Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - Deadly Fortune | 1. Tex and Diane

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

Tex and Diane seemed like the perfect Atlanta power couple.  But things went horribly wrong one night on their way into the city. Binge all episodes of Deadly Fortune, ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge Crimes on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access.  The Binge – feed your true crime obsession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's in this McDonald's bag? The McValue Meal. For $5.79 plus tax, you can get your choice of Junior Chicken, McDouble, or Chicken Snack Wrap, plus small fries and a small fountain drink. So pick up a McValue Meal today at Participating McDonald's Restaurants in Canada. Prices exclude delivery. subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The Binge, feature true crime obsession. The Ranch was Texan Diane McIver's 85 acre estate in Eaton just outside of Atlanta. The place is spectacular surrounded by a beautiful white fence and stone columns and woods for miles to ride horses. The ranch is truly beautiful and totally fit with who Diane and Tex were.

Hanging on the wall, a sign that said, we don't dial 911 with an old rusted pistol mounted right under. Danny Joe Carter had been out at the ranch on September 25th, 2016, and Danny Joe, Diane, Tex, and Craig Stringer left for a night of steaks, red wine, and laughter at the Longhorn Steakhouse. This was a nice outing for the friends, especially for Danny Joe and Diane, who were still working on repairing old wounds of some bumpy moments in their friendship.

Diane and I had a falling out because I had developed a drinking problem and she knew that I needed to quit. I knew that I needed to quit. And we got crossed up one day and she said she had to distance herself from me. So the wedding, yeah, was blowout. It had been planned. We had meetings every Monday night for a year about the food and the dress and da-da-da-da-da-da, everything. Yeah, there

most of the people that were there could not figure out why I wasn't there that night and I'd kind of been well once you distanced yourself from me I was I figured I was uninvited. I don't know it might have been a better thing had I shown up but you know that's that's in the past. But tonight, things were good and Danny Jo was acting as the designated driver, taking Diane and Tex to Atlanta after their dinner in the MacGyver's Ford Expedition SUV. Diane was the passenger, Tex sat behind her. As they approached the connector, traffic was backed up for miles. I'm driving and Diane says, well get off here.

We get off and about that time she starts yelling at Tex to wake up because obviously he dozed off in the back seat. To look at ways. I thought we don't need to look at ways. You know exactly where we are. And she says, well get off here, get off here. And the ramp to get off at Edgewood's kind of a long curve and goes down the hill a little bit.

And Tex woke up and he said, well, girls, I wish you hadn't done this. This is a really bad area. This is a bad area and I thought, it's not really that bad of an area. I wasn't paying attention. I was paying attention to driving. So we got to the bottom of the ramp and the light was red.

And he asked Diane to hand me my gun. And I knew that there was a 38 that was in the console right below my elbow. And she said, Tex, I don't even know where your gun is. Well, I knew that it was there because I'd driven that vehicle a lot and I just knew it was there. I had both hands on the steering wheel because it's dark, it's a huge vehicle. I had both hands on the steering wheel because it's dark, it's a huge vehicle. And he said it's in the console. Well, she went to lift up the console and I glanced down and I don't see it. He said it's in the bag.

There was a Publix bag, one of those brown ones, and it was in that bag, which was odd, I thought. I started to reach down and get it. But I was like, no, she doesn't have anything to do, let her hand it to him. If that's going to make him feel like he's Mr. Protector or whatever, let her hand it to him. If that's going to make him feel like he's Mr. Protector or you know, whatever. Let her hand it to him. So she did. She handed him the gun. But I did notice some people on the sidewalk. I guess they could have been walking from from dinner or whatever and dying says turn here. So I was going down to Piedmont and I thought that's

great we can just you know take a straight shot and she and I were just talking about the debates and you know I tattoo eyebrows and she decided to find she'd worked up the nerve to do it we were talking about that and of course it was the time of year that you just switch out your closets and she was doing that and that was a that was a two or three day project because of the amount of her clothes she had gone from the two closets to storage units. So we were talking about when that was going to happen and we got around Piedmont Park and I stopped at a traffic light. Diane was playing with the door locks and I said, what are you doing?

She says, I'm making sure it's locked. And I was like, okay, she's just playing. She was a little tipsy. And then within seconds I heard this loud explosion. I didn't realize that it was in the car, which amazes me, but I didn't. I just turned to the right and I was thinking, what exploded? Did somebody hit us? And I'm thinking, no, nothing's drawing me or the car. About that time, Diane sat up and turned around to look toward the center of the console and she said, Tex, what did you do? And he said, the gun discharged.

I turned around and looked at the same place she was looking and I could see his hand moving, I could see the bag and I could see the gun and the poof of smoke. I'm thinking there's a bullet hole in the bottom of the car. I put both my hands on the steering wheel and I thought she is getting ready to tear him a new one. And I just want to get home. Want to get home, get my car and they can have it out because there's a bullet hole in the bottom of this car. and they can have it out because there's a bullet hole in the bottom of this car and within still seconds. So it seems slower now to talk about it. She turned around and sat straight up in the seat and was just facing forward. I thought turn I wanted the light to turn green

and she sat forward and kind of turned around toward me and she said, Tex, you shot me. I realized that I didn't know where that bullet was. I was in San Francisco, California on September 26, 2016. My phone rings at 5 in the morning. It's Billy Corey. He said, Dale, there's been a tragic accident. Diane is gone. There's been a tragic firearms accident. Diane is no longer with us. She's dead. From Sony Music Entertainment and Waveland Road, you're listening to Deadly Fortune. This is episode 1, Texan Diane. My name is Dale Cardwell. I cut my teeth as an investigative reporter in Atlanta, often chasing down public figures

with much to say, but also much to hide. I've run all over the city in a news van chasing scammers, liars, and downright bad people. One reporting run proved to be fateful. I was working on a story about a controversial airport advertising plan at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport full of lawsuits and money, and there I met a man named Billy Corey, a well-known businessman and behind-the-scenes political power broker and kingmaker. That day, Billy Corey encouraged me to go after that story. We struck up a friendship and continued to stay in touch over the years. As I continued on in my career,

I imagined I had my own set of superpowers and decided to set off in a new direction. I quit my local TV gig at WSB TV in Atlanta and ran for the U.S. Senate. I'm Dale Cardwell. You may know me from my 23 years as an investigative reporter, but at WSB-TV in Atlanta and ran for the U.S. Senate. As I was driving in Atlanta thinking about my campaign and what I could do to really make a splash, I passed by Corey Tower and I had an idea. I made an appointment with Mr. Corey, sat in his office and told him I wanted to spend as much time as I possibly can camping out on the top of your tower to make a big splash. Something that would be picked up not by just the local media, but everywhere.

I wanted to go viral before that was a thing. Billy Corey said it was okay. Go for it. He owned the tower after all. The tower stands 300 feet tall, located right at what locals call the connector heading north into Atlanta from the airport. It's across from Grady Hospital and just around the bend from what used to be Turner Field, the former home of the Atlanta Braves. A bit of a relic from the 60s version of Atlanta, the tower was originally created by Georgia Power as part of a steam plant operation that powered local homes. Today, over one million people drive by the tower each day. And that's why Billy Corey bought it back in 1994 as an

advertising and billboard opportunity. I fought through the rain, the sun, and freezing temperatures for seven days and seven nights to promote my campaign. Once I was atop the tower, my bright idea met with reality. A soul-sucking race to nowhere. You see this guy right here? This is a man who's determined to bring about change in America politically. But he's not doing it like Romney, like Obama, like Hillary Clinton, like Huckabee. No, no.

He's willing to hang out on top of a 320-foot tower just to get his message across. These are live pictures you're looking at, folks. It's been like 10 degrees and with the wind chill below. Unlike any other politicians, he's got no money to pay for commercials. And you know what? It might be working. He's running for Senate.

Joining us now from that 15 foot ledge at the top of the 320 foot tower is Dale Caldwell. Hey, Dale, thanks so much for being with us. All right, man, here's your opportunity. You're on CNN. You're right. You don't have money to pay for commercials, so what's your message? Here it is. For 23 years, I've been an investigative reporter going behind the lines of power and big government to bring people the real story.

I imagine David Letterman picking up on this or Leno or any number of outfits in Hollywood. I would be known not just in every living room in Georgia, but nationwide. It would be my peanut pushing moment. But as they say, timing is everything and doing this all during a rider's strike was ill-timed. Your favorite television shows will go away and they may not come back. The only thing I caught during those seven days was a cold. Though I lost the race, I won the respect of Billy Corey for my audacious swing into politics. Little did I know, our paths would continue to cross in unexpected ways in the coming

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The two having met when Danny Joe worked at a nail salon where Diane would come in often. We are total opposites. I mean, I was short and fluffy and she was tall and thin and she was a numbers cruncher and a workaholic and I didn't go to work until noon because I would stay at work until seven or eight, which suited her because she was such a workaholic that she never left early. Just kind of evolved.

I know two of her oldest friends, but she worked so much. She didn't have a lot of women friends. We just talked about stuff, girly things, and she was usually just, you know, all business. The two shared so much together. Diane had been through a lot. She had been in a bad marriage and had finally escaped filing for divorce. Well, right after I met her, I went to work in another salon and there was a Diane there that did hair and it was too confusing and she was there first. So I was the one that got to have a nickname, which I'd never really had one. But Diane called me Diane for years. Matter of

fact, the hairdresser Diane, we would all go out and you know, somebody might approach us and want to know what our name was and you know, Diane, Diane, Diane, they thought we were lying. So Danny was a name that I used to use when I'd go to high school dances. And I didn't want the guy to know my real name. And I thought Danny was cute. So it stuck. But one of my girlfriends did not like the salon owner. So she refused to call me Danny,

and she made up Danny Joe. Once you kind of say double names in the South, they just kind of get stuck in people that, you know, don't call me anything but Danny Joe. So I feel like a bank robber sometimes. She married this guy. He could be a lot of fun, but he just had some anger issues and there were some really tough times there for her. It took her 10 years, but she finally got a divorce. It took her that long, I think, because she never wanted to be divorced.

Diane's childhood had been tough on her, too. And as a little girl, her dad broke her heart. Her dad left her, and the last time she saw him, she was standing at the mailbox crying, and I think she was about six years old. And her mom had gone through many tumultuous marriages, causing deeply painful scars for Diane. Diane would not go to therapy for a long time. And I told her one day when she was dealing with something that I had gone as far as I

could with her, and she needed to go see a real therapist because she thought that people that went to therapists were crazy. And she wouldn't even tell anybody that I went because she didn't want anybody to think her best friend was crazy. She finally figured out that her mother had been married and divorced five times and she didn't have a great relationship with her mom and she didn't want to be that person. She didn't want to be divorced. She was very well off and she was beautiful and she was not a timid person at all. Not wanting to be like her mother was a very strong motivation and she had gone to see

a therapist one day and she called me and she said, I finally figured out why. So I think that kind of stayed with her for a long time. That was probably the reason that I didn't know about certain things that she kept private because in the years before there was nothing that she wouldn't tell me. But Diane was her own woman. She was strong, tough, and now she was on her own and doing well. One thing was for sure, she was definitely not looking for love. Until one day when a man in her Buckhead apartment complex asked her out in a letter he left by her door.

He signed his name, Claude Lee McIver, Tex. Well, Diane was in the process of getting a divorce. She wasn't divorced yet. She bought a condo in Buckhead and Tex lived in that condominium building. And he, they had been at some functions together, but Diane really, she knew the name, but she didn't, I don't think she'd ever really been introduced to him.

And he started trying to get people to introduce her to him. I was over there one day waiting on some delivery, and the condo was empty. No one, they had good security, nobody was supposed to be up there. And I heard a noise and I walked by the door and there was an envelope on the door and I said, Diane, somebody came up here and put an envelope under the door. I called her and she says, well, open it. And so I started reading this letter and it was signed Claude Lee MacGyver and then it had text under it. He wanted her to go to dinner and she didn't go right away.

He was pretty persistent with getting somebody else to put in a good word for him. And one day she put on her baseball cap and her workout stuff. She said, well I'm going to go up there and have dinner with him. So she did. She came back and she said, well, he's a really nice guy. I enjoyed talking to him, but he's too short and he's too old. It could be tumultuous. She would go up and grab her toothbrush and everything and bring them back downstairs and say that they weren't going to date anymore. Eventually they did and it was exclusive and it was a lot of fun. It's 1999 and Tex MacGyver looks like a cowboy and a lawyer.

A cowboy lawyer, big hat and belt buckle. He's not tall but he always stands out in his boots. He's working as a partner at Fisher Phillips, one of the big law firms, as a labor attorney. Tex found himself as a rainmaker in that law firm. Tex was gregarious. Everybody loved him. He was a fun guy to be around. It was part of Tex's job to know people.

He was named to the Judicial Nominations Committee for Governor Perdue. He vetted potential judges. He suggested judges to the governor. The governor very often followed through with Texas suggestions. If you want to be a Superior Court judge you needed to know Tex McIver. Tex had real power and tentacles to a good number of people that were in real power positions. Tex went big in his red-hot relationship with Diane too, purchasing what he said was a beautiful $60,000 ring for Diane. The two would be married in a spectacular ceremony. Rachel Stiles, one of Diane's close friends, planned the huge event. This would be a one-of-a-kind wedding spectacle, just the way Diane wanted it.

She wanted the guests brought in in a covered wagon. And I said, Diane, we're not in Texas. You know, you just don't call up down the street and get a covered wagon. She says, well, you I know you can find one. I was even going to have one brought in from Oklahoma. And then I found one in Warm Springs, Georgia. And the lady, she says, but the cover is pretty well worn and not, you know, and I said, oh, Diane, when will that? And I said, well, let's negotiate here. And I worked it out.

We had a covered wagon. Tex literally worshiped Diane. I have never seen two people so happy. And sometimes it was almost, you know, it's like, oh, cut it out, you know, darling this and darling that. Tex and Diane's relationship was often a battle of wills. Two strong-minded individuals married later in life, each with their own ambitions. I think Diane definitely wore the pants.

They had very common interests politically, business-wise. She could outlaw your him. She usually won most of the arguments, but Tex wouldn't really argue with her about anything. If there were some kind of business thing that he thought something should go one way and she thought it should go another, they would have, it could get heated up and something like that. But personal things, they did not argue. I used to look at him sometimes because Diane wasn't the easiest person in the world. She could be abrasive with you when she thought you needed to hear something or even kind of joking around and sometimes it wasn't

very funny, but she would do that to Tex and tease him about his golf or his cooking. He liked to cook. Didn't do it very well, but it didn't stop him. She would go on and on about something that he had done that was terrible or, you know, kind of making fun of it. And he would just shrug his shoulders and kind of go, well, darling. And I used to look at him and think, what is that really, what do you do with that? Does it just roll off your back or is everything so good that it balances out? Tax served as Billy's attorney on the airport suit against the city. Billy needed tax, but there was somewhat of an adversarial relationship because Billy

continually thought Tex was overcharging him. He thought Fisher Phillips was billing too much for the work they were doing. And this created tension between Tex and Diane since Diane worked for Billy. And Billy and Diane would blow up. She'd say, we're not paying this. This is crazy. You take this back and you need to get your pencil out and sharpen it because this isn't going to fly.

In the process of my developing friendship with Billy Corey, it was here that I met Diane, who was president at Billy's company and her husband Tex. I was welcomed into this inner circle of power players and a true cast of characters. I became the ad hoc media advisor to Billy Corey, which meant I was the ad hoc media advisor to a circle of friends. As a result, I got to know Diane. I got to know Tex. We socialized together. I had an interesting history and I knew a lot of people. They knew a lot of people. They loved having influence in the community. They frequently asked me, what do you think if we did this? What reaction would that get? Tex was

constantly trying to get into the Atlantic Journal Constitution. He would call me and say, hey I'm running in my 35th Peachtree Road race. Can you get someone to do a story on me? Billy Corey owned a condominium in Buckhead in the same complex as Tex and Diane, just a couple of floors apart. On a Tuesday afternoon after work or on a Friday evening, we would all go over to the condo and have a glass of wine. Diane was so, she was so much fun.

She was absolutely, um, hysterical sometimes. She would get up and sing when we had parties and Cowboy Roy would be up there with the microphone and dance. She didn't sing, but she didn't, she didn't care. She was going to have a good time and she loved to have a good time. She wanted everybody to have a good time and she knew how to throw a party. Often, Roy Mitchell, known lovingly as Cowboy Roy, would come and play country music for us. Those events were business because often Billy had clients there and they were often just family, just hanging out, eating good food. Here's Cowboy Roy.

Chamber of commerce in the town said he'd have to take them down, core his billboards beside the railroad track. Though the chamber said his day was over and dead, it'll live forever till he brings them back. And then of course, don't let them tear. Sing it with me, Dale. Don't let them tear. Cory's billboard's down. Don't let them tear. Cory's billboards down, cause there's not a

lover like him in this country or this town. But that's the billboard story. I remember it well. Cowboy Roy and I never missed a beat. And me? Well, I was an interloper. I felt like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. I was the guy that lived in the boathouse. I was Tom from The Godfather, the only non-Italian that was in the circle.

I was this guy that didn't seem to belong, but I belonged anyway. I think it was because of my media credentials. They respected that I'd been around the block a few times, and they ran things by me all the time, especially business incentives and adventures. And so we just all got along. This was a new money crowd. They worked hard for it, and they spin it like new money. Vacations were not restful vacations with Diane because it was, you know, you were up at what 730, you got to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

You're up at the crack of dawn so you could have breakfast so you could get on these snowmobiles because you were going to ride for eight hours. And if you didn't start early, weren't gonna get back in time. Everything was usually a go-go-go thing. There was not a lot of just sitting around and taking it easy on vacation. He would take the plane up and fly, get Cowboy Roy and whatever hors d'oeuvres and red wine and just go take off and fly around Atlanta and have a cocktail party in the air.

It was also a great big family and it was absolutely the way it was until September 25th, 2016. That night, a stunning series of events would change the lives of our circle of friends forever. Tex MacGyver had shot his wife Diane in the SUV that fateful night and would embark on a baffling series of gaffs and conflicting stories that would ultimately send him to prison for the death of Diane. Breaking right now at noon, a wild turn of events and a murder case that's really gripped Atlanta for years. Sex MacGyver is a convicted murderer after shooting his wife Diane in an SUV in 20s.

MacGyver is accused of shooting his wife near Piedmont Park. But our story doesn't end there. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic or your sink full of dishes? As an actor, it's very free being part of these shows. You can step in the booth and kind of be anything. Well, for us, I'm gonna guess for some of you, that thing is...

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Hello, it's your beauty and wellness BFFs and we're here to answer all your burning questions. Skincare, makeup, parenting and more. We have got you covered. Oh yes we do. We'll speak with industry insiders, celebrities and our close friends. And give all our honest and unfiltered thoughts always. Listen to Lipstick on the Rim now on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tex MacGyver is alone and he's lonely. Right now he's in the Augusta State Medical Prison, the prison's less than 30 minutes away from the legendary Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters. But today there's no chance of him hitting the links. He's been in and out of jails and prisons for years now. It's felt like whiplash as he's gone through so many trials and so many transfers. But here, at Augusta State Medical Prison, his belt buckle and cowboy hat are just former comforts. Stuck wearing prison-issued scrubs every single day,

the last few years have not been easy. When I just saw him recently, I could tell that he's had a little bit of shaking of the hands. He has not received good medical care in prison. He's trying to cope with everything. You know, he knows that there's light at the end of the tunnel now and that he's just going to make the best of it and move on.

But now, Tex finally knows the day he'll get out of prison. And things are looking good, really good. You see, despite his current accommodations and circumstances, Tex has much to look forward to finally. Once he's out, Tex could transform back into a millionaire overnight. What you might not know, well, only a few insiders actually do know is that incredibly Tex is set to inherit Diane's fortune, the woman he killed once he's out. In fact, even before he's let out in early 2025, the money has already started flowing.

And there's nothing anyone can do about it. This season on Deadly Fortune. I've never witnessed a leper coming out of a leper colony or a true pariah being shunned by a community and sent out. You know, a scarlet letter being painted on, but it felt like that. To have a woman of that stature be in a simple cardboard box in the bottom of her closet after her husband sold all her things to little unsettling disabled ladies. But that still doesn't explain how the gun went off.

Guns just don't magically go off on their own. And he said essentially, I need you to fall on your sword. There's a million things in life that are hard to explain. And to jump from that to these odd things, they all add up to malice murder. I mean, people do dumb shit all the time. The attorney accused of murdering his wife owed her thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Oh, man, you're not here to hear me suspect. Don't want to wait for that next episode? You don't have to. Unlock all episodes of Deadly Fortune ad-free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. Search for The Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple? Head to GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen.

As a subscriber, you'll get Binge access to news stories on the first of every month. Check out The Binge Channel page on Apple Podcasts or GetThebinge.com to learn more. Deadly Fortune is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Waveland Road. I'm your host and reporter, Dale Cardwell. Jason Hoak wrote and produced the series. Our associate producer is Marni Zambri. Production support provided by Tim Millard, audio engineering by Shane Freeman. The original score for Deadly Fortune is by Thomas Avery.

Jason Hoke is the executive producer on behalf of Waveland Road. Executive producers for Sony Music Entertainment are Jonathan Hirsch and Catherine St. Louis. If you love the show, tell your friends and don't forget to leave a review. Thanks for listening. you