Bonnies arrival, however, when Bruce was eleven, made the future uncertain. When shed tell a story, hed interrupt and say, No, thats not the way it goes, recalled Bonnies sister. Two years after the murders of Bonnie Harkey, 85, and her caretaker, Karen Johnson, the last two suspects involved in their deaths have been sentenced. Family members have fought a long battle in court over who would inherit those lands after the death of Bonnie Harkey. San Saba County Sheriff Stephen Boyd, who attended the same church as Bonnie Harkey, said the verdict was just a relief for San Saba County in general.. Read More. He tried to have me killed. How many years will a pecan tree produce? Riley trained his sonshe told them that as Harkeys they were special.. He and Lillian were out in Normangee, four hours east of San Saba, staying at a campground. How long does it take for a pecan tree to fully mature? The Harkeys were one of the first families to settle the area, before pecans were an industry. I needed to shift the risk to the lessee.). 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. If I waste my time and energy hating the people that have claimed I did, Im takin away time from loving my wife and my children. They were separated immediately for questioning, and it wasnt long before Carl admitted that they had taken Bonnie for a drive in his car. Despite the chaos, Bonnie remained lucid about some things. But they werent real tears.. Facebook gives people the power to. He had been playing video games in another room, he said through tears, and hadnt heard any commotion. mostly concerned himself with fire ants, which can hamper the grafting process and damage expensive irrigation equipment. An autopsy would reveal that she had been hit over the head and drowned in the shallow water. (He did. Connie N Harkey (1948 - 1991) Born April 19, 1948 Death January 1991 Summary Connie N Harkey was born on April 19, 1948, and died at age 42 years old in January 1991. It was almost more than Bruce could bear. He called KXAN from behind bars in the Taylor County jail, where he awaits trial. 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. Join Facebook to connect with Bonnie Heakins Harkey and others you may know. . Find contact info for Bonnie Sharkey - phone number, address, email. Connie, who had married after college and moved to Fort Worth, adopted an eight-month-old in 1984, a baby that she and her husband named Carl Pressley. Press ESC to cancel. After a brief courtship, the two were married at Wacos Highland Baptist Church that April, one month after his divorce was finalized. 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. As Price would later put it, Carl has not been accused of being very intelligent.). Of his two grandsons, in fact, O.B. Bonnie was laidto rest next to Riley in the city cemetery on the afternoon of April 1exactly 42 years after Eric Harkeys birth. 1. The co-worker and Bruces boss became so alarmed that they alerted the authorities, and a Texas Ranger and an ATF special agent began to record Bruces conversations. All I wanna do is get this cleared up and go home. He remains hopeful that his case will be overturned on appeal. Bonnie Harkey's . They thought the whole county should still revolve around them. How many years does it take for a pecan tree to produce pecans? Tonight @DatelineNBC reports on the death of Bonnie Harkey, the matriarch of a prominent San Saba pecan farming family. Investigators say Carl Pressley went to a campground in Leon County where he admitted to holding his grandmothers head underwater and burying her body in a shallow grave that he covered with leaves. 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. Jun 1986 - Dec 200115 years 7 months. The three kids did not take well to one another, and John and Bruce treated their stepmother unkindly from the outset. While his grandmother was still alive, Pressley sold the rights to his share for about $70,000 to Bruce Harkey and his brother, the district attorney said. Pressley, 29, has confessed to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. What's the average lifespan of a pecan tree? After Connie had her mothers drivers license revoked, in 2009, Bonnies condition only worsened. Bonnie, too, was grief-stricken. Shortly thereafter, I went to see him at the Byrd Unit, in Huntsville. His conviction carries an automatic life sentence without parole, the Austin American-Statesman reported (https://bit.ly/1iIE72W ). The care of the orchard was very important to him, remembered Millicans wife, Kristen, who grew up across from one of Rileys groves. The he denies any wrongdoing comes as no surprise to investigators. (John by this time had settled outside Fort Worth and had three children of his own.) Im ninety-nine percent sure that Carl Pressleys involved., Deputies spent the next few hours trying to track down Carl and Lillian, requesting a DPS Silver Alert for Bonnie and a statewide search for Carls Mustang. In a good year, the three orchards brought in more than $100,000, so Bonnie remained comfortably in the house, paying longtime foreman Gaspar Carachero to maintain the farm. Who is Bonnie Harkey? The Harkeys had that reputationthat there was always some trouble brewing after Riley died. So, Bruce Harkey asked Pressley to kill everybody at the house, McAfee said. Bonnies bedroom, decorated with her paintings of flowers. 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. He said he would kill me and they would never implicate him, Kami told KXAN. It was very true. Humans lose their hearts, their souls, and their ability to act like anything other than monsters., In August I went to visit Carl at the Telford Unit, in New Boston. Our world has changed, and many people in it have become motivated by greed and grown up with a sense of entitlement, she wrote in theNews & Staron April 5. Her ex-husband, a traveling salesman, had left her for another woman, and Bonnie had moved from Ocee to the city with their daughter, fourteen-year-old Connie. 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. Preview. He dropped out of college and moved west, driving trucks in California and holding odd jobs before finding work in Nevada as an officer in the Reno Police Department in 1978. 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. Finally, at two in the morning, after repeatedly calling Carls cellphone, Sheriff Brown reached Carl himself. But Bruce Harkey tells a different story. Daniel Vaughn is the countrys first barbecue editor, and he has eaten more barbecue than you have. They had not been trained to be nice boys. Though Bonnie tried to impose some structure, taping a list of rules to Bruces bedroom wall at one point, Riley rarely stepped in to discipline them. Rencontre avec Vincent Huguet (EDHEC Master 1998) co-fondateur et co-CEO de Malt. But he was bleeding her dry, said her niece Teresa Cook. The Harkey brothers offered to give Bonnie Harkey $44,000, but her guardian thought she should receive $240,000, McAfee said. Bruce was Bonnies step-son. House in Roubaix, Hauts-de-France, France Contact. View 11 photos $963,709 3767 sqft. 4d. Nothin. She, like the three hundred other assembled mourners, was still reeling from the shock of her friends violent end. [The doctor] had given us explicit instructions not to feed this baby and put him down with nobody around. (Bonnies niece Teresa contests this view. Bruce Harkey would not confess to anything hes done wrong, said Wilkerson. (Bruce initially offered $500, but Carl, knowing his financial situation, offered to do it for $50 less. Her husband, Riley had passed away, and she relied on a caretaker, Karen Johnson, for help around the house and getting around town.. 4:12 Cold Justice An Exclusive Look Into the Case of Steven Phelps. He called Sheriff Brown. What are the top 5 pecans producing states? According to local news station KXAN, "One Sunday, while Bonnie was at church, her grandson Carl. She aint going to forgive me, Carl told Wilkerson through tears. Ill pay you. How much can you make off one pecan tree? Bruce, meanwhile, was shuttled back and forth a few times to live with his mother in Nevada (one move, when he was fourteen, was announced in theNews & Starwith the headline Bruce Goes West). He was just incessant. I guess with any big estate worth any value, if youve got a bunch of people involved, theres going to be fuss.. View Details. Carl had dropped out of high school after eleventh grade and gone to work in the oil fields around Midland; following his return, hed married a local woman named Melissa Pafford, in 2003, when he was 19. They were mean, said close friend, Myrna Najar. They were so greedy.. Afterward, one San Saban whod witnessed all the proceedings expressed his towns pleasure in the outcome. 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). When I arrived at the historical marker for Harkeyville, I stopped the car. We must not let death steal the memories of her joy in life! Pastor Crosby exhorted the crowd. 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. and his only child, 32-year-old Riley, together with Rileys two sonsten-year-old John and five-year-old Bruceplanted another 1,500 trees, in a grove that came to be known as the Harkeyville Orchard. Walnuts intended for retail sale can be removed from their shells and baked before packing and shipping. For almost three years after her death, the house remained exactly as Bonnie left it. The investigation into the murder of Bonnie Harkey and her caretaker broadens as lawmen look for a motive in the family's history. One of Dwight's cousins moved to San Saba, attended The Father House, and went to the Christian Women's . In May the brothers had persuaded Carl to sell them his future rights to the Prichard Orchard for a measly $75,000, even though the property was valued at more than $500,000. 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. A search team, which included volunteers on ATVs, local firefighters, sheriffs deputies, and a bloodhound named J.J. from the nearby state prison, soon fanned out across the property. The two needed to get back immediately, the sheriff told him: Karen was dead and Bonnie was missing. He expected that his father would hand over the day-to-day operations of the farm in the same way O.B. Bruce Harkey was convicted Tuesday of capital murder for a 2012 scheme to kill his 85-year-old stepmother, Bonnie Harkey, and her housekeeper, Karen Johnson. An English cabinetmaker who was captivated by the wrinkly nuts, Risien offered a $5 prize to whoever brought him the finest specimens. But Bruce, now a convicted felon, had trouble finding work. Also known as Bonnie Manus | Bonnie Harkey. A DPS helicopter dispatched from Waco made slow circles overhead, scanning the ground with heat-imaging cameras. Investigators focus on one of Bonnies stepsons, Bruce Harkey, as the mastermind behind the plot to kill Bonnie Harkey.April 24, 2015. Today, the land and orchard are owned by the Millican family, and six generations have worked in the pecan business. His son had built the house where the Harkey blacksmith shop once stood; you could still find racing horseshoes whenever you dug in the dirt. Bonnie was ill, after all; they would have come into their inheritance soon enough. Bonnie Heakins Harkey is on Facebook. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Some of those secrets still haunt some of the people involved., Just outside of San Saba sits the small town of Harkeyville, named for the Harkey family and its generations of pecan farming. She had been hit in the head and then drowned, said McAfee. And the family pecan fortune was his way out. Her body was eventually discovered 200 miles east, in a rural area in Leon County. One thing theyd disagreed on was the day-to-day operations of the farm; Bruce wanted Spinks to pay him a salary to manage the orchards, but Spinks leased the property to Winston Millican. He willed it to Connie, while the other two groves were to go to John and Bruce, so that all three kids would have their own orchards someday. Search Begins for Missing Bonnie Harkey. I want to stay here as long as I can.. *With an incidental appearance by Tommy Lee Jones. The marker stood in front of a metal storage building and across the way, a donkey grazed in front of a newly built house. She was the closest thing to a mother I ever had, he said, choking back tears. Her closed casket sat in the sanctuary alongside photos of her with Riley and Miss Kitty. The foyer where Karen Johnson was found dead. House in Marcq-en-Barul, Hauts-de-France, France Contact. He got married and divorced two more timesa daughter was born in 1982and then returned to Texas, where in 1987 he snagged a plum position in the Texas attorney generals office investigating Medicaid fraud and nursing home abuse. 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. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The town has recently focused its energies on tourism, redeveloping its downtown, but the pecan industry remains alive and well. Bonnie, with her hazel eyes and red-tinted hair,as well as her knowledge of motherhood, was instantly attractive to Riley. One of those girls was Judi Bishop, one year older and from Goldthwaite, a town 22 miles north. Join Facebook to connect with Bonnie Harkey and others you may know. I didnt have a damn thing to do with harming that woman in any way, Bruce Harkey said in a phone call with KXAN. I dont feel guilty because Carls not a human being. But Im the mayor of Harkeyville now, Hibler continued. 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 late afternoon of March25, 2012, a voice crackled over the police scanners that perch on the coffee tables or hang on the belts of many residents in San Saba: an ambulance was headed out to Harkey Pecan Farms. The jury took one hour to find him guilty. He sensed her reluctance to embrace him and John, feeling her disdain as soon as the wedding was over. Theyre either dead or in jail., Even before her killing on March 25, it was clear Bonnie Harkey was slowing down. The Johnsons and the Harkeys became great friends, going out to dinner and traveling to gospel concerts in Marble Falls and Burnet. Bruce Harkey, 59, said in interviews with The Associated Press before his arrest that he had long ago reached an agreement to buy part of Pressley's estate. If he was coming to worship and study, that was fine, but we didnt want that anger, explained Pastor Sam Crosby. What are the 12 general lab safety rules. https://medium.com/crime-seen/tommy-lee-the-pecan-tree-405a00df9dbf, Tommy Lee Jones Owns a 3,000-Acre Cattle Ranch in Texas. John Spong writes primarily about popular culture. This labor-intensive process takes time and costs money. Friendly beer nerd. 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. Later that day, Bonnie Harkey's body was found covered. House in Roubaix, Hauts-de-France, France Contact. No detail in his orchards escaped him. Family members have fought a long battle in court over who would inherit those lands after the death of Bonnie Harkey. How much money can you make off a pecan tree? The Harkey brothers lined up the lucrative deal to sell the orchard to the movie stars agent. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Why are pecans more expensive than almonds? Top 3 Results for Bonnie Harkey. Bruce, upset about being left again, told a co-worker at the nursing home that he was contemplating Kamis murder. Dateline NBC will air a report on the Harkey family on April 23 at 10pm. There are no secrets around here, and if there is a secret, someone will make up a story to fill in the gaps, explained Boyd. Where do most of the u, s. pecans come from? 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. The best result we found for your search is Bonnie Heakins Harkey age 60s in Charlotte, NC in the Sardis Woods neighborhood. But today, there are no Harkeys left on the farm. Authorities say Harkey had a deal to sell his stepmother's pecan ranch in San Saba County for more than $570,000, but couldn't agree with Johnson on how much to give Bonnie Harkey. Bruce was infuriated. Hipster-friendly tv practitioner. And I wont do that. Harkey was, recalled family friend Donna Bush, one of the sweetest ladies I ever knew.. Search Begins for Missing Bonnie Harkey Police recall that Karen Johnson's death seemed unusual when they arrived at the scene -- and they were very concerned that Bonnie Harkey, who had dementia and health issues, was missing from the home. It was Riley, a man with a long, bushy goatee and square head, who purchased the initial 113.9-acre tract for a farm in Harkeyville in 1885, and it was on this farm that his grandson and eventual heir, Olga Bryan Harkey, was born, in 1898. Im gonna be out of town. The fourteen-day-old infant was buried in the city cemetery the next day; two of Bruces wedding ushers were among the pallbearers, and Riley helped Bruce pick out the gray granite headstone. Harkey was charged after authorities discovered he had paid $500 to 29-year-old Carl Wade Pressley, Bonnie Harkeys adoptive grandson, to make her gone this weekend. Harkey promised Pressley and his common-law wife, Lillian King, another $55,000 once Bonnie Harkey was dead. Trending on Oxygen. Harkey was arrested and charged with solicitation of murder.. And then there was cotton root rot, the most pernicious of diseases, which could kill a tree from the inside. This was all Harkey before, the whole area, he told me, stretching his hand out. San Saba County The door to the Harkey familys historic house. In one anecdote he liked to tell, she made her feelings clear one afternoon when the family was in her new desert rose Thunderbird. Who owns the largest pecan orchard in the world? The sentencing hearings for Carl and Lillian took place a couple of weeks later at the San Saba County courthouse. No longer a single mother, Bonnie found herself joining clubs, making friends, and sliding into the comfortable life she had always wanted. 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. The judge disagreed, sending Bruce to federal prison for five years. 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 leading producer in pecans in the united states? But when Brown arrived at the house, hefound a puzzling scene. During the interrogation, Price asked Carl a question. Rileys wife, Joan, had recently walked out on him and their twoboys after a troubledmarriage, packingup her Ford stationwagon and hightailing it to the desert of Nevada. 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. She agreed, and after sitting together at the foot of the bed, Carl lunged toward her with a pillow. Hed planned to smother Bonnie with a pillow at naptime and then sneak out, but when Karen spotted him as she answered the door, he panicked, tackling her in a bear hug and throwing her to the floor, where he suffocated her beneath his body weight. Second of all, if I thought somebody needed killing that bad, I would take care of it myself., Investigators, however, had reasons to be suspicious. 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. And he paid another family member to do it. 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. He was released in December 2007, and after a brief stint in an Austin halfway house,Bruce returned to San Saba for good. Bruce and Judi were devastated. new . kxan.com 'Pecan Queen's' grandson gets life in prison for her death | KXAN.com When Bonnie and Karen got home, he texted Lillian, who was to come back and ring the doorbell, serving as a distraction while he tiptoed into Bonnies bedroom. Pressley and King have both pleaded guilty to murder charges and await sentencing, according to the San Saba County District Clerks office. He had lived with Bonnie for a few years as a teenager, and his grandmother spoiled him, indulging every whim: when he ruined his truck, she bought him a new one; when he said he wanted to raise Boer goats, she bought him a flock of redheaded kids; when he brought home a stray dog, she let him keep it. 2012-2023, 2paragraphs Productions, LLC. Bonnies caretaker, a fifty-year-old redhead named Karen Johnson, was sprawled facedown just inside the front door, atop the floral doormat. 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. Bonnie is related to Rodney Alan Harkey and Claire Woodslayer Heakins as well as 3 additional people. They didnt care if they were in public or not. Taylor Prewitt is the newsletter editor for Texas Monthly. It didnt help that Bonnie was showing signs of dementia. View 19 photos $1,262,694 Bonnie Harkey owned the walnut farm and had given 94 acres of it to a grandson, Carl Wade Pressley. An agent for Hollywood movie star Tommy Lee Jones made a tentative unsigned offer of $574,000 for the family-owned orchard back in May 2011, Burnet County District Attorney Sonny McAfee said. That weekend turned out to be when the murders happened. It also uncovered a dark tale of family, greed, and hate. 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. Though Connie became her temporary guardian, more instability ensued. Bonnie Harkey owned the pecan farm and had willed 94 acres of it to a grandson, Carl Wade Pressley. He rekindled a romance with a high school girlfriend, Jennifer Karnes, whom he persuaded to move to Lubbock and marry him, but she grew unbearably homesick and their union lasted only three months. What is the average price of pecans per pound? He sat right on that chair by the door and talked about it one day for a long time, about how he had it all fixed and there wouldnt be any problems, Oliver told me recently. EDHEC Alumni. Where was Bonnie? He knew the house well; since the early sixties, generations of San Sabans had attended the church suppers and cookouts hosted there by Bonnie Harkey, the familys matriarch. One of Bruce Harkeys attorneys, Richard Davis, said their testimony was not credible, and he said no evidence linked Bruce Harkey to the killings. The animals died from smoke inhalation. These nuts have a praline-flavored coating, making them a crunchy, but no less sweet, alternative to the thick, chewy praline burger. But the marriage couldnt weather their sorrow, and by January they had divorced. Their pecan farm became a multi-million dollar business. Jump to: Biography Memories Family Tree Followers Connie Harkey's Biography Season 10 Episode 10 - Videos 1:13 Preview Texas Double Murder Was "Epic Tale Of Greed" 1:46 Preview A portrait of Bonnie used in her obituary. 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.