Scanner chatter is a rich source of gossip in this tiny Central Texas city of 3,099, and ears perked up that Sunday as paramedics and law enforcement officers rushed four miles west of town to Harkeyville, where a 1927 red-brick house sat among three hundred acres of pecan orchards. March 25 isknown as Pecan Day, marking the date in 1775 when George Washington planted 25 pecan trees at his home in Mount Vernon. But the guardian for Bonnie Harkey, who was still living on the land, turned down the offer, saying Mrs. Harkey had a right to receive interest from the sale of the land, McAfee said. Bruce Harkey, 59, said in interviews with The Associated Press before his arrest that he had long ago reached an agreement to buy part of Pressley's estate. Eventually the home would reach 4,872 square feet, many of its corners filled with family mementos: award ribbons and plaques for Rileys pecans and Bonnies pies; framed photos from the couples trips to the Bahamas and San Antonio; Bonnies collection of Desert Rose dishes; her still-life paintings of roses and yuccas; the Harkey family Bible, set on a lace doily in the sitting room, Bonnies looped cursive marking big life events inside. How much money can you make with pecan trees? Bonnies caretaker, a fifty-year-old redhead named Karen Johnson, was sprawled facedown just inside the front door, atop the floral doormat. How much is a full grown pecan tree worth? Bonnie Harkey woke up and ate breakfast, and then Karen, her caretakerwhod brought along her young son for the daydrove her to church in Bonnies gold Chevy Malibu. Join Facebook to connect with Bonnie Heakins Harkey and others you may know. Betty Ann had provided a long pink dress for Bonnie to be buried in. Bonnie Harkey, 85 was reported missing on March 26, 2012, after the body of her housekeeper was found at the pecan matriarch's home. Not much damage and we enjoyed 'bumping into each other' at the Christian Women's monthly meetings. An autopsy would reveal that she had been hit over the head and drowned in the shallow water. He thought everything would be fine and dandy because the two boys knew what they were getting and Connie would get a pecan orchard too.. While his grandmother was still alive, Pressley sold the rights to his share for about $70,000 to Bruce Harkey and his brother, the district attorney said. March 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? Bruce claimed hed been framed in the federal case, but many around town distrusted him, suspecting something was amiss in the Harkey family. Bruce and John, however, with their inheritance in sight, had already begun some wrangling over the property. The investigation into the murder of Bonnie Harkey and her caretaker broadens as lawmen look for a motive in the family's history. Preview. If he was coming to worship and study, that was fine, but we didnt want that anger, explained Pastor Sam Crosby. The late afternoon of March25, 2012, a voice crackled over the police scanners that perch on the coffee tables or hang on the belts of many residents in San Saba: an ambulance was headed out to Harkey Pecan Farms. Do you need 2 pecan trees to produce nuts? She agreed, and after sitting together at the foot of the bed, Carl lunged toward her with a pillow. Dateline NBC will air a report on the Harkey family on April 23 at 10pm. One of Bruce Harkeys attorneys, Richard Davis, said their testimony was not credible, and he said no evidence linked Bruce Harkey to the killings. Evil pop culture scholar. Are candied pecans the same as praline pecans? Lived in Riverdale IL | Milwaukee WI. Wild pecan trees, Carya illinoinensis, haveflourished throughout the South for millennia, and thousands grow along the rivers of Central Texas; when the explorer lvar Nez Cabeza de Vaca was held captive by Indians on the Guadalupe in 1532, he christened it the river of nuts. But human cultivation of pecans in Texas began in San Saba in 1874, with the arrival of Edmund E. Risien. House in Marcq-en-Barul, Hauts-de-France, France Contact. After a brief courtship, the two were married at Wacos Highland Baptist Church that April, one month after his divorce was finalized. Theyre either dead or in jail., Even before her killing on March 25, it was clear Bonnie Harkey was slowing down. Thats when hed settled on Carl. But on their walks, O.B. The Harkey brothers founded Harkeyville, which in its heyday would boast a general store, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, a baseball diamond, a millinery, and a racetrack. Located in east central San Saba County, San Saba was settled in 1854 and named for its location on the San Saba River. Another time, when Bonnie refused to buy him a set of new tires, Carl blocked her car with his truck and refused to let her leave. Carl, looking pudgy and sporting a large horseshoe mustache, nervously bounced his legs, his feet shackled, as he sat in his orange-and-white jumpsuit. There would also, of course, be the payout from the estate. But he didnt think she would survive the surgery to fix it, and Bonnie insisted on spending whatever days she had left in the house. Though the civil side of Bonnies estate was still being hammered out, Carls legal wife, Melissa Pafford, and their two children were set to move into the Harkey house, and it appeared that the orchards would be divided among them and Johns heirs. Show more listings Save search San Saba County At least 1 dead, 5 injured in Massachusetts house party shooting, 2-year-old daughter of Tampa Bay Buccaneers player drowns after falling into pool, Tornado strikes Virginia coast, leaving behind trail of damage, AI-generated music growing exponentially, sparking debate. After Sunday school, the two women attended the ten-thirty service, sitting as usual in the sixth row and listening to Pastor Crosbys sermon from Acts, about the stoning of Stephen. 2:26. On April 1, 1970, a month before her due date, Judi gave birth to the next Harkey: a seven-pound, two-ounce boy named Eric. San Saba offers something for everyone. Bruce Harkey, they say, felt pressure from years of past-due child support. Why are pecans more expensive than other nuts? It also uncovered a dark tale of family, greed, and hate. Bruce, meanwhile, was shuttled back and forth a few times to live with his mother in Nevada (one move, when he was fourteen, was announced in theNews & Starwith the headline Bruce Goes West). They were mean, said close friend, Myrna Najar. They were so greedy.. 1. He started to warn me at least once a week, that if I ever tried to run , Bruce Harkeys federal detention order (contains profane, Travis County arrest report from 2003 (contains profane language). Meanwhile, KXAN has found that it is not the first time Bruce Harkey has been accused of soliciting murder. We uncovered a 2003 case in which there is evidence he tried to have his ex-wife killed. KXAN located Harkeys ex-wife, whom we are identifying only as Kami. She has been in hiding with their child since before her marriage ended.. Riley had his own way of doing things, recalled Winston Millican, a great-great-grandson of Edmund Risiens who maintains his own pecan orchards in San Saba. He sensed her reluctance to embrace him and John, feeling her disdain as soon as the wedding was over. House in Roubaix, Hauts-de-France, France Contact. His ex-wife, his eighth wife Kami, said Brucetried to have her killed, too. The co-worker and Bruces boss became so alarmed that they alerted the authorities, and a Texas Ranger and an ATF special agent began to record Bruces conversations. In May the brothers had persuaded Carl to sell them his future rights to the Prichard Orchard for a measly $75,000, even though the property was valued at more than $500,000. According to Carl, he approached another potential hit man about killing Bonnie and Spinks but found the $10,000 asking price too steep. No, I never did like her, never did get along with her, he acknowledged. For Bruce, however, the farm remained a source of tension. Lived To 94 Bonnie Sharkey. Her body was eventually discovered 200 miles east, in a rural area in Leon County. Local columnist Lindy Lieban Schulz voiced the collective unease. He and Lillian were out in Normangee, four hours east of San Saba, staying at a campground. All I wanna do is get this cleared up and go home. He remains hopeful that his case will be overturned on appeal. He became the head of the San Saba County Pecan Growers Association, and around town, farmers sought him out for advice. They have also lived in Caryville, TN and Statesville, NC. But he said theyd gone to the San Saba Rivera lie that caused Lillian to break down and spill the real details as soon as Price tried to cross-check the story. Bruce moved into an upstairs bedroom, where he was joined by his ex-wife Jennifer Karnes, with whom hed renewed a relationship after divorcing Kami. They had not been trained to be nice boys. Though Bonnie tried to impose some structure, taping a list of rules to Bruces bedroom wall at one point, Riley rarely stepped in to discipline them. How many years does it take for a pecan tree to produce pecans? But Bruce, now a convicted felon, had trouble finding work. He knew the house well; since the early sixties, generations of San Sabans had attended the church suppers and cookouts hosted there by Bonnie Harkey, the familys matriarch. House in Tourcoing, Hauts-de-France, France Contact. April 24, 2015 House District: 103 Senate District: 42 County District: Board Of Commissioners District 5 School Board District: School Board Dist 5. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. The question reverberated across living rooms, cafes, and hair salons around San Saba. Where is Harkeyville Texas? What is the average price of pecans per pound? had ceded oversight to Riley in his thirties, moving out of the red-brick house and into town. John packed up in the fall of 1965 to attend Texas Tech University, in Lubbock; Connie enrolled there two years later after being named San Sabas homecoming queen. by 2Paragraphs in Culture | April 23, 2015. What are the top 5 pecans producing states? Why are pecans more expensive than almonds? She might have lived two years, or maybe fivebut where ishenow? said Les Dawson, referring to Bruce and his future behind bars. Bonnie, who had been watching Eric, rushed him to the hospital, but by the time she got there, the baby was dead. U.S. Highway 190 and Texas State Highway 16 intersect on the eastern side of town. Some of those secrets still haunt some of the people involved., Just outside of San Saba sits the small town of Harkeyville, named for the Harkey family and its generations of pecan farming. Wannabe web aficionado. But his narcissism did little to endear him to the residents of San Saba. He said he would kill me and they would never implicate him, Kami told KXAN. It was very true. How many acres do you need for a pecan orchard? Native pecan trees already dotted the property, including one that theSan Saba Newswould later proclaim to be among the most beautiful and symmetric pecan trees in the county, but O.B., as he was known, planted the familys first orchard in 1926, installing a grove of 1,200 trees and naming it the Home Place Orchard. Back in San Saba, meanwhile, Bonnie and Riley had become grandparents again. Read More. Bruce could con you into doing anything he wanted you to do, he said mournfully in his prison whites. She, like the three hundred other assembled mourners, was still reeling from the shock of her friends violent end. The Harkeys were one of the first families to settle the area, before pecans were an industry. How many pounds of unshelled pecans make a pound of shelled pecans? It was assumed by many that the ambulance was for Bonnie Harkey, the matriarch. I didnt have anything to do with the death of Bonnie Harkey or Ms. Johnson, he repeated. The best result we found for your search is Bonnie Heakins Harkey age 60s in Charlotte, NC in the Sardis Woods neighborhood. Despite these outbursts, she continued to write checks for him. But her violent death in March shook the quiet Hill Country community about two hours northwest of Austin, both for its brutality and for the fact that members of her own family were charged in what authorities a far-reaching murder-for-hire scheme over the Harkey family fortune. Bruce called me in the mornings, in the evenings, on the weekends. 1:20 Cold Justice Kelly Siegler Meets with . Bruce seethed. She had been hit in the head and then drowned, said McAfee. Who is Bonnie Harkey? Bonnie Harkey's . If I waste my time and energy hating the people that have claimed I did, Im takin away time from loving my wife and my children. Carl said his uncle Bruce Harkey paid him to do it. The investigation into the murder of Bonnie Harkey and her caretaker broadens as lawmen look for a motive in the familys history.April 24, 2015. Because of that, Bonnie did pretty much everything she could to alienate me. He was convinced she had caused Erics death. I cant tell you how many hundreds of miles my grandfather and I walked in that Harkeyville Orchard, said Bruce recently. including 3 cats, a dog, a gecko and a pet snake. Assist all periodontal surgeries, perform all post-operative follow-up appointments, assist patients . Im gonna be out of town. Trending on Oxygen. Rileys wife, Joan, had recently walked out on him and their twoboys after a troubledmarriage, packingup her Ford stationwagon and hightailing it to the desert of Nevada. She was very good to everybody she knew too good to these people who took advantage of her, said Donna Bush., According to police, one Sunday back in the early spring while Bonnie was at church, her adopted grandson, Carl Pressley, sneaked into her home. Davis said Bruce Harkey a former Reno police officer and investigator for the Texas Attorney Generals Office often went out of town on the weekends so it was not unusual that he was away when the killings happened. He explained their animosity. He called Sheriff Brown. He genuinely thought he was fixin to get a not-guilty verdict, recalled Spinks, who was present. There was testimony during the trial that Bruce Harkey told Pressley to kill everybody at Bonnie Harkeys house, McAfee said. How much are pecans selling for in louisiana? House in Marcq-en-Barul, Hauts-de-France, France Contact. McAfee said he thought jurors were swayed by testimony from several witnesses who said Bruce Harkey had told them that he would be out of town one weekend. But both those possibilities were excluded when the bloodhound, using a scent swab from her pillow, followed her trail down the driveway almost to the road, indicating shed likely left in a vehicle. IE 11 is not supported. View the profiles of people named Bonnie Harkey. They ate out all the time, they got into online gaming, explained Wilkerson, who obtained Bruces bank records during his investigation. Bonnie H Harkey is listed at 1340 Sardis Rd N Charlotte, Nc 28270 and is affiliated with the Republican Party. There was bunch disease and stem end blight and fungal twig dieback. It also uncovered a dark tale of family, greed, and hate. Carl then went to find Bonnie and asked if they could pray together in her bedroom. Humans lose their hearts, their souls, and their ability to act like anything other than monsters., In August I went to visit Carl at the Telford Unit, in New Boston. mostly concerned himself with fire ants, which can hamper the grafting process and damage expensive irrigation equipment. Hed planned to smother Bonnie with a pillow at naptime and then sneak out, but when Karen spotted him as she answered the door, he panicked, tackling her in a bear hug and throwing her to the floor, where he suffocated her beneath his body weight. He just had a meltdown. Though Connie became her temporary guardian, more instability ensued. You get rid of that kid or Im going back to Waco, he claims she told Riley. Investigators focus on one of Bonnies stepsons, Bruce Harkey, as the mastermind behind the plot to kill Bonnie Harkey.April 24, 2015. His son had built the house where the Harkey blacksmith shop once stood; you could still find racing horseshoes whenever you dug in the dirt. But today, there are no Harkeys left on the farm. He had lived with Bonnie for a few years as a teenager, and his grandmother spoiled him, indulging every whim: when he ruined his truck, she bought him a new one; when he said he wanted to raise Boer goats, she bought him a flock of redheaded kids; when he brought home a stray dog, she let him keep it. The home that sits amidst a 300-acre pecan farm, alongside actor Tommy Lee Jones' colossal cattle ranch property. He rekindled a romance with a high school girlfriend, Jennifer Karnes, whom he persuaded to move to Lubbock and marry him, but she grew unbearably homesick and their union lasted only three months. Who is the leading producer in pecans in the united states? Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Connie N Harkey. He sat right on that chair by the door and talked about it one day for a long time, about how he had it all fixed and there wouldnt be any problems, Oliver told me recently. A few hours after Carls confession, news reached Bruce that the investigation was tightening around him. She was 85. While Bruce had never harbored warm feelings for Carl, the younger man sought desperately to impress his uncle. During the interrogation, Price asked Carl a question. Bonnie Harkey owned the pecan farm and had willed 94 acres of it to a grandson, Carl Wade Pressley. San Saba, Texas known to many as the Pecan Capital of the World snuggles up to the banks of the San Saba River. These nuts have a praline-flavored coating, making them a crunchy, but no less sweet, alternative to the thick, chewy praline burger. Portraits of several generations of Harkeys, including white-haired matriarch Bonnie Harkey. What are the 12 general lab safety rules. A local lawyer by the name of Dick Miller stepped in on Bonnies behalf, asking his law partner, Darrel Spinks, to get involved. Top: The foyer where Karen Johnson was found dead. Clydene Oliver, the proprietor of Oliver Pecan Company, remembers when Riley, who often sold nuts to her family in bulk, dropped by her storefront on West Wallace Street. But they werent real tears.. But Im the mayor of Harkeyville now, Hibler continued. While his grandmother was still alive, Pressley sold the rights to his share for about $70,000 to Bruce Harkey and his brother, the district attorney said. In exchange for a lighter sentence, Carl and Lillian agreed to testify against Bruce, and jurors also heard from two inmates, including one former Aryan Brotherhood member, who claimed that Bruce had tried to hire them from jail to kill both Carl and Spinks. But those who knew Bonnie best say members of her family just couldnt wait for her to die.
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