Speaker 1: One day, I'm leaving a doctor appointment and I get
Speaker 1: a phone call from the FBI and they just say, hey,
Speaker 1: this is so and so with the Dallas FBI. Would
Speaker 1: you come in and talk to us about your husband?
Speaker 1: And I said, why, what about my husband?
Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about
Speaker 2: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
Speaker 2: change everything. As a listener, note this episode contains references
Speaker 2: to suicide and suicidal ideation. Please take care while listening.
Speaker 2: About a year ago, we heard from a fast talking
Speaker 2: Southern woman named Dawn.
Speaker 1: I'm from East Texas, born and raised.
Speaker 2: Donna is a firecracker, speaking your mind, just in Don's family.
Speaker 2: She gets it from her mom.
Speaker 1: My. Matter's just a good little four foot nine Pentecostal woman,
Speaker 1: but she also doesn't mince words.
Speaker 2: Dawn's story of betrayal is a little different. She's the
Speaker 2: first to say that her story starts when she committed
Speaker 2: a betrayal of her own.
Speaker 1: We did start as a betrayal. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of people hurt in this, and I was not always
Speaker 1: the innocent person. I did a lot of hurting.
Speaker 2: In the early two thousands, Don was married with two
Speaker 2: young daughters. She described her first husband as a nice guy,
Speaker 2: maybe the first guy that had ever really been good
Speaker 2: to her, but she wasn't in love. One night, Don
Speaker 2: decided to go out with her sister.
Speaker 1: I actually left church to meet my sister out on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday night at a bar. And there this man is.
Speaker 1: I saw him, and there was an instant attraction.
Speaker 2: His name was Wes. Wes was an oil man, as
Speaker 2: they say in Texas, and he had a smooth talking
Speaker 2: persona to match.
Speaker 1: When he walked into a room, he commanded the room.
Speaker 1: I'd never seen anything like it. He was just one
Speaker 1: of those people, and he was paying attention to me,
Speaker 1: and I was like, whoa. And I had a little
Speaker 1: shirt that came right to the top of my high
Speaker 1: waisted jeans, you know, and I've moved and my belly
Speaker 1: showed and he reached and kind of like touched my belly,
Speaker 1: and I was pulling my shirt down and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: don't pull your shirt down, that's sexy.
Speaker 2: That night, he focused intensely on her. Wes laughed, hearted
Speaker 2: her jokes, and the way he looked at her made
Speaker 2: her feel beautiful.
Speaker 1: We talked all night. We just stood in the corner
Speaker 1: of the club like WHI people were dancing and drinking,
Speaker 1: just talking.
Speaker 2: Dawn told him about her husband and two daughters, but
Speaker 2: he didn't bat an eye. Honestly, she was surprised that
Speaker 2: he was single.
Speaker 1: Tell me he was not married, and then he didn't
Speaker 1: have any children, and I didn't believe that. I was like,
Speaker 1: that's bullshit. There's absolutely no way in hell that you're
Speaker 1: not marrying. I don't have any kids.
Speaker 2: Against her better judgment, she gave him her phone number
Speaker 2: and then they went their separate ways.
Speaker 1: From then, we just talked every day and we would
Speaker 1: meet out once a week.
Speaker 2: That went on for about eight months. In the beginning,
Speaker 2: it was an emotional affair. There was nothing physical going on,
Speaker 2: and he stuck to his story about being single with
Speaker 2: no kids.
Speaker 1: I just kept telling him, like, I don't believe you,
Speaker 1: like you might as well just tell me, like, I'm married,
Speaker 1: I have a ring on.
Speaker 2: After a few months, Wes finally came clean. He did
Speaker 2: have a wife and a daughter too.
Speaker 1: I was like, I knew it, like I knew it,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know why you were lying to be
Speaker 1: thank you for being honest.
Speaker 2: He confessed that he'd had a few affairs before, but
Speaker 2: this time with Dawn it was different. They'd been talking
Speaker 2: every day for months, seeing each other once a week,
Speaker 2: and even though nothing physical had happened between them, Wes
Speaker 2: was in deep. This is what he told her.
Speaker 1: I fell in love with you, and I just didn't
Speaker 1: know what to do with this situation. And I didn't
Speaker 1: want to lose you, but I didn't want to disappoint
Speaker 1: my family.
Speaker 2: Wes was a preacher's son. No one and his family
Speaker 2: had ever been divorced, and Don understood that pressure. But
Speaker 2: after eight months, their emotional affair turned physical and there
Speaker 2: was no going back. After that, I.
Speaker 1: Knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew then
Speaker 1: that I had to start working towards dissolving my marriage.
Speaker 2: She was the first to take Philip to leave her marriage.
Speaker 2: She wanted to start over with Wes at her side.
Speaker 2: Not long after, Wes said he and his wife were
Speaker 2: also separating in order for him to be with Don.
Speaker 2: In a few months after that.
Speaker 1: We got engaged.
Speaker 2: They made their relationship public, spend time with each other's kids,
Speaker 2: and started building a new life together. Don started bringing
Speaker 2: Wes around her family and spending time with his young daughter.
Speaker 2: His larger family wasn't ready to accept Wes's recent separation. Regardless,
Speaker 2: he and Don began envisioning a life together. Don had
Speaker 2: stayed home with her kids in the past and loved it.
Speaker 2: Wes said he could give that life.
Speaker 1: To her again.
Speaker 2: He could afford it.
Speaker 1: He told me, I have enough money to take care
Speaker 1: of you, so I want you to stay home, and
Speaker 1: he bought me a brand new two thousand and four expedition.
Speaker 1: It was a forty five thousand dollars vehicle, so I'd
Speaker 1: rate my job.
Speaker 2: Don agreed to move to a small town outside of Dallas,
Speaker 2: where Wes lived. His whole family was there too. He
Speaker 2: wanted to stay close to his daughter. Because he and
Speaker 2: Don weren't married yet, he decided to live separately. Wes
Speaker 2: lived with his mom while Don and her daughters ran
Speaker 2: to just a small house in town.
Speaker 1: He moved me to this tiny little town of only
Speaker 1: a few hundred people with one grocery store. There.
Speaker 2: Wes got a new job in the steel business, and
Speaker 2: Don settled into her new life as a stay at
Speaker 2: home mom. The couple started making plans to get married.
Speaker 1: I wanted a Vegas wedding because it wasn't my first rodeo.
Speaker 1: I wanted Elvis to give me away. He wanted a minister.
Speaker 2: But in the middle of wedding planning, Don's cell phone
Speaker 2: got turned off. She assumed that Wes, as busy as
Speaker 2: he was, had forgotten to pay their bill. It was
Speaker 2: two thousand and four, so she used her landline to
Speaker 2: call his office. He had been working at a place
Speaker 2: called Chaparral Steel, so.
Speaker 1: I called Chaparral Steel. I got to get hold of
Speaker 1: him and I'm like, yeah, need to speak to Wes.
Speaker 1: And They're like, we don't have anyone who works here
Speaker 1: by that name. And I'm like, what are you sure?
Speaker 1: So Wes was his middle name, So I tell him like, sure,
Speaker 1: you don't I have, you know, like George Wesley Harris Junior.
Speaker 1: It's like no. Then I said, let me talk to hr.
Speaker 1: They put me on the phone like they're like, we
Speaker 1: don't have anyone that works here by that name. And
Speaker 1: then everything in me just gets this pit right. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, he.
Speaker 2: Lied about where he worked. What was going on? Her
Speaker 2: gut instinct told her to call his ex wife.
Speaker 1: I looked at the phone and you know, when you
Speaker 1: were about to do something, you know, your whole life
Speaker 1: is about to go in a different director, like it's
Speaker 1: going to change that the course of your life is
Speaker 1: you know it. It's kind of that moment. I called
Speaker 1: her and she's like, who is this? And I said,
Speaker 1: this is Don this is Wes is fiance.
Speaker 2: There was a long pause on the other end of
Speaker 2: the phone. Something wasn't right. Before she could get an
Speaker 2: answer about the job, the conversation took a different.
Speaker 1: Turn and she said, don't ever haul this house again.
Speaker 1: And I said, wait, are y'all still married? And she goes, yes,
Speaker 1: we are, and we have been very much married for
Speaker 1: the last ten years. Don't call this house again. She
Speaker 1: hangs up the phone, and I'm just standing there in
Speaker 1: shock because we're supposed to be getting married that month
Speaker 1: and he's still married, living with her, telling me he's
Speaker 1: living with his mom. So then she calls me right
Speaker 1: back and says, well, I know where his heart is
Speaker 1: because he just left the house and I'm quite certain
Speaker 1: he's probably on his way to your house. And she
Speaker 1: hangs up. Well, about five minutes later, he shows up
Speaker 1: at my door. She looked like ten minutes from me.
Speaker 2: Dawn had moved her whole life and her kids to
Speaker 2: this small town. She thought it was for her and
Speaker 2: West to start a new life together. Turns out it
Speaker 2: was so he could be closer to his wife, who
Speaker 2: he was still living with. He was never separated.
Speaker 1: He moves me to this tiny town with one grocery store.
Speaker 1: At any point in time, I could have run into
Speaker 1: his wife and daughter at the grocery store, and the
Speaker 1: daughter would have run up to me and been like, Don,
Speaker 1: she's a toddler.
Speaker 2: Within ten minutes, both Wes and his wife were at
Speaker 2: Don's house and they were fighting.
Speaker 1: I'm like, there's a copy episode up in my house
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: With hindsight, Don can joke about it now. But in
Speaker 2: the moment her relationship with.
Speaker 1: Wes was over, he told me he was really living
Speaker 1: with his mom now, So that came to fruition. He
Speaker 1: kept telling me like no one's ever being divorced in
Speaker 1: my family. I didn't know how to end the marriage.
Speaker 1: I want to be with you, like we can be together,
Speaker 1: we could fix this, but I was done with him.
Speaker 1: We separated, and then he had a nervous breakdown. Then
Speaker 1: he went into his first seventy two hour hold in
Speaker 1: a mental institution for a breakdown.
Speaker 2: She had sympathy for him, especially as he was going
Speaker 2: through a mental health crisis.
Speaker 1: I just thought, he's just conflicted, he doesn't want to
Speaker 1: hurt his family. I can love him through that, and
Speaker 1: it's going to be great once we get through this crap.
Speaker 1: And I just went to bat for him because I
Speaker 1: had given up so much.
Speaker 2: A few weeks after everything came to light, she took
Speaker 2: him back. Wes kept saying he was in the process
Speaker 2: of divorcing his.
Speaker 1: Wife, and finally it was his wife that called me
Speaker 1: one day and he was in my living room and
Speaker 1: she said, is he with you? And I said yes,
Speaker 1: and she said, he told me he hasn't seen you
Speaker 1: and hasn't been seeing you. I said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: we're still seeing each other. And she said, you could
Speaker 1: have him. I'm done.
Speaker 2: The whole situation was messy, destructive, but Dawn and Wes
Speaker 2: could finally be together for real this time. But of course,
Speaker 2: there was still that issue of his job, or the
Speaker 2: job he said he had. When she asked about it,
Speaker 2: Wes confessed that he'd been fired from a string of
Speaker 2: job and he was too ashamed teller. She pitied him.
Speaker 2: He put so much pressure on himself to appear perfect,
Speaker 2: and it was taking a massive toll on him. So
Speaker 2: Don's strategy was to love him through this tumultuous time,
Speaker 2: to assure him that they would figure it out together.
Speaker 2: And pretty soon he came to her with a new
Speaker 2: job prospect.
Speaker 1: He said, I have the opportunity to go back in
Speaker 1: the oil and gas business.
Speaker 2: He was working in the oil business when they met.
Speaker 2: She didn't want him to slide back into the toxic
Speaker 2: culture he'd left behind, but she knew she couldn't control him. Plus,
Speaker 2: it was a good job offer, so he took the job.
Speaker 1: And it was that job that ended up being his downfall.
Speaker 2: Dawn had forgiven her fiance West for a number of things.
Speaker 2: He told her he was separated from his wife, when
Speaker 2: in reality he was still very much with her. He
Speaker 2: told Don he worked as a salesman at a steel company,
Speaker 2: which she found out was also a lie. Finally, with
Speaker 2: Wes coming clean, the couple could enter a new era,
Speaker 2: a sort of golden era, and it started with a wedding.
Speaker 1: We went to Little Chapel of the West, which is
Speaker 1: a historical, beautiful chapel there in Vegas, and Elvis gave
Speaker 1: me away. He said, this is your Priscilla and he
Speaker 1: kissed me and then he gave me away Wes, and
Speaker 1: then we went and did tequila shots in my wedding
Speaker 1: dress at Caesar's Palace. Was awesome.
Speaker 2: The new job Westcord, which this time was a real job,
Speaker 2: proved to be a natural fit for him. He was
Speaker 2: managing investor money at an oil and gas company, and
Speaker 2: he was great at it.
Speaker 1: He quickly became their top producer, selling million dollars in
Speaker 1: investments some months, and their number one salesman.
Speaker 2: They moved out of the small town where his ex
Speaker 2: wife and family lived and settled in a Fort Worth
Speaker 2: suburb to be near his job.
Speaker 1: But he's like, let's look at houses. And we were
Speaker 1: looking at houses and I'm like, well, what's our budget
Speaker 1: And he's like, well, no, we can put one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars down the house. And I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: that's nice. So we looked at this house on the
Speaker 1: golf course. It is beautiful, and we bought that.
Speaker 2: The cherry on top. They joined the country club.
Speaker 1: It was like, if you were anyone, you were at
Speaker 1: Walnut Creek Country Club.
Speaker 2: They were officially somebody's And it was around this time
Speaker 2: when she entered this life of luxury. That Dawn made
Speaker 2: a new friend, we'll call her Sandy.
Speaker 1: Her and I became fast friends. And then we got
Speaker 1: our husbands together, and they became very good friends, and
Speaker 1: they would golf together, we'd all travel together.
Speaker 2: As their personal life blossomed, so did Wes's career. The
Speaker 2: oil company was growing a lot, and Wes had made
Speaker 2: friends with the right people there, people who wanted to
Speaker 2: take them all the way to the top of the company.
Speaker 2: In fact, they gave him the opportunity to buy the company.
Speaker 2: He did, and he took over as CEO.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, you know, Wes was the president
Speaker 1: and owner, and then all of a sudden, I'm the
Speaker 1: wife of a man who owns the company. And I
Speaker 1: just was like, Okay, here we go. This is awesome.
Speaker 2: The sale of the company happened fast and under kind
Speaker 2: of weird circumstances, but Wes didn't seem concerned about it,
Speaker 2: and the money was good.
Speaker 1: I never really had to what for anything, Like if
Speaker 1: I wanted something, I would just say, hey, do you
Speaker 1: care if I get this? Or Hey, I want to
Speaker 1: go to lunch today with some ladies.
Speaker 2: And the couple got to spend a lot of time
Speaker 2: doing something they both love, partying.
Speaker 1: We were drinking a lot partying.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: My kids were with their dad every other weekend, and
Speaker 1: we're at the country club five nights a week.
Speaker 2: It was a whirlwind, Great Gatsby style, but set in
Speaker 2: the two thousand and six Texas suburbs. Don and West
Speaker 2: were still in their thirties and they made it big.
Speaker 2: She knew her husband was a charmer, but there were
Speaker 2: two sides to that coin. On one side, he was
Speaker 2: a natural leader and salesman, but on the other side,
Speaker 2: Wes was still the same old lady's man. Early on,
Speaker 2: Don found evidence that Wes might be cheating on her.
Speaker 2: Instead of confronting him, she decided to take a different approach.
Speaker 1: I decided that if he could do it in front
Speaker 1: of my face, at least I'd have control over it.
Speaker 1: So we started going to swingers clots.
Speaker 2: I had to know a little more about the Dallas
Speaker 2: swinger scene.
Speaker 1: They're actual bars and Dallas and they have their own
Speaker 1: little language, so you can know if other people go
Speaker 1: to these places. You just slip in some little language
Speaker 1: that only other people know, and then you know who
Speaker 1: you're talking to.
Speaker 2: The couple would agree on their boundaries beforehand.
Speaker 1: We can at least just be free. We can dance
Speaker 1: with each other and make out and do whatever we
Speaker 1: want to do. We don't have to talk to other people.
Speaker 1: And I would go and be like.
Speaker 2: Okay, I trust you down, says She was quote in
Speaker 2: the lifestyle for about a year and a half until
Speaker 2: the party started feeling off to her. It stopped being fun,
Speaker 2: but Wes pressured her to keep going with him. Those
Speaker 2: nights would always end in drunken blackouts fights.
Speaker 1: I got to where I would wake up in the
Speaker 1: morning and be like, I can't do this. I'd be
Speaker 1: on my knees in prayer, you know, because we're like
Speaker 1: part of a church community too. We had this double life,
Speaker 1: and so I would be like, I can't do this.
Speaker 2: They stopped going to swingers clubs together and for a
Speaker 2: while everything seemed normal. That was until years later, when
Speaker 2: Wes began spending more and more time at work. Dawn
Speaker 2: was becoming suspicious about his work travel and the long
Speaker 2: hours he was putting in. Plus, he became guarded with
Speaker 2: his phone whenever Dawn tried to confront him. They got
Speaker 2: into an argument. After one particularly bad fight.
Speaker 1: I lied to Wes and told him that I went
Speaker 1: and got coffee and was just trying to cool off.
Speaker 2: In reality, she drove to a friend's house to vent
Speaker 2: about Wes.
Speaker 1: And the coffee place I did not know was open
Speaker 1: at that hour. So Wes was like, you're lying to me,
Speaker 1: and everything just blew up.
Speaker 2: It was a lie that gave him a reason to
Speaker 2: leave her, and he took it immediately.
Speaker 1: When he came back home to pack a bag, he said,
Speaker 1: this is over. I want a divorce. And I remember beggoning, like, please,
Speaker 1: don't do this. We can figure this out, like, don't
Speaker 1: do this.
Speaker 2: Don couldn't understand why he was so eager to walk
Speaker 2: out on her, so she turned to her friend Sandy,
Speaker 2: and Sandy had recently seen Wes.
Speaker 1: And she's like, we took his ring off. I just
Speaker 1: want you to know he was not wearing his ring.
Speaker 2: Down was devastated and Sandy was there to comfort her.
Speaker 1: And I remember my head was in her lap and
Speaker 1: I'm crying and she's like, Don, this relationship it's just
Speaker 1: too much. It's like a bomb fuse and it was
Speaker 1: bound to burn out.
Speaker 2: Soon after Wes went on a work trip, Don got
Speaker 2: a weird feeling about it. Call it intuition. So she
Speaker 2: decided to do a little investigating.
Speaker 1: I found out where he was staying. She called the.
Speaker 2: Hotel front desk, and she found out that there were
Speaker 2: two people staying in Wes's room. The other person was
Speaker 2: Sandy Down's friend. She suddenly understood why Wes had been
Speaker 2: so quick to walk out of their marriage, and why
Speaker 2: Sandy was feeding her information about Wes's infidelity, even advising
Speaker 2: her that the relationship was too much.
Speaker 1: She was supposed to be my brand, but she's screwing
Speaker 1: my husband.
Speaker 2: When Wes came back from that business trip, his affair
Speaker 2: with Sandy was out it.
Speaker 1: It was a big scandal. You know, we were all
Speaker 1: members of the country club. Her and I were on
Speaker 1: the committee at the country club together. So now that's outed.
Speaker 1: They're up there hold enhanced the country club, and everybody's talking, talking, talking.
Speaker 2: It was humiliating, infuriating, but it was nothing compared to
Speaker 2: what came next.
Speaker 1: He comes and tells me that he filed for divorce
Speaker 1: and he put a restrained order on me to keep
Speaker 1: me out of his company.
Speaker 2: A restraining order. She didn't have anything to do do
Speaker 2: with his company.
Speaker 1: I think I walked in the doors of his company
Speaker 1: maybe three or four times, like I could count of
Speaker 1: one hand. I didn't have anything to do with it.
Speaker 1: So telling me to stay all the company like that
Speaker 1: pissed me off.
Speaker 2: So Wes offered to make her a deal to buy
Speaker 2: her off.
Speaker 1: He said, I will give you enough money that you
Speaker 1: can buy a house cash. I'll give you enough money
Speaker 1: for that. And I said, you were nothing when I
Speaker 1: met you. You were borrowing money from your mother, living
Speaker 1: in my rent house. If you think you're going to
Speaker 1: replace me and my two girls with her and her
Speaker 1: two boys, and you're going to give me money for
Speaker 1: a house and you're operating a multi million dollar company,
Speaker 1: you can go fuck yourself. I go, that's not happening.
Speaker 2: When she didn't take the first seal he offered, Wes
Speaker 2: tried another one.
Speaker 1: He tried to start calming me down. He's like, we
Speaker 1: can work this out together. We'll use my attorney. He's like,
Speaker 1: I will sit down with my accountant. I will let
Speaker 1: you look at all the books. He goes, if you
Speaker 1: just calm down, you don't even have to come to
Speaker 1: the hearing. I'll take care of it. The restraining order
Speaker 1: will go away.
Speaker 2: She took that deal and she believed him. She didn't
Speaker 2: even know what day the divorce hearing was set for.
Speaker 1: Until I was at my second grader's field day in
Speaker 1: one of the country club members. A man came up
Speaker 1: to me and said, I need you to know. Wes's
Speaker 1: going around telling everybody that he got everything and that
Speaker 1: you're going to be out on your ass in a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. He's just going to put you out
Speaker 1: and he has everything, like you didn't.
Speaker 2: Show up to a trial.
Speaker 1: What he did was he walked in there and told
Speaker 1: the judge, my wife is a raging alcoholic. She's violent
Speaker 1: and abusive. She did not even care to be here today.
Speaker 1: And the judge gave him everything everything, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know it now.
Speaker 2: She was ready to burn it all down.
Speaker 1: I called him and I say, I'm getting an attorney.
Speaker 1: I don't trust you anymore.
Speaker 2: She didn't just hire any attorney. She hired the mayor
Speaker 2: of their town.
Speaker 1: I remember Wes going, you hired the mayor of Mansfeld,
Speaker 1: and I'm like you, I could right, I did.
Speaker 2: And that's when Wes let something slip.
Speaker 1: He starts freaking out, and in his panic, he did
Speaker 1: say to me, Dawn, don't get an attorney. He goes,
Speaker 1: right now, things are in the gray at work, and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to pull it up out of the gray area.
Speaker 1: He goes, I could go to prison. I should have
Speaker 1: stopped on that and double tapped into that statement.
Speaker 2: Dawn discovered her husband, Wes, had been cheating on her
Speaker 2: with her close friend, and in the divorce that followed,
Speaker 2: he filed a restraining order to keep Dawn out of
Speaker 2: his multimillion dollar business. Yes, he crossed her one too
Speaker 2: many times, and now she needed to know the extent
Speaker 2: of his wrongdoing.
Speaker 1: And then I'm starting to go on the internet looking
Speaker 1: at stuff about his company, the things that people are
Speaker 1: saying about his company. I'm like, I cannot get over this,
Speaker 1: Like this is crazy. They're saying it's a scam and
Speaker 1: there's no return.
Speaker 2: She saw a post from people who'd invested in Wes's
Speaker 2: oil company saying they've been promised returns, but those returns
Speaker 2: never came. Jawn was also finding records of properties in
Speaker 2: her husband's name, properties she didn't know anything about. That
Speaker 2: all led back to Wes.
Speaker 1: I have a friend who works for the SEC and
Speaker 1: so I called her one day and I said, I
Speaker 1: just need to vent about the stuff i'm finding out
Speaker 1: about his company. And she said, you're on my government
Speaker 1: issued phone, so anything you say. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: if you're a government oh, Trump's our friendship, so be it.
Speaker 1: But I need, I think I need to tell you
Speaker 1: this stuff i'm finding out. What I didn't know is
Speaker 1: he was already under investigation. So when she said that
Speaker 1: to me, that was her little under the table warning
Speaker 1: because there was really something going on.
Speaker 2: Her friend couldn't tell her about the investigation, but someone
Speaker 2: else was about to.
Speaker 1: I'd gone to your doctor appointment and I was leaving
Speaker 1: the doctor's office and I get a phone call and
Speaker 1: it was is this Dawn Harris? And I said yes
Speaker 1: it is and they said, this is so and so
Speaker 1: with the Dallas FBI office. We'd like for you to
Speaker 1: come in. And I was like, excuse me, and they said,
Speaker 1: we have some questions for you. And I said, what
Speaker 1: kind of questions? What's this about? And they said it's
Speaker 1: about your husband, Wes Harris, And I said what about
Speaker 1: my husband? And they said, well, it's about his company,
Speaker 1: and I said what about company? Like, I don't know
Speaker 1: what I can tell you about his company? I don't
Speaker 1: have anything to do with this company.
Speaker 2: She might not be involved with the company, but she
Speaker 2: did know Wes was always up to something, and if
Speaker 2: she could help expose.
Speaker 1: More of his lies, she was in I called my
Speaker 1: attorney's office. The paralegal there answered the phone and I
Speaker 1: told her the FBI just called me, and she said,
Speaker 1: you're probably the inn tapped, don't talk to anyone, come
Speaker 1: straight here.
Speaker 2: But almost immediately Wes started calling.
Speaker 1: So my phone's blowing up. Where are you? Where are you?
Speaker 1: So he tells me he's going to come by the house,
Speaker 1: and later that evening he came by the house and
Speaker 1: he kept doing this really weird thing where he would
Speaker 1: talk to me and tell me he wanted to get
Speaker 1: back together, and then he'd drop his eyes and he'd
Speaker 1: get real close to me, and then he'd snap out
Speaker 1: of it and start talking again. And it was making
Speaker 1: me very nervous, and so we went from the kitchen
Speaker 1: into the living room and we both sat down, and
Speaker 1: that's when he looked at me and goes, what did
Speaker 1: the FBI call you today? And I went, I don't know,
Speaker 1: and he said, what do they want? I said, I
Speaker 1: don't know. They said they wanted to talk about you,
Speaker 1: and he said, well, you're not going to talk to them.
Speaker 1: I said, no, I'm going in to talk to them.
Speaker 1: And he wanted to send me with one of his attorneys,
Speaker 1: and I declined that. I said absolutely not. I said,
Speaker 1: I'm not going with an attorney. I have nothing to hide,
Speaker 1: I don't need an attorney. I'm going to go in
Speaker 1: there and answer their questions. And he was trying to
Speaker 1: get me out to talk to them.
Speaker 2: But don did.
Speaker 1: Talk with the Vets and she learned he had misappropriated
Speaker 1: two million dollars.
Speaker 2: That two million dollars was just the beginning. In total,
Speaker 2: Wes's company illegally raised thirteen million through what's known as
Speaker 2: a boiler room scheme. Salespeople like Wes dooped hundreds of
Speaker 2: everyday people to invest their savings in the company's oil
Speaker 2: drilling projects. But they were doing it using fakeda to
Speaker 2: falsified information about the company's profits and empty promises about
Speaker 2: their expected returns, and a lot of those investor funds
Speaker 2: weren't being used to expand the company's profits.
Speaker 1: He was ballsy. He had a stripper on the payroll.
Speaker 1: He paid monthly, which I mean, you don't steal millions
Speaker 1: of dollars at like thirty five years old, without being
Speaker 1: super ballsy.
Speaker 2: And where did all that money go? Well, Wes used
Speaker 2: it to fund their famili's lavish lifestyle.
Speaker 1: I would look at things and be like, that was
Speaker 1: bought with stolen money. You know, like that's kind of
Speaker 1: hard to stomach. And your whole life is bought with
Speaker 1: stolen money.
Speaker 2: Money stolen from regular people who'd invested in Wes's oil
Speaker 2: and gas company, who were told they'd see massive returns.
Speaker 1: Investors were calling me saying, I know your daughter's names,
Speaker 1: where they go to school, I know where you live.
Speaker 1: I gave him three quarters of a million dollars and
Speaker 1: he ruined my life and I'm going to ruin his.
Speaker 1: And then I was so panicked. I'm like, he doesn't
Speaker 1: even live here, Like we're separated, so now they know
Speaker 1: I'm alone.
Speaker 2: She was scared for her own safety, but more so
Speaker 2: she was devastated when she heard from the victims of
Speaker 2: Wes's fraud.
Speaker 1: I had one woman who was really sweet. She called me,
Speaker 1: and she goes, we're a mom and pop place in
Speaker 1: New Mexico. She goes, we gave him all of our
Speaker 1: life savings.
Speaker 2: Even though Don wasn't responsible for Wes's crimes, she was
Speaker 2: still financially entangled with him.
Speaker 1: His LLC that he was laundering money through. He had
Speaker 1: put me as the president, so I was the president
Speaker 1: of that until we split up. I had written checks
Speaker 1: out of that account, but just because he would tell me, like,
Speaker 1: write a check, and then he took me off of it,
Speaker 1: thank god.
Speaker 2: But of course everything he'd bought for the couple, from
Speaker 2: their house to Don's shoes, could now be seized by
Speaker 2: the Feds, and.
Speaker 1: I was told that federal marshalls were going to show
Speaker 1: up at my house and I would be able to
Speaker 1: pack a bag for me and my child drink.
Speaker 2: Don's life was on pause as she waited for the
Speaker 2: financial and legal reckoning.
Speaker 1: We could not have our divorce trial until the sec
Speaker 1: was done because what was left over was community property. Look,
Speaker 1: they left me basically, so I had to fight for that.
Speaker 1: He made me fight for that.
Speaker 2: That's when Don got another unexpected call from, of all people,
Speaker 2: a new woman West had started dating. She wanted to
Speaker 2: meet Don in person.
Speaker 1: She ended up finding me reaching out to me because
Speaker 1: she had suspicions about him. She told me he had
Speaker 1: taken her to Deceity little place. Then there was like
Speaker 1: other couples that were like rubbing her back, and she
Speaker 1: goes and then I'd blacked out and I don't remember
Speaker 1: the rest of the night. And she said, and don
Speaker 1: I don't drink, not that much. She goes, I maybe
Speaker 1: had two drinks. When she goes, I think he probably
Speaker 1: drugged me. And I burst in the tears and I said,
Speaker 1: you just described the last year and half of my life,
Speaker 1: because that's what I would do. I wouldn't have that
Speaker 1: much to drink. But all of a sudden, I'm coming
Speaker 1: in and out of consciousness and I'm seeing all this
Speaker 1: stuff around me, but you can't move.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until that moment, when someone else described her
Speaker 2: same experiences that Dawn realized what was really happening. The
Speaker 2: last few times she went to the swingers club with
Speaker 2: Wes those nights he blacked out.
Speaker 1: When I was saying that I couldn't do it anymore,
Speaker 1: that's when he started dragging me.
Speaker 2: This was more than a betrayal, it was a crime.
Speaker 2: He drugged and sexually assaulted her. She was still processing
Speaker 2: this while in the middle of an SEC investigation where
Speaker 2: the government could be justified and seizing everything she had.
Speaker 2: It left her feeling overwhelmingly empty and alone.
Speaker 1: There was times I pulled in my garage and shut
Speaker 1: the garage door and lean the seatback, because I knew
Speaker 1: that the government was about to come in and take
Speaker 1: my home and take all of my things, and I
Speaker 1: was gonna have to tell everyone, and I was gonna
Speaker 1: have to uproot my daughters and scare the shit out
Speaker 1: of them. Right so I just wanted to die. I'm like,
Speaker 1: if I could just go to sleep right now, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to deal with this. I can remember setting
Speaker 1: the garage door and leaning that seatback and sitting there.
Speaker 1: But I would see my daughter's little faces. They were
Speaker 1: like eight, I'm ten, and I would turn the cars.
Speaker 1: I'd wipe my face. I'd go in the house and
Speaker 1: get it together.
Speaker 2: Every day felt excruciatingly long. Don says she got through
Speaker 2: it for her daughters, and Wes well, he'd already moved
Speaker 2: on to see the least.
Speaker 1: He had met a girl in Sunday school, and he
Speaker 1: had convinced all of his family that he was innocent.
Speaker 1: If I was guilty, i'd be in by now. I'm
Speaker 1: going to sue the government and the sec and all
Speaker 1: of them for falsely accusing me. I was told his
Speaker 1: mom had like second mortgage your house.
Speaker 2: I was told that he had.
Speaker 1: Gone through this poor woman's savings or whatever. These are things,
Speaker 1: of course I was told. But what I do know
Speaker 1: is that was starting to unravel.
Speaker 2: He might have been telling his family that he was innocent,
Speaker 2: but that's not what Wes told the government. He agreed
Speaker 2: to a plea deal with the FBI. Now he was
Speaker 2: awaiting sentencing. Finally they could move forward with their divorce.
Speaker 1: Our divorce was a trial because he was trying to
Speaker 1: fight me for everything the government left me with. So
Speaker 1: I had to get up on stand and testify, and
Speaker 1: of course he pleaded the fifth to everything.
Speaker 2: Dawn was relieved to keep the modest half of what
Speaker 2: the government left her, but Wes still wasn't done with her.
Speaker 2: Despite it all, he still kept reaching out to Dawn.
Speaker 2: She didn't reply until finally.
Speaker 1: He called me one day. He was really confused and
Speaker 1: sounded just really out of it. I'm like, just go
Speaker 1: serve your sentence, go do your time, And in one
Speaker 1: breath he said, I'm not going to prison. What do
Speaker 1: you mean I'm innocent? And then in the next breath,
Speaker 1: he'd say, you know what happens to them might be
Speaker 1: imprisoned on what am I going to do when I
Speaker 1: come out?
Speaker 2: He couldn't wrap his mind around the reality that he
Speaker 2: was going to prison considering what he'd done. Don was
Speaker 2: losing patience for him. She knew he was reaching out
Speaker 2: for sympathy, maybe for help processing, or maybe because he
Speaker 2: just didn't have anyone else left.
Speaker 1: And then he texted me one more thing, which is
Speaker 1: what we used to say to each other that meant
Speaker 1: to love you. We would always say one more thing.
Speaker 1: And he texted me one more thing. And I reached
Speaker 1: out to his first wife again, and she said, Don,
Speaker 1: he keeps doing this, go to bed, turn your phone off.
Speaker 1: The next morning he killed himself. He was supposed to
Speaker 1: turn himself in that next day. He had come to
Speaker 1: an agreement with the FBI, and he was only going
Speaker 1: to serve like, I don't know, five to seven years.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was twenty twelve. He'd been way out
Speaker 1: of prison by now. I went to the funeral his grandmother,
Speaker 1: who I loved, and she loved me. She came up
Speaker 1: to me and she asked me about the house and
Speaker 1: about me selling the house. I said, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't understand. The government took everything. The government took that house,
Speaker 1: like I didn't sell any like I have. I don't
Speaker 1: have anything. And she kind of looked at me confused.
Speaker 2: He'd been lying to everyone, including his family. He'd also
Speaker 2: been stealing from his grandmother.
Speaker 1: Well, he stole the money out of her account to
Speaker 1: buy the gun to kill himself.
Speaker 2: It's been over a decade since the end of their
Speaker 2: relationship and since Wes passed away.
Speaker 1: I try to say, I don't have any regrets. I
Speaker 1: got a couple, I got a couple hard lessons for sure.
Speaker 2: Dawn endured so much in this relationship. We asked what
Speaker 2: the hardest part was for her.
Speaker 1: What gets me the most is the betrayal to myself,
Speaker 1: like I don't know that woman, and thank god I
Speaker 1: don't know her anymore. I look back and how in
Speaker 1: the world, for ten years of my life this man
Speaker 1: was able to lie and manipulate, and I would lie
Speaker 1: and manipulate, you know, because again we started out as
Speaker 1: an affair. But the biggest thing is just how I
Speaker 1: let myself get so wrapped up in that and the
Speaker 1: things that my children had to go through they were
Speaker 1: eighteen months and four when I met him. That's probly
Speaker 1: the hardest.
Speaker 2: Thing part of Don's healing process is being honest, taking
Speaker 2: accountability for her actions.
Speaker 1: Being able to talk to other people and just beak
Speaker 1: honest has been very healing. Like I don't hold back
Speaker 1: the fact we were an affair. I don't hold back
Speaker 1: the people that I've hurt. You know, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of people hurting this, and I was not always
Speaker 1: the innocent person. I did a lot of hurting.
Speaker 2: Dawn found happiness in starting a new career.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to be an esthetician, So now on
Speaker 1: my own spa, that's what I'm sitting in, my little spa.
Speaker 2: She also fell in love again, this time with a
Speaker 2: man who was honest with her and treats her well.
Speaker 2: In fact, while we were on our call, Hi honey.
Speaker 1: My husband's brought me flowers or so sweet, thank you babe.
Speaker 2: We end all of our episodes with the same question,
Speaker 2: why did you want to tell your story to.
Speaker 1: Reach other people and let them know that you know,
Speaker 1: there's a whole network of people out here that have
Speaker 1: been heard, but that you can go through these horrible
Speaker 1: things and it's not over and you can rebuild as
Speaker 1: many times as it takes. Just be honest with yourself,
Speaker 1: Like I like who I am today, and I think
Speaker 1: it's because I didn't try to hide all of those mistakes.
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal, I just.
Speaker 1: Remember it was a profound moment. Who is this cruel?
Speaker 1: Who can pull this off? Whose family pulls it off?
Speaker 1: Whose friends pull it off? What in the world? How
Speaker 1: do you fabricate the details?
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
Speaker 2: team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email
Speaker 2: us at betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal pod
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. We're grateful for your support. One
Speaker 2: way to show support is by subscribing to our show
Speaker 2: on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Speaker 2: Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
Speaker 2: you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production
Speaker 2: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and
Speaker 2: partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Speaker 2: Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
Speaker 2: Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard. Also produced
Speaker 2: by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Mercury and Caitlin Golden.
Speaker 2: Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Krincheck. Audio
Speaker 2: editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support from
Speaker 2: Nico Ruka and Tanner Robbins. Trails theme composed by Oliver
Speaker 2: Bain's music library provided by Mybe Music and For more
Speaker 2: podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 2: wherever you get your podcasts