GUILTY TX - Alanna Gallagher, 6, Saginaw, 1 July 2013 - #11

[Midwestmama78]

ugh no matter what scenario I can conjure it's bad bad bad bad. Please tell me I imagined early talk that she had been tortured....

I've seen the term sexually abused but not tortured.

 

[Magdalyn]

Someone mentioned upthread that they wondered who could have possibly got TH into drugs at such a young age, there was a comment made by TH on facebook that he was smoking with his cousin, could it be that drugs are the norm within the family circle, he certainly doesn't bother to hide the fact that he takes drugs so I assume they all know.

Well in that article where the paternal grandfather spoke out, IIRC, he mentioned that when TH was about 2 (?) he kicked the mom and her boyfriend out of the trailer they were living in on his property because of all the drug paraphernalia he found. I'm guessing it wasn't TH's drug paraphernalia...since he was only two....

 

[SapphireSteel]

It is very common for those committing horrific crimes, to have had a head injury in childhood.

If a child is babysat a lot (like, say the child of a teenage mom) then an injury could have occurred without her even knowing about it.

What I'm saying is, kids don't have to see cruel to be cruel. Some of them are actually brain damaged...I would suspect, almost all of the really sadistic killers. A tiny brain injury or birth defect which leads to a massive malfunction when other pressures build.

 

[song22]

ugh no matter what scenario I can conjure it's bad bad bad bad. Please tell me I imagined early talk that she had been tortured....

You didn't imagine it. There was one article that said "tortured" but we all assumed it was just sloppy reporting. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe that early article had some info that LE later wanted to be kept quiet. The search warrant does lead me there. But I hope I am wrong.

JMO

 

[SapphireSteel]

What we know he did to Alanna was torture, :cow:

 

[PlainJaneDoe]

And even that would not add anything really, I have three iPhones lying around,(countless other phones) none with phone service but still useful. You can make wifi calls, control your ac, let kids play games on them and Chromecast, can not wait to get mine, glad I jumped the gun before they sold out.

I think most people have that stuff lying around, especially old phones, switching carriers etc. A phone becomes an antique in six months.

Wow...

O/T:
Just for everyone's info, if you want to get rid of phones (no trade-in value or w/e), before you trash them, please consider donating to a local shelter or something. They can refurbish/recycle surprisingly "antique" phones. :twocents:

 

[skibaboo]

You didn't imagine it. There was one article that said "tortured" but we all assumed it was just sloppy reporting. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe that early article had some info that LE later wanted to be kept quiet. The search warrant does lead me there. But I hope I am wrong.

JMO

Me too, have a horrible horrible feeling now.

 

[song22]

It is very common for those committing horrific crimes, to have had a head injury in childhood.

If a child is babysat a lot (like, say the child of a teenage mom) then an injury could have occurred without her even knowing about it.

What I'm saying is, kids don't have to see cruel to be cruel. Some of them are actually brain damaged...I would suspect, almost all of the really sadistic killers. A tiny brain injury or birth defect which leads to a massive malfunction when other pressures build.

This is something that I have thought a lot about. Ever since I read that Jeffrey Dahmer was hit in the head when he was young by a 2by4. I don't know if that particular story was true, but I do know that the brain damage angle is a real thing. I have a huge wish and prayer that the scientific community would study this more. If there was some way to prevent these people from turning into monsters that would save so many innocent future victims. I do believe that TH was born a person, a little child. Something went wrong and I believe it is in the brain--even if it was caused by poor parenting, drug use, a chemical imbalance, a brain tumor, or a whack to the head. Something is wrong in that person's brain.

I know people often get upset whenever you think about a genetic or medical "reason" for these crimes, because it seems like one is denying the existence of evil and not holding perpetrators accountable--but the ultimate goal should be saving lives and maybe there is an important key to that in science. I'm not at all denying the outrage or horror at the evil perpetrated here, nor am I trying to elicit pity for the perp. It's just something I think about a lot. I wonder if in 100 years we will understand what is going on better, the way we now understand that sickness is caused by germs and diseases and not evil spirits and look back at this time at how sad and preventable it all was--if only we knew! JMO

 

[greengables]

I don't want to tread into any debate or offend anyone with this because this is not scientifically researched as far as I know, but there have been quite a few murders in the past couple of years where it has emerged that the perp had been taking medication for ADHD/ADD. I have 21 year old relative, who was on a notorious ADHD medication for a number of years from the age of 7 and he now has amongst others OCD, Depression and has hallucinations and fantasies. He didn't have any of those symptoms when he was a child he was just what I would call hyperactive, I believe the long term use of the medication into early teens caused the social/psychological problems that he faces now.

Is there any talk of TH ever being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD?

 

[Txmedmom]

Is there any talk of TH ever being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD?

Not sure. But he was described as a hyperactive child.

 

[jjenny]

Could TH have fathered a child? It seems pretty late for papers like that to be laying around regarding his own father?

Why would it be too late? People keep legal papers and don't throw them out.

 

[jjenny]

This is something that I have thought a lot about. Ever since I read that Jeffrey Dahmer was hit in the head when he was young by a 2by4. I don't know if that particular story was true, but I do know that the brain damage angle is a real thing. I have a huge wish and prayer that the scientific community would study this more. If there was some way to prevent these people from turning into monsters that would save so many innocent future victims. I do believe that TH was born a person, a little child. Something went wrong and I believe it is in the brain--even if it was caused by poor parenting, drug use, a chemical imbalance, a brain tumor, or a whack to the head. Something is wrong in that person's brain.

I know people often get upset whenever you think about a genetic or medical "reason" for these crimes, because it seems like one is denying the existence of evil and not holding perpetrators accountable--but the ultimate goal should be saving lives and maybe there is an important key to that in science. I'm not at all denying the outrage or horror at the evil perpetrated here, nor am I trying to elicit pity for the perp. It's just something I think about a lot. I wonder if in 100 years we will understand what is going on better, the way we now understand that sickness is caused by germs and diseases and not evil spirits and look back at this time at how sad and preventable it all was--if only we knew! JMO

Well, diagnosing him over the internet is not going to do anyone any good. People like to be able to explain something, but sometimes there is no reason or explanation.

 

[greengables]

It seems a link has been made between the medication and crime/drug abuse

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/li...child-crime-risk/story-e6frf00i-1111114037829

In a cohort of 500 children with ADHD - followed for 36 months until they were 12 - researchers found 27 per cent were at a greater risk of committing crime, compared with 7 per cent among "normative" children.

Substance use also increased to 17 per cent in ADHD children - almost double the normal rate.

Song 22, that is where I am coming from.

This is something that I have thought a lot about. Ever since I read that Jeffrey Dahmer was hit in the head when he was young by a 2by4. I don't know if that particular story was true, but I do know that the brain damage angle is a real thing. I have a huge wish and prayer that the scientific community would study this more. If there was some way to prevent these people from turning into monsters that would save so many innocent future victims. I do believe that TH was born a person, a little child. Something went wrong and I believe it is in the brain--even if it was caused by poor parenting, drug use, a chemical imbalance, a brain tumor, or a whack to the head. Something is wrong in that person's brain.

I know people often get upset whenever you think about a genetic or medical "reason" for these crimes, because it seems like one is denying the existence of evil and not holding perpetrators accountable--but the ultimate goal should be saving lives and maybe there is an important key to that in science. I'm not at all denying the outrage or horror at the evil perpetrated here, nor am I trying to elicit pity for the perp. It's just something I think about a lot. I wonder if in 100 years we will understand what is going on better, the way we now understand that sickness is caused by germs and diseases and not evil spirits and look back at this time at how sad and preventable it all was--if only we knew! JMO

I'm not trying to make excuses for his behaviour, its just that I have noticed a lot of these recent cases of teenagers committing murder are following the same track and wish to get to the bottom of why so that maybe we can prevent these crimes before they happen.

 

[greenpalm]

I totally agree that this is what should be done but it doesn't happen in so many cases. It's hard to tell what mom has tried with him. I wonder if the private school was one attempt. I was thinking if this was my kid I would couldn't trust them to be at home alone or not terrorize the neighborhood I would probably after other attempts failed send them somewhere where they couldn't hurt themselves or anyone else. I've had to instill tough love before.

BBM

just for the record, the private school he had listed on his Facebook, has denied that he was ever a student there. He claimed to have graduated in 2012, but apparently that was just BS.

can you try to burn a condom?

I suppose so, but I would think it would melt more than burn, and put off horrible fumes or smoke.

Yes exactly it would melt, and it may leave a shrivelled up piece of plastic that's not quite identifiable as a condom, get me?

Wonder why he'd try to burn the condom yet leave every other shred of evidence right there for LE to find it.

It is very common for those committing horrific crimes, to have had a head injury in childhood.

If a child is babysat a lot (like, say the child of a teenage mom) then an injury could have occurred without her even knowing about it.

What I'm saying is, kids don't have to see cruel to be cruel. Some of them are actually brain damaged...I would suspect, almost all of the really sadistic killers. A tiny brain injury or birth defect which leads to a massive malfunction when other pressures build.

This is something that I have thought a lot about. Ever since I read that Jeffrey Dahmer was hit in the head when he was young by a 2by4. I don't know if that particular story was true, but I do know that the brain damage angle is a real thing. I have a huge wish and prayer that the scientific community would study this more. If there was some way to prevent these people from turning into monsters that would save so many innocent future victims. I do believe that TH was born a person, a little child. Something went wrong and I believe it is in the brain--even if it was caused by poor parenting, drug use, a chemical imbalance, a brain tumor, or a whack to the head. Something is wrong in that person's brain.

I know people often get upset whenever you think about a genetic or medical "reason" for these crimes, because it seems like one is denying the existence of evil and not holding perpetrators accountable--but the ultimate goal should be saving lives and maybe there is an important key to that in science. I'm not at all denying the outrage or horror at the evil perpetrated here, nor am I trying to elicit pity for the perp. It's just something I think about a lot. I wonder if in 100 years we will understand what is going on better, the way we now understand that sickness is caused by germs and diseases and not evil spirits and look back at this time at how sad and preventable it all was--if only we knew! JMO

Charles Whitman who was the sniper in the UT tower had a tumor on his amygdyla (part of his brain) I don't have a problem thinking of these people as literally broken. That doesn't excuse it, but it might help explain it, and if we can explain it, we may someday predict and prevent it. We can only hope to understand it scientifically, and we have to step outside emotions to analyze it that way. I'm in favor of at least trying to do that. (By that I mean we as a society)

 

[Linda7NJ]

ok, nobody has mentioned it. i dont want to, but maybe someone can give me a reasonable explanation re the fishing pole handle? other than what I'm thinking....?

Nope...I think it went the way of the garden hose.

 

[kkdj]

What we know he did to Alanna was torture, :cow:

I think a 6 year old being sodomized is torture!
I think a 6 year old having her legs and arms bound is torture!
I think her having her head tied in plastic in order to suffocate her is torture.

 

[kkdj]

Nope...I think it went the way of the garden hose.

Exactly!

 

[Linda7NJ]

My sense tells me TH lived being a victim of fear, rage, sodomy, secrets. Many things were done to him imo.
I think whatever and all that he did to Alanna was done to him as a youngster, minus the murder. The murder was his own rageful reaction to his own abuse he suffered at the hands of someone else. Jmo.
I dont excuse his rape and murder of of little Alanna. I just think he was quite the victim when he was her age. And it made him into a monster! Jmo

I agree. But ....still can't muster any sympathy for him. Not one iota

 

[kkdj]

Well in that article where the paternal grandfather spoke out, IIRC, he mentioned that when TH was about 2 (?) he kicked the mom and her boyfriend out of the trailer they were living in on his property because of all the drug paraphernalia he found. I'm guessing it wasn't TH's drug paraphernalia...since he was only two....

I thought he was older than 2. Do you have a link?
Also did the gpa say who's drug paraphernalia it was?
Did he report it?

 

[kkdj]

I agree. But ....still can't muster any sympathy for him. Not one iota

Totally with ya on that!