Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Betsy Dale Adams, 2018Biographical NoteBetsy Dale Adams was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1957 and has deep family roots there. Her mother died when she was nine, and she grew up with her father, stepmother, twin sister, and two older brothers. In 1967, she moved to small-town Alabama, near the Gulf Coast, for her father's job in the motor home business. In 1983, Adams' brother Pat was murdered by a stranger after giving him a ride home from a bar. At the time, Pat Adams was twenty-seven years old, had been working as his father's "right-hand man" in the family-run truck manufacturing business, and was just emerging from the end of a painful relationship. The murderer, Douglas Griffin, had been released from a mental institution and had access to his parents' shotgun, which he used to shoot Pat. Having done many things in her life, Adams is currently a registered nurse, and is happily married to her second husband, Pat Adams. She has two daughters from her first marriage who live in Charleston, South Carolina. Adams has also published a book on her brother's murder and the subsequent legal cases: Immunity from Justice: Pat's Story (Mascott Books: Herndon, VA, 2014). She is a member of Everytown for Gun Safety’s Survivor Network and Moms Demand Action
Scope and ContentsBetsy Dale Adams begins this life history interview talking about her family structure and the individuals in it. She was very close to her brother, Pat, her father, and her twin sister. She describes a tight-knit family running a motorhome manufacturing business and socializing at the house of her father and stepmother, where her father was often at the grill outside. She describes Pat as a good-hearted young man who was just getting over a relationship with a woman and finding his feet at the time of his murder. She discusses the events of the evening at a local club where Pat was with friends before he offered a stranger a ride home and was never seen alive again. Adams describes the agony of the following week before Pat was located. She details the murder and wrongful death trials and the harm Pat's murder has done to her family, especially her father. Betsy also suffers from PTSD and is on an anti-depressant. She describes her political evolution and activism, including with Everytown for Gun Safety’s Survivor Network and Moms Demand Action
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by Betsy Dale Adams. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities
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