Transcript: Ex-Convict's Co-Authors Go 'On the Record'

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," April 11, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Stephen Stanko was released from prison last year after serving 8 1/2 years for kidnapping. While in prison, he wrote a book called "Living in Prison." His co-authors join us now. Professor Gordon Crews from Roger Williams University joins us from Watertown, Massachusetts. And on the phone is Professor Wayne Gillespie from Eastern Tennessee State University.

Gordon, how did you meet this man?

GORDON CREWS, CO-AUTHORED SUSPECTED KILLER'S BOOK: Well, actually, I was contacted back in 2000 by Greenwood Press to consider co-authoring a text with an inmate in South Carolina who had submitted a manuscript. And the publishers were very impressed with the manuscript, but they wanted, you know, another author to work with him, when we first came into contact.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Did you actually meet him or was your contact done by e-mail, phone, whatever?

CREWS: Well, actually, I've never met Steve face-to-face. Everything we did was either over the phone, you know, eventually, e-mails and things like that. The initial manuscript was actually basically pieces of manuscript taken out of the prison by his mother and transferred to me to start putting the first manuscript together.

VAN SUSTEREN: Wayne, what's your thought about Stephen Stanko? Did you ever think that once out of prison, that he would find himself the subject of a nationwide manhunt, thought to have committed two homicides and sexually assaulted a juvenile?

WAYNE GILLESPIE, CO-AUTHORED SUSPECTED KILLER'S BOOK: Actually, no. Stephen always seemed very keen on the whole rehabilitation ideology. I didn't think that he would kind of fall back into the same patterns that he had been incarcerated for, once he was freed.

VAN SUSTEREN: Gordon, what about you? Did he ever say anything about the concept of rehabilitation or even returning to crime, and now tonight, the subject of a manhunt for the unthinkable?

CREWS: Well, most of the conversations we had, when he talked about, you know, possibly re-offending, or people being, you know, forced back into that lifestyle, was pretty much non-violent crimes, possibly, you know, back into the cons and some things that were examined, never really talking about returning to any kind of violent behavior.

VAN SUSTEREN: It's sort of interesting, Wayne, if it weren't so serious, that Laura Ling, the woman who was murdered — he had just lost his job, was living with her, murdered her. Our guest a moment ago, Elizabeth, had spent some time living with him. He lost his job, tied her up, almost killed her. It certainly seems a consistent MO.

GILLESPIE: Yes, unfortunately, it does. People who engage in violent behavior, they do have that sort of pattern. They respond violently when they're faced with a threat or some type of problem or challenge.

VAN SUSTEREN: Gordon, he's on the run tonight. He's got a car. We know he's got a truck. He may have traded up. He may have carjacked another. Any idea, like, any friends across the country, where he might be going, so at least the viewers can be on the lookout, people on satellite radio can also be on the lookout, at least for a Mazda truck? We don't know if he's traded out.

CREWS: No. As the law enforcement officials reported earlier, I don't know if anyone really knows which direction that he's headed in. I don't know of any other contact he has.

VAN SUSTEREN: How about money, Gordon? Does he have money?

CREWS: No clue. When we talked on the phone, he had absolutely no money.

VAN SUSTEREN: Wayne, any idea if he has any money? He's got to get money, and that's going to put increased pressure on the chance of more crime.

GILLESPIE: I'm with Gordon. I don't think that he has any. In fact, I know the book itself brought in very little royalties, so that was never a real source of income for him.

VAN SUSTEREN: Wayne, will he kill again if pushed into the corner, if the police sort of corner him or someone tries to resist turning over the car?

GILLESPIE: It's difficult to predict. There's been such a time lapse between the homicides that I hope it served as a cooling-off period. And you know, I would urge him, if he's listening to this broadcast, to consider surrendering himself to authorities and letting the legal process begin.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. It doesn't seem like much of a cooling-off period, to me, 24 hours. He's killed two. He's on the run right now. He knows everybody's looking for him, and very serious charges. And everyone needs to watch out for him. Gordon and Wayne, thank you both very much.

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