the biggest landowners in town were the grabbe family. frednd charlotte grabbe were very prosperous. both worked the farm with their daughter, son, and daughter-in-law. >> the grabbes had a lot going for them. i mean, they had substantial resources, inheritance on charlotte grabbe's part, you know, and well into the six figures, so these were not poor small dirt farmers. >> fred grabbe was easy to spot. at 6'4" and close to 300 pounds, he dwarfed his petite wife. >> well, when i first got into the family, i thought fred was very nice, very polite. he was fun to be around. he really seemed to like me. they worked a lot. charlotte worked from daylight to dusk. >> the grabbe marriage had its ups and downs like all marriages, but this one had some unusual twists. fred grabbe had an eye for younger women, and shortly after he married charlotte the couple divorced. later they reconciled and married again. but in 1981 charlotte again asked for a divorce and fred moved out of the main house into a smaller cabin on the farm. the reason for the divorce

>> the maple tree alive and growing was one thing, one creation that fred grabbe could not intimidate, could not reach, could not destroy. >>> come by bill mobrey motors on the expressway in brownsville and prove it to yourself. we really do have great service and low prices. >> when a texas car dealer was found shot to death in his bed, it looked at first like suicide. but a closer examination of the evidence convinced investigators the man had been murdered in cold blood. a decade would pass and a family would be ripped apart before a jury rendered final judgment on what really happened that hot texas night. >>> in the early morning of september 16th, 1987 a couple in brownsville, texas watched late-night tv before going to bed. 43-year-old bill mowbray complained of having trouble with his back and told his wife, susie, he was going to sleep. about a half hour later, she switched off the tv and turned in for the night. soon afterward, the mowbrays' lives would change forever. susie said she heard a noise and woke up to see her husband's elbow pointing upward into the air. seconds l