The Ninja Cowboy Butcher

Davie, Florida, sits just outside Miami in Broward County. In the 1970s and 1980s it was still horse country, a place of one-acre lots and rodeos that locals called Cowboy Town. By 2022 it had 106,621 residents and was the most populous municipality in Florida still labelled a town. The story James tells begins with a family who moved there while it was still rural.

Robert and Donna Decker married in 1972. Robert ran a construction company, and about 1986 he and his crew built the couple a three-bedroom house on a one-acre lot at Southwest 116th Avenue. Their son Carl was two in 1988. In October that year Robert's seventy-six-year-old father Clyde moved in after his wife died, and Clyde began helping in the construction business. details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now His father Charlie remarried quickly to a woman who did not want his children. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Psychiatrists described a boy carrying an enormous burden of rejection, a borderline psychotic who retreated into fantasy under stress. He was placed at the Nova Center for Living and Learning, a residential behaviour modification centre in Davie with no bars or fences.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Near the Nova Hills Farm horse boarding business the boys came across two children playing by a canal: six-year-old Christie Wagner and four-year-old Peter Wagner. Without provocation they beat and kicked them. Peter died thirty minutes after he was found; Christie was hospitalised for weeks but survived. this part of the story is covered for now He told Davie police chief Dale Peterson that the children had done nothing and that he did it just to have some fun. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it A lawsuit by the Wagner family against the Nova centre failed in 1983 when the centre was found not liable for the crimes of its residents.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now The next day was payday. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

Just before nine a man burst through the door wearing new work boots, blue jeans, a jean jacket, a yellow plaid shirt, brown work gloves, a ninja mask and a yellowish-white straw cowboy hat. He put a rusty .22 revolver to Clyde's head, made all three men lie on the floor and handcuffed them. He knew exactly where the floor safe was in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom, though it held only small change. this part of the story is covered for now The gunman tied Robert tighter.

Donna came home from her shift at about 9.15 and was grabbed, tied and dragged into the hallway. She escaped, ran to the kitchen for a butcher knife and attacked him, but he took the knife and stabbed her repeatedly. She crawled into the office, locked the door and called 911 at 10.13 p.m., saying 'my husband, my baby', and died with the phone in her hand. Before that, at about 9.50, the gunman had made Robert sign a paper with four lines on it, compared the signature with his driving licence and made him do it again. He then put a pillow over Robert's head and shot him twice, shot Clyde in the head and shot Carl in the head. All three survived. The bullet that hit Clyde shattered his false teeth and lodged in his cheekbone; Carl was left deaf in his right ear with a bullet lodged in his brain.

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Officers found Donna dead in the locked office and the three Decker males bleeding in the bedroom. details of the account remain covered until revealed Robert Decker sold the house for $165,000 in 1989 and moved to St Lucie County.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Thomas Kavanagh was a retired New York City homicide lieutenant on whom the television detective Kojak was based. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Carl, by then nine, was described re-enacting the murder on his dolls. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it