An autopsy would reveal that she had been hit over the head and drowned in the shallow water. John Spong writes primarily about popular culture. Rencontre avec Vincent Huguet (EDHEC Master 1998) co-fondateur et co-CEO de Malt. FULL EPISODE: Queen of the County There would also, of course, be the payout from the estate. The judge disagreed, sending Bruce to federal prison for five years. Luxury Houses for Sale in Roncq, Hauts De France, France This idea consumed him. Today pecans are central to the economy of San Saba, which produces up to five million pounds a year and claims to be the Pecan Capital of the World (a title contested by Albany, Georgia, and Chandler, Oklahoma). The Harkey family owns hundreds of acres of walnut farmland in Central Texas. Top: The foyer where Karen Johnson was found dead. One time she wrote about sports. No detail in his orchards escaped him. It also uncovered a dark tale of family, greed, and hate. View the profiles of people named Bonnie Harkey. Watching through a pair of binoculars, hed stare, for hours at a time, at the orchards that werent his. She also wrote large checks to foreign telephone scammers. Lillian had dropped him off at the house while Bonnie was at church; hed climbed in through a window and hidden downstairs, smoking meth while he awaited her return. But both those possibilities were excluded when the bloodhound, using a scent swab from her pillow, followed her trail down the driveway almost to the road, indicating shed likely left in a vehicle. But when one of the owners couldnt get the blessing of his stepmothers guardian to sell it, authorities said, he decided to kill for it. But his father resisted any overtures, preferring to run the farm himself, with Bonnie at his side. The orchards were in such horrible condition, because Bonnie and Connie didnt know how to run a farm or what to do with pecan trees, Jennifer told me. John joined with Bruce in court to try to remove Connie as guardian; they failed, but then Connie died suddenly, in March 2011 at age 62, after a bout with pneumonia. U.S. Highway 190 and Texas State Highway 16 intersect on the eastern side of town. But that didnt mean he was responsible for her murder. Bonnie Sharkey - Phone, Address, Public Records | PeopleFinders Bonnie Harkey, 85 was reported missing on March 26, 2012, after the body of her housekeeper was found at the pecan matriarchs home. His ex-wife, his eighth wife Kami, said Brucetried to have her killed, too. Everywhere I turned, I encountered the Harkey name: on a marker next to the courthouse, in photographs at my hotel, on Harkey Street. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The Harkey brothers offered to give Bonnie Harkey $44,000, but her guardian thought she should receive $240,000, McAfee said. He was released in December 2007, and after a brief stint in an Austin halfway house,Bruce returned to San Saba for good. According to one newspaper account, Riley and Israel Harkey, two brothers from Arkansas, drove the first wagon train into the county while serving as Indian scouts for the Republic of Texas; they became so enamored of the loamy soil in the San Saba River Valley that they returned in 1855 with their parents and six other siblings. In the days before the murders, hed proclaimed to everyone he encounteredat the San Saba Printing Company, at the Corner Caf, at J&Js Tractor Companythat he planned to spend the weekend at Johns house, in Fort Worth, playing golf. Bonnie Harkey woke up and ate breakfast, and then Karen, her caretakerwhod brought along her young son for the daydrove her to church in Bonnies gold Chevy Malibu. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. FULL EPISODE: Queen of the County Bruce pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, and at his sentencing, his lawyer tried to argue that he had simply been all talk. Press ESC to cancel. The he denies any wrongdoing comes as no surprise to investigators. San Saba County The Harkeys had long been one of San Sabas most prominent families, and their property sat next door to a stretch of pastureland owned by another notable native son, the actor Tommy Lee Jones. Despite these outbursts, she continued to write checks for him. And several years later, when their son planted 2,000 acres of walnuts in Australia, the Stahmanns became the world's largest walnut producing family. The jury deliberated for about an hour Tuesday, and Bruce Harkey received an automatic sentence of life in prison. March 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? The matriarch of the family, Bonnie Harkey aka The Pecan Queen, was murdered. Though the couple had a daughter and a son, they ended up separating, and Carl started dating Lillian King, with whom he had another daughter, in 2008. He sped down U.S. 190 in his white truck, passing neatly tended rows of pecan trees and the cattle auction barn, then crossed the San Saba River and rumbled down the caliche road to the two-story house. Bonnie Harkey - Office Administrator - Zaxis Contracting - LinkedIn How many years does it take for a pecan tree to bear? Bruce looked forward to the day when hed take care of the orchards himself. And, Im the only one left alive that knows the truth, he wrote, his ballpoint indenting the paper. I want to stay here as long as I can.. The Johnsons and the Harkeys became great friends, going out to dinner and traveling to gospel concerts in Marble Falls and Burnet. Find contact info for Bonnie Sharkey - phone number, address, email. A copy of the Baptist magazineOn Missionsat on the table beside her. The home that sits amidst a 300-acre pecan farm, alongside actor Tommy Lee Jones' colossal cattle ranch property. But as an ensuing investigation would soon reveal, her death represented the final, sordid unraveling of one of the oldest lineages in Central Texasthe story of a family tree rotted through by the destructive forces of obsession, greed, and hate. On April 1, 1970, a month before her due date, Judi gave birth to the next Harkey: a seven-pound, two-ounce boy named Eric. Soon a court had appointed Spinks as the permanent guardian of Bonnies estate and her longtime friend Betty Ann as the guardian of her person. Bruce moved into an upstairs bedroom, where he was joined by his ex-wife Jennifer Karnes, with whom hed renewed a relationship after divorcing Kami. But her violent death in March shook the quiet Hill Country community about two hours northwest of Austin, both for its brutality and for the fact that members of her own family were charged in what authorities a far-reaching murder-for-hire scheme over the Harkey family fortune. I do drive slowly more times than I should because I would not want to hurt anyone. I do have family who want the property I live on and I have heard many times they want to get rid of me., Betty Ann stopped by the house twice a day and hired caregivers who could be with her around the clock. Are candied pecans the same as praline pecans? Davis said he plans to appeal the verdict. They were blowing through that money. With about $20,000 left, and almost no other income to speak of, Bruce had grown nervous. new . Nothin. The best result we found for your search is Bonnie Heakins Harkey age 60s in Charlotte, NC in the Sardis Woods neighborhood. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. All I wanna do is get this cleared up and go home. He remains hopeful that his case will be overturned on appeal. First of all, I wouldnt hire Forrest Gump to commit murder, you know what Im saying? he told a deputy. When the 85-year-old matriarch of a prominent pecan-farming clan in San Saba was murdered, her death shook the townand exposed how obsession and greed can fell a family from within San Saba offers something for everyone. Evil pop culture scholar. Her body was eventually discovered 200 miles east, in a rural area in Leon County. I cant tell you how many hundreds of miles my grandfather and I walked in that Harkeyville Orchard, said Bruce recently. At least 1 dead, 5 injured in Massachusetts house party shooting, 2-year-old daughter of Tampa Bay Buccaneers player drowns after falling into pool, Tornado strikes Virginia coast, leaving behind trail of damage, AI-generated music growing exponentially, sparking debate. Riley, for his part, began turning his thoughts to the future, and in 1991 he purchased a third pecan grove, a 94-acre plot of young trees called the Prichard Orchard. View 11 photos $963,709 3767 sqft. House in Marcq-en-Barul, Hauts-de-France, France Contact. By 1956, Leonard Bend Pecan Farm had 3,300 acres of orchards on the peninsula and had become the largest contiguous walnut orchard in Texas and the second largest in the United States. Walnuts intended for retail sale can be removed from their shells and baked before packing and shipping. 10,853 followers. Nobody else did that after the seventies., Perhaps it was Rileys work ethic and stature that first caught the attention of Bonnie Sawyer Compton. The grisly crime shocked the rural community of Harkeyville named for the pecan-farming family in San Saba County, about 100 miles northwest of Austin. Texas Double Murder Was "Epic Tale Of Greed" - Oxygen Official Site He traced the winning nuts to a tree he dubbed the Mother Pecan, then began growing his own through novel pollination and grafting techniques, earning himself the nickname the Johnny Appleseed of pecans. His efforts made the trees commercially viable, and Risien became the nuts biggest booster, mailing samples to Queen Victoria and Alfred Lord Tennyson. But the guardian for Bonnie Harkey, who was still living on the land, turned down the offer, saying Mrs. Harkey had a right to receive interest from the sale of the land, McAfee said. Why don t pecan trees produce every year? BURNET, Texas (AP) - A Central Texas man faces life in prison for plotting the death of his stepmother so he could sell her lucrative pecan farm and make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Carl also had a temper, one so volatile that First Baptist Church barred him from the premises after he showed up at Bible study one Wednesday to demand money from Bonnie. Bruce and Judi were devastated. San Saba County SAN SABA, Texas (KXAN) At 85, Bonnie Harkey was loved by her neighbors in San Saba County and affectionately known as the Pecan Queen because of the sprawling and fertile farm of nut-bearing trees that had been in her family for years. He often criticized her. When I reached out to Bruce for his side of things, he sent me a letter. Carl started crying at this point, Lillian later recalled. His silver hair was closely shorn, per regulations, and he wore wire-frame glasses and flimsy terry-cloth slippers. Today, the land and orchard are owned by the Millican family, and six generations have worked in the pecan business. Despite the chaos, Bonnie remained lucid about some things. According to Carl, he approached another potential hit man about killing Bonnie and Spinks but found the $10,000 asking price too steep. This labor-intensive process takes time and costs money. Karens son retreated to a spare bedroom to play, and Bonnie settled into her maroon recliner in front of the television with her beloved cat, Miss Kitty. View 11 photos $759,263 4 Beds 5 Baths 1442 sqft. Bonnie was ill, after all; they would have come into their inheritance soon enough. But today, there are no Harkeys left on the farm. Join Facebook to connect with Bonnie Harkey and others you may know. That December, 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 theNews & Starholding a plaque for her champion pecans. Bonnie, who had been watching Eric, rushed him to the hospital, but by the time she got there, the baby was dead. View 19 photos $1,262,694 During the interrogation, Price asked Carl a question. Facebook gives people the power to. Is there a shortage of pecans in the united states? He needed an address to satisfy probation requirements, so he sent letter after letter to Bonnie, begging her to let him live on the Harkey farm. Sheriff Allen Brown was already out on patrol when the 911 call came in. Autopsy reports indicate Bonnie Harkey may have been buried alive. He covered her lifeless body with fistfuls of leaves and mud. Bruce and I just kind of confined ourselves upstairs and made it into a little apartment, recalled Jennifer. The investigation into the murder of Bonnie Harkey and her caretaker broadens as lawmen look for a motive in the familys history.April 24, 2015. We must not let death steal the memories of her joy in life! Pastor Crosby exhorted the crowd. Anything in this world that was wrong in Bruces life, he blamed Bonnie.). But then what happened? 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 Sabas homecoming queen. But to Bruces dismay, Bonnie effortlessly took on the role of family matriarch. Wannabe web aficionado. After Sunday school, the two women attended the ten-thirty service, sitting as usual in the sixth row and listening to Pastor Crosbys sermon from Acts, about the stoning of Stephen. Join Facebook to connect with Bonnie Heakins Harkey and others you may know. Carl would show up with a pickup full of pecans, and we bought them. It also uncovered a dark tale of family, greed, and hate. The Harkeys were one of the first families to settle the area, before pecans were an industry. When Bonnie Harkey, the 85-year-old matriarch of a prominent San Saba family, was brutally murdered in 2012, her death spelled the end of a legendary pecan dynasty. How much can you make off one pecan tree? There, he hit her over the head with a dead tree branch and pushed her face into the ankle-deep water until she stopped struggling. (Farming is gambling, and I didnt think that was the most prudent thing to do with an eighty-four-year-olds money, when she might need it for hospital care, Spinks said. I could get the money and go to Belize.) It was also evident that, based on his six years on the Reno police force, Bruce knew the importance of a solid alibi, and he appeared to have carefully crafted his. But he was bleeding her dry, said her niece Teresa Cook. Trending on Oxygen. But thats not all Carl Pressley told investigators. I drove to San Saba in late summer. How much are pecans selling for in louisiana? There was testimony during the trial that Bruce Harkey told Pressley to kill everybody at Bonnie Harkeys house, McAfee said. But he said theyd gone to the San Saba Rivera lie that caused Lillian to break down and spill the real details as soon as Price tried to cross-check the story. KXAN News - Carl Presley was sentenced to life in prison | Facebook Hipster-friendly tv practitioner. Whether the causewas resentment or desperation, Bruces life began to unspool soon afterward. After that, Price and Sergeant John Wilkerson moved Carl to the sally port of the jail, where they could use a patrol cars dash cam to record the interrogation. Another time, when Bonnie refused to buy him a set of new tires, Carl blocked her car with his truck and refused to let her leave. Who is the biggest pecan producer in the world? My grandfather assumed that if anyone were to take over the farm, it would be me. He just had a meltdown. With rights to the Prichard Orchard secured, the Harkey brothers now set their sights on a potential buyer: their reclusive yet high-profile neighbor Tommy Lee Jones. Before the Great Depression shuttered most of the town, the racehorses and mules bred by Riley were known to attract crowds of spectators from all over Texas. Wild pecan trees, Carya illinoinensis, haveflourished throughout the South for millennia, and thousands grow along the rivers of Central Texas; when the explorer lvar Nez Cabeza de Vaca was held captive by Indians on the Guadalupe in 1532, he christened it the river of nuts. But human cultivation of pecans in Texas began in San Saba in 1874, with the arrival of Edmund E. Risien. Just before daybreak, Carl and Lillian arrived at the San Saba County jail, a compact limestone building that is the oldest continuously operating jail in the U.S. His conviction carries an automatic life sentence without parole, the Austin American-Statesman reported (https://bit.ly/1iIE72W ). Preview. Bonnie Harkey Profiles | Facebook Proud of his planning, Riley trumpeted what he had done around town. Not much damage and we enjoyed 'bumping into each other' at the Christian Women's monthly meetings. When the caretaker came to the door, Pressley sneaked up behind her, killed her and then kidnapped his grandmother. Pressley was in police custody hours later, confessing to the crimes., He did say he was sorry repeatedly, said Sgt. They thought the whole county should still revolve around them. Daniel Vaughn is the countrys first barbecue editor, and he has eaten more barbecue than you have. I was in the backseat, and I leaned forward and said, So, do we call you Mom now or what? he said. Harkeyville is north of U.S. Highway 190 two miles west of San Saba in central San Saba County. The investigation into the murder of Bonnie Harkey and her caretaker broadens as lawmen look for a motive in the familys history. Left: The entrance to the Harkey homestead off U.S. 190. Hed openly shared his travel plans to Fort Worth, he continued, because he was excited to go to the big city. By 1884, the town had four churches, two schools, a sawmill and a gristmill, a bank, a paper, and a population of 800. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. What are the 12 general lab safety rules. The foyer where Karen Johnson was found dead. How much is a full grown pecan tree worth? Left: Bonnies bedroom, decorated with her paintings of flowers. (Many think Jones was less interested in pecans than in the excellent water rights that come with the property.) One of those girls was Judi Bishop, one year older and from Goldthwaite, a town 22 miles north. And when the jury read it out, his mouth dropped open and his shoulders dropped. ), Bruce, Carl, and Lillian were sent away to separate county jails, where they remained until Bruces trial this past April. In one anecdote he liked to tell, she made her feelings clear one afternoon when the family was in her new desert rose Thunderbird. What is the average price of pecans per pound? Bonnie Heakins Harkey is on Facebook. In exchange for a lighter sentence, Carl and Lillian agreed to testify against Bruce, and jurors also heard from two inmates, including one former Aryan Brotherhood member, who claimed that Bruce had tried to hire them from jail to kill both Carl and Spinks. At the trial, held in Burnet, Bonnies relatives and a handful of San Sabans watched as Bruce sat coolly through the proceedings, convinced there was nothing hed be found guilty of. And I said, Forwhat? Despite his protestations, he was arrested two days later, for criminal solicitation of capital murder, an allegation he pronounced absolutely and totally ludicrous. He vociferously contested Carls version of events. Later that day, Bonnie Harkeys body was found covered in leaves in a creek bed nearly 200 miles east in Leon County. Bruce Harkey, 62, was convicted Tuesday of the murder-for-hire plot that led to the 2012 deaths of his stepmother, Bonnie Harkey, and her housekeeper, Karen Johnson. According to local news station KXAN, One Sunday, while Bonnie was at church, her grandson Carl Pressley broke into her home and waited for his grandmother to return. Investigators focus on one of Bonnies stepsons, Bruce Harkey, as the mastermind behind the plot to kill Bonnie Harkey.April 24, 2015. The Harkey brothers lined up the lucrative deal to sell the orchard to the movie stars agent. by 2Paragraphs in Culture | April 23, 2015. When she and Riley were introduced, in early 1963, the tall, 36-year-old brunette was working as a telephone operator in Waco, a divorce trying to make ends meet. On days when Millican was in the groves, Bruce would park his silver F-150 in a neighboring field and scrutinize from afar. But then things went suddenly and terribly awry: on April 15, as Bruce sat in English class, the baby stopped breathing. The entire county mourned Bonnie's death, killed by her stepson. As a signal, Pressleys girlfriend rang the doorbell and when the caretaker came to the door, Pressley snuck-up behind the caretaker, killed her and kidnapped his grandmother. Carlbrought his grandmother to a campground where he held her head underwater and then buried her body in a shallow grave. The daughter of Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman and the late Beth Chapman told ET Thursday that she lost her home in a fire. kxan.com 'Pecan Queen's' grandson gets life in prison for her death | KXAN.com As a boy, Carl had suffered from ADHD and often butted heads with his mother; as a young man, hed developed a love for motorcycles and meth, which had worn his bottom teeth down to little yellow stubs. Dog the Bounty Hunter's Daughter Bonnie Chapman's House Burns Down - TMZ But Im the mayor of Harkeyville now, Hibler continued. But he didnt think she would survive the surgery to fix it, and Bonnie insisted on spending whatever days she had left in the house. Proper noun a rione in Rome, Italy, named after the local basilica. Bonnie Louise Harkey 1947-2017 - Ancestry The question reverberated across living rooms, cafes, and hair salons around San Saba. He was already resentful of decisions Spinks had been makingthis was the last straw.

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