Robert Alan Fratta, 65, was executed by lethal injection on 10 January
2023 in Huntsville, Texas for hiring the murder of his wife.

Fratta was employed as a public safety officer - a combination police
officer and firefighter - in Missouri City, southwest of Houston. He
had three children with his wife, Farah. In November 1992, she filed
for divorce, and the couple separated. According to trial testimony,
Robert wanted to remain married on the condition that Farah agreed to
an "open marriage." At custody proceedings in March and April 1993,
Robert did not want primary custody of the children, but he wanted
joint management over the children's medical and educational
decisions. He also wanted to restrict Farah's ability to move with the
children to a 100-mile radius. Farah opposed these requests.

As the months passed, Robert became increasingly bitter and angry
toward Farah. He complained to his friends that he was always broke
because he had to pay child support, and he wanted primary custody so
that Farah would have to pay him. He said, however, that Farah would
win the custody battle because her parents had money. According to
trial testimony, Robert stated that he would not have to pay Farah
child support if he killed her.

In December 1993, Farah gave a deposition in which she stated that
Robert wanted her to engage in deviant sexual fetishes in which she
would dominate him through acts of asphyxiation, coprophilia, and
urophilia. She stated that Robert wanted her to perform acts of this
nature on him on a daily basis. Robert told a friend that the things
she said about him were untrue, and he did not want other people to
hear what she had said about him. He began actively seeking someone to
kill Farah. He solicited many of his friends and acquaintances to kill
her or recommend someone to do it. More than a dozen "workout buddies"
who used the same gym as Fratta later told investigators that he
talked "a lot" about getting rid of his wife. Initially, they
believed he was blowing off steam, but as he continued to talk about
it over time, some of them began to take him seriously. One friend
testified that Fratta offered him $1,000 cash in advance and his Jeep.

James Podhorsky was a member of the same gym used by Fratta. He and
Fratta sometimes went out to topless clubs together. He testified that
Fratta brought a gun when they went out together. Podhursky questioned
Fratta whether, police officer or not, it was a good idea for them to
have a gun in the car when they were going out drinking. "His response
was, well, the reason I'm bringing the gun is in case we run into
Farah, I'll shoot her myself and make it look like a car jacking."

The Frattas' divorce and custody trial was scheduled for 28 November
1994.

On Wednesday, 9 November 1994, Fratta, then 37, ate dinner with Farah
and the three children, who were aged 4 through 7, at a cafeteria. He
then took the children to a Catholic church in Humble, north of
Houston. He left the two youngest children in the church nursery and
brought the 7-year-old to a catechism class. He stayed to attend a
meeting for parents whose children were preparing for their first
communion. During the meeting, he repeatedly excused himself to go to
the church office to make and receive telephone calls.

Farah went to the hair salon and then went home. She pulled into her
driveway in Atascosita around 8:00 p.m. At that time, Farah's
neighbors across the street were sitting in their living room and had
a view of Farah's house and garage. One of these neighbors testified
that she heard a gunshot and looked out of the window into Farah's
garage. She heard a scream and saw Farah fall to the ground beside her
car, then heard another gunshot. About three minutes later, she saw a
man who "wasn't very tall and he had a very round head" standing on
the side of Farah's house. The man was either black or was white and
wearing black makeup "or something." Another neighbor testified to
seeing "either a white person with a stocking [on] or it was a black
person." A few minutes later, a silver or gray car with a burned-out
headlight drove up, picked up the man, and quickly drove off. The
neighbors called 9-1-1. Farah was taken to the emergency room and was
pronounced dead there. A law enforcement officer on the scene observed
that her purse was undisturbed.

KHOU-TV in Houston published a 9-1-1 call made by Laura Helscher
reporting that she saw a woman named Farah who was shot two times in
her garage, right across the street from her, and was "down." She saw
a black man who was dressed in black standing behind a tree. As
Helscher speaks to the sheriff's department dispatcher, she narrates
seeing a small silver Toyota or Honda hatchback with a broken
headlight pull up. The suspect gets in the car, and the car drives
off. She continues narrating as her husband, Darren, goes over to
check on the woman. After a moment, Laura says, "she's breathing,"
then Darren can be heard saying, "the woman's been shot in the head,
and she's still alive." About 7 minutes into the call, Helscher says,
"there's a police officer coming," then she and the dispatcher
conclude the call.

Robert Fratta arrived at Farah's house with the children thirty to
forty minutes after the police. One officer testified that Fratta
showed no signs of sadness, concern, or surprise. He said Fratta was
in a hurry and wanted to expedite the investigation of the crime
scene. A detective who observed Fratta at the scene described him as
"very confident, very composed," and "well in command of the
situation." Later that night, the detective interviewed Fratta at the
police station and felt that he was being deceptive. Fratta consented
to a search of his car. Police found a 9mm pistol and $1,050 in cash
in a plain white envelope. After 14 hours at the homicide division,
Fratta was released.

In a 70-minute video taken while he was in custody on 10 November,
being interrogated by an off-screen male officer, Fratta calmly
answers the questions put to him. He said that his wife had already
been taken to the hospital by the time he arrived at her house to drop
the children off. He said he had been informed that she had a pulse
and was breathing but "it wasn't good."

"I would have never wanted anything like this to happen," he said.

Fratta said he had previously been suspected in a robbery at Farah's
house that occurred about six months earlier, "the last time she had a
stunt like this." He said that Farah's boyfriend visited her
frequently and he heard a rumor that he used drugs. He said that the
Sunday before the murder, he received a phone call from his son,
Bradley, who was crying and upset, because he didn't want "the bad
man" to kill him (that is, to kill Robert). He said Farah's boyfriend
was there when he dropped the children off that night, and thought
Bradley may have overheard a conversation between Farah and her
boyfriend and "she was setting me up for a hit." He said Farah "had
some shady sides of the family." He said when he pulled up to Farah's
house the previous evening and saw the police cars and tape, "I
honestly thought it was a drug raid." He theorized that what happened
in Farah's garage may have been the result of a scheme that she was
hatching against him backfiring on her.

"For some reason, I feel like she knew the person," he said.

He also stated that there had recently been a series of odd,
unexplained occurrences in his house, such as doors opened, items
missing, and evidence that his home phone used by someone else to call
Farah's house.

When the interrogator took Fratta to the subject of his marriage, he
stated that he loved Farah and never wanted for her to divorce him.
When asked why she wanted the divorce, he said that there was no
romance or affection between them. He tried to convince her that while
they did not have the best marriage, it was far from the worst. He was
content with that, but "she wanted to find somebody that put her on a
pedestal."

During the interrogation, Fratta stated that he owned a Jeep CJ7. He
also told the interrogator that he did not have any life insurance on
Farah.

The officer interviewing Fratta left the room three times. All three
times, immediately after the man leaves, Fratta can be seen vigorously
rubbing his eyes with his hands for several seconds. During one
absence, he lowered his head into his hands and appeared to sob
briefly.

A few days later, Fratta attempted to collect on Farah's life
insurance policy. The investigation into her murder remained open.

On 1 March 1995, Howard Guidry, 18, was arrested after a bank robbery.
At the time of his arrest, he had a three weapons in his backpack, one
of which was a .38-caliber revolver. A few days later, Mary Gipp, who
lived in the apartment next to Guidry, gave a statement to detectives
indicating that Guidry had been involved in Farah's murder. A
registration check on Guidry's revolver indicated that it had been
purchased by Robert Fratta in 1982. A Houston Police Department
firearms examiner subsequently testified that one of the bullet
fragments recovered from Farah's garage had been fired from the
revolver. The other bullet fragment was a possible match, but was too
damaged to be positively matched to it.

I've written 415 of these articles. I'm not embarrassed to say that
I've forgotten about a lot of them. There are a few who I remember
pretty well, and then others that I only remember a few little details
about. Whether I will remember this one well or not, I can't predict,
but I am positive that there is one detail I will never forget, and it
isn't the coprophilia part. It's this:

>Guidry
>climbed the fence into the backyard and waited inside a children's
>play house.

*That* honestly gives me the willies.

David Carson