The One They Won’t Touch

The Texas crime that Hollywood hasn’t touched is a colorful, still hazy web of murder: the T. Cullen Davis murder case.

The still talked-about murders happened in Ft. Worth on Aug. 2, 1976. A man dressed in black and wearing a woman’s black wig invaded Cullen Davis’ hilltop mansion, gunning down four persons, killing two of them. The two survivors of the midnight shootings identified the gunman as Davis--then one of the wealthiest men in America.

But in 1977 a jury in Amarillo acquitted Davis of premeditated murder.

Less than a year later, Davis again made headlines when he was arrested and charged in a murder-for-hire scheme. Davis was accused of having a “hit list” that included more than a dozen names--including that of the judge in his divorce case.

In 1979 Davis was acquitted of those charges by a Ft. Worth jury.

Two books have explored the Davis case. The account of the crimes in the book by reporter Mike Cochran did garner Hollywood attention. In fact, recalled Cochran, “some producers from Columbia Pictures called me off the golf course” to talk about a possible project. “They said the meeting had to be that very minute.”

Several days later, a second studio flew the author to Houston for a meeting. In all, Cochran said, he met with the brass of 12 production companies.

So why didn’t the T. Cullen Davis murder case go Hollywood?

Said Cochran: “The word I got from all of them was that the big money men behind the studios didn’t want to mess with another big money man. They didn’t want to go after one of their own.”

One studio executive told Calendar that because Davis was acquitted twice, there were worries that he might find a way to legally block any movie about him.