Texas Confidential

Who Killed The Bookie's Wife?

(CBS) 
Bob says he and his brother had been rivals from the start. Bob was always the more successful son and Roger was jealous.

"Roger said there was resentment that I was the favorite child. I guess you'd say he was a problem child," says Bob.

Roger couldn’t hold a steady job while Bob was supporting a family in style, earning around $1 million a year.

"I put it on the level as a successful doctor, or successful lawyer," Bob said.

But Bob wasn't a successful doctor or lawyer. He was a bookie, taking bets on sporting events, which is illegal in Texas.

His business was booming and Bob realized he needed help. At the time, his brother Roger needed a job. Despite their troubled past Bob hired him. It turned out to be a big mistake.

Less than a year later, in the summer of 1990, Bob fired his brother. And that’s when things started getting nasty.

"He felt like I owed him money," Bob explains. Roger believed Bob had cheated him out of a lot of money, some $200,000.

Despite their fallout, Bob says his brother showed up months later on Halloween dressed as a big bunny rabbit. Bob says Roger was trying to get close to the family again. "Little did I know it was part of his extortion plot," he says.

It almost worked. After winning back his brother's trust, Roger convinced Bob he had scheduled a closing for him on a real estate deal. He told Bob to bring along $200,000 in cash and to meet him beforehand in this parking lot.

"He’s sitting in the back seat, saying 'I want the money, Bob, I want the money,'" Bob recalls.

Roger pointed a gun at him. "And I’m going 'Whoa.' Yes, this is my brother," says Bob.

Roger had a hard time keeping his mouth shut and told the whole story to his lawyer, Jim Skelton.

"He had planned to kill Bob, unless Bob paid him. He was telling me about it," says Skelton.

Bob was able to speed away without getting shot. And Roger didn’t get his money. "That’s when I realized he was truly off the edge," says Bob.

But Roger wasn’t about to give up; Bob says his brother knew another way to hurt him.

Bob says Roger threatened to put him out of business, by reporting him to the IRS.

"At first, I didn’t take him seriously. Then he actually did make phone calls to customers, posing as an IRS agent. And I quickly started losing customers," recalls Bob.

Bob realized Roger could actually shut down his bookie business and finally agreed to start paying off his brother in installments.

Bob says he paid Roger $2,500 per month.