Savage Son (16 page)

January to March 2004

Adam Hipp knew he needed to do something to rectify his situation. A big part of him felt horrible for what had happened to Tricia and Kevin Whitaker. He felt that if only he had spoken up years ago, their deaths might have been prevented. He also felt horrible that his previous actions and omissions might leave him in a major bind, and he could possibly face some serious jail time of his own for acting as an accomplice in a conspiracy to commit murder. He was not sure where he stood legally, but he knew, morally, he was nearly bankrupt. He wanted to make amends in some way, shape, or form.

Hipp believed the only way he could make a difference now was to help the Sugar Land Police Department catch their man. As a result, he approached Detective Marshall Slot with the idea of wearing a wire and engaging Bart in conversation about their murder plans, and to nail Bart somehow for the actual murders of his family members. It would be a risky and tricky proposition. Hipp feared for his own life and for those of his family members, but he realized he could no longer sit by idly. He later admitted, “It was worth it to me…[because] I know nothing would ever justify what I did or had listened to, instead of trying to convince him otherwise.”

Hipp and Detective Slot spoke extensively and specifically as to how they planned on setting up Bart. Slot told Hipp that he was only to contact Bart in the detective’s presence. The reason being, so Slot could properly set up the recording equipment to capture the conversations between the two young men. Slot also provided a cheap Motorola cell phone to Hipp to use for the recorded conversations. The only people who knew about the phone were Hipp and Slot. Bart would be the only other person with that phone’s actual phone number.

In addition to the technical aspects of the setup, Slot and Hipp worked on exactly what Hipp would say to Bart to get him to admit to the previous conspiracy to murder his family, but
also
to the actual killings themselves. Slot intended for Hipp to script out his various conversations, and he expected the young man to practically know the scripts by heart. Slot made sure to have several key bullet points emphasized, in case Hipp screwed it up, so he could still manage to hit the high points in their conversations. The plan was for Adam to reestablish his friendship with Bart. It was also the intention to make Bart uneasy, as he would know Hipp probably knew what had happened to his mother and brother based on their original plans.

The first two calls between Hipp and Bart occurred on January 10, 2004. Hipp called Bart, who returned his call. The initial conversation was simply for Adam to let Bart know that the detectives had contacted him, and they wanted to know what he knew about Bart.

The squeeze was on.

The third phone call took place one month later, on February 10, 2004. This call entailed Adam telling Bart that the Sugar Land Police Department detectives contacted him again and that they now wanted to meet with Hipp in person to discuss the murders and learn everything they could about what he knew.

The goal was to get Bart to admit that he had employed Hipp years earlier in a failed attempt to murder his family. Hipp would talk about certain aspects of the actual murders and then try to relate them to what they tried to do on the earlier failed attempts.

While Bart never overtly admitted to killing his parents, or of devising a plan to do so, he did ask Adam to lie for him to the police, to discredit their earlier accomplice, Justin Peters.

During the third phone call, Adam informed Bart that he wanted some money for his compliance. This was at the behest of Detective Slot, who instructed Adam that “the tone of the conversations needed to be a little bit more aggressive and demanding.” By the end of the third phone call, Adam convinced Bart to pay him $20,000. Bart agreed, but he informed his old friend that he would have some difficulty gathering the money on such short notice. Bart told Adam that he would send him what he could, and that the amount would only be $200.

Ironically, during this third phone call, Bart asked Adam if he would be willing to wear a wire when he had a conversation with the detectives. Bart wanted to hear firsthand what the detectives knew about him. Adam agreed to do it for Bart. “It was to establish my credibility with Bart that I was doing what I could for him, and to show that I had done exactly as he’d asked.” Hipp and Detectives Slot and Billy Baugh would actually, later on, set up a fake interview in Adam’s living room so he could take the recorded conversation back to Bart.

During the third phone call, Adam noted Bart’s controlling behavior: “He was always interested in trying to manipulate whatever he could to serve his personal interests above anybody else’s. I take that as, ‘You know what you need to do, and you know that you don’t need to say anything.’ He would consistently speak within layers. It was never just a surface type of suggestion with him.”

March 10, 2004
The UPS Store
Preston Road
Dallas, Texas

Detective Marshall Slot had every intention of using Adam Hipp as much as he could against Bart Whitaker. One more avenue came in the guise of attempting to frame Bart by using a post office box (POB) in Dallas. As Adam began to let Bart know that he was onto him and that he wanted a little hush money, Slot felt as if he had Bart right where he wanted him. He figured the next logical step would be to set up a POB so he could catch Bart making physical transactions with Hipp in order to pay for his silence.

Adam agreed to the scheme and set the plan in motion by acquiring a box at The UPS Store in Dallas, in the general vicinity of Chase Bank, where Hipp worked. Slot contacted Detective Marshall Bearor, of the Highland Park Police Department, who would oversee any transactions that took place at the POB inside The UPS Store.

Hipp told Bart about the POB and said that he should send the money to Hipp as quickly as possible. Thus, the “blackmailing” of Bart Whitaker had begun.

Detective Slot explained to Hipp the necessity behind the transaction. If Hipp was to receive a payment from Bart, it would show “further acknowledgment or admission from Bart that he had previously tried to do this (conspire to murder his family) and that he knew that the 2003 murders had particular coincidences with the previous conspiracies.”

Once Hipp made the call to Bart to set the transaction in motion, all he could do was sit back and hope that something would arrive.

It did.

Just a few days later, Detective Bearor visited The UPS Store to check on the post office box. Sure enough, there was a package sitting inside. It was addressed to Adam Hipp. It was a standard white bubble mailer envelope. Inside the envelope was $200, in cash.

Upon closer inspection, Detective Bearor spotted the unusual return address on the upper left-hand side of the envelope. On it was written the following:

K. Soze
Windlass Ln
Willis, TX 74358

Bart was fully aware that Hipp knew of his affection for the film
The Usual Suspects.
The basic premise of the movie is that five well-known criminals are brought in for a police lineup following a carjacking incident. While in a holding cell, they conspire to plan a heist together.

The film, however, is far from simple to digest. Its nonlinear storytelling structure is narrated by a supposed physically challenged man named Verbal Kint, who retells the story to a corrupt police officer. As Kint, the only other survivor of a ship explosion, unravels his tale, it becomes clear that a criminal mastermind has been playing puppeteer to the assembled criminals who have all allegedly wronged one individual—Keyser Soze.

At the end of the film, it is revealed that the narrator, Kint, is more than just a crippled sidekick. As he escapes the clutches of the police, it becomes evident that he is the one and only Keyser Soze, the criminal whom the other usual suspects feared, and whose name is on everyone’s lips from the bad guys to the good guys alike.

The Usual Suspects
went on to receive much praise for its intelligent script and its laudatory references to the 1940s film noir style of moviemaking. The film was also nominated in numerous categories for a slew of awards, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Kevin Spacey (who played Verbal Kint), and two Academy Award wins, for Spacey and for screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie.

The film was also seen as a hipster cool flick that the smart college-aged kids would dig; so naturally, it was right up Bart’s alley.

Hipp later mentioned that Bart had “a great affection for the movie, as well as for the way he identified himself with Keyser Soze, because he was able to get away with whatever he wanted to.”

Hipp believed that Bart’s admiration for the film went beyond a casual filmgoer’s appreciation, and even beyond the love of it from a devoted film fanatic. “I think there was a disconnect between reality and fiction,” Hipp noted. “I think he truly believed he could be like Keyser Soze.”

Hipp had a real concern about Bart’s obsessive nature with the film. At the end of
The Usual Suspects,
every one of Soze’s co-conspirators, who helped him pull off the caper and commit numerous murders, all end up dead. Hipp believed he would end up just like them in Bart’s world of crime and retribution. “It definitely led me to believe that if he really thought he could be Keyser Soze, then what would prevent him from trying to demonstrate that.” He noted with a chill, “Because in the movie, essentially he (Soze) goes back to kill the people that were going to testify against him.”

Hipp’s fear of Bart’s retribution also inspired him to try to communicate from beyond the grave, if necessary. “I had torn a couple of pages out of a journal,” the young man recalled, “and expressly written out that if anything was to happen to me or my family, that I had places underneath my bed that had other pieces of paper that said if something happened, or if I died, or if any member of my family was injured, that Bart was the one to be held responsible.”

Additional phone calls were made between Adam Hipp and Bart Whitaker in an effort to secure a meeting between the two men in person. The plan was for the two men to meet at Sam’s Boat restaurant on March 19 and to get Bart to admit, on tape, that he was directly involved in the murders of his mother and little brother. Bart agreed, and the Sugar Land Police Department set their surveillance team into motion.

On the day of the scheduled meeting, Adam was wired up, undercover police officers were stationed at the restaurant, and even more officers with cameras were in tow. The extra personnel were brought on board because of Hipp’s fear that Bart would retaliate and possibly attempt to murder him.

A nervous Hipp entered the restaurant and took a seat and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Bart was nowhere to be seen; he failed to appear. Adam placed a call to him on his cell phone and wanted to know where he was. Bart informed him that he had left his house to come visit Adam; however, he believed he spotted police officers outside the restaurant and decided not to enter. Hipp then suggested they meet at The Ginger Man, the same bar where Steven Champagne and Chris Brashear decompressed after the murders. Bart nixed that idea, so Adam suggested they meet in a nearby park. Again, Bart said no, then suggested that Adam come visit him at his house.

When Adam Hipp informed Detective Slot of Bart’s desire, the officer told Hipp they would arrest Adam if he went to Bart’s. The reason given was that he feared for his safety and could not guarantee they would be able to protect him. As a result, Adam had to call Bart back and make up an excuse as to why he could not come over to talk with him.

March 19, 2004
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
Reliant Stadium
One Reliant Park
Houston, Texas

Before the murders took place, Kent Whitaker remembered, there was one afternoon when his youngest son, Kevin, was exhilarated to the point of giddiness. Kevin had found out that his favorite musician, country singer Pat Green, known for such songs as “Wave on Wave” and “Carry On,” and such well-received albums as
Here We Go
and
Three Days,
would be performing at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo the following March 19, 2004, which just happened to be the same day as Kevin’s twentieth birthday.

Kent remembered the day vividly. He remembered how Kevin had bolted down the stairs, yelling at his father with joy, “Dad, guess who’s going to be playing at the rodeo on my birthday? Pat Green!”

“That’s your favorite guy, right, Kevin?”

“Yeah, Dad. Can we get the skybox for the birthday party?” Kevin queried his father rather exuberantly. The skybox he was referring to was the one owned by the Acme Brick company, located in Reliant Stadium.

Several months later, Kent Whitaker, with more than twenty complimentary tickets in hand, made his way over to the home of the Houston Texans National Football League team to celebrate his youngest son’s twentieth birthday, as a way to honor something important to his murdered son. Among those in attendance that night was one of Kevin’s best friends, Brittany Barnhill, the daughter of one of Kent’s best friends, Matt Barnhill, a pastor, from the River Pointe Community Church, in nearby Richmond.

When Matt heard that Kent was taking the young adults to see Pat Green to celebrate Kevin’s birthday, he decided to help Kent out with something a little extra special. Barnhill knew a parishioner at his church who just happened to be a former FarmHouse Fraternity brother of Green’s at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock. He still kept in touch with the now-famous country singer/guitarist. Barnhill was able to score six backstage passes for a meet-and-greet with Green before the concert at the rodeo. He gladly handed them over to Kent.

On the evening of the rodeo and concert, Kent and his twenty-two-person entourage made its way to their perfect-view box seats provided by the Acme Brick people. The rodeo began in 1932, and features the usual events, such as barrel racing, lassoing calves, wrestling calves, and a whole slew of rodeo clowns to provide some laughs. Musical acts were added in 1942, with country legend Gene Autry as the so-called halftime entertainment. By the 2000s, the entertainers took the stage after the rodeo events. Many top country artists, such as Garth Brooks, Charley Pride, and Mickey Gilley, have performed there, as well as several pop artists, including KC & The Sunshine Band, Styx, and 98 Degrees. The 2004 edition featured, among many others, John Mayer, George Strait, Beyoncé, and, of course, Pat Green. Though seeing Green perform later that evening as part of the Spring Break Stampede would seem bittersweet without his youngest son by his side, Kent could see how excited all of Kevin’s friends were to be able to celebrate his life with his favorite musician.

While the rodeo activities kicked off, Kent and five friends of Kevin, including Brittany Barnhill, were promptly escorted to the backstage area inside Reliant Stadium to have a personal meeting with Pat Green.

The musician could not have been more accommodating. He took time with each person backstage to make sure to shake a hand, say a quick hello, or autograph a CD or a photograph. Kent was duly impressed as he realized this young man would soon be out there performing in front of more than fifty thousand people.

When Green made his way over to Kent and the others, he was quick with a smile and handshake for the father. Kent informed the friendly musician that his song “Poetry” sounded as if it had almost been written specifically for Kevin. He mentioned that Kevin had recently been murdered and that they were all at the concert to celebrate his birthday with his favorite singer.

Brittany suddenly spoke up, “So, are you going to play it?”

Green actually hesitated, then stated, “We actually don’t play that song in concert anymore.”

“Aw, c’mon, you have to!” Brittany retorted pleasantly.

Green hemmed and hawed for a brief moment, looked at the young lady and the father, then said, “Well, sure! Yeah! We’re gonna play it!” He started laughing, then took out a Magic Marker and wrote down Kevin’s name in the palm of his hand. He then asked if the crew would like to take a picture with him, which they all eagerly agreed to; then they were off to their box seats.

Not long thereafter, Green kicked off his performance. After three songs into the set, Green stepped up to the microphone and said, “We weren’t going to do this song, but I met some folks backstage who asked me to.” Kent could not believe his ears as he heard Green say, “So, Kevin,” he declared, then pointed up through the hole in the roof of Reliant Stadium as if pointing up to Heaven, “this one’s for you.” He then performed “Poetry.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the Whitaker skybox section. Kent said, “It was all I could do from losing it.” Kent had even purchased a package of disposable lighters for the kids to fire up during the emotional song and described their skybox as looking like “a seventies rock show.”

Even Bart seemed to sense the enormity of the moment as he feigned as much sorrow as he could muster.

The following morning, Kent fetched the local newspaper, the
Houston Chronicle,
from his driveway, brought it inside, and opened up to the Star section, where he read a review of the Pat Green concert. The reviewer made special mention of the song dedication by Green and also of the lit-up skybox. Kent later asked, “I wonder if he had any idea how much that meant to us?”