I would consider your argument as valid with just one example of a filicide with displaced fragment. That is, 'typical for filicides to have head injuries' should only apply if the head injury is typical for a filicide. But you know and I know it isn't.
That's NOT what you asked.
JBR's head injury isn't your typical, normal, usual traumatic brain injury associated with child abuse and filicide. JBR had a long fracture with displaced fragment approx. .5" x 1.5".
HOTYH, I'm going to go on record as saying that the nature of JB's skull fracture is not that important in the overall scheme of the case. By that I mean that there's nothing to suggest to me that it was caused by any special circumstances or intent; that's just how it happened.
Suicide, socioeconomic, and psychosocial factors are present in the great majority of filicide while none of these are known factors in JBR's murder.
I put the emphasis on known. But try looking at it this way, HOTYH: when you say,
Suicide, socioeconomic, and psychosocial factors are present in the great majority of filicide, it helps to remember that those stats refer to
premeditated murder. I don't think it was premeditated. It just happened.
As filicides go, there is nothing typical or usual about this case.
I'm not 100% about that. Still, assuming you're right, that doesn't mean much to me. At one point or another in time,
EVERY filicide was bizarre.
Hmm. I guess it helps to remember what Ron Walker said:
"Well, as much as it pains me to say it, yes, I've seen parents who have decapitated their children, I've seen cases where parents have drowned their children in bathtubs, I've seen cases where parents have strangled their children, have placed them in paper bags and smothered them, have strapped them in car seats and driven them into a body of water, any way that you can think of that a person can kill another person, almost all those ways are also ways that parents can kill their children."
If it was a filicide, JR and PR are well outside the norm for filicidal parents.
I'm not aware of anyone who would disagree with you on that, HOTYH.
I'm surprised anyone would waste time arguing this position.
Then why did you bring it up?
As to the original question: where is anything typical or normal for filicide?
Well, I have a few questions of my own (and not only me):
--"Grand RDI theory?" What the heck is that? And where does it say there was no striking over the head?
--Give me your take on this:
if what I've read is correct, a lot of parents who kill feel overwhelmed, usually because they feel like they are bearing all of the burden. That would fit PR: she was the one home with the kids all the time. That had to be tough, especially with children like BR and JBR. I'm not saying that BR and JBR were bad kids, no way. But they were kids, and JR was jetsetting too often to put in any real effort. It all fell on PR. HOTYH, you often talk about how there are "socioeconomic factors" in parents killing children (a fancy way of saying that it's only "THOSE" people who do such things). But let me ask you something: how much contact do those on the high end of the income spectrum HAVE with their kids? Don't most of them entrust their children with nannies and the like?
That's not true with the Rs. Yes, they had helpers, but their efforts were fairly limited. So that leaves PR often alone with the two kids, with all of her ailments and Odin-knows-what her treatments did to her. If that's not the classic cooking pot of stress-related, parent-on-child violence, I don't know what is.
Further, the idea that the R's identified a specific character, like a carjacker or a foreign kidnapper, didn't even happen!
I didn't say "identified a specific character." I said "played to popular fears." I don't mind you taking on my arguments, but don't put words in my mouth.
The claim makes your pursuit of R's guilt seem somewhat jumpy and overeager.
Compared to what, HOTYH?
I'm not sure, but I think you're assuming JR/PR wrote the note, and then drawing conclusions about their behavior based on this assumption.
You may be right about that.
