Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
This Crazy Cheerleading Mom Who Tried To Murder - The Wanda Holloway story
25 Apr 2025
Wanda Holloway, a 36-year-old mother from Channelview, Texas, gained national notoriety in 1991 when she was arrested for attempting to hire a hitman to kill the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival. Her daughter, Shanna, had failed to secure a spot on the junior high cheerleading squad, and Holloway believed that eliminating Verna Heath, the mother of rival Amber Heath, would cause Amber to withdraw from the team, thereby opening a spot for Shanna. Holloway approached her former brother-in-law, Terry Harper, to arrange the murder. Instead of complying, Harper reported the plot to authorities and cooperated with law enforcement by recording conversations with Holloway. In these recordings, Holloway offered her diamond earrings as a down payment for the hit.
Full Episode
So this is Wanda, and Wanda will do anything to be a cheerleader. Maybe even unalive someone.
Now Wanda is just a kid and she's living in the middle of nowhere Texas but unfortunately her dad is super religious and he thinks cheerleaders skirts are too short for a teenager to wear and he doesn't want her dressing like a hoochie and so he says nah bro can't be a cheerleader and that is the end of her cheerleader dream and this devastates poor Wanda I mean this is all she's ever wanted how could he do this to her but
Then fast forward decades later and it's the 80s and Wanda is in her 30s now and she's still living in the middle of nowhere Texas. But now she's married and she's got a daughter of her own. This girl, Shauna. And Wanda, she's probably still got hang-ups about her dad not letting her be a cheerleader all those years ago. And so she decides to finally do something about it.
she's gonna do everything in her power to make sure her daughter Shauna can be one. And she starts pushing her into it. And she starts investing a lot of money into Shauna's future cheerleading career with like modeling classes and private cheer lessons. Later she gets her a spot at this insanely competitive gymnastics studio.
And as time goes on, Shauna ends up, I assume, being pretty good at dance and cheer with all this training she's been getting. However, there's one other girl she can't seem to outshine. This girl, Amber. Now Shauna and Amber, they're actually friends. I mean, they go to school together, they run in the same popular girl circles, but Amber is just better than her at dance and cheer.
Regardless, Shauna's mom, Wanda, keeps her eyes on her ultimate goal. She wants to officially get Shauna onto the school's cheerleading squad, and she'll do anything to make that happen. So in 1989, Wanda puts a plan into motion. See Shauna, she's now in the seventh grade. She's 11 and she's old enough to try out for the cheer squad.
So Wanda transfers her out of her private school to a local public junior high so that she can try out. And at that new school, there's two open spots and only one other girl trying out. So Shauna is guaranteed to make the team. I mean, this is great for them. But then, guess who suddenly wants to try out for that team as well? Shauna's friend, Amber.
But here's the absolute dumbest part of this whole story. I guess at this school, or maybe in this school district, to make the cheer team, you don't audition. You actually get voted in by the students at the school. So you have to campaign and put up flyers and get the students to vote for you. Which is absurd because it should be based on skill, but like, whatever.
Regardless, both girls campaign for a spot on the team and they try to get the other students to vote for them. And kaboom, Shauna doesn't win. So she doesn't get a spot. And her mom, Wanda, is absolutely devastated and pissed off. And she complains to the other parents and she goes to the school board and complains to them. She threatens to get a lawyer like, it's not fair, I'll sue you.
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