Garrett Brock Trapnell wrote me a fan letter when I was on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow. The return address was Marian State Penitentiary. Now prisoners have lots of time to watch soaps so a letter from prisoner was not so odd. What was odd was the poetry, the tone of his letter. He said I reminded him of his former wife and I should read the story of his life in the book The Fox is Crazy Too. Needless to say, fearing his wife’s demise was the reason he was in prison, I hustled to get the book. No, indeed, he had nine wives all alive and kicking and in love with him; all unaware, before he was captured for hijacking TWA’s Flight 1, of the existence of the others. This man was a charmer and we began a great correspondence, bandying about quotes from Shakespeare, TS Eliot, and Nietzsche. I looked forward to his letters. He was brilliant and our letters zapped back and forth. He was in for life so it seemed a safe pen (as in Penitentiary?) pal.

One night as my husband and I were listening to the radio before going to sleep we heard of an escape attempt at Marian State Penitentiary. Needless to say, we became alert. My hero, my pen pal was the inmate they were talking about. Apparently, one of his wives (the one who looked like me?) wanted him out. She had gotten a small airplane and landed it inside the prison. "Trap" as he was nicknamed had planned his whole escape. I was terrified. Would he track me down, expect me to help him? After all, I’d be a great cover, a good hideout, and we could quote Eliot all day. Even my calm husband was ruffled at the thought of my pen pal on the loose. He was not so ruffled that he didn’t remind me that he’d warned me not to get involved with "Trap." I had blithely answered at the time that Trap was not getting out – he was in for life. Ha!

The next morning we heard he was captured and in solitary confinement. I imagine they took away his writing privileges too as I never heard from him again.

By Tina