198: Karla Faye Tucker

WEBVTT

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Southern Fried True crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

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there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion is advised. When

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I was young, I remember a
lot of talk about Carla fey Tucker.

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But even though I knew her name, I only knew it in the sense

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that she was controversial. Like Linda
Kasabian of the Manson family, she had

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only acted as a lookout at the
Tait and LaBianca murders, and afterwards she

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turned state's evidence for immunity, but
there were plenty of people who disagreed with

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her deal. It was very controversial. She was an accomplice after all.

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So I had assumed that Carla fey
Tucker had been some kind of accomplice,

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and that's why people were so divided
about her case. Well, I wasn't

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only wrong about Carla's participation in a
vicious double homicide. I was wrong about

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why people felt her sentence was controversial. Like many convicted murderers, she converted

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to Christianity while in prison, which
shouldn't be surprising much less controversial. But

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Carla was an attractive woman and many
people felt she was sincere in her conversion.

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So she became a sort of folk
hero for the anti death penalty movement,

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whether she deserved it or not.
Welcome to episode one ninety eight,

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Carla fey Tucker. Deborah Ruth Carlson
was born in May of nineteen fifty one

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in Columbus, Ohio, to parents
Bill and Harriet List. After her parents

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divorced, Deborah wasn't very close to
her biological father, especially not after her

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mother remarried. Deborah's stepfather was US
Air Force staff Sergeant Homer D. Carlson,

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and he became the prominent father figure
in Deborah's life. She went by

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Deborah Carlson after he married her mom
little May twelfth of nineteen eighty one,

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thirty year old Deborah Carlson married thirty
one year old Richard Thornton of New York.

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It was two days after her birthday. By nineteen eighty three, the

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married couple lived in the Houston area. They made their way to Houston for

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a few reasons. First, Deborah's
biological father, Bill List, owned a

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trailer manufacturing company down there, and
he hired Deborah. Plus Deborah's brother,

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Ron, was also in the Houston
area. At some point, she left

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that job and According to Mark Beaver's
book The Ballad of Carla fey Tucker,

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she became a bookkeeper at a mortgage
company and she and Richard had two children

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together. But things were not all
peaches and cream for Deborah and Richard.

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They were having some trouble and on
Sunday, June twelfth, nineteen eighty three,

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Deborah and Richard had a really big
fight. Afterwards, she went to

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a pool party. At the party
was a twenty seven year old guy named

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Jerry lyn Dean. He hit on
Deborah and she was flattered. Jerry was

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a cute relic of the seventies.
He had a mustache and long brown hair.

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At five seven and one hundred and
fifty pounds, he was a small

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but fit guy, and he had
a lot of personality. And I'm sure

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he told Deborah all about the Harley
Davidson he was working on. So when

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Jerry propositioned Deborah, she said yes. She arranged for someone to take care

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of her two children. She made
sure she had clothes for work on Monday,

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and she went with Jerry to his
apartment. And as far as my

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research indicates, Deborah didn't know Jerry
well, if at all, before this

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evening. It was, for all
intents and purposes, a one night stand

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for Deborah. Between two thirty am
and four thirty am on Monday, June

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thirteenth, Deborah awoke she heard some
strange noises in Jerry's apartment. Someone was

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there two someone's actually a man and
a woman. Deborah kept her head hucked

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under the covers. She and Jerry
were on a mattress on the floor of

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his guest room, and Jerry yelled
out what's going on. Suddenly, debraa

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could tell another person was on the
bed where she and Jerry lay. She

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could feel their weight on the mattress. A woman said, don't move,

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motherfucker, or you're dead. Debora
stayed very still, the sheets and blankets

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still covering her head. It didn't
appear like anyone had noticed her presence,

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not yet anyway. Outside of the
covers, there was a mad scramble.

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The two strangers were beating up Jerry, and Jerry was not faring well.

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After a while, Jerry began making
gurgling noises. Then there was a loud

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thud, and then Jerry didn't make
any noise at all. One of the

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two intruders left the bedroom, but
the second intruder. The woman stayed and

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that's when Deborah started to panic.
When a hard object pierced her shoulder.

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She knew she'd been spotted and there
was no way they were going to let

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Deborah leave this room alive. I'm
going to pause now for a short commercial

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break. Carla Faytucker was born on
November eighteenth, nineteen fifty nine, to

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her parents, Carolyn and Larry in
Houston, Texas. Carla was the youngest

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of three sisters, Kathy and Carrie, and her childhood, as told by

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Carla herself, was incredibly difficult.
She always considered herself very close to her

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mother, but, as she explained
in an interview with Larry King, her

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mother, Carolyn, had a horrible
drug problem, and she followed in her

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mother's footsteps at a very young age. Carla began smoking cigarettes and pot at

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the age of eight. When she
was ten years old, her parents were

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going through a divorce. During the
divorce proceedings, Carla learned that she was

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born after her mother, Carolyne,
had had an an extramarital affair. Carla

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was not her father's biological daughter.
That's the year ten year old Carla began

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using heroin intravenously. She became addicted
to heroin and other drugs almost immediately.

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By the age of thirteen, Carla
dropped out of school. She filled the

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seventh grade and never went back.
Instead, she became a groupie for rock

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bands like the Alman Brothers and The
Eagles, and by the age of fourteen,

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Carla had begun engaging in sex work
to help pay for her ongoing drug

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addiction. Around that same time,
Carla became violent, usually beating up other

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kids her age, once giving another
teen two black eyes. By the time

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she was fifteen, she was fighting
adults too. She would even take on

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two at once. At age sixteen, Carla married a man named Stephen Griffith.

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He was a mechanic, and the
two were together for about five years.

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During that time, Stephen said that
Carla always said that someday was she

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would be famous, but it was
never clear how Carla thought she would accomplish

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fame. Carla and Steven fought like
cats and dogs. They divorced by the

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time she was twenty one. By
then, Carla was deeply into the Houston

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motorcycle scene. All of Carla's friends
were bikers, including the new man she

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was seeing. His name was Danny
Garrett and he was thirty five years old.

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Her best friend Shaan and Shawn's husband, Jerry Lynn Dean had introduced the

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new couple. Daniel Ryan Garrett was
born April twenty fifth, nineteen forty six,

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to Hazel and Sandford Garrett. He
was the second oldest of four kids,

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all boys, except one younger sister. We don't know much about Daniel's

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younger years, except that he went
by Danny and was a boy scout at

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around age eleven. Around nineteen sixty
four, eighteen year old Danny graduated from

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Angleton High School in Ingleton, Texas. Three years later, twenty one year

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old Danny married eighteen year old Cecilia
Moody in Freeport, Texas, and then

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Danny began attending the Naval Pharmacy School
in San Diego. Between nineteen sixty seven

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and nineteen seventy five, Danny joined
the Army. As part of his service,

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he was deployed to Vietnam, and
his experience in Vietnam during the height

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of the Vietnam War was terrible.
After he returned to the States, Danny

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suffered from debilitating PTSD. His friends
reported that Danny had flashbacks and became violent.

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One man said that Danny had even
beaten the side of his home with

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a tire iron. Danny also often
wore a necklace with a tiger's tooth as

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the pendant. He would tell people
that he'd killed the tiger himself. While

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in Vietnam. In nineteen seventy five, Danny was arrested for possessing drugs in

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his home. He pled guilty and
was sentenced to ten years probation, though

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that was reduced over time. Between
the turmoil of Danny's PTSD and drug usage,

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his first marriage did not work out. Then, on December twenty fourth,

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nineteen seventy five, twenty nine year
old Danny Garrett married again, but

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that marriage fell too, and by
nineteen eighty three he was dating twenty three

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year old Carla fey Tucker. At
the time, Danny was a bartender at

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a swingers club in Houston, Texas, and according to his friends, Danny

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didn't seem okay. Starting in that
February, Danny had been really down in

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the dumps. His coworkers noticed that
he was much angrier and more irritable than

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usual. People commented that he was
always moody and argumentative. One person told

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the Associated Press he did not seem
like himself. Danny had always been easy

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to get along with, and then
suddenly he wasn't. We're not sure why

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Danny was having such a challenging time
in February, but by June of that

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same year, he hadn't gotten any
better, and his new girlfriend, Carla

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wasn't helping. She kept ranting on
and on about her ongoing feud with the

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their friend, Shawn's now estranged husband, Jerry Dean. Jerry Lynn Dean was

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born in May of nineteen fifty six
to Emily and Alvin Dean and Smith,

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Texas, and in nineteen seventy four, eighteen year old Jerry joined the US

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Coast Guard. In February nineteen eighty
three, twenty six year old Jerry Dean

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married a twenty something woman named Sean, who also happened to be Carla's best

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friend. As I mentioned before,
Shawn and Jerry had actually introduced Carla to

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her current boyfriend, Danny. Have
we got that straight? Carla and Sean

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were BFFs, Shawn was married to
Jerry, and Carla and Danny were boyfriend

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and girlfriend. Anyway, After Jerry
and Shawn's February nuptials, their honeymoon period

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was very short lived. Only a
few months into their marriage, the couple

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had decided to call it quits,
and even though Jerry and Shawn were legally

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married on paper, they didn't consider
themselves husband and wife any longer. And

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that was quite all right with Seann's
best friend Carla, because Carla despised Jerry.

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Apparently, Jerry had destroyed a photo
album of Carla's and in that album

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were the last remaining pictures of Carla
and her mother, who had died some

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years earlier. After learning what Jerry
had done, Carla attacked him. In

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doing so, she broke Jerry's glasses
and Jerry had to go to the hospital

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to have glass removed from his eyes. But that wasn't enough for Carla.

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She was still furious with Jerry for
callously destroying the last memory she had with

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her mother. In early June of
nineteen eighty three, twenty three year old

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Carla and her boyfriend, thirty seven
year old Danny were on a bender for

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three sleepless days. They had been
drinking heavily and taking drugs every two to

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three hours. They smoked pot and
popped all kinds of pills, some you've

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probably heard of, like valium and
Soma, and then several I had to

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look up that are in the opioid
family. Then to top it off,

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they were injecting methamphetamy. Basically,
they were mixing uppers and downers. Later,

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Carla would say she felt wired,
but this feeling wasn't new to Carla.

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She had been doing drugs since she
was eight years old, and she

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estimated that she had not been cleaned
for more than a few days since then.

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In Carla's adult years, she was
high most of the time. In

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fact, for the entire month of
June, Carla had been injecting speed into

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her body NonStop. So on June
twelfth, Carla and Danny were high,

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and not like buzz, they were
really really high, and they weren't alone.

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Carla, her boyfriend Danny, and
her sister Carrie all lived in this

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house, so they were all there, along with Carrie's ex husband, Ronnie,

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and another friend of Carla's named Jimmy
Lebrant. When the sun went down,

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Carrie and Ronnie left the house and
they didn't come back until the next

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day. But Carla, Danny and
Jimmy were still going strong and they were

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discussing a topic that Carla loved to
talk about, her hatred for Jerry Dean.

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Together, the trio molled over Jerry's
many flaws, and, as Carla

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often did, she said she wanted
to off Jerry and take his motorcycle.

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He was fixing up a Harley Davidson
in his apartment, and Carla didn't feel

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that Jerry deserved that luxury. Eventually, Carla, Danny, and Jimmy decided

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they were going to Jerry's apartment to
intimidate him. They wanted to take money

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that Jerry supposedly owed them, and
they were going to steal his beloved Harley

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Davidson. In preparation, Danny grabbed
the shotgun. He would later claim he

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had no intention of killing Jerry with
the gun. He just thought Jerry might

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be more cooperative if he saw Danny
had it. At trial, there was

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testimony that indicated that Danny also brought
rubber gloves to Jerry's apartment, which would

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really discredit Danny's hull I never meant
to kill him claim, but it's unclear

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if Danny even wore the gloves.
Later, Carla would, explaining that she

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didn't mean for this next part to
happen, that she only wanted to confront

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Jerry toe to toe. Regardless,
the group of three gotten to Danny's ranchero.

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They drove to Jerry's apartment sometime between
two thirty am and four thirty am

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on Monday, June thirteenth. When
they arrived, Jimmy decided to stay in

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the car, Carla and Danny walked
right through Jerry's front door. She had

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unlocked the door with the key she
had stolen from Sean. Next, Carla

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and Danny entered Jerry's guest room,
where he and Deborah Thornton were sleeping.

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Okay, so from here on out, the details of the crime get a

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little hazy, And when you think
about that, it makes sense. The

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only people who left this room alive
weren't exactly motivated to tell the truth,

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and who knows how much they really
remembered with that amount of drugs in their

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system. But here's probably what happened, according to court testimony from Carla's sister

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Carrie, Carla's own testimony, local
newspaper coverage, and Mark Beaver's book,

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The Ballad of Carla Fey Tucker.
Carla jumped on Jerry's prone form. She

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pinned him down to the bed,
saying, don't move, motherfucker, or

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you're dead. But of course Jerry
did move. It's instinct. Jerry went

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to grab Carla's hands, and with
that moment, Danny pushed Carla out of

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the way and began beating Jerry with
a hammer. It's unclear where Danny got

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this hammer. Did he bring it
along from home along with a shotgun,

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or, as is probably more likely, did he pick it up off the

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floor of Jerry's messy apartment. Jerry
worked in manual labor and had for a

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long time. He had accumulated boxes
and boxes of tools that were strown about

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his apartment's guest room. I'm sure
there was a hammer in there somewhere,

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and I know for certain there was
a pickaxe leaning against a door. After

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Danny was done beating Jerry with the
hammer, he left the room. He

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was getting started on stealing Jerry's stuff, and Jerry, who wasn't dead yet,

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was lying face down on the mattress, and his breathing sounded like gurgling.

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This gurgling sound supposedly bothered Carla during
her trial she would explain that sound.

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All I wanted to do was stop
him from making that noise. So

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she grabbed the four foot long pickaxe
that was sitting against Jerry's door, and

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she hit him in the back with
it four or five times, and still

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Jerry was alive, still gurgling.
At this point, Jimmy, who had

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been napping in the car, came
into Jerry's apartment. He intended to help

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rob the place, but then Jimmy
took in the scene before him. Danny

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collecting the parts from Jerry's half completed
Harley Davidson and loading them into the car,

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Carla smiling while actively hitting a sheet
covered Jerry, whose breathing sounded to

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him like a broken aquarium pump,
and a woman no one seemed to have

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noticed, hiding under Jerry's bed covers, and at the sight of all this,

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Jimmy ran. When Danny realized that
Carlo was having a hard time finishing

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Jerry off, he came back to
help. He rolled Jerry onto his back

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and grabbed the pickaxe from Carla and
dealt Jerry one final blow to his chest.

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Then Danny left the room to continue
hauling things to his vehicle. Carla

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was alone with Jerry's corpse and thirty
two year old Deborah Thornton. When Deborah

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shifted under the bed sheets, Carla
realized she was there, so Carla brought

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the pickaxe down on Debora's shoulder hard, and then Deborah began to fight for

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her life. During the fight,
Danny reappeared and wrangled the pickaxe away from

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both women. Then he began beating
Deborah with the pickaxe. Soon Deborah begged

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for death. Carla claimed Debora's last
words were, oh God, it hurts.

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If you're going to kill me,
please do it now. At that,

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Danny kicked Deburah in the chin so
hard that she landed on her back,

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and then Danny slammed the pick axe
into her chest. He left the

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axe there, buried seven inches into
Deborah's heart, and then they left.

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On the morning of Monday, June
thirteenth, a guy named Gregory Trevor was

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waiting for his friend and coworker,
Jerry Dean to pick him up. They

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were going to their jobs at the
cable company together. When Jerry didn't show

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up at his usual time, Greg
walked to Jerry's apartment. It was just

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a short distance away. Greg knocked
on the door. When he saw that

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the door was slightly ajar, he
became suspicious. He called out his friend's

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name at the front of the apartment, but there was no response, so

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Greg pushed open the door and walked
in. Upon reaching Jerry's spare bedroom,

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he saw Jerry lying on the floor
with blood on his head, and a

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00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:45.000
woman lay beside him on a mattress. She had a pickaxe sticking out of

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her chest. Greg immediately called the
police. I'm going to pause now to

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00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:59.599
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Bank products are issued by Evolved Bank
and Trust member. See Jerry Lynden's funeral

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00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:10.359
services were held on Friday, June
seventeenth, nineteen eighty three, at the

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00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:15.519
Memorial Funeral Home Chapel. He was
buried in the cemetery at Tyler Memorial Park

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00:20:15.559 --> 00:20:19.799
in Tyler, Texas. His brother
Bobby is buried in the same cemetery.

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00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:26.599
Deborah Ruth Thornton was buried in the
Mifflin Cemetery in Gehanna, Ohio. She

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was buried next to her mother,
Harriet, who had passed away years before

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in nineteen sixty three when she was
only thirty one. While the victim's families

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00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:41.039
were mourning their loved ones losses,
Carla and Danny were celebrating their murderous victory

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00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:45.440
on Monday, June thirteenth, the
same day that they had killed Jerry and

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Deborah. Carla told her sister Carry
how it all went down. She described

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00:20:51.799 --> 00:20:55.839
the scene with gleeful detail, from
the hammer to the pickaxe to the robbery.

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00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:00.839
In total, Carla, Danny,
and by proxy, Jimmy had stolen

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00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:04.640
Jerry's motorcycle, some of his motorcycle
parts, his wallet, his El Camino,

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and Deborah's wallet. Carla gave Debora's
wallet to her sister Carry as a

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birthday present, but Carrie threw the
wallet away in disgust. Carla also tried

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to give Danny's brother, Doug,
Jerry's wallet, but Doug threw it away

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after burning the contents. On the
same day as the murders, Jerry stolen

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00:21:23.319 --> 00:21:29.440
El Camino was abandoned in a parking
lot near the Astrodome, and Jerry's motorcycle

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and motorcycle parts were hidden in Danny's
garage, eventually dug through the motorcycle parts

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in the Brazos River. When the
Monday Evening News reported that Greg had discovered

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the bodies of Jerry Dean and Deborah
Thornton, Carla and Danny laughed. They

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bragged that they were famous and proud
to be known as the Pickaxe murderers.

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Carla's sister, Carrey, recognized that
her sister had become unhinged dangerous, and

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she moved out of their communal home. The next day. She went to

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live with Danny's brother, Doug,
and then those two Carrie and Doug,

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would later marry. Back at the
crime scene, the police were doing everything

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they could to identify the murderers,
but they didn't have much to go on.

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They could tell several items had been
stolen, and Jerry's TV and stereo

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00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:21.839
were stacked next to his entertainment center
as if someone had tried to steal them

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00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:26.799
but accidentally left them behind, and
the authorities could see there was no sign

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00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:30.319
of forced entry. But that was
about it, and for five weeks it

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00:22:30.359 --> 00:22:36.279
really appeared that the case might have
gone cold. But then thirty six year

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old Doug Garrett, Danny's brother,
decided enough was enough, and on July

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00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:45.920
nineteenth of nineteen eighty three, Doug
called his longtime friend, who just so

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happened to be a homicide detective,
Lieutenant J. C. Moser of the

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00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:55.279
Houston Police Department. By this time, Doug and Kerry were officially dating,

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and the day after Doug called,
they met with Lieutenant Moser to explain everything

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00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:04.160
in person, what happened to Jerry
Dean and Deborah Thornton Wyatt had happened,

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and most importantly, who was responsible. But Doug and Carrey's words weren't going

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to be enough. The Houston PD
needed cold, hard evidence, so they

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00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:18.240
strapped a microphone to Doug's chest and
sent him off. They needed him to

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00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:22.920
get Carla and Danny to admit to
everything on tape, So a few days

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00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:26.759
later, Doug rode his motorcycle to
Carl and Danny's house on McKain Street.

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I'm sure his heart was racing.
To hide the wire properly. Doug had

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to wear a long sleeved shirt in
Texas in July. When Carl and Danny

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questioned Doug about his shirt, he
simply said he needed to do laundry.

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Then he spent the next ninety minutes
prompting Carla and Danny to talk about the

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00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:52.079
murders, and they were happy to. They had thought they'd gotten away with

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00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:56.559
everything, and they were overjoyed to
share the tale once more. You know

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00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:00.079
how the murders went down, so
there isn't much new information to reveal for

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00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:04.079
you here. But Carla did say
something on these recorded tapes that would go

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00:24:04.119 --> 00:24:08.960
down in history, and that's that. As Carla swung the pickaxe into Jerry

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00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:15.000
Dene's body, shoe orgasmed with each
and every blow. When Doug asked if

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00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.839
that was true, Carla responded,
hell yes. During the conversation, Doug

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00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:26.079
informed Carla and Danny that the authorities
told him they were prime suspects. In

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00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.279
response, Carla said, they're just
digging. Doug also commented that it could

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00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:34.160
have been done neither, to which
Danny responded, that was the way it

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00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:38.960
came down. It was a freak
thing. At one point during this wired

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00:24:40.039 --> 00:24:44.599
conversation, Carla left the room.
During that time, Doug told his brother,

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00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:48.200
you never would have done something like
that on your own, and the

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00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:53.519
two men cried. With this conversation
in hand, the police had them over

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the course of several days. In
late July of eighty three, the police

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arrested Carla fey Tucker, Danny Garrett, and Jimmy Leebrant, as well as

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Carrie's ex husband, Ronnie Burrell.
Ronnie had helped Jimmy flee the scene,

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but I don't think any charges stuck
against him. Carla and Danny faced capital

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murder. They were held without bond. Jimmy faced burglary charges and was also

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held without bond. Days later,
on July thirtieth, Carla wrote a letter

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to Danny. The two criminals weren't
supposed to be communicating, so Carla sent

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the letter in secret. It began
to my only man and true love.

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00:25:33.880 --> 00:25:37.079
In the letter, Carla wrote,
I am ready to say anything just to

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get out of here and come break
you out. I just want to see

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00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:44.640
and hold you again. Please be
strong and don't let them give you the

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death sentence, for we will be
together again always in our minds and hearts.

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She goes on, even if I
have to say you did it and

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00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:56.240
get out of here and then get
you out somewhere or another, I know

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00:25:56.319 --> 00:26:02.079
there is a way. And then
she sonned off by saying yours forever and

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always. Wow. What a sweet
way of saying. I'm gonna lie and

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00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:10.680
say that you did it all,
but I promise I'll break you out of

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00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:15.319
prison somehow. This letter would not
be revealed to the public until Danny's trial,

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00:26:15.720 --> 00:26:21.079
which wouldn't happen for a while.
Danny's trial happened after Carla's. But

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00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:23.240
I'm telling you about the letter now, because at the same time Carla was

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00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:29.039
writing this letter and promising Danny that
she'd say anything on his behalf. She

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also claimed to have become a born
again Christian and hey, maybe she truly

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found Jesus. I don't know.
The timing just seemed interesting. Years later,

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when Carla was on Larry King Live, she described how she found Jesus.

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00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:45.640
Apparently, there was a religious group
that would come to the Harris County

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00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:49.359
Jail every so often. They would
perform a puppet show for the inmates.

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00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:53.440
One night, everyone Carla knew in
the jail was going to the puppet show.

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00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:59.920
Not wanting to be alone, she
joined them. Afterward, Carla grabbed

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00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:03.559
Bible. They were giving them away
for free, but she thought she had

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00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:07.880
stolen it. And Carla said,
that night I started reading the Bible.

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00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:11.119
I didn't know what I was reading, and before I knew it, I

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00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:14.039
was just in the middle of the
floor on my knees and I was just

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00:27:14.119 --> 00:27:18.480
asking God to forgive me. Now, jailhouse conversions are not the stuff of

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00:27:18.519 --> 00:27:22.720
wonders. When people are forced into
a cement room with literally nothing to do

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00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:27.640
besides reflect on their wrongdoings. Well, yeah, religion is a comfort,

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00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:33.559
a way to soothe one's self when
those nights get long. But Carla fay

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00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:40.400
Tucker's conversion story would become legendary.
I'm going to pause now for a short

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00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:51.000
commercial break. Carla fay Tucker's trial
took place in April of nineteen eighty four.

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00:27:51.559 --> 00:27:55.359
She was charged with the murder of
Jerry Lyn Dean. The prosecution was

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00:27:55.400 --> 00:27:59.160
seeking the death penalty, so they
figured they would start with the murder of

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00:27:59.240 --> 00:28:03.559
Jerry Dean and if for some reason
it didn't stick, they could try Carla

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00:28:03.559 --> 00:28:08.279
for Deborah Thornton's murder. But they
didn't need to because this trial was the

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00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:12.680
most open and shut court case you've
ever seen. After all, the prosecution

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00:28:12.839 --> 00:28:18.039
had a taped conversation in which Carla
admitted to killing Jerry, and Carla's behavior

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00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:23.039
in that conversation indicated she clearly was
not remorseful at all. And if that

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00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:29.480
somehow wasn't enough, the prosecution had
convinced Jimmy Leebrint to flip, and so

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00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:34.480
Jimmy, an eye witness to the
murders, was testifying against Carla. Carla's

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00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:40.559
trial was big news, highly attended
and extensively reported, and there were some

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00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:45.720
very dramatic moments, like when the
medical examiner testified that Jerry had received over

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00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:49.079
twenty wounds from the pickaxe, many
of which occurred while he was still alive,

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00:28:49.839 --> 00:28:55.799
and how Doug Garrett testified that Carla
and his brother Danny were satanically possessed.

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00:28:56.519 --> 00:29:00.359
Doug said the devil had taken over
their minds and bodies. I can't

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00:29:00.359 --> 00:29:03.680
say whether they knew right from wrong. I can say I do believe the

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00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:08.000
devil was in it. According to
the Associated Press, the defense rested on

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00:29:08.039 --> 00:29:14.079
Wednesday, April eighteenth, without presenting
any testimony to the jury, and on

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00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:18.920
Thursday, April nineteenth, after deliberating
for seventy minutes, the jury found twenty

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00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:23.920
four year old Carla Faytucker guilty for
one count of capital murder. Carla's court

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00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:29.640
appointed defense attorney, Mac Arnold,
told the Longview News Journal that he brought

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00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:33.720
no witnesses for quote many legal reasons
it would take hours to discuss. Let

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00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:37.920
me just say this, This case
is not over yet, and he was

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00:29:38.039 --> 00:29:42.319
right. There was still Carla's sentencing, or as they call it in Texas,

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00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:48.319
the punishment phase. There was only
one question left. Would Carla be

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00:29:48.400 --> 00:29:51.960
sentenced to death by legal injection,
or would she squeak by with life in

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00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:56.559
prison. Mac Arnold was quoted by
the United Press International as saying that he

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00:29:56.599 --> 00:30:00.519
never planned to prove that Carla was
innocent. He could only help her avoid

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00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:06.200
the death penalty. He said,
if I had argued innocence in the face

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00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:10.039
of that evidence, I would have
lost all credibility with the jury. They

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00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:14.000
never would have believed me again.
So this is where the river hit the

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00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:18.119
road for Carla. Her defense counsel
claimed that on the night of the murders,

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00:30:18.440 --> 00:30:22.720
she was temporarily insane due to intoxication
and drug use. The argument was

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00:30:23.160 --> 00:30:26.440
that Carla was not in control of
her actions because she was in a manic,

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00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:33.880
frenzied state. The defense's expert witness
for the temporary insanity claim was doctor

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00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:38.119
Barbara Falcons, and doctor Falcons also
testified that she doubted the truth of Carla

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00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:45.000
orgasming while she killed Jerry, after
she conducted an hour's long interview with Carla

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00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:48.920
the month before. She had learned
that Carla said she never had a pleasant

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00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:53.079
sexual experience in her life, so
maybe Carla was mistaking what an orgasm was.

385
00:30:55.160 --> 00:30:59.319
And Carla testified for her own defense. She spoke for five hours,

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00:31:00.039 --> 00:31:02.960
and I'm not sure if it helped
were hurt her case. On the one

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00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:07.359
hand, Carla did express regret for
killing Jerry. She said, quote,

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00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:10.559
sometimes I think that if someone were
to come up to me and do the

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00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:14.400
very same thing I did, or
worse, it still would not be justice

390
00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:18.279
for me. I don't see how
anyone could ever be forgiven for something like

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00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:22.720
I've done. And according to Mark
Beaver's The Ballad of Carla fey Tucker,

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00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:26.920
she also said it was actually Danny
who dealt Jerry and Deborah's killing blows.

393
00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:33.160
But on the other hand, Carla
admitted to planning more acts of violence.

394
00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:37.559
She spoke about how recently she and
Danny were considering killing Jimmy Liebrant and Ronnie

395
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:42.759
Burrell. They were worried the two
men would snitch, and Carla even testified

396
00:31:42.759 --> 00:31:47.640
that she, Danny and his friends
had plans to raid drug labs. They

397
00:31:47.640 --> 00:31:52.640
would kill the people who worked there
and then steal the drugs. On Wednesday,

398
00:31:52.680 --> 00:31:56.039
April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty four, after deliberating for about three hours,

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00:31:56.079 --> 00:32:00.599
the jury sentenced twenty four year old
Carla fay Tucker to death at the

400
00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:07.720
News Carla bowed her head but was
otherwise expressionless. Now, Carla was one

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00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:10.559
of just sixteen women on death row
in the United States, and she was

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00:32:10.599 --> 00:32:15.400
the only woman on Texas's death row. For reference, during the year of

403
00:32:15.400 --> 00:32:20.599
Carla's trial, Texas had nearly one
hundred and eighty men on death row,

404
00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:25.240
and two men had already been executed
that year. But if Carla was successfully

405
00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:30.240
executed well, then she would be
the first woman executed by the state of

406
00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:36.039
Texas since the Civil War. As
with all death sentences in Texas, Carla's

407
00:32:36.119 --> 00:32:39.200
case was automatically appealed, but that
appeal and all the following ones, would

408
00:32:39.240 --> 00:32:45.160
fail. Since Carla had already received
the death penalty for Jerry's murder, a

409
00:32:45.240 --> 00:32:51.000
judge dismissed her second capital murder charge
for Deborah's death. Six months later,

410
00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:54.160
in October of eighty four, thirty
eight year old Daniel Ryan Garrett faced his

411
00:32:54.240 --> 00:32:59.960
own trial for the murder of thirty
two year old Deborah Thornton, and again

412
00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:05.839
this was a fairly straightforward trial.
The prosecution still had the recorded confession,

413
00:33:06.599 --> 00:33:13.039
and this time they also had Carla's
testimony. Carla took the stand for five

414
00:33:13.160 --> 00:33:16.799
days during Danny's trial. During that
time, she said she was compelled to

415
00:33:16.839 --> 00:33:23.000
testify against Danny because quote people deserve
to know the truth. This was directly

416
00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:28.160
opposed to the letters she had written
to Danny about a year earlier, which

417
00:33:28.200 --> 00:33:31.880
were also presented in court, and
honestly it must have stung for Danny.

418
00:33:32.279 --> 00:33:38.480
He had gallantly refused to testify at
Carla's trial. During Carla's testimony, she

419
00:33:38.559 --> 00:33:44.799
affirmed the events during the night of
the murderers. When Danny's defense attorney requested

420
00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:49.000
that she hold the murder weapon to
demonstrate how she had swung it at Debora,

421
00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:53.720
Carla began crying. The attorney adjusted
and asked Carla to tell him how

422
00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:59.400
she had held the weapon. Later
in her testimony, Carla asserted that she

423
00:33:59.440 --> 00:34:04.839
loved Dane very much and cared for
him quite a bit. She said she

424
00:34:04.880 --> 00:34:08.760
didn't want him to be convicted for
these murders. In response to all this,

425
00:34:09.079 --> 00:34:14.679
Danny's defense team argued that he was
merely another victim of Carla's, that

426
00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:19.880
Carla had manipulated him into doing these
horrible acts. But the jury wasn't buying

427
00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:24.840
it, and on Tuesday, November
twentieth, nineteen eighty four, after about

428
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:30.719
four hours of deliberation, the jury
found Daniel Ryan Garrett guilty of killing Deborah

429
00:34:30.760 --> 00:34:36.840
Thornton. During his punishment phase,
his older brother, forty year old Joe

430
00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:42.280
Garrett, testified on his behalf.
Joe said, Dan was always a popular

431
00:34:42.320 --> 00:34:45.840
sort of person and had a lot
of friends. I have never known Dan

432
00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:49.800
to be involved in any acts of
violence other than this one he is alleged

433
00:34:49.840 --> 00:34:52.559
to have done. I can't imagine
he did it. It is totally out

434
00:34:52.599 --> 00:34:58.039
of character Dan, as a child
and through his adult life was a blonde

435
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:02.880
headed, round faced, bubbly person
who never upset anyone. But when pressed

436
00:35:02.920 --> 00:35:07.719
by the prosecution, Joe did admit
that he hadn't seen his brother much in

437
00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:13.480
his adult years, and the prosecution
asserted that Danny wasn't the kind of man

438
00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:16.280
his brothers and other witnesses brought by
the defense made him out to be.

439
00:35:17.559 --> 00:35:22.800
Danny was a drug addict who had
murdered someone and had no qualms about doing

440
00:35:22.840 --> 00:35:27.800
it again. By the end of
it all, the jury believed the prosecution,

441
00:35:28.719 --> 00:35:32.840
and Danny was sentenced to death.
Nearly a decade later, on January

442
00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:37.880
fourteenth, nineteen ninety three, Danny
was awarded a new trial on a technicality

443
00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:44.719
one of his jurors had been improperly
dismissed by prosecutors. But before this new

444
00:35:44.760 --> 00:35:50.840
trial could happen, Danny died of
natural causes. On June fourteenth, nineteen

445
00:35:50.960 --> 00:35:55.239
ninety three, Danny Garrett succumbed to
deliver disease in Houston's Lyndon B. Johnson

446
00:35:55.320 --> 00:36:00.800
Hospital. In a shocking turn of
events, on June sixteenth, nineteen ninety

447
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:06.199
two, Jimmy Liebrant told the Houston
Chronicle that he had lied on the stand

448
00:36:06.280 --> 00:36:10.239
during Carla's trial. During the trial, there was a whole argument about whether

449
00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:15.840
or not Jimmy had struck a deal
with the prosecution in exchange for his testimony

450
00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:20.559
on the stand. Jimmy denied any
deal, but as it turns out,

451
00:36:20.719 --> 00:36:23.679
he had made one. He was
told that he would receive a single digit

452
00:36:23.760 --> 00:36:28.280
number of years in prison if he
could help put Carlo away for good.

453
00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:34.000
Had the jury known that, they
might have considered Jimmy's testimony differently. After

454
00:36:34.039 --> 00:36:37.920
all, people are compelled to lie
when their own neck is on the line.

455
00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:43.320
After Carla's trial, Jimmy was sentenced
to twenty years in prison, a

456
00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:46.280
two digit number, but he only
served three years. And four months,

457
00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:52.239
so perhaps his single digit deal was
still in place. Enjoying his own freedom,

458
00:36:52.440 --> 00:36:55.719
Jimmy told the chronicle, I don't
want to see that girl die.

459
00:36:55.920 --> 00:37:00.199
She was young enough and impressionable,
and we were crazy people s she was

460
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:04.880
running with. She's been locked down
for long enough. God give her another

461
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.840
chance. There's turned out not to
have any real impact on Carla's case other

462
00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:15.960
than moving back her execution date from
June of nineteen ninety two. They didn't

463
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:21.119
want to execute her until they had
reconsidered Jimmy's part in the trial, but

464
00:37:21.239 --> 00:37:24.960
ultimately the courts determined that even if
Jimmy had not testified, the jury would

465
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:30.599
have still convicted Carla. And they
are one hundred percent right. I can't

466
00:37:30.599 --> 00:37:37.639
say it enough. They had her
recorded remorseless confession. I'm going to pause

467
00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:47.159
now for a final commercial break.
By March of nineteen eighty six, two

468
00:37:47.239 --> 00:37:52.559
years after her conviction and death sentence, Harla claimed that she had been fully

469
00:37:52.599 --> 00:37:58.400
reformed in her eyes, since she
was off drugs and no longer immature.

470
00:37:58.519 --> 00:38:02.320
As she put it, she was
no longer a danger to society, and

471
00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:07.440
she said she was excited to continue
her education from prison. So far she

472
00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:13.039
had already earned her ged. Over
the next few years, she would complete

473
00:38:13.039 --> 00:38:19.840
thirty hours of college credit and teach
herself sign language. When reporters asked Carla

474
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.039
Hey, why sign language, she
responded that she wanted to see her hands

475
00:38:24.119 --> 00:38:29.599
do good in the world. In
an exclusive interview with the Houston Chronicle,

476
00:38:29.719 --> 00:38:34.079
Carla said, I think everything about
was bad, the way I was living,

477
00:38:34.199 --> 00:38:37.119
the way I was thinking. She
attributed much of her self reflection to

478
00:38:37.199 --> 00:38:45.800
her relatively newfound relationship with God.
During that same interview, Carla expressed that

479
00:38:45.880 --> 00:38:49.639
she had hoped to donate her organs
to those in need, but she was

480
00:38:49.719 --> 00:38:55.199
recently informed that the lethal injection medications
would make her organs unusable. She said,

481
00:38:55.280 --> 00:38:59.320
quote, I had really hoped to
be able to give my body to

482
00:38:59.360 --> 00:39:01.760
help others. That way, I
could give life back for the life I

483
00:39:01.800 --> 00:39:07.199
took. And it seems that Carla's
new religious nature might have been authentic.

484
00:39:07.800 --> 00:39:14.880
Her jailers certainly seemed to think so. One said, everybody sees Jesus at

485
00:39:14.880 --> 00:39:19.480
the jailhouse, but this woman isn't
just talking. She is genuine. She

486
00:39:19.519 --> 00:39:24.400
shouldn't die, and many others felt
the same about Carla's faith. An organization

487
00:39:24.519 --> 00:39:30.159
called the Family Life Training Center met
with Carla in October of nineteen eighty three.

488
00:39:30.880 --> 00:39:35.239
They were taken by her story and
devoutness, so the Family Life Training

489
00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:39.320
Center urged their followers and readers to
write to the Texas Governor. They wanted

490
00:39:39.320 --> 00:39:44.719
Carla's sentence to be commuted to life
in prison. And this wouldn't be the

491
00:39:44.800 --> 00:39:50.440
last Christian organization who took a liking
to Carla. The Life Way Covenant Fellowship

492
00:39:50.440 --> 00:39:55.880
of Hungerford also became passionate about Carla's
sentence commutation, and they weren't even against

493
00:39:55.920 --> 00:40:01.320
the death penalty from an ideological standpoint. He just liked Carla. Honestly,

494
00:40:01.519 --> 00:40:07.960
it seemed like everyone who met Carla
liked her. In nineteen ninety two,

495
00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:13.719
Beverly Lowry wrote a book entitled Crossed
Over a Murder, a memoir that was

496
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:17.760
based on Carla's story. After meetings
several times, Beverly and Carla had become

497
00:40:17.800 --> 00:40:23.559
good friends. Even Ron Carlson,
Deborah Thornton's brother, was swayed by Carla's

498
00:40:23.559 --> 00:40:29.960
transformation. The Corpus Christi Caller Times
reported that Ron said, quote, what

499
00:40:30.039 --> 00:40:32.760
I saw when I spoke to her
was something totally different from what I saw

500
00:40:32.840 --> 00:40:38.199
eight or nine years ago when the
trial was going on. Meanwhile, Carla

501
00:40:38.280 --> 00:40:44.639
also did a series of interviews discussing
her Christianity and God's forgiveness, and in

502
00:40:44.760 --> 00:40:49.079
June of nineteen ninety five, thirty
five year old Carla married a pastor named

503
00:40:49.119 --> 00:40:54.440
Dana Brown. She had met Dana
through his prison ministry work. Marriages weren't

504
00:40:54.480 --> 00:41:00.079
allowed on prison grounds, so Carla
and Dana were married by proxy and t

505
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:04.960
two separate locations. After the ceremony, Dana traveled to the prison in a

506
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:08.920
decorated car, but the newlyweds weren't
allowed to speak on their wedding day.

507
00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:14.639
In fact, they never touched at
all. According to the Associated Press,

508
00:41:14.719 --> 00:41:17.559
Carla said, since we didn't let
the physical relationship get in the way,

509
00:41:17.960 --> 00:41:24.599
we have a totally spiritual relationship that's
so deep a lot of people wouldn't understand.

510
00:41:25.119 --> 00:41:30.239
Then, in nineteen ninety seven,
Darley Routier joined the growing number of

511
00:41:30.239 --> 00:41:35.639
women on Texas's death Row. As
a result, the media picked up coverage

512
00:41:35.639 --> 00:41:39.119
on Carla's case. Again. This
was further spurred because by August of nineteen

513
00:41:39.199 --> 00:41:45.079
ninety seven, Carla had exhausted all
of her appeals and because on Sunday,

514
00:41:45.159 --> 00:41:51.920
December seventh of nineteen ninety seven,
Carla appeared on CBS's Sixty Minutes. She

515
00:41:52.079 --> 00:41:54.719
said, I'm so far removed from
the person that I used to be out

516
00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:59.360
there for me, what's weird is
thinking back on some of the things I

517
00:41:59.440 --> 00:42:05.480
used to do. As a result
of this widely televised interview, Pat Robertson,

518
00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:08.320
whom you may know from his work
on the seven hundred Club, also

519
00:42:08.360 --> 00:42:14.039
began advocating for Carla's sentence to be
commuted, and then, according to the

520
00:42:14.039 --> 00:42:19.480
Austin American Statesman, there was quote
an outpouring of support for Carla. More

521
00:42:19.519 --> 00:42:22.360
than six thousand letters and cards were
sent to the Texas capital on her behalf.

522
00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:28.880
Considering that there were nearly twenty million
people living in Texas at the time

523
00:42:29.280 --> 00:42:32.599
and two hundred and seventy three million
in the entire US, I'm not sure

524
00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:37.280
I would call six thousand letters an
outpouring of support, but it did capture

525
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:43.639
the public's attention. All of the
mail requested that Carla's sentence be commuted to

526
00:42:43.679 --> 00:42:47.559
life in prison, but it fell
on deaf ears because the law doesn't care

527
00:42:47.599 --> 00:42:52.840
if you're a beautiful, articulate woman
who found God. If a jury finds

528
00:42:52.840 --> 00:42:55.960
you guilty and worthy of the death
penalty, then that was that you were

529
00:42:55.960 --> 00:43:01.440
guilty and sentenced to death. And
I don't mean to be crass, but

530
00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:05.480
there are a lot of men who
are on death row who also find God.

531
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:09.800
There's something to be said here about
Americans wanting to give grace to women

532
00:43:10.239 --> 00:43:16.679
where we wouldn't for men. Eventually, Carla's execution was scheduled for February third,

533
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:21.920
nineteen ninety eight, and this caused
even more of an uproar by the

534
00:43:21.960 --> 00:43:27.119
media and the public. Mick Jagger's
ex wife, Bianca Jagger, began singing

535
00:43:27.159 --> 00:43:31.920
Carla's praises through Amnesty International. Hell
The prosecutor who had worked to put Carla

536
00:43:31.960 --> 00:43:38.559
away, Charlie Davidson, was switching
sides. Originally he had called Carla the

537
00:43:38.599 --> 00:43:44.159
embodiment of evil. Now he was
convinced that Carla was a changed woman who

538
00:43:44.159 --> 00:43:50.400
shouldn't die. Even Pope John Paul
the Second publicly showed his support for Carla.

539
00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:54.840
But there were some voices that publicly
supported Carla's death sentence. For one,

540
00:43:55.039 --> 00:44:00.079
you had Diane Clements, President of
Justice for All, she said,

541
00:44:00.559 --> 00:44:06.400
if she had converted to the Buddhist
or Muslim or Jewish faith rather than Christianity.

542
00:44:06.760 --> 00:44:10.519
Would so many people think it was
so relevant? No, and there

543
00:44:10.559 --> 00:44:15.440
was also Deborah Thornton's widowed husband,
Richard. In an interview with the Longview

544
00:44:15.440 --> 00:44:20.760
News Journal, Richard explained that he
was looking forward to her execution date.

545
00:44:21.440 --> 00:44:23.800
He said, I will look straight
into the face of Carla fey Tucker and

546
00:44:23.920 --> 00:44:28.719
hope that she sees my face last, because I feel like the first face

547
00:44:28.760 --> 00:44:34.519
she'll see in whatever life beyond this
life will be my wife. Right before

548
00:44:34.559 --> 00:44:39.159
Carla's execution, then Texas Governor George
W. Bush refused to commute her sentence.

549
00:44:39.760 --> 00:44:45.800
He released the following statement to explain
his reasoning. Carla fey Tucker has

550
00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:50.320
acknowledged she is guilty of a horrible
crime. She was convicted and sentenced by

551
00:44:50.360 --> 00:44:53.119
a jury of her peers. The
role of the state is to enforce our

552
00:44:53.239 --> 00:44:59.400
laws and to make sure all individuals
are treated fairly under those laws. May

553
00:44:59.400 --> 00:45:05.000
God bless Carla fey Tucker and God
bless her victims and their families. At

554
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:08.519
the end of the day, despite
the public hysteria, anyone with experience in

555
00:45:08.599 --> 00:45:14.599
law knew that Carla was going to
die. James Markhart, a criminal justice

556
00:45:14.599 --> 00:45:19.480
professor at sam Houston State University and
an expert on the Texas death penalty,

557
00:45:19.559 --> 00:45:23.599
said to commute Carla would open the
doors for a multitude of light claims from

558
00:45:23.639 --> 00:45:29.679
the boys, and frankly, America
just didn't care about those boys on death

559
00:45:29.760 --> 00:45:34.320
row in the same way that they
had come to care about Carla. So

560
00:45:34.440 --> 00:45:37.400
on the evening of February third,
nineteen ninety eight, after fifteen years on

561
00:45:37.440 --> 00:45:43.039
death row, thirty eight year old
Carla fey Tucker was executed by lethal injection

562
00:45:43.519 --> 00:45:47.039
in Huntsville, Texas. Her last
meal was a banana, peaches and a

563
00:45:47.039 --> 00:45:52.480
tass salad with dressing. Her final
words were, I would like to say

564
00:45:52.519 --> 00:45:55.679
to all of you, the Thornton
family and Jerry Deane's family, that I

565
00:45:55.760 --> 00:46:00.119
am so sorry. Hope God will
give you peace with this. Yes.

566
00:46:00.360 --> 00:46:05.440
To Carla's husband Dana, she said, baby, I love you. Then

567
00:46:05.480 --> 00:46:09.400
she addressed a few folks individually.
Next she said, everybody has been so

568
00:46:09.519 --> 00:46:13.920
good to me. I love you
all very much. I'm going to be

569
00:46:13.960 --> 00:46:17.599
face to face with Jesus. Then
she thanked the warden and said I will

570
00:46:17.639 --> 00:46:22.119
see you when you get there.
I will wait for you, But there

571
00:46:22.119 --> 00:46:27.119
are plenty of people who doubts she'll
be waiting at the pearly gates, who

572
00:46:27.119 --> 00:46:31.559
feel her folk hero status was ridiculous, who remember her cold, remorseless,

573
00:46:31.559 --> 00:46:37.360
taped confession, who believe she was
a cold blooded killer, and it doesn't

574
00:46:37.360 --> 00:46:42.320
matter whether or not she found God, And they especially don't believe her gender

575
00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:50.880
should make any difference in the eyes
of the law. Southern Fried True Crime

576
00:46:50.960 --> 00:46:54.800
is hosted and produced by me Erica
Kelly. Today's episode was researched and written

577
00:46:54.840 --> 00:47:00.800
by Andrea Marshbank, with additional writing
by me. As usual, all editorial

578
00:47:00.800 --> 00:47:05.000
comments are my own special thanks to
Mark Beaver, who sent us his book

579
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:08.079
The Ballad of Carla fey Tucker to
use as a resource for this episode.

580
00:47:08.840 --> 00:47:14.360
Southern Fred's original music is by Rob
Harrison of Gamma Radio and the original graphic

581
00:47:14.480 --> 00:47:17.840
art is by Koly Horner. Today's
episode was edited and mixed by Brandon Schuck

582
00:47:17.840 --> 00:47:22.719
Snyder of Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly. If you have any case suggestions,

583
00:47:22.760 --> 00:47:27.519
please go to my website and click
on the listeners suggestion tap. This is

584
00:47:27.559 --> 00:47:30.800
the best way for me to get
those little known cases. Y'all always send

585
00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:37.000
me. Please remember that I do
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586
00:47:37.079 --> 00:47:40.159
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587
00:47:40.519 --> 00:47:45.559
where we swyp recipes, worship Dolly
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588
00:47:45.760 --> 00:47:47.960
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589
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590
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591
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592
00:47:58.840 --> 00:48:01.880
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593
00:48:01.880 --> 00:48:06.800
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595
00:48:13.679 --> 00:48:15.320
thanks so much for listening. Y'all
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