T. Cullen Davis, a Texas oil tycoon acquitted in a 1970s murder trial, has died at 93

DALLAS (AP) — T. Cullen Davis, a Texas oil tycoon acquitted of murder in a shooting at his secluded Fort Worth mansion in a 1970s case featured in true-crime shows and then acquitted again in an alleged murder-for-hire plot, has died. He was 93.

Davis, who always maintained his innocence, died Friday at his home in the Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville, his son Trey Davis said Monday.

In August 1976, Davis and his second wife, Priscilla Davis, were going through a contentious divorce when a gunman dressed in black and wearing a woman’s black wig fatally shot two people at the mansion: her daughter Andrea Wilborn, 12, and her live-in boyfriend, Stan Farr, 30.

Priscilla Davis and a visitor to the mansion, Gus “Bubba” Gavrel Jr., were both wounded but survived. Gavrel’s date escaped unharmed.

The three survivors identified Cullen Davis as the gunman. He was tried for capital murder in the death of Wilborn. Defended by prominent Texas attorney Richard “Racehorse” Haynes, Davis’ first trial ended in a mistrial because of juror misconduct and the second ended in an acquittal in 1977.

With an oil-based empire valued at $400 million, he was said to be the wealthiest man at that point to stand trial for murder.

Nine months after the verdict, Davis was arrested and charged with solicitation of capital murder. An FBI informant swore that Davis ordered him to kill 15 people, including the judge presiding over his divorce case and the three survivors of the shooting. Davis, once again defended by Haynes, was acquitted in that case as well.

The shooting at the mansion inspired multiple books and was featured in true crime television shows. A 1995 television miniseries titled “Texas Justice” starred Heather Locklear as Priscilla Davis.

By the mid-1980s, his largely oil-based empire was crumbling. He said in the mid-1990s that his company had gone bankrupt “because of the crash of the oil industry, not because of my trials.”

Priscilla Davis died of breast cancer in 2001 at the age of 59.

Trey Davis was adopted by Cullen Davis when his mother, Karen Master, became Cullen Davis’ third wife. He described Cullen Davis as someone who “stood with his arms wide open, willing to lovingly accept you regardless of where you stood in life.”

He said that when he first met Cullen Davis in the mid-1970s when his mother was dating him, Cullen Davis was “a fairly caustic person,” but that changed when he became a Christian.

“He became a Christian in 1981 and a lot of things changed,” Trey Davis said. “He took that very seriously, his dedication to Christ. He was a man of virtue, integrity, grit and humility.”