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Submitted: 8/11/21 • Approved: 8/15/21 • Last Updated: 8/18/21 • R446441-G0-S3
Robert "Bob" William Abbey (TDCJ Inmate #808885) was born on February 1, 1932 in Cudahy, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin to H.T. Abbey and M. Cornish.
He Married Miss P. White, who died in 1994 before his crimes were fully discovered. They had 5 children.
Occupation: Snow Shoveler for the Chicago and North Western Railroad in 1959 in Wisconsin. The family eventually moved to Longview, Gregg County, Texas.
Mr. Abbey died on July 12, 2004 at the age of 72 in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas and is buried at the prison cemetery.
Crime Synopsis (See Below - Longview News Journal)
Man gets life sentence for assaults;
By Jerry Graham Staff Writer
A life sentence was assessed Tuesday against Longview man who said he was "illuminated" by God to start a Christian day camp for mentally retarded and disadvantaged children whom he subsequently molested. Robert William Abbey, 65, of 3503 Judson Road, pleaded guilty in Gregg County's 124th District Court to nine counts of aggravated sexual assault on seven girls ranging 6-9 years of age. Judge Alvin Khoury assessed a sentence of life in prison on each count. All nine sentences will be served concurrently. First Assistant District Attorney Becky Simpson said Abbey must serve a minimum of 30 years before he is eligible for parole. That means he will never be able to molest children again, she said.
Abbey was not applying for a license for a day-care center, but officers said that under auspices of a church, he was operating a program in which he provided free weekend care for disadvantaged and mentally retarded children. Abbey ran Grandpa's Christian Day Camp, which he operated out of his home.
On July 29, officers said Abbey went to a psychiatric hospital in an effort to seek treatment. He was diagnosed as a pedophile, but was denied in-patient treatment because it was not covered by his insurance plan from Kilgore College, where he worked as an electronics technician, officers said. Abbey was supplied with a list of psychiatrists and psychologists from whom he could seek counseling.
He then contacted police because he said he wanted to confess so that when he went to heaven, God would greet him with open arms, officers said. Officers said they read him his constitutional rights, and Abbey then began confessing to abusing the girls.
"In reading the Bible, I was struck by the last verse of the first chapter of John. In that verse, it said, 'Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: That you visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and that you keep yourself unspotted from the world.' "This appeared to be illuminated to me, and I thought this to be a message from the Lord that brought me into the ministry of taking care of disadvantaged children and their families," he told officers. "The Lord brought me several children and their families," he said in his confession. Abbey distributed a brochure in which he quoted Bible verses such as, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God."
Contributed on 8/11/21
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Record #: 446441