bruce harkey was arrested and charged with murder. one mom and came to question bruce in jail, he did not mince words. bonnie was a poor, miserable wretch of a human being. okay? she didn t have to work in brussels to rub together anymore. i don t go out there and say, somebody needs to kill her. i said she needs to go. she just needs to go. according to press, carl pressley had his own motives for killing bonnie harkey. that is because a year earlier, carl had sold his interest to the harkey brothers for a fraction of what it was worth. here is the thing, the brothers only gave him a fraction of the money they owed him. bruce says that he told karl that the brothers would pay him the rest around $55, 000, once they inherited the orchards. this is why bruce says carl
harkey many times. what s she told us, she didn t learn the plot had been set in motion until the friday before the murder. that is when the land says she heard a phone conversation between bruce harkey and karl pressley. because after she he got off the phone with bruce, he said that bruce was going to kill him to pit kill his grandmother. she testified that while bonnie and her caretaker were insured sunday morning, carl slipped into the house and hid. once bonnie returned home, lilian says, carl sent her a text telling her to go to while he smothered his grandmother. so, i rang the doorbell because the door was open but the storm door was closed. miss johnson came in entered the door. i was about to step in the door when i saw this. flash inside the house? coming from the down. so, coming up behind was johnson? yes.
not only accused him of mismanaging the harkey state, but also tried to bully him into accepting the sale of a chunk of land to their neighbor. the actor, tommy lee jones, for half 1 million dollars. it was good for bruce, but sphinx says, not for bonnie. so, he killed it. he wanted bonnie to get virtually nothing. less than $50,000 in what he wanted her to get. and the rest of the money would ve gone to bruce? the rest would ve gone to bruce and john. yes. so, you said to bruce, i m not for this. and that sent him in orbit. he just became irate. he cuts me out and said, i m gonna do everything i can to get you. investigators were getting a pretty good taste of the river of bad blood that ran through the harkey family. bonnie harkey family were in the county jail. and now, men with badges
saw bonnie harkey alive was later that night when she says, she saw carl leading bonnie to her death. i went to the back too when i was coming out, i saw him and her walking into the trees. you knew it was coming. how did you let that happen? it s hard for me. you know, if he did it to her, he s gonna do it to me to. the prosecutor knew a jury would not vote to convict bruce harkey on the testimony of lillian king and karl pressley alone. so, he is bruce harkey s own words against him. he talked about how he couldn t get his land until she was dead and that she just doesn t have the decency to die. and he said all of these in the weeks leading up to the murder. richard davis was bruce harkey s attorney. he told the jury carl pressley wanted to kill bonnie harkey because he wanted the
trying to gain control of the property. you could tell that it was a very heated situation. very heated. that pot had been at a slow boil ever since that day in 1963 when bonnie harkey became stepmother to her husband riley s two boys, bruce and john. bruce and johnny just didn t like bonnie. they didn t like her at all. and so, almost from the beginning, it was acrimonious. how was formed that acrimony take? they were just rude to bonnie, openly insulting her. reilly put up with? it let it go. he just let it go. a lot of blended families have rough starts. but this newly-grafted branch of the harkey tree never had a chance. and i don t think that reilly made a real effort with his boys to say, this is a wonderful woman. i want you to grow to love her like i love her. i think he just said, here you go.