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The Murder of Bonnie Harkey
67 Plays8 months ago
Bonnie Harkey, the heart of soul of San Saba world-renowned pecan growers, is beloved by her town and everyone who knew her. Then, the aged matriarch of the Harkey family is murdered along with her caregiver. Is it possible that the motive was about more than the family fortune? Today's story is filled with amazing people, and a killer who didn't want to do his own killing, ruining many lives in the process.
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Transcript
Introduction: Podcast and Sensitivity
00:00:37
bclawson
but Hello listeners, I'm Bridget.
00:00:39
Caroline
And I'm Caroline.
00:00:41
bclawson
You are listening to Hearth, Home, and Homicide, a family production about family murders. Caroline and I narrate each story, and Andy is our producer. As Caroline and I talk about each family murder, we're not only keen on watching justice unfold for the killer, whatever that may look like. And especially we keep sensitivity for victims and their family in top of our mind. Our podcast do include violence and trauma. So listener discretion is advised. So Caroline, you look great as usual. How you doing?
00:01:22
Caroline
Thanks, you too. I'm doing pretty well. all I'm surprised at how fast the summer went by. But they do that every year, so I shouldn't be so surprised.
00:01:29
bclawson
Yeah.
00:01:33
bclawson
Yeah, I know.
00:01:34
Caroline
Lots going on.
00:01:35
bclawson
It's a pattern that we deny every time we are in the now, and we want it to be stay in the now if it's going good.
00:01:43
Caroline
Yeah, yeah.
00:01:44
bclawson
Or we want to sleep through the now if it's not doing good.
00:01:48
Caroline
not going that great. Totally. It's a weird thing. And it just all of a sudden, you know, 40 plus years have gone by and you're like, Oh, that happened fast.
00:01:51
bclawson
It is a weird thing.
00:01:56
bclawson
Uh-huh, yeah, yeah, I
Journey to San Saba: Pecans & History
00:01:59
bclawson
get it. And it's easy to be grateful in this part of the world. so um We're able to do a podcast today and we're able to, um psychologically anyway, travel to the pecan capital of the world. And that's the last time I'm going to call it a pecan. But when I was growing up in Georgia, that was the word that you use for a pecan.
00:02:27
bclawson
Most people say pecan, pecan.
00:02:27
Caroline
Peacom. Peacom. Peacom. Peacom.
00:02:31
bclawson
So today our episode is the murder of Bonnie Harkey and um oh my goodness, we're, as I said, we're traveling to the pecan, pecan, sorry, sorry, capital of the world, San Saba, Texas, where human cultivation of pecans in Texas began in 1874 with the arrival of a guy named Edmund Racine. an English cabinet maker who was captivated by the wrinkly nuts. Rizin offered a $5 prize to whoever brought him the finest specimens. So this is a guy who was traveling and then he came upon these pecan trees and went, whoa, whoa, what is this? And he ate one of them. Whoa, I'm going to get into this. I'm stopping right here and I'm going to, uh,
00:03:30
bclawson
I'm going to do something about these nuts. So he traced the winning nuts to a tree he dubbed the mother pecan.
00:03:35
Caroline
you
00:03:40
bclawson
that And then he began growing his own novel pollination and grafting techniques, earning himself the nickname of Johnny Appleseed of pecans. he His efforts made the trees commercially viable. And Racine became the nuts biggest booster ah mailing samples to, who do you think, Queen Victoria and Alfred Lord Tennyson. ah This is a man with vision and has no problem going right to the top of society, you know, in Europe as well as America.
00:04:10
Caroline
fancy. person
00:04:21
bclawson
Although a lot of Americans already knew about pecans, but it's like, ah it It wasn't a thing yet.
00:04:29
Caroline
Yeah.
00:04:30
bclawson
He also, I want to say, what he was driving for for or was a thinner shell.
Bonnie Harkey's Background and Disappearance
00:04:38
bclawson
That was the holy grail to get it to be marketable. Because if you're if you are making a nut with a shell so hard that they have to break the nut in inside in order to get to the nut inside,
00:04:54
Caroline
Right.
00:04:54
bclawson
So a lot of times you'll find a pecan um in whole pieces. Well, before him, you couldn't do that.
00:05:03
Caroline
Oh.
00:05:04
bclawson
So that what was going on there. ah So he's reaching out to i Queen Victoria and Alvaroore Tennyson. Today, pecans are central to the economy of the town called San Saba, which produces up to, brace yourself, five million pounds a year.
00:05:26
Caroline
Dang.
00:05:27
bclawson
And Caroline, this is a tiny town, a tiny town. The residents of San Saba love their small community of less than 4,000 people, 4,000 people, and yet 5 million pounds a year.
00:05:36
Caroline
Wow.
00:05:39
Caroline
Well, I wonder what the harvest.
00:05:42
Caroline
What's the harvest process like? And I wonder if they, that's so interesting. That is a really kind of cool.
00:05:47
bclawson
Well, that's interesting that you would say that because the Harkey family, the ones that we're going to be talking about today, they were the ones that were the last to give up hand picking. And so they just did not want to go to mechanical picking because, you know, I, you know, um so I'm telling you listeners a lot about this town and the forebearers of this town, the, the,
00:06:03
Caroline
I'd be that way. I will. I get it.
00:06:18
bclawson
what's going on with the world of pecans, because ah this town plays a major role in the family murder that we're talking about today. I think it's unique in that way.
00:06:31
Caroline
you
00:06:32
bclawson
So they the San Sabaians loved their town, 4000. The town at some point annexed a little town called Harkieville, where Bonnie Harkie lived as the elderly matriarch of the Harkey Pecan Farms. Now everyone loved, I mean cherished, worried about, et cetera. The 85-year-old Bonnie Harkey, she had dementia. She still lived in the historic main house on Harkey Pecan Farm with a full-time caregiver named Karen Johnson. Now Karen lived in her own home, but she stayed mostly at the Harkey home
00:07:15
bclawson
with her seven-year-old son. ah Bonnie was really nearing the end of her life, um but we'll talk about that. she she was She was nearing the time when she would experience a natural death.
00:07:30
Caroline
Yeah.
00:07:31
bclawson
And so this is why Karen, her caregiver, was staying over a lot, because you know that wasn't going to be forget forever. And she had the seven-year-old son she brought with her, and he had his own little room ah in the house.
00:07:42
Caroline
Yeah.
00:07:45
bclawson
Miss Harkey's house. It didn't take long before news horrified everyone one day and that was that Bonnie Harkey was missing from her home and her caregiver Karen Johnson was dead in the home. Her son was apparently asleep in the Harkey family home when the crime took place so he was not hurt. But can you imagine and you know it was the young child who called 911
00:08:14
Caroline
Oh, so he is hurt, but in a way we'll never see.
00:08:17
bclawson
Oh, hurt bad, hurt bad. My mama, I don't know what's going on with my mama.
00:08:22
Caroline
I mean, it's so scary.
00:08:22
bclawson
She's laying here by the front door.
00:08:25
Caroline
Oh, that's too, too much.
00:08:25
bclawson
I mean, seven years old. So who is Bonnie? Let's talk about her because Karen was a collateral murder. And, you know, that doesn't soften it at all. She was not the target though. Bonnie was the target. So who is Bonnie? Well, she has, by the time we're talking about her, she has a white puff of hair, always freshly coiffed.
00:08:52
Caroline
Ha.
00:08:56
bclawson
She was a fixture of San Saba's social scene, known for never missing a Sunday school class or a meeting of the garden club. Her pecan-based desserts were legendary, often earning her first place at the county's pecan food show and a front page mentioned in the Sansaba News and Star. Now, the Sansaba News and Star is the absolute heartbeat of how news gets around in this town.
00:09:22
Caroline
Nice.
00:09:26
bclawson
And ah if you are on the front page of that, you are reigning queen. That's what's going on. And she was, at the time of the murder, 85, she was increasingly frail. It was common knowledge that she was suffering from dementia and required the attention of a caretaker. Six months before she went missing, she had been diagnosed also with an aortic aneurysm. And it was only a matter of time everyone knew before it claimed her.
00:10:00
Caroline
Oh.
00:10:00
bclawson
Now, when I think about that, I think about Jimmy Carter right this minute. You know, at this recording, at the time of our recording, he has not passed away. There are many days, according to his grandson, that he does not you know, awake, he's not awake, but he has not let go.
00:10:17
Caroline
oh Yeah.
00:10:19
bclawson
And his body is there and they're caring for him. And so even though I say that everybody knew that it was only a matter of time before body met, that could mean three, four or five years.
00:10:33
Caroline
Right. I do find that really interesting. Some people. Yeah. I mean, the whole concept is interesting. Jimmy Carter, you brought that up. He's such a good person. So you I was so curious what the soul is experiencing right now. But yeah, I know what you're saying. Like she could still have quite a few many years left. However, they're going to be these years of transitioning out of this body because that's what's happening.
00:10:55
bclawson
Yeah.
00:10:55
Caroline
Yeah.
00:10:56
bclawson
Yeah. I mean, you know, she was um not actively dying the day she died.
00:11:01
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:01
bclawson
I'll put it that way.
00:11:02
Caroline
There you go.
00:11:03
bclawson
But she was obviously um going to die at some point soon.
00:11:03
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:11
Caroline
Soon. Yeah.
00:11:12
bclawson
um But what does soon mean?
00:11:14
Caroline
Right.
00:11:15
bclawson
And, you know, Jimmy Carter, I, you know, he was the first president I ah voted for. I lived right down the road from him, meaning, you know, a couple of hours. And he was also into nuts, although peanuts are not really nuts, but maybe just you know farming and orcharding and you know bringing in the harvest for 50 or more years.
00:11:28
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:36
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:39
bclawson
In his case, it was more like 75.
00:11:42
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:42
bclawson
Maybe that keeps you alive even when you got to mention aortic aneurysms.
00:11:46
Caroline
Well, I mean, I think there's something to it when people talk about being the salt of the earth. I think that that has its origins in in sort of like being a part of that earthly cycle of food and plant life and substance. And, you know, I just think you're a little more into it.
00:12:02
bclawson
Absolutely. As long as Bonnie, after reading a lot about her and about the murders, that town had a heartbeat and and you could say that it was Pecan's, but that's the fuel for the city, town.
00:12:15
Caroline
Yeah.
Marriage Dynamics and Pecan Legacy
00:12:18
Caroline
Yeah.
00:12:18
bclawson
um the ah The heartbeat of the town at the time of this murder was Bonnie Harkey.
00:12:22
Caroline
That's sad.
00:12:27
bclawson
So, Obviously, Caroline, we would not be talking about this case if Bonnie and her caregiver were not murdered by members of the Harkey family, Bonnie's own family, and maybe her descendants kidnapped and murdered her to an inherit the Harkey-Picahn fortunes. I think everybody thinks that is true.
00:12:47
Caroline
you
00:12:47
bclawson
So let's get into the Harkey family history. Who are these people? So the Harkies were one of the first families to settle the area before pecans were an industry. According to one newspaper account, Riley and Israel Harkie, two brothers from Arkansas, drove the first wagon train into the county while serving as Indian scouts for the Republic of Texas. They became enamored of the loamy soil there in the San Saba River Valley.
00:13:22
bclawson
that they returned in 1855 with their parents and six other siblings.
00:13:31
Caroline
wow
00:13:31
bclawson
And they fiddled around with pecans. And that was really the beginning of today's story. That was the beginning of the Harkey Orchard. The Harkey brothers founded the town of Harkeyville. Now, Caroline, you and I could like I'm going to set up a town called Bridgettville.
00:13:51
Caroline
Wow.
00:13:51
bclawson
You set one up called Carolineville.
00:13:53
Caroline
Yeah, we were going to have a class in Ville. There's, you know, I take my kids in Nanaville all the time.
00:13:58
bclawson
Yes.
00:13:59
Caroline
I inhabit crazy towns.
00:13:59
bclawson
Yes. So the Harkies were aville. They were aville.
00:14:03
Caroline
Yeah, my dream locations are all this.
00:14:07
bclawson
Now Harkieville was in San Saba County, but the town of San Saba was separate at that time when the Harkey brothers and their parents and everybody they knew were sort of getting on board with the pecan commercialization.
00:14:24
Caroline
Yeah.
00:14:24
bclawson
So in its heyday, Harkeyville would boast a general store. I mean, can you imagine the the activity, a cotton gin? That's no small feat.
00:14:36
bclawson
A blacksmith's shop, a baseball diamond, a millinery, and a racetrack.
00:14:36
Caroline
Yeah.
00:14:42
Caroline
That seems pretty big for such a small town.
00:14:43
bclawson
Well, oh my Lord.
00:14:46
Caroline
I mean, aren't those things pretty big?
00:14:48
bclawson
Yeah, right. You just described Tacoma.
00:14:51
bclawson
Anyway, I don't know.
00:14:51
Caroline
Yeah.
00:14:53
Caroline
That's true.
00:14:54
bclawson
Even Harkey was little, but there was a lot going on. Before the Great Depression came, they were thriving. But here comes the Depression, and it shuttered most of the town. The racehorses and mules bred by Riley, Harkey, were known to attract crowds of spectators from all over Texas.
00:15:17
Caroline
Wow.
00:15:17
bclawson
And it was Riley, a man with a long bushy goatee and square head, who purchased the initial 114 acre tract for a farm in Harkieville in 1885. And it was on this farm that his grandson and eventual heir Olga Bryan Harkie was born. Now, you don't really have to remember heart all these names, but basically Harkies are um going forth and multiplying, and they're also bringing up the pecans.
00:15:53
bclawson
So Olga planted the family's first pecan orchard in 1926. I'm thinking, okay, Harkieville's going to lose everything during the Depression.
00:16:07
Caroline
Yeah.
00:16:07
bclawson
ah This Harkie, Olga Bryan, has got the first Grove planted in 1898 and uh no in 1926 I mean and I'm thinking well that's just a few years before the Depression so I'm just thinking he must have been just head in hands you know when the Depression came.
00:16:21
Caroline
Mhm. Yeah.
00:16:30
Caroline
There are so many stories like that. That's actually why I really enjoy watching things like Finding Your Roots, because the amount of stories that the American population holds within its history, it doesn't even know it, about people 1930, 1929, you know, 1980, making these huge investments, these, okay, I'm putting it all in, only to find six months later, that was the wrong time to do that. And it just, I mean, it's crazy.
00:16:59
bclawson
Yes, and I think we all have our personal economic depression, possibly more than one.
00:17:06
Caroline
Yeah. Yes.
00:17:08
bclawson
And I won't go into the ones that I have experienced and created sometimes of my own.
00:17:15
Caroline
It's all a gamble, man.
00:17:15
bclawson
But you know i so um I'm i older now, i very you know I'm retired, and I still worry about making a mistake with ah you know but ah an investment or something like that.
00:17:24
Caroline
Oh, absolutely.
00:17:29
bclawson
So ah anyway, these this new grove of 1,200 trees was then named home place orchard. So all right. So that home place orchard kind of comes up later. What had been the father's hobby, the original Harkie brothers, became Riley's livelihood. So Riley is like a second generation harky. Though pecan trees can grow with little to no help, they are famously temperamental when it comes to producing high quality nuts. And ri Riley decided to make himself an expert. Learning how to graft buds onto a seedling, trim back branches, fertilize with zinc,
00:18:25
bclawson
I'm not, that doesn't sound good, but that's what they did. He became the head of the San Saba County Pecan Growers Association.
00:18:33
Caroline
Oh.
00:18:34
bclawson
Now to me, that'd be king of the hill.
00:18:36
Caroline
Well, yeah, you probably made that organization.
00:18:36
bclawson
at you know yeah He probably did. And around town, farmers sought him out for advice. So he was the holy grail. No detail about his orchards escaped him. Nothing, absolutely nothing.
00:18:51
Caroline
I like that.
00:18:53
bclawson
He probably knew the number of butterflies, you know, the number of whatever birds.
00:18:56
Caroline
That's the thing. These ranchers, these farmers that are real good like that, they are like that. And it's something to be envied, I think, because there that's a level of organization that is, yeah, just enviable, you know?
00:19:08
bclawson
Well, you know, and I'm a gardener and I do go out every day and look at my garden, what's going on with my garden, so I can get ahead of it.
00:19:15
Caroline
Yeah. Yes.
00:19:17
bclawson
The things that are happening to it, like the weeds in the past and that kind of stuff.
00:19:21
Caroline
Yeah.
00:19:23
bclawson
You know, now this sounds so heavenly really to me, but it was not all easy because Riley's wife walked out on him and left him to father their two boys alone. And, ah you know, just she, I don't know what her problem was. So we'll just not worry about that. But perhaps it was Riley's work ethic and stature that first caught the attention of Bonnie Sawyer Compton. Now, maybe Riley impressed Bonnie by having two sons.
00:19:57
bclawson
Riley's sons were Bruce. He was 11 at the time that their dad met Bonnie. And John was 16 at that time. And I think that probably Bonnie just really admired the way he was fathering as a single ah whose wife had abandoned the whole you know outfit.
00:20:19
Caroline
Yeah.
00:20:21
bclawson
When Bonnie and Riley were introduced in early 1963, the tall 36-year-old brunette Bonnie was working as a telephone operator in Waco. She was a divorcee trying to make ends meet. Her ex-husband, a traveling salesman, had left her for another woman, but they divorced. And Bonnie had moved to the city with her daughter, who was 14 years old, ah Connie. So now here we have Riley.
00:20:53
bclawson
He's got a teenager and he's got a pre-teen, 11, and here we've got Bonnie. She's got a teenager. They both know what it's like to be abandoned.
00:21:04
Caroline
Yeah.
00:21:04
bclawson
They both are working hard to, you know, feed the family and make a living. If Riley represented security, Bonnie, for her part, embodied the kind of feminine presence that was missing from the harky household. Bonnie with her hazel eyes and red tinted hair, as well as knowledge of motherhood, was instantly attractive to Riley. After a brief courtship, the two were married at Waco's Highland Baptist Church that April after they met, one month after his divorce was finalized. So he did get a divorce.
00:21:47
bclawson
yeah what You know, we're talking about good people here, really good people.
00:21:49
Caroline
Well that's the thing, and and also at this era, I will say like marriage is yeah about like love and companionship but it's actually still very much a business decision, you can't run a household as a single individual, it takes a team. so
00:22:05
bclawson
Right.
00:22:05
Caroline
when you're trying to create a family, that's really what you're doing when you're getting married, you're finding a teammate who's going to help you tackle this stuff. And in this era, it was much more laid out as to gender roles. So I mean, it part of it is a little bit of ease of life, you're making a decision to make your life easier, but you're also pairing up with somebody who's doing the same thing. So I don't know, there's probably a little of that going on.
00:22:28
bclawson
I think so. And I think that, you know, they were both hardworking, but Bonnie did quit her job now in 1960s, that would be common.
00:22:37
Caroline
Yes, when you're married.
00:22:38
bclawson
But ah with somebody like Riley, as now she's got three kids to see after.
00:22:44
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:46
bclawson
um Of course, she had to quit her job. And she and her daughter Connie moved into the Harkey house.
00:22:51
Caroline
Yeah.
00:22:52
bclawson
Now this is that this is the family home of the Harkey's who came You know, it's still Harkeyville we're talking about here, although by then maybe it had been, well, it hadn't been Amex by then, but it was soon to be Amex.
00:23:06
Caroline
yeah
00:23:06
bclawson
So, you know, I'm looking at what we've got here. We've got a hardworking visionary leader, entrepreneurial family that has produced a pecan orchardist like no other in history.
00:23:21
Caroline
Yeah.
00:23:21
bclawson
His name is Riley Harkey. He has his own town and he has survived the depression with that.
00:23:29
Caroline
Yeah.
00:23:29
bclawson
He's built up this orchard. He just kept on, you know, he's like the good year. Not the good year, but he's like the ever ready battery, baby.
00:23:37
Caroline
Energizer bunny.
00:23:38
bclawson
I don't know.
00:23:39
Caroline
Energizer bunny, everybody.
00:23:40
bclawson
Energize it, buddy.
00:23:42
Caroline
Everybody.
00:23:43
bclawson
Yeah. I, you know, I've got rabbits in my backyard and I can tell you they've got, you know, they've got, they've got batteries.
00:23:45
Caroline
Energy.
00:23:49
Caroline
energy
00:23:51
bclawson
Anyway, So back to back to Riley and Bonnie. I love them because of who they are and what they do to survive and to thrive. And, you know, he was abandoned by his wife. She was abandoned by her husband. ah And, you know, they were hardworking and independent. And she had a child named Connie and he had Bruce and John. And so Cupid has struck and now Riley
00:24:23
bclawson
and Bonnie and Connie and Bruce and John are all living in the original 1920s red brick harky farmhouse.
00:24:25
Caroline
Mm hmm.
00:24:33
Caroline
Wowza.
00:24:33
bclawson
And it's not a palace. it's it's It's not, you know, Gone with the Wind, Terra.
00:24:35
Caroline
Right.
00:24:39
Caroline
yeah It's no terror.
00:24:40
bclawson
It's, yeah, no, I mean, this is a ah plain house, really.
00:24:48
Caroline
Like a single probably built prior to indoor plumbing, too.
00:24:48
bclawson
It's red brick. and
00:24:52
Caroline
There's probably some some constant upgrades.
00:24:53
bclawson
Oh, yeah. I mean, they've made a lot of, you know, changes over the years. It was still the red brick house that the Harkies lived in.
00:24:57
Caroline
Yeah. yes Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:01
bclawson
So what what we've got here is an American success story, really, and a survival story as well, and a practical story of both these people knew that they needed a spouse because they needed help.
00:25:05
Caroline
Yeah, absolutely.
00:25:10
Caroline
yeah
00:25:15
Caroline
Yeah.
00:25:17
bclawson
So no longer a single mother, Bonnie found herself joining clubs, making friends, sliding into the comfortable life she had always wanted.
00:25:24
Caroline
Nice.
00:25:27
bclawson
I mean, who doesn't?
00:25:29
Caroline
That's nice.
00:25:29
bclawson
She was aspiring to make something of her life.
00:25:30
Caroline
ah
00:25:32
bclawson
And here she has.
00:25:34
Caroline
Yeah.
00:25:35
bclawson
If there was a club in town, she joined it. She belonged to it.
00:25:38
Caroline
Fine.
00:25:39
bclawson
People loved her. Her friends said that, um, She had a friend of 40 years named Betty Ann Johnson, who said, you know, yeah, if there was a club in town, she was going to join it. And Bonnie was a staunch Baptist and was able to somehow persuade Riley, who was a lifetime member of the Church of Christ, to attend San Saba's First Baptist Church with her. That's a big deal, to leave your church ah for your before your spouse.
00:26:07
Caroline
Well, yeah.
00:26:10
Caroline
It's the Church of Christ.
00:26:10
bclawson
um But she convinced him. he Obviously, he was the one who had to make a switch.
00:26:16
Caroline
Well, it's the Church of Christ, which which denomination is that? Is that a Christian church or is that Mormon?
00:26:19
bclawson
It's a Christian.
00:26:21
Caroline
OK.
00:26:21
bclawson
ah It is a Christian ah part of Christianity. but I'm not sure what they call those things, like ah a a part of Christianity that is Protestant, not Catholic.
00:26:32
Caroline
Yeah.
00:26:35
Caroline
Oh, there you go.
00:26:35
bclawson
I know that much.
00:26:36
Caroline
OK.
00:26:36
bclawson
And very, very kind of ah literal Bible.
00:26:36
Caroline
Yeah. OK.
00:26:40
bclawson
um you know, you you live the way the Bible tells you to live.
00:26:45
Caroline
I mean, so that is a big deal when you're serious in those communities. ah It is a big deal to switch.
Family Tensions and Bruce Harkey's Downfall
00:26:52
bclawson
Well, and and you know, it could have been a bit a business risk for Riley to leave the church where all his family, where all here he's been his whole life, his family's been there. So anyway, but she did it. Bonnie was very persuasive with Riley. He loved her.
00:27:07
Caroline
Nice.
00:27:07
bclawson
She loved him. and ah he started going to church with her. Body entertained often, and she volunteered her home for garden club, church functions, serving up sandwiches, cakes, and other daily refreshments on fine china.
00:27:19
Caroline
Aww.
00:27:23
bclawson
She used to bring people over, you just at random, come on over and we'll have a meal. And she would bring out the best food they had, the best desserts that she had made.
00:27:32
Caroline
oh
00:27:36
bclawson
So she was a generous person who loved the company of others and loved to be socializing and loved to have people um see her as a gatherer of people.
00:27:42
Caroline
Yeah.
00:27:49
bclawson
And she became obviously everybody's sweetheart in that community.
00:27:53
Caroline
Well, I'm in love with her already. I want to go over for some pie.
00:27:55
bclawson
I am too. I am too. Riley Harkie, meanwhile, focused on the family's holdings outdoors, tending as always to his pecan trees. The care of the orchard was very important to him, remembered other orchardists. The way it looked, the way he treated the trees, making sure it was all well manicured and everything was taken care of. So it wasn't just the trees, it was the growth.
00:28:23
Caroline
Yeah, the whole thing.
00:28:24
bclawson
It was the orchard. It was perfection. He just, he doted after it. Yet while their life appeared to be in perfect order, and they tried to make it be in perfect order, Caroline, Bonnie and Riley's marriage was not always a happy one. He often criticized her. When she would tell a story, he'd interrupt and say, no, no, no, no, that's not how it goes. Recall Bonnie's sister. And they didn't care if they were in public or not. Riley would tell her something that wasn't right, and she would say it was, and they'd get into a big fuss over it. Now to me, here's what I think about that. the You know, Bonnie's sisters say their marriage was not always a happy one. And I'm saying, well, so what? So what?
00:29:17
bclawson
That doesn't mean a thing.
00:29:23
bclawson
If the two of them operate as a team by poking at each other and arguing, so what?
00:29:23
Caroline
What happened?
00:29:29
bclawson
So I don't think that means that Riley was unhappy and Bonnie was unhappy.
00:29:37
bclawson
One major source of tension was their blended family. The three kids did not take well to one another and John and Bruce treated their stepmother unkindly from the onset.
00:29:50
Caroline
that because you know I agree with you it's not so much about the bickering everybody every marriage finds its own style and it's never gonna be perfect but oh when this you know this blended families aren't getting along that's treacherous territory for everybody
00:30:07
bclawson
it It really is. They would laugh at her and criticize her food. Okay, I'm mad at them already. Her sister continued to describe that they would take a mouthful of food and they would, we're talking about John and and Bruce, they would spit it out. So these are mean people. They would giggle all the time at her and act rude. They just had not been trained as nice boys. And that's a quote from her sister.
00:30:36
Caroline
Yeah.
00:30:36
bclawson
Though Bonnie tried to impose some structure, for example, she taped a list of rules to Bruce's bedroom wall at one point, Riley rarely stepped in to discipline them. Now, I noticed that it was just Bruce's room, not John's. So John is the 16-year-old, Bruce is the 11-year-old, and um ah Bruce did seem to be the problem child, so to speak. But I also want to say to Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie. Kids don't like step parents, especially when they try to discipline them like a parent would. If the bio parent won't help you, you may be fighting an uphill battle. That's all I can say about that.
00:31:22
Caroline
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing too. Like if you got some ground, hold your ground, don't be trying to get more ground.
00:31:29
bclawson
Right? Yeah, I mean, you know, it's tricky, isn't it? It's just very, very tricky.
00:31:34
Caroline
It really is.
00:31:36
bclawson
The boys misbehavior got to be so unpalatable to Bonnie's relatives that they stopped coming out to San Saba for holiday dinners. Now that's sad.
00:31:45
Caroline
Oh.
00:31:47
bclawson
The boys seem to have an attitude about being a harky. And I think this is important. The boys, and especially Bruce, thought that the whole San Saba County should revolve around them.
00:32:01
Caroline
Uh-oh.
00:32:03
bclawson
And Riley trained his sons this way. He told them that his harkies, they were special.
00:32:07
Caroline
Uh-oh.
00:32:08
bclawson
Well, I mean, I do think that they are special the way that I'm special and you're special Caroline, but they're not special in a way of entitlement to tease and hurt others.
00:32:13
Caroline
Right.
00:32:19
Caroline
Right. Yeah, that's trouble.
00:32:20
bclawson
So that's just weird and bad.
00:32:23
Caroline
Yeah.
00:32:25
bclawson
So apparently, um, Bruce, saw himself as the understudy of Riley, his father, and the grandfather who came before. However, when Bruce was 11, the fact that Riley married Bonnie made his future seem uncertain. He sensed Bonnie's reluctance to embrace him and John feeling his disdain as soon as the wedding was over, or feeling her disdain as soon as the wedding was over. Now I kind of doubt based on what we know about Bonnie that she's oozing disdain.
00:32:59
Caroline
totally well
00:33:00
bclawson
She's probably a nervous wreck thinking about taking on these two boys with a 14 year old girl.
00:33:04
Caroline
and it's more like what you said earlier like where Bruce for an 11 year old none of this will be vocalized but yeah his his entire life mapped out life that he's been resting on is now thrown up in the air in his eyes in his 11 year old eyes so that's pretty
00:33:24
bclawson
Absolutely. Absolutely. Can't handle the curve ball, otherwise known as life.
00:33:28
Caroline
Right. Yes.
00:33:32
bclawson
Whether Bonnie was the instigator or not, and I don't think she was, it is true that years after Bonnie married his father, Riley, uh, these years were unstable for Bruce. So he lost what you said.
00:33:46
Caroline
Yes.
00:33:46
bclawson
He got the chair pulled out from under him according to him, psychologically.
00:33:51
Caroline
Yes.
00:33:53
bclawson
So,
00:33:56
bclawson
when he became so uncertain and brooding about all of these things. His relatively even-keeled brother, John, packed up in the fall of 1965 to attend Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Connie enrolled there two years later after being named San Saba's homecoming queen. Now, you know, that sounds kind of fun. You've got, you've got Riley and Bonnie, they have three kids and then within the span of two years, they are, or three years, they now are down to one.
00:34:33
Caroline
Yeah, yeah.
00:34:34
bclawson
And it was Bruce.
00:34:37
bclawson
So maybe he's going to get the babying he wants.
00:34:38
Caroline
Yeah.
00:34:41
bclawson
But that's not what happened. Bruce was shuttled back and forth a few times to live with his mother in Nevada. One move when he was 14 was announced in the news and star. Remember the newspaper that gave everybody the daily scoop.
00:34:59
Caroline
yeah
00:35:00
bclawson
The headline of the paper that day was Bruce Goes West.
00:35:04
Caroline
the
00:35:06
bclawson
So he kind of, this feeds into he's the center of the universe.
00:35:10
Caroline
Well, not only that, but everyone sees what I'm doing. Like, even if that was made to be a kitschy story, like a fun Bruce is going west. They all like in Bruce's mind. What if Bruce is totally embarrassed? Everyone really knows. They know why I'm really good. I just don't know. I don't know what the dynamics of the stories are, but I know how my human brain works. I get real conscious.
00:35:30
bclawson
Oh yeah, it'd be like being in in the house of winter um in England.
00:35:31
Caroline
So.
00:35:39
bclawson
Every time I open my computer, Caroline, there's something about the royals.
00:35:43
Caroline
I know.
00:35:43
bclawson
These people have nothing to do with me and my life looks nothing like their life.
00:35:48
bclawson
So why is this turning up in my feed every single day?
00:35:48
Caroline
Right?
00:35:51
Caroline
Right?
00:35:52
bclawson
And that's kind of how I feel about Bruce Harkie.
00:35:56
Caroline
Yeah.
00:35:56
bclawson
He was considered like royalty in this family. And he was considered because of his being in this family, they all were considered royalty for this town.
00:36:04
Caroline
Yeah.
00:36:08
bclawson
So I mean, it's just something that I cannot imagine.
00:36:12
bclawson
um So he's living with his mother, but then he returned to San Sapa for high school. Bruce moved in with his grandparents in town instead of living with Riley and Bonnie.
00:36:12
Caroline
Some exposure.
00:36:23
Caroline
Oh, how interesting. Uh oh.
00:36:26
bclawson
So he's just like seething this child.
00:36:29
Caroline
Yeah.
00:36:30
bclawson
although he's not really a child anymore. He's in high school.
00:36:33
Caroline
That's weird.
00:36:34
bclawson
He was handsome.
00:36:36
Caroline
That's weird.
00:36:36
bclawson
He had sandy brown hair. Bruce busied himself with a slate of extracurricular activities like Spanish club, student council, future farmers of America. And he soon figured out how to charm girls with his mischievous smile. And at the time of Bonnie's murder, Bruce had been married eight times.
00:36:59
Caroline
I mean, I really, I gotta think about, in my mind, when I hear that, I think, what were ladies four through eight thinking?
00:37:00
bclawson
So, ah I can't even imagine.
00:37:07
Caroline
Mary and this man.
00:37:13
bclawson
I cannot imagine. So Bonnie and Riley had become grandparents because Bonnie's daughter Connie gave birth after she married her, you know, ah She married after college and she moved to Fort Worth with ah to be with her husband. Connie and her husband adopted an eight month old in 1984, a baby that they named Carl Presley. Carl will grow up to be a central figure in our story, Caroline. Bonnie doted on this little boy, strawberry blonde hair, proudly displaying his photos on her mantle,
00:37:55
bclawson
Riley, for his part, began turning thoughts to the future. Now he's got a grandchild. He's going to start thinking about the future. And in 1991, he purchased a third pecan grove. At that time he had two. He's going to start, he's going to purchase another grove, a 94 acre plot of young trees called Pritchard Orchard. He willed it to Connie while the other two groves were willed to John and Bruce. so that all three kids would have their own orchards someday.
00:38:29
bclawson
I just love Riley so much.
00:38:29
Caroline
um
00:38:32
Caroline
Yeah, that's sweet.
00:38:33
bclawson
you know He's thinking about their future. He's got a will. A lot of people back then didn't have the sense to do that, but he did. John, by this, had settled outside Fort Worth and had three children of his own. Now, John, remember, is the brother of Bruce. um And Bruce was not as settled, and a lot of people did not like him. So he might be king of the hill in his own mind, and he might be treated like royalty, I don't know. But what I do know, what I do know is that people didn't really like him. He he was ornery, he was rude, he was brash, and he was mean.
00:39:22
bclawson
people Now remember, this orchard for each child idea of Riley was a bequeath upon death of Riley. And in the meantime, if Riley died first, Bonnie would maintain a life estate over all the property. Does that make sense?
00:39:39
Caroline
Yes.
00:39:40
bclawson
So in other words, yeah, they're going to get the the they're each going to get their own orchard, but not until both parents are dead.
00:39:47
Caroline
Which is common. That's the way that it's done. So I don't see the problem there.
00:39:51
bclawson
I don't either. Um, anyway, but you know, because of Bruce, there was still tension. And although he was a drifter by 1994, when he switched jobs for whatever it was he was drifting to do, he became a nursing home administrator. He was on wife number seven. He nevertheless held out hope that his father would hand over the farm's operations to him.
00:40:25
bclawson
He knew that his father was leaving him the harky farm, the original, or at least one of the orchards, um but he wanted it now.
00:40:34
Caroline
Yeah.
00:40:37
bclawson
Daddy, please, I need it now.
00:40:39
Caroline
Hmm.
00:40:40
bclawson
you I need it now. And he wanted it because he could almost read the tea leaves that, you know, Bobby's gonna take this away from me.
00:40:50
Caroline
Yeah.
00:40:50
bclawson
So he's a brooder. And he's always thinking that people are out to get him, when the only person out to ruin his life is him.
00:40:54
Caroline
Yeah.
00:40:58
bclawson
In 1996, shortly after his 44th birthday, Bruce married his eighth wife, a 21-year-old named Cammie Jones. No comment about that. And the couple drove out frequently to visit Bonnie and Riley. Well, yeah, Bruce is kissing up to Riley.
00:41:16
Caroline
Yeah.
00:41:17
bclawson
But his father resisted any overtures. preferring to run the farm himself with Bonnie by his side. With no kids in the home, she was out there with him.
00:41:28
Caroline
I just think they're the sweet salt-to-the ah-earth couple. i mean I really do feel like those farmers that came out of the Great Depression, like those families, those hundred-year farms that we all kind of like ooh and aww about today, like those are real people who really were just never going to stop moving and doing and making it what they wanted. and so I see Riley and Bonnie as that way, and they're sweet in their old age.
00:41:53
bclawson
I think they're great. I love them. Meanwhile, Bruce, who I do not like, and I'm i'm not even living in, you know, Sanzaba, I already don't like him.
00:41:59
Caroline
Yeah.
00:42:01
Caroline
I know.
00:42:04
Caroline
It's a taker.
00:42:05
bclawson
ah He was running around town and to anybody he would always say that these people just need to die.
00:42:10
Caroline
That's so awful.
00:42:12
bclawson
I mean, you know, he didn't even love them, but he was out there all the time trying to get them to give him what he wanted. and Behind their backs, he was telling everybody, they just need to die so that I can have this farm.
00:42:24
Caroline
So awful.
00:42:25
bclawson
Recalled Cami, his wife. Well, Riley did die. In July 1997, after succumbing to advanced bone cancer, he died. But to Bruce's dismay, Bonnie effortlessly took the role of family matriarch. In a good year, the three orchards brought in more than $100,000.
00:42:49
Caroline
Nice.
00:42:49
bclawson
So, Bonnie remained comfortably in the house, paying a long-term, long-time foreman to maintain the farm. The December after Riley died, she won second place for her pie and cookie entries in the San Saba County Pecan Food Show. The next year, she was on the front page of the news and star holding a plaque for her champion pecans. So, you know, she went on living her husband's dream and her dream, her dream.
00:43:21
Caroline
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, she's enjoying her life.
00:43:25
bclawson
She loved her town. She loved their farm.
00:43:31
bclawson
She's out there living her life, even though she's getting old. But all of this attention to her was more than Bruce could bear. As he saw it, Bonnie was staying on his birthright. said Cammie. Bruce was violent at home and Cammie walked out on him with his four-year-old. Now he had other children. In fact a baby had died and of his many years ago when he first got married to wife number one and the baby didn't live very long and I think they were out at the
00:44:14
bclawson
out in Bonnie and Riley's house when the baby
Carl's Influence and Final Tragedy
00:44:17
bclawson
died. And so he blamed Bonnie that the baby was dead. So he just was a, he was a, um you know, collector of wounds that this woman had done to him.
00:44:34
bclawson
It just was bad.
00:44:35
Caroline
Yeah.
00:44:35
bclawson
It was just, it was just really bad. Bruce ah upset about being left again when Cami left her told a coworker at the nursing home that he was contemplating Cammy's murder.
00:44:50
Caroline
Jesus.
00:44:52
bclawson
So he's running around at his job at a nursing home telling loving nursing people, I'm going to kill Cammy.
00:44:58
Caroline
Who says that out loud with a right mind and like doesn't think that something I mean, is that like self-sabotage? Because you can't just run around saying you're gonna kill people in a small town. Sorry, no hope goes like you're gonna remember you said that Yeah
00:45:10
bclawson
I think that like most narcissists, And in this case, a malignant narcissist named Bruce Harkie, he has no insight into how other people perceive him. He thinks that he is as great in other people's eyes as he is in his own eyes.
00:45:27
Caroline
Right.
00:45:29
bclawson
So he does not have a filter, Caroline.
00:45:32
Caroline
Yeah, like that.
00:45:33
bclawson
Anything that he says is true and righteous.
00:45:36
Caroline
It just feels so obvious to not be like.
00:45:39
bclawson
Well, you know, buckle up because what he did next was he showed the co-workers the guns he was going to use.
00:45:46
Caroline
Oh, Jesus.
00:45:49
bclawson
And he said that he was seeking poison to kill Cammie.
00:45:51
Caroline
My God.
00:45:53
bclawson
Well, like what? you're First you're going to kill her with poison, then you're going to shoot her?
00:45:58
Caroline
Yeah.
00:45:58
bclawson
I don't know. But the co-worker and Bruce's boss became so alarmed that they alerted the authorities and a Texas Ranger and an ATF Special agent began to record Bruce's conversations.
00:46:10
Caroline
Thank God.
00:46:16
bclawson
They set up a sting operation in which an informant provided Bruce with an illegal silencer and federal agents then arrested him, charging him with possession of a firearm in connection with a crime of violence. Bruce pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and at his sentencing, his lawyer tried to argue that he had simply been all talk.
00:46:37
Caroline
Okay.
00:46:41
bclawson
The judge disagreed, sending Bruce to federal prison in five years for five years. Now, Caroline, sometimes in ah in a state prison, you get five and you're out in 15 minutes.
00:46:54
Caroline
Right.
00:46:56
bclawson
But you know in the federal system, and it's true today as well, you're in for five years, you're in for five years.
00:47:02
Caroline
Wow! In federal print in prison? Well, and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the difference between a prison and a jail, because I know there is one, so. Oh my gosh.
00:47:12
bclawson
I can clear that up for you. Jail is for people who have not been found guilty yet.
00:47:18
Caroline
I don't know.
00:47:18
bclawson
So they're presumed innocent so they can't go to prison.
00:47:21
Caroline
Ew, so you don't ever want to go to jail is what I've just, I mean, you don't want to go anywhere here, but if you had to go to prison.
00:47:27
bclawson
Right, right. ah Now, you know, some inmates are kept in prison. ah some inmates that would normally go to jail, but if the town doesn't have a jail or the jail is not fit to live in or something like that, they might have to go to a prison and live as a non-adjudicated criminal. um you know So they're still innocent, but they're in you know a prison with a bunch of criminals. So I mean, you know it's it's blurry, but that's the difference is that your prison is where you get held after you're convicted.
00:47:53
Caroline
ah
00:48:00
Caroline
Okay, jail's just a holding center before you're gonna get held longer potentially if you're guilty.
00:48:05
bclawson
Right, right, right.
00:48:06
Caroline
Okay, that makes sense.
00:48:07
bclawson
But I want to say this because I enjoy saying it. Bruce was sent to prison for five years. that Federal prison.
00:48:15
Caroline
Federal.
00:48:18
bclawson
and Because he he did an alcohol, tobacco, and firearm ATF violation.
00:48:25
Caroline
Okay, okay. It's not just the fact that you're trying you're talking about killing people, it's that you did something at a federal level.
00:48:27
bclawson
That's why he's in federal prison.
00:48:32
bclawson
Yeah, yeah. That was the way that they're going to get him off the streets is ah to um do an undercover and have him knowingly purchase an illegal firearm or silencer in this case.
00:48:46
Caroline
Okay. Smart. Way to go law enforcement.
00:48:49
bclawson
So yes, yeah.
00:48:51
Caroline
Good job.
00:48:53
bclawson
He was released in December 2007 after a brief stint in an Austin halfway house. Bruce returned to San Saba for good after that. He needed an address to satisfy probation requirements. So he sent a letter, actually he sent letter after letter after letter to Bonnie, begging her to let him live on the Harkethar. Now, after talking to the matter over with her pastor, Bonnie finally agreed, because she's Christian and she wants to do the Christian thing.
00:49:28
Caroline
you
00:49:29
bclawson
Oh my God. Bruce moved into an upstairs bedroom where he was joined by his ex-wife, Jennifer Carnes, with whom he had renewed a relationship after divorcing Cammie. You know, Cammie's the one that he was going to have killed, or he was going to kill her.
00:49:46
Caroline
He tried to kill. Yeah.
00:49:50
bclawson
Poisoner, shooter.
00:49:52
Caroline
Something?
00:49:53
bclawson
Jennifer Carnes is somewhere in the lineup between one and eight. oh they they bought They brought their own refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker, and they remarried the next fall.
00:50:04
Caroline
Okay.
00:50:07
bclawson
Bruce and I just kind of confined ourselves upstairs and made it into a little apartment recalled Jennifer. So weird upon weird, but you know, Bonnie is a good woman and she does not want to do something that her pastor does not approve of, that being turning her back on her son.
00:50:24
Caroline
yeah ah In a town this small, though, can I just say I might have also included my lawyer in and had a trifecta of conversation about this because I wonder how the pastor feels about it today, you know.
00:50:39
bclawson
Yeah. You know, Bonnie, she's just trying to do the right thing as a sort of a storyline through her whole life.
00:50:48
Caroline
Yes.
00:50:54
Caroline
Yeah.
00:50:56
bclawson
She wants to be good at whatever role she is finds herself in.
00:51:00
Caroline
Yeah. Good point.
00:51:02
bclawson
And Bruce, meanwhile, had filed for bankruptcy in 1998 to discharge $176,000 worth of debt.
00:51:16
Caroline
That's a lot.
00:51:17
bclawson
That's like a million today. And he owed more than $100,000 in back child support to cannabis. And Lord, what about those other children? Did they ever get any child support? Still, Bruce ran around acting like he was better than everybody else. Bruce claimed that he'd been framed in the federal case, but many around town distrusted him, suspecting something was kind of dark and amiss in the Harkie family.
00:51:50
bclawson
The townspeople thought that there was always some trouble brewing after Riley died.
00:51:56
Caroline
oh
00:51:57
bclawson
That's so sad, isn't it?
00:51:58
Caroline
Well, yeah, and it kind of brings me back to that pastor. Like, I just feel like the town maybe could have done a little bit more at this piece, but, you know, I wasn't there. I get it. We can't involve ourselves in family. I get it. I'll backtrack.
00:52:11
bclawson
People who can't imagine murdering anybody can't imagine anybody murdering anybody.
00:52:17
Caroline
Good point. Yes. Good point.
00:52:19
bclawson
they it they your Their mind just won't go there.
00:52:22
Caroline
Yeah at worst he'll just do something bad and mean and then we'll have to tell him that was wrong and bad and mean.
00:52:23
bclawson
And yeah I, on the other hand,
00:52:28
Caroline
You're right. That's what people with.
00:52:33
bclawson
make decisions based on how what is the percentage. yeah Will if we're doing X, this thing I want to do, is that going to cause somebody to want to murder me?
00:52:42
Caroline
Right.
00:52:47
bclawson
So there's, there's I'll leave it at that. I'm just as weird as everybody else, but I fall on the side of, you know, somebody's going to murder me if I make the wrong decision.
00:52:53
Caroline
so you don't cut people off.
00:53:01
bclawson
So Bruce began to spend more time with his nephew, Carl. Now I want to remind our listeners that Carl is the grandson of Riley and Bonnie, who was the adopted son of beloved Connie, who was the only child by birth to Bonnie. So when Bonnie married Riley, but Connie was 14 and when she grew up, she went to college, she got married and she and her husband adopted little Carl. He was now 24 years old. Carl was a troubled boy, the son of Connie and Bonnie's own, and as I said, Connie was Bonnie's only child. So as a boy, Carl had suffered from ADHD and often butted heads with Connie
00:53:56
bclawson
his mother, and he loved motorcycles and he loved methamphetamine.
00:54:02
Caroline
Uh oh.
00:54:04
bclawson
In fact, by the time he was 24, he had no lower teeth. He'd ground, you know, something about methamphetamines wrecks your teeth.
00:54:14
Caroline
Yeah, I've heard that like your teeth fall out and stuff and you get sores all over.
00:54:18
bclawson
Yep.
00:54:18
Caroline
That's twenty four. My God, no lower teeth like. woo
00:54:22
bclawson
Yep, yep. He had lived with Bonnie for a few years as a teenager and his grandmother spoiled him so bad. She indulged every whim he had. When he ruined his truck, she bought him a new truck. When he said he wanted to raise boor goats, particular type of goat, she bought him a flock of red-headed kids. I don't mean children, I mean little baby goats.
00:54:48
Caroline
Yeah.
00:54:49
bclawson
ah When he brought home a stray dog, or really whenever he brought home a stray dog, he brought a home a lot, I guess, she let him keep them. Carl had dropped out of high school and he'd had some children and he'd had some wives and he had some girlfriends, but he was still kind of marginal, you know?
00:55:09
Caroline
Yeah.
00:55:10
bclawson
And she protected him and she babied him. And ah while Bruce had never harbored warm feelings for Carl, Carl looked up to Bruce. This would be Carl's uncle and he wanted to impress Bruce. Like Bruce, Carl had a rap sheet which included charges for trespassing and domestic violence. Carl also had a temper and he was once expelled from the First Baptist Church because he was aggressive towards Bonnie while Bonnie was at church. He stole her pecans
00:55:49
bclawson
stole them right out of her barn and sold them all around town. And she kept writing him checks.
00:55:57
Caroline
Ah.
00:55:59
bclawson
She would say to anybody who, you know, confronted her about it, you know, it's just not the Christian thing for me to do to turn my back on my family.
00:56:12
bclawson
So this is what's behind Bruce moving in for a while upstairs with, you know, his girl, His ex-wife who's his girlfriend and now his new wife. And I don't know what happened to that marriage. But anyway, Bonnie is just trying to do the Christian thing. And to her, the Christian thing is you do not turn your back on your family.
00:56:36
Caroline
Yeah.
00:56:38
bclawson
Even though he was just, you know, she was doting him when he was young and now she's bailing him out and now she's enabling him.
00:56:45
Caroline
Well, that's the thing. He's hurting the family in multiple ways. And so I do hope that the church rethinks that kind of advice.
00:56:54
bclawson
Yeah, you you know, oh oh my goodness. So Connie, Carl's mother, Bonnie's only child, she suddenly died in March 2011 at age 62 after a bout with pneumonia.
00:57:11
Caroline
oh my gosh oh
00:57:15
bclawson
So Bonnie developed full-on dementia after that.
00:57:19
Caroline
that's so sad
00:57:19
bclawson
She was appointed a guardian by the courts And now that Connie was no longer around to care ah for her mother, the courts needed to step in and manage that estate and keep it from being stolen by Bruce and Carl. And ah that's what it looked like anyway to most people, is that the courts could see what was happening or the local somebody arranged for her to have a guardian financially or what's called.
00:57:51
Caroline
Yeah, somebody with enough.
00:57:55
Caroline
Well, that makes me happy. I hope that's a thing that can easily be identified.
00:57:57
bclawson
Yes.
00:57:59
Caroline
And I'm happy the courts are able to like. Make that kind of decree to protect her while she's still alive, but not obviously able to mentally do the job.
00:58:06
bclawson
Yeah. Well, you know, just because the people in court, including the judges and the And the lawyers and such, just because they're judge judges and lawyers and stuff doesn't mean that they're not part of the town.
00:58:20
Caroline
Right.
00:58:20
bclawson
And the whole town is just thinking they want to protect Bonnie, they want to love on Bonnie, they want to protect her.
00:58:28
Caroline
and Yeah.
00:58:28
bclawson
And the only way to do that is to assign a guardian for her, a legal guardian for her. Not a caregiver, that's somebody else. But um yeah, so she got a legal guardianship And one of the things that happened in that legal guardianship appointment was that that lawyer, who was her, got her you know, protector, he ah told Carl and Carl's multiple girlfriends, you cannot come to the Harkey home, ah the family home without me being there.
00:58:51
Caroline
Yeah.
00:59:08
Caroline
Oh good, good. So it's almost like he becomes the um power of attorney so all decisions get made through him, not her.
00:59:16
bclawson
All of that.
00:59:19
bclawson
Yes, all of that.
00:59:20
Caroline
That's good. I think that's great.
00:59:23
bclawson
I do too. In September 2011, Bonnie was diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which the doctor explained could take her life at any moment. But he didn't think that she would survive the surgery to fix it.
00:59:40
Caroline
Yeah.
00:59:40
bclawson
And Bonnie insisted on spending whatever days she had left in the house. Bonnie was in her final days, but she wanted to stay where she had lived for over 50 years. A local nurse named Karen Johnson was appointed, hired to become her constant caregiver. So it was it was Bonnie's um power of attorney guy, yeah her protector, her court appointed guardian who hired Karen.
01:00:05
Caroline
Yeah.
01:00:10
bclawson
And she was allowed to bring along her son for the nights that she would be staying over. And a lot of the decision making about when she would stay over depended on Bonnie's you know health.
01:00:22
Caroline
Yeah, the state she was in that day.
01:00:24
bclawson
Yeah, depending on whether she was stable or not.
01:00:28
Caroline
Yeah.
01:00:28
bclawson
Bruce and John, however, with their inheritance in sight, had already begun wrangling together over the property. Now, so far we hadn't heard anything about John because he's not a rule breaker.
01:00:41
Caroline
Yeah, he's just living life.
01:00:42
bclawson
ah But he's still there in, you know, San Sapa. And ah he and Bruce got together and started plotting and scheming, because they they think Bonnie's going to die any day now. In May, the brothers had persuaded Carl to sell them his future rights to the Pritchard Orchard for a measly $75,000, even though the property was valued at more than half a million. So let me break that down. Remember when Riley became
01:01:14
bclawson
the grandchild, grandparents, Riley and Bonnie became grandparents. And Riley started thinking, you know, I need to get another grow, another orchard started so that Connie will have her own.
01:01:27
Caroline
who Yeah.
01:01:28
bclawson
Well, now Connie is dead. And that means that Carl's, her only descendant, has this land that he will be given when Bonnie dies.
01:01:39
Caroline
Yeah. Right.
01:01:45
bclawson
So these brothers, Bruce and John, the sons of Riley, hating Bonnie, they got together and decided they would rip Carl off for his land.
01:01:58
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:00
bclawson
And he took the $75,000, wanted to take the $75,000. He didn't know it was worth half a mean.
01:02:07
Caroline
yeah
01:02:07
bclawson
He's not the brightest bulb.
01:02:09
Caroline
Oh, and he's got the math problem. mean The kid has been disadvantaged from the get go. Let's say that he just has not been given the advantage.
01:02:13
bclawson
Right. Right, yep.
01:02:17
Caroline
So so having his siblings take advantage of him was not nice. That's not OK, even despite all things Carl's done. It's just the karma going on in here. So awful.
01:02:28
bclawson
It is awful. Since Bruce was broke, Carl didn't see any of that money until August when the court guardian approved the sale of a large wheat field to a neighbor for $95,000.
01:02:35
Caroline
you
01:02:43
bclawson
Carl accepted a check from Bruce for the $75,000 for that piece of land. With rights to the Pritchard Orchard secured, the Harkey brothers now set their sights on a potential buyer. And they knew who they wanted to go to. They were going to go to the reclusive yet high profile neighbor named Tommy Lee Jones.
01:03:07
Caroline
Oh, this is where the story gets so interesting.
01:03:11
bclawson
Now, that famous craggy face movie star, I used to watch him in soap wrappers, had been buying up property near his hometown since 1981, slowly amassing a 5,050 acre ranch in the eastern part of San Saba County. Then in 2007, he looked west, buying the 209 acre strip of farmland adjacent
01:03:41
Caroline
you
01:03:41
bclawson
to Harkey Pecan Farms, where he grew wheat and grazed his horses. Now word around town was that he had begun to eye the Pritchard Orchard. And remember, that's the orchard that was left to Connie, that her son Carl inherited and was swindled out of by Bruce and John.
01:04:05
bclawson
So he started looking at that to annex. Many thinks that Tommy Lee Jones was less interested in pecans than he was in the excellent water rights that came with the property. John and Bruce reached out to him and after some negotiation through an intermediary, jump Jones put down a $542,000 offer on the orchard and a contract was immediately drawn up. Except there was one wrinkle.
01:04:38
bclawson
It didn't matter that Carl had signed away his rights. Bonnie still had a life estate in the property. The court appointed guardian of Bonnie's estate, a lawyer named Spinks. He's the one that's been working all this magic to protect her.
01:04:51
Caroline
Yeah.
01:04:53
bclawson
His name is Mr. Spinks. After looking over the deal, found that the terms were not beneficial to Bonnie and refused to sign off on it.
01:05:02
Caroline
Good for him.
01:05:04
bclawson
Can you imagine how infuriating Bruce was?
01:05:06
Caroline
Well, I mean, no more than Spinks would have been infuriated that you haven't done this without coming to me first, like that. Obviously, you aren't the one wheeling and dealing here. If Bonnie were gone, that might be the case. But Bonnie is not gone. So I'd be I'd be hot if I were Spinks, too. I'd be looking for reasons to not be signing that contract.
01:05:28
bclawson
With no money from Tommy Lee Jones and no authority to care for the orchards, Bruce was left to pine for his stake in Harkey-Pecan Farms from a distance.
01:05:38
Caroline
Yeah.
01:05:39
bclawson
So Harkey-Pecan Farms was a conglomerate of three separate orchards. And each one of those was bequeathed. First one to Carl after of course Connie died, one to John and one to Bruce.
01:05:57
Caroline
yeah
01:05:57
bclawson
So John and Bruce, want they they want their stake in Harkey Pecan Farms. from ah They just want it and they want it. And now look what has happened. March 25th is known as Pecan Day, marking the date in 1775 when George Washington planted 25 pecan trees at his home in Mount Vernon. In San Saba, 237 years later, March 25th dawned as an unremarkable Sunday. Bonnie Harkey woke up, ate her breakfast,
01:06:32
bclawson
and then Karen, her caretaker, who'd brought along her young son for the day, drove her to church in Bonnie's old Chevy Malibu.
01:06:35
Caroline
you
01:06:44
bclawson
After Sunday school, the two women attended the 1030 service, sitting as usual in the sixth row and listening to Pastor Crosby's discernment. Afterward, they returned home where Bonnie changed out of her Sunday best and enter her teal tracksuit. Oh my God. I just can see her with that white hair. And, you know, kar Karen, of course, is going to help her get dressed and undressed and bathed and all that. But still, she's looking cute. Just everybody just loves her so much. And I know why. But anyway, Karen's son, ah her little 11 year old son, retreated to a spare bedroom to play.
01:07:27
bclawson
And Bonnie settled into her maroon recliner in front of the television with her beloved cat, Miss Kitty.
01:07:34
Caroline
Oh my god. That is quite a cute scene, actually.
01:07:39
bclawson
I love that scene and I just wish it could go on forever. So then with this peaceful scene unfolding, Karen was ambushed and strangled in the doorway of Bonnie's home of 50 years. And Bonnie was kidnapped.
01:07:57
bclawson
after reconstruction but pardoning pardon of me After reconstructing Bonnie's movement that morning, the search team for Bonnie was stopped. And remember Caroline, it was the little 11-year-old boy, Karen's little son, who found his mother dead and Miss Bonnie gone. And called 911. And so now they have found the body. They know Bonnie's been kidnapped. Just after 8.30 in the evening, a call came in to the search team and it was the mother of Bruce Harkie's long-term girlfriend, Lillian King.
Trial, Sentencing, and Lessons Learned
01:08:37
bclawson
So the mother of Bonnie, the mother of Bruce's girlfriend is Colin the Cops. She reported that her daughter and Carl had been out at the Harkie house that afternoon. And she told the cops, you know, he's not supposed to be out there.
01:08:55
bclawson
neither one of them were supposed to be out there. And she said, you know, she knew they were out there and she was pretty sure that Carl had something to do with the murder of Karen and the kidnapping of Bobby.
01:09:08
Caroline
Oh my gosh.
01:09:09
bclawson
So at two in the morning, after repeatedly calling Carl's cell phone, Sheriff Brown reached Carl himself. He and Lillian were out in Normanji, four hours east of San Saba, staying at a campground. The two needed to get back immediately. The sheriff told them Karen was dead and Bonnie was missing. Just before daybreak, Carl and Lillian arrived at the San Saba County Jail. And it wasn't long before Carl admitted that he had taken Bonnie for a drive in his car. He said they had gone to the San Saba River, a lie that caused Lillian to break down and spill the real details as soon as
01:09:50
bclawson
Price tried to recheck the story. and Price is the name of the lead investigator. Two hours later, a blubber in Carl finally admitted that he killed Bonnie and left her body in a creek near the RV. He's squalling and he's saying, she ain't gonna forgive me. Carl told the deputies and the sergeant did his best to reassure him, telling him, well, your grandmother has forgiven you for everything else you've ever done.
01:10:20
Caroline
That's a nice thing for that sergeant to say, actually. That's, you know, why not this too?
01:10:24
bclawson
Yeah, I mean, he was trying to calm him down so he'd give more details.
01:10:27
Caroline
Well, that too, but I mean, it's also true.
01:10:28
bclawson
that you know so he but But I mean, you know the first thing that came to his mind was the bitter truth of the matter, which is that Bonnie had been feeding this monster and he got bigger and bigger till he ate her.
01:10:35
Caroline
Yes.
01:10:44
bclawson
He took her out.
01:10:45
Caroline
Yes, yeah.
01:10:47
bclawson
So here was here was Carl's story. Lillian had dropped him off, that Lillian's his girlfriend, dropped him off at the house while Bonnie was at church. ah Carl climbed in through a window and he hid downstairs, smoking meth while he was awaiting Bonnie's return. When Bonnie and Karen got home, he texted Lillian, who was to come back and ring the door, serving as a distraction while he tiptoed into Bonnie's
01:11:22
bclawson
bedroom. So he had planned to smother Bonnie with a pillow at nap time and then sneak out. But when Karen spotted him as she answered the door, he panicked and he tackled her in a bear hug, threw her to the floor and suffocated her beneath his body weight. So he's sitting on her chest or she can't breathe and he's got his hands around her throat.
01:11:44
Caroline
Crushing.
01:11:49
bclawson
Lillian, meanwhile, kept Bonnie's occupied in the wood paneling, the wood panel living room, their conversation and the TV muffling the sounds of Karen's struggle. Carl then went to find Bonnie and asked if they could pray together in her bedroom. God, she agreed. Of course, she's going to pray with him, you bet. And after sitting together at the foot of the bed, Carl lunged toward her with a pillow. He stopped short of smothering her when he thought he heard the doorbell again.
01:12:23
Caroline
you
01:12:24
bclawson
When Bonnie called out to Lillian that Carl was trying to kill her, he convinced his disoriented grandmother, I'm not trying to kill you. but Let's just all drop go for a drive. Let's go for a drive. And the three of them got into Carl's car. He insisted that Lillian drive because his license had been revoked. Oh yes, you're such a law abiding, you know, Killer. oh And he they all headed to the campground at Normangie, where a friend from his motorcycle club had loaned him an RV. By the time they arrived, it was evening, and Carl told Bonnie, Bonnie, I want to show you a really nice fishing hole. You need to come with me. So she followed it. Remember, she's got dementia. And remember, she does anything for Carl.
01:13:17
Caroline
Right. For family. It's not even just Carl. She'd do this for family.
01:13:23
bclawson
Yeah, I mean, you know, this just makes me so angry. They walked to a nearby ravine and down the embankment to a small stream there. I can't hardly say this, but I will. Carl hit Bonnie over the head with a dead tree branch and pushed her face into the ankle deep water until she stopped struggling. He covered her lifeless body with fistfuls of leaves and mud.
01:13:51
bclawson
During the interrogation, Price asked Carl a question. Who else is involved in this? Lillian, Carl said. Who else is involved in this? Carl paused for a moment. And then he said, well, Bruce said he wanted me to get rid of her and take her. take her He'll put money in my bank account. According to Carl, Bruce had come to see him on Friday to propose a deal. If you get rid of Bonnie this weekend, Carl said, Bruce told him, I'll pay you. I'm going to be out of town. I don't want nothing to do with it. Don't tell anybody I had anything to do with it. Bruce gave him $100 with the promise of depositing 350 more in his bank account on Monday once the deed was done.
01:14:47
Caroline
you
01:14:47
bclawson
There would also, of course, be the payout from the estate. Bruce initially offered $500, but Carl, knowing his financial situation, offered to do it for $50 less. I mean, that's a peculiar thing for Carl to do, but not really. The sheriff would later put it, yeah, that's weird, but Carl has never been accused of being the smartest person.
01:15:14
Caroline
I actually really love that because this is cold and cruel. First of all, it's cruel that Bruce would even offer such a lowly sub for such a brilliant woman. And then the reason he even has this farm to be upset about not getting is because of Bonnie. So and Riley, but Bonnie now and so. I'm disgusted that they ah initially had $500, but the fact that Carl would be try to be so just charitable in his criminality to do it for 50.
01:15:47
Caroline
Like, ugh.
01:15:48
bclawson
$50 less. so if yeah Now don't forget that Carl worshiped and tried to please Bruce always.
01:15:58
Caroline
Yeah.
01:16:01
bclawson
That was his problem. About his involvement in the murder, Bruce told officers who arrested him, are you kidding me? First of all, I would not hire Forrest Gump to commit a murder.
01:16:12
Caroline
and Weirdo.
01:16:12
bclawson
You know what I'm saying? and he told the deputy. Second of all, if I thought somebody needed killing that bad, I would take care of it myself. Well, apparently that's a lie. So Caroline, Bonnie is dead and this town will never be the same. Both Bruce and Carl are serving a life sentence for killing Bonnie and her caregiver, Karen. Lillian, who initiated the confession
01:16:43
bclawson
and cooperated as a witness at trial was given a 40 year sentence in Texas prison, which is no fun.
01:16:50
Caroline
Damn. Yeah.
01:16:53
bclawson
So Caroline, I think the upshot of this family murder today is that when you are raised to feel not just unique and therefore special,
01:17:06
Caroline
Yeah.
01:17:08
bclawson
When you are raised to feel like you are the head of the world, you're the best person ever and that is your birthright by virtue of work that other people have done.
01:17:08
Caroline
Yeah.
01:17:18
Caroline
yeah
01:17:21
Caroline
Yeah, yeah, I yes, I think I can think of some contemporary examples for sure.
01:17:28
bclawson
This is like you know armed robbery because you bought a lottery ticket and it wasn't the winner and somebody did win and it ought to have been you
01:17:37
Caroline
That's it.
01:17:37
bclawson
You felt like that you were entitled to that and there you go and you burn down the entire store with everybody in it.
01:17:43
Caroline
Yeah, that's 100% the mentality behind this kind of decision making. I hate that was supposed to be mine. Like you didn't and let me set it right. If you're not going to set it right, I am kind of thing.
01:17:55
bclawson
And now I know why everybody ah ah hated Bruce. Now I know why Bruce had eight wives, plus the other wife that came back a second time, which talk about,
01:18:00
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah, what happened there?
01:18:06
bclawson
I can't even and imagine. Not everybody thinks things through. carol Well, then that is the story of the murder of Bonnie Harkey.
01:18:11
Caroline
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
01:18:21
bclawson
And I just want to always remember Bonnie and Riley and and the people who came before her and him and what it took to cause human beings to start cultivating and the k pecans, pecans, pecans, and to fix it so that it wouldn't be all shell and a little bit of nut.
01:18:40
Caroline
ah Yeah.
01:18:43
Caroline
pecans i like pecans i did not know that about the because i used to love walnuts
01:18:55
bclawson
um I used to crack pecans all the time. and And I never knew that the reason that I was able to take two co got two pecans in my little hand at probably seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, you know, take two pecans and crush them together in my little hand. The nut, the outer shell would crack very easily.
01:19:18
Caroline
Yeah.
01:19:19
bclawson
And then you just gently pick it apart. So you've got the whole pecan.
01:19:23
Caroline
Yeah, which yeah.
01:19:23
bclawson
You've got the two halves. And if you look at a pecan, it's shaped like a brain. with the two halves and the thing in the middle, the fiber in the middle that you get rid of.
01:19:34
Caroline
Yeah.
01:19:35
bclawson
And pecans have been found scientifically to really be good brain food.
01:19:40
Caroline
Isn't that funny when the foods look like the thing that they're helping, like broccoli with hair, carrots with eyes?
01:19:43
bclawson
I know. Yeah.
01:19:46
Caroline
I did not know that about pink hands. I like it.
01:19:48
bclawson
Bonnie, I hope you're listening and enjoyed our story today about the truth of what a good woman you were and the horror of this man who
01:19:55
Caroline
Yeah.
01:20:00
bclawson
was met with Christian love, just ah ah Bible love.
01:20:09
Caroline
Yeah.
01:20:10
bclawson
That's what Bobby had.
01:20:12
Caroline
Yeah, yeah. True of heart, for sure.
01:20:16
bclawson
So today's episode is researched and written and narrated by Bridget and Caroline, produced by Andy. Our research is solely based on public domain documents, including legal documents, articles, and books about our subject. Today's episode was mostly newspaper articles from various Texas newspapers about this horror that took place down there. Episodes are aired every other week. If you like us, please subscribe and give us a five star review. Tell your friends about us in person and by social media. All these actions help new listeners find us and
01:20:57
bclawson
Thank you so much. We appreciate you. And one one more thing. Don't forget to live and let live. So bye bye, Caroline.
01:21:11
Caroline
by Bye-bye.