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The Murder Mystique This page intentionally left blank The Murder Mystique Female Killers and Popular Culture Laurie Nalepa and Richard Pfefferman Copyright 2013 by Laurie Nalepa and Richard Pfefferman All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nalepa, Laurie. The murder mystique : female killers and popular culture / Laurie Nalepa and Richard Pfefferman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-313-38010-5 (hbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-38011-2 (ebook) 1. Women murderers—United States—Case studies. 2. Murder in mass media. I. Pfefferman, Richard. II. Title. HV6517.N35 2013 364.152'30820973—dc23 2012037964 ISBN: 978-0-313-38010-5 EISBN: 978-0-313-38011-2 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. Praeger An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: The Killer Inside Each of Us ix 1. Women Who Kill in Self-Defense 1 Francine Hughes 1 Liysa Northon 11 2. Women Who Kill for Revenge 23 Betty Broderick 24 Amy Bishop 39 3. Women Who Kill for Love 53 Kristin Rossum 53 Susan Smith 70 4. Women Who Kill for Money 85 Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay 85 Ann Woodward 102 5. Women Who Kill Because They Are Crazy 115 Aileen Wuornos 115 Andrea Yates 127 vi Contents Conclusion: Her Trait, Her Fate 143 Notes 153 Selected Bibliography 167 Index 173 Acknowledgments This book would not have been possible without the constant love of Carl Boggs and Terrence LeBleu. A special thank you to our families, friends, and colleagues who provided encouragement along the way. We are truly grateful to our editor Jane Messah for “putting a gun to our heads” to make sure we met our deadlines. More importantly, without her guidance and encourage- ment, this book would never have been completed. Many sources need to be acknowledged for providing in-depth accounts of the cases studied in this book. Faith McNulty’s 1980 work The Burning Bed (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) provided information on Francine Hughes for Chapter 1. Ann Rule’s book Heart Full of Lies (New York: Pocket Books, 2004) and Gary Fletcher’s articles for The Observer were instrumental for the discussion of Liysa Northon also found in this chapter. The crime of Betty Broderick, addressed in Chapter 2, relied on the ac- counts provided by Bella Stumbo in her 1993 work Until the Twelfth of Never (New York: Simon and Schuster) as well as Hell Hath No Fury (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992) by Bryna Taubman. We are indebted to numerous works for information related to Chapter 3. Two books assisted in our understanding of Kristin Rossum. These include Poisoned Love (New York: Kensington Publishing Corp., 2005) by Caitlin Rother as well as the account by John Glatt, Deadly American Beauty (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004). Significant contributions to the discus- sion of Susan Smith were from Sins of the Mother (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995) by Maria Eftimiades, Andrea Peyser’s 1995 book Mother Love, Deadly Love (New York: Harper Collins Publishers), David Smith’s Beyond All Reason (New York: Kensington Publishing Corp., 1995), and Gary Henderson’s chronicle of events Nine Days in Union (Spartanburg, SC: Honoribus Press, 1995). viii Acknowledgments Jeanne King’s Signed in Blood (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009) as well as articles by Paul Pringle and Hemmy So for the Los Angeles Times provided information on Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay in Chapter 4. In ad- dition, we are grateful to Susan Braudy’s account of Ann Woodword, This Crazy Thing Called Love (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1992), which was also discussed in Chapter 4. A number of books contributed greatly to Chapter 5. Information on Aileen Wuornos came from Sue Russell’s Lethal Intent (New York: Kensington Publishing Corp, 2002), the account provided by Michael Reynold’s in Dead Ends (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), and Monster (London: John Blake Publishing Ltd, 2006) by Aileen Wuornos and Christopher Berry-Dee. We are indebted to numerous authors of books related to Andrea Yates. In par- ticular, we want to acknowledge Suzanne O’Malley’s account Are You There Alone? (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004) as well as Breaking Point (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002) by Suzy Spencer. Introduction: The Killer Inside Each of Us Admit it! There’s something about a woman who commits murder that makes us look at the crime in a little more detail, makes us shudder a little deeper, and makes us a little more judgmental as we ask ourselves, “Why did she do it?” We are socialized to believe that most ordinary women would never dream of killing someone. There has to be something “deviant” about them, something so pathological that they’ve turned against the laws of nature and become evil incarnate. However, I know from personal experience that this viewpoint is overly simplistic. I am a law-abiding person. The worst crime I’ve ever committed is prob- ably running a red light when I was tired. But I have to confess that I too was once filled with a murderous rage that was so overpowering I thought about killing someone. I walked in on my boyfriend having sex with another woman. They were in our house, in our bedroom, in our bed. I literally could not believe my eyes. As my mind started to process the information, I was filled with the most overpowering physical anger I have ever felt in my life. I walked out of the bedroom, through the living room, and into the kitchen, where I stood shaking over the kitchen sink. My glance fell on a large knife that was lying on a cutting board. For one infinitesimal moment, one second in time, I considered picking up the knife and thrusting it into both of them. I didn’t. But I realize that I could have. And who knows? I could have been one of those women you see on the reality show Snapped, or watch on Court TV, or read about in the National Enquirer, or even had a best seller written about me by Ann Rule. If someone asked you “Would you welcome more drama in your life?” your answer would probably be no. Who among us consciously seeks con- frontation, violence, or disruption? Right-thinking people don’t want to in- vite situations that place them outside their comfort zones, demand that they x Introduction: The Killer Inside Each of Us make difficult moral judgments, or shatter their perceived notions about how the world works. No, we have television for that. In entertainment, drama is precisely what we crave, and it’s made all the more enticing when it crosses lines we would never consider traversing in real life. That’s why murder, especially when committed by a woman, is such a staple of books, films, television, Internet blogs, video games, and pop music. Writers, producers, and program developers can always rely on this topic to get our attention, whether in a fantasy novel or an investigative crime show. In fact, it’s almost axiomatic that those whose lives are void of dramatic impact are the best bets to consume depictions of extreme or violent acts in the media. It’s no wonder then that as our daily activities continue to move steadily into the realm of cyberspace, where the most intimate tool of social interaction is an on-screen keyboard, our thirst for tangible dramatic impact in our universe of news and entertainment is becoming unquenchable. As technology grows, per- sonal power shrinks. We want to be reminded that a person can perform a real, physical act that has an undeniably meaningful effect on another human being. Murderers are not heroes. But killing—whether motivated by passion, greed, thrills, madness, ideals, or desperation—is an extraordinary act; not an honorable one, to be sure, but undeniably extraordinary. And extraordinary acts—even depraved ones—tend to have the effect of elevating the perpetra- tor to iconic cultural status. Society bestows this exalted place upon genuine heroes. Murderers seize their exalted place. That’s what makes them sexier. This book explores how the taking of a life, and the subsequent spectacle sur- rounding those who commit murder, provides an antidote to the mundane activities that fill our world. Murderers take control. But these days, even acts of murder are becoming commonplace: drive-by shootings, terrorist bombings, disgruntled workers “going postal,” etc. Our regular servings of murder on the ten o’clock news, CSI reruns, and Halloween movie marathons are becoming ho-hum. Isn’t it time for something different on the menu? How about something we really don’t expect? Something that may even unearth some long-held beliefs or assumptions we take for granted? Please, Nancy Grace, won’t you give us something that will intrigue, titillate, and horrify us, all at the same time? Female murder cases fit this bill because the topic is located where three of our most common areas of interest intersect—crime, gender, and pop cul- ture.

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