writes and then questioned her. without an attorney. . at the time, elisabeth, remembered, with just barely 15 years old. and what did she say after two hours in that room? i told the story. the whole story? elizabeth confessed it all. every grisly detail of that awful night in the shannon house. assuming, that, is that what she told the detectives was actually through. it got to the point where i finally did but it wouldn t happened without her. her, her very own mother, joan shannon. she insisted that her mom had wanted david dead for months. first, by trying to poison him, then later recruiting one of her friends to kill him. and then finally, she was like would you be brave enough to do? this to do what? she wanted me to kill my dad stepdad.
what those two girls dished out. it was boys, drugs, and violence. if she got angry with somebody she would destroy something of others. that was hardly elizabeth view of things. she conceded that she was no angel, she acted out all. right never denied that. but, elizabeth always claimed that it was the adults who made it ugly and hostile at home, where arguments not affection were the family routine. joan admits now that she was overwhelmed by the task of a parenting elizabeth, realizing, she said, that she wasn t manipulated easily and often by her daughter. i gave up, i had to admit it, but i did a gave up on that child. i did not know what to do. so joan turned the task of parenting elizabeth over to major david, the military man. who did what he could to keep military order. he was definitely the tough
ear, let alone your mother, every day, it got to the point where it was like, normal. i just wanted it to do this to please her. i wanted to do this so that nothing changes between me and her. and so, elizabeth said, on that night she took one of her stepfather s many guns arranged ahead of time for way to get rid of it and waited while her parents watched their movie and fell asleep. she walked into the bedroom, placed gun over her father s head, squeezed the trigger, then she placed the gun to the chest and fired. as far as prosecutor billy west was concerned, elizabeth taylor had a ring of truth. i think she did it at the behest of her mother, and in some respects, but to please her. mother so, in exchange for her testimony, the dea offered liz a deal. instead of life without parole, she could plead guilty and get
a sentence of 25 to 31 years. we felt that was appropriate to offer joan the same plea deal that elizabeth had been offered, so that offer was extended by the state. no, i wasn t going to do. it why not? because when you are innocent you are not going to say something that you did not. besides, as a victim david shannon s own mother and sister insisted, elizabeth was a devious and manipulative liar, especially when she got herself in a jam. so, it did not sound surprising that liz would try to set up her mom like that because, as a child, if there was trouble liz was usually there. but she always had to share the blame. she would blame somebody? else even if she was caught red-handed. absolutely. elizabeth always share the blame. so now, jonah shannon s fate would be decided by a jury. the aid billy west told them
daughters, daisy and elizabeth, david wanted them to be part of his new family. because he loved me he loved them. and so he did. david shannon became both a husband and a father. they were all having a good time, being a normal family. you know, everybody getting along, fighting as you do. he loved them. definitely. soon, the shannon s became six with the birth of their two boys. and in 2000, the david took the family south to fayetteville when he was transferred to fort bragg. david loved the military, he loved being a soldier. you said talk about somebody having a first love, he loved that uniform. and the military had been good to david. he was major shannon by now well on his way to becoming a colonel. that was the phone call that he was really looking forward to from fort bragg. not the one they got that