During their sophomore year at Baylor, in the fall of 1999, after Will Anthony dropped out of school, Justin and Bart decided to move into an apartment off campus together. They were joined by Sal Davis, a friend of Justin’s from high school, who also attended Baylor.
Justin’s world came crashing to a brutal halt soon after he moved in with Bart. Justin’s high-school girlfriend, whom he no longer dated, was killed in a freak automobile accident back in his hometown. Justin was devastated and completely beside himself when he heard the news. He was never fully able to pull himself out of the haze for several months. He went into a severe depression and locked himself away from the rest of the outside world.
Bart tried his best to help his roommate and friend during his time of need. It seemed like an unmanageable task, however, because Justin would hole himself up in his room in their apartment and not come out for days. He started to cover up the windows with thick brown paper, and never turned on any lights in his room. He had developed a mourning cave and was in no hurry to rush his hibernation.
Justin’s depression continued, and it began to affect his grades at Baylor. He refused to attend class, and he was so discombobulated during the few that he actually made it to, he was unable to function and make passing grades.
Bart continued to try and help Justin out of his funk. One way was to get him out of the apartment and into another city. Bart decided to take Justin down to Sugar Land to meet his family. They made it there twice. Justin found Bart’s parents to be very sweet, accommodating, and humble. He also believed Bart’s brother, Kevin, was a very nice young man.
During these trips to Sugar Land, Bart began to pepper Justin with his own tales of woe—namely, how much he despised his parents and also his little brother. Bart’s main complaint about his family was that they were hypocritical Christians. They acted all superior over non-Christians, when, in reality, they were far from the idyllic symbol of Christianity.
Bart’s rumblings against his parents and brother continued when the boys returned to Waco. He kept harping on how much he did not like them. After having met them in person, Justin did not understand how Bart could feel that way. Justin did understand how a son could find resentment against his parents, especially if the majority of things that Bart said about them were true.
Around November 1999, Bart started in on Justin. “You know what I’d like to do, Justin? Kill someone and see if I can get away with it. Commit the ultimate crime and see if I could not get caught.”
Justin knew Bart had a predilection for dark humor. He laughed in spite of himself.
“No, I’m serious,” Bart continued. “Could you imagine what it would feel like to actually take another human being’s life, and then have the intelligence and cunning to get away with it. That would be the ultimate high. Better than any stupid video game or murder in a movie.”
Just as Will reacted when Bart talked about the ultimate murder theory, Justin believed Bart was simply messing with him. So, instead of acting appalled, Justin played along. “Yeah, man. What do you have in mind?”
Bart started telling Justin all the fun things they could do together if they only had money. They could take trips, go skiing, buy a yacht. “All we have to do is get some money,” Bart declared rather nonchalantly.
“And how do you propose we do that?” Justin queried.
“Kill my parents,” Bart stated emphatically. “Kill my parents.”
“Kill your parents?”
“Yeah. We kill my parents,” Bart said with a serious tone to his voice. “They have lots of life insurance money. They’re dead—bam! The money is mine. I’ll give you some of it, and we can do whatever we want to. It’s that easy.”
“Bart,” Justin said. “You are crazy. You’ll never be able to get away with killing someone close to you. Family members are always at the top of the list when it comes to suspects.”
Bart nodded. It was a good point.
“You would need to kill someone else that you weren’t related to,” Justin added, still playing along with Bart.
“But then there would be no way to get the money,” Bart countered. “No, it definitely has to be my parents.”
Justin shook his head and chuckled. “That is messed up.” He still did not believe his roommate was serious. “But I like it.” He had no idea whether Bart was serious and, frankly, he did not care.
Over the course of the next few months, Bart kept up the “kill my parents” litany with Justin. Bart had upped the ante, however, by asking Justin to help him accomplish his morbid task. Instead of telling Bart to stop, or calling the police on him, Justin continued to play along.
Finally, the following fall 2000, Bart’s persistent talk about killing his family seemed to turn into a reality. For the first time, Justin finally began to realize that his roommate had not been joking around. He had never been just joking around. Justin could sense that Bart truly wanted to murder his parents. And he seemed to be okay with that thought. Justin explained his position thusly: “I was extremely unhappy, and I guess I figured I might as well be unhappy with money.”
Bart never promised Justin a specific amount of money if he helped him kill his parents. Bart merely told Justin that his parents were worth more than a million dollars, and that if they were dead, he would collect the insurance money. Bart would then give Justin more than his fair share for helping him out.
Bart eventually let Justin know that he had also recruited Will Anthony into the fold. Justin had no problem with Will’s inclusion, since he was good friends with him, too. He was actually closer to Will than he was with Bart, so he found it reassuring to know that all three were involved.
The three young men would usually gather at Bart and Justin’s apartment to lay out the plans on how they were going to murder Bart’s parents. All three would participate in the discussions, though Bart was usually the ringleader. Justin and Will, however, would attempt to pick apart his suggestions in an attempt to make the crime foolproof.
After several weeks of dissecting and rethinking strategies, a plan was devised. All three men were to travel down to Sugar Land. Will and Justin would follow Bart in a separate car. When they arrived, Bart would get his parents out of their house under the ruse of a celebration dinner.
Meanwhile, Justin and Will would hide inside their car behind Bart’s parents’ home. Once they were assured that the Whitakers were gone, Will would sneak into their home via a back window, which Bart would leave unlocked. Once inside, he would have access to a hidden gun kept in Bart’s brother’s room. Will would then wait, patiently, with gun in hand until the Whitakers returned from their meal. He would be alerted by Justin, who was equipped with a walkie-talkie, so he could let Will know when the family arrived. Bart actually would have the other walkie-talkie to clue Justin in whenever they would be leaving the restaurant.
It was also agreed upon that Will would be dressed in all-black from head to toe. This would prevent him from being described by any potential witnesses. Furthermore, Will was advised that he needed to make the inside of the house look as if someone had attempted to burgle the home. No specifics were mentioned as to how to do so. The purpose of the burglary scene would be to throw the police off the scent and make them think it was simply a botched burglary that escalated, unfortunately, to murder.
To draw attention away from Bart, Will was supposed to shoot him as well. Of course, he was not supposed to shoot to kill, only to maim, so he would shoot his former roommate in the arm. That way, Bart could say he struggled with the shooter in an attempt to apprehend him and subsequently remove any doubt as to whether or not he was involved in the killings.
Bart’s brother, Kevin, was not to be a part of the murder, only Bart’s mother and father.
The plans were agreed upon by all three young men in December of 2000. Bart decided that just before Christmas would be the best time to execute his plans. He convinced both men to be ready to go forward in just a matter of days.
&nb
sp; Less than a week later, Bart made the call. The three friends gathered together at Bart and Justin’s apartment and prepared for their excursion. They did just as they had planned. Will and Justin followed behind Bart in a separate vehicle, and they made their way down to Sugar Land. Bart called up the other two guys on the walkie-talkie and told them that they were all going to meet in the parking lot of the restaurant, where Bart would bring his parents. It was a slight deviation from the plan, but it made more sense, because no one in his parents’ neighborhood would get suspicious seeing a strange vehicle parked on the side of the street with someone inside.
When they arrived at the restaurant, Bart got out of his truck and walked over to Will and Justin. “All right, this is the restaurant. I’ll be bringing my parents up here in about half an hour. Why don’t you guys just hang out here until I call you, and then you can head over to my parents’ house.”
Will and Justin nodded.
Bart handed Justin the walkie-talkie. “Here you go. This way you can let Will know when we are returning home. Oh, and remember, don’t answer my phone call. When you see my number on your phone, you will know it’s time.” Bart did not want a record of any completed phone calls from his cell phone in case police decided to pin the crime on him.
Justin took the walkie-talkie and stated, “Okay.”
Bart tapped Justin’s car door and said, “I’ll call you when we are leaving.”
As soon as Bart turned his back and headed toward his truck, Will pulled out the black clothes he was supposed to wear. He began changing into them.
The pair waited in silence.
Thirty minutes later, their calmness was broken. Justin’s cell phone lit up with a loud, clanging sound. It was Bart. They must be ready to go, he thought. “All right, Will, let’s go,” he stated as he took a deep breath and fired up the engine.
Will said nothing.
Justin shifted the vehicle into gear and pulled out of the restaurant parking lot. The fact that this was the location of the Whitakers’ last supper did not enter into his mind. He was on a mission. He was focused and he needed to stay alert.
The two young men made their way to the Sugar Lakes Subdivision. Both had been to Bart’s parents’ home in the recent past, so they were pretty confident on how to get into the neighborhood and past the security gate, and where to find the house.
Justin pulled onto Heron Way and drove down to the Whitaker residence. Once in front of the house, he looked at Will, nodded, and idled the vehicle. Will exited the vehicle and made his way to the backyard and the unlocked window, left open by Bart. Justin then drove the car around to the back of the Whitaker house and parked it so he could wait for everything to go down and then provide the getaway car for Will.
Less than two minutes later, however, their plans suddenly changed.
“Come get me!” Justin could hear Will’s voice emanating from the speaker of the walkie-talkie. “Dude, come get me now!” Will sounded urgent, but he spoke in hushed tones.
“What are you talking about?” Justin asked. “It’s only been two minutes. What the hell is going on?”
“Just. Come. Get me!” Will stated through clenched teeth.
Justin drove around to the front of the house. He pulled up to the curb and saw Will slink over to the vehicle. He looked rather conspicuous in the middle of the front yard dressed in all black. Will got into the car and said nothing. Justin drove off and out of the neighborhood.
Several minutes passed before Justin spoke up. “What happened back there?”
“Bart didn’t turn off the house alarm,” Will responded.
“What? What do you mean?”
“When I went to go open the window,” Will continued, “the damn house alarm went off.”
Justin found this unusual, since he did not hear any alarm sound. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“I’m telling you, man, it went off.”
Justin doubted the veracity of his friend’s story, but he did not press the issue. Instead, he drove the two of them all the way back home to Waco. When they arrived, Will silently packed his bags into his own vehicle and drove back home to Arkansas. He wanted nothing to do with Bart Whitaker ever again.
With Will’s departure, Justin believed his nagging suspicions were confirmed—no alarm had gone off. Instead, Will got cold feet and had chickened out.
Justin was not looking forward to hearing from Bart, once everything settled down. He assumed his friend was wondering what the hell was going on, since there was no altercation.
Later that night, Justin finally heard from Bart.
“Justin, where are you?” Bart wanted to know.
“Back at school, Bart,” Justin responded.
“Is Will with you?”
“No, he took off. He seemed pretty spooked about the whole thing,” Justin told his roommate. “Bart, what happened back there?”
“I’m not quite sure,” Bart replied. “We were eating dinner when my dad got a call on his cell phone from the security company. He said that they were telling him that the alarm went off in the house.”
“Wow, so he wasn’t lying,” Justin exclaimed.
“Who? What do you mean?” asked Bart.
“Will. He said that when he opened the back window you left open for him, it set off an alarm. I thought he was full of shit and chickened out on you.”
“How long did you guys hang out there, after it went off?”
“Not long. We took off immediately. Will did not want to have anything to do with it after that.”
“Where is he now?” Bart wondered.
“He took off, man,” Will answered. “Packed his stuff and said he was off to Little Rock. I don’t think we will be seeing him for a while.”
“Fuck!” Bart screamed. “I cannot believe this fucking happened to me! I wonder what he did to trip that alarm?”
Justin simply listened as Bart began to vent his frustrations.
“I can’t believe this didn’t work,” Bart muttered. “I know I turned off all of the alarms in the house. I also know I opened that window and told him which one was the exact one to open. He must have fucked it up somehow!”
Again, Justin listened.
“I think you’re right, Justin,” Bart stated.
“About what, Bart?”
“I think Will chickened out and got cold feet. He had to have screwed this up somehow. Damn pussy!”
Justin had no idea how to respond.
Much later, Bart would claim that this failed attempt was merely a test he had devised to see just how far Justin and Will would be willing to travel with him. “Will was supposed to enter from the back door, only I never unlocked it. Nor did I [turn] the alarm off, my only other duty.” He attempted to justify his actions and make himself appear to be the savior in the situation. “The game had gone on too far. I didn’t turn it off.”
Of course, he kept the ruse up in front of Justin. He wanted to be sure he still had one of the guys on his side.
“He’d better watch his back,” Bart threatened in reference to Will. “If he tells anyone about what we planned together, he’s going to be in some serious shit.”
“Oh, Bart. You don’t need to worry about Will,” Justin tried to comfort him. “He won’t say anything. I know he won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because he’s not a dumb guy. He knows we’d be in a world of shit if this came out, and he’d be included. He’s not an idiot.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Bart grumbled. “I can see that pussy talking and blabbering out the entire plan to someone.”
Justin again had no idea what else to say.
“I might just need to tie up some loose ends,” Bart surmised. “Make sure he doesn’t talk.”
Justin kept his mouth shut. He soon realized that he, too, could be considered a loose end by Bart. He did not want to incur the wrath of his friend.
18
Winter 2001
; Hastings Books & Records
Bosque Boulevard
Waco, Texas
Bart Whitaker’s boredom never ceased. Despite his failed attempt at murdering his mother and father, he found no joy in attempting to pursue a life of crime. Nonetheless, he would continue his run—albeit, with somewhat petty crimes in comparison.
One cold February night, Bart and Justin went out for a spell. As usual, Bart was bored and looking for some excitement. He decided he would find it at Hastings Books & Records, of all places.
Bart and Justin sauntered into the chain store, known mainly for its selection of music CDs and smattering of DVDs. It was after eleven o’clock, and Holly Hansard, the night clerk, who also looked bored, ignored the duo and went about her business of sorting CDs. Out of the corner of her eye, Hansard kept track of the pair’s doings, as she did with most customers who entered the store, especially late at night.
Bart and Justin sauntered about the store, appearing to be interested in the latest releases in the CD rock section. Mindlessly thumbing the plastic protective cases, as if to appear to be looking, the young men then moved over to the DVD section.
Hansard had been with the store for a while and knew how to spot a shoplifter. She had no doubt what was coming next. Sure enough, she spotted Bart checking out the DVDs, when he quickly lifted two movies, Ronin and The Way of the Gun, and stuck them in his gray coat’s pocket. Hansard saw the whole thing, but she waited until they approached the counter. Sometimes customers will grab items, stick them in the coats or pants pockets, but take them out and pay for them before leaving the store. She hoped this would be the case. Unfortunately, she would not be so lucky.
Bart and Justin made their way to the front of the store and noticed the female cashier move toward the register. There would be no sale made on this particular night. Instead of walking up to the counter and paying for the DVDs, Bart and Justin made a beeline for the exit. As Bart passed through the security railings, an ear-piercing alarm sounded. The incessant squeal triggered an impulse in the two young men that caused them to flee. Bart and Justin tore out of there, not even hearing Hansard’s cries for them to come back and pay for their stuff. They leaped into Bart’s car and took off.
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