Lawyer and inmate in 25 year marriage

[Jenna]

The summer after her first year of law school, Pamela Dowden dug a red calico sundress out of her closet and left her apartment in Sacramento. It was a hot, shadeless morning. She drove her orange Datsun pickup out of town as Phoebe Snow sang a wistful version of "Don't Let Me Down" on the radio.

She threaded through hills of dry grass and oaks, pulling up to the gray battlements of Folsom State Prison. A guard escorted her through the east gate.

Pam looked at the 30-foot-tall granite walls, the iron-strap gates, the gothic watchtower looming like some storybook witch.

She smiled when she saw Robert in the visiting yard.

"Hi, Bait," he said, wrapping his powerful arms around her.

"Bait" was short for "dragon bait," which is a princess. It came from their favorite Tom Robbins novel, "Still Life With Woodpecker," about a love affair between a liberal princess and an outlaw.

Robert "Blinky" Griffin wore jeans and his prison-issue blue shirt. At 36, he had one of the fiercest reputations in the California prison system. Wide shoulders, hard low brow, walrus mustache, tattoos hemorrhaging down his forearms.

At 34, Pam was slight and fair with reddish brown hair and hazel eyes. In Robert's arms, she looked like a porcelain figurine. Yet more than anywhere else, she felt safe there.

"You really wanna do this?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

They stepped into the visiting yard before the siren was tested at noon. Robert's friends gathered around. The best man was Kirk "Spanky" Smyth, who had recently been caught passing through the metal detectors with Buck knives in his rectum. Today he was loaded on smack and rubbing his face red.

Pam invited no one. This was her second marriage, and the circumstances that brought her to it required too much explaining. She did not want anyone to question her judgment -- or sanity. She did not tell her parents in Kansas, her two brothers or any friends. This was where the secret half of her life would begin.

"We are gathered here in the presence of witnesses for the purpose of uniting in marriage Robert Lee Griffin and Pamela Dowden," began a prison counselor named Denny Wipf.

From Tower 10, a guard looked on with a .30-caliber rifle, capable of a 1,000-yard shot.

"I remind you both to remember that love, loyalty and understanding are the foundations of a happy and enduring home. No other human ties are more tender and no other vows more important than those that you now assume."

This summer day in July 1984, Pam could not imagine what those vows would endure.

She would become a partner at a respected law firm in the Midwest, then senior regulatory counsel for First Data Corp., the world's largest processor of financial transactions.

He would be identified as a leader of one of the nation's most violent prison gangs, the Aryan Brotherhood. Prosecutors would say he earned the name "Blinky" because he could order an inmate's death with the blink of an eye.

She would buy a home on a street shaded by ash trees in a suburb of Omaha.

He would spend 12 years in a windowless, 8-by-12-foot cell in California's harshest prison, Pelican Bay.

She would take yoga classes, attend the opera and travel with friends to the Galapagos, Palau, Peru and Alaska.

He would be transported to a Los Angeles courtroom with a steel box over his handcuffs and a hood over his head -- to be tried in one of the largest death-penalty cases in U.S. history.

In a physical exile, they would share the closest of bonds. Their correspondence would fill boxes, and they would chat on a prison phone through bulletproof glass for hours at a time.

She would not only stand by Robert, she would embark on a two-decade legal quest to get him out.

"If you both keep these vows, your home will be happy and full of joy," Wipf said that day in the prison yard.

Robert put a gold band on her finger. A friend in the prison crafts shop had made it, inscribing runic symbols for "DM" and "DB," Dragon Man and Dragon Bait.

"With this ring, I thee wed," Robert said.

There was a kiss, but no dancing or cake. For her wedding night, she drove back down U.S. 50 to her apartment, made dinner and went to bed alone.



By Joe Mozingo
November 30, 2008

joe.mozingo@latimes.com

Full story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-pa...425,full.story

[Pinki]

Good grief. That's all I can really say.


On second thought....



Jenna....please please promise me you will not marry an inmate!

[CTR man]

There is a reason why some people are segregated from the rest of the prison population.

This man is one of them.

[2 Blue 4 U]

Good grief. That's all I can really say.


On second thought....



Jenna....please please promise me you will not marry an inmate!

Exactly Pinki!

She must have no self-esteem to fall for a guy like that. Guess they can't even consumate the marriage until he gets out, but then again she better hope he never does. That would be the only way she is guaranteed a safe marriage! What a moron she must be.

[Jenna]

Good grief. That's all I can really say.


On second thought....



Jenna....please please promise me you will not marry an inmate!

But it sounds so romantic!

[BigDawg]

Bet her family is proud of her.

[CTR man]

Exactly Pinki!

She must have no self-esteem to fall for a guy like that. Guess they can't even consumate the marriage until he gets out, but then again she better hope he never does. That would be the only way she is guaranteed a safe marriage! What a moron she must be.

She must be living in a fantasy dream world if she thinks that she can live happily ever after with this man. I've always wondered about some of the women that hook up with inmates. Do they think that they can fix them or change them or something along these lines? I seriously doubt that will happen. People can only change if they are willing to make that change on their own. It goes back to the saying that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Oh, I get it. Maybe she is one of those lost souls that is trying to "find herself." She needs to "keep looking."

Wait a minute, she is a lawyer. That explains everything.

[Pinki]

Wait a minute, she is a lawyer. That explains everything.

[kcnuke]

That's just disturbing, I would never marry a lawyer.

[Jenna]

Wait a minute, she is a lawyer. That explains everything.

That's just disturbing, I would never marry a lawyer.

[Pinki]

That's just disturbing, I would never marry a lawyer.

[countybear]

But it sounds so romantic!

Yeah...

I N D I C T M E N T
[18 U.S.C. § 1962(c): Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations; 18 U.S.C. §
1962(d): Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations
Conspiracy; 18 U.S.C. §
1959(a)(1): Violent Crimes in
Aid of Racketeering; 18...

... 54) In or about February 1982, in the Central District
of California, the members of the California Council, including
defendants JOHN WILLIAM STINSON, RICHARD LLOYD TERFLINGER, ROBERT
LEE GRIFFIN, and RONALD BOYD SLOCUM, enacted an Aryan Brotherhood
rule that if a member of the Aryan Brotherhood became a witness
against the Aryan Brotherhood, a member of the witness’ family
would be killed...

... 55) In or about February 1982, in the Central District
of California, the members of the California Council, including
defendants JOHN WILLIAM STINSON, RICHARD LLOYD TERFLINGER, ROBERT
LEE GRIFFIN, and RONALD BOYD SLOCUM, decided to have a family
member of Aryan Brotherhood member Steven Barnes murdered because
Barnes had testified against a member of the Aryan Brotherhood.

...58) In or before February 1983, in the Central
District of California, defendant ROBERT LEE GRIFFIN asked Curtis
Price to murder a member of Steven Barnes’ family...

...62) In or before February 1983, in the Central
District of California, defendant ROBERT LEE GRIFFIN gave Richard
Barnes’ address to Curtis Price.

63) On or about February 13, 1983, in the Central
District of California, Curtis Price murdered Richard Barnes by
shooting him in the head...

...64) In or about February 1982, in the Central District
of California, the members of the California Council, including
defendants JOHN WILLIAM STINSON, RICHARD LLOYD TERFLINGER, ROBERT
LEE GRIFFIN, and RONALD BOYD SLOCUM, decided to order that Aryan
Brotherhood member Thomas Lamb be murdered for failure to carry
out an order to commit a murder...

...67) On or about October 15, 1988, defendant CLEO ROY
choked Thomas Lamb to death while defendant JOHN STANLEY
CAMPBELL, JR., held Thomas Lamb’s legs.

68) On or about October 15, 1988, defendants CLEO ROY
and JOHN STANLEY CAMPBELL, JR., placed a noose around Thomas
Lamb’s neck and hung him from shelves in his prison cell to make
it appear that he had committed suicide...

...81) In or before June 1983, in the Central District of
California, defendant ROBERT LEE GRIFFIN ordered that Jeffrey
Barnett be murdered because Barnett’s wife had refused to smuggle
narcotics into prison....

...86) On or about March 13, 1990, in the Central
District of California, defendant CHRISTOPHER OVERTON GIBSON held
Jeffrey Barnett while defendant STEVEN WILLIAM HICKLIN repeatedly
stabbed Barnett, all in an effort to murder Barnett...

... February 7th, 1996... unlawfully, willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with
premeditation and malice aforethought did aid, abet, advise,
encourage, and otherwise participate in the murder of Arthur
Ruffo, in violation of California Penal Code Sections 31 and 187...

... July 25th, 1997... unlawfully, willfully, deliberately, maliciously,
and with premeditation and malice aforethought did aid, abet,
advise, encourage, and otherwise participate in the murder of
Aaron Marsh, in violation of California Penal Code Sections 31
and 187...
... ... ...

What's not to love?

[lewisipso]

But the prison...I'm sorry, the correctional system will rehabilitate him.

[Buttercup]

I just don't understand that at all.

[countybear]

But it sounds so romantic!

Does it also 'sound so romantic' that the ex-husband she threw over for this convict is his own older brother, Gerry? Sorry, but that smacks of Jerry Springer material...

Here's a little more of the very same story you quoted below, from the LA Times:

...The 2 struggled on the floor. Robert ratcheted the garrote tighter. It snapped, and Krueger started stabbing Calfy. They kicked Calfy in the face until he passed out.

Another inmate walked in, grabbed one of Calfy's art pencils and drilled it into his head.

When they were done, they threw him against the toilet. He didn't move.

Robert tore off his denim shirt to leave the evidence behind.

When the guards got to Calfy, they didn't see the most gruesome wound. In the infirmary, they noticed the corner of his eye -- and the tip of the pink eraser. ...

(Makes me all warm and fuzzy... really.)

Why did you choose to omit the above facts? Because they didn't sound as 'romantic'?

Jenna, as we've discussed before, when all we tell is half the story, we can write whatever ending our heart desires, but that's not the way life really works. Reality writes its own endings, and we are left either accepting facts, or denying truths. The romantic side of a criminal doesn't make him less criminal. It certainly doesn't make him less depraved.

Was John Wayne Gacy, Jr. really "Pogo the Clown", or the man who murdered 33 men and young boys, burying 27 of them in his own home? Did Gacy's clown costume change the fact that he used it as a means to beguile the children that he raped and murdered?

People often choose to deny truth when it is harsher than their perception allows them to accept, (or when it doesn't fit their agenda). Police live in a world where they have to pursue, obtain, and then accept facts; regardless of how cruel. Were they to live in denial, their lives, the lives of innocents, or the lives of their co-workers could very well be forfeited as a penalty.

The realist doesn't have the luxury of burying his head in the sand, because that may result in the rest of him being buried also.

[Jenna]

Does it also 'sound so romantic' that the ex-husband she threw over for this convict is his own older brother, Gerry? Sorry, but that smacks of Jerry Springer material...

Here's a little more of the very same story you quoted below, from the LA Times:


(Makes me all warm and fuzzy... really.)

Why did you choose to omit the above facts? Because they didn't sound as 'romantic'?

Jenna, as we've discussed before, when all we tell is half the story, we can write whatever ending our heart desires, but that's not the way life really works. Reality writes its own endings, and we are left either accepting facts, or denying truths.

People often choose to deny truth when it is harsher than their perception allows them to accept, (or when it doesn't fit their agenda). Police live in a world where they have to accept facts, regardless of how cruel. Were they to live in denial, their lives, the lives of innocents, or the lives of their co-workers could very well be forfeited as a penalty.

The realist doesn't have the luxury of burying his head in the sand, because that may result in the rest of him being buried also.

I was making a joke about the romantic tone the original article took! I actually think it's pretty crazy and foolish. I didn't post the whole article because it exceeded the post length allowed by the forum, but I included the link to the full story so that those who want to expose themselves to the full insanity of the situation can do so.

[Willowdared]

I don't know CB, I just figured she pasted the first page then added the link due to length.

I didn't need to read the story to know he was a dirt bag, this was more about what a freak the chick is, and apparently always was, since she was married to the brother first.

[countybear]

You've really made a great point here, though, Jenna. Perhaps without even intending to.

We've recently seen (on a grand scale) how much 'telling half of the truth', or taking artistic license in journalism has substantial effect on people's perceptions.

We are admittedly creatures of convenience. We read headlines or tickers, and with our attention divided, very often just hear 'half of the story', without being really informed. Seldom do we honestly devote time into researching the entire story.

If the media paints villains as romantic heroes, and true heroes as villains, it seems only the minority strays from the herd to learn 'the rest of the story'. That is seemingly how the mainstream likes it.

The rest of the story with Pam and 'Blinky' will tell of how the 9th Circuit ordered Robert Lee Griffin's letters to Pam disclosed in the further prosecution of his RICO case. Some six boxes of letters, some marked 'confidential', and some addressing her as "Attorney at Law" were at issue. I'm sure that they will speak of 'marital privilege', and 'work product' between attorney and client, (because she served as both his wife and lawyer).

The letters were used to convict Griffin (and others) for heinous, organized, malicious, murderous, and despicable crimes. Griffin's defense was based not upon his denial of involvement in these crimes, moreso that the use of his writings were unreasonable and unconstitutional.

The dead are still dead. The crimes were still committed. But the prosecution, (so it was contested by the Griffin's), was unfair to use his personal communications (sent from prison) to convict him.

[sarchasm] Terrible, really... the courts should be ashamed of themselves. [/sarchasm]