Back before Judge Judy and the O.J. Simpson trial, artist Gary Myrick provided Texas television audiences with a colorful look at the state’s high-profile legal proceedings against people like T. Cullen Davis, Candy Montgomery, and Darlie Routier. And in our January 2012 issue, he describes his sketches—and the drama in the courtroom. Many of these figures became household names at the time and became front-page news across the state. Here’s what TEXAS MONTHLY had to say about Davis, Montgomery, Routier, Genene Jones, and Vickie Dawn Jackson—Texans who were tried for murder.
T. Cullen Davis
All you have to say is his name and the memories come flooding back. In 1976 he was the sort of figure in modern Texas history who was both famous and infamous—a rich and rakish young oil tycoon with a net worth close to $250 million and all the trappings of fabulous wealth, from Lear jets and paintings by Renoir and Dufy to a bevy of blond, spectacularly busty women. If the Tarrant County district attorney was to be believed, he was also a remorseless killer. Then 43, Cullen was arrested for shooting two people to death at his 19,000-square-foot Fort Worth mansion, including his twelve-year-old stepdaughter, and for wounding two others, including his estranged wife, Priscilla Davis. The crimes were so shocking—Cullen was the richest man in America ever arrested for murder—that they were front-page news all over the state. Even more shocking, however, was his acquittal by a jury despite the testimony of three eyewitnesses who said they saw him pull the trigger. Months later he was arrested again after allegedly telling an informant that he wanted fifteen people killed, including one of his brothers, Priscilla, the judge in their divorce case, a business associate, and various people who testified against him in the murder trial. The informant had audiotaped their conversations about the hit list—but again, incredibly, he was acquitted.
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Genene Jones
When nurse Genene Jones was on duty in a San Antonio hospital, babies had mysterious emergencies and sometimes died. Then she moved to a Kerrville clinic, and the awful pattern began again.
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Vickie Dawn Jackson
Ever since she was a little girl, Vickie Dawn Jackson wanted to be Florence Nightingale. As a nurse at her tiny hometown hospital in Nocona, she cared for her patients and won praise from her supervisors—until the day she snapped and started killing her friends and neighbors.
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Candy Montgomery: Part One
She was a normal suburban housewife. All she wanted was a little fun with another man. She never really expected to kill her lover’s wife.
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Candy Montgomery: Part Two
It was hard to believe that diminutive Candy Montgomery could kill her lover’s wife. It took a hypnotist to find the secret of her fearsome rage.
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Darlie Routier
With her trial soon to begin, everyone wants to know how Rowlett’s Darlie Routier could have brutally stabbed her kids. As the case of another accused murderess suggests, the answer lies in the suburbs.
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