A Mossler Family Affair
Candy was a well-known Houston socialite who was described in newspapers at the time as beautiful and well-dressed with a magnetic and winning personality. In 1957, she and Jacques adopted four young siblings who had been left without a home after their father shot and killed their mother. Jacques told Candy about the children after reading of their plight in the newspaper while on a business trip. The story of the Mosslers' adoption of the children received coverage across the country.
Jacques was a financier and businessman, a powerful but less visible figure than his socialite wife, who was about 25 years his junior.
While their marriage started out happily, their relationship later encountered difficulties, and over time, the two grew more distant. They were separated at the time of Jacques’ murder.
Later, during the murder investigation, Candy told police she believed her husband had been living a closeted life. She said she heard rumors about him picking up young men on the beach and taking them home; Candy suggested that if it wasn’t one of Jacques' many enemies in business who had ended his life, it might have been one of his secret lovers.
However, Jacques wasn’t the only one who may have been keeping secrets. Investigators soon uncovered rumors that Candy was having an incestuous affair with Powers, a handsome salesman with dark hair and a muscular build.
Powers had moved into the Mossler home at the suggestion of his mother, Candy’s older sister, Babe. She hoped living with his wealthy aunt and uncle might set Powers back on the right path after he was released from a three-month prison stint following a fraud conviction.
Instead, Powers and Candy began seeing one another romantically. They wrote impassioned love letters back and forth and were alleged to have been intimate at the family mansion as well as the Mosslers' other properties.
Powers also reportedly underwent a number of surgical procedures at the behest of his aunt: He was circumcised and had his face sanded, his ears tucked and his tonsils removed.
During Powers’ time living at the family estate, Jacques hired him as a loan repossessor at one of his businesses, and for a while, the job appeared to be going well. That changed in 1963, when rumors began circulating that Jacques had discovered the affair and fired Powers, having him escorted off the property by security before leaving for Florida himself.
Candy Mossler and Melvin Lane Powers’ Murder Trial
Jacques had considered getting a divorce after learning of his wife's infidelity, but ultimately he decided against it. Firstly, the Mossler's prenuptial agreement would have meant Candy got half of everything he owned if he were to divorce her. Secondly, he wanted to avoid the negative publicity a public divorce would surely bring. In the end, he decided to pay her a monthly allowance, keep their separation private and spend his time at their home in Key Biscayne.
Despite the Mosslers' separation, Candy maintained in public that everything was fine between her and Jacques. She even took the children to visit Jacques in Florida after school let out. During that trip, the children played on the beach while Candy complained of migraines and made multiple trips to a nearby hospital for pain-relief injections.
One night in June, after returning home from a hospital visit, Candy and the children found Jacques' dead body lying on the floor. He had been bludgeoned with a blunt object and stabbed nearly 40 times with a knife.
Evidence at the trial included testimony about Candy and Powers’ relationship. During the investigation, detectives discovered Powers traveled to Florida the afternoon before Jacques was murdered and stopped at a bar not far from the apartment in Key Biscayne. Eyewitnesses reported hearing someone rushing away from the scene of the murder and Jacques’ dog barking nearby.
By the following day, Powers was already on a plane back to Texas.
After uncovering evidence of the couple's illicit affair, detectives flew to Houston to interview Powers.
Airline records showed that Powers had traveled to Miami and back right around the time of the murder, and his handprint was found inside of Jacques’ home, although there was no way of knowing when exactly it had been left there. A rental car a witness said they spotted at the murder scene matched the type Candy had rented for Powers to use on his trip.
This evidence was enough for both Candy and Powers to be arrested for the murder.
The crime made headlines around the world, and the highly publicized trial began in Miami in 1966 with dozens of reporters jostling for space in the courtroom, hoping for updates in the case.
The defense painted Jacques as a ruthless businessman with untoward sexual proclivities. By contrast, Candy, who wore an all-white outfit on the first day of court and carried herself like a movie star—waving to fans outside the courthouse and delicately blowing her nose into a handkerchief during the trial—was portrayed by the defense, led by the famed attorney Percy Foreman, as an angel who could do no wrong.
The prosecution argued that the accused couple had not only engaged in an incestuous affair, but coldheartedly planned and carried out Jacques' murder in a plot to inherit his wealth. They described Candy as the mastermind with the lovestruck Powers tasked with carrying out the dirty work.
In the end, the spectacle of the trial came down to the prosecution's ability to poke holes in circumstantial evidence pointing toward the couple and cast doubt on the integrity of Jacques’ character.
After three days of deliberations, the jury acquitted both Candy and Powers. The headline grabbing trial ended with the exonerated couple kissing on the lips before driving off in a convertible.
What Happened to Candy Mossler and Melvin Lane Powers?
The two would continue dating for about a year after the trial ended, even living for a while in the Mossler family mansion before breaking up. Candy attributed their separation to her nephew's jealousy and anger issues while Powers blamed it on their age difference.
Jacques left $1 million to each of his children, but it was Candy who would ultimately inherit the majority of his $33 million dollar fortune. She married once more in 1971 to a man who suffered serious brain damage after a mysterious fall outside their home about a year after their marriage. They would later divorce, and Candy herself died in 1976 due to an overdose of migraine medication.
Powers, who went on to establish a career in real estate, never married and died in 2010.
No one else was ever charged in Jacques' murder, and his death remains officially unsolved.
