Small Town Murder - #564 - First Family Of Murder & Pecans - San Saba, Texas

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

This week, in San Saba, Texas, police arrive to a pecan farm to find a dead woman, in the doorway. Not only that, there is another woman, known as "The Pecan Queen", seems to have disappeared into thin air. What looks pretty simple, at first, turns out to be a complicated plot, involving a whole family, a man who has been married 8 times, his meth addict nephew... and the actor, Tommy Lee Jones! It's an insane tale of murder & greed!!Along the way, we find out that if Tommy Lee Jones wants some land, he'll eventually get it, that you can't tell everyone you know, how much you want to kill many, many people, and that you should NEVER hire Forrest Gump to handle your murder business!!New episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Warm up, chow down. January's chill is no match for all the savory favorites now made fresh to order at Booster Juice. Thurbing up the yum with wraps, sandwiches, and fininis. Come and get cozy. Download the Booster Rewards app today. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and choo choo! Oh yay indeed Jimmy, yay indeed.

My name is James Petragallo, I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you all for joining us on another insane edition of Small Time Murder Express. This is a absolutely crazy episode. I don't know how, this is one of those episodes where I'm going, how does he cram this into an hour? Because this is a lot of crazy and we're gonna,

hoo, boy, is this gonna be a hot hour. Quickly before we start now, head over to shutupandgivemurder.com. Tickets are on sale right now for all of 2025. Our newest date was announced. That is Madison, Wisconsin, and it's almost sold out already. So if you want tickets, get them in a day, you guys. It's just about sold out.

Columbus on February 8th, sold out it looks like at this point. We might release another 10 tickets that they keep for us, but I mean, that's it. Pittsburgh, not sold out. Pittsburgh, February 7th. Get your asses to Pittsburgh. Let's go. Can't go to Columbus, so go to Pittsburgh. Let's do this. We're very excited for it. And the rest of the dates, check them all out. Shut up and give me murder.com. Also, you should listen to our other two shows, Crime and Sports, and Your Stupid Opinions, obviously. But let's say you've listened to all of it and you need more. We have so much more for you and that is Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash crime in sports.

That is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody five dollars a month or above. First of all, you're going to subscribe. You're going to get a monstrous hundreds of episodes deep collection of bonus stuff that you've never heard before Then you're gonna get new stuff every other week one crime and sports one small-town murder and you get it all this week We're gonna talk about for crime and sports. We have a an NFL player who just finished up a murder trial So we'll talk about him Travis Rudolph then for small-town murder We're gonna finish up this West Memphis three kind of origin story of how

We're gonna finish up this West Memphis three kinda origin story of how we got to the point of needing a documentary team to come down there and talk about this and how it just got to the point of having those three kids there and deciding on them. So we'll talk all about that and more. Patreon.com slash crime in sports and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show too on Wednesday.

Oh yeah, we'll give you the credit, sure. Gotta love it. So thank you so much for doing that everybody that has. That said, let's get right into this. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show do on Wednesday Gotta love it. So thank you so much for doing that everybody that has that said let's get right into this Okay, I think it's time here to sit back. What do you say everybody? Let's all clear the lungs here Arms to the sky. Let's all shout Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip.

Where are we going? We are going to Texas this week. Sansaba, Texas. Sansaba. S-A-N-S-A-B-A, two separate words. Two words. Two separate words. Now it's actually in Harkyville,

which Harkyville doesn't, it's got a population of about 12 right now. And you'll find out that's named after this family. We're gonna talk about what, Sansaab is the main area here. That's just kind of a little tiny speck in there. This is in central Texas. It's about three hours and 20 minutes to Dallas,

about two hours to Austin. So middle of goddamn nowhere is the best way to describe this. About an hour and a half to Stephenville, Texas, which is our last Texas episode, episode 515, Against the Wind. If you want Bob Seeger references, that is your episode. That's full of it, yeah.

Let me tell you, I don't remember what it was, why exactly, but man, this guy was, he must have reminded us of Bob Seeger's population here. 3121 in San Saba. So not a big place at all either. Median household income here, 39,583 a year, which the rest of the country, it's about 69,000. So that is nowhere near that. And then median home price here kind of matches that though. It's low median home price 156 thousand four hundred dollars is the median so that is low compared to the rest of the country

Motto here the pecan capital of the world Apparently so or pecan I know Listen we're gonna say pecan pecan a hundred times this episode. I know that they're, it's about 50-50. It's pecan or pecan or pecan or- I think the South, like Alabama, might have something to say about it. They have like pecan, but then some other people say pecan. I don't know.

Georgia loves pecan too, right? I don't know. I'm allergic to them and I don't care. So I can't. George loves pecan too, right? I don't know, I'm allergic to them and I don't care. So I can't eat them. So either way. I love them, goddamn. I don't know if I love them because they make my mouth swell up and I can't breathe.

You may not have enjoyed the taste ever. No, I never, I've always hated pecans and I go, oh yeah, because I'm allergic to them. That's why I didn't like them because they make me not be able to breathe and stuff. So, you know, history, a little bit of history here. A little bit, we'll go very quickly here. In 1931, a rancher named W.H.

Uncle Billy Gibbons, which I believe is, he's an original ZZ Top member, very original ZZ Top member. Uncle Billy Gibbons over here. He gave the Boy Scouts of America a 99 year lease to campgrounds along the Brady Creek on his ranch property. Which by the way, that's coming up in about six, five years. Yeah, it's going to be up there. So then they relocated several miles upstream in 1946, but the Boy Scouts continue to use Camp Billy Gibbons

to this day. That is awesome. That is so fucking great. 1938, the San Saba River flooded, causing country, county-wide just ruined, just screwed everything up. One third of the town was underwater. It was a mess. Then in the 50s, they had a huge prolonged drought

that fucked everything up and they couldn't grow anything. So that's how it goes. Notable people that have property here, I know, and he'll come up in the story, oddly enough, very prominently, Tommy Lee Jones. No kidding. Absolutely, the actor that comes up prominently in the story. Just strange enough as it is.

Okay, he plays a cowboy in a lot of shit. I guess that makes sense. He's got a giant pecan farm down there. So we'll talk all about it. Yeah. Reviews of this town. We'll just do one review because there's only two. The other one was just kind of griping.

So four stars here. I grew up in this town and majority of the town is related to me So it made it difficult to make friends since everyone is your cousin and you almost have to already be friends with them Dating was ruined. Wow You did that as a man when ever since everyone is your cousin. That is not good. Um, get the fuck out That's its own joke right its own cliche joke in itself Ever since everyone is your cousin. That is not good. Um, that's its own joke, right? It's own cliche joke in itself. The town is small but has nice scenery to it as,

as in the country living, I guess the magazine, I don't know what they're talking about. I always, that was hard to read cause I'm like, do those words even go together as in, to it as in country living? What the hell? I always come back to visit every chance I get you loved it so much you moved away that's what you just said and then came back and then you come back to visit which means you didn't love it that much if you left things to do San Saba pecan capital trade days sure got that this is just basically sounds like a giant flea market that they have in downtown

Sansaba. Around pecans. It doesn't seem to have much to do with pecans, but you know if you want to buy swap meat items I feel like it's perfect. You want pecans you go to the Pecan Bottom Festival. Pecan Bottom. Yeah you're a bottom, a hardcore pecan bottom. That's a very specific type of guy well there's there's bottoms and there's tops and power bottoms and all that a pecan bottom is a totally different thing that is like a whoo man you don't even know that makes power bottoms look like a pussy you know so at this little festival here there's food and drinks no coolers are outside food allowed in though. You're not allowed to bring your beers. Keep your coolers at home. Let's see we have bands.

Yeah. The coveted 1030 a.m. spot that all the bands want. The hangover slot there. Yeah. Mark Scott and Southern Comfort is their name. Then at noon, again coveted, the Samuel Bryce Lewis will play. Sure. 130, Funky Glenn Phillips and the New Chitlins. Funky Glenn Phillips. The New Chitlins. You know boring Glenn Phillips,

but this is Funky Glenn Phillips, totally different guy. Three o'clock, Presley Grace, sounds like they just took Elvis Presley and Graceland and made a name out of it it's a gal yeah also the West Texas Exiles Carson Jeffrey yeah and then finally the big closer here we go with your headlining act John wolf with an E. Okay then there you go that this sucks that is $30 to get into by the way. Holy shit 15 for children 4 to 11 I don't think so. Inflations crazy. You gotta love pecans man let's just say that shit wow I don't

know what they're paying those bands but too much would be my guess. That said. Yeah, two bucks a ticket each person? I don't know, that's nuts. Let's talk about some murder here. Okay. This is based on, there is a very good article written here that a great information came out of, a real investigative piece called

A Tree is Known by Its Fruit by Sonia Smith from Texas Monthly. Texas Monthly does great long form, in depth stuff like this. Really do a great job. March 25th, let's go to 2012. So not too far ago, too long ago I should say, not too far back.

And everything's the same. Your phone looks exactly the same. Same apps, you got Instagram, you're fine. All right, here we go. Late afternoon, Sheriff Alan Brown is out on patrol when a 911 call came in from a 12-year-old boy saying there's some trouble out at the ranch, okay? So we'll talk about that, we'll get there.

There's a trouble at the ranch Not my ranch a ranch is what he said. No, I so the sheriff here sheriff Alan Brown. He takes off down US 190 You know, he's going and going he pulls up here he knew the house that he was going to because apparently Bonnie Harky who is the matriarch of the Harky family, she's lived here and she's had big, I guess, everybody goes to like the same Baptist church here too. So the sheriff knows Bonnie from Baptist church suppers

and also she used to host cookouts for the church people at her house and stuff like that. So he's been there plenty of times. He knows where he's going. Great hostess, sure. Yeah, absolutely. Now the ambulance is also on route. And they assumed that the ambulance was for Bonnie Harky,

who is 85 years old and in terrible health. Oh, Bonnie. So they're like, oh shit, it's finally time to take Bonnie down here. So I guess not down, I guess to the hospital. Let's take her down. Put that old bag down. Bonnie's does she put it.

We put up with enough of Bonnie shit for too long. We're taking her down. That's I don't think that's what's going on in the backyard and two bullets in the head. She's 85. Somebody's going to take over. So she's frail. She requires help from a caretaker She's got some dementia going on and some physical maladies as well, but when they get to the house Instead when they open the door right in the open right in the landing there when you walk in the door is

face down is Bonnie's caretaker, 50 year old Karen Johnson, face down on the floor. Yeah, this is fucking crazy. Now, they look around, there's an 11 year old boy there, he's the one who called 911, that is Karen Johnson's son, the caretaker, Karen Gale Johnson is her name. Yeah, that's her son.

But Bonnie is nowhere in sight. Oh, so did Bonnie have a, did she decide I'm going to kill this lady and take off like 85? I don't care. Maybe she's Bonnie and Clyde Bonnie. We don't know. She is old. So the sheriff arrived at the house. He sees you know The the ambulance that got there first he sees Karen Gail Johnson sprawled face down just inside the front door on top of a floral doormat So her reading glasses are right next to her on right next to her on the floor her she was cool to the touch and She was dead So yeah, so they said where the fuck is Bonnie here?

You know what I mean? So Karen's 11 year old son, she's the one who found her, he found his mother and called 911. He was on the front porch with the cordless phone, you know, standing there. He had been playing video games in another room and he said he didn't hear anything. He doesn't know, he came out looking for his mom

and she was face down so he called 911. He doesn't know what the hell happened. That's the normal routine is Karen will come over with her son to take care of Bonnie. They have a spare bedroom. The son will go in the spare bedroom play video games while his mom works. Send him off to the Nintendo Wii and deal with this. Yeah 2012 some PS4 and knock yourself out. So this kid is crying saying he didn't hear anything, I don't know what happened and you know, he doesn't have like blood on him or anything like that,

he's not a suspect at this point. There's no sign of a struggle here either. There's a broken fingernail on a right hand, but they don't know if that was there before, it's just one fingernail. So they didn't know what the hell was going on here. So they thought maybe, maybe Karen had a heart attack and dropped dead.

And Bonnie didn't know what to do, so she just wandered off, because she's confused and old. Maybe she's on the- She needs a caretaker. Yeah, maybe they're on the property. So they said there's plenty of space for that to happen. So they looked, they look all over, they live on a big pecan orchard. So the cops spread out, they get

ATVs to go out into the fields to look for, because it's pecan trees. So you can't just look out and see it. Yeah, it's not, if it was some short crop, you can just look out and see if she's standing there, but it's not that so you have to really go explore and see They go everywhere local firefighters deputies. They get a bloodhound named JJ from the state prison All hands on deck basically that they have there a helicopter was dispatched from Waco to circle They had heat imaging cameras. I mean they were looking for fucking for fucking, we have an 85 year old lady lost, and she's not in great health, so they don't know how long she can last out there

on her own in the elements, who knows? So they do everything. They go all over the place. There's high bank along the river bank. There's high grass. They search through there. They search all along Tommy Lee Jones's fence line. Poor Tommy. Tommy Lee lives next door. Well, he doesn't live next door, but his property is there. They search all along Tommy Lee Jones's fence line. Poor Tommy. Tommy

Lee lives next door. Well, he doesn't live next door, but his property is there. He's got his horses all grazing on the other side. I'll bet he does live there. Tommy Lee, he doesn't live there. I know for a fact he doesn't live there. No, it's just his property. Really? Yeah. Okay. He doesn't live there. They say that he doesn't live there, like in the thing. It's just one of his properties. I wonder how much property is there with all that shit. You got to pay for all that. That's so expensive. Well, we'll talk all about it We got him we got stats here So they said that maybe Bonnie had tripped in the orchard and fallen into the river possibly

Oh my god house like kind of the property backs up to a river. So they're like, maybe she did that they don't know but the bloodhound Followed her trail down the driveway almost to the road and then stopped so they were like okay that looks like getting into a vehicle in the driveway is what that looks like yeah and then taken off so what the fuck is going on let's talk all about it here all right as of 2012 the Harki pecan farms we'll talk about because that's the thing here It's a two-story farmhouse and it's three seven nine nine West US Highway 190 is the address

They have been this family's been here a long time and we'll talk about it Tommy Lee Jones has a Huge cattle ranch property next door He doesn't do pecans. They have about a 300 acre pecan farm. Though the Harky family. And then Tommy Lee's got an even bigger property, way bigger property next door.

Oh it's huge. And he wants their property as well. Oh! Yes, he's trying to buy their property. A lot of people think he doesn't give a shit about pecans But good water rights come with that property and in Texas water rights are a big fucking deal So that's a big deal apparently sensaba produces up to five million pounds a year of pecans Claims to be the pecan capital of the world which

Chandler, Oklahoma and Albany, Georgia would like to have a fucking talk with them about because they say, bullshit, we are the number one. Now, little bit of Harky history. They're one of the first families to settle into the area before Pecans were even an industry. They were here. Really? Absolutely.

Riley and Israel Harky, two brothers from Arkansas, drove the first wagon train into the county while serving as Indian scouts for the Republic of Texas. I can't even go through that sentence and pick out all the things that are so outdated and old-timey. It's not even funny. Wagon train, Indian scouts, Republic of Texas. It's all right there for you. That's incredible. They liked it there and then they ended up returning in 1855 with their parents and six other siblings. They were like, we got to go to this place, man.

They got good soil there and shit. So the Harky brothers founded Harkyville, which we talked about as a population of 12, but in its prime, it had had a general store a cotton mill a blacksmith shop a millinery a racetrack, you know all sorts of now there's only 12 people now. There's 12 people It had a baseball diamond. You can't even get a game going now. They're you're only getting your six people short of a game at this point so that's crazy the Great Depression shuttered most of the town and That's kind of how it went basically like a lot of these small towns the depression wiped them out Wiped about people went to where the work was so that was that

So Riley is described as a man with a long bushy goatee and a square head bushy goatee and a square head. Sounds hot dude. That's a very handsome man right there. He bought the initial 113.9 acre tract for a farm there in 1885 and then his grandson and eventual heir Olga Brian Harky, they named their boy Olga, that's tough, he was born in 1898 here as well. So there was already native pecan trees on the property. Oh. And yeah, apparently they were considered especially good trees in this area here.

So Olga Brian Harky, he planted the first orchard in 1926 installing 1200 trees. Jesus. Yeah. But that wasn't even for business. That was just like a hobby. He was dicking around. Turkeys were his business. Absolutely. In 1932, the newspaper said, they have been breeding for perfection and believe now they have a strain that gives turkedom about everything that is to be desired in a turkey. Turkedom all of turkedom. So 1957 OB he has one child and his name is Riley. So they get together with OB Riley who was Riley, who was 32 at that point, together with Riley's two sons, 10-year-old John, 5-year-old Bruce, planted another 1,500 trees in the grove that came to be known as Harkyville Orchard.

And the farms matured and they started making a really nice living off of these pecans. Sure. Doing really well. Now Riley, we'll talk about Riley is Olga Brian's son. Riley had a lot of, you know, very good work ethic. Obviously he's planting 1500 trees. He gets his five year old out there to help me plant trees. That's decent work ethic.

He ends up meeting a woman named Bonnie Sawyer Compton. And that's how Bonnie comes into the equation here. They were introduced in 1963. She was working as a telephone operator in Waco. She was divorced and had a 14-year-old daughter of her own named Connie. So Bonnie and Connie. Connie and Bonnie, and now Riley, as we know, has two kids of his own and Connie, Connie and Bonnie.

And now Riley, as we know, has two kids of his own as well, Bruce and John. So we're going to have some, some step situations here. Um, Bonnie grew up in a farming family during the depression. So that tells you a lot. She had a tough life. Her, yeah, her father was a, uh, corn, cotton and wheat farmer. And,. And yeah, her sister Wilma, Bonnie's sister, said it bothered Bonnie that we didn't have any money growing up.

She never said anything about it, but I could tell by the way she acted. You know, grabbing her stomach and hunger and shit like that. I could tell she was pissed. I could tell when she was so skinny. And she looked at her ragged clothes that were falling off her body from wear.

You know, Jesus Christ. Riley's wife Joan had walked out on him and the boys. So that's why he ended up with Bonnie. Joan took off. You quit, huh? She packed up the station wagon and took off for Nevada. Fuck you people. I'm out of here.

Keep the kids. Keep them. Yeah, I don't give a shit. Keep them. So Bonnie and Riley get married at Waco's Highland Baptist Church a month after his divorce was finalized. Bonnie quit her job at the phone company and she and her 14 year old Connie moved into the Harkie house on the farm. So that's how Bonnie ended up here. And Bonnie really immersed herself in the town life. She made friends, she joined clubs. One of her friends said if there was a club in town, she belonged to it. All about it. She was a big Baptist, by the way. She did

all of that. She was a huge reader of Better H homes and gardens. That was her jam. She kept all of her back issues stacked neatly in the laundry room. Doesn't even throw them away. No, no, no. Those are her collector's items. Just a guy. I saw an article in 1956 about how to do that garden better. I'm going to go get it. Wow. Interesting. You can use old flannel shirts to make sheets. That article told me. Wow.

I can use flower sacks to make a dress? Yeah, not bad. So they also, she kind of helped fix up the house a little bit here. They added an extra bedroom. They built a sun porch that seats up to 27 people, which is a giant porch. That's a big fucking porch. It's a huge porch. Eventually the home would reach 4872 square feet.

Nice. So doing great here. The marriage not so great, Bonnie and Riley. Yeah, one of her friends, or this is her sister, Bonnie's sister said he often criticized her. When she'd tell a story he'd interrupt and say, no, no, that's not the way it goes. They didn't care. They didn't care. They didn't care. She's a bad storyteller.

Is he a dick or is she a bad storyteller? Some people are bad storytellers. Yeah, it could be both. When you hook up with somebody, one of the things you have to figure out is, can we tell a story? Can we tell a story together? Right. You know what I mean?

Or which one of us is the family spokesperson? That's the other thing. Can one of these people tell the story? And that's a very important deal. And I feel, I don't know if they did that here or not. The sister said they didn't care if they were in public or not. Riley would tell her something wasn't right and she would say it is and they'd get into a big fuss over it. Oh my God. So it wasn't even just like, oh, you know, she'd be like, it is too. And then they'd argue for 20 minutes in front of people. Jesus Christ. I love it.

Also, none of the kids like each other, by the way. The step kids hate each other. The step kids. Yeah. The boys don't like Connie. Connie doesn't like the boys and the boys don't like Bonnie either. And yeah, Connie doesn't like Riley. So that's how it is.

Apparently they were, John and Bruce were especially mean to Bonnie, is from what people said here. Yeah, this is Bonnie's sister said they would laugh at her and criticize her food. They take a mouthful of food and spit it out, or they talk about her and giggle all the time and act rude. They had not been trained to be nice boys. What the fuck? If someone cooks your food, you fucking eat it.

Don't spit it out, you little scumbag. What's wrong with you? Wow. My grandmother would have beat the shit out of me if I did that. Spit out your stepmom's food? Oh, no, her food. She would have fucking smacked the crap out of me. My, you son of a bitch, I get ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. She'd go crazy over it. I like that for you. My hide from the Nazis to I get, ba ba ba ba ba. She'd go crazy over it. I hate that for you.

My hide from the Nazis to get here, ba ba ba. You know, you can't. Yeah, it's not a waste of food, yeah. Yeah, no waste of food. So they said Riley didn't discipline them at all either. So that didn't help either. So Bonnie's relatives stopped coming out to visit for holiday dinners because of the boys. That's how bad it was. Yeah

Bonnie's niece said I think part of their attitude goes back to being a Harky They thought the whole county should still revolve around them Riley trained his sons. He told them that as Harky's they were special We're the we're the good people in town. We're the special people We were here first and we have land and all that kind of shit. Now, Bruce is just looking forward to the day when he can take over the orchards. He sees that as his birthright, at least a third of the orchards. So he expected that at some point when his father was starting to get older, he would hand over the operations to him just like his father's father did for him.

Sure, sure, sure. Because OB gave him the pecan farming deal before OB died. So OB could tell that Bruce, by the way, Bruce's name is Bruce Wayne Harky. Is that right? Absolutely. And apparently he was named after Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, yeah. Yeah, and that wasn't an accident. Yeah, his dad liked Batman. So apparently he saw

Bonnie as an obstacle of like, now I got to deal with this fucking lady too. He said that, you know, she didn't like them and she thought that, so he was worried basically that she was going to edge him out of this farm somehow. Maybe he shouldn't have spit out the green beans, dickhead. He liked to tell a lot of people that she made her feelings clear one afternoon when the family was in her new Thunderbird and he said, I was in the back seat and I leaned forward and said, so do we call you mom now or what? What do we do now? This was right after? That's right after the wedding and he said I still have the scar where my brother kicked me

But all she did was laugh. She never responded Like I could ever birth you losers no Trade the cold or cozy at Booster Juice. Now with savory wraps, sandwiches, and paninis grilled fresh to order. For the Booster Juice nearest you, download the Booster Rewards app. He was hip hop's biggest mogul.

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From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace from law and crime this is the rise and fall of getting listen to the rise and fall of getting exclusively with one degree plus his brother kicked him so hard to get a scar is bright as well there's like shut the fuck up as he was 5 his brother was 10 says 5 year olds like to I call your mom 10 year olds like to fucking ask her that we We're not calling her mom. She's just giggling, driving the car. Man. So Bruce claims that Bonnie issued an ultimatum to Riley saying, get rid of that kid or I'm going back to Waco and leaving you.

Get rid of the kid? So John packed up to go to college in 1965 to go to Texas Tech University and Connie enrolled there a couple years later by the way she was sans sabas homecoming queen Oh look Connie now Bruce ends up going back and forth to live with his mother in Nevada and all this type of shit this is such a small town when he was 14 and he went to live with his mother there was an article in the news and star newspaper with the headline Bruce goes west Seven year old is going to live with his mom in Nevada for a while. Do we have a reporter that can get to the scene?

Dateline sans have a like what the fuck are we talking about? He's going. He returned to San Saba for high school, moved in with his grandparents in town rather than live with Bonnie and Riley. So he did a lot of extracurricular activities. He was pretty popular, popular with the ladies. He met a girl named Judy Bishop and got knocked her up.

They got married in August 1969, her and Bruce, He met a girl named Judy Bishop and got knocked her up. They got married in August 1969, her and Bruce, and they move into an apartment, and Bruce works at a Texaco station. That's how that goes. Doing great. She ends up giving birth to a seven pound, two ounce boy named Eric Harky. Here, Bruce's son.

He's got some health problems though. They learned that his epiglottis was not fully formed. Oh no. Which meant that after feedings he had to be held or laid on his stomach so that he wouldn't choke when he spit up. Oh no. It's fucking, that's hardcore.

So at one point Bonnie invited them, the family, the three of them, Bruce's new wife and their young baby to stay out on the farm for several days. But things went bad. On April 15th, 1970, Bruce was in class going to college. He sat in English class and apparently the baby stopped breathing. Bonnie took him to the hospital,

but by the time she got there, the baby was dead. God damn it! The cause of the GLaDOS. Yep the cause of death was aspiration asphyxiation so they didn't ever lay down. 14 days old by the way. Poor baby. Is that like Sid's you think? Is it classified as that? No no no because he choked on it it's not just a stoppage. He that that was his condition that caused that She's I guess Bonnie didn't pay close enough attention to him or something is what Bruce thinks so It's a lot here. He's gonna already be divorced from his wife here very quickly by January of the next year. They're divorced He ends up marrying his high school sweetheart at that point named Jennifer Karns but that only lasted three months and she moved back to where she was living at the time.

He dropped out of college, drove trucks in California, did some odd jobs and then ended up finding work. He went to the Reno Police Department, Sheriff's Department in 1978 to be a police officer. Yeah, he's junior. He's, yeah, he's definitely junior, this guy. He got married and divorced two more times, had a daughter. God damn. Two more times for now. Yeah.

Bruce will have a total of eight wives. Eight wives. By the time he is 58 years old, he will have eight fucking wives eight oh That is a lot eight is enough. That's his show when they put that show on the air. He's like Pitch this idea bullshit Holy shit that is fucking crazy, so yes he ends up Moving back to Texas and in 1987

He got a job in the Texas Attorney General's office investigating Medicaid fraud and nursing home abuse Which is pretty ironic considering what ends up happening here. So Bonnie and Riley end up Connie ended up after college got married and they adopted an eight-month-old in 1984. And that baby they called Carl. So his name is Carl Presley, P-R-S-S-L-E-Y. And Bonnie loved this kid because it was her daughter's kid, even though it wasn't, you know, it was adopted kid, but whatever. So Riley here, remember Bruce's dad here, he purchased a third Pecan Grove in 1991, 94 acres, and he willed that to Connie.

And then the other two groves go to John and Bruce. So everybody gets a Grove, is the way it works here. Giving y'all some nuts. Yeah, John went and settled outside Fort Worth and had some kids and that's what he was doing. Now Riley ends up, we'll talk about dying coming up here pretty soon and that kind of fucks everything up here. So he, by the way, Bruce, we'll go back to him, Bruce is mad at Bonnie because of his son dying for years. He holds a grudge, even in the 90s, 25 years later,

he still says, Bonnie killed my son. The man's been married eight times. It feels like he holds the grudge real strong. Real strong, yeah. He ends up becoming a nursing home administrator in 1994 while he's on wife number seven. Yeah. 1996 after his 44th birthday he married his eighth wife, a 20 year old, that's going to

work after seven marriages worth of experience. You didn't understand James, I've been a green man in my own age. You didn't whittle it down to what would work and what wouldn't work, you what I mean you think well blondes I'm not good with blondes okay none of them anymore all right that's wife number two two four and six can't have them okay what about you just go down the list. I need a woman that was born two years after my first marriage. What a fucking dude that is crazy man that is crazy her name is Cammie Jones. Now apparently Riley, at this point Bruce is saying, why don't you start stepping down Riley in 1996 and let me run the farm and Bruce is saying no.

He would say, so he would get mad. Cammie said Bruce would say stuff like, quote, well they just need to die so I can have the farm. So Riley does die in 1997. Really, took his advice. He said thank you, that is good advice here. So Bonnie though, takes over everything. The three orchards bring in over $100,000 a year

in pecan money, so she's sitting pretty, she's doing fine, she stays in the house, and that's that basically. That December, she won second place for her pie and cookie entries in the San Saba County Pekan Food Show. Sure. Look at that. Now Bruce starts to really spin out. Apparently his marriage with Cammie,

he grew very controlling after this. Oh, she's 20? She's 20, she gave birth to their daughter in 1998 And he would then after that he was awful to cami apparently he would choke her pull her hair Yeah, hold a gun to her head things like that fun stuff threatening to kill her Basically one time she didn't have dinner on the table by six o'clock, which was his rule and he threatened to kill her for it. So that was nice.

So when their daughter was four, Cammie walked out on him. And so what he did is, he's a nursing home administrator. He's all pissed off. He told a coworker at the nursing home that he was thinking about how to kill Cammie. How do I do this? He gave the coworker three guns, two old Chinese military rifles and a semi-automatic 22 asking him to, can you scrape these serial numbers off? Is that possible? Do you got a Dremel at home? You got any of that? Then he talked about,

this is funny. He had an idea. He goes, I think I know how to do it one day. This is how I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna put poison on her steering wheel. And then she'll hold it and it'll seep into her body and she'll die. So the coworker and Bruce's boss were so freaked out by this that they told the fucking police. Good, yeah.

And a Texas Ranger and an ATF agent began to record Bruce's conversations now. They set up a sting operation where an informant provided Bruce with an illegal silencer and federal agents arrested him, charging him with possession of firearm in connection with a crime of violence. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and all of that kind of thing. His lawyer tried to say it was just all talk. He bought a silencer. And you gave someone guns and said,

can you get the serial numbers off of these? That's a lot more than talking. You make this less traceable and get me a silencer. God damn. The judge said, you sir, may fuck off. Five years in federal prison for you. He was released in 2007 and returned to Sansaba. He had to have an address at this point for parole and shit, so he sent a letter to Bonnie

saying please let me live on the farm. Bonnie said that after she talked it over with her pastor, she agreed. I think the pastor probably told her hey you know that's your stepson and you know this whole Christian thing we're supposed to be nice to people and shit so you should probably let him stay here I would assume. So anyway Bruce moves into an upstairs bedroom where his ex-wife one of Jennifer, Jennifer Karnes, remember her? Yeah. She moves back in with him.

What? Yeah, they get back together. They fixed up a little apartment on the property there and did all that shit. So now he can't find work though because he's a convicted felon and everyone around town knows he wanted to have his wife killed, so that doesn't work.

Tried to kill a young woman. Yeah, they said that at that point the orchards were starting to kind of fall apart a little bit. Oh. Yeah Jennifer said that the orchards were in such horrible condition because Bonnie and Connie didn't know how to run a farm or what to do with pecan trees. So yeah that's how that worked. I guess as a favor to their friend's son here, they hired they hired him to clean out their barn, but it was a short term deal. One afternoon, this guy showed up at the Oliver Pecan Company an hour before closing time to ask for a job.

This is Bruce showing up. And they said, quote, he just had a meltdown. He stayed for about two hours and cried. It was an hour before closing. So these people had to stay past the end of their shift to listen to a stranger cry. Wasn't a grown man cry. The guy there said, he told me I'm the brokeest millionaire

in Sansaba County because he had the property he couldn't touch. He also filed for bankruptcy in 1998 to discharge $176,256 worth of debts and owed more than $100,000 in back child support to Cammie. $100,000. He hasn't paid a dime. Wow.

A former Texas Ranger who knew him said if you asked him what time it was, he'd tell you how to build a watch. One of those guys. He said, there's no secrets around here and if there is a secret, someone will make up a story to fill in the gaps. The Harkies had that reputation that there was always some trouble brewing after Riley died. I guess with any big estate worth any kind of value, you a bunch of people involved There's gonna be fuss they love fuss here. They they have replaced the word fighting with fuss Everybody's fussing about now Carl. Let's talk about Carl here. I remember Carl Carl's Connie's adopted son. Yeah. Yeah Bruce began to hang out with Carl more around this time. Why? He's what? Carl's in his twenties. Um, he's,

Carl developed two loves as an adult motorcycles and methamphetamine, the two Ms, the big M's right there. Those are his two big ones. The M and M's that real go together. Yup. This article describes him at 24 years old as having the meth has worn his bottom teeth down to little yellow stubs. How old? 24. Oh my God. Yeah. He's got a problem. Bonnie spoiled him fucking rotten basically. He's been living with Bonnie for a while now.

Connie and he would stay here while Connie did something else. She bought him a truck when he ruined it. He said he wanted to raise boar goats. So she bought him a flock of them and shit like that. Like just whatever he wants. Yeah. She's the apple of his eye. I mean, she had a daughter, she didn't have any sons.

This is a son. He dropped out of high school after the 11th grade and went to work in the oil fields. Then he married a local woman in 2003 when he was 19. They had a daughter and a son. They separated. Carl started dating Lillian King, who he had another daughter with in 2008.

A ward. Oh yeah, yeah, had another daughter with in 2008. Award! Oh yeah, yeah, he's gonna keep having kids. He's 24 and has three kids and no teeth. Three kids, no teeth, and a pocket full of meth. But a sweet motorcycle, it's sweet. He's also- He's in charge of orchards and can't even eat the fucking ponds. No, fuck no, he's like, oh man, they look crunchy.

He also has got a pretty good criminal record too. He was charged as include trespassing, domestic violence. In 2005, the domestic violence isn't for a woman, by the way. In 2005, he allegedly tried to run his stepfather over with a tractor, which is a very small town murder kind of crime right there. That's wild he also you know realized that pecans are worth a lot of money yeah he said you know a truck full of nuts is worth a lot of money so he

started stealing pecans from the barn one guy said Carl would show up with a pickup full of pecans and we bought them. We didn't know he stole them Carl such a fuck-up he's banned from the first the first Baptist Church That's the way we for the church is like come here to get redemption and all this type of shit Except you asshole you fuck everything up when you come here we will not redeem nor forgive you ever shit no apparently he showed up at Bible study on a Wednesday one time to demand money from Bonnie and the pastor said if he was coming to worship and study that was fine but we didn't want that anger right another time Connie or Bonnie refused

to buy him a new set of tires, so he blocked her car with his truck and refused to let her leave the house. Essentially kidnapped his step-grandmother here. Until you give me some new BFG's. Oh my god, but she kept giving him money. Her niece said the more we tried to convince her to get away from him, the more she would say it was not the Christian thing to do. But he was bleeding her dry.

2011, Connie, Bonnie's daughter, Carl's mom, dies of pneumonia. Really? Yes, she dies. How old is she? She was 62, I think, or something like that. 2012, the Harky Bunch. Here they are. Bonnie, 85 years old, the pecan queen of the county as she's known

The matriarch she's got white puffy hair She looks like if you said draw me a picture of a little old Baptist lady in Texas You would draw her little old lady white curly hair. She looks like that Night dress. Yeah, the old lady from the Warner Brothers cartoons that beats up the cat. Yeah, yeah. Away from Tweety. Exactly. Yeah, she's got a pie cooling on the window sill. One of those things. And a broom is her favorite weapon. Oh yeah. She's in garden club and goes to all the Sunday school and everything like that. But she's also suffering from dementia and she was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm. So she's on her way out. She's 85 and not well,

and not well good health at all. She's on her way out. She, you know, declined a lot. She still lived on the home though and everything. But, Bruce said that she couldn't recognize him or, or his wife when they visited about her in 2012. Bruce said, we knew that Bonnie was in horrible physical and mental condition, but she was also lucid about some things. Her daughter Connie had her driver's license revoked, had Bonnie's driver's license revoked, so Bonnie wrote a letter to the Texas Department of Public Safety to contest it.

Could you maybe give her the back tour, please? She said, I don't, I really don't know what caused someone to report that I am incapable of operating an automobile. I try to be careful when driving. I do not take any medicine that would cause me, that would cause unsafe driving. I do drive slowly more times than I should because I would not want to hurt anyone. I do have family who want the property I live on and I have heard many times they want to get rid of me. She wrote that.

That's interesting. Her friend Betty Ann, who would stop by to fucking see her all the time, said every time I went she said, please do not let them take my home away from me, Betty Ann, I want to stay here as long as I can. Then you got Bruce the son, who's got a murder for hire plot and it happened already.

Former police officer and Texas Attorney General's Office investigator and ex-husband of eight women. So, yeah, that's wild. Really living the opposite life of Bruce Wayne. Totally. Absolutely. Annette King is Bruce's common law wife wife at this point, a new one in here now. We have Carl Wade Presley, he's the grandson, he's about 27 at this point

and the one that she's been given all this fucking money to and all that kind of thing. No teeth in his head, yeah, totally not. Lot of jail stints, by the way, for Carl. Besides the tractor incident, he also went to jail for harassment of his uncle, driving with an invalid license, and violating probation by threatening his mother. Texas Murdos, that's who they are. Yes, that's kind of what they are,

except not as rich. Bruce said, Carl ran through money like water. She's the only woman who ever nurtured, ever cared for him, provided for him, gave him everything in the world that he ever wanted. And yeah, Lillian King is his girlfriend, she's 24. Tommy Lee Jones lives next door. That's the cast of characters at this point.

Unbelievable. So Bruce and John, the brothers, Briley's kids, Bonnie's stepkids, they saw their inheritance and they started wrangling over the property. In 2011, the brothers had persuaded Carl to sell them his future rights to the orchard that his mother had for $75,000,

even though the property was valued at $500,000. Well, those are meth prices. Fire sale. That's what a meth person would do. It's a $500,000 orchard. I'll give it to you at $75,000. What do you say? Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America.

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Are we alone? Encounters is a podcast which is going to find out. Listen to Encounters exclusively and ad free on Wondry+. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or in Apple podcasts. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows,

uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple podcast, Spotify, Amazon music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. That is fucking funny. Now Bruce was broke so Carl didn't see any of that money until a little bit later when

another sale was approved of a field that they had and all this type of shit. But the most of all, their neighbor Tommy Lee Jones wants their property. He bought his property in 1981 and had amassed a 5,050 acre ranch. Holy shit. Tommy Lee just adds on to it every... Try never to see anybody. Every movie just adds on to it. He's like that's what you're like why is he in all these shit movies? That's why he's like this is my happy face. They're like, why is he doing that? This is why men in black eight you bet I'll do it. I'll do it more

Property Wow, so yeah, he's doing all this type of shit He's trying to buy these this these properties here John and Bruce reached out to him and after some negotiation through an intermediary Tommy Lee Jones put down an offer of 541 thousand eight hundred twenty two822.50 on the offer. The brothers accepted, contract was drawn up, but Bonnie still lives there. So you can't get rid of her. What is the agreement? That's the problem. So Bonnie's lawyer looked over the deal and found the terms were not beneficial to her at all and said you can't Do this?

So Bonnie was pissed off at this point and Bruce is mad at her and everybody's everybody's all goddamn pissed off here. So Yeah, so they decide look we got to get this money. We're gonna get this money and we can't get it as long as she's alive We're gonna sit here and wait and watch her wither away. So instead, Bruce goes to Carl and says, tell you what Carl, I'll give you $500, 500 big ones to quote, make her gone this weekend. Okay. Well then after she's dead, I'll give you $55 five thousand dollars. So a down payment of five hundred Followed by fifty five thousand, which is you're gonna get fifty five five to do this. That's it So Bonnie woke up. She ate breakfast Karen who brought along the young son. This is March 25th 2012 the day this all happened here

Brought along her young son. She drove Bonnie to church in Bonnie's gold Chevy Malibu. After Sunday school, they attended the 1030 service, sitting in the sixth row, listening to the pastor do his deal. Afterward, they went home. Bonnie changed out of her Sunday clothes and Karen's son went into play in the bedroom and Bonnie sat in her maroon recliner to watch television and read magazines like she normally did. Not bad. So then you get the 911 call, everybody goes, they find Karen Johnson.

Now, no. Now after reconstructing Bonnie's movements that morning, the search team had no fucking idea where she was. They looked for her, I told you, they didn't know if she fell in a river, if she's in the pecan fields. So they, sheriff, one of the sheriffs said, someone's gotta go back to the office to be near the phones in case someone calls. Literally everyone was out.

Everybody went. Everybody, the phones are ringing off the fucking hook at the police station. There's a water leak of shit spraying everywhere. It's fucking crazy, it's all sorts of, there's food deliveries going, little shit spraying everywhere. It's fucking crazy. It's all sorts of, there's food deliveries going, no one's getting them. So about 8 30 PM that night a call comes in and it's Lillian King's mother, that is Carl's girlfriend's mother. Okay. Yep. She knew that her daughter and Carl had been out at the Harky house that afternoon

and had asked a friend to contact the sheriff when she learned that Karen was dead. She said, I know things are crazy right now, but I might have some information about where and had asked a friend to contact the sheriff when she learned that Karen was dead. She said, I know things are crazy right now, but I might have some information about where Bonnie Harky is. I'm 99% sure that Carl Presley is involved. That's what she said. So they spent the next few hours, the cops do trying to find Carl and Lillian and also requesting a silver alert for Bonnie and a statewide APB on Carl's Mustang.

So finally at two in the morning, they call Carl's cell phone all night. Finally at two in the morning he answers. Oh? He and Lillian were in Normandie, which is four hours east of San Saba, staying at a campground. So they told him get your ass back here immediately.

Karen's dead, Bonnie's missing, let's go. You got some splinters to do. Lillian said Carl started crying at this point, but they weren't real tears. So they get to the station, they're separated immediately, and Carl said that, yeah, I did, I took Bonnie for a drive in her car. He said we went to the San Saba River and that's what happened. So we just hung out and then I don't know, I brought her home and she's, I don't know where she wandered off to. An 85 year old woman wanted to run down to the river.

She likes the river down there. She was going swimming. So she likes to fight the current. It's good likes the river down there. She was going swimming so she likes to fight the current. It's good for her. It's good cardio. So then Lillian in the other room just breaks down and says it was eating me alive I just couldn't do it anymore. What? So they separate them obviously. Yeah. And they sat in the Sally port of the jail, which is where the cop cars are, where they could use a patrol car's dash cam to record the interrogation, because they don't have a fucking interrogation room with a camera in it.

In 2012. Dude, in 2012 they don't have a fucking interrogation room with a camera. It does have a spotlight. I mean, you could put her under the hot one. And he said, we don't have the budget of big cities, so he had to use the same thing we used to record traffic stops to record a capital homicide confession. Unbelievable. So they're trying to lock Carl into a story, and he said, yeah, me and Lillian went out

there and he said that, you know, he's just bullshitting basically through it He's saying that yeah now he says I took because they said your girlfriend said you took her and he said yeah I did take my grandmother out of the house to protect her from some tough guys. I know I owed money to Okay, they were mad at me. Yeah, I'm trying to protect her said I picked her up in the evening you look I am on drugs obviously drives her to a Rainy's crossing and drops her off Drops her off in the bushes. He says I said stay here in the bushes and hang out. They said no, that's probably not true

So he said okay. Yeah, that's not true. You're right. I took Bonnie back to my trailer in Normandy And he said yeah, I really missed my grandmother and they were like well isn't she at your trailer and Normandy what the fuck are you talking about and That's weird. And so that all goes on Finally about two hours later. He says fine and he says quote. She ain't gonna forgive me No, he says and the sergeant says your grandmother's forgiven you for everything else. Why ain't gonna forgive me. No? He says, and the sergeant says, your grandmother's forgiven you for everything else, why wouldn't she forgive you for this? Just tell us.

So finally he said, okay, fine. Lillian dropped me off at the house while Bonnie was at church. I climbed through a window and hid downstairs and smoked meth while I waited for her to return. Why would you do that? Okay, when Bonnie and Karen get home, he texted Lillian, who was to come back and ring the doorbell,

serving as a distraction while he tiptoed into Bonnie's bedroom. This is a meth plan. He planned to smother Bonnie with a pillow at nap time. He was going to hide in the closet until she went to sleep, then pop out and fucking smother her with a pillow. And that's going to... okay. Okay, so that was the plan and then he was gonna sneak out, but he said Karen spotted him as She answered the door. She answered the door for Lillian and he was gonna run in the bedroom, but she it's a fucking You know, I don't know she thought that he thought Karen was blind and deaf also or also 85

But she's a 50 year old lady It was fine really focused on answering that door Totally so apparently that's that was the problem Karen spotted him He said he panicked and tackled her in a bear hug and threw her to the floor Where he suffocated her beneath his body weight He just smushed her until she couldn't breathe anymore and died this poor lady. A meth addict. Holy shit.

Lillian meanwhile kept Bonnie occupied in the living room away from all this with conversation and the TV. They're having a nice chat. Oh you went where? Oh that's nice while he's suffocating a woman. How was the sermon? Carl then went to find Bonnie and asked if they could pray together in her bedroom. Can't we go in your bedroom and pray together?

Can't pray out here, obviously. God's only in your bedroom. How Baptist is she? Very. She agreed. They said her Bible sits on a doily on her coffee table like it's a special thing. She agreed. They sat together at the foot of the bed and prayed and then Carl lunged toward her with a pillow he said he stopped short of

smothering her when he thought he heard the doorbell ringing then Bonnie called out to Lily and that Carl's trying to kill me yeah and then Carl somehow convinced Bonnie that no no no no I wasn't trying to kill you I was I was helping and convinced her of it because she's an old lady with dementia Then he said we should all go for a drive come on. Let's go for a drive. It's a nice day So they all got into Carl's car He insisted that Lillian drive because his license had been revoked obviously They went for the crowd the campground in Normandie or Normandy

I don't know which one it is where a friend from his motorcycle club had loaned him an RV He said but by the time they arrived it was evening and Carl told Bonnie that he wanted to show her a real nice Fishing hole like all 85 lady or all ladies care about so she said oh, okay sure dear Because she's a nice old lady and it's her grandson fuck So they walk giving him for everything. Yup. They walked to a nearby ravine and down the embankment to a small stream where he hit her over the head with a dead tree branch.

This is a fucking 85 year old lady. And pushed her face, the water's only ankle deep, he pushed her face into it until she stopped struggling. He fucking drowned her in ankle deep, shitty brown water. Oh my God. Then he covered her up with leaves and mud by the handful and left. Oh my, what?

Left her there. Yeah. So they said, who else is involved? And he said, Lily. And they said, who else? And then he thought for a moment and looked down. And then he said, Bruce wanted me to get rid of her and take care of her. He put money in my bank account according to Carl.

Bruce had come to see him on Friday to propose a deal. Get rid of Bonnie this weekend. I'll pay you. I'm going to be out of town. I don't want nothing to do with it. Don't tell anyone I had anything to do with it. Bruce gave him $100. $100.

That's all I need. $100 cash with the promise of depositing 350 more in his bank account on Monday after a hundred dollars, hundred dollars, that's all I need. A hundred dollars cash. Hundred dollars cash with the promise of depositing 350 more in his bank account on Monday after it's done. And then he said, of course, you know, we'll give you all that later here. He initially offered 500, but Carl offered to do it for $50 less knowing that Bruce was kind of broke. I'll do it for $50 less knowing that Bruce was kind of broke. I'll do it for 450.

The cop later said, Carl has not been accused of being very intelligent, which I can tell you that right now. I don't know if it's the meth or what. It's fucking crazy. He said that all Bruce ever talked about was Bonnie killed my son. She needs to suffer the way my son did. Bruce told me. Wow, that is fucking wild.

I don't even know what to say about that. So according to Carl, he approached another potential man about killing Bonnie, but the guy wanted 10 grand for it, so he's like, nevermind, I'll just have Carl do it. That's probably a comp. Yeah, Bruce told him, I tried to get a guy to do it, but hitmen are expensive, You're a meth that, you'll do it.

He wanted more money than I have. Man, so yeah, when they searched for Bonnie, they found her, he led them to the body. They found her curled up in the fetal position and buried under a thick layer of leaves and mud caked into her white hair. Autopsy reveals, we'll find out, but she'd been hit over the head and drowned in shallow water, just like he said. He was honest with that. The preliminary autopsy said she died of a combination of homicidal violence comprising blunt force, head injuries, and probable asphyxia, including drowning. Water was found in her lungs, indicating she was still breathing when she was put under the water. put under the water. Wow.

Yeah, Carl's friend here said that he got a message, phone message from Carl about his grandmother's death. And he said he was, this guy said, I was trying to help Carl rebuild his life and all this type of shit. I got him into a trailer home. I got job interviews lined up for him. I gave him gas money.

He said, quote, I feel like I got stabbed in the back. At least you didn't get drowned in got stabbed in the back. That's at least you didn't get drowned in a shallow creek. It's better than that. Could have been worse. So a few hours after Carl's confession, Bruce gets news that the investigation knows about him. So he called the sheriff himself and he said, Sheriff Brown, he said, Alan, I just got a phone call from my wife saying she just got a phone call about you coming to arrest me, my brother and her. I said, for what?

And they said, yeah, you're going to get arrested, stupid. And he was arrested and heard about you. He said, I didn't do it. He said, first of all, I wouldn't hire Forrest Gump to commit murder. Okay. That's what Carl said. Okay. He calls Carl Forrest Gump.

You know what I'm saying? He said, second of all, if I thought somebody needed killing that bad. I'd take care of it myself Oh He's a he's a stone cold killer that higher higher fucking For his gum to do it But then they talked to all sorts of people basically everyone in town said oh, yeah He's all I heard him say I just wish the old bitch was dead. I wish that old bitch would die already. Another one said, quote, I told him that I could just get the money and go to Belize

just go to South America now. It's wild here. So he had an alibi because he was, he, you know, he knows to make an alibi for himself. He was outside of Fort Worth at a friend's house when all this was going down on purpose. Yeah. He said, I Fort Worth at a friend's house when all this was going down on purpose. Yeah, he said, I'm going out of town. So anyway, by the time, within 72 hours of the murder here, Bruce is in jail, Carl's in jail,

and so is Carl's, Lillian there. So, Lillian, and she goes by Annette sometimes, I don't know why. So theyette sometimes, I don't know why. So they're all, I don't know if it's her middle name, who knows, they're all sent to different county jails. I guess Jennifer, Bruce's wife, was never arrested, and John, they were looking into him, the other brother, but he died of a heart attack three months later,

so they just said, well, fuck it, I guess. I mean, he may have been part of it. We don't know, maybe that killed him. Oh my God, so, yeah, maybe that was it. Yeah,. We don't know maybe that killed him. Oh my god. So yeah Maybe that was it. Yeah, my brother killed my mother. That's crazy. So they the The I guess they he's got about the family owns about 200 acres They said and they didn't know who will control the property at this point That's one of those things there. You know, that's all up in the air

So Bruce goes to trial They say this was all about greed May go down a list he believed that Bonnie was responsible for his son's death Resented Bonnie and referred to her using insults and expletives told people he wished she would die a few days before the murder King's mother overheard this is Annette's, or Lillian's mother, overheard Carl tell another person on the phone that Carl needed $100. She also overheard another conversation

in which Carl said he needed $250 if the other person quote, wanted something done. Yeah, Harky told several people he was going to be out of town that weekend, emphasizing in an unusual way that he was gonna be gone all weekend. I'm going to be gone, you guys. I won't be back till Monday.

Like on Sunday, I'll be gone the whole day. Like not coming back till the next day. Yeah, it's going to be a while. At least 24, 48 hours. Fuck. Cell phone records show that Carl called Bruce twice the day of the murders. Bruce told an investigator that he could have killed Bonnie himself if he wanted to and specifically mentioned He could have pushed her off a riverbank or put a pillow over her face

It's like I could do that. He goes down a little for the investigators. I could have killed her this way that way Yeah, it's it's a lot here and they said they had also Evidence that Harky had previously tried to have Bonnie killed as well. Testimony that Harky had solicited two people to kill a sheriff, a justice of the peace, two lawyers, and two of his ex-wives too. These are all the different murders he's plotted. He just, he gets in relationships with people

and then is just like, I'll kill everybody. I'll kill all y'all. So in exchange for a lighter sentence, Carl and Lillian testify against Bruce. Sure. They also hear from two inmates from where Bruce is housed in jail, including one member of the Aryan Brotherhood who claimed that Bruce tried to hire them from jail to kill both Carl and fucking Lillian. I heard y'all a real bad man. Wow. One of Bruce's attorneys in the closing said that there's no evidence that links him to

the killings at all. Nothing. He said, so what if those two testified that they were hired? That's bullshit. The verdict, the jury took an hour to reach the verdict of fucking guilty for Bruce. Holy shit, he couldn't be more guilty. Couldn't be more guilty. One of the cops said quote,

he genuinely thought he was fixing to get a not guilty verdict. Genuinely thought. Genuinely thought. And when the jury read it out, his mouth dropped open and his shoulders dropped, he was floored. Getting fucked, yeah.

Getting fucked. Speaking of floored, you, sir, may fuck off life without parole for Bruce. Welcome to Texas. Welcome to Texas for he's lucky to get the fucking death penalty for that shit. So the it's a lot. Carl and Lillian on the other hand, they're going to get sentenced here. Carl you sir may fuck off. You might not know where you are because you're

a little studnod, but that's okay. Life without parole. Same shit. Same shit. So no lighter sentence there. They just said it'll take the death penalty off the table. At her hearing, Lillian here sobbed uncontrollably. The sheriff handed her a cup of water and said, you're making out better than anyone else in this by far You ma'am may fuck off 45 years in prison She's eligible for parole in 2034 I believe That's amazing and then outside the courtroom a witness who watched the whole trial and you know know, knows all these people said, they said, what do you have to say about this? You know, the, all the participants, you watched the whole trial and sum it up for us.

And he said, well, we're just trying to figure out who Tommy Lee Jones plays in the movie if he doesn't play himself. Oh God. So Bruce's looking forward to Hollywood cast in this one that's amazing Bruce's housed at the James V Allred unit in Wichita Falls, Texas Carl and Bruce in prison by the way, holy shit It's fucking funny Carl said Bruce could con you into any doing anything. He wanted you to do

He said I thought Bruce was my best friend, but he don't care about anybody but himself. It's about Bruce. That's right. He said, um, and then the author reached out to Bruce and Bruce said, the real story is of greed, corruption, love, hate, lies and violence. And I'm the only one left alive that knows the truth. Oh, that's right. He said, was I enamored or happy about Bonnie Harky? No,

I never did like her, never did get along with her, but that didn't mean that I was responsible for her murder. She's the closest thing to a mother that I've ever had. That's what she said. Yeah, I would say so. Um, Carl said, quote, um, or no, Bruce said, how is it if I'm the mastermind that I established an alibi before I plan the crime? Exactly. That's what you did. This is the idea.

This is what masterminds do. Totally. He then said I didn't have anything to do with the death of Bonnie Harky or Ms. Johnson. Nothing. If I waste my time and energy hating the people I've claimed I did, I'm taking away time from my loving wife and children. Which one? Which of your eight wives?

And I won't do that. All I wanna do is get cleared up and go home. Clear it all up. It's real foggy around here. Nobody knows what happened. Holy shit. So that's fucking amazing. Carl's legal wife, by the way,

who he wasn't living with just like three wives ago, Melissa Pafford and their two children, they move into the house. Into the Pecan house? The Pecan house, yeah, apparently. They said it appears the orchards would be divided up among them and the heirs. At this point, if you look up the house,

it is like a one acre property. It's not, it's separated from the farms now. All the shit is gone and it's just the house. They had people, I guess, farming the property that had a lease. Their lease ran out and that was that. That's how it goes. The author said, quote, that they drove up to the house to look at it and said, as I got out to read the inscription, the property's owner, a mustachioed 74 year old named Larry

Hibbler wrote up to me on an ATV. He said, this was all Harky before, the whole area. He said his son had built the house where the Harky blacksmith shop once stood and they said you could still find racing horseshoes if you dug in the dirt. This guy said but I'm the mayor of Harkyville now and he looked around and said there aren't any Harkys left. All gone. They did a city confidential on this by the way called San Saba's Deadly Harvest.

So there you go everybody. We're running late. Oh my God. I'm gonna run through the end real fucking quick. That's a crazy goddamn story. That's what I was trying to say. That's a lot. That's a shit.

It's a cram into an express. It's a lot. Huge piece of shit and Forrest G gumps a murderer. So there we go Very interesting check out shut up and give me murder comm February 7th We are in Pittsburgh get those tickets now next night in Columbus is sold out guys. So get your tickets right there Also certainly get tickets for Madison, which just was released that date if you want to go because that show is almost sold out already It's been on for sale for a day for Madison, which just was released that day. Did you want to go? Cause that show is almost sold out already. It's been on for sale for a day.

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finishing up a murder trial. Part two of West Memphis three, how the fuck did we end up here? We'll'll get to that patreon.com slash crime and sports follow at small town murder on Instagram small town pot on Facebook small shut up and give me murder.com website keep coming back and seeing us until next week everybody it's been our pleasure. Bye. Music Trade the cold or cozy at Booster Juice.

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