[announcer] Support for the Whitney Reynolds Show is provided by...

Together at Peace, a community dedicated to spreading the light that still shines bright, helping foster a connection to those we love and lost.

Offering suggestions, products, and curated event templates to move forward with their spirits.

We are forever together at peace.

K O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

JoePerillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned luxury vehicles.

JoePerillo.com is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

And by Fair Oaks Farms, an escape to the country with acres of fun, fresh food and learning where you can explore family-owned farms and reconnect with nature, animals and our planet.

Additional support provided by Kevin Kelly Real Estate Agent, Midwest Moving & Storage.

Brendon Studzinski with State Farm, Bark Busters Chicago, Concierge Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery, and these funders.

Hello and welcome to the Whitney Reynolds Show.

Today, we are going behind the scenes and taking you with us.

We are lifting the curtain to some amazing stories and some untold interviews.

[opening theme music] [Whitney] Toby was known in her town for being a firefighter's wife.

He was also the first guy she dated.

They had two kids.

This mom was also known for heading up a nonprofit that helped dogs get adopted.

However, what caused this woman from growing up quietly in Kansas City to being on the FBI's Most Wanted list?

[police sirens] Let's find out.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you so much.

I'm thrilled to be here.

Okay, so let's go back.

I mean, I also told you this, too, you look like someone I could meet in the grocery store and become friends with.

Yes.

Little do you know that you helped smuggle a lover out of prison?

That's right.

Out of a medium-custody prison.

A maximum-security prison, too.

I started a prison dog program because I wanted to do something that would make a difference in the world.

And a year into the program, I just happened to fall in love with one of my dog handlers.

And when you say, "I just happened to fall in love," you were married at the time.

I was married.

Un-huh.

[Whitney] Were you happily married?

No, but I never admitted it to myself.

You know, you're not an adult when you're 20.

And I think we just grew apart.

And, you know, by the time my kids were gone from home, we'd gone like this, and we didn't have anything in common.

And I didn't realize that I wasn't happy until I met John Maynard.

And I was like, oh, man, now I know what this should feel like.

Okay, so you start this prison dog program.

John, I'm calling him your lover.

Un-huh.

Did you immediately have this sense of attraction?

Not immediately.

He was in my program for a year, and then I was going through a really difficult, emotional time because my dad was dying of cancer and nobody asked me how I was doing except for John Maynard.

Did you know you were falling in love with a convicted felony murderer?

I did know.

I did know that John had been convicted of felony murder.

Did he address this with you?

Yes.

How long did you date without physically touching?

I mean, because most of us, when we think about being courted, this involves holding hands or kissing.

And you couldn't do any of that.

That's right.

So, it was really quick, actually.

It was about four months before the escape.

Did your brain immediately go to, I am getting him out of here?

No, no, I didn't.

I just thought, well, you know, we can have this friendship.

And then after a couple of months, it kind of progressed to more than a friendship.

And he asked me, "If I wasn't in prison, would you be with me?

And I said, "I might."

How long was he serving time for?

Life.

When did you start putting together a plan to get him out?

Not until about the end of December.

And the escape was February 12th.

So, about five or six weeks before.

And, you know, he came up with this idea.

He said, "You know, I could hide in your van when you come in to do a dog adoption."

And I said, "Well, now, that idea would probably work."

And I still just thought it was a game.

But then when he told me, I figured out how to do it.

And then how did you turn it around?

And then, you know, I just kept thinking, "I have to get out of here.

I can't stay."

You know?

You couldn't stay?

I couldn't stay in my marriage.

You couldn't stay in the marriage.

And I didn't know how to get out.

And I knew I wasn't strong enough at that time to just stand up and say, "But I want a divorce," because I couldn't even say why I wanted a divorce.

I just knew I wanted out.

And so not only did you want out, but then you broke someone else out.

Let's go to the day that it all went down.

February 12, 2006.

There were just a lot of things that lined up for that day.

My husband was a fireman and he was working that Sunday, and I usually had someone from the warden's office help me with adoptions, and he was out of town that weekend.

And then it was so freezing cold.

And we're in the middle of Kansas, you know, and the wind blows and it was 19 degrees with a wind chill below zero and it was spitting snow.

And the officers don't want to hang out in that weather and really observe what we're doing.

So, just everything worked.

So, one of the unit team leaders at the prison had told me that there were some big wire dog crates in the prison.

I'd had a dog who had puppies and we used it to hold her while she was having the puppies and he said, "I need you to get this big wire dog crate out of here."

And John was standing there when he said it.

And he said, "How about if I take that dog crate "down to the gate "when Toby comes to pick up dogs for an adoption "because that crate's almost as big as she is.

"She can't carry it through the prison?

So, I'll just take it down there and load it into her van."

And he said, "Okay, I'll just let the officers know to expect a big dog crate."

So, I mean, it just like, fell into our laps.

And he told his roommate and a couple other guys in the cellblock that he was in, he said, "I just got called in to work "and Toby's expecting this dog crate down "to go into our van.

"If I get it all ready for you and I put it on the farm wagon," because I had a big farm wagon, so I could haul dog food around inside the prison.

He said, "If I put it on the farm wagon "and just leave it sitting out here, will you guys roll it down there and put it in her van?"

And they said, "Sure."

So, they did.

And he-- And he was in it.

Say that again.

He was in a cardboard box inside of the dog crate, and he's six foot four.

And you then drove him out?

I drove out.

And I kept waiting.

I had to go through three gates to get out of the prison.

And I kept waiting for that alarm to go off.

And I was thinking, what am I going to say when they pull me over, you know?

And they never did.

And I just kept driving through one gate and it closed and drive through the next gate and it closed and then drive to the third gate and it closes and we're out.

And I thought, I can't go back.

Now I have just helped a man break out of prison, which is-- How long did you think that you had before they would be on to you?

Well, it was 10:30 in the morning when we left, and the next count was at 3:30 p.m.

So, we knew at 3:30 p.m. they would know.

So, you stop by your house.

We drop off the dogs.

The responsible thing by dropping off the dogs.

Made sure they were somewhere safe.

And then I had bought a pickup truck and I had stored it in the storage unit.

And we went to the storage unit, pulled the pickup truck out and I put the prison dog van in the storage unit and we closed the door and we left in the truck.

So, you're on the run.

What was your first 48 hours like?

It was exciting, exhilarating, and it was also a little bit of paranoid because you're always kind of looking over your shoulder going, oh, my gosh, look what we just did.

You know, does anybody see us?

And nobody seemed to even pay attention to us driving down the highway.

What was the long-term plan?

There wasn't one, and we never gave any thought to the next step.

I mean, we rented a cabin for a month.

I prepaid for it for a month.

But past that, we didn't know what we were going to do.

How long were you on the run?

Twelve days.

We made it to the cabin on the next day.

How did you get caught?

Well, I'm not a very good criminal.

So, you know, I bought the pickup truck for the getaway.

And of course, you have to license your truck.

You need to be legal.

So, I sent the title to our cabin that we were staying at.

I used a fake name, but the FBI fugitive team figured it out.

I was on America's Most Wanted.

But even that, even with all the media attention this case was getting, nobody ever looked twice at us those whole 12 days.

So, when the FBI found you, what went down?

We walked in front of the truck of the FBI fugitive agent who was in charge of the case in a parking lot in Chattanooga, Tennessee and we had no idea.

And he recognized us, and we got into the truck and they set up a trap on the interstate, and we drove right into it.

I mean, there was 50 or 60 police cars and a helicopter with a light on us.

And he said, "Toby, what do you want to do because you're in this, too?"

I said, "Well, we need to pull over.

If they tell you to pull over, we need to pull over."

And he said, "Okay, I'll pull over."

And just then a police car sped around us and cut in front of us and slammed on their brakes because they wanted us to hit them.

And he said, "I'm not pulling over."

And he took off and we had a 100 mile an hour car chase on the interstate.

And it was, you know, eventually he lost control of the truck and we hit a tree head on at 100 miles an hour.

And I had prayed, "Please let me die in this car crash because I didn't want to deal with what was coming."

But I didn't even get hurt.

And then all of a sudden, there's all these SWAT team, right at the truck with little black machine guns that are this long, you know, and they're screaming and yelling and stick a gun at my head and said, "Get out of the truck."

And John had already gotten out of the truck.

What happened to John after that moment?

So, they put him in one police car and took him to one jail.

And they put me in a different police car and took me to a different jail.

[Whitney] Did you have time to say goodbye to each other?

[Toby] No.

After I got out of prison, which I did 27 months.

After I got out of prison, within a year or so, I met my current husband, and I had no intentions of ever getting married again, but it just-- Chris was just who I needed, you know?

And he loves my story.

I mean, we'll be walking down the street and he'd say, "Hey, this is my wife.

She's the biggest felon in Kansas."

And it's like, oh, my gosh, Chris.

He just loves my story.

But about two years after we were married, the reporter called me and said, "I've been talking to John Maynard "and he would like your phone number, but I didn't want to give it to him without your permission."

And Chris, I had him on speakerphone, and Chris said, "Give him your phone number, Toby.

I think you guys need closure."

Anyway, Kansas transferred to a prison in New Hampshire and Chris is from Maine.

So, we told John on the phone, you know, that we were driving back to Maine for a vacation and he said, "Well, you should come visit me in New Hampshire."

Is that even allowed after you broke them out?

It shouldn't be.

But you were able to.

But I was able to.

He said, "I'm going to send you visiting forms.

Just fill them out and see what they say."

So, Chris and I both filled them out and we both got approved.

And so, we stopped and visited him in prison in New Hampshire and we had a two-hour visit.

It was relief, really, that he was okay because I never did know, you know, and I was so crazy in love with him.

And I cared about what happened to him.

Have you wrote apology letters?

Yes, I did.

Actually, I wrote to the warden of the prison just before I got out of prison.

And he wrote back to me and he said, "Toby, I never was angry at you."

He said, "I was worried about you."

And he said, "I hope that you go on "and do something great with your life "because this is not who you are.

You are so much more than this."

And so, I've tried to live up to that.

Wow, I can see the tears in his eyes.

The stuff we've talked about here is not easy.

And giving us those tough answers and creating the change that you are.

Yes.

[Whitney] Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Thanks for having me.

[Whitney] After serving her time, Toby's Safe Harbor Prison Dog program continued for 15 years.

It was run by prison officers and outside volunteers who remained off-premise.

Her prison cell mate and best friend was executed in 2021.

That friendship opened her eyes to see beyond current convictions.

It also helped develop a deeper sense of empathy.

Toby started a workbook series called "Unleashed."

Its goal is to help women find a roadmap to redemption.

And she is currently working to get them to women behind bars.

It's not every day you get to step behind the scenes of a Broadway production.

And that's where we're going next.

[singing] [Whitney] Jennafer Newberry and Lisa DeGuzman take control of the stage and the hit Broadway musical Wicked.

We actually got to go behind the scenes, though, into one of their Chicago apartments as they reflect on their journey of hard work and growth.

I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

And I'm from Houston, Texas.

We both studied musical theater in college, and we studied it kind of growing up as well.

You know, we've been a part of the industry for a while, and that means taking classes and just never letting go of learning.

We're just constantly learning, even now still.

We both saw the show kind of early in our life and saw these characters and thought to ourselves, oh my gosh, one day that is something that I want.

And now it's here.

And we are grateful every day.

[Whitney] They make it look easy.

However, headlining a Broadway show is no small undertaking.

And we loved learning what goes into it all.

Getting through our auditions to get here and then our personal art.

I had a four-week rehearsal process to put me into the show and then plus, you know, the actual shows, and then plus, you know, clean up rehearsals every now and then.

So truly, I don't think I want to calculate how many hours.

Well, if we do calculate how many shows we've done so far in these roles and multiply that just by three, just for the amount of the show, we've done 250 shows coming up, and times three, that's 750 hours alone.

But that doesn't include all the rehearsals and everything.

So, it's up there.

[both laugh] I play Elphaba and she is green.

The makeup artist is trained to paint me in seven minutes.

But we usually like to take a little more time, so it takes about like, 15, 20ish minutes.

I always sort of have a green tint.

You can't really see it onscreen, but I usually have green in my ears still and in my hairline and on my hands.

So, it's just sort of part of the life when you're playing this role.

[Whitney] This unscripted, authentic look at two amazing actors and their rise to Broadway was eye opening and motivating.

This is a scene in the playbook of life they hope can inspire others.

Don't limit yourself by trying to be what you think they want you.

I know it is so cliche, but you are the only one of you.

And the things that make you, you are the things that are unique and beautiful and that only you can offer to the stage and to the world.

Find that thing that makes you unique.

Just like Elphaba.

Like, she finds this thing that makes her unique.

And you use it for good.

And to just piggyback off of that, because that was so amazing, is don't compare your journey to anyone else's.

Elphaba cannot compare to Glinda.

Glinda's cannot compare to [inaudible name] Elphaba is the same.

There are multiple ways to do the same thing.

So, as you go along your journey to achieve your dreams, do not compare yourself to anyone else's journey.

It will steal your joy.

And from a play to a movie.

And this movie fits perfectly with today's theme, because it is supposed to be a look behind the scenes.

Honk for Jesus.

Save Your Soul.

stars Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall.

They are documenting their lives through a pivotal, life-changing moment.

What was that like for you guys trying to keep the characters separate from like-- I mean, there's two film crews going on here.

There's like the documentary and then there's the real movie happening.

What was that like?

A lot of questions like, "Oh, who's shooting right now?"

"Is this the documentary or is this us about myself?"

You have to keep it straight in your head.

Because we jumped around this movie a lot.

Like some movies come closer to going in sequence, we jumped around a lot.

And Regina was usually like, "Who's shooting?

Who's?

Okay, okay."

[Regina] Because you have to know which camera you were going to look into when you got caught.

And then there was also a fake camera that was not the real camera.

[Sterling] Also, something like Lee Curtis did.

Being the performer that he is, when the documentary film crew was there, it's almost kind of like he got a chance to, like, be- The bigness that he is felt good to him.

You know what I'm saying?

Where I think Trinity, it was sort of a different reaction to like, they don't need to see everything.

-Right.

-Yeah.

There's favorite scenes to watch and then favorite scenes to shoot.

Sure.

I love the scene in our closet.

It was a fun scene.

[Sterling] The closet was fun.

[Whitney] Working together as a team to rebuild the public image of their church, Sterling and Regina reflect on the insight they discovered within themselves and their roles to bring this story to life.

There were certain things that were natural about it.

I think the performative aspects of a preacher are similar to being an actor.

You start with yourself and your own life experience and like what your own personal points of connection are to a character.

Then the work comes like, okay, now how are we different?

Before that script as a person, you know, you're reading it.

And so, to just read those words and then literally watch him just become Lee Curtis and like just so beautifully, be out of his mind crazy as Pastor Lee Curtis, but then in the next moment, you really have such compassion for him.

I mean, it's wonderful to watch him on camera do it, but to be opposite of him and literally just watching him.

Give me a hand, Lil Bit.

Give me a hand.

No, really, it is like such an honor.

We had rehearsals.

It was great to be able to hear Sterling, to hear the other cast members say it out loud and actually create these different facets of one person to each other, alone, publicly, in front of the camera.

It was daunting, but it was fun.

Our next guest is giving us a behind the scenes look to her childhood, one that is not always talked about.

In a candid interview, author Diana Ragsdale lifts the curtain to her childhood in Utah and Mormon upbringing.

She is breaking the facade of what she believed was once there and piecing together her truth and vulnerably living it out.

I was just born into a family of complete chaos right from the get-go.

My parents were swingers in the 50s and 60s, and it turns out I find out at 34 years old that I was-- that my father was not my real father, and I was a product of their swinging.

At first, I was just sad because I was a Cannon.

And in Utah, that's a big deal.

It's kind of like Mormon royalty.

We had been taught that it was a really prominent, cool thing to be pioneer stock and a Cannon.

So, yeah, that all kind of fell apart for me.

And I was sad in the beginning, but then as I started investigating the real story and all the secrets that kind of came out from this, I started to realize the blessing of it all.

And I didn't realize the impact that my mental health was suffering because of all of their issues.

When I was a younger adult and having kids and marriages, I actually reveled in the chaos because it was all I knew.

And I felt like I was being highly functional and just accomplishing a lot.

But my third divorce was what kind of brought all of it to a head.

And I just realized that it wasn't working for me to live like that, and that I realized that I had some responsibility in the chaos, and it wasn't working for my kids.

[Whitney] Bringing her shocking story to life through her book, Loose Canons, It was not easy to open up about her family's background.

But once she unleashed this truth, peace found her even in the chapters of her former chaos.

and she hopes that peace can be passed on to each reader.

It made me feel a little bit nervous that, you know, writing it was one thing, to put it on paper, but then to actually have it go out to the world, to be honest, I've been a little bit nervous about that, but I've been just receiving nothing but support, at least that I know of.

And it just feels good to be vulnerable and honest about my story and own what I what I've lived.

And I have no regrets.

I would love for there to be no shame or no stigma against people who are born in a chaotic and traumatic lifestyle.

And I think only by talking about it do you get rid of that shame.

Some of it I had completely forgotten.

So, writing the book has made it real for me and it's made it real for my family and my kids.

And I just feel like that's been important to be healthy and move on.

Real life behind the scenes.

Well, we have done it together.

But before we go, we wanted to give you a sneak peek into what it looks like here in our behind the scenes look at the studio.

Remember, your story matters.

[announcer] Support for the Whitney Reynolds Show is provided by...

Together at Peace, a community dedicated to spreading the light that still shines bright, helping foster a connection to those we love and lost.

Offering suggestions, products, and curated event templates to move forward with their spirits.

We are forever together at peace.

K O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

JoePerillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned luxury vehicles.

JoePerillo.com is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

And by Fair Oaks Farms, an escape to the country with acres of fun, fresh food and learning where you can explore family-owned farms and reconnect with nature, animals and our planet.

Additional support provided by Kevin Kelly Real Estate Agent, Midwest Moving & Storage.

Brendon Studzinski with State Farm, Bark Busters Chicago, Concierge Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery, and these funders.

[Whitney] Whether you want more behind-the-scenes or the whole interview, make sure not to miss one episode of the Whitney Reynolds Show.

Here's what's coming up.

[Man] You've got 1,500 juveniles every year getting arrested in a small neighborhood like North Lawndale.

Crime is not something that we can arrest our way out of.

But I started to realize that the world thought I was on top of my game.

I was on Forbes list of the richest self-made women.

I mean, from the outside, it was like the star entrepreneur billion-dollar brand.

But on the inside, I was struggling.

My mother would always tell me, "You're wonderful, you're beautiful."

But when I step out the door, society had other answers for me.

So, I'd always go back to my mother and ask her, "Are you telling me the truth?"

And as a parent, she always reassured me and said, "James, you know what?

It is okay.

At the end of the day, people would ask me what happened to my face?

No one never asked me what was my name and how I felt inside.

Like, my smile was like my first best friend.

My second best friend was the mirror.

Because then I started building myself up every single day.

[Whitney] For more information on today's program, visit Whitney Reynolds.com or get social with us.

Facebook @ WhitneyReynoldsShow, Twitter @whitneyreynolds, or on TikTok and Instagram whitney_reynolds.

[Kids] Our mommy!