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Subscribe to RSSAn escaped convict and the deputy warden’s wife are found after a decade on the run. Was she a hostage or an accomplice? Dateline NBC's Edie Magnus reports The Devil & Bobbi Parker on Friday, September 21st, at 10pm/9c.
On a hot summer day in 1994 convicted murderer Randolph Dial escapes from prison, taking the deputy warden's wife with him. But was she a kidnapped hostage or a willing accomplice? Dateline NBC's Edie Magnus reports.
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I can’t understand individuals like Bobbi Parker. They state they were kidnapped and brainwashed into believing that if they try to leave or escape their captors, their family would be harmed or killed. Okay, I’ve been around long enough to hear about the Stockholm Syndrome, really? So, we’re to believe that they’re (after years of captivity) allowed to watch television, read and go out on their own or with their captors shopping. If they are allowed to watch TV, why don’t they heed OPRAH and seek that self empowerment and confidence they deserve? “Burning Bed” shows on the Lifetime Channel every once in awhile as well as “Sleeping With the Enemy“. If they are allowed to read, do their captors stop them from reading “The Count of Monte Cristo” or following how to free your mind and body self help books? Hey, a newspaper? They write about people that escape all the time. Do the kidnappers also brainwash them to the point they can’t read or write the English language? Hey, when you’re living in a tent behind some knuckleheads house in the San Joaquin Valley, could you write a note or several notes and letters and drop them in a woman’s changing room or bathroom at Kmart or Wal-Mart? Hey, what do I know, since I was 10 and playing with my G.I. Joes in the 70’s. We were taught if G.I. Joe’s enemies caught us, just go along with it till you get a chance to break out and beat feet back to mommy. I blame all on the lack of dodge ball in public schools.
Are you kidding? Her husband has sucker written all over him. What a shame? You notice nobody asked her daughters. They know. Why did they not just offer her a lie detector test and if she passed let her go. You can't use it in court against her so it was a no lose situation for her. If she's not lying (she is though) you just let the charges go. My wife ever did that she'd be taking a LD test and she had better pass it or she'd be down the road kicking stones. She could have smothered him when he was having his heart attack or stuck a big knife in him and there wouldn't be a jury in the world that would convict her. She was stone guilty of falling for that guy, plain and simple. There is no guy alive to say anything now so she has no reason to say anything but she was scared to death. Her and her husband deserve each other. 2 chumps. At least this story puts a little faith in the jury system.
This story cried out for more information on the psychological aspects, like in the famous cases of Jaycee Dugard, Sawn Hornbeck and Elizabeth Smart, examples of people held over a long period of time and who could have left their captors but didn't due to the effects of brainwashing or Stockholm Syndrome. Why not? The story mentioned that there were 38 defense witnesses called, but didn't go into who thery were. For those who wonder why people don't react as they think that they should have, much has to do with the psychological makeup of the person kidnapped and how smart and manipulative the kidnapper is.
There were a few comments included in the story from the lady (policewoman?) who stayed with her the first night of her rescue, but not enough. This could have been quite revealing.
Finally, the chief warden, supposedly a professional taken in by Dial's charm, awarding him minimal security status and himself setting up the situation where he says Dial could have just walked off the prison farm, admitted that he found out where Dial and Parker were living but Chose not to report to authorities because they were living their lives and not hurting anyone!?? Did ths man not have the duty to report this to authorities? Has he suffered no repercussions from this?
Mr Cowley most certainly did have an obligation by oath of law to report the tips on HIS prisoner's whereabouts. Ironically, the statues of limitations had expired and Convict Dail had died only a few day prior to Mrs Parker being charged with aiding and abetting convict Dial. This was not a coincidence. You are obviously not farmilair with the political climate in Oklahoma.
This is a state that was founded on the corruption of the Boomer and Sooner. Land thieves and oil/land speculators. This corruption in generational from the beginning of statehood and continues on today as a way of life. The people of Granite live in a level of exceptable fear of the DA. Mr Wampler, and Warden Cowely. The majority of the general population of Granite is employed by the Refromatory both directly and indirectly as contractors. The men are the "kingpins" of Granite.
Warden Cowely described convict Dial as, " Mainipulative, smart, a quick study, we(convict and warden) hit it off." Warden Cowely went on to pride himself as a " good judge of character" after he described his feelings that Mrs. Parker was guilty of her charged crime. Mr. Cowely was given 2 tip on the whereabouts of his prisoner, but judged that he was" not causing any harm, living a good quiet life." Let us rememeber what convict Dial was a murdered of the first degree. Mr Cowely is an impotent warden and a coward hiding his self deemed Demigod ego behind an innocent woman.
Mr Wampler could not give the interviewer any substantial information that was based on any facts. His observation are assumptions only. There is no coincidence about him bringing Mrs Parker to trial when he did. It was an election year for him. I am surprised that he would even need to convict anyone in his district at all to maintain his position. This district is so tainted with long standing corruption he would just need to pay the right people or turn a blind eye to someone's petty crime to be re-elected.
Mrs Parker was promised a fair interview and she did not receive one. Madam Producer, what was your motive? You began your interview showing us Mrs Parker as she is know by many, a lovely wife and mother, dedicating her life to that of her husband's through her work with convited felons with special needs. Building a lovely family with him and then in the end you place her on the block for public opinion's slaughter?
Perhap Dateline, once revered for their courageous investigative reporting has stooped to the level of salacious reporting to draw a particular demographic as viewers. I have known this family for many years and I know that Mrs Parker is not the person portrayed by your interview. To report items found at the scene use to torture her with sexually and then to ask her about those possession is completely dishonorable to her and the public that you are reporting information to. To ask her to explain the letter written to convict Dail after his heart attack with no psycological support is despicable. Mrs. Parker was placed into a situation that warranted her to demand that convict Dial believe that she still was under his control. In order to banish any doubt from his mind upon release from the hospital she needed to reestablish her submissiveness to his control in order to affrim her safety and the safety of her family and friends.
Madam Producer you are incompetent.
You did not do your homework! You failed to accumulate the psychological evidences needed to make Mrs Parker solid. The entire media support Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart because they were children. Is it so far fetched that you would do the same for a grown woman with a husband and children? Yet you place the question of " Did you love convict Dial" in front of her. Did she love him? No she did not! She loved her family, her husband and her children. She endured 11 years of captivity for the love of those people.
The investigative reporting you should be doing is into why Mr Cowely is not on the other side of the bars and why Mr Wampler is still a member of the Oklahoma Bar. The corruption of these men and their careers and this particular prosecution case runs so deep frankly I think you are too lazy to manage a true investigation of a news worthy case.
Want to win a Pulitzer? Break that story Madam Producer.
The DA, warden, and true crime writer anger me in their misogyny. Mr. Parker is the hero of this story -- and Bobbi Parker, who managed to survive against all odds and return to her family. The premise of the show, that there is some doubt about Bobbi's story, just perpetuates the ignorance, arrogance, and cruelty of the men involved who could have made a difference in saving her sooner from hell.