Final Justice: The True Story of the Richest Man Ever Tried for Murder

by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith

Book Overview

This story is remarkable not for the actual amount of money that T. Cullen Davis had, but for the way in which he was allowed to spend it during his murder trial. Not only did he bring into Dallas the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525934529
• ISBN13: 9780525934523
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

money does not buy happiness

ALL I CAN SAY IS " WHAT A STORY" .

Vivid and very well written

This is a fascinating and disturbing tale that illustrates just how hard it is to convict somebody who has a lot of money and power. Cullen Davis, warped little rich boy dominated by his incredibly wealthy and megalomanic father, grows up to inherit most of the fortune and position. What does he do with it? He chases sex kitten type women, showers them with lavish gifts, and abuses them. Naifeh and Smith raise the true crime genre to something close to literature here. We have the usual litany of sickies and psychopaths, the usual police incompetence, prosecutors who can't prosecute, etc. The "final justice" in the title is somewhat ironic since multimillionaire Cullen Davis is never found guilty of any of his crimes, the worst of which was the cold-blooded murder of his wife's 12-year-old daughter; the least of which, perhaps the killing of her kitten. The juries in Texas just would not convict him (although they have put a number of poor people on death row). Instead they admired him for his money, stupidly since he just inherited it. And before the book is over, he blows most of it. We get a terrible sense here that people with riches in positions of power really can get away with murder. People look up to them regardless of their crimes. It helps us to understand how murderers like Sadaam Hussein and what's his name in Yugoslavia continue in power. It's not just that people are afraid of them, they look up to them and find ways to excuse their crimes. This is the human tribal mind at work: better our corrupt and evil leader than theirs, and better a corrupt and evil leader than no leader at all. The women in this one come off as particularly subject to manipulation by power and money, although that was not necessarily the authors' intent. They wanted to show just what a sick, sick man Cullen Davis is, and they succeed in that. But incidentally they revealed the women around him, especially his gold-digging wives, as sad, sad creatures who would be abused and wallow in it for the sake of being close to all that money and power and maybe getting a little of it. One has the sense that they couldn't help themselves.This is a good read that will rouse your sense of indignation.

The OJ Trial 20 years before...

it actually happened!!!Don't look at the facts. Facts are **BAD***!! Let's attack the victims and divert attention away from what the case was all about...the murder of a twelve year old girl and a family aquaintance.OJ's "Dream Team" (what a joke) must've used this case as a template for OJ's defense, because the similarities are eerie.Highly recommended.

Truthful

This book is really, the most precise account of the murders and trials. Some of the other books on the murder trials of Mr. Davis are very goddy and don't focus on the facts of the case. I really think that Mr. Naifeh did an excellent job with the content and details of this novel.I hope that people will not simply judge a case or story by one book, and know that you must have a numerous amount of facts and reality before you try to judge someone or something.

Scary and true to life

At the time of the Davis murders, I was living in Fort Worth and had a second-hand acquaintance with some of the people involved. Smith and Naifeh got it exactly right: not merely the facts but the "feel" of the case. Texas is a microcosm of the U.S., with all our best and worst qualities exaggerated. The Davis case exemplified our fascination with sex and sleaze, our love/hate relationship with the wealthy, and a legal system that's as much showmanship as The Majesty Of The Law -- and the results were an ironic commentary on what we truly value. (Somehow, the fact that Priscilla Davis was a mother whose 12-year-old daughter was brutally murdered got lost in the shuffle.) The book is engrossing and truly scary, and I highly recommend it.