One of the most heinous crimes in Texas history was committed at about 3 a.m. on June 13, 1983 in Houston.  It was on this date that Karla Faye Tucker (age 23) and Danny Garrett (age 37) murdered two people by hammer and pick-axe.  Tucker would tell friends, and later testify that she felt a surge of sexual pleasure with each blow of the pick-axe.

Victim one: Jerry Lynn Dean (age 27).  Tucker had feuded with Dean for several months.  He had once parked his Harley Davidson in Tucker’s living room, and it had dripped oil.  Dean was married to Tucker’s best friend, Shawn.  Dean had allegedly physically abused this friend.  Tucker and Garrett – after three days of partying, drugs, and drinking – decided to intimidate Dean and steal his motorcycle.  They gained access to Dean’s apartment from keys which Shawn had supposedly lost and Tucker supposedly found.  Once inside, the plans changed to murder.

Victim two:  Deborah Thornton (age 32).  She and her husband had argued on the evening of June 12, 1983.  She left home angry.  She went to a party, and there she met Jerry Lynn Dean.  She returned with him to his apartment.  Never before had she met this man; but she would die in his bedroom.  Tucker, after the murder of Dean, discovered Thornton hiding under bed covers against the wall in Dean’s room.  She too was murdered.  She left behind a husband and a child.

How sad!  This woman, probably, never imagined that her life would come to an end on that night, or in this situation.  But it did!

How will your life end?  Will it end while you are in the grips of sin, or will you be found walking in the light (1 John 1:7)?  Let us each realize that the activity in which we engage may be our last.