What would you do if a DNA test revealed a biological parent you never knew existed—who also happened to be serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison? That’s exactly what happened to our guest, Brad Ewell. In this powerful three-part series, Brad shares his incredible journey from uncovering a decades-old family secret to standing face-to-face with his biological father inside Angola State Penitentiary.

From DNA Surprise to Maximum Security

In this final installment, Brad takes us through the moment he met his father, how that eight-hour visit shattered his expectations, and the complicated emotions that followed. What started as a plan to “check the box” on meeting his only living biological parent turned into something far more profound. Brad also walks us through the fight for his father’s parole, the complex feelings surrounding justice and redemption, and how this discovery reshaped his understanding of family.

Join us for an emotional and eye-opening conversation about identity, resilience, and the unexpected twists of fate that shape our lives.

Key Topics:

✅ Brad’s initial reluctance to meet his biological father

✅ Visiting Angola State Penitentiary and his shocking first impression

✅ The unexpected honesty from his father—and how it changed everything

✅ The complicated emotions of balancing two families

✅ Fighting for his father’s parole and what it taught him about justice

✅ Finding closure and redefining what family means

🎧 Tune in now for an unforgettable conclusion to Brad’s story!

Brad: I'm still very, very compartmentalized. We're just, talking. I'm still calling him Jim at this point. I don't mind him calling me son. I probably mind it more than I'm willing to admit. I just go with it. But you know, I had a dad, I had a good dad and I'm like, I'm not calling him dad cause I've already got a dad.

Brad: He's, he's still alive. I'm not sharing that title with somebody. So we get it all set up and I make the trip to Angola. And he's telling me when I'm there, like two days before I make the trip. He's like, listen, I know the warden. And I mean, Angola has 6, 000 plus inmates and I'm like. I built the image of who I'm going to meet in prison. And a number one is he's full of crap. So telling me, you know, the warden, and you're going to get me this extra long visit. I'm like, sure you are. I'm going to be there for an hour, like everybody else, but great. Tell me your story at the end of the day.

Brad: My plan, he didn't know this, he does now, we've talked about it since then, but my plan was I'm going to meet him, I'm going to find out whatever I can, and then we're done. We might email back and forth some just to keep in touch, but I have checked my box of I'm at my only living bio. And we're going to be done with this.

Brad: So that, that was my full intention when I went to meet him and then he screwed that all up. So totally his fault. So, good.

K&C: that was not the guy that you thought he was going to be.

Brad: So far the opposite of what I expected to me. So, you know, I, I expected somebody that, was full of it. I already said that no responsibility. I mean, most of my life has been around people that. Everything happened because somebody else did something that made something bad happen to them.

Brad: It was never, I made a bad choice and here I sit in my own bad choices. It was the world was against me and had the world not been against me, my life would have been fine. It's not because I made a lot of bad choices about my life.

K&C: Right.

Brad: And you know, it's, I can't speak from the always known adopted side and Kendall, you can chime in here and tell me, but you know, I feel like from the DNA surprise side.

Brad: I'm already reeling from everybody short of my wife that's an adult in my life has been lying to me at some level. They've all been covering something up. So trust wise, I'm not trusting at all rolling into this. I'm like, well, it's just one other adult that's full of crap in my life. Cause everybody else has been so far.

Brad: So I get to the prison, go inside, get checked in, get put on. I studied Angola penitentiary when I was in college because it was close to where I went to school. So I knew of it, knew that it was a massive, it's like, I could be completely wrong. I want to say it's like 16, 000 acres.

Brad: It's this huge place. But so I get there and they put me on an airplane bus. Like those little shuttle buses at an airport and drive me more than a mile inside this prison and I'm looking around going It's like field after field, but you don't even look like you're in prison at some points and I'm going well This sucks because I don't know where I am They're gonna drop me off somewhere that if something bad happens, I don't know how you leave this place Cuz I mean there's you know, it's prison.

Brad: There's interconnecting roads everywhere The prison camp that they dropped me off to meet him at was a mile and a half away from the gate to get into the prison. I couldn't even see the main gate to the prison where I'm at. And I'm like, this is awful.

K&C: That's weird.

Brad: Now, the upside was I'd been a cop. So I'd been to prison.

Brad: I'd been, I'd dealt with people in there. So there was the upside to that, that nothing was that new. when I started my law enforcement career, I worked for two and a half, three years in the Dallas County jail, which was a really big, large County jail. So the actual place itself wasn't a new experience Doors buzz, gates crash, closed behind you. None of that was like, Oh my God. that was something I'd done when I was in my twenties. So those weren't new experiences, but still just being there on the other side of it was very weird. So I get led to the visitation room finally, and I'm sitting there waiting in this, there's other people in the visiting room.

Brad: It's, it wasn't like a little window visitation. It was a big day room filled with tables. So other people are waiting for visits. I'm watching people file in and out. All of a sudden this guy comes in and I'm like. Oh God, that's me when I'm in my seventies. That's, that's my bio dad. Crap. Oh, what, you know, now what do you do?

Brad: I hadn't really thought far enough ahead to what happens when he shows up here. So he walked in, we did the whole half hug, half dude, back slappy thing. And we sit down at this table and you know, I am mute. I don't know what to say. he starts and he said, well, son, I want to be honest with you.

Brad: Which was the worst thing in the world to say, because anybody's ever told me they want to be honest with me is just starting a really long lie. I go, well, and here we go. Exactly what I expected. I actually almost felt more comfortable because I'm like, well, here's his BS story. We're going to hear it now.

Brad: You're getting what you expected. That's okay. This was a one and done thing. Anyway, no big deal and he goes I could tell you that I killed somebody because I Was an alcoholic and a drug addict at the time because I was I was doing drugs and I wasn't alcoholic back then But that wouldn't be the truth I killed somebody cuz somebody paid me to do it and I regret it and I can't fix it and I just sat there So I was like, oh no, he I think he just told the truth

Brad: And then it got worse because he starts telling me all this other stuff he's done.

K&C: Oh, no.

Brad: Pre prison and being in prison. About how he's lived in prison, what he was doing before he murdered somebody and ended up in prison. And the more he's talking, the more part of me is being enamored because I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is an honest adult that's laying it all out here.

Brad: And the other part of me is going you should shut up, because I would never know any of this. You're in prison for a thing, actually two things, he escaped once. So he's in prison for murder and escape. I knew those things, he had covered those two, and I'm like the rest of this stuff, if you never told me, I would not have any way to find out.

Brad: And he just keeps going, and I'm like, oh my god, just shh. But at the same time, the more he talks, the more I'm going, wow. he really wants to own up to who he is and never in any of it was an excuse for anything. It was just, this was the person I was. he'll say to this day, I was a horrible person and I can't go back and fix that part of me.

K&C: Here I am today, but if you want to know why I'm here, I'm here because I was a bad person for a long time. My whole plan was to get lied to. Brush that off and roll back out the door. Wow. So was he right about being able to stay longer than an hour.

Brad: I was there for eight hours. he lied about nothing. He knew the warden. He pointed the warden out when the warden walked through, they wait, they actually knew. And I'm like, Oh, everything he said was the truth.

K&C: Hmm.

Brad: And that's really hard to wrap your head around. Cause it was for me. Cause I'm like, no, no, no.

Brad: He was supposed to lie about everything. And here he is just being an open book, and that was not how that was supposed to go.

Brad: That was one of the biggest downsides to meeting the way we did was I got eight hours with my biological father with no way to write anything down, write a note, record anything.

Brad: it was being fed through a fire hose with no way to try to retain anything. And I'm just sitting there going, I'm not going to remember half of this and I want to know all of it.

K&C: it's interesting for me because I think that in some ways, being there and knowing. you needed to take full advantage of having him there was probably profound. I mean, conversely, when I met my biological father, I felt like it was, he's not an inquisitive man. Let me say that nicely. And I'm the opposite.

K&C: And, you know, so he didn't ask me questions. I'm not saying he wasn't interested in learning, but he just, he's still to this day, he's not inquisitive at all. He's just, he lives in the moment and that's pretty much it. so in some ways, I think I would have appreciated having eight, concentrated hours, where I felt like I could, you know, yeah, but you're right.

K&C: Drinking from a fire hose for sure.

Brad: but I mean, you're right. There is an advantage to this dude can't go anywhere. We're not in a coffee shop where he can be like, and Kendall, you have offended me. And I'm done with this. No, you're stuck. We're in prison. We're together. You have to sit at this table and deal with me because you've let me come.

Brad: So, I mean, there is a huge advantage to the trapped part.

Brad: When did you start thinking like, this is not going to be a one and done, obviously.

Brad: I don't think the realization hit me until I got on the bus to leave his camp. And it was on, I mean, it's probably 15 or 20 minute bus ride from where we had our visitation to back out of the prison. And that's when I really felt like the first time I could digest anything that just happened.

K&C: Mm.

Brad: And I had brought my wife with me to Baton Rouge, which is about 45 minutes from the prison. I promised myself I was not taking my wife to prison. I didn't seem like a cool thing to do. So I had left her at a hotel and I had gone here and I'm like, you know, when I get done, I'll call you.

Brad: I'm expecting an hour. it's now four o'clock in the afternoon. I've literally been there all day and I called her and so I, I couldn't have my phone to like, like my phone was locked in my car outside the prison. So as soon as I get all the way out, get in the car, I call her and I'm like, and she's like, well, you know, how did it go?

Brad: And I was like, well. I like him and I don't know what to do with that because that was not my goal. I mean, it was one thing to think, okay, well I'll get to know this guy and maybe he's an okay guy, but I literally left liking him and I'm like, oh crap, what am I doing? What do I do with this? Cause I've still got a live mother, a live father.

Brad: they were not down for this reunion process at all. So I'm out on my own doing this stuff. They're aging too, so I'm helping them. There's so much going on. And I'm like, this was not how I wanted this to go. it sounds awful, but it would have been in some levels easier had it been that one and done, because it's like, okay, and we're done with this one.

K&C: Mm hmm.

Brad: to walk out and say, no, after my little 20 minute thought process. I like this guy and I want to talk to him more. I don't know.

Brad: March 13th of 2020. My adoptive dad dies. pretty unexpectedly. He'd been in the hospital for a week, had been home for a week and was gone.

Brad: I honestly think of from COVID. Back then we didn't really, it was the week before they actually started saying COVID was COVID. So I don't know, but I think that's what it was.

K&C: Mm

Brad: And I think I can't, one of my big regrets that I told myself I was going to do and didn't do in time was, pull all these emails from the prison server.

Brad: Cause I can't get to him anymore, but I think I sent him one saying, Hey, listen, my adoptive dad just died. I'm going to go incommunicado for awhile. Cause I've got a lot to deal with it. Turn it along with my adoptive dad The November before my adoptive dad died. Cause like I said, we were rock solid secret keepers was when we figured out that my mom had Alzheimer's and he'd been covering that up for a couple of years. So now I had adoptive dad has passed away. absolutely through therapy, things have gotten a little more complicated with my view of him, but then absolutely my hero. So, I mean, I've lost him. I've inherited this person that I have struggled with my whole life. who is not capable of managing for herself and does not know that because my dad has covered that up even from her. So for close to a month, maybe a little bit longer, we just, I had told him we weren't going to talk and we didn't cause I was just, I was doing my best to tread water.

K&C: Mm hmm.

Brad: the more we talked in this, I'm going to shorten this as best I can. And this people, you're welcome to ask questions because I know more about it than I'm going to talk about just because I don't want to drag your podcast out forever into this.

Brad: classes, you'll remember that 1972 is also when the Supreme Court did the moratorium on the death penalty. And Louisiana had this panic of, we have these death row prisoners that may be all eligible for release if we don't have a death penalty anymore. So they met as the legislator and said, if we've given you life in prison, you now have to serve 20 years before you're eligible for parole. Well, my father was a year into what he thought was a 10 year, six sentence, and now he's doing 20 years before he's eligible for parole. Fast forward to their next legislative session and they're realizing that, oh wait, most of these guys that are death rowers have already done 20 years. So this isn't working.

Brad: So they up it and say, if we've given you life in prison, you now have to do 40 years. And what they're doing is they're retroactively applying this sentence to anybody currently serving time. So now he's looking, I think he was, this would have been. Four years into his what he thought was a 10 year sentence.

Brad: He's now at a 40 year sentence guaranteed before he looks at release Well louisiana being louisiana. They have another legislative session the following two years and they say, you know We've we've rethought all this and we're louisiana and if we gave you life in prison, we mean you die here So anybody that's prison sentence says life Is now life without parole and this would have been, I think about six and a half years into what he thought was a 10 year sentence.

Brad: So he went from, I pled guilty, I have the eligibility to get out to six years later, I am not eligible for parole ever. With, and there's no, there's not an appeal process for that. These are legislative changes. So when I met him, he's doing life without parole

Brad: I am never going to say how long somebody should do in prison for murder. If you killed my parents or my wife, I want you to die in prison for murder. I get it. I'm not saying that that should be any other way. My flip side of that is I'm kind of a strong constitutionalist and I feel like if the state makes an agreement with you, they can't just retroactively change that on a whim

Brad: It's, it would be like if I bought a car and every few years dealership calls it, Hey Brad, that car is now worth 4, 000 more than we told you it was.

K&C: Right.

Brad: So. I took issue with that side of it. Not the fact that he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Cause he did take somebody else's life and.

Brad: As all of this was happening and COVID was going on It was awful because I could not go to see him. All I could do is talk to him on the phone and it is literally the, every movie you've seen, you're receiving a call from Angola State Penitentiary from Jim.

Brad: Do you want to accept this call? So, I mean, we had 10 minute calls like that. Those were all monitored. So it also very much limits what you're going to say. Face to the visitation table. We could talk about anything. On the phone, everything is recorded. Is it checked? Who knows? I know it was sometimes because we had a visit cut short that still baffles me to this day.

Brad: But so what COVID did was Louisiana allowed for video visitation. So I was now allowed, I think it was 15 minute video chats with him. So I could actually see him face to face, still monitored, still very limited on what we're going to talk about, but I can at least see him, which, you know, it's like we're doing right now.

Brad: You just feel a little bit closer when you're seeing somebody you're talking to, rather than just talking to a voice,

K&C: Absolutely.

Brad: but are they monitored? Absolutely. Because one time we're in the middle of a visit and the screen goes black. he emailed me the next day and said, apparently. your visit was cut short because you violated rule such and such. I pull up the inmate visitation book. I had just come back from the gym. I was wearing a tank top. Tank tops are not allowed visitation attire. somebody had popped on the video seeing me in a tank top and just gone click and turned this off.

K&C: Wow.

Brad: they did watch.

K&C: Wow.

Brad: But the New Orleans DA at that time had started a program or was pushing for a bill that would allow these guys that had gone in for life sentences. to be eligible for release like they were when they were initially sentenced. And what was strange was they had done this in kind of waves. They had recognized the 40 to life without parole and the 20 to life without parole and rectified both of those decisions.

Brad: You'd say 49 years, seven days. And he would say, well, your new sentence is 49 years and eight days. We're releasing you tomorrow. So they were just cutting people loose one after the other. The problem was my father had been sentenced out of Caddo Parish. This law that they had written was an option for every DA's office, it was not at all a requirement. So you had to ask for this to happen. I feel better saying this cause I can't. I feel like there's any way I'll get in trouble for it. I 100 percent cheated. I sent every email to Caddo Parish from my police email because I knew if, even if they were going to tell me to pound sand, they would at least answer me because I was a police officer. So I started emailing back and forth with Caddo Parish. I spent a year emailing back and forth with one of their super nice ladies, sister assistant district attorney. She asked me to put together a file of actual hard copy file for her of all of his. Prison accomplishments, his discipline record, his everything that had his prison stuff in it.

Brad: Send her the physical file. They wouldn't take digital copies. So we did all that and over a year we correspond off and on because this was not, I mean, she was the head of Their appeals process. So she was dealing with much more than just, oh, will you review my father's case? But after a year she reached out and said, you know, listen I've talked to the DA and that where the DA stands is we're not doing this.

Brad: He's not interested in opening a can of worms like this, because once you do one, you've got to do more and he's not going to do it. He can't be made to do it. So we're kind of at a dead end.

K&C: it.

Brad: that we think is coming next year that may still help your father's case.

Brad: So look up this house bill and just kind of keep an eye on it. supposedly this other legislation's come in. Here's the thing.

Brad: So it turned out she was right. And that following year, they introduced a bill. through a group called the parole project in Louisiana, who I had reached out to when all of this started and told me, you know, listen, your father's life without parole, which means there's nothing we can do for him.

Brad: Well, they had made this push for all 10, six lifers. They wanted a bill that said anybody that was sentenced to a 10 6 life sentence is immediately eligible for parole. We're not saying you should all be released because you may be a horrible inmate. You may be in there killing your celly every chance you get, but you should at least have the ability to be considered.

Brad: So I reached back out to the parole project because it turned out that the man that runs the parole project had been in prison with Newham. So Once again, I didn't use my police email to cheat, but I Facebook stalked him. I found his personal Facebook page and I started sending him personal messages about, I stopped contacting the parole project.

Brad: I just started contacting him and being like, Hey, you know, my father, this is who I am. I want to talk to you, blah, blah, blah. And finally he responded back and he says, you know, listen, I do know your dad and yeah, let's talk. I don't know where this law is going.

Brad: In Las Vegas to her then common law husband and they couldn't figure out how to get to Vegas. So Pam and I figured out a way to get them to Vegas. They wanted, you can decide what you want to think of my family. My sister desperately wanted to get married on four 20 in Vegas. So we'll just let that say what it says.

Brad: And so we got that arranged. She said, well, if y'all are doing this for us, do you want to come be our witnesses? And I'm like, yeah, that'd be amazing. That, you know, cause she and I were, I'm watching my sister die and that's a whole nother long crappy story, but we'd gotten super close by then. Now I'm going to get to be at her wedding.

Brad: That seems like a really cool brother thing to get to do for my little sister, even though I know it's not going to be a longterm thing. So we get that all set up the Wednesday of her wedding. I'm getting dressed that morning and my phone rings and it's Andrew from the parole project.

Brad: He said, well, it looks like this bill may actually happen. Anycause I had told him, you know, anything I can do to help, let me know. Cause I would really like to see this, see pop, get this opportunity.

Brad: Well, he said, it looks like this is happening. Any chance you could be in Louisiana on Monday?

Brad: He said, well, you're one of the few people that is a living relative of a 10 six lifer and the fact that you're a police officer, we want to use to our advantage and we want you to come testify at the house criminal justice committee about why they should pass this bill.

Brad: And I'm still sorting through. I'm at my sister's wedding in Vegas and I'm like, okay, yeah, I guess I'll be in Louisiana on Monday. So we get her wedding. We have all of our wedding fun, fly back Saturday, Sunday. I am in the car driving to Baton Rouge from Texas. And Monday morning, I'm sitting in the Louisiana legislator testifying about a bill about why they should consider releasing people like my father. And that goes well. The committee votes in favor of it. It goes the next, that following week to, I think the full house, the full house votes in favor of it. And I'm in contact with Andrew back and forth. And I said, what's next? He said, well, the same thing happens with the Senate. And I said, okay, do you need me to come testify at the Senate?

Brad: And he goes, I don't know. Let's just see how it flows from here. Well, then, I think it was June ish, he called me again and said, Yeah, I want you to come back and testify for the Senate because we really want to try to push this thing through. They've made some changes that we don't like. Basically, but that's a strange place.

Brad: The change they made to the bill was If you had a 10 6 life sentence and you took your, your United States constitutional right to a trial, you were not eligible for parole. You were only going to be eligible if you'd pled guilty because otherwise you'd been a pain to the state. So they were, they were still hoping to get the full bill passed and make anybody that had gotten the 10 6 eligible. So they said, would you come back and testify again? I was like, sure. So that did the same thing for their Senate criminal justice committee testified, answered the questions they had for me. About the why's and why I thought as a police officer, it should happen. I, had to go to my police administration saying, you know, listen, I want to speak as a police officer, but I will absolutely not speak on behalf of the police department because you may not necessarily agree with some of the things I'm about to say, but I still hold, whether you agree with him or not, I'm still a police officer.

Brad: So I do that. And then the week later, watch it pass the Senate on YouTube. I never thought I would be watching YouTube votes for the Louisiana legislator, but I was fascinated by that when I sat there and watched.

Brad: So it passed, I called Pop the minute I saw it pass, or sent him an email to call me, called him, and he called and I said, listen, it's, it's done. You're, you, as soon as the governor signs this, are parole eligible after 40ish years of not being. And you know, he said, great. So then my next call was to Andrew from the parole project.

Brad: And I said, listen, you know, here's, here's where I become the bad guy and ask for my piece of the pie. All I want is I want pop to be first. But you know, at this point he's now, he would have been 77. He's still the same dude that had the massive Widowmaker heart attack and died in prison. They revived. And I'm like, you know, I don't, you know, I had already lost a parent at this point. So I'm like, you know, it's, it's becoming very clear to me.

Brad: That there's an age where I'm losing my parents and it was awful to me to think that he could have this in sight and die sitting in there watching. So, Andrew said, absolutely. We'll see if we can make that happen. That seems fair. So, he ended up being the second parole hearing for 10 six years. The only reason he was the second was, and I think this is most prisons, so this won't be me bashing Louisiana, but when you're coming up for parole hearing, you have to have a clean discipline record. If you get any disciplinary infraction coming up to your parole hearing, you're just taking off the calendar. Well, they had a guy that was up for parole, not a 10 6 er, get a disciplinary infraction in a separate prison from where my father was, and they stuck a 10 6 er in his slot because they needed somebody to go to that spot.

Brad: So, POP ended up being the second parole hearing, and that would have been November, I guess, 16th. I'm back in Angola State Penitentiary sitting in this room and it was, it was hard on a lot of levels. A, it was terrifying. B, the family of the man whose life he took spoke out against his parole, which I mean, no ill feelings.

Brad: You put me in their shoes, I'm doing it, so. Can't be mad at him over it. So I'm listening to them talk about, and he, he's having to listen to it too. Cause we're all, everything was by video except for people speaking on behalf of my fatherfor the hearing. even the parole board was on video.

Brad: Nobody was in that room except me and my father, one of my father's friends. The attorney representing them for the parole project, trying to work him through this and some prison guard. So, you know, we're all watching these people talk about the devastation that his choice created in their life for the rest of their lives.

Brad: I mean, some of them had been to prison for drunk driving to become alcoholics. So I speak at the parole hearing, his friends, a couple of his friends speak at the parole hearing, and then we're down to the vote, which was, I couldn't have cast a movie better.

Brad: There was this lady there. the parole hearing is a three person panel. And it has to be unanimous vote. All three have to say yes. Soon as one says, no, you're done. And there's a lady that reminds me, she, I don't know what she did for her regular job, but she should be a kindergarten teacher because she is engaged in everything you say.

Brad: She's nodding and she's smiling and she's happy that you're talking to her. The guy next to her. Just is kind of there. He doesn't seem like he's opposed to anything, but he's not certainly for anything. And the third guy looked like he wanted to be anywhere else than where he was.

Brad: He just looked mad. And I'm like, well. Damn, this, this is not going to be a unanimous three person vote. So, and they actually voted in that same order I listed. So they get to her and she's like, absolutely.

Brad: Here's all the great things he's done. I think he should have an opportunity. The second guy starts and he says, you know, we really have to weigh and he, he lays out, I mean, and it's all very legitimate, you know, where does punishment for a crime turn into rehabilitation? Does rehabilitation matter to us or are we truly just trying to punish you?

K&C: And he lays it out, but he eventually votes in favor too, and we end up at the mad guy. And the mad guy just starts off with, you know, people go to prison to be punished for what they do. Hmm.

Brad: he talked the longest, but about halfway through his talk, he suddenly says, but you know, we do have to look at rehabilitation.

Brad: I'm like, Oh, maybe there's a chance here. And I always get choked up when I talk about that. I did it this weekend and it's still, I don't know why anymore. He gets done, and he votes yes. And, they had told us before the hearing because there's also a group of people of the family of a man he's killed watching this, you know, thou shalt not display emotion in this hearing until we say so. So they all vote yes. And, you know, we're all sitting there

K&C: Yeah,

Brad: just waiting to do something. And they finally say, okay, the camera's off. And I mean, we all just burst into tears, start hugging. He's crying. His friend that I'm with is about this tiny little lady is about broken my forearm because she is just wrenching it in half while people are testifying.

Brad: And all of a sudden he's leaving prison,

Brad: So we walk out of the parole room, we sit down and they're like, It takes a day to process paperwork. We'll be releasing them tomorrow around noon.

Brad: Yep. when all of this started, my wife and I were very much on the same page and we stayed on the same page and kind of grew as this whole thing changed. But when this first started, we were both on the page of, well, the one thing is it's not like this dude's ever showing up at our doorstep. And we've gone from that to I'm sitting in a room trying to get him out of prison.

Brad: So now he absolutely could show up at our doorstep because I've done, changed some things one of those fun benefits of being a police officer was we get back out in the main waiting room. There were probably 12 guys going up for parole that day. And I think two out of the 12 got denied. But I hugged so many random dudes that just came out looking for somebody to share a little excitement with that they weren't staying in this hell hole anymore. it gave me a whole new perspective on what I've done for my job for all these years that I had never experienced.

Brad: But so I'm talking to Andrew from the parole project. He said, you know, he actually doesn't report. He is the parole plan because we're in Texas. He's in Louisiana. He has to a be approved to come to Texas because he's being paroled in Louisiana. Texas has to accept him and Louisiana has to be willing to send him.

Brad: He had a Nexus tablet that looked just like that. Clear plastic back, but that was where they watched movies, that's where he got his email, that's where he did all his communication from. So he had worked like a touch screen things in prison. before but still a wee bit different from 1972. So he had to go to a transition house.

Brad: But Andrew said, you know, the transition house actually doesn't kick off till Monday. He's being released on Thursday. You're a police officer. We're not worried about him getting in trouble. Do you want him till Monday? And I'm like, Oh yeah. So we spent our first three days. It was me, his friend that helped me work through his parole and him in Baton Rouge going out to eat, hanging out.

Brad: I actually met some people he did time with. It was a whole nother experience. I mean, see people that had, you know, A, meet people that have been in prison that I hadn't met before, but B, hear stories about what it was like in there, especially in the early seventies. I mean, A, prison reform hasn't reformed near as much as it should, but B, back then, I mean, he flat told me they were in a 90 man dorm, night count was at nine, morning count was at six.

Brad: So, from nine at night till six in the morning, the guards did their count, walked out of the dorm, locked the door with all of them in there, and they didn't come back till six in the morning. Anything you could get away with between nine and six was fair game. Killing somebody? he told me stories of waking up with a dude laying in a pool of blood next to his bunk, dead. he slept through stabbing. So just a hell hole of a place.

Brad: we got him for three days and then a transition house, I think for a month. when he was approved to go to Texas, I drove to Louisiana, picked him up and drove him to Texas.

K&C: he lives, near you now.

Brad: He's about 45 minutes away. He's actually, it's, it's a, it's a fun and strange story. I mean, the serendipity that we all talk about and all these discoveries is weird enough, but.

Brad: Early on when we were getting to know each other, he told me, he said, you know, I I'd like you to talk to my girlfriend. And I was already like, how do you have a girlfriend? You've been in prison forever. And he's like, well, my girlfriend is my ex wife and we've kind of rekindled things. And I think you already know her.

Brad: And my first thought was of all of the things that have happened, I am 100 percent sure I don't know your damn girlfriend. There is no way. And he said, well, her name is Fanny, which is a weird name. And she works in HR at the city that you work at. And she was my HR rep. I'd known her for 18 years. And she had no idea who I was.

Brad: so yes, he was right. Once again, I knew his girlfriend.

K&C: Bizarre.

Brad: so fast forward, he got out, spent a little time with his friend that helped me get him out. And the more he and Fanny talked, they rekindled things and he now lives with her.

K&C: Very cool.

Brad: And they're like two high school kids rekindling the relationship. it's very cute.

K&C: Yeah. Well, you know, he's making up for

K&C: trying to make up. Exactly. so much lost time. Have you shared your, love of horror and art with him?

Brad: Yes. So that was one of the interesting Discoveries from all of this is before he chose, we'll just call it a life of crime, he was a junior draftsman. He's drawn his whole life. He paints, he turns wood. It turned out that all these artistic urges that I grew up ignoring because I grew up in a house of, very much a sports family all came very naturally. I have bowls he's turned in my house. I have a huge painting. He had never painted. He had drawn because he was a draftsman, but figured he could paint. He learned to paint. watching Bob Ross VHS tapes in Angola State Penitentiary is how he learned to paint.

K&C: Yeah.

Brad: So all of a sudden, yes, I'm settling into this new who I am, but it's all making more sense because, oh, all of this stuff comes naturally to me because it's in my DNA.

K&C: Yeah. amazing. I love it things come full circle.

K&C: yeah, we have shared the art stuff and then. He's very much an action movie person, but he, my half brother and I have also taken him to see a handful of horror movies that he seems to really, he just, he likes action. So if it's scary action, he'll go if it's action, action, he'll go. That's awesome. Very cool. That's very, very cool. on the Horror Heals podcast, We always ask as the last question, who is your favorite final person in a horror

K&C: movie?

Brad: Have y'all watched strange darling yet?

K&C: So that is not ringing a bell.

Brad: So

Brad: my favorite final person is, I think she's titled in the credits lady. She calls herself a couple of times the electric lady She is my favorite.

K&C: before then I would have said what so many other people said on here, which is Jamie Lee Curtis and all the Halloween movies. Cause that's by far my favorite franchise, but I loved her character and how she played that character out through that movie. Oh, we'll definitely have to check it out. I love, um, discovering something new. We haven't seen it before. That's awesome.

K&C: well again, thank you so much for your time and for the beautiful artwork. We can't thank you enough for that.