Original subtitles

[reporter] There have been further shocking developments

in the Mineola Swingers Club Case today.

With defendants Jimmy Sones and Shelia Sones now free after taking plea deals,

the convictions of three of the other defendants

look increasingly likely to be overturned.

[thuds]

[Mike] After the lawyers for the Jamie Pittman,

and Shauntel Mayo and Patrick Kelly cases filed appeals,

the 14th Court of Appeals threw out those verdicts,

based on numerous evidentiary errors

that the court said that Judge Jack Skeen had made.

And this was something that the defense attorneys

had complained about the whole time,

Skeen seemed to be siding with the state

and he did it to such an extent that the court threw out those verdicts.

He went to all the other defendants and offered them plea bargains.

To plead guilty to injury to a child

and time served so they could get out.

[camera shutter clicks]

[Melinda] But Dennis Pittman still had an appeal pending

and so Dennis wasn't offered the plea bargain.

It was assumed he would get out shortly afterwards, like the others.

- [Melinda] But by then, Patrick Kelly, - [camera shutter clicks]

Jamie Pittman and Shauntel had been in jail for almost four years.

[Mike] Matt Bingham, one of the most law-and-order prosecutors,

makes a deal to let out

a bunch of the most perverted, maniacal,

criminal monsters that had ever struck Texas?

If Matt Bingham really believed that they had done what

he had prosecuted them doing for four years,

do you really think he would have let them go?

Absolutely not. They would be rotting in prison for the rest of their lives.

[theme music playing]

[woman speaking]

[child speaking]

[man speaking]

[boy speaking]

[man speaking]

[girl speaking]

[Reporter] Patrick Kelly, nicknamed Booger Red,

was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the alleged child sex ring.

I was locked up for almost four years.

[Patrick] When I was in prison,

they overturned my case and offered that plea and I accepted it.

I was tired, I wanted to get out.

I wanted to see my family.

I wanted to see my mother. I wanted to see my brother, my wife, my son.

[Patrick] What's up bud?

This is my world right here. I will fight a grizzly bear for him.

I'm not that good anymore, but I'll still try.

I'll give him my best shot that's for damn sure. [laughs]

[Steven] When he actually went to jail and they told me

that's what they're accusing him of and the DA tried to get me to turn against him.

I told them they're crazy

because my dad ain't never done anything like that.

'Cause it...

That was just all made up stuff in their head.

To me, that's the worst thing in the world for you to do,

is to molest a child,

But yet I got convicted on hearsay.

It's what was said, no proof of anything, it's just what was said.

[Patrick] I mean, these people don't even know me, know nothing about me,

just because of my nickname, I was the devil.

For Margie Cantrell to do the things she's done,

to brainwash them kids to say the things they said,

because these kids are going to be traumatized for the rest of their lives.

Margie Cantrell is a monster.

[rooster crowing]

[dog barking]

[rooster crowing]

[Shuantel] This is Margie and John Cantrell

and all of their foster children. And my three children.

That woman and that man stole my life.

[camera shutter clicking]

Prison was hard.

I learned how to fight.

I was sexually abused in prison,

by a group of women.

I was very targeted.

There was no reason to live anymore.

But I knew that God wasn't going to leave me there

I didn't know how long it was going to take to get me home.

I filled my time with Bible studies and law books.

In 2011, I could have probably took my bar exam and passed.

That's how hard I worked.

After I got out of prison,

I knew by law,

I would never get to have contact with my kids

until they were 18 and they found me.

It was... it was horrible.

[Hunter] Margie was an attention hog.

Her appearance to the public was important to her.

So when we went on outings like this, I remember this is at the zoo.

- [camera shutter clicks] - [Hunter] I remember this picture.

[Hunter] This was more of just like a show of like,

like "Oh, hey, I got this big happy family."

But it was pretend.

Behind closed doors, this was not true.

The entire time with the Cantrells was

the worst time of my life.

[birds screeching]

[Hunter] Being back here brings back a lot of memories.

[camera shutter clicks]

[Hunter] I was always worried. Always scared.

Margie was just, she was an animal.

[Carly] The back scratcher was the main punishment for everything.

They would pull your pants down,

whoop you with that, we'd have welts

on our backs and everything.

And you weren't allowed to cry.

If you cried, you got whupped again.

[Hunter] Making Margie angry was as simple as

taking a cookie,

just 'cause you didn't ask permission for it.

[Carly] Or going outside without permission.

[Hunter] Or talking to the neighbors without permission.

It was everything, you know, we... we couldn't be kids.

We weren't allowed to.

I remember the time whenever I'd used all the blankets in the closet

she had repeatedly bashed my head into the doorframe,

she used to drag us across the floor downstairs.

[Carly] I think the worst thing that happened to me

was when my head got slammed into the tile floor.

It was right around here.

I ran away and she was yelling and stuff about me leaving.

She ended up slamming my head.

I was on my knees and she ended up slamming my head.

[Hunter] I was downstairs and I heard the crash on the tile and I ran upstairs,

and I saw Carly on the ground,

it really set me off.

It was just something you didn't do.

You didn't put your hands on my sisters, no matter what you did.

[Margie] Carly's never been struck.

Carly has never had a spank and a swat, nothing, ever.

Hunter was.

Not by the back scratcher.

I can sit here and say, "Oh, no, no, no, never." No, no I did.

I slapped him a few times. I popped him in the mouth a few times.

Not long after that, a hearing was held in family court in Tyler.

Finally, the world's gonna see who these people really are.

[Female reporter] Our top is about the hearing that took place today

regarding the welfare of the foster children

currently in the care of John and Margie Cantrell.

Those children were the victims of the Mineola Sex ring trials.

Representatives from Child Protective Services and attorneys

were in court to hear the judges remarks about what to do with the children

currently in the Cantrell's home.

[male reporter] The allegations of abuse came from multiple children.

One child alleged being beaten with a wooden back scratcher until it snapped

And another alleged that Margie Cantrell popped her in the mouth and slapped her.

[Judge speaking]

The children were ultimately removed from Margie and John, um because of physical abuse

[judge speaking]

They didn't make that choice. I made that choice.

Like they said, um, "These are her kids. She can relinquish them."

And I chose to relinquish the conservatorship.

[male reporter] Also in the courtroom was Shauntel Mayo,

herself a defendant in the Mineola Swingers Club case

and the mother of three children removed today from the Cantrell household.

My heart's relieved,

because they've known before my kids were put in there.

They took them out of a good loving home,

granted there was issues in our home, but it wasn't issues that was accused of.

And put them into a worse situation for nine years, they've been abused.

- So that's not true. - [indistinct chatter]

and this is the lies they were spreading in the news about us.

[male reporter] Throughout the Swingers Club Sex Ring Trial,

foster mother Margaret Cantrell was instrumental

instrumental in exposing the alleged abuse in Mineola and Tyler.

However with these fresh accusations about her own conduct,

the credibility of some of her statements has come into question.

I believe, uh, from looking at that,

that, uh, we were played in the media.

To take innocent people and start slamming them is disgusting.

I think, over a course of time,

we might be seeing very interesting statements from these kids

about what actually happened to them.

It's Thad Davidson, just pushing it and pushing it and pushing it.

"If we can ever get the children away from Margie Cantrell's custody,

we can get them to tell the truth."

- Would you guys like to say anything? - No.

- No, I don't think it's proper. - Nah.

What do you think about these allegations that are being made against you?

We don't even know most of them yet. [laughs]

- [lawyer] Margaret! Don't talk to him. Go. - Yes, Ma'am.

Yes, Ma'am.

- No. - Go, hurry up.

[lawyer] Go.

[reporter] Would you like to say anything...

We decided that the best thing, is to go back home.

Home was always Vacaville,

where we were loved, where people knew us, knew what we were like

And it would be better.

Yes, it was a dream home.

But we loaded what we could load in a U-Haul and a trailer behind it.

And everything else that we ever owned,

was left behind. We locked the door,

and we drove away.

[camera shutter clicks]

[Hunter] When they came to get us, I felt like it's about time.

It had been so many years dealing with her

it was just a major, major feeling of relief to get out of here.

I was having a lot of issues with

my adopted parents.

We were not seeing eye to eye.

And so I was you know like, "What can I do?"

And then I thought about it, and I was like,

"Well, I... I can look up my dad."

And I got the idea to look him up on Facebook.

We wasn't allowed to have any type of contact with Gabby.

Uh, she would had to been eighteen years old before

we were supposed to have contact with her.

I got a Facebook page and all that stuff and I posted a lot of stuff in there,

pictures and stuff of Gabby. And I left it open to the public.

[Gabby] And that's how I found him and then I contacted him.

She gave me her phone number.

I called her and the next day her and her boyfriend come out to visit.

As soon as I got out of the car,

tears were running down my eyes

and I just embraced her.

I don't even know how long we stood there hugging.

It was a happy, very happy emotional day.

[Gabby] He hugged me for a really long time.

- [camera shutter clicks] - [Gabby] It had been eight years

since the last time I'd seen him.

[Gabby] At that time, I was having a lot of problems with my foster parents

- and so I... I just had enough. - [camera shutter clicks]

[Gabby] I ran away and I never looked back.

[Jimmy] When she ran away,

she called me wanting me to come pick her up.

So, I did.

I damn sure wasn't gonna turn her down.

[camera shutter clicks]

[Gabby] There was no way I was going to be able to come home,

not actually having formally recanted.

[Mike] Jimmy read some of my stories

and in 2014 called me up.

And he said, Gabby really wants to talk to you.

And so, we met at this truck stop,

and all of a sudden, this big rig comes pulling into the parking lot and

Jimmy gets out and he's... he's he's got this Duck Dynasty shirt on.

And... and there's Gabby, who just looked like a goth teenager.

They came in, and they sat down, and, and she was real nervous.

I remember her,

her leg going up and down and

she just started spilling.

Can... can I read what she said?

She told me that everything they'd said was a lie.

"Sex kindergarten, the swingers' club.

Their parents and all the other adults were innocent.

She said, "They literally blew up my mind and planted stuff in it.

I'm furious about it.

They lied to me, they used me, they screwed up my life.

And she said, my ultimate goal is for this to be overturned.

My goal for myself is just to tell the truth."

And not only Gabby, but Hunter recanted as well.

[camera shutter clicks]

When I got a bit older, I actually pulled my older sister

aside and asked her, you know,

do you actually remember

any of this swingers club stuff happening?

'Cause I started realizing I don't remember any of this.

And that's when it really clicked that Margie

brainwashed us.

In the beginning, she asked me if anybody had touched us and things like that.

At first I said no.

[Margie speaking]

[Hunter speaking]

But eventually, I just basically started repeating what Margie had been asking.

[Margie speaking]

[Hunter speaking]

[Margie speaking]

[Margie speaking]

[indistinct chatter]

[Dr. Wood] My name is Dr. James Wood.

I'm a retired professor of psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso

A lot of my research has been on child interviewing, child suggestibility.

[Margie speaking]

One of the more amazing things was just seeing those

interviews and then how they were conducted.

[Margie speaking]

[Hunter speaking]

[Margie speaking]

[Hunter speaking]

[Margie speaking]

Okay.

Introducing information. So we've had, uh kindergarten and did anything nasty happen?

And you put them together. So you've actually linked the two ideas, so that

suggests to... to Hunter, we want a statement about nasty things in kindergarten, right.

That's coming from the adults, not from him.

[Margie] Where did that happen?

[Ranger Kemp speaking]

[Dr. Wood] Margie is the last person you want touching that

child as you try to get a statement from him.

She's pressuring him.

She's demonstrating her control, she pulls his hands down like that.

She's giving him a lot of signals about,

you're gonna do what I want right now.

[Ranger Kemp speaking]

[Carly speaking]

[Ranger Kemp speaking]

[Dr. Wood] Another suggestive interviewing technique is

giving positive feedback,

which is praising a child for making an accusation.

Saying, "You're doing a great job."

[Ranger Kemp speaking]

When Margie is with Shelby or Margie is with Hunter,

one thing is you could say, well, that's their caretaker, right?

But in the case of Gabby, they had no relationship.

She wasn't her foster child.

And yet Kemp brings Margie in to question Gabby.

[Margie clears throat]

[Gabby] They would pull us into this room. It was a small white room.

It was just the same question, just in different words, over, and over again.

Just hours of the same question, wanting me to change my answer.

[Margie speaking]

[Gabby speaking]

[Margie speaking]

[Gabby speaking]

[Margie speaking]

So they can't get her to change her story.

So they put her in a room with Shelby and let Shelby interview her.

[Gabby speaking]

[Shelby speaking]

[Gabby speaking]

[Shelby speaking]

[Gabby speaking]

[Shelby speaking]

[Dr. Wood] Totally in violation.

You're not supposed to have children question other children,

and you're not supposed to have children pressure other children.

[Gabby speaking]

[Shelby speaking]

[Gabby speaking]

Margie Cantrell

and Ranger Philip Kemp

violated just about every rule in the book

for good interviewing of children.

[Margie speaking]

[Ranger Kemp speaking]

[Margie speaking]

[Ranger Kemp speaking]

[Margie speaking]

[Dr. Wood] It was crystal clear

that the children were subjected to very intense pressure and

suggestive questioning by Ranger Kemp and Margie Cantrell.

[Gabby speaking]

[Margie speaking]

[Melinda] It was Margie Cantrell telling them

that these things happened.

So it's like, if you tell the kid there's a Santa Claus and

and if you're not good, Santa Claus won't bring you anything

and you're putting that belief in that child's head.

Then you could put the bad beliefs in there too.

[Hunter] None of this stuff actually ever happened.

We were manipulated in to believing it.

When I finally realized the sex scandal never happened

and she knew it never happened I didn't understand why

she forced a child into telling you something that didn't happen.

[Margie speaking]

We learned much later

the reason she's doing this

is because the worse the child is

then the more the foster parents pay.

And so, Margie started saying that the children had told her

that they were sexually abused.

[Gabby] Margie Cantrell got a lot of money

for Shelby, Hunter and Carly.

The more messed up they were

the more money she got for taking care of them.

I think it's horrific.

[Hunter] She was creating this horrible backstory for us

so that she could get paid.

Margie just needed the money. She wanted the money.

[Jenna] She would brag, "Oh yeah.

John, John, now if we say this about this kid,

then, you know we can get $1,500 for that kid."

So everybody,

even if they didn't have issues,

they were going to "have issues"

when they got to the Cantrell's house.

[Dr. Wood] From an economic point of view,

if she has these three foster children staying with her,

they typically will be returned to their parents.

But if the parents are convicted

and they're put into jail,

then the children are not going to be returned to those parents

and they become a steady, reliable source of income.

[Melinda] That's how we learned that each one of these children they got,

every single child,

their level escalated, so that they made more money.

[woman speaking]

Yes, I was.

I heard

through one of the articles that it was 3000,

maybe like 700 per child.

I wish.

But no, never, ever, ever was that true.

You're never paid

to take care of these children.

You have to put the money out first, support them.

It's a reimbursement plan that the state has.

And as one would come in

that might have been a fire starter,

um poke the eyes out of cats, rip their limbs off,

they would definitely require about $1,400 a month

or something like that.

That would be much more but that's a 24-hour type child.

[Thad] Margie is a master actor.

She's totally alive when she gets to play hero to the jury.

She's totally alive running around the countryside

talking to whatever law enforcement agent is foolish enough to listen to her

about how these poor kids have been traumatized

and damaged by all these evil people,

but I'm here to save them.

But it's actually just a con.

It's just a money scam.

[Margie] I did my job. I did what I was supposed to do.

And that's where my part ended.

Even though people can hate me and try to blame things on me,

I did not know the inner workings of this case,

nor the people, nor anything,

and then you start hearing

well you made it all up Margie,

you made this whole thing up.

And now I'm on trial.

But, where's the kids in the mix?

Listen to them. Maybe talk to them more.

Maybe another forensic... I don't know.

But somewhere lies the truth.

[woman speaking]

[Margie] After everything I've been through and everything I've seen,

I don't think they had a choice.

But Shelby says this is her truth

and she stands by it to this day,

and that's the end of her story.

[man speaking]

I probably couldn't say anything to her.

I would... I would probably just leave.

[door squeaking]

[Hunter] They basically took my childhood from me.

They did steal my memories.

With everything that happened, I never thought I'd ever see my mom again.

I can imagine it hurt a lot

to have your children testify against you,

and put you in prison for something you didn't do.

And knowing that they were manipulated into doing it.

It must have been hard.

[Hunter quoting prosecutor and himself]

"The record will reflect Hunter pointed to and identified the defendant."

[Shauntel] Having my son testify against me broke my heart.

It broke my spirit.

It broke my spirit for all the kids.

[man speaking]

There was no reason to forgive him.

I've never blamed my children.

From day one, I've known that it wasn't...

it had nothing to do with the kids.

When we were reunited after all these years

my mom was just so happy to see me,

she... she couldn't control her feelings seeing me,

I mean she busted into tears.

She was hugging me. She wouldn't let me go or anything.

[Shauntel] I didn't think that I deserved

the chance to... to be his mom.

I couldn't believe that he even wanted to be around me.

Because they wouldn't have been taken from me

if I hadn't started doing drugs in 2003.

It was my fault.

It's always been my fault.

After I got out of prison,

I would have major anxiety attacks.

I couldn't handle it, I couldn't get a job.

But Jamie held my hand and

taught me how to live again.

My children haven't forgiven me completely.

But I have.

and I had to forgive myself

because I couldn't be a mom to them without forgiving myself.

[Gabby] After I had recanted,

the reuniting with my mom happened.

It was really emotional. Uh, she didn't know I was coming.

I remember she was...

she was watering some plants out,

uh, by the porch area that they had.

[Shelia] This truck pulls up. It was Jimmy in the...

didn't know who the hell that was in the passenger seat.

Then they both got out of the truck.

And I finally realized...

who she was.

I dropped my water hose and

I grabbed that child up so fast

and so hard and I hugged her so long.

I didn't want to let her go

and I didn't want her to go away.

Look how cute you were.

Not that you're not cute now. You're adorable.

[Gabby] She was like, "I can either be your best friend,

or I can step back into the role of your mother, it's up to you."

And I was, you know, finally like, "I,

I want you to be my mom again."

[Shelia] That's the picture I had.

That's the picture I kissed every night.

And I talked to.

[Jimmy] I wrote this when I was in prison.

And I was definitely depressed,

I mean, I was giving up hope.

I was laying in my bunk asleep, and I had this dream.

And I got up immediately after the dream stopped, and I wrote it.

"As I sit and think about my beautiful Gabby,

how all it was is now nothing more than memories,

I look outside and watch an angel fall from the sky.

I look at her with a smile, although no words are said,

she grabs my face and breaks down instead.

I ask, 'What's the matter?'

as I wipe her tears away,

she leans in closer and she had this to say."

"Love life and keep it simple,

but most of all, keep your heart open,

[sniffles]

because she loves you and still needs you.

My angel closed her eyes,

and her body went limp

as her spirit ascended back to heaven.

I just sat there and cried because I knew what she meant...

Gabby."

You okay?

It makes me cry every time I read it.

I mean, I was to the point where I was ready just to off myself.

That's how depressed I was.

This right here kept me alive.

The place where it all supposedly began.

How could such an innocent building

be so damn evil for me?

I mean...

this is where it started.

It's where the lies came from.

and I really don't like being here.

If my little old arms could do it,

I'd take every damn brick out of this bitch.

[Shauntel] I didn't know it existed.

How did my kids know what the inside of it looked like?

Because I don't.

But ask my two oldest kids

and they can tell you what it looks like.

That woman walked my kids through this building.

[door closes]

[Hunter] Margie brought me to this building the first time I was here.

We drove up one day,

Margie talking about wanting to buy the place

and I was like 8 years old.

It was creepy.

And, uh, I remember stopping

and seeing a basketball in the back.

And, uh, I can't remember what I said about it,

but I think I wanted the basketball

so I think Margie just kind of took that

and kind twisted that,

you know, trying to make it seem like we had been here before

and that was my basketball.

As far as she's talking about memories,

I don't know if Shelby maybe said something,

but I had no memory of the place at all.

I've never been in here with any family member ever,

um, not even in the building or on the property.

[dog barking]

[Carly] My mother bought me a house.

It's a mobile home right across the street from her

with two lots,

so if anything happens,

I'm right there.

In a year or so, I'm hoping to have me and my mother

and my grandmother all right there in the same vicinity,

if not side by side.

[Hunter] I hope to go back and finish school

and get some stability

is really what I hope.

In 10 years it would be nice

to have a family of my own.

[Shauntel] There you go. There you go, Carly.

[Hunter] I would like to see myself

closer to the family I have right now.

I constantly feel guilt about what happened.

I do feel like if I'd have stuck with my answer "no" in the beginning,

that it had never happened,

um, I feel like none of this would have ever happened.

[Gabby] The fallout is devastating and it still affects us.

This is something that we have to live with for the rest of our lives.

Justice for my parents

would be their names cleared,

it taken off of their record, because that felony is still on their record.

Justice for Margie would be seeing her behind bars.

[Shelia] This one woman

hated so much

that she destroyed us.

She was the rich woman.

They're going to believe her over the poor people.

Especially poor people that have had

poor people problems.

You could tell by the newspaper clippings

and everything that

society thought that, because we were poor, we were indecent,

immoral, dirty.

[man speaking]

I don't trust anybody.

My life experiences are really negative toward the world.

People are liars and they're mean.

[Jimmy] We were innocent.

Our lives were turned upside down.

It cost me four years of my freedom,

the loss of my daughter.

I wasn't there as a father.

You know it makes me sad the fact that

I wasn't there.

I didn't get to raise my daughter.

I will never get those years back.

[Mike] After those guys got out,

I would still get letters from Dennis Pittman,

and basically saying, "Look, all these other people are out, what about me?"

And he would always sign his letters,

"Dennis Pittman, the innocent man."

And...

he just got caught up in Smith County justice.

We all knew he should be free,

but the wheels of the criminal justice system turn really slowly.

So, every year went on, and it was like,

of course this guy's gonna get out eventually.

[buzzes]

[Jason] I would check to see where he was in the parole review.

Because Dennis was convicted of an offense

that allowed him to be parole eligible

with less than half time served.

So I would periodically check just to see and I happened to

look it up and see that

it didn't show he was in TC any longer,

and so I text Melinda

and I said, "Dennis might've made parole."

And, you know, she responded back

"Or he died,"

which I'd never even considered.

And then we started looking into it and

of course found out that he had indeed passed away.

[Mike] He died of COVID complications.

And that was that.

So the last innocent man...

was dead.

[man speaking]

- No. - [man speaking]

He did?

What? I did not know that.

What? Oh, my gosh. Ugh.

Well, now I feel really bad.

Yeah, I didn't know.

His life now is defined by this.

You know, he died

without ever having a chance to tell his story

and for people to believe him.

And so imagine how lonely and isolating it must have felt.

It's not about pride and arrogance and winning cases.

It's real lives that were affected and impacted.

We all had a responsibility.

We have failed him in many ways.

[Mike] It was the final tragedy in this story.

And you can trace every single terrible event back to two people.

Margie and John Cantrell.

They were never held accountable.

There were various people talking about ways they could go after them

with some kind of fraud charges.

You know, I think, ultimately,

the fact that

we were dealing with a bunch of people who lived in trailers,

a bunch of people who didn't have any money.

I mean, ultimately, I think people just didn't give a [bleep].

She got away with it. And what does she do?

She goes back to California

and scuddles back into her hole.

[Margie] Life is good.

I've been swimming a lot.

And I take care of my husband.

He has PTSD and some problems.

And we work in the backyard.

Our backyard is gorgeous

and I have,

oh, so many grandkids surrounding me,

and grandma's very involved in what they're doing.

And, um...

they make me laugh

and they're coming into those teenage years so it really makes me laugh

because I get to send them home.

But it's good. Life is... is good.

[man speaking]

I have regrets at walking away from my home

and our dreams.

But we have new dreams and they're pretty awesome.