Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Jailbreak: Love on the Run,’ the romance between a corrections officer and a prisoner turns deadly when the former helps the latter escape. The documentary goes into the depths of the doomed romance between Casey White and Vicky White (not related to each other), which shocked her friends and family and led to a great tragedy for her. There is only one question that everyone has, especially those who knew Vicky: how did she come to the point where she helped a convicted felon escape from prison, risking her life and reputation? While some might say she was blinded by love, it extends the question to whether the love she gave was actually reciprocated.
Casey White Has Repeatedly Claimed His Love for Vicky
When Vicky helped Casey escape, leading to an eleven-day manhunt with the authorities relentlessly chasing after them, it was revealed that the two had been in contact for a good part of two years. The bond between them didn’t develop in a few weeks or months, which explains why Vicky would have agreed to risk it all for Casey. While people have questioned Casey’s real intentions about sparking a romance with Vicky, he has, on every occasion, claimed that he really did love her.
When Casey was put on trial following the escape, he talked about his love for Vicky in court. He received a life sentence in a plea deal, which saw the charges related to Vicky’s death dropped. He called her the “first person to show [him] affection.” He also added that the reason he took the plea deal was because he didn’t want to drag her name through the mud. He apologized to Vicky’s family, revealing that leaving them behind was the only regret she had. However, he also added that he and Vicky were looking forward to starting a new life together, and their escape plan was not supposed to end in such a tragedy.
Saying that he felt like “the most hated person in the world,” he explained that Vicky helped him escape because she said “right was right, wrong was wrong.” He recalled that she was the first person to hug him in six years, and while expressing his regret for the things that happened during the escape, he said that they were in love. Casey seems to have taken the declaration of his love a step further as, reportedly, he has “Vicky” tattooed on the inside of one of his wrists, though it is not clear when he got the tattoo.
People Have Differing Opinions of Casey and Vicky’s Relationship
While Casey has declared his love for Vicky several times, the prison officials who worked with Vicky find it hard to believe. According to retired Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton, “Casey White is a master manipulator,” and he “most certainly manipulated Vicky White.” Several of Vicky’s colleagues, who appeared in the Netflix documentary, also talked about keeping their distance from inmates, especially ones like Casey White, knowing that they can neither be enemies nor friends with them. Their suspicion of Casey’s true intentions can be gleaned from the fact that they said they would have tried to stop Vicky from continuing the relationship with him had they known about it.
Several people believe that Casey may have used Vicky to get out of prison, and during the manhunt, the officials even worried that once he got far enough, he may try to get rid of Vicky and kill her. In the episode of ABC’s ’20/20,’ titled ‘Catch Us If You Can,’ Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office investigator Matt Burbank revealed the nature of calls between Casey and Vicky. Over the course of about two years, they had around a thousand phone calls, which exhibited the progression of relationships between them. Burbank revealed that in several of those calls, a pattern emerged where “Casey would always compliment Vicky, tell her how beautiful she was,” and then ask for one thing or another. It was also noted that prior to the escape, Vicky had withdrawn large sums of money from her account and even sold her house hurriedly, which was enough to create suspicion about what Casey really wanted out of the relationship.
However, there are always two sides to a story, and the people who know Casey believe that he really did love her. Tyler Purser, a former inmate who shared a cell with Casey, believes that the love between him and Vicky was real, and the only problem was that they just happened to come from very different worlds. Casey’s mother, Connie Moore, also believes that Casey’s love for Vicky was real and that “they had a good relationship.” She revealed that Casey had told her he had a pen pal, but she didn’t really know who it was. He told his mother how good a person Vicky was and how much he loved her.
Moore also talked about the time Vicky showed up to visit her and Casey’s grandchild. While it struck her as odd, Moore said that Vicky seemed “real nice” and even sent Christmas gifts for Casey’s young son and grandchild. Moore also talked about the time when Casey said that Vicky would help him get out of jail by getting him a lawyer and going through the legal process. While Moore wasn’t entirely convinced of it, it was only after the escape attempt came to light that she realized who Vicky was and how close a relationship she had with her son.
Casey and Vicky Were Never Married
Vicky and Casey White’s run from the law came to an end with their car crashing into a ditch. When Casey was pulled out of the wreck, he asked the officers to check on his “wife.” Does this mean that he and Vicky got married while they were on the run? Officially, Casey and Vicky White were never married. However, in their several conversations on the phone, it was found that they would talk about settling down with each other. Moreover, Casey had referred to Vicky as his wife on several occasions, including the time when he addressed Vicky as his wife to his mother, Connie Moore.
Vicky White was married only once, in 2002, to Tommy White. The couple divorced in 2006, with Vicky citing Tommy’s drug problems as the major rift between them. Following this, she was in a relationship with a man named Brian Keith Garner. However, he passed away in a car accident in 2009. Since then, Vicky was known to have closed off herself, and it seems that she didn’t get into a serious relationship until she met Casey. As their calls and letters suggest, the couple talked about getting married, but they never got around to it.
