Candy Mossler returned from a hospital visit and found her husband's body wrapped in a blanket in his house in Key Biscayne, Florida, where he was dead after being bludgeoned and stabbed 39 times.
[4][5] Candy Mossler and Powers were tried in March 1966 in what The New York Times described as "one of the most spectacular homicide trials ever" with the judge barring any spectators under the age of 21 from attending.
Defense attorney Percy Foreman presented a theory that Mr. Mossler had been killed by a male lover, and convinced the jury to "disregard the whole wheelbarrow loads of manure that have been dumped from that witness stand."
The evidence included a substantial array of materials and testimony showing that the two had been having an affair, a motive for the killing (Candy would have gotten only $200,000 if she had filed for divorce, but all of her husband's wealth if he died first).
Powers attended her funeral accompanied (according to some newspapers, as reported in the New York Times) by “an attractive blonde.” By then, he had become a flamboyant real estate developer in Houston, favoring ostrich- and alligator-skin cowboy boots, owning an immense yacht and bobbing between riches and bankruptcy.
[4] Within a few years, Powers was facing financial difficulties, but was able to convince a judge that his 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) penthouse atop one of the Arena Place towers was a protected homestead under Texas law.