IE 11 is not supported. Despite these outbursts, she continued to write checks for him. 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. He did odd jobs, helped out around the farm, and went into town to buy groceries for Bonnie, who had started to grow feeble. Local columnist Lindy Lieban Schulz voiced the collective unease. Pressley and his girlfriend, Lillian King, face charges in San Saba and Leon counties. Texas Monthly Is Nominated for Two 2023 Media Awards by the James Beard Foundation. 4:12 Cold Justice An Exclusive Look Into the Case of Steven Phelps. Nothin. kxan.com 'Pecan Queen's' grandson gets life in prison for her death | KXAN.com The gravestone for Bruces firstborn, Eric Harkey, in the San Saba City Cemetery. 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. Bonnie Harkey had left 94 acres in her will to Pressley, who then sold that interest to Bruce Harkey and his brother for about $70,000, prosecutor Sonny McAfee said. Taylor Prewitt is the newsletter editor for Texas Monthly. At her hearing, Lillian, her pale blond hair held back by a white scrunchie, sobbed uncontrollably. (The official cause of death was aspiration asphyxiation.) View 11 photos $963,709 3767 sqft. Lillian, meanwhile, kept Bonnie occupied in the wood-paneled living room, their conversation and the TV muffling the sounds of Karens struggle. Were trying to figure out who Tommy Lee Jones plays in the movie, he quipped, if he doesnt play himself.. Who else is involved in this?, Carl paused for a moment and looked down. 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. She was the closest thing to a mother I ever had, he said, choking back tears. 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. How many pounds of unshelled pecans make a pound of shelled pecans? Certified twitter advocate. Bruce Harkey, who had been taking care of the orchard, was fired sometime during 2011, McAfee said. Queen of the County, Part 4 - NBC News Bonnie Harkey and Karen Johnson Find-A-Grave: Bonnie Katherine Sawyer Harkey Bruce Harkey on Trial for Capital Murder Woman Kidnapped, Buried Alive, Was Victim Of Murder- For-Hire-Plot Co-conspirators are sentenced in San Saba County double-murder A Tree Is Known By Its Fruit The death of the 'Pecan Queen' Bonnie Harkey, Texas Pecan Queen, Killed By Grandson 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. There was drought and sudden freeze and poor soil drainage. The paramedics who arrived five minutes later quickly determined she was dead. 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. Bonnie let the baby die because he was a threat to her, because he was the firstborn male heir to Harkey Farms, he told me. If there was a club in town, she belonged to it, said Betty Ann Johnson, a San Saba resident and Bonnies friend of forty years. 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. Tommy Lee & the Pecan Trees - Medium Riley would tell her something wasnt right, and she would say it was, and theyd get in a big fuss over it.. Teenage flirtation gave way to sobering reality with an unexpected pregnancy, however, and the two were married in August 1969, on a Friday evening at the start of Bruces senior year. Season 10 Episode 10 - Videos 1:13 Preview Texas Double Murder Was "Epic Tale Of Greed" 1:46 Preview But the marriage couldnt weather their sorrow, and by January they had divorced. 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. (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. An old holiday photo of Bonnie and her grandson Carl Pressley. San Saba County *With an incidental appearance by Tommy Lee Jones. How much can you make off one pecan tree? could tell that Brucewhose given name was Bruce Wayne, after the superherohad the keenest interest in farming. 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. An autopsy would reveal that she had been hit over the head and drowned in the shallow water. Back in San Saba, meanwhile, Bonnie and Riley had become grandparents again. But his narcissism did little to endear him to the residents of San Saba. Who owns the Harkey pecan Farm? - Rattleinnaustin.com A day earlier, San Saba residents had attended a funeral service for Karen; now they crowded into First Baptist for Bonnies. But thats not all Carl Pressley told investigators. Bruce claimed hed been framed in the federal case, but many around town distrusted him, suspecting something was amiss in the Harkey family. Scanner chatter is a rich source of gossip in this tiny Central Texas city of 3,099, and ears perked up that Sunday as paramedics and law enforcement officers rushed four miles west of town to Harkeyville, where a 1927 red-brick house sat among three hundred acres of pecan orchards. Bruce Harkey in the visitors room at the Byrd Unit, in Huntsville, in September 2014. 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. Bruce Harkey, they say, felt pressure from years of past-due child support. It didnt matter that Carl had signed away his rightsBonnie still had a life estate in the property. 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. If he was coming to worship and study, that was fine, but we didnt want that anger, explained Pastor Sam Crosby. 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. But then what happened? Who is the biggest pecan producer in the world? Then, in 2007, hed looked west, buying the 209-acre strip of farmland adjacent to Harkey Pecan Farms, where he grew wheat and grazed his horses. How many years will a pecan tree produce? John and Bruce reached out, and after some negotiation through an intermediary, Jones put down a $541,822.50 offer on the orchard. A local lawyer by the name of Dick Miller stepped in on Bonnies behalf, asking his law partner, Darrel Spinks, to get involved. I drove to San Saba in late summer. Portraits of several generations of Harkeys, including white-haired matriarch Bonnie Harkey. Bruce Harkey, 59, said in interviews with The . Bruce had taken in two of Jennifers granddaughters, and his money from the wheat field sale was going rapidly. If Riley represented security, Bonnie, for her part, embodied the kind of feminine presence that was missing from the Harkey household. 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. There was no sign of a struggle, except for a broken fingernail on Karens right hand. (Jennifer was never arrested, and John escaped public scrutiny when he died of a heart attack three months after the murders.) Bonnie Harkey, Texas Pecan Queen, Killed By Grandson - 2paragraphs April 24, 2015. The Harkey family owns hundreds of acres of walnut farmland in Central Texas. Bruce and John, however, with their inheritance in sight, had already begun some wrangling over the property. The care of the orchard was very important to him, remembered Millicans wife, Kristen, who grew up across from one of Rileys groves. Entre communaut active de 450 000 Malters en Europe, leve de fonds . For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Riley trained his sonshe told them that as Harkeys they were special.. Jun 1986 - Dec 200115 years 7 months. Some possessions were salvaged . Who is the biggest pecan growing family in the us? What's the average lifespan of a pecan tree? 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. The sergeant did his best to reassure him: Your grandmothers forgiven you for everything else.. 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. 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. He became the head of the San Saba County Pecan Growers Association, and around town, farmers sought him out for advice. The matriarch of the family, Bonnie Harkey aka The Pecan Queen, was murdered. Bonnie H Harkey from Charlotte, North Carolina | VoterRecords.com Carl, looking pudgy and sporting a large horseshoe mustache, nervously bounced his legs, his feet shackled, as he sat in his orange-and-white jumpsuit. For Bruce, the following decades would turn into a blur of shifting relationships and jobs. It was the kind of horrific end no one could have imagined for the demure Harkey matriarch. 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. Afterward, one San Saban whod witnessed all the proceedings expressed his towns pleasure in the outcome. They have also lived in Caryville, TN and Statesville, NC. Over the years, he had started to wonder whether Eric might have lived if Bonnie hadnt been the one watching him. 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. Her pecan-based desserts were legendary, often earning her first place at the countys pecan food show and a front-page mention in theSan Saba News & Star. New twist in San Saba murder-for-hire Harkeyville is north of U.S. Highway 190 two miles west of San Saba in central San Saba County. She was very good to everybody she knew too good to these people who took advantage of her, said Donna Bush., According to police, one Sunday back in the early spring while Bonnie was at church, her adopted grandson, Carl Pressley, sneaked into her home. 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.