In the quiet city of Bryan, Texas, Sandra Kay Black, a 36-year-old mother and respected daycare owner, was known for her entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to her family. She successfully ran a daycare so popular it had a waiting list, and she also bred and trained German Shepherd puppies. Sandra was the primary breadwinner of her household, a hardworking woman building a life for her family.
But this life was brutally cut short on February 21, 1985, the victim of a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by her own husband.
For years, Robert Black had harbored a desire to end his wife's life. He was financially dependent on Sandra and was having an affair with his first cousin. He had approached at least four different acquaintances with schemes to kill his wife, but they all refused. His desperation led him to a classified advertisement in the September 1984 issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine. The ad was for "high risk assignments" and was placed by John Wayne Hearn, a Vietnam veteran.
In the fall of 1984, Robert contacted Hearn. Their initial conversations were under the guise of Robert seeking bodyguard work or selling his gun collection. However, the discussions soon turned sinister. Robert confided in Hearn that he would have all the money he needed if he didn't have a wife, and he eventually offered Hearn $10,000, plus expenses, to murder Sandra. The money was to come from life insurance policies on Sandra, one of which Robert had taken out just eight days before her death.
On February 20, 1985, Hearn traveled from his home in Florida to Bryan, Texas. The next day, he and Robert worked together to stage a burglary at the Black residence to cover up the real crime. Robert then established an alibi by taking his son, Gary, to run errands, leaving Hearn hiding inside the house. When Sandra returned home, Hearn ambushed her, shooting her twice in the head with her own pistol. He then fled the scene in Sandra's van, which he abandoned in a nearby grocery store parking lot.
The investigation quickly unraveled the plot. Authorities discovered the connection between Robert Black and John Wayne Hearn, who was already a person of interest in other murders in Florida. Hearn, a serial killer responsible for three proven murders, was arrested and confessed to killing Sandra. He agreed to testify against Robert Black in exchange for avoiding the death penalty in Texas.
During Robert Black's trial in 1986, the jury heard damning testimony from Hearn and others to whom Robert had revealed his murderous intentions. Evidence of Robert's volatile and abusive nature also emerged, including an incident where he had thrown Sandra through a screen door and another where he chased her mother down a highway at high speed. Robert Black was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on May 22, 1992. For his role in the killing of Sandra and two other individuals, John Wayne Hearn was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and received three concurrent life sentences.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Sandra's mother, Marjorie Eimann, and her son, Gary Wayne Black, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Soldier of Fortune magazine, arguing that the publication was negligent in publishing Hearn's advertisement. The case drew national attention and sparked a debate about media responsibility. Though a jury initially awarded the family a multi-million dollar verdict, the decision was later overturned on appeal. The case remains a landmark in legal discussions surrounding the First Amendment.
