Knights in Dirty Armour II

Chapter XVI

WHERE IS HELP WHEN ONE NEEDS IT?

March 13, 2006

                   There are countless organizations and groups of do-gooders in our society dedicated to saving everything from souls to whales, stray dogs and, between Pryor and Claremore, Oklahoma, relocating highway 20 through some humans’ residences to save some mole crickets.  Shame on me, at the time my free roaming chickens were eating them by the hundreds. 

                   Save our children from drug manufactures and dealers.  Lock them away for life.  Something was wrong with my parents; they never taught us how to smoke or get high.  The paregoric, laudanum and chloroform in the medicine cabinet were not out of reach; we were simply taught not to abuse them.  There was no safety caps on the bleach nor triethylene  “airplane” glue that Governor David Hall banned or gallon cans of lacquer and we were trusted not to even touch the dynamite, fuse and caps in the basement.   That was then, this is now. 

                   What happened that our children are not taught sufficient respect for their own bodies and minds so that when confronted with a drug dealer they are intelligent enough to say “No” which is the best way to put a drug dealer out of business?  Charlie Boycott would put them out of business the easy way.  That was then, this is now.

                   Alcohol.  Jackie Gleason was a funny “alcoholic.”  So was Dean Martin, Red Skelton [Clem Kiddlehopper] and W.C. Fields.  But only on stage.  The longest running stage show in Oklahoma is in Tulsa, titled “The Drunkard.”  A tiny little cabaret setting well worth the small admission.  We laughed at actors, not alcoholics.   

1

                   There was almost always a bottle of wine in the refrigerator.  My dad drank an ounce nightly after his heart attack on the recommendation of a physician.  I was given the same advice after my first heart attack.  Not just any wine; must be Kosher with oligomeric proanthocyanidins pycnogenol.  My sister gets this supplement from Akins.  Perhaps that is why she has been singled out from our siblings from experiencing nasty little infarctions. 

                   Our parents did not slough off some of their duties to the public school system that is not designed to carry such a load as is being imposed on it.  Thus it fails some children.

                   Our judicial system also fails occasionally.  “That’s too bad; just as long as it doesn’t happen to me.”  You are not immune from being the next!

                   “There but for the grace of God, goes me.” 

                   I am happy for you readers that have not seen the pits of Hell.  I cannot cage a dog and no longer appreciate zoos.  I have raised cattle but now, when I look at a feedlot I see a prison.  And when I see a prison, such as Mabel Basset that I visit my wife in, the largest women’s prison in the world, I think of Janet Reno orating “10% Wrongfully Convicted.”  Perhaps many of those are even innocent.  I know my wife is. 

                   Many beyond that are not necessarily “Wrongfully Convicted” but “Wrongfully Sentenced!”  It has been decades since a man has been sentenced to fifteen years for stealing a loaf of bread.  His only crime.  During the depression, to feed his family.  Here in Oklahoma. 

                   I met a man sentenced to 600 years.  Presently a chronic care heart patient; he will die in prison.  I lived in a cell with one sentenced to 999 years, 99 months and 91 days.  I am not a numbers nut but turn that over and it is one with two Marks of the Devil.  He is young and rehabilitatable.  There will be no effort by the Department of Corrections to do so.  Doyle Dobson, at age 51, was sentenced to 25 years.  A model prisoner for 26 years.  The last three years of his incarceration he was incontinent and senile.  He left in a pine box. 

2

          John DuBiel.  Sentenced at age 53 to 30 years for possession of a forged instrument of debt. 

                   What could possess a man of intelligence, and John DuBiel is highly intelligent, of committing any crime?

                   John Belushi, whether one liked him or not, was also intelligent.  And wealthy.   But just once, just to help him get through a stressful night, just so he could do his job the next day, he sampled cocaine.  It is so harmless, that once.  Or so it would seem.  “I only need it one more time!”  It is already too late.  It killed John Belushi as it killed Carol O’Conner’s young son, his ‘deputy’ on “In The Heat of the Night.”  According to my “Marilyn Monroe” biography by Anthony Summers it killed her, too.   There are many others.

                   They will do anything for just one more hit of cocaine.   For the three mentioned, not any more.  They’re already dead. 

                   I personally know others who have been and are users.  One way to stop a user is the judicial system and DOC.  Not the best way.  But it dried out John in time.  All the time I have known him he carried around a little crystal pebble that looks like a ‘rock’ that was a reminder of what got him where he was and is.  Forgery/bad checks to support the monkey on his back he could not shake off. 

                   Thank you, Department of Corrections, for drying John out and saving his life.  You even broke him of his nasty tobacco habit.  Thank you.  That being done, of what purpose is it to continue keeping him caged to die? 

                   John is now sixty years of age and gray.  Five short years to Social Security.  Five long years to his first parole eligibility date…if he lives that long. 

                   I was standing beside him when he was attempting to defuse a volatile situation that could have very well led to a race riot in James Crabtree Corrections, Helena Oklahoma.  The instigator was a professional boxer and he lashed out so fast a shadow could not follow leaving John with a permanent facial damage and shattered clavicle before he hit the ground unconscious. 

3

                   That extra ‘punishment’ was not part of John’s sentence.   DOC has not surgically repaired John’s clavicle; it has caused him pain ever since and will continue to be a cause of pain the rest of his life. 

                   John now has hypertension (high blood pressure) as did/do I and my Marie.  That, too, is going without proper medical attention as it was with me.  Same with the lack of proper care I had as a “chronic care heart patient.”  Such lack of medical care cost the life of Stanford Osborn (George Trumpore and I watched him needlessly die) and many others.  Oh, well, it helps with the overcrowding. 

                   I was not allowed to keep my own small blood pressure cuff to monitor the pressure when things felt amiss.  “Come back tomorrow at sick call and we will check it then.” That luxury was not allowed at Dick Conners.  Nor is it, as of this writing, available at Mable Bassett or Granite. 

                   My Omron cuff cost $80.  There are many that cost much less and if just one was on each unit so that hypertensive patients could check their status when it could very well be critical, more lives would be at less risk of being lost.  But who cares about criminals in prison?

                   “But for the grace of God, there goes me.”

                   John DuBiel does not have a life sentence.  At least not on paper.  Judge Post sentenced me to 7 years.  At that time, Charles Ramsey commented about sentencing me: “Any sentence is a death sentence.”  And but for the help I received from my sister, it very well would have been. 

                   As John DuBiel’s health accelerates in the negative, his 30 year sentence, even with parole, that could very well come too late, very likely is a death sentence.

                   Do we really need to punish him that much?

                   A retired DOC officer, now deputy Sheriff, told me “We need to lock up those we are afraid of; not those we are mad at.”

                   Were we afraid of Doyle Dobson?

4

                   Are we afraid of John DuBiel?

                   I hardly think so.

                   Doyle Dobson was a bad person once, 28 years ago.  But he was rehabilitated and no threat to anyone. 

                   John DuBiel was never a bad person, and he has long ago been rehabilitated and is continuing to pay a rather high price and that is not Justice.  Little different than beating a sick and dieing, or even dead dog.

                   This past year I have written a multitude of letters to our officials in behalf of John DuBiel.  Not once have I received any response.  It is as though no one gives a damn what happens to this beaten human being. 

                   This should not surprise me as I have written this whole website and hundreds of letters concerning the “Wrongful Conviction” of Gilda Marie and she is totally innocent and there has not been one response from a single official.  Such concern for human life.

                   Fifty years to the day after their execution Governor Dukakis of Massachusetts issued a proclamation of apology to the innocents Sacco and Vanzetti.  It got his picture, wearing a campaign button, in the book about them by Judy Monroe.  Makes me wonder if Knights in Dirty Armour will still be alive in fifty years.  Marie and I certainly won’t be. 

                   John DuBiel was not wrongfully convicted nor was he innocent.  However, time has shown that he has been “Wrongfully Sentenced.”  No one could see that fact a decade ago. It only became obvious after John’s evident rehabilitation during his incarceration at James Crabtree where he worked so diligently with Dr. Don Bruce to get implemented beneficial programs to factually and positively Help those who could be helped free themselves from the monkeys on their backs that were destroying their lives.  Their joint efforts have reached out beyond the prison walls and the success rate of their programs is high.  Far higher than that of DOC programs.  Their recidivism rate is nil; contrary to nearly 50% for DOC.

5

                   That alone should show that John DuBiel is being wasted away in prison at our expense.  That is a crime. 

                   So who gives a damn?

                   “There but for the grace of God, goes me.”

                   Forget your religious teachings about helping others.  Save a snail darter, save the whales.  Save some crickets from my chickens.  Let all the humans in prison rot and die.  From those needing being there for our safety to those from which we have nothing to fear and are rehabilitated and deserve a release and those who should have never been incarcerated in the first place because they are actually and factually innocent.  Let ’em all rot.  One maladjusted hardened and discompassionate guard (fortunately a minority as most are good quality humans) was heard to have said “They are all Nobodys.” 

                   “Just as long as it doesn’t happen to me.”

But for the grace of God. . .

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

“Help another human being.  Without expectation of reward.”

{Tenzin Gyatso, the XIV Dalai Lama}

6