198: Karla Faye Tucker

Southern Fried True Crime

Erica Kelley

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 10.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On June 12th of 1983, 27-year-old Jerry Lynn Dean and 32-year-old Deborah Ruth Thornton met at a pool party. Right away, their chemistry was apparent—even though their budding relationship was doomed from the start. Jerry had recently separated from his wife, and Deborah was still married. Regardless, Jerry and Deborah decided to have a harmless one-night stand. But that night would turn out to be anything but harmless. By morning, both Jerry and Deborah were brutally killed. The murder weapon? A pickaxe and a hammer. And the murderers? Jerry’s estranged wife’s friends: 23-year-old Karla Faye Tucker and 37-year-old Danny Ryan Garrett. Sixteen years later, in 1998, Karla Faye Tucker would be the first woman executed in Texas in 135 years.

Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched and written by Andrea Marshbank
Additional writing by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio
Edited & Mixed by Brandon Schexnayder & Erica Kelley
Recommended by Eileen and others

Sources: https://southernfriedtruecrime.com/karla-faye-tucker

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Southern Fraud True Crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners,
0:10.0	and there may also be some explicit language used.
0:13.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:18.0	When I was young, I remember a lot of talk about Carla Fay Tucker.
0:22.0	But even though I knew her name, I only knew it in the same of talk about Carla Faye Tucker.
0:22.5	But even though I knew her name, I only knew it in the sense that she was controversial, like
0:27.4	Linda Kasabian of the Manson family.
0:30.2	She had only acted as a lookout at the Taitin Labyaka murders,
0:33.9	and afterwards she turned states evidence for immunity.
0:37.8	But there were plenty of people who disagreed with her deal.
0:40.8	It was very controversial. She wasn an accomplice after all. So I had assumed that
0:46.7	Carla Fay Tucker had been some kind of accomplice, and that's why people were so divided
0:51.2	about her case.
0:53.6	Well I wasn't only wrong about Carla's participation in a vicious double homicide.
0:58.8	I was wrong about why people felt her sentence was controversial. Like many convicted murderers, she converted to Christianity
1:06.0	while in prison, which shouldn't be surprising, much less controversial. But Carla was an attractive woman and many people felt she was sincere
1:16.0	in her conversion. So she became a sort of folk hero for the anti-death penalty movement,
1:22.8	whether she deserved it or not.
1:27.5	Welcome to episode 198, Carla Fay Tucker.
1:34.0	Deborah. Fay Tucker. Deborah Ruth Carlson was born in May of 1951 in Columbus, Ohio to parents Bill and Harriet
1:40.5	List. After her parents divorced, Deborah wasn't very close to her biological father,
1:46.2	especially not after her mother remarried. Deborah's stepfather was US Air Force Staff
	...

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