Family seeks $1.8 million from 1976 mansion murders
Plaintiffs say defendant won’t pay judgment
FORT WORTH — Cullen Davis, accused of being the notorious “man in black” who gunned down two people in his Fort Worth mansion almost 40 years ago, will return to court next month to fight a $ 1.8 million judgment against him in that famous murder case.
Attorneys representing Jon and Heather Farr, children of the late Stan Farr, filed a summary judgment motion in Tarrant County civil court earlier this month stating that Davis by Feb. 15 will owe the Farrs $ 1,844,641.94 after interest is added to an unpaid $250,000 judgment from 2003.
State District Judge John Chupp will be asked to revive that judgment at a hearing Feb. 5. The latest lawsuit seeking to collect the money was filed in August.
‘Hold him to his word’
Stan Farr was a former TCU basketball player and the live-in boyfriend of Davis’ ex-wife, Priscilla. He was killed along with Davis’ 12-year-old stepdaughter at the Davis mansion in Fort Worth on Aug. 2, 1976, by a mysterious “man in black.”
Davis was acquitted of capital murder in the girl’s slaying and of murder-forhire charges in connection with his divorce case in the 1970s. At the time, he was the richest man in America to be tried on a murder charge.
Attorneys representing Davis did not return phone calls from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram seeking comment, but in court documents filed in October denied the allegations made by the Farrs.
Attorneys for the Farr children did not return phone calls seeking comment, and Jon Farr, a software designer who lives in the Kansas City area, also declined an interview. His sister also lives in Missouri.
But in Facebook postings made in August, Jon Farr said that he has “forgiven him and moved on with his life a long, long time ago,” but thinks that Davis should be held accountable.
“I wanted everyone to know that the money Cullen owes my sister and I was something he agreed to pay,” Farr wrote. “This was not ordered by a court or something handed down from a judge. This was an agreement that Cullen entered into to avoid going to civil court.”
“I don’t wish anything bad on him or his family. But he made a statement by entering into that agreement and I am going to hold him to his word,” Farr said.
‘Never got a dime’
The $250,000 judgment against Davis was imposed after he failed to honor outof-court settlements from 1990 and 1993.
Davis originally agreed to pay the Farrs in a settlement he reached with their mother, Karen, in federal court in February 1990. At the time, both children were minors: Jon Farr was 17, and Heather was 16. Davis had agreed to pay the children $ 125,000 each.
Three years later, the agreement was amended in an attempt to recover some, if not all, of the money. Davis was supposed to have paid by 1997.
But by 2002, Davis still had not paid and the Farrs returned to state district court. At the time, Davis’ attorneys argued that they waited too long to collect. But almost a year later, the judge ruled in favor of the Farrs and declared the judgment valid and enforceable.
Davis never appealed that ruling, according to court records. Jon Farr previously said that they “never got a dime.”