Escape from Terror: The Teresa Stamper Story

Escape from Terror: The Teresa Stamper Story
Genre	Drama
Based on	Unsolved Mysteries
Written by	Camilla Carr Walter Klenhard
Directed by	Michael Scott
Starring	Adam Storke Maria Pitillo Brad Dourif Cindy Williams
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	John Cosgrove Terry Dunn Meurer
Producer	John Perrin Flynn
Cinematography	Stephen M. Katz
Editor	M. Scott Smith
Running time	90 minutes
Production company	Cosgrove/Meurer Productions
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	January 23, 1995 (1995-01-23)

Escape From Terror: The Teresa Stamper Story is a 1995 American crime drama television film based on a true story from Unsolved Mysteries. It stars Adam Storke, Maria Pitillo, Brad Dourif and Cindy Williams.

Plot

The movie begins with Teresa Stamper giving an interview about her ex-husband, Paul Stamper. She recalls that he caught her when she wasn't looking and how she thought that he was a charmer.

The story flashes back to November 1982, when 23-year-old Teresa Walden worked at a gas station while living with her mother Wanda, a waitress, in Hennessey, Oklahoma. She applies for a job as a secretary for Stamper Oil Company, owned and operated by Paul Stamper. She gets the job and becomes attracted to Paul, her boss, and they eventually begin dating. One day, Paul brings Teresa some flowers and a wedding ring and proposes to her. They get married in Las Vegas in February 1983.

Afterwards, Paul gives Teresa's job away to Mrs. Lawson, angering her. When Teresa confronts Paul about it, he slaps her across the face, which begins a string of abusive episodes. Later, he shows up at Wanda's house, where Teresa had moved back to, and apologizes to Teresa. It is revealed that Teresa's father abused Wanda when Teresa was a little girl. Meanwhile, Paul takes Teresa to a house he bought, and also gives Teresa a new jacket he bought for her, and they kiss and make up.

After two years of a seemingly happy marriage, Paul and Teresa have a daughter, whom they name Katie. However, unbeknownst to Teresa, Paul had been stealing oil pumps. When Teresa goes to look for Paul at a local bowling alley, he abuses her again by yelling at her and grabbing her violently believing that she is seeing someone behind his back. The next day, Charlie, one of Paul's employees, informs Teresa about Paul's theft and that Paul had also been abusing drugs; but Teresa doesn't believe it. Later that night, Teresa takes Paul to a bar, believing that he is just tired from working. While at the bar, Teresa sneaks into the men's bathroom, and catches Paul injecting himself with heroin. He hits her violently and leaves. Teresa is found by an old friend from high school, Chris Butler, who takes her to the hospital. There, Sheriff Bill Douglass advises Teresa to get a restraining order against Paul, which states that if he bothers Teresa again, he will be jailed.

The next day, Teresa hires an attorney and files for divorce. The attorney gives Teresa a tape recorder to record any potentially abusive phone calls from him. Later that night, when Paul calls Teresa, threatening to kill her if she divorces him, she records him. In court, Paul lies that he never threatened to kill Teresa and he loves her, but Teresa's attorney proves him wrong by playing the tape. The judge then grants Teresa a restraining order against Paul and orders him to stay away from her or else he will be arrested.

After the divorce, Teresa begins a relationship with Chris. One night as they are driving home, they are pulled over by a car that they think is the police, but it is Paul, posing as a police officer and stalking Teresa. Paul shoots Chris and kidnaps Teresa. Paul holds Teresa hostage until the next day, when she manages to escape from him at a diner and hurries to a nearby establishment, where she calls 9-1-1. The police then catch Paul, who attempts to escape on a bus, and arrest him. Teresa is returned home to Wanda and Katie, learning that Chris survived the shooting.

In jail, Paul meets an inmate who will be released in three days. Seeing this as an opportunity for a jailbreak, Paul lies to the inmate, telling him that he is rich and will pay him if he helps him escape. The inmate foolishly believes Paul, and helps him escape. Sheriff Douglass finds out and advises Teresa, Wanda, and Katie to stay at his sister-in-law's house in Norman, Oklahoma, until they recapture Paul. This is unsuccessful, as Paul finds them there and leaves Teresa flowers. Sheriff Douglass tries to recapture Paul at the hotel room of the inmate who had helped him escape from prison, but this is also unsuccessful. Chris encourages Teresa to break up with him so she can start a new life, to which she kisses him and agrees.

Five years later, on Katie's fifth birthday at their new house in Nashville, Tennessee, Paul calls Teresa and tells her to wish his daughter a happy birthday for him. Teresa tells Paul to leave her and Katie alone. She reports this incident to Sheriff Douglass and he decides to put Paul's picture on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries. People begin to call in about a man supposedly named Gary Wickle, who resembles Paul and who is a truck driver. "Wickle" lives in Commerce City, Colorado and had kidnapped a woman, threatening to kill her if she didn't marry him.

Douglass calls the Commerce City Police and asks them to do surveillance of Gary Wickle's house, where it is revealed that "Gary Wickle" is in fact Paul Stamper. He had married a woman named Sue with two children of her own from a previous marriage, and she is pregnant with their first child together. As Paul boards his truck to make a delivery run to Kansas, the police ambush and arrest him. When Sheriff Douglass gets the news, he informs Teresa and she happily embraces her mother.

In the present, Teresa reveals that Paul was sentenced to 35 years in prison and after the trial, he was still claiming that he loved her. Teresa says Paul never knew what love was, and she now knows what it isn't.

Cast

• Adam Storke as Paul Stamper - Teresa's abusive husband, the father of Katie, and the main antagonist who stalks his wife throughout the movie. He owns an oil company. While on the run, he works for a trucking company under the alias "Gary Wickle" and remarries to a woman named Sue, who has two children from a previous marriage and becomes pregnant with their child.
• Maria Pitillo as Teresa Walden Stamper - Paul's wife and the mother of Katie. She is the film's main protagonist who must protect her family from her abusive husband.
• Brad Dourif as Bill Douglass - The sheriff who protects Teresa and tries to catch Paul.
• Cindy Williams as Wanda Walden - Teresa's mother and the maternal grandmother of Katie who works as a diner waitress. She suffered from an abusive marriage to Teresa's father.
• Tony Becker as Chris Butler - A friend of Teresa's who she later starts to date, and gets shot by Paul but survives.
• Luce Rains as Charlie - One of Paul's employees at the oil company who senses that he is trouble.
• Stanley M. Fisher as the judge - A judge who grants Teresa a restraining order from Paul after she divorces him.
• Pat Mahoney as Luke Burnham - A kind elderly man whose house Paul buys for himself and Teresa after Luke moves.
• Caitlyn Flinn as Jennifer - A little girl who Paul meets on the bus while trying to escape from the police. Her parents are divorced and she is on the bus to go visit her grandmother on her farm.

External links

• Escape from Terror: The Teresa Stamper Story at IMDb