Back in 1991 when the murder was committed, the son would have been far too young to transport his mom from her front door to a back highway in another state, beat her to death and set the van on fire with Jet-A. He was young enough to need a nanny, who was the alleged co-conspirator/girlfriend with Mullins. Mullins would be about 57 now.
This all happened before the internet was in use, so uncovering details and actual articles is hard unless you have access to news databases. But the murder case had enough factual appeal for A&E to use it as an example of miscarried justice.
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THE SEAMY SIDE - A LURID LOOK AT A MEMPHIS MURDER:[Final Edition]
Tom Walter. The Commercial Appeal
Copyright Memphis Publishing Company Sep 13, 2002
In prose more purple than pious, City Confidential hits the soft underbelly of Memphis and rips away its pretense to propriety, slathering its secrets across a dumbfounded piece of toast called America.
Sorry. City Confidential will do that.
Memphis, Burning Betrayal uses the prose of pulp fiction to illuminate the Holly Mullins murder case of 1991.
"We try to look for cases that aren't just random, gruesome murders," said executive producer Geoff Proud. "Here, it was a case that made you go 'What the . . .'"
What indeed.
Mullins, a Federal Express pilot, was found dead in a burned-out van in Mississippi. It was determined that she died of blunt trauma to the head before the van burned.
Her husband, Michael Mullins, also was a Federal Express pilot. Holly became a born-again Christian, and she and Michael began to disagree about how to raise their children. They started bitter divorce proceedings. Michael Mullins also had taken up with his son's nanny, Carol Pinkerton.
In 1991, Holly flew a FedEx flight to Maine and the next night headed home. She never was seen alive again.
A truck driver found a badly burned van with a body in it on a Mississippi road. It was Holly.
Two years passed and no charges were made. Then Carol Pinkerton came forward and told investigators that Michael told her he had killed Holly.
The evidence - including burns on Michael's hands - seemed overwhelming. But a jury returned a not guilty verdict after less than an hour's deliberation.
It's a lurid story, told luridly. For instance:
"In 1991, Memphis's violent past would return like a parcel without postage," narrator Paul Winfield says.
Then, leading into a discussion of the murder, Winfield says, "In Memphis, even justice doesn't come absolutely, positively overnight."
Or, "Michael's moves on Holly were faster than his moves in the air."
Or this: "(Memphis is) a place where they serve beer on the street and people are knee-deep in booze. . . . Mullins was knee- deep in trouble."
How does the show describe Pinkerton? She got the nanny's job answering an ad on Christian radio, but she was "a devil in a house dress."
Pinkerton was a dream witness - for the defense.
She was a recovering drug addict who reportedly got phone messages from Holly after her death and who had a history of ratting on her men.
Pinkerton did the prosecution no favors. In the program, defense attorney Leslie Ballin says the Mullins defense came down to demonstrating the state couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Michael committed the crime.
It's a lot of story, especially considering that about 20 minutes of the episode is devoted to background on Memphis, emphasizing drinking, eating, music and drinking some more. (There are a ton of shots of folks on Beale Street.)
The language and tone of the piece is just this side of flippant. Writer Brett O'Bourke learned all the wrong lessons from Raymond Chandler. Heck, he even learned the wrong lessons from Mickey Spillane.
"We try to overdo it a little bit," executive producer Proud said. "There are some of these shows out there that are so earnest. Someone got killed here, and we don't want to make fun of them; there is a little bit more dark humor than in other true crime shows."
The story is told in ominous tones, on purpose.
"This case was just one bizarre thing after another. The way Paul Winfield reads them and the way we try to tell them, you know something bad is going to happen. If he says they looked like a perfect couple, you know they weren't."
-- What: City Confidential: Memphis, Burning Betrayal
-- When: 8 p.m. Sunday
-- Where: A&E
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MULLINS RETURNS TO PILOT JOB AT FEDEX:[Final Edition]
Lawrence Buser Dave Hirschman-The Commercial Appeal.
Copyright Memphis Publishing Company Feb 24, 1995
FedEx pilot Howard Michael Mullins, who was acquitted last year of killing his wife, has been reinstated, company officials said Thursda
Mullins, a 727 captain, had been suspended from the company since June 1993 when he was charged with the 1991 murder of his wife Holly Ann Fulton Mullins, who also was a Federal Express pilot.
Last month, Mullins was cleared of arson charges in the case, apparently removing the last obstacle to regaining his job.
"I have no comment at all," Mullins said Thursday evening.
Company spokesman Bill Carroll confirmed that Mullins has been reinstated, but that the question of back pay was considered a personal issue that would not be made public.
Mullins, 48, who was hired by FedEx in 1979, was earning more than $100,000 a year when he was suspended.
His primary income has been through a skydiving business he operates in Fayette County.
Holly Mullins, 36, was found beaten to death inside her burning van Aug. 30, 1991, in DeSoto County.
At the time, she and her husband were in the midst of a bitter fight over children and property.
Mullins was not charged until nearly two years later, and last March a Criminal Court jury in Memphis acquitted him of capital murder.
Earlier this month, a judge in DeSoto County acquitted him of arson charges in connection with the burned van.
Mullins was going through classroom training Thursday, preparing to resume his job in the cockpit.
Reaction to his return was mixed.
Some female FedEx pilots and friends of Holly Mullins were angry and said they would request not to fly with Mullins.
FedEx keeps a computerized list of pilots who, for personal reasons, have asked not to fly with each other.
The list was not designed to accommodate more than a few names per individual. Also, in situations where the company needs to assemble a crew quickly for a last-minute flight, schedulers can disregard the preference list.