tv The Dylan Ratigan Show MSNBC May 28, 2012 4:00pm-5:00pm EDT
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his tattooed eyeballs continue to fascinate. >> you think it's funny. >> another ex-inmate attempts to harness the rage he felt behind bars, to build a new career inside the ropes. and for one young woman, life after lockup means coming to terms with the devastating childhood memory of witnessing her father murder her mother. >> i was saying, please, don't kill mom. and she was laying in the hallway and blood was coming out of her mouth. >> and now for the first time, she will watch the video of her father's final hours before his execution.
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most of the inmates featured on "lockup" dream of the day they will leave prison and everything associated with it behind. but for one of them, forgetting will be virtually impossible. though he is now out of prison, he will forever carry an inescapable reminder of his days behind bars. we first met david boltjes when he was serving time for credit card fraud in the limon facility in colorado. he and his friend had each tattooed the whites of their eyes. boltjes chose red, ian, blue. >> i don't really ask why. the question is why not. >> two and a half years later, his cellmate is still in prison, but david boltjes has completed his sentence and is living
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outside denver in aurora, colorado. >> i told them i wasn't coming back. i'm done. >> boltjes has seen a number of changes in his life since leaving limon. he's found love with his girlfriend, miss hendricks. and what's surprising is his appearance on lockup have made him a sensation. >> google me and see what pops up. i do. since i got out of prison, i see somebody every single day, at least two or three times a day, who have asked me about my eyes. >> right on, man. >> that's pretty cool. >> they're tattooed. >> what? >> they're tattooed. >> wicked. >> i've gotten stopped on the street. people are like, oh, you're that guy. i've had a couple people ask for autographs. i ain't no celebrity, you know what i mean? yeah, i'm on tv, i'm on the internet, but i'm just me.
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>> they're scared of you. we're constantly getting stopped, and oh, i saw you on tv. can i get my picture taken with you? it's something i've gotten used to. >> every time we go out, you always get so much attention. >> your eyes trip me out, man, every time. >> everybody slik, ohh. >> it does, it trips me out for real. >> doesn't that drive you crazy? >> nope. >> don't you know who i am? your first impression when you saw him. >> i wasn't too impressed. i heard about the eyes. i've never seen the show before. i had to actually look it up, and i'm not sure that i would do something like that nor would i want my children to, but it's unique, for sure. it's grown on me. he's like a cupid. >> i get a lot of questions about it, really. >> boltjes says he's been to the
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optometrist and reports no problems with his vision. and even though the color has faded a bit over the past few years, he's not sure if he will tattoo them again. either way, he is sure of one thing. if he does color them again, it won't be in prison. >> what i learned from being in prison is there is a better life away from the criminal life. the enjoyment of life, being able to live it and not having to look over your shoulder all the time is great. >> boltjes has started out on the right track. >> i got a really good job flipping and selling
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more than just the typical body parts. >> i've tattooed about five people's eyes since i've been out of prison, and it's been like weird colors, like neon green, fluorescent pink, i did one guy's orange and blue, one was orange and one was blue, and then the regular colors, red, green and purple. >> while you're here tonight, why don't you get your eyes tattooed? >> looking for a job would be kind of hard to do with your eyes that way. >> you think it would keep you from getting one? >> yeah. some jobs, yeah. they would always think i was high. >> david and beth are about to face an even greater challenge. >> we're about to have a kid. that's a big step of the. >> i'm 14 weeks, and huge surprise. this is the baby at 11 weeks. the baby is really there. not just a line on a test tube.
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>> wait until it comes out. i can give it tons of sugar and leave it with you all day. >> all right. i think he's terrified. terrified. something he's never done before. it's not his normal life that he's dealt with, it's something totally new. terrified for sure. >> i just hope it's not like me at all. because i'm bad. growing up, i was very, very bad. you name it illegally, i probably have done it. stealing cars, breaking into houses, selling drugs, but now i've learned from that mistake. i don't want my kid to grow up being that bad kid. i want to be able to be there and do things so the kid won't have to go do all that stuff. >> as for the future, david and beth are planning to move to a small town in northern colorado to raise their child. >> we want to open up a tattoo shop. now we have to worry about
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somebody else, so it's time to grow up. it's time to do right. it's time to put all the stuff we know about how to do bad, all the illegal stuff we know, flip it and make it all legitimate. >> people make mistakes, some people more than others. but i know his heart, and he's a good person. coming up, a former lockup inmate who went from head banger to professional wrestler. and later, the woman determined to tame bobby ray gilbert's psycho heart. and a teen will talk with the doc. ♪ right now, millions of americans are using their preventive benefits from the health care law.
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storn. david boltjes is not the only past inmate that we found living in at roar the aurora, colorado area. when we met david gill, he was two months after prison. at the time, gill was completing a two-year sentence for sexual assault. he maintains the conviction was improperly given. but he displayed a terrible temper. he added six years to his sentence and landed in segregation.
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but when gill's anger retreated, his sense of humor seemed to always reemerge. >> i got my shower in, so i'm good. >> how's your head? >> my head is fine. >> really? >> yeah. how is your head? >> two years after his release, gill says he never plans on returning to prison again. >> every single day i was there, i could have got killed. i learned that breaking the law is not worth anything to me. i'd rather stay out here and live a good, productive life. like limon sucked. i had to watch my back every day to make sure someone wasn't sticking me with a knife. i don't want to be there. it's a great feeling to know i'm done with my prison sentence and i'm done with it all. i haven't been in trouble since i've been out other than a speeding ticket. >> since his release, he's tried
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living his life. >> i told my girlfriend, i have high blood pressure. don't get pregnant. my blood pressure wasn't that high. she got pregnant. my son is the best thing that happened to me since i got free. he's the reason for everything i do. >> gill split up with his son's mother but still strives to be a good father, even though his status as ex-con makes things tough. he returned to a part-time career that he had begun to explore prior to his incarceration: professional wrestling. >> let's go. one of us happens to be a celebrity. >> gill's close friend, sometimes tormentor, is wrestler
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rich garcia. >> big rich is the most obnoxio obnoxious, heaviest mexicachanxe ever known in my life. i love him for that. >> i've known michael for about three years. it's a love-hate relationship. >> shut up. >> you're right. >> guy, grow up! >> everything he does pisses you off, and then there's times when he can just be the most loving teddy bear that anybody has ever met. >> whew, i'm winded. >> gill also has a new girlfriend, tissue birmingham. >> with her i found out what true love is. i trust her. i've never trusted any woman. >> tissue is gill's biggest ringside fan for his wrestling matches, which usually take place far away from the arenas featured in big time television wrestling. tonight's match is in a rented-out nightclub in denver.
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>> we do, like, libra shows, which are mexican wrestling shows, and since i'm white, i'm obviously going to be the bad guy. doobie is my wrestling character. i'm not a stoner. i don't smoke pot at all. people who smoke marijuana are out there a little bit. that's why i don't smoke weed. basically what it is, i come out and pretend i'm stoned. i trip over the ropes when i get in the ring, i laugh at things, i eat food during my match because i have the munchies. >> doobie! >> doobie, he is a character. if it's michael gill.
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the crowd loves to hate him, and he knows how to work the crowd to piss them off. coming up, bud doobie takes to the ring. and michael gill reflects somewhere but ends. >> the woman who is about to become wife to one of lockup's most memorable inmates. >> i don't look at bobby as a killer. it's just something he did. it's not something he is.
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krrc walk of fame. >> two years after gill's release, bud doobie was alive and well and wrestling in a denver nightclub. racist humor is a big part of the bud doobie character. >> why don't you get up and show me your green card? >> i like getting reactions out of people whether it's good or bad. >> but gill admits it's sometimes hard to tell where bud doobie ends and michael gill begins. >> i've had a problem since i've been in prison with racism. i'm not going to lie about it. there is a whole different culture in prison and you learn to hate everyone but whites. and that's kind of followed me out here. even to this day. let me tell you, when this is over, you're all going down! >> michael, before he went into prison, he didn't have a racist bone in his body. for some reason, as he came out, like he started to have all
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these problems with my other wrestlers. i had to sit down with mike and say, hey, mike, you have to reprogram yourself. you're not in prison anymore. >> i know i need to drop that and it's a problem. i use it in the shows. >> honestly, i really don't believe that he is genuinely racist, i just think that some of the things from prison kind of boiled over. ♪ oh, say can you see >> but it isn't only bud doobie's racism that is rooted in gill's past. >> i think wrestling is a release for my anger. obviously the matches are predetermined. but when i slam someone, that's 100% real. >> where do you think the anger issues come from, michael? >> prison. >> at limon, gill frequently
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lost control of his temper. >> i was always having to fight or i was in situations where if you weren't an angry person, you were a weak person. the mentality followed me from prison out here. >> sometimes i get so [ bleep ] off, i want to snap. >> his wrestling career doesn't fully support him, much less his son. >> i don't like the things that go on in this world. there's so much i need to do for myself and i cannot do it because there's no job, and i don't have a car, and i don't know how to begin to take care of those things, so i am [ bleep ] off. so when i was at limon, i was adamant. i will never take a job for under a certain amount of money. i'm only going to do a certain type of job. what am i amounting to, a $10 an
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hour job? i don't have any goals. but since i've been out, since i've had a son, i will take any job for any wage because i'm no better than anyone else. >> why don't you go ahead and do a couple back rolls. >> gill says he still struggles with anger. he knows how important it is to contain it. >> i know if i lose control, i will lose my son. so i keep that in check. >> he doesn't drink anymore. i think he's really turned around and prioritized a lot better. >> i need to let go of my prison experiences and find more positive outlets instead of holding in all this negativity. sometimes they're floating. i want to find a job and get a place that i can raise my son so when he's 10, 12 years old, he can be proud of his daddy. and i want to provide for my
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girlfriend. my goals are to settle down and grow up and live life to the fullest and do positive. >> and gill's friends say they're committed to helping him stay on track. >> michael has a good chance of staying out of jail if he has positive people behind him. me, for one. i love you, bro. i love you like the sister i never had, man. >> as long as i'm alive, michael gill will stay out of prison. coming up, one of lockup's most unforgettable inmates found his soulmate. >> bobby said, i love you, and i've never loved a woman as much as i love you, and will you be my wife? >> and later, a death row inmate places his final phone call to a "lockup" field producer. >> you've got three hours to live. what's going through your mind? by the name of mr. davies.
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dallas police said a suspect is holed up on a crane and he's threatening to shoot. they don't know if he's actually armed. president obama had a visit to the vietnam war memorial. he called it a shame the way the she vietnam war vets were treated. now back to "life after lockup." when we first visited the holman correctional facility in alabama in 2006, we met an inmate who would turn out to be one of the most provocative and volatile to ever appear on "lockup," bobby ray gilbert. >> you want us to exhibit some form of modern behavior, but i
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can't put myself in the mail like i used to. >> it's segregation. you ain't here because you was doing something special. >> when we returned to holman in 2007 for our "extended stay" series, we found gilbert exactly where we had left him, in aztec, the administrative housing unit. it how'suses the most violent offenders, and it is is where bobby ray has spent most of his 25 years in prison. >> i've got two 99-year sentences, a 40-year sentence, a to-year sentence and 17 years. >> gilbert's many convictions include robbery, assault, and
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two counts of murder, one of which was carried out against another inmate in prison. during our shoot, we would see his anger erupt again. >> i'm going to show you what i'm made of. >> but gilbert proved to be more than just a violent man. he also showed us a thoughtful side. in the last interview we did with gilbert, he seemed resigned to spending the rest of his life most likely alone. but five years later, we would discover that gilbert's lockup had opened up a new chapter in his life. she goes by the name of angel, preferring not to give her last
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name, and she is bobby gilbert's fianc fiancee. >> we've been together four years. it's just something that happened. i didn't set out for it to happen, it just did. >> the department of kreblgof cs denied an interview, but angel told us how she became involved with gilbert. angel had initially contacted another holman inmate featured on the series, sherman moore, who held the job as prison barber. >> i developed a friendship with sherman. . but i also saw the segment on bobby. and i inquired about bobby, what kind of person is he. >> thought maybe you were drinking that bottle of scope. >> sherman encouraged me to write to him. he's like, write him, angel. he said, you might hit it off.
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he says, you and him personalitywise are very similar. so i wrote bobby a letter because i just saw something more than what was shown. bobby breaking that window, pacing in a cage, mad. >> so help me god they're going to transfer me! >> i saw more than the crazed psychopath. i saw a little more past that. >> i can be a kid, cutting up. >> there was something more to him. i wanted to get to know him. >> angel received a response from gilbert almost immediately. sdp >> angel, so i'm curious. why does an attractive woman with a busy lifestyle take time
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for to write a guy in prison? aren't you worried i'm going to bust out of here, hunt you down, harass you at work and make violent phone calls to you? you've got to be about 7 feet tall. talk about kicking my ass. don't be a stranger, angel. take care of yourself. with a smile, bobby g. >> when angel began her accordance with gilbert, she was living in joliet, illinois. her son nico was living with her at the time. >> at first i was very concerned about her emotional safety because i wasn't sure how it would end up. >> but what began as a pen pal relationship quickly became something more serious. >> on a sunday evening at 8:00 at night, my son brought me the phone and he said, there is a collect call on there. i thought perhaps it was from sherman. it was him. it was bobby. and i communicated with him every day since. >> my mom was just glowing, she
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was happy, and it was really nice to see her like that. >> i started feeling something for bobby. i was falling in love with him, and it's an emotion that you can't control. it just happens. >> and after four months of calls and letters, angel decided to make the 700-mile trip from illinois to alabama, and she visited bobby for the first time. >> it was only three hours, and it was very special. he was sitting next to me, and i could see bobby out of the corner of my eye just grinning and staring at me. it was really cute. >> over the next few months, angel made the trip two more times. and on the third visit, gilbert had something special planned. >> bobby took my hand and he said, i have nothing for you but this. i can't financially support you,
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all i can do is love you and be your friend and be there for you. i mean, i got tears coming down my eyes because i know what's getting ready to happen. and bobby asked me, he says, i love you, and i've never loved a woman as much as i love you, and will you be my wife? i mean, i'm crying, oh, yes, and i threw my arms around him, and that was it. >> angel quit her bartending job, packed up her teenage son and her life in illinois and moved to a small town in alabama where she would only be an hour's drive from the prison. she got a job as a bartender and built her life around visits to gilbert. >> you got to be strong for it because it's not all fun and games. our visits, we'd laugh and just enjoy each other's time. but when they say visits are now over, you're leaving someone
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that you love there. and if you can't hang, you don't need to be involved with somebody who has got a life sentence, because life without parole in this state, you ain't getting out. >> coming up -- >> this woman is just some crazy fan that saw him on tv, sent him money, and he's playing a little game on her. >> angel finds commitment doesn't stop bobby's game with convictions. and ba life that goes beyond th death sentence. t if there's alws an excuse why i can't? what if i can't follow through? what if i fail? shhh. there's only one voice worth listening to and that's the one saying you can do this. i'm standing here still in control of my weight with weight watchers, telling you to believe in that voice. join for $1.
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i daydream about the whole getting out. i think i would do it right this time, you know. and now i daydream about how you can blow this whole prison up and kill everybody in it. >> despite bobby ray gilbert's history of violence both in and out of prison, his fiancee angel says when she sees him, she sees a different side. >> i don't look at bobby as a killer. it's just something he did. it's not something he is. >> though gilbert is serving life without parole, angel still manages to find ways to include him in her daily home life. >> these are our visiting pictures. people may think it's an obsession, which it's not. i can't see him physically, daily, like joe blow and his wife, you know. i see him on a picture. he's with me but he's not with me physically.
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there's more to a relationship than sex. you got to have trust, respect, good communication, companionship. i have all of the above, but i just don't have the physical part. >> but angel wasn't the only woman who has seen gilbert on "lockup" as she is often reminded when she searches his name on the internet. >> they come out of the woodwork. these women come out of the woodwork of all ages. i'm in love with you. i'm going to, you know -- i want to have your love child, i want to marry you. i have found a new love. he's bobby ray gilbert. his friends call him snake. he makes me laugh, he makes me feel good. he says the sweetest thing. he is a total bad ass, my kind of man. >> angel says gilbert has used these women to his advantage, namely developing relationships
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so they will put money in his prison account in order for him to make purchases from the canteen. >> like a ball player plays baseball for the love of the game, bobby plays women for the lover of the game. just like a chess game or texas hold 'em, he's a master at it. this woman is just some crazy fan who saw him on tv, sent him money and he ran a little game on her. if you're going to be one of these skanks out there, one of these crazy women who has seen him on tv. oh, he's a total bad ass, i'm going to change his life, have a flower garden in his name, that's great. open your wallet to him and he'll bleed you dry. >> at the same time angel sends bobby money as well. >> the money i give bobby per week goes on his inmate account so he could buy himself some groceries. he eats with it. >> how are you so positive and
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sure you're not part of his game? >> because i'm me. because i'm special. i know who i am and what i am to bobby gilbert. and i'm not game and i'm not a trick and i'm not something to hustle unlike the rest of these people out there. >> gilbert told us he is looking forward to the wedding but must be released from adsig before the couple can be granted permission to get married. and even though angel is resigned to the fact that gilbert will never leave prison, that doesn't stop her from imagining a more idyllic home life. >> i daydream about simple things, like what it would be like to make bobby breakfast and bring it to him. or to tell him, get it yourself, i ain't your maid. i love everything about him. i love his temperament, i love his personality, i love his intelligence, his with it, his
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sense of humor. i love everything about him. i wouldn't change anything about him except one thing, and that would be his freedom. and i sincerely mean that from the bottom of my heart. >> there are many things lindsay christmas would change about another inmate featured on "lockup." but now it's too late for that. >> this is what my dad gave me before he was executed. someone he was good friends with in prison had made this for my dad to give to us, and my brother got one as well. and i believe this is made out of toilet paper, which is really neat. and it has the date at the bottom. december of '09. that's when my dad passed away. >> lindsay's dad was eric wrinkles, an inmate we met on death row during our shoot at indiana state prison. we were with him when the final appeal of his death sentence was
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denied. >> even though you expected it, it's a little bit of a surprise, even though i expected it. it is what it is. it's like having cancer and knowing you only have so long to live. you start getting rid of possessions, make sure you got a will written up, tie up loose ends. >> anything you want to say to anybody? >> not at this time, no. >> 15 years earlier, wrinkles was convicted of three murders. his wife debra had recently left him and taken lindsay and her brother seth to live with her brother tony and his wife natalie. shortly after midnight, wrinkles arrived at the house dressed in full camouflage. >> he had paint on his face, two on each side. it was like a rambo look.
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>> wrinkles first cut the phone lines, then kicked through the back door. 13-year-old lindsay was awoken by gunshots and witnessed her father murder her mother. >> i was saying, please, you know, please don't kill mom. and she was laying in the hallway and blood was coming out of her mouth. and before i saw that, i looked in the room inside and my uncle tony was laying face down, and i knew he was probably dead. >> it was lindsay who ran to a neighbor's house to call 911. but by then, her mother, uncle and aunt were already dead. >> i really couldn't fathom what was to come of our life. >> today lindsay lives in a small rural town in the florida panhandle with her husband, two young children and a me nnageri of pets. >> sometimes i like to come and
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just sit around. it's our own little sanctuary. >> but the past never fades away. lindsay still cherishes memories of her mother. >> i like this picture because my mom looked more like this one before she passed away. >> lindsay's husband blake is a corrections officer at a florida state prison. they've been married for six years. >> i never thought i'm going to marry someone who works at a prison. it just turned out that way. just knowing things about prison life, i guess, helps me to know what my dad had to face every day. and this one was when he first went to prison. >> how did you feel when he was in there? >> i was hurt and sad that my dad was in prison. but then i was angry because i felt alone. >> she thought about how her dad was in prison and the rough life she had. i would ask her about it and she
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would come out more and more, and she finally came out and told me the whole thing. i was hoping i could help her through it. >> this is me with my uncle tony when i was very little. it makes me miss him. he was my favorite uncle. i always wished that i could have a normal life. >> during the 13 years wrinkles was on death row, lindsay had very little contact with him. >> some of the letters that he would write were not nice. this is a letter that my dad had wrote me. lindsay, for the life of me, i can't fathom why you are now so damn hateful and disrespectful to me. did i, a, beat you; b, molest you; or c, pimp you out? if not, how was i so mean to you? think about it. eric. >> i kind of felt bad for lindsay when i read it, because
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that was someone that she loves, that was her dad, and i know even though she distanced herself from him, she still loved him because that was her dad. >> so i responded to his letter as, eric, i don't have problems. you do. you put yourself on death row. you killed mom, tony and natalie and have no remorse. they meant the most to me and you took them away. i will never forgive you for taking my family and neither will they. this will be the last time i ever talk to you. >> but years later, lindsay would change her mind. coming up, lindsay's final visit with her father the day before his execution. and the never-before-released audio recording of eric wrinkles' last phone call mere hours before his death when he
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on the day before eric wrinkles was to be executed at indiana state prison, he received a visit from several relatives, including his son seth and his daughter lindsay, who at age 13 had witnessed wrinkles murder her mother. this never-before-seen video was shot by another family member. it was the first time in six years that lindsay had seen her father. >> i don't want there to be guilt of me not saying what i need to say because after he's gone, he's gone. i can't go back and say anything if i wanted to. and i thought and prayed about it for a long time. i told my husband, this is what i need to do. i need to make amends with my
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dad. >>. >> and you've done everything you're doing. and you've done everything you're going to do. >> it has been two years since that visit and wrinkles' execution, but this is the first time that lindsay has watched the video, even though it has been in her possession the entire time. >> seeing my dad kiss me and hug me was weird. i couldn't remember the last time that happened. >> december 2009, i want to tell them both i love them. >> when i saw him, he apologized
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for everything. and that -- i think that's what i needed. >> hours before her father was executed, lindsay decided to leave indiana and make the long drive home to florida. >> i didn't want to see him die, so i left. i didn't want to hear anything else about it, i didn't want to see it. i was just ready to go back to my family. >> but later that evening, just three hours before he would walk into the execution chamber, wrinkles would talk to one last person outside the prison walls. he placed a phone call to "lockup" field producer susan kearney. >> i stayed in touch with eric after our extended stay shoot because we decided we were going to document the last few months of his life. our last conversation took place the night of his execution. >> i guess three hours to live.
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what's going through your mind? >> it's kind of surreal with my whole situation. other than that, i'm not really thinking about it, you know. to tell you the truth, i think sometimes i deserve to die and sometimes i don't. it just depends on the day. so it's time to go. i just hope my kids will be okay. >> ain a lot of my prior conversations with eric, he was often very defensive about the night of the murders. he was not willing to take responsibility for his role. >> i don't want to deal with it. >> but in our very last conversation, he seemed almost peaceful, like he was ready to accept his death. do you think about what you're going to miss? >> all the little things, being able to walk outdoors, see the sky, see a tree, walk in the grass, that stuff. it's all those little things when you come down to it that are worthwhile. that's it. i was just thinking, you know, there won't be any more brushing
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my teeth, getting up out of the bed, going outside or any of that stuff. it's just kind of strange to think you're not going to have to do the normal things you do every day, you know? it seems weird. what am i going to do? i'm trying to keep myself busy, right? what am i going to do tomorrow, right? i don't know. it's kind of strange to think that, but that's what's going through my mind now. it's weird. >> though lindsay had been through the trauma of losing one parent to murder and the other to execution, she's decided to use the past not as a burden but as a guidepost. >> the past has helped me because i look back and say, i'm not going to do this, i'm not going to be like this. i'm going to make a better life for myself and for my kids.
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