The surprising tale of Casey and Vicky White.
If you have been following the news for something, ANYTHING, other than more talking heads talking about Ukraine and Roe v Wade (they are important but sometimes you really need a break or your head will explode), then you may have caught wind of this news story.
Prison guard helps inmate escape. Disappears with him. 11 day manhunt ensues. Couple found 4 hours away in neighboring state after hiding out in motel there for 6 days.
The backstory here is that Vicky White (no relation to the inmate, Casey White) was a 57 year old woman who was divorced, had no children and had an exemplary 18 year career at the prison where she had been awarded “employee of the year” multiple times. She and her ex-husband continued living together in her home after their divorce and she took care of him until the day he died from Parkinson’s disease last year.
She met Casey White during his imprisonment where she worked 2 years ago. According to the bloated, “Boss Hogg” character that is her employer there, it is believed that she and Casey had “a special relationship” but they still couldn’t be sure that she ran off with him voluntarily or if she was forced to accompany him (since it was obvious in their mind that this couldn’t be romantic if they never had sex with each other.)
Casey White had a troubled past and a criminal record that kept growing (as these things tend to do if someone doesn’t intercede and help you get out of that self destructive spiral. (Therapy helps all of us. Don’t underestimate the power of having someone helping you see things through a healthier perspective.)
All evidence points to this being a well thought out, long planned and coordinated effort on both their parts. She sold her house for half its worth for a fast sale. Put in her resignation notice effective the day she walked him out of prison to take him to a “mental health assessment” (which was never actually scheduled), and they never looked back. Word is that they had a 7 hour head start before anyone realized they were missing.
Needless to say, the Alabama prison officials are puffing up their chests and trying like hell to save their reputation at this point with some suggestion (that has since stopped since she has died by suicide – gunshot to head) that they would have been more than happy to throw her under the bus as the fall guy to save themselves from explaining how sloppily they run their prison.
Today, law enforcement ran their car into them to end a high speed chase. Casey got out of the car with minor injuries. He told the police to go help his “wife” because she had just shot herself. She was pinned in the driver’s side car with a self inflicted gun wound to her head. She died in the hospital a few hours later.
Everyone seems completely mystified about what would make a good girl go bad like this. Why would anyone throw away their life and career for an inmate, and a definite prison sentence when they were caught (and they would be since he was 6’9″ tall and impossible to miss anywhere).
Every woman I know who has ever lived her life doing the right thing, doing everything for others, being taken for granted or overlooked because she wasn’t the prettiest girl in the room (Ms. Casey reportedly “waddled” instead of walked, according to her co-workers. Nice co-workers, eh?…. assholes.)
and now, looking at the last part of her life with the horrible dating pool she must have had available to her because of her age and location (in her 50’s and in Florence, Alabama) and having spent her entire life accomplishing absolutely nothing except being what everyone else wanted or needed her to be…. its enough to be maddening. Especially when men in her age group who are actively looking to “date” women will often approach women in that same age group as if they were free “hooker” service and often with more insult than they would ever dare to give an actual hooker.
I could tell you horror stories that women in their 40’s and 50’s have told me about dating experiences in small town/small city places in the “normal” world. Your friend Jack over there who is in his 40-50+ age group who is single/divorced and cynically talks about women as if they were all conniving bitches who only want money and let themselves go once they have their hooks into you? There’s a reason women only go near him for money and the ones who try to have “real” relationships with him “let themselves go” once they are established in the relationship.
It isn’t because the women are awful. It is because HE is awful. The money is the one last good thing he has to offer, other than his obituary and a life insurance policy. “Letting herself go” is the only way she can get him to stop trying to push her head into his lap, or try to push himself into her for an annoying 15 minutes for three minutes of sex… so he can get off while she doesn’t. Who expects anyone to try and keep looking good just so they can be treated like a blow up doll with no feelings?
And here, in Vicky’s bleak landscape of emotional and romantic starvation was a big, good looking (to her) guy who was being nice to her, probably actually talked TO her (not AT her), and I will bet you good money he probably also championed her when an inmate got out of line with her. He probably did things for her that no one else did, even though they seem completely normal and expected to anyone else. Making her feel like a person, not a nearly invisible ghost, the butt of a joke, or a convenient utility when you needed someone to cover a shift for you; a lifetime of these things will wear a person down.
After 18 years of working in a prison with criminals, she knows how the game of manipulating the guards, and women, is run but this must have been different. I imagine it was different because they became friends and he genuinely appreciated her to the best of his emotional abilities.
Just like you men, we know when someone is going through the motions and doesn’t actually mean it. We also recognize sincerity when it resolutely pushes past our suspicious cynicism. For a woman who has been nearly invisible her entire life and with no real options in terms of a dating pool or opportunities for glamour in her life, even for a date… by the time you hit mid-life, you can go crazy from it, or just give up on life entirely. In men, we call it a mid-life crisis. In women, I suppose we call it good girls gone bad.
No matter what, it was clear that she decided that she was not going to spend the last parts of her life living like she had been. She wanted to be free. She wanted to be loved. She wanted to be a bad girl and break rules too. I like to believe that she finally had all those things before she died in the hospital. I am sure she has more than earned it by now.
In many ways, I see her in various women I have known in my life that had reached their 40’s and beyond. There is a glint in their eye and it is either feral, rebellious freedom as they stop trying to be good girls and start living by their own rules, or it is a hard glint that is reflecting the frustrated mean and evil that is lurking under their surface, always seeking a target. Hard and judgmental, these are the ones with purse lines around their lips from constantly pressing their mouths closed tightly in sanctimonious gossip about other people. I could be wrong but I am sure their vaginas are as sour and unpleasant as their mouths are.
I feel like I am telling you this story because someone needed to offer an explanation that those toad stool employers and co-workers were certainly not going to offer on her behalf. These folks are all so immersed in their tiny world views that I am sure they are still missing the singular quote by a journalist where Casey White called Vicky his “wife”.
Casey White reportedly told officers to help “his wife” who had shot herself in the head, according to Keely, and told them he didn’t do it. Keely said to their knowledge Casey White and Vicky White are not married.
CNN News
If he were just using her to escape and she really meant nothing to him, he wouldn’t have claimed her as his wife. He would have only been focused on himself and the long prison sentence he was about to return to.
We all need connection. It doesn’t really matter how we get it or where we find it or how long it lasts, we need to connect with other human beings for the sake our sanity, and our humanity.
If you are wondering how she could do what she did, it’s easy. She gave up her life for a man who saw her as his wife. And in the world she lived in, that was probably the first time anyone saw her as something so valuable to them in a long time, or ever would again. Being seen as worthwhile and valuable is something everyone wants, and some people never get. Kindness and appreciation is more valuable than gold to everyone who is worth anything.
RIP Ms. White. You will be remembered.