Badseed: The Bart Whitaker Murders

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Sugar Land is a peaceful, upper-class suburb southwest of Houston, Texas. But one quiet evening in December 2003, the community was shattered when a family of four was ambushed by an armed intruder as they entered their home.

Tricia Whitaker and her son Kevin were murdered. Now, son and brother of the deceased, Bart Whitaker, is on death row, convicted of capital murder and sentenced to lethal injection for masterminding a plot to murder his parents and brother. His father has forgiven him and visits him often. But does Bart deserve his father's forgiveness? Does he feel any remorse?

Join us at the quiet end for a discussion of the crime and the punishment of Bart Whitaker on this episode of True Crime Brewery--- Bad Seed: The Whitaker Family Murders.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Why did you do what you did? I mean, why
did you want to kill your family?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I can go back and tell you why I felt
so inadequate and why I felt that my parents didn't
love me, and I recognize so many of the errors.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Now.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
There's a difference between an excuse and a reason, and
I don't try to make excuses for what I did.
I try to you can't. You can't make an excuse
for this. But yeah, there were things that happened that
were reasons for it.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
From what we hear from friends of the family and
so on, you seem like you had very loving parents
who really gave you a lot.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Is there something that you just don't know?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well, even from a very young age, I believe that
what my parents love was an idealized version of me,
and that I kept telling myself if I worked really
hard and I succeeded, that I would be that person.
But I knew in my heart that I wasn't that person,
and I felt like if they knew who I really was,
that affection would dry out. And you kindly go through

(01:12):
that for so long before you start to bear a
grudge against the people you think have set that high standard.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Did you love your family. Did you love your brother Kevin? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (01:24):
I was envious.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
He had so many of the qualities that I tried
so hard for over the years, and people just loved
him always.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
So you loved them, but you also hated them at
the same time. Yeah. Yeah, We humans are kind of
messy like that sometimes.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
At what point in your life did you realize that
you wanted to kill your father, your mother.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
And Kevin.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I don't think my dissatisfaction turned out right hatred until
high school. There was a point in there, I guess
sophomore year where I was just so tired of being me.
I was tired of feeling like a failure all the time,
and I started to blame them for the way I felt.
And it wasn't something that I just decided one day, Hey,
I want to kill my parents. It was just something

(02:10):
to try to ease the pressure a little bit. I
wanted my wife to be different, and how.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
My thought process got there. I blame them for me.
I blame them for me being in existence.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
Welcome to True Crime Brewery.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
I'm Jill and I'm Dick.

Speaker 5 (02:30):
Good evening, so welcome Team Tigreber members to this special episode.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Just for members number three.

Speaker 5 (02:36):
That's right now. The Whitaker family of Sugarland, Texas seemed
to be an ideal happy family. In December of two
thousand and three, Keent and Trisha took their two sons
out for a celebratory dinner. Bart, the oldest, was graduating
from sam Houston State University. He'd been a bit of
a worry to his parents, and they were really proud

(02:58):
that he'd gotten his life together and was finishing his degree.
He was becoming a positive role model for his younger brother, Kevin. Now,
at dinner, Kent ordered a special celebratory dessert for Bart,
his favorite bread pudding. The family ate, They toasted Bart's accomplishment,
and they even took pictures. But when the Whittakers got home,
they were ambushed. A gunman shot each of them as

(03:20):
they entered their home, killing Tricia and Kevin. What investigators
would discover over the next several days was more shocking
than the crime itself. Within this apparently loving family was
the mastermind of the murders, a cold blooded son who
actually wanted his family dead. So come with us to

(03:42):
the quiet end. As we discussed bad Seed, the Whittaker
family murders, an unbelievable betrayal by his son, who was
loved and supported by his parents. What kind of a
person plans the murder of his own family to cover
up his secrets and lies and inherit money crime. It
occurred in Texas, Dick, So what beer have you got

(04:03):
for us?

Speaker 3 (04:03):
A Texas beer?

Speaker 5 (04:05):
Well, that's very suiting.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
So I have a different beer. We haven't sampled any
of these yet. This is a Hetheweisen from Live Oak
Brewing Company and they're in Del Valle, Texas. So just
so everybody knows what a Heffavisant is. It's a beer
in a South German style. That's a wheat beer. There's

(04:29):
a particular yeast that produces vague and unique flavors of
banana and clove with an often dry and tarred edge.
There's some spice, some bubblegummy taste, and notes of apples.
There's not much for hot bitterness, mild to moderate level

(04:50):
of alcohol. These are unfiltered beers. They tend to be cloudy,
and they're served in a special glass called a Viisen glass.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
Yes, and that's what you've brought with you to describe
it a little bit.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
I brought one with me so we can pour the beer.
I only have one, so we're gonna have to share
the same glass. Okay, but these these wise and glasses
hold a fair amount.

Speaker 5 (05:11):
It's a big glass.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
It is, so it's tall, taller than a pine.

Speaker 5 (05:15):
Glass, probably a foot tall, I guess.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Looks like and it's flared at the top, it narrows
and then flares again at the base. So it kind
of resembles an hourglass.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
Yes, sort of, sort of a woman with a smaller bottom,
but some really voluptuous breasts. That kind of an hour.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Glass, that kind yeah, exactly. Now these are very often
served with fruit, so you get a slice of orange
or a slice of lemon.

Speaker 5 (05:42):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Oh, oh, you know where we're going.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
I know how you feel about that.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
No fruit in my beer, That's right. That's the title
of my book.

Speaker 5 (05:49):
I'm writing, Don't put fruit in my beer.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Don't put fruit in my beer. But some people like it.
I don't, Okay. So this particular hefo is a hazy
straw color, which most of them are. There's a small
head with not much for lace. There's a banana and
wheat aroma. Taste is a banana, some grain, a little

(06:12):
bit of earthy hops and a hint of spice. It's
a nice beer.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Sounds good.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Okay, all right, let's go down to the quiet end
and drink this sucker.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
Okay, good idea. Okay, let's take that giant glass and
head down.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
I got it, all right.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
So as we tend to do, I want to go
back to the beginning, back to when the Whittaker family began,
with the relationship of Kent and Tricia. Of course, the parents,
so Kent and Tricia. They actually met on a blind date.
Kent admits that he was taken with Tricia at first sight,
and within a few months he was in love. Now
Luckily for him, Tricia did feel the same way about him.

(06:59):
Tricia grown up in Houston. She and her little brother, Bea,
were raised as Christians, and she was a really good student.
She was athletic as well as pretty popular. So when
Tricia graduated from high school, she moved a bit north
to Texas State University in San Marcos. She met Kent
the summer after her freshman year, and then to stay

(07:21):
near him, she transferred to the University of Houston. So
Kent he got a job at Tricia's father's construction company
in nineteen seventy four.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Now he was pretty religious also, right, Oh, yes, so
this is a fairly devout family.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
Yes. He became the office manager and the accountant for
her father's company. Now he was a smart guy, and
he handled the relations with the government, and he oversaw
all of their contracts. And in nineteen seventy five, after
they dated for a little over a year, Tricia and
Kent got married. Then they had their first child, Thomas

(07:59):
Thomas Bartlett Whitie, who they ended up calling bart And
that was in nineteen seventy nine. Now Tricia was thrilled
to be a mom she'd wanted to be for a while,
and they focused their attention and love on bart for
a full four years until they had their second son, Kevin,
in nineteen eighty four. So Kat and Tricia worked hard

(08:19):
to be caring and attentive parents to their boys. As
they got older, they remained very involved in their lives.
Kent played and coached sports, and Tricia, a school teacher,
worked with them diligently on their homework. Now, they were
very devout Christians, as you said, and they attended church
as a family. I would dare say more than once

(08:40):
a week.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Well, yeah, I think if you're a true believer, you
go more than once a week, right.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
No, plenty of people are true believers that go once
a week or even less.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Well, these are really true believers.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
They're super true. So so they must have been super
duper true.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
So they and they made sure that children were brought
up in that type of environment, in the same Christian faith.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
Well they sure did.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, so it was expected that the whole family led
a Christian life and worship together.

Speaker 5 (09:14):
Yep, yep, I would say that's accurate. So the Whittaker
House was also though a popular hangout for the boys
and their friends once they were in school. Neighborhood parents
felt safe knowing that their kids were playing at the
Whittaker House. By the time bart and Kevin were teenagers,
they were leading a charmed life. They lived in a large,

(09:35):
beautiful home, They had nice clothes, and at age sixteen,
each of them was given a car and there were
family trips of course, ski vacations and getaways to all
the amusement parks. Lots of fun.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, this was a wealthy family. The father in law's
business was thriving. He Kent was a big deal. In
it made a good salary. They lived in and a
fairly exclusive suburbs right Houston, and they lived in a
pretty exclusive part of that suburb.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
They certainly did. And Tricia's brother Bo described that Trician
Kent's relationship is really something that most couples envied. Beyond
the superficial materialistic things, they seem to really be in
love and be best friends in life.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Good so.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
In high school, though, bart he spent a lot of
his time with his friend Adam Hip, and two or
three times a week they lifted weights together in the gym,
and they talked about women in money, you know, the
typical things that teenage boys talk about. I would imagine, Yes,
that's true.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Okay, to verify that as a former teenage boy, that's
what we would talk about, okay.

Speaker 5 (10:47):
Now, Adam would remember how they discussed the money their
parents had put in, their savings for their educations, their
different investments, and their valuables. So that's not as normal.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
No, no, no, that wasn't stuff I brought up as
a teen.

Speaker 5 (11:01):
No, not even now. Really, you don't talk about that stuff.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Well no, but I'm not a teen anymore. Sure, But no,
I mean when I was a kid, and the conversations
in the gym in the locker room centered mostly around girls,
right in sports.

Speaker 5 (11:18):
And sports of course. Yeah. Well, the two came from
families with more money than most of their classmates, so
I think they kind of thought they were a big
deal in that way.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, they were wealthy. So Adam apparently liked Bart's family.
They always welcomed him in their home. They treated him
like one of their own kids. But Adam noticed that
Bart didn't seem happy around his parents. He seemed closer
to his father than his mother, whom he seemed to resent.

(11:47):
For one thing, Bart seemed to feel like Tricia gave
Kevin too much of her attention, So he's already kind
of unhappy that the younger brother is getting more attention
than he is.

Speaker 5 (11:58):
Yeah, and he wanted to be well, he's.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
The firstborn, he's supposed to be, right.

Speaker 5 (12:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
I guess Bart believed that he was intellectually superior to
his brother. Sure, and he also said that Kevin was
weak and Bart's opinion Kevin was feminine and a pushover.
Bart's philosophy was that only the healthiest and strongest could
really appreciate life. To the fullest. He saw himself as
well read, worldly and bound for success. However, Kevin, to him,

(12:29):
was less than that. Kevin was the jock and the family.
He loved baseball. He was more interested in making friends
than in academics. But Kevin got along better with their parents.
He happily participated in family events, while Bart often made
up excuses to avoid family get togethers. Yeah, so, I mean,

(12:51):
you know, teenage yeers are tough years anyway, right they are.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
But I'm going to go out on a pretty solid
limb here and say Kevin was just a nicer human being.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
We know that.

Speaker 5 (13:02):
So it's a solid one.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, those don't sound like any
huge red flags or not at all.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
No, no, Well, Kevin liked to wear blue jeans and
cowboy boots, while Bart he liked to dress like a prep. Now.
Despite their differences, in Bart's complaints, though Adam liked to
be around Kevin, it was obvious to him that Bart
believed he was better than most people. But Adam accepted
his friend as he was now, but most other people

(13:32):
described Bart as kind of a cold fish.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Now.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
Still, Bart was popular with the girls. He was considered handsome,
in a kind of non threatening way.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Due to it, he was a good looking boy with money. Now,
who wouldn't be popular with the girls.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
Sure, I don't know. Do girls think about money in
high school?

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (13:52):
Oh not me.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
You're a unique girl.

Speaker 5 (13:56):
Yeah. So, due to a genetic condition known as poly
Bart's right eyelashes were discolored white. You've heard of this.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Nope, that's a new one.

Speaker 5 (14:06):
Really. Okay, So he had that white eyelash. You've seen it. Yeah,
the white eyelashes. So that's I don't know if I'm
saying it right, but I think that's it. Holiosis. Yeah,
so you might want to look that up in one
of your journals.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
You should know that, I should.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
Maybe you knew it and you forgot it. All that
beer kind of washed it away.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
No, I know. There's a syndrome called Wadenberg syndrome where
you have a white patch of hair, and you can
have a white eyebrow, and you can have different colored eyes.
Oh okay, but I'm not aware of just the eyelashes themselves.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
Okay, white, not a big deal. A little mass scare
would fix that anyway.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Sure.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
Now, his long term girlfriend Lynn found the eccentricity very intriguing.
She met up been a journalism class and she became
his friend before they began dating. Now Lynn believed that
Bart was very close with his family. He often told
her that he worried about Kevin because Kevin was struggling
in school. And she noticed a few odd traits about

(15:08):
Bart though. One was that she knew he could be
very manipulative. Another was that he saw himself as better
than most people. So that seems to be a common thread.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
We've had some couple of links to that that he's
superior to other people.

Speaker 5 (15:25):
He feels that he is.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
Now, during the summer before Bart's senior year in high school,
Bart and one of his friends broke into the school
to vandalize it. They wanted to steal some audio visual equipment,
so they dressed all in black with gloves and masks
and scaling up the side of the building, they crawled
through a skylight. Now, once they were inside, the friend
got nervous, but Bart he was completely calm. Now they

(15:49):
stole two computers, and then they returned a week later
and took two televisions, a VCR and a laser disc player.
Now they broke in a third time that summer, but
Bart was getting bored with this. The thrill was gone
for Bart.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
But not before they broke into you said a third
time they broke into other schools. Well, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry.
That's okay, I jumped ahead.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
That's all right, you can jump. But yeah, you're right.
We have just hadn't gotten to that yet because he
wanted to burglarize the elementary school once he got bored
with the other school, and that was where his mother worked,
so he was aware of where some things were. And
then in late July, Bart and two of his friends
went to the school at one am and they took
a computer and a printer. They loaded them into Bart's

(16:36):
Fort Explorer, but unsatisfied, they continued to another elementary school
and they took two more computers. Then Bart rented a
storage unit and stored all of their stolen goods there.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
And now were they planning on selling these things or
just keeping them as trophies?

Speaker 5 (16:53):
I think just as trophies. I mean, Bart didn't need
the money. I think it was for the thrill, right,
But then they they did up getting caught for the
high school break ins at least.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
So Bart's punishment was pretty quick. He was expelled from
high school.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
Well, that seems fair.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
And this is top high school in the district.

Speaker 5 (17:12):
Oh I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, okay, So his parents, especially his mother, were very
upset about this. Tricia seemed disturbed by Bart's choices. She
was embarrassed to be seen in public, pretty much went
into hiding for a while. She shopped at a different
grocery store, even switched to family to a new church.
Then Tricia and Kent found a therapist for Bart. They

(17:36):
were referred to as psychologist by a family friend. They
hoped the doctor would be able to diagnose Bart, provide therapy,
and give him a letter of reinstatement so he could
return for senior year at Clement's High School.

Speaker 5 (17:50):
Okay. Now was that a private school or a public school?

Speaker 3 (17:54):
It was a public school, but it was a top school.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
But after meeting with Bart ten times times, the doctor's
conclusions weren't what the whitakers had hoped they would be.
My impression, the doctor wrote is that the court system
will impose adequate consequences to punish Bart and to bring
about a self correction. So the psychologist did not recommend

(18:18):
that Bart returned to his high school and he ended
up going to a private school finishing his high school career.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
Well, she thought he needed some jail time, and she
also described Bart as egocentric. She said he was an
egocentric man who'd had an inflated sense of self importance
combined with a mistrust of others. Now, his psychological testing
revealed that he was easily provoked and that he may
express sudden and anticipated brutality, she wrote. So one ominous

(18:51):
result from the testing was that he possessed a narcissistic
personality trait that is characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity,
a need for admiration, and a complete lack of empathy.
So there were signs before the crime.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, This is all following the break ins at the schools, yes,
and the psychological evaluation yes. And she pretty much pegged him.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
She did good job, I'd say now, because of Bart's
family and the fact that he had no criminal history.
Though the psychologist diagnosed him with adjustment disorder instead of
narcissistic personality disorder. So she wrote a recommendation letter for
Bart to return to the high school.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
After all, which was to no avail.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Right, it didn't matter because the administration of Clement's High
school rejected his appeal. They upheld his expulsions. So good
for them.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Well, I mean he did some crappy stuff.

Speaker 5 (19:51):
Well, yeah, that's pretty extreme.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
I don't know what happened with the other kids. I
assume they were expelled as well.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Well I would hope. I mean they all participated. Yeah,
so I think they all should be expelled of course.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
So, like you said, he transferred to a private school.
He went to Fort Bend Baptist Academy for his senior
year of high school. So in nineteen ninety eight, Bart
was a freshman at Baylor University in Waco.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Texas, where he didn't want to go.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
His two best friends were Will Anthony and Justin Peters,
and they were intelligent young men, but they preferred playing
video games above studying and socializing. And all three had
a really bored attitude with life. So they're kind of antisocial,
playing video games, kind of snarky, you know, just were
too good for this world type of attitude, which Bart

(20:42):
was totally into.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
Exactly. So they're in the dorm room or the apartment
room playing games.

Speaker 5 (20:50):
Yeah, because they're too good for everybody else.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Right, why bother with class and stuff right now.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
Over time, Bart began to confide in Will. He told
him about his family back in Sugarland. Is it Sugarland
or sugar Land sugar Land? Sugarland might be a country
music band or is that Sugarland as well?

Speaker 3 (21:10):
I think that's Sugarland as well.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Okay, but that's okay, that's okay.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
He got all the thousand continents in there, so you're okay.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
Okay. So he was telling Will about his family back
in Sugarland and how his parents favored Kevin over him.
So he believed it was because Kevin needed extra help
with schoolwork, and Bart often felt neglected because in his mind,
he was more intelligent and more capable.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
So Will.

Speaker 5 (21:35):
He commiserated that his older sister was the star in
his family. She had a successful college career, and so
Bart and Will felt that they had really understood each other.
They were bros. So Bart often spoke about his family's
religious beliefs as well, but he didn't consider himself a Christian,

(21:55):
and he complained that it was really difficult for him
to be in this Christian family. So he's got some hardships,
poor Bart.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
He does so even though he was raised as a
good Christian. He's falling out of the church. He doesn't
think he's well, I think.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
He's been faking it. What the impression I got?

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Well, yeah, for some time. Sure, so I guess the
indoctrination into the Christian Fellowship didn't work for him.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
No, it must not have worked out.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
No, So Barton Will often skip classes and they would
play video games, and then one day, quite suddenly, bart
turned to Will and said, I want to kill my parents.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
Sure don't all boys talked about that to each other.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Well, of course, you know you don't have a good
home life or you don't like your folks, so the
first thing you're going to think of is I should
kill him.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
Yeah, we're kidding, so we are, Okay, Maybe.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
We should have said that with some laughter or something.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
I just assume the laughter would be in the life
there's mine. But I can't always assume that, can you.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
Nope? So Will left see and he said, yeah, me too,
didn't move his eyes from the TV screen. They continued
playing the game until Bart said it again, I want
to kill my parents. Will smiled, I'm serious. Bart said,
what do you think would be the best way to
go about doing it, so, Will said that he after

(23:24):
the fact that he really thought Bart had to be kidding.
You're one sick puppy, he said, grinning. Bart asked, well,
what would be the easiest way to kill them and
not get caught? So, according to Will, he played along
with us. Had them run off a cliff in their car.
Everyone would think it was an accident. Bart counted that
they might not die from the fall. Well, what about

(23:46):
a botched robbery? Will asked, That would be better because
you have control of this crime scene. Bart said, thinking
how clever he was planning evolved from there, So they've
gone from hypothetical too. Maybe we're going to do it well.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
At least Bart had. I don't know if Will really
was taking it seriously at that point. I don't think
he was. Will was just kind of more of a slacker,
and he ended up plunking out of Baylor actually, and
he went to Little Rock, Arkansas for a while, but
then he did move back to Waco in the spring
of two thousand. So soon Bart reminded him of his
desire to kill his parents after he'd returned, and he

(24:27):
convinced Will that he was serious. Now, Will, he responded
with a long list of reasons why he shouldn't do it,
trying to talk him out of it, according to Will,
but Bart said his mind was made up. So after
promising Will a fortune after helping to kill his parents,
Will said that he would think about it. So in
his sophomore year at Baylor, Justin and Bart moved into

(24:49):
an apartment off campus together, and in November nineteen ninety nine,
Bart started to convince Justin to help him kill his
parents too.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
So he's got two accomplices now, yes, or maybe two?

Speaker 5 (25:01):
Right? He promised Justin insurance money, and finally, by the fall,
Justin had agreed. So Bart said his parents were worth
more than a million dollars and he would share the
money with Justin, and he told Justin that he had
also recruited Will to help. So the three young men
would gather at barton Justin's apartment to plan the murders,

(25:25):
and a plan was made where all three of them
would travel to sugar Land, Will and Justin in one
car and barton another car. When they arrived, Bart would
lure his parents out for dinner. So this is very
similar to what eventually ended up happening.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yes, made now.

Speaker 5 (25:41):
Meanwhile, Justin and Will would be in their car behind
the Whittaker's home, and once the Whittakers were gone, Will
would sneak into their home through the back window, which
Bart Will have left unlocked. Now, once inside, Will would
get a hidden gun that was kept in his brother
Kevin's room. Then Will would wait for the Whittakers to return. Now,

(26:02):
Justin with a walkie talkie, would alert Will when they
got there. So to draw attention off of Bart, Will
would need to shoot Bart in the arm after he
killed Bart's parents. So in this original scenario, Kevin wasn't
a target. Just Trician and Kent were right, just the parents, Yes,
But Bart decided just before Christmas two thousand was the

(26:24):
best time to do this, so they moved forward with
the plan. But just two minutes after leaving Will at
the Whittaker house, Will's voice came over the walkie talkie saying,
come get me. So Justin he drove back to the
front of the house and picked up Will, and Will
told Justin that the house's security alarm had gone off
when he opened the window.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, now this was supposed to have been deactivated by Bart.
By Bart, yes, so they could gain entrance mm hmm.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
So when Will and Justin got back to Waco, Will
just packed up his bags and drove back to Arkansas
and didn't speak to Bart again.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
So he was out of this conspiracy. Yes.

Speaker 5 (27:04):
Now, I don't know if the alarm really went off,
but he was spooked enough that he was done with it,
done with a plan.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, I think I read that the alarm did go off,
that there was some question about whether Bart was kind
of testing them or or something.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
Yeah, because I think was there a phone call about
it or something? Yeah, Yeah, we'll get to that. I
think I have that in my note. Yeah, because Bart
called Justin later that night and said that his father
got a call from the security company during dinner, that's
what it was, telling him that the alarm went off.
So Bart was angry with Will, telling Justin that Will
had fucked up and he'd better not talk. So after

(27:40):
this failed attempt to kill his parents, Bart looked for
excitement in smaller crimes. For a while. He and Justin
went to Hastings Books and Records and shoplifted two movies,
Ronin and Way of the Gun. So as Bart walked
through the security railings, the alarm went off and Justin

(28:00):
and Bart ran off. They jumped into Bart's car and
sped off, but the cashier had run out behind them
and wrote down the license plate number.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Whoops. Yep.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
So a wake up police officer was able to run
a check on the license plate and he discovered that
the vehicle was registered to Kent Whittaker in sugar Land.
So the officer called the Whittakers and confirmed that her
son Bart attended Baylor and she would have him call
the police officer. So soon after that, Bart called the
police and admitted to stealing the DVDs. He was arrested,

(28:34):
he had to go return the DVDs, and then he
was released.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
So that's two strikes against old Bart. Now, I mean
he's done some thievery in high school, yeah, and now
he's shop bless.

Speaker 5 (28:47):
Yeah. I mean I think it's clear to his parents
that this kid's trouble. Yeah right, I mean certainly, maybe
not murder territory, but there's some red flags about his
moral character. Definite flags, Yes, finitely, I agree.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
So the shoplifting charges were eventually dropped.

Speaker 5 (29:07):
Which is a shame because he probably should have been
made to pay for that.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah, I mean two movies, big deal.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
I know, but with the school things and that, I
think maybe he'd serve some jail time. Well he could
have learned some lessons in life, but.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
I don't think that was going to happen.

Speaker 5 (29:25):
He was learning that he could get away with everything.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
So anyway, the charges were dropped and we go forward
to early two thousand and one, which was about a
month after the first attempt to have his parents kill
and Bart was talking to Justin about trying again. He's persevering, isn't.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
He very persistent?

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Now he had recruited his high school friend Adam Hip.
The three of them took an expensive ocean cruise to
the Bahamas during the break between Christmas and New Year's.
By this time, Justin was very depressed. His ex girlfriend
back home had died in a car accident. He had
nothing to lose, so he was in on this attempt. Bart, Adam,

(30:05):
and Justin met to make their murder plans. One plan
they gave up on was to trap Tricia, Kent and Kevin,
along with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents from Tricia's side
of the family, in his grandmother's lake house and set
it on fire.

Speaker 5 (30:20):
Isn't that alarming? That They even discussed that it is very.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Alarming, I mean not just the method of doing it,
but how did they expect.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
To kill everybody and did not even care about it?

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Right?

Speaker 5 (30:32):
Verry's very creepy, and.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
In this scenario, Bart would be the only one to
manage to escape.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
Sure, of course Jesus.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
According to Adam, Bart had a specific reason why he
wanted to kill his entire immediate family as well as
his mother's family.

Speaker 5 (30:47):
Well, the money, right.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
It was because they owned the construction company and if
he could eliminate them, everything would be his sure.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
So see, it was for the money.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
It's all for the money.

Speaker 5 (30:57):
So they discussed the Lakehouse fireplan several times before deciding
against it. There was no guarantee that everyone else would die,
and Arson was too easy to figure out, they figured. So.
Eventually Bart decided that the original idea of a botched
robbery would be best, but this time Bart would give
Adam a key to the house as well as the

(31:18):
alarm access coat. Adam would unlock the door, disable the alarm,
and lie in wait. Patricia and Kent. Now Justin had
a friend from high school who also attended Baylor. Her
name was Jennifer Jennifer Jeff Bett. Now, she knew that
Justin was depressed because of his ex girlfriend's sudden tragic
death in a car accident. She also knew that he

(31:40):
was easily led astray by others. She sensed that Justin
was being influenced by Bart Whittaker, who was very manipulative,
and she felt that Bart had a really negative influence
on Justin's life. So Jennifer cared about Justin and she
invited him to a rush party, and when she got
him alone away from Bart, invest to her his plans

(32:01):
to kill Tricia and Kent Whittaker. Jennifer was stunned, as
I'm sure you can imagine.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
Oh, I can't even begin to imagine. You're with this
friend who says, you know, I'm going to go kill
my friend's family.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
Yeah, she's yeah. So she went to Bart's room and
she confronted him. She did not like him, and she said,
are you really going to let this happen? So Bart,
he's lying on his bed with a girl who isn't
even his girlfriend, it's like a girlfriend of a friend
of his, and he sits up slowly and smiles at Jennifer.
She said it gave her chills. He stood up and

(32:33):
slowly walked toward her. He put his hands on the
sides of her shoulders and leaned in toward her. Right ear,
everything's going to be okay, he whispered, you don't have
to worry, and she said that his voice was eerily
calm and just frightening, so she wasn't having any of it.
She pushed him away, and she said, if anything happens
to Justin, you're going to be sorry. She was disgusted

(32:56):
by Bart. She went home. She called her boyfriend and
he told her, well, you have to call the police.
You know, what are you even thinking? You have to?

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Duh huh.

Speaker 5 (33:06):
So, on the way to sugar Land in a car
stolen by Bart, Justin actually ran out of gas, and
he was honestly relieved because the plan was over and
he had some doubts in his head about it. But
Bart wasn't giving up so easily. He said, well, just
wait there. I'm going to bring you a can of
gas so you can get to the next gas station
and proceed with the plan.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Now.

Speaker 5 (33:26):
He didn't want anything to stop this, but fortunately Jennifer
went ahead and called nine one one. She said, I
need to report a potential murder. A friend of mine
is about to take part in the murder and I
want to stop him, so she gave police the Whittaker's names.
Jennifer's boyfriend also had called the police, so after Jennifer
got off the phone, she called Justin. She said where

(33:49):
are you? And she told Justin that she'd called the police,
but she hadn't given them his name. So Justin seemed
frightened of what Bart would do. He was angry at
Jenny for two and he hung up on her. So
about twenty minutes later, Justin's cell phone rang again and
he was shocked to hear that Kent Whittaker's voice.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
I'll that he was shocked.

Speaker 5 (34:11):
So Kent Whittaker said, Justin, hello, how are you doing? Son?
Seemed cheerful and friendly. So this guy has a deep
well of denial at his disposal, I think so, and
so Justin says, I'm okay, mister Whittaker. Ken said that
he thought they were being pranked by someone who called
nine one one, so, laughing, he said that someone had
told him Justin was on his way to murder Tricia

(34:32):
and him. Justin said, what, sir, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
Yeah, oh, I can't believe that story.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
I know.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
So Kent agreed and told Justin, well, have a good
night son. So I don't know, And this just makes
me think of Kent Whittaker later on with his forgiving.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
And all this.

Speaker 5 (34:49):
I think he seems I don't know, we'll talk about
that later. There's something about him.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Obviously they didn't take he or Kent didn't take it
as a serious threat. He thought someone was putting one
over on him.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
Yeah, but that's weird. Your son is sending someone to
kill you. That's not a normal prank. I'd want to
get to the bottom of what's going on. Well, yes,
and there's more to it. So minutes later, an officer
from the Waco Police called Justin Cell and after he
hung up from that call, he saw Bart pull up
behind him. Now, Bart walked up to the driver's side window,

(35:24):
and he was carrying a red plastic gas can. Here's
your guess, Bart said. Now, Justin told Bart it wasn't
going to happen. Bart's parents could not believe that their
son would plot to kill them. They thought it was
a prank spun out of control. Because they knew that
their son Bart loved them absolutely, but Bart didn't dismiss it.

(35:44):
He went and took off for Dallas. So he's going
off into hiding. He thinks he's caught. Yeah, so he
was gone for at least three days before his family
found him. And when they got a hold of him,
he told them he was scared, confused, and worried that
he was going to be blamed for something he had
nothing to do with, and they believe that. Yes, his
parents reassured him that they knew he could never do

(36:07):
anything to harm them or anyone else. So Bart returned
to Waco, but then he moved out of Justin's apartment
and never spoke to him again.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
No.

Speaker 5 (36:16):
Soon after, Bart decided to lead Waco entransfer to sam
Houston State University, and that is in Huntsville.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
And Huntsville is near enough to sugar Land. In Houston,
it's about ninety miles north, Okay. Bart said he wanted
to get a job with the FBI and he believed
he would be a good homicide detective or criminal profiler
because he could think like a criminal. Well, yeah, well
he's shown us some ways of doing that.

Speaker 5 (36:44):
I guess.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
So Sam Houston has a renowned criminal justice college, but
Bart failed to tell his parents that he hadn't even
completed enough courses at Baylor to have finished his fresh
from the year, even though he'd been in school for
two years, because he's been fucking off playing video games
and plotting to kill his parents all the time.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
Yes, I think you're right.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Maybe if you're going to class.

Speaker 5 (37:07):
Yeah, that kind of sho.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
So he's been two years at Baylor and he hasn't
even gotten enough credits to complete first.

Speaker 5 (37:15):
Year, right, and his parents don't know, which is another
thing that makes me think, hmm, they're paying the bills,
why don't they know.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Well, that's a whole other topic, isn't it. Yes, because
I don't see how parent could be unaware. But you know,
we talked about the Jennifer Pans story and it was
a similar thing.

Speaker 5 (37:34):
Yeah, but they didn't speak English, so I kind of
gave them a break.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
Okay, So parents were unaware of his lives, of Bart's lives,
they supported Bart in his endeavor to become an FBI agent.
They purchased a ninety thousand dollars town home in Willis,
Texas for Bart. This is less than thirty miles from
sam Houston State. He also got a job as the

(37:58):
manager of the dining room restaurant at the nearby Betwater
Yacht and Country Club. Very posh place. Yes, well, anything
that's called yacht and country club.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
Has got to be posh, right, I imagine I've never
been to one, Well, maybe for a wedding or something,
but I've never been a member of.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
One, right right. He made friends with neighbors Chris Bresher
and Steve Champagne. Now Bart ended up getting both of
his new friends jobs at the dining room. Bart shared
some of his background with Steve, but he also told
him that he was a graduate student and teacher at
sam Houston State. Another lie. Yes, he's not even a sophomore, sure,

(38:40):
I know.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
Well. Stephen felt that Bart treated him well at work.
Bart had after work parties, and Stephen, Chris and Bart
became quite close. One thing Stephen noticed about Bart was that,
even though he hosted these get togethers, he never seemed
really comfortable around large groups of people. Stephen, though, he
began to look up to Bart, who seemed very intelligent,

(39:04):
professional in his job. You know, although a bit aloof
now Bart he began complaining to Stephen about his family.
He said he was adopted and he couldn't stand his brother.
He started to refer to Stephen as his brother through
thick and thin, and then he slowly opened up to
Stephen about wanting to kill his parents. So this all
seems carefully plotted out.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
To me, Oh, definitely. I mean even the after work parties.
Surees he's got them. They're all at his place. He
has control of the situation. Yes, people look up to
him and here's this great manager, and look what he's
doing for us. We really like him. Yeah, that kind
of softens the blow for when he says, oh, we
need to kill my parents.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
Well, he promised also financial security to Stephen if he
helped him. He said that his brother Kevin was worthless
and draining the family of their money, and then they
began to talk about how they would spend the family inheritance. Now,
near Thanksgiving of two thousand and three, Bart came right
out and asked Stephen to help him kill his family,
and Stephen said no way. But by this time Chris

(40:09):
Brasher was living with Bart in his town home, and
Chris and Bart approached Stephen and they told him that
he needed to be the driver in their murder plan.
So Stephen said, no, I don't want anything to do
with it, but Chris said that he'd agreed to be
the shooter. The least Stephen could do was drive. I
don't know what kind of logic that is.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
It's the the uh, misinformed logic that if you're the driver,
you're not involved.

Speaker 5 (40:36):
Yeah, we know that's not true.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
We do now.

Speaker 5 (40:38):
Bart held Stephen he was already a part of it.
He'd been in on discussions and was therefore part of
the conspiracy. Bart said, so, no matter what he would
do at this point, he would still be an accomplice.
So naive. I guess not too bright. Stephen agreed, not
too bright. Yeah, or maybe he did want some of
the money. Maybe part of that was there too.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Still not too bright.

Speaker 5 (41:01):
No, of course, not well. The plan Bart, Stephen, and
Chris disgusted was basically unchanged from the plans he'd made
with Adam Hip, Justin Peters and Will Anthony. Neither Stephen
nor Chris was ever offered a specific amount of money
for their participation, though now, according to Stephen, Bart monitored
him closely in the weeks before the crime. On one occasion,

(41:23):
he said, I know where your mother lives, I know
where she sleeps. Yeah, so that's kind of a threat, right,
I think so. And it's really uncertain how intimidated or
threatened Stephen really was. But there's no doubt about the
fact that Bart was in charge of this thing.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
I'd say, no question.

Speaker 5 (41:40):
Yeah. Well, later Stephen would tell police that if Bart
was willing to kill his own parents, why wouldn't he
hesitate to kill my mother? So that's a good point.
Maybe he was afraid of Bart to a certain extent. Now,
in early December, Bart purchased two disposable cell phones, one
for Chris and one for Stephen, and he assured them
that they would be untraceable. He also talked to Stephen

(42:01):
about making sure that his car was untraceable, so on
the day of the murder, he would take license plates
from another vehicle to put on Stephen's car. And also
on the day of the murders, Bart and Chris they
packed their stuff and drove off in Bart's Yukon Stephen
he left twenty minutes later so that they wouldn't be
seen on the camera leaving together. They think they're real

(42:23):
smart here with that, right, Like the police aren't going
to watch for twenty minutes. Now, the three they drove
more than seventy miles south on Highway fifty nine. Chris
and Bart exited to go to sugar Lake's Drive. Steven
drove her an extra thirty minutes and then turned around
and he went to the Papa Duce Seafood Restaurants back

(42:43):
parking lot, and he waited with the cell phone that
Bart had given him. So that was the restaurant that
Bart's family was taking him to dinner.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Right, we're going to have a big family dinner.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
Because he's graduating, he said.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
Right, he's graduating. They gave him a nice rolex for graduation.

Speaker 5 (42:59):
Yes, they did. That's kind of silly too. I think
it's an expensive gift to give a well, and it's
not a sensible one. If you're going to spend that
kind of money, why wouldn't you get him something sensible,
like a nice suit to wear to an interview.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
Or they already bought this kid a ninety thousand dollars townhouse.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
Yeah, they're very foolish that way.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
And the Yukon Suvor not suv a big that's a
big car.

Speaker 5 (43:21):
I just don't believe in giving kids things like that.
I mean, give them what they need to succeed, but
don't make it that easy exactly. It takes away a
lot of motivation in life.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
So, I mean, I don't think the Rolex was out
of character for the other stuff they bestowed on him.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
That's true. Yeah, and I'm not saying it's their fault.
He was evil, but they did spoil him, no question. Yeah,
so you did feel very entitled.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
So here we are in Papa Do Papa Do, which
is one of a number of chains in the Southwest.
Very popular, yes, very lucrative business. This particular one is
kind of their flagship restaurant.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
I don't know if you say so, I do.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
So. The Whittakers were having what seemed like a very happy,
celebratory family dinner. Yes, our oldest son is graduating. We're
so happy.

Speaker 5 (44:18):
The pictures that you see from that dinner, they look happy.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Bart Whitaker played the role of a loving family member perfectly,
and Dad didn't notice anything amiss.

Speaker 5 (44:28):
Well, Dad's not noticing a lot of things though, Let's
be honest. Dad's in denial, no shit.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
Back at the Whittaker's house, Chris Brasher went inside, pulled
out dresser drawers in the master bedroom. He was trying
to make it look like a robbery. Yes, one small mistake.
Instead of pulling them out haphazardly, he pulled each one
out exactly to the same distance, so they're all lined up.

Speaker 5 (44:55):
Sure, and that's suspicious, But I think if it had
really been a robber and they did that, that's not
a deal breaker. There could be a robber who's very
neat if things had been robbed, yes, exactly, if other
things had been different, of course.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
And as he's finished doing this stuff, he noticed one
of his gloves was missing. He had no idea where
he lost it. Called Stephen from his cell. Stephen told
him to find it. He searched the house, but to
no avail. Turns out it was outside. Yeah, but Stephen
watched the Whittakers get into the family Trailblazer. He followed

(45:30):
them in his mother's Camra parking a block away from
their house. The Whittakers were ambushed and shot as they
entered their home.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
That was the plan, right, well, I think the youngest,
the younger boy, Kevin, went in first.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
Chris was going to be positioned so that people came
through the door. He was going to start firing yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
And Bart made like he left his phone in the
car and went back out so he would be the
last one coming in.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Right, So they were all ambushed and shot. Chris Prishira
left out the back door quickly to Stephen's mother's car.
On the way back to Bart's townhouse, Chris calmly told
Stephen about what he had done.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
Right.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
So at the townhouse, Chris and Stephen they vacuumed the
car just as Bart had instructed them. They put everything
they'd used in the crime into Duffel bags. So they
put two Duffel bags in the back of Chris's red
Ford Ranger and they drove to a bridge on ten
ninety seven Road West. So they got out, lifted the
hood to make it look like they were broke down

(46:28):
on the road, and while Steven stood over the engine,
Chris removed the two Duffel bags and tossed them over
the bridge. Then they went to a local bar called
the Ginger Man, and they drank several beers and they
paid for that with money stolen from the closet of
Tricia and Kent Whittaker. So Stephen and Chris they slept
well that night. They both went about the following day

(46:50):
as if it were simply just another ordinary day, and
while sitting in another bar the next night, Stephen got
a call from a friend, and this friend and told
Stephen that he had heard that his friend and boss,
Bart Whittaker had been shot and that at least two
of his family members were dead. Then his mother called
to tell him the same thing. So the next morning

(47:13):
Stephen went ahead and visited Bart in the hospital, you know,
playing the role of the worried friend.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
Right, I'm concerned about you. Em, I'm glad you're alive.

Speaker 5 (47:21):
Yeah. The Whittaker's next door neighbor Cliff Stanley. He was
very fond of Tricia and Kent, and his wife Darlene
was friendly with Tricia. They also had two sons, Brandon
and Dale, who were off at college. Now the Stanleys
were relaxing and watching television on the night of the murders.
They were happy to have their eldest son, Brandon, home

(47:43):
for the holidays, and that's when Brandon he came into
the living room asking if the yelling and shooting that
he heard was coming from the television. But Brandon and
Cliff went to the front door to see where the
noise was actually coming from and Cliff saw Kent sprawled
out on their concrete porch, and when Kent yelled for help,
Cliff headed towards him. Now, as he approached Kent, he

(48:07):
looked up and he saw that Tricia was just about
six feet away from Kent. Brandon was behind his father,
and Cliff yelled at him to call nine one one,
So Brandon went back home to make the call. Now,
Tricia was still alive at that point. She was moaning
and she was able to speak, and she said to Cliff,
someone shot us.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
I think that's pretty brave of this guy, this next
door neighbor, to go running over there. If the shooter
was still there.

Speaker 5 (48:35):
Well, what are you going to do? Your name, I
would run over.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
I mean, well, you might call nine one one from
the safety of your home.

Speaker 5 (48:43):
And let him suffer. Yeah, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
I think he did the right thing.

Speaker 5 (48:47):
He absolutely did. I guess some people wouldn't have run over,
but I think your instinct would be to run over.
If you care about somebody, your first instinct would.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (48:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
So Cliff gets there and he's listening to Trie should
continue to moan, and he heard Kevin taking his last breaths.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
Oh, horrific.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
Kevin stopped breathing as Cliff was holding pressure to kent
swound with his t shirt.

Speaker 5 (49:10):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
Kent told him to leave because the shooter could still
be in the house.

Speaker 5 (49:15):
So that was thoughtful.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Was Chris ran home to get his shotgun. As he's
getting ready to go back his wife, Cliff's wife told him,
don't do that.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
WHOA what if.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
The police arrive and see you standing there of the shotgun,
he might get shot. Smart lady, good advice, So Cliff
knew she was right. He returned to Kent to comfort him.
In the ten minutes since Brandon made nine to one
one call, sugar Land police officer Kelly Glass arrived, and
more police and an ambulance showed up. One of the

(49:47):
EMTs called for a life flight helicopter for Tricia. Yeah,
Kent and Bart were taken to the same hospital. When
Kent asked about his family, he was told that he
and Bart would be undergoing surgery. So they've been shot
in the arm, as he instructed, Yes, and Kent's been
shot actually in his other in the arm opposite Barbes are.

Speaker 5 (50:10):
Right, right, although I think Kent had much more severe injuries.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
He did. Yeah, his bone, his humorous upper armbone was shattered. Ugh.
Nothing was said about Tricia or Kevin, and this frightened
Kent pretty much.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
Right well, yeah, I mean that made him think something
bad has happened.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
Yeah, he said, I think Tricia and Kevin are dead,
and a local hospital representative nodded, they are, she said yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:35):
So Kent was also told that Bart had been heroic
trying to tackle the shooter and getting himself shot. Both
Bart and Kent had the broken arms, but Bart had
been shot in the left arm Kent and the right.
Kent decided that he didn't want to live with anger
and hurt right away that night, I guess, so he
prayed and he forgave the shooter who'd killed his wife

(50:55):
and his younger son. That's his story. So the night
after the murders, detective Marshall Slott and his partner visited
Kent and Bart in the hospital where they were actually
sharing a room. Kent and Bart recalled the night of
the shooting in as much detail as they could remember.
Bart talked about his impending college graduation from sam Houston

(51:16):
State University, So that was ballsy to talk to the
cops about something that's a huge lie and it's stupid,
it's ballzy, whatever you want to say, why do do that?

Speaker 3 (51:26):
It's something that can be checked easily, of course, and
he's going to get fucked.

Speaker 5 (51:30):
He said he was planning to do an internship with
the FBI and become a detective now. The next day, though,
Detective Slot made a series of phone calls and that's
when he went to find out more about the Whittakers,
and he was really surprised by a conversation he had
with the bursar's office at Sam Houston State. So he
went back to the hospital to speak to Bart. Of course,

(51:53):
Bart was in his hospital room watching TV and Kent
wasn't there at the time, so Detective Slot told Bart
what the burser's office had told him. That Bart wasn't
a student there. In fact, he only had enough credits
to still be a freshman. So when Bart left the
room and Kent returned, the detective spoke to Kent alone.
Kent was shocked. He knew that Bart had lied and

(52:15):
committed petty crimes in his youth, but he was basically
a good kid.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
He thought.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
His concern was not that Bart had done anything or
had anything to do with the murders. His concern was
that Bart's lies about school might derail the police's investigation
into the murders. If Bart became a suspect, Kent thought
the police won't be out looking for the real killer.
So he's angry. He goes and he confronts Bart and

(52:40):
complains about what a stupid thing it was to be
dishonest like that. Now, Bart had seemed very distraught since
the murders, and then Kent started feeling sorry for Bart.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Yeah, I mean, that just doesn't ring true to me
that he felt sorry, that he felt sorry for him.
You think he didn't think he was.

Speaker 5 (52:58):
Pissed, Yeah he was, But he said he was initially pissed,
and then he started to feel sorry for him because
he did lose his mother and his brother.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Well for that, but right, how can you feel sorry
for this kid for deluding you for all those years?

Speaker 5 (53:13):
No, I think he felt sorry for him because he'd
lot because of the incident. Maybe I think that's the
way I interpreted it.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
So Bart, ever, won to have an excuse, explained that
his job at the country club had been so busy
he'd slacked off on going to school. Several employees had
quit the previous summer, and Bart had taken on more
duties at work.

Speaker 5 (53:36):
He's a good kid, deep now.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
Yeah, he's just trying to help out. Sure, this wasn't
actually a valid reason for pretending to be in college
for years, No, and lying to everybody. No, but Kent
and Bart made up. So yeah, I'm sorry. What I
can't I can't make up that quickly.

Speaker 5 (53:54):
Well, Okay, I got.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
This kid who has been arrested twice. Now he's shown
to be a total fuck up. He's not in school
like you said he was.

Speaker 5 (54:02):
You're totally right, yes, And the.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
Next day Can's are ready to forgive him.

Speaker 5 (54:08):
Well, and all I could say about that is that
they just lost two members of their family, so you
might not want to hold a grudge about other things
at that point. I mean really, at this point, whether
he was going to school or not, isn't that important
because you're talking about life or death situations. Okay, that's
all I can say about that. Although I do believe

(54:30):
he should have been suspicious about Bart's involvement, that's a
whole other story.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
For sure.

Speaker 5 (54:36):
Yes, totally, I totally agree with that.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Because he's had this one he blew off.

Speaker 5 (54:42):
Yeah right, the other atte yes.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
And now he's got the dead people.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
Well yeah, And just thinking back to that other attempt,
I would have to say, hmm, yeah, something's very suspicious here.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Yeah. But he's ready to forgive him, Yes he is. So.
As they recovered, the detectives took Kent and Bart back
to the house to reenact the events of the night
of the crime. The two men did separate walk throughs
with detectives. Bart's story was much vaguer. He had less

(55:18):
of a memory for the events than his father did.
He was also oddly calm when talking about the most
traumatic event of his life.

Speaker 5 (55:27):
Yes, I think that really left an impression on the detectives. Yeah, yeah,
I think when you're around someone like that, just their behavior,
their demeanor. It doesn't act as any evidence, but you
get a feeling for what's really going on. I pick
up on that, especially if your experienced detective, I would think, right.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
So, the service for Tricia and Kevin was on December sixteenth,
at eleven o'clock. That evening, Detective Slot was visited by
Adam Hip. Remember Adam, I do. He was a former friend.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
He was a friend that was asked to be involved earlier.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
Adam had been at the funeral that morning.

Speaker 5 (56:04):
Yeah, so Adam he told the detective that he knew
Bart was responsible for the murders of his brother and mother.
He'd driven from Dallas the night before because he felt
compelled to tell authorities what he knew about Bart, because
Bart had tried to kill his family two years previously.
Adam was really pained to have this knowledge and not

(56:26):
to share it, and he felt really the need to
speak to somebody about it. The plan Adam described from
two years ago was nearly identical to what had happened,
even the detail of Bart being shot in the arm.
So after the murders, Barton moved back into the house
with his dad, and Kent's gunshot wound was more severe,
so he had to have months of physical therapy. Detectives

(56:50):
visited Stephen Champagne at Bart's townhouse, where he continued to live,
even though Bart was back with his father. Now he'd
lied to them, telling them that he was out at
a bar with a friend on the evening of the murders.
So he hadn't even really put together a good alibi,
not the brightest.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
Nope.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
Now they talked to Stephen for about two hours, and
Stephen thought, you know, it went well overall. But then
one week later Chris called Stephen. The detectives had interviewed Chris.
So Chris was terrified, and he told Stephen that the
police believed he was the shooter, which they were correct,
of course, they were hearing the fear in Chris's voice

(57:29):
made it all more real to Stephen. So Stephen called Bart,
and Bart told Stephen, well, I want you to bring
Chris to sugar Land so the three of us can
talk in person. So Bart met Chris and Stephen at
a movie theater so they could talk during a screening
of The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King.
Bart was mainly concerned that Chris would crack and confess.

(57:52):
But what Bart didn't notice was the man sitting directly
behind them in the theater, and that man was an
undercover police.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
Officer listening to them.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
Yes, now, Stephen's alibi that he was at a bar
with a friend hadn't checked out, so two weeks later
police returned to his home to question him. Bart met
Stephen for dinner at a TGI Fridays in February two
thousand and four, and he complained about Chris failing to
kill Kent. So not only are his brother and mother dead,

(58:22):
but now he's complaining that his father's still alive. And
during this time, he's living with his father and they're
reading the Bible together, and Kent's thinking they're really getting close.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
Poor delusional Kent. Yeah, I mean, Bart's unhappy because if
his father's alive, there's no inheritance, right, so there's no
money coming in.

Speaker 5 (58:43):
But he has money, so I don't know if that's
totally it. Not enough money, well, I know, but I
think there's more to it than money. Well, yeah, I
think there's like a hatred.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
We know that. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (58:53):
So he says to Stephen, you know, we need to
make a plan to take care of my dad. And
Stephen told him that's crazy. We definitely get caught, but
Bart thought he was smart enough that he could probably
pull that off. Now, Stephen said he wanted no part
in killing Bart's dad, and Bart looked at him skeptically
and said, we've got more work to do here. Come on,

(59:14):
let's go, right. So Adam Hip agreed to help the
police catch Bart, and the plan was for Adam to
re establish a friendship with Bart to get him to talk. Now,
in the initial recorded call, Adam let Bart know that
detectives had contacted him to find out what he knew
about Bart. In future calls, Adam would talk about aspects

(59:36):
of the actual murders, and he was trying to relate
them to Bart's earlier attempts to try and make that
connection for police. Now, Bart didn't admit outright to the
murders or the planning of the murders, but he did
ask Adam to light to police to discredit justin so,
at the instruction of Detective Slot, Adam began to ask

(59:58):
Bart for money for his compl and Bart did agree
to pay twenty thousand dollars, but said it would take
him some time to get it for him. But they're
recording it at this time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Right, Yeah, so they weren't going to see any money
who the accomplices?

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
Well no, well, I mean he's doing it by the
police anyway, So he wasn't money he would keep, I.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Know it by it's just stringing him along anyway.

Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
Yes, absolutely, you're right about that. I don't think he
ever intended on giving them anything. No, he didn't, although
he didn't let the one live in the townhouse.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
Big deal.

Speaker 5 (01:00:35):
Well, housing can be a big deal.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Yeah, I mean it's not a townhouse that he bought. No,
townhouses parents bought for him.

Speaker 5 (01:00:43):
Well, sure, yes, that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
He's not got any money on the outflow.

Speaker 5 (01:00:49):
Well no, And I guess he thinks his father needs
to be killed before he'll really have the money he
wants anyway, right, right, So.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
Here he is living at home with his dad, and
they spent a lot of time together, as I would expect.
I mean, here, the two sole survivors of this massacre
in the family time to get close to each other, right.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
I would think you'd want to support one another. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
They read inspirational books together, and Bart became more involved
in church. I'm sure this is a facade. Bart's girlfriend,
Lynn saw a positive change in Bart. He proposed to her.

Speaker 5 (01:01:27):
Well, yeah, he had her convinced.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
Yeah. They set a wedding date for July twenty fourth,
two thousand and five. Kent actually looked forward to having
Lynn as a daughter in law, and he hoped to
be a grandfather in the future.

Speaker 5 (01:01:39):
He wants a family again, right he does. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
Bart got a job at the Bank Downtown restaurant and
While working there, made friends with a busboy named Rudy Rios.
Now Here he's working again, right right, working the crowd
for months. He complained to Rudy that the police are
out to get around June twenty first, Bart told Rudy

(01:02:04):
that he'd like to go to Mexico to get away.
As Rios and a family member drove Bart into Mexico.
He knows that Bart had a large amount of money
on him. So he gets to Mexico. He's got a
new identity. He became Rudy Rios.

Speaker 5 (01:02:19):
That's right, wow, he did.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
He made himself comfortable there, working at a furniture store
and befriending a nice young woman, Cindy Lou Salinas. Yes,
I almost said Cindy Lou.

Speaker 5 (01:02:32):
Who I'm sorry, Well, Cindy Lou isn't a common name, no,
so Cindy Lou. She met Bart, or Rudy as he
was calling himself, in the church and she introduced him
to her family and they really liked him too.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
So he's he's going to a Catholic church. Obviously we're
in Mexico.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
I would think, how.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
Does that tribe with his Christian upbringing? Catholic is Christian, Yeah,
but not his kind of Christian. I don't think he
cared exactly right, that's my point.

Speaker 5 (01:03:00):
Okay. Bart claimed to be a soldier who'd gone a
while after injuring his arm, so that's how he explained
his cast on his arm or sling whatever he had on.
But when Cindy complained a few times later on after
arguing with her parents, Bart surprised her and kind of
shocked her by suggesting that, you know, they could just
kill her parents if she couldn't get along with them.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
So oh Bart, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:03:25):
Now, meanwhile, Kent was hurt by Bart's leaving, and finally
he would say this is when he accepted the truth
that Bart had probably actually planned the murders of the family.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Well, good for you, Kent.

Speaker 5 (01:03:36):
Finally. Now, in two thousand and four, after joining the Marines,
Stephen Champagne took a plea bargain and told detectives about
Bart's murder block. But he continued to lie about his participation.
But in the end he testified for the prosecution and
he received a fifteen year sentence. Now, Bart had been
in Mexico for over a year when he was arrested.

(01:03:58):
He was given a sentence of death for plotting the murders.
Chris Bresshier got a life sentence in a plea bargain
with prosecution. So Kent, as you know, wrote a book
about the murders and he titled it Murder by Family,
and it's about his experiences, but mostly about his forgiveness
of Bart's actions. So Bart Whittaker, he contributes to a

(01:04:19):
paper called The Solitary Watch, where he writes about the
effects of solitary confinement on himself and on others that
are on death row.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
No, he was sentenced to death, Yes he was, despite
pleas from his father and uncle.

Speaker 5 (01:04:35):
Yes, they tried to save him. They didn't want him
put to death. Now, in two thousand and seven, he
founded an inmate blog entitled Minutes Before six and his
father says that he'll be there on the day that
Bart is executed. He believes that Bart will go to
heaven if he is sincerely sorry for what he did.
Now Kent Whittaker made appearances on OPRAH forty eight hours

(01:04:58):
in twenty twenty to promote his book, and he also
gave speeches to churches across Texas and Arkansas and continues
to do so. I believe his stories presented to Christians
as an inspirational tale about forgiveness, and in an interview
with The Houston Chronicle, Kent talked about the murders. Kent
talked about the murders and how they've changed his life.

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
Yeah, Kent said, this is a gift I believe God
gave me. I realized that maybe God had allowed me
to live so I could display that unconditional love. As
someone only sees the tragic events of the crime, he continued,
then they missed the real story. Crime is only the
framework upon which the real stories of forgiveness in God's

(01:05:45):
faithfulness are hung.

Speaker 5 (01:05:47):
Yeah, I'm sorry, don't be sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
I just can't feel that much empathy for Kent or
for him feeling sorry for his son.

Speaker 5 (01:05:58):
And I don't either, forget you know what. I feel
like Tricia and Kevin are being overlooked in some way
when I read about this. So you're not the only one.
I do kind of feel that way, right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
So Kent maintains a personal website still, Yes, he does.
In two thousand and eight, he announced that he was
getting remarried. He married Tania Jungling in May two thousand
and nine. In twenty thirteen, Kent and his new wife
Tanya were interviewed by Oprah. Kent talked about his improved

(01:06:29):
relationship with Bart. He even bragged that Bart had completed
his bachelor's degree.

Speaker 5 (01:06:35):
Yeah. I didn't like the way that sounded. He sounded
like he was bragging about Bart and really talking about
him in such a positive way, like he's overlooking what
Bart did.

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
Yeah, and it seemed to bother Oprah during the interview.

Speaker 5 (01:06:49):
Okay, well, you know, I was on YouTube and I
found this video and it's called from If Only to
What If? So this is a part of a four
episode series by Big Picture Minister, and it starts off
with a priest talking about forgiveness. I'm pretty sure it's
a Catholic priest because he is the black collar with
the white isn't that just Catholics?

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Nope?

Speaker 5 (01:07:09):
Oh okay, so it's just a Christian. Yes, it's not
a priest. Well, yes, a minister would wear that too.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Sure.

Speaker 5 (01:07:17):
Okay, so it's a minister or somebody. It's a man
of God, a man of God, and he's talking about
forgiveness and he introduces Tanya and Kent.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
So I'm like, whoa He said, pay dirt.

Speaker 5 (01:07:30):
Yeah, so it seems like this is what Kent and
Tanya are doing for a living. Is the vibe I'm getting?

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
Yeah, Well, we know he no longer works for his
father in law's company.

Speaker 5 (01:07:40):
So where did the company go?

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
Oh? I think it's still there.

Speaker 5 (01:07:43):
He just couldn't work there anymore because they don't like him.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
I don't know if they don't like him. My sense
when I was reading the book was that it was
his decision to leave.

Speaker 5 (01:07:54):
Well, there have been some difficulties there.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
Well, I can imagine, because I don't think the rest
of the family might be as charitable right towards Bart
as his father is.

Speaker 5 (01:08:05):
I don't think they are. But anyway, this whole talk
with Ken and Tanya made me uncomfortable. It's like they're
talking about forgiveness and it's just like one of these
big churches where it looks like they might be making
money off of it, and you know, it just seems
like Kent's using the murders of Kevin and Tricia to
make money. Like I can see the point in bringing

(01:08:27):
your experiences forward to share with people, but this seemed
like a very commercial type of deal, you know what
I mean. I do Okay, what do you think? But
how do you feel about him talking about that? Do
you think he's just doing a service to people who
have the same beliefs that he does, or do you
think that he's monopolizing or not monopolizing but monetizing.

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
I think he's probably doing both.

Speaker 5 (01:08:56):
Do you think he believes this some of them does.

Speaker 3 (01:09:01):
He probably has gotten to a point where it's more
about the money now than it is about the memory
of his wife and child.

Speaker 5 (01:09:09):
Well, I just feel like he doesn't give the wife
and child a lot of his attention or his focus
right now. I'm okay with the forgiveness part. That's good.
But the other thing is he seems really happy with
Tanya and all this. Like you know, he almost talks about,
like in that quote you were reading about this the
crime happening to him, which he's not the one who

(01:09:31):
was the victim, he didn't get killed, that this experience
that happened to him has been a blessing. He's kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
Saying, Well, maybe he's a bit on a narcissistic side.

Speaker 5 (01:09:42):
Also, That's another thing I considered, is maybe is it
still waters run deep or is it apples don't fall
too far? From the tree.

Speaker 3 (01:09:50):
I think it's apples don't fall far from the tree.

Speaker 5 (01:09:52):
Yeah, I think you're right. So that's kind of the
thought I had. Also, Bart has supposedly rediscuss God, according
to Kent, but he still presents as a very selfish,
narcissistic individual. So is Kent a saint for forgiving Bart
or is he just in denial? And also does Kent

(01:10:13):
lack empathy for his late wife and his lost son.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
Well, my cynical belief is that has deluded himself.

Speaker 5 (01:10:25):
Okay, So he's just deluded himself to the point where
he's clinging to the one that's alive, Yes, just to
try and make his life bearable. So that's not cynical.
That's actually more charitable toward him than I'm feeling.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
Now, another disturbing thing for me is that many of
Bart's blog entries on his personal blog minutes before six,
which refers to the minutes up to an execution, we're
actually written by Kent. So Bart bartist Well, I don't
know if it's a ghost writer, but he's got his
father doing it for him because he didn't have access

(01:11:01):
to a computer. So Kent actually helped him make these blog.

Speaker 3 (01:11:04):
Entries, So did Bart tell him what he wanted to
say or did Kent say it for Bart?

Speaker 5 (01:11:11):
Well, we don't know exactly because they don't tell us
these things. Okay, But in the books Savage Son, it's
revealed that members of Tricia's family were angry that Kent
was supporting Bart's activities in this way. I don't blame them.
So much of this blog is about Bart's opposed Bart's
opposition to the death penalty, his complaints about conditions inside

(01:11:33):
the prison, his displeasure with the way he's been portrayed
by the media. Blah blah blah, goes on and on.
It's all about Bart still. I mean, if you were
really changed, wouldn't you write about the people you lost
and have something to say about them?

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
One would think all about him?

Speaker 5 (01:11:52):
And that's kind of my problem with Kent is it's
all about Kent and Bart. What about Kevin and Tricia? Right,
That's what irritates me about this. So Bart, he's argued
that because he didn't do the actual shooting, that he
shouldn't be put to death, pretty much saying that the
people he manipulated into doing it, or at least the
one that he did manipulate into being the shooter should

(01:12:15):
get the death penalty instead of him, right, because he
didn't actually do it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
He didn't do it. He just planned it and made
sure it happened well.

Speaker 5 (01:12:24):
And I've been on that side of the fence a
bit in other cases where I feel like maybe this
person wouldn't have gone through with it if they'd actually
been there. But with him, I don't think that's the
case because of all the manipulating and planning he did.
It was extensive. Oh yes, I mean he really talked
people into it. It's not like he followed at all.

(01:12:45):
He was the leader, right, So, like I said, I
can see why Trisha's family would feel very betrayed and
upset and maybe not want anything to do with Kent either.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
That could be. That could be I wouldn't want anything
to do with.

Speaker 5 (01:12:57):
Him really really, And I certainly want anything to do
with Bart, oh not at all.

Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
No.

Speaker 5 (01:13:03):
I mean Bart has done interviews since then, and still
it's all about him. For instance, at the beginning of
this episode is a little segment from his interview by
Lisa Lee a few years ago, and it's very Bart centric.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
Right, Well, everything's about Bart, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
All about bart So he really seems like a narcissist
and a psychopath, and this makes his father's forgiveness a
questionable thing to me. Me too, Well, you're easy. I'm
very easy, okay. So that's all I have to say
about it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:37):
Yeah, I wish we could have more empathy for Kent,
but what he's been doing the last few years just
destroys that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
Kind of taints it. Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
All right.

Speaker 5 (01:13:49):
Well, I'd just like to say thank you to all
of our team Tygrebber members. I hope you enjoyed this episode,
and I'm going to work hard to make more for
you because I really appreciate your support.

Speaker 3 (01:13:59):
That's right. We love hearing from you and having your support.
Hope you continue.

Speaker 5 (01:14:04):
Thank you very much, and we'll see you next time
at the Quiet End with.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
A heavy wives and the beer of the Day, Beer
the Day, Beer de jour.

Speaker 5 (01:14:12):
Bye bye bye,