Jimmy Don Beets
Facts of Crime: On August 6, 1983, Betty Lou Beets reported her husband, retired Dallas fireman Jimmy Don Beets, missing from their home near Cedar Creek Lake, in Henderson County. Jimmy Don's boat was found drifting near the Redwood Beach Marina on Cedar Creek Lake on August 12, 1983. In the boat authorities found Jimmy Don's fishing license, his nitroglycerine tablets and a life jacket.
Almost two years passed before the Henderson County Sheriff's Department received information from a credible confidential informant that indicated Jimmy Don's death may have resulted from foul play. Beets's son, Robert Branson, told authorities his mother informed him that evening she intended to kill Jimmy Don; instructing him to leave the residence while she did so.
Branson said that he returned approximately two hours later to find Jimmy Don dead from two gunshot wounds and that he helped Beets conceal the body in an ornamental "wishing well" in the front yard of their house. Branson also said that the day after the murder, Beets placed some of Jimmy Don's heart medication in his boat while he removed the propeller. The two then abandoned the boat in Cedar Creek Lake. A search warrant at the residence uncovered the body. Additionally, the remains of Doyle Wayne Barker, another former husband of Beets, were found buried under a storage shed in the back yard. Two bullets were found in Jimmy Don's remains, and three bullets were found in Barker's remains. All five bullets were identified as .38 caliber projectiles; the same caliber as a pistol seized from the Beets residence during an unrelated incident.
Beets' daughter, Shirley Stenger, told detectives that she had assisted her mother in burying the body of Barker in October 1981, after Beets had shot and killed him. Various other witnesses testified at trial concerning Beet's attempts to collect life insurance and pension benefits after Jimmy Don's death.
Victim: Jimmy Don Beets
Time of Death: 6:18 p.m.
Manner of execution: Lethal injection
Last Meal: Declined
Final Statement: Declined
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