At Large: The Life and Crimes of Randolph Franklin Dial

by Charles W. Sasser

For eleven years, Randolph Franklin Dial was one of the most sought after fugitives in America. Brilliant, cunning and enigmatic, Dial had murdered a man so expertly that the case was only solved when he inexplicably turned himself in.

Dial escaped from his Oklahoma prison after serving ten years of a life sentence, taking with him the assistant warden's beautiful young wife Bobbi Parker. But was she Dial's hostage for ten years--or was the story more complicated?

Charles Sasser reveals the inside story of his escape, capture, and bizarre relationship with Bobbi Parker. The shocking true account of a successful artist turned killer and then fugitive, AT LARGE also chronicles a chilling link between a writer and his subject. When Dial was finally captured--watching a pro golf tournament on television with a pistol by his side--investigators found a copy of this book on his nightstand? Somewhere in America at a book signing, Dial had gotten his book signed by the author himself...

Genres: True Crime

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Charles W. Sasser has been a full-time freelance writer/journalist/photographer since 1979. He is a veteran of both the U.S. Navy (journalist) and U.S. Army (Special Forces, the Green Berets), a combat veteran and former combat correspondent wounded in action. He also served fourteen years as a police officer (in Miami, Florida, and in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was a homicide detective). He has taught at universities, lectured nationwide, and traveled extensively throughout the world. He has published over 2,500 articles and short stories in magazines ranging from Guideposts, Parents and Christian Life to Soldier of Fortune, True West, and Writer's Digest. He is author, co-author or contributing author of more than 30 books and novels.

As an adventurer, Sasser has, at various times: solo-canoed across the Yukon; sailed the Caribbean; motorbiked across the continent; rode camels in the Egyptian desert; floated the Amazon River; dived for pirate treasure; rode horses across Alaska; motorcycled Europe; climbed Mount Rainier; ran with the bulls in Spain; chased wild mustangs...

He has been a professional rodeo clown and bronc rider; professional kickboxer; sky diver and SCUBA diver; college professor; newspaperman; archaeologist/anthropologist...

Sasser now lives on a ranch in Chouteau, Oklahoma with wife Donna where he is a writer, rancher, and businessman who trains horses and team ropes. He also has a private pilot's license and is an ultralite aircraft Certified Flight Instructor.

Reviews

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m used to my true crime books being centered around a murder and the back story on the murderer and victims. This one was odd in that there were two murders (one unsolved) and a prison escape/kidnapping. Not that I believe Bobbi was kidnapped, because I really don’t. The murder of Kelly made no sense at all and the murder of Katherine needed more information - it seemed way too brief. This Randolph guy was a piece of work and through reading his letters I still don’t know how he could charm women so easily. He seemed awfully slimy to me.

[Connlou Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

(c)1998 This is a fascinating true crime from 1981 in Oklahoma. Randolph Franklin Dial murders a man in cold blood. I found it very mysterious because the reasons he gives for murdering Kelly Dean Hogan doesn't make any sense. To make matters more bizarre he escapes jail with the assistant warden's wife who worked in the prison and eludes capture for years. The ending will make you wonder if Bobbi Parker is either real traumatized or a very great actress. Only for the real crime book lovers.