Killer Behind the Badge

By Steve McVicker

Thursday, January 12, 1995 | 21 years ago

It was just after midnight on August 25, 1992, and Susan White's worst fear was on the verge of coming true.
With the shrill and panicked sound of her home burglar alarm in the background, White struggled to get her wits about her, to overcome the grogginess brought on by sleeplessness and her ingestion of two Valiums. Outside, three men were running around her house, banging on doors and windows in an effort to gain entrance. One of them, White knew, was Joseph Kent McGowen. She had been telling close acquaintances for weeks that McGowen meant to do her harm, but they didn't believe her. That sounded preposterous, because McGowen was a deputy with the Harris County Sheriff's Department, someone sworn to uphold the law. But White knew some other things about McGowen.
Lying on her waterbed in the downstairs bedroom of her home, White grabbed the telephone and dialed 9-1-1:
Operator: 9-1-1 County. What's your emergency?
White: There's a (unintelligible) here at my door. I've filed several complaints with him for sexual harassment and I need some help immediately ... So you can but get McGowen away from my house. Get McGowen away from my house!
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