Queen of Meth (2021): Season 1, Episode 1 - Daughter of Anarchy - full transcript
My name is Lori Arnold.
I'm a material technician.
The money I make a week,
I used to make that
in a few minutes.
Even though,
it was 30 years ago,
I will always be remembered
as the Queen of Meth.
The use of methamphetamine
has skyrocketed
over the past several years.
It's now trendy.
It is now cheap.
And it is now spreading.
Meth makers have spread
into the countryside,
bringing tragedy,
death and violence.
Lori was
one of the first
to move significant quantities
of methamphetamine
from the west coast to Iowa.
She was a major
supplier making $200,000
or more a week.
I had a lot of respect.
I had a lot of power.
I could buy houses.
I could buy cars,
airplane, race cars.
Lori was
the queenpin,
I guess you could call her,
instead of the kingpin.
She was
on top of the world.
And then,
this all came crashing down.
Federal prosecutors allege
for the past six years,
Lori Arnold
ran a five-state drug ring.
She's the sister
of comedian, Tom Arnold.
Sister-in-law
of Roseanne Arnold.
-Do you think your sister
is a threat to the community?
-I don't think so.
Lori needs to get
fucking angry at my mom.
I feel the pain
of what happened to her.
What she did was wrong.
-No, no, she ruined your life.
-What she did to me...
I had to
grow up a lot faster than
other people.
I shouldn't have had to.
Like the people
that created the tech world
in Silicon Valley,
my sister created
the meth world.
I walk
like a truck driver,
I cuss like a sailor,
and I fight like a man.
It's kind of a combination
between my dad
and my mom's walk, I guess.
I go to work, I come home,
I sit in my pajamas
and I watch TV.
That's my life now.
Moved to Sandusky, Ohio,
two and a half years ago.
Me and my fiance
bought this little house.
This box is full of memories,
old pictures,
things from the past.
Right on top here,
there's a picture of me
at my ranch.
I was actually chopping
a line up in my lap
at the time.
I've got my little grinder
and a little drug
paraphernalia on
my lap there.
I'm more embarrassed
about my past
than I used to be.
This is me and my son Josh...
...when he was about two.
So that means
I had to be in my 20s.
I hurt Josh a lot and...
I don't really
want to talk about it.
It's hard.
He's the only thing
that gets my emotions...
...all screwed up.
'Cause I love him.
He went through hell
after I got locked up.
I've always been very guarded,
because of the things
I've done.
You know, a lot of people
never even thought,
including myself,
never thought
I'd make it this far,
because of my lifestyle,
I guess, growing up.
But here I am, big 60.
So I'm just trying to open
myself up,
and I am taking a journey
back to Ottumwa, Iowa,
where everything went down
30 years ago.
I'm gonna see a bunch
of old friends and my family.
All right, careful.
And I want to relive
some good memories,
and also, relive
some bad memories.
But it's time to face it.
She was a gangster, all right,
a big-time
drug dealer gangster.
"Scarface in a Skirt."
Well, I've never seen her
in a skirt.
I just hope to discover
why it began, how it began.
Can't change history,
but you can learn from it.
She'll always be
the queen bee of Ottumwa.
You can go
and ask people today
that they know
who Lori Arnold is, you know.
They know Lori Arnold.
She was
on top of the world.
Like we say,
when she walked into a bar,
you knew she was there.
Iowa stands
for I Only Want Amphetamines,
and I think she put the name
on the marquee.
She was
very generous with
helping people out
and donating different things.
But at the same breath,
it was destroying
our community.
I don't think
you'd live in Ottumwa
without hearing about it.
People's lives
were devastated.
At the crossroads
of the nation
in southeast Iowa
lies the city of Ottumwa.
It might be your town,
or any town U.S.A.
You know I grew up here
and everything so...
And just turning 60,
it's like, man,
that was a long time ago.
Ottumwa is a town
that hasn't quite caught up
with the rest of the world.
This whole neighborhood
is exactly,
like it hasn't
changed anything.
Houses look same.
It's like
a little country town.
Last time I was with my family
was at my Dad's funeral.
This time, I'm hoping it's not
gonna be as painful.
Remember this place?
Oh, my God!
-That's Skateland.
-Skateland.
-Yeah. Nice, huh?
-Boy, I can't believe it.
Looks like now, but...
-Oh, had a lot of fun here.
-Yeah. Oh, my God.
That was a thing
we did all the time.
Yeah, yeah,
we did it. We did.
I mean, there wasn't a whole
lot going on in Ottumwa.
-Yeah, well--
-That was one thing but--
-Maybe. You made...
You made stuff go on, yeah.
Ottumwa
is a working-class town.
And everything revolved around
the meat packing plant.
Gee whiz. Look at
all them rumble cars.
Yeah.
That's how I grew up
and my family.
Watch as hog
carcasses are broken down
into primal cuts.
Working in places
that slaughter cattle,
slaughter pigs.
Slaughtering 6,000 hogs a day,
and it's rough.
The company, Hormel,
kept making deals with us
saying, "We're not
gonna pay you overtime."
We had to work faster
and faster.
And it seemed to get more
and more dangerous.
A beautiful sight, isn't it?
Finally, it's like, "We got
to fucking strike, man.
We got a strike, like,
Ottumwa, Iowa, strike."
They say give back,
we say fight back!
Hormel employees
blocked the main gate
to the meat packing company's
corporate headquarters.
We're gonna stand up,
and we're gonna fight
this company.
We're gonna fight
international if we have to.
It was like, "Yeah,
we're... We're doing this."
Police declared
the situation a riot,
then hurled teargas canisters
into the crowd.
Back up! Back up!
Hormel says
there is no more time
for the strikers
to come back to work,
and there are no longer any
jobs left to strike against.
Eventually they ended up
firing everybody in Ottumwa.
The town
will continue to hurt,
because of the past year.
It was devastating.
Nobody got their jobs back.
You could just feel a dark
cloud all over the place.
That was rough.
The reason people
do drugs and start with
is they're trying to escape
from something.
Boredom, loneliness,
self-esteem.
There's something going on
that when you do the drug,
all that disappears.
But once
all this meth comes in,
everything started picking up
around there.
Everyone is partying
pretty hard.
The money
just came in so fast...
...I didn't have time to
reflect on what I was doing.
And it lasted about six years.
And then... It was over.
And it was almost like
a balloon deflating.
Tom Arnold's sister
faces six drug charges
in connection
with the distribution
of methamphetamines.
Psychological evaluation
was done
for my pre-sentencing.
"We cannot blame
Lori Stockdall completely
for her present circumstances.
Lori Stockdall's tragic life
has been influenced by adults
who did not have
her best interest in mind."
This is a picture
of my mother.
Beautiful lady.
She was a lot of fun.
My dad was Jack Arnold.
My mom, Linda Graham Arnold.
Brother Tom was the firstborn,
and then me.
And later on, had another
little brother, Scott.
We were just your everyday
average brothers and sister.
I always followed around Tom,
because he's my big brother.
He was a little rowdy,
very boisterous,
sometimes mean.
One time, Tom wanted
to go outside to play
and told me to hurry
and he'd wait.
He was holding
the glass storm door for me
while I was tying my shoe.
As soon as I got there,
Tom slammed the door
and my arm went right
through the glass,
causing me
to get five stitches.
Scott, he was
my little brother,
so I had to kind of
take care of him.
There's Lori,
the Queen of Meth,
and then there's Tom,
the bad actor,
and then there's me,
the good-looking one
with no record.
Scott was a disturbed kid
who liked to eat bugs.
He said red ants
were his favorites.
I remember once
when he held down a kitten
and ran over its neck
with a tricycle wheel.
I think we found this
cat at the swimming pool
in a garbage can or something.
The life of me,
I don't know why I would run
it over or anything,
but apparently, I thought
I was playing with it
until it stopped moving.
And, uh, I got grounded
for a long time for that.
I still feel bad about it
to this day 'cause
I love animals.
Yeah, she's insane.
We're just your everyday
average brothers and sister.
Oh, there she is, our mom,
smoking in the hospital
just besides the baby.
And there I am just born.
I guess that's
my mom there, yeah.
My gosh, how young
would she have been,
about 16 or 17, yeah.
Dad, he's a teenager, too.
That's hard to believe.
My mom
was out of picture
since I was, like, three.
I really don't remember her
ever being in the picture.
Don't remember her and dad
ever being together
or anything.
When I was four,
Lori was three,
my parents got divorced.
They were doing
a custody battle
for the kids.
They got to a day
where they put me,
would put me on the stand
back in the day
to basically say,
"Who do you love more, Tommy?
Your mother or your father?"
And my dad
didn't want to do that.
And so he surrendered
and he gave us to my mother.
The next day, my mother came
out to his office and said,
"Here's the keys to your...
The house.
The kids are there
with the babysitter.
They're yours."
I was told that mom
had a, you know, wild streak,
and she knew dad
would be a better parent,
so she actually gave us
to dad to raise.
That was the greatest thing
my mother could do
as a mother.
That's how I look at it now.
But at the time,
it was a rough deal.
And so my dad raised us.
Until I was almost ten...
...and he married
our next-door neighbor Ruth.
Ruth, there, there's Ruth,
next door neighbor,
looking, uh, cute.
Dad's, boy, dad thought
she was so cute.
Oh, he loved her.
Ruth had two kids
from her first marriage.
And then she
and my dad had two more.
So there were seven
of us total.
Ruth was strict.
She always had like
a little contest.
Whoever was the best kid of
the week gets a little star.
I just liked to win.
So, you know,
I did what I had to do to win.
I didn't wanna call her mom
because she wasn't my mom.
Ruth wanted me
to wear dresses or girl stuff.
First ethos
was girl, Gloria.
Well, you're a girl,
so we got to do pink,
we got to do this.
But I was a tomboy,
and I didn't...
I didn't wanna wear that.
So I would leave the house,
I'd have it on,
but I threw my jeans
out the window,
and I'd just change
in an alley somewhere.
Washington Junior High School.
I'm going into seventh grade
and it's all older kids there,
because they had eighth,
ninth grade there, too.
So there's teenagers,
I'm just coming in.
My brother Tom is there,
very popular.
Lori and I were very smart
and did well in school.
We were very intelligent.
Lori, I met in
seventh grade at Washington.
They put her in a lot
of the, I think,
in the accelerated classes,
because she was pretty smart.
I was good in school.
Played sports.
I always got A's and B's,
because school work came
fairly easy to me.
But I was known
as a tough girl.
And I was always joking
in class
and I was cutting up.
Lori always
had a drive in her.
Was always thinking
what she could do next
to get a better place in life.
I had this gal
that was afraid to walk home,
because this bully
kept picking on her,
threatened to beat her up,
and everything else.
So, well, I'll tell you what,
I'll walk you home every night
since you didn't live
that far from me,
you just give me lunch money
every day.
So she gave me two dollars
every day,
and I'd give a dollar of it
to the bully
that was threatening her.
And we'd go down
to Mr. Quick Hamburger
and get hamburgers.
That worked
for quite a while, too.
I don't know if she's having
issues at home,
but she skipped a lot of
school and that kind of stuff.
My parents
went on a vacation.
So Tom decided to have party
at the house.
There they used to wear
the hell out of it, whatever.
So they got into a big deal
and Tom moved out.
He moved in with our real mom.
I moved in with my mom
so I could grow my hair,
and I could stay out and party
and, you know, no rules.
I walk in the door
and she says, "Hey,
there's beer in the fridge.
You can bring
your girlfriend here.
You could blank her.
You do whatever you want.
I'm leaving for a week."
I was 15 and a half,
and I was like,
"Oh, this is...
This is not good," you know.
Tom was like my hero.
And so I was kind of lonely
without him there, you know.
And all the little kids
always got all the attention
and everything.
Started turning
to my real mom more,
because she
showed me attention.
But mom would buy me
what clothes I wanted,
you know, I got to wear
my big bell bottom jeans,
and mom was more my style,
I guess.
Don't really know
what exactly snap,
made me do the final decision,
but I just wanted out.
I eventually decided
to move in with our mom, too.
That's when
everything changed.
-Oh, boy.
-Yeah, there's Mom.
Yeah.
Me and mom.
Little bob...
Why was she
in your school picture?
No, it wasn't
a school picture.
This was... We...
We went and got our pictures
taken down--
Together, you and Mom went
-and got your pictures
taken together?
-Yeah, yeah.
-Oh, that's creepy.
-Why?
-People don't do that.
My mom was the manager
of the Elks Club.
And they had a lot
of big parties.
So I went up there
to cocktail waitress
and help set up tables
and stuff like that.
You know, it was long hours.
So she said,
"Here, this will help you,"
because she got Preludin
from her doctor, diet pills.
I took a half of one.
It woke me up good
and we sat up all night long.
I liked the feeling of it.
I was starting to get
into more boys, you know.
And so weight is always
an issue with teenage girls.
And it helped me lose weight
at the same time.
I wanted the other half.
I also worked
at the Elks Lodge for mom
-when she was there.
-Yeah.
What struck me
about working there
was how everybody
called her mom.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Except me.
Well, everybody...
Everybody liked her,
because she joked all the time
and stuff like that.
-They'd be like, "Oh my God."
-Yeah.
-"You're so lucky
that she's your mom."
-Yeah. Yes.
-I'm like, yeah. Yeah.
-"Your mom's so cool."
You know.
-She's letting us drink
on the job.
-Right, right.
When we were in the womb,
we had our first alcohol
and pills for real.
Me and her were more
like friends than like mom,
and mom and daughter
type deal.
She's a bar person,
so we go to the bars.
"Lori Stockdall was addicted
to alcohol at age 14
as a result
of her mother's influence.
Lori would not have done this
on her own."
It's true.
"She not only encouraged her
to drink beer,
but encouraged her son Tom
to do the same."
Mmm-hmm.
Mmm-hmm.
True.
Her best buddy. It was...
Hmm.
Most of us were
pretty naive at 14, I think,
but not Lori.
Lori grew up a little faster
than the most of us did.
I was around so many
adults that drank and partied,
and, you know, I just grew up
really too fast.
I was getting ready
to marry Bobby Roberts
in that one.
Really?
Yeah, Bob Roberts,
fucking guy.
I liked Bobby.
You could tell he was tough
just the way he was built
and everything.
He was cute, funny,
and he had a car.
You know,
that was a big impression
to me at the time.
Told my mom he was 18,
but his divorce
was in the newspaper
and it stated his age as 23.
One day, I was going to meet
him here at the skating rink.
You know, I was 14,
I'm in love, you know,
and I'm defiant.
"Mom said I can't go.
She's a bitch."
And as soon as I said that,
all I got was a roundhouse
punch.
Mom come around the corner
and punched me,
knocked me down
on the kitchen floor,
and then she went
in the other room.
And when she did,
I left anyway.
Stepdad come walking
in the skating rink.
He said, "You either dump her,
marry her,
or you're going to jail
for statutory rape."
And Bobby's like, "Okay, fine,
we'll just get married."
I didn't wanna get dumped,
you know.
I didn't want him
to go to jail.
So, what am I gonna do?
I'm gonna have to marry him.
Couldn't get married in Iowa,
I was too young.
Mom drove us
to Lancaster, Missouri,
went to courthouse.
We got married,
and then we went across
to the bar and had drinks.
And then she...
She drove us home
to the apartment.
And see,
here's the difference.
I got to be a kid.
I got in a lot of trouble,
but nobody made me
marry an adult
who was a serial pedophile.
Yeah, I miss my child--
I miss my childhood, yeah.
-I agree.
-Yeah.
No, I honestly can't say
if I thought he was a predator
or anything.
I just, guess I blame myself
because I flirted with him.
His wife that
he'd just divorced
was only a year older than me.
So, you know, it didn't
seem weird at that time.
I mean, now, you know,
23, 14...
Yeah, it's a little odd.
I was a full-on alcoholic,
very young.
Very young.
But, you know,
I did miss out on
having a mother like you did.
But it's no comparison
what you happened
between me and you.
"At 14, Lori was not capable
of helping herself.
She wanted her mother's love.
Her mother taught her
how to get it the wrong way."
I think it's...
I think it's...
I think it's...
I guess,
I think it's bullshit.
It's sad. It makes me mad.
It's true. I think it's, uh...
It's... It's...
Hmm.
Awful, it's...
Anyways...
It's the deal.
That was the end of it.
That was the end
of Lori's life really,
her childhood.
When I got
married to Bobby,
we used to walk down
to this Casey's store,
steal ham and bread...
...'cause we lived off ham
and bread
because he wasn't working
and we were poor.
I tried to keep in school.
I really did,
but it just didn't work
'cause I had to have a job.
We were all like,
"Wow. We can't believe
she quit school
and she's living with a guy."
And so in the mornings,
we'd all walk to school
and we'd walk
by her apartment.
All of us girls are like,
"Gosh, he's so old."
I was in awe, like, wow.
But she seemed
pretty confident about it.
You know, today,
he'd be arrested
for being a pedophile.
Bob, her husband,
to me,
he always treated me decently.
He was, you know,
a decent guy to me, you know.
But I heard there's a lot
of other stuff going on,
extracurricular.
He was watching TV
and I was in the kitchen,
and there was a boxing match
on TV.
And he was just goofing off,
you know,
pretending like he was boxing
and everything else.
Then come up
and he kind of jabbed me
a couple times,
like he pretend boxing,
and then he just punched me
real hard.
It's like it triggered
something in him
or something, you know,
and he pushed me up
against the window,
and then he stopped
and he goes,
"You need to leave now
because..."
He goes, "Now that I did that,
it's gonna happen again."
He hit me a couple times
in the kitchen,
and told me get...
Get the fuck out.
Last straw was I found out
that Bobby was screwing around
on me,
and she was 12.
I called my brother Tom,
and I told him to come get me,
you know, I've had enough.
We were only married
six months.
I packed all my stuff
and went with Tom.
"Physical, psychological abuse
for Lori was common place,
and thus a learned behavior."
After my divorce
from Bobby Roberts,
went back to the school
to see if I could get back
in eighth grade.
And they sent me
to the Board of Education
for an IQ test,
and I had a high IQ,
so they passed me
from eighth grade
to tenth grade.
But, you know, at that time,
I was already married,
divorced,
I drove, I bartended.
The rest of the kids
in tenth grade
seemed so young
that I had to quit school.
Then I quit school,
I went and got my GED.
I had a goal.
Decided I was
gonna do something.
Even if it's wrong,
I'm gonna do something
to take care of myself.
Lori needs
to get fucking angry
at my mom,
feel the pain
of what happened to her.
She served my sister up,
her daughter, to a rapist
and a...
A serial pedophile.
She said, "Here he is."
That's beyond bad judgment.
That was a big deal.
It really set the tone for me
versus my mom.
I mean, openly hostile
from that point on.
I loved my mom.
She was a lot of fun.
She died when I went to jail.
She's only 52 years old.
So that hurt.
That was...
That was really tough,
because the prosecuting
attorney
wouldn't let me go
to the funeral.
He said they'll have
my brother Tom film it
and show it to me in 20 years
when I get out.
There's old mom.
You didn't go to her funeral.
They wouldn't let me.
Yeah. I didn't go.
I know you didn't.
And I tried to tell you,
you should have.
-Oh, well, really?
-Because you'd regret it
later in life.
-I... I have absolutely
no regrets.
-You should.
She was never a mother.
No, she wasn't
a mother.
To me--
No, but that's
what I wanted her to be.
My youngest memory
after she left
was going out
and looking for her.
-You guys were best friends.
-Yeah.
-Except you were 14.
-Right.
And that was the worst thing.
Well, I didn't think so
at the time.
-No, of course, you didn't,
because you're 14.
-Yeah.
So but everybody
makes mistakes.
No, but stop it,
because you...
Did you ever give Josh
drugs or alcohol?
-Oh, no.
-Okay. Why?
-Because I wouldn't do that.
-Why? Because why?
-Because he's my son.
-That's right.
Because there's just some shit
that mothers don't do.
Well, yeah, she...
What she did was wrong.
-You know, what she did...
-No, no, she ruined your life!
-What else she did?
-Yes, she fucking ruined
your life!
-But I forgave that.
I forgive her.
-Yeah, I know.
-Fine, that's good for you.
-Because I don't want it
-to tear me up...
-I don't want--
-I'm not telling you--
-...inside to hate her.
You don't have to hate her.
But for you to get over it,
you got to fucking know
how shitty it was.
-It was shitty.
-Yeah.
I had a lot of time
to think about it.
But I'm standing here strong,
because maybe, because
of what I went through,
I don't know.
-Not because... No, no, no.
-Maybe because I love her.
-Don't give a fucking--
-I don't know.
-No, I'm not saying
because of her.
-Yeah.
I'm just saying
all the different things
that I went through
made me stronger.
-Made me a survivor.
-That's right.
-You know.
-That's right.
-That's what I'm saying.
-That's right.
All right.
"Lori Stockdall
is a young woman
who is a product
of a broken home
and an upbringing
characterized
by a total lack of continuity
of the morals and values
necessary to function
in society."
She became
a big-time drug dealer
and ended up in prison.
Well, fucking right she did.
I didn't meet Lori
till I was probably 16.
We were all going to the bars
back then.
We just really hit it off.
You know, we're a lot alike,
we're really outgoing
and, uh, like to laugh
and like to, you know,
kind of be the life
of the party.
Yeah,
she's a wild child,
out front, outgoing,
wanted to be herself,
but she kind of felt
like she couldn't,
because she was married
at a young age.
Her stepdad being a cop,
and it's just, I don't know,
I just kind of felt
that she was trapped in a way.
I didn't feel
like I fit anywhere.
It's like I can't go home,
I'm... I'm no longer a child
wanting to go
to my parents' house.
I was looking for something,
I don't know what,
I still don't know what,
but just somewhere
that I belonged
where I didn't have to pretend
like I was good
or pretend like
I was the wife,
like, with Bobby,
and be something I wasn't.
And then I met Shirley Inman
at the strip joint,
the Horseshoe Club.
She was always there
at the poker table,
and she always had
a wad of money
stuffed down her bra.
Everybody knew her.
She was like...
Like a madam, I guess.
And I got along very well
with Shirley.
She was somebody to look up
to another woman.
My mom believed
it's a cold day in Hell
before she deprived somebody
of a place to stay,
a hot meal and a shower.
She brought Lori over
to the house
and Lori...
Lori lived in our house
for a couple years.
Scotty Inman.
I met him when I moved
into his mom, Shirley's house.
And he's been by my side
for years.
Scotty was a good kid.
He's... he's younger than I.
-How old are you now?
-Now I'm 58.
-All right, so--
-I was probably--
Yeah, he's two years younger
than me.
He was two years
younger than me.
-I was probably 14.
-But to me, he's a kid,
you know,
but he was a good kid.
He's always been a good kid.
So he's always like
a little brother to me.
I love about Lori Arnold.
She's... She's like my sister.
She's always been outgoing,
outspoken person,
uh, stand up
for what you believe in.
Basically, you don't take no
shit off nobody type person.
And that's kind of like
the way I... I was raised.
You tell it like it is
and be told like it...
Like it should be.
I wasn't a very good influence
on him, I think.
But he was always fun
and laughing,
and he didn't...
He didn't do drugs.
He didn't drink.
-I smoked weed.
-Uh...
He just might have
smoked weed,
but, you know, to me weed
is not... No big deal.
Shirley, um,
she would do anything
to make money.
She had a couple girls
that stayed with her
at her house.
And she would not only have
poker games at her house
with lots and lots
of money involved,
but she would also supply
people with girls.
It was basically
an escort service,
I would...
I would have to say, you know.
She would like
pimp them out to help build up
her clientele,
because they were like
big shots around towns.
They were like
powerful type things.
I told her I don't wanna be
a hooker or anything.
But I had a car,
so she wanted me
to do her drug running.
So she would send me down
to a pharmacy
and go up to pharmacist
and say, "I need to pick up
Shirley's order."
-And they would have it ready.
-Yeah.
So I thought,
well, she's got clout
because, I mean,
she's getting shit,
the real shit
from the pharmacist, you know.
So I was impressed
by, you know, she had
connections type thing.
She had to have
open heart surgery.
They wouldn't give her
any disability at the time,
no help.
So that's kind of the reason
why she kind of started
selling,
you know, this a little bit
here and there.
But, you know, I mean,
it was nothing to...
To hurt anybody.
Then one day,
I went in to get her order,
and the regular pharmacist guy
wasn't there.
I said, "I'm here
to pick up Shirley's order."
He goes, "Well,
you just get it right there."
And it was just
over-the-counter stuff
that I could have
just grabbed myself and got.
I was thinking
it was all illegal drugs
and this type of thing.
So I thought, "Hmm."
Haysma, it was the name of it,
and it was for hay fever
and asthma.
So she would take a bottle
of 110.
She'd take 100 of them,
put them in a baggie
and sell them as speed for,
you know, five times
what... What's paid for them.
And then, you know,
just save up the other ten
until she got another 100.
I'm like, "I could do that,"
you know.
So I was going to get
my own over-the-counter,
and started selling the speed
to other people
making the whole profit
for myself.
I didn't do that
for very long.
That was the first time
I made money off of drugs.
I was attracted
to the power and respect
of the people
that were over there
in the card game.
You never know
when you might need
somebody like that.
If you get to know
people like that,
it may take you
in higher places.
I never was gonna be
like Lori.
I used drugs
and I drank and...
But I've also known there was
something else out there.
Lori, you know,
she was probably
abused so much by men,
and, uh, that she just didn't
have the confidence.
She also didn't have
the dream that I had
to be an entertainer.
And that's the difference
between Lori and I.
She also was buddies
with all the cops,
who I was not a fan of.
Cops in Ottumwa
were a lot of fun back then.
I mean, I would pull up
next to them in my car
and drag racing down the road.
Or they'd pull me over
for something stupid or...
"Aren't you too drunk
to drive?"
I'm like, "No, I'm too drunk
to walk home,
so I have to drive."
When I was living
at Shirley's,
Delmar Collier
was the captain of police
at the time.
And he'd come up
to the Elks Club and hang out.
Mom's divorced and everything.
And they hit it off.
And it was kind of crazy
my mom married a cop,
but, but, uh...
That's the way it happened.
I went to a party
at a cop's house
with my mom and Delmar.
Everybody was drinking
and everything else.
And I'm like, "Man,
you guys are boring as hell."
I said,
"I don't know about you,
but I need to smoke a joint
or something,
you know, liven this party up
a little bit."
And one of the cops asked me,
he goes, "What, you got some?"
I just fired it up,
and the cop next to me goes,
"Hand it here."
Mom and Delmar
had already left,
so I was there
just with three cops.
And one of them
was flirting with me.
You know, "Have you
ever been handcuffed?"
I'm like,
"It's gonna take more
than you to handcuff me,
I'll tell you that right now."
There was two of them
and they're putting
this handcuffs,
and I'm kind of wrestling
with them, you know,
and everything.
But they finally
got the cuffs on me,
and I'm like,
"All right, you win."
But they wouldn't let me up.
Then they started
trying to get down on my pants
and up my shirt,
and kiss me on the neck
and stuff like that.
And I'm like, "No, come on,"
you know, "Joke's over."
Fought them off.
I wasn't gonna get, two guys,
you know,
messing with me like that,
that was just little weird.
So I acted tough
and took care of it.
I was 18 at the time.
And then Floyd came
into the picture.
There's no bullshit
about Floyd Stockdall,
uh, who is the, the captain
of the Grim Reapers,
the Grimy Reapers,
as I would call them.
Well,
his nickname was Sin.
And you didn't want him
coming out.
Floyd is a great person,
you know.
Do anything in the world
for you.
Just don't, don't cross him.
First time I saw Floyd,
he came into Dona's place
with the Grim Reapers.
And it was just such
a powerful sight
to see all them choppers
just come in
and all these bikers walk in.
He was very well respected.
And usually,
when you have a lot of
respect, you've earned it.
We just kind of hit it off,
because I wasn't afraid
of him, you know.
And he wasn't used to people
coming up and just...
You know,
challenging him in anyway,
because everybody
was afraid of Floyd.
Floyd looked mean.
He had that mean look.
He had that unapproachable.
And that's the kind of people
I approach
because I like a challenge.
This group of guys
were specifically
about running drugs
at this point and crime.
Because of the socioeconomic
situation in Ottumwa,
it was on.
Fight clubs are known
for their involvement
in drugs, guns,
pretty much anything
to make money.
They're a band of brothers,
and they trust each other,
and they have
each other's backs.
So when you're moving
illegal stuff to make profit,
you want people around you
that you can trust.
Floyd said, "Tell you what,
if you'll take me to pick up."
He was getting white cross,
he was getting black beauties,
uh, all the different kinds
of speed.
He'd just be giving me money,
and all I had to do
was drive him to Des Moines,
and then drive him back
to Ottumwa.
I went to one
of his biker friend's house.
This guy had money stacked
on a coffee table,
and he had a pound of cocaine
laying there next to him.
He told me to sit down
and, "Would you want a line?"
I'm like, "Sure."
I had never done cocaine.
I said,
"This isn't just little pills
you can get off the pharmacy
or selling truck driver drugs,
you know, speed.
This is big time here."
Just looking
at that stack of money
laying there,
and everybody
was very calm, very cool,
no paranoia, nothing,
just having a good time,
I'm like, "I like this,"
you know,
"I can get into this."
Floyd had a big Grim Reaper
party at his house.
So Floyd, I said, "Look,
your birthday party's great,
everybody's fun
and everything."
I said, "So, what do you want
for birthday?"
He goes, "I want you."
I'm like...
I didn't know that he was...
You know, I didn't know
he was romantically interested
in me.
I wasn't sure exactly
how to handle that.
I thought
we were just friends,
and I was just trying
to make money.
But he just kept pursuing me.
So we started dating.
It took me a while
to love him.
He was 16 years older than me,
and he was super possessive.
I mean, it was like
after dating
when he asked me to marry him,
like, well, uh, "When?"
He's like...
He said May,
and this was, you know,
the year before
and he said May, like...
Well, if our relation lasts
till May, then I will.
She was funny
and gregarious,
and he was more silent
and tough.
And she brought out
the, you know,
more humane side of Floyd
and the funnier side of him.
And I... He really liked that.
And I think she really liked
his protection.
He'd exude power.
I liked it.
You know, back
in the days of the club,
women had to sit
in the background,
they had to sit in the corner.
They couldn't speak up.
They had no opinions.
Well, that wouldn't happen
with me.
So after me and Floyd
got together, Floyd's like,
"I think it's,
maybe it's time I retired,
because you're gonna get us
both killed."
So, finally, I got married
in 1980 with Floyd.
May 17, 1980.
There's me pregnant.
That's Floyd.
We wanted to have a kid.
I would drink a beer or two
once in a while,
but I stayed away from drugs.
Josh was born
in January, 1981.
There's Josh looking for food.
He was a ham boy.
He liked to eat.
And me holding him.
I was a little bigger
back then.
When he cried out,
it sounded like he said mom.
But I didn't feel motherly.
So it took...
Took me a little while
to get more the motherly
or realize I actually had it.
I just didn't know
how to show it, you know.
But, yeah, he...
He grew on me quick.
We'd been renting a trailer,
so we had to find somewhere
to move,
and my friend had a cabin
on the river,
and she wanted to sell it.
It's more like
a fishing cabin, you know.
So it wasn't winterized
or anything like that.
But we weren't selling drugs
or anything at that time,
so it was all we could afford.
I remember her
and Floyd living out at
the cabin on the river.
I don't wanna say dirt poor,
but they were pretty poor.
It was hard living.
But there wasn't a whole lot
going on in this town.
For people in their 20s,
you know,
there was just nothing to do.
Still walk the same.
-Shh.
-What's up, Murph?
-Nothing. How you doing woman?
Well, you know,
I'm always doing. Ah.
Our kids are only
a couple months apart.
And so, we hung out a lot.
We would just get high,
and the kids would play,
and me and Lori
would smoke weed
and talk and laugh.
And they'd have their time
and we had ours, you know.
Oh, now I'm, you know,
I'm just horrified.
But, you know,
that was the life,
that was
what we were doing then,
that was just, you know,
kind of normal behavior.
-Back then,
we didn't have anything.
-We didn't have nothing.
I mean, we didn't...
We had to, you know,
put our money together
-to get a dollar pack
of cigarettes.
-Right.
Smoke somebody else's
cigarette butts.
So that was a thing.
Yeah, I remember
I was smoking someone
else's cigarette butts.
-Yeah.
-And Floyd
was on unemployment,
-I think at the time.
-Yeah.
So we had no money.
I mean, we owned the cabin
at the time,
because we'd paid it off
little by little,
it's only six grand total,
anyway.
But we just had nothing,
and we were fighting
and struggling,
and hauling water,
and, you know,
it was just the cabin
was cold.
-I was just tired
of living poor.
-Yeah.
I was feeling
I was entitled to something
better than what I had.
You know, I thought
I deserved something,
you know.
And then one day,
Floyd's brother Mike
came down.
He goes, "Today, I've got
something I want you to try.
I got a way you can make
a little money."
Methamphetamine.
He goes, "Well, I want you
to try it out."
When it hit, it's like... Like
you just felt really good.
You had all this energy,
and we were talking
and laughing, and...
You weren't thinking
about how broke you were.
You weren't thinking
how tired you were.
Nothing but all right.
I like this.
And my mind started thinking,
you know, that maybe
I can get out of this rut.
He says,
"I'm going to give you...
It's an eight ball,
three and a half grams."
He said, "What you do
is you package it up
in little quarter grams.
You can sell a quarter gram
for $25.
So you sell it all,
you got $350."
You send now,
"I'm gonna charge you $200.
That's $150 profit."
So I went to the bar, I said,
"Hey, wanna try this?"
I was hooked
for the first line.
It was just this seductive,
utopian feeling.
The meth lasted longer
than white cross,
black beauties, robin eggs.
It had a stronger effect.
I was transported
into this new wonderful world
of crank use.
It was electric.
So I sold the whole thing
that night.
I called Mike
and I said, "You know,
I really like that stuff.
Bring some more,
because I think
I can get rid of more."
She moved
into the drug world.
Then you move up
and you move up,
and the best you could do
is eventually become
the big cheese in that world.
So it fell on my hands,
and it was just like
a dream come true
for me, you know.
Loved it.
I'm a material technician.
The money I make a week,
I used to make that
in a few minutes.
Even though,
it was 30 years ago,
I will always be remembered
as the Queen of Meth.
The use of methamphetamine
has skyrocketed
over the past several years.
It's now trendy.
It is now cheap.
And it is now spreading.
Meth makers have spread
into the countryside,
bringing tragedy,
death and violence.
Lori was
one of the first
to move significant quantities
of methamphetamine
from the west coast to Iowa.
She was a major
supplier making $200,000
or more a week.
I had a lot of respect.
I had a lot of power.
I could buy houses.
I could buy cars,
airplane, race cars.
Lori was
the queenpin,
I guess you could call her,
instead of the kingpin.
She was
on top of the world.
And then,
this all came crashing down.
Federal prosecutors allege
for the past six years,
Lori Arnold
ran a five-state drug ring.
She's the sister
of comedian, Tom Arnold.
Sister-in-law
of Roseanne Arnold.
-Do you think your sister
is a threat to the community?
-I don't think so.
Lori needs to get
fucking angry at my mom.
I feel the pain
of what happened to her.
What she did was wrong.
-No, no, she ruined your life.
-What she did to me...
I had to
grow up a lot faster than
other people.
I shouldn't have had to.
Like the people
that created the tech world
in Silicon Valley,
my sister created
the meth world.
I walk
like a truck driver,
I cuss like a sailor,
and I fight like a man.
It's kind of a combination
between my dad
and my mom's walk, I guess.
I go to work, I come home,
I sit in my pajamas
and I watch TV.
That's my life now.
Moved to Sandusky, Ohio,
two and a half years ago.
Me and my fiance
bought this little house.
This box is full of memories,
old pictures,
things from the past.
Right on top here,
there's a picture of me
at my ranch.
I was actually chopping
a line up in my lap
at the time.
I've got my little grinder
and a little drug
paraphernalia on
my lap there.
I'm more embarrassed
about my past
than I used to be.
This is me and my son Josh...
...when he was about two.
So that means
I had to be in my 20s.
I hurt Josh a lot and...
I don't really
want to talk about it.
It's hard.
He's the only thing
that gets my emotions...
...all screwed up.
'Cause I love him.
He went through hell
after I got locked up.
I've always been very guarded,
because of the things
I've done.
You know, a lot of people
never even thought,
including myself,
never thought
I'd make it this far,
because of my lifestyle,
I guess, growing up.
But here I am, big 60.
So I'm just trying to open
myself up,
and I am taking a journey
back to Ottumwa, Iowa,
where everything went down
30 years ago.
I'm gonna see a bunch
of old friends and my family.
All right, careful.
And I want to relive
some good memories,
and also, relive
some bad memories.
But it's time to face it.
She was a gangster, all right,
a big-time
drug dealer gangster.
"Scarface in a Skirt."
Well, I've never seen her
in a skirt.
I just hope to discover
why it began, how it began.
Can't change history,
but you can learn from it.
She'll always be
the queen bee of Ottumwa.
You can go
and ask people today
that they know
who Lori Arnold is, you know.
They know Lori Arnold.
She was
on top of the world.
Like we say,
when she walked into a bar,
you knew she was there.
Iowa stands
for I Only Want Amphetamines,
and I think she put the name
on the marquee.
She was
very generous with
helping people out
and donating different things.
But at the same breath,
it was destroying
our community.
I don't think
you'd live in Ottumwa
without hearing about it.
People's lives
were devastated.
At the crossroads
of the nation
in southeast Iowa
lies the city of Ottumwa.
It might be your town,
or any town U.S.A.
You know I grew up here
and everything so...
And just turning 60,
it's like, man,
that was a long time ago.
Ottumwa is a town
that hasn't quite caught up
with the rest of the world.
This whole neighborhood
is exactly,
like it hasn't
changed anything.
Houses look same.
It's like
a little country town.
Last time I was with my family
was at my Dad's funeral.
This time, I'm hoping it's not
gonna be as painful.
Remember this place?
Oh, my God!
-That's Skateland.
-Skateland.
-Yeah. Nice, huh?
-Boy, I can't believe it.
Looks like now, but...
-Oh, had a lot of fun here.
-Yeah. Oh, my God.
That was a thing
we did all the time.
Yeah, yeah,
we did it. We did.
I mean, there wasn't a whole
lot going on in Ottumwa.
-Yeah, well--
-That was one thing but--
-Maybe. You made...
You made stuff go on, yeah.
Ottumwa
is a working-class town.
And everything revolved around
the meat packing plant.
Gee whiz. Look at
all them rumble cars.
Yeah.
That's how I grew up
and my family.
Watch as hog
carcasses are broken down
into primal cuts.
Working in places
that slaughter cattle,
slaughter pigs.
Slaughtering 6,000 hogs a day,
and it's rough.
The company, Hormel,
kept making deals with us
saying, "We're not
gonna pay you overtime."
We had to work faster
and faster.
And it seemed to get more
and more dangerous.
A beautiful sight, isn't it?
Finally, it's like, "We got
to fucking strike, man.
We got a strike, like,
Ottumwa, Iowa, strike."
They say give back,
we say fight back!
Hormel employees
blocked the main gate
to the meat packing company's
corporate headquarters.
We're gonna stand up,
and we're gonna fight
this company.
We're gonna fight
international if we have to.
It was like, "Yeah,
we're... We're doing this."
Police declared
the situation a riot,
then hurled teargas canisters
into the crowd.
Back up! Back up!
Hormel says
there is no more time
for the strikers
to come back to work,
and there are no longer any
jobs left to strike against.
Eventually they ended up
firing everybody in Ottumwa.
The town
will continue to hurt,
because of the past year.
It was devastating.
Nobody got their jobs back.
You could just feel a dark
cloud all over the place.
That was rough.
The reason people
do drugs and start with
is they're trying to escape
from something.
Boredom, loneliness,
self-esteem.
There's something going on
that when you do the drug,
all that disappears.
But once
all this meth comes in,
everything started picking up
around there.
Everyone is partying
pretty hard.
The money
just came in so fast...
...I didn't have time to
reflect on what I was doing.
And it lasted about six years.
And then... It was over.
And it was almost like
a balloon deflating.
Tom Arnold's sister
faces six drug charges
in connection
with the distribution
of methamphetamines.
Psychological evaluation
was done
for my pre-sentencing.
"We cannot blame
Lori Stockdall completely
for her present circumstances.
Lori Stockdall's tragic life
has been influenced by adults
who did not have
her best interest in mind."
This is a picture
of my mother.
Beautiful lady.
She was a lot of fun.
My dad was Jack Arnold.
My mom, Linda Graham Arnold.
Brother Tom was the firstborn,
and then me.
And later on, had another
little brother, Scott.
We were just your everyday
average brothers and sister.
I always followed around Tom,
because he's my big brother.
He was a little rowdy,
very boisterous,
sometimes mean.
One time, Tom wanted
to go outside to play
and told me to hurry
and he'd wait.
He was holding
the glass storm door for me
while I was tying my shoe.
As soon as I got there,
Tom slammed the door
and my arm went right
through the glass,
causing me
to get five stitches.
Scott, he was
my little brother,
so I had to kind of
take care of him.
There's Lori,
the Queen of Meth,
and then there's Tom,
the bad actor,
and then there's me,
the good-looking one
with no record.
Scott was a disturbed kid
who liked to eat bugs.
He said red ants
were his favorites.
I remember once
when he held down a kitten
and ran over its neck
with a tricycle wheel.
I think we found this
cat at the swimming pool
in a garbage can or something.
The life of me,
I don't know why I would run
it over or anything,
but apparently, I thought
I was playing with it
until it stopped moving.
And, uh, I got grounded
for a long time for that.
I still feel bad about it
to this day 'cause
I love animals.
Yeah, she's insane.
We're just your everyday
average brothers and sister.
Oh, there she is, our mom,
smoking in the hospital
just besides the baby.
And there I am just born.
I guess that's
my mom there, yeah.
My gosh, how young
would she have been,
about 16 or 17, yeah.
Dad, he's a teenager, too.
That's hard to believe.
My mom
was out of picture
since I was, like, three.
I really don't remember her
ever being in the picture.
Don't remember her and dad
ever being together
or anything.
When I was four,
Lori was three,
my parents got divorced.
They were doing
a custody battle
for the kids.
They got to a day
where they put me,
would put me on the stand
back in the day
to basically say,
"Who do you love more, Tommy?
Your mother or your father?"
And my dad
didn't want to do that.
And so he surrendered
and he gave us to my mother.
The next day, my mother came
out to his office and said,
"Here's the keys to your...
The house.
The kids are there
with the babysitter.
They're yours."
I was told that mom
had a, you know, wild streak,
and she knew dad
would be a better parent,
so she actually gave us
to dad to raise.
That was the greatest thing
my mother could do
as a mother.
That's how I look at it now.
But at the time,
it was a rough deal.
And so my dad raised us.
Until I was almost ten...
...and he married
our next-door neighbor Ruth.
Ruth, there, there's Ruth,
next door neighbor,
looking, uh, cute.
Dad's, boy, dad thought
she was so cute.
Oh, he loved her.
Ruth had two kids
from her first marriage.
And then she
and my dad had two more.
So there were seven
of us total.
Ruth was strict.
She always had like
a little contest.
Whoever was the best kid of
the week gets a little star.
I just liked to win.
So, you know,
I did what I had to do to win.
I didn't wanna call her mom
because she wasn't my mom.
Ruth wanted me
to wear dresses or girl stuff.
First ethos
was girl, Gloria.
Well, you're a girl,
so we got to do pink,
we got to do this.
But I was a tomboy,
and I didn't...
I didn't wanna wear that.
So I would leave the house,
I'd have it on,
but I threw my jeans
out the window,
and I'd just change
in an alley somewhere.
Washington Junior High School.
I'm going into seventh grade
and it's all older kids there,
because they had eighth,
ninth grade there, too.
So there's teenagers,
I'm just coming in.
My brother Tom is there,
very popular.
Lori and I were very smart
and did well in school.
We were very intelligent.
Lori, I met in
seventh grade at Washington.
They put her in a lot
of the, I think,
in the accelerated classes,
because she was pretty smart.
I was good in school.
Played sports.
I always got A's and B's,
because school work came
fairly easy to me.
But I was known
as a tough girl.
And I was always joking
in class
and I was cutting up.
Lori always
had a drive in her.
Was always thinking
what she could do next
to get a better place in life.
I had this gal
that was afraid to walk home,
because this bully
kept picking on her,
threatened to beat her up,
and everything else.
So, well, I'll tell you what,
I'll walk you home every night
since you didn't live
that far from me,
you just give me lunch money
every day.
So she gave me two dollars
every day,
and I'd give a dollar of it
to the bully
that was threatening her.
And we'd go down
to Mr. Quick Hamburger
and get hamburgers.
That worked
for quite a while, too.
I don't know if she's having
issues at home,
but she skipped a lot of
school and that kind of stuff.
My parents
went on a vacation.
So Tom decided to have party
at the house.
There they used to wear
the hell out of it, whatever.
So they got into a big deal
and Tom moved out.
He moved in with our real mom.
I moved in with my mom
so I could grow my hair,
and I could stay out and party
and, you know, no rules.
I walk in the door
and she says, "Hey,
there's beer in the fridge.
You can bring
your girlfriend here.
You could blank her.
You do whatever you want.
I'm leaving for a week."
I was 15 and a half,
and I was like,
"Oh, this is...
This is not good," you know.
Tom was like my hero.
And so I was kind of lonely
without him there, you know.
And all the little kids
always got all the attention
and everything.
Started turning
to my real mom more,
because she
showed me attention.
But mom would buy me
what clothes I wanted,
you know, I got to wear
my big bell bottom jeans,
and mom was more my style,
I guess.
Don't really know
what exactly snap,
made me do the final decision,
but I just wanted out.
I eventually decided
to move in with our mom, too.
That's when
everything changed.
-Oh, boy.
-Yeah, there's Mom.
Yeah.
Me and mom.
Little bob...
Why was she
in your school picture?
No, it wasn't
a school picture.
This was... We...
We went and got our pictures
taken down--
Together, you and Mom went
-and got your pictures
taken together?
-Yeah, yeah.
-Oh, that's creepy.
-Why?
-People don't do that.
My mom was the manager
of the Elks Club.
And they had a lot
of big parties.
So I went up there
to cocktail waitress
and help set up tables
and stuff like that.
You know, it was long hours.
So she said,
"Here, this will help you,"
because she got Preludin
from her doctor, diet pills.
I took a half of one.
It woke me up good
and we sat up all night long.
I liked the feeling of it.
I was starting to get
into more boys, you know.
And so weight is always
an issue with teenage girls.
And it helped me lose weight
at the same time.
I wanted the other half.
I also worked
at the Elks Lodge for mom
-when she was there.
-Yeah.
What struck me
about working there
was how everybody
called her mom.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Except me.
Well, everybody...
Everybody liked her,
because she joked all the time
and stuff like that.
-They'd be like, "Oh my God."
-Yeah.
-"You're so lucky
that she's your mom."
-Yeah. Yes.
-I'm like, yeah. Yeah.
-"Your mom's so cool."
You know.
-She's letting us drink
on the job.
-Right, right.
When we were in the womb,
we had our first alcohol
and pills for real.
Me and her were more
like friends than like mom,
and mom and daughter
type deal.
She's a bar person,
so we go to the bars.
"Lori Stockdall was addicted
to alcohol at age 14
as a result
of her mother's influence.
Lori would not have done this
on her own."
It's true.
"She not only encouraged her
to drink beer,
but encouraged her son Tom
to do the same."
Mmm-hmm.
Mmm-hmm.
True.
Her best buddy. It was...
Hmm.
Most of us were
pretty naive at 14, I think,
but not Lori.
Lori grew up a little faster
than the most of us did.
I was around so many
adults that drank and partied,
and, you know, I just grew up
really too fast.
I was getting ready
to marry Bobby Roberts
in that one.
Really?
Yeah, Bob Roberts,
fucking guy.
I liked Bobby.
You could tell he was tough
just the way he was built
and everything.
He was cute, funny,
and he had a car.
You know,
that was a big impression
to me at the time.
Told my mom he was 18,
but his divorce
was in the newspaper
and it stated his age as 23.
One day, I was going to meet
him here at the skating rink.
You know, I was 14,
I'm in love, you know,
and I'm defiant.
"Mom said I can't go.
She's a bitch."
And as soon as I said that,
all I got was a roundhouse
punch.
Mom come around the corner
and punched me,
knocked me down
on the kitchen floor,
and then she went
in the other room.
And when she did,
I left anyway.
Stepdad come walking
in the skating rink.
He said, "You either dump her,
marry her,
or you're going to jail
for statutory rape."
And Bobby's like, "Okay, fine,
we'll just get married."
I didn't wanna get dumped,
you know.
I didn't want him
to go to jail.
So, what am I gonna do?
I'm gonna have to marry him.
Couldn't get married in Iowa,
I was too young.
Mom drove us
to Lancaster, Missouri,
went to courthouse.
We got married,
and then we went across
to the bar and had drinks.
And then she...
She drove us home
to the apartment.
And see,
here's the difference.
I got to be a kid.
I got in a lot of trouble,
but nobody made me
marry an adult
who was a serial pedophile.
Yeah, I miss my child--
I miss my childhood, yeah.
-I agree.
-Yeah.
No, I honestly can't say
if I thought he was a predator
or anything.
I just, guess I blame myself
because I flirted with him.
His wife that
he'd just divorced
was only a year older than me.
So, you know, it didn't
seem weird at that time.
I mean, now, you know,
23, 14...
Yeah, it's a little odd.
I was a full-on alcoholic,
very young.
Very young.
But, you know,
I did miss out on
having a mother like you did.
But it's no comparison
what you happened
between me and you.
"At 14, Lori was not capable
of helping herself.
She wanted her mother's love.
Her mother taught her
how to get it the wrong way."
I think it's...
I think it's...
I think it's...
I guess,
I think it's bullshit.
It's sad. It makes me mad.
It's true. I think it's, uh...
It's... It's...
Hmm.
Awful, it's...
Anyways...
It's the deal.
That was the end of it.
That was the end
of Lori's life really,
her childhood.
When I got
married to Bobby,
we used to walk down
to this Casey's store,
steal ham and bread...
...'cause we lived off ham
and bread
because he wasn't working
and we were poor.
I tried to keep in school.
I really did,
but it just didn't work
'cause I had to have a job.
We were all like,
"Wow. We can't believe
she quit school
and she's living with a guy."
And so in the mornings,
we'd all walk to school
and we'd walk
by her apartment.
All of us girls are like,
"Gosh, he's so old."
I was in awe, like, wow.
But she seemed
pretty confident about it.
You know, today,
he'd be arrested
for being a pedophile.
Bob, her husband,
to me,
he always treated me decently.
He was, you know,
a decent guy to me, you know.
But I heard there's a lot
of other stuff going on,
extracurricular.
He was watching TV
and I was in the kitchen,
and there was a boxing match
on TV.
And he was just goofing off,
you know,
pretending like he was boxing
and everything else.
Then come up
and he kind of jabbed me
a couple times,
like he pretend boxing,
and then he just punched me
real hard.
It's like it triggered
something in him
or something, you know,
and he pushed me up
against the window,
and then he stopped
and he goes,
"You need to leave now
because..."
He goes, "Now that I did that,
it's gonna happen again."
He hit me a couple times
in the kitchen,
and told me get...
Get the fuck out.
Last straw was I found out
that Bobby was screwing around
on me,
and she was 12.
I called my brother Tom,
and I told him to come get me,
you know, I've had enough.
We were only married
six months.
I packed all my stuff
and went with Tom.
"Physical, psychological abuse
for Lori was common place,
and thus a learned behavior."
After my divorce
from Bobby Roberts,
went back to the school
to see if I could get back
in eighth grade.
And they sent me
to the Board of Education
for an IQ test,
and I had a high IQ,
so they passed me
from eighth grade
to tenth grade.
But, you know, at that time,
I was already married,
divorced,
I drove, I bartended.
The rest of the kids
in tenth grade
seemed so young
that I had to quit school.
Then I quit school,
I went and got my GED.
I had a goal.
Decided I was
gonna do something.
Even if it's wrong,
I'm gonna do something
to take care of myself.
Lori needs
to get fucking angry
at my mom,
feel the pain
of what happened to her.
She served my sister up,
her daughter, to a rapist
and a...
A serial pedophile.
She said, "Here he is."
That's beyond bad judgment.
That was a big deal.
It really set the tone for me
versus my mom.
I mean, openly hostile
from that point on.
I loved my mom.
She was a lot of fun.
She died when I went to jail.
She's only 52 years old.
So that hurt.
That was...
That was really tough,
because the prosecuting
attorney
wouldn't let me go
to the funeral.
He said they'll have
my brother Tom film it
and show it to me in 20 years
when I get out.
There's old mom.
You didn't go to her funeral.
They wouldn't let me.
Yeah. I didn't go.
I know you didn't.
And I tried to tell you,
you should have.
-Oh, well, really?
-Because you'd regret it
later in life.
-I... I have absolutely
no regrets.
-You should.
She was never a mother.
No, she wasn't
a mother.
To me--
No, but that's
what I wanted her to be.
My youngest memory
after she left
was going out
and looking for her.
-You guys were best friends.
-Yeah.
-Except you were 14.
-Right.
And that was the worst thing.
Well, I didn't think so
at the time.
-No, of course, you didn't,
because you're 14.
-Yeah.
So but everybody
makes mistakes.
No, but stop it,
because you...
Did you ever give Josh
drugs or alcohol?
-Oh, no.
-Okay. Why?
-Because I wouldn't do that.
-Why? Because why?
-Because he's my son.
-That's right.
Because there's just some shit
that mothers don't do.
Well, yeah, she...
What she did was wrong.
-You know, what she did...
-No, no, she ruined your life!
-What else she did?
-Yes, she fucking ruined
your life!
-But I forgave that.
I forgive her.
-Yeah, I know.
-Fine, that's good for you.
-Because I don't want it
-to tear me up...
-I don't want--
-I'm not telling you--
-...inside to hate her.
You don't have to hate her.
But for you to get over it,
you got to fucking know
how shitty it was.
-It was shitty.
-Yeah.
I had a lot of time
to think about it.
But I'm standing here strong,
because maybe, because
of what I went through,
I don't know.
-Not because... No, no, no.
-Maybe because I love her.
-Don't give a fucking--
-I don't know.
-No, I'm not saying
because of her.
-Yeah.
I'm just saying
all the different things
that I went through
made me stronger.
-Made me a survivor.
-That's right.
-You know.
-That's right.
-That's what I'm saying.
-That's right.
All right.
"Lori Stockdall
is a young woman
who is a product
of a broken home
and an upbringing
characterized
by a total lack of continuity
of the morals and values
necessary to function
in society."
She became
a big-time drug dealer
and ended up in prison.
Well, fucking right she did.
I didn't meet Lori
till I was probably 16.
We were all going to the bars
back then.
We just really hit it off.
You know, we're a lot alike,
we're really outgoing
and, uh, like to laugh
and like to, you know,
kind of be the life
of the party.
Yeah,
she's a wild child,
out front, outgoing,
wanted to be herself,
but she kind of felt
like she couldn't,
because she was married
at a young age.
Her stepdad being a cop,
and it's just, I don't know,
I just kind of felt
that she was trapped in a way.
I didn't feel
like I fit anywhere.
It's like I can't go home,
I'm... I'm no longer a child
wanting to go
to my parents' house.
I was looking for something,
I don't know what,
I still don't know what,
but just somewhere
that I belonged
where I didn't have to pretend
like I was good
or pretend like
I was the wife,
like, with Bobby,
and be something I wasn't.
And then I met Shirley Inman
at the strip joint,
the Horseshoe Club.
She was always there
at the poker table,
and she always had
a wad of money
stuffed down her bra.
Everybody knew her.
She was like...
Like a madam, I guess.
And I got along very well
with Shirley.
She was somebody to look up
to another woman.
My mom believed
it's a cold day in Hell
before she deprived somebody
of a place to stay,
a hot meal and a shower.
She brought Lori over
to the house
and Lori...
Lori lived in our house
for a couple years.
Scotty Inman.
I met him when I moved
into his mom, Shirley's house.
And he's been by my side
for years.
Scotty was a good kid.
He's... he's younger than I.
-How old are you now?
-Now I'm 58.
-All right, so--
-I was probably--
Yeah, he's two years younger
than me.
He was two years
younger than me.
-I was probably 14.
-But to me, he's a kid,
you know,
but he was a good kid.
He's always been a good kid.
So he's always like
a little brother to me.
I love about Lori Arnold.
She's... She's like my sister.
She's always been outgoing,
outspoken person,
uh, stand up
for what you believe in.
Basically, you don't take no
shit off nobody type person.
And that's kind of like
the way I... I was raised.
You tell it like it is
and be told like it...
Like it should be.
I wasn't a very good influence
on him, I think.
But he was always fun
and laughing,
and he didn't...
He didn't do drugs.
He didn't drink.
-I smoked weed.
-Uh...
He just might have
smoked weed,
but, you know, to me weed
is not... No big deal.
Shirley, um,
she would do anything
to make money.
She had a couple girls
that stayed with her
at her house.
And she would not only have
poker games at her house
with lots and lots
of money involved,
but she would also supply
people with girls.
It was basically
an escort service,
I would...
I would have to say, you know.
She would like
pimp them out to help build up
her clientele,
because they were like
big shots around towns.
They were like
powerful type things.
I told her I don't wanna be
a hooker or anything.
But I had a car,
so she wanted me
to do her drug running.
So she would send me down
to a pharmacy
and go up to pharmacist
and say, "I need to pick up
Shirley's order."
-And they would have it ready.
-Yeah.
So I thought,
well, she's got clout
because, I mean,
she's getting shit,
the real shit
from the pharmacist, you know.
So I was impressed
by, you know, she had
connections type thing.
She had to have
open heart surgery.
They wouldn't give her
any disability at the time,
no help.
So that's kind of the reason
why she kind of started
selling,
you know, this a little bit
here and there.
But, you know, I mean,
it was nothing to...
To hurt anybody.
Then one day,
I went in to get her order,
and the regular pharmacist guy
wasn't there.
I said, "I'm here
to pick up Shirley's order."
He goes, "Well,
you just get it right there."
And it was just
over-the-counter stuff
that I could have
just grabbed myself and got.
I was thinking
it was all illegal drugs
and this type of thing.
So I thought, "Hmm."
Haysma, it was the name of it,
and it was for hay fever
and asthma.
So she would take a bottle
of 110.
She'd take 100 of them,
put them in a baggie
and sell them as speed for,
you know, five times
what... What's paid for them.
And then, you know,
just save up the other ten
until she got another 100.
I'm like, "I could do that,"
you know.
So I was going to get
my own over-the-counter,
and started selling the speed
to other people
making the whole profit
for myself.
I didn't do that
for very long.
That was the first time
I made money off of drugs.
I was attracted
to the power and respect
of the people
that were over there
in the card game.
You never know
when you might need
somebody like that.
If you get to know
people like that,
it may take you
in higher places.
I never was gonna be
like Lori.
I used drugs
and I drank and...
But I've also known there was
something else out there.
Lori, you know,
she was probably
abused so much by men,
and, uh, that she just didn't
have the confidence.
She also didn't have
the dream that I had
to be an entertainer.
And that's the difference
between Lori and I.
She also was buddies
with all the cops,
who I was not a fan of.
Cops in Ottumwa
were a lot of fun back then.
I mean, I would pull up
next to them in my car
and drag racing down the road.
Or they'd pull me over
for something stupid or...
"Aren't you too drunk
to drive?"
I'm like, "No, I'm too drunk
to walk home,
so I have to drive."
When I was living
at Shirley's,
Delmar Collier
was the captain of police
at the time.
And he'd come up
to the Elks Club and hang out.
Mom's divorced and everything.
And they hit it off.
And it was kind of crazy
my mom married a cop,
but, but, uh...
That's the way it happened.
I went to a party
at a cop's house
with my mom and Delmar.
Everybody was drinking
and everything else.
And I'm like, "Man,
you guys are boring as hell."
I said,
"I don't know about you,
but I need to smoke a joint
or something,
you know, liven this party up
a little bit."
And one of the cops asked me,
he goes, "What, you got some?"
I just fired it up,
and the cop next to me goes,
"Hand it here."
Mom and Delmar
had already left,
so I was there
just with three cops.
And one of them
was flirting with me.
You know, "Have you
ever been handcuffed?"
I'm like,
"It's gonna take more
than you to handcuff me,
I'll tell you that right now."
There was two of them
and they're putting
this handcuffs,
and I'm kind of wrestling
with them, you know,
and everything.
But they finally
got the cuffs on me,
and I'm like,
"All right, you win."
But they wouldn't let me up.
Then they started
trying to get down on my pants
and up my shirt,
and kiss me on the neck
and stuff like that.
And I'm like, "No, come on,"
you know, "Joke's over."
Fought them off.
I wasn't gonna get, two guys,
you know,
messing with me like that,
that was just little weird.
So I acted tough
and took care of it.
I was 18 at the time.
And then Floyd came
into the picture.
There's no bullshit
about Floyd Stockdall,
uh, who is the, the captain
of the Grim Reapers,
the Grimy Reapers,
as I would call them.
Well,
his nickname was Sin.
And you didn't want him
coming out.
Floyd is a great person,
you know.
Do anything in the world
for you.
Just don't, don't cross him.
First time I saw Floyd,
he came into Dona's place
with the Grim Reapers.
And it was just such
a powerful sight
to see all them choppers
just come in
and all these bikers walk in.
He was very well respected.
And usually,
when you have a lot of
respect, you've earned it.
We just kind of hit it off,
because I wasn't afraid
of him, you know.
And he wasn't used to people
coming up and just...
You know,
challenging him in anyway,
because everybody
was afraid of Floyd.
Floyd looked mean.
He had that mean look.
He had that unapproachable.
And that's the kind of people
I approach
because I like a challenge.
This group of guys
were specifically
about running drugs
at this point and crime.
Because of the socioeconomic
situation in Ottumwa,
it was on.
Fight clubs are known
for their involvement
in drugs, guns,
pretty much anything
to make money.
They're a band of brothers,
and they trust each other,
and they have
each other's backs.
So when you're moving
illegal stuff to make profit,
you want people around you
that you can trust.
Floyd said, "Tell you what,
if you'll take me to pick up."
He was getting white cross,
he was getting black beauties,
uh, all the different kinds
of speed.
He'd just be giving me money,
and all I had to do
was drive him to Des Moines,
and then drive him back
to Ottumwa.
I went to one
of his biker friend's house.
This guy had money stacked
on a coffee table,
and he had a pound of cocaine
laying there next to him.
He told me to sit down
and, "Would you want a line?"
I'm like, "Sure."
I had never done cocaine.
I said,
"This isn't just little pills
you can get off the pharmacy
or selling truck driver drugs,
you know, speed.
This is big time here."
Just looking
at that stack of money
laying there,
and everybody
was very calm, very cool,
no paranoia, nothing,
just having a good time,
I'm like, "I like this,"
you know,
"I can get into this."
Floyd had a big Grim Reaper
party at his house.
So Floyd, I said, "Look,
your birthday party's great,
everybody's fun
and everything."
I said, "So, what do you want
for birthday?"
He goes, "I want you."
I'm like...
I didn't know that he was...
You know, I didn't know
he was romantically interested
in me.
I wasn't sure exactly
how to handle that.
I thought
we were just friends,
and I was just trying
to make money.
But he just kept pursuing me.
So we started dating.
It took me a while
to love him.
He was 16 years older than me,
and he was super possessive.
I mean, it was like
after dating
when he asked me to marry him,
like, well, uh, "When?"
He's like...
He said May,
and this was, you know,
the year before
and he said May, like...
Well, if our relation lasts
till May, then I will.
She was funny
and gregarious,
and he was more silent
and tough.
And she brought out
the, you know,
more humane side of Floyd
and the funnier side of him.
And I... He really liked that.
And I think she really liked
his protection.
He'd exude power.
I liked it.
You know, back
in the days of the club,
women had to sit
in the background,
they had to sit in the corner.
They couldn't speak up.
They had no opinions.
Well, that wouldn't happen
with me.
So after me and Floyd
got together, Floyd's like,
"I think it's,
maybe it's time I retired,
because you're gonna get us
both killed."
So, finally, I got married
in 1980 with Floyd.
May 17, 1980.
There's me pregnant.
That's Floyd.
We wanted to have a kid.
I would drink a beer or two
once in a while,
but I stayed away from drugs.
Josh was born
in January, 1981.
There's Josh looking for food.
He was a ham boy.
He liked to eat.
And me holding him.
I was a little bigger
back then.
When he cried out,
it sounded like he said mom.
But I didn't feel motherly.
So it took...
Took me a little while
to get more the motherly
or realize I actually had it.
I just didn't know
how to show it, you know.
But, yeah, he...
He grew on me quick.
We'd been renting a trailer,
so we had to find somewhere
to move,
and my friend had a cabin
on the river,
and she wanted to sell it.
It's more like
a fishing cabin, you know.
So it wasn't winterized
or anything like that.
But we weren't selling drugs
or anything at that time,
so it was all we could afford.
I remember her
and Floyd living out at
the cabin on the river.
I don't wanna say dirt poor,
but they were pretty poor.
It was hard living.
But there wasn't a whole lot
going on in this town.
For people in their 20s,
you know,
there was just nothing to do.
Still walk the same.
-Shh.
-What's up, Murph?
-Nothing. How you doing woman?
Well, you know,
I'm always doing. Ah.
Our kids are only
a couple months apart.
And so, we hung out a lot.
We would just get high,
and the kids would play,
and me and Lori
would smoke weed
and talk and laugh.
And they'd have their time
and we had ours, you know.
Oh, now I'm, you know,
I'm just horrified.
But, you know,
that was the life,
that was
what we were doing then,
that was just, you know,
kind of normal behavior.
-Back then,
we didn't have anything.
-We didn't have nothing.
I mean, we didn't...
We had to, you know,
put our money together
-to get a dollar pack
of cigarettes.
-Right.
Smoke somebody else's
cigarette butts.
So that was a thing.
Yeah, I remember
I was smoking someone
else's cigarette butts.
-Yeah.
-And Floyd
was on unemployment,
-I think at the time.
-Yeah.
So we had no money.
I mean, we owned the cabin
at the time,
because we'd paid it off
little by little,
it's only six grand total,
anyway.
But we just had nothing,
and we were fighting
and struggling,
and hauling water,
and, you know,
it was just the cabin
was cold.
-I was just tired
of living poor.
-Yeah.
I was feeling
I was entitled to something
better than what I had.
You know, I thought
I deserved something,
you know.
And then one day,
Floyd's brother Mike
came down.
He goes, "Today, I've got
something I want you to try.
I got a way you can make
a little money."
Methamphetamine.
He goes, "Well, I want you
to try it out."
When it hit, it's like... Like
you just felt really good.
You had all this energy,
and we were talking
and laughing, and...
You weren't thinking
about how broke you were.
You weren't thinking
how tired you were.
Nothing but all right.
I like this.
And my mind started thinking,
you know, that maybe
I can get out of this rut.
He says,
"I'm going to give you...
It's an eight ball,
three and a half grams."
He said, "What you do
is you package it up
in little quarter grams.
You can sell a quarter gram
for $25.
So you sell it all,
you got $350."
You send now,
"I'm gonna charge you $200.
That's $150 profit."
So I went to the bar, I said,
"Hey, wanna try this?"
I was hooked
for the first line.
It was just this seductive,
utopian feeling.
The meth lasted longer
than white cross,
black beauties, robin eggs.
It had a stronger effect.
I was transported
into this new wonderful world
of crank use.
It was electric.
So I sold the whole thing
that night.
I called Mike
and I said, "You know,
I really like that stuff.
Bring some more,
because I think
I can get rid of more."
She moved
into the drug world.
Then you move up
and you move up,
and the best you could do
is eventually become
the big cheese in that world.
So it fell on my hands,
and it was just like
a dream come true
for me, you know.
Loved it.