Houston Police Officer Kent McGowen FRAMED a Young Teenage Boy as a Means of Revenge Against His Mom for Dumping Him.

Murder Most Foul: Houston Police Officer Kent McGowen looking for revenge after getting dumped and the Horrific South Carolina Murdaugh Family Deaths, but it sure helps that dad is a county prosecutor and friends with the sheriff. 

Suburban Houston Police Officer Kent McGowen was a Deacon in his Evangelical Church and served as a conservative Law and Order Bible Belt Texas Police Officer for several years. He was also a corrupt, abusive cop and a murderer. He killed a woman for dumping him after a couple of dates.  A truly wonderful documentary about this case on YouTube titled 

BADGE OF DISHONOR :                                                

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83PfoVR1Sio&t=630s

McGowen got dumped by his "girlfriend," successful nurse Susan White, after a couple of dates. McGowen was furious. His first act of revenge on Susan was to go after her teenage son, Jason Aguillard, Susan retained her third husband's name, while Jason retained his Dad's name. Officer McGowen blackmailed another teen, Michael Schaeffer, a friend of Jason's at Westfield High School, who had been arrested for drug possession. This boy's job was to entice and frame Jason Aguillard, by talking Jason into buying a stolen gun from him and then  McGowen would charge Jason with the very serious felony of gun running, which could have meant years in prison. Remember boys get tortured and raped in juvenile prisons. McGowen set the date and time to buy the gun at a fast food restaurant parking lot, making sure that other boys were present as witnesses. Immediately there was a problem, Jason made it clear from the beginning that he had no interest in buying a gun, Jason didn't even want to look at it. 

McGowen swept in anyway, arresting Jason for multiple felonies buying a gun and possessing a stolen credit card, which Jason claimed wasn't his and was planted on him. Jason wasn't charged immediately because of conflicting stories from the boys present and pending fingerprint tests for the gun. Jason repeatedly said he didn't want to even touch it. As the gun wasn't found in his possession, another boy, with an extensive criminal record had examined it and showed an interest in buying it. While the DA was deciding whether to charge Jason, Officer McGowen convinced a Republican Conservative Judge to issue a no knock search warrant for Susan and Jason's home. Officer McGowen claimed  Susan White had called the mother of the boy who set up the meeting and advised her to get an attorney, that her son might become a target of the bad people associated with this gun sale and gold her to remain silent until she talked to an attorney and the matter was sorted out. McGowen argued that she was witness tampering to protect her son and was a threat to that same witness, reminding the judge that Jason was charged with a very serious felony. The Judge granted the no knock warrant authorizing the entry into Susan White's home. Which led to McGowen entering Susan White's home with the warrant squad but strangely enough, McGowen waited until after midnight 24 HOURS AFTER THE WARRANT WAS ISSUED, entering by breaking down the door, a few seconds after entry,  McGowen shot and killed Susan after saying she had a gun, which McGowen said she pointed at him. Jason was arrested in only his underpants. Oddly McGowen lead the way, ignoring procedure to secure the premises first, instead heading directly for her bedroom, where he immediately shot and killed her. Normally, officers systematically take control of and secure a premises in effecting an arrest warrant. There was no reason to wait to serve the warrant, except McGowen hadn't finished his plan for that evening. 

"One day you'll believe me but by then I'll be dead, and it'll be because Kent McGowen killed me," she'd said."

Susan White and her son

Sheriff's Deputy Kent McGowen

Nurse Susan White met a few times while Officer McGowen patrolled her suburban Houston neighborhood. Eventually, McGowen asked her out on a date. It didn't take Susan long to decide she wasn't interested. McGowen was bossy and domineering. McGowen kept asking her out, she kept saying she was too busy. McGowen grew angry and plotted revenge, framing her son for serious felonies, which would send him to prison for several years.

At 12:30 AM on August 25, 1992, 9-1-1 got the following call. Operator: Do you need a deputy out to your house? White: They are trying to break into my house, please! Operator: What's your address? White: 3407 Amber Forest. Operator: Who's breaking into your house? White (crying): I don't know. They say they are detectives, but I have been threatened by one of them. Operator: How many is there? White (her voice sounding more frantic, the burglar alarm wailing): I don't know, but puleeze! They just broke in! Operator: What are they doing? White: Okay.... Operator: Ma'am? Meanwhile, appellant contacted his supervisor by radio and told him that Ms. White was not cooperating and sought permission to force down the door. After obtaining such permission, appellant and Deputy Morong ran to the rear door of the residence, joining Deputy Malloy. They decided Deputy Malloy would kick the door open. After kicking the door in, the home burglar alarm started screaming. Susan White was still on the phone with the 911 operator pleading for help when the alarm sounded. Appellant entered the residence first, followed by Deputy Malloy and Deputy Morong.   Appellant moved through the residence quickly, heading for Ms. White's bedroom.   Appellant testified that he saw Ms. White crossing the bedroom doorway with an unknown object in her hand.   He claimed to have yelled “Sheriff's office felony warrant” twice and “Come out where we can see your hands.”   After reaching her bedroom, he further testified that he stepped inside the doorway, saw Ms. White facing him with a handgun pointed in his direction.   He testified that he ordered her to put the gun down three times.   He then aimed his handgun at Ms. White, who was sitting on her bed, and fired three shots.   The first shot grazed Ms. White's face and traveled through the side of her nose, the second entered her chest, and the third traveled through her right arm and entered the right side of her chest. McGowen shot to Ms. White's chest was fatal;  she died instantly. Immediately following the three shots, appellant looked toward Deputy Malloy and said “You heard me tell her to put the gun down.”   Deputy Malloy and Deputy Morong then went to an upstairs bedroom and found Ms. White's teenage son, Jason Aguilard, who was on the telephone with a 911 operator. Officer Morong arrested the boy and placed him inside one of their patrol units. Texas Appeals Court Opinion

While serving as a contract police officer, basically acting as a security guard for a wealthy neighborhood, who was paid for by the Olde Oakes Community and not taxpayers, Officer McGowen would stop by Susan White's house almost every day, volunteering to be a strong male presence in Jason's life and keep him out of trouble. When that didn't work, he started stopping Jason and writing him multiple tickets, harassing him any way he could. On the surface, Joseph Kenton McGowen must have seemed like a model candidate for a career in law enforcement. He had been raised in a religious Evangelical, wealthy Texas ranching family. His father, William, owned McGowen Land and Cattle Co. in Hockley, northwest of Houston. At age 18, McGowen married Michelle Morgan, his sweetheart from Lee High School in Houston. The couple have three children: two boys, ages 8 and 10, and a 6-year-old daughter. But beneath the All-American family façade lay a troubled marriage and a dangerous, egotistical, arrogant misogynist. Michelle would claim in her divorce that McGowen constantly cheated on her with many other women and was verbally abusive and threatening to her during their marriage. She eventually remarried him, but the same behavior immediately reappeared.

There were reports that he was especially contemptuous of other female officers, though he also constantly hit on other female officers, though he never took being turned down well. "I still live in fear for my daughter's safety," McGowen's ex-mother-in-law explains. "He is extremely vindictive." McGowen never graduated from high school, obtaining a GED while serving in the Air Force. In the early 1980s, McGowen became a Waller County Sheriff's Department reserve deputy, an unpaid position that is the law enforcement equivalent of a volunteer fireman. Waller County officials claim to have no record of when McGowen was actually hired. In his initial employment with Waller County, McGowen managed to steer clear of controversy. Unlike many law officers who have known McGowen, Howard Lester, who retired as a deputy from Waller County in 1988, has nothing but good things to say about McGowen and his family. The whole family were extremely conservative Republican Evangelical Christians.

In 1985, McGowen joined the Houston Police Department. He became known as a conservative, law and order "christian" police officer. A man who believed women should stay home and do as they were told, they had no business in business, much less being cops. As a result McGowen was not very popular with female officers. McGowen became known for hitting on every good looking female police department employee, taking short cuts, then covering them up, A perfect Blue Wall Officer.  

But some people were not impressed, "He was always a problem," says a former desk sergeant at HPD's Westside Command Station, where McGowen was assigned. "The guy was an asshole. If there was a problem with a patrol car, he'd tear the mirror off so he wouldn't have to drive it. I couldn't prove it. But every time he got a car with no air conditioning, something would turn up wrong with it. He was a malingering malcontent with crusader arrogance."

The sergeant recalls one occasion when McGowen informed him that he no longer planned to write traffic tickets. According to the sergeant, a new captain at the command station had ended an unofficial quota that called for each officer to write two tickets daily. One evening the sergeant was dispatched to a scene in southwest Houston where McGowen was trying to resolve an automobile accident involving a driver who spoke only Spanish, had no driver's license or insurance, and had rear-ended a woman's car at a stop sign. McGowen refused to issue the man a ticket.

"And I asked McGowen, 'Why not?'," says the sergeant. "And he tells me, 'Conflicting statements.' McGowen was proud to have never taken the time to learn Spanish and bragged about it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Years ago an elderly friend of mine, who I knew from church, was hit by a car driven by a car dealership employee at a three way intersection, Bascomb Carmel Road at Lovejoy Lane, all of which were governed by stop signs. The dealership employee had not stopped at his stop sign at the intersection, while she had. The car dealership employee immediately left their vehicle and went to the Cherokee County Policeman and began speaking to him. After about 5 minutes, the officer came over to my friend and asked for he driver's license. He then issued her a ticket, she asked why hadn't he asked for her statement. The officer said he already knew what happened. 

After 12:30 a.m. Officer Kent McGowen and the other 2 deputies, Michael Malloy and Todd Morong, banged on  Susan White's doors/windows, to arrest her. She came to the door, but refused saying McGowen should leave her property, she then called 9-1-1 instead. Meanwhile, McGowen radioed the duty sergeant asking for permission to break into the house.  As the back door flew open, the burglar alarm blared, and McGowen -- his gun drawn -- charged inside, heading straight through the laundry room, the kitchen and then down the hallway straight towards Susan White's bedroom. In his statement Officer McGowen said he stood in the bedroom doorway, pointing his semi-automatic pistol at Susan White and ordered White to drop her gun----White's .25-caliber pistol was found on the bed by McGowen and one of the other two deputies after the shooting. In his statement to investigators and later at his trial, McGowen claimed that White turned and faced him and raised her pistol at him with her right hand. When she did, McGowen says, he fired at her three times. Later he would brag to a jailer that he had shot White first in the head and then twice in the torso -- in reverse order of the method recommended in a federal law enforcement training films. White was taken into the living room where she was pronounced dead by paramedics after efforts to save her life. Several of his fellow officers noticed that McGowen began bragging about the shooting a perpetrator as the ultimate in crime fighting, the equal of arresting Al Capone.  He told other officers that he wanted to mount his shell casings on a plaque to memorialize his first kill. When another officer asked him why would he do that? He said that was what officers like those who got Bonnie and Clyde, Dillinger did. But several officers questioned if shooting a mother in her home on a no knock warrant was the best example of heroic law enforcement. 

Immediately there is a problem, Officer McGowen claimed Susan White pointed her gun at McGowen in her right hand. Only one problem, Susan White was exclusively left-handed according to her family, friends and everyone that knew her. 

On top of that discrepancy, police firearms experts could find no trace of White's fingerprints on the .25-caliber pistol. In the meantime, officers from various law enforcement agencies began to contact investigators with their own stories about McGowen. County Sheriff's Captain C.J. Harper told them of White's fear of McGowen -- a fear that he and others in the department had failed to take seriously, though no record of the complaint was found, as she indicated having done in her 9-1-1 call, unless a sympathetic officer destroyed it.

McGowen's indictment angered lawyer Bob Thomas, a former Houston police officer who represented McGowen in the first stages of the investigation. At the time of the indictment, Thomas told the Houston Chronicle that the charges against his client were intended to embarrass the department and Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen. The Blue Wall in the Houston PD rallied to Officer Kent McGowen's defense. 

"It's a big political game," said Bob Thomas, McGowen's attorney. 

According to the jailer, McGowen had boasted that his first shot had hit White in the head. The crime scene investigator testified that claim was consistent with his findings. However, he said, the first shot was not a direct hit. It had first struck a cable television converter box, which stood between the doorway where McGowen stood and Susan sitting up in bed, which then hit White, scraping  across the bridge of her nose. If White had been directly facing McGowen, as he had claimed, the bullet would not have taken that path.

As time progressed investigators were able to determine what had happened that night. Rather than facing McGowen, Susan White had been on the far side of her bed, near her phone. As she hung up the receiver, she turned her head to see McGowen in the bedroom doorway at which point he fired the first bullet, which struck her across the bridge of her nose, then lodged in the headboard. As she fell back across the bed she was struck by the second bullet in the upper chest, then a third that entered the back of her right arm, traveled through the arm and entered her torso.

You either liked McGowen or detested him.

Officer McGowen was not well liked, much less respected. Leroy Michna, McGowen's former boss in Tomball. Michna says he has never seen so many other officers line up to testify against another.

"This is the first time I ever had fear of reprisal for my testimony," Michna says he told the grand jury that indicted McGowen. "I think the boy's crazy. He's very much capable of retaliating against witnesses ... go out there and look at the poor woman who's dead and tell me you don't think he's dangerous to witnesses. If he'd kill her, he'd kill me."

"And I say, 'Well, I think you need to write a ticket.' And he says, 'No, the captain says we don't have to write tickets. As a matter of fact, I don't even carry a ticket book anymore.'"

A dispatcher reports that McGowen asked to be assigned to the Houston Galleria "because that's where the pussy is." And McGowen -- who was investigated by internal affairs on allegations of the sexual harassment of a female officer -- then boasted how he practically had his own harem at the Galleria.

"He got over to the district and was bragging about getting all these women," says the sergeant. "And he said, 'Yeah, I've only had one that made me wear a condom. I finally broke down and wore one. But then it broke, so that taught her.' He didn't think much of women."

And the sergeant didn't think much of McGowen. He took his chance to write his true opinion when McGowen resigned from Houston Police Department in 1989. In his report, the sergeant said that the only future law enforcement job that McGowen might be suited for would be one where he could work alone, have few or no responsibilities and kept away from the general public, especially anywhere with women present.

McGowen reapplied to HPD in 1991, and the sergeant says he was asked to change his exit report to help McGowen, a fellow officer. He refused. One of the contrary, investigators assigned to Susan White's murder says that despite the sergeant's steadfastness McGowen was allowed to take two psychological evaluations when he tried to hire on again at HPD. He failed both. The evaluations -- one conducted by a HPD staff psychiatrist, the other by a doctor at Baylor College of Medicine -- concluded that McGowen had violent tendencies and a disdain of women and minorities, but did get along well with fellow white men.

"I wrote [the exit report] the way I wrote it because I didn't want him back," says the sergeant. "I felt that he was a danger, that if the city took him back, they'd be leaving themselves wide open for anything that happened. Because I really felt that something might happen. I said, 'Somebody's going to die out here.'"

Unfortunately for Susan White, no one at the Harris County Sheriff's Department bothered to read the sergeant's report. Or if they did, they didn't care.

Another case turned up, a teenage boy was driving through McGowen's apartment complex. McGowen stopped him and said he knew that he was up to something, the boy actually lived in the complex and was dating a girl in McGowen's building. The encounter escalated, McGowen grabbed the boy out of the car and beat the hell out of him, including pulling his gun and pistol whipping him. The boy was in fear of his life. Because of the threats from McGowen, a police officer, the boy never filed charges.

In Texas, peace officers must be certified by the state's Commission on Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Education. To be licensed by the commission, an applicant must have received 560 hours of law enforcement training. (In contrast, a hairdresser needs 1,500 hours of training for state certification. In the words of one assistant district attorney, "A bad hair day is obviously infinitely more important than whether you are killed by a police officer in Texas.")

To keep the license without having to submit to new psychological screening and drug testing, an officer can't go more than six months without holding a commission -- that is, without having a job, paid or unpaid, with a law enforcement agency. Many former officers who have moved on to other careers are able to retain their certifications by becoming reserve officers -- unpaid volunteers -- usually in small cities or counties that can't afford a large number of paid officers.

In his resignation letter to the HPD, dated December 20, 1988, and effective January 9, 1989, McGowen indicated that his decision was based on his desire to become a full-time student and earn a college degree. Shortly after leaving HPD, however, McGowen applied with the Tomball Police Department to become a volunteer reserve officer, a job that would allow him to keep his state certification. The population of Tomball Texas was 10,753 in 2010 and the starting police salary is about $35,000 a year. while Houston had a population of 2,099,451 and starting police salary is $58,000 a year. According to Kent McGowen, he chose to work for Tomball Texas Police Department. I doubt it.

McGowen was chosen as the department's representative on the Harris County Organized Crime Task Force. Questions arose in regard to what McGowen charged the task force for mileage, though not official action occurred.

"He was always working on a big case," says Michna, who had retired as a captain from HPD after 21 years of service. "Whenever you talk to policeman wannabes, they're always working on that big one. 'Got a big one fixing to go down tomorrow.'"

Although he was beginning to have his doubts about McGowen, Michna, who is now assistant chief deputy constable for the Precinct 5 constable's office, says there was nothing he could really put his finger on -- that is, until the day McGowen came to the Tomball station to tell Michna there had been a threat on his life.

"He said he had received a page on his pager, returned the call and the man had threatened to kill him," says Michna, who decided to check out the story. The phone number was still in the beeper, and Michna traced it to an oil field supply company in north Harris County. Michna drove there and started asking questions. A nervous 45-year-old oil field equipment salesman denied any knowledge of the calls. Still, Michna says, he knew there was something strange afoot and asked the salesman to call him later.

"Turns out this guy calls me back," says Michna, "and he says, 'Look, chief, I don't want to go to the penitentiary. I'm a businessman. McGowen's daddy is a very wealthy man. And he told me that he wants his son out of law enforcement. And he wanted me to call and scare him. And that's what I did for him. Because his daddy promised me a big order."

"It was so crazy," says Michna, "that I finally told Kent that I didn't know what was going on in his life, but I knew that he was going to do something that was going to embarrass somebody. And when it happens I do not want the headlines in the paper to say 'Kent McGowen, Tomball police officer.' So I told him I was pulling his commission."

During the next year, Michna says he was besieged with calls from McGowen. One day, he says, McGowen would call and claim to have a job with an area law agency. The next day, Michna says, McGowen would call back accusing him of costing him his new job and threatening to get even. After several such calls, Michna had had enough. https://www.houstonpress.com/news/killer-behind-the-badge-6572421

McGowen lost another job as a reserve deputy after being accused of a civil rights violation complaint, according to the Harris County District Attorney's office after reviewing McGowen's employment records. Despite this in October 1990 McGowen was hired by the Harris County Sheriff's Department.

There are two tiers of sheriff's deputies in Harris County: district and contract. District Deputies are regular employees, patrolling public streets and private businesses in their own area within their department's jurisdiction for a particular shift. Contract deputies receive pay from civic associations and provide security for upscale subdivisions with low crime rates. Basically it was the equivalent of a private security guard with a real badge, McGowen was assigned to patrol Olde Oaks, an affluent Houston suburb subdivision in the northwest part of Harris County, by the summer of 1992.

One person to whom she did turn for support was Helen Bazata. An old friend of White's who was running a modeling agency at the time, Bazata says she and White talked on an almost daily basis. White worked for a finance company but had, with Bazata's help, landed a few modeling assignments. She also enrolled in an acting class.

White complained to her that a Harris County deputy -- Joseph Kent McGowen -- had once again pulled her over as she drove through the quiet neighborhood in her white convertible BMW.

"He was hitting on her," says Bazata, "and she just wished he would leave her alone."

White had developed a friendship with Ray Valentine, a man 13 years her senior. Valentine says he and White met at Del Friscos Steak House, a FM 1960-area restaurant, where they had dinner together a half-dozen times during a two-month period before she was killed. Sometimes they would be joined at Del Friscos by C.J. Harper, a captain with the sheriff's department, one of the many local law officers Valentine had come to know in his long tenure as producer of the Shrine Circus in Houston and 53 other cities.

Then McGowen turned his rage and need for revenge on Susan's son, Jason. McGowen pulled Jason over repeatedly for several traffic violations. After a short period, Susan realized that McGowen was taking out his vendetta against her by persecuting her son.

"She was scared to death of him," says Valentine. "I thought she was just hysterical about it. But she told me, 'Well, I guess you and everybody else will believe me when he kills me or Jason or both.' And about 12 days later he did."

On Sunday, August 23, White and Valentine were again having dinner at Del Friscos when they received a call on Valentine's portable phone. On the other end was Jason's girlfriend, calling to let White know that her son had just been arrested by Deputy McGowen. Valentine drove White to the nearby strip center parking lot of Cliff's Hamburgers along FM 1960, where Jason was being accused of selling a stolen gun to one of McGowen's so-called "confidential informants," another teenager who also happened to be Jason's best friend.

Valentine says when they arrived on the scene he introduced himself to McGowen and told him that he and White were there to see how they could help.

"He took his gun and stuck it in my face," Valentine recalls. At that point, according to the testimony of several witnesses at McGowen's murder trial, White, who had apparently been drinking, began shouting obscenities at the deputy. Jason was placed in the back of a patrol car and taken to the sheriff's department's Cypresswood substation, where he was detained for several hours before being transferred to one of the downtown jails. Prosecutors on duty at the jail thought so little of the evidence that they refused to charge Jason with a firearms violation, but they did hold him on two counts of credit card abuse. For much of the next 24 hours Susan White tried to cut through the county red tape to free her son on bond.

It took her until 9:30 on Monday night to finally get Jason out of jail. She had been in contact by phone with Ray Valentine for much of the day as he drove to Wichita Falls in preparation for an upcoming Shrine Circus. Exhausted and a nervous wreck, White called Valentine for the last time around 11:30 that evening. Valentine says White voiced fears that McGowen would show up at her house. The last thing he remembers her saying was that she had taken two Valiums and was going to go to sleep.

"I told her that sounded like a damn good idea," he recalls.

Meanwhile, according to Harris County authorities who investigated White's murder, McGowen was outraged when he learned that the weapons charge against Jason had been ignored. The investigators say a revenge-seeking McGowen concocted a tale to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Susan White -- a warrant that accused her of threatening the life of his in-formant. According to trial testimony, McGowen, after several hours of trying, was able to cajole an assistant district attorney into okaying the warrant, and the piece of paper approving the arrest of Susan White was signed by a judge.

According to trial testimony, McGowen gave the prosecutor the impression that his informant's life was in imminent danger. But rather than immediately arresting White, McGowen went home after obtaining the warrant. The next afternoon, August 24, he returned to work. It was not until after midnight, early on Tuesday the 25th, that McGowen, accompanied by two other deputies, drove to 3407 Amber Forest, ostensibly to finally arrest the woman who he claimed was an IMMEDIATE life and death threat to the teenage boy/informant he used to set up Susan White's son, Jason. On March 1994, after six days of testimony, McGowen was convicted of murder. However, prosecutors, not to mention White's family, were shocked when the jury sentenced him to just 15 years in prison. Under Texas law, a defendant sentenced to 15 years or less can remain free on bond while his conviction is appealed. At least one juror in the McGowen trial has said that he and other jurors were unaware of that provision of the law, and if they had known they would have imposed a lengthier sentence. McGowen's Attorney Clint Greenwood admits that McGowen's defense team "stayed out of the character issue," while maintaining his innocence. "If he wanted to commit a murder," Greenwood says, "he wouldn't have brought along witnesses. If you set out to murder someone, you don't do it with a roomful of witnesses." Greenwood knew that McGowen would be granted a new trial on appeal, based on the argument that the court denied the defense the right to make on opening statement. He was right. The first trial gave McGowen a 15 year sentence, which was put on hold until his appeals were exhausted, He was allowed out on bail. If he had a sentence over 15 years, he would have remained in jail until his final sentence was resolved. In his first trial, his attorney was not allowed an opening statement. But, as Oscar Wilde said, be careful what you wish for. There is always the awful chance you will get it and then you will be in real trouble. While the evidence of appellant's guilt was compelling, it was not overwhelming.   To the extent that we are able to perform a meaningful harmless error analysis in this case, we have “grave doubts” about the error's effect on the outcome of the trial.   Therefore, under Appellate Rule 44.2(b), we do not find the error to be harmless. Accordingly, we sustain appellant's point of error, reverse the trial court's judgment and remand for a new trial.

But far more serious complications lie ahead for those involved, White's son Jason Aguillard now lives with his father in Baton Rouge. He has filed a $3 million federal lawsuit against McGowen, the Harris County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen. Jason Aguillar is represented by Blair Davis, a former assistant district attorney, who says the department was on notice that McGowen was a rogue cop and should have never hired him. There are a lot of questions as to why anyone would hire a man like Ken McGowen to work for them in law enforcement.  

Several different sources for this story: 

In the 2nd Trial Kent McGowen was again found guilty, this time with a 20 year sentence, which required him to be taken into custody and imprisoned immediately. McGowen is now appealing his a 20 year sentence from his second trial, so far, all of his appeals were denied. So his defense teams successful appeal to get a new trial, worked, plus their victory in Appellate Court got McGowen a TWENTY YEAR SENTENCE, FIVE YEARS LONGER IN PRISON.

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914ba45add7b0493478ff55

https://www.houstonpress.com/news/killer-behind-the-badge-6572421

https://bonnie416.rssing.com/chan-30133137/article62.html

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1451841.html

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/tx-court-of-appeals/1448581.html

https://www.kathryncasey.com/a_warrant_to_kill_13763.htm

https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/first-court-of-appeals/2003/79218.html

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Rogue-cop-gets-20-years-in-killing-2064331.php

The Chicago Outfit and their Boss Tony Accardo didn't tolerate problems, America's #1 Safe Cracker was going to learn that personally. The Mafia's longest serving boss was no one to mess with.

Tony Accardo Boss of the Chicago Outfit (1906-1992) on left

Vincent "The Chin" Gigante the last boss of the Mafia. His soldiers never spoke his name, only rubbed their chins when discussing family business, he took over when John Gotti went to prison in 1992. Whenever he came under surveillance, he would wear a bathrobe in public and feign dementia. In 1997, he was convicted of several crimes and imprisoned, he died in the Federal Prison in Missouri in December 2005.

John Gotti, the Teflon Don, murdered his predecessor Paul Costellano at Sparks Steak House in Manhattan 210 East 46th Street, New York, Jury Tampering and Lawyer Bruce Cutler kept him out of Prison until 1991 when he was convicted on the basis of his associate Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's turning against him and offering testimony from a man on the inside.

 

Mafia Boss Paul Costellano killed in front of Sparks Steakhouse by John Gotti

Mafia Capo di Tutti Capi Paul Castellano at extreme left and and third from right his predecessor Carlo Gambino who took over after Vito Genovese went to prison for Heroin Smuggling in 1962. Yes that is Frank Sinatra. 

Don Vito Genovese attempted the assassination of Mafia Boss Frank Costello by hitman Vincent "The Chin" Gigante in 1957, but missed. Genovese was probably the most cold-blooded Mafia Boss since the Mustachio Pete's. Costello retired with his stream of income intact, but turning over his power to Genovese, who then made the biggest mistake in Mafia history. Don Vito Genovese held his coronation in Apalachin NY near Binghampton, (the hometown of Rod Serling), at Mobster Joe Barbara's house. Police figured something big was going on when all the chauffeurs and limousines showed up in town and decided to raid Barbara's home. Mobsters like future boss Carlo Gambino would never forgive Genovese for being arrested there. In retaliation, former bosses Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello are believed to have set Genovese up for the heroin trafficking arrest which put him prison until his death in 1969. 

Genovese's coronation as Mafia Boss on November 14, 1957 was supposed to be followed by grilled steaks for everyone. 60 Mafia Bosses, including future boss Carlo Gambino, were arrested by police during the raid. They would NEVER forgive Don Vito Genovese.

Frank Costello would take revenge on usurper Don Vito Genovese, both he and Lucky Luciano would get the last laugh. 

Brilliant Lucky Luciano overthrew the Sicilian Mustachio Pete's and turned the Mafia into a business. He was far more concerned with profits and low profiles than acclaim. He created the Mafia Commission which ruled the Mafia until the death of Vincent Gigante in 2005.

Luciano was appalled to Chicago Outfit Boss Al Capone's quest for press coverage. 

Al Capone in Atlantic City posing with his posse for press photographers in 1929. Remember the scene in the Godfather (1972) where Mob Boss Don Barzini has a camera destroyed after a photographer takes his photo. While Luciano and Costello didn't seek the press, they didn't dodge them either, figuring since they wouldn't answer questions, the press would eventually get bored, which they did. Al always had time for the press, appearing on far too many front page stories, at least in Lucky's opinion.

When Don Vito Genovese held his coronation in 1957, he was following the example set by the Mustachio Pete's, Luciano's predecessors as bosses of the entire Mafia. The first boss of a unified Mafia was Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. But power went to his head and he started increasing the amount to be kicked up to him, until his troops began plotting a coup. Luciano went to the 2nd most powerful captain in his "family" and offered his help to the plotters.

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Bugsy Siegel and some of his pals ambushed and killed Joe Masseria in the Nuova Villa Tammaro Restaurant, 2715 West 15th Street in Coney Island, Brooklyn New York. A clever reporter put an Ace of Spades, the death card, in Joe "The Boss's" hand as a gimmick and grisly joke for his story. Masseria heard rumors that Luciano was getting too powerful, too rich and wasn't totally loyal. Masseria hired Joe Adonis to hit him. Adonis warned Luciano, who invited Masseria to dinner in Coney Island. Immediately before Bugsy Siegel and Albert Anastasia's Murder Incorporated hit team entered,  Luciano left to use the bathroom. Bugsy and his crew entered the restaurant and took care of business, April 15, 1931. 

Albert Anastasia the Mafia's Lord High Executioner as head of Murder Incorporated.  He was the go to guy, when you wanted someone taken out. Tough and no-nonsense, everyone was afraid of him.

Midnight Rose's Candy Store 779 Saratoga Avenue in Brooklyn, the Headquarters of Murder Incorporated. 

After his arrest in 1940 and to save his own skin, Murder Incorporated Assassin Abe Reles turned informant and took refuge, under police guard, at the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island Brooklyn. Reles supposedly died after falling while climbing out a window to escape. 

Years later Frank Costello described Reles as the canary who could sing but never learned to fly. Albert Anastasia is believed to have bribed police officers to push him out the window. 

Willie Sutton's most famous quote, when asked why he robbed banks, Willie responded, "That's where the money is." His logic was right on point.

24-year-old Haberdasher Arnold Schuster 

45th Street and 9th Avenue in Brooklyn where Arnold Schuster was killed a few yards from his front door.

45th Street and 9th Avenue in Brooklyn Today

Willie Sutton was America's most famous bank robber. Clothing store clerk Arnold Schuster was riding the bus in Brooklyn, when he recognized Sutton, whose photo had been shown repeatedly on the news after his latest bank robbery. Schuster followed Sutton to his hideout, a garage, then contacted police. Long before Andy Warhol invented the term, Schuster had his 15 minutes of fame, appearing on news programs for weeks. One person watching was Murder Incorporated Boss Albert Anastasia. He told associates, after watching Schuster, there was no one lower than a squealer. He ordered 24-year-old Arnold Schuster hit. On March 8, 1952, Arnold Schuster was shot and killed walking home, within yards of his front door. He was shot in his eyes and nuts. The message, as reported by members of the mob, was no real man squeals on other men and wisdom is that you don't see things you weren't meant to see, a la Sgt. Schultz. 

Bugsy Siegel was a Mafia Assassin, personal friend of Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Story goes teenager Lucky Luciano and his Italian gang tried to extort money from Jewish teenagers Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel who lived on the lower eastside too, a short distance from Little Italy. Lansky and Siegel had no chance of winning but fought ferociously. Luciano was so impressed that he let them go and they became friends for the next 50 years.

Bugsy Siegel

Bugsy Siegel built a hotel and casino in the small desert oasis Nevada town of Las Vegas, Nevada because gambling was legal and it was along a train and highway from Los Angeles. He named his hotel after his Alabama born, Marietta, Georgia raised girlfriend Virginia 'Flamingo" Hill. Bugsy said he called her that because she had long legs and reddish brown hair. 

 

Of course, the Mafia Commission eventually discovered Bugsy had been inflating the cost of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, which was financed with mob money. When Hollywood Reporter owner Billy Wilkerson began the casino which was to become Bugsy's Flamingo in 1945, but he ran out of money. Then Bugsy took over. The original cost of the Flamingo was supposed to be $1,000,000, the equivalent of $14,836,333.33 in 2021, but after Bugsy's, Virginia's graft and their suppliers' fraud, the cost ballooned to $5,000,000, the equivalent of $74,181,666.67 in 2021,  

Finally it got so bad, that lifelong buddy Meyer Lansky could no longer defend him. A contract was issued and executed at Virginia Hill's Los Angeles home.

 

Not even a founding member of the mob better be caught reaching into the till.

Costello after he was released from the hospital

Gigante after his arrest

Meyer Lansky, right center, and his pal, Lucky Luciano, left center, both agreed with Bugsy's statement, "we only kill each other" as good PR. Anastasia's murder of civilian Arnold Schuster, gave Vito Genovese an opening to remove Albert Anastasia, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello's #1 and most powerful ally. Don Vito Genovese had already sent Vincent Gigante to kill Frank Costello on May 2, 1957. But Gigante only wounded Frank, who quickly recovered. Gigante called out to Costello "This is for you, Frank," as he entered Costello's apartment building lobby at 115 Central Park West, then pulled his gun and fired. But this caused Costello to turn his head to see who was speaking to him, causing the bullet to only graze him.   Genovese hit Anastasia at the Park Sheraton Hotel on Central Park, while he was getting his daily shave and haircut on October 25, 1957. Frank Costello announced his retirement shortly after Anastasia's murder, leading to Genovese proclaiming himself Boss of Bosses and planning his coronation and reception at Apalachin NY on November 14, 1957.

For their home in the Majestic Apartments, Costello and his wife, Loretta Geigerman, selected apartment 18F, a nine room, two bedroom, two bathroom, corner apartment facing Central Park, which they rented for $3,900 a month, which would be the equivalent of $36,762 dollars today. (Frank Costello's apartment recently sold for $5,304,000).

Albert Anastasia's Barber Chair of Death

The Park Sheraton on Central Park in New York City is now called The Park Central Hotel. The Barber Shop used to be on the right in the front of the ground floor of the hotel off the lobby.

Mafia Prime Minister Frank Costello was born Francesco Castiglia to an Italian Grocery Store owner and his wife. Frank made a decision in the early 1920's to change his name to the Irish Costello so he sounded more American and to protect his parents. Few people know that Lou Costello of Abbott and Costello made the same decision in the 1920's. He was born Louis Cristillo. Lou chose Costello to sound more American adopting the Irish name Costello too to aid his Hollywood and Vaudeville career.  

The last of the Mustachio Pete's, Salvatore Maranzano was the man who created the idea of a commission and helped engineer Masseria's murder. Since other bosses felt Luciano at age 34 in 1931 was too young to become boss, Maranzano was the obvious choice. He was the 2nd most powerful boss and the elder statesman in the organization. Much like Don Barzini the boss in The Godfather (1972), Maranzano never allowed his photograph to be taken. Maranzano too began to demand more money from the other bosses. He too began to fear Luciano and the power and wealth Lucky was accumulating. Maranzano made the decision to remove Luciano by hiring Irish Hitman Mad Dog Coll. Coll was feared by everyone in the Mafia. 

New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker gave him the nickname "Mad Dog" after Coll attempted to hit gangster Joey Rao in front of the Helmar Social Club in Harlem when 5-year-old Michael Vengalli was killed in the melee which followed. Actually, Joey Rao had been hired by Dutch Schultz to kill Coll, who used to work Schultz. Coll said Schultz cheated him out of a lot of money and Coll wasn't going to stand for it. Rao and Schultz got to Coll first. 

New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker and Albert Einstein 1930

6'4" Mad Dog Coll under arrest on the extreme left. Even when he was in juvenile hall as a boy for petty offenses, Coll displayed mental illness, headaches, paranoia and a vicious temper. Coll told friends that he had been abused in reform school and NO one was ever going to mistreat him ever again. He meant it.

Vincent Coll was arrested for the murder of 5-year-old Michael Vengalli, When his trial began the jury almost immediately found him not guilty. Conventional wisdom is that the mob did NOT intervene in the case or attempt to corrupt the jury for a practical reason, because they feared Coll and never cared or felt loyalty towards him. Many people believe there were too many suspects and too many people with guns on scene, the attempted hit was at a mob hangout, plus they were told Joey Rao was an assassin trying to kill Coll, while Coll was an assassin trying to hit Rao. 

Luciano decides a gun for hire, especially someone everyone feared and didn't work directly for the "organization," was bad for Business 

While walking near Union Square on February 8, 1932, Mad Dog Coll stopped by a London Chemists/Pharmacy at 312 West 23rd Street.  Mad Dog Coll's bodyguard entered the phone booth in the back and made a brief call then left the phone booth to sit at the lunch counter and wait for his boss as he made his own phone call. Four other people were in the drugstore at that moment. Dr. Leo J. Latz was standing at the counter, pharmacist Jean Scott was filling a prescription. Another clerk, Morris Kernowitz, was helping customer Margaret “Peggy” Bonner.

A black sedan pulled up and three men jumped out, one of the men went inside the London Chemists/Drug Store. He was carrying a machine gun with him as he entered, while the two other men waited outside. The armed man looked over at Mad Dog Coll's bodyguard and nodded, the bodyguard got up and left the store. The man then went to the back of the store and opened fire on Mad Dog Coll, killing him. 

Police Officer James Sherlock was walking his beat nearby when he heard the shots. Racing to the scene, the officer witnessed a car pull away from the London Chemists as a crowd gathered. Officer Sherlock commandeered a taxi cab, jumping on its running boards, yelling for the driver to follow the fleeing assailants. Both cars were speeding over 60 MPH, firing shots at each other along the way. Eventually, Mad Dog Coll's assailants got away. 

London Chemists/Pharmacists is now a Petland Discount Store

Rudy Giuliani apparently didn't invent the self-promoting perp walk, Police with Coll's dead body, after they allowed the press in to take photographs. 

Old St. Raymond's Cemetery Bronx New York

Arthur Flegenheimer/Dutch Schultz didn't last much longer than Vincent Coll.  Schultz was every bit as violent as Coll, which brought him to the attention of Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey, who started his attack on Schultz by arresting and prosecuting Schultz's crew. Schultz swore he was going to kill Dewey before he came for him, the Mafia Commission told him NO! They knew killing a prosecutor or cop, would bring down the wrath of the public. Schultz made it clear, he was going to do it anyway. The Commission approved a hit on the Boss. Dutch decided to have a steak dinner at the Palace Chop House 12 East Park Newark NJ on the evening of October 23, 1935. He never made it home that night. 

Maranzano Mafia soldier and future boss, Tommy Lucchese, was a friend of Luciano and alerted him. On September 10, 1931, Marazano ordered Luciano and Genovese to come to his office at 230 Park Avenue New York Central Building (now, the Helmsley Building). Maranzano's office was located on the 9th Floor, his cover business was called Eagle Building Corporation, a very successful real estate concern. Billionaire Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean, owned the building with her husband real estate tycoon Harry Helmsley. She is famous for writing off all of her personal expenses as business expenses, even her dog walker and for saying only the poor pay taxes.  The tax dodge worked well for Leona for years until she got caught and then she learned that being vicious, selfish and greedy, then bullying her employees never ends well. Almost no on came to her defense.

Luciano hired Albert Anastasia's Murder Incorporated squad of Jewish Assassins, because they would be unfamiliar to Maranzano, to kill the boss. They walked into Maranzano's 9th Story New York Central Office shortly before Luciano and Genovese were to arrive for their appointment. They told the receptionist that they were IRS Agents, who wanted to question Maranzano in private about a tax issue. Maranzano told her to send them right in. They killed him and were out in less than five minutes. Luciano was now the Boss of Bosses, Capo di Tutti Capi. 

Police Sketch of Marazano's wounds

A sketch of Maranzano from descriptions by associates and crime scene photos. Since he was never arrested there are no pictures of Maranzano alive. Like The Godfather (1972) Crime Boss Emilio Barzini, magnificently portrayed by blacklisted actor Richard Conte, he would NOT allow his photograph to be taken. As a crime boss he cherished his anonymity. 

After the hit, Red Levine and his Murder Incorporated crew raced down the stairs, on one the landings they ran into "Mad Dog" Coll, who had been hired to hit Luciano and Costello in the same office, less than an hour later, Red told him that Maranzano was dead and his contract had been canceled, Coll joined them and fled they the building together. Marazano lies a few yards away from his successors Carlo Gambino and "Lucky" Luciano at St. John's Cemetery in Queens New York. Luciano lies in his family crypt, which is under his real family name, Lucania.

Frank Costello Castiglia lies buried in St. Michael's Cemetery in Queens about 8 miles away from his pals. 

 

Salvatore Maranzano (1886 - 1931), after the murder of crime boss Joseph Masseria, the victor in the Castellammarese War, which ended on April 15, 1931 with the murder of Masseria in Coney Island. Maranzano immediately demanded 

a huge increase in "tribute" from all mob members and then scheduled his coronation.  He created a praetorian guard, which included future squealer Joe Valachi. After Maranzano's murder, his family was taken over by his capo, Joe Bananno, who lived to be 100 years old. 

Joe Bananno the mob boss who got to retire to Arizona

Joe Valachi the loyal mob soldier who only found out, while inside the Atlanta Penitentiary, that Vito Genovese had taken out a contract on him. Don Vito walked up to Valachi in the prison yard and gave him the kiss of death. Valachi had been 100% loyal until then. Valachi then testified in front of cameras and TV at a Congressional hearing, revealing all the secrets. Genovese was not a good boss, betraying Valachi was almost as stupid as the Apalachin Coronation Disaster.

While in the yard at the US Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Don Vito Genovese walked up to Joe Valachi and gave him the kiss of death. If you remember Godfather II (1974) Michael walks up to his brother Fredo in Cuba and gives him the Kiss of Death for betraying him and the family.

 

Red Levine was one of the IRS Agents from Anastasia's Murder Incorporated who killed Mafia Chief Salvatore Maranzano for Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello

The only photo of Mafia Capo di Tutti Capi Salvatore Maranzano, a police photo of his body. A lot of websites mistakenly identify a British mobster of the same name as the real Godfather. Luciano's assassins ran down the stairway and ran into Mad Dog Coll, telling him that Luciano had assassinated Maranzano, which cancelled his contract. 

Lucky Luciano was sent to prison in 1936 on a pimping charge brought by Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey. A lot of people said the case made no sense. I remember reading the wonderful biography by John Gunther of his son Johnny Gunther, Death Be Not Proud (1949). In it, John recalls his 16-year-old son Johnny said that Dewey FRAMED Luciano. I have always felt exactly the same. Mafia Crime Boss Joe Bonanno, said there was zero chance Luciano would have any connection/involvement in street level pandering and prostitution. He and the other Mafia Bosses knew "Lucky" had been FRAMED by Thomas Dewey. 

When Luciano went to prison in 1936, where he remained until 1946, he turned over power to his pal, Frank Costello. Luciano never believed Don Vito Genovese was anything more than muscle and history was to prove him right. 

Fortunately, Genovese was indicted for murder at almost the same time and fled to Mussolini's Fascist Italy to avoid prosecution. In the final days of WWII, Genovese helped the allies, after years of helping Mussolini, including assassinating a New York Italian newspaper editor who was vehemently anti-fascist and anti-Mussolini. Genovese volunteered to come back to the states to clear his name. Suddenly all the witnesses to his murder case started turning up dead, eventually the case was dismissed. 

After trying to kill Costello and killing Anastasia, Genovese was a marked man. Luciano and Costello wanted revenge:

Luciano allegedly helped pay part of $100,000 to a Puerto Rican drug dealer to falsely implicate Genovese in a drug deal. On July 7, 1958, Genovese was indicted on charges of conspiring to import and sell narcotics. The government's star witness was Nelson Cantellops, a Puerto Rican drug dealer who claimed Genovese met with him. On April 4, 1959, Genovese was convicted in New York of conspiracy to violate federal narcotics laws. On April 17, 1959, Genovese was sentenced to 15 years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, where he tried to run his crime family from prison.  In his book, Five Families, longtime New York Times organized-crime reporter Selwyn Raab wrote that a number of detectives, lawyers and organized crime experts have questioned the legitimacy of Genovese's conviction. For instance, longtime NYPD detective Ralph Salerno argued that "anyone who understands the protocol and insulation procedures" of the Mafia would find it "almost unbelievable" that a crime boss would be directly involved in a drug operation. Wikipedia

Anthony Accardo was the boss of the Chicago Outfit, the Mafia in Chicago, and the immediate successor to Al Capone, and the 2nd most powerful mafia chief after the Mafia Capo di Tutti Capi Vincent Gigante/John Gotti/Paul Castellano, who was murdered by Gott in front of Spark Steak House on 12/22/91/Carl Gambino/Vito Genovese/Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano who founded the Commission which governed the Mafia in 1931, after the Castellammarese War, in which Luciano overthrew the "Mustachio Petes"/Old Sicilian Gangsters. Luciano turned the Mafia into a business, a business which only cared about profits and which only kills our own Mafia Members. Accardo outlived them all, retiring in the late 1970's.  Accardo owned a house which could have been described as a palace. In the 1960's Accardo became, like Capone, the target of the IRS. So he sold it and bought this much more modest house. 

Then the story took a strange turn: Some jewelry thieves, led by the best safe cracker in the country, John Mendell, broke into a North Clark Street Jeweler, which served Chicago's richest of the rich. They got away with millions of dollars in jewels. But they made one mistake, the owner, Harry Levinson, was the jeweler and personal friend of Tony Accardo. Word went out the Jewels would be returned IMMEDIATELY.  The fence Mendell had given the jewels to sell, immediately returned them to Mr. Levinson. Mendell and his fellow burglars were furious.  

So these geniuses came up with a plan to burglarize Chicago Crime Boss Tony Accardo's home. Which they did while Tony and his wife were in Palms Springs California.  It didn't take Tony long to figure out who did it and his wrath was quick and sure, Nine members of the Mendell Burglary Ring were sent to the morgue. But one suffered a far worse punishment than the others. And the reason was the dumbest of all.

The only man dumber than Mendell was his associate Vincent Moretti. Moretti was a tough Mafia soldier with 25 years experience. He helped burglarize Accardo's home, but STUPIDLY was seen wearing Tony Accardo's Cuff Links in public days after the burglary, Nine men were executed by the Outfit within the month, but I can't even describe what they did to Moretti. By the way, Moretti was an ex-cop. When they got done with Moretti, there wasn't much left to autopsy.

 

Chicago Outfit Boss Accardo became the official boss in the early 40's but had been acting boss since the 1930's. In 1957, Accardo "retired" appearing to turn over power to Sam Giancana, but continued as the ultimate profiteer and authority. Accardo was never happy with Giancana, Giancana was arrested in 1965 and fled to Mexico in 1966, extradited to the US in 1974. Accardo used Giancana as a front man even while he was in exile to take the heat off of the actual leadership, himself included.  Accardo finally approved Giancana to be hit on June 19, 1975, when he was murdered while cooking sausages.  If you saw Robert DeNiro in Casino, Accardo was the real boss who sent Rosenthal to Las Vegas to run the real Stardust Casino/Tangiers. Frank Rosenthal and muscle Tony Spilotro answered to him personally. 

Casino's (1994) real Frank Rosenthal center and Tony Spilotro, right. 

A gay boy named Stephen Smith is found dead on a rural South Carolina Road. He had been close friends with the Evangelical Conservative Prosecutor's son, Buster Murdaugh. Police, after a contentious investigation, write it off as a hit and run. The boy's car had been found, with his gas cap open and hanging down. The theory put forth in the official report, the boy was walking without a gas can to get gas for his car when he was hit. The boy is sober with no alcohol or drugs in his system.

South Carolina DA Alex Murdaugh, his family and "hit and run" victim Stephen Smith. The DA's Son Buster was a close friend of the dead boy.  One police investigator argued that the scene looked staged. The boy had suffered horrific injuries and yet there were NO evidence of the car, which it was claimed hit him: no broken headlight, no broken turn signal, no car paint, no skid marks etc.  The boy had multiple injuries, including a savagely crushed skull, which were more reminiscent of horrific beating by something like a baseball bat, not a car "hit and run". The boy's skull injuries are so extensive, that this investigator questions whether they could be the result of a gunshot wound. Suddenly the investigator is fired by the sheriff, after going to the press questioning the direction of the investigation. Stephen's Mom never buys the hit and run story, feeling like this investigator, that her son was beaten to death and his body staged at the scene.

The Murdaugh family maid slips, falls and DIES while cleaning the family home, which is extremely unusual on its own. But what happens next is truly extraordinary, after her death, the Murdaugh family is sued and quickly settles for the fantastic sum of $500,000, a huge settlement for a slip and fall accident where there is no proof of any negligence on their part. 

Alex Murdaugh Jr. is in a serious boat accident in which a teenage girl is killed. 6 teens were driving in a speed boat on a lake and river without lights when it crashed into a bridge piling. Mallory Beach is missing as they swim to shore.  One of boat's drivers is teen Alex Murdaugh Jr. There are reports the kids are all drunk. Police take no alcohol tests on scene, At the hospital, police officers order the staff NOT to perform any alcohol tests. 7 days later the Mallory's body is found. 

Local pressure from the girl's family demand charges be filed against Alex Jr. for a minimum of manslaughter.  Everyone aboard the boat say he was driving and drunk. Alex Jr. is charged with driving a boat while DUI.  The trial judge does NOT remand Alex Jr. to jail and police deny and contradict the testimony from the boat riders, saying they saw no evidence that the boy was drunk. 

On Monday, June 7, 2021 Alex Jr. and his Mom are found shot to death on the huge 1700 acre family estate. So many suspects but no one expects much from Bible Belt South Carolina Police/SLED.

It has come out in court that Maggie Murdaugh had told her family and close friends that she was thinking of divorce in the days before her death.  It isn't beyond reason that she had discovered the house of cards Alex Murdoch's and his family's finances were in. She may have discovered Alex's millions of dollars of embezzlement from his law firm. Add the investigation of the death of the family maid and her life insurance payment. Added to Paul's drunk boating accident and killing his friend Mallory, her reaction is completely understandable.

Why did the shooter use two guns?
 

Were there two shooters or was there a deliberate attempt to make police think there were? 

Was there a long break in time between Paul Murdaugh's murder and his mom Maggie's? 

Timeline:

10:07 p.m. the night of June 7, 2021, Alex made a 911 call saying he had discovered his son Paul, 22, and wife, Maggie, 52, both shot to death. 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/paul-murdaughts-final-tragic-texts-sent-minutes-before-his-murder-revealed-in-court: 

About one minute before Paul Murdaugh was fatally shot on June 7, 2021, near the kennels of his family’s South Carolina estate, the 22-year-old was texting his friend about his injured dog’s tail. Bullets in the crime have been found to bear the same tooling/forensic marks as bullets at the family gun range, believed to be from the "stolen" assault rifle.

Paul had a four minute phone conversation with a friend,  about their friend, a vet, and the dog's tail problem. 

“See if you can get a good picture of it. Marion wants to send it to a girl we know that’s a vet. Get him to sit and stay. He shouldn’t move around too much,” Rogan Gibson, one of Paul’s friends who had left his dog inside the Murdaugh family kennels, said in an 8:49 p.m. text message. But that is the point both phones were powered off and stopped pinging towers and receiving calls and texts. 

Rogan Gibson waits for a response, at 9:34 he called the family home leaving a message for Paul to call him.  but by 9:58 PM, impatient, he texts Paul, "Yo"! He never gets a response.

Someone turns off Paul's phone. Maggie's phone was shut off too. Why? A murderer would have run away after accomplishing the hit. If it was revenge for the death of Mallory Beach, the result of Paul Murdaugh's drunk boating, the assassin wouldn't care about a phone ringing or notifying its owner of an incoming text. It is obvious that Paul, the first shot is the target. His head was blown off, brains splattered everywhere. This is anger, either because of Mallory or the exposing of millions of dollars in theft by Alex Murdaugh. 

As if it wasn't bad enough, Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family housekeeper of 20 years, falls while walking up eight brick steps in front of their home and strikes her head on Feb. 2, 2018. Maggie and Paul Murdaugh make a call to 911 for a ambulance and their pleas for help seem genuine, you can also sense their anger at the incessant questions by the operator. All they care about is getting an ambulance there so Gloria can get to the hospital for help. 

“My housekeeper has fallen and her head is bleeding and I can’t get her up, she is bleeding from her head,"  Maggie Murdaugh says.

“Ma’am, she can’t talk … She’s cracked her head and there’s blood on the concrete and she’s bleeding out of her left ear,” Paul pleads.

He adds he was trying to hold Satterfield up as she went in and out of consciousness when “she told me to turn her loose … and she slumped over again.” Paul adds they have one standing at the end of their long driveway to guide the ambulance to the house.

When the ambulance finally gets there and takes Gloria to the hospital, she remains in a coma for about 3 weeks then passes away.

Michael "Tony" Satterfield, pictured above, and Brian Harriott, Gloria's sons, said Alex Murdaugh contacts them and says he will represent Tony and his brother so that all the medical bills will be covered. He also promises that he will get the brothers $100,000 apiece from his umbrella liability home policy. For the next three years, the brothers get the same promises over and over again, but don't see a cent. Alex promises he will get them the promised money when the case is settled. 

Gloria was a widow and was very proud of raising her two boys by herself. 

Little did the brothers know, Alex had settled with his home owners policy for $4,300,000 dollars and kept all of the money for himself.  After the murder of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, the arrest of Alex Murdaugh, the boys sued him and his bonding company and have recouped the money they were awarded in the settlement.