The Trials of T. Cullen Davis: Blood, Bribes & the Richest Man on Trial | Brian Kendall

9051, airbag. Suspect is on the day. Is the signal 50 1 chronicles. I'm John Henry. To my right over yonder way Far right. Is my compadre Jake White, our regular cohost. You'll notice somebody in the middle. His name is Brian Kendall. Is my name. And we'll get to him in a second. Giggling over there is our adorable producer, Ashley. We we come to you from, an undisclosed location, Fort Worth, Texas, as part of the Sunset Lounge DFW, which is a popular destination for listeners and viewers on podcasts involving sports, lifestyle, culture, and true crime. That's why we're here. Right, Jake? That's it. Brian, tell us about yourself other than other than your your Stella. Oh, yeah. I I'm indulging in a Stella. Yeah. They told me that was okay. Yeah. I don't think they're a sponsor. That'd be really cool if they were. That'd be phenomenal. Not yet. Go ahead and make that happen, Brian. Stella. The best beer for a podcast. Exactly. A true crime podcast. Specifically. Brian is Brian is my colleague at Panther City Media. We have two titles there. One is fourth magazine, which he's the editor of, and the other is Forth Inc, which I'm the editor of. And, Brian, tell us a little bit about yourself. Sure. You're a you're a journalist of of esteem in this city. Oh, I don't know about that, John. I tried. But I I was at D Magazine before Mhmm. Managing editor before they well, as I like to say, they canned my ass. But You know? But then they also say, well, no, Brian. You were simply laid off. So that feels a lot better. But been at Fort Worth Magazine now for eight years and been the executive editor. It's been an incredible job. Learned a lot about the city. Have learned to really love the city. Love telling its stories and love finding stories like the one that we're gonna talk about today. Yeah. Yeah. And that story is the trials of T. Colon Davis, which is the cover story on this month's fourth magazine, August 4 magazine. And we will get to that here in here in a bit. Now, Jake White, you came running through here just a little bit ago talking about, well, Walter Cronkite is. We share a hometown. Share a hometown. Eminem. He claimed Eminem. Now Eminem claims claims. He claims Detroit. Look it up. Eminem was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Moved, I don't know, teenage years. Yeah. Oh. Are you all roughly the same age? I think he's probably five years older. Five years older. Okay. Somewhere in that ballpark. Yeah. Make that probably makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So did I mean, did you follow in his footsteps as as a rapper? Or I tried. I failed. Not work out. We don't wanna talk about it. It didn't work out so hot. But you were his protege. Yeah. Right. Okay. And then he had said I was, and then things just did not work out as planned. No. I'm not giving any bars. I gave that life up. Do. Fun. Having fun at the end disclosure. Learned you could not rhyme with the word orange. Yeah. That's and then There there is some truth in that. I have gone down the rabbit hole. There is a rapper out of New York who does it on the fly, if you will. People come up to him with a random topic or a random They can do that. Free freestyle. Yeah. Freestyle is freestyle. That's what call. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's what they call it. I'm surprised you didn't know that freestyle. Knew it. I was trying to get to it. Okay. You stole my punch line. And maybe the listeners aren't up to that lingo. You know? You know, our demographic might not be Eminem fans. Females in their forties. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's our demographic actually with Max. John's demographic. We share you know what? People listening to this podcast probably also read forward magazine. They probably do. And if you don't, you should. Well, and I will say this while you guys are sitting here. I'm just a consumer of the magazine. Yeah. Mhmm. I mean, I mean, you you I mean, somebody who comes from Walter Cronkite's hometown. So I'm probably a pretty good judge of this. Yeah. Exactly. You how it is. Exactly. I will say that what you guys have done at the magazine, at Fourth Inc, good stuff. Thank you. Real good stuff. I mean, there is month after month. I mean, single magazine has something in there, has you know, that feature story or, you know, maybe they're the one off stories, but they do a phenomenal job of telling telling stories right here in our hometown. Yeah. Well, I I think John and I make a great team, and I I'm gonna give John a lot of credit for this. You came on board about four years ago? Going on five. Going on five. Wow. October. Boy, ton flies. It's like college. Right? It is. But but I I agree. I I I think we're the only publication in Fort Worth. Apologies if there's there are others who do it. But who does take these deep dives and does these long form pieces Yeah. That gives a lot of context to the story, goes into the history. And John does such a wonderful job. He had this great story on 1936, other month. My mom even texted me telling me how much she loved John's story and tell Thank you, Brian's mom. Yes. Big fan of yours. And yeah. Yeah. I mean, that that's just, to me, a great example of the kind of stories that we do. And and John's been a big, I think, catalyst for that, a big inspiration. So I hope so. That's all I appreciate that. To say that. And Brian's been an incredible steward of the magazine as well. In fact, just this year, we were a finalist for general excellence. We were. Which is general excellence within the City Regional Magazine Association National Awards. So it's a national magazine awards. Mhmm. And we were among the top four publications within our circulation size within the country. Yeah. Yeah. Which was a huge honor to even be on that list. It's an honor, but it comes as no shock. Like I said, as on the consumer end, it's phenomenal stuff you guys are And hopefully, like I said, you guys are hitting it out of the park. Even the online presence, the social media presence. I find myself on there all the time just reading some of the small, I don't want say smaller stories, not always something that's in the magazine, but just the coverage is great. One thing you guys do that I love, you guys have kind of cracked this code on encapsulating the city or capturing the city from business to these lifestyle stories and everything in between. That's just phenomenal to read that stuff. So good work by you guys and Very kind of you, Sergeant Very kind Appreciate it. And one of those stories is our most recent, the August cover story on the trials of Tee Colon Davis. And in fact, I haven't seen anybody. The anniversary, the fiftieth anniversary, was August 2. I don't think I've seen a story commemorating that It is one that, to borrow a phrase, a date that lives in infamy, when on August 2 around midnight, an intruder, broke into the Cullen Davis mansion and killed, two people. One a 12 year old girl and another was a man in his thirties who played basketball at TCU. Standfar. Standfar. Colin Davis, it was his mansion and he was immediately fingered for this crime because the woman who lived there was his estranged wife. And that very day on August 2 that morning, he had got some bad news about his divorce trial. He was ordered to stay away from the mansion. He was also ordered to increase his monthly, what alimony, but spousal kind of spousal support. He was also ordered to come up with what is equivalent today to about $150,000 to pay the bills at the house. And that night, when Priscilla came home with her boyfriend, Stan Farr, she noticed that the alarm had been disconnected. She could see it from the outside that the alarm had the lights weren't on. So she found that fishy and she went inside, and noticed that there was a blood there was a blood a a bloody print on on a wall that alarmed her because her 12 year old daughter had been there by herself while they had gone out for dinner and drinks afterwards. And sure enough, her 12 year old daughter, Andrea Welborn, was that 12 year old victim, murdered by an intruder that Priscilla identified as Colin Davis, and then another victim, identified him as well. Two other victims. Two. Two other victims. I know there are questions around one of them. Questions around one of them, right. So they got home, she notices a print, and a man in black wearing a wig comes out from somewhere behind the kitchen, I can't remember where it was, and says, according to Priscilla's testimony, he said to her, hi, and shot her in the chest. She told she screamed for Stan, who was in another room, to stay there because I believe her quote was, colon is shooting people. Mhmm. And so he went, to go find Stanfar. He had locked himself in a room in a room, and, the man who the intruder shot through the door. The door opens and there's a struggle and he Stan Farr is shot, I think, four other times. Priscilla goes running out the door across the field towards Colonial. Colonial Country Club kinda backs up to the the house, to the property. It's a big was an estate. You know, it was 181 acres. 181 acres. Yep. With a house of about 18,000 square feet. Oh, I thought it was more than that, but maybe more. Yeah, there's conflicting, but range around 15,000 to 19,000 square Okay. She goes running across the field to get help, and the assailant, after having shot Stanfar, goes running after her and catches up with her and starts to pull her back towards the house. And she, again, had identified him as Colin Davis, her estranged husband, and she starts to plead and beg with him to not harm her any further. She said, I love you. I love you. She's trying to talk him down from where he was. And about that time, another car pulls up from the Hulen Street entrance into the mansion. That distracts him apparently and he lets Priscilla go and goes to meet and greet that car. And in that car are two teenagers, I'm sorry, one teenager who had just graduated from Arlington Heights, Beverly Bass and her boyfriend Gus Gavril. They get out of the car. Gus, according to a book I just read, Texas v Davis by Mike Cochran, the late great Mike Cochran, described Gus as hearing like some sort of of a commotion, hearing maybe somebody scream and he goes, he immediately says, what's going on? And the man in black says, everybody's around back, come back here. And as they're walking around the back of the house, Beverly Bass says, Gus, it's Cullen. And allegedly Cullen turns and shoots Gus Gafferil. Beverly Bass takes off across the field towards Hewlett Street and flags down a car. Somebody picks her up and they take her to a convenience store. I think it was a Mr. M convenience store on Bel Air. The haunted intersection, by the way. It is, isn't it? We talked about that. It's that same exact intersection, which I did not know. Because I didn't know all of the details until reading through this about the Mr. M. There's a backstory on the haunted intersection. Intersection we're talking about is Hewlett and Bel Air. Hear about that. Yeah. A lot of stuff has gone on there over that twenty year period for sure. Such layers to this. There are. So she calls the police from there and they show up, discover the bodies, and that's where we get into the salacious, scandalous, and sensational trials of Colin Davis. Great copy. Fantastic copy. I thought it was anyway. Thank you, John. There are two books that we based a lot of our research on, but not all. One was the Texas v Davis Right. By Mike Cochran. The other was Blood Will Tell by Gary Cartwright. Mhmm. Both of them are great books. And Brian was actually, I think, kind of introduced to this case for the most part. You'd heard about it. Right. I had. Right. I mean, it's it's almost become part of Fort Worth lore. It is. Is. Is. Yeah. 100%. And Jake didn't, knew about the case. Knew about it, knew the mansion, knew the high level story, but not the details. Yeah. So we kind of had two rookies on our hands here as far as the details of the case. I was born and raised here and I was about, I guess, six years old when this happened. So it was the talk of the town for obvious reasons. And they ultimately moved this trial. Cohen Davis was charged with two counts of capital murder. Oh, no, one count of One count of One, right. Because Andrea was the only capital murder. She was 12. Right. Because she was Well, got him for capital murder because he wasn't supposed to be the house. They called it a burglary. Well, you you yeah. I guess you you know, either way. Yeah. Either way. Yeah. I think that's I think that's how they Yeah. The murder of someone underage is also capital, right? Even then it was? Yes. Well, oh, well, don't quote me on that. I think you're right on the Brian Kendall's an expert on capital charges. No. But anyway, he faced the death penalty if convicted of this crime. And he went to Amarillo to face trial just for Andrea's murder. They held off, I guess, on the Stan's murder in the event that he was acquitted. So anyway, move this trial to Amarillo because they couldn't do it here without as much publicity as they had on the case. So it was at Amarillo that we met Racehorse Haynes. Racehorse? What do you think about Racehorse Haynes? Now, if you ever seen OJ Simpson's trial or heard about it, Johnny Cochran and the Dream Team and all that stuff, Long before there was a Johnny Cochran, there was Ray's horse, Hanks. Exactly. And we need to note also that Colin Davis was, and still is, I believe, the richest man ever tried for murder. Right. We're gonna get to that. I did some research on that. It is unbelievable how wealthy he was. Yes. If you apply it to modern day standards. Crazy. Yeah. Agreed. So he came from, let's get into that right quick. Colin Davis came, his father was a gentleman by the name of Ken Davis and they called him Stinky. And I can't remember why they called him that. Because he was not a nice man. Okay. Yeah. His father started a oil supply company, but he ultimately had like 90 subsidiaries underneath. One umbrella. He had started buying all of these struggling companies, particularly oil suppliers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Colin and his two brothers, Ken and Bill, inherited this company or companies upon Sneaky's death in 1968, I think. Yes. And it was about a month no, a day after he died that he married Priscilla. No. No. No. It was the day The day of. The day of. Wedding, though, was planned for that day. That's what I that's what I understand. It wasn't it wasn't like a coincidence. Well, but it's not like, oh my dad died, let's get married. Like it's still weird. Totally. Yeah. Totally. I mean, you're rich enough where you could postpone this. Let's do it tomorrow guys. I don't know. Yeah, and you know, okay, we're gonna lose a deposit. Alright. Whatever. Right. Yeah. So, Cohen was able to afford, the best defense money could buy and one of those guys was Racehorse Haynes. Character. I'm trying to remember what he reportedly paid him for the first trial. Think it was $200,000 which was His defense today was equivalent to $6,000,000. On the first trial? Anyway. Yeah. It's probably bad. No. And I think it was. I think it was the first I'm not 100% sure. So we we met this. You probably call him megalomaniac was race Haynes. Oh, 100%. Yeah. He loved the spotlight. Yeah. And what did Colin Davis get with Racehorse Haynes? He got a Sledgehammer. A sledgehammer? Yeah. Who would say absolutely anything? Right. All he cared about was winning the case and zero moral compass. None. Right. None whatsoever. He's paid to get a job paid to do a job. And I think that's probably 100% of defense attorneys anywhere. Right. Around. Right? Well, I'm not gonna go on record with that, but but That's their job is to it is. Get their guy off. Yeah. I agree. True. I Get him get okay. Their job is to make sure they get a fair trial. And in this case, I mean, it's so full of cast of characters. It's straight out of a soap opera. I mean I mean, we we could go on and on about them, and Racehorse Hain's probably at the top of that. And he's somebody who I think created this stereotype of the Texas lawman, of this guy, this cowboy hat wearing guy who who, just knows the people, knows the jury, and is able to speak to them in a way that probably the prosecution can't. And I think that's how he was able to win because he he dug into something with especially Priscilla. I know we can get that later. Yeah. That wound up, being pretty effective. So that's, that's one of the things he did that and Brian talked to an attorney, and there's a lot of attorneys out there who couldn't believe that the judge, and his name is escaping me, but Yeah, likewise. The judge allowed into court. But there's Was fifth Edson the judge in Amarillo? No. No. He was he was the divorce the divorce attorney. Joe. Okay. Okay. That that yeah. That makes sense. But, their defense essentially was, they call it the ABC defense, anybody but Cullen. Right. And and there was no physical evidence that tied him to the crime. To me, this is the most fascinating part. Yeah. Yeah. Even that handprint? Right. There was Right. Nothing it ties to. And and there was a blood a handprint of blood Right. Left by somebody. It was in in the stairwell going down He's going down to the basement. Room downstairs. That's right. Yeah. Mhmm. And they have no idea who that handprint belonged to. Never found the murder weapon. Never found a weapon murder weapon. And you're basing it all off of three eyewitnesses. Really two. Because one of them was thrown out. Gus Gavril said he didn't know who the assailant was at first. Correct. Right. It wasn't until his girlfriend said it's Cullen that he, I guess, recognized him or But I mean, now, I mean, you apply that, what they're looking at even now. So apps on a cell phone. Yeah. Know, cameras at houses were not a thing. Ring doorbell. Ring doorbell. They were not a thing back then. No flocks. There's no flock cameras right now. See who drove, you see who drove down Hewland Street at There's L-forty no, you know, the city has, good God, I mean tons of cameras, right? So, I mean, what else is there? Right? Like, I mean, you had the bloody handprint. Right. I don't know what the, you know, what the technology looked like back then. Right? Perhaps it was Andrea's handprint. Right? So, yeah. Well, would have known that too, though. And they still could not identify it as either Andrea's or Priscilla's or They believe, I guess, forensically, they believe that she was she was murdered in the basement. Right. Correct. I've I have some theories. We'll get into that in a little bit on why that may be. There may have been evidence. There was a character that we haven't talked about yet. I was gonna get into that a little bit. So the defense essentially was that this could have been anybody that came into the house. And apparently there were a lot of people coming into the house, Priscilla was having parties there apparently. I know people who claim they were there. Oh yeah. But you know how that is. Do. People, I've talked to people whose relatives, if you will, have or went to the parties at the Davis Mansion. Yeah. They were wheels off parties. That's what I hear. Was this while she was still married to Davis? Yeah, this was this was like in the the height of their marriage if you will. I mean, it was crazy stuff at these parties. Yeah. Like, blows everything away. I mean, you got, you know, the Quaaludes on a tray. I mean, I guess that was probably par for the course back then. I think so. Yeah, like Wolf of Wall Street type stuff. Yeah, yeah, very Great Gatsby and stuff. Great Gatsby. Yeah. But they all, I mean, it was like the orgies. Did you guys read about the, there was like reports that they had cameras in these rooms, like just A lot of that stuff though was never really proven. Lot of people say that it was all just hearsay, that none of those Yeah. Things were really that these parties because the upper crust didn't really like Priscilla. Oh, So they would spread rumors about her, and and that's a fact. So a lot of this infidelity, there's no doubt that she did. Yeah. I mean, committed adultery for sure, but Colin Davis was supposedly 10 times worse. Maybe 10 times a little rough. I did like the necklace that she used to wear. Yeah. She wore a rich bitch necklace. It was a rich bitch and I love diamonds. Yeah. And she would wear it at Colonial, like at Colonial Golf Club or then the at Texas Stadium, they had the suite there that she decorated in all pink or whatever it was like had the design control over their stadium. Mean, I don't like said the people that I've talked to said the parties back then at and again, and you're probably right. I mean, that all I I think kind of some light on it, but they said it was wheels off. Absolutely. I've heard nothing but that myself. And and she was definitely a rhinestone cowgirl. I mean, was. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I I heard she was a likable person. Part the parties were crazy. And so the defense was allowed somehow to introduce really hearsay into the trial. Got away with it? Yeah. Which, you know Racehorse Haynes? Racehorse Haynes, yeah, made it happen. But one of the one of the people she supposedly had an affair with was a guy named WT Ruffner, whom she met in the Northeast somewhere up in maybe Maryland. That's not the Northeast, but no, Massachusetts, I think is where it was. I can't remember. But Jake was immediately intrigued by the character of WT Ruffner. Yes. Well, the he he was one of because one of the things I think what the defense kind of formulated their one of their strategies was saying, hey, Priscilla is so wheels off. Mhmm. You know, just parties all the time. Yeah. You know, they even had the drug dealer tied to stand far. That's right. Yeah. Well, yeah. We didn't talk about that yet. We haven't got there. They put her on trial. Yeah. Yeah. But this WT Ruffner guy, this was in one of the articles I read. It's pretty old, you know, ten, 15 years old. W. T. Ruffner, this is from his obituary, played a small role in Fort Worth's most infamous murder case, mostly remembered for a photograph. A photograph of him wearing a Christmas stocking over his junk and that was it. Yes. This guy. This guy. I I I like I said, this is why I like reading about it because I didn't know a lot of that stuff. I've I've heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers did this once at a concert. So They they stole it from WT Ruffner. Yeah. Probably stole that from WT Ruffner. Yeah. That's surprising. And at trial at the in in Amarillo, he confronts racehorse Hanes in the hallway near an elevator shaft. Mhmm. He's got a brown bag with him, and he pulls out from that brown bag a t shirt imprinted with the infamous photo and the words quote, Socket to them, WT. Socket to them, WT. He was selling those for what? He's a $100? And he loudly announces, I'm selling these for $100 each. Yeah. He was quite the opportunist. Yes. I also really appreciate the pun. Yes. Indeed. Indeed. So but WT Ruffner was one of these guys and and that that photo, I'm not sure if you mentioned this or not, but that photo, Racehorse Haynes tried to get into the trial, and the judge denied it. But Racehorse Haynes very cleverly just accidentally shows it. Put it on what was described as a transparent piece of paper, whatever that means. Maybe. I think he snuck it in there somehow. Yeah. Another gentleman that the defense brought up, was a drug dealer who they could not call to stand because he was dead. But they suggested that perhaps Stan Farr was the actual intended victim of the assailant. So the defense very successfully tried introduced all these, alternative theories on who this could have been merely a course to cast doubt in the jurors minds. All it takes is is one. But the jurors also in in the book Texas v Davis and I think in blood will tell. Mhmm. Also talked about how how well the defense had the jury scoped out. They seemed to be a step ahead of what the prosecution was doing. Karen Master, who was Cullen's girlfriend at the time, and later his wife, they stayed married until her death about ten years ago. Her father-in-law was at the trial. And it came out the the books strongly suggest that the father-in-law had an end to the jury somehow. Mhmm. But Jake, you told me that you read like in 2001 or an article from 2001 that it was certainly something more than that. Yeah. So we introduce another guy, a guy named Morris Howwith. Yeah. He passes away in July 2015. Who was Morris Howwith? Morris Howwith was Master's father. No, no, no. He was the investigator. Morris Howwith was the Oh, sorry. Hold on. Yeah. Morris Howwith was the investigator. Ray Hudson was the father-in-law. Ray Hudson was the dad. Horse Howeuth was an investigator for the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office. So prosecutors were stymied, if you will, during this trial because they were they didn't understand how the defense was always one step ahead of them. Now it is racehorse Haynes. I mean, it's it's Johnny Cochran Johnny Cochran at all all rolled into one. Right? So they they're so nervous. They're staying at a Hilton in Amarillo, and they can't figure this out. So they're so paranoid that they have the room swept for bugs, right? You know, secret recording devices. Prosecutors, yeah. The prosecutors do. They're the same bed Well, sorry. There could be that too. I don't know. Is check, Amber they double check, they find nothing. Trial goes on, always one step ahead. It's Racehorse Haynes. Maybe he's that good. I don't know. Well, in 2001, this Davis saga continues where Mike Cochran, we've obviously discussed him, heard from Ray Hudson, the father of Karen Master. Karen Masters. He tells Mike Cochran that Hudson said he had paid bribes to Mr. Howeuth, who was then an investigator for the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office for information during the trial. Quote, he called me and told me what the deal was, Cochran said. He told me about Morris Howwith and I eventually got Cohen to admit it. So in summary, what Howwith was doing was he delivers a total of $25,000 in $5,000 monthly increments to Mr. Howeth. So Colin pays Howeth. Howeth relays information to Davis almost daily. Through Ray Hudson, right? Yes. Through Ray Hudson. His motive, I guess he and his daughter had a strained relationship. So that's the way he's going to bring this thing back together. Gonna pay his daughter, get her He's gonna get the, new husband off with if you will. One other thing that came up though, I thought this was crazy. He said he he said he used Davis' funds to commission courtroom artist Ben Conas of Amarillo to sketch portraits of selected juries or jurors for $300 each. They would then be presented to the jurors family members as a discrete gift from Davis. Conus confirms Hudson's story, but says it's only they only paid 100, not 300 each. Okay. So wow. There's so many fascinating There's so many like, I mean, everything you look at, everything, every page you turn, you're like, what the hell? How did this happen? And there's this idea, I won't say who it is specifically, but are a lot of stories out there around maybe a local Fort Worth prestigious club who used to deliver him catered meals while he was in jail. Oh, okay. Yeah, that was also supposedly a thing. I got an idea of what you're talking about, But kind of in reading I will say this, and this is, you know, the the whole idea like this evidence debacle, the bloody handprint, the list goes on. You know, Fort Worth was a I mean, not a small town back then, but significantly smaller than it is now. Sure. Right. Was the ball dropped way earlier on? How do you how do you get to how with without having some kind of direct tie? Well, you have to. Right? I mean, you know, was it, you know, just simply not pursued or was it overlooked? Was it dismissed? I mean, they had somebody on the inside identify, you know, clearly on the inside that had an influential role in that case. Yeah. So, you know, you know, they didn't find the gun. They, you know, they found no fired cartridge casings but I mean, you're talking about the bloody handprint, nothing was done with that. There's no other evidence. Nothing else was pursued. Oh, all of this is questionable as hell. Yes. Yeah. You're right. But I mean, where like, where did it for me, where did it start? Right? I mean, you know, when did this Howwith guy come into play? Because he had other roles. If I'm not mistaken, I think at one point he became a JP. He was a constable. I don't know. I mean, where did this start? I mean, even in 1976, I can't imagine a scenario where they're like, oh, hey, there's a bloody handprint on the wall. Yeah. That's a bloody handprint on the wall. And they just do nothing with it? They did. They did. They did. Did they did tests on it. I I thought they did. Yeah. They absolutely ran tests on it. How good were those tests, John? Well I mean, everything gets called into question. That's the problem. So there was no there was no hand there was no print, you know, a handprint. But they tried to, what they never could determine was the type of blood it was. They just couldn't determine it. Right. Whether it was How is that possible? I don't know. I don't know. Have you heard of that before? Somebody not being able to it it's almost like the antithesis of the OJ case. Right? Where they had just so much evidence against them. So, you know, whether it be the blood, what and in this case, all of a sudden, the police dropped the ball. And I maybe I don't wanna suggest that, but where there's just a complete lack of physical evidence, and now you're relying completely on these eyewitness testimonies, which typically don't do that well. Like, you've gotta have that physical proof. Right? Right. Otherwise, you're gonna start implanting that seed of doubt. So that's that's interesting. Like, did he had yeah. I mean, I will say that, like We're we're getting into conspiracy theories. Yeah. It's definitely yeah. We're definitely going kinda down that road. The eyewitness test I mean, you had two people. You had Beverly Bass screaming, hey, colon. It's Bev. Don't shoot me. I mean, yes. Eyewitness testimony, sure. You have Priscilla Davis running to a different house saying, hey, colon is shooting people. I mean, there's not there wasn't, like, speculation in their voice. The only one was with Stanfar because he doesn't know or not Stanfar. Yeah. Gus. With Gus Gabriel. Just because he had never met him before. He he's never met him. Right. But the other two are like, no. It was Colin Davis. Yeah. Right. Like, okay. So, yeah, let's talk about eyewitness testimony. In your career, have you ever run up against bad eyewitness testimony? I mean, it's it's very I mean, it's it's it's certainly questionable often. It feels subjective in some ways. It is. Because, I mean, people fill in gaps in their mind, right? So they'll start plugging things in. They weren't filling in gaps. They're like, hey. It's Colton. You know, they're they're two separate people ran two separate directions. Mhmm. Hey. Colon is shooting people. Hey, Colon. Don't shoot me. It's Bev. Yeah. That's true. Now the the the defense tried to claim that Bev and Priscilla cons got their stories together and, you know but But but wait a minute. When when the police actually arrived and they spoke to Pevich, she already spoken to Priscilla by then? No. That it she said not. Possible. And and what are the words she said? You do it brilliantly in our article, by the way. It's fucking colon like that ugly well, I I yeah. I mean, it's really well written by John, by the way. Well, I mean, I just it's just a quote, but Well, you you Oh, yeah. You wrote you rewrote you you you picked the right one. And and and to me, it was just so raw the way that she was yelling and screaming. You can't help but feel that it's real. Right. Right. Like, she knew that guy. Yeah. And it was obvious. And by the way, Colin Davis, if he was just wearing a black wig, I mean and now John and I've actually met him. I guess we'll get into that later. We'll get into that. He he's not a guy that you can mistake. He's got a very unique look. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean So be Beverly Beverly's quote to it was a private security guard, actually Mhmm. Who drove up That's right. On her at the mister and his food store. I saw his ugly face. I saw his ugly face. Whose ugly face? Asked the guard. Colon. Colon did it, she replied. Are you certain? The guard asked her. Yes, she said. I saw his ugly fucking face. So at that point in time, yeah, it's clear that there's two distinct identifications of who the assailant was. Because I mean, if you put any victim in that, right? Like, God forbid, you know, something crazy happens to any of us, right? Like you're not giving that detailed of a description in the moment. Where the eyewitness testimonies, in my opinion, can come into question is when people have time to think about it. Right? That's where they start filling in that gap or those voids like, well, yeah, this is what happened because they've had time to process it. But these Like very well could have happened to Gus. Gavril. Yeah. He he could have done that where he starts filling in gaps. But. True. His girlfriend. Yes. I think that's a great example. And that's what I'm saying. I mean, that's just to me, that's, you know, that was one of the things that stood out was you had two separate people. Mhmm. Two separate locations running. Yeah. I mean, we know the area, so they're running opposite directions. They meet with opposite people, and they both say the same thing. Yeah. Mhmm. I mean Well, and and Priscilla was basically face to face with him and spoke with him. Inside? Yeah. Inside. Yeah. I think that she would know the man that she lived with for I don't know how many years. Surely she would recognize that man. That's just an idea of the jury just not believing her for whatever reason. Yeah. And of course, the Cullen's defense did a masterful job of discrediting her and just making them not like her. Well, and broke a lot of, by the way, rules doing that. 100%. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They were able to to to get a lot of that stuff in is OJ's defense team had to have taken some plays out of this playground. 100%. I think they did. Without a doubt. Right? Like Yeah. There was nothing. I mean, the most wealthiest person ever in The US to stand trial for a murder. Yeah. Oh, this is the Rosetta Stone of that. Like, this is how you actually go about defending such a case. Yes. You're 100% right. Yeah. Like yeah. Exactly right. Like you said, there was there was certainly much a lot more physical evidence in OJ's thing, but, yeah, the the tactics were, Colin Davis one zero one. Yes. So Colin is acquitted of the murder of, of Andrew Welborn. And at his party that night are like three jurors who attended this party. Amarillo jurors. Amarillo jurors. That's right. They were not here, Which which, you know, clearly, what are the jurors doing there? I mean, can you imagine if you're sitting on a jury for a murder then Of a 12 year old girl. 12 year old, then some hours after the trial, it was a one of the articles I wrote, a booze infused party. It was. Like Yeah. You just go hang out with the guy that Right. Just Yeah. Probably drugs there too. Probably. Yeah. Probably so. Yeah. Probably so. You know? Because one of the jurors said, something to the effect of rich men don't kill their wife. They hire people to do it. That's right. Yeah. That was that was mentioned. I don't know, man. If I'm on a jury, I mean, it'd be kinda cool to why I'm gonna I don't wanna say this in a literal sense. I'm not about the the the murder of this, but, like, you know how insane that would be? I think I'd be crazy enough to be like, no. I'm gonna go party with the guy. What's his wife? Great anecdote afterward. Right, Joe? Oh, it is. Absolutely. I mean, I partied with Tee Cullen Davis afterwards and racehorse Haynes. Racehorse is taking some shots, man. And, you know, double jeopardy. He was being pretty open to me. But but it it it shows me that they these jurors had no doubt in their mind that he was not guilty. Like, they were convinced of it. Yeah. And and and granted, it was just such a slog of a trial. It was. And and they were staying, what, they shut down, like, the executive end of this motel. Right? To house them all. Yeah. Right. To house them all. And it it was just brutal for them. So to get out and get invited to a party after that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. They're ready. They're ready to go. I might say yes. I definitely say yes. Especially if, you know, you probably already cashed in a little bit of money on, I don't know, I'm speculating of course, but you weren't paying for anything that night, that's for sure. No, definitely not. And you got a watercolor painting. Exactly. Yeah. You got a water Party. Party. You know how cool that would be if you're on a jury and you go to this party and then some days like, hey, here's the most unflattering watercolor picture of you sitting in a Jerry box. I'd be like, oh, damn. I wonder if these any of these people are still alive. This could be a good follow-up story. I think I think the youngest one at the time was in his twenties. I think I remember so. And he might still be alive. He could still be alive. By the way, part of the issue with reporting this story, almost everybody's dead. Everybody's gone. Right. Yeah. And let's talk about that right quick before we head off on this show. So we did run into some troubles getting hold of people. Mhmm. Because people are no longer with us. There's we we're That's the only problem, though. No. It's not. We had trouble getting hold of of a a of the attorneys, prosecutors involved in the case. Won't won't name names, but yeah. They they they just didn't wanna talk about it. And and for a lot of these guys some of these guys, I'm sure I know one in particular, who we will will meet, because because believe it or not, there's a whole lot more to this story than this trial and this incident. Mhmm. Believe it or not. The ghost of racehorse Haynes is gonna visit you guys, man. Us? Yeah. Come on. If only I could do an impersonation of a hoarse voice. Do you like Mr. Ed? Yes. But, you know, this gentleman is is alive and well, and we we we speculate that he just Yeah. Didn't wanna No. I think it's get involved with it. Yeah. It's too painful. Mhmm. It's it's a stain for, I I think, the the DA. Yeah. Yeah. The DA office and and and and and particularly Tim Curry who god rest his soul who is the district attorney here for gosh 1972 to whenever he whenever he died, I believe that 2015. 2000 yeah. Something like that? Mhmm. But even he I mean, not not saying anything bad, but I mean, god. What was he? Probably early thirties? Yeah. For sure. Yeah. He's young man at that time. Going up against a racehorse Haynes figure? Well, I I think I think the the the prosecution it's somebody in the book speculated or or or estimated that they were outspent. The defense outspent the state, like, 10 to one. Oh, easily. Wouldn't be surprised if it was more than that, but you might be right. I don't know. That's just a figure I remember. Sure. But Tim Curry, this is the last time in his career that he actually made arguments in a case. You know, the DA is usually an administrative arm. And I didn't know that. I assumed he didn't. Yeah. Yeah. And he actually made opening arguments Right. In this case. And that was the last time he did. And typically, that's not atypical because the DA's office Do you think though, I mean, if there's a good chance, I mean, they ran in the same circles. If you're the district attorney in the, I mean, probably still today, but I mean, you're running in that crowd, right? You're at all the clubs. Don't know. I mean, yeah, don't know. I mean, you have these oil and gas people. Yeah, I guess they are. And I think that is a bit of a different crowd, especially when you're talking about DAs. Because that's, in many ways, very parallel to law enforcement, right? Yeah. And yeah, maybe these parties full of cocaine and what have you, then maybe that isn't something that they wanna show. I just always I mean, the way I picture Fort Worth back then, I mean, Yeah. Significantly smaller. Not saying, you know, they was at the the, you know, the what John Henry once called the fun parties. I don't know where he was going with that, but, you know, but the same circle, I would think. Yeah. They probably knew a lot of the same people. No. Don't yeah. Six degrees Yeah. In rapid Shoot. I'm talking out of my ass right now. You're probably right. No. It's just that I mean, there's anyway, sorry. I went off on a rabbit hole. Well, it's possible. Alright. Rabbit holes. Yeah. Let's close this lot of good stuff. Let's close this one down. When we when we see you next time, we will continue this saga that has a lot more meat on the bone. Believe it or not. But please join us and Ashley, they can find us where? Stolenwatermedia.com. Check out the socials. Oh, yeah. Check out the socials too. Definitely check out the socials. We're all Fifty Signal fifty one Chronicles. We're on all the platform. We're on all the things. Alright. See y'all next time. This is a Stolen Water Media production.