Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Crazy Cheerleading Mom Who Tried To Murder - The Wanda Holloway story

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Wanda Holloway, a 36-year-old mother from Channelview, Texas, gained national notoriety in 1991 when she was arrested for attempting to hire a hitman to kill the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival. Her daughter, Shanna, had failed to secure a spot on the junior high cheerleading squad, and Holloway believed that eliminating Verna Heath, the mother of rival Amber Heath, would cause Amber to withdraw from the team, thereby opening a spot for Shanna. Holloway approached her former brother-in-law, Terry Harper, to arrange the murder. Instead of complying, Harper reported the plot to authorities and cooperated with law enforcement by recording conversations with Holloway. In these recordings, Holloway offered her diamond earrings as a down payment for the hit.

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All eight episodes now streaming, only on Disney Plus. So this is Wanda, and Wanda will do anything to be a cheerleader, maybe even unalive someone. Now Wanda's just a kid and she's living in the middle of nowhere, Texas, but unfortunately, her dad is super religious. And he thinks cheerleaders' skirts are too short for a teenager to wear and he doesn't want her dressing like a hoochie. And so he says, nah, bro, can't be a cheerleader. And that is the end of her cheerleader dream. And this devastates poor Wanda. I mean, this is all she's ever wanted. How could he do?

this to her. But then, fast forward decades later, and it's the 80s, and Wanda is in her 30s now, and she's still living in the middle of nowhere, Texas. But now she's married and she's got a daughter of her own. This girl, Shana. And Wanda, she's probably still got hang-ups about her dad, not letting her be a cheerleader all those years ago, and so she decides to finally do something about it. She's going to do everything in her power to make sure her daughter Shauna can be and she starts pushing her into it. And she starts investing a lot of money into Shana's future cheerleading career with like modeling classes and private cheer lessons. Later she gets her a spot at this insanely competitive gymnastics studio. And as

time goes on, Shana ends up, I assume, being pretty good at dance and cheer with all this training she's been getting. However, there's one other girl she can't seem to outshine. This girl, Amber. Now, Shana and Amber, they're actually friends. I mean, they go to school together, they run in the same popular girl circles, but Amber is just better than her at dance and cheer. Regardless, Shana's mom, Wanda, keeps her eyes on her ultimate goal. She wants to officially get Shana onto the school's cheerleading squad, and she'll do anything

to make that happen. So in 1989, Wanda puts a plan into motion. See, Shana, she's now in the seventh grade. She's 11, and she's old enough to try out for the cheer squad. So Wanda transfers her out of her private school to a local public junior high so that she can try out. And at that new school, there's two open spots and only one other girl trying out. So Shana is guaranteed to make the team. I mean, this is great for them.

But then, guess who suddenly wants to try out for that team as well? Jana's friend Amber. But here's the absolute dumbest part of this whole story. I guess at this school, or maybe in this school district, to make the cheer team you don't audition. You actually get voted in by the students at the school. So you have to campaign and put up flyers and get the students to vote for you, which is absurd because it should be based on skill, but like, I don't know, whatever.

Regardless, both girls campaigned for a spot on the team, and they try to get the other students to vote for them. And kabum, Shana doesn't win, so she doesn't get a spot. And her mom, Wanda, is absolutely devastated and pissed off. And she complains to the other parents, and she goes to the school board and complains to them. She threatens to get a lawyer like, it's not fair, I'll sue you. And of course, Amber makes the team with no problem. I mean, she's popular and people like her.

And as time goes on, Amber still outshines Shauna. I mean, she gets voted as the most spirited in the class in the school yearbook. She becomes the class president while Shauna only gets voted vice president. And a whole year passes. And the girls are now in the eighth grade. And they're both up to try out for cheer again. Or campaign because they campaign at this school. It's the stupidest thing ever.

But this time, Wanda has a strategy. She is still determined to get her daughter on that team. So during campaign time, they make custom rulers and pencils with Shaana's name on them, like vote for Shauna or whatever, and they hand them out to all the students. Here's the problem, though. Handing out branded rulers and pencils actually goes against the school's election code. So it's against the rules. I guess it's seen as like bribery.

And so Shauna, she finds this out, and she immediately stops giving them to students. I mean, she doesn't want to get in trouble. But her mom, Wanda, doesn't. She's still showing up to the school every day and passing them out. And so then, boom, the school disqualifies Shana from campaigning to be a cheerleader. And so that's it. She is no longer eligible to be on the team. And of course, this absolutely destroys Wanda.

She's like, no, this can't be! And she's like complaining to the parents again and fighting with the school board again. Not to mention, it pisses her off. even more that Amber does make the squad. Now, you would think Shauna would be devastated by all this too. But, no, not really. Because at this point, it's 1991. And Shauna is 13 years old now.

So now she's a full-fledged teenager and she starts thinking for herself. And she's like, you know what? Screw cheerleading. She doesn't even want to do it anymore. I mean, it was always her mom pushing her into it anyways. Now, her mom, Wanda, has a different plan. She's still determined to get her daughter on the next year's team. And this is where shit gets really crazy.

Because it's here that Wanda comes up with a plan to make sure that her daughter gets on that team. She's gonna hire a hitman. She wants to hire a hitman to either take out Amber or take out Amber's mom. Because she thinks if Amber's mom is unalived, then Amber will be too devastating. stated to make the cheer squad and that that open slot will then go to Shauna. It's a terrible plan all the way around. Here's the bigger problem though. Wanda doesn't know any hitman, but she actually does know a guy who like kind of has a

criminal record. This guy, Terry. And Terry is actually Wanda's ex-brother-in-law. So Wanda hits up Terry and they meet up and she asks him for this crazy favor. Like, can you help me find a hitman to kill my daughter's cheerleading rival so that she can finally make the cheerleading squad and also can you kill her mom because I really don't like her mom either. And Terry hears all this and he's like, no. Because like that's murder. Like he doesn't want to be involved in all that. But Wanda doesn't let it go. She brings it up again

to him at Christmas Eve. And poor Terry, he doesn't know what to do. I mean, he really needs the money, but he doesn't want to murder anyone. Plus, he doesn't want to go to jail again. Like he's clean now. So now he's in a predicament. Because if Wanda hires someone else to unalive her cheerleading rival and Terry knew she was looking for a hitman, now he's an accessory to a crime. He knows way too much. So Terry, low key, ends up going straight to the police. And he tells them everything. That his ex-sister-in-law is trying to hire a hitman to unalive her daughter's cheerleading rival and the cheerleading rival's mother. And so police set up a little sting operation and they make Terry wear a wire and meet up with Wanda. So he has Wanda

meet up with him again, this time in a hotel room. And now Terry, he's all pretending like, yeah, yeah, I can find you a hitman to unalive these people. Sure, no problem. And he says it'll be $2,500 to unalive Amber's mom, but it'll be $5,000 to unalive Amber, because she's a minor. I guess it costs more to unalive a minor. So Wanda, I guess she's cheap because she opts to just put a hit out on Amber's mom, because you know, it's less expensive. And she hands Terry a pair of diamond earrings as a down payment. And police, who are listening in to all of this, because Terry's wired, this is all the proof they need. And the next day, police show up to Wanda's house and bam, they arrest her. Here's her mugshot. And she goes to trial. She actually has two trials,

and she's ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison. But she only serves six months before she's let out on probation for some reason. Some people get off really easy in these situations. Thank you.