Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service, first-hand accounts of events that have changed our world.

I'm Ibiby Caputo. Today I'm taking you back to the 1990s when Buddhism was finding its way into the US prison system and even on to death row

I'm pretty rare in the Buddhist community. I mean here's a death row inmate a Buddhist. That's kind of like a virgin

prostitute. They're very rare.

In 1984 Frankie Parker, who was addicted to drugs and alcohol and going through a bitter divorce,

kidnapped his ex-wife, and murdered her parents.

He also shot and injured his ex wife and a police officer.

Parker was sentenced to death in the southern American state of Arkansas.

It was while on death row, and in fact, while in the whole or solitary confinement, that Parker converted to Buddhism.

Anna Cox is a Buddhist and a psychotherapist who got to know Parker well.

He was a real mean guy and he told me a lot of stories of all the horrible bad things he did.

And so Frankie was thrown have one book and it's supposed to be a spiritual book. And

Frankie said, I want my Bible.

The security guard picked up the Damapada book

that somehow he had there,

and he threw it in the cell and then slammed the door locking him in

saying here's your damn Bible. In the southern USA where most are Christian, denying someone a Bible could be considered

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