running across Las Vegas Trail. Yeah. I think I still have a video of that maybe because the helicopter was out there too. Like I said, this was a big deal back then. And we get up there and I'm like, man, that I mean, it looks like crack from a distance. And I'm looking, I'm like, son of a bitch. The guy melted down candle wax. Cause you could have crack could look the same as candle wax. And he had mixed in some some of the cutting agent. But where he went wrong, the same thing he used to make his real crack, the that stirring the whisk thing, he had used to make the fake crack. So there was cocaine residue all over this gigantic cookie sheet of fake crack. So he took the So so let me get this right. He was selling, like, fake he was, like, gonna sell Yeah. He was gonna sell it. Yeah. Fake crack. Was essentially playing to screw you guys. Oh, yeah. That happened all the time. Yeah. Not knowing not knowing you're undercover. Yeah. He had no idea. Oregano in a bag. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I'm drinking out of the Styrofoam cup as an example. That brings another story about fake crack. So back then we used to do this is true. So back then we would there we had a team and all they would do is street level undercover buys day in and day out. The buy bus things that you used to see on cops or on TV where a guy walks up to the truck and he goes, Okay man, give me 20. They do the deal and then the takedown team pulls up and it's usually a foot chase. So a guy, we call him Scooter, pulls up to the intersection to the dope dealer corner and is like, hey, man. I need 20 hard. And Scooter does not look like a cop in any way, shape, or form. And the guy literally turns around and like breaks off some pieces of a Styrofoam cup. He's like, here you go, man. And he's like, really don't? I just saw you tear it off of the cup. He's like, no, man, it's good stuff. It's good stuff. So That's how they do it now. Yeah, that's how they do it. Yeah. Right. So next month or maybe a couple of weeks, we will discuss during our last meal segment, the Chronicles of Gateway Park. No, we won't. No, we won't. Colen Davis. Yeah. Yeah, that's why we're here. We're here to talk about Fort Worth magazines, story, cover story on the trials of Colen Davis. As we discussed last week, he was acquitted in Amarillo in 1977 of the murder of, Andrea Welborn. Am I saying her name right? Think it's Wilborn. Wilborn. It's Wilborn. W I. Fuck. Okay. Because I did it a bunch the first time or once or twice. You were fine. I don't know any of It's Wilborn. It's W I L B O R N. Okay. Yeah. But anyway, as we, he was acquitted in, in in 1977 of the murder of Andrew Wilborn, 12 year old daughter of Priscilla Davis, his estranged wife. And not even, well about a year later, he, colon that is, the free man, gets arrested for solicitation of murder. It was in the summer of nineteen seventy eight that a gentleman named David McCrory, who was Colin and Priscilla's good friend, and then he remained kind of friends between the both of them, called the FBI and said that Colin Davis was plotting the deaths of 15 of his enemies, including his divorce judge, Judge Eidson, as well as Priscilla, Beverly Bass, Gus Gavril, I think Gus Gavril's father was on the list, and any of the others who testified against him in Amarillo. So the FBI went and sat behind two cars at what is now Denny's on Hulen. It was Coco's Hamburgers at the time. And they witness, in fact, the last time when they arrested him finally that same day, Colon had gone to around the van of the FBI agents who were there behind him listening in on this conversation he's having because David McCrory is mic'd. In this, kinda trying to look in this van to see who's in there, according to the FBI. So anyway, he goes to the the car and judge Itson had agreed to play along and appear dead in a picture. Pretty convincing picture. It really was a convincing Did you guys see the picture? Yeah. I've seen it. Really? Mhmm. You can Google it. It's on there. It's in those it's in the books. It's in the Gary Cartwright book. Yeah. Yeah. According to David McCrory, Colin, he showed the picture to Colin Davis that he had successfully hired a hitman to kill judge Eidson. And, there was an exchange of money, allegedly. That led to his arrest for, solicitation of, of murder. So I remember this vividly. It was unbelievable that this happened about a year after he'd gotten away with or off, excuse me, gotten off of murder, murdering his stepdaughter allegedly. But here he was back in trouble again. And he, believe it or not, gets off Mhmm. This case. What did we what did we find out about this case? What was Well, his defense was he thought he was working for the FBI. Right. So he had claimed that he had gotten a phone call from the FBI, and that he was actually working, I guess, against McCrory. Is that the idea? Yeah. So so he yeah. So he In order to stop this He thought he was playing along with somebody trying right. Hire Somebody was so he he he said that Priscilla had people that were trying to kill him. Right. And that he thought this was he thought the FBI had he said the FBI reached out to him to play along with this to try to, enclose the hitmen that are trying to kill him. That's right. I mean, that was his defense. He also said that And he took the stand, by the way. He did, yeah. Also said that he thought by doing this he was also getting valuable information from So he kind of had two different stories that kind of didn't work, but he also thought that he could get valuable information from McCrory for his divorce case. That's right. So he had a couple of different stories going on. But he did take the stand. Yeah, he did. Twice. The first trial was moved to Houston, which ended in a hung jury. Hung jury. And then they retried him up here in Fort Worth, and he was acquitted. And important to say that Racehorse Haynes was his attorney yet again. Yes. Who had been supposedly vacationing, I don't know where, Ithaca, something like that, like some Greek isle. Right. And had been bored out of his mind since his last trial. Last drug. Right. It was a year earlier. You know, because, I mean, he flew too close to the sun there, think. Like that was just, like I'm never gonna get another crazy case like this where I'm gonna win it. And then sure enough, when Colin Davis calls, he's like, perfect. This is the man I need to get back in it and and feel this high again. And and according to, the the Texas versus Davis by Mike Cochran, I can't remember if it was in the in in the, Blood Will Tell by Gary Cartwright, but Cullen paid him $2,000,000 Record at that time, right? I don't know about that, but it probably was. I I have no doubt about that. Mhmm. But, of course, $2,000,000 today was it was is in, like, the neighborhood of $10,000,000, something like that. And you mentioned they had him on record speaking. I mean, on tape recorder. They had him on they had on tape. Yeah. Right. Incriminating. Yes. Very incriminating evidence, one would argue. Well, he, you know, he never he all they ever got him on tape was was David McCrory would say, here's judge I'd say. Have the quote. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. Love here. I got judge I'd got judge I'd That's McCrory. That's Rory telling Davis. Davis replies, Good. Good. And that was it. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Just another crazy twist on that hole. Really is. Yeah. Now he had now he claims on on the stand, he claims that McCrory never showed him a picture of Judge Itson's supposed dead body. Then why would they take it? He says McCrory showed him recording devices, that he was being recorded by the FBI because he was playing along with this. Gotcha. However, there's no getting around that what he said was, I got judge Itson dead for you. And there's no getting around what replied. Exactly. Good. But he gets acquitted in 1979. In Fort Worth. In Fort Worth, Tarrant County judge or Tarrant County Jury. And after that trial, the district attorney's office just kinda They gave up. Done with him. They decided not to try him again in the murder of Standfar and anything else he might've been culpable of. He had five other charges, I believe, that he was facing and they just They essentially just gave up. Yeah. We took two bites of that apple. No more. We're done. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So, believe it or not, he gets off of that. He also, we were talking earlier in the Tarrant County trial, he had a cheering section, A group of women who were there every single day and cheered for him when he was the jury foreman or when the judge announced the acquittal. All by the way, while Karen Master Yeah. His girlfriend. His girlfriend at the time and and soon to be wife was by his side and I I I know was went to every court hearing, went yeah. I think every media photo of him had her by him signed. Yeah. Yeah. Now there was one conspicuous absence in this trial, and that was Karen Master's father. Who we discovered in the first trial was very involved and might have been doing some unscrupulous things. Mike Mike Cochran reported in 2001 that Ray Hudson was go between and paying off the Tarrant County district attorney's investigator, right? $25,000. $25,000. Yep. And he also allegedly had made contact with the jury during that trial. According to Mike Cochran in Texas versus Davis, Ray Hudson, father-in-law, Karen Master's father, washed his hands of the whole thing. Beginning And to believe that all this stuff was Not 25,000 well spent. Not 25,000 well spent and that his daughter might indeed be married to a double murderer. So the backbone of our story in fourth magazine's August issue was an interview that Brian and I, I guess you could say got. It's one of the more incredible stories. Just the idea of us actually doing it, which I give you a lot of credit for, by the way. You are, by the way, just an absolutely fearless journalist. Well, don't know about that, but many have said. So so I would You had me to stroke that ego too much, but Yeah. Yeah. Please don't. No. No. No. Please stroke it more. No. We I I I sitting at my desk one afternoon, and I heard Brian and our creative director talking about cover possibilities with for this story as far as art. And and none of them were very good. No. We had done Ford Magazine had done a story on Colin Davis twenty five years ago on his walk of faith. So after his acqui after his final acquittal in 1979 in Fort Worth of the solicitation, a few years a couple years after that, I don't remember the exact date, Colin Davis found God. It a few years ago. It basically after his marriage to Karen, Master. Okay. Well, that would have been like almost right after. It was very soon after because remember he was destroying the ark that he thought was ungodly. That's right. That's right. Right. So he met he met James Robison, a, I believe, Southern Baptist preacher. Mhmm. And he he, by and large, I have no reason to to doubt his sincerity of his conversion, but Mhmm. Colon became a born again Christian and was very active in James Robinson's ministry and and kinda still was up until his death James Robinson's death this year. Right before he met them. So we had done a story on Cullen's walk of faith about twenty five years ago. And we had photos of him twenty five years ago. So those didn't work either for a cover option anyway. Right. And so I I'm overhearing this and I turned to Brian. I said, you know what the best photo would be? Would be of Colin Davis. Mhmm. And Brian says, I've got his address. And I said, let's go. Yep. And so the next day we packed up the car and drove the Northeast Tarrant County and rang a doorbell. Yeah. And it was kind of a when do we go? And you just said, what are you doing tomorrow? Yeah. Like, what let's let's just do it. And and why not? Like, worst they can do is just turn us away. Right? I mean Turn us away, not answer the door. Right. We we did get We had spoken to a couple of other people, I won't name names, brought up the idea of us going to his home and just knocking unsolicited. They did not like that idea. Told us we should not be doing it. And we were on the road thirty minutes later. And we were. Man, names would make that story great. I'm kidding. One of these days. One of these days. And the drive there, think we were taking odds. We were. We were. Yeah. Know, does he maybe even live here necessarily? Right. And if they answer, it's probably not gonna be him, it's gonna be somebody else, they're just gonna turn us away. So many possibilities where I think we put it maybe like 5% that we would actually be able to see him. Yeah. Yeah. So we put in front of this address and then we're like, okay, what are we gonna say? Right. What was that? I I I think I was like, we have it on, by the way, recording. Yeah. Because you started recording by that time, so I heard this. Yes. And then I I think I said, I asked, so who's gonna do the talking? And you're like, what's your story? It's your story. Punt. Fair. Sure enough, walk, and he starts laughing, of course, just like that. But So we ring the doorbell and you can see through the window this lady coming to the door. Well, hang on. In your story, you guys even it You describe the doorbell? I do, yeah. Yes. Which throws me away. It's one those old school doorbells that you would have found in a house built in 1995. Like, it's never been replaced, and it's got that kind of just it's just white, you push it, you're like, did that even ring? So underwhelming. Right. I don't know why that stood, like, in that I'm like, god dang, man. These guys even described the doorbell down. I'm like, this is a story. Damn good. And and that's one of those weird little Details? Yeah. Details within a story that I I think just give you an idea of what the place is and this idea that they they don't have like an intercom or anything like that. It's just a normal doorbell that they've never had replaced in thirty years. No ring camera. Right. That's is probably crazy. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is the guy who lived in a, you know, 15,000 foot mansion. Mhmm. Yeah. With a fancy security system 50 ago. Correct. Right. And and now he's in a very nice house. Don't get me wrong, but you're just sort of more upper middle class area of of Colleyville. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice house for sure. Oh, yeah. Beautiful. So she answers the door. This lady answers the door, older lady. And I think Brian said, is this the residence of mister Colon Davis? Well, can I back up? Yeah. And when we're seeing the shadow come up, we're both like, there's a shadow of oh oh oh, shit. Oh, shit. Somebody's coming up. Shadow is there. I mean, you know There was anxiety. I wish I could say we were cool. There was anxiety, sure. Now granted, once the door was open, I would say we played it very well. But there is just that natural like, wow, is this actually gonna happen? You know? Yeah. And and that that was sort of one of my favorite parts of it, I think. It is kinda funny, though. Yeah. And she came to the door, and she confirmed, yes, indeed, this is where he lives. And we identified ourselves. I hope she heard us. Oh, I think 100% she did, yeah. Special agents or something? And no. And No. We told her that we were working on a story and that we just kind of wanted to catch up. Right. And she says, Well, I mean, would hate to tell you no, but he has good days and bad days with his cognitive impairment. And he she said, today's a bad day. She said, but come on in. So And we're like, holy shit. Yeah. That's You first. You first. Oh, wow. Wow. And she she offered us very, very, very kind. Very kind. Yeah. Made us actually very much made us feel at ease 100%. And we asked her what her relationship was with him and she said that she was his new wife, married a couple years ago. And that they had known each other, they'd met sixty years ago. She was employed at the petroleum club and knew him then. So anyway, she offered us something to drink, which we declined and said, have a seat on the couch. I'll go get him. Yep. And we are sitting on that couch for probably five minutes. Maybe? Maybe. And you can hear him talking back there and And and we're looking at the things around and Yeah. Trying to set the place, which was was interesting. Trying to trying to paint a paint a scene later, you know. Scene. Right. And there's a couple of books on the coffee table that you point out. Yep. One was book on his father. Mhmm. It's a coffee table book on Ken Davis senior, stinky. And the other was book on I think it was Texas oil legends. Texas oil legends. And which found appropriate, of course, because of his background. Right. And then sure enough, here he comes. Right. See him coming through the, I don't know, that archway coming through the kitchen. Yeah. Like maybe With a walker. Maybe a den area. We're kind of in a living room. Right. Almost almost a sitting room kinda. More living room and he was coming from what might be more a TV den room. Right. And he's on a walker. And moving pretty good, but pretty slow and Yeah. And he surprised us both by I think we were like, Oh, hi. And before he said anything, I mean, he picked up this He had move his he had to maneuver his walker between two pieces of furniture, which he couldn't do. Right. His two chairs blocking him. And he picked up his walker and held it to his chest. The walker's like outward and he walks right through it, you know, very gingerly. Right. Puts it down and and couldn't be more charming. Gotta tell you guys, yeah, he is a charismatic fellow who has a very sharp wit, even at that age, even though he was struggling. But he said so many memorable lines to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What is that like? I I might be 90, but I'm cheaper than that. I just I remember reading that. What like, what was your when you guys first saw him, and I this goes back to the very first one twenty five years ago where the reporter in that one described it as almost being starstruck. Right. And he was out of breath. Right. And was like super nervous. What was your guys' There was a little bit of that. It was. But I I gotta tell you, though. I I I feel like and I I think you feel the same way. Dana did such a good job, his his current wife, of making us feel at ease. Yeah. And and and when we saw him, I mean, yeah, of course, you're like, the heart starts racing. You get that feeling of, oh, wow. And I mean, I think you both we we were both even when we were sitting there in that and it you have it on recording. When we're sitting on that couch, they have not yet arrived. We both say, oh, fuck. We're about to meet Colin Davis. Oh, that 100%. Was that was, just this. It was almost surreal in And some you could you could hear them you could hear them talking in other rooms. She was explaining this. Some visitors are here from Ford Magazine and, and we're and I'm yeah. I remember sitting there going, holy shit, golden dames. You know what's weird? Like, I haven't seen this with you. I've seen it with John Henry, you know, high profile politicians in this very room, in fact. And in a crowded room, just flawlessly asking a question. Same thing with athletes and things like that. So it's weird how you guys are able to like, Oh yeah, this is a guy that everyone in the freaking world knows and all, you know, rattle off a question and then you meet him and it's like, woah, woah. Like, it's so crazy. You know, I think we walked in, we got I think I think we gathered our our sense senses and and got got to work as best we could. Best we could. And and I I think we without even saying a word to one another about how we were gonna approach it, we wound up approaching it a similar way. Yeah. Because there are journalistic ethics involved in this. And and when you see that somebody is struggling mentally Yeah. You you gotta kinda take off that, like, hardcore journalist hat where you're just interrogating somebody. You can't do that. Right. And at some point, you know, I hate to say it put it this way. I know I put it this way with you, but you kinda decide to just be nice nephews. And and and and you're still inquisitive, but you're you're not asking necessarily. You're not prying in any way. Because it just it doesn't feel appropriate at that moment. Mhmm. No. No. And it would not have been No. Appropriate at all. Yeah. Still fascinating, It was incredibly fascinating. He again, it wasn't a good day for him mentally. He's very hard of hearing as well. But he was hooked on his age. He was. He's about to turn 93. And of course we also asked him, you know, he went to Texas A and M, he went to Arlington Heights, we talked about all that stuff and he seemed to remember all that. But he was stuck on his, he was obsessed almost to a point about how old he was. Right. And and it said at one point that, you know, I don't believe I can't believe I'm 93 years old or 92 or whatever. Right. To a point where he denied it. He thought everyone was lying to him. Right. Which was interesting. And what was that? He like I guess some magazine had printed his age wrong, and now he's been claiming that age ever since. It was something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Very fixated on that, very fixated on the home as well. They've woken into that. He was? And and and what I found interesting as well, and I mentioned this to John at the time, but there were things he said that, you know, if if he wasn't someone who had been on trial for, you know, a defendant in a murder case, right, if that if that's something that never existed, maybe I wouldn't be taken aback, weirded out by some of the things that he was saying. But there was some stuff that we'd look at us and say, what do you really wanna ask me sort of thing. And and and he did. Who's the other one that kind of struck me? I think it was no one believes me anymore. No one trusts me. And and I I I I don't and and this idea of Fort Worth as well and how he doesn't view Fort Worth as a place that he would ever wanna go back. He did mention that. Asked him why. He kinda skirted around that. Yeah. Although he he also was forgetful about not being in Fort Worth anymore. So Like, was was it obvious when you guys were do you think he knew why you guys were there almost from the get go? Well, I think it took him a minute, but I definitely got the vibe, especially once he started asking us, what are you what do you wanna ask me? He asked us twice, what do you wanna ask me? What do wanna ask me? And also asked us how we got his address. He started prying a little bit. He he knew. He knew. But the fact that we were taking, I think, such a kind approach to it, he he let it go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Other funny thing that that his wife talked about is he's obsessed with cars. Yes. They get visitors who come to see him and he always wants to go see what they're driving. Tell me you were driving. I was driving. He was driving. And He wanted to see my car. He wanted to see his car. Are you serious? Yeah. So from the window, we took him and showed him my car and what I was driving. Yeah. Sir, this is a Talked about it. 2026 Cadillac Escalade, all EV. Yes. Magazine's doing quite well. I drive a pretty basic truck. Won't even say what it is, but yeah, it ain't anything that, you know, certainly nothing worth any kind of money. Well, mean, and that's the thing with what you guys do that's, it's hard because it's work, you know, I mean, anybody who reads, anybody who appreciates good writing like even me, I'm reading and I'm like, woah. Like, just keep going. I want more. You know, like, you guys in like perfectly, perfectly encapsulated the feel. I almost could it's like, dude, I think I could smell that root. I'm there. I'm looking like they had the bowl of chocolates on the table. Like, of these Yes. Little I'm like, man, like, you know, just reading that was awesome. But the whole like, there was I'm not saying look. I'm not saying this was intentional, but there was, like, that undertone even in the story to where, to me, I'm like, he knew why they were there. Yeah. This was a follow-up. Sure. You know, the and the first story, you know, twenty five years ago Mhmm. Was pretty direct, but, I mean, he was also at a different you know, his mental state was different. Absolutely. So I think, you know, probably the line of questioning and things like that, but I was just very, very impressed with he still seemed, you know yeah. It might have been a quote bad day, but he still seemed pretty quick witted. Mhmm. He was. He was. With it. He was. Yeah. And and and, you know, you guys never point you know, flat out ask them, hey. Did you do this? Right? We thought about it. But, yeah, I never did. I mean, has probably you know, would that have made for a phenomenal podcast? Sure. Right thing to do? Probably not. But I mean, to me, it was like, this dude's got a canned answer. Like, you could have fired that like, hey, tell us about the car you had in nineteen nineteen seventy six. Or your 1995 Cadillac that you had. You could ask them that and then like, oh, hey. By the way, did you kill Andrea or did you kill Gus? And he would have had a canned answer ready to go. I don't know if he would have actually because it's not something that he's necessarily talked about a lot. And I know in the interview that I wasn't with the magazine at the time twenty five years ago, but I know that it was specifically requested that they never ask about that. That that is something that is off limits. We only are speaking about him essentially finding Christ and becoming a boring and Christian. That was the idea of the article, and they would only do it under those circumstances. And but even then, there's I know they allude to it a little bit, and he gives a very interesting answer to one of the questions. And he says, I don't even recognize the guy from 1976. I don't even know who that is. I'm a new person now. Mhmm. And one could easily read into that quite a bit. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So even then, they get a fascinating answer out of it, which you can certainly do without asking directly. Yeah. So did you kill him? Right. Yeah. Right. So he adopted, he had two biological children from his first wife, and then he adopted the two sons of Karen Master. And Brian reached out to one of those sons. His name is Trey. He sent, I'll let Brian tell the story, but he sent what I thought was a very thoughtful and respectful email declining our overture to talk about this. For a follow-up. But but, tell us tell us tell us what was in that, what was in that email. Sure. Well well, I I initially didn't even know if I was reaching out to the right person. That's right. Because I I did not have his contact information. I I think I'd heard that he was working in the oil and gas oil and gas industry Yeah. Apologies, in Dallas. So I find a one person named Trey Davis who's working in the oil and gas industry in Dallas. And his email happens to be on the company website, so I reach out to him hoping it's him. Of course, I say in the email it might not be you and requesting an interview or a chance to converse. And he respectfully declined, but it was I I I wanna say it was like a 900 word email. Was have been. It was very long, very thoughtful. Mhmm. And this is not anything even remotely AI generated. This was from the heart. This and not a canned answer either. Mhmm. I could tell he put a lot of time and effort into it because he responded about two days later. Mhmm. And the the email said he had done these things before. He had been on 60. He had been on, I think, other television shows, true crime shows, been interviewed by magazines, newspapers, because he is somebody who is a staunch defender of his father, and he calls him his father. Mhmm. You know, he raised him. And both he and his brother, I know, were in a very bad car accident when they were younger. And his his brother, know, is, I think, fully disabled in some way. Yeah. Trey is not though, but he talks about what a good man he is and how misunderstood a man he is and how he has evidence that points to Colin Davis' innocence in in both trials. Yeah. But any time that he gave these interviews in the past, they would always skim by that. And they would always just give him, like, small segment of like one sentence of him basically just saying like, I believe my dad. And that's it. Even though he would give these forty five minute interviews probably. But he said that's not that's not what's sexy. They don't wanna hear that. They don't wanna all they wanna hear is that this is a billionaire, multimillionaire, who got off of these two horrific crimes and and murdering a 12 year old girl. Like, that that was that's the idea. And he said that's that is a to him, that is something that was pushed by the media. So he was done with interviews. I did ask him though if I could print some of his email, and and he agreed. So because I thought he gave such a thoughtful response as to everything. So that's also in the article. Mhmm. Because I I I think it is important to get all sides of it. Yeah. And granted, I would have loved to have heard some of his evidence too, but he refused to show that to me. But I think that that was He just he didn't he didn't he didn't answer a second a follow-up email. No. No. We also a couple. Okay. Okay. We we really wanted to interview him. Right. But but he just didn't respond to those. Right. Yeah. That's one of the, that was one of the other thing, you know, John and I talked about this, you know, you know, as this whole thing was unfolding, but he brought up the concept of ethics. And I think that, you you guys were sitting in the living room and you could have told, you know, frankly told whatever, you know, you guys went into it transparently of this was his mental state. Mhmm. And this is the story we're going to tell. Not going to put this spin on it or that spin on it. Mhmm. This is how, like I said, you wrote this story to the point to where I could smell the living room. Yeah. Which I thought was really cool. Like. Right. You know, just all the detail. And, you know, we've sat here last episode, this episode, and are there some crazy things that happened in this? Yes. Right. Without a doubt. At the end the day, was found not guilty. I mean, who knows? You know? I mean, he was he was judged and that was the judgment. Definitely some crazy stuff with it. However, you know, then you get that personal, that personal element from his son, adopted son, which I think was kind of not shed new light on it or anything like that, but it really did kind of humanize him a Because little bit keep in mind, you know, his wealth is reported in 1976 is between $2.50 and 500,000,000. So I was, you know, curious curiosity. I was like, how much is $250,000,000 today? It's $14,500,000,000. Wow. There's 100, some estimates are in the entire world, there's 150 to 200 people who have a net worth between 10,000,000,000 and 99,000,000,000. Locally, I mean, you've got, you know, Waltons, you've got Basses. Oh, Basses. One of them and I don't know which one was like 5,700,000,000. Yeah. I mean, Jerry Jones, dollars 16,200,000,000. 16.5, somewhere in that ballpark. I'm sorry, between, yeah, you're talking about between. Mean, we're literally talking, telling a story about a guy who has the wealth of people, these stories that we hear daily towards like, oh my god. I mean, and then don't get me wrong, they're incredibly wealthy. But can you imagine if we're sitting here or a news story breaks out tomorrow of somebody of equivalent wealth accused of two murders and shooting two other people. I mean Well, and and I think that's why the only equivalent, and it has nothing necessarily to do with monetary, but it's OJ Simpson. Yeah. I I think that's the only other trial that it actually captured the national attention and and had this sort of soap opera y type Oh, yeah. Vibe to to the trial and all these, you know, this cast of characters who were just very eccentric in so many ways, and then this is very similar. And and I know I mentioned the article as well that and and I didn't realize this until I started writing it, that the television show Dallas Mhmm. Actually got a lot of its inspiration from the Columbus trial. Remember reading that. Yeah. That is crazy. Right. And it was the first of its kind, I think, at that time. And and then when OJ Simpson came up, I think that there were a lot of people who were comparing it to this. But then, you know, OJ Simpson obviously became a far even probably even bigger Yeah. You know, part of the cultural lexicon. Mhmm. Yeah. But he already had such a place in the Right. In the culture. Yeah. Mhmm. Very true. But, of course, in Fort Worth, everyone knew who Carl Davis was. Mhmm. And and and because of that, you know, and it it got such national attention. John and I were talking about this because there was an argument over whether this should be the cover story. There and and I I get it. A lot of people thought that it would be controversial. But what was that you said? I I I said, well, isn't this one of the top 10 events probably that's happened in Fort Worth? History. Historically? Easily. No. And then you said Top five. Easy. Yeah. Easy. Yeah. Absolutely. So well, how can we not do this as a cover story? Yeah. Especially after we meet the guy. Well, that's a thing that, you know, like, it's Fort Worth. You know what's weird? Like, you go to the Northeast or the Northwest, and you're like, I'm from Fort Worth, Texas. And people are just like or people would be like, where's that at? I'm not gonna say, you know, oh, we're by the city to the East. Dallas Fort Worth. You know, everybody knows Dallas but then you start looking like just and this is the this is so typical Fort Worth. Like, Colin Davis went to Arlington Heights High School. Who else went there? Sure. Right? Like, there's always these, like, crazy ties to, like, these very small Who? Kristi Kozlo went to Arlington Heights. Yeah. Kristi Kozlo. Yeah. I didn't I wasn't even thinking about Kozlo at this point. Right? But there's these you have these one this one building in this one city that has all these just, you know, in this case, kinda creepy, you know, mysterious, you know, but these huge national world stories that come from it. Yeah. Mhmm. You know, and I'm almost certain that Tim Curry, the DA, went to the Arlington Heights as well who prosecuted him. But And he wasn't well, I guess he'd be a decade younger. Oh, I see. He was probably early 30s. Yeah. And Colin was 40. Early 40s. Yeah. Younger than Colin. You're right. Yeah. You know who else went to, Arlington Heights? John Bender. John Denver did. That's right. But that's not who I'm talking about. Another shadowy figure, Lee Harvey Oswald. That's right. That's right. Yeah. He was only there for about, I don't know, a couple months maybe and left. He went to join the marines. Became a sharpshooter. Yep. No. He's He was not. I don't think he's from here. Yeah. I don't think he was from Oklahoma City. The guy who killed John Lennon was born in Fort Worth. Well, I I do appreciate you, by the way, talking about the, the structure of the story because it it was difficult to know, when you enter a story and you're trying to call all these things together, interviews, you're trying to speak with prosecutors, even defense attorneys, and and you can't speak with them either because by now they've passed or they just don't want to talk to you. I think with what we wound up getting, we did a good job. Well, you did an excellent job because I was about to say that I was having a hard time wrapping my head around how how we should structure and tell a story. Right. But, you know, like two days before deadline or something like that. Oh, yeah. We can we can go into that too. See, and that's the what okay. So that does bring up some Probably three days before deadline. We're talking about the story and I'm Oh, no. It's Thursday. I can't I can't wrap my head around what we have and what Right. Meet Where we go with this. Right. Me neither. And because because we really didn't have much. That's the problem. We had an interview with the guys, that was big. That was the big thing. Right. And so then the son sent the email and I'm like, well, maybe that's our story. Maybe we get an interview with him and Yeah. What's the angle? Right. Yeah. We're having trouble finding or I I certainly was. And and Brian said that Yeah. And I I just couldn't wrap my head around what we had and how we tell his story. Mhmm. And and then John gets sick. And then I got sick. Yeah. So we were supposed to go press that Friday and and John got sick and then I I I wound up just writing based on what we had. You did the old, oh, I don't feel good. Oh, no. John was legit. Because John, I know, wanted to be there for sure. Oh yeah. But we wanted to on the press the following week, John still contributed so much to this. All the research is basically is John. But why don't we just structuring it around the chat with Colin Davis? I mean, that became encounter. Yeah. Which was a story. It was. And then, of course, infusing, though, the history as well between that. And and I think it worked really well. I'm I'm very I think we're very proud of this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very 100%. Yeah. 100%. It's It was it was damn good, boys. I I really I mean, it was like I said, they who you know, all everybody's gotta go check that out for sure. Yeah. Go pick this up at your local newsstand. Yes, Local newsstand, yes. Yeah. And yes, we're still talking about it because we can't stop talking about it. That's right. Okay. So what's happening in September at fourth magazine? September, John Henry, there's a reason he does not have a beer in front of him, by the way. Right. He, tomorrow, early in the morning, is meeting with mayor Matti Parker for a full day. You're gonna be shadowing the mayor Yep. And and perhaps even giving advice or Attending a city hall that could get quite contentious. Yes. And we are gonna be doing a big story on Mayor Maddie Parker for our September issue, which is our women's issue by the way. And I am really looking forward to all the information you get. And and all of your interviews, by the way, with mayor Maddie Parker, amazing. Because she she divulges more and just opens up a lot to you. And I feel like you do a good job of of capturing her, not just, you know, where she's at politically, but also who she is as a person. Yeah. And I I am excited to read it, man. I'm I I appreciate it. I'm excited, to write it, and I'm excited for tomorrow. Real quick, what's the what could I don't follow the council's schedule per se. I follow a lot, but what is there a is it? Data centers. Data centers, which is very controversial, especially with her right now because yeah, there's some stuff there. Tomorrow will also be a budget session. That's what I was, that's where I thought this was going. So that that'll be part of the story because fourth has got a budget crunch right now that they're trying to deal with. Trying to make up $80,000,000 shortfall. We'll see how that goes. So, but that means I gotta get up early in the morning. It does. So what if you you don't wanna sit here and talk city politics with me? Are you sure? Because we can be here till four a. Don't tempt him. He knows I can. Yeah, I know all you cops, man. You're bitching about something. That's not that. It's not that. Has nothing to do with that. Shut up while I'm ahead here. All right. That concludes our look back fifty years ago on the trials of T. Colin Davis. All right. Thank you, Brian Kendall for joining us. You. Thank you all so much for having me on. Yes. Heck yeah. I appreciate it. I had a lot of fun. Got beer and everything. I know. Yeah. This I I will be coming back if you have more Stella. Beer and steak and everything else. I know. Beer and steak. Goodness. All right. Make sure you like us, friend us, follow us. Tell all your neighbors about us. We're on all the socials, the signal 51 chronicles, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, I guess, X? No X. No. I think we're just Facebook and Instagram. Instagram. Oh, we got a TikTok Oh, wow. Or YouTube. Yeah, YouTube. You're reaching the young ones. Yeah, we got the YouTube. Yeah, we got YouTube. Sunset Lounge DFW. Sunset Lounge DFW. And Sigma 51 Chronicles and Stolen Water Media. Sweet. Let's make this go viral, y'all. Yeah. Be real. Be real. See you. This is a Stolen Water Media production.