The Criminal's Daughter

Chapter Four - Terrible Things I've Seen

I remember feeling like we were barefoot hillbillies from Indiana and living a lifestyle that most would feel like they had no hope to recover from. The odds were against us. I remember the cops were always in our home trying to find my father, he was always doing something crazy and dragging my mom and my sisters and brother and I along for the ride. My dad had went into the Army at 18 and his mos was an aircraft mechanic. He was a sharpshooter and he had his whole life ahead of him. I think some things happened while he served that caused him to develop severe depression and he had terrible anger issues. I feel that my dad would still be alive today, if the VA would have taken care of him and let him know that he had the support. Most veterans don't know what is available to them when they get out of the military and don't always ask questions or ask for help.

One day when we lived in Fowler, Kansas, again my dad was in trouble again. Him and my mom were talking all hushed whispers. Then like a whirlwind, my dad races in a bedroom with high ceilings to a high reaching attic that you literally needed a ladder to get to and hid there. I swear, it was like he flew up there. Then all of a sudden, cops were at our door, storming through our home, searching in the middle of the night for my dad. My mom, dad, sister Tanya and I were home at the time. They didn't find him in the attic crawlspace, they didn't look there I guess, because they didn't think he could have flew up there through a tiny space in the ceiling.

I remember once specific occurrence of getting in the car with my parents in the front and my siblings in the backseat. We dropped my dad off so early in the morning on the side of the road. We went back late that night to pick him up. I noticed when he got into the front passenger seat that he had a bandage on his wrist and he had a bag that he poured rolls of money onto the seat. I remember their looks and conversation as they tried to whisper. I looked at my mom and I could see a few things on her features of having money and worry for daddy and all four of us kids. Still to this day, even at that young age I remember that night like it was yesterday and I was suspicious because I felt what my mom felt. I asked him, Daddy are you okay, pointing to his wound? He just smiled at me and said yes baby daddy is okay.

There was a time when we lived in Kansas, out in the country. My dad must have been in trouble again because my dad was acting funny earlier that day and I could see my mom was a little worried about something. My dad disappeared and then the cops showed up at our house late that night. They had us all separated. I remember 2 police officers trying to bribe me with snacks and soda, so I would tell them if I knew where my dad was. I was literally in the 5th grade and even then I had survival instincts of what I could say. I told the officers, even if I knew, I sure wouldn't tell you. Very bad for cops to try to bribe a kid. The officers were shocked at my words. My dad wasn't always the greatest and he abused us and hurt my mom, but he was still my father and I would have NEVER given him up.

I was in the 9th grade and came home from school. We lived at Lake Limestone near Groesbeck, Texas. We had just taken out an old washer dryer out of the house and put new ones inside. The old ones were outside to eventually take to a scrap yard. Well, to my surprise, as I walked up our driveway, my dad busted open the dryer door and somehow to my amazement, how he got his 6ft frame inside that dryer, I don't know. He said, "Mars hide...they're coming for us". That really scared me and the first thing I did was call mom at work. He was always doing crazy things that made me nervous to be around him. My mom had to work a lot because my dad would always get a job, but never keep one and so someone had to work to take care of us. I was the last kid out of the house and I seen more than any of my siblings had.

When I was in high school around 15, the cops busted in the door of our home at Lake Limestone near Groesbeck, Texas without showing a warrant, no doubt. I was asleep on the couch and they found my dad hiding in the closet in my parent's back bedroom. It upset me so bad how three heavy police officers were standing on him where he couldn't breathe and cuffing him. I kept saying, get off him, you are hurting him. They shoved me onto the couch screaming at me. I do not remember certain things that day, maybe I blocked them out because it was so truamatic. I remember them putting him in the police car and do not know if my mom was at work or if I was left there by myself. It was a lot to see police coming out of every direction surrounding our house that day and how they treated my dad and how they treated me as a kid.

I know my dad robbed banks and gas stations, was friends with bad cops who sold weapons and then turned on him. I know he was stopped in Houston for a traffic stop and ended up shooting a cop. He stole a corvette from a dealership that he had an inside guy on, that literally left the keys for him to open the gate. I know because he took me with him and I was so young and had no idea. He shot officer Gonzalez in the abdomen/shoulder in Houston, Texas from a routine traffic stop. My dad thought it was because of the stolen corvette he was driving. I was in high school.

I remember when I was a little girl there were times where he would fit me into a small hole in this building to unlock the door for him. He would tell me, "Mars, I left something in there, can you help daddy?" And of course I wanted to help. I just wanted to please him at a young age before I realized that he was there to steal stuff. There was always talk that he hurt people and sold weapons and burned down buildings, but I just don't know really what all he did. It was enough to deal with growing up of what I did know of, which was already bad enough.

          I remember many times my dad would say weird and creepy things to me and I knew they were bad and I knew my mom was at work. So, I would lock myself in my room and read and listen to music. I had to stop inviting gal pals over from school because he was always saying inappropriate things to us and hitting on them. For instance, I had a friend spend the night. We were giggling from a Glamour magazine that had an ad about "boobie cream". You remember as kids reading magazines and in the back, in the ad sections there would be, but this boob cream to rub on your boobs to enlarge your breasts. If you rub the cream on your boobs, it would make your boobs bigger. Well he heard us laughing and asked us why. I told him and what came out of his mouth was so crazy and made me so uncomfortable and it was not okay. It creeped me out He said, "Well you know that if you let a man rub your boobs, that they will grow faster." I knew that wasn't appropriate to say to young girls. I literally had to play it off so he would leave us alone. I was so glad when my mom finally got home from work shortly thereafter.

I remember an instance of being really young and hearing my sister Carla screaming from the boat dock of the Wabash River. Apparently, my dad took the boat out to check on his trot lines. She seen the Bowmen brothers beating my dad with an oar, trying to drown him. They heard her say, "I'm calling the cops on you, leave my daddy alone" She thought they were going to kill him.

This one time when my sister Carla was in the 7th grade, and I was like maybe 9 years old. Cops had swarmed our house in Madisonville, Texas. My dad was camouflaged so good that cops were literally walking right past my dad, and they couldn't see him. We were all looking out the windows and whispered to momma, "Can they not see daddy?" She told us to hush. This was literally right before we left for Dodge City, Kansas because my dad again was running from the cops.

I remember some things that happened to my brother and sisters that hurt to see it and I felt helpless to not to be able to help. There was this one instance that played over and over in my mind as a kid. We were all traveling from Madisonville, Texas to Dodge City, Kansas. Daddy was again on the run from the cops and we had family in Kansas. I remember daddy pulling over and putting a gun to my brother Wayne and sister Carla's head. It scared me and I guess I blocked out why because of how traumatic those years were when my dad was running from the cops were. I bet if I was hypnotized to find out what all my mind blocked out as a child, growing up with what my father Wayne put us through, that it might scare people.