Cullen Davis, the Fort Worth oilman acquitted in two of the most sensational murder cases in Texas history, died at his home in Colleyville on Friday, November 6. He was 93. His stepson, Trey Davis, confirmed the death, according to People.
Davis's stepson confirmed the news to WFAA, according to a report from NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Davis spent decades in the public eye after being accused of wearing a black wig and opening fire with a revolver on four people at his mansion on a remote hilltop in southwest Fort Worth, killing two of them, as detailed by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He was acquitted at his four-month capital murder trial and maintained his innocence for the rest of his life, per the same report.
The Night at the Mansion
The shootings happened on August 2, 1976, at the home Davis had built, known as Stonegate mansion, according to the Dallas Express. Killed were Davis's 12-year-old stepdaughter, Andrea Wilborn, and Stan Farr, the 20-year-old boyfriend of Davis's estranged wife, Priscilla Davis, the station's report states. Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel were also wounded that night; Gavrel was left paralyzed from the waist down, per the same account.
Police found Andrea Wilborn dead in a basement utility room of the mansion, according to the Dallas Express. Priscilla Davis survived a gunshot wound to the chest, while Gus Gavrel survived a gunshot that left him partially paralyzed, the outlet reports. Priscilla Davis identified Davis as the gunman, though Davis denied any involvement in the shooting, according to the same reporting. At the time, a prior court order had granted Priscilla exclusive possession of the mansion and ordered Davis to stay away, and a judge raised Davis's temporary support payments to $5,000 a month on the day of the shootings, per the Dallas Express.
Two Acquittals, Less Than Two Years Apart
Prosecutors obtained separate indictments in the deaths of Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr, the Dallas Express reports. The first trial in Fort Worth was aborted because of jury misconduct, and the case was moved to Amarillo, the Star-Telegram notes. An Amarillo jury acquitted Davis of capital murder in Wilborn's death on November 17, 1977, according to the Dallas Express.
That was not the end of Davis's legal troubles. A grand jury later indicted him on a separate criminal solicitation of murder charge, accusing him of trying to arrange the killing of state district judge Joe Eidson, who had presided over his divorce case, per the Dallas Express. Prosecutors said Davis paid David McCrory $25,000 for the alleged hit, and the FBI recorded a meeting between the two men on August 20, 1978, in which McCrory told Davis, “I got judge Eidson dead for you,” to which Davis replied, “Good,” according to the same reporting. In an elaborate ruse, Eidson climbed into a car trunk wearing a ketchup-smeared T-shirt so FBI agents could photograph him pretending to be dead, the outlet reports.
Davis testified that he believed he was helping the FBI investigate extortion and was simply returning McCrory's money, per the Dallas Express. A Houston jury deadlocked on the case in January 1979, and a Fort Worth jury ultimately acquitted him at his retrial on November 9, 1979, after 15 hours and 29 minutes of deliberation, according to The Washington Post. Tarrant County prosecutors subsequently dropped five pending charges tied to both cases, per the Post's reporting at the time.
Life After the Trials
Davis, an oilman who was a partner in Kendavis Industries, a conglomerate with oil holdings, as reported by The Dallas Express and the Associated Press as cited in the outlet's reporting, lived out his later years never convicted in either case. Juries acquitted him of capital murder in his stepdaughter's death and of soliciting a judge's murder, the outlet notes, leaving both of the era's defining Texas murder trials unresolved by conviction.
The mansion where it all began no longer stands. Stonegate later housed a Mexican restaurant and served as a wedding venue before it was demolished in December 2021, according to the Dallas Express. The Fort Worth City Council rezoned the site for townhomes in January 2022, the outlet reports.
