Dear FUEL Brothers and Sisters,
My name is Harlan Bayard King. CDCR# C-75234, commitment date June 7th, 1982. I was 10 days past my 21st birthday when I fell. I am now 61. I spent 30 in CDCR before I interstate transferred to my home state of Oklahoma in 2012. My four sisters and myself had a very abusive childhood. My father was a broke violent alcoholic and a pedophile. I started drinking at 8 years old and took my first hit of LSD at age 10. At 14, I was homeless. I was raised in Oklahoma. My sisters were molested by my father. Started when they were 5 years old. I was beaten and terrorized by him. My mother allowed it to go on. She later told me that she got pregnant with me from my father raping her.
My sisters all wrote support letters in my commutation confirming our abusive childhoods. In early June of 1982, I traveled to Oxnard, CA, to visit my sister and celebrate my 21th birthday. I consumed a large amount of Angel Dust. “Angel Dust” – I thought it was marijuana – (mint leaves soaked in PCP) and a few days later my crimes happened.
For years I blamed the PCP solely, but PCP was just the fuse. I was a broken soul and had no help. My healing began the day I came down off of the PCP and turned myself in. I made a vow of non-violence and have kept it. I been to Folsom (1983-1994), Pelican Bay (1994-1998), Lancaster (1998-2012, Honor Yard 2000-2012) Granite, OK (2012-2016), North Fork, OK (2016-Present). All maximum security. I’ve never carried a knife and never been involved in violence along the way. I’ve stopped drinking, drugs, depression and thinking negatively. Numerous classes of self-help, art and lifers group. I am most proud of reconnecting with my daughters, grandkids, great-grandkids and sisters.
I also have donated well over $100,000 in art donations to Child Abuse Charities. I also started the “Remember the Heroes Portrait Project”, where I paint portraits of Military Personnel killed in action and give them to their families for free. I now give almost all of my art to Charity. I truly wish I could go back in time and talk to me at ages 14, 17 and 21. I think I might have been able to let myself know that I could make it and that destroying my life won’t change my childhood. I was never diagnosed with mental illness as child, never talked to anybody. But, I do believe that being beat and abandoned had a huge effect on my mental state.
Thank you all at FUEL for your continued help with this sentence, LWOP. Even Charles Manson and Clan and Sirham-Sirham got to see a parole board. Why not everyone?
Sincerely Your Brother,
Harlan
PS: In 2012 I transferred to Oklahoma for family reunification. The photo is of my two daughters and my youngest granddaughter. I have 6 grandkids and 4 great-grandkids. My oldest grandkid is 28. My oldest great-grandkid is 7.
Harlan King-667196
NFCC/C5-260
1605 E. Main
Sayre, OK 73662