Episode 225 - Dirty, Dirty, Secrets - The Murder of Farah Fratta
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In November 1993, a new smash hit by rock singer Meatloaf became the number one single on the American Billboard charts. I would do anything for love, but I won't do that.

Throughout the song, Meatloaf proclaims his willingness to even run into hell and back for his lover. But still, there's something that remains a bridge too far for him to cross. The lyrics left audience wondering and debating what exactly it was he refused to do in the name of love. Whatever it was, most people assumed it had to be something truly terrible.

That same November, a Houston, Texas woman named Farrah Ferrata was in the middle of a long drawn-out divorce and custody dispute with her estranged ex-husband. After nearly ten years of marriage, she'd finally had enough and left him for good. But it wasn't for a lack of trying. For years, Farrah attempted to do everything within her power in order to save her marriage.

She'd received the rhinoplasty he'd insisted on. She'd gotten the breast implants he told her were non-negotiable. Went to the gym and worked out nearly daily to keep up with the standards. But still, he demanded more. We have no way of knowing what radio stations Farrah listened to during her daily commute to the airport where she worked.

But there's no question that if she heard Meatloaf's new song, she might have a good idea of what he was talking about. Despite her willingness to do nearly everything in the world for her husband, there were still things he wanted she simply wouldn't do. And there's no question she'd already been to hell and back for him several times over.

Join me now as we examine the tragic murder of Farrah Farada, an American Airlines ticket agent and devoted mother of three. You'll hear the harrowing story of a divorce from hell and the bitter custody battle that followed, including how all signs pointed straight to her narcissistic ex-husband in the wake of her murder.

But there was one major problem: her husband was nowhere near the scene of the crime. The lobby of the Klein State Bank in Houston, Texas, was practically empty just after noon on March 1, 1995. The lunchtime lull was typical for that time of day, giving bank tellers a much-needed opportunity to catch up on the day's paperwork.

That's until three masked men suddenly burst through the front door, wielding guns. Before the tellers could even trigger the alarm, the armed intruders were already up in their faces, forcing them to back away from the counter. The robbers pressed the barrels of their guns against the tellers' heads, as one of them began loading the contents of the cash drawers into a green backpack, completely filling it up.

After only two minutes, the ringleader started shouting, "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" The trio then fled the scene, making off with $20,000, disappearing into a waiting gray Ford Escort, the license plate conspicuously absent. And they might have gotten away with it too, if they'd simply obeyed the speed limits.

When nearby motorcycle cops patrolling the area spotted the vehicle, it was doing 50 in a 30 zone. Initially, the officers thought they were just initiating a routine traffic stop until they suddenly found themselves in a high-speed pursuit throughout the neighborhood. But as the officers closed in, the Ford Escort abruptly came to a stop.

The doors then swung open, and four black males darted off in different directions. One of the deputies abandoned his motorcycle and ran after the suspect carrying the green backpack on foot. Throughout a maze of backyards and alleys, he hurtled fences and dodged clotheslines, chasing the suspect down. The trail was marked by a scattering of cash, thousands of dollar bills that had fallen from the backpack as the suspect fled.

Until suddenly, the suspect stopped and raised his hands, yelling out, I give up, I was only the driver. 18-year-old Howard Guidry was arrested on the spot and taken into custody. The green backpack and its contents stored away in an evidence locker. Inside the bag was $12,000 in cash, along with three ski masks and an assortment of guns.

One of them was a long-barrel .38 caliber revolver containing no bullets inside its cylinder. Police had no way of knowing it, but they just locked away the most important piece of evidence in what had recently become the city of Houston's most high-profile unsolved homicide case.

Four months earlier, on November 9th, 1994, 37-year-old Robert Frada had pulled up into his ex-wife's driveway around 5 p.m. to pick up their three kids for his weekly court-approved visitation. At the time, Robert and Farrah weren't officially divorced yet. Due to a backlog of cases being heard, they'd been waiting over two years for the court to decide which of them would be granted full custody of their kids.

But despite the bitterness between Robert and Farrah, they managed to shield their young children from the scandalous reasons why they were separating. That Wednesday evening, as four-year-old Amber, five-year-old Daniel, and seven-year-old Bradley hopped into their dad's car, they still looked at their father and saw what must have seemed like a superhero from a comic book come to life.

Not only was Robert employed as both a policeman and a firefighter in the Houston suburb of Missouri City, Texas, he was a hulking and shredded bodybuilder with a superhero's physique. He was also handsome, always well-groomed, and if you can imagine a young Paul Newman on steroids, you've got a pretty good picture of his overall appearance.

After picking up his kids from Farrah's house, Robert took them back to his place, where the children helped him feed his menagerie of pets. An iguana, a four-foot python, a dog, and a cat. When it was time for dinner, he took his kids to their favorite restaurant, Wyatt's Cafeteria, before arriving at St. Mary's Catholic Church for their Wednesday night service around 7.30 p.m.,

For his oldest, Bradley, that night was a special one. It marked his final night of catechism classes and a special candlelit ceremony for parents and children afterward. During the ceremony, Robert made sure to grab himself a candle and participate as well. Other service members were a bit surprised to see Robert inside the church. For as long as they could remember, this had to be the first time Robert stuck around for the service.

Usually, he showed up in his gym clothes, dropped off his kids, and wouldn't return until later when it was time to pick them up. Perhaps Robert was trying to take his faith more seriously. Or maybe there was another reason.

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It was just before 8pm when she pulled into her driveway and opened her automatic garage door. Her neighbors, Lauren, Darren, and Hilscher noticed Ferris headlights lighting up their living room as she backed her vehicle into the garage. Seconds later, the Hilschers heard a gunshot followed by a blood-curdling scream from across the street. Then a second gunshot followed by silence.

Looking at her living room window, Laura was shocked to see Farron now lying on the floor of her garage. Immediately, she picked up the phone and dialed 911. Now in county, what is your emergency? Yes, I just saw a shooting, please. Okay, do you know if anybody's been shot? Yes, I see the way they are. I see her garage right now. Is somebody shot? Yes. Stay on the line. Let me connect you to the ambulance service. Hold on.

While Laura was still on the phone, she noticed a person still outside Farrah's house, attempting to hide in the bushes.

Just then, another vehicle pulled up to the house.

And he can't see me. I have my lights out. But there's a car that just pulled up. I can't tell what color. OK, ma'am. Yes, she's a black man. Just got in the car that we gave it a silver car, I believe. Let me tell you about the car real quick. It's a silver car with one burnt out headlight. OK, it's back. Real small Toyota. About six years old. It could be a Honda. It could be a Honda. The lady is still in her garage. And they turn the lights out in the garage.

Darren attempted to get the vehicle's license plate number, but the suspect and getaway driver had already fled the scene by the time he got outside to take a look. After police and paramedics arrived, they found 33-year-old Farrah Frada lying in a pool of blood next to her car. She'd been shot twice in the head.

Police working the crime scene searched for any possible signs of burglary or motive for the crime, but after a thorough investigation, it became clear this had been an act of execution. Farrah's parents, Lex and Betty Backer, who lived only a few minutes away, arrived within minutes after being notified by neighbors who'd gathered around the crime scene.

But the horrified parents were prevented by police from entering the garage. Instead, they stood by helplessly for 45 minutes. As EMTs attempted to resuscitate their daughter, Farrah was eventually life-lifted to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Farrah Backer was born in Guildford, Surrey, England in 1961, where she lived happily with her parents until she was 19.

That's when her father Lex decided he wanted to relocate the family to what he considered the land of opportunity, the United States. At first, Farrah had no interest in going. Not only was she an adult, she was also engaged to be married. But eventually, her father convinced her to just try it out for one month and see what she thought. Well, needless to say, one month ended up turning into the rest of her life.

Soon after joining her parents in Houston, Texas, Farrah was offered a job with American Airlines as a ticketing agent. And it didn't take long for her to make friends. With their charming, outgoing personality, one of those new friends Farrah met was another ticketing agent, Robert Frotta. When it came to schmoozing customers at the airport, no one was better than Robert.

He had a knack for lightening the mood and diffusing contentious situations that could arise at the ticket counter. By the time Farrah met Robert, he'd already made his way through dating several of the other American Airlines co-workers. So when a few of them noticed Farrah taking a shine to him, they tried to warn her away from him. But it was no use. Farrah had already become smitten.

It didn't take long before Farrah was dating Robert and she decided to send her engagement ring back to her fiancé in England. Robert speaks about those early days with Farrah in an interview with filmmaker Werner Herzog.

I wasn't very attracted to her physically, but she was just, she treated me wonderfully. And she was already engaged to somebody from England. And yet she still kept pursuing me knowing I was dating other women. And I felt that as she was coming over to my apartment and she'd want to cook for me, clean for me, do my clothes for me. I'm like, this woman is wonderful. So I kept praying to God saying, is this the woman that you want me to marry? Because she, I mean, I, I,

grew to love her and fall in love with her for the personality that she was and based on the way she was treating me. So yeah.

She was beautiful. Here again, I thought she was attractive, but she wasn't my... She was only like 5'4" and about 116 pounds when we met. Well, I always liked bigger women, because I was always on the small side, and so I wanted to marry a woman who was large, so my children wouldn't grow up like me, being small and pecked on. So no, she didn't meet the physical attributes of what I was looking for in a wife, but I felt like, hey, this must be the woman that God wanted me to marry.

Despite his reservations about her physical attributes, Robert and Farrah married in May 1983, and within three years, they welcomed their first child, Bradley. By this time, Robert had left his job as a ticketing agent and taken a position as a public safety officer in Missouri City, a role that required him to be both a policeman and a firefighter.

After Robert and Farrah's son Daniel was born in 1988, Lex and Betty had already started noticing that their daughters seemed less happy in their marriage, although she refused to tell them what was bothering her. Later that year, Robert and Farrah separated for a month before getting back together again. Still, Farrah refused to tell her family what the issue was.

It wasn't long before Farrah was pregnant with her third child, their daughter Amber. Not long after Amber was born, Lex tried talking to his daughter about her marital problems, which is when she admitted for the first time she wanted to get a divorce, simply telling her dad she couldn't live with Robert anymore as much as she tried.

In March 1992, after nearly 10 years of marriage, Farrah filed for divorce. In her filing, she officially cited cruelty in their marriage as the primary reason for seeking separation. Even after the divorce was filed, Robert and Farrah made several attempts at reconciliation for the sake of their children, which included Farrah undergoing rhinoplasty surgery at Robert's insistence.

Then in August 1992, she agreed to receive breast implants, despite feeling reluctant because of the possible negative health consequences. Finally, after making every effort to save her marriage, Farrah decided to end things indefinitely with Robert and to finally see their divorce through to the finish.

After hearing the news, Robert refused to pay for Farrah's recent surgical enhancements as promised and told his lawyer point blank, I'm not going to pay for someone else to play with what I paid for. Over the course of the next two years, Robert and Farrah engaged in what can only be described as a divorce from hell.

And although it's rumored, Robert never really wanted full custody of the children himself. He fought Farrah tooth and nail in court just to make her life miserable. Something that would come out later that he'd already been doing intentionally for several years. On the night of the murder, Robert and the kids returned from church to their mother's house just before 9 p.m.,

By this time, Farrah had already been taken by helicopter, but Robert could see that her house was surrounded by a large group of police officers. When I first got there, I initially thought it was a drug raid. Everybody looked calm. Nobody was frantic about anything. I saw everything taped off, and I thought I saw Farr. I still don't know who it was that I saw, but I thought it was Farr standing there. I was going to actually walk up to her and joke, "Oh, what, you got a drug raid going on here?"

According to police, when they spoke to Robert at the scene, they were shocked that he didn't appear to show any signs of sadness, concern, or even surprise over Farrah's death. One officer described Robert's demeanor as very confident and composed, and that he didn't appear to be emotionally upset in any way. Robert was then asked to go down to the station for a formal interview, while the three kids were taken to a neighbor's house.

Detectives, who were already familiar with Robert and Farrah's contentious history, began grilling Robert about his whereabouts during the murder, which is when they learned he'd been at church. With many witnesses from the service to corroborate his story, his alibi was completely airtight. Did your wife instruct you to take your son to church tonight? Yeah. Yeah, she pre-raised him with me. It's just like the last time.

And what is your divorce? Your temporary agreement, say, about custody. That I get them from 6 till 8 on Wednesdays, every other weekend. Despite having an ironclad alibi, detectives still suspected Robert was behind the murder and asked to search his vehicle, where they discovered an unmarked envelope containing $1,000 cash inside.

Although Robert claimed it was just money he owed a friend for installing some carpet, detectives wondered if it was more likely money meant to pay off a hitman. So they began asking Robert for more details about his and Farrah's relationship. Do you still have feelings for her? It's starting to hit me now. I mean, I loved her. I mean, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I never wanted a divorce. I didn't do anything to warrant a divorce.

Yeah, I mean, I still care about her. I mean, you know. Why does she want a divorce? I guess to sum it up, basically, there was no romance and affection in our marriage. It was more like, I mean, I loved her, I provided for her, and I took care of her and everything, but I guess we just weren't in love with each other, you know? And whereas, to me, I was able to handle it,

I guess she told her, look, you know, Coker did. What's the big deal? You know, we don't have the best marriage, but as far as we're worth, she wanted to possibly put her on a pedestal and file for divorce. The detective then asked Robert who would hate fair enough to want to see her dead. Nobody I can think of. I mean, I can't think of anybody that hates her. What's wrong with this picture? It went losing above average neighborhood. I went for five battles, you know.

When Robert said "the last time", what he was referring to was a disturbing incident that occurred in June, four months before Farrah's murder.

A night when a masked man broke into Farrah's bedroom while she was sleeping and startled her in the middle of the night. - So what happened? - Well, I never really got the straight story. According to my children, somebody came in the house, bypassing the alarm system and everything else, did nothing, but, I mean, according to what she told detectives was that he said that he was there to quote, this is what they said to me,

Hearing Robert claim that the man did nothing to Farrah is extremely chilling to hear.

Because the truth of the matter was that the man repeatedly tortured Farrah by shocking her with a stun gun as she lay in her bed, leaving her with severe burns on the back of her neck. While the attack took place, all three children were crying, screaming, and pounding on the outside of her bedroom door. Miraculously, the man abruptly left without causing any further harm to Farrah or her kids.

According to Robert, he believed the attack was somebody's attempt to get at him somehow. He also claimed that since this incident, a number of strange things have been happening to him, with people breaking into his home, stealing things, and even draining oil from his Jeep. And it wasn't until last week.

Um, that I happened to notice my garage door. I still don't understand why someone would come in your house. You can go. That's what I'm saying. I don't know. Well, seeing as they have that much access to you, they'd just kill you. You're right. You're 100% right. Yeah. And that's what I've been saying to my friends too. It's like, somebody's with me, but not trying to kill me. And that's why when Bradley called me up... You were police officer. How long ago did you realize that you were being as you could? Two months ago. Two months ago.

The interview with Robert was a 14-hour marathon, but only about an hour of it was recorded on tape. Throughout the entire interrogation, Robert stuck to a story that he had nothing to do with Ferris' murder.

But the detective who conducted the interview didn't believe a word. He's lying, he's been lying all night. You know, there's no robbery, there's no sexual assault, there's no carjacking. Basically, you got a mother of three coming home from work at 8 o'clock in a low-crime affluent subdivision in northeast Harris County. Basically gets ambushed and shot execution style. He knows how it goes. He's well aware of his rights. He's well aware of what we can and cannot do.

He knows how to make problems. And he, you know, he's just been real amused by this whole thing. We talked to at least two people that she's made the statement that he said she'd be dead before she'd get out of the marriage. By the time Robert was leaving the police station, a crowd of reporters had gathered outside. And to their surprise, Robert agreed to speak with them.

smiling, joking, and hamming it up for the cameras. Robert even winked at one point while he was talking in an interview later shown on Houston's local CBS affiliate KHOU11. Frotto was released this afternoon to a battery of cameras and microphones after 14 hours of questioning. He seemed unfazed, though he immediately accused sheriff's deputies of violating his civil rights.

We're not allowed to make any calls. I mean, I thought they might have had a tape somewhere in the room. I kept singing to the tape what time it was, and I want to call an attorney. Like I said, I was completely denied all that. Like I said, I was beaten, and this was ridiculous. He's lying. He's been lying all night. I mean, y'all ask him about calling the attorney. Who's your attorney? He doesn't even have an attorney.

Robert went on to accuse the police of physically abusing him while in custody, claiming they beat him in the chest and legs while he was handcuffed to a chair, only hitting him in places they knew weren't likely to leave a mark.

Despite the shocking claims made by Robert, almost everyone who watched his interview on the local news couldn't help but wonder why the primary suspect in a murder case would appear so jolly and nonchalant about the entire ordeal, especially considering three young children had just lost their mother.

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Their theory was that he'd hired someone to kill Farrah while he was at church and knew Farrah would be home alone. They believed the envelope of cash found in his car was intended on payment for the hit. It was a solid theory, but proving it wouldn't be easy. As the investigation began, detectives learned from several witnesses at the Catholic Church that Robert had seemed quite distracted during the service that evening.

They'd seen him checking his pager almost the entire time and leaving several times to make phone calls from the phone in the church office. Police subpoenaed the church's phone records and discovered that Robert had been dialing the pager of a woman named Mary Gipp. Although police had never heard Mary's name before, they found her number in Robert's personal address book. The entry was simply titled "Pager" and didn't include her name.

But before investigators spoke with Mary Gipp in person, they decided to do some digging. That's when they learned she owned a cell phone, and so they subpoenaed those records as well. And the results were extremely interesting for detectives.

On the night of Farrah's murder, Mary Gipps' cell phone had been used to contact Roberts several times, with calls being placed to Roberts' home, the restaurant he'd taken the kids to that night, as well as to an outside payphone just a couple blocks away from Farrah's house. The final call to the outside payphone occurred at almost exactly the same time Farrah's neighbors called 911.

When detectives spoke to Mary at her home, she admitted to owning the pager and cell phone. But she claimed she'd left her cell phone in her car all night and had never used it. As for the pager, she said she'd bought it for her boyfriend, Joseph Price-Dash, a bodybuilder who worked out at the same gym as Robert. Mary also worked out there as well.

When asked for her alibi on the night of November 9th, Mary claimed she and Joseph spent the entire night watching figure skating on TV. Looking into Mary's boyfriend Joseph, police discovered he had a long history on the wrong side of the law, arrested for multiple burglaries and once attempted murder.

They also found out he drove a silver sedan with a burnt-out headlight, just like the one reported fleeing the crime scene by Farrah's neighbors. When police interviewed Joseph, he denied having anything to do with Farrah's murder. Speaking with Robert on the phone that night or even knowing the guy,

For detectives, as long as Mary and Joseph kept telling the same story and corroborating each other's alibis, there was little more they could do. As police continued to investigate Ferris' murder, they interviewed several people who worked out of the same gym as Robert. It was then that they learned that the bodybuilding community was a tight-knit fraternity of sorts, with many of the guys working out together for more than a decade.

Because of this camaraderie, police thought it would be unlikely they'd be able to get much out of Robert's workout buddies. They couldn't have been more wrong. At least seven different people from the gym told police they'd heard Robert talking about having his wife murdered. And many of them claimed Robert had even asked them if they knew anyone willing to do it for money.

It was alarming to think that so many people had heard Robert talking about having his wife murdered. And not a single one of them warned Farrah, who also was a gym member, or called the police. Most of them said they thought it was just Robert's way of blowing off steam as he went through a messy divorce.

One workout partner, James Ray Thomas, even asked Robert why he'd been so brash as to talk openly about his murderous plans at the gym. Robert replied that was his plan to confuse the police by creating too many possible suspects and potential witnesses. After interviewing the gym members, detectives turned their attention to Robert's co-workers, who were in law enforcement themselves.

Many of them also said that Robert had spoken openly about murdering his wife. At one point he even said, "I'll just kill her and do my time, and when I get out, I'll have my kids." In the aftermath of Farrah's murder, her parents, Lex and Betty, attempted to gain full custody of their three grandchildren.

To do this, they had to go in front of a new family court judge and explain why they believed Robert was an unfit father. The stories that became public during these proceedings were truly shocking. The world would finally learn the disturbing truth behind Robert and Farrah's divorce using a deposition Farrah had given during her divorce proceedings.

For starters, Farrah felt Robert was a danger to her children. Why? Because he'd leave firearms and ammo lying around the house unsupervised. She'd also find that whenever Robert had the children, she'd come home to find them rarely bathed and sometimes not even fed.

He'd also leave them home alone while he went to the gym, with the oldest son, Bradley, getting bitten one time by Robert's pet python. On top of all this, Robert was prone to roid rage, sudden volatile outbursts of anger from his use of steroids. Farrah also claimed Robert had been sexually abusing her throughout their marriage and that she'd been ashamed and afraid to tell anyone.

According to Farrah, Robert had asked for an open marriage so they could both sleep with other people. He also wanted her to participate in threesomes with both men and women. He wanted her to watch him with other women and vice versa. But that was just the beginning of his unusual sexual requests, which he categorized to her lawyer as being cruel.

She claimed that Robert demanded that she choke and punch him while he masturbated. He also wanted her to urinate on his face and defecate into his mouth. According to Farrah, he made these demands almost on a daily basis.

The judge overseeing the custody hearing was quoted as saying, "In 23 years of family-oriented legal work, I've never heard this degree of depravity and bizarre sexual behavior." Farrah's claims were also corroborated by the testimony of several others, including a few select friends she told about the abuse.

Robert's co-workers also admitted that everyone down at the station knew that Robert's biggest sexual fantasy was to, quote, "...wanting to have a woman shit on him." In the end, it was Farrah's refusal to participate in Robert's sexual demands that led to their separation and ensuing divorce.

Lawyers at the custody hearing also laid out why they believed Robert was most likely responsible for Farrah's murder. And although this wasn't a criminal proceeding, the judge agreed. Before awarding full custody of the children to their grandparents, the judge told Robert, "I cannot imagine a more grievous harm to the children than for their father to induce the death of their mother, who was raising them."

Your conduct and judgment are seriously impaired. As for nurturing love and care, I don't think you understand what that means. The family court judge's opinion carried no legal weight regarding Robert's actual innocence or guilt, but it did give prosecutors and detectives considerable leverage. During Robert's police interrogation, they asked him if he had any life insurance policies on Farrah.

Robert said no, but police soon discovered that wasn't true. Farrah did in fact have a $100,000 policy on her life. They also learned from the insurance agents that Robert only waited three days after her murder before calling up and demanding payment. But because he was a suspect in her murder, the insurance company wouldn't make any payments until he was cleared.

Once again, detectives decided to speak with Mary Gipp. The person they believed was most likely to crack under pressure and tell them what she really knew about the night Farrah was murdered. They never believed for a second that both her pager and cell phone had been mysteriously used by an unknown person. So on March 1st, 1995, Mary was given a subpoena to appear before a grand jury

They were threatening to charge her in connection with Farrah's murder. Under this new pressure, Mary decided to talk. But before she did, she took an immunity deal offered to her by prosecutors. According to Mary, she knew that her boyfriend Joseph was planning to murder Farrah weeks prior. And even though she casually knew Farrah through the gym, she never reached out to warn her.

Joseph had been the one using Mary's pager and cell phone that night while she watched figure skating alone in her apartment. Mary claimed that when Joseph came home that night and she asked him if he'd killed Farrah, he told her he had. She then said she watched as he unloaded a .38 caliber revolver and hid the gun in his bedroom. Joseph then announced he was going to the gym to work out. But Joseph hadn't acted alone on the night of the murder.

Apparently, he'd also enlisted the help of their next-door neighbor, 18-year-old Howard Guidry. Fortunately for police, Mary said Howard was already locked up in police custody. He'd been caught robbing the Klein State Bank just days earlier.

It didn't take long for police to realize that the gun they'd seized from Howard's backpack after the bank robbery matched Mary's description of the gun she'd seen Joseph unloading after Ferris' murder. But when they ran a background check on the weapon's serial number, they could hardly believe their eyes. The gun Howard used during the bank robbery was registered and purchased by Robert Fratta way back in 1982.

Ballistics tests against the bullet recovered from Farrah's body revealed it had been fired from the same weapon. Following Mary's confession, the other co-conspirators confessed like dominoes. First Howard and then Joseph would go on to give full confessions of the murder, claiming Robert had hired them to carry it out.

Joseph had acted as the middleman and the getaway driver, while Howard admitted to being the trigger man. Robert had given Joseph the gun in August in exchange for some mechanical work he performed on Robert's car. Either Joseph had forgotten where the gun had come from, or perhaps he wanted to make sure Robert would go down with him in the event they got caught. Robert chose a time when he knew Farrow would be home alone without the children.

He also made sure to put himself in a public place where he'd have multiple witnesses to verify his alibi. Along with his confession, Howard also agreed to appear on camera and walk police through the night of the crime and explain exactly how it took place. Okay, do you wish to talk to us? Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. Why don't you, in your own words, Howard, why don't you tell us what happened here? I was right here about...

Between 5:30, 6:00, sometimes between there and then from here, I went across. Like, I'll walk. Sure, let's walk. On the night of the murder, Joseph dropped Howard off with a .38 caliber revolver in front of Farrah's house. He then drove away and waited near a prearranged payphone to hear word from Howard, whom he'd also given Mary Gipps' cell phone.

Howard then proceeded into Ferris' backyard, where he hid inside a playhouse. So I ran into the house, and I sat down for approximately maybe 20 minutes, and I gave him a call from the same phone, to the pay phone, and I told him that she hadn't made it back yet, and then I hung up the phone with him. He told me just to wait it out, and I hung up the phone with him,

About 10 minutes after calling Joseph, Farrah pulled her car into her garage. Howard then emerged from his hiding spot and stood beside the garage's side door. The door that led from the garage to the house. I stood right here, 38 in my hand, and I waited for somebody to come to the door, but nobody came, but I heard noises. So I creeped around like this.

And I checked the door, but it was locked from the outside. So I just waited. And then when the door finally opened, I walked in. And when I walked in, I faced the woman. We was face to face. And I turned to the side like this. And we was face to face like this. And I had the gun in my hand.

When Farrah opened the door to her garage, she saw Howard pointing a gun in her face.

The first time he shot, his bullet grazed the side of her head and knocked her down. As she fell, she let out a terrified scream, heard by her neighbors. Seeing that she wasn't dead, Howard closed his eyes and pulled the trigger a second time, which was fatal. I made the phone call to Joe to let him know that I was ready to go and it was over. And, uh...

Robert Fratta was officially arrested on April 21st, 1999, more than six months after Ferris' murder. All three co-conspirators, Robert, Joseph, and Howard, were each charged with capital murder and faced the death penalty in Texas.

When the assistant DA was asked what he thought about the case, he replied, I think Robert did it because he's selfish and vain and conceited and thinks the world revolves around him. I think Howard did it because he's stupid. He had a crack problem and didn't think. But I think Joseph Price Dash is a scary, sociopathic killer. He didn't need to help. He just wanted to help.

He just did it because he liked doing it. One year later, in April 1996, Robert's murder trial began. The jury was presented with all the evidence that tied the entire twisted murder plot together. They heard about Robert's sexual deviancy and repeated attempts to find a hitman to murder his wife.

They learned it was Robert's gun that had been used to kill Farrah and the two corroborating confessions written by Howard and Joseph, who were both notably not permitted to take the stand to testify. In the end, the defense chose not to call any of its own witnesses, and the jury took barely an hour to deliberate, returning with a unanimous verdict: guilty.

On April 23rd, Robert was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Both Howard and Joseph were also convicted, given death sentences as well. Speaking with reporters after Robert's guilty verdict, Lex Backer said, "The least he can do now is apologize to the children, but that apology would never come."

At 23 years old, Robert and Farrah's daughter Amber spoke to Werner Herzog in 2013 about visiting her dad on death row. Three years ago, well actually about four years ago was when I went to go see him. So I did one time only.

Can you tell me about this visit? It was interesting. He basically had told me at one point, because I was so angry at him, and I asked him, flat out, I said, you know, just admit it. Why'd you do it? And he turns around, he tells me he thinks I'm a very angry person and that I need Christian counseling. So at the end of that conversation, I pretty much was like, all right, I'll see you in court. You know, I don't want anything else to do with you. I'm done with this conversation. You're never going to own up to what you did. So.

Despite being sentenced to death, Robert continued to maintain his innocence, and in 2009, his conviction was overturned by an appeals court due to the way his trial judge had handled the co-conspirator's confessions.

By not permitting them to testify at trial, it prevented the defense of having an opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses, a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Because of this, Robert received a retrial, where he was once again found guilty of murder and resentenced to death row. In January 2023, Robert Fratto was executed by lethal injection.

When offered to give his final statement before his death, Robert declined his one last chance to apologize or admit to what he'd done. Instead, he stared at the ceiling and didn't acknowledge Farrah's witnesses at all. Joseph Price-Dash and Howard Guidry still remain on death row. Friends of Farrah described a wonderful and cheerful woman who was fiercely devoted to her three children.

Her best friend Rita said that Farrah was the most kind-hearted and nicest person she'd ever met, as well as being a great mother. Transcripts from Farrah's shocking divorce depositions revealed that her primary impetus for leaving Robert had been the well-being of her children. She'd gone through hell and back trying to please Robert's increasingly outrageous demands.

But in the end, she simply didn't want them growing up around a deranged narcissist. It was when she threatened to expose his dirty secrets that Robert decided to silence her by hiring Howard. Thankfully, Farrah was still ultimately able to get her final wish when her parents, Lex and Betty, adopted all three of her children.

They soon changed their last names and raised them in a loving home far away from the man who'd stolen their mother from them.

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