- ♪
- female narrator: After six years of marriage,
they had the picture-perfect family.
- They were settling into this sort of respectable life.
Uh, they had two children, they owned a nice house.
- They were living the american dream.
- ♪
- narrator: But one fateful February night, that dream
comes to a screeching halt on a florida roadside.
- The vehicle was still in the ditch with the lights on.
You could see what appeared to be a man,
slumped over the steering wheel.
- Narrator: As investigators look into the accident,
suspicions begin to rise.
- David: I got a call from the medical examiner's office.
This person did not have a car wreck.
- That was the first time I had delivered a death message
and the victim's relative was upset about an autopsy.
- Narrator: When detectives peel back the layers
of this mysterious death,
they uncover a string of cold-blooded crimes...
With a scandalous connection.
- He was shot while he was lying on the sofa
by a high-caliber shotgun.
- He stepped out once and shot her between the eyes.
- He was the only common denominator in three homicides.
- Winston: A man that's in love with an evil woman
can be led down paths he wouldn't normally go.
- Ben: It was just pure, unadulterated sexual power.
You could not make this stuff up.
- ♪
♪♪
- narrator: February 2nd, 1985,
bradford county, florida.
It's just after 11:45pm when a 911 call
comes into the sheriff's office.
The caller reports that she's just spotted a worrisome scene
on the side of a remote highway.
- Ben: She came up on a car straddling a drainage ditch.
The lights were on, the motor was running,
but the car looked like it had run off the road.
- [siren wails]
- narrator: Within minutes of the call,
first responders arrive on the scene.
- We approached the car to try to determine:
Was there anything that we needed to do as far as
trying to assist anyone?
I looked in the vehicle, and indeed, you could see
what appeared to be a man slumped over the steering wheel.
- He was sitting behind the wheel, his head
leaning over toward the steering wheel
and blood matted in his hair
on the left side of his head.
- David: We were able to open up the passenger's side door,
and I checked for a pulse.
- Ben: They find no pulse.
So the two officers pull him out,
lay him down on the side of the road.
They attempt cpr, there's no, uh, response.
- ♪
- ben: They pull out his driver's license,
and they identify that this is joe banister.
- ♪
- ken: Joe banister was born in may of 1943.
He grew up in the 40s and the 50s
in gainesville, florida.
- Narrator: After graduating high school,
joe attended the university of florida.
But he quickly realized that college wasn't for him.
- I think his dad maybe wanted for joe to go
to the university of florida and get, you know, a degree,
and that wasn't what he wanted.
- Joe attended the university of florida for two years.
And he left the university and joined the air force.
- Narrator: After nearly five years in the service,
25-year-old joe returned to northern florida
in search of someone to spend the rest of his life with.
- Linda: I was 20,
and I met him through my brother.
They worked for western electric.
Joe and I both had a lot going for us.
He was happy with his job.
They were doing installation of equipment for at&t.
Joe was attractive in a rough, manly type of way.
Dark haired, dark eyed.
- Narrator: Joe and linda fell head over heels for each other.
- When we were dating, joe would bring flowers
and a few presents and an engagement ring,
and then a wedding ring to go with it.
We had a big family wedding.
- Narrator: But their marital bliss didn't last long.
- Joe and I thought we were in love, you know, that it would be
a forever thing.
But it just wasn't the marriage I expected.
It was kind of gradual.
You know, joe's anger started surfacing.
When I tried to talk to him, he just, you know, would
shut down, would not really talk to me about the things
that were bothering him.
And by our second anniversary,
I really did not see that we were going to have a third,
so we filed for a divorce and got it.
- Narrator: Unfortunately, joe's struggles with love
didn't end there.
- Ken: Joe then had a quick rebound marriage that ended
with his wife leaving him and moving to las vegas.
You can easily say that joe was looking for love,
but he just hadn't found it yet.
Joe then meets a 19-year-old
named debbie thigpen.
Joe was actually many years older than debbie.
And despite the age difference, they quickly connected.
- She had a good job, and she was an attractive woman.
And they dated.
- ♪
- narrator: Growing up, debbie had a special bond
with her sister, marlene.
The sisters seemed to do everything together,
even in their pursuit of love.
- Debbie and marlene was very close.
They both dropped out of high school and got married.
- Narrator: But only a year into her marriage,
19-year-old debbie had grown restless
and ventured outside of the relationship.
- Ben: She was looking for some more excitement.
Debbie started running around with joe banister,
so that was exciting and thrilling and scandalous.
- Joe was older, he could provide for her.
He was a man of substance.
- At one point, her husband found this stack of letters
from joe banister, so he confronted debbie,
and debbie just moved out on him.
She and joe started living together,
and her divorce was finalized early in 1978.
And just a couple months later,
she and joe banister got married.
- Narrator: Within a couple of years,
debbie transformed from wild child to working mother.
- Even though their marriage sort of started out kind of
in a scandal, it seemed like they were settling into
this sort of respectable life.
Uh, they had two children in the first three years.
Joe banister continued to work for western electric.
They owned a nice house.
- Debbie had a--a really good position at sun bank,
at the time, in gainesville.
Um, as she was a loan officer.
- Narrator: By the beginning of 1985, this florida couple
had built a life to be proud of.
- Pamela: They looked good together.
And they were always very nice and cheerful.
- Ken: Joe and debbie seemed to be very happy.
They were raising their children.
They were living the american dream.
- ♪
- narrator: But after 6 years of blissful marriage,
their world is upended on the night of February 2, 1985,
when 41-year-old joe banister is found dead
on the side of the road.
- We're responding there that night, ah, thinking
that we're responding to a car accident.
- Winston: There was minimal damage to the front of
the truck, which indicated it didn't hit that ditch and break
doing a great amount of speed.
- After seeing this, we know we have a traffic crash,
but it certainly looks suspicious.
- It didn't seem like running into this drainage ditch
would've been a hard enough blow to kill him.
- The first thing we observed
is a shattered window
that was on the driver's side of that vehicle.
So, this caused us to wonder:
Why would the window break when there's been no collision?
- Narrator: Investigators take their flashlights back up
to the road in search of additional clues.
- As we got up the road, we looked for evidence of any kind
of collision prior to this vehicle being in the ditch.
There was no car parts.
No broken headlights.
So, we didn't have any reason to believe that any impact
occurred prior to this vehicle running in the ditch.
No collision occurred, and here's a shattered window.
That's kind of a quandary.
- ♪
- narrator: With nothing left to uncover at the scene,
joe's body is sent to the morgue for an autopsy.
But that doesn't mean the night is over for investigators.
- That night, the one thing they knew they had to do
was notify his family.
- Winston: I arrived at the banister home
at around 1:20am
to deliver a death message to the victim's wife.
I knocked on the door, and mrs. Banister come to the door.
I told her that, uh, her husband was dead and had been involved
in an--in an accident.
Debra appeared, uh, somewhat shocked
and somewhat...Uh, emotional.
And she asked me, "where was the body?"
- one of the things that was so weird is when he told her
that they were gonna do an autopsy, she started screaming,
"oh, no! He'll be cut up! He'll be cut up!"
- ♪
- narrator: Coming up:
Investigators find their suspicions confirmed.
- We were told this person did not have a car wreck.
And that's when it certainly became
a completely different situation.
- Narrator: And a bizarre connection to another crime
is uncovered.
- Ben: This cannot be coincidental.
You cannot have two dead husbands
three weeks apart.
- ♪
- narrator: After finding 41-year-old joe banister dead
on the side of a remote highway,
investigators in bradford county, florida,
have just delivered the tragic news to his wife, debbie.
- Winston: She said, "well, I'm not gonna agree to an autopsy."
and I informed her that was not a decision that she could make,
that it was a matter of procedure.
So that ended that conversation.
- ♪
- that was the first time I had delivered a death message
and the victim's relative
was upset about an autopsy.
- David: It did kind of bother me, uh, and concern me.
I was, uh, eagerly waiting the call from the medical examiner,
uh, knowing that that would answer some questions for us.
- Narrator: On Monday morning, just 36 hours after
the mysterious crash, investigator aderholt gets
the call he has been waiting for.
- David: I got a call from the medical examiner's office,
and we were told joe banister did not have a car wreck,
that was not the result this person has, uh--
had two gunshot wounds.
One of them was a grazing type wound to the back of the head.
The second shot was a shot through the brain that--
uh, that caused his immediate death.
- There's a 22-caliber bullet in joe banister's skull.
- It explained some things,
but, uh, you would have thought we could have seen more
at the scene, it was a shock to me.
And that's when it certainly
became a--a completely different situation.
- At that point, the entire case had exploded,
'cause now he realized he has a homicide on his hands.
- David: There was a sense of urgency to get it done
as quickly as we could so we could
relieve the fears of the community.
- Narrator: With joe's death being reclassified
as a homicide, investigators immediately spring into action.
They track down joe's wife, debbie,
to speak with her again and deliver the news.
- Pamela: It was a shock.
The thought of that someone would have shot joe was just...
Unreal, 'cause he was such a nice person.
It was just an unbelievable time
of not understanding how this could have happened.
- Narrator: Detectives turn to debbie
to help retrace joe's final hours.
Debbie says that on the night of the murder,
she met joe for dinner with friends.
- Ben: She was gonna drop the kids off with her sister,
marlene, so it'd just be the two of them with this other couple.
- Ken: Debbie tells investigators
that her and joe left the restaurant after dinner
at about 10:30pm in separate cars.
- Narrator: But joe never returned home.
- Debbie says that she called the police
to report joe missing.
- Narrator: Debbie is unable to offer any clues
as to who might have gunned joe down,
and investigators can't cross her off the suspect list
just yet.
- Ben: Investigators have no idea what could've explained
this guy getting shot.
And I think the most important next step was
they got a phone call
from the alachua county sheriff's office in gainesville.
- [phone rings]
- narrator: On February 5th, the call comes
into the bradford county sheriff's office from
investigators charlie sanders and farnell cole, who are
working a murder case of their own in the neighboring county.
- Farnell: We had been working this case since the first week
of January.
It was this guy named cecil batie was murdered
in the early morning hours of January 6th.
- Ken: Cecil was shot while he was lying on the sofa
through a picture window by a high-caliber shotgun.
- Pamela: Cecil's murder was all over the news.
And so it was a shock to, I think, the community,
because you would not see this normally in gainesville.
- ♪
- narrator: The detectives tell bradford county investigators
that they're calling because they've found an eerie
connection between the murders of cecil batie and joe banister.
- Ben: Cecil batie was marlene's ex-husband.
The link connecting the two was the two sisters--
debbie and marlene.
- ♪
- narrator: Investigators from both murder cases
meet in order to compare notes.
- Everything that we obtained on our case we shared
immediately with them.
Unfortunately, we had no eyewitnesses.
We did not have anyone to place a vehicle or a person
in the yard at the time of cecil's shooting.
- Narrator: What investigators learn is that marlene and cecil
had divorced, and it was not without its battles.
- Cecil and marlene were going through a custody battle,
and I can see it was stressful on him.
He told us he was not gonna let her have those kids.
- Narrator: Cecil was marlene's high school sweetheart.
They were married for five years and had two kids together.
- People who lived over in the area where cecil and marlene
lived did think that it had to do with the custody hearing.
Speculation was that marlene had something to do with it.
- Narrator: But with no evidence pointing toward the shooter,
and marlene having a solid alibi,
the investigation had reached a standstill.
That is, until the murder of joe banister.
- That was such a red flag when marlene's husband
was killed in January, and her sister's husband, joe,
was killed.
That's just not a coincidence.
- Narrator: Investigators now zero in on debbie and marlene
as their main suspects.
- Farnell: We had two sisters who, within a period of weeks,
had their husbands murdered.
And that's enough of a--a coincidence that we
immediately started to look at it as a single
person being involved.
- Ben: The same day that these cops are meeting together,
they subpoenaed marlene to come in for an interview
on February 8.
- Narrator: But the day before their scheduled meeting
with marlene, investigators catch a break.
- The plot thickens on February 7th
when ralph smith, who was marlene's live-in boyfriend,
voluntarily comes to the cops and tells them he's afraid
for his own life because we've got joe banister dead,
we got cecil batie dead.
Ralph smith figured, "I'm the next one on the list."
- narrator: Ralph explains the connection between
joe and cecil's deaths is not lost on him.
- Ralph smith. He had convinced himself
he was going to be killed too.
- Narrator: And ralph doesn't think marlene and debbie
are plotting alone.
- So he comes in and tells the cops that there's this
suspicious guy who's been hanging out with debbie.
- Narrator: Ralph says that a man by the name of
john wayne hearn first showed up just days earlier.
- Debbie introduces him as her long-lost cousin
from south carolina who she hasn't seen in five years.
But they're not acting like cousins,
they're all over each other.
People were thinking, "something is wrong here."
- ♪
- narrator: Coming up:
Investigators question marlene and debbie about their alibis.
- This actually would put her somewhere else
during the time of the incident.
- Narrator: And a possible suspect
is found to be hiding in plain sight.
- He was actively advertising for work in the back
of the "soldier of fortune" magazine.
It said he would do dirty deeds.
- ♪
- narrator: On February 7th, 1985,
five days after the homicide of joe banister,
investigators receive a tip from ralph smith,
the estranged boyfriend of joe's sister-in-law, marlene.
- Ralph smith.
He was actively trying to get information.
And he talked about this strange guy, this guy
that's always with marlene's sister, debbie banister.
- Narrator: After learning about this mysterious man
in debbie's life, detectives wonder if joe banister's death
could be tied to some sort of affair,
and they hope debbie's sister, marlene, might be able
to shed some light on the matter.
- Ben: So on February 8th,
marlene comes in for her interview
to the alachua county sheriff's office.
Unexpectedly, debbie banister shows up with her.
- ♪
- narrator: Investigators question both
marlene and debbie separately.
They start by asking marlene
about the night of debbie's husband's murder.
- Farnell: One of the things in question was a timeline
of which debbie had left her children the night
of the banister homicide with her sister.
When the two of them were independently interviewed,
there was basically an hour difference in the time allegedly
that the children were picked up by debbie.
It was definitely a problem with the two of them
not telling the same story.
- ♪
- narrator: As detectives press debbie in the other
interrogation room, she finally admits that john wayne hearn
isn't actually her cousin.
- Ben: Debbie said, "it's platonic.
We met several years ago," when she was living in alabama,
and john wayne hearn was driving a truck in alabama.
So they just, early on,
insisted that the whole thing was platonic.
At a certain point, debbie pretty much refused
to answer any more questions.
- Narrator: After getting stonewalled by debbie and
marlene, detectives are certain the sisters know more
than they are letting on.
But with no evidence directly tying them to the murder,
detectives follow up on their only other potential lead.
- They wanted to find out any information that they could
about john wayne hearn.
- Farnell: We had several different people come forward
and say they don't know who he is or what he is,
but he sure is a lot of places nowadays and, a lot of times,
in the company of debbie banister.
- Narrator: Investigators discover
that 39-year-old john wayne hearn
is a war vet with a home address in atlanta, georgia.
- John wayne hearn did three tours of duty in vietnam.
He was a weapons specialist.
- During the war, he received a purple heart,
which is very remarkable.
- Narrator: But investigators are surprised to learn that
mr. Hearn's military experience has him in hot water
with another agency.
- Ben: The cops got in touch
with the georgia bureau of investigation.
And they were aware that john wayne hearn was running
an ad in "soldier of fortune" magazine offering to do
high-risk assignments, like bodyguard work.
- Farnell: "soldier of fortune" magazine was mainly, uh,
geared toward people who were ex-military veterans
and thrill seekers.
- Ben: They sold anything in the world
that you could imagine.
They started running classified service ads.
- Farnell: One such ad was one that john wayne hearn had,
saying he would do things for money
and gave a list of his military experience, said,
uh, he would do dirty deeds.
He became a large target at that point of our investigation.
- ♪
- narrator: On February 13th, investigators contact
john wayne hearn, and he agrees to an interview.
They start off by asking him about his ad
in "soldier of fortune."
- ben: A buddy of his told him that you can get paid
$200, 300 a day as a bodyguard to protect celebrities,
oil executives, rock stars, you name it.
So, they decided to run a classified ad
in "soldier of fortune" magazine.
- Narrator: When the conversation shifts to debbie,
john denies any romance with the young widow.
- Ken: John wayne hearn tells investigators that
his relationship with debbie is strictly platonic.
- Narrator: John claims he was with his mother and young son
in south carolina when joe banister was killed.
After the interview,
investigators follow up on john's alibi.
- We went to south carolina to interview mary watson,
who was john wayne hearn's mother.
And at that point in time, she was adamant that john
and his child were with her, and there was no way
he could have been involved with anything nefarious.
- Narrator: But investigators sense that mary
is holding something back.
- She was stonewalling that she didn't know debbie banister.
- Narrator: Growing more frustrated by the minute,
detective cole steps out of the interrogation room.
- I walked down the hall, and john's son was sitting there
coloring at a table.
And I walked by him and said, "hey,
you live in south carolina, don't you?"
and he said, "yeah."
I said, "I live in florida down by mickey mouse."
he says, "I just saw mickey mouse."
I said, "yeah, when?"
he said, "last weekend.
"me and my new sisters and my new momma
and my daddy went to see disneyland."
- ben: He pulled out a photograph of debbie banister
and said, "do you know her?"
and the boy said, "yeah, that's my new momma."
- ♪
- narrator: Detective cole returns
to the interrogation room
and confronts john hearn's mother.
- I walked back in and cussed her again,
throwed the picture down.
I said, "well, you might be telling me the truth,
"but your grandson's lying, 'cause he said he was
in disneyland with this woman last week."
and that's when she broke down,
and she told us she had lied about his alibi.
- Narrator: But revealing that john wasn't with her
on the night of joe's murder isn't all mary has to offer.
- John wayne hearn's mother realized that her son had been
caught and realized that the best thing she could do
for him to lessen what he had to face,
she needed to cooperate with us.
She had evidence that we desperately needed
and had no idea even existed.
- Narrator: Mary explains that she installed a recorder
on her phone years ago, and realized recently that it had
recorded conversations between debbie and john wayne hearn.
- Mary had actually set up an answering machine,
and she recorded every call she got on cassettes.
She had boxes of cassettes.
At that point, she turned over cassette tapes,
wherein there were phone conversations between
debbie banister and john wayne hearn.
Debbie banister and john wayne hearn.
- Farnell: A majority of the tapes were about
their budding love life.
At the same time, there was discussion about her husband
and things that were to come.
And things that were to come.
- Ben: That was the single most important piece of evidence
that the cops had in florida about joe banister's murder.
- ♪
- narrator: Coming up: A stunning confession
uncovers a treasure trove of new evidence.
- Farnell: There was a thousand-dollar check.
He had it mailed to his mother.
So she was nosy enough that she checked it out and copied it.
- Narrator: And the body count continues to rise.
- The cop says his wife was just shot and killed
two weeks earlier.
- ♪
- narrator: After being stonewalled at every angle,
investigators have finally hit a breakthrough
in the murder case of joe banister
from the most shocking source.
- Farnell: John wayne hearn's mother gave us phone recordings
between debbie banister and john wayne hearn concerning
everything from love talk to, uh,
actually planning out the murder.
- Narrator: But mary isn't quite finished yet.
She then hands over a mysterious photocopy
of a cashier's check made out to john for $1,000.
- Farnell: He had it mailed to his mother
while he was out on the road.
So she was nosy enough that she checked it out
and copied it.
- The return address on that envelope was to a man
named "bob black" in texas.
- Narrator: Investigators are now tasked with answering
the questions:
Who is this bob black, and what is he paying for?
- Ben: They started going through john wayne hearn's
long-distance phone bills, and they find a number
from bryan, texas.
And a local cop in gainesville calls the sheriff's office
in bryan, texas, and says, "I'm working on a murder case
in florida, can you tell me whose phone number this is?"
and they say, "yeah, it's a guy named bob black.
His wife was just shot and killed two weeks earlier."
- narrator: 36-year-old sandra black was gunned down
in her own home on February 21st.
Local police suspect her husband, bob, to be involved,
but the case has been at a standstill.
The news solidifies investigators'
disturbing theory.
- John wayne hearn was acting the character
of a hired hit man.
- ♪
- he was the only common denominator in three homicides.
- Narrator: Investigators immediately obtain
an arrest warrant for john wayne hearn,
only to find he has disappeared.
- ♪
- farnell: I actually sent word through his mother, mary,
that the sisters might wanna kill him too and told him,
"you needed to turn yourself in for safety."
that's what changed his mind.
- Narrator: On March 15th, john wayne hearn turns himself
in to police in brazos county, texas,
and detectives immediately press him for answers.
- Each time we would corner him up with a question that he
really didn't wanna answer, he often would break down
and--and cry outright.
Mid-part of the next day, as I recall, he actually broke down,
went through one of his long crying spells and came out
and started telling the truth.
- Narrator: John finally admits that everything started
with the ad he placed in "soldier of fortune" magazine.
- Ben: The day the ad came out,
his phone started ringing off the hook.
Nobody was asking for bodyguard work,
mostly it was kill people.
- Narrator: John says he ignored most of the messages
until debbie banister called in October of 1984.
- Ben: He thought maybe she's young, she sounds sexy.
And so he suggested a romantic rendezvous
at shoney's big boy restaurant on interstate 75.
- Narrator: At the meeting, debbie told john she needed
help intimidating her brother-in-law, cecil batie.
- That was solely over a custody battle that was coming
to a head within a--a week or two after that.
- Narrator: John agreed to help, giving little thought
to the work and more thought to getting debbie into bed.
- At the very end of the day, they're back at shoney's.
She leaned across the table and kissed him
on the end of the nose.
And at that point
it was just pure, unadulterated sexual power.
You could not make this stuff up.
This momma's boy with no criminal record was a goner.
Um, he, the week after that, came to gainesville,
uh, got a motel room, they started this torrid love affair.
And fairly early on...
She upped the ante on him.
Debbie went from talking about,
"you need to get the kids back from cecil batie,"
to, "you need to get cecil out of our life.
How much would you charge to kill him?"
- ♪
- ben: He said $30,000.
She started working the price down.
And then finally she got him down to $10,000.
And he said, "okay, I'll do it for $10,000."
- ♪
- narrator: But on the night of cecil's murder,
john was having second thoughts.
- He actually went to the scene,
and talked his self out of it, drove back.
He did that a couple of times.
But he talked his self into it a third time and, this time,
he deliberately pulled in, got out,
walked straight up to the window and shot down
through the window and killed cecil batie.
So john wayne hearn confessed to killing cecil.
- ♪
- narrator: But john says the murder didn't satisfy
his lover, it only whetted her appetite.
- Farnell: Debbie decided this was easy.
Why not have her husband killed?
- Ben: Debbie knew that she was the beneficiary
of joe banister's insurance,
and they were gonna use that money--
she and john wayne hearn-- to build their dream home.
- He said he was always having second thoughts about it,
up until the time he actually killed him.
John wayne hearn did this as much for love
as he did for money.
- Narrator: According to john, he and debbie
were together on February 2nd,
just hours before her dinner plans with joe.
- Ben: Debbie and hearn spent the whole afternoon making love
in a motel,
and they kind of talked everything through.
Debbie was gonna arrange for joe to go out to dinner.
And then the plan was, they would be in separate cars,
and on the way home, john wayne hearn was gonna
run him off the road and shoot him.
- ♪
- narrator: That evening, debbie left john to meet
joe and another couple for dinner.
After their dinner, joe was driving home alone
when john wayne hearn drove up beside him.
- John wayne hearn rolls down the passenger window
of his own truck, lays the rifle in the crook of the window,
and shoots him twice in the head.
- [gunshot]
[gunshot]
- ♪
- narrator: After the murders of her husband
and brother-in-law,
debbie wasn't ready to call it quits
with john's "soldier of fortune" ad.
However, john soon expressed his desire to end the business.
- Debbie said to him, "what's wrong with you?
"you've already killed two people.
You shouldn't have a conscience."
- ♪
- narrator: Coming up: More bloodshed comes to light.
- Debbie tells him to go in and don't have a conscience.
- Ben: He went up and shot her.
The kill shot right between the eyes.
- Narrator: But will the triggerman point to debbie
as the brains behind the crimes?
- Winston: At the end of his testimony,
state attorney said, "well, what are your feelings
about debra banister now?"
he said, "I love her with all my heart."
- ♪
- narrator: On March 16th, 1985,
john wayne hearn has confessed to two murders,
but he doesn't stop there.
John says that debbie wanted to continue
the murder-for-hire business.
- They immediately started running the--the switchboard,
at that time, setting up new jobs.
- Narrator: Debbie and john quickly zeroed in
on their first client: Bob black.
- Bob black hired john wayne hearn to kill
his wife, sandra, because he was having a torrid love affair.
He also convinced sandra to sign for and pay
for a new $100,000 life insurance policy.
- John wayne hearn tells investigators that he did not
want to kill sandra black.
Debbie tells him to go in and don't have a conscience.
- ♪
- narrator: John gave in to his lover, and just two weeks
after gunning down debbie's husband,
he traveled to bryan, texas.
While bob black established his alibi elsewhere,
john hid in the house until sandra black returned home.
- He stepped out once and shot her.
The first shot didn't kill her, and so she was
lying on the floor, gasping for breath.
And he went up and shot her between the eyes.
A kill shot right between the eyes.
- Narrator: Debbie seemed pleased with john
for following through.
But things drastically changed when debbie heard that
john's mother, mary watson, was interviewed.
- At that point, debbie dropped john wayne hearn
like a hot potato.
She told him, "you gotta get out of here.
You gotta get on the run."
he had done all of this for love,
and she cut him loose in a heartbeat.
- ♪
- narrator: Based on john's statement,
investigators are able to move forward
with multiple arrest warrants.
- We may not have been able to bring charges against
because of lack of evidence, he gave us what we needed.
That confession allowed us to add charges to the sisters.
- Narrator: On April 15th, debbie banister is taken
into custody along with her two alleged accomplices.
- Farnell: Debbie's reaction was very combative.
She showed out and said that she wasn't involved,
and people were lying, and I was wrong,
and a few names were called and, at that point in time,
then she converted it into a tearful mother.
- Narrator: In an effort to avoid the death penalty,
john wayne hearn pleads guilty to all three murders
and agrees to testify against debbie at her trial.
In August 1985, john takes the stand.
- Farnell: John wayne hearn said she convinced him,
she was madly in love with him and needed to get her husband
out of the way so they could be together happily ever after.
- Winston: At the end of his testimony, state attorney said,
"well, what are your feelings about debra banister now?"
he said, "I love her with all my heart."
- during the trial, the attorney for debbie banister
brought up a theory that john, he did it because he was
so upset that she would leave him.
He had took it on his self to--to kill joe banister.
We had numerous phone recordings that, uh, showed
a much different attitude when the two were talking
after joe banister's death.
- Narrator: On August 23rd, 1985,
the jury announces they have decided debbie's fate.
- Debbie banister ultimately was found guilty of
second-degree murder, and she was sentenced to 17 years
in a state penitentiary.
- ♪
- narrator: Debbie faces no charges in the death
of sandra black, but when it comes to the murder
of her former brother-in-law,
she doesn't take her chances in court.
- For cecil batie's murder, debbie pleads
no contest to conspiracy to commit murder
and receives a 30-year prison sentence.
Marlene pleads no contest to conspiracy
to commit first-degree murder,
and she received a five-and-a-half-year sentence.
- Narrator: John wayne hearn avoids the death penalty,
but receives three life sentences,
all in the name of love.
- A man that's in love with an evil woman...
Can be led down paths he wouldn't normally go.
- Pamela: You have choices in life.
We all have choices.
And debbie decided to take lives,
and not only ruin her life,
but a lot of people's lives.
She's just a selfish individual.
- ♪