Gary Dotson was born in 1957. He was a high school drop out living in Country Club Hills , a Chicago Suburb at the time. He lived there with his mother Barbara and his sister Debbie. In 1979 he was convicted and sentenced to eight years, four years were spent on other legal proceedings, eventually leading to dropped charges in 1988. In 2002 he was fully pardoned for his crimes. While in prison, Dotson met Camille Dardanes, who he came to know very well during his hearings after the conviction. After his release in 1985, Dotson and Camille wed. The first few years were very difficult, they were poverty stricken due to his unemployment and alcoholism, being forced to move into Dotson's mothers house. They had their first daughter Ashley in 1987. Following the birth of his first daughter, Dotson was arrested in 1987 for a domestic violence charge which he would soon find out would complicate his legal situation in the near future. Camille requested a divorce which finally ended in April 1989 after the paper work went through.
             On the night July 9,1977 , a police officer noticed Cathleen Crowell a sixteen year old girl standing on the side of the road. She was relatively close to a shopping mall in Homewood, a Chicago suburb ,where she worked as a cashier in Long John Silver seafood restaurant. As he approached her he noticed her clothing was dirty,stained and in disorder. When the officer asked what had happened Cathleen began to tear explaining that as she left work and walked across the parking lot, three men leaped out of the car and ran toward her.The two men jumped out and grabbed her. They threw her into the backseat as one them climbed in beside her and the other in the front with the driver. She continued telling the officer that the man in the back tore her clothes and raped her. After he raped her she said he scratched several letters onto her stomach with a broken beer bottle.
             Cathleen Crowell was taken to Sout...