The Bad News Killers

In 1979 the Reverend Richard Douglas was 42 and his wife Marilyn was 36. Richard was pastor of the Putnam City Baptist Church in Warr Acres, Oklahoma, a former president of the Oklahoma Baptist General Convention and the author of a 1978 book, My Way, God's Way. He had pastored his first church at 16, and from 1968 to 1972 he and Marilyn had done missionary work in Brazil with their two children. Marilyn sang in the church choir and sat on the State Arts Council. Their son Richard Douglas Jr, known as Brooks, was 16 and a senior at Putnam City High School after skipping his junior year. Their daughter Leslie was 12, a seventh grader at Hefner Junior High and Miss Teen Oklahoma 1979. The family lived in a modest house on a couple of acres in Okarche and were planning to move to Oklahoma City later that year.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In October 1979 they were working on an oil rig in Kingfisher County and living together.

On 15 October 1979 the pair were at the rig when one of them heard over a two-way radio that law enforcement officers were at the drilling company's office. this part of the story is covered for now They borrowed a co-worker's car, drove to collect their money and belongings, and took off. Within a few hours they robbed the Cameron family in rural Hennessy of about $2,000 in cash and a shotgun, then drove south on US 81, stopping at three houses looking for somewhere to burglarise.

details of the account remain covered until revealed Leslie, 12, answered. He asked where the Mitchells lived, then asked to use the phone, then said the number was in the car. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The family was forced onto the floor and hogtied. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Brooks later said they could hear her crying and the jingle of a belt buckle.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed The bullet collapsed a lung, tore his oesophagus and nicked his heart. He shot Marilyn once in the back, Richard twice and Leslie twice. The killers left with the couple's wedding rings and $43.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it His father died too. Leslie fetched a knife and cut them free, and the two children drove to the house of their paediatrician, Dr Jack Barry, arriving around 10.30 p.m. He called the police and got them to hospital. Both survived.

A multistate FBI manhunt followed. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed In Texas they killed two civil engineers, Dale Coquens, 35, and Yurby Land III, 27, in their home in Lumberton, about ten miles north of Beaumont. The men's hands were bound, paper sacks were over their heads and both were shot in the back of the head with a shotgun. The killers took Land's silver 280Z and the credit cards and drove it across California, Nevada and Utah, eventually fitting California plates.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In Colorado she left them and took a bus to her family in Wyoming. A caller in Baggs, Wyoming reported overhearing women discussing a double killing. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Pondella, tied up, slipped his binds, crept out and called the police. On 20 November 1979 ten deputies surrounded the five-bedroom ranch house at 10.45 a.m.; one of the pair ran and was tackled in the snow. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it At arraignment he wore a Rolling Stones T-shirt, said he was 24 or 25 and did not keep track, shouted at the judge to kill him and was tackled by deputies. His lawyer called him probably crazy and legally incompetent. He was committed to a state mental hospital; six weeks later the chief forensic psychiatrist reported him competent, but only while receiving 200 milligrams of thorazine three times a day.

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this part of the story is covered for now Oklahoma that the state should have provided a psychiatrist. Rehnquist dissented. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Leslie spent her 13th birthday in hospital, was separated from her brother and lived with distant cousins, went to college in 1984 and later married and divorced. She said the loss never gets better, only worse.