Women Who Kill: This Bank Robber Viciously Shot Her Victim In The Back

Bill Johnston

When we went into the bank, I don't think there were any employees in there still. I think they'd gone out the front. And there was a large man, properly dressed gentleman, that was lying dead on the floor.

Robert Riggs

More than a hundred people stood in front of the First State Bank of Kosse, Texas. Crying and hugging each other.

The crowd spilled into the main street of the small railroad town built in the late 1870s.

52-year-old Michael Wells, the bank president, and a beloved community leader, had been shot three times in the back before the bank was scheduled to open for morning business.

The vault was locked. No money was missing.

But the day before, a 68-year-old business owner phoned the bank’s president to report that thirty thousand dollars was missing from his account.

Hello, I'm investigative reporter Robert Riggs here with former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston to talk about one of his cases. It was a murder bank robbery.

Robert Riggs

Yes, before the days of computers. We're going to pause right there. Take a message from our for our listeners and we'll be back to talk about the audit more on the pass books.

Robert Riggs

So Bill The FBI is in investigating the finances of the bank and you've explained how easy it is in the old system of passbook This is pre-computer age really, for the consumer to have a computer what does the FBI find?

Robert Riggs

So Bill, we're going to dig around more in our case files, my reporters notebooks, your case files and so we'll be back with stories from inside the crime scene tape. All right.

Robert Riggs

AND HERE’S A FOOTNOTE TO THE CASE.

Jerry Truett, the husband of convicted killer Dava Truett, claimed he did not know that his wife was embezzling money from the bank.

During the second day of his money laundering trial, a plea agreement was reached to reduce his charge to ten years probation.

The pending murder indictment for Michael Wells, death was also dismissed.

Wells’ wife met privately with Truett while the details of the plea bargain were worked out.

Mrs. Wells said, “His boys need their father. I don’t want his boys to suffer like mine. Jerry loves his children.”

The more than 700-thousand dollars embezzled by his wife was never recovered.