Skip to main content

Murder Texas Style

By

Aside from Florida, no state rivals Texas for strange, crazy, and down- right fascinating murders. Maybe it’s the heat or maybe it’s the money (it’s probably both), but when Texans decide to kill each other they do it in style. The alleged perpetrators of two of the most famous Texas murders were represented by UHLC alum Richard “Racehorse” Haynes.

The first is the murder of Joan Robinson, a beautiful Houston socialite who was allegedly murdered by her husband, John Hill, a well known plastic surgeon. Haynes represented John Hill, but the case never went to the jury due to the judge declaring a mis-trial. However, before Hill could be retried he himself was murdered by a “robber” who broke into his River Oaks mansion. It is alleged that Joan’s father, oil millionaire Ash Robinson, had his former son-in-law killed to avenge the death of his daughter. Ash Robinson was never tried for the killing of John Hill, but an acquaintance of Robinson’s was convicted for arranging the murder of John Hill. The story is told in Tommy Thompson’s best-seller Blood and Money (HV6534 .H8 T48 1976). The book is a superb read and makes a splendid introduction to Houston in its 1970’s era heyday. A TV movie titled “Murder in Texas” also portrayed events, with G.W. Bailey (a native Texan) playing Haynes.

The other sensational murder case comes from Fort Worth and involves oil man T. Cullen Davis. Davis and his wife Pricilla, a “brassy” blonde disliked by Ft. Worth society matrons. They were in the midst of a nasty divorce (when you are rich is there any other kind?) when a man broke into Pricilla’s home and killed Pricilla’s boyfriend and daughter and wounded Priscilla and another man. The survivors all pointed to Davis as the shooter. Davis was acquitted of the murder as a result of Haynes 13 day cross-examination of Pricilla who brought to light her “shady” past. After the trial, T. Cullen Davis was arrested for soliciting a hit-man to kill the judge who presided over his and Pricilla’s divorce. The conversation soliciting the murder was recorded and a photo of the judge “posing” in the trunk of a car was provided. Davis was acquitted of this charge as well, with Haynes once again representing him. Davis later went bankrupt and became a Christian missionary. A TV movie of Davis’ case was titled “Texas Justice,” and the actor Dennis Franz played Racehorse Haynes.

The Davis case is covered in two books in the library, although each takes a different approach to the case. Texas v. Davis (KF224 .D33 C6) is a straight narrative told by a reporter who covered the trials and is referred to as the “definitive book” on the case. The other book, Sex, Murder and the Unwritten Law (KF221 .M8 N433 2009) contends that the Davis case is an example of an acquittal based on the “unwritten law”: that a man may shoot his wife if he catches her cheating on him (which actually was the law in Texas until 1973).

My descriptions of these stories in no way does them justice, as these are two of the most fascinating “true crime” stories out there. Both prove that the cliché “everything is bigger in Texas” applies not only to the land, and money, but also to murders.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Amazing, but True, Deportation Story of Carlos Marcello

By
Earlier this week, the University of Houston Law Center was fortunate to have as its guest Professor Daniel Kanstroom of Boston College of Law. An expert in immigration law, he is the Director of the International Human Rights Program, and he both founded and directs the Boston College Immigration and Asylum Clinic. Speaking as the guest of the Houston Journal of International Law’s annual Fall Lecture Series, Professor Kanstroom discussed issues raised in his new book, Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora . Professor Michael Olivas introduced Professor Kanstroom to the audience, and mentioned the fascinating tale of Carlos Marcello, which Professor Kanstroom wrote about in his chapter “The Long, Complex, and Futile Deportation Saga of Carlos Marcello,” in Immigration Stories , a collection of narratives about leading immigration law cases. My interest piqued, I read and was amazed by Kanstroom’s description of one of the most interesting figures in American le...
1 comment
Read more

Texas Subsequent History Table Ceases Publication

By
This week, Thomson Reuters notified subscribers that publication of the Texas Subsequent History Table will be discontinued and no further updates will be produced, due to “insufficient market interest.” Practitioners have been extracting writ (and since 1997, petition) history from the tables since their initial publication in 1917 as The Complete Texas Writs of Error Table . The tables, later published by West, have been used for nearly a century to determine how the Texas Supreme Court or Court of Criminal Appeals disposed of an appeal from an intermediate appellate court. The purpose of adding this notation to citations is to indicate the effect of the Texas Supreme Court’s action on the weight of authority of the Court of Appeals’ opinion.  For example, practitioners may prefer to use as authority a case that the Texas Supreme Court has determined is correct both in result and legal principles applied (petition refused), rather than one that simply presents no error that requ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lessons for Today from the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda

By Anonymous
“Man’s inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.” –Martin Luther King Jr.   Last week, I had the pleasure of attending  Professor Zachary D. Kaufman ’s presentation on  Lessons for Today from the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda  hosted by the  Johannesburg Holocaust & Geno cide Ce ntre . Among the many takeaways highlighted by Professor Kaufman and drawn from  Lessons from Rwanda: Post-Genocide Law and Policy   were ten simple yet profound lessons:   Lesson #1: Hate speech is dangerous.   To illustrate the role that hate speech played in the Rwandan genocide, Professor Kaufman discussed multiple forms of  propaganda , such as Kangura, Radio Rwanda, and RTLM “hate radio.”   He concludes that we must have limits, including with respect to social media, and further asserts that social media must do a better jo...
Post a Comment
Read more