La sombra del culpable

Cullin Davis' life wasn't well after the Murders. Davis lost most of his oil Fortune in the recession of the 1980s, and eventually declared Bankruptcy. He & his wife Karen had to sell their home. She died of Organ failure very young (more loss for him). He later in life claimed to be Born again Christian I guess to somehow deal with his Guilt of Shooting his soon-to-be wife's, Murdering her 12yr old daughter, her New Guy, and the Young Man who accompanied her daughter's friend.

I was fortunate enough to meet Priscilla Davis in 1989 (I was in a pageant and she was one of the judges) she was a very warm and kind woman. She sat and talked with me about so many things and wanted to know what I liked doing. I did not grow up in Texas and didn't know who she was at the time. She was so nice and gracious and had this wonderful "warmth" about her. She had mentioned during our first conversation that she had lost a daughter around my age.

Over the years, I would run into Priscilla at various events and places around Dallas and she always had a hug for me and kind words. She had this AMAZING spirit about her and I enjoyed her company a great deal. She was quite intelligent and took an honest interest in other people and did not focus on what she had gone through. She had a fantastic laugh & sense of humor. Her eyes were very beautiful as well as her smile. I was sad to hear that when she passed away in February 2001 she was basically penniless from fighting Cullen.

I thought all the actors did a very good job with the script. Heather Locklear did a good job of portraying Priscilla and her feisty spirit and loving nature. However, Priscilla was truly one of kind! God bless you Priscilla, rest in peace.

Kelli Berezin

All in all I enjoyed the film very much, the trial part was great but the scenes outside the courtroom wasn`t as good or as interesting. The 3hour long film delivers well developed courtroom drama and a dynamite performance from Peter Strauss, he shined. Heather Locklear's character isn`t very well developed so that was a negative part.

Locklear and Strauss are badly addled with a terrible screenplay here, but they both turn in fine performances.

Given the length of the film, one would think a great deal more actual detail could have been given to the viewer. So much was left out, and so much more was just wrong. A good example is the infamous house on Mockingbird Lane. At the time this film was made (and even today) the mansion is still standing and it would seem that the actual house could have been used for exterior shots (or even architectural renderings), but instead, a completely different house was inexplicably used. The house on Mockingbird Lane was extremely modern and minimalist in design (by late 1960s standards), and the producers of this film instead used the generic tasteless quasi-European Tudor McMansion of the 1990s. Pointless stupidity.

And this script fairly reeks with similar factual missteps, and for no justifiable reason. As a native Texan who closely followed the trial at the time (you couldn't be here and NOT follow it), this sort of thing is extremely irritating. If the viewer can get past that, both Peter Strauss and Heather Locklear turn in fine performances (one of Locklear's best) and seem to have some genuine understanding of the characters they are portraying. Given the scarcity of film on the Cullen Davis trial (the only other instance I am aware of is an episode of A & E's American Justice devoted to the subject), I recommend this as the best of the very little that is offered.

This is a very well put together intricately drawn out 3 hour screen play about the legendary Texas murder trial involving T. Cullen Davis and Davis' famous Houston defense attorney, Richard "Racehorse" Haynes. Dennis Franz delivers a stellar performance as the flamboyant Haynes and is a total departure from his NYPD Blue character, Detective Andy Sipowicz (the real Haynes once made the comment, "If you ain't guilty, you can't afford me"). Peter Strauss is excellent as T. Cullen Davis. Heather Locklear is surprisingly good as Davis' estranged wife, Priscilla Davis. A very worthwhile drama to watch. Five stars all the way!!