Episode 23 - Pt 1: Priscilla Davis, a Life of Glamour, Grief, and Murder

Liss’N Kristi

On the night of August 2, 1976, a former college basketball star and his date, Priscilla Davis, returned to her home after a night on the town with friends and were met by a man dressed in black and a hail of bullets. When the gunfire ended, two people were dead, and Priscilla was badly wounded.

The case, involving wealth, sex, vengeance and murder has captivated Texas ever since. Not least because T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's husband, has been for many years the principal suspect. Through the recollections of Greg Brown, a gay man who was also Priscilla's lover, we hear about her larger-than-life personality and her subsequent battle for justice. Greg is the author of the book "Texas Tragedy: The Story of Priscilla Davis. A True Story of Money, Murder and Survival".

Publicly, Priscilla lived an extravagant life of glamour and philanthropy, from building and living in the famous and opulent Stonegate Mansion, to her trendsetting fashions of the day. She died of breast cancer, at the age of 59.

https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Tragedy-Priscilla-Murder-Survival/dp/1532929544
STORIES:

(00:00) - Start

(00:11) - Introducing Greg Brown

(00:58) - Trigger warning for children

(01:54) - Building a Mid-Century Modern Mansion, Priscilla is married to the richest man in Texas.
(02:50) - The electric curtains

(07:07) - Building a cottage for the housekeeper

(08:37) - The beatings, and filing for divorce
(13:02) - The myth of wild parties at the Stonegate Mansion

(18:40) - The murders on a Monday night, and the man in black

(21:35) - "I never loved anyone but you"

(25:00) - No DNA in those days, and he wore gloves

(25:28) - Newspaper headlines, and Priscilla in critical condition

(26:41) - There were three eyewitnesses

(28:02) - Cullen is disgusted to be woken up by the police

(30:30) - Richard "Racehorse" Haynes for the Defense

(33:28) - The way to trial in Amarillo

(38:40) - Cullen is acquitted

(39:15) - "A lot of pieces of the pie were doled out"

(41:31) - Finding a hitman for the next judge

(42:15) - Wired up by the FBI, and $ 25 thousand in an envelope

(44:45) - "Surely he'll go down now?"