deputylinda said:
TEXANA... that is an excellent, well-thought -out and persuasive post...and i see your points. i have mixed feelings about yates case. i think i am still shell-shocked over susan smith and the female that i know who killed her twins...i am jaded and sick of mothers kiling children. my tolerance level is at zero. because i have to ride life-flight helicopter to city with two gunshot , headshot babies...i just don't give a damn about these mothers anymore. sorry. i do respect your opinion.
I can understand your feelings. I started reading up on these cases when I was a new mother because honestly, I had such a personal fear of it. I was so afraid that I might end up like that--the news reports so often make it sound like the "perfect mother" just snapped.
Seems like you can divide the cases where mothers kill their children into three groups:
1) The young (or started having babies very young) mother who is basically an addict of some kind, emotionally immature from her own crummy background, who kills, often an infant, or leaves her infant with a boyfriend who turns abusive. The recent death of a one-year old about an hour or so from here, is an example--two or three guys showed up at the mother's house one evening, she jumped in the car, and the driver backed over her son. According to the police, "Nobody seemed to be lookingout for the child." Says it all, doesn't it? Or they suffocate their babies at birth, dump them in the trash, etc. Panic or neglect of some sort seem to be the main factors.
2) The plotting sociopathic mother. Diane Downs is the poster child here. Susan Smith probably fits in, too. Key point: like group #1, they aren't good mothers BEFORE the killing. Diane Downs was a lousy mother before she shot her children. The children were poorly fed, ignored, and neglected overall. They were the children you see in your neighborhood where you think, "What is that mother thinking?" Nothing about her children, it seems. They can plan and lie afterwards about the deaths because they are basically devoid of feeling. Group #1 doesn't seem to have the ability to lie so easily .
3) The third group is the mentally ill, or those who show signs of it. They differ from the others in that they seem to be "perfect mothers" before they kill. Their delusions often have a religious base. The common refrain is "She seemed like such a good mother and the children were so loved."
I still can't understand why Dee Parnham was acquitted (although she is more or less incarcerated in a mental hospital) and Andrea Yates was convicted. Parnham had no history of mental illness, while Yates had been hospitalized for mental illness. Yates' mental condition had been documented by professionals as well. Guess that's what a jury will do for you--and an expert witness or two--
The one who testified in both trials said that Yates should have known that what she was doing was wrong since it was the devil who supposedly told her that her children were going to hell. Parnham thought her instructions were coming from God. I thought that line of reasoning was insane in itself. If you are hearing voices, you are supposed to reason that if it's the devil, you shouldn't do it? Hell, they're hearing voices! How can you expect an insane person to reason at all?
But that said, I don't think Yates OR Parnham should ever get out. For whatever reason, both women did not seek help or get help from their family. Parnham's religious network supported the idea that one might hear voices or have visions. Yates was isolated in the extreme, although one female friend of hers did try repeatedly to get Rusty to take different action with Andera.
Rusty Yates (maybe you can tell I don't like him) has a problem with authority. He never found a church he could agree with--although for a time he supported a radical preacher whose views included the idea that women were basically susceptible to the devil and often were the pawns of the devil. He said later that Andrea continued with the preacher more than he did (Rusty doesn't take a lot of responsibility for the situation.)
Rusty also ignored the doctors' warnings that having more children would very likely result in further post-partum psychosis for Andrea. He told people he wanted a "baseball team" of children. He seemed to have a hard time accepting "It's not going to happen" when it came to his dreams. I think when they abandoned the bus idea, there may very well have been a lot of guilt placed on Andrea for not being able to cope with four very young children living in a school bus.
When the police arrived after the killings (Andrea called 911) they wanted to get a drink of water--I think for Andrea--and Rusty said (according to police) "You won't find a clean glass in the house."
This says it all to me. If his wife wasn't capable of even washing the dishes, why was she left alone with the children? Supposedly Rusty's mother arrived an hour after Rusty went to work, but did she not do a minimal bit of housework while she was there? Were there not even enough glasses in the house that during the day, the children would use them all up? (remember, Rusty sold all their belongings prior to getting the bus/trailer home.) Or did Rusty not help in any way when he got home each evening?
Rusty also said that he "offered" to get help with the children but Andrea didn't want it.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions on that comment.
Is Yates dangerous? Absolutely, although she is physically too frail to hurt anyone right now. Like so many mentally ill people, she refused to take her medicine, etc, and wasn't honest when she was in therapy. (although according to a couple who attended group therapy with Andrea and the couple's daughter when both were hospitalized, Rusty repeatedly talked "for" Andrea during group talk.)
I really do think she is the poster child for everything that is wrong with mental health today, including the idea that a few "drugs" can fix a person.
There are five beautiful children that didn't have to die that day and most days I cannot bear to think about what the oldest child said or did before he died.