- Sep 12, 2008
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I used to be anti death penalty, back in the days when I was still wet behind the ears. What really froze my position was the story of Carl Cletus Bowles.
During the 1960's he shot and killed a Lane County deputy and was sentenced to death for that. Oregon later dropped the death penalty, and Bowles was put back into the general population.
In 1974, while he was on a conjugal visit with a pen pal, he tied her up and fled. When the cops found out he was gone, they chased him all over, and had him cornered in Eugene. He broke into a house, kidnapped the householders, put them into the trunk of their own car and drove them to Spokane, where he killed them.
He also kidnapped another couple in Idaho.
He was given 75 years for the kidnapping charges and two additional life terms for the murders.
The last I heard, he was still in prison in Florence Colorado.
As far as I am concerned, he should have died back in the late sixties for the first murder, rather than allowed loose to commit two more.
Any news story change your mind in a big way over the years?
During the 1960's he shot and killed a Lane County deputy and was sentenced to death for that. Oregon later dropped the death penalty, and Bowles was put back into the general population.
In 1974, while he was on a conjugal visit with a pen pal, he tied her up and fled. When the cops found out he was gone, they chased him all over, and had him cornered in Eugene. He broke into a house, kidnapped the householders, put them into the trunk of their own car and drove them to Spokane, where he killed them.
He also kidnapped another couple in Idaho.
He was given 75 years for the kidnapping charges and two additional life terms for the murders.
The last I heard, he was still in prison in Florence Colorado.
As far as I am concerned, he should have died back in the late sixties for the first murder, rather than allowed loose to commit two more.
Any news story change your mind in a big way over the years?