Savage Son (31 page)

Bart Whitaker’s time in prison since his conviction had been adventurous, to say the least. One of the first things he did, at the behest of his father, was to rediscover God. While most tend to believe he is merely another cynical prisoner with a “jailhouse conversion,” so as to earn brownie points for parole appearances, his death sentence renders that point seemingly irrelevant. Of course, Bart Whitaker is much savvier than your average con. He seems to have a keen understanding of his place outside the walls of the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas.

Bart’s knowledge of killers and their placement on the pantheon of pop culture has held great interest for him. Inspired by the likes of Richard Ramirez, aka The Night Stalker, or his previously mentioned inspirations, the Menendez brothers (see Corey Mitchell’s
Hollywood Death Scenes: True Crime and Tragedy in Paradise,
p. 232 and p. 81, respectively), Bart has cultivated a tiny following of sympathizers. In these cases, the killers’ followers have been known as “death row groupies.” Even though Bart’s followers tend to avoid the term “groupie,” their actions almost identically parallel those of Doreen Lioy, who married Ramirez, Anna Erikkson, who married Lyle Menendez, and Tammi Saccoman, who married Erik Menendez. About the only discernible difference at this point is that none of Bart’s groupies have accepted a marriage proposal from the convicted murderer.

The reasons why some women choose to befriend, and sometimes even fall in love with, these convicted murderers is severalfold: some believe they can change the killer while he is behind bars; some believe they can help the killer find God; some merely feed off the notoriety of the case and the attendant attention they, too, may obtain as a result of it; others have no sense of self-worth and find that the fact that someone, anyone, is paying attention to them is acceptable; while others, as Houston Crime Victims Assistance director Andy Kahan is wont to say, “merely want to know where their man is at the end of the night.”

Most of Bart’s followers are female and range in age from their mid-twenties to their early fifties. Many proclaim to be anti–death penalty advocates who want to support Bart during his time of need while he awaits his final punishment. Others seem to have glommed onto him after his murder case appeared on CBS’s
48 Hours Mystery
on October 20, 2007. Even more followers came out of the woodwork after Bart’s father, Kent Whitaker, appeared on
The Oprah Winfrey Show,
on October 6, 2008, nearly one year later. Kent appeared on Oprah’s nationwide broadcast to promote the release of his book,
Murder by Family,
which mainly discussed Kent’s ability to forgive Bart for setting up and following through with the murders of Tricia and Kevin Whitaker.

Mention of Kent Whitaker’s appearance on
Oprah
via this author’s crime blog, In Cold Blog, led to several thousand more hits on the site, due to the large number of viewers of her program. Those who saw the program watched as the usually affable Winfrey grilled Kent Whitaker for his failure to see through Bart’s fabrications, especially his inability to not know that Bart was not really going to graduate from college. The daytime talk show reigning queen seemed quite mortified that Kent was so clueless, and she raised doubts as to Kent’s raising of his oldest son that may have led to the murders.

In addition, and also probably what led to a sizable increase in Bart’s followers, was an interview with Bart himself by correspondent Lisa Ling.

The Bart obsession via
Oprah
continued with an Oprah Community message board. The comments seemed split down the middle as to whether Kent Whitaker was almost saintly in his ability to forgive his son, and disgust as to how someone could not see the signs that his own son would become a killer.

Most people were amazed by Kent Whitaker’s ability to forgive, many wondered how he could forgive Bart, while still others doubted his sincerity. The majority of people who actually wrote about Bart were appalled by his callousness and his complete disregard for his mother and brother. They were also put off by how he was amazed that his father could forgive him. Others, however, sympathized with the young man and felt sorry for him.

Even more followers joined the Bart bandwagon after the Kent Whitaker interview was aired again on
Oprah,
in February 2009. That was followed by a new segment on
20/20.

Bart’s understanding of his presence in the pantheon of notorious criminals was even more self-reflective with the introduction of his own personal blog. Entitled Minutes Before Six, named for the time leading up to an execution in Texas, it appeared on the Internet on July 24, 2007, before the original airing of the
48 Hours Mystery
episode that featured the familicide he orchestrated. (Bart’s website has since been transferred to a blogging account on Blogger.)

Much to the surprise of many, Bart’s blog entries were actually typed up and posted by Kent Whitaker. Since Bart did not have direct access to a computer, he needed someone on the outside to input his pearls of wisdom for him. In stepped his father. Once word got out, however, about the blog, and that Kent was participating in it with him, people were furious. Sources say that members of Tricia’s family were livid that Kent chose to support Bart’s endeavors. Given the tenor of some of Bart’s entries, it is understandable why surviving family members of the dead victims would have been upset with his involvement. Much of the blog is about Bart’s opposition to the death penalty, despite his claims otherwise, problems with prison conditions, and a soapbox to complain about the media coverage of him and his case.

Bart also announced to the world that he was changing his identity yet again, that he would now be going by his legal first name, Thomas, and leaving the name Bart behind. He seemed to suggest that by changing the name, he would also be removing a persona that he, and many others, found so repellent.

It was also disturbing to many for what it lacked—any remorse whatsoever for his participation in the murders of his mother and brother.

Bart’s media savvy, however, does not end there. In addition to the television interviews and personal blog, Bart had accepted volunteers to act as front people for him on MySpace and Facebook. One such follower, Donna Wilde, aka Donna X, acts as Bart’s de facto voice on both of the social networking sites, including a MySpace page listed as “Thomas Whitaker.”

Crime victim advocate Andy Kahan had plenty to say in an e-mail to this author about Bart’s media savvy:

Some of Bart’s followers have chosen to attack this author, well over a year before this book would be hitting the shelves. Bart’s right-hand woman, Donna Wilde, had allegedly started up a petition that she planned on having Bart sign off on—not allowing the book to be published. Keep in mind, this was without having read a single word of prose in the manuscript.

We later corresponded with one another and she wrote,
I am no death row groupie. Thomas has been the subject of some online games, since the end of last year. The last thing he needs is any more bad press so to speak. I have been writing to Thomas for nearly a year, i find him a very inteliigent
[sic]
man. I am currently working towards an English Law Degree, with plans to move to Texas in 2012 to study an American Law Degree…and you guessed it hopefully work within the field of criminal defence
[sic]
and capital punishment. Thomas is my inspiration for that. He has given me the option of using his case as a case study if i wished, which i have refused, but he has also put me in contact with some very useful people. While i want to do what ican
[sic]
to help Thomas in his fight, this is also a learning curve for me, as Thomas will openly discuss anything that iask
[sic]
him.

While Bart still had a handful of followers, usually females who oppose the death penalty, there were others who were once under his spell but now sing a completely different tune. Ronimal was one of Bart’s penpals. She wrote to him at least once a week and used to receive lots of correspondence from Bart. She, too, stated how Bart had changed since the murders, not that she knew him back then, of course. However, he seemed like a genuine and caring individual. She added that he never spoke about the murders or even about his brother and his mother. She emphasized that he never once expressed remorse for his part in their murders.

None of these omissions deterred her. It was not until the Bart Groupie gossip mill began to go into overdrive that she became disillusioned with Bart. She began to hear grumblings through the various social networks, personal e-mails, and correspondence from Bart that he was not quite the person he claimed to be. Apparently, one of the various incidents involved another woman, who had fallen hard for Bart and proclaimed to be his bride-to-be. Ronimal did not care about that so much, as she harbored no romantic feelings for Bart. However, the supposed relationship was causing tension among the various groupies.

Ronimal also stated that she was getting upset with Bart personally. She wrote,
My good friend got a letter from Thomas. He’s pissed off. Something about you getting copies of the Facebook group I started? If you ask me, he’s starting to become a real dick to his “Friends.”
She added,
He is apparently very upset with me because the prison has blocked me from contacting him. Somehow that is my fault. He wrote a very nasty letter to our mutual friend, chastising her for not being “the right kind of friend.” I’m thoroughly annoyed.

Bart Whitaker was presumably annoyed on the morning of Wednesday, June 24, 2009, because his death sentence was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after considering an appeal filed on his behalf. While he did not contest his guilt, Bart argued that his death sentence should be tossed because it “wasn’t proper because his court record doesn’t include a plea offer he made to prosecutors.” Bart, of course, wanted prosecutors to remove the possibility of the death penalty before trial and was willing to accept “as many life sentences as the state wanted…to spare his already victimized family the ordeal of a trial.” Bart’s main argument was that “the absence of the formal offer in the trial record impaired his ability to pursue a motion for a new trial.”

The criminal appeals court disagreed with Bart and pointed out that the subject of the plea deal was discussed repeatedly during the penalty phase, specifically in the testimony of Bart’s uncle, Bo Bartlett, and Bart’s father, Kent Whitaker.

Bart’s next biggest argument was that “the Texas death penalty statute was unconstitutional because it failed to provide a consistent method for determining which cases merited capital punishment.” Again, the criminal appeals court disagreed.

Bart Whitaker currently resides in the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, and awaits his unknown execution date. He still has the right to appeal his death sentence in the federal courts. To pass the time, he writes posts for his blog that focus on prison conditions, arguments against the death penalty, attacking any media coverage of his case, and mocking people who write him letters that are not deferential enough to him.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.

—Verbal Kint (
The Usual Suspects
)

In Memoriam

Donald Mitchell

February 16, 1940–December 18, 2009