Murder: True Crime Stories - SOLVED: The Pickaxe Murders 2

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

When 27-year-old Jerry Dean and 32-year-old Deborah Thornton were found dead in Houston, Texas in 1983, police desperately searched for their killer. Eventually, they honed in on a suspect with a vendetta against Jerry: his ex-girlfriend’s best friend, 23-year-old Karla Faye Tucker. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original. For more, follow us on all social media, @crimehouse To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Crime House In a time of crisis, it's normal for people to turn to faith. Whether it's living through a natural disaster, becoming a victim of a crime, or losing a loved one, sometimes we need to believe in a higher power, to know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel and our suffering hasn't been in vain. But what about when the person seeking refuge is the one who committed the crime. In the mid 1980s, 24-year-old Carla Faye Tucker was facing the death penalty for brutally murdering 27-year-old Jerry Lynn Dean

and 32-year-old Deborah Ruth Thornton. While she was behind bars, Carla suddenly converted to Christianity. She argued that her newfound faith meant she should be spared from death. Eventually, she even became a star among anti-death penalty activists. But while many people supported her, others weren't convinced. To them, not even her spiritual awakening could erase what she'd done, and they'd make sure the state of Texas made Carla pay for her crimes.

People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder. True Crime Stories, a Crime House Original. Every Tuesday, I'll explore the story of a notorious murder or murders.

And for more True Crime Stories that all happened this week in history, check out Crime House, the show. Each episode covers multiple cases unified by the same theme, so every week you get something a little different. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts.

Your feedback truly matters. And for ad-free and early access to murder true crime stories, plus exciting Crime House bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. This is the second of two episodes on the murders of 27-year-old Jerry Lynneen and 32-year-old Deborah Thornton, who were killed in 1983 after a one-night stand. Last week, I introduced you to Jerry and Deborah and told you a bit about their history and backgrounds.

I also explained how they crossed paths at a summer pool party and decided to go home together. In the morning, they were found dead, with a pickaxe lodged in Deborah's heart. Today, I'll keep following the investigation into their murders and discuss how detectives honed in on a suspect with a bitter grudge against Jerry, Carla Faye Tucker. But once she was behind bars, a new question emerged. Was the death penalty warranted? All that and more coming up. On Monday, June 13, 1983, 27-year-old Jerry Lindeen and 32-year-old Deborah Ruth Thornton

were found brutally murdered in Jerry's apartment in Houston, Texas. At first, investigators thought it was a robbery gone wrong. Both Jerry and Deborah's wallets were missing, in addition to Jerry's car and Harley Davidson motorcycle While this offered detectives some insight into what went on Including that there was probably more than one killer. It still didn't answer all of their questions Especially because investigators just couldn't get past how vicious the murders were. Based on the level of overkill both Jerry and Debra experienced, the authorities adjusted their theory.

Whoever had done this had known the victims and wanted them to suffer. In the weeks that followed, detectives searched for a suspect, or suspects, with a personal connection to Jerry and Debra. It didn't take long for them to land on one of Jerry's enemies, 23-year-old Carla Faye Tucker. After asking around, investigators learned that Carla and Jerry had hated each other. Carla was best friends with Jerry's wife, Sean, and although he and Sean had recently split, Carla still resented him. Now it was up to the authorities to figure out just how deep her feelings ran, and if they were strong enough to lead Carla to murder.

So that June, detectives took a deeper look into her history. Like Jerry, Carla was a Houston native. Born in 1959, her parents had enough money to own a house in a middle-class neighborhood, take the kids on family vacations, everything that should lead to a stable and charming upbringing. But when Carla was ten, her parents divorced, then remarried, and divorced again. This would become a pattern between them. But during this first round of marital trouble, Carla learned a shocking secret. Her dad wasn't her real dad. It turned out her mom had an affair and decided to keep her birth father's identity a secret. The discovery plunged the Tucker family further into chaos and Carla looked to her older sisters for guidance

Unfortunately, they didn't set the best example Carla's sisters were involved in the Houston biker scene Especially the infamous Banditos motorcycle club which was more of a gang motorcycle club, which was more of a gang. Soon Carla was going to biker parties with the other girls and was exposed to a wild new world. There were no rules. Drugs and alcohol were everywhere and no one seemed to care there was a miner around. In an effort to keep up with the older crowd, Carla was smoking marijuana by ten years old and using heroin at eleven. She was heading down a dangerous path, and

Carla's sisters weren't the only ones who showed her the dark side of Houston. After Carla's parents divorced for the last time, somewhere around the early 1970s, her mother became a sex worker. In 1973, she brought 14-year-old Carla into the business. And that wasn't the only thing the mother-daughter duo had in common. They also both loved rock music and going to concerts. They spent time as groupies, following their favorite bands like the Allman Brothers around the country. Life was one big party. Things slowed down slightly in 1975 when Carla was 16. That year she met and married a mechanic in Houston But she was young and the marriage was doomed from the start

All the couple did was drink do drugs and fistfight We don't know exactly when but it didn't take long for them to divorce by 1979 20 year old Carla was single and back to her old haunts, hanging around the Houston biker scene. Somewhere along the way, she met Shawn Jackson, who was involved in the biker group. Again, we don't know Shawn's age or much about her story. Either way, it didn't take long for her and Carla to become thick as thieves.

Soon they moved in together, and while they loved hanging out with one another, they also wanted to find guys to date. Luckily for Carla, Shawn knew just the one for her. In 1981, she introduced 22-year-old Carla to 35-year-old Vietnam vet Danny Garrett. Despite their age gap, Carla seemed genuinely happy with Danny, and she wanted to return the favor. But Sean wasn't interested in the guys Carla proposed to her. That's because she met and quickly fell in love with 25-year-old Jerry

Dean. Carla despised Jerry from the moment they met. Their feud continued for the next couple years until Shawn ended things with Jerry in early June 1983. About a week later, he and Deborah Ruth Thornton were found dead. After learning everything they could about Carla and her relationship with Jerry, detectives were ready to bring her in for questioning in late June. Sitting across from investigators, Carla admitted she and Jerry hadn't been on good terms, to say the least. But she insisted she had nothing to do with the murders, and if the police wanted, she would be more than happy to take a polygraph test. Investigators scheduled the polygraph, but before they could proceed, Carla notified

them she'd changed her mind. Apparently she had told Danny about her plans and he said she should back out. The reversal only made detectives even more suspicious of Carla and now Danny too. And although they wouldn't get the lie detector test, they did have Carla's fingerprints from when she'd come down to the station. So investigators ran them against prints found at the crime scene. Unfortunately, they didn't yield any results. It was disappointing,

but the authorities were sure that Carla had done it. They just had to find a way to prove it. Lucky for the Houston PD, someone in Carla's orbit was about to come forward and give them the break they needed. After 27-year-old Jerry Lindeen and 32-year-old Deborah Ruth Thornton were found impaled with a pickaxe on June 13, 1983, detectives honed in on a suspect, 23-year-old Carla Faye Tucker. Although Carla certainly had a grudge against Jerry, detectives struggled to find any evidence to directly connect her to the crime, but they were certain she was the culprit.

Throughout June and early July of 1983, the authorities kept an eye on Carla and her boyfriend, 37-year-old Danny Garrett. They even visited them at home a few times in the hopes that Carla or Danny would slip up and reveal their involvement. But no matter what the police said or did, Carla and Danny kept their lips sealed. It seemed like the investigators would have to play the long game and wait until more evidence came to light. But thanks to one curious detective, their investigation suddenly shot into overdrive. J.C. Mosier was a homicide detective for the Houston Police Department.

Although he wasn't assigned to Deborah and Jerry's case, like most people in the city, he'd been keeping tabs on the investigation. In mid-July, Mosier heard his colleagues were looking into Carla's boyfriend Danny Garrett. When he heard Danny's name, Mosier's ears perked up. He knew Danny and his brother Douglas. In fact, he had grown up with the boys and was even friends with Danny's ex-wife. We don't know the ex-wife's name, but Moser decided to give her a call. He wanted to know if she'd heard anything about Danny being involved in the murders. She said she hadn't, but promised to let him know if that changed. It's not clear if she ever contacted Moser again, but it seems like she did ask around,

because soon word got out that Moser had taken an interest in the double homicide, and there was someone very close to the case who wanted to talk to him. On July 18, 1983, over a month after the murders, Moser got a call from Douglas Garrett, Danny's brother. Douglas told Moser point blank Danny and Carla had killed Jerry and Deborah and another man James Lebrant had helped them do it by serving as a lookout Moser was floored. It was a big accusation to make. He told Douglas he'd need more information to make. He told Douglas he'd need more information. And boy did Douglas have it. Douglas explained that Danny and Carla had been bragging about committing the murder for weeks, especially Carla. Every time she talked about it, she seemed to get more and more worked up.

She even told Douglas she'd gotten sexual pleasure from killing Jerry. It was a gold mine of circumstantial evidence, and it didn't stop there. It turned out Carla's sister Carrie also knew about the murders. Like Douglas, she'd heard Carla and Danny bragging about them and had grown concerned. Together with Douglas, they decided to reach out to Mosier. In fact, she was sitting beside Douglas at that very moment. She got on the phone and told the detective everything Douglas had said was true. Later that day, Douglas and Carrie came down to the station and met with Moser. They reiterated what they'd said over the phone, but also provided some new details.

According to Douglas, Carla and Danny came over to his house at around 6.30 a.m. on June 13th, the same day Jerry and Deborah's bodies were discovered. Douglas said Carla and Danny were driving a blue Chevy El Camino with Harley Davidson parts in the back. Presumably both belonged to Jerry. As soon as they came inside, Carla ran up to Douglas and excitedly told him, quote, We offed Jerry Dean last night. According to Douglas, his initial instinct was to help his brother. Together they burned Jerry and Deborah's wallets, and stored the Harley parts around Douglas' house until they were ready to get rid of them. Douglas said he thought that was the end of it, but in the weeks that followed, he and

Carrie noticed Carl and Danny wouldn't stop talking about the murders. Then when Carl and Danny heard the authorities were looking for the killers, they started saying they needed to tie up loose ends, including killing James Lebrant, the friend who'd acted as their lookout. Hearing that, Douglas and Carey started to worry they would be next. When Douglas and Kerry learned Moser was looking into the case, they decided it was time to come clean and put a stop to the bloodlust. Moser listened to Kerry and Douglas for two hours.

He told them they needed to get Danny and Carla to confess on tape, which meant one of them had to wear a wire. Two days later, on July 20, 1983, detectives attached a transmitter to Douglas's chest and stashed a recording device in his boot. They coached him on how to act and reminded him that they wanted Carla and Danny to do all the talking. Then they sent Douglas off to Carla and Danny's apartment. Just down the block, Moser and other officers sat in a van and listened. They could hear Douglas breathing heavily. He sounded nervous.

That's because when he walked in, he realized Carla and Danny weren't alone. They had several friends over, including James Lebrant. They were all doing drugs and drinking booze. Douglas reminded himself. They didn't suspect anything. He took a deep breath and turned to Danny and Carla. He wanted to know exactly what happened on June 13th. Just like Moser had suspected, they didn't shy away from the question. Carla reminded them that on the weekend of June 12th, she hosted a three-day alcohol

and drug-fueled birthday party for Carrie. From sunup to sundown, Carla and her friends partied and got rowdy. Everything seemed to be going well, but then on June 12, Sean showed up, still bruised from her last fight with Jerry. Carla became enraged at the thought of him hurting her best friend again. By the following day, Carla was hell-bent on teaching Jerry a lesson. If he liked hitting women, then maybe he should get a taste of his own medicine. Carla decided she wanted to go find him and beat him up. Danny and his buddy James offered to help. Danny even pitched the idea of stealing Jerry's motorcycle. He knew that would make him really angry.

The trio arrived at Jerry's building in the early morning hours. Danny ordered James to stay behind and act as a lookout. Meanwhile, he and Carla quietly made their way into Jerry's apartment. Carla and Danny crept inside, and immediately saw Harley-Davidson parts scattered throughout the living room. They prepared to gather up the parts when a light suddenly turned on in the back bedroom. Then they heard Jerry yell, What's going on? Carla froze, but Danny reacted instantly. He found a hammer in Jerry's toolbox and rushed over to him. Carla followed.

Once inside the bedroom, Danny whacked Jerry across the head with the hammer. Danny hit Jerry again and again and again while Carla stood there enthralled. But then she heard the gurgling sound Jerry was making. She said she couldn't bear to listen to it any longer. That's when she saw a pickaxe from Jerry's job resting up against the wall. Carla raised the pickaxe over her head and stabbed Jerry several times with it. Then Danny delivered the final blow. With Jerry dead, they started to back out of the bedroom.

But then something caught Carla's eye. There was someone else in the bed. Deborah Ruth Thornton. She had seen everything and was shaking uncontrollably. Carla didn't hesitate. She lunged at Debra, stabbing her repeatedly before Danny lodged the pickaxe into her heart. Once Debra was dead, Carla and Danny ran back to the living room and collected the motorcycle parts and the bike itself. On their way out the door, they grabbed Jerry's car keys. Then they hopped into his El Camino and sped over to Douglas's place. Unbeknownst to them, James had ditched them after seeing what happened to Jerry. He thought they were there to intimidate the guy, not kill him. With such a detailed confession on tape, Douglas had everything he needed, which was a relief.

By 6pm he was itching to leave. Luckily he had the perfect excuse. Danny said he had to get ready for work. On his way out, Carla stopped Douglas. She told him not to worry. The police didn't have anything on her or Danny. She had no idea just how wrong she was. Now it was just a matter of time until she and Danny faced the music. On the afternoon of July 20th, 1983, 23-year-old Carla Faye Tucker and 37-year-old Danny Garrett confessed to brutally murdering two people. Except they had no idea they'd been caught. Danny's brother Douglas had worn a wire and gotten the whole thing on tape. He turned it over to the Houston PD, who now had everything they needed to arrest Carla and Danny for killing Jerry Lynn Dean and Deborah Ruth Thornton. Around 6.45 p.m. that day, Danny left

his and Carla's apartment and headed to work, but he didn't make it very far. J.C. Mosier, the Houston detective who helped with the case, led a team of officers and handcuffed Danny. He didn't resist. Down the block, Carla was grabbing some food in her kitchen when the police barged into the apartment. She was arrested and taken down to the station

alongside Danny. Thirty-year-old James Lebrant was there as well. He'd been picked up by police on his way out of Carla's place. During his interrogation, James told Moser everything, including how he bolted from Jerry's apartment when he realized what Carla and Danny's true intentions were. Although he hadn't actually done anything, he was anxious about being implicated in the crimes and immediately agreed to act as a witness, which would be important because Carla and Danny weren't willing to talk.

When pressed about the night of the murder, all Carla said was that she was high as a kite and didn't remember a thing. But that didn't matter. After all, the police had Carla and Danny on tape. Both were arrested for capital murder and sent to the county jail. In September 1983, two months after they were arrested, Carla and Danny were officially indicted. However, prosecutors decided that their cases would be tried separately. That way, it was more likely that one of them would break and implicate the other.

For the next few months, Carla and Danny awaited trial behind bars. Most of their time was spent meeting with lawyers and discussing their defense strategy. But for Carla, something else happened. She became a born-again Christian. Confined to a cell all day, Carla started obsessively reading the Bible. It might have been because she and Danny were facing the death penalty, which was rare for female inmates in Texas. Carla had never been religious, but thinking about the end of her life, she knew her only hope of getting to heaven was asking God for forgiveness. Or at least, that's what she claimed.

Carla may have gotten grace from God, but the justice system was another beast entirely. In the spring of 1984, her trial began. Between Kerry, Douglas, and James acting as witnesses and the taped confessions, it was a no-brainer. The deliberation barely lasted an hour. On April 19, the jury found 24-year-old Carla guilty of the double homicide of Jerry and Debra. By the end of the month, her sentence was handed down, she would be executed by lethal injection. While Carla sat on death row, Danny's trial got underway in September 1984, and just like prosecutors had expected, Carla did turn on him. In exchange for testifying against Danny, they agreed to drop her murder charge for killing Debra. It's not entirely clear why Carla agreed to this. Even with the dropped charge, she was still

sentenced to death for Jerry's murder. Even so, she became the state's star witness. It was the proverbial nail in Danny's coffin. That month, the 38-year-old was found guilty and also sentenced to death, but illness got to him before the executioner could. In June 1993, he died from liver disease. But although Danny wasn't able to avoid his fate, Carla was still determined to outrun hers. After she was sentenced, Carla was transferred to a women's prison in Gatesville, Texas. Over the next decade and a half, she continued to fight to have her sentence commuted to

life in prison. During this period, Carla became something of a star among anti-death penalty activists, especially religious ones. Her conversion to Christianity didn't seem hollow. She lived like a model Christian inmate and even married a prison minister. Throughout the 1990s, religious figures like Sister Helen Prejean, evangelist Pat Robertson, and Pope John Paul II urged the state of Texas to move Carla off of Death Row. But the Texas government ignored their pleas. Time and time again, Carla's appeals or motion requests were denied. Other times, Carla's execution was postponed, only to be rescheduled a few years later.

By the mid-1990s, it seemed like she'd exhausted all of her options. As the clock ticked away, Carla tried appealing to the United States Supreme Court, but on December 8, 1997, they said they wouldn't look at her case. Even then, Carla refused to quit fighting. Throughout January 1998, she made meaty appearances on Larry King and the 700 Club, hoping her religious conversion could save her. The media blitz did little to sway public opinion in her favor. Near the end of January 1998, Carla's final appeal was rejected by the Texas Board of

Pardons and Paroles. Her only hope lay in the hands of the governor, George W. Bush. Technically, the governor of Texas does not have full clemency control, but they do have the power to delay an execution. Unfortunately for Carla, Bush refused to push it back any further. On February 3, 1998, 38-year-old Carla Faye Tucker was killed by lethal injection. She became the second woman executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s, and the first woman executed in

the state of Texas since 1863. In the end, Carla's spiritual awakening wasn't enough to redeem her in the eyes of the law, and while many people were outraged by her killing, others were relieved. Deborah Thornton's husband Richard was present at Carla's execution. In his opinion, justice had finally been served, and one of the most violent murders in Texas history was put to rest. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back next week for the story of another murder and all the people it affected.

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Plus exciting Crime House bonus content. We'll be back next Tuesday. Murder True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a Crime House original powered by PAVE Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertsofsky, Lori Maranelli, Sarah Camp, Joe Guerra, Beth Johnson, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.