Episode 5 The Pickaxe Killer Karla Faye Tucker

The Dark Mystery Lounge

In 1983,  Karla Faye Tucker and Danny Garrett were tried and convicted for the double homicide of Jerry Lynn Dean and Deborah Thorton. Both were sentence to death. Danny died while on death row from liver disease. Karla was executed by lethal injection on February 3, 1998. She made headlines for her religious transformation while on death row and became the darling of death row.   #Karlafayetucker #deathrow #Texas

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended