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September 20, 2023 • 29 mins
This week we talk about the true story of Teresa Stamper and her relentless stalker, her ex-husband Paul Stamper. From their abusive marriage to attempted murders, this episode will uncover the nightmare that led to Paul's shocking disappearance. Will justice ever be served?

Sources for this episode:
Wikipedia - Kingfisher, Oklahoma
The Oklahoman - Kingfisher Escapee Gets 30-Year Term
The Oklahoman - TV Crime Show Returns Fugitive To State Jail
Murfreesboro Pulse - The New Teresa Ringer: Her Story of Abuse, Homelessness and Survival
Unsolved Mysteries Fandom - Paul Stamper
The Oklahoman - Masked Gunman Frees Inmate at Kingfisher Jail
The Oklahoman - Trial Date Set In Kidnapping
The Oklahoman - TV Program Ends 5 Years of Freedom for Escapee
Oklahoma Offender SearchSupport the show
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Crime on My Coffee.This podcast contains graphic descriptions and adult content
mature audiences only. Please Hi,y'all, and welcome to Crime with My

(00:31):
Coffee. I'm your fabulous hostess withthe Mostess, June, and I'm Suzanne.
We're gonna tell you some stories you'veheard, some of you haven't,
and some you'll wish you hadn't,all with a Texas twang. All right,
Well, welcome back you guys,Welcome back. Glad you could join
us, absolutely, and if you'rehere for the first time, go back

(00:53):
and pick one just week, randomnumber and just start listening from there,
or aren't at the beginning where weclearly don't judge, We clearly do not
know what we were doing, notthat we know a whole lot more now,
but what you learned and we've improved. Yes, absolutely, see y'all

(01:15):
can start at the beginning and listenand see how much we've improved. It's
a lot, y'all, It's atIt is a lot. So what's in
your mug this week? Well,in my mug, I went to my
box o pods and I got thePioneer Woman French Vanilla medium roast coffee sounds
like that is right up your alley. It absolutely is. Put a little

(01:38):
French vanilla creamer in it, andit is superb and I like it nice?
Yes, And so what's in yourbug? I don't have a mug.
I have a cup of I wentto I had some errands to run
today in town, and so Istopped at Starbucks because I was dying more

(02:00):
caffeine. And I got a Mochacookie crumble something frappuccino. Think, yeah,
yah me, she's delicious. It'sgot like little pieces of Oreo cookies
all chopped up in it. Iwhatever their crumble stuff is is like a

(02:22):
okay with me because I got thatthat caramel one one time. The caramel,
the ribbon caramel ribbon crunch. Thinkwhatever, oh god, that crunch.
I want a bag. It wasso I like the Mocha cookie crumble.
I think is what it's called.I don't know. That's check it
out. That's what I order.They know what I'm talking about. I

(02:45):
don't know if that's what it's reallycalled. But they knew, but they
knew, they knew. Okay,well that's awesome. Yeah, I'm gonna
have to get one one time andcheck it out. It's really good.
Right, So I have a casefor us today, Okay, And we're
not going to gosh awful far awayNice. We're gonna go to Kingfisher,

(03:06):
Oklahoma. So in nineteen eighty thepopulation was about forty two hundred and in
nineteen ninety it was about forty onehundred, So a little bit of a
change, but not a whole lot. Right. The county Kingfisher is the
county seat of Kingfisher County, andbasically it's just a bedroom community for Enid,
Oklahoma and Oklahoma City in Oklahoma.Yeah, I mean it sounds like

(03:30):
it because it sounds tiny. Twopeople, well, I guess technically three
people I want to mention from Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Joe Reddington. He is
the founder of the I'm gonna saythis word wrong, I did a trod
sled dog race in Alaska, theSuper Long Big One. Yeah. The

(03:51):
founder of that is from Kingfisher,Oklahoma. Nice. And also brothers Sam
and James Walton, the founders ofWalmart Wow Wally World. Yeah, I
love it. I can't stand it, but I think that's just due to
my location. It could be.So we're going to talk about Paul Stamper

(04:16):
today. In the early nineteen eighties, he was in his mid to late
twenties and he opened a business inKingfish Or, Oklahoma. The ongoing oil
boom had basically called his name likeit does a lot of people, especially
a lot of younger people, right. And the business that he opened it

(04:38):
was an oil equipment operations business.He would go out to the different locations
or whatever and repair their damaged orbroken down equipment. He hired a young
secretary, Teresa Walden. She wasin her early twenties. Teresa unfortunately hadn't
had the super best of childhoods.At the age of two, was sexually

(05:00):
abused by an uncle, and thenwhen she got a little bit older,
she was abused by her grandmother.Her father was physically abusive to her and
her siblings, so much so thathe caused permanent developmental delays in her brother.
Oh yeah, Well, so she'snow working for Paul in Kingfisher,

(05:25):
Oklahoma at his business and he startedkind of showing an interest in her.
Well, yeah, I mean,you see this person every day, five
days a week, for eight hoursa day. You didn't say either one
of them was attached or anything fromeverything that I knew. They were both

(05:47):
single, so you know, it'sfine. But she when he started showing
this interest in her, she wasblown away by his charm. She was
just completely enthralled with the fact thathe made all this money. He would
take her on trips. On herbirthday, he called her and said,

(06:09):
hey, I need you to gooutside, and she went outside, and
you know what she found. Shefound a nineteen eighty two red Corvette that
he had bought her for her birthday. Oh wow, I ain't nobody ever
bought me a car for my birthday. None of mine were for my birthday.
We just pretended that they were becausethey were so expensive, because you

(06:30):
know, car payments suck. Yeah, they name, but we're not talking
about car payments today now. Soshe saw this corvette and she's just like,
oh my gosh, he's making moneyhand over fist and he is he
likes suspended on pretty things. Ihave a husband like that. Oh yeah,

(06:50):
I got one too, I understand. Yeah. Well, when he
proposed to her, she excited.He said, yes, please, Yeah,
I would have to heck yeah.What she didn't know, though,
was that he was a convicted felonwith a record dating back to nineteen seventy

(07:12):
four for things like theft, assault, and fraud. Oh also, she
didn't know that the that the authoritieswere currently looking into him because they had
received some reports that he would sneakout onto some of these locations in the
nighttime when no one was there,and he would break this equipment and then

(07:33):
sneak away real quick. That way, these companies would call him the next
day to come fix their broken equipment. Oh yeah, yeah, not good,
not good. Yeah. Well,six months after they got married,
things took a turn for the worseand Paul finally started showing his true ass

(07:56):
hat colors to Teresa. Ah itthose little things at first, like he
would accuse her of cheating on himwhen she went to the grocery store on
a grocery store run because it tookher twenty minutes instead of the ten he
thought it should take her. Dude, I can't even get in my car
and get to the store and buyanything in ten minutes. I tell you

(08:20):
truth. I can't even do itin twenty minutes. I can drive from
my house to the store and turnaround and come right back home in ten
minutes. And I live in atiny town where everything is two miles away
from me. Yeah, I canget in my car and drive to the
store in ten minutes, but that'sit. He became so convinced that she

(08:43):
was cheating on him that he wouldfollow her places, and he also would
hire other people to follow her too. Wow. Very insecure, dude.
Yes, he also to get physicallyabusive in addition to this super jealous streak

(09:05):
he's got going. Mm. Shesaid that one time they were in the
car at a red light. They'restopped at a red light, and she
kind of looks over at the carnext to them. I do that at
red lights, whether I'm driving orpassenger, princessing or whatever. I look
if you're going down the highway,I'm looking. I do sometimes. But

(09:26):
she said she looked over there happenedto be a guy in the car,
and so Paul got all super bigmad and punched her in the mouth.
Wow, God, Paul, whatan asshole. Yeah. All in all,
he would end up being arrested andcharged with a salt and battery against
Teresa no less than five times.Wow, Teresa, let's learn come on,

(09:52):
move on, girl. But eachtime the charges were inexplicably dropped.
He not by Teresa. Oh okay. He would brag to Teresa though,
that it was because he was payingoff the cops. That sounds like he
might be. The sheriff kind ofheard these rumors and he looked into him,

(10:15):
but he said he couldn't find anyany solid basis for these rumors.
Okay, So no, I'm justkidding, I'm kidding. I'm well.
At this point, Teresa was prettymuch done. She had had it.
She wanted a divorce, but thestate of Oklahoma wouldn't grant her one because

(10:35):
she was pregnant. Oopina, What, I don't think that's just Oklahoma that
will do that. I think,so it is. He's not all almost
all of them. It is notjust Oklahoma. But it is also not
a law that you cannot be granteda divorce if one of the parties is
pregnant. It is more the courtsdon't want to have to have you come

(10:58):
back in after the child is bornto do the child support in the blah
blah blah, because that depends onmany factors. You know, are you
going to carry this child to term? Or are you going to miscarry it?
You know, is it going tobe still born, Is it going
to have some sort of special needsthat it's going to need care, you
know, extra care for They're like, you know, just we'll take care

(11:22):
of all that when we do thedivorce all at one time, got you,
So you know there is that.But yeah, so Oklahoma wouldn't grant
her this divorce. And I thinkthat it was right around this time that
she ended up getting a restraining order. But don't quote me on that.
I know she did get a restrainingorder at some point. I just I

(11:43):
couldn't find exactly what point that was. Okay, but it is just a
piece of paper. It doesn't stopbullets. It's not magic. That's that's
true. You know, I gotthis piece of paper. You have to
you know, stay away from me. And the set bad thing about that
is on a restraining order, youhave to put your address down, even

(12:07):
if you don't want these people toknow where you're staying, because they have
to know where to stay away from. Yeah, which kind of defeats the
purpose exactly, That's what I think. But I mean it is what it
is. And Okay, now thesenext two scenarios that I'm going to talk

(12:28):
about, I'm not real sure onthe dates. One was presented first saying
that it happened in ninety five,and then the next one. I found
everything. It was mentioned later afterthe and that other incident, but it
mentioned that it happened in nineteen eightyfour, So I don't know. I

(12:48):
couldn't find anything concrete on the datesfor these, So we're gonna go with
this incident happened in nineteen eighty four, but it may have actually been nineteen
eighty five. But either way,Theresa had moved back in with her parents,
still wasn't feeling real safe. LikeI said, a restraining order is
just a piece of paper, right, And she was in her room at

(13:13):
her parents house when someone shot abullet through her window. Oh my gosh.
She looked outside and she saw Stampersitting in his car, revving his
engine. He sat there for afew seconds, revving his engine and drove
off, and Theresa called the cops. Told Amito, Hey, my ex
husband seemed to be ex husband,a strange husband whatever he is, you

(13:35):
know, coming after me again.He's the one that did this. I
know it was him, and Iknow he wanted me to know it was
him because he made sure that Isaw it was him, right, But
again, nothing real substantial was done. Like I said, it's a piece
of paper, nothing magical, right, right, And I think that they

(14:00):
actually have to catch him in theact of doing something versus just because you
tell me doesn't mean that it's true. Yeah. I don't know, it's
it's all weird. Yeah. Well, during their second year of marriage,
on January fifth, nineteen eighty five, Teresa was out of town and she

(14:22):
had a friend of hers staying therehouse sitting for her. Well, this
friend was asleep on the couch whena guy snuck into the house and slit
her throat before taking off out ofthe house and running away. Oh no,
Luckily the friends survived, called thecops and got the help she needed.
Oh good, I'm so glad.She would later identify the attacker as

(14:46):
a guy named Gary Trout, amechanic that happened to work for Stamper,
h that maybe did not know whatTeresa looked like. Well, the cops
went and pick up Trout and they'retalking to him, and he spills everything.
He spills his guts. He saidthat Stamper had offered him ten thousand
dollars to kill Teresa, and hewas going to pay him half up front

(15:09):
and the other half after the jobwas done. He didn't know that Teresa
wasn't staying at home. He wasn'treally looking at, you know, who
he was attacking or anything in herhouse. He just knew it was in
the middle of the night in herhouse. It should have been her,
right, Oh my goodness. Yeah. So Stamper was arrested and charged as
an accessory to the attempted murder.But when Trout went to court, he

(15:33):
backtracked, kept his mouth shut,and refused to point the finger at Stamper.
Man. This guy's getting so lucky. Because of this, the charges
against Stamper were once again dropped.They Teresa and Stamper had officially been separated

(15:54):
for over a year at this point, and it was nothing but constant stalking
and haras spent. Well, Teresa'sjust trying to get on with her life.
She reconnected with a guy she hadknown in high school. We're gonna
call him Chris, okay, andthey started seeing each other. And on
the night of November twenty third,nineteen eighty five, Chris and Teresa they're

(16:15):
going out to a dinner party.They're leaving this dinner party and they're heading
back home. They're in Chris's car, Teresa's driving. They leave about eleven
thirty or so that night, andit wasn't too long after they left before
those all two familiar red and bluelights lied up behind the car. Oh
so Teresa pulls over, you know, don't know what's going on, but

(16:37):
she pulls over. But it wasn'ta cop that walked up to her window.
It was Paul Stamper. Oh no, and he had a gun.
He told her to get out ofthe car. She refused. Chris tried
to wrestle the gun away from him, but Stamper instead shot him and again

(17:00):
told Teresa to get out of thecar, but she again refused, so
he reaches in, grabs her bythe throw, and starts dragging her out
of the car. Wow, sheshould have just took off once she's seen
who it was and see you later. By dude, I'm out of here,
damn it. In that moment.Are you going to think about that?
You don't think about things like thatafter the fact, you do,

(17:25):
I'm sure. Yeah. So heforces her out of the car. He's
holding a gun to her, walkingher back to his fake cop car.
Oh yeah, by the way,it was a fake cop car. He
had rented a car and then putred and blue flashing lights on it just
so he could pull them over thisnight. Wow. Yeah. Anyway,

(17:45):
so he takes Teresa to his fakecop car and made her get in.
All the while Chris is back herein the car screaming for help. You
know, don't leave me. I'mdying. Help me. Stamford drives off
with Teresa, leaving Chris there onthe side of the road. Oh no,
A passer by eventually would come by. I don't know if they stopped

(18:08):
and helped or what happened. Thisis mid eighties. Was the big bag
cell phone a thing then? Yet? I don't think so now. But
either way, somebody passed by andsomebody called for help. Good cops get
there, EMTs get there. Chrisis in critical condition. He did end

(18:30):
up surviving. The bullet had puncturedhis heart, his pancreas, his spleen,
and a lung. He survived,but he was left with permanent heart
damage. Oh my goodness. Anyway, So Stamper drove north with Teresa,
keeping her hostage and holding her atgunpoint. They stopped. A couple of
days later at a restaurant just outsideof Topeka, Kansas. Teresa asked Stamper

(18:55):
if she could go use the restroom, and to her surprise, he was
like, yeah, sure, goahead. So she gets up and she
starts walking towards the restrooms, andshe looks over her shoulder, you know,
to see if he's following her,expecting him to be right behind her,
right, but he's just sitting chillingat the table, not paying her
no attention. So she said,this is my chance, and she ran
to the manager's office and said,this man out here has kidnapped me.

(19:18):
You need to call the cops.I'm pretty sure he killed my boyfriend.
Like, I need some freaking help. Get the cops here now. Nice.
So they call the cops. Thecops show up. Stamper's gone at
this point, he's not there anymore. I guess he kind of figured out
what was going on, maybe orhe thought that's what was going on.
Yeah, So they're looking for him. Everybody's out looking for him. It

(19:41):
took about five hours before the copsfound him, but they did find him
in Selena, Kansas, getting ona bus. He was arrested, sent
back to Kingfisher to wait trial forthe kidnapping of Teresa and the attempted murder
of her boyfriend. He was heldon a six hundred and twenty thousand dollars
bond. All Well, Stamper anda trustee there at the jail, Guadalupe

(20:04):
Penya. Sorry, I just likesaying Penya. Yeah. Anyway, Guadalupe
Penia was the trustee there and heand Stamper they made friends there. While
while Stamper was there, Pinya wasgetting out of jail. Not two gosh
off along after this, about sixmonths after Stamper arrived, is actually when

(20:26):
Pinia got out and Stamper and Piniahad concocted this plan for Pinia to help
Stamper break out of jail. Dude, now now you're gonna go back to
jail. So after Pinia is released, he sneaks back into the jail.
I read that, you know,he just kind of went back in and
then hidden an office. I readthat he broke in through a window and

(20:49):
hid in an office. Either way, he gets back in, he's waiting
for you know, he knows theroutine, he knows everybody's schedule and stuff,
and he waits until he knows thatthere is just one jailer on duty.
Oh now, and it's about threethirty in the morning when there is

(21:11):
just this one jailer on duty.She's making her rounds, yes, it
was a she. She's making herrounds, checking all the cells and all
this, and she gets to stampercell and he stops her. He's like,
you know, hey, can yougive me, I don't know,
a cigarette or some chewing tobacco orsomething. He's stalling her at his cell
door. And while he's stalling her, Pinya, wearing a ski mask and

(21:37):
some goggles, comes up behind herand says, hey, you open that
door. You let Stamper out.And she's like, uh, what's going
on here? Kind of hesitates alittle bit, so Pinya puts a gun
up against her and says, openthis door and let Stamper out. So
she opens this door. Stamper comesscurrying out like a little rat bastard.

(22:00):
They push her in and they lockedthe door behind her and they leave.
Wow. I do want to notethat while Stamper was in this cell,
he was in this cell with fourother cellmates. Oh no, oh no,
none of these four cellmates attempted toleave when the door was open for

(22:21):
Stamper. All four of these cellmateshelped the jailer break the window in their
cell to get the attention of thestore clerk that worked at the convenience store
across the street. They helped herscream for out for an hour before this
clerk finally had his attention caught bythe jailer and the bad guys, the

(22:44):
cellmates, and so they called thecops. The cops come, they let
her out of the cell and allits cellmates are like, yeah, no,
Stamper was leaving. It was Peniathat helped him break out of here.
Here's what the getaway car looked like. You know, here's all the
information we can give you. Nice, very nice. Yeah, so you
know what, Good on you,bad guys, Good on you. Absolutely

(23:08):
They're like, you know what,if we're gonna get out anytime soon,
we want to get out. Wedon't want to stay in here. Absolutely,
so, yes, the jailer wascompletely unharmed. Good physically at least.
I'm sure that kind of messed withher brain, but physically she was
unharmed. Penya was later picked upat his house and he read it on

(23:32):
Stamper no hesitations, you know,he was like, yeah, you caught
me. You know what, Ihelped him break out. He promised me
ten thousand dollars. He was supposedto meet me at this motel over by
Oklahoma City, and he didn't showup. So I came back home,
and you know what, he's arat bastard. He made me get him
out of jail, and he didn'teven show up to give me my money.
Like, ough, the sucks.Wow, Well that's what you get

(23:56):
daling with criminals exactly. He eventuallyhe was sentenced and served a seven year
stamp for this stunt. There yougo for five years. Five years,
no one knew where Paul Stamper was. Wow. If they did, they

(24:17):
didn't say anything. Unsolved Mysteries eventuallydecided to do a story on the escapee
Paul Stamper. It aired on Octobersixteenth, nineteen ninety one. Within minutes
of this segment airing, the callsstarted pouring in. The FBI reported that

(24:37):
they received over three hundred calls withinformation on Stamper and where he was.
Nice One one tipster even gave themhis current address, his employer, and
his alias Sweet. By the way, he was posing as I don't know
posing as the right word, buthe was an over the road truck driver

(25:00):
at this point. Okay, DenverFBI moved out within the hour, and
within three hours of the show,Paul Stamper, who had been living in
Commerce City, Colorado, was incustody. Sweet. They arrested him as
he was leaving his house. Hehad been living under the name Gary Wickle
for the last four fish years.His identity was confirmed as Stamper, though

(25:23):
through his fingerprints. He was shippedback to Oklahoma in November nineteen ninety one,
and in April of nineteen ninety twohe ended up pleading guilty to kidnapping,
attempted murder, and prison escape.He was sentenced to thirty years in
prison and was released on parole inJanuary two thousand and two after serving ten
years. And that's my story,that's my case, that's what I got

(25:47):
for you. Oh, but Teresaand her boyfriend Chris got married, lived
happily ever after, and he neverStamper never bothered her again. Right,
You might be right on that part. As far as I know, Teresa

(26:07):
and Chris did not get married andlive happily ever after. Okay, I
do believe. I don't want toput too much information out there, but
I do believe she is living ina completely different state at this point.
Good for her and living her lifegood. Well, that's good. I'm
glad, unhindered by this. PaulStamford, douche base Wow. I can't

(26:33):
believe he wow wow got out.Just yeah, he served ten years and
they released him. I do believe, if if I remember right, he
is still actively on prole Okay,and so if you know this guy,

(26:55):
do not get involved with him becausehe's a bad guy. Yeah, you
know, that's that's my thoughts.Yeah, I don't think he's a very
good guy. I don't know wherehe's at. I don't know where he's
living. I didn't look. Ijust saw on his on his inmate location
sheet or whatever, that he wasparoled in two thousand and two, and
it looks to me like he isstill actively on parole. Mmm, so

(27:19):
hopefully not getting very far from wherehe is at. So, but yeah,
that's my case. That's what Igot for you. No one died,
No, No, there were severalattempts. There was lots of lots
of couple of a couple of closecalls, a couple of really close calls.

(27:41):
Yeah, yes, but technically nobodydied. Wow, that's crazy,
absolutely crazy. Yep. Yeah,don't go stocking people, don't go trying
to kill people, don't go breakingout of jail, and don't go helping
nobody break out of jail. Ohthat was dumb on that guy's part.

(28:07):
Wow, Penya, that's crazy.Yeah, so come across, Paul Stamper,
just keep moving, I would yep. What's your name, Paul Stamper,
Okay, see you later. Bye, that's my name exactly. My
name is. Oh someone's calling methis way, got to getta go.

(28:30):
Wow. Well, thank you forSharon. I don't think and I used
to watch Unsolved Mysteries a lot,but I don't remember seeing this on Unsolved
Mysteries. I probably did, becauseI'm sure you did, because we always
watched Unsolved Mysteries. We would likebe there waiting for the new episode and

(28:52):
we're like, Okay, we gottawatch it. Yeah. Yeah, so
I probably did send some creepy musictoo, by the way, about the
only music that creeps me out.Wow. Well, thank you for Sharon.
I appreciate that I really really do. So all right, well,

(29:12):
ladies and gentlemen, we will beback again next week with another new episode.
I hope to see you here.Yeah, I guess. Until then,
bye, okay bye,
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