T. Cullen Davis, a former Texas oil tycoon who gained national attention during the 1970s after being acquitted in a high-profile murder trial and a subsequent solicitation-of-murder case, has died at the age of 93.
According to a report by ABC News, Davis died on Friday, November 6, 2026, at his home in Colleyville, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. His son, Trey Davis, confirmed his passing on November 9, 2026.
In August 1976, a gunman dressed in black entered Davis's Fort Worth mansion during a contentious divorce from his second wife, Priscilla Davis. The attack resulted in the fatal shootings of Priscilla's 12-year-old daughter, Andrea Wilborn, and her live-in boyfriend, Stan Farr. Priscilla Davis and mansion visitor Gus “Bubba” Gavrel Jr. were wounded but survived. The three survivors identified Cullen Davis as the gunman.
At the time of his arrest, Davis controlled an oil-based empire valued at an estimated $400 million, making him the wealthiest person in U.S. history to stand trial for murder up to that point. Defended by Texas defense attorney Richard “Racehorse” Haynes, Davis's initial capital murder trial ended in a mistrial due to juror misconduct. A second trial in 1977 resulted in an acquittal.
Nine months later, Davis was arrested and charged with solicitation of capital murder after an FBI informant alleged Davis sought the contract killing of 15 people, including his divorce judge and trial survivors. Defended again by Haynes, Davis was acquitted in that case as well.
By the mid-1980s, Davis's oil empire collapsed into bankruptcy, which he attributed in the mid-1990s to broader oil industry downturns rather than legal expenditures. Trey Davis stated that his father underwent a religious conversion in 1981 and lived out his remaining years focused on his faith. Priscilla Davis died of breast cancer in 2001. Throughout his life, Cullen Davis maintained his innocence regarding the 1976 mansion shootings.
