NEW YORK (ABP) — The story of the murders of a Baptist pastor and his wife and the ensuing three challenging decades for their two children who survived the brutal home-invasion robbery is scheduled to air Friday, Jan. 7, on "Dateline NBC."
Brooks Douglass appearing in the "Dateline" special. (Credit: "Dateline NBC").
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The episode, which airs 9-11 p.m. ET, focuses on the Douglass family from just outside Okarche, Okla. They suffered tragedy Oct. 15, 1979, when two robbers broke into their house and killed in cold blood Pastor Richard Douglass and his wife, Marilyn, who previously served as Southern Baptist missionaries in Brazil.
The assailants also shot the couple's son, Brooks, and daughter, Leslie, leaving them for dead, but both survived. Brooks went on to be elected the youngest state senator in Oklahoma history, where he sponsored groundbreaking legislation granting rights to crime victims. Since leaving politics in 2002, he found additional healing in an unexpected place: Hollywood.
Douglass co-wrote a movie about his life with Paul Brown, a Hollywood writer and director. He also appears in the cast playing his father, including a scene re-enacting his parents' death. Heaven's Rain, which premiered last September in Hollywood, was screened in limited release in Oklahoma and returns to theaters in February.
In an interview with NBC's Keith Morrison, Douglass describes what he says — other than the murder of his parents — was the most memorable moment of his life: When he forgave triggerman Glen Ake in a face-to-face meeting at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1994.
"I said for 15 years I just wanted nothing more than to see you dead," he recalled. "Just hearing myself say that, I knew I had to let go. Did I get off that floor to go kill him? Is that what my parents would have wanted for me? The power of forgiveness — if we're going to move on past, we're going to have to find a way to forgive."
An NBC publicist described the episode as "tragic but at the same time triumphant, as Brooks and Leslie eventually find forgiveness in their hearts and are able to move on with their lives."
"If you have hate for people it makes you a hateful person," Leslie adds. "I don't want to live like that the rest of my life."
After the tragedy she went on to college and graduate school before becoming a teacher and later an assistant principal with a family and two children of her own. She wasn't involved in the movie, but her character is played by Taryn Manning, an actress, fashion designer and singer-songwriter best known for roles in the 2002 film "8 Mile" and the 2005 movie "Hustle & Flow."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
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