Savage Son by Corey Mitchell Read Free Book Online

he had fallen deeply in love with her, and she had reciprocated his feelings.
    Tricia and her younger brother, William “Bo” Bartlett, grew up near the South Loop in Houston. When she turned fifteen, the family moved over to the west side of Houston. Tricia and Bo attended Westchester High School. Tricia participated in the group Young Life, a Christian ministry that reached out to middle-school, high-school, and college-aged kids. She also loved to hang out with her friends and was even an avid water-skier. Tricia was a good student and very popular with her classmates.
    Upon graduation from Westchester High School, Tricia migrated north for college at Southwest Texas State University (now known as Texas State University) in San Marcos, Texas, the halfway point between Austin and San Antonio. She attended Southwest Texas for one year before she returned home for the summer. That was when she met Kent.
    Having been smitten with her newfound love, Tricia knew she could no longer attend school in San Marcos, since she would have been nearly two hundred miles away from Kent. To remedy the situation, she instead opted to transfer to the University of Houston.
     
     
    In 1974, Kent landed a job at Tricia’s father’s construction company, which was “in the commercial construction business in masonry.” The company was founded in 1951 by Tricia’s father, William Bartlett Sr., who ran a tight ship that turned into a lucrative venture in a short period of time.
    According to Kent, he acted as the company’s office manager and also its accountant. He mainly handled relations with the government and oversaw all of the accounting and contracts that came over the transom.
    After dating Tricia and working for her father’s company for more than one year, twenty-six-year-old Kent Whitaker and twenty-three-year-old Patricia Ann Bartlett decided to get married. They sealed their nuptials on June 21, 1975.
    The happy couple enjoyed each other’s company for another four years before they excitedly welcomed their first child. Thomas Bartlett “Bart” Whitaker was a New Year’s Eve baby, born on December 31, 1979. The couple focused all their love and attention on Bart, until four years later when they welcomed their second son, Kevin, into the family on March 19, 1984.
    The Whitaker household was a growing hub of love and activity. Kent and Tricia worked hard to raise healthy, happy children. They went out of their way to make sure each son was cared for, paid attention to, and encouraged to be the best possible children they could be.
    As the boys grew older, the family became closer. Kent played sports with the boys, and Tricia, a school-teacher, worked with them on their studies. They exercised their minds, as well as their bodies. They also made sure to incorporate the boys into their religious beliefs, as they were very devout Christians.
     
     
    When Bart and Kevin started having friends, the Whitaker household in Sugar Land was Grand Central Station for activity. Parents felt safe knowing their kids were with the Whitakers, and the kids enjoyed playing with Bart and Kevin and adored their parents.
    By the time the boys were teenagers, they had pretty much anything and everything at their disposal. Nice clothes, a large two-story home, cars, skiing trips, girlfriends. All was good in the Whitaker household.
    Bo Bartlett later described Tricia and Kent’s relationship as something most couples would envy. “They would wake up in the morning excited just to talk to each other,” Bo recalled. “Kent would even brush his teeth at the office before he went home just so he was more presentable to Tricia when he got home.
    “He was so into my sister. That was his soul mate.”

8
     
    Saturday, December 13, 2003
Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital
Sugar Land, Texas
     
    Kent and Bart Whitaker were scheduled to have their surgeries, back-to-back, early that Saturday morning. According to Kent, his and Bart’s injuries