Governor Swapped Parole For Hart

              ►  swapped parole for Hart  Ex-cellmate freed for helping locate slaying suspect  By RALPH MARSH  Of The Tribune Staff  PRYOR — Gov. David Boren and state crime agents  traded a parole to a convicted car thief and jailbreak  artist in exchange for help in the manhunt and trial for  accused child-killer Gene Leroy Hart.  «Boren denied trading the parole, but conceded, "we  certainly traded 60 days leave" for the convict.  "They asked me if I thought I knew where he (Hart)  was," said 30-year-old Larry Dry from a jail cell in  Delaware County. "They told me I would get a parole if  they were able to catch Gene Hart.  "I came through on my end as best I could."  Dry, who escaped jail twice with Hart and lived with  him for four months in a cellar in the woods, said,  "I knew just about where Hart was and then they got the  rest of the information from another person."  Boren said he "was very aware that they (state  agents) wanted him out to track Gene Leroy Hart."  However, the governor said he handled the parole  'routinely" and was not even aware when he signed it  that Dry was involved in the Hart case.  Later, Boren said, "I remember somebody saying this  the guy that helped find Hart. It was an added plus for  him  Boren said Dry met all requirements for parole and "I  would probably have paroled him irrespective of this.  "I certainly think my action was appropriate."  RECORDS SHOW DRY was signed out on leave from  -*he state reformatory in Granite on March 28 by Boren  and put in the custody of the Oklahoma State Bureau of  Investigation.  The initial leave was for 30 days and Boren later  extended that to 60 days at the request of OSBI agents  who told him Dry "was providing helpful information."  Boren said he was told that Dry "would be 24 hours a  lay in the custody of an OSBI agent, except when he  needed to be alone to gather information."  Hart was captured on April 6. Dry was recommended  for parole April 25. The parole was signed by Boren  on May 18.  There is no indication in the records that Dry ever  went back to prison to complete his term after the  leave was signed by Boren.  "This is, to the best of my knowledge, the guy who  gave the information that led to the capture of Gene  Leroy Hart," s?id one source close to investigators.  Dry, whose frequent escapes reportedly inspired remodeling of the Mayes County jail, sawed his way out  of that jail in 1973 with Hart as an escape partner.  Both men were caught a short time later.  THE TWO ESCAPED again, however, and Dry said  they fled to an old woodlands cellar about three miles  from Camp Scot: where they lived for four months in  1973. Dry was captured in 1974. Hart remained at large  until nearly a year after three Girl Scouts were found  slain at Camp Scott.  Since his parole, Dry has been arrested and charged  with robbery with firearms and larceny of some cabins  near Grove, but there is 'no indication of any move to  revoke his parole.  Dry shrugs off the charges and contends he is merely  being held by authorities until he can testify in the  preliminary hearing for Hart which is being conducted  in Pryor.  Dry, who says he is a longtime friend of Hart's, said  he saw a change in Hart during the time Hart was in  prison and after his wife divorced him and forbade him  to see his young son.  "WHEN HE SAW A KID, he resented the fact other  people were able to be with their children and to send  them off to camp and things like that. His wife had  divorced him and he had lost his kid forever.  "When I first knew Gene, he was a completely different person. He was always kind of easy come, easy go.  And, he was lovable with kids."  Dry said Hart's attitude changed after he returned  from prison.  According to sources close to the Hart probe, Hart's  wife, Patricia, told authorities when Hart was sentenced to prison for rape that the two were getting along  fine and that they divorced by mutual consent to try to  avoid a long series of debts.  During Hart's stay in prison, however, his wife  changed their son's name from Donald Gene so that he  would share no part of the convict's name.  She then forbade Hart to see the boy when he came  home from prison. Shortly after an emotional session in  which Hart's wife reportedly threatened to take the  See PAROLE, page 4A