Posted on 04/05/2005 10:21:14 AM PDT by SmithL
OKLAHOMA CITY - The wife of a deputy prison warden who vanished 10 years ago with an escaped killer told authorities after she was found that he had held her captive the whole time, a federal agent said Tuesday.
A tip generated by the TV show "America's Most Wanted" led law enforcement to a mobile home in Campti, Texas, where escaped convict Randolph Dial was arrested Monday, said Salvador Hernandez, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oklahoma.
The assistant warden's wife, Bobbi Parker, 42, was found a short time later working at a chicken farm not far from Campti, agents said. They were living together in the same trailer and she had stayed with Dial out of fear for her family, Hernandez said.
She was later reunited with her husband, Randy, with FBI agents present who "said the reunion went well," he said. The couple have two daughters.
Dial, a sculptor and painter, was convicted of the 1981 murder of a karate instructor. He had obtained trusty status at the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite in southwestern Oklahoma, and he ran an inmate pottery program with Bobbi Parker and had access to their home, in staff housing on prison grounds, during the day.
The morning of Bobbi Parker's disappearance in August 1994, her husband saw Dial working in his garage, where there was a kiln for firing pottery, as he left.
When he returned for lunch, he found a note from his wife saying she went grocery shopping. When his wife had not returned home that evening, Randy Parker called the prison and discovered Dial also was missing.
Bobbi Parker's mother received a phone call from her later that night traced to Hurst, Texas. "I can't talk now," she said, crying. "I'm OK. Tell the kids I'll see them soon."
A day later, she made a second call, this time from Fort Worth to a friend. It was the last message her family got from her. "I've got 30 seconds to talk," she said. "I want you to call my home. Tell the kids I love them and I'll be home soon."
Randy Parker is now warden at the William S. Key Correctional Center at Fort Supply in northwestern Oklahoma. A spokesman at the prison said Parker did not want to comment.
Shelby County Sheriff Newton Johnson had said earlier that the woman wanted to stay on the farm in Texas, but Hernandez said this was a misinterpretation. Hernandez said he believes the sheriff's comment arose from comments she made thanking people as she was leaving the farm.
Hernandez said that while it is unusual for someone to be held against one's will for so long, it is not unprecedented.
"There have been cases of this kind and typically this will result when someone believes family members might be in danger," Hernandez said. They were living under the assumed names Richard and Samantha Deahl.
In 2000, Randy Parker said his wife was not afraid of Dial, but was not "overly friendly" toward him. Dial is "personable," yet conniving, he said then. "I always saw him as a coward, just an absolute coward," Parker said. "He always tried to run a con on people."
That'll work too. Have your people call my people....
Did my point come across? I was hoping someone would notice.
Put the woman in jail too. I do not believe her for one second
For some gals there's something about a guy in uniform. For some women there's something about a guy behind bars.
The movie "Ghost" inspires yet another love story.
He may have been a trustee, but it appears his status is trusty. I for one, think his status was not as trusty, and he shouldn't have been a trustee.
Redundant
There are no bad Ida Lupino movies. Some are a little better than others.
If they've been living together as a "married couple" for the past ten years, I can almost guarantee that she's not "putting out"! LOL
How true... How (sadly) true!
And if Hollywood has its way the two convicts fall deeply in love...the story ends... happily ever after... and scene.
Trustee perhaps? Score one against the AP editor.
Movie idea's already been done, lol. Older movie I recently saw on TCM - Mrs. Soffel. True story and the movie was good.
"A Weak Woman's Insane Infatuation" read the headline of a 1902 Pittsburgh newspaper in the midst of a bleak northern winter riddled with scandal. The "weak woman" was Kate Soffel, wife of the Allegheny County Jail's warden, Peter Soffel, and mother to his four children. She was accused of helping two convicted murderers, Ed and Jack Biddle, escape from her husband's prison and then attempting to flee with them to Canada. Ed and Jack Biddle were brothers who received as much attention for their handsome good looks while incarcerated as they did for their violent crimes. As the warden's wife, Mrs. Soffel made it part of her duties to regularly visit all the inmates and offer words of Christian comfort to them from the Bible. It was during these visits that Mrs. Soffel took a special liking to the older Biddle, Ed. The sensation caused by Mrs. Soffel's shocking actions to help the Biddles would shake up the town for years to come." (snip)
http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,,90470%7C90471%7C72546,00.html
Well, Ofcourse its already been done, but with the right actors and the right director it can be done again, and better. .... Someone get Mr. DeMille on the line for me.......
Trusty with the "y" is correct. Here's an excerpt from Oklahoma law:
1. Escape-Trusty May Be Prosecuted as Escaped Prisoner. A prisoner of the State Penitentiary permitted to be at liberty as a trusty and not confined within the walls of the Penitentiary may be prosecuted as an escaped prisoner where he leaves the place where he was assigned to work without permission, and is recaptured In another state. 21 O.S. 1941 § 443.
This defense didn't fly for Patty Hearst and it won't fly here either.
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