The Richest Man in Texas Accused of Murder

It was Texas. Home of big oil and big money. And the home of tough talking millionaires who played by there own rules and answered to no one. And the toughest of the tough were the Davis family. It was the trials(s) that rocked the Lone Star State. The State had three eyewitnesses but no murder weapon and no forensics. The man with the millions thought he could beat the rap with his millions. So could the multi millionaire get away with murder?

There is a very big difference between the wealth oil families of Texas and other wealthy families. The Texas oil families were a tough lot. They were raised a hardy breed and are taught from an early age to answer to no one. The toughest and wealthiest oil family in the state were the Davis family. Ken Davis and his three sons from Fort Worth. Ken Davis was straight laced and traditional. His second son, Thomas Cullen Davis was different. Even in a state famous for big money and big egos, Cullen Davis stood out. Whatever Cullen did he did big. In the late 60's he paid an astonishing $6 million dollars to have his mansion built. He threw some of the most lavish parties Fort Worth had ever seen. But when Cullen got in trouble, he did that big too.

On a hot August night in 1976, Fort Worth police received a frantic phone call from Davis's wife Priscilla. She said a man had broken into her mansion, had shot her in the chest and was shooting everyone in sight. When the investigators arrived they found two people dead in the house. Davis' stepdaughter, Andrea, was found face down on the basement floor dead from a gunshot wounds to the chest. In the kitchen, Stan Farr, the boyfriend of Priscilla, was lying in a pool of blood dead of gunshot wounds. The police had no leads but police said she could identify the gunman. She said it was her husband, T. Cullen Davis, the richest oil tycoon in Texas who shot her and the others.

Police stopped Davis at Fort Worth's Meachem airport as he boarded his Learjet and arrested him on the runway and charged him with the murder of two people. The multi millionaire said he was innocent. He also said he was going to Houston but his pilot said they were going to Brazil. It seemed impossible. One of the richest men in Texas sneaking around his own house with a gun, shooting his own stepdaughter. But three eyewitnesses had said he had done it. Could T. Cullen Davis really be a killer?

When T. Cullen Davis was born in 1933, his Father's empire, Ken Davis Industries was the world's largest oil supply company. Ken Davis ruled his family and his fortune with an iron fist. Cullen and his two older brothers did what their Father told them to do. Ken Davis was quite a tyrant and very much a disciplinarian. Cullen's Father believed in hard work and modest living. Cullen worked 16 hour days in the family business and married the kind of good Christian girl his father liked. He drove a Chevy Impala and continued to live in his Father's house. He seemed to be a quiet and obedient son. But Cullen had a dark side.

According to the prosecutor, Cullen was a spoiled rich aggressive man. Cullen wanted a Porsche not a Chevy and instead of a room in his Father's home he wanted his own mansion. By the time he was in his 30's he had been collecting expensive things to fill his dream house for years. One of the goals in Cullen's life was to have anything he wanted. By the time he was 35, Cullen was desperate to break free of his Father's grip. When he met Priscilla Wilborn, he saw the way to do it.

Priscilla was the daughter of a rodeo bum. She grew up poor in Texas on the wrong side of the tracks and dreamed of a better life and to become socially acceptable in Fort Worth. According to her other daughter, Dee, she had a lust for life. She loved art, poetry, and everything that was good in life. By the time she was 27, Priscilla had been married twice and had three children, a son Jackie and two daughters, Dee and Andrea. Her second husband was a successful Fort Worth car dealer. But Priscilla wanted more. She longed for glamour and excitement. She dyed her hair blond and began taking tennis lessons at the exclusive Ridge Lee Country Club hoping to meet Fort Worth's social elite.

Her plan worked. Cullen Davis noticed the attractive blond right away. Priscilla reminded everyone of a Barbie Doll. Davis fell hard for Priscilla and they were soon swept up in an illicit affair. Then on New Years Day 1968, Priscilla's husband and a team of private detectives burst in on Cullen and Priscilla in their Dallas hotel room. Seven months later the two were married. Cullen's Father disapproved of him marring the flamboyant blond from the wrong side of the tracks but ultimately Cullen wouldn't have to worry about that. His Father died from heart failure just five hours before the wedding. Cullen and his brothers inherited the Davis oil empire.

Freed from his Father's shadow the young millionaire could live as he liked. Davis hired an architect to build the dream house he had been planning for nearly a decade. The difference between Cullen and a lot of other people was that if he wanted a $6 million dollar mansion, he could have a $6 million dollar mansion. The ultra moder mansion sat on 180 acres and had 20 rooms. It was so big it had its own power plant. It was glass and marble and concrete and to many who visited it it seemed more of a showplace than a home and very cold. But inside Cullen built his own expensive and exquisitely decorated fantasy land. On one trip to an art gallery in New York, Cullen literally bought the man out. In Priscilla and Cullen's bedroom they had a silver fox bedspread on their king size bed. Now that was luxury. The house was definitely Cullen's universe, according to his stepdaughter Dee. When he would walk through it he would stop and just stare at it for long periods of time.

Life at the mansion was one long party. There were rumors of drugs and sex and even orgies. The decadent Davis' were becoming legends among Fort Worth's society set. Cullen once threw a private screening of the pornographic film Deep Throat for his golf buddies at the exclusive Colonial Country Club. Priscilla had the Davis sky box at Texas stadium panted her favorite color.. pink. Priscilla was a very flamboyant person who wasn't ruled by what other people thought about her. Why should she, she was rich. Cullen lavished his affections and his money on Priscilla. She had a huge closet full of fur after fur, and a kings ransom worth of Jewels. And Priscilla adored Cullen, in fact Dee says
that Cullen was the only man she ever loved.

Priscilla was devoted to Cullen and did whatever he wanted. She even flew to Europe for a radical new surgical technique.. Breast implants. She attempted to become part of Fort Worth's high society but wasn't received well. The ladies who lunch in Fort Worth were a conservative crew. Priscilla would walk in wearing hot pants, a low cut top and a necklace that spelled out "Rich Bitch" in diamonds. Needless to say they were not impressed. But the Davis' were still on every one's favorite couple and were in the society pages all the time. Cullen and Priscilla were loud, colorful, and fun and very rich but they were about to make headlines for something else... murder.

Priscilla's daughter Dee said she saw another side to life with Cullen. According to her if Cullen didn't get what he wanted he threw a fit. He would yell and scream and throw things and break pool cues. She says she watched him push his mother down the spiral staircase. You would just never know what would set him off. But there was one thing that would always set him off was any threat to his dream home as it was his most precious possession. One night when she was 13 years old, Cullen shook Dee awake for not locking the back door. He asked her "why do we lock the back doors at night?" and Dee reponds "so nobody will steal your stuff". Cullen then hauled off and punched her in the nose. While she is bleeding everywhere, Priscilla comes downstairs and asks why Cullen is hitting her daughter. She has a kitten in her hand and Cullen grabs the kitten away from her and slams it on the floor. While everyone is screaming he picks it up and slams it on the floor again and kills it. Even Cullen admits these things did happen.

Fort Worth Worth police received frequent phone calls from Priscilla claiming Cullen beat her and the kids. The visits from the police didn't hurt Cullen's social standing at all. Cullen was too rich and too powerful, it was as if he could get away with anything. So he was shocked at what happened next. In 1974, fed up with his violence Priscilla filed for divorce. Priscilla won temporary won temporary possession of Davis' $6 million dollar mansion. She and her children were living in the dream Cullen had built and now Cullen couldn't even enter it without her permission.

Priscilla was free from Davis' tyranny, free to do whatever she liked. And what she liked was life on the wild side. She started running around with a pretty rough bunch of people who were known to do drugs and ride motorcycles and the like. Davis immediately started dating a blond secretary, Karen Master, a divorced Mother of two. He was turning her into another Priscilla. She too dyed her hair blond and had a boob job and dressed much the same as Priscilla. Cullen took his new girlfriend everywhere in Fort Worth and Priscilla brought her new boyfriend, a local bar owner named Stan Farr home to live in Cullen's mansion.

Stan urged Priscilla to settle her divorce with Davis quickly but Priscilla was holding out for a big payday. Davis' lawyers told him that she might not only get ownership of the mansion but also a substantial part of his business as well. Then Priscilla's lawyers tied up all his assets. That meant Ken Davis Industries couldn't conduct any business without the divorce court's permission. Now someone else was telling him what to do with his money and he is not used to that. Cullen's personal problems were getting in the way of company profits and his brothers were furious at him and he took quite a dressing down from them. His estranged wife Priscilla was now threatening to take his most prized possession and half his fortune.

On August 2nd 1976, Priscilla Davis and her live in boyfriend Stan Farr got home from a diner party and found the mansion unlocked. She wondered why her daughter hadn't locked it up and set the house alarm before going to bed before she went to bed. As she entered the house she saw a bloody hand print on the basement door. What Priscilla happened next was horrifying. Priscilla screams for Stan after she saw the blood. Cullen steps out of the laundry room wearing a shoulder length women's wig and said "Hi" and shot Priscilla in the chest. She falls and starts screaming to Stan "Go back Stan, run, Cullen shot me, run". The gunman then fires at Stan who is shot and then falls to the ground and looks at Priscilla and says "I Love You" and then dies. Priscilla then tries to run away but the man with the gun grabs her and pulls her under his arms and tells Cullen "I Love You, I Love You, I've never loved anyone else, lets talk about this".

Then a second car pulls into the driveway. Two friends, Bubba Gabrial and Beverly Bass, are dropping by for a nightcap. They hear some commotion up by the patio which is surrounded by a six foot tall concrete wall. So they walk around and about this time a man in black steps out of the shadows and Beverly recognizes the man as Cullen who fires at Bubba. The bullet lodges in his spine and he is paralyzed from the waist down as a result. Beverly takes off running. Priscilla meanwhile is running with a gunshot wound to the chest to a neighborhood where she asks someone to help her telling them she has been shot and that Cullen is up there shooting everybody. Police soon discover that Stan Farr is not the only fatality that night. When they arrive at the mansion they find Priscilla's 12 year old daughter dead in the basement with a single gunshot wounds to the chest.

Police surround the mansion and although they can't find the murder weapon they did determine that both victims were shot with the same weapon. They wind up charging T. Cullen Davis with two counts of capital murder and locked him up without bail. So the State has three witnesses who say Cullen did it, or so they think, and there was no reason in the beginning to think that he might not have done it. Cullen case seemed impossible to defend but the was one lawyer who thought he could do something with it. His name was Richard "Racehorse" Haynes and he had quite a reputation around the Dallas Fort
Worth area for being able to get the defendants everyone else thought off. Someone once wrote of Haynes that he was "arrogant" but Haynes takes that to mean that it was the arrogance of excellence and quite a compliment.

For Haynes the case was a challenge and a chance to get in on a high profile case. He is known as a spellbinder in and out of court with a very expressive face who is relentless and could cross exam a tree for three days. Haynes convinces the Judge to move the trial to Amarillo where the folk haven't been rocked by the scandalous murder. He appears to have hoodwinked the prosecution because Cullen has business associates there. While the millionaire was locked up in jail, Haynes treated Cullen's friends to first class dinners, played golf with them and even attended Sunday services with their families. It wasn't long before Amarillo had made up its mind about the millionaire. Davis was being framed by a vindictive wife who wanted his money.

As it turns out Cullen is a popular folk hero sort of like Jesse James was in the old days. Although Davis was on trial for his life, in Amarillo he was treated like visiting royalty. People seem to believe that rich people were somehow different than other people. When the court broke for lunch, Cullen didn't eat in his cell like an ordinary prisoner, he got special treatment. I a vacant Jury room he dined on inch thick T-bone steaks served by waiters in gold jackets. Some of his lunch guests included the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. It was all about the richest man ever tried for murder. They put him on a pedestal and were unable to see beyond his fame. Every day Davis had fans who waited for
hours just to take a picture with him. He was treated as if he was a rock star. There were women who swooned at the sight of him. They brought him homemade cookies. Cullen Davis had won over Amarillo but it would be up to Racehorse Haynes to win over the Jury if he could.

Priscilla had sworn she had seen Cullen Davis murder a man in cold blood. But the defense knew that her wild lifestyle could be used to destroy her credibility. The prosecutor warned Priscilla what was coming. On the first day of the trial Priscilla showed up wearing a long dress with a blouse up to her neck like something out of little house on the prairie. But it didn't work. Everyone already knew too much about her. Haynes accused Priscilla of being a drug addict. She denied it but Haynes produced receipts that she had bought Percodan, a painkiller, and accused her of being addicted to it. He painted Priscilla as a liar and a drug user. He also presented the fact that her and Beverly Bass had had just enough time in the front yard the night of the shooting to get their stories straight.

During the defense case Haynes brought in people to testify that Priscilla had also used cocaine and heroin and that she held orgies and played hostess to an endless supply of motorcycle gang members and drug users. Priscilla denied it all. It was an absolute feast. There was money, betrayal, greed, lust, and they even got a little sex and drugs in there. The prosecution objected and objected but once you got it all in there it was like trying to throw a skunk in the Jury box and tell them not to smell it. The defense did such a superb job with Priscilla that a couple of the Jurors were ready to hang Priscilla right there in the courtroom. It should also be noted that there was an alibi witness.. Karen Masters who testified that Cullen was home in bed with her the night of the shooting. During her cross examination by the prosecutor she was asked why she didn't mention that during her Grand Jury testimony and she said "I just forgot".

Afterwards Priscilla stated that she had never claimed to be picture perfect but that she hadn't shot and killed anyone either. In any event, Haynes strategy seemed to be having an impact on the Jury. Some of the Jurors were smiling at Cullen and winking at Haynes. Cullen even paid the sketch artist to paint portraits of the jurors which he then gave to their families. During closing arguments Haynes argues that the killer could have been a drug dealer or a robber or one of Cullen's jealous business associates. But most importantly, Haynes stated that the States entire case rested on the testimony of Priscilla Davis who had lied about her drug use and probably other things as well and who had colluded with Beverly Bass to frame Cullen. It hurt Priscilla to her heart that she was being trashed but she held on to the belief that Justice would prevail. Almost a year and a half after it started, the Jury returns after four and a half hours with their verdict. T. Cullen Davis, the richest man ever tried for murder, was not guilty.

Priscilla and Dee Davis are stunned. The night of his acquittal Davis celebrated his victory at Rhett Butlers, the in place in Amarillo. The mood was obviously one of great joy and jubilation and the Jack Daniels was flowing. The media, the groupies, and even the trial Judge showed up. And then some of the Jurors showed up and then some of the bailiffs showed up. Even if you thought Cullen was a killer, you had to admit, he knew how to throw a party. People would say, "How could he have done it? A person with that much money would hire someone to do it for him, everyone knows that". Years later, police found out that Cullen had bribed the prosecutor's lead investigator for information on their strategy. But in 1977 no one knew what Cullen had done and Fort Worth society welcomed him back with open arms.

But now Davis was locked in a battle with the Judge in his divorce settlement. Judge Edson didn't care how much money Davis had. He was an old school Judge and the majority of his rulings were in Priscilla's favor. Cullen was being thwarted at every turn. He was simply not winning the divorce case. Cullen's sense of entitlement made losing the case an impossibility for him. It seemed like he couldn't win in court and needed a new strategy. According to David McCory, Davis did find a new strategy, and it was murder. McCory, a former business associate of Cullen's told the FBI that Cullen had approached him and asked him to hire a hit man to kill the Judge. The FBI came up with a plan.

On August 20th 1978, Davis drove his baby blue Cadillac to Coco's Famous Hamburgers in Fort Worth. He was there to meet David McCory. FBI agents sat in a van near their location taping the encounter. McCory says "I got the Judge dead for you" to which Cullen replies "good". McCory showed Davis a black and white photo of the Judge lying in the trunk of a car with what looked like blood all over his back. But it was only ketchup smeared on his back. When Davis saw the picture of the dead Judge he handed McCory $25,000. McCory then says "I'll get the rest of them dead for you. You want a bunch of people dead right?" to which Davis says "All right". The FBI agents taping the conversation were
stunned. It sounded like Davis wanted 13 other people killed included Priscilla and Dee. Five minutes later Cullen Davis was again arrested at a phone booth outside a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken and charged with arranging the murder of Judge Joe Edson. The sting had worked.

The millionaire T. Cullen Davis was behind bars again this time charged with murder for hire. Davis begged the king of the Texas legal fraternity, Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, to defend him again. Haynes thought it was an interesting case, and was thankful that no one actually got killed. This time, however, Haynes wanted two million dollars to defend the oil magnet, far more than the $250,000 he got for the first trial. He felt that he didn't get paid sufficiently for the first trial and felt like he had been worth more and asked for and indeed got the staggering amount. Haynes had worked magic in the first trial but this time he was up against a bigger problem than eyewitness testimony. The State had hard evidence. Haynes had done all the talking in the first trial but Davis would have to testify this time and try to explain that what folks heard on tape wasn't what it sounded like, if he could.

Everyone thought the governments case was airtight. After all, how much more evidence did anyone need? It is seldom that you have the evidence of the crime in progress as it is being committed. The prosecution's contention to the Jury was they could hear and the the actual crime being committed. Richard Haynes had to prove that what went on in that parking lot wasn't what it looked like. It seemed impossible but if Cullen was worried he wasn't showing it in public. Cullen was the kind of guy who thought he was bullet proof. The oil tycoon's fans never lost faith in him. Prosecutors received hate mail and death threats daily. When walking the gauntlet to the courthouse daily, Cullen's fans would boo and spit at the prosecutors. Once again, Cullen Davis' trial was the best show in town.

Once again Davis was signing autographs for his fans and posing for pictures with the lucky few who could get close to him. Once again Cullen had the public's affection but no matter how much they liked him, the evidence was hard to ignore. The prosecution had another shot at putting Davis away for good. But Davis had something up his sleeve. A defense so ballsy it would confound and confuse everyone.

In October 1979, the second trial of T. Cullen Davis got underway. Davis took the stand and told his version of what happened when he met with David McCory. Basically he said that he had been contacted by the FBI and was told to play along with McCory because they were trying to build a case against McCory, who was really the bad guy in this situation, for threatening Davis, trying to extort Davis, and promising to do him bodily harm. The FBI denied ever contacting Davis. The prosecutor's believed their case was solid. They had hard evidence. Video and audio tapes of Davis paying for the murder of Judge Edson. The defense was worried and were not convinced at all that it was going to be a not guilty. But if Cullen was worried, he wasn't showing it.

During the trial, Cullen threw a huge birthday party for himself and invited the Sheriff of Fort Worth. The Sheriff was delighted to come and showed up with Davis' old prison uniform, and a hacksaw. Then he presented Davis with a key to the county jail. Well, what do you give a guy who has everything? This little incident disgusted the prosecutors. Here is the chief law enforcement officer of the county pandering to what Prosecutors believe is a child killer. It took the Jury two and a half days to decide Cullen Davis' fate. On November 9th, 1979 they returned with their verdict. T. Cullen Davis, the richest man ever to be tried for murder was found not guilty... again. Both the defense and the prosecutors were thunderstruck. Cullen himself looked like a person who had just surrvived a plane crash. The Judge uttered an expletive and got up and stomped off the bench.

Most feel as though Justice was not served. But he had the money and the power to get him out of it. When you put $250 million dollars and the bill of rights on the side of the defendant the on the scales of justice tend to tip in his favor. And you can't blame the rich guy for taking advantage of that. But it does make one wonder how many other convictions are wrong simply because the defendant didn't have enough money to mount a vigorous defense. Cullen Davis had a lot of luck in Texas courtrooms and he was about to get even luckier. Right after his second acquittal, Judge Edson who was presiding over his divorce case stepped down from the bench and the new Judge ruled in his favor. The millionaire got his dream house back and everything in it.

Priscilla was awarded a mere $3.5 million dollars instead of the $100 million her lawyers had sought. Dee says she was just tired of the whole mess and didn't want to fight anything anymore. It was a bitter pill for Priscilla to swallow. Violating the court order she kept 50 household items, everything from the toaster to the silver fox bedspread. She also left a little pile of something from the cat and the dog for her ex husband. Priscilla and her friends remain convinced that Davis is a murderer. But if you ask Cullen and his alibi witness, now his wife, they will tell you they have no idea who killed Andrea, Stan Farr and crippled Bubba Gabrial. I guess it's all a matter of who you believe.

It verdicts tormented Priscilla until the day she died of breast cancer in 2001 at the age of 59. Although Davis had been accused of killing to keep what he had, in the end he had nothing. Davis went bankrupt in the oil bust of the 1980's and was forced to sell his mansion. Not long after his acquittal for murder for hire said he found God, joined an evangelical church and now he is a missionary preaching around the world. The children of Stan Farr, Priscilla's murdered boyfriend filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Cullen. He settled out of court with them for $250,000. Dee Davis still believes that Cullen still got away with the murder of her sister. Although Cullen has never been tried for the attempted murder of Bubba Gabrial and doesn't have the funds he once did, prosecutors have no plans to take on the likes of Cullen Davis again. The mansion, the symbol of Cullen's Power and Privilege, has had a curious past since its notorious heyday. For a while it was a steakhouse. Then it became a Mexican restaurant. Now, of all things, it's a church.