DALLAS — T. Cullen Davis, a Texas oil tycoon acquitted of homicide in a capturing at his secluded Fort Price mansion in a Nineteen Seventies case featured in true-crime reveals after which acquitted once more in an alleged murder-for-hire plot, has died. He was 93.
Davis, who all the time maintained his innocence, died Friday at his dwelling within the Fort Price suburb of Colleyville, his son Trey Davis stated Monday.
In August 1976, Davis and his second spouse, Priscilla Davis, have been going via a contentious divorce when a gunman wearing black and carrying a lady’s black wig fatally shot two folks on the mansion: her daughter Andrea Wilborn, 12, and her live-in boyfriend, Stan Farr, 30.
Priscilla Davis and a customer to the mansion, Gus “Bubba” Gavrel Jr., have been each wounded however survived. Gavrel’s date escaped unhurt.
The three survivors recognized Cullen Davis because the gunman. He was tried for capital homicide within the loss of life of Wilborn. Defended by distinguished Texas lawyer Richard “Racehorse” Haynes, Davis’ first trial resulted in a mistrial due to juror misconduct and the second resulted in an acquittal in 1977.
With an oil-based empire valued at $400 million, he was stated to be the wealthiest man at that time to face trial for homicide.
9 months after the decision, Davis was arrested and charged with solicitation of capital homicide. An FBI informant swore that Davis ordered him to kill 15 folks, together with the decide presiding over his divorce case and the three survivors of the capturing. Davis, as soon as once more defended by Haynes, was acquitted in that case as properly.
The capturing on the mansion impressed a number of books and was featured in true crime tv reveals. A 1995 tv miniseries titled “Texas Justice” starred Heather Locklear as Priscilla Davis.
By the mid-Nineteen Eighties, his largely oil-based empire was crumbling. He stated within the mid-Nineties that his firm had gone bankrupt “due to the crash of the oil trade, not due to my trials.”
Priscilla Davis died of breast most cancers in 2001 on the age of 59.
Trey Davis was adopted by Cullen Davis when his mom, Karen Grasp, grew to become Cullen Davis’ third spouse. He described Cullen Davis as somebody who “stood together with his arms vast open, keen to lovingly settle for you no matter the place you stood in life.”
He stated that when he first met Cullen Davis within the mid-Nineteen Seventies when his mom was relationship him, Cullen Davis was “a reasonably caustic particular person,” however that modified when he grew to become a Christian.
“He grew to become a Christian in 1981 and lots of issues modified,” Trey Davis stated. “He took that very significantly, his dedication to Christ. He was a person of advantage, integrity, grit and humility.”
