Top Psycho Moms: 10 of the Worst
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China Arnold: Back in November of 2006 - China Arnold was arrested on suspicion of murdering her newborn daughter by putting the baby in a microwave oven. She was jailed on a charge of aggravated murder, more than a year after she brought her dead month-old baby to a hospital. Evidence included high-heat internal injuries and the absence of external burn marks on the baby. Rather than the death penalty, she was given life in prison without possibility of parole in August of 2008.
Susan Smith: Susan strapped her children into their car seats and ended their lives by putting the car in neutral and letting it roll down the boat ramp. Michael and Alex Smith became murder victims when Psycho Mom reached into the car and released the parking brake sending the family car into John D. Long Lake. She also initially lied, fabricated a story about a car-jacking and sent police and the public on a manhunt for a fabricated African American male. Judge Howard Susan Smith to thirty years to life in prison. Psycho is eligible for parole in 2025.
Andrea Yates: Andrea filled the family tub with water and beginning with Paul, she systematically drowned the three youngest boys, then placed them on her bed and covered them. Mary was left floating in the tub. The last child alive was the first born, seven-year-old Noah. He asked his mother what was wrong with Mary, then turned and ran away. Andrea caught up with him and as he screamed, she dragged him and forced him into the tub next to Mary’s floating body. He fought desperately, coming up for air twice, but Andrea held him down until he was dead. Leaving Noah in the tub, she brought Mary to the bed and laid her in the arms of her brothers. Andrea’s original conviction was overturned and she was found not-guilty by reason of insanity.
Sabine Hilschenz: In April of 2008, A German appeals court confirmed a 15-year prison sentence handed to this woman for killing eight of her newborn babies in the country’s worst post-war infanticide case. The remains of the babies were found in buckets and flowerpots at the home she shared with her husband, and in an old fish tank at the home of her parents in the town of Brieskow-Finkenheerd in former communist east Germany. She gave birth to nine babies - 2 boys and 7 girls - between 1988 and 1998. She was also accused of killing the first of the 9 babies, born in 1988, but the lower court ruled that the time in which she could be charged in connection with that death had lapsed.
Banita Jacks: In January of 2008, she was charged with three counts of felony murder and one count of first-degree murder while armed. She murdered 4 children in grisly fashion. Jacks told police that her daughters were possessed by demons and that each died in her sleep during a seven- to 10-day period. Preliminary findings were that Brittany was stabbed to death and that Aja died from blunt-force impact to the back of her head and possible ligature strangulation. Both Tatianna and N’kiah also had “apparent ligature evidence” on their necks that was “somewhat more defined than that noted on Aja Fogle’s neck,” court documents said. She kept her daughters for many months. Their bodies were found in the home severely decomposed.
Deanna Laney: This psycho mom, who reported that she killed two of her three children “on God’s orders” was actually acquitted in April of 2004 and ordered into a state psychiatric facility in Texas. Laney, an East Texas housewife, locked her sleeping husband in their bedroom and then went to Joshua and Luke’s room. She escorted Luke to a rock garden in the front yard of their home, which is encircled by a white split-rail fence. Laney told her son to lie down with his head on a rock and she took another large rock, raised it over her head and brought it down onto his skull. She then killed Joshua in the same manner. Both children were found dead with large stones lying on their chests. Aaron, the third son, 14 months old, was attacked with a rock in his crib but did not die.
Lisa Diaz: To “save her children from an evil world” - she drowned them. Both of them. Briana, 6, and Kamryn, 3, back in 2003. A Collin County jury decided in August 2004 that Ms. Diaz did not know it was wrong to drown her two young daughters. She had been suffering from psychotic delusions and thought she was being merciful by killing them, according to testimony during the trial. As a result, the jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors disagreed, saying that there were no signs of mental illness at the time of her arrest. In fact, they said, she showed remorse for her actions. She was released after being found “mentally stable” after little more than 2-years in a psychiatric hospital.
Dena Schlosser: This psycho mother killed her eleven-month-old daughter, Margaret Schlosser, in 2004, amputating the baby’s arms with a knife and offering her to God. This crazy bitch is actually soon to be a free woman. Another mother who gets off lightly after killing children, she was found not-guilty by reason of insanity. Now, she is moved to outpatient care and will be free from any punishment.
Geneviève Lhermitte: Back in 2007, this mother slashed the throats of her five children before trying to commit suicide in the Belgian town of Nivelles. Unfortunately, she wasn’t successful in killing herself as effectively as she took the lives of her offspring. The girls Yasmine,14, Nora, 12, Myriam, 10, Mina, 8, and a boy Mehdi, 3, had all been “killed with a knife” and the mother had called the emergency services after an apparent attempt to kill herself with the same weapon. She was “depressed.” On December 19, 2008 Lhermitte was found guilty of the murders by the court and is now facing life imprisonment.
Fed up with poverty and ill health, a woman fed her six children food laced with a pesticide and later consumed the same herself in new Pannapur area of Hapur on Wednesday night.
Saroj Bala: 35, was married to a truck driver who was knee-deep in debt. She poisoned all 6 of her children. The three children identified by the police are Dolly, 14, Jyoti, 10, and Sanjeev, 9; the names of the three other children could not be ascertained. In a recovered suicide note, she has blamed herself for the tragedy. The lack of blaming someone else or something else is stunning. This psycho mom actually blamed herself and managed to succeed in taking her own life. Among the six children, the eldest was a 14-year-old girl and the youngest a three-year-old boy.
————
I have a few thoughts:
- Ever notice how often child-killing mothers are excused for what they do?
- Ever notice how often child-killing mothers get the “female sentencing discount” for their grisly crimes?
- Do you ever wonder if the stats on domestic violence are skewed because mothers who kill their children or husbands or boyfriends are rarely, if ever categorized as “domestic violence?”
- 61% of all child abuse is committed by biological mothers while only 25% is committed by biological fathers according to data available at the DHHS report on nationwide Child Abuse.
May 8th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
We recently had two high profile cases in my area, of women who left their babies in their cars, causing them to die from overheating. Neither mother was charged with any crime. However, a young father who’s child was injured while with a babysitter (not even by him) was charged with endangerment, and was only let go when he agreed to take parenting classes.
May 8th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Oh God, this really brings up my biggest PEW fear! At her craziest she seems capable of anything.
The punishments are undoubtedly skewed because their women, mothers.
It’s a sick ridiculous bias.
May 8th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I remember the Susan Smith case because “South Park” had parodied it quite well a few years ago.
While trying to avoid the debate about whether or not insanity should even BE a valid criminal defense, I would like to see comprehensive statistics regarding fathers vs mothers who are accused, charged, or convicted of child abuse. And if acquitted, what was the reason given by the judge/jury?
Specifically, I wonder how many fathers who have murdered their children have ever avoided the death penalty by successfully using the Schlosser-Laney defense (God told me to do it) or the Diaz defense (they’re in a better place now).
May 8th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Clearly, these women were/are all extremely ill. Must confess I’m rather uncomfortable with the way that these tragic and horrible cases have been lined up for us to gawk at.
Also, I don’t really get the points about these women being “excused” and benefiting from a “female sentencing discount”. Here (in the UK), fathers who kill are treated in a similar fashion:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178245/Father-pushed-son-death-Crete-hotel-balcony-unlawful-killing-verdict-quashed.html
I subscribe to this blog and I get a lot from, but I feel that this post was a mis-step.
May 8th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Jin,
I understand your feelings. Consider it a stark reminder that while fathers get their collective asses kicked in the media on a regular basis and are often viewed as inferior in the parenting arena… and are abusers and rapists and killers… that males don’t have the market cornered for viciousness towards their fellow humans.
May 8th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Although all the cases are related because they resulted in the death of children, I believe each case has different facts. I have no doubt Susan Smith was selfish and had no true insanity. Andrea Yates was a different story. I have not seen enough on the other cases to make any personal judgement, but from what I have seen, each case is different.
What I think should be pointed out here is that many of these women with true mental illness issues did try to get help, but doctors and family failed them. The other issue is that many that are so mentally disturbed are still able to act perfectly normal in front of a doctor so no one of authority believes there is a risk.
The PEW in our life did go through a period of time where we really feared for the safety of the kids. She has some serious mental illness, and even threatened to ‘take the children with her’, but denied all of it in front of authorities. I am more disturbed by the lack of getting mental illness and children at risk identified and protect the kids.
In the case of Andrea Yates, her husband left her home alone with the kids, knowing she had issues. For the Susan Smith case, the father wanted the boys and had no ability to intervene and save his boys. Those cases are VERY far apart beyond the death of children.
Male victims of domestic violence do not report it due to not being believed or being made fun of. True statistics are not there. But father do kill children too. I am sure there are 10 cases of fathers killing children just like these.
This post doesn’t seem to get at the real issue that mental illness is not easy to diagnose and children end of as victims. Men are victims of domestic violence by women, but are not given the same resources for help as women. It is not socially acceptable for a mother to walk away from her children, so many stay with the kids just because of the social implication rather than giving the children to the father to properly care for them. In all cases, the victims are the kids, regardless of the parent responsible.
May 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
[...] Top Psycho Moms: 10 of the Worst Share and Enjoy: [...]
May 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
[...] Top Psycho Moms: 10 of the Worst Share and Enjoy: [...]
May 8th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
It’s important to note that not all mothers are murderous psychos. From reading your site, I know you understand that. But some of the psycho-feminists out there seem to think that only men can do anything wrong and women should be allowed to do anything they want, no matter how damaging it may be. Such troubled women would likely react to your accurate list in some bizarre fashion. Sometimes I wonder if many or most extreme feminists are mentally ill.
Here are links to another couple of articles that back up the point you’re making:
Murderous Mentally Ill Mothers and Government Negligence
False Feminists and Abusive and Murderous Women
May 8th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Here are two of my favorite examples…killing husbands….all justified of course either in the media or the justice system or both. Play the role reversal game on these and see what you come up with.
CLARA HARRIS - ran over her husband with his daughter in the car…great gender bias in the media
CBS portrayed Clara as a pitiable, betrayed wife in the 2004 movie Suburban Madness, and Oprah Winfrey sympathetically interviewed the sobbing Clara from prison in 2005. Of the 354 news stories covering the wrongful death trial that are indexed on Google News, 233 refer to David Harris as Clara Harris’ “cheating husband.” Not one mentions the phrase “domestic violence.”
Link to blog where what would happen if gender roles were reversed….source of quote above…
http://www.glennsacks.com/suppose_roles_had.htm
AND
MARY WINKLER - shot her husband in cold blood, did 210 days in jail and was given custody of the children who’s father she slaughtered
A Tennessee woman who was convicted of shooting her minister husband in the back in 2006 has been granted custody of her three daughters. Mary Winkler picked up the three girls last week at the home of her slain husband’s parents with whom they have been living since the shooting.
link to story….
http://crime.about.com/b/2008/08/05/mary-winkler-gets-custody-of-daughters.htm
May 8th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
# Mister-M Says:
May 8th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
_”Jin,
I understand your feelings. Consider it a stark reminder that while fathers get their collective asses kicked in the media on a regular basis and are often viewed as inferior in the parenting arena… and are abusers and rapists and killers… that males don’t have the market cornered for viciousness towards their fellow humans.”
Actually, speaking of murder, (and violence), yes…males do have the Market cornered”
This post was very telling indeed.
# Kate Sa
May 9th, 2009 at 12:07 am
No, actually, they don’t.
May 9th, 2009 at 1:20 am
It is very disturbing to see what some women do. However, I agree with Jin that this post seems out of character with what this blog is about. Also, it is important to be aware that your readers may have emotional triggers to reading about abuse, especially of this magnitude, and it would have been nice to have some warning about what we were about to read.
May 9th, 2009 at 8:02 am
You left off Darlie Routier and Jeanmarie Geis - both mothers who killed their own children and tried to blame it on intruders (also both from Texas). Considering that Texas also has some of the most pro-mother judges in the nation, I would have to conclude that Texas is a rather dangerous place for children.
Oh, and as to the Clara Harris case: while the media never refer to the late Mr. Harris without also mentioning the word “cheating”… they are careful never to reveal that Clara had also had more than one affair during that marriage.
I supposed “bias” is in the eyes of the beholder.
May 9th, 2009 at 8:24 am
I think a lot were just missing the point.
How do you get any of them services when the system isn’t set up that way? The person that lives with them day in an out knows them best but when you try to get them help or psych eval its seen as a ploy for custody.
There IS a bias. I am a woman and clearly see that the rules are different. Woman are always seen mentally ill if they kill their kids because a mother couldn’t possibly hurt them of her own free will. She gave birth to them. Yet if a man does it he is seen as sane. Pew in my case is missing the material feelings for her kids.
Women die at the hand of a lover and that guy doesn’t get to go to the hospital for a few years and be released. Yet a woman kills a man and it MUST have been his fault somehow! He beat her,cheated,etc. Justifications for her behavior. Watch that show “snapped” and u can see all the woman that killed men in their lives and rarely is it cuz of abuse, usually it’s greed.
Courts presume mothers to be the ones that should get the kids in a custody situation and rarely is that based on anything but she’s the mom.
-crackberry posted
May 9th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Don’t forget Diane Downs - the “Small Sacrifices” woman played by Farrah Fawcett, who shot all three of her kids, one of which died, and also tried to use the car-jacked story. Life in prison, + 50 years.
May 10th, 2009 at 6:19 am
SunnyRai, aside from the title, he does post tags. Be sure to view these in the future - they can be beneficial (esp. in this type of scenario)
Tags: child abuse, death, off-topic
To all of those who seem to be offended and (shamefully) defensive in regards to this topic:
This isn’t “ThePsychoExHusband.com”… just a reminder, and a helpful hint as to why fathers weren’t included in this post. Also, it is very apparent that the MAIN purpose of this site is to vent and bring awareness to the blatent judicial bias in favor of mothers.
In my short 25 years on this earth I can count the number of times there’s been a media circus around a father pleading “insanity” on one fist; that’s right a big goose-egg. For mothers? I would need to remove my socks & shoes… and also those of the person standing next to me.
Just a thought…
May 10th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
So so true, all of it. A couple of years ago after a local mother had stabbled two of her children, our PEW actually told the kids ‘That’s going to be me one day, I’ll just wake up and start stabbing’. And we had to fight her for custody? Go figure.
May 10th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I have been a follower of this blog for a while and I’ve referred other single mothers here as well - not to say “look at this jerky ex-husband” but instead to give an example of a father who was invested and focused on parenting and not just in grinding the exwife into the ground. Just as there are plenty of PEWs out there, there are just as many PEHs. It was reassuring to see a father working through the worst of it and keeping the focus on the kids and not just on the ‘war’. But now I’m not sure so about that anymore.
This post has lost me. A list of murdering mothers on Mother’s Day? Really? Inappropriate to the least. And it provides a real insight to where your head is at. And that’s not something I’m interested in following any longer.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Renee,
I appreciate what you’re saying. This blog is about more than my story as an involved father, step-father, and loving partner to DW. It’s not about focusing just on bad ex-wives, ex-partners, bad women… we know and have commented on the bad guys that are out there, too.
As a reader of this blog regularly, you must know that, too. It’s not just about my story, but the things that go on in society that make things more difficult, particularly for men and fathers, than they have to be (or should be).
If I lose you or anyone else, that will be unfortunate, but we all make decisions in life and if that’s one that works best for you and anyone else you think should move on, that’s okay.
It’s the same way I sometimes feel when people like Obama, clergy, and so many others who use Father’s Day as an annual vehicle to speak poorly of fathers and fatherhood.
Perhaps that point wasn’t clear… but maybe you’ll reconsider when I put it more clearly in that context.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
This is what Fathers tend to see on Father’s Day…
http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=2322
http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=815
Small sample. Everyone should take a good hard look at that as Father’s Day approaches again.
Articles like this “celebrating” Father’s Day aren’t that unusual. Good luck finding such talk about Mother’s on Mother’s Day.
Do two wrongs make a right? Certainly not. Is this post a wake-up call? You betcha! I wonder if those who feel this post and it’s timing is in poor taste protest as vehemently when it happens on and around Father’s Day.
May 11th, 2009 at 5:55 am
[...] few days ago, I ran across a very interesting list in a blog post Top Psycho Moms: 10 of the Worst on the The Psycho Ex-Wife website. This list points out ten of the worst cases of mothers who [...]
May 11th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Mister-M:
I am one mother that understands why you posted this, especially on Mother’s Day weekend. My husband and I were made sick with all the commercials assuming that all mothers are good to their children, and should be respected on Mother’s Day. My husband’s mother was a PEW (still is), and now he has a PEW himself. He somehow repeated the same mistake his father made by getting married to someone with red flags that he ignored.
Many of the women in the list also had red flags. In some cases, the fathers tried to get the children away from the potential danger, but the current legal system does not have anything in place to help fathers or children in such a situation. There are tons of resources for women and children when the abuser is the father, but not when the abuser is the mother. Worse yet, most of the abuse by a mother is psychological until the final act, which is too late to help the children.
I know you recognize there are many good mothers out there (DW) and also many terrible fathers. Our society has come a long way to support mothers and children when at risk by an abusive man, but we have not made any progress to even recognize the problem of a mentally unstable mother. Worse yet, those with BPD can pass standard psych evals, thus in the eyes of the court they are perfectly fine. Things like school records of issues when with the mother seem to mean nothing to a court. Also, it is perfectly acceptable for a poor mother to provide little for the children because she doesn’t manage money well (or refuses to work like our PEW), but in the reverse, a father would never be given custody if he provided the same for the children.
Most mothers are good. I would give up anything for my children, including the thousands of back child support my ex owed. It meant more for me to have my children spend time with their father not saying stuff to upset them than the money. Draining my retirement was much less painful than having my children ask me why their father keeps saying awful things about me. My case tends to fit the stereo-type, but I don’t feel my case is the norm. Most of the father’s I know would also give up anything for their children.
May 14th, 2009 at 6:20 am
In regard to the statements of “SunnyRai” and “TheMostMom” :
I was shocked to read your list. I became sick to my stomach, I felt fear, I shook, and it left me drained…so I would say this post was an awful trigger for me. I relived these cases that I’d already lived through a thousand times in my mind and heart when they were on the news, as the stories unfolded for all the world.
On the other hand, “TheMostMom” pointed out that you do use tags, and if we pay attention (which I often do not look at tags before I begin reading) we can make the decision not to read particular articles.
I also agree with Kate, that each of the cases with which you refreshed our memories, came about under different circumstances for each of these women.
I would NEVER defend a woman who had committed these crimes by excusing the behavior because of legitimate mental health illnesses they suffered. They should and must answer for all of it, AND receive huge amount of help they need to realize the extent of their cruelty; just in case they don’t already know by the time they do these things.
However, I would also not use these crimes as typical examples to express the differences between the way males and females are handled by the courts in regard to children. These crimes are not simply crimes of neglect or poor mothering skills gotten by with…these are crimes of the mind, the soul. And, though we hear of them all the time, we cannot assume that a psycho ex-wife/husband would necessarily commit such acts. The phycho ex may be a loon who drives you crazy all the time, but I would not compare craziness in a crazed marriage to the horrific crimes rehashed here…until you have reason to do so because such a thing has actually happened to you all, and affected you personally.
May 16th, 2009 at 9:25 am
On the one hand, this post is “over the top” because the “Top 10″ women were clearly more than BPD; most, if not all, were psychotic. Thus, it would not be fair to compare them to most of the PEWs members of this site experience, even though some of their behaviors remind us of our own PEWs. But I recently learned of a “new” term that relates to some BPs: “micropsychotic episodes,” wherein the BP does have a period of hours/days/longer? where they are, to some degree, psychotic. Perhaps that is why these bizarre stories strike a chord with readers here. If so, the two questions are 1) Do some BPs have a greater risk of micropsychotic episodes? 2) If so, are there warning signs that can identify them before they do something truly crazy (like murder?)
May 28th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
[...] Top Psycho Moms: 10 of the Worst Feedjit Live Blog Stats Sphere: Related Content Children, Courts, Crime, Divorce, Domestic Violence, Family, Government Abuse, Legal, Partner Violence Domestic Violence, false abuse allegations, false accusations in divorce, false feminists, family law court, female violence, feminism, Government Abuse, Legal Comments (0) Trackbacks (5) Leave a comment Trackback [...]
December 4th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Note: All mothers kill their children; most just wait passively and call it Li(f)e.
In tracing death to
“Honey, I’m pregnant.”
April 15th, 2010 at 3:15 am
[...] As is usually the case, Dr. Phil failed to impress me with his coverage of what is a national (and worldwide crisis). However, rather than dig deep and really look into the greatest problem in family court today, which is not biological fathers killing children or ex-spouses, but custodial interference and the gross imbalance of custodial arrangements - Dr. Phil went sensational, worst-case, rare-case scenario. Worse than that, he can’t even balance his sensational effort with a similar story involving custodial interference, kidnapping, and murder of children by their biological mothers. [...]
August 11th, 2010 at 9:11 am
[...] children by a factor of approximately 2-to-1. That’s child neglect, malnourishment, child murder, etc. Toss in such horrible misdeeds committed by a biological mother and her new love interest, [...]