[piano music playing]
Downloaded from YTS.MX
[woman] January 30, 1991.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
"Dear Diary.
Mom was picked up today by two detectives.
She has to stay at jail all night tonight.
Shanna Harper."
School spirit turned to sinister desire this year in Texas.
[woman reporter 1] It was a case so bizarre that it captured
national and worldwide attention.
[male reporter] She's been dubbed the 'Pom-Pom Mom.'
[woman reporter 2] ...the shocking unbelievable plot.
A small-town mother so obsessed with her daughter's
cheerleading chances
that she would resort to murder-for-hire
to improve her daughter's odds of getting on the squad.
[Shanna] There's been a lot of negatives
surrounding the story of my mom.
And... I'm tired of running from it.
[news anchor] The story of a crime that provided the plot for two TV movies.
If wanting something good for your kids is greedy,
then I guess they can label me as being greedy.
Maybe sometimes people just wanna believe what they wanna believe.
And that's fine.
I'm the only one who knows the full story about my mom.
[recording playing]
[Shanna] I've carried the secret around for too long.
And it nearly killed me.
[news anchor] Today, she decided it was time
for the public to hear her side of the story.
My name is Shanna.
And I am the daughter of Wanda Holloway,
the notorious Pom Pom Mom.
And I'm going to tell you the truth about what happened for the first time.
[upbeat music playing]
[Mimi] Texas is this idea of individualism.
I think it's still a place where people think
they can make their own rules
and want to make their own rules.
So Wanda Holloway is an example of that.
[Anne] I work for a national magazine
and this case dropped in January of 1991,
that kind of blew everybody's mind.
It became an instant national sensation.
And, of course, I was instructed to get out there
and see what I could find out about it.
[Carolyn] As a reporter, we had big murders.
'91, '92, two young girls were killed,
and I covered that,
by a man who was a neighbor and, um, worked as a clown.
But when it goes and-- If you look at that crazy category,
that I ain't gonna never forget that one,
Wanda Holloway.
Houston was, as it always is, in the process of this constant change.
And so I was really interested in, you know, driving a few miles south
and coming up
on what was really then the heart of Houston.
Which was, you know, again, a blue-collar town,
church-going people, football still mattered.
[Anne] I, personally, didn't realize how provincial
a suburb of Houston could have been.
A lot of the people there grew up there.
Married there.
Never left. Their parents live nearby.
Because of that, it didn't have a lot of diversity to offer
in terms of entertainment and aspirational goals.
[Mimi] It was the Texas that
everybody wanted to believe existed.
And football cheerleaders,
those are archetypal characters here.
[slow instrumental music playing]
[Shanna] Cheerleading was, for me, it was just something that
I was prepped to do from the time
I was, you know, five.
When I was growing up,
I was a spitfire.
I was very independent.
A leader.
I was solely focused on my interests,
whether it was tap, ballet,
painting, piano,
modeling.
I just remember my mom,
she wanted to know if I wanted to be a cheerleader,
and I didn't even-- I was, you know, what is that?
And she's like, you know, they wear the little outfits,
they cheer for the guys that are playing football,
you have, you know, the pom-poms.
And I thought, "Yeah, that's cool," you know?
"Sure. Let's do that."
And I guess as I got older,
it was just
something that was gonna happen.
When I was growing up, and certainly in the 1990s still,
the boys' achievement would be to become the quarterback
or the star football player, that could lead to college scholarships and so forth.
But even in the 1990s,
girls could do the same through cheerleading.
♪♪ If I were you I'd take precaution ♪
♪♪ Before I step To meet a fly girl ♪
[Carolyn] If you wanted to do something
that indicated that you were popular,
your standard of beauty was accepted,
you become a cheerleader.
For a long time,
there was no, you know, financial help or interest in women's sports.
So, what could women do? They could cheerlead.
And you attached yourself to the quarterback
'cause he was the most powerful guy in town.
So the way that women exercised their power
was through physical beauty.
And the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders
were the apotheosis
of Texas beauty in that time.
♪♪ Poison ♪
My mom, I think for her,
it was...
the ticket to being somebody.
[lively piano music playing]
[male anchor] Tell me about yourself. Describe yourself.
Well, I have always, I feel, to be very low-keyed.
I don't see myself as being a high-profile person.
I would say that she's very tightly wound.
That's a phrase a former boss of mine used to use, he'd say,
"Wound-up quarter turns too tight."
And definitely Wanda gave that impression, from her hair and make-up,
to the way that she carried herself.
She just looked uptight.
I'm active in my church.
Um, I've always taken a very active part in my children's lives.
I mean, that's what parents are for.
She was a striver.
And I think a lot of people in Channelview were strivers.
It goes back to the idea of Texans,
at that time and before,
really not wanting to be considered hicks.
So what you did was, you read the...
you know, you read Glamour and Mademoiselle and Vogue
and then you figured it out.
You know, how you would dress and look, to keep up.
[Shanna] She was raised Missionary Baptist.
You don't have sex before marriage.
You don't... swim with other sexes.
You know, you go to church,
usually Sunday mornings, Sunday night, Wednesdays.
You know, she couldn't just go do whatever she wanted to do.
She had rules to follow.
[Mimi] Somebody like Wanda, your nose would be pressed against the glass
'cause other people get to go to dances and other people get to drink
and have fun.
And fun was not a part of the Baptist sort of idea.
[Larry] How long you know Wanda?
All our lives.
We divorced,
uh, somewhere around '79 or 1980.
But, uh, we have never went to court
and asked for custody of those children.
So she's always had custody, you had visitation?
I don't have any stories
to tell you that I've ever been told where,
you know, there were just good times with my mom and my dad.
And I have maybe
a handful of pictures
of me and my mom and my dad together.
So, for me,
they were always divorced.
[somber instrumental music playing]
[Anne] Wanda started dating Tony Harper at the age of 16, I believe,
when she was a sophomore in high school.
He was a senior.
They married a week after she graduated from high school.
And according to-- I remember Tony's mother telling me that
they would exchange vicious barbs with each other,
put each other down about their physical defects and so forth.
And, you know, the marriage didn't last too long.
[Shanna] My mom had certain expectations of what marriage brings.
And so, when she and my dad got together,
and things weren't as she anticipated,
it made things disappointing?
What they thought marriage was, they weren't on the same page.
And then, of course, there was infidelity.
And I think it just became kind of combustible.
Apparently, she did not like having sex.
Only did it when she had to, so to speak.
And he liked it and wanted more,
so he sought it outside the marriage.
[Shanna] You know, he started making good money,
and it gave him a sense of authority?
An opinion of himself that he knows best.
I think she learned from him
how to manipulate situations,
how to... get what you want.
At whatever cost.
[Anne] They, you know, stuck it out for eight years anyway.
But, um, their marriage came to an end by May of 1980.
[Shanna] I do think my perception of him was tainted.
And I think my perception of her was tainted
'cause of their desire to hurt each other
any chance that they could.
And if that meant doing it in front of the kids,
then, you know, you did it in front of the kids.
She learned to fight dirty from my dad.
And that's what caused this whole mess.
[Anne] When she had her daughter Shanna,
everyone who knows her says that she definitely changed
and all of her energies were focused on that little girl.
[Shanna] My mom was pretty much my world.
Um, she made sure that we were fed and clothed
and had a roof over our head.
She just... made things run.
And I didn't prefer being with my dad.
Because he didn't take care of me the same way my mom did.
You know, he didn't make sure breakfast, lunch and dinner was served.
So I liked the care that my mom provided more.
[Anne] From the time the child was an infant,
Wanda devoted a lot of attention to dressing her.
And apparently, she enrolled her in gymnastics
and cheerleading schools as early as three years old.
So that she would be ready
for what her mother planned for her future.
It was always, "Go, go, go!" "Go, go, go!"
[upbeat music playing]
[Shanna] It started out with, like, ballet, tap, jazz.
Piano and then art lessons.
Cheer and gymnastics probably three times a week.
Just constantly had stuff to do.
♪♪ I'm past the point Of no return ♪
[Anne] It seemed obvious to me that she was living through the child.
Even at the house,
they'd converted the garage into a little cheerleading studio of sorts.
And Shanna was made, when she'd come home from school,
to go directly into that area to practice
the cheer routine.
♪♪ I'm past the point Of no return ♪
I don't think there was near as much emphasis on her school work.
It was all about cheer, cheer, cheer.
♪♪ I'm past the point Of no return ♪
[static noise]
I think people talking about
her trying to live vicariously through me,
I've never really bought into that.
I really believed she wanted what was best for me.
And this was just the, the path to take
to, to open doors and to give me opportunities
that she didn't get.
[Carolyn] I don't think it's unusual for some moms back then to think,
if I can just get my daughter in the right place, in the right group,
she'll find the right man
who will help her have a great life.
[slow instrumental music playing]
[Anne] Wanda wasn't the only mother in Channelview
who wanted her daughter to be the best.
When Inside Edition did a profile on Amber Heath and her mother Verna,
it was clear both girls were pushed to excel from a very young age.
[anchor] Some might call Amber Heath a junior superstar.
[upbeat music playing]
An award-winning gymnast and baton twirler from the age of three,
her home is studded with trophies more than she can count.
[dramatic music playing]
I started going to a private school.
And that's where I met Amber
if I'm not mistaken.
Um, I think we were in first grade together.
And I somehow realized that she lived
on the street
that was connected to mine.
And we were so excited 'cause we were so close to each other.
You know, like, how cool is that?
Like, we could spend the night all the time.
Like, we're just right here.
We were best friends. She came over to my dad's for the weekend.
She'd come over to our house, I'd go over to their house.
And her brother was my first... crush.
So this was my house.
Those windows go to the garage.
My mom had it landscaped beautifully.
She had a great yard.
[turn indicator beeping]
And then that's, that was, um, Verna and Amber's house there.
My mom and Verna were friends at one time
and Verna actually helped my mom because she was a single mom
and she needed help getting us to school.
So, being that Verna lived around the corner,
she would pick us up, take us to school in the mornings.
I remember Verna being... nice.
Just normal. Just a mom.
She must have been tough on Amber
to a degree because
Amber and I had a conversation once
and she, she told me that she wished
my mom was her mom.
And I remember being surprised, like,
"What's wrong with your mom?" I was like, "Okay, I'll take your mom then."
Maybe I felt some interest that my mom had in, in Amber.
Maybe I felt some kind of...
unknown threat.
Um, you know, maybe, with all the trophies
and all that stuff that I know impressed my mom.
Maybe I was picking up on things
I didn't realize I was picking up on at the time.
[school bell ringing]
The first year that Shanna tried out for cheerleader
was the spring of 1989.
At that point, she was in the sixth grade at the local public school
because all the cheerleaders at the middle school
were going to be drawn from the girls that went to the public schools
that were feeder schools.
[Amy] Shanna and I both decided to leave Channelview Christian School
at the same time, for different reasons.
She went to Alice Johnson.
And, uh, her intention in doing that was because at the time,
Alice Johnson had a rule that you needed to go to the school in sixth grade
to qualify to try out for seventh grade cheerleading.
And so, Shanna followed the rules and she went on.
But Amber stayed at Channelview Christian School.
[Anne] Amber Heath had been attending a private school,
was technically ineligible to try out for cheerleader.
And Wanda felt sure that Shanna would be qualified
head and shoulders above the other girls,
and would undoubtedly be elected.
[Shanna] So I go to the school and it's time to do try-outs.
And as we're leaving, Verna and Amber come.
And I remember my mom
having a negative reaction to that.
And I think she was very frustrated
that they were there in the first place, like,
"Why are you here? Because you don't even go to this school."
[Anne] Verna Heath, Amber's mother,
had gone to the school board unbeknownst to Wanda Holloway,
and asked them if Amber could participate
in the try-outs for cheerleader
even though she was not technically enrolled
in a Channelview public school at the time.
And the school board said yes.
So, here we go to the try-outs.
And Shanna, she was beat out by Amber Heath.
[Shanna] I missed it by one.
Because they allowed Amber to come over
from a different private school
and try out, even though she wasn't even a part of our district at the time.
So had she not tried out, I would have been number two.
That didn't happen.
Since my mom felt like they didn't play fair,
she decided not to play fair, either.
[slow instrumental music playing]
My least favorite activity was probably cheer.
I didn't... see the point in it.
Just doing jumps on the side of the field,
and trying to get people interested in football
just, like, is that necessary?
And I-- And I couldn't have even told you anything about football.
I couldn't have even told you what we were cheering for.
Like, I had no idea.
Defense, offense, I wouldn't have known what was going on.
The thought of having to get up in front of judges,
I think it would send me into, like, little panic attacks.
But I didn't realize I was having panic attacks at the time.
Just kind of a feeling of dread.
So I remember going to practice.
I made a comment that I really just didn't wanna do this anymore.
You know, I'm over it. Like, it's played itself out, basically.
And she...
wasn't having that.
She, you know, we put too much time, effort and energy
and, um, made too many sacrifices
to stop now, like, you're too far in it, that's not happening.
And then you know, people say stage mom, and maybe that's...
what she was doing.
I mean, I kind of feel like she would watch Verna Heath
and maybe she was just trying to be like her?
I remember just thinking, like,
"If you want to act like that, you get out here and do it."
[upbeat music playing]
[Shanna] The next year, we felt like the odds were better
because there were more spots available to make the team.
[Anne] In order to be selected to be a competitor
in the cheerleading election,
you had to be screened by a team of college cheerleaders.
So Shanna was selected by that committee to be a candidate.
[Shanna] If you made it past the judges, you tried out in front of the student body.
And then, the students would get to vote
for who they liked the best.
[Anne] During the campaign season,
the school board made a new rule that you couldn't give out candy
or any kind of enticement like that,
monetary rewards, to potential voters,
i.e., students at the school.
Shanna's mother knew this was coming around.
She was getting a jump on it.
She got these rulers made that said "Vote for Shanna."
And then, you can't use anything that's printed on.
And her argument is "I already bought this," and they said, "Oh, well."
[Anne] The night before the election,
Wanda needed to make some little voting promotion signs.
I think she had some signs shaped like a megaphone made out of cardboard
that said "Shanna" on them.
But she didn't have any sticks.
So Wanda decided to use the rulers that had Shanna's name printed on them
to affix to the sign.
So these people are walking around holding a sign
that says "Vote Shanna" and they're passing out stuff
to help me campaign.
And... one of those
rulers with the megaphone got taken up.
And as a result, I got disqualified.
I got called out of class to go to the office.
My mom was sitting there.
They sat me down.
And basically explained the rules,
I guess, of campaign materials.
And said because we passed out the ruler,
that they were gonna have to disqualify me.
I was so agitated.
Not so much for myself. More for my mom, to be honest with you.
'Cause she had put a lot of work into making me successful.
That hurt me that, that she was hurt.
And I just wanted to take the stuff that was on his desk
and just like... [imitates swishing]
I just wanted to just yell in his face
like, "What the hell is wrong with y'all?"
You know? Like, it's a [bleep] ruler.
But I wasn't... that kid.
[slow instrumental music playing]
Then I went to the bathroom.
I cried in the stall for my mom.
Part of me was relieved.
Uh, part of me was really upset because
we had put a lot of effort and energy and work
into doing this, and again it fails.
[Anne] I'm not sure who blew the whistle on it.
It might have been Verna Heath.
But Shanna, she took it well.
But Wanda did not take it so well.
She had a bit of a meltdown.
[Shanna] I think all of that played into my mom
feeling bullied by Verna Heath.
And the school system in general.
[Anne] So after this disappointment with Shanna's disqualification,
Wanda, she began saying it was all Verna Heath's fault.
All Amber Heath--
If that little Amber Heath hadn't been allowed to run in the first place,
the previous year,
she'd been disqualified,
she should've been disqualified because she wasn't a school...
a public school student.
You know, her-- And it just started rolling.
She told her in-laws.
She told her friends. She told her neighbors.
Anybody who'd listen.
She has a tendency
to, to speak before thinking.
But in my recollections,
it wasn't always just about Verna and Amber.
It was the school system.
Um, the cheer sponsors.
Like, it was, like, political.
Like everybody was a part of it.
It wasn't just... Amber and Verna,
although Verna did say in interviews that
she specifically felt my mom's negativity towards Amber.
[Verna] Yes, there was tension.
She would watch Amber with her arms folded
and comment, "Oh, well, she's going too fast."
[Shanna] But as far as I know, they never talked about it.
Did you ever think about having a conversation with Wanda?
I did not feel like confronting her.
It was trivial to me.
[serious music playing]
[Shanna] I came home from school that day.
and I believe Mom had to go run some errands.
And she wanted me to practice while she was out.
So I changed, started practicing.
I noticed a car was parked
diagonally across the way.
I noticed what I thought was two men
sitting in the car.
And they were noticing me.
And it was awkward.
And I remember thinking,
"Maybe I should go inside," you know.
This would be a good excuse to go inside and not be practicing right now.
Because maybe they're gonna kidnap me.
And then, when Mom got home,
I heard people talking in the kitchen.
It was the two men from the car I had noticed outside.
They were police.
And then, that was the last I saw her
until... until she came home.
The state had filed charges against her
for solicitation of capital murder.
Seeking to hire a hitman to, uh, to kill
her daughter's cheerleading rival's mother.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Troy] And it began at that point.
[guitar music playing]
[news anchor 1] Mrs. Holloway's former brother-in-law, Terry Harper,
claimed that she asked him to find a hitman to kill Verna Heath.
[news anchor 2] Prosecutors say they even planned a kidnapping,
with talk of selling Heath into slavery.
[Anne] Terry Harper. What a man.
Essentially, Terry Harper was what would be classically called the ne'er-do-well.
He'd started having problems with the law at about the age of 13 or 14,
by his own admission.
I believe he told me he was arrested for possession of marijuana.
By the time he was in his 20s,
when Wanda was married to Tony,
every news covered the black sheep of the family.
He was in and out of jail a lot. DUIs and that kind of thing.
But he was not the mass murderer type, let's put it that way.
He definitely had some problems.
Um, personal issues,
personal demons.
And I know that he would, many times,
bring those up at Christmas, to the family,
like, you know, would give this spiel about,
you know, "I messed up but I'm gonna do better."
But I didn't have any issues with my Uncle Terry.
He was, he was good to me.
Wanda was well aware of his skirmishes with the law.
So when it came time for her to think up
trying to find somebody who had connections
to the criminal underworld,
Terry would, undoubtedly, be the first person she'd turn to.
She must have been stewing on this for quite a while.
And because the family was divorced,
she sent her daughter to a family Christmas party,
um, to get Terry Harper to meet with her.
[piano music playing]
[Anne] Wanda, apparently, had been having conversations on the sly with Terry
to discuss the fact that she wanted to get in touch with a hitman.
So when it came time for Christmas holidays,
and the children were getting dropped at their grandparents' house,
Wanda gave a piece of paper to Shanna
and said, "Give this to Uncle Terry."
[Shanna] My mom asked me to give her number
to my Uncle Terry.
We were about to go from the living room,
I think, to the, like, kitchen area.
I think it was time to eat.
And I stopped my Uncle Terry and I said,
"Hey, um, Mom wanted me to give you this."
[slow instrumental music playing]
But he took the number and said "Okay."
[Anne] Terry realizes that she wasn't just blowing air
when she said how much she hated the Heaths.
Wanda was asking him to take somebody out,
i.e., kill them.
But there was something Wanda didn't know.
Terry was working with the cops.
[Flynt] Uh, this is a part of Channelview.
As far as I know, it is still crime-infested.
I think it was born crime-infested.
And these parking lots right here,
spaces, is where we met Terry Harper.
[Flynt] I got a phone call
at the undercover office on I-10
from Terry Harper.
And, I was in disbelief, actually.
So I set up a meeting with him with George Helton and I
and he and I worked together on this case.
He sat there and told them what-- what had happened with Wanda.
That Wanda was asking him to try to locate a hitman.
And they were still kind of incredulous that they said,
"Okay, why don't you call her while we listen in?
We need to get her on tape."
George, uh, told him, you know,
briefed him really good on what to say.
And we hooked him up at that phone booth.
And he made his first call.
[recording playing]
You know, we could hear one side of the conversation, his side.
And, uh, I said, "Well, you know, we need to get on this,
make sure nobody gets hurt."
Let's get this case going.
[switch clicks]
[recording plays]
[Anne] Their first official meeting that the detectives
were gonna be listening to the tape of,
took place in the parking lot of a Grandy's restaurant.
[recording playing]
[Anne] I remember there being a lot of hedging.
That she just kept reiterating
that she didn't think she would get her hands
on that kind of money very easily.
And Terry kept saying, "Well, we gotta have some money.
You know, I can't just go to this guy and say
we'll pay you later. Doesn't work that way."
She was just going back and forth, back and forth.
And, uh, you know,
my fear was, and George's fear was,
is that she would back out from Terry
and go and get someone else and it really happening.
So we had already told him,
"Tell her that she needs to either pay up
or give us something of equal value to that."
[recording playing]
[Anne] So, she brings the earrings to a meeting.
They make the transfer.
And he says, you know, "See you later. I'll let you know."
And the next day, she's arrested at her home.
[Terry] I didn't know what to think at first.
But when I realized that Wanda was serious,
I went to the police
and I felt like I'd done the right thing then.
I think I'm doing the right thing now.
[tape rewinding]
[static noise]
[Flynt] It was about 4:00 in the afternoon.
Uh, George and I had secured our search warrant.
And, uh, we came over here and waited
and sure enough, it wasn't long.
Wanda showed up, pulled up in the driveway.
We got out of the vehicle and followed her up to the front door.
And I said, "Look, you know, you're under arrest
for solicitation of capital murder, for Verna Heath."
And, uh... she said, "Oh, really?"
I said, "Oh, really."
She goes, "Am I going to jail?"
I said, "Yeah!"
She said, "Well, let me go change clothes."
I said, "No, ma'am, we got clothes for you downtown."
And I said, why don't you tell your daughter that
we're taking you down for some hot checks
'cause clearly she's not gonna understand any of this.
And she said, "Well, I need to call my husband and get me an attorney!"
So she picks up the phone, calls her husband, whose name is CD,
and I can kind of hear him.
She says, "I'm going to jail, CD. You need to get me an attorney!"
Well, I stepped outside and waved the patrol unit up.
George stayed in there with her.
And he walked in, handcuffed her,
and we took her down to the jailhouse.
Most people would, would be in tears.
Especially a capital offense like that.
But, uh, it's my understanding she had no qualms about what she had done.
And she wished that it had went through.
[Shanna] That's the moment when my whole world fell apart.
[Flynt] The day that we arrest her,
I didn't think much about it.
But boy, that afternoon, when I got home,
my parents started calling me,
and friends and just talking about, "Man, this case!"
And it was a huge mess.
[news anchor 1] A Texas woman is facing life in prison
because she thought murder was the only way she could get her daughter
on a high school cheerleading squad.
[news anchor 2] The case of a mother who allegedly would do anything
to make her daughter a cheerleader.
And it's the talk of the town in Channelview where Holloway lives.
It started off with just the local news.
[news anchor 3] She's been dubbed the 'Pom Pom Mom'.
Accused of hiring a hitman to kill another mother in the neighborhood, Verna Heath.
[Troy] That very quickly turned into a national news event.
[news anchor 4] No matter what channel you watch,
you're watching Wanda Webb Holloway.
[Troy] And it had truly made the world news.
[news anchor 5] Life at Channelview High School goes on
but the campus here has become security conscious
as the media has moved in for reaction.
[Shanna] I remember being chased by media
off the school property and halfway to my house.
I remember finding out that one of the people
that I thought was a close friend of mine
was selling yearbook photos to the media.
And that was... pretty hurtful.
[Carolyn] It was sensational and it was a big story.
That doesn't happen everyday even in Texas.
[Flynt] There was people everywhere talking about this.
Wanda knocked it out of the park with that.
I think they ought to put her away.
Anybody that is so jealous of somebody else
that's gonna kill somebody, deserves it.
It was just a feeding frenzy, you know?
You don't hear about stuff like this very often, especially in the '90s.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shanna] I think I was in shock.
Because, like, holy crap, you know, like, what...
what have you done?
[news anchor] 36-year-old Wanda Holloway
is free on a $10,000 bond
and could face life in prison if found guilty.
[Shanna] So when I come home, I know it's not good
because she's in her robe
and she doesn't have any make-up on, she looks like hell.
Mom explained nothing was ever gonna happen.
And my uncle,
he just went off.
[inaudible]
[Shanna] I just remember feeling bad for her.
Because I'm like, "Can you not tell she's already been through the wringer?"
Like, she's obviously suffering, okay?
-[Terry speaking inaudibly] -We don't need to drag her through the mud
any more than she's probably already dragged herself through the mud.
But I didn't say that, of course.
'Cause children are to be seen and not heard.
My grandma told me to stay strong.
So I just pushed down all my fear and guilt.
"Dear Diary..."
[Shanna reading aloud]
I remember going to bed
having the thought, like,
"Am I safe here?" [chuckles nervously]
You know, is she gonna do something to me?
[dramatic music playing]
Because I felt like I'm the reason all of this is happening.
If I had just made cheerleader,
if I'd been better, then we wouldn't be here right now.
That's how I saw it.
I took the blame.
This is on me.
If I didn't exist, none of this would've happened.
And I felt that way until I found out the truth.
[announcer] Here's Larry King.
How do you, Tony, the former husband, it's your daughter,
how do you explain all this?
I don't try to explain it.
[Larry King] Are you saddened by it?
I feel sorry for my children.
One of the first things that Tony did was hire a lawyer
who sought to...
Wanda had primary custody that time, Tony had visitation.
He sought to take Wanda's primary custody away from her.
And it became impossible for the parents on either side
to be able to have substantive conversations with her
about what had happened or what was going on,
for fear that the other side would allege
that they were trying to manipulate Shanna in the middle.
[reporter] Mr. Harper, are the children having problems,
to you knowledge, psychological problems because of this?
Well, it's been a great concern of mine with my children,
that why they are seeing Dr. Kit Harrison.
And they will continue to see him as the court has allowed me today to do so.
I wasn't comfortable with my dad.
My dad made my uncomfortable.
I had fear of my dad.
Not respect, I had fear.
And I didn't wanna live in fear.
[Maier McDonald Maier] The trial was held at the Harris County courthouse,
and it was jammed with reporters.
Interestingly, they could only shoot through the window of the courtroom.
No audio was allowed.
And Wanda showed up looking like she was attending a ladies fashion luncheon.
[reporter] While cheerleading is underway in Channelview schools,
the trial of the town's most famous mother
is opening with dramatic testimony.
We're not dealing with some faux pas at a tea party here, folks.
[Maier] When the case came to trail, it turned out
that the state's star witness for the prosecution was Terry Harper.
The one and only.
Ne'er do well of Channelview.
Black sheep of the Harper family.
And, um, well known to the authorities.
[Ken Odle] I remember thinking,
"He's definitely not in Wanda Holloway's court.
He's not a fan."
And I didn't think he was a particularly nice guy.
[Maier] It's brought out right upfront
that he had a chequered past.
You know, had to get that out of the way
because it's obvious that his credibility could have lots of holes shot in it
just based on his criminal record.
But he took the stand and testified about
how he came to be in possession of a tape recorder
that night in the Grandy's parking lot to start taping Wanda.
And when the courtroom finally heard those tapes, all hell broke loose.
Tonight, the public is buzzing about its first chance to hear the tapes.
[tape playing]
What was on the tapes was... was damaging.
There were parts of it that would make your skin crawl.
But the tapes were what the tapes were.
[tape playing]
[Maier] The venom is her voice was unmistakable.
There was no way around thinking that she meant every word she said,
and that she was willing to go through with it.
I mean, I think it affected that whole trial,
from the beginning to the end.
[Shanna] I was watching the news because that's
the only information I was getting
because no one was telling me anything.
And so I'm hearing her on those tapes,
and she just sounds horrible.
And I just remember thinking,
"Man, she's not gonna get through this.
They're not gonna find her innocent. They're just not."
[prosecutor] Ma'am, would you introduce yourself
to the ladies and gentlemen of the jury?
[Marla Harper] My name is Marla Harper.
[prosecutor] Who are you married to?
[Marla] Terry Harper.
[Maier] Of all the people, Marla Harper ended up as a witness for the defense,
which was quite a stunning turn of events.
Terry and Marla Harper proudly tell them
that, um, she was, at the same time,
his sixth and his seventh wife.
Because during the course of their, I would say, roughly two-year relationship,
they had broken up and gotten divorced once already
and then gotten back together and remarried already.
[prosecutor] Were you afraid of your husband?
[Marla] Very much so.
[prosecutor] Why?
[Marla] Because of the abuse, physically and mentally,
that I had went through since before I married him.
[McKinney] She described him as manipulative, as vindictive.
The picture of Terry is nothing but a do gooder,
and it could not have been further from the truth.
[reporter] Yesterday, Harper's estranged wife, Marla, said
that she was threatened and beaten by her husband in the past.
And as recently as last week, she claimed that he beat her
because Terry didn't want Marla to testify in this trial.
[Maier] Marla knew something about the whole setup with the police
and taping Wanda,
and she thought there was something fishy about it.
So, it was quite a dramatic revelation
when she turned up on the defense
and testified that there was a plot
to, um, set Wanda up, so to speak.
[McKinney] If I had just heard her story in a vacuum,
it would have seemed as strange as the story
we had in the vacuum to begin with was as well.
But as we got through this, we were able to put the pieces together,
paint the entire picture.
[Marla] "Terry, you told me when we went back together,
that if you ever, for any reason,
brought a gun back in this house for any reason,
you wanted me to leave you.
Well, you've got it.
You are a very dangerous person,
and you and everyone else knows it.
Remember when you lied to the police,
and when you were bragging about setting Wanda up?
I taped you and your conversation with Tony.
My attorney knows everything.
PS,
I hope you can eventually straighten out your terrible life."
[McKinney] Marla testified that Terry told her it was his idea.
She believed that Terry actively disliked Wanda
because she had gotten him in trouble with his brother
by telling Tony that Terry was trying to hit on her.
And that gave him the motivation
to try and get back in his brother's good graces at the expense of Wanda.
[Maier] When Wanda gave a piece of paper to Shanna,
that's when Terry, he picked up the ball
and started running with it.
[prosecutor] Marla, did you see your husband
make a phone call on the day before New Year's?
[Marla] Yes.
He was trying to get in touch with his brother.
[prosecutor] What did you hear your husband say to his brother in that conversation?
[Marla] That he'd finally gotten Wanda where he wanted her.
That Tony was finally gonna get his kids.
[prosecutor] How was Tony gonna get his kids?
[Marla] Well, he said they were gonna "burn the bitch"
was his exact words.
[prosecutor] Did they talk about setting up Wanda Holloway?
[Marla] Yes, they did.
[McKinney] Marla testified that Terry and Tony ended up being able to
fashion a narrative that made it believable to the detectives.
They finally gave him a recorder to record some conversations with Wanda,
which is where Terry and Tony's plan
to... to lock Wanda into this for Tony's benefit
began to take shape and form.
And that no matter how many times Wanda said,
"No, I don't want to be a part of this. Let it go,"
they weren't going to let it go.
[tape playing]
It definitely felt like there was the potential
that they had colluded or schemed together to make this happen.
And as I was listening to the tapes,
part of me is saying, "I can't believe she just said that."
Part of me is thinking,
"Yeah, I can see where they're giving her enough rope
to hang herself with."
[McKinney] We now had Marla who was saying Tony was the puppet master, as it were.
He was pointing Terry in the direction of where he needed to go
to help Tony and not help Wanda.
I think that my dad and my uncle set my mom up.
It was just that...
That game of...
retaliation against each other.
And he just had a really good opportunity to nail it to her really hard.
[King] How long you know Wanda?
Since, uh...
We lived together in the same neighborhood,
a mile down the street from each other, all of our lives.
And you think she did do this?
Contrived to do it?
I don't have a comment on that.
[King] You don't have an opinion?
I'm not her judge and jury.
[McKinney] By all accounts,
and by the accounts of people who testified at trail,
money was probably more important to Tony than almost anything else.
He saw himself as better than everybody else.
And having to pay child support to her
meant that she had one up on him.
And he just couldn't let that continue to happen
if he had a way to get out it.
I think my dad gets off on power trips.
Every weekend, at some point,
you could expect to sit in the living room with my dad
and be interrogated for...
a good two hours.
Like he was trying to get...
[sighs] ...ammo
for whatever it was he was trying to get ammo for.
So, with my mom,
I think Dad saw an opportunity
to...
take an unfortunate situation and play it to his advantage.
And he... and he unfortunately didn't think about his kids
and just thought about getting back at her.
And sadly,
I wish he had chosen a different path.
But that didn't happen either now, did it?
So we all get to suffer.
[Maier] When Marla returned to the courtroom to be cross-examined,
the prosecution attacked her viciously.
[reporter] In the cross examination,
the District Attorney Mike Anderson challenged her testimony, saying,
yes, she had been abused and that she had a rough life,
but that she had been under psychiatric care for many years,
and that she couldn't always be believed what she said.
[Maier] The easiest and best way to discredit Marla
would be to look at her own psychiatric history.
It's natural to attack the credibility
of whatever witness you're trying to attack the credibility of.
And unfortunately, Marla put herself in the hospital on numerous occasions.
[prosecutor] Now, Marla, you mentioned at one point
that you had gone somewhere because you hurt yourself.
[Marla] Yes.
Terry had raped me and beaten me up before we got married.
[prosecutor] Uh, ma'am, can I interject something here?
Your stepfather had raped you? Is that correct?
[Marla] That's true.
[prosecutor] And your brother had raped you?
[Marla] My half-brother.
[prosecutor] And several other people have tried to rape you, have they not?
[Marla] True.
[prosecutor] Uh, but you told the doctors that you had
trouble distinguishing between the truth and fiction.
Yes?
[Marla] Yeah, I did it for my protection from Terry.
[McKinney] They attacked her personally.
What they tried to sell
and perhaps effectively sold to the jury was
the story that she's telling is not credible because of her mental health issues.
And when you destroy somebody's general credibility,
people tend to not believe a lot of what they have to say,
even though it may be the God's honest truth.
I'm in shock, I'm numb, I'm angry.
And I'm not gonna rest until the woman is set free
because she's not guilty.
[Carolyn Campbell] Most of the adults involved in this case
were opportunistic.
You just didn't know who to believe.
But I thought she was believable.
[Maier] In Marla's case, the general reaction was,
you know, you brought it upon yourself
if you've stayed with this person.
But when you're involved in a situation like that,
you feel emotionally beaten down for one thing,
and physically afraid of what might happen.
And trying to leave often would escalate a situation like that.
[reporter] Today, Terry denied beating his wife last week.
But he did admit telling Marla's psychologist several months ago,
"I was too drunk to remember if I raped her."
If a prosecutor tried to discredit a woman today for being crazy
because she was abused, it would backfire.
And it would certainly have helped Wanda Holloway today.
But it just didn't get the traction
that that bigger storyline did.
[Maier] I called the chapter in my book about Wanda's defense,
"If all else fails, use a shotgun."
Because every tactic they could possibly dream up,
they dragged out and threw at the wall to see what would stick.
And they had Wanda take the stand in her own defense.
[McKinney] The default position for criminal defense lawyers is
don't put your client on the witness stand.
It's a quick way to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
Now, there are exceptions to that.
[reporter] When she took the stand in her own defense, Mrs. Holloway tearfully denied
she wanted to have anyone murdered.
She said she went along with the scheme
because she was afraid Harper would have somebody murder her.
[Maier] And they'd ask her line by line,
"What did you mean by that?
What did you mean when you said, 'You just want her gone'?"
She said, "I was just kidding.
I just... You know, I was going along with Terry.
It was like a joke we were having."
There was simply no intent.
If Wanda wanted to go through with this,
she would have said upfront,
"Yeah, let's kill 'em. Let's kidnap 'em. Here's the money."
She didn't do that.
But as the tapes progressed, especially when the juries had heard them,
it was really hard to argue that you were kidding.
Imagine an invisible button that only she knows about that she can push.
And if she pushes it, those two people die.
Well, she pushed it.
At the time, we all had certain ingrained perceptions of women.
You still see it today,
where an ambitious woman becomes the villain of virtually any story.
So, I think it was very easy to cast Wanda as the villain.
[Shanna] Trial stuff was not talked about around me at all.
But you stand by your family.
And, um, I knew her better than anybody else.
I knew what she did wasn't a good thing,
but I knew she wasn't all bad.
She looked really bad, but she's not all bad.
[reporter] Reporters and onlookers from around the world
are once again jammed into a Harris County courtroom
for the final phase of what has been a sensational trial.
[Shanna] I only went to the trail the day that she was being sentenced.
And the reason for that was
I wanted to be able to tell her "bye"
if she were found guilty.
[judge] Has the jury reached a verdict?
Would you pass it to the bailiff, please?
"We, the jury, having found the defendant
guilty of solicitation for capital murder
assess her punishment at confinement in the institutional division
of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for 15 years
and assess a fine in the amount of $10,000."
The verdict found Wanda guilty of solicitation of capital murder.
I was disappointed.
We thought there was a reasonable shot
that she could get probation.
Fifteen years was probably a bigger gut punch than the...
than the guilty verdict was.
[Swartz] The guilty verdict seemed like a foregone conclusion to me.
She had already been tried in the press,
she'd been tried in her neighborhood,
she'd been tried in Houston.
It was not surprising.
[reporter] Holloway, visibly shaken,
hugged her daughter before she was taken into police custody.
[Shanna] Everything just changed in an instant.
Like, Mom's gone.
And "Oh, my God, I'm gonna have to go live with my dad.
And I'm gonna run away.
I'm gonna run away 'cause I'm not living there. [chuckles]
And, um, I'll just go hide somewhere."
Like, this can't be happening. Like, this is not happening.
'Cause I can't. This is not gonna work.
I can't go without her for 15 years.
Like, that's just not gonna happen.
[announcer] Now, Channel 2 news at 6:00.
[reporter 1] The cheerleader mom case is not over.
In fact, today, the whole sordid affair took a dramatic twist.
-[reporter 2] Charles. -This case continues to take more turns
than a country road, Claire.
Attorneys for Wanda Holloway have just filed a motion for a new trial.
[reporter 3] Holloway's lawyers discovered that one of 12 jurors
who convicted Holloway was himself convicted of cocaine possession,
making him disqualified to serve on the jury.
All of the members of the possible jury panel had been asked a question,
"Are any of you currently on probation for any crime?"
All, to a man and women said, "No, no, Your Honor."
But one of the members, it turned out,
was on what's called deferred adjudication,
which is a variation of what probation is.
And this young man didn't know the difference, so he had answered,
"No, I'm not on probation."
And that was the ace that they had in the deck of cards to...
to have the case thrown out just two weeks later.
And there was, at the time, a little bit of resentment
because I speculated that the defense knew.
We had filled out such an extensive questionnaire.
I felt like they had probably caught it ahead of time,
and didn't say anything.
And if the trail had gone in Wanda's favor,
then that would have never come up.
And it's to your advantage, obviously, for a new trial.
-That's why I have to press you on this. -I understand.
You did not see him?
We did not know that he was, um,
going through further adjudication at the time.
He was picked on the jury, at the time he served on the jury,
we did not discover that till after the trial.
The four lawyers involved, uh, me and and my partner
and the two prosecutors all signed affidavits saying
"We didn't know it, didn't see it, didn't realize it."
And ultimately Judge Godwin granted the new trial.
[Shanna] It was a win,
even if maybe people didn't think justice was served and whatnot.
No one got hurt, no one ever was going to get hurt.
It was just words that she had spoken in a very mean way,
and then made to look really, really bad.
So, no, justice wasn't...
Wasn't my concern.
Having my life back to normal was my concern.
I needed...
I needed my safety net. I needed to be...
uh, protected. And she was my protector.
And when she got out, that's when she was finally able to fight back.
[man] Standby in the studio.
Four. Ready? Two...
[reporter] In an exclusive Channel 2 interview,
Wanda Holloway breaks her silence
about the cheerleader murder-for-hire plot.
I was set-up.
I was trapped, yes.
[McKinney] Once the trial was over...
Because all of the press till that point had been everyone else talking
about what Wanda had done.
And it was important to her, it was important to us
to get the full story before the public.
[Wanda Holloway] The whole thing started off innocent.
So, it just evolved and it just got...
It just mushroomed. It just kept getting bigger and bigger.
And I just couldn't get out. I didn't know how to get out of it.
She will do whatever it takes to see that she does not go to jail.
Wanda Holloway was guilty of no more than being stupid and gullible.
[reporter] Well, how in the hell did you get into this mess?
By running my mouth and talking to the wrong person.
[Shanna] My mom finally got the chance to have her story heard.
So they put her on every news and media outlet they could,
and that included Donahue.
Wanda Webb Holloway is here with her daughter, Shanna Harper.
It was, kind of, surreal, you know.
I mean, I've known her since the first grade.
And here she is on Donahue.
That was big time back then, you know?
Shanna, let me start with you.
Do you believe your mother is innocent?
Yes, sir, I do.
I remember the audience.
And they were receptive to me,
um, not so much to my mom.
Wanda, why would you even think
of... of involving in a murder?
I mean, what's it gonna do to her daughter?
[Donahue] She's denying she did.
[woman stutters] It's terrible for her.
[Shanna] It was intense, it was bad.
I mean, people were, like, booing.
I think that your relationship with your daughter is obsessive.
I mean, because this is my mother here, you know.
But she doesn't go killing everybody, you know.
I want a job.
She's not killing somebody right now so I can get a job.
[Shanna] It was just ugly.
Um, I remember thinking, "What is wrong with you people?
Do y'all not see me sitting here?"
I mean, I was, kind of, at least hoping that would be a...
a shield maybe.
Maybe a softener, you know, of the blows.
Maybe, like, the, you know, her daughter's right there, we're not gonna act too crazy.
But no, they didn't care.
Did you know something was going on?
Because with all the denial here,
I mean, if your mom, you know, was being harassed by your uncle,
and you're so close, would she have talked to you about it?
You had no clue anything was going on?
I did not know that they were conspiring or anything like that.
Why is it so easy to believe that I could want
my daughter's competition killed,
and not believable that two people could have got together,
two brothers could have gotten together and conspired to set me up?
I think people just believe what they see in the media,
and you're guilty.
You're guilty.
I don't wanna hear your reason.
There's no good explanation.
You're guilty, and we don't like you.
[woman] And if Wanda Holloway is guilty of what she did,
I think she is one very scary woman.
[applause]
It was ultimately traumatizing for me,
and I think it ultimately, uh, caused me health issues.
I couldn't tell the truth in that moment,
and it was like my nerves just snapped.
Couldn't handle it anymore.
And it was a good thing it ended when it did
because I needed to get off that stage.
So, it's been a minute.
Is this the entrance now?
Yeah, it used to be a white and blue building.
[man] Did you like this school?
[Shanna] Mm-hm.
It was junior high, and I just...
I don't think anybody likes junior high.
I think high school was harder for me
when I had to first go back to ninth grade.
You know, starting high school is, is intimidating enough,
but with that stigma attached to me, it was pretty difficult.
Dear diary...
When school started back in the ninth grade,
I just wanted to disappear.
I wanted to be left alone.
Everyone, without meeting her,
saw her as the bad guy.
Or at least by association, you know,
because it was her mother.
[Shanna] My locker, Amber's locker,
and her brother Aaron's locker were all next to each other
because it was alphabetical,
and I was Harper, they were Heath.
And that was a problem.
We had to co-exist through the years together in classes
where we might have even sat by each other,
or whatever, but we never talked.
I think many a time I wanted to apologize, but I...
didn't.
If somebody wanted to invite everybody to go do something,
you really gonna invite Amber and Shanna?
[Shanna] Nobody messed with me.
And I don't know if it's because of what my mom did and they were scared,
or if they were just minding their manners.
All of a sudden, I cared what everybody thought and then that's when
my life just took a turn for the worst in every possible way.
I lost myself.
Totally.
-[woman] Hello. -[man] Yes, go ahead.
[woman] Yes, I was wondering Mr. Harper,
are they gonna make a movie out of this story?
-I don't know-- -[King] I bet on it.
We've had over 20 offers, uh, from different people.
[King] Do you wanna make a movie of this?
I don't know. We haven't made a final decision on that.
[McKinney] Tony had purported to sell, uh,
Shanna's and her brother's rights to HBO,
but the biggest problem at that time was that the temporary orders
in the family law case that Tony had asked for,
prevented him from being able to do that on his own.
They required both him and Wanda to agree to it.
And Wanda had, in fact, not agreed.
[Shanna] I remember my dad took me out to a Steak and Ale one night.
And he said we were having dinner with
some friends of his, I think some business associates.
And that was fine, um...
Until they started
asking questions about Mom.
And I'm not an idiot, and I knew
this was more than just some friends of his
that were business associates having dinner with us.
They were television producers.
So I went to the restroom and I got in touch with my mom.
And said, "Hey, we're having dinner and they're asking me questions about you.
And, um, I don't know what to do."
She told me not to say anything, so I stopped answering their questions.
Later, the court appointed a lawyer for me and got it settled in family court.
My mom had nothing to do with it. It was the judge who choose HBO, not me.
I wasn't opposed to selling my rights,
but my dad forced the issue.
Because mine were gonna bring in more money.
Plain and simple.
And I still was forced to sell my movie rights.
Just for the record.
Some of the money went into a trust for me,
but my dad didn't get any of it. Why should he?
Really rubbed my dad wrong
that he didn't get those movie right-- that movie right money.
'Cause I'd hear about it years later.
[woman] The Positively True Adventures
of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.
Next on HBO.
-[man 1] That's terrific. -[man 2] That's great.
[woman] That's really the title?
-I got a hold of this guy. -[laughs] Okay, what's the deal? Tell me the scoop.
-That's what I need to know from you. -Okay.
Exactly what you want done.
The HBO movie was, uh, it was a spoof on everybody.
It flattered no one.
Nobody came out looking good in that movie.
[movie Wanda] The things you do for your kids, God!
Hmm.
This bitch is crazy.
I laughed.
I laughed. They--
They made a mockery out of the case.
I actually liked it. I thought it was a very amusing
take on the drama.
There's a couple of cops here and if they take me down to jail
for solicitation of murder, can you come get me?
Hold on. Where is my husband's...
[Shanna] I didn't know what dark comedy was.
So, when I went to the movie premier in LA,
um,
I'm sitting there and there's, you know, hundreds of people
packed in this movie theater.
And, I just remember people laughing at things that I just thought,
"That's not even funny. And that's not even how it went."
Momma, when they make the movie can I play myself?
That's what I'm planning, sister.
That's what I'm planning.
Holly Hunter was there, but she didn't want to speak to me.
I wanted to speak to her, I just wanted to meet her. I wasn't mad at her or
ashamed of her performance. I thought she did her job. [laughs] You know?
Um, it did concern me that she didn't want to meet me.
It made it worse. I guess it made it more shameful.
So where do you keep it all?
You stuff it down inside somewhere, I guess.
And it will eventually catch up with you if you don't deal with it.
[reporter 1] A Texas woman has been sentenced to ten years in prison,
after pleading no contest to a murder for hire scheme
to promote her daughter's cheerleading career.
[reporter 2] Holloway was sentenced with the understanding
she could be out in six months.
[Shanna] I was in my first year of college, living with my boyfriend.
And my mom, she came over and sat us down,
she goes, "Basically, I'm gonna have to away for about six months."
And then,
you know, she said, Gatesville, which is the prison
that she was, I guess, assigned to.
Which was super scary.
I was scared for her safety.
[McKinney] Gatesville, it pretty much housed
all the women in Texas who had been sent to prison.
And, in some respects, the things you see on TV about prisons are very true.
There are a lot of gangs,
there's a lot of violence,
there's a lot of drugs.
It is certainly true that people in prisons who have harmed kids,
are treated differently by other inmates.
[Shanna] They assured me that she would be away from other inmates because
there was the fear of something happening to her in there.
But one of the first things I heard back is that
they didn't keep her separate.
And I just
lost it.
[static]
I just could just see her getting like
beat up, shivved.
And like, you know, nobody there to help her.
I was cussing
at my grandma, which is not something I do. [laughing]
"Y'all fix this! Get her attorneys to fix this. This is not what they said."
Like, "this is not okay, you have to do something."
I was so angry and scared for my mom that it just
came out.
I couldn't stay strong anymore.
The guilt was too much.
Wait, I need to back up. [sighs]
I need to tell you why I felt guilty.
And I've only told this to two people in my life before,
because it makes my mom look really bad.
I knew more about what my mom was up to than I've been letting on.
We were alone in the kitchen,
we had just had dinner and she made a comment about,
you know, what if something happened to Verna and Amber.
We just didn't have to deal with them anymore?
And I'm like,
"What do you mean? Be more specific."
"You know, like, if they just like,
crashed off a mountain or something, off a cliff.
And we just didn't have to deal with them anymore."
And, at first,
I remember thinking in my mind the
cartoon scenario,
where you see these little cartoon characters going over a cliff.
And then, I think I was kind of taken aback and brought more to reality.
And visualized it like actually, something like that tragically happening.
And I believe I told her, "That would definitely make things easier,
but, you know, that's not okay."
And then it just kind of went quiet.
Because I remember thinking to myself,
"She's not serious, is she?
Like, surely, she's not serious."
But then,
she asked if I would give my uncle her phone number at Christmas.
I thought that was odd.
The next week, she tried sneaking out of church using some lame excuse.
I just remember, "She's lying to me. Like, what is she doing?" Like, what--
"What's going on? Is she having an affair?" [laughs] You know, I didn't know.
I knew something was wrong and I didn't tell anybody, but
who would believe me?
Only person I could've thought that I could've told somebody, was my step-dad.
And I didn't, I didn't mention it to my step-dad, because if I had've
he probably would've looked at me like I was crazy.
[woman] Your mom, would she have talked to you about it?
You had no clue anything was going on?
Did not know that they were conspiring or anything like that.
[Shanna] As that kid, it all revolved around me.
And if I had just,
done better, if I'd just made it,
none of this would've happened. That was my punishment.
So maybe I sentenced myself.
Because I felt guilty,
I knew something wasn't right and I didn't stop it.
Going into my 20's,
it would've been great had I picked up my life and
got going and everything
was dandy but it wasn't that way.
And a lot of that was based on the fact that my self-esteem was gone.
I was not the same person
that I had been before all of this happened.
I didn't know I was not mentally healthy.
I just stuffed things down and
tried to find anybody who was gonna make me whole again, you know, fix me,
save me, be my hero.
I ended up in abusive relationships.
And I punished myself for years.
I literally
ended up
in my kitchen, on the floor,
bawling my eyes out and just praying to God,
"Please just take me. I do not want to be here anymore."
I had no drive, I had no purpose, I had no--
I just didn't have a will to be here.
Like, this isn't-- this can't be what I'm here for.
So I got off the floor, and I started life coaching myself.
Started focusing on my thoughts.
You know, is the thought that I'm having right now negative?
If it is, how can I change it and make it something more positive?
And I had to do that and do that and do that until it became a habit.
And then ultimately, I realized,
I'm my own hero.
Other people are not here to make you happy.
Only you can do that.
[Campbell] As a reporter, I'm there on that
probably worst day of your life, when I'm covering the story.
And you never get to go back and say, "How'd you come out?"
[Maier] You know, certainly, I think Shanna's been the victim of all of this,
in every possible way.
If there was anytime she could've stopped it,
it would've been when she was a three-year-old to say,
"Please stop making me do these things!
I'm not you!"
[Swartz] Now I have a child of my own,
so I'm a lot more sympathetic and empathetic
to a lot of her motivations, not killing someone,
but other-- you know, wanting the best for her child.
So I wonder if I did that story now,
how-- if I'd do it differently.
[Campbell] We're human.
And I think we look for answers.
"Why did she do that?" And
what makes you fall victim? Even if she was entrapped,
what made her fall victim?
And I have had to come to grips with,
sometimes you just don't have
a reason.
Sometimes the only explanation is that we just do dumb stuff.
So, um, I think Wanda Holloway in the end is just human,
and did dumb stuff, and I'm glad Shanna survived it.
[Shanna] August 1st, 2023.
Dear diary,
These days, mom and I aren't as close as we could be.
But I have no doubt that she and I will always be there for each other, no matter what.
My daughter and I have, you know, do and have a very close relationship.
And I consider myself a friend,
as well as a parent to my children.
And I take a lot of pride in that fact.
[Shanna] We never talk about her getting arrested,
we never talk about the tapes,
we never talk about the past much.
When I told her I was doing this documentary, she said,
"Why do you wanna go bringing all that up again? Nobody got hurt."
"Except you."
[Wanda] The night that they arrested me
Shanna accepted that very well.
She took it and said, "Okay, Momma, I understand."
She said, "I know you didn't do this. I know you're not this type of person."
[Shanna] She's starting to realize the toll this has taken on me and my life.
The damage it's done.
I mean that's what parents are for.
You know, is to see that their children's needs are met
and to help them in any way they can.
[Shanna] She knows she messed up royally.
And she's apologized for it more than once.
She's trying to do better now, and that's all I can ask
of anyone.
Signed, Shanna.