I worked during my teen years at a Holiday Inn as a bus boy, at gas stations, lawn care crews, and so forth. I also worked construction just to get by.

When I was 17 I met Linda. It was lust at first sight. She was the prettiest girl I ever met in my life and I wanted her so much I had to fight for her too. I was always fighting someone it seemed. We got married in July of 1968.

Our first son, Michael, was born Feb. 12, 1969. This marriage deteriorated very, very, quickly. I got drafted into the Army in May of 1969. I headed toward Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri for basic training. After that I went to Seoul, Korea for on-the-job training. By this time Linda had gotten into drugs and alcohol with her friends. She could no longer care for Michael and so she put him in an orphanage and told the supervisor that I was dead. Of course, when they ran my Social Security Number, they found out I was in Korea and the Red Cross contacted my commanding officer. They gave me an emergency leave to come home and straighten out the mess my wife had made for us.

I arrived home to go and get Michael out of the orphanage and have him placed with my parents. Then I went looking for Linda that night. I went to every bar I could find in the Dayton area. This is the night I got into big trouble being with the wrong crowd at the wrong time. We were all drunk by the time we went bar to bar looking for Linda. She had stolen my last $100.00 from my wallet and I had no money to get back to Ft. Hood, Texas where I was to report for duty in the next few days.

One of guys I was with suggested he knew a place we could get some fast cash. Something went horribly wrong in the process. Two people were killed. I was so drunk I couldn't remember what happened that night, yet I know I was there and I was just as guilty as the one who truly committed the crime by just being there. To make a long story short, I pleaded guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The three other guys with me stuck to their story that I had planned this robbery because I needed the money so they testified against me during the trial blaming both murders on me.

Yes, I was there, yet only God knows I did not commit the crime of murder even though I was there when it happened. My rebellious spirit, my hardheadedness, and my defiant attitude finally caught up with me and my worst enemy was myself. The judge slammed down his gavel and pronounced me to be a menace and a threat to society and sentenced me to life in prison. This broke my parent's heart to pieces.

My parents were arrested by the Dayton police for taking Michael as my wife Linda had pressed charges against my parents for kidnapping. Michael was then taken out of their care and placed back in his mother's care. I never saw Michael again until he was 17 years old. Linda had told him I died in prison even though I had sent him birthday cards and letters all the time I was in prison. She never gave them to him. My relationship with Michael is still strained to this day as he thinks and believes in his heart that I abandoned him and never was there for him by my own choice.

So I found myself in the pits of hell and nowhere to go but an 8 x 8 cell, twenty three hours a day with only one hour a day to get out on the yard. I was told when to eat, when to sleep, and when to shower, the very thing I had fought against all my life because of my defiant attitude.

So I fought a battle with myself every day of my life until I couldn't fight anymore. I had no more physical or emotional strength left. By this time, I had served 13 years of my life behind bars and I was tired and didn't want to live anymore.

This is when I began to make every attempt I could to end my life. I tried to escape by climbing the fence. I should have been shot but I wasn't for some reason. I ended up in "the hole". Next, I tried hanging myself with sheets off my bed and that didn't work either. I began cutting my arms with my razor and the guards took everything I had from me then. They took my razors, sheets, clothes, belt, everything I had from me. I was literally naked in the cell.

Then I tried a hunger strike! I went 13 days without eating. The warden visited my cell and said "Hulsey, if you don't start eating we will restrain you and feed you intravenously. We cannot let you die." As soon as he walked out of my cell, a guard brought me a letter. This was extremely unusual, because I got almost no mail those days. He put it in the upper bars of the cell and as I lay there on the floor in the fetal position, I looked up to see in big bold print: JESUS LOVES YOU!

I managed to get up in my weakened state to get the letter, opened it and inside was:
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE SENT HIS ONLY SON
JOHN 3:16
When I saw these words and read the letter from the sender I thought to myself, "Jesus love me? Well, Jesus and you can kiss my lily white ass! You really think I should believe that Jesus loves me?