T. Cullen Davis, the Texas oil tycoon acquitted in two high-profile murder cases during the 1970s, has died at 93. His legal battles, centered on a shooting at his secluded Fort Worth mansion and an alleged murder-for-hire scheme, later became the subject of books and true-crime programs.
Davis, who consistently insisted he was innocent, died Friday at his home in Colleyville, a Fort Worth suburb, his son Trey Davis said Monday.
In August 1976, Davis and his second wife, Priscilla Davis, were locked in a bitter divorce. During that period, a gunman wearing black clothing and a woman’s black wig entered the mansion and fatally shot two people: Priscilla’s 12-year-old daughter, Andrea Wilborn, and her 30-year-old live-in boyfriend, Stan Farr.
Priscilla Davis and a visitor, Gus “Bubba” Gavrel Jr., were wounded in the attack but survived. Gavrel’s date escaped without injury.
All three survivors identified Cullen Davis as the shooter. He was charged with capital murder in Wilborn’s death and represented by prominent Texas attorney Richard “Racehorse” Haynes. Davis’ first trial ended in a mistrial after juror misconduct, while a second trial concluded with his acquittal in 1977.
At the time, Davis’ oil-driven fortune was estimated at $400 million, making him reportedly the wealthiest person ever to face a murder trial.
Nine months after his acquittal, Davis was arrested and charged with solicitation of capital murder. An FBI informant testified that Davis had hired him to kill 15 people, including the judge overseeing his divorce and the three survivors of the mansion shooting. Haynes again represented Davis, who was acquitted in that case as well.
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The mansion shooting generated several books and became the subject of multiple true-crime television programs. A 1995 miniseries, “Texas Justice,” featured Heather Locklear as Priscilla Davis.
By the middle of the 1980s, Davis’ primarily oil-based business empire was collapsing. In the mid-1990s, he said his company filed for bankruptcy “because of the crash of the oil industry, not because of my trials.”
Priscilla Davis died of breast cancer in 2001 at age 59.
Trey Davis was adopted by Cullen Davis after his mother, Karen Master, married him for the third time. Trey described Cullen Davis as a man who “stood with his arms wide open, willing to lovingly accept you regardless of where you stood in life.”
He recalled meeting Cullen Davis in the mid-1970s, when his mother was dating him, and said Davis was then “a fairly caustic person.” According to Trey, that changed after Davis 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.”
