A Killer Uncaged

Going into the church.

And the little ones out here playing.

Having fun.

- How's everybody doing? - Hey.

- How you doing? - Good.

Good to see you, bud.

- How you doing? - My son, Quentin.

- Hey. - Quentin, nice to meet you.

Recently, my parole officer just allowed me to start going to church.

I've been attending for about six weeks now,

and it's a blessing to me.

- Dale. - Good to see you. How you doing?

- Greasy hand. - It's okay.

It's okay. God bless you.

I have waited for this moment for a long time,

and these people understand that.

Father, guide me to make the right decisions,

and teach me to use my time

to accomplish the greatest good

and to strengthen this life of mine.

I think it would be appropriate now, Dale,

if you'd come forward and give us your testimony.

I just wanna say that I'm grateful for each and every one of you

that have given me an opportunity.

You've opened your hearts, and you opened your church

and your lives to me.

I wasn't strong enough until three, four years ago

to be able to step forward and admit who I was and what I was.

I went to court for capital murder in 1990,

and ended up on death row for three years

for the life that I took for someone trying to

blackmail me into a homosexual relationship.

Some people will think that I shouldn't breathe another breath

after the moment that I took that life.

So, because I'm a murderer, I don't have the right to tell the truth?

I'm not concerned about the people that want to speculate,

because the children of God will understand.

It's important that people understand

that we have these trials and tribulations that we go through in life.

And that day that I took that life,

I was taking my own, I didn't wanna live anymore.

'Cause I was tired of living in that pain.

In my childhood, I went through some things.

Being molested at the age of ten,

it scarred me and hurt me for life.

I was growing up with that stigmatization of being molested.

It was hard.

It made me question about my sexuality and who I was and am I really a man?

It was like the catalyst to

self-destruction eventually 11 years later,

'cause I was running from my demons and my fears.

And when I came to Texas,

it all started again.

The time around the murder,

I was really emotional.

I was really lost.

I was back on the intravenous drug, shooting meth, cocaine.

And that's when I met John.

And, uh... we became close friends.

He let me come over and shower, you know, take a nap.

I confided in him and told him about,

you know, what I've been through, and why I was living on the streets,

about being molested at ten.

You know, in time,

I trusted John. I got to know John.

I thought he was a really sincere, good friend.

That one night when I came over to his house,

I took a shower

and lay down. I fell asleep. I woke up, he was on top of me.

I pushed him off of me.

I said, "What are you doing?" I grabbed my stuff,

and that...

that fear kicked in

of when I was ten.

I told him, "John, I befriended you, man.

What made you think that I would want that?"

He told me, "Man, if you don't... If you don't agree,

I'm gonna tell everybody that you were doing it anyway."

I suppressed everything for all my life, but...

I reached my breaking point.

I befriended John...

and then he tried to blackmail me into a homosexual relationship.

I told him, "I don't have nothing to live for."

I said, "If you do that, I promise you I'll kill you."

And I meant that with all my heart, because I didn't care about my own life.

Two days after John tried to abuse me

is when he made calls looking for me,

and I took that as a threat that he was gonna tell people that

we had a sexual relationship, which was a lie.

Because I may be a lot of things, and I might even be a killer, a murderer.

But I've never been a homosexual.

And I decided that I was gonna fight back,

that I'd warned him.

And I was gonna fulfill what I said I was gonna do.

April 6th, 1990...

I walked into that Subway sandwich shop.

And he said, "So, you decided to come around and see it my way, huh?"

And I took the .45 out of my pocket,

I set it on the top of tabletop, and I pushed it right in front of him,

and he started shaking, literally. He was terrified.

I shot him six times in the chest.

Then when he fell,

I emptied the rest of the clip.

Shot him twice in the back of the head as he lay there.

I question myself a lot

about how I let myself get in that situation, that I would do that.

It's a dark place to be.

I mean, to be that broken.

I'll forever be paying for that.

I wish I would've never taken John's life.

No one deserved that.

That's why I haven't forgiven myself to this day.

And people tell me I gotta get past it.

I gotta forgive myself.

It's not an easy thing to do.

You know, but I can't turn back the hands of time.

All I can do is make my life account of the matter now

and try to give back.

You know, my life has been...

a torment of winds and frustrations and tides

that kept pulling me out deeper and deeper...

That's why I wanna tell the story. Give back.

I wanna help other people, to let them know being molested

or being abused or whatever you're going through.

You have to reach out to somebody until somebody hears you.

I didn't do nothing as a ten-year-old child

to warrant being molested,

but I held that my whole entire life.

I had nowhere to release it. I had nowhere to go,

but that pain became my process to my purpose,

to the vision that God has for me.

Because I know each and every day that I live,

and that every breath that I take

is living proof that miracles really can happen.

Thank you.

Amen!

I think it's a story of redemption and...

we're all capable of being redeemed

if we go the right route.

I thought it was tremendous.

I can relate to Dale a whole lot,

'cause I was locked up myself

for 28 years flat

on an attempted murder case,

but I didn't do like Dale.

Dale got smart and found God and all that stuff,

and I didn't. I was... I just kept rebelling.

I think Dale is good, man.

He knows what he's talking about.

There's been a lot of blessings since I've been out,

and a lot of people's hearts have been softened.

That's the prayer I've had since I've been out.

- Yeah. - So, God's been making a way.

Over these few months,

Dale has made a lot of progress.

He has won a lot of people over,

uh... especially the church members.

They are just blown away by him

when he testifies and tells them his story.

Dale is winning people over every...

time he has the opportunity to speak with them.

Hi!

- Come on in. - How y'all doing?

Pretty good.

- This is Dale. - How you doing?

Dale, this is my grandson, Shannon Junior.

- How you doing? - Jenny.

- Cheyenne. - I appreciate you coming.

I've been wanting to, been busy.

With me, what you see is what you get. There's no question you can't ask

that I won't try to answer.

And I own who I am and what I am and where I've come from.

- One thing I've never been - He has nothing to hide.

Is timid to the point of where, you know, I won't answer a question.

Do you mind us asking like how? - You wanna know how?

Back from when I was ten, I was molested as a child,

11 years later, living on the street,

someone try to blackmail me into a homosexual relationship.

And I told him, "Where I'm at in life and in this time...

if you do that, I'm gonna kill you."

I said, "'Cause all I have left is,

you know, my reputation,

and keeping my word and being a decent individual",

you know?

And he thought it was a game.

- You shot him? - Yeah.

That night, I took two lives. His and mine.

But it's by the grace of God that I'm still alive.

Not everyone is gonna understand or be receptive to my story,

because there's two types of people in the world people are terrified of,

and that's murderers and child molesters.

And I'm a murderer.

- Too much cuteness. - Good seeing you.

Gradually, people that got to talk to me

and converse with me and hear my story,

they generally see the man I am now.

Appreciate y'all coming.

- Don't be a stranger. Come on by. - Yeah, anytime.

- What do you think about him? - He talks a lot.

I mean, yeah, he's been inside