The Sunday Read: ‘The Dungeons & Dragons Players of Death Row’

[Music]. on a sunny morning in a lush area of eon. arax deth was hard at work on a new. invention arax could cast spells to. control the elements manipulate. electricity or send walls of fire raging. across enemy. battlefields he hoped his creation would. end A Century Of War but suddenly a. green fog swept in.

arax fired a spell to stop the fog but. the fog used arax his own spell to. attack him what happened next was. completely up to chance like the odds of. a 20-sided die kind of chance because. arax wasn't a real person. obviously he was a character in a. Dungeons and Dragons campaign led by a. Texas death row prisoner named Billy. Wardlow my name's Carrie blinger and and. I'm a contributor to the New York Times.

magazine I'm based in Los Angeles and I. write about jails and. prisons this week's Sunday read is an. article I wrote for the magazine about. how the men on Texas death row played. Dungeons and Dragons and how two. prisoners used that fantasy game to. overcome the extreme isolation of death. row and Forge a friendship in a place. built to prevent. that Texas has almost 200 people on. death row those are people who were. convicted of capital murder and.

sentenced to be. executed since the 1970s the state has. executed more people than any other it's. often thought of as the sort of capital. of capital. punishment people on death row there. wait somewhere around 20 years for. execution and they live in extreme. isolation during those years they spend. almost their entire days in a Cell the. size of a large. elevator sometimes men say they don't. get to go outside or take showers for. days or weeks they're not allowed to.

have jobs in the prison and the only. time that they regularly have physical. contact with another human being is when. the guards handcuff them to take them. out of their. cells I started covering Texas death row. around. 2016 within those first few months I. began hearing that some of the men there. were playing Dungeons and Dragons better. known as D and D I think the stereotype. is definitely that DND D is an 80s game. for nerds right people who don't play.

are probably most familiar with what. this game looks like from seeing it on. movies or TV. shows like ET I'm ready to play now you. guys we're in the middle Elliot can't. just join any Universe in the middle or. stranger things Shadow grows on the wall. behind you swallowing you in darkness it. is almost here what is it what if it's. the demogorgan oh Jesus we're so screwed. if it's the demogorgan it's not the. demogorgan in an army of trites charged. into the chamber TR nuts told.

you it's not what you expect for the. image of who you think of when you think. of a person on death row but that's. exactly who was playing it and so I. eventually Tracked Down the Lynch pins. of this world and it was two prisoners. named Billy wllo and Tony. Ford Billy and Tony both went to prison. in the '90s when they were 18 years old. for much of the next two decades they. would played D and D together they.

helped each other through the mourning. and loss of family and friends both in. real world interactions and in the guise. of this Fantasy game. setting I was really struck by how in. some ways their D and D characters were. versions of themselves of who they would. have been If Only They had a few more. advantages in their lives and made. different. choices the game gave them a chance to. rewrite their own narratives and. envision a world in which they could be.

the. heroes in reporting this story I. discovered the lengths to which people. have to go to try to forge Connections. in a place that is so thoroughly. designed to make that impossible even if. the only way to do so is in a fantasy. world so here's my article The Dungeons. and Dragons players of death row read by. January. LaVoy.

the first time Tony Ford played Dungeons. and Dragons he was a wiry black kid who. had never seen the inside of a prison. his mother a police officer in Detroit. had quit the force and moved the family. to West Texas to Ford it seemed like a. different world strangers talked funny. and El Paso was half desert but he could. skateboard in all that open space and he. eventually befriended a nerdy white kid. with a passion for Dungeons and drag.

dragons Ford fell in love with the role. playing game right away it was complex. and cerebral a saga you could lose. yourself in and in the 1980s everyone. seemed to be playing. it D and D had come out a decade earlier. with little fanfair it was a tabletop. roleplaying game known for its miniature. figurines and 20-sided dice players were. entranced by the way it combined a. Choose Your Own Adventure structure with. group performance.

in D and D participants create their own. characters often magical creatures like. elves and wizards to go on quests in. fantasy worlds a narrator and referee. known as the dungeon master guides. players through each twist and turn of. the plot there's an element of chance. the role of the die can determine if a. blow is strong enough to take down a. monster or whether a stranger will help. you the game has since become one of the. most popular in the world World.

celebrated in nostalgic television shows. and dramatized in movies it is played in. Homes at large conventions and even in. prisons by the time Ford got to high. school he had drifted toward other. interests girls cars and friends who. sold drugs and ran with gangs Ford. started doing those things too he didn't. get into serious trouble until December. 18th. 1991 sometime before 900 p.m. two black. men knocked on the door of a small home.

on Dale Douglas Drive in southeast El. Paso asking for the man of the house the. woman who answered Myra Muro refused to. let them in a few minutes later they. returned breaking down the door and. demanding money and. jewelry one opened fire killing maro's. 18-year-old son. Armando within hours police picked up a. suspect who said Ford was his partner.

they arrested Ford who was 18 at the. time the following day he has maintained. that the two men who entered the house. were brothers and that he was outside in. the car the whole time there was no. physical evidence clearly connecting him. to the crime he was so confident that a. jury would believe him that he rejected. a plea deal and took his case to trial. in July. 1993 he lost by October at age 20 he was. on death row.

back then death row for men was located. in a prison near Huntsville where. hundreds lived in tiny cells the men. were allowed to hang out together watch. television play basketball and go to. work at prison jobs and because they. were locked behind bars rather than. solid doors they could call out to one. another and talk that was how one day. Ford caught familiar words drifting down. from the cells above him phrases like. I'll cast a spell aren't there too many.

of them I think you have to. roll it was the sound of Dungeons and. Dragons roughly 200 people are on death. row in Texas today less than half the. peak population in. 1999 the number of people sentenced to. death each year has declined over the. past two decades in Texas and across the. country as the cost of Prosecuting and. defending death penalty cases has. ballooned and public support for Capital. punishment has.

dropped while fewer prisoners arrive on. death row each year they languish there. far longer some states have had. difficulty procuring execution drugs and. landmark court rulings have banned. executions of people deemed insane or. intellectually disabled lawyers can. spend years arguing that their clients. have such low cognitive capacity that it. would be cruel to kill them or that new. DNA technology could prove their. innocence in the early 1980s prisoners.

across the country spent an average of 6. years on death row before they faced. execution now they can wait for two. decades in many states prisoners spend. those years living in isolation so. extreme the United Nations condemns it. as torture all International standards. and Norms say that the use of isolation. should be a last resort says Merill. pontier a texas-based lawyer who has. researched death row conditions Decades.

of research shows long-term isolation. can cause hallucinations and psychosis. prisoners living in severe isolation. like the men on Texas's death row turn. to suicide at a higher rate than those. in the general. population some simply drop their. appeals and volunteer for. execution not every state keeps its. death row population ins solitary some. prisoners sentenced to death in Missouri. and California for example are mixed.

with the general. population in Arizona people on death. row can go to the wreck yard and day. room in groups for a few hours a day in. North Carolina they can take prison jobs. in Florida they can have TVs in their. cells and in Louisiana they're allowed. to have contact visits where they can. hug their friends and. families the death row that Ford entered. in Huntsville offered some of those. freedoms until incident in 1998 changed.

everything the night of Thanksgiving. seven men staged a breakout one person. stayed behind in the wreck yard to shoot. hoops making enough noise to cover the. sound of a purloined hacksaw cutting. through a chainlink fence when the. guards spotted the men and started. firing at them six. surrendered only one made it all the way. into the. woods off-duty prison workers found his. body a week later drowned in a nearby. stream. Dream by the time the following summer.

rolled around the men on huntsville's. Death Row knew their lives were about to. change for the worse officials spoke of. imminent transfers to a new higher. Security death row in. Livingston as Ford remembers it he was. on the second bus there in the decades. since then the men on Death Row at the. Allen B palansky unit have spent their. days in near total isolation only. allowed to leave their cells for 2 hours.

of recreation 3 days a week alone in day. rooms or fenced in cages if the guards. feel like letting them out or aren't too. short-handed sometimes the men say they. go weeks without setting foot Outdoors. or being able to take a shower the Texas. Department of Criminal Justice denies. these. claims the prison permits one 5minute. phone call every 90 days their only only. regular physical contact with another.

human is when the guards put them in. handcuffs even when the men manag to. nurture relationships with girlfriends. or wives in the Free World they're never. able to. touch just after the start of the. pandemic a new Warden made a few changes. setting up TVs in some of the day rooms. and letting the men exchange written. notes with a handful of prisoners who. run a radio station when the Texas. prison system got tablets last year the. men on row were given limited access to.

email which was closely. monitored even so palansky remains home. to one of the most restrictive Death. Rows in the nation to report this. article I spent several years exchanging. letters with men on Death Row in Texas. phone calls with reporters aren't. permitted and I could only conduct. monitored in-person 1-hour interviews. with specific individuals every 3 months. for some of these men I was their most. regular.

visitor to cope with the isolation they. face daily the men on Death Row spend a. lot of their time in search of Escape. something to ease the racing thoughts or. the crushing regrets some read books or. find religion some play games like. Scrabble or jailhouse chess others turn. to DN D where they can feel a small. sense of the freedom they have left. behind. [Music].

when Ford first overheard the men on the. old Huntsville death row playing DN D. they were engaged in a fast high octane. version The Gamers were members of the. Mexican Mafia an insular crew that LE. Ford into their circle after they. realized he could draw the gang's leader. spider. pulled some strings Ford recalls and got.

him moved to a neighboring cell to serve. as his personal artist Ford earned some. money drawing intricate Aztec designs in. ink he also began to join their DND. sessions eventually becoming a dungeon. master and running games all over the. row playing Dungeons and Dragons is more. difficult in prison than almost anywhere. else just as in the Free World each. gaming session can last for hours and is. part of a larger campaign that often.

stretches on for months or years but in. prison players can't just look up the. game rules online the hard-bound manuals. that detail settings characters and. spells are expensive and can be. difficult to get past mail room. sensors some states ban books about the. game altogether While others prohibit. anything with a hard. cover books with maps are generally. forbidden and dice are often considered. cont band because they can be used for.

gambling prisoners frequently replace. them with game spinners crafted out of. paper and typewriter Parts on the old. death row prisoners could call out moves. easily through the cell bars they also. had the chance to play face to face. sitting around the metal tables in the. common room or under the sun of the. outdoor. wyard that was where sometime in the. late 1990s Ford saw four men playing. Dungeons and Dragons together he asked. someone who they were and learned that.

the 6'5 white guy from the country with. a buzzcut and glasses was Billy. Wardlow Ford didn't know Wardlow they. were never housed near each other for. very long but he had heard about him. from what everyone that knew something. about him said there was Universal. agreement that Billy was one of the good. guys Ford wrote in a court document in. 2019 wllo kept his word and didn't start. trouble he even participated in a hunger.

strike organized by black prisoners in. the mid1 1990s to protest the growing. frequency of. executions after the Supreme Court. reauthorized the death penalty in. 1976 Texas accelerated the pace of. executions which jumped to 19 in 1995. from 1 in 1982 peaking at 40 in 2000 it. was surprising to a lot of us black guys. that there was some white guy joining in. because in prison it is hard to organize.

any efforts across racial and ethnic. lines Ford wrote the men in Ford's D and. group struggled to bring their gaming. world with them to palansky when they. arrived they found that many of their. belongings had gone missing or been. confiscated they lost Game notes and. handdrawn Maps Spinners and character. sketches and now they could not sit at a. table together to play they had to rely. instead on a variety of clandestine. Communications including written. messages called kites passed from cell.

to cell for Ford there was one silver. lining at palansky he could finally play. D and D with a death row Legend Billy. wllo by death row standards wo's past. was not remarkable he had grown up in. the small town of case Texas where his. father worked in factories and his. mother was a custodian at the First. Baptist Church church he had an older.

brother and would have had two but his. parents' second child died at 6 months. his mother wllo said visited the boy's. grave to Claw at the dirt with her. fingers wailing as she prayed to God for. another child then came. wllo as far back as I can remember. mother told me that I was a gift from. God he wrote in a court filing but I. didn't always feel that. way his mother was was prone to Violent. Tantrums beating him with belts car.

antennas and PVC pipes once when wlo was. 10 she pulled a gun on him after she. caught him swiping money from her. purse she told me my father was an alien. from another world and that I would. never find anyone to love me but her he. wrote in a letter to me I believed. it in school he was a loner though he. did well in class and was good with. electronics other prisoners told me he. earned a reputation for being able to.

fix. anything when wllo was 16 he met than. folur a classmate in the high school. library like him she had problems at. home during senior year they both. dropped out of school and left. town before long they were back in KAS. where on the morning of June 14th. 1993 Wardlow knocked on Carl Cole's door. and asked to use the phone the the young. couple hoped to steal his car and flee.

to Montana where they would start a new. life together but the plan went wrong. and wardow who was 18 at the time shot. the older man afterward he and fulfer. fled the state in Cole's pickup truck. they were arrested 2 days later in South. Dakota wllo was sentenced to death on. February 11th. 1995 he arrived on death row two days. later unlike Ford wllo never played. Dungeons and Dragons before prison but.

months later another man on the row. handed him a book full of Fantasy names. and magical creatures this is the game. wllo remembered him saying be ready. tomorrow over the next two decades wllo. went on to play dozens of games with. many characters one he became known for. among his death row peers was arax deth. a magical Prodigy though his home plan. Planet the war torn Eon was an.

established setting among D and D. players arax was wo's creation a. character he developed through pages and. pages of Game notes and handdrawn. illustrations born to a professor and an. inventor arax had a twin sister who died. as a baby after the girl's death ARA's. mother refused to let the tragedy derail. her academic career instead she threw. herself into her work leaving her son to.

be raised by tutors they gave him all. the tools for Magical greatness and. after graduating early from a. prestigious Wizarding College he got a. job with a top Guild where he invented. secret weapons for war arax could cast. spells to control the elements. manipulate electricity or send walls of. fire raging across enemy. battlefields every day arax used his. gifts to help help the higher ups of. house cannith perfect The Invention they.

hoped would end A Century Of War at. night he came home to his wife his. childhood. sweetheart arax was to some extent a. version of wllo whose mother was not. shattered whose parents loved him and. sent him to a prestigious School whose. proficiency with electricity earned him. a comfortable living whose best options. never included running away. whose worst mistake never landed him on.

death. row friends is a loaded word in prison. Ford wrote to me in a long typed letter. sent 3 years ago so many people have. been betrayed by their friends what we. have around us are more Associates Close. Associates but D and D turned Associates. into a crew after they started playing. together at palinsky Ford noticed that. when Wardlow was in charge of the game.

the other guys didn't bicker as much as. dungeon master wllo created vast and. intricate worlds he could play without. books or handdrawn maps and could run. the game on the Fly improvising The. Narrative as he went. along some D and D Crews on death row. liked to play at random times diving. into a fantasy world whenever the mood. struck but when wlow ran the games he. liked to set a schedule usually starting. around 9:00 a.m. Mondays Wednesdays and. Fridays sometimes playing until they.

fell asleep it was the rare activity. Ford and his friends could look forward. to a time when no one would talk about. legal cases or lost. appeals sometimes through their. characters they opened up about problems. they would never otherwise discuss. abusive parents fractured childhoods. drug addictions unpacking their personal. traumas through a thin veil of. fantasy with Billy DND has become our. therapy Ford Road in.

2019 death row didn't offer any of the. educational or mental health programs. available in regular prisons. Rehabilitation isn't the goal for those. on death row and special programming is. not always logistically feasible for. people held in solitary confinement for. these players the game served as their. life skills course anger management. class and drug counseling too like Ford. and wlow a lot of the men on the row. came to prison at a young age and never.

had a chance to be adults in the Free. [Music]. World in 2005 the Supreme Court banned. capital punishment for crimes committed. by people under 18 saying that evolving. standards of decency forbade it though. Texas had to stop executing minors the.

state could still sentence older. teenagers those who were 18 and 19 to. death some of the men in the DND crew. never had their own apartments or bank. accounts never paid rent or bought car. insurance or cash a. paycheck once they got to prison their. lives were in essence. Frozen Wardlow gave the men something to. Aspire to not only because his games. offered players a sense of structure and.

purpose but also because his legal case. had the potential to establish an. important precedent prisoners in Texas. can be sentenced to death only if a jury. decides they are guilty and will pose a. danger to society that controversial. future danger finding has been part of. Texas death penalty law since the 1970s. but brain science has evolved over the. past half century and experts question. whether it's possible to make that that. determination with any accuracy if.

someone was just 18 or 19 at the time of. a crime research shows that the. prefrontal cortex a part of the brain. associated with emotional regulation and. understanding consequences keeps. developing into a person's 20s wo's. legal team leaned on science in their. court filings arguing that an. 18-year-olds brain wasn't notably. different from that of a. 17-year-old when the men heard about the. details of wo's appeal. they began to feel hopeful you had a lot.

of guys that were really like hey man. this is our shot this is our shot right. here Ford told me last year peering. through the scratched visiting room. glass the Supreme Court's going to do. this in the meantime D and D was their. best chance to learn about the world. they had to manage money to make sure. they had enough gold to rent a tenement. or buy a horse and when they were. running low they had to consider the. best path for getting more finding work.

at the Local Tavern for example or. searching for treasure in a dungeon if. they opted for the latter they had to. exercise caution and weigh the. risks over time their lives in the game. World led to the sort of friendships. solitary confinement usually prevents. from their respective wreck cages in the. prison yard wllo would offer Ford advice. whenever he was having problems with. another prisoner. or wllo would get one of the general.

population prisoners who work as. janitors to deliver the jailhouse. comfort food he made in his cell. sometimes they would test recipes like. the time they both made Kool-Aid. flavored cheesecakes with powdered. creamer and shuttle samples back and. forth they talked about game strategies. and what to do when guards confiscated. their playbooks or moved them to. different cells every few months and. whenever Ford and wllo were housed near. each other they played D and D some. games were small with only three or four.

players others looped in more than a. dozen men most often wlow was the. dungeon master but sometimes Ford took. on that role. instead in 2013 Ford's mother died and. he quit the game but wllo kept talking. to him even when it was just a one-way. conversation through the wreck cage. fence at first wllo just mused aloud. about whatever was on his mind his voice. Cal and. hypnotic as he kept talking Ford started.

to open up too crying as he recounted. memories of his mother he remembered the. pride she took in her work as a police. officer and how much she taught him. about computers when she worked in an. Atari Warehouse years later he. remembered how she showed him the basics. of. Chess at one point wllo sent over some. jelly beans he knew Ford loved them. especially the black ones next thing you. you know I'm not crying when I'm talking. about my mother Ford Told Me 2 years ago.

during one of our first in-person. interviews I'm just talking about her a. few weeks later he jumped back in the. game in late 2019 Wardlow was moved to a. cell in the section known as death watch. for the men who have execution dates. wllo had just received his April 29th. 2020 at first he said he wasn't going to. play D and D anymore but Ford started.

discussing how the players were facing a. potentially world-ending threat wllo. knew he had to join the game to save the. story I'm in wllo told him and so ARX. his character opened his. eyes on a sunny morning in a lush area. of eon ARX was hard at work on a new. invention when a green fog swept in. rolling down from the Palaces arax saw.

it coming and fired a spell but the. magic clashed with the mist and his. spell came to life attacking its. creator arax fell. unconscious when he woke up he saw the. face of a stranger covered with magical. runes 7 years had passed and the world. he knew was in. Ruins by that point an evil Moon called. atropus had begun orbiting the planet. Planet bringing down a foul rain that.

made the dead rise from their. graves even the animals that men killed. for food came back to life before they. could be eaten their flesh writhing and. pulsing with a dark. energy the gods had disappeared locked. away in an hourglass prison without them. good magic no longer. worked arax came up with a plan to. defeat the moon and save the world but. victory came at a heavy price half the.

adventurers died and the survivors soon. realized they still needed to free the. gods to do that arax cast a spell to. turn himself into a more powerful being. it was potentially a winning move but it. was risky too the being had a tendency. to explode especially if he suffered a. serious. blow no matter how powerful arax was or. how much his dungeon master wanted him. to Prevail when the crew faced off. against a horde of villains the outcome.

came down to. chance one of the things of DN D is that. it's the role of the dice Ford told me. leaning toward the glass between US. during one of my visits and if you make. a roll of the dice and your dice roll is. too low to be able to save you he said. then you know you bite the. bullet with a flick of the spinner arax. was gone the rest of the raiding party. continued on but without his help they. all.

died afterward some of the men decided. to start over but not wlow he knew he. didn't have enough time the state canel. his April execution because of the. pandemic but set a new one for July 8th. 2020 as the weeks crept along and the. execution date remained firm wllo and. Ford realized they were trapped in a. storyline they were powerless to imagine. their way out of you have this certain.

reality Ford Told Me Not only are they. telling you that one of your best. friends that you consider your brother. is going to die on this particular day. but that you pretty much have nothing. that you can do about it in the spring. of 2020 wllo decided to start one last. game a smaller simpler campaign that he. created for a few of his friends. involving a mythical city and a quest to. save a magic sword. I'm sure you've seen those final.

episodes of your favorite shows wllo. wrote to me in his last letter on June. 24th 2020 which he composed on his. prison. typewriter that's what this is like. although I hope this isn't the final. episode 2 weeks later the state executed. him later that day at the funeral home. wo's girlfriend in the Free World a. longtime pen pal and anti-de penalty. activist touched him for the first time.

sobbing and caressing his face as he lay. in his coffin she messaged me afterward. to ask if I wanted his cardboard box of. gaming. supplies inside an aging piece of paper. made me catch my breath it was a. handwritten apology to Carl Cole's son. dated. 1997 folded in half it sat tucked among. hundreds of pages of character sketches. game charts and handdrawn Maps the.

remnants of a fantasy world of wizards. and. Orcs that letter was never mailed wo's. lawyer said recently but wllo wrote. another one to the Cole family that was. sent after he was. executed since wo's death Ford has had a. harder time reading and doing the small. things that he once. enjoyed this place it does something to. you he told me during one of our. visits Ford watched other friends and.

fellow players face execution dates and. he began to worry about when the state. would set his in the meantime a team of. lawyers asked him to be a lead plaintiff. in a lawsuit aimed at changing the. isolating conditions of death row they. filed the case this January and it is. still pending if they win the man at. palansky might be able to play D and D. together again again sitting around a. table for the first time in two.

decades wlow of course won't be. there as long as we have D and D Ford. told me we're keeping his legacy. [Music]. alive.