9 Evil in Nogalus Prairie

Crime Behind the Pine Curtain
9 Evil in Nogalus Prairie
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14-year-old Marcus Lee Hathorn was laid to rest beside his mother in a Houston County, Texas, cemetary, after his half-brother and an accomplice opened fire on the teenager and his parents Oct. 10, 1984.

On June 27, 1985 a Trinity County jury convicted appellant, Gene Wilford Hathorn, Jr., of the capital murder of his father, Gene Hathorn, Sr. on Oct. 9, 1984. The younger Hathorn and James Lee Beatherd, a former co-worker both fired weapons that night that left Linda Hathorn and Marcus Lee Hathorn dead inside a rural mobile home alongside Gene Sr.

  • Gene Hathorn Jr.
  • James Lee Beathard
  • Gene Hathorn Jr.
  • James Lee Beathard, shortly before his execution.

Both men were sentenced to death in connection with the murders. Beatherd was executed by lethal injected Dec. 9, 1999.

Hathorn’s death sentence was commuted to a life sentence, with two other life sentences added. Hathorn is scheduled for a parole review in 2029.

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