Free A Warrant to Kill: A True Story of Obsession, Lies and a Killer Cop by Kathryn Casey Page A

Michelle’s parents, for their arguments, charging that they plotted to keep them apart. During a split, Kent sent Michelle bitter letters, letters in which he called her family “devil worshipers.”
    Over the years, Pam saw many examples of Kent McGowen’s fits of anger. He’d sometimes arrive at her house with his Jeep crowded with guns and rifles. Onmore than one occasion after an argument with Michelle, Kent stood on the front lawn holding a knife to his throat or a gun to his head. It ended with Pam’s husband taking the knife or gun away, and a frightened Michelle agreeing to take Kent back.
    “Every time they would break up over some terrible fight, we would think,
God, please let this be the end,”
recalls Pam.
    It was at a Halloween costume party at Pam’s house, in the early years of their relationship, that someone snapped a photo of the young couple. In it Kent McGowen, dressed in camouflage fatigues and cap, an ammunition belt slung across his hips, cradles her ample waist. Michelle, her body wrapped around Kent, her hand confidently resting on her left hip, wears a black leotard and stockings, a bow tie at the neck, with slender white ears jutting upward, anchored to her softly curled brown hair.
    Kent and Michelle: hunter and rabbit.
    In 1982, his junior year, Kent dropped out of high school, to the great consternation of his father. Bill McGowen, a University of Texas grad who’d hoped Kent would follow in his footsteps, would later blame Robert E. Lee High School and its teachers for his son’s disinterest. “The teachers weren’t teaching,” he charges. “They were more interested in getting through the day. Kent was tight with Michelle and she’d already graduated. And we took his Jeep away and he kind of rebelled. Maybe he was just bored in school.”
    Others say Kent never really had an interest in school. “He had no desire to go to college,” says a friend. “All he ever wanted to be from the get-go was a cop. He was in love with the idea of that badge.”
    During the fall, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Yet even in the service, Kent allowed his fascination with law enforcement to rule his choices. In January 1983, he began basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in SanAntonio, followed by classes leading to certification as a security specialist.
    Back in Houston, the Morgan family initially hoped Kent’s absence would end his relationship with Michelle. They’d grown frightened of Kent and the influence he had over her. But on April 9, 1983, the two eighteen-year-olds married. Rather than as a happy occasion, the Morgan family viewed the ceremony as a reason to grieve.
    “Right before she went down the aisle, Michelle turned to me and said, ‘This is a mistake,’” says Pam. “We told her she shouldn’t go through with it, but she went ahead and married him. No one can understand what it’s like trying to get away from Kent.”
    After the wedding, Kent and Michelle left for Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, where Kent joined the 342nd Missile Squadron as a nuclear security specialist. The following month, he completed a correspondence course through Lyndon Baines Johnson High School in Austin, Texas, to earn a high school diploma. Bill McGowen flew to Montana that spring and stayed at the small apartment the newlyweds had rented not far from the base. When he discovered they were sleeping on a mattress on the floor, he had a brand-new bed delivered.
    Yet those early days of the marriage offered little comfort or security. Kent spent most of his day at the base, working, and Michelle was left alone. When he returned, he’d sometimes fly into jealous rages. After one such argument, just months after the wedding, Michelle called her mother, who mailed her a one-way ticket home to Houston. Michelle fled one afternoon while Kent was at work.
    “We thought it was finally over,” says Pam. “This time for good.”
    At home, Michelle moved in with her