Terroristic Security Incidents by Category |Timeline
Small Christian denomination, called a cult by some. Very small but notable number of terrorist-style incidents as victims or suspects.
*Reference
- Jehovah's Witness Crimes Worldwide This map aims to be a database of crimes committed by members of the Jehovah's Witnesses
- JWDivorce List
4 killed 4 arrested September 5, 2015 Dallas four devout Jehovah Witness women accidentally rammed into pole and killed by hit and run 911 hoax caller Four women who were devout Jehovah Witnesses members of a nearby church were killed when Jose Lule, 19 allegedly rammed their car with his pickup truck into a pole which was sheared off by the force. Victims were hispanic sisters Raquel Vizcarra, 38; Mirna Vizcarra, 42; Maria Rodriguez, 65, and Maria Morales, 55. Witnesses say the Lule got out and started yelling about how hard he had worked for his truck before he and 3 passengers walked away in different direction without checking on the injured. Lule was quickly arrested after he called 911 to falsely report that he had been carjacked rather than to report the accident.
August 28, 2015 Bystander dies after getting hit by NYPD cop's bullets after gun buy suspect aims gun cops - NY ... New York Daily News Aug 30, 2015 - The devout Jehovah's Witness was walking to pick up his car from a repair shop when he was hit twice by police bullets on Beekman Ave. Friday afternoon. 61-year-old bystander, shot when an NYPD undercover gun buy in Mount Vernon went horribly wrong, died of his wounds Saturday. Felix Kumi was a deeply spiritual man who “touched everyone he met,” heartbroken family members said. The devout Jehovah’s Witness was walking to pick up his car from a repair shop when he was hit twice by police bullets on Beekman Ave. Friday afternoon. Smothers, whose gun turned out to be a fake, had just robbed the cop of $2,400 the officer was planning to use to buy two firearms from seller Jeffrey Aristy, 28, sources said. In 10 previous encounters, the cop had bought 25 guns from Aristy, as well as some drugs. Their meetings continued, as the officer tried to identify Aristy’s supplier, a source said.
1985 bombing July 29, 2015 Man arrested over Sydney family law court bombings, murders including J.W. minister Australian Broadcasting Corporation A man is arrested over Sydney's family law court bombings and murdersin ... and 1985, targeted judges of the Family Court of Australia, their families, ... was shot and Jehovah's Witness minister Graham Wykes was killed by a ... Family Law Court attacks: Police arrest man over 1980s ... The Daily Telegraph Jehovah's Witness minister Graham Wykes was killed by a bomb at a church hall. gulfnews 68-year-old Leonard Warwick, was seized in Sydney’s southwestern suburb of Campbelltown and faces 32 charges over seven alleged attacks between February 1980 and July 1985, New South Wales state police said. charged him with the shooting death of his brother-in-law Stephen Blanchard in February 1980 and the killing of Family Court of Australia judge David Opas, who was shot at point-blank range when he opened the door to his home four months later. He was also charged over the deaths of Pearl Watson, the wife of Justice Raymond Watson, after their home was bombed in 1984, and Graham Wykes, a minister who died following the bombing of a Jehovah’s Witness meeting hall in 1985.
1 arrested July 5, 2015 Man in blond wig arrested for knife disrupts Rochester MN Jehovah's Witnesses convention, attacks hospital staff threatens to shoot up the place Post‑Bulletin Jul 6, 2015 - A [African American] man who police say disrupted the convention of Jehovah's Witnesses held in Rochester during the weekend now faces multiple charges. e 23-year-old man was eventually arrested after officers were called about 7:50 a.m. Sunday. The suspect had allegedly been interrupting the services held during the convention at Mayo Civic Center, had damaged a 32-foot banner valued at $650, then yelled and swore at the people trying to deal with him. The behavior reportedly happened over a period of a few days, but the convention-goers tried to deal with it themselves,... man was homeless, also pushed himself against the genital area of one man, and grabbed the buttocks of another. wearing pink pants and a blond wig with pink tips. Man shoves object up his butt, then attacks ER staff after disrupting Jehovah's Witnesses ...Post‑Bulletin Jul 9, 2015 - The man arrested after allegedly disrupting a Jehovah's Witnesses convention held in Rochester over the weekend faces new charges after an ...James Tarran Newsom, 23, was charged Monday.. judge ordered an evaluation of his mental health... Wednesday reportedly inserted a foreign object into his rectum and was taken to the emergency room... kicked a nurse in the face, spit on a security guard at the scene, threatened to come back and "shoot up the place," Sherwin said.
past history: March 7, 2015 21-year-old Rochester man faces multiple charges after allegedly threatening another man with a knife. March 12, 2014 charged with one count each of second-degree assault; aggravated stalking-possess dangerous weapon; and terroristic threats, all felonies; in addition to two counts of misdemeanor domestic assault and a petty misdemeanor count of drug possession. Newsom called police , said there was a disorderly person in his house.officer found Newsom — holding a kitchen knife. The officer ordered him to drop the knife, which he did. another man in the apartment was bleeding from his elbow, and had scratches on his chest and shoulder.... arguing about a cell phone when the disagreement became physical. Newsom was arrested at the scene; when an officer picked up the shoes Newsom wanted to wear, a small bag of marijuana fell out of a shoe, the complaint says.
James Tarran Newsom
1 killed March 20, 2015 New Orleans Airport TSA Attacked by Man With Machete, Bombs Richard White, 63. is believed to have carried out a machete attack Friday night in New Orleans died late Saturday. White was shot three times at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. In his bag were six gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails and a barbecue lighter. Authorities also found an acetylene tank (car bomb?) smoke bombs and other supplies in his car, Normand said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. Police were investigating "a mental illness component" (USA Today) He was former Army serviceman who was deeply religious Jehovah's Witness who did not believe in modern medicine. He was a taxi driver who just got a chauffer license
Year 2014
January 15, 2014 Family of Jehovah's Witnesses found dead in murder-suicide Daily Mail - Jehovah's Witness couple and their young children found shot dead in two-story ... Four dead in apparent murder-suicde in South Carolina .....family of Jehovah's Witnesses have been found dead in their South Carolina home after what police say was a shocking murder-suicide. The bodies of a couple - believed to be Sheddrick and Kia Miller - and their two young children were found Wednesday morning scattered throughout the family's two-story home near Irmo. Police were called to the home around 10:30 a.m. after man's mother discovered the grim scene. Photo shows African American family. Each of the four was shot in the upper body and a handgun, the presumed murder weapon, was found near the father South Carolina is the worst of all 50 states when it comes to domestic homicides, according to a report by the Violence Policy Center in Washington.
September 2, 2010 Discovery Channel Hostage Crisis Gunman Jason Jay Lee younger brother, Aaron Lee said James Lee was loved by his family, was nonviolent and did not smoke, drink or do drugs. Aaron Lee said his brother had been “a devoted Jehovah Witness for a decade.”
July 30, 1999 Day Trader Mark Orrin Barton Kills Family, Shoots Atlanta Brokerage, Suicide Jehovah's Witnesses Crime Cases a recently converted Jehovah's Witness, named Mark Orrin Barton, ..MARK O. BARTON - JW DAY TRADER. On Thursday afternoon, , in what was deemed Atlanta's worst mass murder, a recently converted Jehovah's Witness, named Mark Orrin Barton, 44, who was an unemployed chemical salesman turned "day trader", walked into the offices of two Atlanta stock brokerage firms, Momentum Securities and All-Tech Investment Group, and announced, "I hope this doesn't ruin your trading day." Mark O. Barton then opened fire with two 9mm and .45 caliber handguns -- killing 9 people and wounding 7 others at the two offices. After a five-hour manhunt, police stopped his van at an Acworth, Georgia, BP gasoline station, where Barton committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with both pistols at the same time
6 killed 2 suspects guilty December 24, 2007 Joseph McEnroe and Michele Kristen Anderson Guilty 2007 Carnation WA Murders The Carnation murders were a mass murder of six of three generations of suspect's own family members, including two young children. Arrested and convicted were Michele Kristen Anderson and her boyfriend, Joseph Thomas McEnroe, both aged 29 who had jobs in the community. The victims were her parents, Wayne, 60, who worked at Boeing and Judith Anderson, 61 who was a mail carrier; her brother, Scott, and his wife, Erica, both 32; and the couple's two children, Olivia, 5, and Nathan, 3 all shot with a .357-caliber Magnum handgun. McEnroe had met Anderson online and moved to Washington to marry her. The couple were seen as distant, paranoid and unfriendly. The motive was unclear but police speculated Anderson could have been angry over money issues when her parents were asking her to pay rent on their trailer. McEnroe’s mother had been searching for her son, and called him a “good Christian”. He told the court that he felt some sort of acceptance with Jehovah's Witnesses, but when stopped studying for ministry when he felt he had filed and been rejected by God when the he told elders he didn't have a guilt-free conscience.
1985: 1985 bombing July 29, 2015 arrest Man arrested over Sydney family law court bombings, murders including J.W. minister Graham Wykes, a minister who died following the bombing of a Jehovah’s Witness meeting hall in 1985 as one of a series of bombings in Australia.
more here:
http://watchtowernews.org/familymurders.htm
Family Murders and Tortures by Jehovah's Witnesses
or Why It Might be Unsafe to Marry a Jehovah's Witness
related: JW murderers
Heichel, accused killer went to same Jehovah's Witness church
GRESHAM -- Both Jonathan Holt, the accused killer, and victim Whitney Heichel, attended the same Jehovah's Witness church, the woman's family confirmed Monday.
"We were completely shocked to find out that Jonathan Holt, an irregular attendee of our meetings, was arrested and would be in any way tied to this case as a suspect," the family said in a prepared statement.
The family's statement underlined and applied bold face to the word "irregular." The statement said there was no suggestion through any church activity of a motive to Heichel's murder....
Sad
http://www.interaksyon.com/
DAVAO CITY - A deacon of a protestant church in Davao and his wife were found dead on Monday evening, still in their Sunday best.
The body of Ali Crisostomo, 44, was found hanging from the ceiling inside their room in Matina, Davao, Monday evening. The wife, 22-year-old Eden, was lying on the floor, her mouth foaming.
Relatives said they last saw the couple Sunday after they went to church. Crisostomo served as a deacon of the Jehova's Witness church. Authorities found an alleged suicide note inside the couple's room.
"To my body of elders. Dear Brothers, I wrote this letter to inform you all that I voluntarily stepping down (sic) my privileges as one of the elders of our congregation due to the wrongdoings that I have been committing (sic). It is sad that it happens to me but I know (sic)" the unsigned letter read.
Authorities are still verifying whether it was indeed Crisostomo who wrote the letter.
"I went inside their house to get something. I peeped through their room and found the woman sprawled on the floor, her face already very dark and her mouth was foaming,: said Crisostomo’s sister-in-law, Mary Rose.
Authorities said they are looking into the possibility that the husband first killed the wife and then committed suicide afterwards.
Man Found Guilty, Mentally Ill in Daughter's Death
Feb 26, 2011 8:18pm
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports Clark County District Judge Elissa Cadish reached the verdict Tuesday after an eight-day bench trial.
William Redman will be confined to prison and given psychiatric treatment as he awaits sentencing April 27. He faces 20 years in prison to life without parole.
Redman, a Jehovah's Witness, believed his daughter, Gloria, would be resurrected three days after he repeatedly plunged a knife into her neck at the family's trailer at Road Runner RV Park.
He was found sitting outside the trailer with self-inflicted wounds to his arms, wrists and neck.
Defense attorneys argued he was not guilty by reason of insanity.
___
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
Speight, who has been charged with murder, is in custody without bail at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority in Lynchburg. On Friday, investigators filed court documents cataloguing firearms, explosives and other items seized from Speight's home, including a Colt AR-15 assault rifle, a BFI Bushmaster assault rifle, two Chinese-made Norinco semiautomatic rifles and other military arms.
Soul mates
People are trying to make sense of a killing rampage that defies understanding. The people Speight is charged with murdering were trying to help him, yet he thought they would bring him harm. He'd gone his whole life proud of avoiding violence to resolve disputes.
Speight's uncle, Thomas Giglio, 61, of South Boston, Va., said no one in the family ever hinted that tensions were brewing inside the neatly kept, two-story brown house behind the split rail fence. Giglio said Lauralee was looking out for her elder brother's best interests, and Sipe, a Navy veteran and successful entrepreneur, treated him like his brother. Giglio said Speight, who suffered from a serious learning disability and bouts of severe depression tied to his mother's death, seemed to be getting on with his life just fine.
"I looked at Chris and Dwayne and I thought, 'This is really great. He's got a soul mate,' " Giglio said. "Those were the people who loved Christopher, who helped Christopher, who protected Christopher, who looked after him. I don't know how it got twisted."
In dozens of interviews with co-workers, friends, associates and members of law enforcement, a darker portrait has emerged of Speight as a deeply troubled man whose demons were kept so firmly in check that people who had known him for years now feel as if they might not have known him at all.
....... (read whole story here)
"He said he had a calling with the church," said Clarence "Scooter" Reynolds, 39, recalling a conversation that began about women. "He just said he wasn't interested in having a relationship with a woman. He was going the church way."
Yet members of the Kingdom Hall seldom saw him and said Speight was never baptized in the faith, Elder Richard Taylor said.
Speight's neighbors also did not see much of him. But most knew at least one thing about Speight: He had firearms, and he liked to shoot. Almost every weekend, the red clay hills and ridges of scrub pine echoed with the sounds of gunfire, often rapid-fire shooting that suggested someone was using a semiautomatic.
Man Jailed for Life over Religious Killing Nov. 8, 2009
Calgary Herald - 2-26-2009
Man who killed wife, two kids denied parole
Kostelniuk chronicled the murders of his two children and ex-wife in his book Wolves Among Sheep: The True Story of Murder in a Jehovah's Witness Community
Man Strangles Wife, Calls Elder to Confess
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl011909tpstrangle.d6a7c0c.html
WWLMan strangles wife, calls pastor to confess
WWL, LA - Jan 19, 2009
Ortega is the member of a local Jehovah Witness congregation, police said. Ortega and his wife, San Juana Isabel Ortega, 32, argued throughout the early ...
Man strangles wife, calls pastor to confess
03:38 PM CST on Monday, January 19, 2009
Matthew Pleasant / Houma Courier
WWLTV.com
HOUMA – After strangling his wife during a Sunday morning argument while their young children slept nearby, a 47-year-old welder called his pastor to confess the slaying, according to police.
Rodolfo Ortega, 320 Coach Court, Houma, is charged with second-degree murder.
At 10 a.m., police arrived at Ortega’s trailer after receiving a call from Ortega’s pastor, said Houma Police Lt. Jude McElroy. Ortega is the member of a local Jehovah Witness congregation, police said.
Ortega and his wife, San Juana Isabel Ortega, 32, argued throughout the early morning without waking their four children, who were sleeping, McElroy said.
New details in murder of 12-year-old girl 3/15/08
______________________________________________________
UPDATE on Slack:
from : http://www.ogrish.com/archives/man_slaughters_family_update_Apr_13_2006.html
We recently ran a series concerning the slaughter of a family by the father / husband. More information has since become available. You can see the images here :
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE PART FOUR
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-canambrose0203.artfeb03,0,7510368.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
March 26, 2005
Sexual Abuse, Armageddon and Drugs
BOOK REVIEW: BLOOD CRIMES
Over the last few years there have been some quite sensational national news cases in the U.S. that involve a Jehovah's Witness male murdering part of all of his family or people close to him. Why? The following are some recent comments and findings by Bill Bowen of Silentlambs:
The picture above is of the South Carolina corner removing the bodies of the Meza children.
You can read the full story at this link,
http://www.silentlambs.org/SCmurderarticles.htm
The South Carolina case of a Jehovah’s Witness father murdering his wife and children appears to be an ongoing problem that seems to occur when JW fathers become emotionally disturbed. To understand the reason why this phenomena presents itself you must understand the theology of the religion itself. Anyone that becomes a Jehovah’s Witness must accept that they are part of the only “truth.” That “truth” is defined as being the only persons on earth that are approved by God. To find corroboration of that, note the following quotes from JW literature,
” Become members of an international brotherhood known for cleanness and good manners, the worldwide congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.In harmony with Ephesians 4:24, these sincere Christians have “put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.” Soon the world will be filled with such people because these will be the only ones who will survive and live forever.” Watchtower99 6/15 page 6
" Is it presumptuous of Jehovah’s Witnesses to point out that they alone have God’s backing? Actually, no more so than when the Israelites in Egypt claimed to have God’s backing in spite of the Egyptians’ belief, or when the first-century Christians claimed to have God’s backing to the exclusion of Jewish religionists." Watchtower 01 6/1 page 16
“ Of all the organizations claiming to be Christian, only Jehovah’s Witnesses both think upon his name and magnify it among the nations.” Watchtower 92 12/1 page 17
”The message is clear: If we want to survive Armageddon , we must remain spiritually alert and keep the symbolic garments that identify us as faithful Witnesses of Jehovah God .”Watchtower 99 12/1 page18
As you can see from the material Jehovah’s Witnesses believe they have the only path to surviving the end of the world. Anyone that does not become part of that path will be killed by God at the battle of Armageddon. The belief continues that Armageddon is immanent and the only way to help mankind survive is to allow them the opportunity to become Jehovah’s Witnesses by calling on the homes of the public and inviting them to become members through home bible studies. Any member that does not participate in this “preaching work,” will be killed by God at Armageddon.
What happens after Armageddon? The earth will be given to Jehovah’s Witnesses to cultivate into a garden like park they call the “paradise earth.” The function of the paradise earth will be for humans to be returned to perfection by God and live eternally in human bodies while cultivating it as a beautiful place to live. In addition, according to doctrinal belief, there will be a resurrection of those that passed away in the former world. These resurrected ones will be provided with education and an opportunity to become Jehovah’s Witnesses as well. If they decline then they will die. Any Jehovah’s Witness member that died in the former world will be resurrected to live eternity with friends and family, they will have perfect health with none of the maladies they may have experienced in the old world as well as have the prospect of living forever. The paradise earth is viewed as a solution to all the problems that Jehovah’s Witnesses experience living in the current world they view as being ruled by Satan. The only escape from Satan’s world is to have one of two options;
1. Wait for Armageddon to start the paradise earth.
2. Die and wake up in the paradise earth.
When JW father comes under severe emotional distress due to financial or other circumstances it is an easy escape to consider giving their family a way to enter the paradise earth immediately. The only way to do that is through murder. This has happened on several occasions in the last few years. One of the earlier cases involved the Kostelniuk family in Burnaby , British Columbia . The mother remarried a JW man who subsequently molested the children after which he murdered the family when placed under pressure. A book was written by the children’s biological father called “Wolves among Sheep” You can read about it at this link,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=7.topic
Yet this was not the only case, another came up in 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia, the Barton case involved once again a JW father slaughtering his children and wife, the reason was financial and he also killed several other people as well, but why his wife and children? Could it be the reason giving them exit to a paradise earth? You can read about this case here,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=12.topic
Another case was Christian Longo in Washington . Again a JW father strangles his three small children and his wife puts them in suitcases and throws them in the ocean. Financial difficulty was citied as part of the reason. You can read of this case here,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=2.topic
A year later in the next state, JW father Bryant takes a shotgun and murders his four children and wife then turns the gun on himself. The reasons were financial and related to reporting of abuse. You can read this story here,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=1.topic
In a reverse concept children have murdered their parents. The Freeman brothers killed their brother and parents after becoming skinheads. Part of the reason given was due to being raised as JW’s. This resulted in a book and movie, you can read about his here,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=4.topic
Then there are cases of JW parents killing just their children. In each case you have to wonder if they believed they were helping the child find paradise. You can read these stories here,
Laree Slack age 12 Chicago IL-01.
Ri’vene Phifer infant NC- 97
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=14.topic
Knight infant CA-99
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=5.topic
Infant France-02
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=6.topic
Brian Mackey and son 12 Florida-03
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=11.topic
Robert and Ben Moore 10-13 WS-93 unsolved murder
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=8.topic
When you consider that Jehovah’s Witnesses are a relatively small religion, under one million members in the USA it is disturbing to see that most cases that involved the murder of a family by the father in recent years have had JW connections. Is this just a coincidence? Could it be that the theology and doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses creates a type of time bomb that can be tripped of the right set of circumstances presents it? The information above seems to indicate that this could be a strong possibility. -- Bill Bowen of Silentlambs
Actual News Articles (top are most recent):
www.suntimes.com
BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporter
Vinese Bell-Kracht had decided it was time for her and her 1-year-old son, Emery, to move on with their lives.
The 21-year-old bank clerk had had enough of the domestic abuse she said she suffered at the hands of her troubled husband of almost two years, Martin Kracht, relatives said. After the last incident more than a month ago, she'd filed charges, had him arrested and sought a restraining order against him, according to court records.
And she had started that new life, with a new job and a new apartment.
But Bell-Kracht's life came to a sudden and violent end Monday, police said. She, her son and her mother-in-law, Barbara Baker-Kracht, 52, were found murdered in Baker-Kracht's Harvey home. The three died at the hands of 24-year-old Martin Kracht, who less than two weeks ago moved in with the mother he allegedly killed, police and relatives said.
Chilling discovery
On Tuesday, members of Bell-Kracht's close-knit family gathered at their south suburban Richton Park home, struggling to understand the tragedy that had befallen the young mother, child and grandmother.
Police made the chilling discovery of the bodies at Baker-Kracht's home in the 15000 block of South Marshfield Avenue in Harvey about 9 p.m. Monday.
"It was a well-being check that was requested by a family member," said Harvey Police spokeswoman Sandra Alvarado.
Shortly after the bodies were found, Harvey Police arrested Kracht on a tip from relatives, who knew he was hiding in a garage only blocks away.
Kracht was expected to be charged with three counts of first-degree murder late Tuesday, according to Harvey Police and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
"This appears to be domestic-related homicide," Alvarado said. "It was not a random act of violence. This is a senseless tragedy."
Police would not say how the three died, but they noted none of the victims was shot.
'Seemed like nice people'
Neighbors in the quiet neighborhood where Baker-Kracht recently bought her home milled outside their houses, helping each other grapple with the horror.
"When they first moved in, I came out to welcome them to the neighborhood. He and his mother seemed like nice people," Denise Lollis, who has lived across the street for 23 years, said Tuesday. "I have never, ever seen anything like this. This has been rough. It just keeps you praying."
Police said they may never know what triggered the killings.
Bell-Kracht's family said she had met her husband in 2002 through her brother, who had invited Martin Kracht to join the Jehovah's Witnesses faith her family practiced. Martin Kracht had attended Thornton Township North High School with Bell-Kracht's brother, Shaun Winston, graduating in 1998, Winston recalled.
Kracht began visiting the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses at 150 E. 124th Pl., in Chicago with Winston and his family of six siblings.
"He acknowledged he was living a life of debauchery, and said he wanted clean up life. He was baptized a Jehovah's Witness, "Winston said. "He met my sister, and they liked each other. I advised her against it," he added, choking back tears.
Winston's advice went unheeded. The pair dated for five months before marrying. But Kracht, then living with a friend in Harvey, was unable to support his new wife, floating from job to job, Winston said. So Dennis and Sherry Harris, Bell-Kracht's parents, allowed Kracht to move in with his wife and her family in Richton Park.
That's when the trouble started.
"He started pushing on her and she was pregnant. One time he pushed her down," Winston said. "That was when my father talked to him, and kicked him out."
Sought restraining order
The abuse reportedly got worse, culminating in an October incident that resulted in Bell-Kracht seeking a restraining order against her husband, barring him from her home in Richton Park. But on Nov. 8 she appeared in court in Markham and asked that both the protection order and the abuse charges be dismissed.
"The victim didn't wish to proceed," said Marcy Jensen, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office. "We don't know why."
Last summer, relatives said, Bell-Kracht had become convinced it was time to give up on her marriage and move on. She landed a job at Charter One Bank in Homewood and only last week secured a small apartment in south suburban Steger for herself and her son.
On Saturday, her family helped her move in, and on Sunday Kracht came to Kingdom Hall asking to see his son, her relatives said. Bell-Kracht acquiesced, letting him take the boy for a day and arranging to pick up Emeryon Monday evening.
"But on Monday, we didn't hear from her after work, which was unusual for Vinese. We knew something had happened when the police called."
Contributing: Stefano Esposito, Annie Sweeney, Lisa Donovan and Cheryl V. Jackson
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0412010285dec01,1,3695005.story?coll=chi-news-hed
2-22-04
By NANCY H. McLAUGHLIN, Staff Writer
News & Record
RALEIGH -- The baby would be 7 now, in elementary school and learning to read.
In an ideal world, her death never would have happened. In an ideal world, the teenage mom wouldn't be longing for forgiveness.
An ideal world is the one Racquel Phifer wants to be a part of -- not the concrete-and-glass world of the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where she is serving 10 to 13 years for the second-degree murder of her only child.
"I wished my mother could have looked at me and known something was wrong," the petite 27-year-old says of the concealed pregnancy in Greensboro in 1997 that led to her life spiraling out of control.
The high school dropout who had been raped as a child had already showed signs of undiagnosed mental illnesses before she gave birth that January to the infant the Greensboro community would come to know as Baby Jane Doe.
With her parents at work and her brother in school, Phifer laid out blankets on a cold day and delivered the baby on the floor of a room in her parent's upper-middle-class home.
After bathing her, playing with her dark hair and counting tiny fingers and toes, Phifer wrapped the hours-old newborn in a clean white blanket and placed her in a Dumpster in nearby Oka T. Hester Park. A man looking for cans the next day found her among the garbage.
Phifer's was the latest in a string of concealed pregnancies on the East Coast that ended in dead newborns that year. But the discovery of the dead baby in a Greensboro trash bin touched the heart of the community. It responded by taking care of Phifer's baby as if she were its own, dressing her tiny body in a donated white gown and diaper, transporting her to a graveyard in a hearse followed by a caravan of cars and carefully etching a grave marker that read: "May we reach out in love to every child in need."
"The fact that she was buried and put away nicely -- that all helps," says Phifer's mother, Baleria Phifer, a teacher who wouldn't know that the infant dominating local news coverage was her grandbaby until her daughter's arrest. "She was taken care of, she was surrounded by love'' from the community.
More than 500 people showed up for the funeral.
"What I remember most are the pictures of that little infant in the bottom of that Dumpster," says Howard Neumann, the Guilford County assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case that summer. "I can still close my eyes and see her there."
Phifer, who won't be eligible for parole for at least three years, wants people to know she's sorry. She also wants to say "thank you" to the people who saw that the child she named Ri'vene Lea Anderson had a proper burial.
?Phifer, dressed in a dark-blue prison jumpsuit and girlishly pretty with her sliver of silver eye shadow, has spent years in therapy dealing with illnesses diagnosed after she was arrested, including dissociative amnesia, which causes fragmented memory, and schizoaffective disorder, which is marked by major depression and psychotic symptoms.
She says she can't remember all of what happened the day she put her daughter in the Dumpster, but she knows it never should have happened. She wants girls who may face her predicament to know her story and how a split-second decision could ruin their lives and the lives of others.
"If you don't want to tell your parents, tell somebody," says a suddenly subdued Phifer, also known as Inmate 58449, who still looks 19 except for the natural burst of gray in her hair. "I would love to have (the public's) forgiveness. I would love to have their understanding. But I'm doing this so that anybody else going through this will tell somebody.
"I know that type of fear is unbearable," Phifer says.
Phifer remains troubled by the past. She wishes she could go back to the day she thought she was pregnant. She says she knows it will be hard for people to understand how she could hold her baby and then place her in the trash bin in frigid weather.
"I actually thought of it as a baby sitter," Phifer says. "I got in and out of it four times. There was no trash in it. I put her there and told her I would come back."
Growing up in a strict home, Phifer had an exaggerated fear of disappointing her parents. Life already had been difficult. She had flunked at least three grades and dropped out of high school. In their investigation, police would find years-old suicide letters Phifer had written after she was raped at 11 by an older male relative.
In her devout Jehovah's Witness family, Phifer grew up hearing that sex before marriage was immoral. Her parents didn't know about the rape. They would have been mortified had they known about the pregnancy. She saw her situation as hopeless and believed she had no options.
"That would have been disgraceful to my mother," Phifer says. " 'What people think' is how I was raised."
Baleria Phifer didn't know about the deep-seeded antagonism her daughter held against her until she heard Racquel's confession read in court. Phifer says she was closer to her father, Larry, a long-distance truck driver.
She was able to hide her pregnancy because she had gained and lost 100 pounds the year before, something doctors later attributed to bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder.
As the baby grew inside her, Phifer began reading baby books and decided that she would ask an aunt if she could move into the aunt's home. But her aunt began helping someone else, so Phifer kept silent. The baby's father, a young man she had met at a part-time job, had moved back to Illinois. He wanted her to join him, but she had said no.
She says she called crisis-pregnancy agencies but somehow got it in her head that they just wanted to take her baby.
"I said, 'Could you help me tell my parents?' and they said, 'We can send you somewhere.' ''
Her water broke about midnight on Jan. 29. She delivered the baby at 2:27 p.m. the next day.
She had read "The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth'' and, remembering what she had learned in some medical classes, had already gathered blankets and scissors.
She says she was in labor when she drove her mother to work that morning.
"It was like I was doctor, nurse, coach," Phifer says. "I had read a lot, but then I was worried: What if she was breeched or needed special care?"
After delivering the baby, Phifer got into the bathtub with the baby and played with her until the phone rang.
"I'd decided I was just going to hand her to my mother," Phifer remembers thinking.
But her mother, who wanted her daughter to pick her up at work, was already angry when Phifer picked up the telephone.
"She was saying, 'Why aren't you here?' " Phifer says. "I wished I could have been woman enough to say, 'I'm late because I've just delivered my baby.' "
Instead, she panicked.
She drove around her neighborhood and then to nearby Hester Park, where she came upon the Dumpster.
Then she drove to her mother's job and picked her up, falling asleep in the car as her mother carried out her errands. Back at home she slept for the next 16 hours.
She didn't go back to the Dumpster. She says she doesn't know why. In her mind, it was almost as if none of it had happened.
But it had.
Darlene Maynard, a grief counselor who had already helped survivors and relatives of the Columbine school shootings and Oklahoma City bombing with their recovery, was one of the first to step forward when word got out that a dead baby had been found in a park.
"There had been several babies up north left to die. It was like, 'My goodness, this has come home,' " says Maynard, then-director of a Greensboro grief and loss-education center.
She began organizing a community funeral. People began calling, wanting to help. The city donated a burial plot at Maplewood Cemetery. The funeral drew a crowd that reflected the city's races, ages and economics.
Saying it touched the community emotionally is not an overstatement, says Maynard, who was part of the 150-car funeral procession.
"We get to the corner of Florida and Aycock streets, and these two old 'bummy-type' men, they stopped when her hearse went by and put their hands across their heart and saluted," Maynard says.
"She had become a symbol for our community," Maynard says. "I thought it was one of the most healing things our community has come together to do. Here was this child that belonged to no one, and all of a sudden we were getting all kinds of toys and dolls and books and balloons to be placed on her grave."
Phifer says she knew none of that. For the next few weeks, she didn't watch the news. Only after a detective showed up at her door, saying someone had called police to report she had been pregnant, were her thoughts drawn back to the Dumpster. A co-worker who had guessed early on that she was pregnant called Crime Stoppers.
Investigators talked to Phifer and other potential suspects. After taking a lie-detector test, Phifer was arrested. The first-degree murder charge eventually would be reduced to one of second-degree murder.
"It lacked that component of evil that so many crimes we deal with up here involve," Neumann says. "This was not a crime where she hated that child. This was an immature child herself who was confronted with a situation ... and she couldn't figure out how to deal with it."
During those few months in jail, she had heard of the other East Coast cases similar to hers, including the case of college students Brian Peterson and Amy Grossberg, who put their baby in a Dumpster and were eventually sentenced to less than two years in jail.
"I think half of me thought it would be OK and I would go home," Phifer says. "When Amy had the baby in the hotel, there were complications, but Brian beat the baby in the head with a baseball bat. I didn't harm Ri'vene in any way. No scars. No bruises. No nothing. I was the only one to hold her. I loved her."
Phifer's judge could have given her as little as seven years, 10 months in prison or as much as 16 years, 5 months. He sentenced her to 10 to 13 years.
Almost immediately strangers began writing her.
"I was waiting for the hate mail, but they were very encouraging,'' Phifer says of the letters, one of which advised her to "Keep your head up, sister.'' "Older people... were telling me it's going to be OK, people make mistakes."
At first, other inmates, many of them mothers, responded to her in anger.
"I've been called everything but a child of God. I went through, 'It's Daddy's baby, Mama did it,' and I took the rap."
A couple of inmates from Greensboro took her under their wings, and today she considers many of the people there like family.
Since then Phifer has earned her high school diploma and taken every self-improvement class available except culinary arts. "I simply can't cook," she says with a shy smile.
She has also drawn closer to her mother.
"She tries. I think she does," Phifer says of her mother. "My mother does blame herself for this. But I also had to think about it. I wasn't a child who came with instructions. She did the best she could."
Her parents visit frequently.
"We were really close. She was just sick," says Baleria Phifer, who says she has seen her daughter mature with therapy.
"I deal with it better now, but I think it's something that will always be with me," Baleria Phifer says of the loss that she, too, feels.
Baleria Phifer has given her daughter one of the pictures she was able to get of Ri'vene in her white casket. The rest, including the newspaper clippings and a few of the stuffed animals people left at her grave, have been packed up and placed in Phifer's bedroom closet, waiting for her return.
"I really don't see her as gone," Phifer says. "I know she is. I just don't have that closure."
Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nmclaughlin@news-record.com
www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locfamilyshot26082603aug26,0,3371221.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
Fort Lauderdale man fatally shoots son, self
The Associated Press
Posted August 26, 2003
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A man fatally shot himself and his 12-year-old son early Monday after arguing with the boy's mother, police said.
Carl Dennis Mackey, 41, and his son, Brian, were found fatally shot when a SWAT team entered the house about 5 a.m.
The boy's mother, Laura Mackey, ran out of the house shortly after midnight and told officers that her husband was trying to kill her, Detective Jack DiCristofalo said.
The officers had been responding to a separate incident across the street.
"She said she'd heard two shots fired. She said they'd been having domestic problems," DiCristofalo said.
Officials made phone calls to the house and to the family's cell phones for the next few hours.
Hostage negotiators were never able to make contact, and officers heard no further shots fired, DiCristofalo said.
About 5 a.m., a SWAT team entered the house and found the bodies.
A small-caliber, semiautomatic handgun was on the floor near Carl Mackey's body, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
"We're totally shocked. Carl was always a gentleman, a religious and family man type of guy," said Mike Scott, Mackey's supervisor at Plantation's public works department.
"He was always upbeat and smiling."
DiCristofalo said Laura Mackey was with family Monday.
Jurors Convict Mom Of Murder For Toilet-Drowning Infant
Juror Claims Panel Unaware They Had Other Options
AP, Oct. 24, 2002
www.nbc4.tv/
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Jurors who convicted a woman of second-degree murder in the toilet-drowning death of her newborn son may not have realized that they could have convicted her of involuntary manslaughter.
Donna Michelle Knight's sentencing was postponed for at least two months by Superior Court Judge Ronald Taylor so defense attorney Grover Porter can question jurors to determine if they misunderstood instructions. One juror claimed the panel didn't know involuntary manslaughter was an option.
Knight, 37, was convicted June 14 of murdering her son in September 1999. The 10-woman, two-man jury returned a second-degree murder verdict, which calls for 15 years to life in prison. Involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of four years.
Deputy District Attorney Deena Bennett had sought a first-degree murder conviction, arguing that the unmarried woman intentionally killed her baby after concealing her pregnancy because she was afraid of repercussions from her Jehovah's Witness church.
Bennett said the religion considers sexual relations outside of marriage grounds for excommunication.
Porter argued that Knight, who weighed at least 275 pounds, did not know she was pregnant and on the day of the baby's death she was taking antidepressants and other medication and could not remember what happened.
Although jurors were given an instruction for involuntary manslaughter, the foreman told them they could not consider that option, a juror said. Actually, it was voluntary manslaughter that was not to be considered.
Trader commits suicide after killing 12 in gun spree
Manhunt ends as he turns gun on himself
Links, reports and background on US shootings and gun law
News Unlimited staff and agencies
Friday July 30, 1999
The Guardian
A gunman stormed two brokerages in Atlanta's financial district yesterday, fatally shooting nine people after apparently killing his wife and two children in the days leading up to the attack, the city's mayor said.
Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said Mark Barton, 44, an internet stock trader, committed suicide five hours after the shooting spree at brokerages All-Tech Investments and Momentum Securities, located near each other on Atlanta's bustling Piedmont Avenue.
Witnesses told police that Barton was apparently unhappy over stock and bond market losses when he walked into the first brokerage and opened fire.... It was also the worst mass shooting in Atlanta this century, Atlanta police said. Two weeks ago, a woman, her four children and her sister were killed by her boyfriend, who turned the gun on himself in the worst previous single attack.
After the shootings police went to Barton's house in Stockbridge, where they found the bodies of Barton's wife and children, a 7-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy. The children were found in their beds. Barton had left hand-written notes on all three bodies.
The notes suggested that Barton's wife might have been killed on Tuesday and the children on Wednesday. Barton had apparently bludgeoned them to death.
Five years ago, Barton was considered a suspect in the death of his first wife and his mother-in-law, but he was never charged with their murders. The two women were bludgeoned to death at a campsite in Alabama. Barton, who had taken out a $600,000 insurance policy on his 35-year-old first wife just weeks before, said he was in Atlanta at the time.
Yesterday's shooting spree is likely to inflame the US debate on firearms. The city of Atlanta sued 15 gun makers and two trade associations in February, seeking damages for crime deaths and injuries involving handgun use.
Mark O. Barton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_O._Barton
Wikipedia
Jump to Killing spree - On July 27, 1999, Barton woke up early in the morning and ... I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life.Mark Orrin Barton (April 2, 1955 – July 29, 1999) was a spree killer from Stockbridge, Georgia, who, on July 29, 1999, killed 12 people and injured 13 more. The shootings occurred at two Atlanta day tradingfirms, Momentum Securities and the All-Tech Investment Group. It is believed that Barton, a daytrader, was motivated by US$105,000 in losses over the previous two months. Four hours after the Atlanta shootings, Barton committed suicide at a gas station in Acworth, Georgia. He had been spotted by police and was ordered to stop, but shot and killed himself before the police could reach him.
Following the shootings, police searching Barton's home found that his second wife, Leigh Ann Vandiver Barton, and two children, Matthew David Barton (12) and Mychelle Elizabeth Barton (10), had been murdered by hammer blows before the shooting spree. The children had then been placed in bed, as if sleeping. According to a note Barton left at the scene, his wife was killed July 27 and the children murdered July 28.[1]
Prior to the massacre, Barton had been a suspect in the 1993 beating deaths of his first wife, Debra Spivey, and her mother, Eloise Spivey, in Cherokee County, Alabama. Although he was never charged in either of the crimes—and though the note he left with the bodies of his children and his second wife denied any involvement in the 1993 murders[1]—he is still considered a suspect in those murders by authorities.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Killing spree
3 Victims
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Background[edit]
Barton was born on April 2, 1955, in Stockbridge, Georgia, to an Air Force family, and was raised in South Carolina. Barton attended Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, where he earned a degree in chemistry despite his ongoing drug habit. Back in Atlanta, Georgia, he married Debra Spivey, and had two children, Matthew and Mychelle.
The family moved to Alabama due to Barton's job. He became paranoid and started distrusting his wife. He lost his job when his work performance started to suffer. In retaliation, he was caught sabotaging company data and served a short jail term.
Back in Georgia, Barton got a new job and began an affair with Leigh Ann Vandiver, one of his wife Debra's acquaintances. In 1993, Debra Spivey and her mother Eloise were bludgeoned to death. Barton was the prime suspect but was not charged due to lack of evidence.
Barton married Leigh Ann in 1995 but his mental health continued to deteriorate and he began to suffer from severe depression and paranoid delusions.
Barton had received a large insurance settlement from his first wife's death, but subsequently lost it in an extended bout of risky day trading. It is speculated that Barton planned his massacre after experiencing severe stress from losing $105,000 in a single month.
Killing spree[edit]
On July 27, 1999, Barton woke up early in the morning and bludgeoned Leigh Ann to death as she slept. The next night, he also beat his children Matthew and Mychelle to death. He covered them with blankets and left notes on their bodies, reading in part:
"I killed Leigh Ann because she was one of the main reasons for my demise. . . . I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life. I'm sure the details don't matter. There is no excuse, no good reason I am sure no one will understand. If they could I wouldn't want them to. I just write these things to say why. Please know that I love Leigh Ann, Matthew and Mychelle with all my heart. If Jehovah's willing I would like to see them all again in the resurrection to have a second chance. I don't plan to live very much longer, just long enough to kill as many of the people that greedily sought my destruction."
On July 29, he went to the offices of his employer, Momentum Securities. Witnesses say that Barton briefly chatted with coworkers before suddenly pulling out two pistols and opening fire. He shot and killed four people and attempted to execute Brad Schoemehl who was shot three times at point blank range. Barton then walked to the nearby All-Tech Investment Group building and murdered an additional five victims. Barton then left the scene before police could arrive.
The police searched his house and found the bodies of his family and the notes that he had left with them, in which Barton vehemently denied responsibility of the deaths of his first wife and mother-in-law.
An intensive manhunt ensued. Four hours after the All-Tech Investment Group shooting, Barton accosted and threatened a young girl in Kennesaw, Georgia, apparently attempting to secure a hostage for his escape. The attempt was unsuccessful and the young girl called police after escaping Barton. Responding police officers spotted Barton in his van and a chase ensued, culminating at a gas station in Acworth, Georgia. Unable to escape, Barton ducked behind his van and committed suicide with his pistol, the 13th victim of his killing spree.
Victims[edit]
The following is a list of victims of the shootings:[3][4]
Leigh Ann Vandiver Barton, 27, wife of Mark Barton
Matthew David Barton, 11, son of Mark Barton
Mychelle Elizabeth Barton, 8, daughter of Mark Barton
Allen Charles Tenenbaum, 48, daytrader at All-Tech Investment Group
Dean Delawalla, 52, daytrader at All-Tech Investment Group
Joseph J. Dessert, 60, daytrader at All-Tech Investment Group
Jamshid Havash, 45, daytrader at All-Tech Investment Group
Vadewattee Muralidhara, 44, took a computer course at All-Tech Investment Group
Edward Quinn, 58, daytrader at Momentum Securities
Kevin Dial, 38, office manager at Momentum Securities
Russell J. Brown, 42, daytrader at Momentum Securities
Scott A. Webb, 30, daytrader at Momentum Securities
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:a b NY Times (1999-07-31). "Shootings in Atlanta: The Notes". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-04. Following are excerpts from a letter and the texts of three notes apparently written by Mark O. Barton and left in the Barton home...
Jump up^ Cabell, Brian; Mike Boettcher; Martin Savidge; Holly Firfer (1999-07-30). "Georgia killer's notes show a troubled man". CNN. Retrieved 2007-11-04. Mark Barton was a suspect in the murders six years ago of his first wife, Debra Spivey Barton, 36, and her mother, Eloise Spivey, 59.
Jump up^ Shootings in Atlanta: the victims, The New York Times (July 31, 1999)
Jump up^ Memories of those who died, CNN (July 31, 1999)
Further reading[edit]
BBC News stories on the Atlanta shootings
Manhunt under way for suspect in Atlanta shootings, CNN (July 29, 1999)
Investigators search for answers after 12 die in Georgia killings, CNN (July 30, 1999)
Blood bath followed suspect's mounting stock losses, CNN (July 31, 1999)
Mourners remember gunman's wife as soccer mom, Scout leader, CNN (August 1, 1999)
A Portrait of the Killer, Time Magazine (August 9, 1999)
Riding the Mo in the Lime Green Glow, New York Times (November 21, 1999)
'I don't plan to live very much longer, just long enough to kill ...
Jehovah's Witnesses Crime Cases Page 3 of 4
jwdivorces.bravehost.com/familicide3.html
Court Cases involving Jehovah's Witness Criminals who have been ..... worst massmurder, a recently converted Jehovah's Witness, named Mark Orrin Barton, ..MARK O. BARTON - JW DAY TRADER. On Thursday afternoon, July 30, 1999, in what was deemed Atlanta's worst mass murder, a recently converted Jehovah's Witness, named Mark Orrin Barton, 44, who was an unemployed chemical salesman turned "day trader", walked into the offices of two Atlanta stock brokerage firms, Momentum Securities and All-Tech Investment Group, and announced, "I hope this doesn't ruin your trading day." Mark O. Barton then opened fire with two 9mm and .45 caliber handguns -- killing 9 people and wounding 7 others at the two offices. After a five-hour manhunt, police stopped his van at an Acworth, Georgia, BP gasoline station, where Barton committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with both pistols at the same time.
When police went to Barton's apartment, they discovered the bodies of Barton's wife, Leigh Ann (Vandiver) Barton, 27, his son, Matthew, 11, and his daughter, Mychelle, 7. The childrens' bodies were found in their beds, and the wife was found in a closet. Barton murdered his wife Tuesday evening, while she slept, and then he murdered his children the following Wednesday night, while they slept. All three had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer. The Bartons had only recently reconciled after Leigh Ann Barton had moved out in April -- possibly because Mark Barton was demanding that she also join the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Barton left hand-written notes on all three bodies, and a typed suicide note, which explained, in part:
"It just seemed like a quiet way to kill and a relatively painless way to die. There was little pain. All of them were dead in less than five minutes. I hit them with a hammer in their sleep and then put them face down in the bathtub to make sure they did not wake up in pain. To make sure they were dead.
"... I have come to hate this life and this system of things. I have come to have no hope. I killed the children to exchange them for five minutes of pain for a lifetime of pain.
"... I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life.
"Please know that I love Leigh Ann, Matthew and Mychelle with all of my heart. If Jehovah is willing, I would like to see all of them again in the resurrection, to have a second chance. ... ."
Barton was apparently distraught over the heavy financial losses that he recently had suffered while day-trading at the two stock brokerage firms. Barton had reportedly lost $20,000.00 on Tuesday, and over $100,000.00 over the past couple months. Barton had lost his home and possibly several hundreds of thousands of dollars of his life savings (and life insurance proceeds) over the previous year.
After these murders, it was disclosed that Barton had been considered the main suspect in the 1993 deaths of his first wife, Debra Barton, 36, (the mother of Matthew and Mychelle), and her mother, Eloise Spivey, 59, both of whom had been hacked to death inside a camper at a crowded Alabama lakeside campsite over Labor Day weekend. Barton had taken out a $600,000.00 insurance policy on that first wife just weeks before her murder. Barton had not been charged, despite a ton of circumstantial and some physical evidence. Barton and the married Leigh Ann Vandiver were even dating at the time, and Vandiver even accompanied Barton to the funeral.
Three months after the 1993 murders, a day-care worker reported that Barton's then 2 year-old daughter, Mychelle, told her that her father had been sexually molesting her. An investigation by Georgia's Department of Family and Children Services was inconclusive mainly due to the child's age.
back to Watchtower News
RAF veteran shot dead lover's Jehovah's Witness father in revenge for banning 'forbidden affair'By LUKE SALKELD DAILY MAIL UPDATED: 00:49 EST, 21 July 2009 Jonathan Cock was jailed for at least 25 years today after he admitted murdering his ex-girlfriend's father An RAF veteran shot dead his girlfriend's Jehovah's Witness father in revenge for ending the couple's ' forbidden' love affair. Jonathan Cock opened fire with a hunting rifle when Danielle Hustler, 20, refused to see him after they split up. The 24-year-old felt that even though he had become a Jehovah's Witness himself, he had never truly been accepted and blamed her devout parents for the break-up. A month after they split, Cock killed Miss Hustler's father, Adam, 41, and injured his 40-year-old wife, Amanda, at their £500,000 home in Cornwall. He then attempted to take his own life.
1 killed March 20, 2015 New Orleans Airport TSA Attacked by Man With Machete, Bombs Richard White, 63. is believed to have carried out a machete attack Friday night in New Orleans died late Saturday. White was shot three times at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. In his bag were six gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails and a barbecue lighter. Authorities also found an acetylene tank (car bomb?) smoke bombs and other supplies in his car, Normand said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. Police were investigating "a mental illness component" (USA Today) He was former Army serviceman who was deeply religious Jehovah's Witness who did not believe in modern medicine. He was a taxi driver who just got a chauffer license
Year 2014
January 15, 2014 Family of Jehovah's Witnesses found dead in murder-suicide Daily Mail - Jehovah's Witness couple and their young children found shot dead in two-story ... Four dead in apparent murder-suicde in South Carolina .....family of Jehovah's Witnesses have been found dead in their South Carolina home after what police say was a shocking murder-suicide. The bodies of a couple - believed to be Sheddrick and Kia Miller - and their two young children were found Wednesday morning scattered throughout the family's two-story home near Irmo. Police were called to the home around 10:30 a.m. after man's mother discovered the grim scene. Photo shows African American family. Each of the four was shot in the upper body and a handgun, the presumed murder weapon, was found near the father South Carolina is the worst of all 50 states when it comes to domestic homicides, according to a report by the Violence Policy Center in Washington.
Year 2011
12 killed 12 wounded April 7, 2011 2011 Rio de Janeiro Sandy Hook Style School Shooting Olivera was a lifelong Jehovah's witness who had left the church 4 years before and had converted to Islam in the previous 2 years Shooting similar to Sandy Hook, troubled young man returns to his elementary school for a mass shooting, but with no ties to religious radicalism.
Year 2010
July 30, 1999 Day Trader Mark Orrin Barton Kills Family, Shoots Atlanta Brokerage, Suicide Jehovah's Witnesses Crime Cases a recently converted Jehovah's Witness, named Mark Orrin Barton, ..MARK O. BARTON - JW DAY TRADER. On Thursday afternoon, , in what was deemed Atlanta's worst mass murder, a recently converted Jehovah's Witness, named Mark Orrin Barton, 44, who was an unemployed chemical salesman turned "day trader", walked into the offices of two Atlanta stock brokerage firms, Momentum Securities and All-Tech Investment Group, and announced, "I hope this doesn't ruin your trading day." Mark O. Barton then opened fire with two 9mm and .45 caliber handguns -- killing 9 people and wounding 7 others at the two offices. After a five-hour manhunt, police stopped his van at an Acworth, Georgia, BP gasoline station, where Barton committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with both pistols at the same time
6 killed 2 suspects guilty December 24, 2007 Joseph McEnroe and Michele Kristen Anderson Guilty 2007 Carnation WA Murders The Carnation murders were a mass murder of six of three generations of suspect's own family members, including two young children. Arrested and convicted were Michele Kristen Anderson and her boyfriend, Joseph Thomas McEnroe, both aged 29 who had jobs in the community. The victims were her parents, Wayne, 60, who worked at Boeing and Judith Anderson, 61 who was a mail carrier; her brother, Scott, and his wife, Erica, both 32; and the couple's two children, Olivia, 5, and Nathan, 3 all shot with a .357-caliber Magnum handgun. McEnroe had met Anderson online and moved to Washington to marry her. The couple were seen as distant, paranoid and unfriendly. The motive was unclear but police speculated Anderson could have been angry over money issues when her parents were asking her to pay rent on their trailer. McEnroe’s mother had been searching for her son, and called him a “good Christian”. He told the court that he felt some sort of acceptance with Jehovah's Witnesses, but when stopped studying for ministry when he felt he had filed and been rejected by God when the he told elders he didn't have a guilt-free conscience.
1985: 1985 bombing July 29, 2015 arrest Man arrested over Sydney family law court bombings, murders including J.W. minister Graham Wykes, a minister who died following the bombing of a Jehovah’s Witness meeting hall in 1985 as one of a series of bombings in Australia.
or Why It Might be Unsafe to Marry a Jehovah's Witness
related: JW murderers
Heichel, accused killer went to same Jehovah's Witness church
NWCN.com
Posted on October 22, 2012 at 5:46 AM
GRESHAM -- Both Jonathan Holt, the accused killer, and victim Whitney Heichel, attended the same Jehovah's Witness church, the woman's family confirmed Monday.
"We were completely shocked to find out that Jonathan Holt, an irregular attendee of our meetings, was arrested and would be in any way tied to this case as a suspect," the family said in a prepared statement.
The family's statement underlined and applied bold face to the word "irregular." The statement said there was no suggestion through any church activity of a motive to Heichel's murder....
JW HUSBAND DESCRIBED AS 'SLEAZY'Author Ann Rule helps mother search for truthCBS News - April 21, 2012 Ronda and Liburdi sought counseling through their Jehovah's Witness church where the elder was none other than Ron Reynolds. |  |
Afsun Qureshi on post-partum depression: Out of the maternity ward ...
National Post - 23 hours ago May 17, 2012
Tragically, we also shared some deadly risk factors for post-partum ... religious upbringings — her's was Jehovah's Witness, mine Islamic
Sad
http://www.interaksyon.com/
DAVAO CITY - A deacon of a protestant church in Davao and his wife were found dead on Monday evening, still in their Sunday best.
The body of Ali Crisostomo, 44, was found hanging from the ceiling inside their room in Matina, Davao, Monday evening. The wife, 22-year-old Eden, was lying on the floor, her mouth foaming.
Relatives said they last saw the couple Sunday after they went to church. Crisostomo served as a deacon of the Jehova's Witness church. Authorities found an alleged suicide note inside the couple's room.
"To my body of elders. Dear Brothers, I wrote this letter to inform you all that I voluntarily stepping down (sic) my privileges as one of the elders of our congregation due to the wrongdoings that I have been committing (sic). It is sad that it happens to me but I know (sic)" the unsigned letter read.
Authorities are still verifying whether it was indeed Crisostomo who wrote the letter.
"I went inside their house to get something. I peeped through their room and found the woman sprawled on the floor, her face already very dark and her mouth was foaming,: said Crisostomo’s sister-in-law, Mary Rose.
Authorities said they are looking into the possibility that the husband first killed the wife and then committed suicide afterwards.
York Daily Record
Colon-Vega, 67, of York, had been on her way, they said, to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses Springdale on West Cottage Place.
http://www.ydr.com/crime/ci_
She was going to the Kingdom Hall, as she did regularly, her daughters said, to give Jehovah's Witnesses Bible classes and lessons when Justina Maggie Miller lost control of her car in the 500 block of Roosevelt Avenue near Madison Avenue in York and struck her on the sidewalk.
A year after the crash, Miller, 29, of South Hartley Street, entered no contest pleas to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence of marijuana, accidents involving death, DUI and driving while operating privileges are suspended or revoked. According to court documents, Miller has never had a Pennsylvania license."
She was going to the Kingdom Hall, as she did regularly, her daughters said, to give Jehovah's Witnesses Bible classes and lessons when Justina Maggie Miller lost control of her car in the 500 block of Roosevelt Avenue near Madison Avenue in York and struck her on the sidewalk.
A year after the crash, Miller, 29, of South Hartley Street, entered no contest pleas to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence of marijuana, accidents involving death, DUI and driving while operating privileges are suspended or revoked. According to court documents, Miller has never had a Pennsylvania license."
Daily Mail- Dec. 11, 2012 The former trucker, who claimed he was on a divine mission to rid the streets of prostitutes, is now a Jehovah's Witness and whinged to his |
Man Found Guilty, Mentally Ill in Daughter's Death
Feb 26, 2011 8:18pm
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports Clark County District Judge Elissa Cadish reached the verdict Tuesday after an eight-day bench trial.
William Redman will be confined to prison and given psychiatric treatment as he awaits sentencing April 27. He faces 20 years in prison to life without parole.
Redman, a Jehovah's Witness, believed his daughter, Gloria, would be resurrected three days after he repeatedly plunged a knife into her neck at the family's trailer at Road Runner RV Park.
He was found sitting outside the trailer with self-inflicted wounds to his arms, wrists and neck.
Defense attorneys argued he was not guilty by reason of insanity.
___
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
Murder in God’s Name: Son says he killed parents according to Jehovah’s command
The number of people involved in sects in Armenia reaches 368,000.
By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter 11/11/10
The murder of two parents by their own son, who is a member of Jehovah's Witnesses sect, caused heated public discussions in Armenia.
Arman Torosyan, 23, killed his parents – 64-year-old Khachik Torosyan and 57-year-old Marietta Torosyan in their apartment in Sevan, as he says, “fulfilling the commandment of Jehovah.”
A criminal case was filed according to the Article of the Criminal Code of Armenia (“murder of two or more people”) in Sevan.
The murderer must undergo a psychiatric examination; meanwhile a new wave of complaints against sects and the negative impact of their activities upon people rose in Yerevan.
‘Yerevan-Moscow-Tbilisi-Kiev’ teleconference, held on Wednesday, discussed the issue of the real threats sects carry, and the means of struggle against them.
According to Alexander Amaryan, head of Center for Rehabilitation and Assistance to Victims of Destructive Cults, the number of people involved in sects in Armenia reaches 368,000.
“The main goal of sectarian organizations is the ‘reprocessing’ of people. There are no corresponding specialists in Armenia; there are no independent centers, which may carry out a struggle against preachers,” Amaryan says
.
Psychiatrist Aram Hovsepyan, technical coordinator of the Armenian Psychiatric Association, says that murder and suicide cases, committed under the influence of sects, increases (even though there are no official data).
“Such patients develop a kind of disorder of mental dependency upon other people,” Hovsepyan says. “We have acute psychotic disorders, which lead people to unconscious aggressive actions.”
ArmeniaNow reporter 11/11/10
The murder of two parents by their own son, who is a member of Jehovah's Witnesses sect, caused heated public discussions in Armenia.
Arman Torosyan, 23, killed his parents – 64-year-old Khachik Torosyan and 57-year-old Marietta Torosyan in their apartment in Sevan, as he says, “fulfilling the commandment of Jehovah.”
A criminal case was filed according to the Article of the Criminal Code of Armenia (“murder of two or more people”) in Sevan.
The murderer must undergo a psychiatric examination; meanwhile a new wave of complaints against sects and the negative impact of their activities upon people rose in Yerevan.
‘Yerevan-Moscow-Tbilisi-Kiev’ teleconference, held on Wednesday, discussed the issue of the real threats sects carry, and the means of struggle against them.
According to Alexander Amaryan, head of Center for Rehabilitation and Assistance to Victims of Destructive Cults, the number of people involved in sects in Armenia reaches 368,000.
“The main goal of sectarian organizations is the ‘reprocessing’ of people. There are no corresponding specialists in Armenia; there are no independent centers, which may carry out a struggle against preachers,” Amaryan says
.
Psychiatrist Aram Hovsepyan, technical coordinator of the Armenian Psychiatric Association, says that murder and suicide cases, committed under the influence of sects, increases (even though there are no official data).
“Such patients develop a kind of disorder of mental dependency upon other people,” Hovsepyan says. “We have acute psychotic disorders, which lead people to unconscious aggressive actions.”
Man's life offers little to hint at explosion of violence
APPOMATTOX, VA. -- Christopher B. Speight lived in two starkly different worlds.
Four victims were found inside Speight's house, and three others as if shot while sitting in a car or immediately outside it. Law enforcement sources said Jonathan Quarles had been able to reach the road, despite being shot in the torso, and lay face down, fighting for life, when passersby found him.Court papers indicate that he was quietly preparing for a violent siege. He stockpiled firearms, hand grenades, pipe bombs, ammunition, body armor and paramilitary gear such as night-vision goggles and Vietnam-era Claymore mine components. He spent hours firing semiautomatic rifles on a 200-yard range behind his place on Snapps Mill Road. He cached food, provisions and sleeping bags. He booby-trapped the house and the woods around it with explosives.
Outwardly, however, Speight showed few signs that anything was terribly wrong. He never married and kept mostly to himself, but he was usually cheerful and calm around other people. He was quick to lend a hand and proved to be a reliable security guard at businesses for Old Dominion Security. With co-workers who drew him out, he spoke of his faith and attendance at a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall in Rustburg, his reluctance to settle down with any woman and a passion for firearms that began when he was a boy.
His mother's death in 2006 from brain cancer had plunged him into despair for a time, but it also made him closer to his sister and her husband, who returned from Georgia last year to live with him. To many who knew him, he seemed like an ordinary person whose troubles appeared no worse than anyone else's.
The enormous divide between the man people thought they knew and the one who saw dark plots on all sides was never obvious until Tuesday. Sometime before noon, authorities say, Speight exploded in violence, killing eight people with a high-powered rifle, firing shots when a sheriff's deputy and EMT arrived at the home after a body was reported there, and shooting a Virginia State Police helicopter from the sky. The 19-hour rampage came to a close after a damp, all-night standoff in the woods near his home when Speight, unarmed and wearing a bulletproof vest, peacefully surrendered to police.
The dead included the people in his life who were closest to him: his sister, Lauralee Dobyns Sipe, 37; her husband, Dwayne S. Sipe, 38, who went by his middle name, Shannon, with close friends and family members; and his sister's 15-year-old daughter, Morgan Leigh Dobyns, and 4-year-old son, Joshua T. Sipe. Authorities say Speight also killed four acquaintances: Ronald "Bo" Scruggs II, 16, and Emily A. Quarles, 15, both friends of Morgan's; and Jonathan L. and Karen Quarles, both 43, Emily's parents.
Outwardly, however, Speight showed few signs that anything was terribly wrong. He never married and kept mostly to himself, but he was usually cheerful and calm around other people. He was quick to lend a hand and proved to be a reliable security guard at businesses for Old Dominion Security. With co-workers who drew him out, he spoke of his faith and attendance at a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall in Rustburg, his reluctance to settle down with any woman and a passion for firearms that began when he was a boy.
His mother's death in 2006 from brain cancer had plunged him into despair for a time, but it also made him closer to his sister and her husband, who returned from Georgia last year to live with him. To many who knew him, he seemed like an ordinary person whose troubles appeared no worse than anyone else's.
The enormous divide between the man people thought they knew and the one who saw dark plots on all sides was never obvious until Tuesday. Sometime before noon, authorities say, Speight exploded in violence, killing eight people with a high-powered rifle, firing shots when a sheriff's deputy and EMT arrived at the home after a body was reported there, and shooting a Virginia State Police helicopter from the sky. The 19-hour rampage came to a close after a damp, all-night standoff in the woods near his home when Speight, unarmed and wearing a bulletproof vest, peacefully surrendered to police.
The dead included the people in his life who were closest to him: his sister, Lauralee Dobyns Sipe, 37; her husband, Dwayne S. Sipe, 38, who went by his middle name, Shannon, with close friends and family members; and his sister's 15-year-old daughter, Morgan Leigh Dobyns, and 4-year-old son, Joshua T. Sipe. Authorities say Speight also killed four acquaintances: Ronald "Bo" Scruggs II, 16, and Emily A. Quarles, 15, both friends of Morgan's; and Jonathan L. and Karen Quarles, both 43, Emily's parents.
Speight, who has been charged with murder, is in custody without bail at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority in Lynchburg. On Friday, investigators filed court documents cataloguing firearms, explosives and other items seized from Speight's home, including a Colt AR-15 assault rifle, a BFI Bushmaster assault rifle, two Chinese-made Norinco semiautomatic rifles and other military arms.
Soul mates
People are trying to make sense of a killing rampage that defies understanding. The people Speight is charged with murdering were trying to help him, yet he thought they would bring him harm. He'd gone his whole life proud of avoiding violence to resolve disputes.
Speight's uncle, Thomas Giglio, 61, of South Boston, Va., said no one in the family ever hinted that tensions were brewing inside the neatly kept, two-story brown house behind the split rail fence. Giglio said Lauralee was looking out for her elder brother's best interests, and Sipe, a Navy veteran and successful entrepreneur, treated him like his brother. Giglio said Speight, who suffered from a serious learning disability and bouts of severe depression tied to his mother's death, seemed to be getting on with his life just fine.
"I looked at Chris and Dwayne and I thought, 'This is really great. He's got a soul mate,' " Giglio said. "Those were the people who loved Christopher, who helped Christopher, who protected Christopher, who looked after him. I don't know how it got twisted."
In dozens of interviews with co-workers, friends, associates and members of law enforcement, a darker portrait has emerged of Speight as a deeply troubled man whose demons were kept so firmly in check that people who had known him for years now feel as if they might not have known him at all.
....... (read whole story here)
"He said he had a calling with the church," said Clarence "Scooter" Reynolds, 39, recalling a conversation that began about women. "He just said he wasn't interested in having a relationship with a woman. He was going the church way."
Yet members of the Kingdom Hall seldom saw him and said Speight was never baptized in the faith, Elder Richard Taylor said.
Speight's neighbors also did not see much of him. But most knew at least one thing about Speight: He had firearms, and he liked to shoot. Almost every weekend, the red clay hills and ridges of scrub pine echoed with the sounds of gunfire, often rapid-fire shooting that suggested someone was using a semiautomatic.
Man Jailed for Life over Religious Killing Nov. 8, 2009
A man who murdered the mother of his 13 children by stabbing her 17 times did so to save her from sin, the WA Supreme Court was told today.
Kenneth Pickett was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum 20 year period behind bars after pleading guilty to the brutal murder of Andrea Pickett outside a North Beach house in January.
Pickett had been released from jail only two months earlier after twice breaching a violence restraining order taken out by Ms Pickett and also threatening to kill her.
The court was told Pickett was an extremely religious man who killed his former wife after the breakdown of their 23 year marriage because he thought she was in another relationship and that went against his interpretation of the bible.
Justice Peter Blaxell said Pickett who is a Jehovah's Witness continued to justify the killing by saying he saved his former wife from sin.
The court was told on the night of the murder Pickett broke into a house in North Beach and chased his former wife outside the home before beginning to stab her as she held her three-year-old child in her arms.
Outside court members of Ms Pickett’s extended family criticised the system that allowed multiple VROs to be broken and ending up in the tragic death.
Kenneth Pickett was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum 20 year period behind bars after pleading guilty to the brutal murder of Andrea Pickett outside a North Beach house in January.
Pickett had been released from jail only two months earlier after twice breaching a violence restraining order taken out by Ms Pickett and also threatening to kill her.
The court was told Pickett was an extremely religious man who killed his former wife after the breakdown of their 23 year marriage because he thought she was in another relationship and that went against his interpretation of the bible.
Justice Peter Blaxell said Pickett who is a Jehovah's Witness continued to justify the killing by saying he saved his former wife from sin.
The court was told on the night of the murder Pickett broke into a house in North Beach and chased his former wife outside the home before beginning to stab her as she held her three-year-old child in her arms.
Outside court members of Ms Pickett’s extended family criticised the system that allowed multiple VROs to be broken and ending up in the tragic death.
Jarka trial: Murrieta man sentenced to life in prison without parole for murder of wife (Nov. 6, 2009)
A Murrieta man convicted of murdering his longtime wife and making the killing look like it was done by an intruder will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled Friday.Kelle Lee Jarka, 41 at the time of his trial, showed no reaction as Judge Timothy Freer confirmed the sentence indicated by Jarka’s conviction for first-degree murder. A jury deliberated about two hours in September before deciding Jarka murdered his wife, Isabelle, and that the killing was for financial gain, a finding that made him ineligible for parole.
Jarka showed no reaction as Judge Freer sentenced him to the maximum penalty. He called Jarka “evil” and said the evidence was overwhelming.
The sentence followed statements from Jarka’s brother-in-law and those of Isabelle’s family. Jarka continued to deny his guilt and told the judge he misses his wife.
He told the judge that one day he will be exonerated.
Prosecutors successfully argued Jarka, who was having financial problems, wanted to collect $1.3 million in life insurance on a policy he had taken out on his wife of nearly 20 years. The prosecutor described Jarka as a man so enamored with his upper-middle-class lifestyle and position within his congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, that he was willing to sacrifice the life of his loving wife to maintain it.
Defense attorney Erin Kirkpatrick told jurors Kelle Jarka was a peaceful man and a loving husband who did not kill his wife. Kirkpatrick said the Jarka’s finances were unstable, but their fiscal picture was not dire. Despite the best efforts of Murrieta police, she said, there was no physical evidence linking her client to Isabelle’s brutal death.
Isabelle Jarka suffered almost a dozen blows to her head with a blunt object resulting in a fracture to her skull and injuries to her brain, Dr. Joseph Cohen testified.
Texas woman accused of beheading, eating infant son Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The 33-year-old woman who police said decapitated her infant son and ate parts of his body had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and postpartum psychosis before the slaying at a North Side home this weekend, the family said Monday.
Otty Sanchez confessed to killing Scott Wesley Buchholz Sanchez on Sunday with a steak knife and two swords before mutilating the corpse and eating body parts that included the brain, nose and toes, police said.
She has been charged with capital murder and remained under 24-hour observation Monday at University Hospital, where she was treated for self-inflicted knife wounds.
The father of the baby now is asking that she "pay the ultimate price."
"She was a sweet person and I still love her, but she needs to pay the ultimate price for what she has done," said Scott W. Buchholz, who referred to his child as "baby Scotty." "She needs to be put to death for what she has done."
Sanchez's relatives, however, are hoping authorities will take into consideration her history of mental illness, which included a recent diagnosis of postpartum psychosis.
"It's just tragic and unbelievable what happened," said Greg Garcia, Sanchez's first cousin who considers her a sister. "She was a good, hard-working person, but she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia last year."
The crime happened at Sanchez's mother's home in the 300 block of Wayside Drive sometime between 1:30 and 4:30 a.m. When officers arrived about 5 a.m. to find baby Scotty's mutilated body, Sanchez quickly confessed to the macabre crime, police said.
"She was hysterical, screaming, 'I killed my baby. I killed my baby,'" said Police Chief William McManus.
Child Protective Services officials said that Sanchez had never been investigated by the agency prior to the killing. The agency on Monday was at the home investigating conditions, because Sanchez's sister's children, ages 5 and 7, also live there.
Police said the sister, the two children and Sanchez's mother were in the home at the time of the slaying. The adult women had each taken turns caring for baby Scotty at night so they could sleep in shifts. Sanchez's shift began at 1:30 p.m. Her sister discovered the baby's body about 4:30 a.m. and called police about 5 a.m.
The crime scene was so disturbing that the San Antonio Police Department has provided counseling services for some officers who entered the home.
"Normally you don't see a scene of this magnitude in terms of the atrocity," McManus said. "When you do, it certainly leaves a lasting impression."
Sanchez told detectives that she was "hearing voices" and the devil made her kill the baby boy she had given birth to June 30.
The Bexar County District Attorney's Office will soon review the homicide detectives' recommended capital murder charge, which is punishable by the death penalty.
"You can still be prosecuted if you have some form of mental illness," said First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg. "The test is if you understand the difference between right and wrong. The question is whether or not you know your act is wrong."
Defense attorneys can request competency hearings to determine whether Sanchez is fit to stand trial.
Dr. Lucy Puryear, a Houston psychiatrist and author, said mothers who experience postpartum psychosis often have a history of other mental disorders, but in some cases childbirth triggers the psychosis.
"It's usually really severe," said Puryear, who wrote the book, "Understanding Your Moods When You're Expecting."
She testified as an expert witness in the case of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in Houston in 2001. While postpartum depression affects one in 10 mothers, Puryear said, the more severe condition of postpartum psychosis -- which includes hallucinations -- affects 1 in 1,000.
Puryear said postpartum psychosis includes delusional thoughts, hallucinations and an altered state of reality.
"The scary thing is that the delusions are usually always about the baby," she said. "In all of the (high profile) cases, the thinking involves the babies: The mother had to kill the baby to protect it, or God has spoken to the mother and there is a mission to kill the baby or sometimes the baby is the devil who needs to be gotten rid of to save the world," she said.
Relatives said Sanchez's mental health had severely deteriorated in the week before baby Scotty's death. On July 20, she moved out of the home she was living at with the baby and his father near Windcrest on the Northeast Side.
That same day she checked herself into a hospital after hearing voices, but she soon checked herself out, according to a source familiar with the investigation but unauthorized to speak to the media. She then took the baby to stay at her mother's home in the 300 block of Wayside Drive.
Buchholz called her every day to convince her to return to their home, to no avail.
"We were all trying to get her to come back," said Buchholz best friend, Matthew Maher. "She wouldn't answer her phone."
She finally reappeared about 2 p.m. Saturday at Buchholz's parent's home on the Northeast Side.
"We were so happy to see Scotty again," said his father.
She was at the home for about 15 minutes when Buchholz told Sanchez that he needed a copy of baby Scotty's birth certificate and Social Security Card. The request seemed to "set her off," Buchholz said.
"She grabbed the baby and just said, 'I gotta go. I gotta go. I'm out of here.'"
The mother ran out of home with Scotty in a car seat. She left behind the baby's diaper bag and her purse, along with her medication. Buchholz said Sanchez threw the child's car seat -- with Scotty inside -- into the front passenger area of her car and sped away without buckling Scotty into the vehicle's front seat.
His mother called 911, and a sheriff's deputy arrived to investigate the incident as a disturbance, court records show. Later on Saturday night, while Buchholz was attending the Judas Priest concert, he received a cell phone call from Sanchez.
"She told me she had found someone else and she never wanted to see me again," he said.
Police think she killed the baby about six hours later.
Sanchez and Buchholz met in 2003, while they were enrolled in the San Antonio College of Medical and Dental Assistance. The couple's volatile relationship was on and off for the past six years, but they became dedicated to making it work after learning she was pregnant last year, relatives said.
"She took really good care of herself during the pregnancy," said Buchholz, who also has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. "We were excited about having a baby."
But Sanchez's mental health deteriorated soon after the child's birth. Her recovery was complicated by an infection, which required the use of a catheter for a week. Irritability progressed to a darker psychological state, and a postpartum depression diagnosis soon followed.
"She kept telling me she needed to see a counselor all the time," Buchholz.
During the pregnancy and first two weeks after baby Scott's birth, the couple lived together in a rented house on the Northeast Side.
The couple paid for the residence with his monthly disability checks and her job as an in-home health care provider for senior citizens. She worked until about two weeks before she gave birth. Acquaintances described Sanchez and her mother as devout Jehovah's Witnesses."They would come up to our door every so often, but I told them I was Catholic, so they left," said Elaine Calchin.
Buchholz's mother, Kathleen, said she had no idea that Sanchez had been diagnosed with the same mental illness her son had. She thought that baby Scotty was the best thing that could have happened to the troubled couple.
She is not sure what should happen to the baby's mother.
"I have mixed emotions," she said. "She needs to stay under psychiatric care. I love her. She was like a daughter. I don't want her out at this point, but that may change."
Otty Sanchez confessed to killing Scott Wesley Buchholz Sanchez on Sunday with a steak knife and two swords before mutilating the corpse and eating body parts that included the brain, nose and toes, police said.
She has been charged with capital murder and remained under 24-hour observation Monday at University Hospital, where she was treated for self-inflicted knife wounds.
The father of the baby now is asking that she "pay the ultimate price."
"She was a sweet person and I still love her, but she needs to pay the ultimate price for what she has done," said Scott W. Buchholz, who referred to his child as "baby Scotty." "She needs to be put to death for what she has done."
Sanchez's relatives, however, are hoping authorities will take into consideration her history of mental illness, which included a recent diagnosis of postpartum psychosis.
"It's just tragic and unbelievable what happened," said Greg Garcia, Sanchez's first cousin who considers her a sister. "She was a good, hard-working person, but she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia last year."
The crime happened at Sanchez's mother's home in the 300 block of Wayside Drive sometime between 1:30 and 4:30 a.m. When officers arrived about 5 a.m. to find baby Scotty's mutilated body, Sanchez quickly confessed to the macabre crime, police said.
"She was hysterical, screaming, 'I killed my baby. I killed my baby,'" said Police Chief William McManus.
Child Protective Services officials said that Sanchez had never been investigated by the agency prior to the killing. The agency on Monday was at the home investigating conditions, because Sanchez's sister's children, ages 5 and 7, also live there.
Police said the sister, the two children and Sanchez's mother were in the home at the time of the slaying. The adult women had each taken turns caring for baby Scotty at night so they could sleep in shifts. Sanchez's shift began at 1:30 p.m. Her sister discovered the baby's body about 4:30 a.m. and called police about 5 a.m.
The crime scene was so disturbing that the San Antonio Police Department has provided counseling services for some officers who entered the home.
"Normally you don't see a scene of this magnitude in terms of the atrocity," McManus said. "When you do, it certainly leaves a lasting impression."
Sanchez told detectives that she was "hearing voices" and the devil made her kill the baby boy she had given birth to June 30.
The Bexar County District Attorney's Office will soon review the homicide detectives' recommended capital murder charge, which is punishable by the death penalty.
"You can still be prosecuted if you have some form of mental illness," said First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg. "The test is if you understand the difference between right and wrong. The question is whether or not you know your act is wrong."
Defense attorneys can request competency hearings to determine whether Sanchez is fit to stand trial.
Dr. Lucy Puryear, a Houston psychiatrist and author, said mothers who experience postpartum psychosis often have a history of other mental disorders, but in some cases childbirth triggers the psychosis.
"It's usually really severe," said Puryear, who wrote the book, "Understanding Your Moods When You're Expecting."
She testified as an expert witness in the case of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in Houston in 2001. While postpartum depression affects one in 10 mothers, Puryear said, the more severe condition of postpartum psychosis -- which includes hallucinations -- affects 1 in 1,000.
Puryear said postpartum psychosis includes delusional thoughts, hallucinations and an altered state of reality.
"The scary thing is that the delusions are usually always about the baby," she said. "In all of the (high profile) cases, the thinking involves the babies: The mother had to kill the baby to protect it, or God has spoken to the mother and there is a mission to kill the baby or sometimes the baby is the devil who needs to be gotten rid of to save the world," she said.
Relatives said Sanchez's mental health had severely deteriorated in the week before baby Scotty's death. On July 20, she moved out of the home she was living at with the baby and his father near Windcrest on the Northeast Side.
That same day she checked herself into a hospital after hearing voices, but she soon checked herself out, according to a source familiar with the investigation but unauthorized to speak to the media. She then took the baby to stay at her mother's home in the 300 block of Wayside Drive.
Buchholz called her every day to convince her to return to their home, to no avail.
"We were all trying to get her to come back," said Buchholz best friend, Matthew Maher. "She wouldn't answer her phone."
She finally reappeared about 2 p.m. Saturday at Buchholz's parent's home on the Northeast Side.
"We were so happy to see Scotty again," said his father.
She was at the home for about 15 minutes when Buchholz told Sanchez that he needed a copy of baby Scotty's birth certificate and Social Security Card. The request seemed to "set her off," Buchholz said.
"She grabbed the baby and just said, 'I gotta go. I gotta go. I'm out of here.'"
The mother ran out of home with Scotty in a car seat. She left behind the baby's diaper bag and her purse, along with her medication. Buchholz said Sanchez threw the child's car seat -- with Scotty inside -- into the front passenger area of her car and sped away without buckling Scotty into the vehicle's front seat.
His mother called 911, and a sheriff's deputy arrived to investigate the incident as a disturbance, court records show. Later on Saturday night, while Buchholz was attending the Judas Priest concert, he received a cell phone call from Sanchez.
"She told me she had found someone else and she never wanted to see me again," he said.
Police think she killed the baby about six hours later.
Sanchez and Buchholz met in 2003, while they were enrolled in the San Antonio College of Medical and Dental Assistance. The couple's volatile relationship was on and off for the past six years, but they became dedicated to making it work after learning she was pregnant last year, relatives said.
"She took really good care of herself during the pregnancy," said Buchholz, who also has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. "We were excited about having a baby."
But Sanchez's mental health deteriorated soon after the child's birth. Her recovery was complicated by an infection, which required the use of a catheter for a week. Irritability progressed to a darker psychological state, and a postpartum depression diagnosis soon followed.
"She kept telling me she needed to see a counselor all the time," Buchholz.
During the pregnancy and first two weeks after baby Scott's birth, the couple lived together in a rented house on the Northeast Side.
The couple paid for the residence with his monthly disability checks and her job as an in-home health care provider for senior citizens. She worked until about two weeks before she gave birth. Acquaintances described Sanchez and her mother as devout Jehovah's Witnesses."They would come up to our door every so often, but I told them I was Catholic, so they left," said Elaine Calchin.
Buchholz's mother, Kathleen, said she had no idea that Sanchez had been diagnosed with the same mental illness her son had. She thought that baby Scotty was the best thing that could have happened to the troubled couple.
She is not sure what should happen to the baby's mother.
"I have mixed emotions," she said. "She needs to stay under psychiatric care. I love her. She was like a daughter. I don't want her out at this point, but that may change."
Murdered woman left 5-pg letter disassociating herself. Husband on Trial
Decision is final: slain wife
Posted By KYLE REA, Times-Journal
Eugena Smith expected "wagging tongues to flutter with delight" after they read the letter she wrote saying she was leaving the Jehovah's Witness church.
That comes from a five-page draft of the missive, read aloud to a trial jury on Wednesday and addressed to the Watchtower Bible Society of Jehovah's Witnesses. It was found by investigators lying among a pile of clothing on the floor of Eugena Smith's bedroom, shortly after the 33-year-old St. Thomas woman was found murdered in her 9 Balaclava St. home in June, 2007.
Her estranged husband Michael Smith, 37, is on trial for first-degree murder in the city's Superior Court of Justice.
The couple's daughter, who was three-and-a-half years old in June, 2007, wasn't home at the time.
Justice Peter Hockin is hearing the case, which is expected to last five weeks.
The Crown argued in an opening statement Tuesday that Eugena Smith was trying to leave both her husband, and her church, just days before she died on June 7, 2007. Michael Smith, the Crown says, thought she was having an affair.
Among a mountain of evidence presented in court on Wednesday, Eugena's draft letter stated "I no longer wish to associate myself with the (Watchtower) organization" and urged people not to persuade her to come back.
"My decision is final."
Wednesday also saw testimony from Const. Terri Hikele and Const. Marc Vaughan, two St. Thomas identification officers who investigated, photographed and video-taped both Eugena Smith's home and Michael Smith's Talbot Street apartment. The court heard cellphones, computers, medication and clothing were seized by police.
Some objects, such as a black woman's shirt cut from neck to waist, a pair of thong underwear, stained bed sheets and wads of toilet paper with a red substance on it, all found in Eugena Smith's bedroom, were sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto for testing.
Swabs taken from Michael Smith's penis and a sexual assault test kit with samples taken at Eugena Smith's autopsy were also sent away to be tested, the court heard.
Photos, video and items seized from Michael Smith's apartment were also presented to the jury. One of those items included a letter from Michael Smith's father, Joseph, addressed, "To my son."Read aloud for the jury by Vaughan, the letter asks forgiveness for a "previous outburst," and talks about a heated argument involving Eugena Smith and her inlaws. In the letter Joseph Smith worries he won't get a chance to see his granddaughter again.
"Don't make (her) pay for a few words."
The trial continues today.
Calgary Herald - 2-26-2009
Man who killed wife, two kids denied parole
Kostelniuk chronicled the murders of his two children and ex-wife in his book Wolves Among Sheep: The True Story of Murder in a Jehovah's Witness Community
Man Strangles Wife, Calls Elder to Confess
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl011909tpstrangle.d6a7c0c.html
WWLMan strangles wife, calls pastor to confess
WWL, LA - Jan 19, 2009
Ortega is the member of a local Jehovah Witness congregation, police said. Ortega and his wife, San Juana Isabel Ortega, 32, argued throughout the early ...
Man strangles wife, calls pastor to confess
03:38 PM CST on Monday, January 19, 2009
Matthew Pleasant / Houma Courier
WWLTV.com
HOUMA – After strangling his wife during a Sunday morning argument while their young children slept nearby, a 47-year-old welder called his pastor to confess the slaying, according to police.
Rodolfo Ortega, 320 Coach Court, Houma, is charged with second-degree murder.
At 10 a.m., police arrived at Ortega’s trailer after receiving a call from Ortega’s pastor, said Houma Police Lt. Jude McElroy. Ortega is the member of a local Jehovah Witness congregation, police said.
Ortega and his wife, San Juana Isabel Ortega, 32, argued throughout the early morning without waking their four children, who were sleeping, McElroy said.
New details in murder of 12-year-old girl 3/15/08
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It was all in the name of God Squalid ... sadistic foster mother Eunice and bedroom and bathroom in her home | |||||||||
| By JOHN COLES March 21, 2007
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Baby Found Dead In YardSlaying Result Of Possible Religious Sacrificefrom: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/9077272/detail.htmlPOSTED: 4:47 pm EDT April 28, 2006 A 9-month-old boy who was found dead in a neighborhood on Detroit's eastside Friday morning, may have been killed as a form of religious sacrifice.According to police, Raphael Thomas and his live-in girlfriend, Betty Jenkins, were involved in a Bible study in their Detroit home when Thomas and his girlfriend began to argue. The two exchanged words and Thomas grabbed hold of a can of red spray paint and wrote the word "revelations" on the walls throughout the home. He tossed his Bible outside along with other items that may be linked to a Jehovah Witness, according to police.Thomas then grabbed his son and left the home, Local 4 reported. Jenkins phoned police, but help didn't come in time. Thomas was found walking along Gratiot Avenue in Detroit stabbing himself. He inflicted more than 30 knife wounds on his body, according to police.The baby was not with Thomas, but was found dead a short time after in the back yard of a home. Police said the baby had been mutilated from the inside out. Thomas told police he freed his baby from the evils of the earth, leading investigators to believe the slaying of the baby was a form of religious sacrifice.The man was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital and treated with nearly 200 stitches. He remains in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Police said they didn't receive the 911 call until about 2:20 a.m., but a neighbor of the family said he phoned police at 10:30 p.m.The child's mother is not in custody and not involved in the death of the baby. The father is facing charges of murder.Police continue to investigate, and the issue of the 911 call remains uncertain. Previous Story:
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Jury convicts dad of whipping girl to deathApril 28, 2006BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporterhttp://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-beat28.html
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Man slaughters family - Update
April 13, 2006from : http://www.ogrish.com/archives/man_slaughters_family_update_Apr_13_2006.html
We recently ran a series concerning the slaughter of a family by the father / husband. More information has since become available. You can see the images here :
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE PART FOUR
Eloy Leon Kings was, apparently, a well liked and respected man in his local community. A devout Jehovas witness, he was a regular churchgoer and apparently a loving husband and father. There were no obvious signs to the outside world that something appeared to be going wrong with Mr Kings.
After awaking early one Thursday morning he read from his bible, took a knife, and set about trying to murder his family. His first victim, 8 year old Lucia, dies from having her throat cut. As she lay bleeding to death he then went after his wife, also named Lucia, whom he repeatedly stabbed. He then cut the throats of his remaining two daughters, 5 year old Dana and 6 year old Light. Light survived the attack but is, as of this writing, still under critical care for severe neck wounds.
Following his rampage Mr Kings turned the knife on himself, sawing into his throat. However, he suffered only minor damage to the skin and subcutaneous layers . The frantic Mr Kings had to be heavily tranquilised by doctors before they could treat his self inflicted injuries.
Investigators have been trying to piece together why Mr Kings would suddenly attempt to murder his whole family. Under interrogation Mr Kings would only reply with religious verse about Satan and how he wanted to “Take his family to paradise”.
Eloy Leon Kings
After awaking early one Thursday morning he read from his bible, took a knife, and set about trying to murder his family. His first victim, 8 year old Lucia, dies from having her throat cut. As she lay bleeding to death he then went after his wife, also named Lucia, whom he repeatedly stabbed. He then cut the throats of his remaining two daughters, 5 year old Dana and 6 year old Light. Light survived the attack but is, as of this writing, still under critical care for severe neck wounds.
Following his rampage Mr Kings turned the knife on himself, sawing into his throat. However, he suffered only minor damage to the skin and subcutaneous layers . The frantic Mr Kings had to be heavily tranquilised by doctors before they could treat his self inflicted injuries.
Investigators have been trying to piece together why Mr Kings would suddenly attempt to murder his whole family. Under interrogation Mr Kings would only reply with religious verse about Satan and how he wanted to “Take his family to paradise”.
Eloy Leon Kings
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-canambrose0203.artfeb03,0,7510368.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Injured Woman's Husband Arraigned By TOM PULEO Courant Staff Writer February 3 2006 CANTON -- Joseph V. Ambrose smashed his wife's face and skull with a pipe early Monday and told her she was "going to die tonight" before he left her outside a hospital and drove away, court records released Thursday state. But the police report offers no reason Ambrose - a self-employed carpenter and elder in the Canton congregation of the Jehovah's Witnesses - attacked his wife inside their rented home. She is recovering from her injuries. He was arraigned Thursday on attempted murder, first-degree assault and first-degree kidnapping charges and held with bail set at $750,000. He was ordered to have no contact with his wife or their four children should he make bail. He is due back in Superior Court in Hartford on Feb. 16. Court records state that the couple had separated, but still was living at 93 Old Canton Road and sleeping in different bedrooms. Ambrose, 55, lured his wife out of her room early Monday by telling her she had a phone call, then pummeled her, leaving multiple lacerations on her face and head, the report states. Robin Ambrose, 41, remains at Hartford Hospital and the couple's two youngest children who were living at home are now in state custody, authorities said. Ambrose eluded police for more than a day but was captured Tuesday morning, walking near the Canton-New Hartford line and carrying a loaded gun. Robin Ambrose gave police the following account: She remembers her husband striking her hard on the head, saying he had a pipe and was going to "kill her." The next thing she remembers is waking up alone in her minivan outside the house, her blood "everywhere." Robin Ambrose opened the minivan door, triggering the alarm, causing her husband to run out of the house to the van. At this time, Ambrose told his wife she was "going to die but I have to take you away from here." Robin Ambrose asked her husband to take her to the hospital. The next thing she remembers is waking up inside Hartford Hospital, the report says. She doesn't remember walking into the building. In 2003, police went to the Ambrose house during a "physical altercation" between Ambrose and his young son, the police report says.Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant |
| New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com |
| Jehovah's Witness shoots wife, self Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005 A Bible-thumping Bronx man gunned down his estranged wife and then killed himself after accusing her of straying from their faith and sleeping with another man, police and neighbors said yesterday.The victim's 21-year-old daughter found the bloodbath at 10:30 a.m. yesterday in her mother's Soundview apartment after the woman failed to show up to work as an Avon sales representative, neighbors said. Sharoll Medina, 39, was sprawled on her bed with a gunshot wound to her head. Her estranged husband, Julio Lopez, 45, lay dead nearby with a revolver beside him, police said. "My mother! My mother!" her daughter screamed as she walked out of the Watson Ave. building. Lopez and Medina, both Jehovah's Witnesses, separated about 18 months ago. But Lopez would often show up unannounced at Medina's fifth-floor apartment, neighbors said. She routinely refused to let him inside, but rather than go away he would sleep in his truck. Their fighting got worse when Lopez found out Medina was dating another man - and he later argued with her about it, neighbors said. Rich Schapiro and Alison Gendar |
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March 26, 2005
Sexual Abuse, Armageddon and Drugs
A powder keg ignited by P
New Zealand Herald - New Zealand
... The only remaining father figures in Dixon's life were Jehovah's Witnesses, one of whom on several occasions took Dixon on outings and sexually abused him
New Zealand Herald - New Zealand
... The only remaining father figures in Dixon's life were Jehovah's Witnesses, one of whom on several occasions took Dixon on outings and sexually abused him
| A powder keg ignited by P |
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| Antonie Dixon's long but small-time criminal career culminated in a frenzy of violence and death. |
| 26.03.05 by Louisa Cleave and Bronwyn Sell |
| From the age of 4 or 5, Antonie Dixon was dragged by his mother to Jehovah's Witness meetings. He was forced to sit for hours in meeting halls, go door-to-door with her as she preached, read the Bible every day before school. He grew up with tales of fire and brimstone, of demons and devils, of a new world order, of Armageddon and how the sinners of the world would be wiped out. At the age of 34, after a month-long P binge, he started his own Armageddon. He sliced off the right hand of his girlfriend Renee Gunbie and the left hand of former girlfriend Simonne Butler with a samurai sword in the Hauraki Plains village of Pipiroa, and then shot dead a stranger, James Te Aute, in Pakuranga, later raving to police, witnesses and psychiatrists that the women were immoral and Te Aute was the devil. He claimed to have drunk blood from Gunbie's severed hand. He claimed his father was the offspring of angels. He claimed to see dancing goblins and hanging vampires. Butler says Dixon yelled during the ordeal at Pipiroa, "that his God had told him he had to sacrifice me and we were all going to die and the New World was taking over". Whether they were the ramblings of an insane man or a cynical- and ultimately unsuccessful - strategy to secure a trial verdict of not guilty by insanity, it wasn't hard to trace his inspiration. "It was pretty intense," his sister, Carla Dixon-Foxley, says of their late mother's beliefs. "There was a lot of talk of demons and being possessed by the devil, Armageddon and not being good enough to obtain ever-lasting life." Dixon had been involved in crime since he was 15. By the time he picked up the samurai sword, he had 160 convictions. It was mostly petty stuff - stolen cars, theft and driving offences - and a few assaults. Police officers who had dealt with him for two decades had suspected his crime spree might escalate. But they hadn't expected something so extreme. "I always thought he had the potential to kill but not in this way. This was quite out there," says Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Gutry, who was working in the Howick criminal investigation branch while Dixon was living in Beachlands in his 20s and early 30s. While Dixon was a career criminal, one police officer said he was also likeable and charming. He'd had at least two serious, albeit tumultuous, relationships, which survived several prison terms. He had two children with his former partner for 10 years, Wendy Ross. Ross and Simone Butler both say Dixon was charming. Ross says he had a "contagious personality". But both became aware of a darker side as their respective relationships progressed. Butler and Dixon split in March 2002 but remained friends. Dixon took up with Gunbie, Butler's childhood friend and a P cook. Gunbie moved into the Pipiroa property in October that year. Police who dealt with Dixon are confident they know exactly what turned him from a troubled petty criminal who aspired to notoriety into a homicidal madman: the drug P, a pure form of methamphetamine. He wasn't crazy, a former police officer told the Weekend Herald. He just "lost it one night on P". Dixon, who was a cannabis user, had drifted into P through his associations with gangs, says Detective Sergeant Darryl Brazier. Brazier said Dixon phoned him three or four times a day in the months leading up to January 21, 2003, and admitted he was "fried" - a common term for regular P users. Police say it changed his behaviour. It ignited his long-held paranoia and drew out the violence that had characterised his childhood. In the 1970s, Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, wasn't the trendy, upmarket street it is now. It was rough, especially inside Dixon's childhood home, which doubled as a boarding house for psychiatric patients released from Oakley and Carrington Hospitals. Their mother, Isabelle, ran the house, administering medication to the boarders and the rod to her children, Dixon's sister says. "She beat us. We were all scared of her. She used to lock Tony in the toilet for hours at a time. She would sit him on the potty with no pants on and leave him in the cold." Dixon was tied to the washing line, chained up with padlocks and locked in his room with bars on the windows. Dixon-Foxley, who is nine years older than her brother and now lives in London, remembers him as a child sitting on the couch and banging his head for hours, rocking. "He was always a bit strange." Their father, Ronald, was violent to their mother. When Dixon was 7 they separated and he was forbidden by the courts from coming near the family. He died in Wellington three years later from heart problems, at the age of 53. The only remaining father figures in Dixon's life were Jehovah's Witnesses, one of whom on several occasions took Dixon on outings and sexually abused him, Dixon-Foxley told his High Court trial. He was forbidden from playing with other children because his mother didn't want him associating with non-believers. Dixon rebelled. He would get frustrated and throw tantrums. And he was no longer a small boy who could be locked in the toilet. "He had to be held down," Dixon-Foxley says. "It was uncontrollable, not unlike my father's temper. He'd get very angry. Unreasonable. Illogical. He would hit out. He grew up in an environment of violence and that's all he knew." By 10 he was wagging school, and had to be dragged home from spacies parlours. Around that time he started to turn the violence back on to his mother. "He was constantly in trouble," Dixon-Foxley says. "Once he started the truancy he was basically in homes. Home after home after home." Their mother gave up. She made him a ward of the state. He lived in halfway houses, boys' homes, foster homes, institutions, borstals. About then he started breaking the law. At 15 he was convicted of burglary and receiving property, although he was admonished and returned to state care. Thus began his 20-year crime spree. Most police officers the Weekend Herald spoke to said he was not known as a violent offender. He craved notoriety but it proved elusive - until January 21, 2003. Dixon seemed to enjoy dramatic run-ins with police - especially car chases. Before the samurai attacks his biggest claim to infamy was slipping out of a prison van in Auckland in 1994 after being charged with orchestrating a major car theft ring. He was on the run for more than a month. He called the New Zealand Herald while in hiding to say he expected the police would catch him. A few years later he climbed through a skylight at the Tauranga police station after being arrested for a crime spree involving high-speed car chases in four stolen vehicles. "I think he loved the whole car chase, almost a Dukes of Hazzard type," Gutry says. Brazier says Dixon always wanted to be somebody more important, but the gangs considered him risky, probably because of his big-noting. "As much as he wanted to be accepted in the criminal scene, a lot of the upper-echelon criminals didn't want him. You would mention his name and they would roll their eyes and say 'He's a would be if he could be'. He wanted to be the big man around town." Detective Inspector Bernie Hollewand, the officer in the charge of the inquiry, says Dixon used violence "instrumentally" within the criminal scene. Dixon had a "coterie of henchmen". His "business" was disposing of high-performance vehicles and he associated with several gangs, from the Headhunters to the Mongrel Mob. "He wouldn't have wanted to be associated too closely with any one particular gang ... his business was best served by being in contact with all the gangs and knowing who was doing the business around the place," says Hollewand. He agrees that Dixon wanted to be big. "He wants to be top dog, he wants to be doing Tony's business not anyone else's business." His campaign for notoriety involved regular contact with police. A former police officer says Dixon would drive to the Howick police station, park his car alongside patrol cars and wander inside to chat. "He's a friendly guy - very confident, very cocky. He had no problem talking to cops, because he thought he was too clever for us and was never going to get caught." It seems a contradiction, but while Dixon was actively courting police, he was also paranoid they had him under electronic surveillance. He would beg Brazier to call off this imagined surveillance. Brazier said Dixon's paranoia was a symptom of heavy P use - as was the violence that erupted. "It is common for a heavy user to believe people are out to get them, whether it be police or other people in the drug scene." In the months before his violent explosion, Dixon seemed convinced that the authorities were using 747s, bugs and satellites to monitor him. He had painted slogans on the walls of his house and the road, saying, "my life is in danger" and "home of the satellite 747 and every other thing in the sky". Detective Senior Sergeant Richard Middleton said Dixon's P use exaggerated his paranoia and made him more grandiose. Brazier advised Dixon in the months before January 21, 2003, to seek help for his addiction. "[Dixon's crime spree] is a result of P," says Gutry. "The levels of violence are so much more extreme. "We're just seeing a lot of people who, when they get addicted to P, become extremely violent, unpredictable; who were otherwise not really violent people." On January 21, 2003, Dixon finally lost control. Everything that had been haunting him for the past 34 years came to a head - the paranoia, the violence, the drugs, the two decades of crime, the run-ins with police, the cravings for notoriety. "His personality was the powder keg and P was the match that lit it," Crown prosecutor Simon Moore said in court. Things didn't go to plan for Dixon on January 21, 2003. He didn't want to go back to jail. He wanted to "go down in a blaze of glory", shot dead by police. "I've gone too far," Dixon told Brazier that night, after mutilating the women and before killing Te Aute. "I've chopped them both and I'd have killed them if the sword hadn't broken." But in his warped mind, there was one consolation. He told police: "Everyone will be taking notice of me now." 24 hours of violence 8.30am, January 21, 2003 Renee Gunbie prepares a cocktail of orange juice, cocaine and methamphetamine at the Pipiroa home she shares with boyfriend Antonie Ronnie Dixon. He drinks most of it. 2pm. Dixon breaks Gunbie's arm. His violent spree has begun. 7pm. His former girlfriend Simonne Butler arrives. Gunbie has been badly beaten. Dixon attacks the women with a samurai sword. 7.30pm. He calls an ambulance and drives to Hamilton, where he steals a car. He speeds erratically to Auckland. He taunts police over his mobile phone. "I'm not going to go to jail. This is going to be another Aramoana." Midnight. He drives into Dunrobin Place, Highland Park, and finds three men in a car. He taunts them, draws them closer, then shoots dead James Te Aute. Dixon drives away, pursued by the men's friend, Steven Matthews, who was parked nearby. Dixon raises his gun at Matthews, who ducks and loses control of his car. Dixon threatens staff and customers at gunpoint at a Mobil station in Highland Park and a Shell station in Pakuranga. 12.30am. Dixon picks up a stranger, Bradley Kukard, in Howick and tells him he has killed a man. He drops him off and is chased by two police officers but escapes. 1am. A police officer spots Dixon's car in Rialto Court, Botany Downs, and chases him to Inchinnam Rd, East Tamaki. Dixon bursts into the house of Ian Miller, taking him hostage. 5.30am. After long conversations with Miller and police negotiators, Dixon releases Miller. 6.15am. Dixon leaves the house and lies on the lawn, surrendering. |
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| Posted on Thu, Mar. 17, 2005 | |
 http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/11156681.htm At hearing, a killer's daughters relive horrorThe children of Richard Greist, who slaughtered family members in '78, say he should not be released to a group home. By Kathleen Brady Shea Inquirer Staff Writer Greist, 53, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1980 of crimes that included fatally stabbing his pregnant wife, ripping his unborn son from her womb, mutilating the fetus, gouging the eye of his 6-year-old daughter, slashing his grandmother's throat, and butchering the family cat. Because a judge ruled that Greist could not be held responsible for his crimes, he can never be incarcerated for them. The daughters, both of whom are married, came forward after learning that the staff at Norristown State Hospital, Greist's primary residence since his arrest, continue to seek greater freedom for their father. Neither believes Greist should be released to a group home - as the hospital staff has recommended - and both read letters, with visible difficulty, at Greist's annual commitment hearing in Chester County Court. Elizabeth Anna Butts, 32, who lost an eye during the attack, said she is reminded of it every day when she looks in the mirror. "I wish my father no harm," she said. "I don't believe he intentionally harmed me; that's what's scary." Butts said the love of God and family has helped her regain some semblance of a normal life, which would be shattered if she had to start worrying about running into her father at the grocery store. Echoing the testimony of two experts hired by the commonwealth, psychiatrist Barbara Ziv and psychologist Steven E. Samuel, Butts said the fact that doctors do not know why the psychotic episode happened suggests that no one can be sure it will not recur. Her younger sister, Angela Dykie, 31, said she would be forever haunted by "the sounds of hard thumps, searing slaps, deadly stabs, moans of pain, screams of terror, and wails of horror." She said that after being thrown across the kitchen into a coal bucket, she escaped across the street where she watched her mother come out "in a body bag" and her sister come out "clinging to life, expected to die." Dykie said her father "manipulated" her into seeing him when she was 18, and the experience made her "hit rock bottom" and consider ending her life. She said she was not surprised when Greist's second wife, Patricia, committed suicide after a year of marriage. After her death, she said, her father pressured her "to testify for his freedom," arguing that he had no one else to support him. "I pushed him away," said Dykie. "When I did that, my life came back to normal." A different view was presented by Frances Greist, his third wife. She testified that she met Greist in June on the Internet, in a chat room for Jehovah's Witnesses. She said she traveled from New Zealand to Norristown on Nov. 11 and married Greist on Nov. 29. "He's a darling," she said, adding that the two hope to relocate to New Zealand. Asked by Assistant District Attorney Peter Hobart about the particulars of the assault, she said Greist "was trying to save the baby in his own way" when he ripped the fetus from his wife's body. Greist, who covered his face with his hands during his daughters' testimony, also addressed the court during the daylong hearing, describing fond parenthood memories, such as the smell of the girls' freshly shampooed hair. "My dreams were also shattered on that horrific day," he said. Greist said he wished he could change the past, which was destroyed by his mental illness, and wants to change the future. "I have so much love to give my daughters," he said. Hobart said Greist's daughters requested that the court be informed that they want no contact with their father. "You saw chillingly, the effect he has on his daughters," said Hobart, who urged Chester County Court Judge Edward Griffith not to lift any restrictions. Greist's attorney, Marita Malloy Hutchinson, asked Griffith to "follow the recommendation" of Greist's hospital treatment team, led by psychiatrist Sudhir Stokes, and explore "a less restrictive environment" for her client. Before taking the case under advisement, the judge addressed Greist. "If you really do care about [your daughters], I think it would be best if you had no contact with them," Griffith said. Greist replied that he agreed. | |
1992 murder conviction is upheld By Barbara Bell Special to the Tribune Published December 4, 2004 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0412040178dec04,1,3774551.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed William Carlson's request to have his murder conviction thrown out was denied Friday by a Lake County judge, but Carlson said he plans to appeal. Carlson, 30, who represented himself at a hearing before Associate Circuit Judge John Phillips, said he deserved a new trial because of problems with the indictment charging him with first-degree murder in the 1990 shooting deaths of his parents. "It's specifically an attack on the validity of the indictment," Carlson said. Carlson pleaded guilty in 1992 to killing his father in their Wildwood house. He is serving a 90-year sentence in Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet. In a plea deal, Carlson avoided a life sentence when prosecutors dropped murder charges in connection with his mother's slaying. But Carlson's sentence for his father's death was extended because the crime was considered heinous and brutal, authorities said. Carlson argued that because the "heinous and brutal" accusation was not mentioned in the grand jury indictment, it was flawed. Assistant State's Atty. Jeff Pavletic said Carlson pleaded guilty to killing his father, so his argument did not apply. Carlson waived his rights to a jury trial when he entered the plea, Pavletic said. Phillips agreed. "I am going to deny you the relief you request," he told Carlson. Pavletic said prosecutors were never sure what motivated Carlson, then 16, to kill his parents with a handgun he rented for $100 from classmates at Warren Township High School. "That was the $64,000 question at the time," Pavletic said. Carlson feared getting in trouble with his father because he had sold some of his father's gold collection, and his parents were Jehovah's Witnesses, the prosecutor said. A defense psychiatrist said Carlson had been sexually and mentally abused by his parents. But Pavletic doubted that Carlson was mentally ill because he plotted to kill his parents and returned the gun before fleeing to Canada in his parents' car. "All of those things supported that this wasn't a person who didn't understand the acts he had committed," Pavletic said. Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune |
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BOOK REVIEW: BLOOD CRIMES
Over the last few years there have been some quite sensational national news cases in the U.S. that involve a Jehovah's Witness male murdering part of all of his family or people close to him. Why? The following are some recent comments and findings by Bill Bowen of Silentlambs:
The picture above is of the South Carolina corner removing the bodies of the Meza children.
You can read the full story at this link,
http://www.silentlambs.org/SCmurderarticles.htm
The South Carolina case of a Jehovah’s Witness father murdering his wife and children appears to be an ongoing problem that seems to occur when JW fathers become emotionally disturbed. To understand the reason why this phenomena presents itself you must understand the theology of the religion itself. Anyone that becomes a Jehovah’s Witness must accept that they are part of the only “truth.” That “truth” is defined as being the only persons on earth that are approved by God. To find corroboration of that, note the following quotes from JW literature,
” Become members of an international brotherhood known for cleanness and good manners, the worldwide congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.In harmony with Ephesians 4:24, these sincere Christians have “put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.” Soon the world will be filled with such people because these will be the only ones who will survive and live forever.” Watchtower99 6/15 page 6
”The message is clear: If we want to survive Armageddon , we must remain spiritually alert and keep the symbolic garments that identify us as faithful Witnesses of Jehovah God .”Watchtower 99 12/1 page18
As you can see from the material Jehovah’s Witnesses believe they have the only path to surviving the end of the world. Anyone that does not become part of that path will be killed by God at the battle of Armageddon. The belief continues that Armageddon is immanent and the only way to help mankind survive is to allow them the opportunity to become Jehovah’s Witnesses by calling on the homes of the public and inviting them to become members through home bible studies. Any member that does not participate in this “preaching work,” will be killed by God at Armageddon.
What happens after Armageddon? The earth will be given to Jehovah’s Witnesses to cultivate into a garden like park they call the “paradise earth.” The function of the paradise earth will be for humans to be returned to perfection by God and live eternally in human bodies while cultivating it as a beautiful place to live. In addition, according to doctrinal belief, there will be a resurrection of those that passed away in the former world. These resurrected ones will be provided with education and an opportunity to become Jehovah’s Witnesses as well. If they decline then they will die. Any Jehovah’s Witness member that died in the former world will be resurrected to live eternity with friends and family, they will have perfect health with none of the maladies they may have experienced in the old world as well as have the prospect of living forever. The paradise earth is viewed as a solution to all the problems that Jehovah’s Witnesses experience living in the current world they view as being ruled by Satan. The only escape from Satan’s world is to have one of two options;
1. Wait for Armageddon to start the paradise earth.
2. Die and wake up in the paradise earth.
When JW father comes under severe emotional distress due to financial or other circumstances it is an easy escape to consider giving their family a way to enter the paradise earth immediately. The only way to do that is through murder. This has happened on several occasions in the last few years. One of the earlier cases involved the Kostelniuk family in Burnaby , British Columbia . The mother remarried a JW man who subsequently molested the children after which he murdered the family when placed under pressure. A book was written by the children’s biological father called “Wolves among Sheep” You can read about it at this link,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=7.topic
Yet this was not the only case, another came up in 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia, the Barton case involved once again a JW father slaughtering his children and wife, the reason was financial and he also killed several other people as well, but why his wife and children? Could it be the reason giving them exit to a paradise earth? You can read about this case here,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=12.topic
Another case was Christian Longo in Washington . Again a JW father strangles his three small children and his wife puts them in suitcases and throws them in the ocean. Financial difficulty was citied as part of the reason. You can read of this case here,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=2.topic
A year later in the next state, JW father Bryant takes a shotgun and murders his four children and wife then turns the gun on himself. The reasons were financial and related to reporting of abuse. You can read this story here,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=1.topic
In a reverse concept children have murdered their parents. The Freeman brothers killed their brother and parents after becoming skinheads. Part of the reason given was due to being raised as JW’s. This resulted in a book and movie, you can read about his here,
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=4.topic
Then there are cases of JW parents killing just their children. In each case you have to wonder if they believed they were helping the child find paradise. You can read these stories here,
Laree Slack age 12 Chicago IL-01.
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Ri’vene Phifer infant NC- 97
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=14.topic
Knight infant CA-99
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=5.topic
Infant France-02
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=6.topic
Brian Mackey and son 12 Florida-03
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=11.topic
Robert and Ben Moore 10-13 WS-93 unsolved murder
http://p074.ezboard.com/flambsmarchfrm33.showMessage?topicID=8.topic
When you consider that Jehovah’s Witnesses are a relatively small religion, under one million members in the USA it is disturbing to see that most cases that involved the murder of a family by the father in recent years have had JW connections. Is this just a coincidence? Could it be that the theology and doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses creates a type of time bomb that can be tripped of the right set of circumstances presents it? The information above seems to indicate that this could be a strong possibility. -- Bill Bowen of Silentlambs
Actual News Articles (top are most recent):
www.suntimes.com
Family of three murdered in Harvey
December 1, 2004BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporter
Vinese Bell-Kracht had decided it was time for her and her 1-year-old son, Emery, to move on with their lives.
The 21-year-old bank clerk had had enough of the domestic abuse she said she suffered at the hands of her troubled husband of almost two years, Martin Kracht, relatives said. After the last incident more than a month ago, she'd filed charges, had him arrested and sought a restraining order against him, according to court records.
And she had started that new life, with a new job and a new apartment.
But Bell-Kracht's life came to a sudden and violent end Monday, police said. She, her son and her mother-in-law, Barbara Baker-Kracht, 52, were found murdered in Baker-Kracht's Harvey home. The three died at the hands of 24-year-old Martin Kracht, who less than two weeks ago moved in with the mother he allegedly killed, police and relatives said.
Chilling discovery
On Tuesday, members of Bell-Kracht's close-knit family gathered at their south suburban Richton Park home, struggling to understand the tragedy that had befallen the young mother, child and grandmother.
Police made the chilling discovery of the bodies at Baker-Kracht's home in the 15000 block of South Marshfield Avenue in Harvey about 9 p.m. Monday.
"It was a well-being check that was requested by a family member," said Harvey Police spokeswoman Sandra Alvarado.
Shortly after the bodies were found, Harvey Police arrested Kracht on a tip from relatives, who knew he was hiding in a garage only blocks away.
Kracht was expected to be charged with three counts of first-degree murder late Tuesday, according to Harvey Police and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
"This appears to be domestic-related homicide," Alvarado said. "It was not a random act of violence. This is a senseless tragedy."
Police would not say how the three died, but they noted none of the victims was shot.
'Seemed like nice people'
Neighbors in the quiet neighborhood where Baker-Kracht recently bought her home milled outside their houses, helping each other grapple with the horror.
"When they first moved in, I came out to welcome them to the neighborhood. He and his mother seemed like nice people," Denise Lollis, who has lived across the street for 23 years, said Tuesday. "I have never, ever seen anything like this. This has been rough. It just keeps you praying."
Police said they may never know what triggered the killings.
Bell-Kracht's family said she had met her husband in 2002 through her brother, who had invited Martin Kracht to join the Jehovah's Witnesses faith her family practiced. Martin Kracht had attended Thornton Township North High School with Bell-Kracht's brother, Shaun Winston, graduating in 1998, Winston recalled.
Kracht began visiting the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses at 150 E. 124th Pl., in Chicago with Winston and his family of six siblings.
"He acknowledged he was living a life of debauchery, and said he wanted clean up life. He was baptized a Jehovah's Witness, "Winston said. "He met my sister, and they liked each other. I advised her against it," he added, choking back tears.
Winston's advice went unheeded. The pair dated for five months before marrying. But Kracht, then living with a friend in Harvey, was unable to support his new wife, floating from job to job, Winston said. So Dennis and Sherry Harris, Bell-Kracht's parents, allowed Kracht to move in with his wife and her family in Richton Park.
That's when the trouble started.
"He started pushing on her and she was pregnant. One time he pushed her down," Winston said. "That was when my father talked to him, and kicked him out."
Sought restraining order
The abuse reportedly got worse, culminating in an October incident that resulted in Bell-Kracht seeking a restraining order against her husband, barring him from her home in Richton Park. But on Nov. 8 she appeared in court in Markham and asked that both the protection order and the abuse charges be dismissed.
"The victim didn't wish to proceed," said Marcy Jensen, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office. "We don't know why."
Last summer, relatives said, Bell-Kracht had become convinced it was time to give up on her marriage and move on. She landed a job at Charter One Bank in Homewood and only last week secured a small apartment in south suburban Steger for herself and her son.
On Saturday, her family helped her move in, and on Sunday Kracht came to Kingdom Hall asking to see his son, her relatives said. Bell-Kracht acquiesced, letting him take the boy for a day and arranging to pick up Emeryon Monday evening.
"But on Monday, we didn't hear from her after work, which was unusual for Vinese. We knew something had happened when the police called."
Contributing: Stefano Esposito, Annie Sweeney, Lisa Donovan and Cheryl V. Jackson
Copyright © The Sun-Times Company
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0412010285dec01,1,3695005.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Suspect's mom, wife, son slain
Woman had filed abuse charges against husband, then dropped them
By Rick Jervis and Patrick Rucker, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Jo Napolitano and Bonnie Miller Rubin contributed to this reportPublished December 1, 2004
The mother of an 11-month-old boy, Vinese Bell-Kracht was trying to piece her life together after a rocky two-year marriage. Last month her estranged husband, Martin Kracht, was charged with beating her, and the court ordered him to stay away from his wife and child.
But Bell-Kracht, torn between the pain of a troubled marriage and the challenges of caring for an infant son by herself, decided she had to have her husband's help. She asked that the charges be dropped, and on Nov. 8, they were, along with the court order of protection, prosecutors said.
About 9 p.m. Monday, Harvey police found the bodies of Bell-Kracht, 21; her son, Emery; and Barbara Baker-Kracht, 52, Martin Kracht's mother, in Baker-Kracht's Harvey home.
Kracht, 24, was arrested Tuesday morning in the garage of another relative's home in Harvey. He remained in police custody Tuesday night pending charges, police said.
Bell-Kracht's slaying ended what officials say was an abusive relationship that left a trail of court documents and police reports. For family members who had tried to steer her clear of the violence, it opened another painful chapter even as police and prosecutors pondered whether to charge Kracht.
"We're just numb," said Bell-Kracht's brother Shaun Winston, 24, standing outside his family's Richton Park home as family and friends filed in.
"That was my baby," Winston said, describing his sister as "the closest sibling I had."
Harvey police officials were tight-lipped about the details of the slayings, which occurred in the 15100 block of Marshfield Avenue. They could not confirm how the victims died or whether a weapon had been found.
At a news conference outside the brick bungalow where the slayings occurred, Cmdr. Merritt Gentry told reporters that he did not expect charges to be filed Tuesday by the Cook County state's attorney's office. Autopsies were scheduled for Wednesday.
"It's going to be a while," Gentry said. "We don't foresee any charges at this time, or any time soon, because there is a great deal of investigative work still to be done."
Family members described a relationship that was happy at first but quickly deteriorated.
Winston said he introduced the two. He knew Kracht when both were students at Thornton Township High School in Harvey and ran into him again, in the summer of 2002, at the University of Illinois' Chicago campus, where Winston was studying journalism. Kracht appeared sullen and depressed, Winston said.
"He said he wanted to get his life together," Winston said. "I told him to come hang with me. I regret ever doing that."
A devout Jehovah's Witness, Winston took Kracht to the movies, brought him to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses Church in Chicago and introduced him to his sister.
Bell-Kracht, the middle of six siblings, was quiet and shy but loved dancing and showing off in front of her family, Winston said. She became drawn to Winston's new friend. They hit it off and were married four months later, in January 2003, he said. Kracht moved into the family's home on Capri Lane in Richton Park that summer.
But trouble soon started.
On Oct. 6, 2003, Richton Park police responded to a domestic-disturbance call at the home.
"They had gotten into a verbal argument, and she called police," said Richton Park Police Chief Leonard Czaplewski. "She did not want to press charges."
After that incident, the family expelled Kracht from the home, and he lived with friends and family members in Harvey while keeping in touch with Bell-Kracht, Winston said.
A year later, on Oct. 17, court records show, police responded to 2353 W. 57th St. in Markham and arrested Kracht on charges that he, "struck [his wife] about the torso with closed fists and threw her down to the ground."
Kracht was arrested that afternoon and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery.
At a hearing the next day, he was released on his own recognizance, but was ordered not to harass, abuse or stalk Bell-Kracht. He also was ordered to stay away from the Capri Lane home and the Charter One Bank in Homewood, where Bell-Kracht had been working as a teller since July. Visits with Emery were to be arranged through his mother, court documents show.
Bell-Kracht dropped the charges at the first court hearing on Nov. 8. She did so, Winston said, because she needed Kracht's help in caring for Emery and it was too difficult with the court's protective order.
"We listen very closely to our victims, and we take very seriously what their wishes are," said Tom Stanton, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office. "In this instance she did not wish to continue with the charges."
But in the interest of protecting the victim, even if she asks for the charges to be dropped, the state's attorney's office generally will not comply at the bail hearing, according to Dan Tsatoros, a former assistant state's attorney who is the court advocate coordinator and civil attorney for the South Suburban Family Shelter.
To protect the victim, the court will have jurisdiction over the person accused of abuse, who, at a bail hearing, is ordered not to have contact with the victim for 72 hours, and sometimes longer. After that period, even if the victim decides to drop the charges, the state can, without her cooperation, pursue a "victimless prosecution," Tsatoros said.
"But if the state cannot meet its burden of proof without the testimony of the victim, then the prosecutors' hands may be tied and are forced to dismiss the charges," he said. Such changes of heart occur about 75 percent of the time, he said.
Winston said his younger sister was on her way to getting back on her feet and trying to rid herself of her past with Kracht. On Saturday, she had moved into her own apartment in Steger, where she planned to raise Emery, and was saving to file for divorce, he said.
Last Wednesday, Winston said, he pulled Kracht aside after services at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses Church and gave a stern, quiet warning: "Do not put your hands on my sister again."
"He was so bothered by what was going on in his life, he didn't even seem to listen," Winston said.
Kracht showed up at the church on Sunday to pick up Emery, Winston said. Bell-Kracht was scheduled to pick up the child from Kracht's mother's house Monday.
Copyright © 2004, Chicago TribuneWoman had filed abuse charges against husband, then dropped them
By Rick Jervis and Patrick Rucker, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Jo Napolitano and Bonnie Miller Rubin contributed to this reportPublished December 1, 2004
The mother of an 11-month-old boy, Vinese Bell-Kracht was trying to piece her life together after a rocky two-year marriage. Last month her estranged husband, Martin Kracht, was charged with beating her, and the court ordered him to stay away from his wife and child.
But Bell-Kracht, torn between the pain of a troubled marriage and the challenges of caring for an infant son by herself, decided she had to have her husband's help. She asked that the charges be dropped, and on Nov. 8, they were, along with the court order of protection, prosecutors said.
About 9 p.m. Monday, Harvey police found the bodies of Bell-Kracht, 21; her son, Emery; and Barbara Baker-Kracht, 52, Martin Kracht's mother, in Baker-Kracht's Harvey home.
Kracht, 24, was arrested Tuesday morning in the garage of another relative's home in Harvey. He remained in police custody Tuesday night pending charges, police said.
Bell-Kracht's slaying ended what officials say was an abusive relationship that left a trail of court documents and police reports. For family members who had tried to steer her clear of the violence, it opened another painful chapter even as police and prosecutors pondered whether to charge Kracht.
"We're just numb," said Bell-Kracht's brother Shaun Winston, 24, standing outside his family's Richton Park home as family and friends filed in.
"That was my baby," Winston said, describing his sister as "the closest sibling I had."
Harvey police officials were tight-lipped about the details of the slayings, which occurred in the 15100 block of Marshfield Avenue. They could not confirm how the victims died or whether a weapon had been found.
At a news conference outside the brick bungalow where the slayings occurred, Cmdr. Merritt Gentry told reporters that he did not expect charges to be filed Tuesday by the Cook County state's attorney's office. Autopsies were scheduled for Wednesday.
"It's going to be a while," Gentry said. "We don't foresee any charges at this time, or any time soon, because there is a great deal of investigative work still to be done."
Family members described a relationship that was happy at first but quickly deteriorated.
Winston said he introduced the two. He knew Kracht when both were students at Thornton Township High School in Harvey and ran into him again, in the summer of 2002, at the University of Illinois' Chicago campus, where Winston was studying journalism. Kracht appeared sullen and depressed, Winston said.
"He said he wanted to get his life together," Winston said. "I told him to come hang with me. I regret ever doing that."
A devout Jehovah's Witness, Winston took Kracht to the movies, brought him to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses Church in Chicago and introduced him to his sister.
Bell-Kracht, the middle of six siblings, was quiet and shy but loved dancing and showing off in front of her family, Winston said. She became drawn to Winston's new friend. They hit it off and were married four months later, in January 2003, he said. Kracht moved into the family's home on Capri Lane in Richton Park that summer.
But trouble soon started.
On Oct. 6, 2003, Richton Park police responded to a domestic-disturbance call at the home.
"They had gotten into a verbal argument, and she called police," said Richton Park Police Chief Leonard Czaplewski. "She did not want to press charges."
After that incident, the family expelled Kracht from the home, and he lived with friends and family members in Harvey while keeping in touch with Bell-Kracht, Winston said.
A year later, on Oct. 17, court records show, police responded to 2353 W. 57th St. in Markham and arrested Kracht on charges that he, "struck [his wife] about the torso with closed fists and threw her down to the ground."
Kracht was arrested that afternoon and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery.
At a hearing the next day, he was released on his own recognizance, but was ordered not to harass, abuse or stalk Bell-Kracht. He also was ordered to stay away from the Capri Lane home and the Charter One Bank in Homewood, where Bell-Kracht had been working as a teller since July. Visits with Emery were to be arranged through his mother, court documents show.
Bell-Kracht dropped the charges at the first court hearing on Nov. 8. She did so, Winston said, because she needed Kracht's help in caring for Emery and it was too difficult with the court's protective order.
"We listen very closely to our victims, and we take very seriously what their wishes are," said Tom Stanton, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office. "In this instance she did not wish to continue with the charges."
But in the interest of protecting the victim, even if she asks for the charges to be dropped, the state's attorney's office generally will not comply at the bail hearing, according to Dan Tsatoros, a former assistant state's attorney who is the court advocate coordinator and civil attorney for the South Suburban Family Shelter.
To protect the victim, the court will have jurisdiction over the person accused of abuse, who, at a bail hearing, is ordered not to have contact with the victim for 72 hours, and sometimes longer. After that period, even if the victim decides to drop the charges, the state can, without her cooperation, pursue a "victimless prosecution," Tsatoros said.
"But if the state cannot meet its burden of proof without the testimony of the victim, then the prosecutors' hands may be tied and are forced to dismiss the charges," he said. Such changes of heart occur about 75 percent of the time, he said.
Winston said his younger sister was on her way to getting back on her feet and trying to rid herself of her past with Kracht. On Saturday, she had moved into her own apartment in Steger, where she planned to raise Emery, and was saving to file for divorce, he said.
Last Wednesday, Winston said, he pulled Kracht aside after services at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses Church and gave a stern, quiet warning: "Do not put your hands on my sister again."
"He was so bothered by what was going on in his life, he didn't even seem to listen," Winston said.
Kracht showed up at the church on Sunday to pick up Emery, Winston said. Bell-Kracht was scheduled to pick up the child from Kracht's mother's house Monday.
2-22-04
By NANCY H. McLAUGHLIN, Staff Writer
News & Record
RALEIGH -- The baby would be 7 now, in elementary school and learning to read.
In an ideal world, her death never would have happened. In an ideal world, the teenage mom wouldn't be longing for forgiveness.
An ideal world is the one Racquel Phifer wants to be a part of -- not the concrete-and-glass world of the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where she is serving 10 to 13 years for the second-degree murder of her only child.
"I wished my mother could have looked at me and known something was wrong," the petite 27-year-old says of the concealed pregnancy in Greensboro in 1997 that led to her life spiraling out of control.
The high school dropout who had been raped as a child had already showed signs of undiagnosed mental illnesses before she gave birth that January to the infant the Greensboro community would come to know as Baby Jane Doe.
With her parents at work and her brother in school, Phifer laid out blankets on a cold day and delivered the baby on the floor of a room in her parent's upper-middle-class home.
After bathing her, playing with her dark hair and counting tiny fingers and toes, Phifer wrapped the hours-old newborn in a clean white blanket and placed her in a Dumpster in nearby Oka T. Hester Park. A man looking for cans the next day found her among the garbage.
Phifer's was the latest in a string of concealed pregnancies on the East Coast that ended in dead newborns that year. But the discovery of the dead baby in a Greensboro trash bin touched the heart of the community. It responded by taking care of Phifer's baby as if she were its own, dressing her tiny body in a donated white gown and diaper, transporting her to a graveyard in a hearse followed by a caravan of cars and carefully etching a grave marker that read: "May we reach out in love to every child in need."
"The fact that she was buried and put away nicely -- that all helps," says Phifer's mother, Baleria Phifer, a teacher who wouldn't know that the infant dominating local news coverage was her grandbaby until her daughter's arrest. "She was taken care of, she was surrounded by love'' from the community.
More than 500 people showed up for the funeral.
"What I remember most are the pictures of that little infant in the bottom of that Dumpster," says Howard Neumann, the Guilford County assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case that summer. "I can still close my eyes and see her there."
Phifer, who won't be eligible for parole for at least three years, wants people to know she's sorry. She also wants to say "thank you" to the people who saw that the child she named Ri'vene Lea Anderson had a proper burial.
?Phifer, dressed in a dark-blue prison jumpsuit and girlishly pretty with her sliver of silver eye shadow, has spent years in therapy dealing with illnesses diagnosed after she was arrested, including dissociative amnesia, which causes fragmented memory, and schizoaffective disorder, which is marked by major depression and psychotic symptoms.
She says she can't remember all of what happened the day she put her daughter in the Dumpster, but she knows it never should have happened. She wants girls who may face her predicament to know her story and how a split-second decision could ruin their lives and the lives of others.
"If you don't want to tell your parents, tell somebody," says a suddenly subdued Phifer, also known as Inmate 58449, who still looks 19 except for the natural burst of gray in her hair. "I would love to have (the public's) forgiveness. I would love to have their understanding. But I'm doing this so that anybody else going through this will tell somebody.
"I know that type of fear is unbearable," Phifer says.
Phifer remains troubled by the past. She wishes she could go back to the day she thought she was pregnant. She says she knows it will be hard for people to understand how she could hold her baby and then place her in the trash bin in frigid weather.
"I actually thought of it as a baby sitter," Phifer says. "I got in and out of it four times. There was no trash in it. I put her there and told her I would come back."
Growing up in a strict home, Phifer had an exaggerated fear of disappointing her parents. Life already had been difficult. She had flunked at least three grades and dropped out of high school. In their investigation, police would find years-old suicide letters Phifer had written after she was raped at 11 by an older male relative.
In her devout Jehovah's Witness family, Phifer grew up hearing that sex before marriage was immoral. Her parents didn't know about the rape. They would have been mortified had they known about the pregnancy. She saw her situation as hopeless and believed she had no options.
"That would have been disgraceful to my mother," Phifer says. " 'What people think' is how I was raised."
Baleria Phifer didn't know about the deep-seeded antagonism her daughter held against her until she heard Racquel's confession read in court. Phifer says she was closer to her father, Larry, a long-distance truck driver.
She was able to hide her pregnancy because she had gained and lost 100 pounds the year before, something doctors later attributed to bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder.
As the baby grew inside her, Phifer began reading baby books and decided that she would ask an aunt if she could move into the aunt's home. But her aunt began helping someone else, so Phifer kept silent. The baby's father, a young man she had met at a part-time job, had moved back to Illinois. He wanted her to join him, but she had said no.
She says she called crisis-pregnancy agencies but somehow got it in her head that they just wanted to take her baby.
"I said, 'Could you help me tell my parents?' and they said, 'We can send you somewhere.' ''
Her water broke about midnight on Jan. 29. She delivered the baby at 2:27 p.m. the next day.
She had read "The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth'' and, remembering what she had learned in some medical classes, had already gathered blankets and scissors.
She says she was in labor when she drove her mother to work that morning.
"It was like I was doctor, nurse, coach," Phifer says. "I had read a lot, but then I was worried: What if she was breeched or needed special care?"
After delivering the baby, Phifer got into the bathtub with the baby and played with her until the phone rang.
"I'd decided I was just going to hand her to my mother," Phifer remembers thinking.
But her mother, who wanted her daughter to pick her up at work, was already angry when Phifer picked up the telephone.
"She was saying, 'Why aren't you here?' " Phifer says. "I wished I could have been woman enough to say, 'I'm late because I've just delivered my baby.' "
Instead, she panicked.
She drove around her neighborhood and then to nearby Hester Park, where she came upon the Dumpster.
Then she drove to her mother's job and picked her up, falling asleep in the car as her mother carried out her errands. Back at home she slept for the next 16 hours.
She didn't go back to the Dumpster. She says she doesn't know why. In her mind, it was almost as if none of it had happened.
But it had.
Darlene Maynard, a grief counselor who had already helped survivors and relatives of the Columbine school shootings and Oklahoma City bombing with their recovery, was one of the first to step forward when word got out that a dead baby had been found in a park.
"There had been several babies up north left to die. It was like, 'My goodness, this has come home,' " says Maynard, then-director of a Greensboro grief and loss-education center.
She began organizing a community funeral. People began calling, wanting to help. The city donated a burial plot at Maplewood Cemetery. The funeral drew a crowd that reflected the city's races, ages and economics.
Saying it touched the community emotionally is not an overstatement, says Maynard, who was part of the 150-car funeral procession.
"We get to the corner of Florida and Aycock streets, and these two old 'bummy-type' men, they stopped when her hearse went by and put their hands across their heart and saluted," Maynard says.
"She had become a symbol for our community," Maynard says. "I thought it was one of the most healing things our community has come together to do. Here was this child that belonged to no one, and all of a sudden we were getting all kinds of toys and dolls and books and balloons to be placed on her grave."
Phifer says she knew none of that. For the next few weeks, she didn't watch the news. Only after a detective showed up at her door, saying someone had called police to report she had been pregnant, were her thoughts drawn back to the Dumpster. A co-worker who had guessed early on that she was pregnant called Crime Stoppers.
Investigators talked to Phifer and other potential suspects. After taking a lie-detector test, Phifer was arrested. The first-degree murder charge eventually would be reduced to one of second-degree murder.
"It lacked that component of evil that so many crimes we deal with up here involve," Neumann says. "This was not a crime where she hated that child. This was an immature child herself who was confronted with a situation ... and she couldn't figure out how to deal with it."
During those few months in jail, she had heard of the other East Coast cases similar to hers, including the case of college students Brian Peterson and Amy Grossberg, who put their baby in a Dumpster and were eventually sentenced to less than two years in jail.
"I think half of me thought it would be OK and I would go home," Phifer says. "When Amy had the baby in the hotel, there were complications, but Brian beat the baby in the head with a baseball bat. I didn't harm Ri'vene in any way. No scars. No bruises. No nothing. I was the only one to hold her. I loved her."
Phifer's judge could have given her as little as seven years, 10 months in prison or as much as 16 years, 5 months. He sentenced her to 10 to 13 years.
Almost immediately strangers began writing her.
"I was waiting for the hate mail, but they were very encouraging,'' Phifer says of the letters, one of which advised her to "Keep your head up, sister.'' "Older people... were telling me it's going to be OK, people make mistakes."
At first, other inmates, many of them mothers, responded to her in anger.
"I've been called everything but a child of God. I went through, 'It's Daddy's baby, Mama did it,' and I took the rap."
A couple of inmates from Greensboro took her under their wings, and today she considers many of the people there like family.
Since then Phifer has earned her high school diploma and taken every self-improvement class available except culinary arts. "I simply can't cook," she says with a shy smile.
She has also drawn closer to her mother.
"She tries. I think she does," Phifer says of her mother. "My mother does blame herself for this. But I also had to think about it. I wasn't a child who came with instructions. She did the best she could."
Her parents visit frequently.
"We were really close. She was just sick," says Baleria Phifer, who says she has seen her daughter mature with therapy.
"I deal with it better now, but I think it's something that will always be with me," Baleria Phifer says of the loss that she, too, feels.
Baleria Phifer has given her daughter one of the pictures she was able to get of Ri'vene in her white casket. The rest, including the newspaper clippings and a few of the stuffed animals people left at her grave, have been packed up and placed in Phifer's bedroom closet, waiting for her return.
"I really don't see her as gone," Phifer says. "I know she is. I just don't have that closure."
Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nmclaughlin@news-record.com
www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locfamilyshot26082603aug26,0,3371221.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
Fort Lauderdale man fatally shoots son, self
The Associated Press
Posted August 26, 2003
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A man fatally shot himself and his 12-year-old son early Monday after arguing with the boy's mother, police said.
Carl Dennis Mackey, 41, and his son, Brian, were found fatally shot when a SWAT team entered the house about 5 a.m.
The boy's mother, Laura Mackey, ran out of the house shortly after midnight and told officers that her husband was trying to kill her, Detective Jack DiCristofalo said.
The officers had been responding to a separate incident across the street.
"She said she'd heard two shots fired. She said they'd been having domestic problems," DiCristofalo said.
Officials made phone calls to the house and to the family's cell phones for the next few hours.
Hostage negotiators were never able to make contact, and officers heard no further shots fired, DiCristofalo said.
About 5 a.m., a SWAT team entered the house and found the bodies.
A small-caliber, semiautomatic handgun was on the floor near Carl Mackey's body, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
"We're totally shocked. Carl was always a gentleman, a religious and family man type of guy," said Mike Scott, Mackey's supervisor at Plantation's public works department.
"He was always upbeat and smiling."
DiCristofalo said Laura Mackey was with family Monday.
| April 3, 2003 Longo's in-law defends MaryJaneBy Bill Bishop The Register-Guard NEWPORT - There was never any doubt in Sally Clark's mind that her sister, MaryJane Longo, would choose to be a mother, and would be a good one. Clark testified Wednesday as one of the final witnesses in the aggravated murder trial of Christian Michael Longo, the man who swore on the witness stand Tuesday that MaryJane murdered two of their children before he murdered her and their youngest child in December 2001. Longo, 29, faces a possible death sentence for killing MaryJane, 34, and their daughter, Madison, 2. A jury will soon decide whether he also is guilty of killing his son, Zachery, 4, and daughter, Sadie, 3. Dry-eyed, calm and focused, Clark never looked at Longo in 20 minutes of testimony during which she recalled how MaryJane played house as a child, baby-sat as an adolescent and worked for 10 years in a pediatric doctor's office as a young adult - eventually becoming the office manager. "She was always very good with children," Clark said. Describing MaryJane as "my best friend," Clark said she and MaryJane remained close after they both married and became mothers. On a weekly basis they would meet to take their children to a museum, a zoo or to some other child-oriented activity while they both lived in Michigan, Clark testified. "She was very attentive to kids," Clark testified. Asked by Paulette Sanders, chief Lincoln County deputy district attorney, whether she had ever seen MaryJane do anything that caused her to have concern for a child's safety, Clark responded, "Absolutely not." Clark described MaryJane as "a quiet, shy, mild person," who was so devoted to the Jehovah's Witnesses church that she joined Clark to voluntarily do 1,000 hours of door-to-door ministry in a single year. Clark testified that MaryJane seemed not to know much about the large debts that Longo was running up on credit cards. She said MaryJane told her she understood why Longo wrote bad checks against a construction company that owed him money, and why Longo did not want church elders to know about the fraud. Asked by Sanders whether she'd ever known MaryJane to lie to her or to others, Clark relied, "Never." After Longo and MaryJane moved to Oregon, without notice and with no forwarding address, Clark said she notified state police, Secret Service and FBI officials in two states. She said she knew Longo was hiding from the law and arrest warrants had been issued against him. Asked what she would have done had MaryJane called her from Oregon to say she was in trouble, Clark said, "I would have been out here in a heartbeat." Clark's testimony closed the 12th day of Longo's trial, cut short because the prosecution's final witness - a state medical examiner - was unavailable. The jury may begin deliberating after the final witness and closing statements today. |
Jurors Convict Mom Of Murder For Toilet-Drowning Infant
Juror Claims Panel Unaware They Had Other Options
AP, Oct. 24, 2002
www.nbc4.tv/
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Jurors who convicted a woman of second-degree murder in the toilet-drowning death of her newborn son may not have realized that they could have convicted her of involuntary manslaughter.
Donna Michelle Knight's sentencing was postponed for at least two months by Superior Court Judge Ronald Taylor so defense attorney Grover Porter can question jurors to determine if they misunderstood instructions. One juror claimed the panel didn't know involuntary manslaughter was an option.
Knight, 37, was convicted June 14 of murdering her son in September 1999. The 10-woman, two-man jury returned a second-degree murder verdict, which calls for 15 years to life in prison. Involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of four years.
Deputy District Attorney Deena Bennett had sought a first-degree murder conviction, arguing that the unmarried woman intentionally killed her baby after concealing her pregnancy because she was afraid of repercussions from her Jehovah's Witness church.
Bennett said the religion considers sexual relations outside of marriage grounds for excommunication.
Porter argued that Knight, who weighed at least 275 pounds, did not know she was pregnant and on the day of the baby's death she was taking antidepressants and other medication and could not remember what happened.
Although jurors were given an instruction for involuntary manslaughter, the foreman told them they could not consider that option, a juror said. Actually, it was voluntary manslaughter that was not to be considered.
|
MCMINNVILLE - The community of McMinnville was visibly shaken after investigators discovered a family of six shot to death in their home in an apparent murder-suicide Friday.
The Bryants came to Oregon last summer to make a fresh start, a former neighbor of the family told KATU News.
On Friday, deputies roped off the area around the Bryants' manufactured home on a hillside outside McMinnville, a prosperous town in the heart of Oregon's wine-growing country.
In a phone interview, Jeanna Wright told katu.com that her daughter Jaden was friends with Ashley Bryant at Memorial Elementary School. Mrs. Wright said her daughter had not seen Ashley in Mrs. Mecker's class for two weeks and was concerned.
At first school officials weren't alarmed, because it is not uncommon for students to be absent during the flu season, she said.
In a press conference this morning, McMinnville Superintendent Elaine Taylor told the media, "the Memorial staff is understandably very grief-stricken, the two teachers of the children...are having a difficult time..."
One key difference: after allegedly murdering his 3 children and his wife, Christian Longo did not take his own life.
|
| Sunday, November 5, 2000 | |
A Killer in the communityToronto Sun WOLVES AMONG SHEEP: The True Story Of Murder In A Jehovah's Witness Community James Kostelniuk (HarperCollins )  Years ago, I had next-door neighbours who were Jehovah's Witnesses. They never tried to convert me. In fact, they hardly spoke to me at all -- or to anyone else in the apartment building. But they did once give me a book on creationism that tried to disprove the theory of evolution. All fossils, the book explained, are the same age, dating from the Great Flood. The deeper the fossils are buried, the earlier those animals drowned, but they all got there thanks to those 40 days and 40 nights of rain.That kind of logic didn't exactly make me want to invite my neighbours over for tea, but it did leave me curious about what really goes on within the Jehovah's Witness community. In this respect, Wolves Among Sheep proved irresistible. The book is James Kostelniuk's account of the murders of his two children, 10-year-old Juri and eight-year-old Lindsay, and their mother Kim Anderson, his ex-wife. But it is also a condemnation of the Witness community, which he holds indirectly responsible for the killings, and which shunned him even at a memorial service for his children. Kostelniuk is no born writer, but while his words are often clumsy, they are always honest and heartfelt as he recounts his childhood, joining the Jehovah's Witnesses, his marriage to Kim, their divorce and why he left the church. But most of all, the author's passion shows as he describes the events leading up to the murders, and the aftermath: Kim's marriage to another Witness, Jeff Anderson; how Anderson misrepresented himself; how he harrassed Kim after she finally left him; how he took a shotgun and killed her, Juri and Lindsay, and the hell Kostelniuk has gone through ever since. Throughout this horrifying tragedy, the Jehovah's Witness community was a constant, sinister presence. The church's harsh rules and bizarre beliefs (they predict the end of the world, but have to keep changing the date when the end doesn't come on the appointed day) make me wonder not why anyone would leave, but why anyone would join in the first place. Kostelniuk decided to move back to his native Manitoba after the breakup of his marriage, leaving his children with their mother in British Columbia. He clearly loved his kids, but moved away because he knew he has no hope of getting custody or even spending any time with them; the powerful church -- Kim was still an avid follower-- would make sure of that. There is a Witness taboo against associating with anyone who has left the fold or otherwise broken church rules and been "disfellowshipped" -- even if it's your parent, child or sibling. When Kim tried to leave Anderson, he had the church elders intervene; they told her to stay with her ne'er-do-well husband. So she remained in a dangerous situation because, it seems, she was more afraid of the church's wrath than she was of her obsessed and abusive husband. Eventually, she did leave, but Anderson, unable to accept her decision, murdered his estranged wife and stepchildren in cold blood in 1985. When Kostelniuk and his new wife, Marge, travelled to Burnaby, B.C., for a memorial service for Kim, Juri and Lindsay, no one acknowledged their presence at the Kingdom Hall. Some, including Kostelniuk's former in-laws, did speak to the couple privately, but these secretive shows of sympathy did little to alleviate the grief and anger brought on by the public humiliation. Wolves Among Sheep is Kostelniuk's valiant attempt to make sense of the tragedy that tore his life apart. His journey to find some semblance of peace in his heart and his mind took Kostelniuk through rage, guilt, denial and even an admirable attempt at forgiveness -- he maintained a correspondence with Anderson and even visited him in prison once before coming to the undeniable conclusion that the killer is a dangerous, remorseless, hopeless case. In an eloquent epilogue, Kosteniuk writes: "While there is a wound inside me that will never heal, some living, healthy part of me wants to show that I'm not finished. I still need to share the load with others, and each person takes a little weight from me." Wolves Among Sheep is achingly sad and intensely personal, but speaks to all decent persons. One would have to be cold-hearted indeed to read this book without wanting to help Kostelniuk bear that terrible weight. | |
Trader commits suicide after killing 12 in gun spree
Manhunt ends as he turns gun on himself
Links, reports and background on US shootings and gun law
News Unlimited staff and agencies
Friday July 30, 1999
The Guardian
A gunman stormed two brokerages in Atlanta's financial district yesterday, fatally shooting nine people after apparently killing his wife and two children in the days leading up to the attack, the city's mayor said.
Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said Mark Barton, 44, an internet stock trader, committed suicide five hours after the shooting spree at brokerages All-Tech Investments and Momentum Securities, located near each other on Atlanta's bustling Piedmont Avenue.
Witnesses told police that Barton was apparently unhappy over stock and bond market losses when he walked into the first brokerage and opened fire.... It was also the worst mass shooting in Atlanta this century, Atlanta police said. Two weeks ago, a woman, her four children and her sister were killed by her boyfriend, who turned the gun on himself in the worst previous single attack.
After the shootings police went to Barton's house in Stockbridge, where they found the bodies of Barton's wife and children, a 7-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy. The children were found in their beds. Barton had left hand-written notes on all three bodies.
The notes suggested that Barton's wife might have been killed on Tuesday and the children on Wednesday. Barton had apparently bludgeoned them to death.
Five years ago, Barton was considered a suspect in the death of his first wife and his mother-in-law, but he was never charged with their murders. The two women were bludgeoned to death at a campsite in Alabama. Barton, who had taken out a $600,000 insurance policy on his 35-year-old first wife just weeks before, said he was in Atlanta at the time.
Yesterday's shooting spree is likely to inflame the US debate on firearms. The city of Atlanta sued 15 gun makers and two trade associations in February, seeking damages for crime deaths and injuries involving handgun use.
Mark O. Barton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_O._Barton
Wikipedia
Jump to Killing spree - On July 27, 1999, Barton woke up early in the morning and ... I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life.Mark Orrin Barton (April 2, 1955 – July 29, 1999) was a spree killer from Stockbridge, Georgia, who, on July 29, 1999, killed 12 people and injured 13 more. The shootings occurred at two Atlanta day tradingfirms, Momentum Securities and the All-Tech Investment Group. It is believed that Barton, a daytrader, was motivated by US$105,000 in losses over the previous two months. Four hours after the Atlanta shootings, Barton committed suicide at a gas station in Acworth, Georgia. He had been spotted by police and was ordered to stop, but shot and killed himself before the police could reach him.
Following the shootings, police searching Barton's home found that his second wife, Leigh Ann Vandiver Barton, and two children, Matthew David Barton (12) and Mychelle Elizabeth Barton (10), had been murdered by hammer blows before the shooting spree. The children had then been placed in bed, as if sleeping. According to a note Barton left at the scene, his wife was killed July 27 and the children murdered July 28.[1]
Prior to the massacre, Barton had been a suspect in the 1993 beating deaths of his first wife, Debra Spivey, and her mother, Eloise Spivey, in Cherokee County, Alabama. Although he was never charged in either of the crimes—and though the note he left with the bodies of his children and his second wife denied any involvement in the 1993 murders[1]—he is still considered a suspect in those murders by authorities.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Killing spree
3 Victims
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Background[edit]
Barton was born on April 2, 1955, in Stockbridge, Georgia, to an Air Force family, and was raised in South Carolina. Barton attended Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, where he earned a degree in chemistry despite his ongoing drug habit. Back in Atlanta, Georgia, he married Debra Spivey, and had two children, Matthew and Mychelle.
The family moved to Alabama due to Barton's job. He became paranoid and started distrusting his wife. He lost his job when his work performance started to suffer. In retaliation, he was caught sabotaging company data and served a short jail term.
Back in Georgia, Barton got a new job and began an affair with Leigh Ann Vandiver, one of his wife Debra's acquaintances. In 1993, Debra Spivey and her mother Eloise were bludgeoned to death. Barton was the prime suspect but was not charged due to lack of evidence.
Barton married Leigh Ann in 1995 but his mental health continued to deteriorate and he began to suffer from severe depression and paranoid delusions.
Barton had received a large insurance settlement from his first wife's death, but subsequently lost it in an extended bout of risky day trading. It is speculated that Barton planned his massacre after experiencing severe stress from losing $105,000 in a single month.
Killing spree[edit]
On July 27, 1999, Barton woke up early in the morning and bludgeoned Leigh Ann to death as she slept. The next night, he also beat his children Matthew and Mychelle to death. He covered them with blankets and left notes on their bodies, reading in part:
"I killed Leigh Ann because she was one of the main reasons for my demise. . . . I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life. I'm sure the details don't matter. There is no excuse, no good reason I am sure no one will understand. If they could I wouldn't want them to. I just write these things to say why. Please know that I love Leigh Ann, Matthew and Mychelle with all my heart. If Jehovah's willing I would like to see them all again in the resurrection to have a second chance. I don't plan to live very much longer, just long enough to kill as many of the people that greedily sought my destruction."
On July 29, he went to the offices of his employer, Momentum Securities. Witnesses say that Barton briefly chatted with coworkers before suddenly pulling out two pistols and opening fire. He shot and killed four people and attempted to execute Brad Schoemehl who was shot three times at point blank range. Barton then walked to the nearby All-Tech Investment Group building and murdered an additional five victims. Barton then left the scene before police could arrive.
The police searched his house and found the bodies of his family and the notes that he had left with them, in which Barton vehemently denied responsibility of the deaths of his first wife and mother-in-law.
An intensive manhunt ensued. Four hours after the All-Tech Investment Group shooting, Barton accosted and threatened a young girl in Kennesaw, Georgia, apparently attempting to secure a hostage for his escape. The attempt was unsuccessful and the young girl called police after escaping Barton. Responding police officers spotted Barton in his van and a chase ensued, culminating at a gas station in Acworth, Georgia. Unable to escape, Barton ducked behind his van and committed suicide with his pistol, the 13th victim of his killing spree.
Victims[edit]
The following is a list of victims of the shootings:[3][4]
Leigh Ann Vandiver Barton, 27, wife of Mark Barton
Matthew David Barton, 11, son of Mark Barton
Mychelle Elizabeth Barton, 8, daughter of Mark Barton
Allen Charles Tenenbaum, 48, daytrader at All-Tech Investment Group
Dean Delawalla, 52, daytrader at All-Tech Investment Group
Joseph J. Dessert, 60, daytrader at All-Tech Investment Group
Jamshid Havash, 45, daytrader at All-Tech Investment Group
Vadewattee Muralidhara, 44, took a computer course at All-Tech Investment Group
Edward Quinn, 58, daytrader at Momentum Securities
Kevin Dial, 38, office manager at Momentum Securities
Russell J. Brown, 42, daytrader at Momentum Securities
Scott A. Webb, 30, daytrader at Momentum Securities
References[edit]
^ Jump up to:a b NY Times (1999-07-31). "Shootings in Atlanta: The Notes". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-04. Following are excerpts from a letter and the texts of three notes apparently written by Mark O. Barton and left in the Barton home...
Jump up^ Cabell, Brian; Mike Boettcher; Martin Savidge; Holly Firfer (1999-07-30). "Georgia killer's notes show a troubled man". CNN. Retrieved 2007-11-04. Mark Barton was a suspect in the murders six years ago of his first wife, Debra Spivey Barton, 36, and her mother, Eloise Spivey, 59.
Jump up^ Shootings in Atlanta: the victims, The New York Times (July 31, 1999)
Jump up^ Memories of those who died, CNN (July 31, 1999)
Further reading[edit]
BBC News stories on the Atlanta shootings
Manhunt under way for suspect in Atlanta shootings, CNN (July 29, 1999)
Investigators search for answers after 12 die in Georgia killings, CNN (July 30, 1999)
Blood bath followed suspect's mounting stock losses, CNN (July 31, 1999)
Mourners remember gunman's wife as soccer mom, Scout leader, CNN (August 1, 1999)
A Portrait of the Killer, Time Magazine (August 9, 1999)
Riding the Mo in the Lime Green Glow, New York Times (November 21, 1999)
'I don't plan to live very much longer, just long enough to kill ...
www.theguardian.com › US News › Gun crime
Jul 30, 1999 - After killing his family July 29, 1999, 6:38 a.m. To Whom It May Concern: Leigh ... I killed Matthew and Mychelle Wednesday night. ... Notes left byMark Barton ... I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life.The Guardian
ninjapundit: Jehovah Witness Incidents
ninjapundit.blogspot.com/2015/03/jehovah-witness-incidents.html
Mar 22, 2015 - Family Murders and Tortures by Jehovah's Witnesses ...... Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said Mark Barton, 44, an internet stock trader, committed ...You've visited this page 2 times. Last visit: 4/5/15
Mark Barton | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
murderpedia.org/male.B/b/barton-mark.htm
Mark Orrin Barton (1955 – July 29, 1999) was a spree killer from Stockbridge, Georgia, who, .... I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life.Jehovah's Witnesses Crime Cases Page 3 of 4
jwdivorces.bravehost.com/familicide3.html
Court Cases involving Jehovah's Witness Criminals who have been ..... worst massmurder, a recently converted Jehovah's Witness, named Mark Orrin Barton, ..MARK O. BARTON - JW DAY TRADER. On Thursday afternoon, July 30, 1999, in what was deemed Atlanta's worst mass murder, a recently converted Jehovah's Witness, named Mark Orrin Barton, 44, who was an unemployed chemical salesman turned "day trader", walked into the offices of two Atlanta stock brokerage firms, Momentum Securities and All-Tech Investment Group, and announced, "I hope this doesn't ruin your trading day." Mark O. Barton then opened fire with two 9mm and .45 caliber handguns -- killing 9 people and wounding 7 others at the two offices. After a five-hour manhunt, police stopped his van at an Acworth, Georgia, BP gasoline station, where Barton committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with both pistols at the same time.
When police went to Barton's apartment, they discovered the bodies of Barton's wife, Leigh Ann (Vandiver) Barton, 27, his son, Matthew, 11, and his daughter, Mychelle, 7. The childrens' bodies were found in their beds, and the wife was found in a closet. Barton murdered his wife Tuesday evening, while she slept, and then he murdered his children the following Wednesday night, while they slept. All three had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer. The Bartons had only recently reconciled after Leigh Ann Barton had moved out in April -- possibly because Mark Barton was demanding that she also join the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Barton left hand-written notes on all three bodies, and a typed suicide note, which explained, in part:
"It just seemed like a quiet way to kill and a relatively painless way to die. There was little pain. All of them were dead in less than five minutes. I hit them with a hammer in their sleep and then put them face down in the bathtub to make sure they did not wake up in pain. To make sure they were dead.
"... I have come to hate this life and this system of things. I have come to have no hope. I killed the children to exchange them for five minutes of pain for a lifetime of pain.
"... I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life.
"Please know that I love Leigh Ann, Matthew and Mychelle with all of my heart. If Jehovah is willing, I would like to see all of them again in the resurrection, to have a second chance. ... ."
Barton was apparently distraught over the heavy financial losses that he recently had suffered while day-trading at the two stock brokerage firms. Barton had reportedly lost $20,000.00 on Tuesday, and over $100,000.00 over the past couple months. Barton had lost his home and possibly several hundreds of thousands of dollars of his life savings (and life insurance proceeds) over the previous year.
After these murders, it was disclosed that Barton had been considered the main suspect in the 1993 deaths of his first wife, Debra Barton, 36, (the mother of Matthew and Mychelle), and her mother, Eloise Spivey, 59, both of whom had been hacked to death inside a camper at a crowded Alabama lakeside campsite over Labor Day weekend. Barton had taken out a $600,000.00 insurance policy on that first wife just weeks before her murder. Barton had not been charged, despite a ton of circumstantial and some physical evidence. Barton and the married Leigh Ann Vandiver were even dating at the time, and Vandiver even accompanied Barton to the funeral.
Three months after the 1993 murders, a day-care worker reported that Barton's then 2 year-old daughter, Mychelle, told her that her father had been sexually molesting her. An investigation by Georgia's Department of Family and Children Services was inconclusive mainly due to the child's age.
| Re: Robert and Benjamin Moore--Wisconsin--Aug 93 religiousfrauds.50megs.com/jw/murdered.html here is a summary of the page: Roberta Moore: I was born in Stafford Springs, Connecticut in 1949. When I was a really young baby, the Jehovah's Witnesses came into our lives. The Jehovah's Witnesses prey upon people that are depressed, have lost someone they loved, or sometimes after someone has been involved in a very bad relationship. The Jehovah's witnesses go from door to door preaching what they say is the good news of God's kingdom. Life as a teenager for me was very trying. All of my classmates had nice new homes, nice new cars, their parents had very good jobs, had earned a lot of money. I didn't have very many friends in school because I was a Jehovah Witness. I remember how much it used to bother me because I wasn't allowed to salute the flag and everybody else did. Saluting the flag is a real sin in their eyes. We were never taught as children about the very real emotional part of us. We were taught to live by rules and follow examples given by the watchtower. My sister and her husband moved away from Connecticut in 1972. My Father and Mother moved up to Wisconsin too. I had just gotten through with a divorce, so I moved to Wisconsin with my young son Ron to start a new life. Shortly after moving to Wisconsin my Mother introduced me to a man who was a Jehovah witness. I believed that my fiancé to be could save me from being destroyed, as well as I really wanted to have another baby because I love children. So I married again. It wasn't long before I had realized I made a mistake, my new husband hated my young son Ron. He completely changed from being a loving man to being a very controlling, manipulating man. It wasn't long before he took my car away. He had a cabin for us to live in that was very isolated and away from all other people. He wouldn't let us have a telephone. He wouldn't let me drive any of his vehicles. Our whole life was comprised of going to the kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses; once in a while he would let me go along to the store with him to buy groceries and supplies. He wouldn't allow me to work away from him, or go to get certain training so I could get a job. He wouldn't let me work in the home care either. I felt so trapped, and I didn't know how to get out of the situation, I stayed with it for 22 years. He was very mean to Ron and abused him many times physically. Looking back on it now, I don't know which is more addictive religion or alcohol. We lived mostly off money I got from welfare. I also got quite a lot of food stamps. Our marriage produced four beautiful children. They were three boys and one little girl. On August 30th, 1993 a major life event threw me into a deep, dark depression. I left home early that morning leaving my husband in the care of our three young children. At quarter to eight in the morning he called me at my father's house and told me he couldn't find the two boys. They should be going to school on the bus. I came home, looked around the house, and then I looked around the grounds. There was no sign of the boys, then he said, "the car is missing" I looked; sure enough the car was missing. It was a rainy day, so of course I looked for tracks in the mud. The tracks in the mud showed up plainly. I followed the tracks down the road and into the trail; the Rail Trail is an old railroad bed that the kids use for hiking, biking, and three wheeling. It is a recreational trail that stretches from Prentice to Medford. I drove back home and told my husband that the boys had driven down into the trail. My husband took my daughter and me in his truck down Spring Road to the beginning of the trail. He left us and walked in. He told us to wait there for him. We waited anxiously in the truck for a while and I wondered what to do. At the time, I didn't pay much attention to what time it was. He was in there and I decided to get out of the truck and walk down the trail to see if I could see anything. I walked about a couple of telephone pole lengths and then I heard a gunshot. I hurried back to the truck and drove in the trail. On my way down the trail I saw my husband coming and he was crying. I got really worried then said, "Where are the boys?" He said, "they're both dead and the gun is there, they killed themselves." Autopsy Report On the autopsy report of Robert and Ben I will write what it says: Ben: Samples of dried blood from the right upper extremity aare collected at the time of the postmortem examination. Robert: Swabs from a small blood spot on the right forearm is obtained. Were my boys drugged for a ritual? Do you know anybody who would know if they saw this report? If so send e-mail: robertamoore81@hotmail.com 1. My son Robert was shot in the left side of his head. Robert was right handed? 2. How can a ten year old have the arm reach and span to shoot himself in the head with a rifle? 3. There was a kitchen knife found at the scene of a crime. Why was is not included in the police reports? 4. The rifle purportedly used was the boys' single shot Remington that took 22 shorts. They were killed with 22 longs. 5. The police claim that one boy killed himself and then the other used the kitchen knife to pry the 'long shell casing' from the gun so he could shoot himself. Can you imagine a boy seeing his brother shot, bleeding, in agony or dead, taking the time to pry out the cartridge and continuing on with his own suicide? 6. The sheriff told me the kitchen knife was sent to the crime lab and it would reveal who was shot last. I found the knife inside the police impound yard, never having been sent to the crime lab. Why the lie? 7.Kmedia interviewed my ex-husband and he told them to interview the police. Doesn't seem the grieving father is too anxious to help....? I know my sons were MURDERED and someone is walking around free because of the power of the WATCHTOWER and the FREEMASONS in this county. e-mail: robertamoore81@hotmail.com |
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