00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge.
00:03Today we're going to take a trip outside of Florida, all the way to Texas, and explore
00:08the case of Carla Faye Tucker.
00:10Don't worry, I still have plenty of Florida cases to cover.
00:14I just want to mix things up a bit.
00:16With Carla, she is another lady who took the wrong path in life and wound up becoming a
00:21murderer in a robbery gone wrong.
00:24Let's go ahead and dive right into this case, shall we?
00:30Carla Faye Tucker was born November 18, 1959, in Houston, Texas, to Larry and Carolyn Tucker.
00:41She's the youngest of three girls.
00:43Larry worked as a longshoresman, which means he worked on docks loading and unloading cargo
00:48from ships, and Carolyn stayed at home with the kids.
00:51Larry and Carolyn would fight often, and their marriage was troubled for a long time.
00:56When Carla was eight, she began smoking cigarettes with her older sister.
01:01Her mother even taught her how to roll her first joint at the age of nine.
01:05Then when Carla was ten years old, while divorce proceedings were happening, she learned about
01:10who her real father was in a weird way.
01:14Her mother introduced her to a man and said, come sit on his lap, he's your real father.
01:19I'm pretty sure that messed her little mind up a lot.
01:22Larry ended up having custody of the kids, but Carla was becoming more and more difficult,
01:27always skipping school and getting into trouble, so he sent Carla back to her mother.
01:32Carolyn had become a prostitute, and so Carla became exposed to this world, and so her mother
01:38started schooling her at the young age of 12 on prostitution.
01:43The two became groupies for different bands, such as the Allman Brothers, the Marshall Tucker
01:48Band, and the Eagles.
01:49Carla also got into doing drugs, anything she could get her hands on, really, and of course
01:55stealing.
01:56Living on the streets, or staying with whatever guy she was with at the time, but on Christmas
02:01Eve, Carolyn died, leaving Carla absolutely heartbroken and alone.
02:06After the death of her mother, when she was only 19, Carla started spinning out of control.
02:20Her temper would flare up at anyone for any reason, and that's when she started running
02:25with a biker gang.
02:26Carla met a woman in this gang named Sean Dean, and her husband, Jerry Lynn Dean.
02:32The couple introduced her to a man in 1981 by the name of Daniel Ryan Garrett, or Danny
02:39Garrett.
02:40Carla was 21, and Danny was 35 years old when they began dating.
02:45A weekend of partying, Carla and Danny, and a friend of theirs, James LeBrant, decided they
02:51were going to rob Jerry Dean's apartment for his motorcycle and parts.
02:56As payback for bringing the bike to Carla's apartment and ruining her carpet with oil,
03:01James was more focused on stealing Danny's El Camino.
03:05Carla had already grown a hatred for Jerry, not only for the oil, but because he committed
03:11the biggest no-no in her eyes.
03:13Shortly after her mother's death, Jerry took what few photographs she had of her mother and
03:19tore them up.
03:20And in the South, especially Texas, you don't mess with someone's mother, so robbing him
03:25was, in a way, payback.
03:27Also, Danny thought Jerry was too much of a wuss to have a Harley.
03:31So on June 13, 1983, at 3 a.m., Carla and Danny entered the apartment with keys that Sean
03:39had lost and Carla had found, and James stayed outside.
03:43They didn't think anyone would be home, but during the robbery, they went into the bedroom
03:48and found Jerry asleep.
03:50So Carla sat on him.
03:51Jerry woke up, trying to fight back, grabs her.
03:55That's when Danny struck Jerry in the head with a ball-peen hammer that was laying on the
03:59floor.
04:00Danny left the room to gather up the motorcycle parts while Carla stayed in the bedroom.
04:05The noise that was coming out of Jerry was bothering Carla, so she found a three-foot
04:10pickaxe and started striking him with it.
04:13Danny came back into the room, took the pickaxe, and gave the final blows to Jerry.
04:18He leaves to load up the parts into his car, leaving Carla alone.
04:22She then spotted some movement on the other side of the bed under the covers.
04:27It was a woman, Deborah Thornton.
04:29Apparently, Deborah had an argument with her husband and left to go to a party where she
04:34hooked up with Jerry.
04:35Carla took the pickaxe and began to taunt Deborah by grazing the pickaxe on her shoulder.
04:41Deborah tried to fight back.
04:43Danny came back into the room and separated them.
04:46That's when Carla struck Deborah over and over again with the pickaxe.
04:50The final blow, she left the pickaxe embedded in Deborah's chest and walked out of the room.
04:56The next morning, Jerry's co-worker came to his place to come and pick him up for work,
05:01walked into the apartment, and discovered what happened.
05:04Detectives investigated who Jerry Dean knew and hung out around.
05:14Soon, they discovered that some of the group he hung around didn't like him at all.
05:19Doug Garrett, Danny's brother, is married to Carla's sister, Carrie.
05:24The two of them came into the police department to tell one of their detectives, who is a good
05:29friend of theirs, what Carla and Danny were up to.
05:32Apparently, they were bragging about what they did, just very cold and not caring whatsoever.
05:38So, Carrie and Doug agreed to wear a wire and get them to confess to the crime.
05:44Carla and Danny were still partying, doing drugs and drinking, so it didn't take much effort
05:50to get them to open up about what they did to Jerry.
05:53With a recorded confession, police went in and arrested everyone inside the apartment.
05:58This was five weeks after the murders.
06:01September 1983, both Danny and Carla were indicted for first-degree murder of Jerry Dean and Deborah
06:09Thornton.
06:09After Carla agreed to testify against Danny, they dropped the charge for Deborah's murder.
06:15And Danny wasn't charged for her murder either.
06:18Carla pled not guilty.
06:19After hearing a lot of testimonies and the taped confession, on April 25, 1984, both were
06:26found guilty and sentenced to death.
06:35While sitting in her jail cell awaiting trial, someone gave her a Bible.
06:39At first, Carla didn't know what she was reading.
06:42Something inside her changed.
06:44Before she knew it, she was on the floor, on her knees, praying to God to forgive her for
06:50her sins.
06:50During her appeals, she claims that she was on drugs when committing the murders, and if
06:56she hadn't, those murders would have never happened.
06:59She claims to be a changed woman and pleaded to spare her life, but she was denied time and
07:04time again.
07:05Once on death row, Carla had become a changed woman.
07:09She was a model inmate and always in good spirits.
07:12She began to attract attention from the Christian community.
07:15She learned how to use sign language in Christian songs, so it was almost like a little dance.
07:22Carla gave many on-camera interviews for the 700 Club.
07:25Soon she would get hundreds of letters from religious supporters, and she attracted the attention
07:31of a man, her prison minister, Reverend Dana Lane Brown.
07:36And they got married by proxy in 1995.
07:39She attracted so much attention to her case that others tried to appeal on her behalf.
07:45Televangelist Pat Robertson, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Speaker of the U.S. House
07:51of Representatives Newt Gingrich, the World Council of Churches, Pope John Paul II, and
07:57even Ronald Carson, the brother of Carla's murdered victim, Debbie Thornton.
08:03The warden even testified that Carla had been a model prisoner and that she has been reformed.
08:09So Carla's attorneys put in an 11th-hour appeal to hopefully spare her life.
08:22After waiting for what felt like an eternity, the call came in.
08:26The board rejected her appeal on January 28, 1998.
08:30And hours before her execution, Governor George W. Bush, yes, that George W. Bush, refused the
08:39final 11th-hour appeal to block her execution.
08:43On February 2, 1998, state authorities flew Carla from the prison she called home for almost
08:4914 years, Mountain View Prison in Gatesville, Texas, to the prison in Huntsville to the death
08:56house.
08:57February 3, 1998, Carla ate her last meal, a banana, a peach, and a garden salad with ranch
09:04dressing.
09:05So many people were just outside of the prison, some of them were for her execution, others
09:10were not.
09:11People were singing and praying and hoping for a miracle.
09:15She was allowed to choose four people to witness her execution.
09:18So she chose her sister, Carrie, her husband, Dana, her close friend, Jackie, and Ronald Carlson.
09:26Deborah's husband, Richard Thornton, was also a witness, along with Deborah's son, William
09:31Joseph Davis, and her stepdaughter, Katie.
09:34Also witnessed by members of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Warden Baggett, and various
09:41representatives of the media.
09:43She was strapped to the gurney at 6.20 p.m.
09:46Carla was asked if she had any last words.
09:49She said,
09:50Yes, sir.
09:51I would like to say to all of you, the Thornton family and Jerry Dean's family, that I am so
09:57sorry.
09:57I hope God will give you peace with this.
10:00She looked at her husband.
10:02Baby, I love you.
10:03She looked at Ronald Carlson.
10:05Ron, give Peggy a hug for me.
10:07She looked at all present, weeping and smiling.
10:10Everybody has been so good to me.
10:12I love all of you very much.
10:15I am going to be face to face with Jesus now.
10:18Warden Baggett, thank all of you so much.
10:21I love all of you very much.
10:23I will see you all when you get there.
10:26I will wait for you.
10:27The deadly chemicals started to flow through her veins.
10:30She looked at the ceiling and hummed.
10:32Richard Thornton exclaimed,
10:34Here she comes, baby doll.
10:35She's all yours.
10:36She was pronounced dead at 6.45 p.m., eight minutes after receiving the injection.
10:42She was buried at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.
10:54Carla was the first woman in Texas to be executed since 1863 during the Civil War,
11:00and the second woman to be executed in the U.S. since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976.
11:07Velma Barfield was the first in 1984, and of course, Judy Buenuano a month after Carla.
11:14Did she truly change?
11:15Was she saved?
11:16Or was this just another con job, trying to get out of prison?
11:20We will never know.
11:21This case seemed to be one of those of a little girl that slipped through the cracks.
11:26Had she been raised in the right environment and given a chance to bring out the good that was inside her,
11:32then no one would have ever heard of the pickaxe killer, Carla Faye Tucker.
11:37This was one of those cases that I heard about a while back.
11:45There are movies, plays, and books about her.
11:48I know a lot of people find religion while they're in prison or on death row.
11:52If that gives them comfort, that's great, but that doesn't erase what they've done.
11:56I feel like her story was a cash grab for a lot of Christians.
12:00Nothing against them or anything.
12:01But if it wasn't for her looks, charisma, and that she converted, no one would have ever bothered with her.
12:08Kind of like old Judy.
12:09She didn't get near as many stories written about her, and she was a Catholic.
12:14So what did you think of this case?
12:16Let me know in the comments down below.
12:18And if you enjoyed this video, please like, comment, and subscribe.
12:22And tickle that little bell icon so that you don't miss the next episode.
12:26You never know who I will cover next.
12:29Thank you for hanging out with me in the Dark Mystery Lounge.
12:32This is Phoenix signing out.
12:34Have a good evening and stay safe.
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